Peter Waldo

Life and work

Waldo was a prosperous merchant in Lyon who, moved by a conversion experience around 1173, gave away his wealth, commissioned vernacular translations of scripture, and began preaching a message of voluntary poverty and lay biblical literacy.

His followers, known as the "Poor of Lyon" or Waldensians, preached without formal ecclesiastical authorization, which brought them into conflict with the local archbishop and, in 1184, formal condemnation as heretics by the church at the Synod of Verona, largely over the question of unauthorized lay preaching rather than doctrine.

Despite persecution across succeeding centuries, Waldensian communities survived in isolated valleys of the Alps between France and Italy, developing their own distinct religious identity emphasizing scripture in the vernacular and rejection of certain Catholic practices such as purgatory and the veneration of saints.

In the sixteenth century, the surviving Waldensian churches formally aligned themselves with the Protestant Reformation, and Waldensian communities continue to exist today, making the movement one of the longest-lived pre-Reformation dissenting Christian traditions.

Dating

Very little is known of Waldo's life with certainty; even his exact death date and location are debated among historians, with some sources placing his death as late as 1218.

Historical evidence

No writings by Waldo himself survive; what is known of him comes from hostile ecclesiastical records and later Waldensian tradition.

Further reading

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Waldenses