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Either in 1184 or in 1215 the Waldensians were excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.50 We know that in 1184 the French bishops who were called to the Council of Verona included them in the list of "condemned movements." Further, in 1190 the Bishop of Narbonne pronounced a condemnation for heresy.51
As in the case of Luther, over 350 years later, the excommunication of Waldo proved to be the occasion of increased theological polarization. Tourn argues that during this period, Waldo was influenced by "the Cathari, Pierre de Bruys, the monk Henri and others."52 From these schismatics, they heard stiff criticism of the Roman Catholic Church.
For the first time, the movement began to include radical protest in its views. Clearly, there was a need to re-define their views on the sacraments, and other features of ecclesiology, since they no longer had access to these "means of grace" through the Church. Yet the shift seems to have been minimal, especially in the area of soteriology. There was still no breakthrough in the area of salvation by grace. On the other hand, all of the changes that did occur during this period were in the same direction as later reform movements.
Adding momentum to change was the merger with some northern Italian splinter groups. These groups heard in the preaching of the Poor of Lyons views that they already held. Latourette says that the Waldensians were ". . .joined by many of the Humiliati, who had arisen in and near Milan and in that same year (1184) had come under Papal prohibition. . . They criticized prayers in Latin on the ground that they were not understood by the people, and derided church music and the canonical hours."53
These dissidents were established before the time of Waldo, and tended to have a more communal ideal in their piety. They probably had the effect of stabilizing a movement which was devoted to vagrancy by providing centers of agitation (this also made them easy to locate, and therefore vulnerable). Milan had such a welcoming attitude that they permitted the Waldensians to build their own house of prayer. This may have been the only occasion on which they could openly have such a building for the next 300 years.
The Lombards, as the North Italian group was called, had many ideas of their own. They were actually thrown out of the Waldensian movement in 1205 by Waldo, but later re-joined.
Melia, who argues that the Waldensians were not Protestant in their doctrine, can be counted on to refuse all exaggeration in the area of the Poor's evangelical beliefs. He does admit (and documents each from more than one authentic Waldensian source) the following listing of their divergent views during the period before the Hussite revolution.
To this list, he adds doctrines that belong to the period between the Hussite revolt and the Lutheran Revolution:
To these I would add,
You can see that every one of these doctrines are the natural outgrowth of exclusion from the Roman Church. It was natural that the Poor of Lyons, feeling that they had acted out of devotion to God from the beginning, would wonder whether denial of access to the priestly functions of the Roman Church could alter their destiny. Especially with the Bible in their own language, it was natural that they would re-examine these issues, and ultimately deny Roman Catholic teaching in these areas. Therefore the rejection of priestly function in the church was probably done in reaction to the action of the Roman Church, rather than being a native sentiment of the movement.
Regarding the last point, on the Eucharist, it may be asked how the Waldensians thought they would obtain salvation, since Roman Catholic doctrine has the grace of God becoming effective through the sacraments. Here, it seems that no clear answer is available. Apparently, the worshiper is to do his/her best to be good, and ask forgiveness from God for the rest. There was also confession to a "barba" ("uncle" or teacher-leader) and prayer on behalf of the penitent.58 Unfortunately, the grace aspect of Huss' teaching seems to have been substantially lost on the Waldensians.
Given these tenets, there does not seem to be warrant for referring to "two reformations" as does Amedo Molnar--the first being the Hussite and the Waldensian movements, and the second, being the movements of the sixteenth century.59 At the same time, it must be admitted that these two movements did make a substantial though incomplete movement back toward the biblical model. The Waldensian movement was a revolution based on radical ecclesiology, but without substantial change in soteriology. Their contribution should not be disregarded any more than the Lutheran and Calvinists, who continued to accept defective doctrine in the area of eschatology and ecclesiology.
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