The Waldensian Dissent: Persecution And Survival, C.1170-c.1570

THE WALDENSIAN DISSENT: Persecution and Survival, c. 1170–c. 1570 Gabriel Audisio CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS THE WALDENSIAN DISSENT Persecution and Survival, c. 1170±c. 1570 The Poor of Lyons, called by their detractors `Waldensians' after their founder Waldo or VaudeÁs, ®rst emerged in about 1170. Like other groups of the period, they formed a religious community founded on the strict observance of the gospel, preaching and poverty. Defying Church rulings stating that the laity had no right to preach and applying the scriptures to the letter, in particular denying the existence of purgatory and refusing to take oaths, they were condemned as heretics. The community was forced underground and dispersed widely; but through a unique, organised body of itinerant preachers they nevertheless managed to maintain links throughout the whole of Europe, from Provence and Dauphine to Calabria and Apulia, Austria and Bohemia, Pomerania, Brandenburg and Poland. Of all the medieval dissenters, the Poor of Lyons were alone in surviving to the dawn of modern times. They were then swept up in the great wave of the Reformation: by adopting Protestantism in the sixteenth century, they gave up their separate, ancestral identity. This book is less a history of Waldensianism than an account of men and women who, remaining true to an ideal, lived in anxiety and under suspicion, often fearful and sometimes in blind terror. Theirs is a tale of people great and small. Proclaiming their faith timidly, yet with an astounding ± sometimes dogged ± tenacity, they hold up a mirror to us today. g a b r i e l a u d i s i o is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Provence. He has published widely on the history of Provence and Piedmont, and on sixteenth-century religious history; he is also the author of a handbook of palaeography, Lire le francËais d'hier (1991). This page intentionally left blank Cambridge Medieval Textbooks This is a series of specially commissioned textbooks for teachers and students, designed to complement the monograph series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought by providing introductions to a range of topics in medieval history. This series combines both chronological and thematic approaches, and will deal with British and European topics. All volumes in the series will be published in hard covers and in paperback. For a list of titles in the series, see end of book. This page intentionally left blank ÐÐÐÐÐÐ . ÐÐÐÐÐÐ THE WALDENSIAN DISSENT Persecution and Survival, c. 1170±c. 1570 ÐÐÐÐÐÐ . ÐÐÐÐÐÐ Gabriel Audisio Translated by Claire Davison PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING) FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia http://www.cambridge.org Originally published in 1989 as Les 'Vaudois': naissance, vie et mort d'une dissidence (xiie-xvie siècle) by Albert Meynier Editore and © Gabriel Audisio First published in English by Cambridge University Press 1999 as The Waldensian Dissen