Biography
Peter Waldo, or Valdes, was born around 1140, in the French city of Lyon. He was a wealthy merchant, a man of business, who dealt in cloth and money. He was a family man, with a wife and two daughters. He was a member of the Catholic Church and took part in its worship. Little is known of his early life. He was well known in Lyon as a man of means and of some education. He was prosperous and respected. He lived in the style of a rich citizen.
In about 1173, he had a religious crisis. According to a chronicler, he was at a gathering in the city, where a wandering minstrel was singing the legend of Saint Alexis. It was the story of a rich young man who gave up his wealth and became a beggar for the sake of Christ. Peter was moved. He asked a theologian what he must do to be saved, and he was told that he should go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor, as Jesus had said to the rich young man. He took the advice to heart.
He arranged for his wife to be given a share of his property, and he placed his two daughters in a convent. He gave the rest of his wealth to the poor. He distributed money and food to the hungry of Lyon, at a time of famine. He then began to live as a poor man and a preacher, in imitation of the apostles. He took up the task of reading the Bible. He had parts of the Scripture translated into the vernacular, the language of the people, by two clerics whom he hired. He learned large parts of the text by heart. He began to preach in the streets and squares, and he drew a following of men and women who were moved by his example.
The group became known as the Poor Men of Lyon, and later as the Waldensians. They went out in pairs, as Jesus had sent out the disciples, in simple dress and without possessions. They were laymen and women, and they preached in the vernacular. They spoke against the greed and corruption of the clergy and called for a return to the Bible. The archbishop of Lyon was alarmed and forbade them to preach. They appealed to Rome, and in 1179, Peter went to the Third Lateran Council with some of his companions. The pope, Alexander III, was impressed by their zeal and approved their vow of poverty. But he forbade them to preach without the permission of the local clergy.
Peter and his followers continued to preach. They said that they must obey God rather than men. In 1184, Pope Lucius III issued a decree at the Council of Verona, which excommunicated them as heretics. They were driven out of Lyon and scattered across Europe. They found refuge in the Alps of Piedmont, in southern France and in northern Italy, and also in Bohemia and Germany. They spread across the continent. They taught that the Bible is the only authority and that the church should be poor. They denied the doctrine of purgatory and the worth of indulgences. They rejected the worship of saints and the use of oaths. They held that lay people could preach.
Peter himself is thought to have died in around 1205, perhaps in Bohemia, though the facts are uncertain. He did not leave any writings. The movement that he began grew and survived centuries of persecution. The Waldensians were hunted and massacred, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They survive today in the valleys of the Italian Alps, and in 1532, they joined the Protestant Reformation. They are the oldest Protestant church. In 1848, they were granted civil rights in the kingdom of Sardinia.
His life shows what can happen when a rich man takes the words of Jesus at face value. A merchant of Lyon gave up everything, and his example has inspired generations. He also reminds the church of the need to read the Scriptures in the language of the people.