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WALDENSFS . The Waldensian valleys See also:lie to the See also:south-See also:west of See also:Turin, in the direction of See also:Monte Viso, but include no high or snowy mountains, while the glens themselves are (with one or two exceptions) fertile and well wooded. The See also:principal See also:town near the valleys is See also:Pinerolo (Pignerol). Just to its south-west there opens the See also:chief Waldensian valley, the Val Pellice, watered by the stream of that. name, but sometimes called inaccurately the Luserna valley, Luserna being simply a See also:village opposite the See also:capital, Torre Pellice; near Torre Pellice the See also:side glens of Angrogna and Rora join the Pellice valley. To the See also:north-west of Pinerolo, up the Chisone valley, there opens at Perosa See also:Argentina the valley of St See also: Against this secularized church a See also:body of witnesses silently protested; they were always persecuted but always survived, till in the 13th century a desperate See also:attempt was made by See also:Innocent III. to See also:root them out from their stronghold in See also:southern France. Persecution gave new vitality to their doctrines, which passed on to Wycliffe and See also:Huss, and through these leaders produced the See also:Reformation in See also:Germany and See also:England.
This view rests upon a See also:series of suppositions, and is entirely unhistorical. So far as can be discovered the heretical sects of the middle ages rested upon a system of See also:Manichaeism which was imported into See also:Europe from the See also:East (see MANICHAEISM). The Manichaean system of See also:dualism, with its severe See also:asceticism, and its See also:individualism, which early passed into antinomianism, was attractive to many minds in the awakening of the 1th century. Its presence in Europe can be traced in See also:Bulgaria soon after its See also:conversion in 862,1 where the struggle between the Eastern and Western churches for the new converts opened a way for the more See also:hardy speculations of a system which had never entirely disappeared, and found a See also:home amongst the See also:Paulicians (q.v.) in See also:Armenia. The name of Cathari (see See also:CATHARS), taken by the adherents of this new teaching, sufficiently shows the See also:Oriental origin of their opinions, which spread from Bulgaria amongst the Slays, and followed the routes of See also:commerce into central Europe. The earliest See also:record of their presence there is the condemnation of ten canons of See also: The perfecti only were admitted to its See also:esoteric doctrines and to its superstitious practices. To the See also:ordinary men it seemed to be a reforming agency, insisting on a high moral See also:standard, and upholding the words of Scripture against the traditions of an overgrown and worldly church. Its popular aim and its rationalistic method made men overlook its real contents, which were not put clearly before them. It may be said generally that Catharism formed the abiding background of See also:medieval heresy. Its dualistic system and its See also:anti-social principles were known only to a few, but its anti-ecclesiastical organization formed a permanent See also:nucleus See also:round which gathered a great See also:deal of See also:political and ecclesiastical discontent. When this discontent took any See also:independent See also:form of expression, zeal, which was not always accompanied by discretion, brought the See also:movement into collision with the ecclesiastical authorities, by whom it was condemned as heretical. When once it was in conflict with authority it was driven to strengthen its basis by a more pronounced hostility against the system of the church, and generally ended by borrowing some-thing from Catharism. The result was that in the beginning of the 13th century there was a tendency to class all bodies of heretics together: partly their opinions had coalesced; partly they were assumed to be identical. Most of these sects were stamped out before the See also:period of the middle ages came to a See also:close. The Waldenses, under their more See also:modern name of the Vaudois, have survived to the See also:present See also:day in the valleys of See also:Piedmont, and have been regarded as at once the most See also:ancient and the most evangelical of the medieval sects. It is, however, by no means easy to determine their See also:original tenets, as in the x3th and 14th centuries they were a body of obscure and unlettered peasants, hiding themselves in a corner, while in the 16th century they were absorbed into the See also:general movement of the Reformation. As regards their antiquity, the attempts to claim for them an earlier origin than the end of the 12th century can no longer be sustained. They rested upon the supposed antiquity of a body of Waldensian literature, which modern criticism has shown to have been tampered with. The most important of these documents, a poem in Provencal, " La Nobla Leyczon," contains two lines which claimed for it the date of 1Too:
See also:Ben ha mil e cent anez compli entierament
Que fo scripta 1' ora, See also:car sen al derier temp.
But it was pointed out2 that in the See also:oldest MS. existing in the See also:Cambridge university library the figure 4 had been imperfectly erased before the word " cent," a See also:discovery which harmonized with the results of a criticism of the contents of the poem itself. This discovery did away with the ingenious attempts to See also:account for the name of Waldenses from some other source than from the historical founder of the sect, See also:Peter See also:Waldo or Valdez. To get rid of Waldo, whose date was known, the name Waldenses or Vallenses was derived from Vallis, because they dwelt in the valleys, or from a supposed Provencal word Vaudes, which meant a sorcerer.
Putting these views aside as unsubstantial, we will consider the relation of the Waldenses as they appear in actual history with the sects which preceded them. Already in the 9th century there were several protests against the rigidity and want of spirituality of a purely sacerdotal church. Thus Berengar of See also:Tours (999–1088) upheld the symbolic See also:character of the See also:Eucharist and the superiority of the See also:Bible over tradition. The Paterines in See also:Milan (1045) raised a protest against See also:simony and other abuses of the clergy, and Pope See also:Gregory VII. did not hesitate to enlist their See also:Puritanism on the side of the papacy and make them his See also:allies in imposing clerical See also:celibacy. In I1so an apostate See also: The See also:text edited by Montet, 4to (1887).
and masses for the dead. A follower of his, a monk, See also: Some were re-admitted into the See also:Catholic Church, and one, Durandus de Osca (r21o), attempted to found an See also:order of Pauperes Catholici, which was the forerunner of the order of St See also:Dominic. Many were swept away in the crusade against the Albigenses (q.v.). Others made an See also:appeal to Innocent III., protesting their orthodoxy. Their appeal was not successful, for they were formally condemned by the Lateran See also:council of 1215. The earliest definite account given of the Waldensian See also:opinion is that of the inquisitor Sacconi about 1250.1 He divides them into two classes: those north of the See also:Alps and those of See also:Lombardy. The first class hold (1) that oaths are forbidden by the See also:gospel, (2) that capital See also:punishment is not allowed to the See also:civil See also:power, (3) that any layman may consecrate the See also:sacrament of the See also:altar, and (4) that the See also:Roman Church is not the Church of Christ. The Lombard sect went farther in (3) and (4), holding that no one in mortal See also:sin could consecrate the sacrament, and that the Roman Church was the See also:scarlet woman of the See also:Apocalypse, whose precepts ought not to be obeyed, especially those appointing fast-days. This account sufficiently shows the difference of the Waldenses from the Cathari: they were opposed to asceticism, and had no See also:official priesthood; at the same time their objection to oaths and to capital punishment are closely related to the principles of the Cathari. Their other opinions were forced upon them by their conflict with the authority of the Church. When forbidden to preach without the permission of the See also:bishop, they were driven to assert the right of all to preach, without distinction of See also:age or See also:sex. This led to the further step of setting up See also:personal merit rather than ecclesiastical ordination as the ground of the priestly See also:office. From this followed again the conclusion that obedience was not due to an unworthy See also:priest, and that his ministrations were invalid. These opinions were subversive of the system of the medieval church, and were naturally viewed with great disfavour by its officials; but it cannot fairly be said that they have much in See also:common with the opinions of the Reformers of the 16th century. The medieval church set forth Christ as present in the orderly community of the faithful; Protestantism aimed at setting the individual in immediate communion with Christ, without the See also:mechanical intervention of the See also:officers of the community; the D'Argentr6, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, i. go, &c. Waldenses merely set forward a new criterion of the orderly arrangement of the church, according to which each member was to sit in See also:judgment on the See also:works of the ministers, and consequently on the validity of their ministerial acts. It was a See also:rude way of expressing a See also:desire for a more spiritual community. The earliest known document proceeding from the Waldensians is an account of a See also:conference held at See also:Bergamo in 1218 between the Ultramontane and the Lombard divisions, in which the See also:Lombards showed a greater opposition to the recognized priesthood than did their northern brethren? As these opinions became more pronounced persecution became more severe, and the See also:breach between the Waldenses and the church widened. The Waldenses withdrew altogether from the ministrations of the church, and See also:chose ministers for themselves whose merits were recognized by the body of the faithful. See also:Election took the place of ordination, but even here the Lombards showed their difference from the Ultramontanes, and recognized only two orders, like the Cathari, while the northern body kept the old three orders of bishops, priests and deacons. Gradually the separation from the church became more See also:complete: the sacraments were regarded as merely symbolical; the priests became helpers of the faithful; ceremonies disappeared; and a new religious society arose equally unlike the medieval church and the Protestantism of the 16th century. The spread of these heretical sects led to resolute attempts at their suppression. The crusade against the Albigensians could destroy prosperous cities and See also:hand over lands from a heedless See also:lord to one who was obedient to the church; but it could not get rid of heresy. The revival of preaching, which was the See also:work of the order of St Dominic, did more to combat heresy, especially where its persuasions were enforced by See also:law. The work of See also:inquisition into cases of heresy proceeded slowly in the hands of the bishops, who were too busy with other matters to find much time for sitting in judgment on theological points about which they were imperfectly informed. The greatest See also:blow struck against heresy was the transference of the See also:duty of inquiry into heresy from the bishops to Dominican inquisitors. The See also:secular power, which shared in the proceeds of the See also:confiscation of those who were found guilty of heresy, was ready to help in carrying out the judgments of the spiritual courts. Everywhere, and especially in the See also:district round See also:Toulouse, heretics were keenly prosecuted, and before the continued zeal of persecution the Waldenses slowly disappeared from the chief centres of See also:population and took See also:refuge in the retired valleys of the Alps. There, in the recesses of Piedmont, where the streams of the Pelice, the Angrogne, the Clusone and others cleave the sides of the Alps into valleys which converge at See also:Susa, a See also:settlement of the Waldensians was made who gave their name to these valleys of the Vaudois. In the more accessible regions north and south heresy was exposed to a steady process of persecution, and tended to assume shifting forms. Among the valleys it was less easily reached, and retained its old organization and its old contents. Little settlements of heretics dispersed throughout Italy and See also:Provence looked to the valleys as a place of refuge, and tacitly regarded them as the centre of their faith. At times attempts were made to suppress the sect of the Vaudois, but the nature of the See also:country which they inhabited, their obscurity and their See also:isolation made the difficulties of their suppression greater than the advantages to be gained from it. However, in 1487 Innocent VIII. issued a See also:bull for their extermination, and Alberto de' Capitanei, See also:arch-See also:deacon of See also:Cremona, put himself at the See also:head of a crusade against them. Attacked in Dauphins and Piedmont at the same time, the Vaudois were hard pressed; but luckily their enemies were encircled by a See also:fog when marching upon their chief refuge in the valley of the Angrogne, and were repulsed with great loss. After this See also: They were, however, sorely reduced by the onslaught which had been made upon them, and lost their ancient spirit of independence. When the Lutheran movement began they were ready to sympathize with it, and ultimately to adapt their old 2 Preger, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Waldesier. beliefs to those of the rising Protestantism. Already there were scattered bodies of Waldenses in Germany who had influenced, and afterwards joined, the See also:Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren. The last step in the development of the Waldensian body was taken in 1530, when two deputies of the Vaudois in See also:Dauphine and Provence, Georges See also:Morel and See also:Pierre See also:Masson, were sent to confer with the See also:German and Swiss Reformers. A See also:letter addressed to Oecolompadius' gives an account of their practices and beliefs at that time, and shows us a See also:simple and unlettered community, which was the survival of an attempt to form an esoteric religious society within the medieval church. It would appear that its members received the sacraments of baptism and the holy communion from the See also:regular priesthood, at all events sometimes, but maintained a discipline of their own and held services for their own edification. Their ministers were called barba, a Provencal word meaning See also:guide. They were chosen from among labouring men, who at the age of twenty-five might ask the body of ministers to be admitted as candidates. If their character was approved they were taught during the See also:winter months, when work was slack, for a space of three or four years; after that they were sent for two years to serve as See also:menial assistants at a nunnery for See also:women, which curiously enough existed in a See also:recess of the valleys. Then they were admitted to office, after receiving the communion, by the See also:imposition of hands of all ministers present. They went out to preach two by two, and the junior was See also:bound absolutely to obey the See also:senior. Clerical celibacy was their See also:rule, but they admit that it created See also:grave disorders. The ministers received See also:food and clothing from the contributions of the See also:people, but also worked with their hands; the result of this was that they were very ignorant, and also were grasping after bequests from the dying. The affairs of the church were managed by a general See also:synod held every See also:year. The duties of the barbas were to visit all within their district once a year, hear their confessions, advise and admonish them; in all services the two ministers sat side by side, and one spoke after the other. In point of doctrine they acknowledged the seven sacraments, but gave them a symbolical meaning; they prayed to the Virgin and See also:saints, and admitted auricular See also:confession, but they denied See also:purgatory and the See also:sacrifice of the See also:mass, and did not observe fasts or festivals. After giving this account of themselves they ask for See also:information about several points in a way which shows the exigencies of a rude and isolated society, and finally they say that they have been much disturbed by the Lutheran teaching about freewill and See also:predestination, for they had held that men did See also:good works through natural virtue stimulated by God's See also:grace, and they thought of predestination in no other way than as a See also:part of God's foreknowledge. See also:Oecolampadius gave them further instruction, especially emphasizing the wrongfulness of their outward submission to the ordinances of the church: " God," he said, " is a jealous God, and does not permit His elect to put themselves under the yoke of See also:Antichrist." The result of this intercourse was an See also:alliance between the Vaudois and the Swiss and German Reformers. A synod was held in 1532 at Chanforans in the valley of the Angrogne, where a new confession of faith was adopted, which recognized the doctrine of election, assimilated the practices of the Vaudois to those of the Swiss congregations, renounced for the future all recognition of the Roman communion, and established their own See also:worship no longer as See also:secret meetings of a faithful few but as public assemblies for the See also:glory of God. Thus the Vaudois ceased to be See also:relics of the past, and became absorbed in the general movement of Protestantism. This was not, however, a source of quiet or See also:security. In France and Italy alike they were marked out as See also:special See also:objects of persecution, and the Vaudois church has many records of martyrdom. The most severe trial to which the Vaudois of Piedmont were subjected occurred in 1655. The See also:Congregation de Propaganda Fide established, in 165o, a See also:local council in Turin, which exercised a powerful influence on Duke Charles See also:Emmanuel II., who ordered that the Vaudois should be reduced within the limits of their ancient territory. Fanaticism took See also:advantage of this order;
' Scultetus, Annales, ii. 294, &c.
s xvrn. 9257
and an See also:army, composed- partly of See also:French troops of See also: This was found so difficult that the remnant of the Vaudois, to the number of 2600, were at last allowed to withdraw to See also:Geneva. But the love of their native valleys was strong among the exiles, and in 1689 one of their pastors, See also:Henri See also:Arnaud, led a See also:band of Boo men to the reconquest of their country. His first attempts against the French were successful; and the rupture between See also:Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy, and Louis XIV. brought a sudden See also:change of See also:fortune to the Vaudois. They were recognized once more as citizens of Savoy, and in the See also:war against France which See also:broke out in 1696 the Vaudois See also:regiment did good service for its duke. The peace of See also:Utrecht saw the greater part of the French territory occupied by the Vaudois annexed to Savoy, and, though there were frequent threatenings of persecution, the See also:idea of See also:toleration slowly prevailed in the policy of the See also:house of Savoy. The Vaudois, who had undergone all these vicissitudes, were naturally reduced to poverty, and their ministers were partially maintained by a See also:subsidy from England, which was granted by See also:Queen See also:Anne. The 18th century, however, was a time of religious decadence even among the Alpine valleys, and the outbreak of the French Revolution saw the Vaudois made subjects of France. This led to a loss of the See also:English subsidy, and they applied to See also:Napoleon for an See also:equivalent. This was granted, and their church was organized by the state. On the restoration of the house of Savoy in 1816 English influence was used on behalf of the Vaudois, who received a limited toleration. From that time onwards the Vaudois became the objects of much See also:interest in Protestant countries. Large sums of money were collected to build hospitals and churches among their valleys, and they were looked upon as the possible centre of a Protestant church in Italy. Especially from England did they receive sympathy and help. An English clergyman, Dr Gilly, visited the valleys in 1823, and by his writings on the Vaudois church attracted considerable See also:attention, so that he was enabled to build a See also:college at La Torre. Moreover, Dr Gilly's See also:book (A Visit to the Valleys of Piedmont), chancing to fall into the hands of an officer who had lost his See also:leg at See also:Waterloo, See also:Colonel See also:Beckwith, suggested an See also:object for the energies of one who was loth at the age of twenty-six to sink into enforced idleness. Beckwith visited the valleys, and was painfully struck by the squalor and See also:ignorance of a people who had so glorious a past. He settled among them, and for See also:thirty-five years devoted himself to See also:pro-mote their welfare. During this period he established no fewer than 120 See also:schools; moreover he brought back the See also:Italian See also:language which had been displaced by the French in the services of the Vaudois church, and in 1849 built a church for them in Turin. He lived in La Torre till his See also:death in 1862, and the name of the English benefactor is still revered by the simple folk of the valleys. (M. C.)
The See also:parent church in the valleys is ecclesiastically governed by. a See also:court for See also:internal affairs called the " Table," after the old
.E
See also: It is also reckoned that in See also:Uruguay and the See also:Argentine See also:Republic there are about 6000 Waldensians; of these 1253 were in 1900 full members, while the day scholars numbered 364 and the Sunday school children 670. The literature on the subject of the Waldensian and other sects is copious. For their rise the most important authorities are to be found in Moneta, Adversus Catharos et Waldenses; D'Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus; Alanus, Adversus haereticos; D'Achery, Spicilegia, vol. i.; Gretser, See also:Opera, vol. x.; See also:Limborch, Historia Inquisitionis, at the end of which is the See also:Liber sententiarum of the Inquisition of Toulouse from 1307-1322. Of modern books may be mentioned Schmidt, Histoire des Cathares; See also:Hahn, Geschichte der neumanichdischen Ketzer; Dieckhoff, See also:Die Waldenser See also:im Mittel-alter; Preger, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Waldesier; See also:Cantu, Gli Eretici in Italia; Comba, Storia della Riforma in Italia, and Histoire des Vaudois d'Italie; Tocco, L'Eresia nel rnedio evo; Montet, Histoire litteraire des Vaudois; See also:Lea, History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Amongst books dealing with the more modern history of the Vaudois specially are Leger, Histoire des eglises vaudoises; Arnaud, Histoire de la rentree des Vaudois; Perrin, Histoire des Vaudois; Monastier, Histoire de l'eglise vaudoise; Muston, L'See also:Israel des Alpes; Gilly, Excursion to the Valleys of Piedmont, and Researches on the Waldensians; Todd, The Waldensian See also:Manuscripts; Melia, Origin, Persecution and Doctrines of the Waldensians; Jules See also:Chevalier, Memoires sur See also:les heresies en Dauphine avant le X VI° siecle, accompagnes de documents inedits sur les sorciers et ies Vaudois (See also:Valence, 189o) ; J. A. Chabrand, Vaudois et Protestants des Alpes: recherches historiques (See also:Grenoble, 1886) ; H. See also:Haupt, See also:article in Von See also:Sybel's Historische Zeitschrift (1889), pp. 39-68; W. A. B. Coolidge, articles in the See also:Guardian for 18th See also:August 1886 and 4th See also:December 1889. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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