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Research atlas for early Christianity. Claims are tagged attested, traditional, or disputed. Copyrighted full texts, including CCEL editions, are not included.

DeChurched Atlas

Branches

survives today

Waldensians

Poor of Lyon, Vaudois, Poor Lombards (Italian branch)

c. 1173 – present

attested. Attested. The later Waldensian claim of apostolic antiquity is a confessional tradition.

Leaders

  • Valdes (Peter Waldo, d. c. 1205–1218)
  • Durand of Huesca (returned to Rome 1207)

Beliefs

Apostolic poverty and lay preaching from vernacular scripture. They rejected oaths, the death penalty, purgatory and prayers for the dead, and the authority of unworthy clergy. Unlike the Cathars, they were not dualists.

Home bases

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  • Lyon (Valdes and the Poor of Lyon, c. 1173)

    Lyon, France · 12th–13th

    Around 1173–1176 the Lyon merchant Valdes (later called Peter Waldo) gave away his goods, had the Gospels translated into the local language and began lay preaching. Without licence, his 'Poor of Lyon' were excommunicated in 1184 at Verona. Unlike the Cathars they were not dualists, and they survive today as the Waldensian Evangelical Church.

    Lyon (Valdes and the Poor of Lyon, c. 1173)
    Own work. CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsThis photograph shows the modern city, or the Wikipedia lead subject, rather than the ancient site itself.

  • Torre Pellice and the Waldensian valleys

    Torre Pellice, Italy · 13th–present

    Waldensians survived persecution in the Alpine valleys of Piedmont. They joined the Reformation at the Synod of Chanforan in 1532 and suffered the 'Piedmontese Easter' massacres of 1655. Torre Pellice remains their cultural centre, with a synod hall and a historical archive.

    Torre Pellice and the Waldensian valleys
    Own work. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsThis photograph shows the modern city, or the Wikipedia lead subject, rather than the ancient site itself.

Spread

Southern France, Lombardy, the Alps, Germany, Bohemia (contacts with the Hussites) and Apulia.

Books

None linked.

What happened to it

Excommunicated in 1184 (Verona) and persecuted for centuries. They joined the Reformation (Chanforan 1532), were massacred in Calabria (1561) and Piedmont (1655), and were emancipated in 1848. They exist today as the Waldensian Evangelical Church (Italy, Uruguay, Argentina).

Hostile sources

  • Bernard Gui. Practica inquisitionis c. 1324

    Hostile.

  • Moneta of Cremona. Adversus Catharos et Valdenses c. 1241

    Hostile.

Their own words

  • Waldensian barbes. Nobla Leyczon and Occitan treatises (Cambridge, Dublin, Geneva MSS) 15th c.

    Insider.

Sources

DeChurched Atlas — Early Christianity as history, from every source