Shortly before Easter in 2011, my father Arthur Lowther, took his last earthly breath and began that ultimate quest to prove the truth of Easter Morning. As one of the new testament writers rightly concluded, if there is no resurrection of the dead, they we (Christ followers) are of all men most miserable. Feb.11, 2011 marked the day when the voice and pen of Arthur Lowther ceased, but in that decade leading up to the end, he was most prolific, writing four books and publishing two series as blogs. This one on his love for Bible reading and the power for living one found there was probably his most important one, but it was here he attempted to pen his major doctrinal positions similar to the way the Apostle Paul did with the book of Romans. So here begins his last treatise on Easter.
On Easter Sunday many folk will greet each other with the customary phrase, “Happy Easter!”
This has come about because of the most important historical event to occur since the creation of the universe in which we dwell. Facts are the day was not Sunday, but the first day of the week. It was not Easter day but the day on which Jesus Christ was resurrected, who had been crucified three days before on what we now know as Good Friday.
However, the Word of God, your Bible, says differently throughout its sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. Because of the limitation of your time and space here, only a few references are quoted from my King James Bible to affirm these observations as we remember the amazing events which happened so long ago between Palm Sunday and Easter Day:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15.
“And they came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple”, Mark 11: 15. Please read the context to the end of the chapter.
“It is finished.” John 19:30. What was finished? Salvation was made possible on the cruel Cross of Calvary
When the ladies went to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been lain, two men (angels) said to them, “He is not there; He is not here; He has risen from the dead.”
Later on the road to Emmaus, Jesus Christ appeared to two of his disciples, and fed them fish He had cooked over an open fire.
Refer to the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 24.
Conclusion
For all those who have believed (placed their faith) in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for their salvation, Good Friday will be a wonderful day and Easter indeed a happy day, but all who consider it only a myth or the mere fancy of man, then these days will be only irrelevant and meaningless.
By the way what about our younger generation of children who will be treated to an old fashioned Easter egg hunt as advertised by a large Denver church on radio? It could have told them the truth.
What about you?
fal
4/4/ AD 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Saint Patrick AD 2010
On March 17, AD 2010 everyone whose heritage is Irish and many others also will adorn green colored apparel of some sort and feast on corn beef and cabbage to celebrate the patron Saint of the beautiful green land of Ireland, but what do you know of its Patron Saint and why he was given this heralded recognition?
In 411 AD when Patrick, a native of Scotland, was a lad of fifteen aliving near the the border of Britain near the coast of the Solway he was kidnapped and carried away as a slave to Ireland.
He would become was the future apostle of the Irish. As his name implies, he was of noble birth, and he tells us so himself. He was the son of the deacon Calpurnius, who was the son of Potitus, a priest. His father was a decurio or magistrate, and as Patrick according to tradition was born at Nemthur, he must have exercised his functions of magistrate at that place, but on the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from Britain probably retired for safety south of the wall of Severus, where, as Patrick tells
The youth Succat or Patrick remained in hard slavery for six years, tending cattle, probably on Slemish Mountain in the county Antrim. He seems to have been of an enthusiastic temperament, and much given to prayer and meditation. Learning of a means of escape, it so filled his mind as to give rise to visions. The bays and creeks of the west and north-west of Ireland, especially Killala Bay, were much frequented in ancient times, for they afforded secure retreats to sea-rovers when they crept round the coast of Ireland and swooped down on that of Roman Britain.
Patrick eventually escaped and returned to Britain in the mountains of the Lake District to prepare for his return to Ireland to proclaim the Gospel of the truth in Jesus Christ.
After his escape returning to his family then living in the mountains of the Lake District of Britain he appears to have conceived the noble idea of devoting himself to the conversion of the Irish, and to have gone somewhere for a few years to prepare himself for the priesthood. His biographers take him to Tours to St. Martin, who was then dead several years, afterwards to the island of Lerins in the Mediterranean, and lastly to Tome, where he received a mission from Pope Celestine. For all this there is no evidence whatever, the whole story being the result of the confusion of Palladius with the real Patrick. The tradition of some connection between the Irish apostle and St. Martin of Tours, the monastic type of the earliest Irish Church, the doubts as to Patrick’s fitness for the work which led to his writing his Confession, and indeed all the difficulties that beset the question of the origin of the Irish Church, receive a simple and satisfactory explanation upon the hypothesis of Patrick having prepared himself for the priesthood at Candida Casa, the monastic institution founded by St. NINIAN (q.v.)
Editorial note: In 1998 Doris and I were privileged to visit St. Martin Church where Saint Patrick is said to have worshiped the LORD Jesus so many years before.
Since the Roman Catholic Church and its first Pope Gregory had not been established by Constantine until after AD 411, Patrick could not have belonged to it.
May I suggest that missionaries from the New Testament Church at Rome had come to Britain and Scotland and founded churches there, where in one of them young Patrick was a believer.
The Roman Catholic teaches that in Matthew16: 18 KJV “And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” that the first Pope was Peter.
It says Peter was its first Pope. However the Greek word translated rock does not allow for this incorrect interpretation. The translation of this verse in the Douay Bible of the Roman Catholic Church is the same as in the KJV, but the explanation in the Douay is untrue in stating “the rock is Peter, and Christ is its foundation.”
Conclusion
You may reason why is any of this important to our celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17? It is vital because the salvation of souls is based on the belief of what Saint Patrick as the Patron Saint of Ireland proclaimed so long ago, as did the Apostles of Jesus Christ and the authors of the New Testament Epistle. Please read in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 .
March 1, AD 2010
al
In 411 AD when Patrick, a native of Scotland, was a lad of fifteen aliving near the the border of Britain near the coast of the Solway he was kidnapped and carried away as a slave to Ireland.
He would become was the future apostle of the Irish. As his name implies, he was of noble birth, and he tells us so himself. He was the son of the deacon Calpurnius, who was the son of Potitus, a priest. His father was a decurio or magistrate, and as Patrick according to tradition was born at Nemthur, he must have exercised his functions of magistrate at that place, but on the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from Britain probably retired for safety south of the wall of Severus, where, as Patrick tells
The youth Succat or Patrick remained in hard slavery for six years, tending cattle, probably on Slemish Mountain in the county Antrim. He seems to have been of an enthusiastic temperament, and much given to prayer and meditation. Learning of a means of escape, it so filled his mind as to give rise to visions. The bays and creeks of the west and north-west of Ireland, especially Killala Bay, were much frequented in ancient times, for they afforded secure retreats to sea-rovers when they crept round the coast of Ireland and swooped down on that of Roman Britain.
Patrick eventually escaped and returned to Britain in the mountains of the Lake District to prepare for his return to Ireland to proclaim the Gospel of the truth in Jesus Christ.
After his escape returning to his family then living in the mountains of the Lake District of Britain he appears to have conceived the noble idea of devoting himself to the conversion of the Irish, and to have gone somewhere for a few years to prepare himself for the priesthood. His biographers take him to Tours to St. Martin, who was then dead several years, afterwards to the island of Lerins in the Mediterranean, and lastly to Tome, where he received a mission from Pope Celestine. For all this there is no evidence whatever, the whole story being the result of the confusion of Palladius with the real Patrick. The tradition of some connection between the Irish apostle and St. Martin of Tours, the monastic type of the earliest Irish Church, the doubts as to Patrick’s fitness for the work which led to his writing his Confession, and indeed all the difficulties that beset the question of the origin of the Irish Church, receive a simple and satisfactory explanation upon the hypothesis of Patrick having prepared himself for the priesthood at Candida Casa, the monastic institution founded by St. NINIAN (q.v.)
Editorial note: In 1998 Doris and I were privileged to visit St. Martin Church where Saint Patrick is said to have worshiped the LORD Jesus so many years before.
Since the Roman Catholic Church and its first Pope Gregory had not been established by Constantine until after AD 411, Patrick could not have belonged to it.
May I suggest that missionaries from the New Testament Church at Rome had come to Britain and Scotland and founded churches there, where in one of them young Patrick was a believer.
The Roman Catholic teaches that in Matthew16: 18 KJV “And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” that the first Pope was Peter.
It says Peter was its first Pope. However the Greek word translated rock does not allow for this incorrect interpretation. The translation of this verse in the Douay Bible of the Roman Catholic Church is the same as in the KJV, but the explanation in the Douay is untrue in stating “the rock is Peter, and Christ is its foundation.”
Conclusion
You may reason why is any of this important to our celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17? It is vital because the salvation of souls is based on the belief of what Saint Patrick as the Patron Saint of Ireland proclaimed so long ago, as did the Apostles of Jesus Christ and the authors of the New Testament Epistle. Please read in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 .
March 1, AD 2010
al
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The Holy Writ
OK, I may not know a Blog from a Blob, but I'm glad that you've discovered this site, one way or another. When I was born in 1918, I never knew I'd live long enough to communicate world-wide in seconds. After all, I used to have to walk six miles to school in snow up to my waist! But I'm glad to share with you that somewhere along my journey now totalling 89 years, I met the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour [English spelling preferred]. He changed my life as described in John 3:16 and it's my prayer for each of you to read God's Word and enter into His grace.
The Great Family Bible
The Dier-Door Family Bible remains in our family. Purchased from the J. S. Goodwin publishers of Chicago sometime in the 1800s while the family still resided in Montreal, Canada and later moved to Forreston, Illinois when my grandfather William A. Dier was still a lad.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Filled with the Spirit
Filled with or Baptized by
The Holy Ghost?
In Acts 2:4 KJV Holy Writ saith, “They were filled by the Holy Ghost,” not you will be filled by Him. The phrase “filled by” is found 73 times in its entirety.
However, baptized by the Holy Ghost cannot be found.
The believer is filled by the Holy Ghost at the moment of his/her salvation. He resides in the believer permanently although sin will sever that believer’s fellowship but not his/her position in Christ. Were it otherwise, or if salvation once obtained could be lost. salvation would not be salvation.
This conclusion might be considered argumentative but it is not intended in that manner.
It is important that a new believer be taught his/her identity with Jesus Christ and the Grace resulting from “so great a salvation.”
We all need to be like the Bereans, who read and searched the Scriptures to see if “those things which we have heard are true.”
The Holy Ghost?
In Acts 2:4 KJV Holy Writ saith, “They were filled by the Holy Ghost,” not you will be filled by Him. The phrase “filled by” is found 73 times in its entirety.
However, baptized by the Holy Ghost cannot be found.
The believer is filled by the Holy Ghost at the moment of his/her salvation. He resides in the believer permanently although sin will sever that believer’s fellowship but not his/her position in Christ. Were it otherwise, or if salvation once obtained could be lost. salvation would not be salvation.
This conclusion might be considered argumentative but it is not intended in that manner.
It is important that a new believer be taught his/her identity with Jesus Christ and the Grace resulting from “so great a salvation.”
We all need to be like the Bereans, who read and searched the Scriptures to see if “those things which we have heard are true.”
Editorial Conclusion
Editorial by Arthur Lowther, proud of his English descent and heritage
King Henry VIII used the Bible to justify those things he wanted in regard to his marriages and his right to rule over his subjects in any way he saw fit!
During the Reformation, Martin Luther, after he nailed his Articles of Dissent on the Church door of Whittenburg, and John Calvin, who went to Geneva, Switzerland from his native France, never intended to establish the Protestant Church movement, which resulted in Europe and America.
Charles Wesley never left the Church of England although the Methodist Church was later established in the United States and later in England. The name Methodist resulted from the methodical study of the Bible by a group of Wesleyans within the Church of England.
In the Protestant Churches of England and America, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches water baptism is considered to be essential to the believer's salvation. This practice cannot be found in the Scriptures. Holy Writ does teach that the believer is baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which occurs at the moment of belief by faith in the Gospel. To say this another way, the believer “has been” baptized spiritually at that moment in time rather than needing “to be”!
King Henry's belief in the Divine Right of Kings that he, as the King of England, was God’s ruler over his subjects was not much different than the pope’s false claim of being Christ’s Vicar on earth!
He knew his Bible. My question if I will meet Henry in Heaven cannot be answered until I get there, but the Bible does say, “ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”. Isaiah 55: 11 KJV
Royal divorce was a sin in Henry’s day as it is in ours with its devastating effects upon innocent children who are caught in its snares. It is divisive to the family and to the Church.
The present Prince of Whales, Charles Arthur Windsor, who has said he will be a defender of the “faiths” should consult the Cambridge Dictionary because in its usage it is “the defender of the ‘faith,’ not ‘faiths’.”
Amazing that he would use divorce to end his marriage with Princess Diana after having had an extended adulterous relationship with the divorced Roman Catholic woman to whom he is now wed.
Should he ever become king, would he be influenced by his wife to restore England to the pope of Rome?
His late relative King Edward abdicated his throne “to marry the woman I love”, who was the American born divorced Mrs. Simpson!
The Bible is great whichever Version you read, although mine is the King James, and you should read yours through from Genesis to Revelation each year. This may be accomplished by reading just four chapters each day.
Its reward is great and will be everlastingly if we believe its Good News by faith! Amen!
Finally, may I suggest you Google search the subject of John Foxe’s Book of Christian Martyrs, and then consider if the present war against terrorism is not in fact a war against the false claims of the profit Muhammad and his present day follower?
His teachings and the Koran cannot be substantiated in the Scriptures.
The goal of all Muslims is to annihilate Israel and Christianity from the face of the earth, but shall never be because the LORD of lords, and KING of kings will return to earth to rule in His Glory. Amen!
King Henry VIII used the Bible to justify those things he wanted in regard to his marriages and his right to rule over his subjects in any way he saw fit!
During the Reformation, Martin Luther, after he nailed his Articles of Dissent on the Church door of Whittenburg, and John Calvin, who went to Geneva, Switzerland from his native France, never intended to establish the Protestant Church movement, which resulted in Europe and America.
Charles Wesley never left the Church of England although the Methodist Church was later established in the United States and later in England. The name Methodist resulted from the methodical study of the Bible by a group of Wesleyans within the Church of England.
In the Protestant Churches of England and America, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches water baptism is considered to be essential to the believer's salvation. This practice cannot be found in the Scriptures. Holy Writ does teach that the believer is baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which occurs at the moment of belief by faith in the Gospel. To say this another way, the believer “has been” baptized spiritually at that moment in time rather than needing “to be”!
King Henry's belief in the Divine Right of Kings that he, as the King of England, was God’s ruler over his subjects was not much different than the pope’s false claim of being Christ’s Vicar on earth!
He knew his Bible. My question if I will meet Henry in Heaven cannot be answered until I get there, but the Bible does say, “ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”. Isaiah 55: 11 KJV
Royal divorce was a sin in Henry’s day as it is in ours with its devastating effects upon innocent children who are caught in its snares. It is divisive to the family and to the Church.
The present Prince of Whales, Charles Arthur Windsor, who has said he will be a defender of the “faiths” should consult the Cambridge Dictionary because in its usage it is “the defender of the ‘faith,’ not ‘faiths’.”
Amazing that he would use divorce to end his marriage with Princess Diana after having had an extended adulterous relationship with the divorced Roman Catholic woman to whom he is now wed.
Should he ever become king, would he be influenced by his wife to restore England to the pope of Rome?
His late relative King Edward abdicated his throne “to marry the woman I love”, who was the American born divorced Mrs. Simpson!
The Bible is great whichever Version you read, although mine is the King James, and you should read yours through from Genesis to Revelation each year. This may be accomplished by reading just four chapters each day.
Its reward is great and will be everlastingly if we believe its Good News by faith! Amen!
Finally, may I suggest you Google search the subject of John Foxe’s Book of Christian Martyrs, and then consider if the present war against terrorism is not in fact a war against the false claims of the profit Muhammad and his present day follower?
His teachings and the Koran cannot be substantiated in the Scriptures.
The goal of all Muslims is to annihilate Israel and Christianity from the face of the earth, but shall never be because the LORD of lords, and KING of kings will return to earth to rule in His Glory. Amen!
Who were the Waldensians?
The Waldensians or Vaudois are a Christian denomination believing in poverty and austerity, founded around 1173, promoting true poverty, public preaching and the literal interpretation of the scriptures. Declared heretical, the movement was brutally persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church during the 12th and 13th centuries and nearly totally destroyed, but the Waldensian Church survives to this day.
There are two prevailing theories about the identity and origin of the Waldensians. Some Waldenses, and other groups seeking to trace their history through the Waldenses, claim that the Waldenses history extends back to the apostolic church, while the mainstream academic view is that the Waldensians were followers of Peter Waldo (or Valdes or Vaudes).
Ancient origin story
Some researchers argue that the group has existed since the time of the apostles, a claim much disputed by modern scholars. They claim the Waldenses' name does not in fact come from Peter Waldo, as modern scholars contend, but from the area in which they lived. They claim Peter Waldo in fact got his name by association with the Waldenses. Dr. Peter Allix in the early 19th century said:
"Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them...It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo...it is a pure forgery." Ancient Church of Piedmont, pp.192, Oxford: 1821
"It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." "Id., p. 182
On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys." History of the Christian Church, William Jones, Vol II, p.2.
The presence of dissident Christianity in Northern Italy and Southern France predated the Waldensians. In the 8th century the Bishop Claudius of Turin was appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor Luis in 817 to the see of Turin. Claudius, as Bishop of Turin, made a series of attacks on image worship, relics, pilgrimages, intercession of the saints, the adoration of the cross and every artistic rendition about biblical stories. After his tenure the Turin church returned to Roman influence. The figure of Claudius remained so influential in later Waldensianism, that today the official publishing house of the Waldensian Church is named after him, "Editrice Claudiana".
Later, other medieval reformers acted in that area, like Peter of Bruys, Henry the Monk, and the Arnaldists.
Mainstream academic origin story
The mainstream academic view, shared officially by the Waldense Church and the Waldense Scholarship, is that the Waldensians started with Peter Waldo, who began to preach on the streets of Lyon in 1173. He was a wealthy merchant and decided to give up all his worldly possessions; he was sick of his own affluence: that he had so much more than those around him. He went through the streets throwing his money away and decided to become a wandering preacher who would beg for a living. He began to attract a following. Waldo had a philosophy very similar to Francis of Assisi.
Preaching required official permission, which he was unable to secure from the Bishop in Lyon, and so in 1179 he met with Pope Alexander III at the Third Council of the Lateran and asked for permission to preach. Walter Map, in De Nugis Curialium, narrates the discussions at one of these meetings. The pope, while praising Peter Waldo's ideal of poverty, ordered him not to preach unless he had the permission of the local clergy. He continued to preach without permission and by the early 1180s he and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic church declared them heretics - the group's principle error was "contempt for ecclesiastical power" - that they dared to teach and preach outside of the control of the clergy "without divine inspiration". They were also accused of the ignorant teaching of "innumerable errors" and condemned for translating literally parts of the Bible which were deemed heretical by the Church. It was not however condemned for translating into the vernacular, as there already existed vernacular translations. Thus, they were considered heretics because the clergy saw them as a danger to what they understood as the divinely sanctioned church hierarchy.
In 1207, one of Waldo's early companions, Durand of Osca, converted to Catholicism after debating with Bishop Diego of Osma and St. Dominic. Durand later went to Rome where he professed the Catholic faith to Innocent III. Innocent gave him permission to establish the Poor Catholics, a mendicant order, who continued the Waldensian preaching mission against the Cathars. The Franciscans and Dominicans later supplanted the Poor Catholics.
Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a barba and could be either man or woman. (The idea of a female preacher was novel, almost revolutionary in and of itself, for the era.) The group would shelter and house the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret.
The Roman Catholic response to Waldensians
The members of the group were declared schismatics in 1184 in France and heretics more widely in 1215 by the Fourth Council of the Lateran’s anathema. The rejection by the Church radicalized the movement; in terms of ideology the Waldensians became more obviously anti-Catholic - rejecting the authority of the clergy, declaring any oath to be a sin, claiming anyone could preach and that the Bible alone was all that was needed for salvation, and rejecting the concept of purgatory and the idea of relics and icons.
Much of what is known about the Waldensians comes from reports from Reinerius Saccho (died 1259), a former Cathar who converted to Catholicism and wrote two reports for the Inquisition, Summa de Catharis et Pauperibus de Lugduno (roughly) "Of the Sects of Modern Heretics" (1254) (first rediscovered and printed in S. R. Maitland), Facts and Documents Illustrative of the History, Doctrine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses, (London, 1832). Reinerius' lists of their tenets reveals that the heirs of Waldo considered themselves the true representatives of the apostolic Christian church, that statues and decorations were superfluous, that their obedience was to God, not to prelates, of whom the pope was the chief source of errors, and that no one is greater than another in the church, following Matthew 23: "All of you are brethren." The Waldensians believed that the Pope and bishops were guilty of homicides because of the inquisition and the crusades. They believed that the land and its people should not be divided up, that bishops and abbots ought not to have royal rights and that the clergy should not own possessions. They purportedly believed that none of the sacraments, including marriage, were of any effect. They also denied the validity of the secular use of force, which they considered a mortal sin. However, the inquisitors often noted the Waldensian belief in early church fathers. Moreover, the Waldenses never developed a church entirely independent from the Roman Catholic Church.
They absorbed a number of other groups including the Humiliati and had their own internal split and reformation with the Lombards. Because the Cathars had also been condemned around the same time, the Waldensians became associated with them as part of the target for the Albigensian Crusade from 1208. However the Waldensians and Cathars were not similar in their core beliefs. Waldo possibly died around this time, possibly in Germany, but he was never captured and his fate uncertain.
As early as the twelfth century, the Waldensians were granted refuge in Piedmont by the Count of Savoy. While the House of Savoy itself remained strongly Roman Catholic, this gesture angered the Papacy. While the Holy See might have been willing to tolerate the continued presence of large Muslim populations in the Normans’ Kingdom of Sicily, it was less than willing to accept a new Christian sect in Piedmont.
The Albigensians, and other Bogomil sects related to the gnostics, were apparently believers in Dualism and Binitarianism. The doctrine of those labeled Cathari or Albigenses were said "resembled Adoptionism in the East and Modalism in the West" (Columbia Encyclopedia). When some of these Albigenses merged with the Waldenses they retained the Modalist doctrine. However the bulk of Waldenses were orthodox Trinitarians. The Waldensians were never gnostics, dualists, or Binitarians. However, both the Waldensians and Albigensians were folk movements that involved public preaching. In the thirteenth century, there was a substantial enough problem with clerical literacy that preaching to the laity in churches was hampered. Therefore, the field was somewhat clear for peripatetic evangelism of these heretical and protesting movements. At the same time, the lack of ecclesiastical structure and training meant that each sect could be at wide variance with others. The Waldensians became a diverse movement as it spread out across Europe in France, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia.
Unlike the Cathars, the Waldensians survived elsewhere in Europe, remaining strong in France and also having a presence in northern Italy, southern Germany and down into central Europe. Particular efforts against the movement began in the 1230s with the Inquisition seeking the leaders of the movements. The movement had been almost completely suppressed in southern France within twenty years but the persecution lasted into the 14th century.
A crusade against Waldensians in the Dauphiné region of France was declared in 1487, but Papal representatives continued to devastate towns and villages into the mid 16th century as the Waldensians became absorbed into the wider Protestant Reformation. Moreover, the Waldensian absorption into Protestantism led to their transformation from a sect on the edge of Catholicism that shared many Catholic beliefs into a Protestant church adhering to the theology of John Calvin, which differed much from the beliefs of Peter Waldes.
Assessment by later groups
When the news of the Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Mensa Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the nascent protestantism. A Synod held 1526 in Laus, a town in Chisone valley, decided to send envoys to examine the new movement.
The Swiss and French Reformed churches sent William Farel and Anthony Saunier to attend the Synod of Chamforan, which convened in October, 12th 1532. Farel invited them to join the Reformation and to leave secrecy. A Confession of Faith, with Reformed doctrines, was formulated and the Waldensians decided to worship openly in French. Outside the Piedmont the Waldenses joined the local protestant churches in Bohemia, France and Germany. After they came out of clandestinity, the French king, Francis I, armed a crusade against the Waldensians of Provence, leading to a genocide that exterminated them in France in 1545.
Later groups such as Anabaptists and Baptists sometimes point to the Waldensians as an example of earlier Christians who were not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, and held beliefs similar to their own, including the belief in Believers Baptism and opposition to pedobaptism. The English poet John Milton in one of his sonnets professes a belief that the Waldensians are the true followers of Christ, who have preserved his original teachings, in contrast with Roman Catholicism, which Milton firmly believed had distorted the original Christian message. The Mennonite book Martyrs Mirror lists them in this regard as it attempts to trace the history of believer's baptism back to the apostles.
Modern Waldensians
After many centuries of harsh persecution, they acquired legal freedom under the King Carlo Alberto of the Piemonte, in 1848. Since then the Waldensian church developed and spread through the Italian Peninsula. During the Nazi occupation of North Italy in the Second World War, Italian Waldensians were active in saving Jews faced with imminent extermination, hiding many of them in the same moutain valley where their own Waldensian ancestors had found refuge in earlier generations. In the 1970s the Italian Waldensian church joined the Methodists to form the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese (Waldensian Church), which is a member of the World Council of Churches.
In the United States of America Since colonial times there have been Waldensians who found freedom on American shores, as marked by the presence of them in New Jersey and Delaware. William Paca, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence was a descendant of Waldenses immigrants.
In the late 1800s many Italians, among them Waldensians, immigrated to the United States. They founded communities in New York City, Chicago, Monett, Galveston and Rochester as well as the most notable Waldensian settlement in North America in Valdese, North Carolina, where the congregation uses the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.
By the 1920s the Waldensian churches and missions merged into the Presbyterian Church due to the cultural assimilation of the second and third generations.
There exists a group under the name "The Old Waldensian Church of Anabaptists" that claim to have originally come from the Italian organization but after coming to America has maintained independence from church organizations or government incorporation including any tax exemption status. Once a sizable Church they have dwindled today to a very small group in Ohio.
The most well known Waldensian Churches in America are in New York and in Valdese North Carolina.
The American Waldensian Society is a cultural organization that works to preserve their millennial heritage among their descendants. In addition, for 39 years, the Old Colony Players in Valdese, North Carolina, have staged "From this Day Forward," an outdoor drama telling the story of the Waldenses and the founding of Valdese.
In South America
The first Waldensian settlers from Italy arrived in South America in 1856 and today the Waldensian Church of the Río de La Plata has approximately 40 congregations and 15,000 members shared between Uruguay and Argentina.
In Germany
In 1698 approximately 3,000 Waldenses fled from Italy and came to South Rhine valley. Most of them returned to their Piedmont valleys, but those who remained in Germany were assimilated by the State Churches (Lutheran and Reformed) and 10 congregations exist today as part of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland.
Milton
Many early Protestants regarded the Waldensians as a proto-Protestant sect (a la Wyclif and Huss) who were unjustly persecuted by Roman Catholics. As such, when, in the mid-17th century, the Duke of Savoy unleashed a systematic persecution of Waldensians, the English were particularly upset. The most famous remnant of this persecution is John Milton's 1655 poem "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont."
There are two prevailing theories about the identity and origin of the Waldensians. Some Waldenses, and other groups seeking to trace their history through the Waldenses, claim that the Waldenses history extends back to the apostolic church, while the mainstream academic view is that the Waldensians were followers of Peter Waldo (or Valdes or Vaudes).
Ancient origin story
Some researchers argue that the group has existed since the time of the apostles, a claim much disputed by modern scholars. They claim the Waldenses' name does not in fact come from Peter Waldo, as modern scholars contend, but from the area in which they lived. They claim Peter Waldo in fact got his name by association with the Waldenses. Dr. Peter Allix in the early 19th century said:
"Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them...It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo...it is a pure forgery." Ancient Church of Piedmont, pp.192, Oxford: 1821
"It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." "Id., p. 182
On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys." History of the Christian Church, William Jones, Vol II, p.2.
The presence of dissident Christianity in Northern Italy and Southern France predated the Waldensians. In the 8th century the Bishop Claudius of Turin was appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor Luis in 817 to the see of Turin. Claudius, as Bishop of Turin, made a series of attacks on image worship, relics, pilgrimages, intercession of the saints, the adoration of the cross and every artistic rendition about biblical stories. After his tenure the Turin church returned to Roman influence. The figure of Claudius remained so influential in later Waldensianism, that today the official publishing house of the Waldensian Church is named after him, "Editrice Claudiana".
Later, other medieval reformers acted in that area, like Peter of Bruys, Henry the Monk, and the Arnaldists.
Mainstream academic origin story
The mainstream academic view, shared officially by the Waldense Church and the Waldense Scholarship, is that the Waldensians started with Peter Waldo, who began to preach on the streets of Lyon in 1173. He was a wealthy merchant and decided to give up all his worldly possessions; he was sick of his own affluence: that he had so much more than those around him. He went through the streets throwing his money away and decided to become a wandering preacher who would beg for a living. He began to attract a following. Waldo had a philosophy very similar to Francis of Assisi.
Preaching required official permission, which he was unable to secure from the Bishop in Lyon, and so in 1179 he met with Pope Alexander III at the Third Council of the Lateran and asked for permission to preach. Walter Map, in De Nugis Curialium, narrates the discussions at one of these meetings. The pope, while praising Peter Waldo's ideal of poverty, ordered him not to preach unless he had the permission of the local clergy. He continued to preach without permission and by the early 1180s he and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic church declared them heretics - the group's principle error was "contempt for ecclesiastical power" - that they dared to teach and preach outside of the control of the clergy "without divine inspiration". They were also accused of the ignorant teaching of "innumerable errors" and condemned for translating literally parts of the Bible which were deemed heretical by the Church. It was not however condemned for translating into the vernacular, as there already existed vernacular translations. Thus, they were considered heretics because the clergy saw them as a danger to what they understood as the divinely sanctioned church hierarchy.
In 1207, one of Waldo's early companions, Durand of Osca, converted to Catholicism after debating with Bishop Diego of Osma and St. Dominic. Durand later went to Rome where he professed the Catholic faith to Innocent III. Innocent gave him permission to establish the Poor Catholics, a mendicant order, who continued the Waldensian preaching mission against the Cathars. The Franciscans and Dominicans later supplanted the Poor Catholics.
Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a barba and could be either man or woman. (The idea of a female preacher was novel, almost revolutionary in and of itself, for the era.) The group would shelter and house the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret.
The Roman Catholic response to Waldensians
The members of the group were declared schismatics in 1184 in France and heretics more widely in 1215 by the Fourth Council of the Lateran’s anathema. The rejection by the Church radicalized the movement; in terms of ideology the Waldensians became more obviously anti-Catholic - rejecting the authority of the clergy, declaring any oath to be a sin, claiming anyone could preach and that the Bible alone was all that was needed for salvation, and rejecting the concept of purgatory and the idea of relics and icons.
Much of what is known about the Waldensians comes from reports from Reinerius Saccho (died 1259), a former Cathar who converted to Catholicism and wrote two reports for the Inquisition, Summa de Catharis et Pauperibus de Lugduno (roughly) "Of the Sects of Modern Heretics" (1254) (first rediscovered and printed in S. R. Maitland), Facts and Documents Illustrative of the History, Doctrine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses, (London, 1832). Reinerius' lists of their tenets reveals that the heirs of Waldo considered themselves the true representatives of the apostolic Christian church, that statues and decorations were superfluous, that their obedience was to God, not to prelates, of whom the pope was the chief source of errors, and that no one is greater than another in the church, following Matthew 23: "All of you are brethren." The Waldensians believed that the Pope and bishops were guilty of homicides because of the inquisition and the crusades. They believed that the land and its people should not be divided up, that bishops and abbots ought not to have royal rights and that the clergy should not own possessions. They purportedly believed that none of the sacraments, including marriage, were of any effect. They also denied the validity of the secular use of force, which they considered a mortal sin. However, the inquisitors often noted the Waldensian belief in early church fathers. Moreover, the Waldenses never developed a church entirely independent from the Roman Catholic Church.
They absorbed a number of other groups including the Humiliati and had their own internal split and reformation with the Lombards. Because the Cathars had also been condemned around the same time, the Waldensians became associated with them as part of the target for the Albigensian Crusade from 1208. However the Waldensians and Cathars were not similar in their core beliefs. Waldo possibly died around this time, possibly in Germany, but he was never captured and his fate uncertain.
As early as the twelfth century, the Waldensians were granted refuge in Piedmont by the Count of Savoy. While the House of Savoy itself remained strongly Roman Catholic, this gesture angered the Papacy. While the Holy See might have been willing to tolerate the continued presence of large Muslim populations in the Normans’ Kingdom of Sicily, it was less than willing to accept a new Christian sect in Piedmont.
The Albigensians, and other Bogomil sects related to the gnostics, were apparently believers in Dualism and Binitarianism. The doctrine of those labeled Cathari or Albigenses were said "resembled Adoptionism in the East and Modalism in the West" (Columbia Encyclopedia). When some of these Albigenses merged with the Waldenses they retained the Modalist doctrine. However the bulk of Waldenses were orthodox Trinitarians. The Waldensians were never gnostics, dualists, or Binitarians. However, both the Waldensians and Albigensians were folk movements that involved public preaching. In the thirteenth century, there was a substantial enough problem with clerical literacy that preaching to the laity in churches was hampered. Therefore, the field was somewhat clear for peripatetic evangelism of these heretical and protesting movements. At the same time, the lack of ecclesiastical structure and training meant that each sect could be at wide variance with others. The Waldensians became a diverse movement as it spread out across Europe in France, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia.
Unlike the Cathars, the Waldensians survived elsewhere in Europe, remaining strong in France and also having a presence in northern Italy, southern Germany and down into central Europe. Particular efforts against the movement began in the 1230s with the Inquisition seeking the leaders of the movements. The movement had been almost completely suppressed in southern France within twenty years but the persecution lasted into the 14th century.
A crusade against Waldensians in the Dauphiné region of France was declared in 1487, but Papal representatives continued to devastate towns and villages into the mid 16th century as the Waldensians became absorbed into the wider Protestant Reformation. Moreover, the Waldensian absorption into Protestantism led to their transformation from a sect on the edge of Catholicism that shared many Catholic beliefs into a Protestant church adhering to the theology of John Calvin, which differed much from the beliefs of Peter Waldes.
Assessment by later groups
When the news of the Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Mensa Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the nascent protestantism. A Synod held 1526 in Laus, a town in Chisone valley, decided to send envoys to examine the new movement.
The Swiss and French Reformed churches sent William Farel and Anthony Saunier to attend the Synod of Chamforan, which convened in October, 12th 1532. Farel invited them to join the Reformation and to leave secrecy. A Confession of Faith, with Reformed doctrines, was formulated and the Waldensians decided to worship openly in French. Outside the Piedmont the Waldenses joined the local protestant churches in Bohemia, France and Germany. After they came out of clandestinity, the French king, Francis I, armed a crusade against the Waldensians of Provence, leading to a genocide that exterminated them in France in 1545.
Later groups such as Anabaptists and Baptists sometimes point to the Waldensians as an example of earlier Christians who were not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, and held beliefs similar to their own, including the belief in Believers Baptism and opposition to pedobaptism. The English poet John Milton in one of his sonnets professes a belief that the Waldensians are the true followers of Christ, who have preserved his original teachings, in contrast with Roman Catholicism, which Milton firmly believed had distorted the original Christian message. The Mennonite book Martyrs Mirror lists them in this regard as it attempts to trace the history of believer's baptism back to the apostles.
Modern Waldensians
After many centuries of harsh persecution, they acquired legal freedom under the King Carlo Alberto of the Piemonte, in 1848. Since then the Waldensian church developed and spread through the Italian Peninsula. During the Nazi occupation of North Italy in the Second World War, Italian Waldensians were active in saving Jews faced with imminent extermination, hiding many of them in the same moutain valley where their own Waldensian ancestors had found refuge in earlier generations. In the 1970s the Italian Waldensian church joined the Methodists to form the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese (Waldensian Church), which is a member of the World Council of Churches.
In the United States of America Since colonial times there have been Waldensians who found freedom on American shores, as marked by the presence of them in New Jersey and Delaware. William Paca, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence was a descendant of Waldenses immigrants.
In the late 1800s many Italians, among them Waldensians, immigrated to the United States. They founded communities in New York City, Chicago, Monett, Galveston and Rochester as well as the most notable Waldensian settlement in North America in Valdese, North Carolina, where the congregation uses the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.
By the 1920s the Waldensian churches and missions merged into the Presbyterian Church due to the cultural assimilation of the second and third generations.
There exists a group under the name "The Old Waldensian Church of Anabaptists" that claim to have originally come from the Italian organization but after coming to America has maintained independence from church organizations or government incorporation including any tax exemption status. Once a sizable Church they have dwindled today to a very small group in Ohio.
The most well known Waldensian Churches in America are in New York and in Valdese North Carolina.
The American Waldensian Society is a cultural organization that works to preserve their millennial heritage among their descendants. In addition, for 39 years, the Old Colony Players in Valdese, North Carolina, have staged "From this Day Forward," an outdoor drama telling the story of the Waldenses and the founding of Valdese.
In South America
The first Waldensian settlers from Italy arrived in South America in 1856 and today the Waldensian Church of the Río de La Plata has approximately 40 congregations and 15,000 members shared between Uruguay and Argentina.
In Germany
In 1698 approximately 3,000 Waldenses fled from Italy and came to South Rhine valley. Most of them returned to their Piedmont valleys, but those who remained in Germany were assimilated by the State Churches (Lutheran and Reformed) and 10 congregations exist today as part of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland.
Milton
Many early Protestants regarded the Waldensians as a proto-Protestant sect (a la Wyclif and Huss) who were unjustly persecuted by Roman Catholics. As such, when, in the mid-17th century, the Duke of Savoy unleashed a systematic persecution of Waldensians, the English were particularly upset. The most famous remnant of this persecution is John Milton's 1655 poem "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont."
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