The Waldensians February 6, 2009
Posted by Andy in Recent Sermons.trackback
I’ve been doing some research into the Waldensians this week. They were originally a 12th century evangelical movement that began in the context of Catholicism, but was rejected by successive popes and suffered severe persecution from church and state, before and after the Reformation.
It was Waldo of Lyons (1140-1217) who believed in the value of the evangelical poverty of the early church and he was deeply impacted by Christ’s words in Matthew 19:21: ‘If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’.
Waldo gathered like-minded people and they became known as the ‘Poor Men of Lyons’. Following expulsion from Lyons, the message and ministry of these Waldensians grew.
They suffered a severe massacre in 1655, having become the targets of numerous extermination campaigns. This massacre attempt was known as the ‘Piedmont Easter’ and 1,712 souls breathed their last.
Cromwell’s England took action, Puritan pulpits rang out with fiery sermons condemning the acts, and the celebrated English poet John Milton was provoked to write the following poem:
Avenge O Lord thy slaughtered Saints, whose bones
Lie scatter’d on the Alpine mountains cold,
Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our Fathers worship’t Stocks and Stones
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slayn by the bloody Piedmontese that roll’d
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubl’d to the hills, and they
To heav’n. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O’re all th’ Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant: that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who having learnt thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
The official symbol of the Waldensian Church, which continues to exist in Italy (mainly in the Alpine region west of Turin) and North America, is ‘Lux Lucet in Tenebris’ (A light shining in the darkness’).
I found them to be an interesting group when I did the module ‘Church, Prophetic, and Pilgrim’ did you do that one? I also thought the radical group the Diggers led by Gerrald Winstanley to be interesting too.
So you doing this research for fun or is it part of your NAM’s work?
Hi Lucy
I didn’t do that module at college but with hindsight maybe I should have! It sounded very interesting. I hadn’t heard of the Diggers. I’m doing a preaching series in our evening services at the moment looking at notable Christians from the past. So far we’ve covered the Desert Fathers, Francis of Assisi, the Wesley brothers and John Bunyan.
Hope life is good in Bristol and the deluge of snow is disappearing – or has it been a nice distraction from studies?!
Hello,
With my surname how can I not input here but there are not only Diggers but also Levellers (they tore out hedges about the time of the Civil Wars being against the infamous Enclosures Act) who were also radical in their approach. As an electrical engineer I was, at times, told that my ideas were ‘radical’ in my professional life so perhaps I am an inheritor of more than the name. I used to swank and say my forebears were “Land Drainage Experts” as they also dug ditches!
Now to the series can I say that I am really looking forward to Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the man I most admire from the Christian Way in the past. This because of the courage with which he went to his death under the Nazi regime. I have a couple of his books on my shelves “No Rusty Swords” being one of them.
But… are we to have a Spurgeon evening, or the man who got the Baptists started (Andy, I regret I cannot think of his name) he had to baptise himself as there was no one else to do it.
And what about the “Strict and Particular Baptists”…. no ladies allowed to attend a service if they were not wearing a hat!!
Sorry Andy, I had better close now, its all Lucy’s fault bringing up my surname like that, and as I have not met her in person I hope she will accept my apologies for using her name.
Kindest regards,
Ray.