Waldensians
Sign in to saveThe Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the late 12th century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy. The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.
AI overview
The Waldensians were a Christian movement that started in the late 12th century when a wealthy merchant named Peter Waldo gave away his possessions and began preaching a life of poverty modeled on the apostles. The movement matters because it represents one of the earliest organized challenges to the established Church before the Protestant Reformation, spreading from France into the Alps and influencing how Christians understood religious devotion and church practice.
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Key facts
- Religion.image
- Waldenser-Wappen.png
- Religion.caption
- Waldensian symbol Lux lucet in tenebris ("A light shines in the darkness")
- Religion.main_classification
- Proto-Protestant
- Religion.orientation
- Reformed
- Religion.theology
- Theology of Peter Waldo and other Waldensian theologians, nowadays also that of John Calvin and other Reformed theologians
- Religion.founder
- Peter Waldo
- Religion.founded_date
- c. 1173
- Religion.founded_place
- Lyon, Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles in the Holy Roman Empire (now France)
- Religion.separated_from
- Catholic Church
- Religion.area
- Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Argentina, United States, Uruguay, and elsewhere
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
22 sectionsContents
- Historical sources
- Teachings
- History
- Origins
- Catholic response
- Reformation
- Massacre of Mérindol (1545)
- Piedmont Easter
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the "Glorious Return"
- Religious freedom after the French Revolution
- Characteristics of the modern Waldensian Church
- Influence
- Appraisal by Protestants
- Waldensians by region
- Italy
- South America
- United States
- Germany
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the late 12th century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy. The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.
In some aspects the Waldensians of the Middle Ages could be seen as proto-Protestants, but they mostly did not raise the doctrinal objections characteristic of sixteenth-century Protestant leaders. They came to align themselves with Protestantism: with the on 12 September 1532, they formally became a part of the Calvinist tradition. They were nearly annihilated in the seventeenth century.
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Categories
1170s establishments in France1173 establishments in Europe12th-century ChristianityChristian denominations established in the 12th centuryChristian denominations founded in FranceChristian radicalismChristian terminologyCitation overkillHistory of Catholicism in ItalyProtestantism in ArgentinaProtestantism in ItalyProtestantism in the United States