Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (/wɔːlˈdɛnsiːz, wɒl-/), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation.

Organizations, such as the American Waldensian Society,[11] maintain the history of the movement and declare their mission as "proclaiming the Christian Gospel, serving the marginalized, promoting social justice, fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for religious diversity and freedom of conscience.

Earlier documents that provide information about early Waldensian history include the Will of Stefano d'Anse (1187); the Manifestatio haeresis Albigensium et Lugdunensium (c. 1206–1208); and the Anonymous chronicle of Lyon (c. 1220).

[49] Early Waldensians belonged to one of three groups:[50][not specific enough to verify] They were also called Insabbatati, Sabati, Inzabbatati, or Sabotiers—Some historians such as the Jesuit Jacob Gretser claimed this designation arose from the unusual type of sabot they used as footwear.

Alberto de' Capitanei, archdeacon of Cremona, responded to the bull by organizing a crusade to fulfill its order and launched a military offensive in the provinces of Dauphiné and Piedmont.

The theologian Angelo Carletti di Chivasso, whom Innocent VIII in 1491 appointed Apostolic Nuncio and Commissary conjointly with the Bishop of Mauriana, was involved in reaching a peaceful agreement between Catholics and Waldensians.

After they came out of seclusion and reports were made of sedition on their part, French King Francis I on 1 January 1545 issued the "Arrêt de Mérindol", and assembled an army against the Waldensians of Provence.

The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède, First President of the parliament of Provence, and the military commander Antoine Escalin des Aimars, who was returning from the Italian Wars with 2,000 veterans, the Bandes de Piémont.

In January 1655, the Duke of Savoy commanded the Waldensians to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys of their homeland, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands.

It was written that these targets of persecution, including old men, women, little children and the sick "waded through the icy waters, climbed the frozen peaks, and at length reached the homes of their impoverished brethren of the upper Valleys, where they were warmly received.

In the renewed persecution, and in an echo of the Piedmont Easter Massacre of only three decades earlier, the Duke issued an edict on 31 January 1686 that decreed the destruction of all the Vaudois churches and that all inhabitants of the Valleys should publicly announce their error in religion within fifteen days under penalty of death and banishment.

They put up a brave fight over the next six weeks, but by the time the Duke retired to Turin on 8 June, the war seemed decided: 2,000 Waldensians had been killed; another 2,000 had "accepted" the Catholic theology of the Council of Trent.

In August 1689, in the midst of the wars between the League of Augsburg and France, Arnaud led 1,000 Swiss exiles, armed with modern weaponry provided by the Dutch, back to the Piedmont.

[77] After the French Revolution, the Waldenses of Piedmont were assured liberty of conscience and, in 1848, the ruler of Savoy, King Charles Albert of Sardinia, granted them civil rights.

[78] However, poverty, societal discrimination, and demographic pressure led the Waldensians to emigrate, first as seasonal workers to the French Riviera and Switzerland, and later to Colonia Valdense in Uruguay, Jacinto Aráuz in La Pampa, Argentina and ultimately, to the United States.

The contemporary and historic Waldensian spiritual heritage describes itself as proclaiming the Gospel, serving the marginalized, promoting social justice, fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for religious diversity and freedom of conscience.

As the Catholic Church indulged in excesses in the time of Constantine (Roman Emperor from 306 to 337) – the account tells – the Waldenses held true to their apostolic faith of poverty and piety.

In his A History of the Vaudois Church (1859),[90] Antoine Monastier quotes Bernard, abbot of Foncald, who wrote at the end of the twelfth century that the Waldensians arose during the papacy of Lucius.

In the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Dutch and German Mennonite writers like van Braght, Martyrs Mirror (1660)[97] and Steven Blaupot ten Cate, Geschiedkundig onderzoek (1844),[98][99] linked Anabaptist origins to the Waldensians.

The high independence of the communities, lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible and its early translation through Peter Waldo have been credited to prove an ancient origin of Protestantism as the true interpretation of the faith.

[120][121][122] The strong German Protestant support for the Waldensian diaspora community in Italy—leading staff of the Gustavus Adolphus Union (GAW) praised them as one of the most interesting churches of all[123]—was not confined to a theological fascination.

It led to extensive financial support, loans, exchange of priesters and communities, aid missions and political interventions for the Italian Waldensians and their charitable efforts, starting from the seventeenth century.

[123][124] After World War II, the Evangelical Church in Germany actively contributed to reconciliation efforts with Italy and France based on its relationship with the Waldensian community.

In 1848, after many centuries of harsh persecution, the Waldensians acquired legal freedom in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia as a result of the liberalising reforms which followed Charles Albert of Sardinia's granting a constitution (the Statuto Albertino).

[126][127] After 1945, the Evangelical Church in Germany led by Theophil Wurm (who was also Bishop of Württemberg) issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt and actively contributed to reconciliation efforts with Italy (and France) based on relationships with the diaspora.

The 1948 centenary festivities of the Savoy civil rights declaration were used for efforts of EKD leading staff to support German Italian reconciliation after World War II.

Many Waldensians, having escaped persecution in their homelands by making their way to the tolerant Dutch Republic, crossed the Atlantic to start anew in the New Netherland colony, establishing the first church in North America on Staten Island in 1670.

Waldensians living in the Cottian Alps region of Northern Italy continued to migrate to Monett until the early 1900s, augmenting the original colony, and founded another, larger settlement in Valdese, North Carolina, in 1893.

In 1853 a group of approximately 70 Waldensians, including men, women, and children, left their homes in the Piedmont Valleys and migrated to Pleasant Green, Hunter, and Ogden, Utah, after being converted to Mormonism by Lorenzo Snow.

Still today, French family names (Gille, Roux, Granget, Conle, Gillardon, Common, Jourdan, Piston, Richardon, Servay, Conte, Baral, Gay, Orcellet or Salen) show the Savoyard background.