The Waldensian movement has been characterized from…
1185 CE
The Waldensian movement has been characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty and strict adherence to the Bible.
Between 1175-1185, Peter Waldo has either commissioned a cleric from Lyons to translate the New Testament into the vernacular, the Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language or has himself been involved in this translation work.
Regardless of the source of translation, he is credited with providing to Europe the first translation of the Bible in a 'modern tongue' outside of Latin.
Waldo and one of his disciples had gone in 117 to Rome, where they were welcomed by Pope Alexander III, and the Roman Curia.
They had had to explain their faith before a panel of three clergymen, including issues which were then debated within the Church, as the universal priesthood, the gospel in the vulgar tongue, and the issue of self-imposed poverty.
The results of the meeting were inconclusive, and Waldo's ideas, but not the movement itself, had been condemned at the Third Lateran Council in the same year, though the leaders of the movement had not been yet excommunicated.
Driven away from Lyons, Waldo and his followers have settled in the high valleys of Piedmont, and in France, in the Luberon.
Finally, Waldo had been excommunicated by Pope Lucius III during the synod held at Verona in 1184.
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