The Waldensians (1170-1532)

Lyon around 1170: an Enriched Townsman

The founder is called Waldo — or Valdes — in the earliest documents; the first name "Peter", added only from 1368 onwards, is a late construction of his disciples, in reference to the apostle^[4]. Born around 1140, perhaps at Vaulx-en-Velin, he settled in Lyon where he made his fortune in trade^[5]. Lyon, a city of fairs at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone, then counted among the most active marketplaces of the kingdom: Waldo was a notable townsman there, married, father of two daughters^[6].

His very name is debated among historians: Giovanni Gonnet advises calling him Valdesius, without first name, from the only name given by the very earliest sources of authentically Waldensian origin; Christine Thouzellier prefers Waldo; Gabriel Audisio proposes Vaudes, which would better evoke the South at a time when French was not yet spoken in Lyon^[7]. Let us keep the essential: a rich layman, without theological training, whom nothing destined to found a European religious movement.

The Conversion: the Dead Friend, the Minstrel and Saint Alexis

Two ancient, independent accounts tell of the turning point — one around 1220 by a Premonstratensian monk, the "anonymous chronicler of Laon", the other around the middle of the 13th century by the Dominican and inquisitor Stephen of Bourbon^[8]. Their outline can be reconstructed: struck by the sudden death of one of his friends in the midst of a pleasure gathering, Waldo one day heard a minstrel (ioculator) recount the life of Saint Alexis, the Roman patrician who had left everything to follow Christ^[9].

Deeply moved, he consulted a master of theology on the surest way to salvation. The master quoted to him the word of Christ to the rich young man:

"If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 19:21^[10]

Waldo at once put the counsel into practice: one part of his fortune for his wife, one part for his two daughters — whom he placed in the monastery of Fontevraud —, one part to repay those he believed he had wronged in his business, and the largest part distributed to the poor^[11]. On Assumption Day 1176, he rid himself of his last earthly goods and shortly afterwards made a vow of poverty^[12]. His example caused a sensation in Lyon and quickly found imitators, especially among the common people^[13].

The Bible in the Vernacular

Wishing to know the biblical teaching, Waldo had the four Gospels translated for him, then other biblical books and writings of the Fathers, by two priests: Stephen of Anse translated, Bernard Ydros copied^[14]. The target language was that of the people, Francoprovençal — a considerable step at a time when Scripture circulated only in Latin, among clerics^[15].

The very existence of this translation, which has not come down to us, remains debated: Vladimir Agrigoroaei sees in it a possible "unintentional learned fabrication" of historiography^[16]. But the intention is attested and it set a precedent: under Waldo's impulse a popular enthusiasm was born for reading the Bible in the language of the people, of which he is a recognised forerunner, well before the Reformation^[17].

The Poor of Lyon

Around Waldo a brotherhood of apostolic poverty formed: they called themselves the "Poor of Christ" or the "Poor of Lyon"^[18]. Their adversaries gave them other names, recorded by the Catholic Encyclopedia: Leonistae (from Lyon), Sandaliati, Insabbatati or Sabbatati (from the sandals and wooden clogs they wore), Sabotiers^[19]. The following table sets out this vocabulary, useful for reading medieval sources.

Walter Map, an English cleric who observed them, thus sums up their programme: possessing nothing of their own, they would hold everything in common after the example of the apostles, in a radical poverty in imitation of the stripped Christ^[21]. Men — and women — who preach in the streets and squares, without being priests, without a mission from the bishop: that is what, very quickly, caused the problem^[22].

Rome 1179: Welcomed, Then Dismissed

At first, nothing is decided. The Archbishop of Lyon, Guichard, a Cistercian, looks on the initiative of Waldes with a certain sympathy, and he is not the only one: in a Church enriched by the gifts of a feudal society, some clerics begin to wonder whether they have neglected the essential^[23]. An exemplum written at Clairvaux around 1175 even describes the beginnings of the Poor Man of Lyon without naming him, as an edifying example^[24].

In 1179, Waldes and one of his disciples go up to Rome for the Third Lateran Council. Pope Alexander III receives them warmly and blesses their way of life, but the Curia proves cooler: they are asked to set out their faith before a panel of three churchmen, notably on the universal priesthood, the Gospel in the vernacular and the poverty of the institution^[25]. Walter Map, representative of King Henry II of England, takes part in the examination: the two Lyonnais, illiterate in theology, are unable to answer on precise points and are not taken seriously^[26]. The meeting leads to nothing, except a ban on preaching without the authorization of the local clergy^[27].

The Profession of Faith of 1180

Waldes, who wants to remain a good Catholic, does not rebel: in 1180, he subscribes before the cardinal legate Henry of Marcy a perfectly orthodox profession of faith, unearthed and published in 1946 by Fr. Antoine Dondaine^[28]. The gesture shows that the founder, at that date, is still seeking the approval of the Church and does not conceive of himself as a schismatic^[29].

But on the ground in Lyon, tension rises. The successor archbishop forbids the Waldensians public preaching; ordered to obey, the movement answers with the words of the Apostle, as reported by the inquisitor Bernard Gui:

"We must obey God rather than men." — Acts of the Apostles, 5:29, words invoked by the Waldensians before the Archbishop of Lyon, according to Bernard Gui, Manuel de l'inquisiteur^[30]

Expelled from Lyon around 1182-1183, Waldes and his followers choose clandestinity rather than silence^[31].

Verona 1184: Ad abolendam

Pope Lucius III, in agreement with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, strikes a major blow: on 4 November 1184, the decretal Ad abolendam diversam haeresium pravitatem, promulgated at Verona, expressly names the heretics to be prosecuted, Cathars, Patarines, Humiliati, Poor of Lyon, Arnoldists, and places them under excommunication^[32]. The text also founds the episcopal inquisition: bishops must inquire, in their dioceses, into suspects of heresy^[33].

The measure targets all those who preach without the authorization of the Roman Church, in public as in private^[34]. For the Waldensians, it is the point of no return: from a tolerated movement of penitents, they become a proscribed sect, and it is as such that they will spread across Europe^[35].

Lateran IV (1215): Solemn Condemnation

The Fourth Lateran Council, convened by Innocent III in November 1215, takes up and solemnly confirms the condemnation: its canon 3 excommunicates heretics, defines the procedure against them and compels princes to prosecute them^[36]. Waldes himself has been dead for some years, around 1205-1207, and no later than 1217 according to the records^[37], without ever having wanted, it seems, the rupture completed after him^[38].

Poverty and Preaching: the Heart of the Movement

The Waldensian organization is first a reaction against the pomp of the medieval Church and the worldly life of part of the clergy: the conspicuous extreme poverty and itinerant preaching are its two pillars^[39]. But the recruits, drawn from circles without theological training, soon mix doctrinal errors into the evangelical fervor, errors which ecclesiastical authority cannot let pass^[40].

Two traits set them apart from the start: every baptized person may preach, man or woman, there is among them no separation between laity and churchmen^[41]; and man needs no clergy to communicate with God: the Word must be given to all, in the language of all^[42]. At first, however, the Waldensians consider themselves Catholic, the pars benigna of the Church, facing a Roman hierarchy they judge to be the pars maligna, corroded by sins^[43].

The Sermon on the Mount Taken Literally

The evangelical radicalism of the Waldensians centers on the Sermon on the Mount, read literally^[44]. Three refusals follow from it, which will keep them durably outside the common law:

"You have heard that it was said: You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not swear at all." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 5:33-34^[45]

They refuse all oaths, including civil and judicial oaths, a position untenable in a society where the oath underpins justice and loyalty^[46]. They hold every lie to be a grave sin and judge all shedding of human blood unlawful: they therefore condemn war and the death penalty^[47]. On this last point, their teaching so closely resembles that of the Cathars that borrowing is held to be certain, although the Waldensians do not share Cathar dualism^[48].

Purgatory, Indulgences, Saints: the Sacramental Break

The movement denies purgatory, and with it indulgences and prayers for the dead^[49]. It distances itself from the cult of the saints and the invocation of the Virgin Mary: the inquisitor Bernard Gui reports that the Waldensians say of the Ave Maria that it was composed by the Roman Church and not by Christ^[50].

In the line of the old Donatism, they contest the efficacy of sacraments administered by priests of unworthy life: the validity of the sacrament would depend on the worthiness of the minister^[51]. The Lombard branch pushes the logic to its conclusion, holding the Catholic Church to be the community of Satan, while continuing, in practice, sometimes to receive communion from the hands of Catholic priests, on the grounds that God supplies for the defect of the minister for the worthy recipient^[52].

Organization: Perfect, Believers and Barbes

Like the Cathars, see the article Catharism, the Waldensians are divided into two classes: the perfect (perfecti) and the friends or believers (amici, credentes)^[53]. The perfect, bound by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to superiors, wander from place to place to preach; exempt from manual labor, they live on the alms of the believers, who remain in the world, married, property owners, and continue to attend Catholic sacraments, except penance, which they reserve when possible for their own ministers^[54].

The Waldensian clergy counts three orders, bishops (major or majoralis), priests and deacons (junior), ordained by the laying on of hands and the recitation of the Our Father; the elected bishop preaches and confers penance, Eucharist and order, but the Eucharistic celebration, frequent in the early days, soon takes place only on Maundy Thursday^[55]. Legislative power belongs to the general chapter, meeting once or twice a year, which reviews the state of the districts, admits to orders and excludes the unworthy^[56]. The itinerant preachers bear the name of barbes, barba, "uncle" in Piedmontese, to distance themselves from Catholic "fathers": celibate, working in travelling trades, they preach in houses and barns when persecution forbids the public square^[57].

The following table summarizes the points on which Rome and the Waldensians parted ways, the exact record of the condemnation.

In 1218, at Bergamo, the two branches, French and Lombard, the latter more radical, attempt to reach agreement without lasting success: the division between moderates who remained close to Rome and Donatist radicals will never close^[59].

They are often confused, because they are contemporaries, poor, preaching and persecuted, and because the crusade in the South struck both milieus^[60]. But everything separates them on essentials: the Cathars are dualists (an evil principle author of the visible world, a Christ without true flesh), while the Waldensians keep God the Creator, the Incarnation and Scripture; the borrowings, real in discipline (refusal of bloodshed, double class of perfect and believers), do not make one religion^[61].

Henri Lacordaire, in his Vie de saint Dominique, thus summarizes the Waldensian grievances against Rome (Ignispedia translation): the Church could no longer be saved by the Church itself; the true spouse of Christ would have failed under Constantine by accepting the poison of temporal possessions, and the Roman Church would be none other than the great prostitute described in the Apocalypse; the clergy should possess neither tithe nor lands, and all clerics should earn their living by the work of their hands, after the example of the apostles^[62].

The reader will find the full dualist record, evidence, rites, Catholic refutation, in the article Catharism, the account of the war in The Albigensians (12th-13th Centuries), and the Eastern roots in Bogomilism (10th-15th Centuries) and Paulicianism: here, we follow the Poor of Lyon^[63].

France and Spain: Persuasion, Then Repression

The preaching of Waldes and his disciples met with immediate success, in France, Italy, and Spain — with the Italians very early forming an autonomous branch^[64]. The Church first tried persuasion: as early as 1191 a conference between Catholics and Waldensians was held in an unknown location, followed in 1207 by the colloquy of Pamiers, which brought Durand of Huesca (Duran de Huesca) and several companions back to the Church^[65]. With the authorization of Innocent III, they founded the order of the Poor Catholics, dedicated to the conversion of the Waldensians — a modest success, but proof that Rome still distinguished persons from error^[66].

Force soon took over: in 1192, Bishop Otto of Toul had the Waldensians of his diocese put in chains; two years later, Alfonso II of Aragon banished them from his lands and forbade anyone to shelter or feed them; Peter II renewed these measures at the council of Girona (1197), where death by fire was decreed against heretics^[67]. In France, repression remained measured at first, but the war against the Albigensians spilled over onto the Waldensians: in 1214, seven of them suffered capital punishment at Morlaàs (Maurillac)^[68]. Around the middle of the 13th century, the heresy receded in Provence and Languedoc — without disappearing there: it would later merge into the Reformation, while Spain and Lorraine were purged of it during the 13th century^[69].

Italy: Lombardy, Piedmont, Calabria

It is in Italy that the medieval communities were most numerous: Lombardy, Piedmont, Calabria^[70]. The Lombard Waldensians, as seen above, were the most radical; those of the Piedmontese Alpine valleys, for their part, held out until the Reformation and beyond — from them descends the present-day Waldensian Church^[71].

Germany and Central Europe

The movement spread far: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, as far as Bohemia-Moravia, Hungary, and Poland^[72]. At the end of the 14th century, the inquisitor Petrus Zwicker conducted a systematic hunt for Waldensians in German lands, whose study the historian Reima Välimäki has renewed^[73]. The Waldensians of Austria — around Sankt Peter in der Au — were moreover the origin of the first name "Peter" belatedly attributed to the founder^[74].

The Dauphiné: Mission Impossible

The most active center of the late Middle Ages settled in the Dauphiné and on the western slope of the Cottian Alps — the valleys of the Louise, Argentière, and Freissinières — from where the barbes radiated across the entire Southwest as far as the Atlantic^[75]. In 1403, an attempt was made to bring them back: the apostolic labors of the future Saint Vincent Ferrer himself remained without effect^[76]. Neither the Inquisition nor the severity of the local authorities overcame these mountaineers^[77]. King Louis XI, believing them orthodox, even granted them his protection by an ordinance of 1478^[78] — a short-lived respite: in 1488, a crusade preached at the call of Innocent VIII, led by the nuncio Alberto Cattaneo, fell upon the valleys without managing to uproot them^[79].

Claimed Antiquity: The Constantinian Myth

Concerned to surround their history with the halo of antiquity, some Waldensians maintained that their Churches went back to the apostles — Saint Paul himself, on his way to Spain, was said to have founded the congregations of the valleys — and that believers, who had remained poor when Pope Sylvester accepted riches and power from Constantine in the 4th century, had passed on the true faith from father to son^[80]. In their petitions to sovereigns, they affirmed that their religion had been preserved from father to son and from generation to generation since time immemorial: this is what Antoine Monastier reports in his Histoire de l'Église vaudoise (1847)^[81].

Some regarded Claudius of Turin (died 840) or Berengar of Tours (died 1088) as their first representatives^[82]. This thesis, long accepted by Protestant historians, collapsed in the 19th century when criticism showed that the alleged Waldensian documents had been reworked: claims to great antiquity were relegated to the rank of fable, and the inquisitor Moneta of Cremona, as early as 1244, already wrote that it is evident that they draw their origin from Waldes, a citizen of Lyon, who began his work less than eighty years earlier^[83]. Two solid facts remain: the movement was born in Lyon around 1170, and it is indeed from Waldes that it takes its name^[84].

The Three Valleys of Piedmont

The beating historic heart of the Waldensians is three valleys of the Cottian Alps, west of Turin: the Pellice Valley (valley of Lucerna), the Chisone Valley (valley of Cluson), and the Germanasca Valley (valley of Saint Martin)^[85]. Steep, poor, straddling the Dauphiné and Piedmont, they offer dissenters what the plain denies them: invisibility^[86]. Torre Pellice would become its spiritual capital — and remains today the seat of the Tavola Valdese^[87].

The Luberon: Eleven Contracts to Repopulate

Between 1460 and 1560, at least 1,400 families — about 6,000 people — from the Alpine dioceses of Turin and Embrun settled in the Luberon: two-thirds arrived between 1490 and 1520, to fill a 60% population drop after the Hundred Years' War and epidemics^[88]. The settlement was legally organized through eleven "contracts of habitation" covering thirteen villages^[89]. These Waldensians of the Luberon, renowned cultivators, would pay for their distinctiveness at a steep price in 1545^[90].

Emissaries to Switzerland and Germany

As early as 1526, the barbes assembled in synod decided to send two delegates to Switzerland and Germany to inquire about the new doctrines: they returned with books by Luther and Zwingli^[91]. In 1530, a deputation, Georges Morel and Pierre Masson, left for Switzerland with a questionnaire submitted to the reformers of Neuchatel, Bern, Basel and Strasbourg; the replies of Oecolampadius and Bucer have been preserved^[92]. Agreement was reached on the essentials, but differences remained: the itinerant ministry of the barbes, the refusal of oaths drawn from the Sermon on the Mount, the questioning of civil authority, participation in the Catholic Mass^[93].

The Synod of 12 September 1532

The synod met at Chanforan, in the Angrogna valley, on 12 September 1532, in the presence of the reformer Guillaume Farel and Antoine Saunier, sent by the Swiss and French Churches^[94]. Farel's influence proved decisive: the synod adhered to Reformed ideas, in the vein of Zwingli and Bucer, abolished the itinerant ministry of the barbes, most of whom became pastors, and turned the localities visited into seats of Reformed Churches^[95]. At the same time, Chanforan voted 500 gold crowns for a new French translation of the Bible, entrusted to Olivetan: this would become the Olivetan Bible (1535), the first French Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek^[96].

The historian Gabriel Audisio sums up the shift as follows: "The Waldensians joined the Calvinist-leaning Reformed Church and were absorbed into it. There was no longer any Waldensianism properly speaking" (Ignispedia translation)^[97]. The medieval movement ends here, though it took more than a century for the transformation to be complete, up to the Brieve confession de foy of 1655, which opens the history of the Waldensian Evangelical Church^[98]. And this alignment brought upon the Waldensians persecutions of unprecedented scale^[99].

Merindol and Cabrieres (1545): the Luberon Exterminated

In the Luberon, the inquisitor Jean de Roma and then Jean Maynier, Baron of Oppede and first president of the Parlement of Aix, organized the repression^[100]. On the basis of accusations, an alleged Waldensian march on Marseille, Francis I issued in 1535 an edict against them; in 1540, the Arret de Merindol condemned the village to be razed^[101]. The decree was only carried out in April 1545: Merindol was destroyed and pillaged by the troops of Oppede and Captain Paulin; most of the inhabitants managed to flee and returned later^[102].

Reinforced by troops of the vice-legate of Avignon, the army seized Cabrieres after a two-day siege, where Waldensians had taken refuge: some thirty were put to death, then, apart from the women and children willing to convert, all the inhabitants crowded into the castle (the men) and the church (the women) were massacred^[103]. The toll: more than 3,000 victims, 700 Waldensians sent to the galleys; the Provencal group, almost totally exterminated, henceforth merged entirely into French Protestantism^[104]. As a reward, Pope Paul III sent Maynier a flattering brief, making him a knight of the Golden Spur and a count palatine^[105].

Calabria (1560): Bonello and Pascale

An Inquisition mission was sent in 1560 against the Waldensians of Calabria, followed by a veritable crusade^[106]. Two martyrs remain famous: the pastors Jacques Bonello and Giovanni Luigi Pascale, both sent by the Church of Geneva, burned in 1560, the first in Palermo, the second in Rome^[107].

Cavour (1561): the Mountain Holy War

In Piedmont, the Duke of Savoy Emmanuel Philibert sent a military expedition in 1560 against the Waldensians of the Lucerna valley^[108]. Although the movement was originally nonviolent, the mountain people took up arms and waged guerrilla warfare: they justified it as a holy war, referring to the figures of David and Goliath, a small people attacked by an immense and unjust adversary^[109]. Aided by the Dauphine Reformed from the French side, they held out for six months against the ducal troops^[110]: the duke agreed to negotiate, and the Agreement of Cavour (5 June 1561) confirmed their privileges, authorizing public worship in localities far from the plain, while confining them to the mountains^[111].

The Piedmont Easter (1655): the Cry of Protestant Europe

In April 1655, the troops of Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, led by the Marquis of Pianezza, massacred the Waldensians of Piedmont: this was the Piedmont Easter^[112]. The pastor Jean Leger, a survivor, published an account of it in his Histoire generale des Eglises vaudoises (Leiden, 1669); as early as 1655 the Relation veritable of the massacres appeared in Geneva, with the Brieve confession de foy^[113].

Feeling ran high across Protestant Europe: the poet John Milton, Latin secretary to Cromwell, wrote his sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont:

"Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold..." — John Milton, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont (1655)^[114]

Cromwell proclaimed a national fast, ordered a collection for the victims, wrote to all Protestant princes and to the King of France, letters drafted by Milton himself, and sent Samuel Morland to the Duke of Savoy^[115]. The intervention led to the Treaty of Pinerolo (August 1655), which restored to the Waldensians their homes and freedom of conscience, a fragile peace, violated and then withdrawn on several occasions^[116].

The Glorious Return (1689): the Exiles Come Home

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), extended to the Savoyard states, the Waldensians were once again driven toward Switzerland^[118]. The English revolution of 1688 and the accession of William III restored their hope: equipped with the instructions of the old patriot Josue Janavel, too old to march, about a thousand exiles led by the pastor Henri Arnaud (1641-1721) left the shores of Lake Geneva, near Nyon, on 17 August 1689^[119]. This was the Glorious Return: across the Alps, they regained their valleys and re-established worship there. Arnaud, granted by William III a colonel's commission, then led his Waldensians into battle^[120].

The Letters Patent of 17 February 1848

They had to wait for the Risorgimento: on 17 February 1848, the King of Piedmont-Sardinia Charles Albert granted the letters patent recognizing the Waldensians' religious freedom and civil rights^[121]. Every year, the Waldensians still celebrate 17 February with bonfires in the valleys, the festa della liberta^[122].

Diaspora and the Church Today

In the nineteenth century, emigration carried Waldensian families as far as the Rio de la Plata (Uruguay and Argentina), where a sister Waldensian Evangelical Church survives^[123]. In Italy, the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, of Calvinist type, two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper; an annual synod; consistories chaired by the pastor, united with the Methodists in 1975 and is governed by the Tavola Valdese sitting in Torre Pellice^[124]. It counts today some 25,000 members in Italy, has belonged to the World Council of Churches since its foundation, and benefits in Italy from the eight per thousand (otto per mille) of income tax^[125].

Turin, 22 June 2015: Forgiveness Asked

On 22 June 2015, Pope Francis became the first pope to enter a Waldensian church, in Turin, on the second day of his pastoral visit: there he asked forgiveness for the persecutions, the "non-Christian and even inhumane behaviour" of the Catholic Church toward the Waldensians over the course of history^[126]. A strong ecumenical gesture, in a spirit of Christian brotherhood, which the Waldensians received with measured reserve^[127].

Real Errors, Not a Misunderstanding

It must be said plainly: the condemnation of 1184 and then of 1215 struck not only poor people who preached too loudly. It targeted real errors against the faith: the denial of purgatory and of suffrages for the dead, the refusal of oaths to the point of making justice impossible, the Donatist questioning of the sacraments, preaching without mission claimed as a right^[128]. That a devout layman should read the Gospel in the vernacular, the Church could rejoice at; that he should claim the ministry of the word against his bishop, she could not, for "how shall they preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:15)^[129].

The Pastoral Answer: Poor Catholics and Mendicants

Rome, moreover, did not only condemn: it proposed. The Poor Catholics of Durand of Huesca, approved by Innocent III after Pamiers, show that a preaching poverty in obedience found its place in the Church^[130]. And Providence was raising up at that very moment those who would succeed where Waldes had failed: Saint Dominic disputing in the South, see the article Saint Dominic (1170-1221), and above all Saint Francis of Assisi, almost an exact contemporary of Waldes, likewise renouncing wealth to send preachers out on the roads^[131].

Giovanni Gonnet, as summarized by the article "Valdes", thus marks the difference with Francis: unlike Francis, Waldes denied the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which partly explains the accusations of heresy; and where the ultimate authority in matters of faith remained the Roman magisterium for Francis of Assisi, it was Sacred Scripture for Waldes^[132].

Obedience or rupture: everything turns on that. Francis, received by Innocent III in 1209, founded an order that endures; Waldes, rebuffed as early as 1179 under Alexander III, founded a dissent that hardened^[133].

Memory and Reconciliation, Without Anachronism

Today's Catholic rejoices in no stake and minimizes no violence. Merindol and the Piedmont Easter remain dark pages, which the forgiveness asked at Turin in 2015 honestly acknowledges^[134]. But nor does he read the thirteenth century through twenty-first-century lenses: a society that held heresy to be a deadly poison of souls could not treat it as one opinion among others, and the Church first tried words, Guichard, Alexander III, Pamiers, the Poor Catholics, Dominic, before the princes drew the sword^[135]. To understand the Waldensians is to hold both ends together: the evangelical impulse of the beginning, and the errors that made the rupture inevitable^[136].

• Catharism — the dualist doctrine of the "Good Men": perfects, consolamentum, and the Catholic refutation.
• The Albigensians (12th-13th Century) — the name, the southern land and the twenty-year crusade (1209-1229).
• Bogomilism (10th-15th Century) — the dualists of the Balkans, the bridge between East and West.
• Paulicianism — the Armenian ancestors of medieval dualism.
• Saint Dominic (1170-1221) — the preacher who disputed with the heretics of the South.
• The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) — the council of Innocent III and its canon 3 against heretics.
• Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) — the pope of Lateran IV, of the Poor Catholics and of the crusade.