The Waldensian Movement From Waldo to the Reformation V
Growth and Reaction
During the thirty or so years between the excommunication of Waldo and the first major
genocidal crusade against them, the movement spread at an astonishing rate. There were
cells of activity right across southern Europe by the year 1208 when the crusade against
the Albigensians was proclaimed by Innocent III.
In this year there began a crusade against the Cathari60 akin to the one that had been
going on against the Muslims for some time. This was the first time the crusade concept
had been used against dissidents who called themselves Christian. "For twenty long
years Languedoc and Provence in France were subjected to a blood bath which not only wiped
out the most advanced culture of the time but introduced into the Church, and from there
throughout the West, the rule that any ideological deviation must be crushed by
force."61
It is important to remember that this period (1150-1300) were the years of the zenith
of papal temporal power. Innocent III described himself as "set between God and man,
lower than God but higher than man, who judges all and is judged by no one. . ."62 He
declared that, "the priesthood was as superior to the kingship as the soul to the
body," and he informed the nobles of Tuscany that, "just as the moon derives its
light from the sun . . .so too the royal power derives the splendor of its dignity from
the pontifical authority."63 As has been the case so often in history, greater
political power for the institutional church has been bad news for Christian minorities.
This was also the pattern that would characterize Roman Catholic reaction to the
Waldensians for the next 450 years. The history of the Waldensians during this period is
an incredible litany of genocidal disaster. This was the period of the inquisition in
Europe, and it is through the well kept records of the inquisition that we follow the
spread of the Waldensians movement throughout Europe. Tourn lists some of the major
persecutions after the crusade of 1208:
- We know that at the beginning of the 14th century there were enough Poor remaining in
France that the inquisitor Jacques Fournier, who later became Pope Benedict XII, undertook
court trials against them.
- The transference of the papacy to Avignon in the middle of the 14th century was
apparently the signal for a brutal repression against Waldensians in the Dauphine, for the
beleaguered Pope was evidently not disposed to tolerate any expression of dissidence so
near to his exiled see.
- In the year 1380. . . [a severe] round-up was begun under the inquisitors Martin of
Prague and Peter Zwicker. These two were commissioned to bring to trial or to force the
conversion of Waldensians through much of Europe.
Their systematic effort began in Bavaria, continuing in the following year in the region
of Erfurt, and in 1392 in the province of Brandenberg. The inquisitors then proceeded to
Stettin, where they held a trial of 400 Waldensians.
Their reports speak of activities in various cities of what are now Germany,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and of their success in the city of Bern, Switzerland, in
getting 130 suspects to abjure heresy and return to the Church's fold. They reported a
similar success in Fribourg with some 50 Waldensians.
- . . .in the latter part of the century the inquisition was resumed in full intensity
under the direction of a Franciscan, Francesco Borelli. So obsessed was this monk with his
pursuit of heretics that it was said that every prison from Embrun to Avignon was full to
overflowing. As a result, Pope Gregory IX himself had to appeal for alms for the hapless
prisoners.
- . . . in 1450, the inquisitors were sent in to deal with Alpine dissidents. In that year
the whole valley of Luserna was placed under interdiction on the charge of having resisted
the authorities.
- Another inquisitorial sweep took place in 1475, including interminable court trials
against anyone who failed to cooperate fully in the drive. . . .the counts of Luserna
themselves were. . . charged with being too lenient toward the Waldensians--for which they
were duly warned and subjected to heavy fines.
- . . .Charles I at last called for full scale military action against the dissidents, and
was joined, from the French side, by the declaration of a crusade against the Waldensians
which lasted from 1487-89. The latter was directed by the infamous papal legate, Alberta
Cattane
. . . There the governor of Savoy, with the full consent of Charles VIII of France,
undertook a veritable and thorough going crusade against the hapless population. As in
other places and times in the Middle Ages, it was under the patronage of the Pope and
organized by his legate
. . .[the village of] Pragelato found itself squarely in the path of the crusaders, so
that it was invaded and sacked in the winter of 1487. A fate similar to that of Pragelato
was in store for the Waldensians in the valleys of Argentieres and Vallouise. These folk
had been consistently pacifist by tradition, so that they did not resist when the invaders
came. The crusaders then proceeded to level their villages, destroying every trace of the
Waldensians heritage.
- Francis I. . .in 1545 named the president of Aix's parliament personally to lead a papal
army from Avignon to clear the area entirely of Waldensian presence. The Luberon folk were
suddenly caught in a vise.
. . .The mercenary soldiers engaged for the sweep did not stop until they had devastated
the whole region and obliterated every trace of the Waldensian villages. A few survivors
did manage to escape to Switzerland, but the lot of all the rest was either death by the
sword or life sentences as galley-slaves on French ships.
- . . .On June 5, 1561, the town of San Sisto, with its 6,000 inhabitants, was burned to
the ground.
. . .Guardia Piemontese, its neighbor, was likewise destroyed. Prisoners were burned like
torches, sold as slaves to the Moors or condemned to die of starvation in the dungeons of
Cosenza. The massacre reached its height at Montalto Uffugo on June 11th. On the steps in
front of the parish church, 88 Waldensians were slaughtered one by one, like animals
brought to market.
- If the military operation lasted only a few weeks, the work of Catholic indoctrination,
Jesuit style, continued for years. The Jesuits were determined to obliterate every
evidence that Waldensians had been present in Calabria. They almost succeeded, except in
one small respect: there is still a hint of the Provencal language in the daily speech of
the inhabitants.64
The list of atrocities goes on and on, in fact far too long for detailed consideration
here.65 The point that becomes clear is that every effort was made on numerous occasions
to eliminate the Poor of Lyons in the customary way. At various points this policy was
close to final success. Yet, the Waldensian movement was never eliminated.
Another tactic that was employed briefly with success by Pope Innocent III was to take
advantage of the differences between Waldo and the Lombards in 1208 to win the Poor Men
back to the Church. Beginning in 1208 he encouraged the formation and spread of Pauperes
Catholici ("Poor Catholics") who under ecclesiastical direction would follow
such of the practices of the Waldenses as the Church could approve. By this means many who
had been attracted by the Poor Men were held or won back.66
Nevertheless, the Waldensians continued to grow at a surprising rate. The pattern of
growth appears to have been the result of systematic underground discipleship and
witnessing.
. . .men and women, great and lesser, day and night do not cease to learn and teach;
the workman who labors all day teaches or learns at night . . .When someone has been a
student seven days, he seeks someone else to teach, as one curtain pulls another. Whoever
excuses himself, saying that he is not able to learn, they say to him, "Learn but one
word each day, and after a year you will know three hundred, and you will
progress."67
Tourn has a remarkable map showing areas where Waldensians presence can be documented,
reproduced here.68
Map of Europe shows shaded
patches all over western and some of eastern Europe
In 1517 - the very year of Luther's protest--the Archbishop of Turin made record of a
pastoral visit to the Alpine valleys in which he singled out for concern the ongoing
presence of Waldensian groups practicing their faith.69
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