Figure 1.--Many herecies like the Arians and Cathars were stamped out by the Catholic Church. The Waldensians managed to survive, largely because they eventually merged with the Protestants and there wersafvpalves whrre they could seek refuge. Even so there were bloody massacres. One Church tactic was to take the children away from their boarents. This was also used against the Huguenots. The illustrator here was J.F. Night. We have been unable to to find anyb infiormation avout him. IIt would date to the 17th century. It illiustrates the Waldensians being driven nout of the Piedmony (northern Italy) by Church authorities and the Duke of Savoy. The soldiers here are the Duke's men. Several thousand Waldesians were masacered there (1655). It was known as the Easter Massacre. The illustration in modrrn times was published by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Illustrations like these were used as propaganbda during the 16th abd 17h century. Many are part of the Black Legend that Spainards today find offensive. Propaganda of course is not always false, but as histiorians has to be taken in context. The brutality of the event inspired John Milton’s sonnet 'On the Late Massacre in Piedmont'.
The Waldensians were a religious movement that arose in the late Middle Ages (12th century). Thet are also called Waldenses or the Vaudois. They are often seem as a precursor to the Protestant Reformation with which they eventually merged. The movement began among traveling Catholic lay preachers. Overtime they encountered persecution they broke from Catholicism and with he outbreak of Reformation embraced Calvinism (16th century). The founder of the movement is commonly seen as Peter Waldo (Valdes). He was a wealthy merchant in Lyons, France. Waldo renounced his considerable wealth (1174). He began giving his money away to the poor and be gan living a life of poverty and reflection. Waldo then decided to become a traveling preacher and to share his relgious ideas (1176). He attracted followers. They were described as the Poor Men of Lyons. At this eraly stage they continued to see themselves as committed Roman Catholic. They soon encountered with the established church. There were two issues. First, theselay preachers had no formal training as clergy and were not authoriuzed by Church authorities. Second, they had some Bibles or scripts in the vernacular. We note references that they vwere 'handing out Bibles in the vernacular'. This cannot be the case. At the time a Bible was a verty expensive, valuable item. Thy were hand writtenin beautiful caligrapghy as well as illutrated by scribes on parliament. They could not have had very many and could not possibly have passed them out. But the mere fact that they had a Bible in the vernacular was an issue. The Church was hardset against that. Bibles could only be produced in Latin. The Church wanted the faithful to be guided by the clergy not do a lot of Bible reading whuch would get them thinking. The Church saw from an eraly point that Bible reading would lead to different intrpretations. This would become a najor issue of the Reformation. The Church was quite correct about that. In contrst to one Catholic faith, the Protestants reading the Bible for themnselves split into countless different denominations. As part nof that porocess, Protestants had tomquestion the issue of heresy, both with Catholics and other Oritestant sects. Church authoirities told Waldo and his Pauperes not to preaching without the permission of the local clergy. They continud do so leading to counless brutal expilssions and massacetss. Europe had advanvced somewhat. Unlike the Cathars which were often wiped out en mass, the Waldensinas like the Hugenoughts during the Europoan religuious Wars (17th century) were sometimes just expelled like the Huguenots, but not before taking the children away from their parents.
