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56-615: Its rises at the Col de Longet , in the Cottian Alps on the border with Italy . It flows generally southwest, through Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye , Jausiers and Barcelonnette . It flows into the Lac de Serre-Ponçon (which is fed and drained by the Durance ) near La Bréole . This Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to

112-609: A Christian movement that was persecuted as heretical from the 12th century onwards by the catholic church. Administratively the range is divided between the Italian province of Cuneo and the Metropolitan City of Turin (the eastern slopes), and the French departments of Savoie , Hautes-Alpes , and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (the western slopes). The Cottian Alps are drained by the rivers Durance and Arc and their tributaries on

168-707: A "church within the Church", likely not going further, although they were accused of seeing the Catholic church as the Babylonian harlot. The Waldensians would, later in their history, adopt a number of doctrines from the Reformed churches due to the French Reformer Guillaume Farel , who introduced Reformation theology to Waldensian leaders. They officially adopted Reformed theology at a conference at Cianforan 1532. As

224-634: A church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy . The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo , a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as

280-669: A former Cathar who converted to Catholicism, published together in 1254 as Summa de Catharis et Pauperibus de Lugduno ( On the Cathars and the Poor of Lyon ). Waldensians held and preached a number of doctrines as they read from the Bible. These included: They also rejected a number of concepts that were widely held in Christian Europe of the era. For example, the Waldensians held that temporal offices and dignities were not meant for preachers of

336-427: A king of the tribes inhabiting that mountainous region in the 1st century BC. Under his father Donnus , these tribes had previously opposed but later made peace with Julius Caesar . Cottius was succeeded by his son Gaius Julius Donnus II (reigned 3 BC-4 AD), and his grandson Marcus Julius Cottius II (reigned 5-63 AD), who was granted the title of king by the emperor Claudius . On his death, Nero annexed his kingdom as

392-529: A more symbolic view of the bread and wine. Reinerius Saccho gave the following charges against the Waldensians: The Waldensians were associated by councils and papal decrees with the Cathars ; however they differed radically from them: the Waldensians never accepted Gnostic views, they did not reject the sacraments in total and did not believe in mysticism . The Waldensians saw themselves as

448-450: A result of the conference, the Waldensians officially modified some of their previous positions such as their rejection of secular courts. According to legend, Peter Waldo renounced his wealth as an encumbrance to preaching, which led other members of the Catholic clergy to follow his example. Because of this shunning of wealth, the movement was early known as The Poor of Lyon and The Poor of Lombardy. Although they rose to prominence in

504-758: A river in France is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cottian Alps The Cottian Alps ( / ˈ k ɒ t i ə n ˈ æ l p s / ; French : Alpes Cottiennes [alp kɔtjɛn] ; Italian : Alpi Cozie [ˈalpi ˈkɔttsje] ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps . They form the border between France ( Hautes-Alpes and Savoie ) and Italy ( Piedmont ). The Fréjus Road Tunnel and Fréjus Rail Tunnel between Modane and Susa are important transportation arteries between France ( Lyon , Grenoble ) and Italy ( Turin ). The name Cottian comes from Marcus Julius Cottius ,

560-795: The Bishop of Mauriana , was involved in reaching a peaceful agreement between Catholics and Waldensians. When the news of the Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Tavola Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the nascent Protestantism. At a meeting held in 1526 in Laus, a town in the Chisone valley, it was decided to send envoys to examine the new movement. In 1532, they met with German and Swiss Protestants and ultimately adapted their beliefs to those of

616-705: The House of Savoy all the mountainous area on the eastern side of the Cottian Alps. After the treaty annexing Nice and Savoy to France, signed in Turin in March 1860 ( Treaty of Turin ), the north-western slopes of the range became part of the French republic. Two eastern valleys of the Cottian Alps ( Pellice and Germanasca ) have been for centuries a kind of sanctuary for the Waldensians ,

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672-605: The Piedmont region of Northern Italy ), South America, and North America. Organizations, such as the American Waldensian Society, maintain the history of the movement and declare their mission as "proclaiming the Christian Gospel, serving the marginalized, promoting social justice , fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for religious diversity and freedom of conscience." Most modern knowledge of

728-653: The Rescriptum of Bergamo Conference (1218). Earlier documents that provide information about early Waldensian history include the Will of Stefano d'Anse (1187); the Manifestatio haeresis Albigensium et Lugdunensium (c.   1206–1208); and the Anonymous chronicle of Lyon (c.   1220). There are also the two reports written for the Inquisition by Reinerius Saccho (died 1259),

784-549: The province of Alpes Cottiae . For a long part of the Middle Ages the Cottian Alps were divided between the Duchy of Savoy , which controlled their northern part and the easternmost slopes, and the Dauphiné , which at the time was independent from France . The Dauphins also held, in addition to the southwestern slopes of the range ( Briançon and Queyras , now on the French side),

840-656: The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and affirmed the necessity of priests for the offering of the Mass . However they denied the right of sinful priests to give the Eucharist. Early forms of the Waldensian Mass sought to recover the early Christian liturgy and contained a sevenfold repetition of the Lord's Prayer , with the Eucharistic elements being consecrated through the sign of

896-582: The "Arrêt de Mérindol", and assembled an army against the Waldensians of Provence . The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède , First President of the parliament of Provence , and the military commander Antoine Escalin des Aimars , who was returning from the Italian Wars with 2,000 veterans, the Bandes de Piémont . Deaths in the Massacre of Mérindol ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on

952-517: The "ablution which is given to infants profits nothing". Thus there seems to have been an understanding among the Waldensians that infants could be saved without baptism. They rejected confession to priests, the practice of venerating the saints, the use of oaths, secular courts and prayers for the dead. They however accepted the Trinity , and the earliest Waldensians staunchly defended the Eucharist. However, at least some of them later began to develop

1008-480: The 10 commandments which put forth their own explanation on the 4th commandment which defended sabbath keeping. Many among the Waldensians claimed that people such as Claudius of Turin and Berengar of Tours were first representatives of the sect, but in modern times claims of the Waldenses to high antiquity are no longer accepted. One school of thought attempts to associate Vigilantius with proto-Waldensians in

1064-532: The 1598 Edict of Nantes , which had guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects in France. French troops sent into the French Waldensian areas of the Chisone and Susa Valleys in the Dauphiné forced 8,000 Vaudois to convert to Catholicism and another 3,000 to leave for Germany. In the Piedmont, the cousin of Louis, the newly ascended Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II , followed his uncle in removing

1120-626: The Catholic Church as the harlot of the Apocalypse . They rejected what they perceived as the idolatry of the Catholic Church and considered the papacy as the Antichrist of Rome. La nobla leyczon ( The Noble Lesson ), written in the Occitan language, gives a sample of the medieval Waldensian belief. Once it was believed that this poem dated between 1190 and 1240, but there is evidence that it

1176-641: The European Alps. The Catholic Church viewed the Waldensians as unorthodox, and in 1184 at the Synod of Verona , under the auspices of Pope Lucius III , they were excommunicated. Pope Innocent III went even further during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, officially denouncing the Waldensians as heretics . In 1211 more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg ; this action launched several centuries of persecution that nearly destroyed

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1232-778: The French side; and by the Dora Riparia and other tributaries of the Po on the Italian side. The borders of the Cottian Alps are (clockwise): The chief peaks of the Cottian Alps are: The chief passes of the Cottian Alps are: Waldensians Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration The Waldensians , also known as Waldenses ( / w ɔː l ˈ d ɛ n s iː z , w ɒ l -/ ), Vallenses , Valdesi , or Vaudois , are adherents of

1288-466: The Gospel; that relics were no different from any other bones and should not be regarded as special or holy; that pilgrimage served only to spend one's money; that meat might be eaten any day if one's appetite served one; that holy water was no more efficacious than rain water; and that prayer was just as effectual if offered in a church or a barn. They were accused, moreover, of speaking blasphemously of

1344-495: The Reformed Church. The Swiss and French Reformed churches sent William Farel and Anthony Saunier to attend the meeting of Chanforan, which convened on 12   October 1532. Farel invited them to join the Reformation and to emerge from secrecy. A Confession of Faith, with Reformed doctrines, was formulated and the Waldensians decided to worship openly in French. The French Bible, translated by Pierre Robert Olivétan with

1400-528: The Roman Curia welcomed them. They had to explain their faith before a panel of three clergymen, including issues that were then debated within the Church, such as the universal priesthood, the gospel in the vulgar tongue, and the issue of voluntary poverty. The results of the meeting were inconclusive; in that same year, the Third Lateran Council condemned Waldo's ideas, but not the movement itself, while

1456-586: The Sabbath according to the custom of the Jews." Likewise in the twelfth century, Inquisitor Moneta of Cremona railed against the Waldenses for seventh day sabbath keeping after the manner of Jews. Johann Gottfried Hering in 1756 in his Compendieuses Church and Heretic Lexicon defined Sabbatati (a sect of the Waldenses) as those who kept the sabbath with the Jews. In the early Waldenses prose tracts there existed an exposition on

1512-460: The Vaudois to choose the former; however, the bulk of the populace instead chose the latter, abandoning their homes and lands in the lower valleys and removing to the upper valleys. It was written that these targets of persecution, including old men, women, little children and the sick "waded through the icy waters, climbed the frozen peaks, and at length reached the homes of their impoverished brethren of

1568-504: The Waldensians as early forerunners of the Reformation, in a manner similar to the way the followers of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus , also persecuted by authorities, were viewed. Although the Waldensian church was granted some rights and freedoms under French King Henry   IV, with the Edict of Nantes in 1598, persecution rose again in the seventeenth   century, with an extermination of

1624-576: The Waldensians attempted by the Duke of Savoy in 1655. This led to the exodus and dispersion of the Waldensians to other parts of Europe and even to the Western Hemisphere. In January 1655, the Duke of Savoy commanded the Waldensians to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys of their homeland, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. Being in the midst of winter, the order was intended to persuade

1680-415: The Waldensians of teaching innumerable errors. 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 . The group would shelter the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret. Waldo possibly died in

1736-762: The Waldensians of the Middle Ages could be seen as proto-Protestants , but they mostly did not raise the doctrinal objections characteristic of sixteenth-century Protestant leaders. They came to align themselves with Protestantism: with the Resolutions of Chanforan  [ fr ] on 12 September 1532, they formally became a part of the Calvinist tradition. They are members of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and its affiliates worldwide. They were nearly annihilated in

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1792-481: The Waldensians the chance to return to the Church, and many did, taking the name " Poor Catholics ". However, many did not, and were subjected to intense persecution and were confronted with organised and general discrimination in the following centuries. In the sixteenth century, the Waldensians were absorbed into the Protestant movement, under the influence of early Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger . In some aspects

1848-401: The arms of their mothers, clasped by their tiny feet, and their heads dashed against the rocks; or were held between two soldiers and their quivering limbs torn up by main force. Their mangled bodies were then thrown on the highways or fields, to be devoured by beasts. The sick and the aged were burned alive in their dwellings. Some had their hands and arms and legs lopped off, and fire applied to

1904-403: The cross . The Waldensians observed the forty-day fast of Lent and practiced Friday abstinence. Both Waldensian and Catholic sources, however, imply that the Waldensians rejected infant baptism, at least to some extent. This is seen from The Noble Lesson , which refers to Christ specifically calling to baptize those who believed, and Reinerius Saccho mentioning how the Waldensians believed that

1960-571: The early thirteenth   century, possibly in Germany; he was never captured, and his fate remains uncertain. Early Waldensians belonged to one of three groups: They were also called Insabbatati , Sabati , Inzabbatati , or Sabotiers —Some historians such as the Jesuit Jacob Gretser claimed this designation arose from the unusual type of sabot they used as footwear. However, he admitted that his reasoning on this etymology did not have

2016-606: The estimates, and several villages were devastated. The treaty of 5 June 1561 granted amnesty to the Protestants of the Valleys, including liberty of conscience and freedom to worship . Prisoners were released and fugitives permitted to return home, but despite this treaty, the Vaudois, with the other French Protestants, still suffered during the French Wars of Religion in 1562–1598. As early as 1631, Protestant scholars began to regard

2072-633: The gospel from father to son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St Paul. The Waldensian movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible. Between 1175 and 1185, Waldo either commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular—the Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language —or was himself involved in this translation work. In 1179, Waldo and one of his disciples went to Rome, where Pope Alexander III and

2128-488: The heads of their sons suspended round their necks. Parents were compelled to look on while their children were first outraged [raped], then massacred, before being themselves permitted to die. This massacre became known as the Piedmont Easter. An estimate of some 1,700 Waldensians were slaughtered; the massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Protestant rulers in northern Europe offered sanctuary to

2184-574: The help of Calvin and published at Neuchâtel in 1535, was based in part on a New Testament in the Waldensian vernacular. The churches in Waldensia collected 1500 gold crowns to cover the cost of its publication. Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of seclusion and reports were made of sedition on their part, French King Francis   I on 1   January 1545 issued

2240-491: The leaders of the movement were not excommunicated for the moment. The Waldensians proceeded to disobey the Third Lateran Council and continued to preach according to their own understanding of the Scriptures. In 1184, Waldo and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic Church declared them heretics , stating that the group's principal error was contempt for ecclesiastical power. Rome also accused

2296-441: The local populace complied with. But the quartering order was a ruse to allow the troops easy access to the populace. On 24   April 1655, at 4   a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre. The Duke's forces did not simply slaughter the inhabitants. They are reported to have unleashed an unprovoked campaign of looting, rape, torture, and murder. According to one report by a Peter Liegé: Little children were torn from

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2352-501: The medieval history of the Waldensians originates almost exclusively from the records and writings of the Roman Catholic Church, the same body that was condemning them as heretics . Because of "the documentary scarcity and unconnectedness from which we must draw the description of Waldensian beliefs", much of what is known about the early Waldensians comes from reports like the Profession of faith of Valdo of Lyon (1180); Liber antiheresis by Durando d'Osca (c.   1187–1200); and

2408-407: The movement. Waldensians briefly ruled Buda, the capital of Hungary from 1304 to 1307. The Waldensians in turn excommunicated Pope Benedict XI . In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull Id Nostri Cordis for the extermination of the Vaudois. Alberto de' Capitanei , archdeacon of Cremona , responded to the bull by organizing a crusade to fulfill its order and launched a military offensive in

2464-407: The protection of Protestants in the Piedmont . In the renewed persecution, and in an echo of the Piedmont Easter Massacre of only three decades earlier, the Duke issued an edict on 31 January 1686 that decreed the destruction of all the Vaudois churches and that all inhabitants of the Valleys should publicly announce their error in religion within fifteen days under penalty of death and banishment. But

2520-423: The provinces of Dauphiné and Piedmont . Charles I, Duke of Savoy , eventually interfered to save his territories from further turmoil and promised the Vaudois peace, but not before the offensive had devastated the area and many of the Vaudois had fled to Provence or south to Italy. The theologian Angelo Carletti di Chivasso , whom Innocent VIII in 1491 appointed Apostolic Nuncio and Commissary conjointly with

2576-422: The remaining Waldensians. Oliver Cromwell , then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Waldensians, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The massacre prompted John Milton 's poem on the Waldenses, " On the Late Massacre in Piedmont ". Swiss and Dutch Calvinists set up an "underground railroad" to bring many of

2632-516: The seventeenth century . The main denomination within the movement was the Waldensian Evangelical Church , the original church in Italy . In 1975, it merged with the Methodist Evangelical Church to form the Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches —a majority Waldensian church, with a minority of Methodists. Another large congregation is the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Río de la Plata in Argentina , Paraguay , and Uruguay . Congregations continue to be active in Europe (particularly in

2688-483: The severed parts to staunch the bleeding and prolong their suffering. Some were flayed alive, some were roasted alive, some disemboweled; or tied to trees in their own orchards, and their hearts cut out. Some were horribly mutilated, and of others the brains were boiled and eaten by these cannibals . Some were fastened down into the furrows of their own fields, and ploughed into the soil as men plough manure into it. Others were buried alive. Fathers were marched to death with

2744-442: The support of the literature of his day because these sources, he said, contained many errors. Other historians such as Melchior Goldast stated that the name insabbatati was because of Sabbath keeping in the manner of Jews. Jesuit Inquisitor Francis Pegne cited in Nicholas Eymerich famous work the Directorium Inquisitorium stated that "many used to think it [insabbatati] came from Sabbath, and that they [Waldenses] observed

2800-429: The survivors north to Switzerland and even as far as the Dutch Republic, where the councillors of the city of Amsterdam chartered three ships to take some 167 Waldensians to their City Colony in the New World (Delaware) on Christmas Day 1656. Those that stayed behind in France and the Piedmont formed a guerilla resistance movement led by a farmer, Joshua Janavel , which lasted into the 1660s. In 1685 Louis XIV revoked

2856-408: The time of Sylvester , others, from the time of the Apostles." In the seventeenth century, Waldensian Pastor Henri Arnaud stated that "the Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy, who, after St Paul had there preached the gospel abandoned their beautiful country, like the woman mentioned in the apocalypse and fled to those wild mountains where they have to this day, handed down

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2912-461: The twelfth century, some evidence suggests that the Waldenses may have existed even before the time of Peter Waldo , perhaps as early as 1100. In 1179, at the Third Council of the Lateran , Pope Alexander III lamented that the Waldenses were a "pest of long existence". While the Inquisitor Reinerius Saccho in the thirteenth century also spoke about the dangers of the Waldenses for among other reasons its antiquity "some say that it has lasted from

2968-405: The upper Valleys, where they were warmly received." By mid-April, when it became clear that the Duke's efforts to force the Vaudois to conform to Catholicism had failed, he tried another approach. Under the guise of false reports of Vaudois uprisings, the Duke sent troops into the upper valleys to quell the local populace. He required that the local populace quarter the troops in their homes, which

3024-437: The upper part of some of the valleys that were tributaries of the Po River ( Valle di Susa , Chisone valley, Varaita Valley ). The Alpine territory of Dauphiné, known as Escartons , used to have a limited autonomy and elected its own parliament . This semi-autonomous status lasted also after the annexation of the Dauphiné to France (1349), and was only abolished in 1713 due to the Treaty of Utrecht , which assigned to

3080-434: The way to perfection . Waldensian teachings came into conflict with the Catholic Church and by 1215 the Waldensians were declared heretical , not because they preached apostolic poverty, which the Franciscans also preached, but because they were not willing to recognize the prerogatives of local bishops over the content of their preaching, nor to recognize standards about who was fit to preach. Pope Innocent III offered

3136-433: Was written in the first part of the fifteenth century. The poem exists in four manuscripts: two are housed at the University of Cambridge, one at Trinity College in Dublin, and another in Geneva. The Waldensians taught certain doctrines also held by the Catholic Church, but came into conflict with the Catholic Church by denying some of its sacraments or the manner in which they were performed; The earliest Waldensians taught

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