Waldensianism
The Waldensians, founded in 1177 by Peter Waldo, were a Christian denomination prominent in the western Alps (in today's France). They rejected the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, instead choosing to follow the Bible alone. Thus they can be seen as a form of proto-Protestantism. The Catholic Church declared their views heretical, and began to persecute them; many Waldensians were martyred, and many others had to flee to remote places (such as the Alps) to escape persecution.
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They are widely admired by Protestants as forerunners of the Reformation, even by those Protestant groups that do not directly descend from them. When the Protestant Reformation came in the 1500s, many of the Waldensians joined in, with the bulk of them adopting Calvinism. There is still a Waldensian church surviving in Italy to this day, the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, adhering to a broadly Calvinist outlook.[1]
In 2015, Pope Francis asked them to forgive the Church for historic persecution.[2]
Pseudohistorical claims
During the Protestant Reformation, the doctrine of apostolic succession
References
- http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_Evangelica_Valdese
- https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/06/22/pope-francis-asks-waldensian-christians-to-forgive-the-church/
- Waldenses at the Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org).
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