CharlesYTK
23rd September 2004, 05:14 PM
The Waldenses http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0811Inquisition.html (http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0811Inquisition.html)
“Waldenses” was the name given to heretical Christians in the south of France about 1170.
Peter Waldo (1140-1218) was a rich merchant of Lyons, France, who, about 1170, supposedly asked a priest how to live like Jesus Christ, and was told what Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21, cited above. Waldo provided for his wife, put his daughters in a convent, and gave the rest of his money to the poor. He memorized parts of the bible, and began preaching. As he gained followers, he sent them out in pairs preaching. They were called “the Poor in Spirit”, and are also known as Pauperes de Lugduno, the “Poor Ones of Lyons”, so they seem to have been inspired by the Essenes, the Ebionites, the Jewish sect from which Christianity emerged.
Waldo preceded S Francis (1181-1226) in adopting a life of poverty to be free to preach. The difference was that the Waldenses preached the doctrine of Christ while the Franciscans preached the person of Christ. He founded his beliefs on the bible, especially the gospels, which he thought so self-explanatory, they needed no interpretation. He thought all that was needed was to make the bible available to the people, so he commissioned two priests to translate the bible into Provençal, starting with the gospels.
The Waldenses were living in the valleys of Piedmont in the seventeenth century. The Church exercised its authority on the Duke Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy who ordered that the Vaudois region should be reduced. The attorney of the Duke in 1655 ordered all of them to become Roman Catholics or lose their property and lives. The army used to enforce the order was made up of Frenchmen from Louis XIV’s army and Irishmen who had fled from Cromwell. The people were treated with horrible barbarity.
Before long, mobs were rampaging over the estates of the Waldenses. After the men had been killed or chased into the mountains, the women were beheaded and their children had their brains dashed out. In the towns of Villaro and Bolbio, those over 15 years old who refused mass were crucified upside down. Younger children were throttled. Nothing now could be seen but the face of horror and despair. Blood stained the floors of houses, dead bodies strewed the streets, groans and cries were heard from all parts.
The Duke’s soldiers were even worse. They made a point of mutilating any Waldensian that they caught before they killed them. Often they were simply left to die of their wounds, or of starvation, because they were too injured to move to seek nourishment. Mary Reymondet had her flesh stripped from her bones slice by slice in a manner reminiscent of Hypatia, a thousand years before. She died in a frightful state. Giovanni Pelanchion was tied with one leg to a mule and was dragged through the town while pelted with stones. Ann Charboniere was impaled with a stake and left to die.
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/waldenspiedmont00.jpg (http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/waldenspiedmont01.jpg)Torture of the Waldenses of the Piedmont
Others were suspended from trees or the beams of their own homes by iron hooks stuck through their abdomens. Bartholemew Frasche had holes bored through his heels, through which a rope was passed and he was dragged to a dungeon and left to die. Daniel Rambart had a joint of a finger or toe amputated each day. Some people had packets of gunpowder forced into their mouths and lit. Drowning, suffocation and burning at the stake were all common. Sara Rastignole des Vignes refused to recite Jesus Maria so had a sickle stuck into her vagina. Martha Constantine was raped and killed by having her breasts cut off.
A servant of Jacopo Michalino was tortured by being stabbed many times in the souls of his feet and in his ears. Then his penis was cut off and the bleeding wound cauterized with a candle, so that he did not bleed to death and would suffer longer. Then his torturers tore off his nails with hot pincers. Still he would not recant his religion, so they tied him to a mule and dragged him through the streets of Bolbio. Finally they killed him by tying a staff to his head with cords and twisting it off his body.
Children were killed in front of their parents by being decapitated or cut to pieces. Mary Pelanchion was hung naked from a bridge and used as target practice. Cypriana Bastia said he would rather be dead than a Catholic, so he was half-starved with some dogs and then fed to them. Jacopo de Ronc had his nails pulled out by red hot pincers, then was led through the streets being alterbnately bludgeoned and having a strip of flesh cut from him.
These murders continued in the Piedmont valleys until they were almost depopulated. Those who were not tortured to death but fled to the mountains died there of starvation or disease. Despite the outrage of Protestant Europe, the army of occupation remained and Vaudois worship was curtailed. Their chief pastor, Leger, had to flee to Leyden where he wrote his History of the Vaudois Church (1684). The Waldensians survived until the sixteenth century, when they joined the Protestant Reformation.
“Waldenses” was the name given to heretical Christians in the south of France about 1170.
Peter Waldo (1140-1218) was a rich merchant of Lyons, France, who, about 1170, supposedly asked a priest how to live like Jesus Christ, and was told what Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21, cited above. Waldo provided for his wife, put his daughters in a convent, and gave the rest of his money to the poor. He memorized parts of the bible, and began preaching. As he gained followers, he sent them out in pairs preaching. They were called “the Poor in Spirit”, and are also known as Pauperes de Lugduno, the “Poor Ones of Lyons”, so they seem to have been inspired by the Essenes, the Ebionites, the Jewish sect from which Christianity emerged.
Waldo preceded S Francis (1181-1226) in adopting a life of poverty to be free to preach. The difference was that the Waldenses preached the doctrine of Christ while the Franciscans preached the person of Christ. He founded his beliefs on the bible, especially the gospels, which he thought so self-explanatory, they needed no interpretation. He thought all that was needed was to make the bible available to the people, so he commissioned two priests to translate the bible into Provençal, starting with the gospels.
The Waldenses were living in the valleys of Piedmont in the seventeenth century. The Church exercised its authority on the Duke Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy who ordered that the Vaudois region should be reduced. The attorney of the Duke in 1655 ordered all of them to become Roman Catholics or lose their property and lives. The army used to enforce the order was made up of Frenchmen from Louis XIV’s army and Irishmen who had fled from Cromwell. The people were treated with horrible barbarity.
Before long, mobs were rampaging over the estates of the Waldenses. After the men had been killed or chased into the mountains, the women were beheaded and their children had their brains dashed out. In the towns of Villaro and Bolbio, those over 15 years old who refused mass were crucified upside down. Younger children were throttled. Nothing now could be seen but the face of horror and despair. Blood stained the floors of houses, dead bodies strewed the streets, groans and cries were heard from all parts.
The Duke’s soldiers were even worse. They made a point of mutilating any Waldensian that they caught before they killed them. Often they were simply left to die of their wounds, or of starvation, because they were too injured to move to seek nourishment. Mary Reymondet had her flesh stripped from her bones slice by slice in a manner reminiscent of Hypatia, a thousand years before. She died in a frightful state. Giovanni Pelanchion was tied with one leg to a mule and was dragged through the town while pelted with stones. Ann Charboniere was impaled with a stake and left to die.
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/waldenspiedmont00.jpg (http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/waldenspiedmont01.jpg)Torture of the Waldenses of the Piedmont
Others were suspended from trees or the beams of their own homes by iron hooks stuck through their abdomens. Bartholemew Frasche had holes bored through his heels, through which a rope was passed and he was dragged to a dungeon and left to die. Daniel Rambart had a joint of a finger or toe amputated each day. Some people had packets of gunpowder forced into their mouths and lit. Drowning, suffocation and burning at the stake were all common. Sara Rastignole des Vignes refused to recite Jesus Maria so had a sickle stuck into her vagina. Martha Constantine was raped and killed by having her breasts cut off.
A servant of Jacopo Michalino was tortured by being stabbed many times in the souls of his feet and in his ears. Then his penis was cut off and the bleeding wound cauterized with a candle, so that he did not bleed to death and would suffer longer. Then his torturers tore off his nails with hot pincers. Still he would not recant his religion, so they tied him to a mule and dragged him through the streets of Bolbio. Finally they killed him by tying a staff to his head with cords and twisting it off his body.
Children were killed in front of their parents by being decapitated or cut to pieces. Mary Pelanchion was hung naked from a bridge and used as target practice. Cypriana Bastia said he would rather be dead than a Catholic, so he was half-starved with some dogs and then fed to them. Jacopo de Ronc had his nails pulled out by red hot pincers, then was led through the streets being alterbnately bludgeoned and having a strip of flesh cut from him.
These murders continued in the Piedmont valleys until they were almost depopulated. Those who were not tortured to death but fled to the mountains died there of starvation or disease. Despite the outrage of Protestant Europe, the army of occupation remained and Vaudois worship was curtailed. Their chief pastor, Leger, had to flee to Leyden where he wrote his History of the Vaudois Church (1684). The Waldensians survived until the sixteenth century, when they joined the Protestant Reformation.