Lord’s Day, Vol. 5 No. 40
Forerunners of the Reformation
– The Waldenses
Early in the 12th century there lived in Lyons, a city in the Rhone Valley in France, a wealthy merchant named Peter Waldo. In or about 1170 he employed a priest to translate from Latin into French the Four Gospels together with certain other books of Scriptures. By the grace of God he saw the truths of God’s Word and wanted to practise them. He began to realize that the Scripture alone are to be the basis of faith, and not the word of any human being, be he priest or bishop or pope. He learned that there is but one Mediator, that saints should not be worshipped, and that two sacraments and two only – baptism and the Lord’s Supper – were instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. Waldo embraced these and other related truths, and in 1177 he organised a society of men and women who were willing to help him bring Bible truth before their fellows. The members of this Society are known in Church history by the name of Waldenses, or Waldensians, so called after their eminent instructor and leaders. They are also known as ‘the poor men of Lyons’. The call had come to them, as it once came to the seventy: ‘Go your way, behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves, carry neither scrip nor shoes…’ (Luke 10:1-17); and in obedience to this command they went out ‘two and two into every city and place’. Occasionally they were called Sabotati because they wore wooden shoes (sabots).
The Waldenses were ‘harmless as doves’ but also ‘wise as serpents’, for disguised as pedlars they canvassed the country trying to see knick-knacks, but they never left a home without offering ‘the pearl of great price’. They attacked the false teachings of the priests and the traditions of the Church frankly and openly, and wherever they found a listening ear they preached the Word of God boldly and fearlessly. They visited all parts of France, they penetrated into Switzerland and Northern Italy, and usually they were well received. They gathered like-minded people to worship in secluded places, and visited them in their homes, preached to them, and always left behind translations of parts of the Bible and devotional literature.
At first the Church authorities were lenient towards them, but when they began to realize the dangers of the movement to themselves, they placed the Waldenses under a ban. The Council of Valencia (1229) forbade men who were not priests to read the Bible, whether in Latin or in the vernacular, the only exception being that they might have ‘a psalter or breviary for divine services’, or ‘the hours of the blessed Mary’ but only in Latin. The Bible itself was placed on The Index of Forbidden Books.
Soon every kind of persecution was raised against the Waldenses as well as against other sects which protested against the corruption of the Church. The Inquisition was resorted to, and a murderous campaign was carried on against them for many years. Many thousands of them were slain, many were tortured with great cruelty, and their country was periodically transformed into a desert. Even others with infants were rolled down the rocks. These were especially the case in the area known as Piedmont. The believers fled to the mountains for safety. At one time 400 women and children were housed in a cave while then men were away. When this hiding-place was discovered the enemies lit a fire at the opening of the cave and all who were within perished. Dominican monks were appointed by Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) to the work of the tribunals of the Inquisition, and many were the acts of cruelty against the Waldenses for which they were responsible. As Peter Waldo lived in southern France, they was the chief area covered by the Waldenese’ testimony at the outset. The Counts of Toulouse and Foix gave them protection. But when persecution arose a number of them fled to Spain, Savoy, and Piedmont. Although soon driven out of Spain, they survived in France until the 16th century. Some fled to southern Italy but they were not welcomed there. Western Piedmont was the area where, in the southern Alps, they chiefly found refuge, and there they founded a distinct church which survives to the present day, free from persecution. Even in the city of Rome itself they now have a congregation. Their bitterest enemies could never deny the purity of their morals and the sincerity of their convictions. Of them, the world was not worthy. They loved their lives unto death. By faith, they overcame the world, and we do well to remember the testimony to truth and the steadfastness under grievous tribulation which characterized their lives. A persecution of the Waldensians which took place during the 17th Century has been made famous by a sonnet written by John Milton, secretary to Oliver Cromwell. It was Cromwell’s vigorous remonstrance and threat of naval and military action that brought the persecution to a close. Milton’s lines are worthy of remembrance:
Of the late massacre in Piedmont (1655)
Avenge, O Lord, they slaughtered saints, whose bones. Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old. Forget not: in thy book record their groans. Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold. Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans. The vales redoubled to the hills, and they to heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow. O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway. They triple tyrants; that from these many grow. A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way. Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
[Extracted from Sketches from Church History by S.M Houghton, pp.63-64]
Yours Lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee