Waldensians

The Waldensians, or Poor of Lyons, emerged in the late twelfth century as a movement for moral reform within the Church, advocating a return to apostolic poverty and lay preaching. Unlike the Catharists, who held a dualist cosmology and built a rigid hierarchy, the Waldensians sought to construct a different world on an ideal of poverty, receiving the outcasts and living in community by the labor of their hands. This distinction, however, was often lost on the simple people who flocked to various movements, and on the inquisitors who lumped contradictory doctrines together, attributing to one group the errors of another.

Origins and Doctrine

The Waldensians preached a moral reform within the Church, not a different Church or a different view of God and morality. They believed that the sacraments should be received from pure priests, a position that led to conflict with ecclesiastical authorities. Their emphasis on poverty and lay preaching made them popular among the poor and the outcast, but also brought them into conflict with the established clergy. The movement grew by gathering simple people who had been aroused by other movements and who believed all had the same impulse of revolt and hope, leading to a confusion of identities with other heretical groups.

Conflation with Other Heresies

The Waldensians were often confused with the Catharists, Patarines, and other heretical movements. This conflation was exploited by inquisitors, who attributed to one group the errors of another, and if the sectarians of one movement committed a crime, this crime would be attributed to each sectarian of each movement. The simple could not choose their personal heresy; they clung to the man preaching in their land, who passed through their village or stopped in their square. This confusion was a tool for the enemies of reform, who presented to the eyes of the people a single heresy, a jumble of diabolical contradictions which offended common sense.

Relationship with the Franciscans and the Spirituals

The Waldensians shared with the Franciscans and the Spirituals a commitment to poverty, but their methods and doctrines differed. The Franciscans, especially the Spirituals, also preached poverty, but they remained within the Church and sought its approval. The Waldensians, on the other hand, were more radical in their rejection of clerical authority and property. The line between the groups was often fine, and the simple people who followed them did not always distinguish between the teachings of the Waldensians and those of the Fraticelli or the Dolcinians. This confusion was exploited by the powerful, who used the accusation of heresy to suppress any movement that threatened their interests.

Persecution and Legacy

The Waldensians were persecuted by the Inquisition, and many were burned at the stake. Their teachings, however, survived and influenced later reform movements. The movement's emphasis on poverty and lay preaching challenged the authority of the Church and the established social order, making it a target for suppression. The Waldensians' fate illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing between orthodox and heretical movements in a time of religious and political turmoil, and the ease with which the simple people could be caught up in conflicts they did not fully understand.