Hello everybody, it's me, MrTral23, back in the video.
Today, I'm going to be talking about the Waldensians, also known as the Waldenzies, or the Val-d'Ouil.
And the Waldensians are a sect of Christians.
Now, remember, in the last few months, I've been talking about different groups of Christians,
such as the Corto Decamins, and the St. Thomas Christians, and the Celtic Christians, and so on,
which have, for the most part, kept the doctrines of the Bible in time past, before the time of the Reformation.
So, the Waldensians were a sect of Christians, which got their name from a man named Peter Waldo,
who was a preacher in the 12th century, who taught against many of the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Some Protestants believe that the Waldensies were kind of a forerunner to the Reformation,
that a lot of the ideas of the Reformation, a lot of the ideas of the Anabaptists, or the Baptists,
were brought from the Waldensies, and some see them as a perfect example of resistance to the teachings of Rome,
prior to Martin Luther.
So, the sect of the Waldensies was founded in, or around the year 1173,
and was declared heretical by the Catholic Church around a decade later.
Starting in the 1200s, they faced great persecution up until the time of the Protestant Reformation,
and during that time, they joined with the Reformed Church, or the Calvinists, in around 1532.
And in the following years, they adopted many of the teachings of Calvinism into their beliefs.
And in the following decades after that, they continued to face heavy persecution,
and they were often massacred, such as in the Massacre of Marindol, which happened in 1545,
and that resulted in the destruction of 22 villages and thousands of people killed among the Waldensies.
So, the question to ask about these people is, what did they teach and believe, and what did they do,
that made the Catholic Church persecute them so heavily?
First of all, the Waldensies completely rejected the doctrine that the Catholic Church was the only way to salvation.
Instead, they exulted the Bible, and believed in the concept of the priesthood of all believers,
that every Christian has an ability to read the Bible and understand it, and to preach it.
So they insisted that the Bible was their sole authority, and they taught it through what they called Barbas,
which were traveling preachers that traveled around the area of the Alps, in northern Italy, in France,
modern day Switzerland, and they preached the word of God.
The Waldensians highly valued voluntary poverty, and they refused to take oaths.
They rejected some unbiblical practices and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church,
such as the doctrine of Purgatory, the concept of holy water, the use of indulgences, and prayer for the dead.
They also refused to venerate saints and bow before altars.
The Waldensians also rejected the idea of transubstantiation during the Eucharist,
and they practiced only two sacraments, the Lord's Supper and Baptism,
and they even rejected infant baptism, or some of them did.
They also believed that the Roman Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon,
and considered the papacy to be the Antichrist.
There's also some evidence that the Waldensians kept the Sabbath, alongside other groups,
that may have been the same, but called by different names,
which existed in the 12th and 13th centuries, in that same geographical region in central Europe.
And regarding their teachings on the Gospel, their beliefs on salvation,
there isn't much information about what they believed on salvation prior to the Reformation.
I couldn't find that much on that. However, it's possible, and this is just based on kind of reasoning,
that it's possible that they taught, or they believed, at least eventually,
I don't know if Peter Wallow believed this or not,
but some Waldensians, by adhering to the Bible, taught and believed in the doctrine of faith alone,
since they decided to align with the movement of Protestantism in the 16th century, which taught faith alone.
And their confession of faith in 1655 does show that they taught a grace alone through faith alone salvation,
and keep in mind that that was after they joined with the Reformed Church, so it's possible that that was adopted later.
Again, I don't know. Based on reasoning, it would seem likely, and also based on the fact that they were reading the Bible
and looking at that as their sole authority, and they taught against many other doctrines of the Catholic Church,
it seems possible that they taught this and believed this as well.
So, in all, the Waldengies were a group that challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church
several centuries before Martin Luther and the other Reformers,
and in doctrine, they greatly resemble true biblical Christianity.
They were a remnant of true believers seen in history,
just as some of the other believers who I've talked about on this channel over the last few months,
who could have even possibly predated Peter Waldo,
because a Catholic inquisitor named Renerus Saccho, he in 1230, the year 1230,
wrote that the Waldengians were a sect of antiquity, and that they preceded Waldo by at least several centuries.
So the possibility is that the issue of voluntary poverty and adherence to the Bible,
which were the things that Waldo stressed a lot,
that those things only became more well-known because Waldo was a Catholic priest,
and he taught this, and he was declared as a heretic publicly by the Catholic Church,
and he became famous, and his doctrines became famous,
and there were a lot of other Catholic clergy who left the Catholic Church,
or who renounced their wealth, or were declared heretics because of their teachings.
So it's possible that some of the other beliefs, some of the other rejections,
such as the rejection of transubstantiation, adherence to only two sacraments and things like that,
predated Peter Waldo, and you can see that in some of the other groups, such as the Pelicians,
which I talked about back in, I think, August or September.
So yeah, that's the Waldengies. They still exist today,
but again, as I pointed out, they've kind of formed with the Reformed Church,
so they're kind of like the same, they're just called, they still call themselves the Waldengies,
but they're pretty much just Calvinists,
and there's not much difference between them and the Reformed churches in Europe,
so yeah, that's, so, but back then, they were teaching the Bible and preaching against the Catholic Church,
so that's the story of the Waldengies.
Thank you everybody for watching. Quick video, I guess. Goodbye.