Everything about Peter Waldo totally explained
Peter Waldo/
Valdo or
Pierre Vaudès or
Pierre de Vaux (1140-1218?) was the founder of the
Waldensians. A group that began as a
Christian spiritual movement of the later
Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions.
Life and work
Specific details of his life are largely unknown. The sources mention that he was a rich merchant from
Lyon making his money by "wicked usury", when around 1160 he began living a radical
Christian life and gave his real estate to his wife, and the remainder of his belongings he distributed as
alms to the poor.
Waldo also began to preach and teach on the streets, based on his ideas of simplicity and poverty, notably that "No man can serve two masters, God and
mammon." By 1170 he'd gathered a number of followers and they started to be called
the Poor of Lyon,
the Poor of Lombardy, or
the Poor of God. They were also referred to as the
Waldensians (or Waldenses), after their leader. They were distinct from the
Albigensians or
Cathars.
The Waldensian movement was characterised from the beginning by lay preaching,
voluntary poverty and sticking to the "Word of God", the Bible. Peter Waldo commissioned a cleric from Lyons around
1180 to translate the Bible, or parts of it, into
vernacular, the provençal language.
In
1179, Waldo and one of his
disciples went to Rome. They were welcomed by
Pope Alexander III, and by the
Roman Curia. They had to explain their faith before a panel of three clergymen, including items which were then debated within the Church, as the
universal priesthood, the gospel in the vulgar tongue, and the issue of
self-imposed poverty. But Waldo and his friend were not taken seriously. The meeting therefore resolved nothing, and Waldo’s and his followers’ ideas, initially regarded with suspicion, were condemned at the
Third Lateran Council in the same year, but the leaders of the movement hadn't been yet excommunicated.
Driven away from
Lyon, Waldo and his followers settled in the high valleys of
Piedmont, and in France, in the
Luberon. Finally, Waldo was excommunicated by
Pope Lucius III during the synod held at
Verona in
1184, and the doctrine of the Poor of Lyon was again
condemned by the
Fourth Lateran Council in
1215, and regarded as
heresy. The
Roman church began to
persecute the Waldensians, and many were tried and sentenced to death in various European countries during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. Centuries after his death, the Waldensian denomination joined the Genevan or
Reformed branch of the
Protestant Reformation.
Further Information
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