On May 28, 1950, pope Pius XII commissioned Louis de Wohl to write about "the history and mission of the church in the world." One would expect that such a high commission would have caused the late Mr. de Wohl to be extremely careful to present facts and only facts. Yet he starts his reporting of the Waldensian Christians in this fashion (p. 122, Founded On A Rock).

"There was another heretical movement in northern Italy, started by Waldo and named after its founder Waldensians. They might be called the first Protestants, and indeed became affiliated with Protestantism later on. Their original idea was a protest against the luxurious and sensual life of many clerics. They wanted to return to the simplicity of Apostolic times. So far, so good. But from such protests they went on to attack the priesthood as such, the Mass and other Catholic institutions. And like their Albigensian cousins they forbade marriage."

One great advantage we have as we study these noble people is that they are still a flourishing Protestant group in Northern Italy, and have available for us much documented history, which will help us to discover the mistakes by this Catholic historian.

The first historical note of the Gospel in Waldensian territory is the preaching of Vigilantius (see chapter 2). He was called by Gibbon "the Protestant of his age". Jerome wrote of him, "He clamored with me in the Cottian Alps."

Markoe puts the Waldenses as having started in the 12th century, but they date their lineage much before that. Their being in the same area of Italy as Vigilantius (4th century) gives some indication that their roots are far back in history. Certainly their teaching can be traced to Claude, the godly archbishop of Turin, Italy in the 8th century.

There is also a definite link with Ambrose, for, when the papal legate Damianus, later sought the vassalage of the Bishop of Milan, the clergy of Milan maintained, in his presence, that "The Ambrosian Church, according to the ancient institutions of the Fathers, was always free, without being subject to the laws of Rome, and that the Pope of Rome had no jurisdiction over their Church as to the government or constitution of it" (Allix, Churches Of Piedmont, p. 113).

Although many churches in Claude's day had already been brought under the power of the Papacy, the Ambrosian Liturgy was still being used in the Cathedral of Milan, and Bible doctrine was preached in many of the churches of Lombardy and Piedmont. Claude removed images from churches, preached justification by faith, denied purgatory, the use of relics and pilgrimages to attain merit. The adoration of the "True Cross" (supposedly found in Palestine by the Empress Helena) was spreading throughout Europe. Claude said, "If people wish to adore a cross because Jesus hung on it, they ought also to adore mangers because He lay in one, or donkeys because He rode on one."

Markoe gives a long paragraph to the recitation of Waldensian error. He says, "Their errors were: the Catholic Church erred in accepting temporal property; they believed in only two sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, rejected indulgences, fasts and all ceremonies of the Church; made no distinction between mortal and venial sins; claimed the veneration of sacred images to be idolatry."

Other "heresies" the Waldenses embraced included, "that purgatory was a fable; that relics were simply rotten bones; that to go on a pilgrimage served no end, save to empty one's purse; that holy water was not a whit more efficacious than rain water, and that prayer in a barn was just as effectual as that offered in a church." (Wylie, The Waldenses, page 11,12).

Cardinal Bellarmine wrote, in the 16th century, "The identical belief which was publicly taught and professed in those valleys of Piemonte in the year 820 was the same which is at this day professed and owned by the reformed churches."

There was one important point upon which Bellarmine erred in this assessment. While they did teach the Reformation doctrines of eternal security and justification by faith in the finished atonement of Jesus Christ (Morland, page 30ff from the Waldensian documents called A Confession Of Faith, Book I, Chapter IV, Article VI), Waldensian Christians believed that any layman could baptize a believing adult, but no one was to baptize infants (Allix, Reminiscences Of Ancient Churches Of The Piedmont, Chapter 22, page 223).

The Noble Lesson of the Waldenses is translated and given to us in Never Failing Light by R.M. Stevens. They begin their statement of faith by admonishing all to search the scriptures to find God's truth. They clearly state the fundamentals, champion justification by faith and Bible reading, and reject images, relics, purgatory, celibacy, confession, and papal supremacy. They did not mention transubstantiation, because the Noble Lesson was written before that doctrine was defined in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). R.M. Stevens concludes,

"From the Noble Lesson we see then that the Waldensian faith rests positively on scripture; that the Waldenses believe all the orthodox evangelical doctrines, the Trinity, Fall, Virgin Birth, Resurrection, Holy Spirit, Justification by Faith alone and Eternal Punishment."

J.A. Wylie, in his study of the Waldenses, asks the question, regarding the Noble Lesson, "How could a Church have arisen with such a document in her hands? Or how could these herdsmen and vine-dressers, shut up in their mountains, have detected the errors against which they bore testimony, and found their way to the truths of which they made open profession in times of darkness like these? If we grant that their religious beliefs were the heritage of former ages, handed down from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain; but if we maintain that they were the discovery of the men of those days, we assert what approaches almost to a miracle."

But perhaps you would expect Wylie to say that, since he was a friend of the Waldenses. Even two of their greatest enemies, Claude Seyssel of Turin (1517) and Reynerius the Inquisitor (1250) have admitted the antiquity of the Waldenses, and stigmatized them as "the most dangerous of all heretics, because the most ancient." (Wylie, The Waldenses, page 4).

When Claude died about 840, the battle for freedom from Rome, while not completely dropped, was not maintained as avidly. Continued attempts were made to induce the Bishops of Milan to accept the pope's spiritual authority and, although these were resisted for a time, under Pope Nicholas II these attempts were finally successful.

In 1059, when the churches in Northern Italy submitted to the pope, although the plains were conquered, the mountains remained free. Those who did not want to submit fled into the Cottian Alps of North-West Italy. The Bible-believing churches held a strong evangelical testimony and were fiercely persecuted.

Some of the Christians crossed the Rhine and preached the Gospel as far afield as Cologne, where they were branded as Manicheans, and many were burned at the stake. However, their adherence to the perpetual authority of the Decalogue disproves this charge.

In 1173, Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant from Lyons, France was converted. Some say that he received his surname because of his association with the Waldenses, who most certainly had an evangelical testimony before the time of Waldo. While a majority of historians (including Priest Markoe) name Peter Waldo as the originator of the Waldenses, the Waldensian Noble Lesson dates from at least the year 1100, which was long before Waldo was born.

Waldo was excommunicated in 1183, after being denied the right to preach. His followers were dispersed, and a number of them fled to the Waldensian Valleys. The great Dominican persecution of the Albigenses (see chapter 4) began in the 13th century. Many of these Christians also fled to Waldensian safety.

These Valleys became a place of refuge for the original stock, poor men of Lyons, Albigenses and other groups from North Italy, some possibly adhering to some heresies. Some of these taught that nothing should be taken as truth unless distinctly proved from the Bible; others were prepared to accept Roman Catholic doctrine unless the Bible proved them wrong. Some were based solely on the Bible; others held out a hand to Rome. These two trends can still be seen to be running side by side in Waldensian culture today, but the folks of whom we write are the Waldensian Christians, possibly obscured in the most of history, but known to their God as a Christian group whose legacy most definitely champions the atoning death and justifying righteousness of Christ as its cardinal truth.

The importance of the Waldenses as one cause of the Reformation is often overlooked. They were evangelistic as well as being evangelical. They travelled throughout southern and central Europe, often disguised as peddlers, until they brought forth from their hearts treasures greater than the gems and silks they sold.

They penetrated into Spain, and went as far East as Germany, Bohemia and Poland. Their footsteps can be traced not only by the evangelical churches that were founded, but by the stakes upon which many were martyred. The seed of the Gospel was often watered by the blood of those who had sowed it.

J.A. Wylie, in The History Of The Waldenses, which has been re-printed from his History Of Protestantism, puts it succinctly, "From her lofty seat Rome looked down with contempt upon the Book and its humble bearers. She aimed at bowing the necks of kings and so she took little heed of a power which, weak as it seemed, was destined at a future day to break in pieces the fabric of her dominion. By-and-by she began to be uneasy, and to have a boding of calamity. The penetrating eye of Innocent III detected the quarter whence danger was to arise. He saw in the labours of these humble men the beginning of a movement which, if permitted to go on and gather strength, would one day sweep away all that it had taken the toils and intrigues of centuries to achieve. He straitway commenced those terrible crusades which wasted the sowers but watered the seed, and helped to bring on, at its appointed hour, the catastrophe which he sought to avert."

In 1210, the Emperor published an edict commanding expulsion of Waldensian "heretics" from the territory of the bishop of Turin. In 1297 a woman became the first martyr. She was burnt for being Waldensian.

For the next several hundred years, there was waxing and waning persecution. During this time, a college was organized for the training of Waldensian pastors. They were called barba (uncle), hence, they were trained at the Collegium del Barba in Pra del Torno.

In 1329 the Inquisitor Castalazzo entered the Agrogna Valley of the Waldenses, and in the years to come this valley was truly called the valley of groans. Great suffering was inflicted, but the church considered this to be penance for the sin of heresy. Because Pra del Torno, the Waldensian center at the top of the valley, was so inaccessible, the Roman Catholic expedition ran into difficulty. The leader, Saquet, was killed by an old man with a bow and arrow, and the failure of his expedition resulted in a compromised peace.

It was the last week of the year 1400, and the Waldensian Christians of the Pregelas Valley felt secure, protected as they were by the deep snows of the season. An armed troop, commanded by Borelli, entered the Valley contemplating extermination of all of the people. The townfolks fled in haste to the mountains, carrying their aged, their infirm and their infants. They encamped on a summit which ever since, in memory of this event, has been known as Alberge or The Refuge. Their sufferings were inexpressibly great, without proper shelter, almost without food, with the frozen landscape all around them. Many lost hands and feet from frostbite, and at least fifty children died of cold, some locked in the frozen arms of their mothers who had likewise perished. To this day, local inhabitants remind their children of that terrible Christmas tragedy.

This tragedy, which lasted into the early days of the 14th century, was only the beginning of a century of hardship for the Waldensians. A full-scale Crusade was waged against them, with the usual spiritual and material benefits promised to those who would remove the Waldensian curse from the Cottian Alps. The persecutions came and went, but were finally climaxed by a concerted effort of French and Italian armies to exterminate these folks once and for all.

Initially, it seemed like success was on the side of the Roman persecutors. Taking refuge in a huge cavern, about 3,000 Waldensian Christians were killed by the invading army, who piled wood at the mouth of the cave, and set fire to it, causing noxious smoke to fill the cave. When the smoke cleared, 400 infants were found among the corpses; the entire population of Val Loyse was slain. From that day to this, there has never been a Waldensian Church here.

Other Roman Catholic forces were not as fortunate. The Waldenses had three alternatives - go to Mass, be slaughtered like sheep, or fight for their faith. They chose to fight, and God granted them great deliverances over insurmountable opposition. Finally the century ended on a happier note.

Charles II invited several Waldensian deputies to come to him in Turin, and he was impressed by their confession of faith. He admitted that these humble Christians were faithful, virtuous and obedient subjects.

Then he asked to see Waldensian children, and was overwhelmed by their healthy faces, clear eyes and lively prattle. He said he had been told that Waldensian infants had only one eye, and that in the middle of their foreheads, and that they had four rows of black teeth and other deformities.

Charles II promised the Waldensians immunity from further punishment, and promised that they would be unmolested in the future.

Some historians say that Philip VII put an end to this war, but he was still in France in 1489 when this peace was granted, and did not begin to reign until 1489 (Wylie, The Waldenses, page 51).

In 1517, the Archbishop of Turin paid a visit to the valleys to convert people to Roman Catholicism. He wrote, "I was the first not to use arguments; but proved my words from the Bible only. They are sharper than the Catholics and believe only the Gospel. This they understand too literally and do not want our official interpretation." The archbishop did not get one convert!

The Reformation was already several years in existence before the news reached the remote valleys of the Waldenses. When they heard the news, "they were like men who dreamed." They were eager to find out if the reports were indeed true that a large segment of believers had thrown off the yoke of Rome. In 1526, the Waldensian Synod sent Pastor Martin on a mission of enquiry. He returned with joyous news that the Gospel, so long preached in the Valleys, was now being proclaimed in many places of Northern Europe.

In 1530, two other Waldensian pastors were sent to visit the Reformers of Switzerland and Germany to find out about their doctrine and manner of life. In October 1530 they went to Basle and presented Oecolampadius with an account of Waldensian doctrine and life. In a letter to Waldensian churches on October 13, 1530, Oecolampadius said, "We render thanks to our most gracious Father that he has called you into such marvelous light, during ages in which such thick darkness has covered almost the whole world under the empire of Antichrist. We love you as brethren."

Although they praised God for the light shining in the mountains, they rebuked the Waldensian Christians for compromise with Rome. During this time of debate, God was already reviving the Waldensian Church.

September 12, 1532, under the trees in the Valley of Agrogna they held the Synod of Chamforan. After four days discussion, the Waldenses joined the Reformation.

Both Churches were a miracle to the other. The Reformers marvelled that the light had been shining in the remote valleys of the Cottian Alps for so many centuries. The Waldensian Christians had seen their numbers diminish over the years due to the harsh manner of life and consistent persecution, while all the time it seemed Rome grew stronger. They were very much in doubt whether the witness would be able to continue, when suddenly God broke forth His Light upon many others in Germany and Switzerland. To the Waldenses, the Reformation seemed like a supernatural resurrection.

Their joining the Reformation, however, was not all good. It was good that they now had the backing and encouragement of the new Protestants to their North, but, in linking with Reformation churches, they also lost some of their more baptistic distinctives and were tainted with the modernism that was to emerge in the Reformation churches through German rationalism a few hundred years later.

Upon joining the Reformation, the Waldenses emerged from the dens and caves, where they had been taking refuge, and boldly declared themselves. For 100 years there was no Roman Catholic service anywhere in the Valleys, and it was during this time that Robert the Olivetan (who possibly received his surname because of the vast amounts of olive oil he used in his lamp) translated the Bible into French. This translation, made in Pra del Torno, became the Bible of the Hugenots, the standard French text for hundreds of years.

In 1560 the persecution was renewed. The ultimatum was given, "Go to Mass or be exterminated." The Duke of Savoy raised an army by offering a free pardon to all "outlaws, convicts and vagabonds"who would do battle against the Waldenses. His campaign, starting the end of October 1560, shows us that the God of Battles still has a sense of humor.

After a days' battle in the Agrogna Valley, both sides settled down for the night. The evening was shattered by an uproarious cry from the Roman Catholic army. Between them and the setting sun, they could see the figures of the Waldensian Christians on the hills above, praying on their knees to God for His deliverance.

Suddenly, from a side valley, was heard the sound of a drum. A child had come across this instrument, and was amusing himself by beating it loud and clear. The Duke's army supposed that it was a group of fresh Waldensian warriors coming to the aid of their countrymen and, wearied with the first days' skirmish, they fled in hasty retreat, losing in a half an hour what had taken them all day to gain, and leaving behind many weapons which God's people used to their good advantage.

The Waldensian leaders made a statement at Puy on January 21, 1561, "We promise to maintain the Bible, entire and without admixture according to the usage of the true apostolic church, steadfastly continuing in this holy religion, although it should be at the peril of our lives, in order that we may be able to leave it to our children intact and pure, as we have received it from our fathers."

It was during this 16th century period of persecution that Bartholemew Hector, a Bible seller from Poictiers, came into the Waldensian Valleys to spread the news of God's gracious salvation as revealed in His precious Word. He would read passages from the Bible, and many of the peasants gladly heard him and bought copies of God's Word.

Bartholemew was arrested and accused by the Roman priests, "You have been caught in the act of selling books that contain heresy. What do you say?"

"If the Bible is heresy to you, it is truth to me," replied Hector.

"But you use the Bible to deter people from going to Mass."

"If the Bible deters men from going to Mass," Hector replied, "it is a proof that God disproves of it, and that the Mass is idolatry."

Rather than getting into a long discussion with Bartholemew, the judge simply ordered him to retract.

"I have only spoken the truth," replied the bookseller. "Can I change truth as I would change a garment?"

His judges kept him in prison for several months, hoping he would recant, as many times public executions were a detriment to their cause. As was said in the burning of Patrick Hamilton, "The smoke of these martyr-piles was infecting those on whom it blew." Bartholemew's constancy, however, left them no choice but to consign him to the flames.

In many of the martyrdoms suffered in certain areas of Europe, there was one predominant way of putting men and women to death. For the English Reformers, it was generally the stake, while many of the Anabaptist brethren suffered "the third baptism" - drowning.

In the Waldensian Valleys, however, the persecutors used a fiendish variety of tortures and deaths. They included having one's entrails torn from his living body (Hugo Chiamps), and in one case after the entrails were torn out, a fierce cat was thrust into the still living body for further torment (Peter Geymarali). Susan Michelini was bound hand and foot and left to perish of cold and hunger; Bartholemew Fache was gashed with sabres and had the wounds filled with quicklime and thus perished in agony; Danial Michelini praised God in Bobbio and had his tongue torn out. James Baridari perished covered with sulphurous matches which were forced into his flesh all over his body and ignited; Daniel Revelli had his mouth filled with gunpowder and his head blown off. Maria Monnen had the flesh cut from her cheek and left to perish; Paul Garnier was slowly sliced into pieces at Rora, and Susan Jaquin was cut into bits at La Torre. Daniel Rambaud, at Paesano, had his nails torn off, then his fingers chopped off, then his feet and hands, then his arms and legs. At each butchery he was commanded to recant, but without success, as he chose the better portion of becoming a martyr for his Saviour.

During the 14th century a Waldensian colony was begun in Calabria, near the southern-most tip of Italy. This colony prospered for almost 200 years, during which time they escaped the persecutions which befell their brethren in the North. In the middle of the 16th century, a young Italian Catholic who had trusted Christ for salvation and then had become a pastor in Geneva, was sent to this colony as a pastor. As Jean Louis Paschale departed from his betrothed, Camilla Guerina, little did they realize they would never again meet upon this earth.

Paschale preached at Calabria with power and authority, so much so that he aroused the ire of Roman Catholic prelates, who had the young pastor thrown into a dungeon. After the pope heard the case, Paschale was sentenced to imprisonment in Naples, and he spent nine torturous days on the journey, chained to a gang of prisoners. He was later taken from the filthy prison in Naples and transferred to one as incommodious in Rome. Summoned again before the pope (Pius IV), he witnessed to his faith in his Saviour and denounced the pope as "the Antichrist of scripture." His bold words moved much of the audience, but, at the given signal, his persecutors kindled the faggots, and the flames speedily reduced the body to ashes, which were scattered in the Tiber to make their way to the Mediterranean and from there to the great seas of the world, providing a more honorable mausoleum than mortal man has ever given a pope. The Christians in the colonies were summarily slaughtered

In 1655 another storm of persecution fell. The Roman Catholic army swooped down on the town of Torre Pellice, where the Waldensian synods are generally held. During this massacre, which occurred on Easter Sunday, 2000 people were murdered. Many fled.

The Marquis de Pianezza attacked, and the Waldensian captain, Gianavello, repelled him three times. Once, Gianavello only had an army of 5 men and one boy, but he convinced the Roman Catholic army advancing up the mountain that he had a large force by rotating four men on an old wheel. The Catholic army counted the number of men and fell back for re-enforcements.

Finally, after a fourth attack of 7000 soldiers was repelled, an army of 10,000 broke through to Ramasse and massacred 246 civilians who had taken refuge there. In one of his attacks, the Marquis de Pianezza captured Gianavello's wife.

He sent a message to the Waldensian captain, "I exhort you for the last time to renounce your heresy. This is the only hope of saving the lives of your wife and daughters, now my prisoners, whom I will burn alive. As for you, be assured if you fall into my hands there are no torments too terrible with which I will not punish your rebellion."

Gianavello replied, "There are no torments so terrible, no death so barbarous that I would not choose rather than deny my Saviour. Should the Marquis de Pianezza cause my wife and daughters to pass through the fire, it can but consume their mortal bodies. Their souls I commend to God; and mine also, should it please Him that I fall into the Marquis' hands."

His faith was rewarded by the eventual release of his family.

By the end of 1655, all hope was gone and the valleys seemed lost to Romanism forever. Guerilla war continued, and Pastor Leger, Waldensian Moderator, came to England to ask help. This persecution had been particularly cruel. One punishment for heresy was to tie the hands around the knees and roll the victim from a precipice. One peak used for this was Mount Vandalino, on the outskirts of Torre Pellice. Mothers with their infants tied to them were often thus rolled down the mountain. It was of this particular persecution that Milton wrote his famous sonnet:

"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;

E'en they who kept Thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones,

Forget not: in Thy book record their groans

Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

Slain by bloody Piemontes that roll'd

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow

O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway

The triple tyrant; that from these may grow

A hundred-fold, who, having learnt Thy way

Early may flee the Babylonian woe."

The conscience of Protestant Europe was awakened and help came to the beleaguered Waldenses. Oliver Cromwell raised some money, refused to sign a treaty with France unless the Waldenses received justice. He then positioned his gunboats as a threat to the Duke of Savoy unless he helped the Waldenses. The Duke of Savoy grudgingly complied.

But peace was not to last long. In 1686 a decree was promulgated to deny Waldenses of all liberty, and they debated whether or not to resist. The majority decided to go to Switzerland in exile, but some resisted and were killed or imprisoned. Finally they went into exile, but of the 12,000 inhabitants of the valleys prior to this, less than 4,000 reached safety in Switzerland. The rest had been martyred or died along the way.

In 1689 Henry Arnaud organized "The Glorious Return." This march across the Alps in Winter was called by Napoleon "one of the greatest marches of military annals." They faced impossible odds, but they won a victory at Sibaud. It was shortlived, for they retreated to Balziglia, and it seemed they would have to surrender.

One of them knew a little-used mountain pathway, and one night a dense fog, quite common to the Waldensian valleys, fell. As they crept up the path, one of their party dropped a cooking pot. It fell near a sentry who cried, "Who goes there?" Fortunately, the cooking pot did not reply, and the group went up the mountain. At daybreak, as the fog lifted, they were seen far up the mountain, out of their enemies' reach.

Just at this time, the Duke of Savoy was pressed into declaring himself for or against the King of France. He declared war on France, and needed the Waldenses to protect his French frontier, so they were back in his favor and protection.

The next century and a half were better for the Waldensian Christians; persecution was not nearly as fierce as it had been, although the pope made it clear to the Duke of Savoy that to be a friend to the Waldenses was to be an enemy of his. On August 19, 1694, Pope Innocent XII declared the edict of the duke reestablishing the Waldenses to be null and void, and encouraged the inquisitors to continue to pursue these heretics.

It was also during this period that a special friendship with England was nurtured. Earlier, both Cromwell and Milton had come to the aid of these beleaguered Christians, but two other friends were also to come to the forefront.

The first of these was Dr. William Gilly, Prebendary of Durham. In 1828 he visited the valleys and wrote Waldensian Researches. On page 158, he said, "this is the spot from which it is likely that the great Sower will again cast his seed, when it shall please him to permit the pure Church of Christ to resume her seat in those Italian States from which Pontifical intrigues have dislodged her."

On a visit to Apsley House, General Beckwith, a hero of Waterloo who lost his leg in the battle, picked up a volume from the table while waiting for his appointment. The book was Gilly's narrative of his visit to the Waldenses. Beckwith found himself drawn to these people, and from that hour he consecrated himself to their cause.

Visitors to the Valleys today can visit some of the schools the General founded, and the buildings were not his only contribution. He interested himself in helping them improve their teaching methods, and, throughout his life, "The General with the Wooden Leg" was revered by the Christians and commonly called "The Benefactor of the Vaudois." His tomb in Torre Pellice can be visited to this day, and it is a fitting memorial to a man who gave all of his remaining days to help these folks he had grown to love.

Finally, in 1848, the Waldenses received official emancipation from the Italian government, which kept them free from persecution, except for a brief time during World War II, when they would not swear loyalty to Mussolini.

A brief but glorious episode can be revealed when, in 1870, as a result of a terrible campaign, the papal States were abolished and the city of Rome was opened to all. One of the first to enter Rome was a Waldensian colporteur with a bundle of Bibles, and the Waldenses, to this day, continue their evangelism in that citadel of Satan. While their cause is small and, humanly speaking, of not much account, it may have been partly with these Waldensian Christians in mind that Christ said, "Fear not, little flock." They are part of that flock as are we, and we glory in their brave heritage and Gospel zeal, thanking God there were fundamentalists so long ago, and that they bravely stood for the truth of the Gospel in most difficult times.