Short History of the Waldensians – A Chronology

Why this “Short History”? 

This chronology was created with the aim of giving an idea of the extremely long Waldensian history in its continuity. Hundreds of books have been written, often of high academic standard, but – precisely because of their accuracy – they are usually devoted to individual events or specific periods. It is therefore not surprising that even many Waldensians who are well acquainted with their own history find it difficult to grasp the entire subject even conceptually. There are also abbreviated or very short Waldensian histories, but they only account for a few facts, inevitably filtered, especially in the last decades, according to very particular sensibilities (or ideologies). With a bit of audacity we attempt to put it all together, without academic pretensions, fully aware that we will place extremely important events alongside others of far lesser relevance, particularly as we approach the present day. We nevertheless believe that this chronology is a useful reference tool.

Moreover, we had had enough of not knowing what to recommend to those who asked us for guidance on learning more about Waldensian history. The best would be Israël des Alpes by Alexis Muston, but – besides the high price and the difficulty to find it – it dates back more than a century and a half, thus lacking recent history. The more recent works all conform to the dogma that before Waldo everyone was a good Catholic, faithful to the Pope, and on the last century they are reticent, sweetened, or even mendacious, describing a reality in which all Waldensians agree on all the political, ideological, and theological drifts that are instead the result of the action of a minority through a series of accomplished facts and ambiguities intended not to scandalize the majority of the people, while deceiving them.

We ask readers to point out errors or other facts and data that should be added.

A special note is needed for the question of the event from which to begin this chronology. After all we have written about the Waldensians before Waldo, we could not start with the conversion of the merchant of Lyon, but at least with Bishop Claudius (IX century). Many ancient sources, however, speak of a much older Waldensian or pre-Waldensian specificity, involving a Leo from the time of Emperor Constantine, and even the apostles James and Paul. We therefore thought: let us start from the Head of the Church, Jesus of Nazareth. He, however, is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, and we therefore decided to start from the birth of the latter, using, as much as possibile, the biblical datings. The Waldensians make no sense without Jesus, head and founder of the Church. And Jesus himself explained to his disciples who he is making reference to the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). In short: there is only one history, in the hands of God.

“The Valleys”

The valleys of the most stable Waldensian presence are here called “Valleys”, and not “Waldensian Valleys”, both for brevity and in homage to Jean Léger’s explanation that the very word “Waldensian” derives from “valleys”.

2166 BC Birth of Abraham (biblical dating, as the following)  

2091 BC Call of Abraham: “I will make of thee a great nation… and be thou a blessing”  

2066 BC Birth of Isaac  

2054–2030 BC Offering of Isaac: God promises Abraham: “In your offspring all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed”  

2006 BC Birth of Jacob and Esau  

1991 BC Death of Abraham

  

c. 1916 BC Birth of Joseph  

c. 1885 BC Joseph rules Egypt

  

c. 1876 BC Jacob and his family move to Egypt  

c. 1806 BC Death of Joseph  

1526 BC Birth of Moses  

Passover 1446 BC The people of Israel, freed from slavery, leave Egypt: the first Passover  

1446 BC The people of Israel receive the Ten Commandments  

1406 BC Death of Moses; the people of Israel cross the Jordan and enter their land under Joshua’s leadership. Capture of Jericho  

c. 1040 BC Birth of David  

c. 1010 BC David king  

c. 1003 BC David king of all the land of Israel  

c. 997 BC God promises David a descendant whose kingdom will last forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me”  

c. 970 BC Death of King David  

c. 730 BC Isaiah prophesies: “A child is born to us… he will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom.”  

473 BC Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jews, foiled by Queen Esther. King Xerxes’ edict in favor of the Jews  

14 March 445 BC Artaxerxes I Longimanus, Great King of Persia, authorizes Nehemiah by decree to rebuild Jerusalem  

2 BC Birth of Jesus, descendant of King David (hypothesis of historical-biblical dating, as the following)  

January 30 AD Baptism of Jesus, about a year after the beginning of his preaching  

February 31 AD Jesus sends his disciples to preach  

21 October 31 AD Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth): Jesus in the Temple proclaims his mission  

Sunday 6 April 32 AD Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; he is acclaimed  

Tuesday 8 April 32 AD Last Supper (we report here the hypothesis of a Wednesday crucifixion, before the Passover feast days, in accordance with the Scriptures that speak of Jesus’ death “for three days and three nights”; during the Passover festivities the “Sabbaths”, meaning feast days with abstention from work, are more than one)  

Wednesday 9 April 32 AD Trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus  

Saturday 12 April 32 AD Before sunset. Jesus rises fro the dead

  

Sunday 13 April 32 AD Morning. The women and the disciples find the empty tomb  

Thursday 22 May 32 AD Jesus ascends to the Father  

Sunday 1 June 32 AD Pentecost: the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles in Jerusalem  

c. 34 AD Martyrdom of Stephen  

c. 36 AD Conversion of Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus  

c. 36–44 AD Paul preaches in Arabia and Syria  

c. 46–48 AD Paul’s missionary journey in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey)  

c. 49 AD Council of Jerusalem, presided over by James, in the presence of Peter, Paul and the other major apostles. It establishes that adherence to Judaism is not necessary for those converted to Christ  

c. 50–52 AD Paul’s missionary journey to Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece  

51 AD According to a tradition, Barnabas, friend of the apostle Paul, founds the church of Milan. In the same period, according to another tradition, the apostle James – on his way to the Iberian Peninsula – passed through the Valleys, bringing the authentic Gospel  

c. 53–57 AD Paul’s third journey: Asia Minor again, then Macedonia  

c. 57–60 AD Paul arrested in the Temple of Jerusalem, imprisoned in Caesarea, taken by sea to Rome after a shipwreck in Malta  

c. 62 AD Martyrdom of James  

c. 63 AD Possible journey of Paul to Spain and passage through the Piedmont Valleys  

c. 64–65 AD Paul’s missionary journey to Ephesus, Crete, and Macedonia  

29 Jne 67 AD Martyrdom of Paul in Rome (traditional dating)  

66–313 AD Persecutions against Christians. Some historians believe that the Valleys were populated by people who found there a safe refuge, thanks to the harshness of the terrain.  

2nd century According to some scholars, particularly accurate texts of the New Testament books – free from Gnostic heresy (which later flourished with its centre in Alexandria, Egypt, and influenced the versions that today are preferred), as well as from the influence of the Roman church that under Constantine became intertwined with the imperial power – arrive in northern Italy from Asia Minor. This will favor a long doctrinal autonomy from Rome of this area.

  

177 AD Irenaeus becomes the second bishop of Lyon. Originally from Smyrna, disciple of Polycarp, who was in turn a disciple of the apostle John. According to C.H. Strong and others, he may have preached in the Valleys on his way from Italy to Lyon.

  

3rd–4th century Epic of the Bagaudae, Celtic rebels against Rome who controlled for a long time vast territories of present-day France. The historian Roger Morrice, who wrote in England between 1677 and 1691, reports the belief that the Waldensians descended from them.

  

286–302 Secundus, a Roman soldier of Greco-Egyptian origin, is killed in Piedmont for his Christian faith. The town of San Secondo near Pinerolo, on the border of the Waldensian area, is named after him. According to Alexis Muston, this is proof that at least from this time the Valleys were Christianised. Actually, tradition says that Secundus was put to death in Salussola, a hundred kilometers north-east of San Secondo, but also that he refused to take part in an action against the Bagaudae because they were Christians.

  

21 October 309 Death of Pope Eusebius, the last not to know the allure of the imperial power  

January 313 Emperor Constantine issues the Edict of Milan: Christianity is accepted in the Empire. End of Roman persecutions  

31 January 314 Pope Sylvester I elected  

7 March 321 An edict of Emperor Constantine recognizes Sunday as a feast day. Several sources report that even in the Middle Ages the Waldensians observed Saturday  

31 December 335 Death of Pope Sylvester I. During his pontificate the Church of Rome receives power and wealth from Emperor Constantine. 

Was Leo the first Waldensian?

According to an ancient tradition, Leo, friend of Sylvester, foreseeing the bad influence of power and wealth on the Church, leaves Rome and reaches the valleys of Piedmont. For this reason the Waldensians were also called Leonists.  

From that time onward the Church of Rome certainly received great riches, became increasingly involved in political and power quarrels, and openly welcomed a large number of pagan traditions and rites, visible also in the Marian cult, which takes up many aspects of the cult of Isis or other ancient female deities, in the overlapping of Christian feasts with pagan ones and in the title of pontifex maximus, a religious-political office of ancient pagan Rome, assumed by the bishop of Rome. A very different situation from that of economically and politically more marginal places, such as the Valleys, where Christianity remained, at least for practical reasons, simpler, more attentive to spiritual and substantial aspects, less to external and formal ones, linked to the Scriptures and not to added traditions. In this context, although this disturbs historians of the last 150 years, it is plausible that in the Valleys people gradually felt different from the pomp and power of the high Roman Catholic hierarchies

22 May 337 Death of Constantine in Nicomedia

  

c. 370 Birth in Calagurris, present-day Saint-Martory in Aquitaine, southern France, of Vigilantius, theologian 

 

27 February 380 Emperor Theodosius promulgates the Edict of Thessalonica: Christianity, as defined by the Council of Nicaea, is the religion of the Empire

  

385 Priscillian, bishop of Ávila, is burned at the stake: the first person executed for heresy  

c. 403 AD Vigilantius, after travels to Palestine and Egypt, where he meets Jerome (known as St Jerome, Doctor of the Catholic Roman Church), writes a treatise (of which only Jerome’s refutation “Contra Vigilantium” has come down to us) in which he criticizes the cult of relics, clerical celibacy, and the excessive honors reserved for the monks. Vigilantius will generally be considered a heretic, but the memory of his positions will remain alive for a very long time; his theses and Jerome’s book republished by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516 helped inspire the reformer Louis de Berquin, burned at the stake in Paris in 1529. The historian Monastier cites him as evidence of the religious diversity of southern France

  

12 March 604 Death of Pope Gregory I (the Great). According to Calvin, he was the last good pope

13 May 609 Pope Boniface IV dedicates the pagan temple of the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin and all the martyrs. 13 May soon becomes the feast of All Saints, overlapping the pagan feast of the spirits of the dead called Lemuria. The feast will later be moved to November 1st, but there is no trace of it in the Waldensian world, not even to reject its biblical foundation. This may indicate that the root of the Waldensians is earlier than this date  

25 March 717 Leo III becomes Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire

  

726 Emperor Leo III orders the destruction of sacred images throughout the empire  

754 The Fifth Council of Constantinople (Hieria), convened by Emperor Constantine V, condemns worshipping images as idolatrous heresy  

8 September 780 Death of Emperor Leo IV, who opposed to worshipping images  

c. 780 Future bishop Claudius born in Spain  

786 The Seventh Ecumenical Council meets in Constantinople: most of the attending bishops  are opposed to worshipping images. The council is interrupted by an incursion of the army.  

28 September 787 Irene, regent of Emperor Constantine VI, after purging the army and keeping away the opposing bishops, resumes the Council in Nicaea 

 

23 October 787 The Second Council of Nicaea concludes, introducing the obligation of the cult of images. Pope Adrian I accepts the decision

  

794 The Synod of Frankfurt, convened by Charlemagne in the presence of papal legates, rejects the conclusions of the Second Council of Nicaea about images

  

798–799 Claudius settles in Lyon

  

25 December 800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans, removing the title from the emperor of Constantinople, at that moment Constantine VI in co-regency with Irene, who did not accept the supremacy of the bishop of Rome

  

19 May 804 Death of Alcuin of York, scholar and theologian at Charlemagne’s court. C.H. Strong reports that in one of his writings he stated that the churches of the Alps did not practise auricular confession

  

c. 809 Claudius writes his commentary on Genesis, the first of a long series of biblical commentaries in which he opposes the novelties recently introduced by the Pope, including the cult of images and the veneration of the Cross  

28 January 814 Death of Charlemagne, succeeded by his son, Louis the Pious  

c. 815 Emperor Louis the Pious appoints Claudius bishop of Turin  

25 January 817 Pope Paschal I elected  

817 In his commentary on Matthew, Claudius writes that an apostolic is one who follows the doctrine of the apostles, not one who sits on Peter’s chair  

821 Claudius commands the military mobilization against Saracen incursions in Liguria  

823 The theologians of the Palatine School of Aachen refuse to condemn Claudius’ writings as heretical; on the contrary, they have them widely copied

  

825 The Synod of Paris again addresses the question of the cult of images and appoints a new commission to examine Claudius’ writings; he calls the commission “a congregation of asses”  

827 Claudius commands the new military mobilization against Saracen incursions in Liguria  

early January 828 Death of Bishop Claudius. Until at least the mid-19th century the Waldensians considered him part of the Waldensian apostolic continuity. The Waldensian publishing house Claudiana is named after him

  

1 November 835 Pope Gregory III moves the feast of the martyrs from 13 May to 1 November to absorb the Celtic feast of Samhain. In the Waldensian world there is no trace of such celebrations, an element that testifies in favor of an origin dating back at least to the time of Bishop Claudius

  

6 June 840 Death of Agobard, bishop of Lyon. Like Claudius, opposed worshipping images. Unlike Claudius, he had them destroyed, promoted hatred against the Jews, and was proclaimed a saint

  

March 843 The Synod of Constantinople definitively legitimizes the cult of images  

924 Atto is appointed bishop of Vercelli. He affirms that the Church is founded on the confession of faith and not on hierarchy. He supports the right of the laity to participate in the election of bishops

  

928 Ratherius, a Belgian, is appointed bishop of Verona. He openly rejects the authority of the Pope, whom he calls “Supreme (in wickedness) Pontiff”, and calls his excommunication “purchased papers”

  

963 AD Emperor Otto convenes a synod in Rome that defines the reigning Pope, John XII, as “most wicked and monstrous”

  

2 November 998 The Roman Catholic feast of All Souls is instituted to completely obliterate the Celtic feast of Samhain. The Waldensians never adhered to such celebrations  

September 1050 Pope Leo IX presides over the Council of Vercelli to condemn as heretical the theses of Berengar of Tours (998–1088) against transubstantiation, who maintained that during the Eucharist Jesus is present symbolically and not really

  

16 July 1054 Pope Leo IX excommunicates the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius, who does not accept priestly celibacy, the shaving of the beard, and the Eucharist with unleavened bread. Michael responds by excommunicating the Pope. This is the so-called Schism of the East, which the Eastern churches call the Schism of the West  

22 April 1073 Hildebrand of Soana is elected pope and takes the name Gregory VII. During his twelve-year pontificate he introduces papal supremacy over every other authority: only he can appoint and revoke bishops, modify the territories of dioceses, bear imperial insignia, depose the emperor, reform any sentence. He establishes that the Roman Church has never erred and will never err, that a validly elected Pope is undoubtedly holy, that all princes must kiss his feet, that no one who appeals to him can be condemned, that no one who is not in communion with him can be considered Catholic  

1101 Self-dating of the Waldensian poem “Nobla Leyczon” (“We see that the end of this world is approaching, a thousand and one hundred years are fully accomplished since the hour was written”). One could as well think that the 1100 years begin at time of Christ’s death and resurrection. That would move the dating to 1134 or so. Today most scholars that the 1100 years begin at the time of Emperor Constantine and his supposed donation (quite a weak hypotesis). The poem sets out a synthesis of Christian doctrine, exhorts to prayer and temperance, praises the true Christian church – that is, the one that remained faithful – attributes the persecution of the Waldensians (defined as those who do not lie, do not swear, and do not rob their neighbor) to the corruption of the clergy.  

c. 1137 Birth of Waldo of Lyon (or Peter Waldo, or Valdès)

  

Spring 1173 (or 1174) Conversion of Waldo: he distributes his goods to the poor and preaches in the streets and squares, seeing that the clergy do not  

5 March 1179 The Third Lateran Ecumenical Council opens. Some followers of Waldo, and perhaps he himself, are present and obtain authorization to preach, provided the peaching is exhortative, without doctrinal exposition or exegesis  

1180 The papal legate Henri de Marci, in Lyon for a campaign against the Cathars, certifies the doctrinal orthodoxy of Waldo  

April 1183 Jean Bellemani, hostile to the Waldensians, becomes bishop of Lyon  

4 November 1184 Pope Lucius III promulgates the constitution “Ad abolendam diversarum haeresium pravitatem” with anathema against those who disobey the Church, such as “those who pretend to be Poor of Lyon” (i.e. followers of Waldo)

c. 1185 Waldo and his followers excommunicated by Bishop Bellemani for preaching without authorization beyond the imposed limitations  

1199 Pope Innocent III recommends to the clergy and faithful of Metz not to allow lay people to spread the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular

  

c. 1206 Death of Waldo, according to many historians  

1214 According to the French historian and theologian Nicolas Vignier (1530–1596), “seven Waldensians from Provence were burned this year”. From the Waldensians “a hundred years earlier the Albigensian heresy had come”. This would indicate the existence of Waldensians long before Waldo  

14 December 1215 Fourth Lateran Council: declares Cathars and Waldensians heretical, establishes the use of force to repress them, introduces severe discrimination for Jews, papal primacy, the impossibility for lay people to appoint ecclesiastical offices, the obligation of annual confession. Transubstantiation is proclaimed a dogma of faith  

1217 According to a tradition, Waldo dies in Bohemia  

22 November 1220 On the day of his coronation, Emperor Frederick II promulgates a constitution against “heretics”, including the “Leonists”, i.e., the Waldensians (called Leonists because followers of Leo – see year 355)  

1220 The Statutes of Pinerolo condemn to a fine anyone who hosts a Waldensian  

Is Peter Waldo really the first Waldensian?

The fact that so few years after Waldo’s preaching there were Waldensians in the Valleys area and that in large parts of these they were the entire population supports the “ancient” hypothesis of Waldensian origin. Only in the 18th century was an artificial “parish” Catholic church instituted in every Waldensian village, often consisting of the priest alone with one servant. As Waldensian historians once wrote, Waldo was therefore the greatest, but certainly not the oldest of the Waldensians. Otherwise, how to explain the immediate and total adherence of mountain populations, in geographically vast areas with difficult internal connections, to a “new” religion, and that no trace of this remains either in the Waldensian memory or in that of the Catholic hierarchy, which at the time could certainly not have ignored the expulsion or conversion of a few dozen parish priests by their parishioners who “had become Waldensians”? Equally improbable is that the Valleys had become the settlement of people arriving from Lyon after the expulsion of Waldo’s followers, since this does not explain what fate the original inhabitants would have suffered, nor the fact that the oldest Waldensian works found are in an Alpine language and not in that of Lyon. Much more likely that the people of the Valleys welcomed Waldo, or more probably his preaching, as a confirmation, a strengthening of what they had always thought and believed, in the same way as would happen with the Reformation.  

The historian Jean Léger believed that Waldo, often cited as Peter Waldo, was actually a nickname: Peter, called Waldo because he was Waldensian, and that the word “Waldensian” originally indicated the Christians of the Valleys. Only later, at the time of repression, did the word come to designate, even generically, heretical persons. Waldo’s success certainly had the effect of drawing the attention of the hierarchies not only to the new areas of expansion, but also to the Valleys, which until then had been safe

1226–1235 Bans on reading Bible translations in the vernacular are released in Toulouse, Narbonne, Trèves, Béziers, Mainz, Tarragona, Arles, Avignon  

13 January 1228 A decree of the mayor of Milan against the “Poor of Lyon”, i.e., Waldensians, proves their presence in the city  

20 April 1233 Pope Gregory IX with the bull “Licet ad capiendos” institutes the Inquisition

  

1233 The Lords of Luserna submit to the count of Savoy on condition of maintaining their privileges and the free exercise of worship for the Waldensians. Difficult to explain this condition if Waldensianism was a recent heresy

  

13th century Spreading of the Waldensians in Provence, Dauphiné, Alsace, Lorraine, Spain, Switzerland, Italy as far as Calabria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia  

1250 The inquisitor Raynerus Sacconi in his “Summa de Catharis et Leonistis sive de Pauperibus de Lugduno” reports the doctrines of the “Leonists” or “Poor of Lyon”: swearing is sin, even a layman or a woman can celebrate the Eucharist, the Roman church remained the church of Christ only until Pope Sylvester I, then it became the beast and the whore of the Apocalypse, but there always remained someone who feared God and was saved, it is not sin to eat meat in Lent and on Fridays, children can be saved even without baptism, the Church is the assembly of believers

  

15 May 1252 With the bull “Ad extirpandam” Pope Innocent IV authorizes the use of torture to obtain confessions from heretics and to burn at the stake the guilty

  

1289 Persecution against the Waldensians of the Embrun and Briançon area  

18 November 1302 Pope Boniface VIII promulgates the bull “Unam Sanctam Ecclesiam” in which he affirms that: there is only one Church, outside which there is no salvation; the head of the Church is Christ who operates through the successors of Peter, i.e., the popes; the two swords, spiritual and temporal, belong to the Church, which wields the spiritual one, while the temporal one, wielded by the king, must be used according to the instructions of the priests; the Church has supreme spiritual power and whoever resists it resists God  

1312 A woman is burned at the stake in Pinerolo accused of being Waldensian  

1315 Landowners in the Cosenza area offer the Waldensians land exempt from feudal obligations. Hundreds of Waldensians from the Valleys accept and maintain their religion for centuries. Their Occitan language still survives today.  

1323 Pope John XXII promulgates the bull “Cum Inter Nonnullos” which considers heretical all opinions affirming the total poverty of Jesus and the Apostles

  

23 July 1332 Pope John XXII is informed of the spread of the Waldensians: in Val d’Angrogna synods are held attended by 500 people. New persecution against the Waldensians of the Embrun and Briançon area

  

1344 The persecuted Waldensians of Freysinières flee to Piedmont, but soon return  

December 1366 The Waldensians of Barcelonette, at that time Duchy of Savoy (today France), receive the order to convert or leave the duchy. During their journey to the valley of Freyssinières, France, many die of cold, including sixteen children  

22 May 1393 Embrun. 230 Waldensians are condemned to be burned at the stake and to have their goods confiscated

  

c. 1425 Current prevalent but debatable dating of the “Nobla Leyczon” (see year 1101)  

30 May 1431 Joan of Arc, who from a peasant family had come to command armies of the French army achieving several important victories against the English invaders, is burned at the stake in Rouen, accused of various charges, above all of being a heretic, and therefore “Waldensian”, as recorded in the trial records

1450 The entire Pellice valley is accused of resisting the authorities because of the uncontested Waldensian presence and activity

6 March 1458 The Waldensian barba (preacher) Frederick Reiser is burned at the stake in Strasbourg. He was German, and worked also in Switzerland, Bohemia and Poland

  

1475 Duchess Yolande of Valois, widow of Duke Amadeus IX of Savoy and regent for her son Duke Philibert I, orders the authorities of the duchy to support the Inquisition against the Waldensians. The Count of Luserna himself is fined  

23 January 1476 Duchess Yolande orders the lords of Pinerolo and Cavour to bring the Waldensians back into the Roman Catholic Church by any means. The Waldensians reply that the Catholic Church should first be brought back to the Gospel

  

29 August 1484 Innocent VIII elected Pope. He immediately exhorts to fight against the “heretics”  

late 1484 Duke Charles I of Savoy launches a persecution against the Waldensians, who defend themselves bravely. Only at Rocciamaneoud (Angrogna) do the soldiers prevail over the defenders. The local people invoke God’s help; the gigantic captain of the persecutors, called “the Black man of Mondovì”, mocks them, raises the visor of his helmet and is immediately struck between his eyes by an arrow forcefully shot by Pierino Revel, a Waldensian boy. The Waldensian fighters throw themselves on the soldiers left without a commander, killing many and putting the others to flight. The story, downgraded to “a legend inspired by the story of David and Goliath” by 19th- and 20th-century historians, has recently been confirmed by Catholic sources of the time. The next day, a contingent attempting to storm Pra del Torno from the valley floor is annihilated thanks to a sudden fog and the readiness of the Waldensians to attack, first by rolling boulders on the enemies and then assaulting them with their daggers

1487 Pope Innocent VIII promulgates the bull “Inter Multiplices” which introduces prior censorship of books, which in 1501 Alexander VI extends to all Christendom

  

1487–1489 The papal legate Alberto Cattaneo launches a persecution against the Waldensians of the Dauphiné

  

March 1488 The French persecutors occupy Val Pragelato. The Waldensians respond with a Declaration of Faith that ends: “We wish to please God and not men”. The Waldensian population of Prali rejects the troops of Count Ugo La Palud  

1490–1520 About 6000 Waldensians from the Valleys move to the village of Mérindol in the Luberon (France), that had been uninhabited for a century

  

31 March 1492 Decree of the Alhambra by the Catholic Kings of Spain Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon obliging Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave the country by 31 July. Those who make false conversions, or remain in the territory or return to it, as well as those who help them, are punished with death and confiscation of goods. About 100,000 Jews left Spain, some of whom arrived in the Valleys where they found tolerance for their different religion, later joining the Waldensian faith. This would be proved by some Waldensian surnames of obvious Jewish origin such as Benech, Michelin Salomon, Talmon, and perhaps others such as David.  

1492 “Barba Martino”, Francesco di Girundino, is arrested in Val Chisone and burned at the stake  

1500 Martin Gonin born in Angrogna  

1505 Pierre Olivetano, cousin of Calvin, born in Noyon  

10 July 1509 John Calvin born in Noyon  

1513 The Scottish reformer John Knox Birth born in Haddington  

19 December 1516 Pope Leo X promulgates the bull “Supremae Maiestatis” establishing that no one may preach publicly without first being examined and approved by ecclesiastical superiors

  

31 October 1517 Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, starting the Protestant Reformation  

3 January 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther  

18 April 1521 Luther’s speech at the Diet of Worms: “Unless I am convinced by testimonies of the Scriptures or by evident reasons – for I trust neither the Pope nor the Councils alone, since it is certain that they have often erred and contradicted themselves – I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God, and I can and will not retract anything, seeing that it is neither safe nor right to act against conscience. May God help me. Amen”  

25 May 1521 The Diet of Worms declares Luther an outlaw  

Summer 1526 The Waldensian Synod held in Laux, Val Chisone, decides to send the barbas Giorgio of Calabria and Martin Gonin of Angrogna to Switzerland to make contact with the Reformed churches. They will meet Guillaume Farel  

1523 Luther’s letter to Charles III Duke of Savoy urging religious reform. The letter remained unanswered

1530 Offensive by the inquisitor Jean de Roma against the Waldensians of Mérindol and the rest of the Luberon. King Francis I of France, informed that the proceeds of the looting were pocketed by the inquisitor, stops the persecutions. An assembly of barbas of the Dauphiné decides to send Morel of Freyssinières and Masson of Burgundy to Switzerland and Germany, where they meet the reformers Farel, Oecolampadius, and Bucer.  

Waldensian church before joining the reformation

In the context of contacts between the Waldensians and the Reformed churches, a report is drawn up on how the Waldensian church has functioned “from time immemorial”. The preachers, called “barba” (“uncle” in the local language), were trained at Pra del Torno, memorized large parts of the New Testament, especially Matthew, John, and various epistles, learned Latin, Italian, and the local language. After two or three years of instruction during the winter and a period of retreat, they were consecrated to their ministry with the laying on of hands. They were supported by voluntary offerings from the faithful, one third of which went to the poor, and they learned a trade so that they could support themselves in any case. When they went on mission, they travelled two by two, an elder and a young man. Usually they did not marry because of their travels and the grave risks they faced. They already held an annual synod in the Valleys that elected a president or moderator.  

Their doctrines

Waldensian doctrine, even before joining the Reformation, was based on the absolute authority of the Bible, from which one could deduce the Trinity of God, the awareness of man’s sin, the salvation by grace through Jesus Christ, and faith in action through charitable works. They did not treat the problem of the number of sacraments since that word does not appear in the Scripture, they practiced confession emphasizing that the fundamental one is that made to God from the depths of one’s heart, while that with a pastor or brother can help receiving good advice but if it remains only formal leads to perdition. Penance was admitted as an expression of repentance, not as a means of expiation. They considered it idolatry to invoke the intercession of priests and saints and denied the existence of Purgatory. As the Nobla Leyczon says: “if someone does not curse, does not swear, does not lie, does not commit injustices and robberies, does not give himself to debauchery and does not take revenge on enemies, they call him Waldensian and say he must be put to death”. 

 

12 September 1532 The Waldensian Synod, meeting in Chanforan, Val Pellice, decides to adhere to the Reformation

  

late 1532 Two barbas of the Dauphiné, Daniel of Valence and Jean of Molines, oppose the Chanforan decision and seek support in Bohemia  

Summer 1533 The Waldensian Synod held in Prali confirms adherence to the Reformation  

3 November 1534 King Henry VIII establishes the Church of England  

29 January 1535 Edict of King Francis I of France against all Protestants. The Waldensians of the Luberon take up arms and conquer several strongholds, having their refuges in the forests  

29 March 1535 The bishop of Cavaillon, 25 km south-east of Avignon, announces in a letter to the archbishop of Turin that 13 Waldensians originally from Piedmont found in his diocese have been sentenced to be burned at the stake

  

4 June 1535 The French Bible translated by Olivetano, requested and paid for by the Waldensians, is published in Neuchâtel

August 1535 Pantaleone Bersore, lord of Miradolo, attacks the Waldensians in Val d’Angrogna with 500 armed men but is defeated. A few weeks later, an edict of the Duke of Savoy prohibits attacking or molesting the Waldensians

 

26 April 1536 The barba Martin Gonin is arrested on the Col d’Orsières, accused of espionage. Taken to Grenoble, he is acquitted of this charge but, found in possession of Protestant writings, is condemned to death for heresy. The authorities avoid a public execution; he is strangled and thrown into the river Isère

June 1536 The citizens of Geneva decide to adhere to the Reformation  

1538 Death in Rome, perhaps by poisoning, of Pierre Olivetano  

18 November 1540 After the Waldensians of Mérindol, in reaction to the burning of a miller and the confiscation of his mill, take up arms in rebellion, King Francis I issues the Edict of Mérindol condemning 19 Waldensian leaders to death, banishing their families and ordering the village razed to the ground, its forests cut down and fruit trees uprooted. But faced with the attitude of the Waldensians and the intervention of the German Protestant princes his allies, the King grants amnesty  

1541 Calvin publishes “Institutio Christianae Religionis” in Basel. In the last chapter of the last book he writes: “We are subject to the men who govern us, but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against Him, let us pay no attention at all, nor be moved by all the dignity they possess as magistrates, a dignity to which no injury is done when it is subordinated to the special and truly supreme power of God. For this reason Daniel denies having sinned in any way against the king when he refused to obey his wicked decree (Dan. 6:22), because the king had exceeded his limits, and not only had been harmful to men, but, by raising his pride against God, had virtually abrogated his own power.” The Waldensians had already applied this principle several times in the past and would do so many times in the future

 

1544 The archbishop of Arles, the bishop of Aix-en-Provence and other prelates, meeting in Avignon, ask the King, “for the salvation of his soul”, to revoke the amnesty for the Waldensians of the Luberon, claiming they were able to enlist fifteen thousand men and attack Aix or Marseille in alliance with Switzerland

1 January 1545 New edict of Francis I against the Waldensians of France  

13–18 April 1545 A small army gathered by the baron of Oppède attacks the Waldensian villages of the Luberon one by one, completely destroying them and killing all the inhabitants they manage to lay hands on

  

20 May 1553 The Holy Office entrusts the vicar of the archbishop of Naples with the task of “combating heresy” in southern Italy

  

17 April 1555 The Reformed pastors of Geneva Jean Vernou and Jean Lauvergeat hold public worship in Fenestrelle, Val Chisone

  

25 September 1555 Peace of Augsburg. The principle “Cuius regio eius religio” is established, according to which the Waldensians should embrace the Catholic religion of the Duke of Savoy or go into exile  

1555 Public worship is inaugurated in the Temple of Ciabas, Val Pellice  

4 May 1557 The pastor Nicolò Sartoris of Chieri, son of the notary Leonard, who had been arrested and died in prison, is burned alive in Aosta for heresy  

June 1557 Bartolomeo Héctor is strangled and burned in Piazza Castello in Turin for his Protestant faith  

1557 At least from this time, twelve full-time pastors take care of the churches of the Valleys  

29 March 1558 The Waldensian pastor Goffredo Varaglia strangled and burned in Piazza Castello in Turin after forgiving the executioner

  

13 July 1558 The Waldensian Synod approves the first known disciplines: “Articles faits et arrêtés”

2 May 1559 The Waldensian pastor Gian Luigi Pascale, who arrived the previous year from Cuneo, is arrested in Guardia Piemontese, Calabria  

15 February 1560  Edict of Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy: it is forbidden to listen to the sermons of the “Lutheran ministers” (meaning the Waldensians). Fine of 100 scudi for the first transgression, perpetual prison for the second. While the Protestants of Geneva advise surrender, the Waldensians disobey

  

May 1560 The first Waldensian Confession of Faith is approved, prepared by the pastor of San Giovanni Pellice (today part of Luserna San Giovanni), Scipione Lentolo, on the basis of the Gallican Confession of 1559. Previously the doctrines of the Waldensian Church had not been written down in a systematic text because “they had been unchanged from time immemorial”. Now, however, there is a need to submit them to Duke Emanuele Filiberto so that he can verify “whether we deny God, Jesus Christ, the virginity of the Lord’s mother, Paradise, and Hell: whether we wish to live a licentious and wicked life, and whether we seek to rebel against our superiors… as our adversaries slander us”.  

16 September 1560 The pastor Gian Luigi Pascale is burned at the stake in Rome without having abjured, despite imprisonment and torture. Meanwhile in Calabria, at the urging of “Saint” Charles Borromeo, secretary of state to the Pope, vexations against the Waldensians are intensified; they are forced to abjure (which, however, the inquisitors complain, remains only external), various death sentences are carried out, the houses of their alleged leaders are razed to the ground, many of them flee elsewhere.  

September 1560 Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, having suppressed by force the Waldensian presence in the plains, unsuccessfully attempts to persuade the mountain Waldensians to abjure with the Jesuit Antonio Possevino, opposed in a public debate by the pastor of San Giovanni Scipione Lentolo. The Duke appoints Giorgio Costa commander of the garrison destined to strike the Waldensians. Upon the arrival of the troops in Val Pellice, many Catholic families send their young women to take refuge among the Waldensians, fearing the “licentious” conduct of the soldiery.  

October 1560 Faced with the imminent attack, the Waldensians of Val Luserna and Val d’Angrogna at first decide to retreat to the highest mountains, but then the general determination is to defend themselves with arms since the war came from the Pope and the Duke was only “driven by evil spirits”.

  

21 January 1561 In the alpine village of Puy, above Fenestrelle, the churches of the Pragelato, Chisone, and Luserna Valleys approve the Pact of Union, a “perpetual and inviolable confederation” theological and military that binds them not to accept doctrinal or liturgical novelties unless unanimously. Immediately afterwards, the Waldensians attack ducal garrisons and sack the Catholic church of Bobbio Pellice

9 February 1561 Calabria. Decree of the Holy Office against the Waldensians: no more than six people may attend funerals, prohibition of speaking Occitan, obligation to attend Mass every morning, obligation of Catholic instruction from the age of five, prohibition of relations with Piedmont and Geneva, prohibition for Waldensians to marry among themselves, obligation to pay for lights in front of the Sacrament, demolition of houses hosting preachers. The Waldensians react with passive resistance or flight to the forests where they maintain their religion

  

14 February 1561 Piedmont. The troops of th Duke of Savoy, reinforced by Spanish contingents, attack the Waldensians from the plain and from two fronts in the mountains. In the following weeks the Savoyard troops, 7000 strong, are repeatedly repulsed in their attempts to storm Pra del Torno. Tradition reports countless episodes of extraordinary military valor by the Waldensians and providential events in their aid. Carlo Trucchietti of Perrero, valiant captain of the persecutors, is thrown to the ground with a stone blow by a peasant who then cuts off his head with his own sword. The Waldensians even assault the castle of the Trucchietti

28 April 1561 The troops of the persecutors attack Pradeltorno from three sides and are again repulsed by the Waldensians. It is their last attempt. Scipione Lentolo recalls that the Waldensian fighters prayed fervently before battles and at every pause, while the enemies rested. Finally they gave thanks to God. The war of 1561 is the greatest military victory of the Waldensians

3 May 1561 Pope Pius IV entrusts the definitive resolution of the Waldensian problem in Calabria to the archbishops of Reggio Calabria and Cosenza

  

20 May 1561 Calabria: the baron of Castagneto and the bishop of Cosenza devote themselves to the roundup of the village of San Sisto, throw themselves in pursuit of some Waldensians and fall into an ambush where fifty persecutors and Castagneto himself are killed

  

29 May 1561 Calabria: the marquis of Bucchianico and other nobles, having gathered Spanish and southern Italian troops together with common criminals enlisted to obtain amnesty, attack the Waldensians, on each of whom a price had been placed. At San Sisto they sack and burn the houses, kill the men and rape the women, then pursue the fugitives in the forests with mastiffs. Many others are killed, hundreds are imprisoned. Some take refuge in La Guardia (today Guardia Piemontese)

5 June 1561 In Piedmont, Treaty of Cavour between the Waldensians and the Duke of Savoy. Pardon and absolution to the Waldensians for all acts committed during the war, authorization to hold worship in certain areas of the Valleys. It is the first exception in Europe to “Cuius regio eius religio” rule and the first recognition of the right to religious freedom and to defend it with arms

  

5 June 1561 Calabria: the soldiery enter Guardia Piemontese by deception and capture many hundreds of Waldensians  

11 June 1561 In a place in Guardia Piemontese called from then on “Porta del Sangue” (Blood Gate) the executioner slits the throats of 88 Waldensians. Altogether, the Waldensians killed in Calabria in those days range from 600 to 6000, depending on estimates. The torture and execution of a hundred women is suspended by two Jesuits who were overseeing the torment, due to their admiration for the moral virtues of the victims, who never blasphemed or quarreled among themselves. Many people are deported to row on Spanish galleys, women and children sold as slaves, the others forced to abjure and left free but obliged to wear the habit of the penitent. Some manage to reach the Valleys or Geneva

  

12 June 1561 Pope Pius IV sends a message through Cardinal “Saint” Charles Borromeo to the Duke of Savoy expressing his infinite displeasure at the Treaty of Cavour and the failure to “extirpate heresy in the Valleys”

  

1562 The few Waldensians of France who survived the persecutions join the Reformed Church. From this moment until 1848 the Waldensian presence is limited to the Valleys in a territory that will shrink over time

  

18 April 1564 The Waldensian Synod approves the Ordonnances ecclésiastiques, which will serve as the foundation of church discipline until the 19th century

  

27 May 1564 Death of John Calvin in Geneva

   

June 1564 In the General Assembly of Scotland John Knox affirms the right and duty of the Christian to judge the prince who violates the law of God, with reference to Mary, Queen of Scots, who had Mass celebrated privately

  

1565 Only four years after the Treaty of Cavour the Duke of Savoy breaks it, appoints a Catholic governor of the Valleys, by the name of Castrocaro, who attacks neighbouring villages where there were Waldensians. Thanks to the pressure of the prince-elector Count Palatine on the Duchess Margaret of Savoy the planned action against the Valleys is suspended

  

13 September 1565 Death of Guillaume Farel near Neuchâtel  

11 November 1571 The Synod confirms and updates the Pact of Union of 1561 with a new covenant: the Union of the Valleys  

13 November 1572 The orders of St Maurice and St Lazarus merge to fight “against the Turks and against the Waldensians”.  

1573 The village of Pramollo officially embraces the Reformation and joins the Waldensian Church after a dispute between the pastor and the priest

  

1579 The Calvinist theologian Philippe Duplessis-Mornay publishes in Basel, under the pseudonym Stephanus Iunius Brutus Celta, “Vindiciae contra tyrannos” in which he affirms that subjects may resist a prince who commands them to violate the law of God  

15 October 1582 From this date in Catholic countries and in this chronology (except for errors) the Gregorian calendar is used, although Protestant countries long maintained the Julian calendar. For example, at the time of the oath of Sibaud, the Waldensians – who were coming from Protestant Geneva and had contacts with the Netherlands and England – thought it was 1 September 1689, while their enemies were at 11 September. Once at peace with the Duke of Savoy, they too adapted to the Gregorian calendar.  

1583 To counter the Waldensians, the Capuchins establish themselves in Val Luserna in Torre Pellice, Villar Pellice, and Bobbio Pellice; the Jesuits do the same in Luserna

  

1583 The Waldensians of Val Luserna (today Val Pellice) and Val San Martino (today Val Germanasca) come to the aid of their brethren in Queyras who were under attack, and defeat the far superior enemy  

1593–1610 Jacques-Auguste de Thou writes in Latin his “Historiae sui temporis”

  

1594 Birth of Antoine Léger in Villasecca  

April 1598 With the Edict of Nantes Henry IV King of France guarantees tolerance to Huguenots and Protestants in general

  

25 April 1599 Oliver Cromwell born in Huntingdon  

1602–1604 Pope Clement VIII promises plenary indulgence to every Waldensian who enters obedience to Rome, but no one is known to have taken advantage of it  

2 February 1615 Jean Léger born in Villasecca, nephew of Antoine  

1616 The book “Waldensia” is published in Holland claiming the antiquity and apostolic continuity of the doctrines of the Reformation, testified by the history of the Waldensians  

1617 Josué Janavel born in Liorato, near Luserna  

1622 With the bull “Inscrutabili Divinae Providentiae” Pope Gregory XV establishes the congregation “De Propaganda Fide”

  

1624 A regiment of infantry enters Val Perosa to destroy six Waldensian temples. The King of England, James I, sends an extraordinary ambassador to intercede for the Waldensians  

1629 Jean Léger goes to Geneva to study theology  

May 1630 First case of plague in San Germano Chisone

  

June 1630 The plague spreads in Val Pellice: about 9000 Waldensians die, only two pastors survive. The Waldensians ask Geneva for new pastors, who cannot speak Italian. Consequently, French supplants Italian as the official language of the Waldensian Church

  

1636 The papal prefect Teodoro Belvedere, missionary to the Valleys, publishes a book in which he states that “the heresies of the Waldensians and Albigensians have always been present in Val d’Angrogna”  

7 October 1637 Duke Victor Amadeus I of Savoy dies in Vercelli. The long regency of his widow Maria Cristina of Bourbon-France begins, first for her son Francis Hyacinth, then, after the latter’s death at the age of six in 1638, with her other son Charles Emmanuel II, aged four. She was attributed licentious conduct, later transformed into fanatical religious devotion. In both phases she worked to reduce the territory and the rights of the Waldensians, in violation of the Peace of Cavour

  

27 June 1638 Death of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucaris, to whom the Waldensian pastor Antoine Léger, chaplain of the Dutch embassy, had made known the principles of the Reformation in the hope of spreading them in the Orthodox world. Léger returns to the Valleys  

1639 Jean Léger consecrated pastor  

1640 Barthélemy Jahier born in Pramollo  

30 September 1641 Henri Arnaud born in Embrun  

1643 The Waldensian Pietro Gilles publishes in French, after writing it in Italian, “Ecclesiastical history of the Reformed churches once called Waldensian”, an update of “History of the Waldensians and Albigensians” by the French pastor Perrin. In it he writes that “the Reformed religion professed in the Valleys is the true Apostolic doctrine, which God by his grace has always preserved there” and that the followers of Waldo who arrived from Lyon “found there the true seed of religion” 

Summer 1643 Jean Léger elected moderator, probably the youngest of aka times. He succeeds his uncle Antoine who, accused by the ducal authorities of lèse-majesté, had taken refuge in Geneva  

1644 Pietro Gilles writes “150 Sacri Salmi”, the last Waldensian text in Italian for 200 years  

1646 Jean Léger is commissioned by the Synod to continue Gilles’ historical work  

1650 A council of the congregation “De Propaganda Fide” is established in Turin; its male part is presided over by the archbishop of Turin and its female part by the Marchioness of Pianezza. Under pressure from that council, Duke Charles Emmanuel II with an Edict forces the Waldensians to leave every locality except the most mountainous: Angrogna, Bobbio Pellice, Villar Pellice, and Rorà. Faced with Waldensian resistance, the edict is de facto not enforced

   

14 November 1650 William of Orange, future Stadtholder of the United Provinces and King William III of England, is born in Binnenhof, Dutch Republic

26 December 1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England

  

15 January 1655 The 1650 edict is imposed again  

February 1655 Josué Janavel gathers men to resist with arms any persecutor

  

17 April 1655 The Marquis of Pianezza, with at least 4000 men – soldiers, common criminals pardoned for the purpose, some Irish exiled by Cromwell for massacring Protestants in their country – launches the attack on the Waldensians of Torre Pellice who, breaking the encirclement, flee to the mountains. In the lower Val Pellice, the marquis burns the temples, then pursues the fugitives. Jean Léger’s work on Waldensian history is lost

  

19–20 April 1655 Pianezza attacks San Giovanni, Angrogna, Bricherasio, and Tagliaretto but is always repulsed. French troops passing through are quartered in the valley, claiming peaceful intentions; actually there are numerous episodes of serious violence against the Waldensians.  

21 April 1655 The marquis of Pianezza summons the Waldensian representatives and states that the violence was not wanted by him but caused by the indiscipline of the soldiers. He proposes to quarter them in small groups in all the villages of the valley to better control them. The Waldensians, with the disagreement of Léger and Janavel, accept.

  

24 April 1655 Easter Eve: Pianezza’s men attack throughout the valley, massacring, raping, killing, and kidnapping children. Countless acts of gratuitous ferocity in which the Irish distinguish themselves. In a short time Pianezza controls the entire Val Pellice except Rorà, defended by Janavel. Most surviving Waldensians take refuge in Val Chisone and Queyras, France

  

25 April 1655 400 soldiers attack the 47 Waldensian families of Rorà from Villar Pellice, passing along a little-known path that would allow them to reach the village from above. Josué Janavel, however, spots them while they are still climbing. He gathers six other men with rifles, who precise shots kill six soldiers. The others, terrified by the invisible enemy, flee, pursued by those seven who manage to kill another 53.  

26 April 1655 New attack on Rorà, this time with 600 soldiers. Josué Janavel has 12 men armed with rifles and 6 with slings. Divided into three squads they attack the enemies from the front and flanks. The soldiers flee, but 50–60 of them do not escape the blows of Josué Janavel and his men.  

27 April 1655 The pastors draw up in Pinasca the chronicle of the ongoing persecution and send it to the pastors of Geneva

  

2 May 1655 Jean Léger goes to Paris to arouse indignation and diplomatic pressure against the atrocities perpetrated against the Waldensians  

4 May 1655 Decisive attack on Rorà with 10,000 men. After a day of fighting the village is destroyed and sacked. Janavel and his men take refuge in Queyras. His wife and three daughters are captured by the persecutors. Pianezza asks Josué Janavel to lay down his arms and convert to Catholicism in exchange for their release, but he refuses: “I cannot imagine a worse punishment than abjuration”  

8 May 1655 Thanks to Jean Léger, the Paris Gazette publishes the chronicle of the persecutions, which become an international affaire. The great poet John Milton, Cromwell’s secretary, writes a sonnet: “Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints… who kept thy truth so pure of old, when our fathers worshipped stocks and stones”. On Cromwell’s instructions, English churches raise over 38,000 pounds, equivalent to over six million euros in 2024. The diplomat and inventor Sir Samuel Morland is sent to Turin to protect the Waldensians  

15 May 1655 Barthélemy Jahier, aged fifteen, is appointed captain following the victorious defence of the Torre Pellice pass and Val San Martino  

21 May 1655 Josué Janavel, back under his valley, attacks Lusernetta, a Catholic village  

23 May 1655 The Savoyard authorities place a bounty of 600 ducats on Jean Léger’s head, a sum sufficient to buy several hectares of good land  

27 May 1655 The Waldensians of Barthélemy Jahier and Josué Janavel attack Garzigliana, a Catholic village in the plain, but are repulsed  

28 May 1655 The Waldensians attack San Secondo and annihilate its Irish and Piedmontese garrison

  

12 June 1655 Punitive expedition of Jahier and Janavel against Crissolo, south of the Valleys and take great booty of cattle  

18 June 1655 Battle of Verné, in the area of Angrogna: the Savoyard army is repulsed by Janavel and his men of while Jahier is in Val Chisone. Gianavello is hit by a musket shot in his chest.  

23 July 1655 Gianavello, healed, returns to fight

  

3 August 1655 Negotiations begin between Waldensians and representatives of the Duke of Savoy  

18 August 1655 After pressures by Oliver Cromwell, threatening France to break the alliance and the Duke of Savoy to ravage its coasts by sea, and Switzerland and France, the Duke grants the “Patent of Grace” which confirms the 1561 Peace of Cavour and allows the return of Jean Léger  

late 1655 Wife and eldest daughter, freed after imprisonment in Turin, rejoin Janavel  

1656 Arnaud, sent to study in Torre Pellice, meets moderator Jean Léger and Janavel

  

3 September 1658 Death of Oliver Cromwell in Whitehall  

late 1658 Armed resistance resumes in the Valleys (the “war of the bandits”) against new vexations by the authorities  

23 September 1661 The assembly of the churches of the Valleys draws up a defense of Jean Léger and sends it to the Duke’s delegates  

5 October 1661 Letter from Antoine Léger to the Waldensians presenting the Confession of Faith, still in force today, though violated in fact 

 

late 1661 Death in Geneva of Antoine Léger, a few days before the arrival of Jean, who had fled the Valleys because of a series of accusations by the ducal authorities  

February 1662 Jean Léger is condemned to death in absentia, his house destroyed, he himself executed in effigy

  

22 April 1662 The Waldensians present a memorandum to the Duke on the violation of the “Patent of Grace”  

1662 Arnaud enrolls in the Erasmus College in Basel to study theology  

25 June 1663 Edict of the Duke ordering the Waldensians to cease all support to the “bandits”, i.e., Janavel and his men

  

6 July 1663 Savoyard troops attack Angrogna but are defeated by the Waldensians led by Janavel

  

17 December 1663 New negotiations begin between Waldensians and representatives of the Duke of Savoy  

14 February 1664 Edict of the Duke guaranteeing religious freedom to the Waldensians, though prohibiting worship in the San Giovanni area and imposing exile on the Waldensians of the Liorato village, including Janavel, who takes refuge in Geneva  

1664 Arnaud enlists in a Dutch regiment; there he meets William of Orange  

1666 Arnaud enrolls at Calvin’s University in Geneva  

1669 Jean Léger publishes in Leiden the Historic Générale des Eglises Evangéliques des vallées de Piemont ou Vaudoises, which aims to “make one touch with one’s hand their Apostolic Succession without interruption, proving in an invincible way that in different places of the Valleys the inhabitants never adhered to Papal Traditions”  

1670 Death of Jean Léger in Leiden. His Histoire Générale is published in Dutch. Arnaud graduates in theology and becomes pastor of Maniglia-Massello

  

14 July 1683 The Turkish siege of Vienna begins  

11/12 September 1683 An army of 60,000 Austrians, Poles, and Germans led by King John Sobieski defeats 160,000 Turks advancing on Vienna. The Austro-Turkish war lasts until 1699. Since 1669 the Turks have been allies of Louis XIV, King of France

  

18 October 1685 Louis XIV, with the Edict of Fontainebleau, revokes the Edict of Nantes. Persecutions against Protestants resume  

November 1685 First draft of Gianavello’s “Military Instructions”. They will be applied during the Glorious Return and studied by Napoleon. They are practical advice of both military and spiritual character and may be summarized in his motto: “Let nothing be stronger than your faith”.

  

7 February 1686 The ducal edict suppressing the Waldensian religion is posted in the Valleys. Swiss ambassadors offer the Waldensians the possibility of taking refuge in their country  

24 March 1686 In an assembly of the Waldensians, representatives of the Swiss cantons try to persuade them to accept the exile in their country

  

2 April 1686 New assembly: only one third of the Waldensians – Angrogna, Bobbio, San Giovanni, and Torre Pellice – are in favor of resistance to the bitter end. The others are willing to go into exile

  

9 April 1686 New edict of the Duke ordering the Waldensians to lay down their arms and forbidding them to meet. Under pressure from the Swiss cantons the Duke grants the possibility of exile, but only after laying down their arms and surrendering  

14 April 1686 Threatened by 5000 French soldiers who arrived at San Secondo and as many Piedmontese in Val Pellice, the Waldensians hold an assembly at Roccapiatta to decide what to do. Most pastors are in favor of surrender, but Arnaud’s peroration and the very heavy conditions imposed by the Duke lead to the opposite decision. The meeting ends with Arnaud’s prayer: “Lord Jesus! Thou who suffered so much and who died for us, grant us the grace to suffer and sacrifice our lives for Thee! Let each of us exclaim with the Apostle: I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me!”  

23 April 1686 The military offensive against the Waldensians begins; at San Germano Chisone, under the command of Arnaud, they successfully repel the first attack, but soon have the worst of it everywhere  

7 May 1686 The last Waldensian stronghold, the Gran Guglia, falls  

June 1686 The Waldensians are defeated. At least 2000, including women, old people, and children, are massacred on the spot in the most horrendous ways, about 8000 “entrust themselves to the Duke’s mercy” and are imprisoned in Miolans, Verrua, Ceva, Mondovì, Turin, Carmagnola, Asti, Trino, Vercelli, Cherasco, Fossano, and Saluzzo, where about 5500 of them die in the following months. Another approximately 3000 avoid further torment by converting to Catholicism and are deported to the Vercelli area, where most die of malaria. Some, including Arnaud, manage to escape to Switzerland. A few hundred, the “Invincibles”, resist on the heights between Val Pellice and Val Germanasca, from where they carry out raids against those who have seized their lands

  

1686 The sovereigns of England, William and Mary, decree an annual subsidy of 500 pounds (equivalent to 100,000 euros in 2024) in favor of the Waldensians, which will continue to be paid until 1797 when the Valleys fall under French domination.  

18 October 1686  Thanks to Swiss pressure and the actions of the Invincibles, the Duke’s negotiators grant that the survivors of imprisonment may leave for Switzerland. The Invincibles, about 460 families, are allowed to keep their weapons and are given hostages as a guarantee of safety until they cross the border. The Swiss undertake to prevent any attempt to return

22 January 1687   The first Waldensian exiles freed from Piedmontese prisons arrive in Geneva

  

10 March 1687 The last of the 2450 Waldensian exiles arrive in Geneva. For the first time in immemorial memory there are no Waldensians in Piedmont. About 300 die of cold and fatigue during the journey because of the appalling conditions in which they were released from the 

fortresses of Savoy  

June 1687 A few hundred Waldensians gather in Ouchy to cross Lake Geneva and undertake the return. They are stopped by the bailiff of Lausanne  

24 June 1688 About 700 Waldensians gather in Bex on the Rhône to attempt the return to the Valleys. The bailiff of Aigle convinces them to desist. Arnaud encourages them to hope for better times: “Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12). Following this episode hundreds of Waldensians are sent away to Germany to prevent further attempts  

Summer 1688 Arnaud obtains the support of William of Orange, regent of Holland, for a new and more organised attempt to return

  

5 November 1688  Glorious Revolution in England: William of Orange lands in England at the head of a Dutch army supported by English Protestants against the Catholic King James II, proclaiming “the liberties of England and the Protestant religion”.  

February 1689 According to the English historian Thomas Newton (1707–1782), the Anglican bishop Lloyd urges a refugee Waldensian pastor he is hosting to rejoin his own fellows because, on the basis of Revelation 12, he believed that within three and a half years from the exile the Waldensians would return to their homeland

  

March 1689  James II, driven out of England, lands in Ireland protected by French troops 

 

11 April 1689 William of Orange and his wife Mary crowned King and Queen of England  

May 1689 Louis XIV attacks the Palatinate and destroys Heidelberg and Mannheim. Many Waldensians who had been sent to the area take refuge in Switzerland: thanks to this some of them will take part in the Glorious Return

  

June 1689 The Duke of Savoy puts a bounty of 300 doubles on Arnaud’s head for anyone who kills him, 600 for anyone who delivers him alive, i.e., three and a half million denarii of the time (very approximately 2 million euros). Seeing this move useless, he hires assassins from various countries, whose ambushes fail one after the other

  

23 August 1689 An English army, including two regiments of French Huguenot refugees, lands in Ireland to confront James II

  

25 August 1689 Near Nyon, on Lake Geneva, a little army 972 men begin to gather, 600 Waldensians, helped by 300 Huguenots and other Protestants, to return to the Valleys, 300 kilometres away, all to be travelled in enemy territory: in the hope of imitating the English Glorious Revolution, they call it the Glorious Return. The designated commander Bourgeois fails to reach the place and is replaced by Captain Turel

  

26 August 1689 Before embarking pastor Arnaud reminds that whoever is not willing to face death and torture for the salvation of the soul may turn back. All swear never to ask for or grant quarter and to fight to the death if necessary

27 August 1689 The Waldensians cross Lake Geneva from Prangins and land at Yvoire. They pass Boëge and St Jeoire and, after a brief exchange of fire, arrive at Corman  

28 August 1689 In the rain, they pass Cluses among armed citizens, then Sallanches, and arrive at Combloux  

29 August 1689 In incessant rain they pass the Col du Very and the Col des Fenêtres and arrive at Plan Jovet. They march “like the people of Israel in the desert, all intent on the promised land”, writes one of them

  

30 August 1689 The Waldensians cross the 2448 m of the Col du Bonhomme, unexpectedly unguarded by soldiers, and arrive at Sciez  

31 August 1689 They arrive at Val de Tigne.  

1 September 1689 They cross the Col d’Iseran (2769 m) and arrive at La Maddalena di Bessans

2 September 1689 They cross the Moncenisio Pass (2184 m), where they block the postal couriers so that they do not give the news, enter Val di Susa, defeat a small garrison and arrive at Molaretto

3 September 1689 The Waldensians are blocked by Savoyard troops near Giaglione. Captain Pellenc falls. Forced to seek passage further west, pursued by Savoyard and French troops, they lose several men, fallen or prisoners. Pursued by the enemy from behind, they have no choice but to assault, reduced to 800, the bridge of Salbertrand, guarded by 2500 French soldiers. The clash is very hard, the Waldensians are targeted by French musket fire. Someone shouts: “The bridge is taken”. The news is not true but all the Waldensians, to take advantage of the believed possession of the bridge and cross it as quickly as possible, attack with such impetus that, under heavy musket fire, they overwhelm the enemy, cross the Dora Riparia, sack and devastate the French camp and kill many enemies. The French commander himself, Marquis of Larray, barely escapes

4 September 1689 The Waldensians see their mountains again after 3 years, cross the Chisone torrente and arrive at Joussaud, ready for a new clash with the Savoyards guarding the Col du Pis

5 September 1689 At the Pis, the Savoyards concentrate on only one of the two passages, leaving just a few dozen soldiers on the other. The Waldensians cannot know it, but the latter is where they cross the watershed, dispersing the few enemies. The fog hides them from the sight of the bulk of the enemy who are thus outflanked. They arrive at Balsiglia and Massello, capture 46 militiamen and, after exhorting them to pray, kill them. The impossible undertaking of the Return has for the moment succeeded, but now the French and Savoyards know where they are and organize troops to definitively annihilate them

6 September 1689 In the Temple of Ghigo di Prali, cleared of Catholic furnishings, the Waldensians hold the first worship in their land after three years, presided over by pastor Arnaud

7 September 1689 The Waldensians defeat the Savoyard soldiers at Col Giulian and Serre Cruel and arrive in Val Pellice, Duchy of Savoy  

11 September 1689 At Sibaud, Bobbio Pellice, the Waldensians swear to remain united and faithful to the last drop of their blood, even if reduced to three or four

  

21 September 1689 Captain Bourgeois, the failed commander of the return, crosses Lake Geneva at the head of a thousand Swiss and French with the intention of reaching the Waldensians

  

25 September 1689 After the first skirmishes with Savoyard soldiers, Bourgeois decides to retreat

  

21 October 1689 The Waldensians are reduced to 400 due to losses, some desertions, and the departure of about thirty Huguenots including Turel, who, captured by the French, will be tortured and executed on the wheel in Embrun. Council of war of the Piedmontese (here we use indifferently “Piedmontese”, after the name of the land, and “Savoyards”, after the name of the ruling dynasty) under the command of the Marquis of Parella. Although they are 3470 strong, they renounce attacking while awaiting reinforcements, considering themselves not strong enough to face the 400 Waldensians who until now have heavily defeated them and the French

  

November 1689 The Waldensians struggle to survive a cold winter: they find unharvested wheat and barley intact under the snow (a fact they attribute without hesitation to divine intervention) and loot cattle during raids, often bloody, also aimed at driving away the Catholics who had settled in their land and houses   

6 December 1689 The Waldensians, meeting in Villasecca, to respond to the Protestants of Europe who, while supporting them, had moral and legal reservations about the rebellion against their prince, send a “declaration and manifesto to all Christian princes and peoples” in which they affirm having “enjoyed uninterruptedly the possession of the Valleys” from time immemorial and having “professed our same present religion without any alteration worthy of note” and that “we submitted to the dominion of the House of Savoy” on condition of “security for our religion and our liberties”, conditions repeatedly reconfirmed over the centuries. They therefore declare it “our duty to reclaim and defend our religion and our properties with the sword… and not to lay down our arms until we have obtained the free and peaceful possession of our country, our goods, lives, religion and our liberties”, promising to be devoted subjects of the Duke of Savoy once these objectives are achieved. Less than four hundred men, isolated, without supplies, thus declare war on a powerful sovereign  

February 1690 The Waldensians move from Rodoretto to Balziglia and fortify the height overlooking the hamlet

  

15 March 1690 Josué Janavel, having received news of the expedition’s arrival and of the  (precarious) military successes obtained also thanks to his “Instructions”, dies in Geneva

  

22 March 1690 Captain Bourgeois, tried by the Swiss authorities for rebellion because of his attempted expedition, is beheaded in Nyon. All possibility of reinforcements to the Waldensians in the Valleys ceases

  

27 April 1690 In response to various messages sent to the Waldensians even by their relatives, captured or converted to Catholicism, asking them to surrender before their extermination, made inevitable by the arrival of a large French and Piedmontese army, Arnaud writes to the Duke that the intention of the Waldensians is to live in their Valleys with their families and be good subjects. Therefore, they do not surrender

  

1 May 1690 3700 French soldiers attack the Waldensians at Balziglia, reduced to less than 300  

2 May 1690 Thanks to the position and the simple but effective fortifications, the Waldensians repel the attack, capture French Colonel Parat and kill over 400 enemies, without suffering a single death or injury among them

  

3 May 1690 Arnaud orders the heads of the slain enemies to be placed on the defensive palisades to show the determination of the Waldensians

  

10 May 1690 The French complete the encirclement of the Waldensians on every side  

21 May 1690 On the orders of Marshal de Catinat, the French commander Feuquières, with 4000 men, launches a new unsuccessful attack  

22 May 1690 The French offer money as ransom for Colonel Parat. Arnaud instead asks for the release of some Waldensians. At the French refusal Arnaud writes to them: “With the help of the God of armies, we hope to live and die in the possessions transmitted to us from the most remote times by our fathers. If your cannon fires our rocks will not be frightened by it and we will hear it thunder”  

24 May 1690 The cannons hoisted by the French hit the Waldensian defenses 114 times; they are forced to take refuge in the extreme point of their height. At 6 p.m. the French commander Feuquières writes to Marshal Catinat, who is in Pinerolo: “Unless the hippogriff carries them away I do not see how they can escape, surrounded within pistol range by our trenches”  

25 May 1690 While in Pinerolo the executioners prepare the ropes to hang them and the French soldiers prepare the final assault on the height above Balziglia – the Waldensians are sighted at daybreak, already hours of marching away, crossing the Col du Ghinivert, on the opposite side of the valley. During the night, with the favor of a sudden fog, guided by Captain Tron Poulat, who knew the place perfectly because he had grazed goats there as a boy, the fighters had escaped between two French guard posts at a point judged by them completely impassable  

27 May 1690 The Waldensians attack Pramollo, annihilate the garrison, capture the officers

  

28 May 1690 The Waldensians enter Val d’Angrogna (Duchy of Savoy). They sight some Savoyards and prepare for yet another battle, but they are emissaries of Duke Victor Amadeus II offering them peace and friendship. In exchange the Duke asks them to join him to fight against the French, thus far his allies, to whom he was about to declare war. The Waldensians, having thanked the Lord for the unexpected help received, accept

  

1 June 1690 Battle of the Boyne in Ireland: the protestant William III defeats James II, who flees to France  

4 June 1690 Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy signs a passport authorizing all Waldensians, now his allies against the French, and the Reformed who will be with them to circulate freely in his lands and invites his subjects to supply them at reasonable prices. Other Waldensians arrive from Brandenburg, those still in Piedmontese prisons are released

  

10 June 1690 The Waldensians, commanded by Arnaud, conquer Perosa, others approach Pinerolo, devastate Val Pragelato, occupy the pass to Briançon (at that time these places were all in French territory)

  

late June 1690 Other Waldensians arrive in Milan from Germany. Waldensians and Mondovì militias conquer Queyras and repel French attacks in Val Luserna. In all, thousands of French soldiers fall under their blows

  

3 July 1690 Arnaud, dressed in colonel’s uniform, meets the Duke in Moncalieri.  

1690 The book Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Church of Piedmont, written by the Huguenot Peter Allix is published in England. In it the apostolic continuity of the Waldensians is reaffirmed

  

23 May 1694 Edict of tolerance of Duke Victor Amadeus II towards the Waldensians  

3 June 1694 First Waldensian Synod for which documentation remains (that of the previous ones was destroyed in the persecutions). There are 11 pastors, 18 elected deputies, 62%. Today the elected are less than 48%

  

1698 Because of the Duke’s rapprochement with France, Waldensians of French origin are forced into exile. Among these, Arnaud, who moves to Germany

8 March 1702 Death of William III of Orange

  

1704 While the Duke is again at war against Louis XIV, Arnaud returns to Piedmont  

1710 Arnaud, once more exiled in Germany. He publishes the book Histoire de la Glorieuse Rentrée des Vaudois dans leurs Vallées… par Henri A., pasteur et colonel des Vaudois, actually written by Vincent Minutoli after his notes.

8 September 1721 Death of Arnaud in Schönenberg  

1730 The Waldensians of Val Pragelato are forced by the authorities to convert to Catholicism. To avoid this, many emigrate to Germany where they found villages naming them after their places of origin  

1739 A Royal Society is established in Turin for the purchase of land from the Waldensians in order to restrict their territory. Not selling one’s property to outsiders becomes a moral obligation for the Waldensians

1743 The House of Catechumens is built in Pinerolo to receive Waldensians from the age of 14 if male or 12 if female who “spontaneously” (usually after a kidnapping) decide to embrace Catholicism

  

19 July 1747 Battle of Assietta. 7400 Piedmontese, including a regiment of Waldensians, repel the attack of 40,000 French, who leave 5000 dead on the field. Only 219 Piedmontese loose their lives

  

1748 Pinerolo is erected as a diocese, with the task of opening a church in every Waldensian village. Formerly, in many of them there had never been any

  

1750 Jean Léger’s Histoire Générale is published in German

  

16 May 1755 Death in Cuneo of Baron Friederich von Leutrum (“Baron Litron” in Piedmontese), governor of the city. Despite continuous enticements from the King to convert to Catholicism, he remains Protestant to the end and asks to be buried in the Waldensian Temple of Ciabas. His remains were later moved to the Temple of the Bellonatti (Luserna San Giovanni), built in 1806. The famous Piedmontese folk song Baron Litron is dedicated to him, in which the King says: “Baron Litron, don’t you want to be baptised? I would bring the bishop of Turin, I would be your godfather.”  

27 January 1774 Antoine Monastier born in Angrogna, future pastor and Waldensian historian

  

23 December 1777 Birth of the future Tsar Alexander I  

23 May 1785 Thomas Sims born in Llanamlet, Wales, Anglican pastor and benefactor of the Waldensians

  

2 October 1789 Charles Beckwith born in Halifax, Canada  

Summer 1791 At the inaugural worship of the Synod pastor David Mondon speaks favorably about the French Revolution and is suspended from his duties for one year

  

24 May 1794 Last attempt to exterminate the Waldensians in Val Pellice, orchestrated by some fanatical Catholics who wanted to take advantage of the absence of the men, engaged in defending the frontier of the Kingdom against Napoleon’s soldiers. A captain and a Catholic priest inform the Waldensian men who manage to return to Torre Pellice before the conspirators, hindered by a providential furious storm, can act  

14 June 1800 Battle of Marengo. French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte defeat the Austrians. Napoleonic domination in Piedmont begins, under which several Waldensians will be appointed to important positions, previously completely forbidden

  

1805 Moderator Jean Rodolphe Peyran, in his capacity as sub-prefect, meets Napoleon and to the question of when the Waldensians became an independent church, replies: “From the time of Bishop Claudius”

  

1806 Inauguration of the Temple of the Bellonatti in San Giovanni, whose construction is authorised by the Napoleonic authorities. In the same period the House of Catechumens in Pinerolo, where adolescent Waldensians “converted” were taken, closes  

11 February 1810 Alexis Muston born in Torre Pellice, future pastor, doctor, and Waldensian historian, author of the hymn Le serment de Sibaud on the oath of 1689, which became a sort of “national anthem” of the Waldensians

  

19 May 1814 After Napoleon’s defeat, King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia returns to Turin and within a few days issues an edict for the demolition of the Temple of the Bellonatti. Thanks to the ambassadors of England and Switzerland the edict is not implemented, but a palisade is erected that allows the few faithful of the Catholic church located on the other side of the stream not to be disturbed by the sight of the “heretics”  

15 September 1814 The Anglican pastor Thomas Sims meets in Turin pastor Jacques Fréderic Peyran, and then his brother Jean Loui Samuel Rodolphe Peyran pastor and Moderator of the Waldensian Board; in the following days they visit together the Valleys. Back in England, he raises interest in the Waldensians, collects funds for young Waldensians studying abroad involving important personalities  

1815 Thomas Sims publishes in London the book Brief Memoir Regarding the Waldenses. The money collected from sales goes to benefit schools in the Valleys

  

18 May 1815 In the battle of Waterloo the English colonel Charles Beckwith loses his left leg and is forced to leave the army  

October 1815 Thomas Sims promotes the foundation of a Bible Society in Torre Pellice. Pierre Geymet is the first president

  

February 1816 The Minister of Foreign Affairs of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia complains that among the supporters of the “artificial Waldensians” there is the member of the English Parliament William Wilberforce, famous for his battle that led to the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. Wilberforce had been involved by Thomas Sims

  

9–14 October 1821 The Quaker William Allen, supported by the Duke of Wellington, informed by Thomas Sims, reports to the Congress of the Holy Alliance in Verona on the miserable conditions and high dignity of the Waldensians, which prompts Tsar Alexander I to donate a large sum for the construction of their hospital in Torre Pellice, promoted by Charlotte Peyrot with her husband Pierre Geymet, supported by the Board, and “tolerated” by the King. The initial donation had been made by the English residents in Rome 

1823 Moderator Jean Rodolphe Peyran dies

5 January 1823 William Stephen Gilly arrives in Turin from England for a visit to the Valleys, which he will report in a famous book published the same year: Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont, and Researches amongst the Vaudois”. Many other Protestants visit the Valleys in these years

  

1825 Visit of the Geneva pastor Felix Neff to Val Pellice, starting the Awakening movement in the area  

26 May 1825 A committee for aid to the Waldensians is formed in London and obtains the restoration of the annual subsidy of 500 pounds in favor of the Waldensians 

18 August 1825 The Waldensians send 3000 francs, the result of spontaneous collections, to the Dutch communities affected by floods

  

April 1826 Inauguration of the Waldensian Hospital of Torre Pellice, financed by gifts from the Waldensians and external benefactors, among whom especially the 60,000 francs of Tsar Alexander I. Sums of money also came from the King of Prussia, English and German nobles and Dutch churches

  

1826 Jean Rodolphe Peyran’s book An Historical Defense of the Waldenses or Vaudois” is published in London, thanks to and with the introduction of Thomas Sims. In the introduction the data about the Valleys: 15 villages, or parishes, including 103 hamlets, cared for by 13 pastors and with a population of 20,000 souls against 1700 Catholics. In the book it is stated that the Albigensians derived from the Waldensians before the time of Waldo.  

1 September 1826 The Catholic presbyter Pio Bruno Lanteri (proclaimed “venerable” in 1965) founds the institute of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, with the support of the bishop of Pinerolo Pierre-Joseph Rey and the approval of Pope Leo XII. Among its initial aims is proselytism among the Waldensians

  

Summer 1827 Thomas Sims publishes An Apology for the Waldenses. Beckwith happens to read Gilly’s book on his journey among the Waldensians. In the following winter he visits Val Pellice for the first time

  

1828 Inauguration of the Waldensian Hospital of Pomaretto  

1830 Following the support of Thomas Sims, the translation of the Gospels of Luke and John in French and in Patois (local Occitan language) of the Valleys is published in London

  

1831 On the impulse of Gilly, the Waldensian College of Torre Pellice is founded, a high school, where young Waldensians can finally study without going abroad, since access to any other school is forbidden to them  

1831 In San Giovanni (today part of Luserna San Giovanni) clash between the “awakened” elder David Lantaret and pastor David Mondon. The Board removes Lantaret from his position. A schism in the community follows that lasts a few years

  

20 January 1834 Andrea Charvaz is appointed bishop of Pinerolo. In his 13 years of episcopate he will strongly oppose the Waldensians, contesting their apostolic origin (with the same arguments raised by today’s prevailing historiography), attempts to transform Torre Pellice into a Catholic village with the construction of a large church, schools, and structures of the Mauritian Order  

1834 Alexis Muston publishes in Strasbourg and Paris Histoire des Vaudois des Vallées du Piemont et de leurs colonies. Although the author is only 23 years old, the book receives wide appreciation from the most famous historians of the time. Muston gains wide prestige, meets Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, François-Réné de Chateaubriand. He corresponds with others, such as Émile Zola and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Muston strongly supports the traditional thesis that “the Waldensians of the Alps are primitive Christians or heirs of the primitive Church, preserved from the alterations successively introduced by the Roman Church”. 

 

9–10 January 1835 Alexis Muston escapes to France through the trail of the Colle della Croce from Bobbio Pellice, where he was visiting his parents. The Piemontese authorities wanted to arrest him for publishing abroad without the prior authorization of their censorship. The charges lapsed within the following seven years.  

1838 The illustrated book The Waldenses or Protestant Valleys of Piedmont, Dauphiny by Dr William Beattie, who visited the Valleys, is published in London. In it there is this remark: “According to tradition, carefully handed down through a long series of ancestors, they trace their origin to the dawn of revelation and, in our own day, profess the same doctrines they absorbed from the apostles.”  

September 1839 The Waldensian Synod approves the “Ecclesiastical Discipline” which confirms the 1655 Confession of Faith

  

1844 There are 22,500 living Waldensians, of whom 1080 outside the Valleys, especially in southern France  

1846 The London publishing house Religious Tract Society, in collaboration with the American Sunday School Union, publishes the book Sketches of the Waldenses. Here is its historiographical approach: “Roman [Catholic] historians do not wish to admit the antiquity of the Waldensian church, which would contradict the doctrine of papal supremacy. They have thus endeavored to prove that the origin of these Christians dates back to the eleventh or twelfth century. It is regrettable that some Protestant historians have adopted the same theory, speaking of the Waldensians as a sect that arose at that time and not as a group of Christians who were able to remain uncontaminated by the world from the time of the apostles or their immediate followers. But this latter thesis has been demonstrated by the research of many eminent minds…”  

17 October 1846 Antoine Monastier completes in Lausanne in French Histoire de l’Eglise vaudoise depuis son origine et des Vaudois du Piémont, that claims the very ancient Waldensian origin. The book will be published the following year and, in 1848 and 1849, translated and published also in London, New York, and Rotterdam  

17 February 1848 King Charles Albert recognizes the civil rights to the Waldensians. Even today the Waldensians consider 17 February a civil feast and in many places light bonfires in memory of when this was done to announce the King’s signature to the long-desired measure. 169 schools with over 4400 pupils are active in the Valleys  

1848 Bartolomeo Malan and Paolo Geymonat go to Tuscany to support the nascent evangelical communities, but are expelled by the authorities of the Grand Duchy.  

27 September 1849 The Waldensian Board refuses the concession of certain privileges by the Kingdom, to avoid consequent state controls.  

2 February 1850 Giuseppe Malan, entrepreneur, banker, strongly committed to the life of the Waldensian Church, is the first Protestant elected to the Parliament of the Kingdom  

1850 The pastor Jean-Pierre Meille founds in Turin the first Waldensian church in Italian language

1850 Charles Beckwith moves permanently to Val Pellice. On his impulse 170 schools will be opened, in every quarter and hamlet of the Valleys. From then on illiteracy completely disappears in the Waldensian sphere, where it was already limited because of the importance given to reading the Bible, while it was over 85% in the rest of Italy. Together with Thomas Sims, Beckwith unsuccessfully attempted to have the Waldensian Synod approve an Anglican turn by accepting the Book of Common Prayer

  

27 October 1850 The Mormon missionary Lorenzo Snow baptizes in the Angrogna stream the first Waldensians converted to his religion  

1851 After years of accurate research on sources in various European countries, Alexis Muston publishes in Paris the enlargement of his historical work, entitled Israël des Alpes – Première histoire complète des Vaudois des Vallées du Piemont et de leurs colonies. His prestige as a historian grows. The work will also be translated into English and German, never into Italian. It is currently unpublished. In it Muston answers point by point all those who trace the Waldensians solely to Waldo of Lyon, denying their previous presence in the Alps or elsewhere. Even today many of Muston’s theses, being difficult to counter, are ignored by those who assume as absolute truth that the whole movement was born out of nothing with Waldo of Lyon

  

1 May 1852 Antoine Monastier dies in Lausanne  

1853 A group of 72 Waldensians converted to Mormonism leave Val Pellice for Utah. Other sources speak of 45 families from Prarostino. It is in any case the largest spontaneous passage of Waldensians to another religion. They will arrive in Utah the following year  

15 December 1853 Inauguration of the Temple of Turin

  

1855 The Waldensian publishing house Claudiana is born, named after Bishop Claudius (see above: years 780-828). The Waldensian Faculty of Theology is born in Torre Pellice. The Synod approves the Constitution de l’église évangelique vaudoise, which continues the function of the Ordonnances of 1564  

15 February 1856 Public meeting in the temple of Torre Pellice to examine migration projects and how to maintain Waldensian identity in those who will leave

  

November 1856 Jean Pierre Baridon and 10 other Waldensians from Villar Pellice establish the first Waldensian settlement in Uruguay  

1857–1877 Waldensian migrants establish churches in Uruguay and Argentina  

24 June 1859 The Waldensian pastor Giorgio Appia contributes to the foundation of the Red Cross following the carnage of the battle of Solferino

  

1860 The Waldensian Faculty of Theology moves from Torre Pellice to Florence  

22 July 1862 Charles Beckwith dies in Torre Pellice 

 

1863 Alexis Muston publishes Valdésie, a epic poem on Waldensian history  

23 December 1864 Thomas Sims dies in Cadoxton, shortly after publishing in London the book Visits to the Valleys of Piedmont; Brief Memoir Respecting the Waldenses”  

20 September 1870 After the Italian army breaks into Rome, the colporteur Enrico Luraschi introduces his Bibles into the city, together with Francesco Modon who preaches in front of Palazzo Chigi and blesses the cheering crowd. After a few months, pastor Prochet holds the first worship in a hotel room

  

1870 Catherine Lydie Lantaret, born in Luserna San Giovanni to a peasant family, goes with her husband Henry Nisbet, met in Scotland, to the Samoa islands. She is the first Waldensian missionary. At the time her brother Pierre was moderator

  

Summer 1871 The Waldensian Synod approves a motion: “Faced with the tendencies that are manifesting themselves in different places to exclude the Bible from primary schools, the Synod, convinced that it is the duty of the Waldensian Church to keep the Word of God at the basis of education, strongly recommends the Consistories to ensure that the Holy Book is read regularly and with respect in the schools under their jurisdiction”.

  

1875 Led by pastor Jean Pierre Michelin, a group of Waldensians from Colonia Valdese in Uruguay settle in Barry County, Plymouth, soon renamed Monett, in Missouri, where they will give life to the Waldensian Church of Stone Prairie which will become part of the Presbyterian church, and still today retains the name of Waldensian Presbyterian Church.  

1877–1955 Second period of expansion of the Waldensian presence in Uruguay and Argentina  

1879 The Temple of Coazze opens  

1880 The Temple of Verona opens.  

1881 The temples of Milan and Naples open. In the following decades, many other churches are born throughout Italy  

15 August 1881 The French pastor François Coillard, at the usual mid-August Waldensian gathering and at the subsequent Synod, asks for help to his mission in Lesotho and to launch an missionary action in the upper course of the Zambezi River  

1881 Waldensians from Monett, Missouri, settle in Galveston, Texas. Others from the Valleys, particularly Villar Pellice, and from other parts of Italy will join them. In 1929 the community will take the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.  

1883 The Italian Evangelical Waldensian Church is formed in Turin; they use Italian while the main Waldensian Church retains the use of French  

1887 In response to Coillard’s 1881 appeal, the first Waldensian missionaries leave for the Zambezi: Luigi Jalla and his wife Maria Turin, followed two years later by Jalla’s brother Adolfo with his wife Emma Pons, and then by many others 

 

1887 The Waldensian pastor and historian Emilio Comba publishes Histoire des vaudois d’Italie depuis leur origine jusqu’à nos jours where he denies that the origins of the Waldensians are older than Waldo of Lyon. It is today the theory embraced by most scholars  

6 April 1888 Alexis Muston dies in Bourdeaux  

1889 On the two hundredth anniversary of the Glorious Return, the Waldensian House is inaugurated in Torre Pellice, where the Synod and the Waldensian Board still meet today  

1890 The Salvation Army has its first stable base in Italy in Luserna San Giovanni, on the initiative of Colonel Fritz Malan, a Waldensian

  

29 May 1893 Ten Waldensian families from Val Germanasca arrive in Burke County, North Carolina under the guidance of Carlo Alberto Tron. By the end of the year a total of 427 Waldensians arrive, founding a city they name Valdese. They were very well received by the Americans who considered the Waldensian church as “something miraculous”. Aa early as in August the governor of the State, Elias Carr, came to visit

  

1894 The Waldensian Home for the Elderly of San Germano Chisone opens  

1895 The Waldensian Home for the Elderly of Luserna San Giovanni opens  

1902 The Synod approves a new Constitution to take account of the churches born from evangelization

  

1905 The Waldensian churches of Argentina and Uruguay constitute a district  

1906 The American Waldensian Aid Society is born in New York, still active today. Over the years it will support the Waldensian churches in various ways, for example by financing the construction of Agape

  

1908 The weekly “dedicated to the Waldensian family” La Luce is born, a predecessor of the current Riforma  

1909 The Presbyterian Waldensian temple of Monett, Missouri, is built, still functioning today, on land previously donated by the St Louis & San Francisco railway company on condition that it would be forever used for the glory of God, a purpose that the church still maintains today

29 December 1910 In an article in the weekly La Luce the young pastor Ernesto Comba, son of the historian Emilio, future professor of theology and long-time moderator, writes: “the Bible contains the Word of God”. It is the first denial of the 1655 Confession of Faith according to which “the Bible is (all) divine and canonical”, the beginning of the deep theological decline

  

From 24 May 1915 to 4 November 1918 Italy participates in the First World War. The faculty of theology is forced to close temporarily because all students are drafted. Several pastors go to the front as military chaplains. Hundreds of Waldensian die  

1915 Inauguration of the Waldensian Temple in Piazza Cavour in Rome, built with the decisive economic support of the American Waldensian Aid Society  

3–6 January 1919 Woodrow Wilson is the first President of the United States of America to make an official visit to Italy. In Rome he meets a delegation of the Waldensian Board led by the moderator  

1919 After years of increasing modernist influence into the Waldensian Faculty of Theology, in his inaugural lecture for the academic year, pastor and professor Giovanni Luzzi, on the basis of German historical-critical theology, states that, thanks to the analysis of the texts, we now know that the pagan religions “sent beams of light that had to be recognised as divine light” and that their “founders… appeared to be… prophets inspired by the same Eternal Spirit that in greater measure had inspired the prophets of Israel”. With such statements, the foundations are thus laid for future deviations. From Luzzi’s writings we learn his convictions: Jesus will not return visibly but has already returned in a spiritual sense, the miraculous, i.e. virginal, birth of Jesus is a “sweet and childishly naive” story that the first Christians “attributed” to the Messiah like “ancient Israel did… to its national heroes”, man was from the beginning “intellectually completely evolved” but “a perfectible being, called, like everything in the immense domain of creation, to gradually pass from rougher to less rough forms, from less perfect to more perfect forms” (he therefore believed in evolutionism), the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 is “an allegorical tale”

  

March 1920 First meeting of representatives of all Italian evangelicals in Rome. Some propose to unite in a single church, but without success

  

1921 The Waldensian Faculty of Theology moves from Florence to Rome

  

7 February 1923 Moderator Bartolomeo Léger meets the Minister of Education Giovanni Gentile and asks that religious teaching in public schools be “simply Christian” and that the “doctrinal” dimension be given less space than the “ethical-historical” one

  

1924–1925 Mussolini government introduces various laws that limit the rights of the Waldensians, such as the prohibition of “offending the Catholic religion” or the obligation to teach Catholic religion in schools  

1926 The monument to Henry Arnaud, “pastor and leader of the Waldensians”, is inaugurated in Torre Pellice

24 June 1929 To meet the needs of Waldensians and Jews, who feel threatened by the stipulation of the Concordat of the Kingdom of Italy with the Catholic Church, the law on “admitted cults” is promulgated which declares that the worship of religious minorities is legal  

Summer 1929 The Waldensian Synod congratulates Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on the law on admitted cults

  

28 February 1930 Royal Decree is issued which, completing the law of the previous year, details other prerogatives for religious minorities: ministers of worship may celebrate marriages with civil validity, assist the faithful who request it in hospitals, prisons, and barracks and are exempted from military mobilization, minorities may open schools and organize education according to their own confession even in public schools, enjoy the tax regime of charitable institutions; families may request and obtain exemption from Catholic religious education

  

1930 Giovanni Luzzi completes the new translation of the Bible into Italian, the first from a Protestant environment to follow the critical text rather than the received text

  

9 April 1935 The Ministry of the Interior issues circular no. 600/158, called “Buffarini Guidi” after the name of the then undersecretary, which bans Pentecostal worship “having concluded that it is expressed and concretized in religious practices contrary to the social order and harmful to the physical and psychic integrity of the race” 

1935 The French publishing house Les Bons Semeurs publishes the book Il y avait des Géants (“There were giants”) by Jeanne Decorvet, a romanticized Waldensian history that supports the apostolic roots of the Waldensians and links them to Claudius, bishop of Turin

  

1938 Pastors Edoardo Micol and Giovanni Bertinatti arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as military chaplains. The latter had the project of founding a Waldensian Evangelical Church of Italian East Africa, a project frustrated in September 1939 by a directive from the government commissioner obliging both pastors to deal only with Italian evangelicals in the area  

1938 The fascist regime forbids the Waldensians to hold worship in French  

1939 The regime excludes Waldensians from the positions of podestà (appointed mayor) and local secretary of the fascist party

  

10 June 1940 – 8 September 1943 Italy participates in the Second World War in alliance with Germany. Hundreds of Waldensians die  

September 1943 Pastor Vittorio Subilia, future professor of theology, introduces to the Synod with others a motion asking “the Waldensian Church to humble before God for not having been able to proclaim the Gospel in every circumstance”, with clear reference to fascism and the war. To avoid splits, he withdraws the document before the vote

  

8 September 1943 – 25 April 1945 Italy continues the war alongside the Allies, against Germany. In northern Italy Mussolini founds the Italian Social Republic, supported by the Germans who occupy the area. Resistance against Germans and fascists arises in the Valleys, in which many Waldensians participate. It happened in some cases that Germans and partisans attended the same worship, as recounted by the partisan leader Ettore Serafino  

1945–1946 The Waldensian Church, that holds political credits for the participation of many Waldensians in the Resistance, has the opportunity to ask for special recognition in the projected Constitution. An autonomous region was deemed possible. The choice of the church leadership is not to ask for it, “so as not to self-ghettoize”  

1947 A group of young people, led by the Waldensian pastor Tullio Vinay, begins the construction of the Ecumenical Centre of Agape, near Prali

  

1951 Inauguration of the Ecumenical Centre of Agape  

September 1962 The Synod decides, by only 5 votes, to extend to women the possibility of being consecrated to the pastorate  

1965 Second meeting of Italian evangelicals. A common hymnbook is agreed upon. With the new Waldensian hymnbooks later printed, this unitary aspect will be lost  

1965 The Waldensian churches of Argentina and Uruguay are authorized by the Synod of Torre Pellice to have their own Synod

1967 The Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy is established, whose main founder is the Waldensian Church. Pentecostals and Adventists refuse to join

  

1967 In Valdese, North Carolina, first performance of From This Day Forward, a play on the history of the Waldensians. The performances continue today

1969  The FGEI (Italian Evangelical Youth Federation) is founded, merging the Waldensian Youth Unions and other evangelical groups. The FGEI itself states that it places the relationship between faith and political commitment at the centre of its own activity

1970-1975  Numerous meetings and “ecumenical camps” focused on Marxism are held at Agape. A course on Waldensian history published by the Waldensian Foundation in 1994 states that in those years there was an encounter “with the elaboration of Marxist thought by freer and more minority political groups, often on the edge of heresy”. It is not clear exactly what this implies, but in 2016 Radio Blackout will speak of support for armed struggle, denied a few days later by the Moderator

Summer 1971  The Synod approves the Document on Marriage, based on Scripture, which states that a family arises when children (even those born out of wedlock or adopted) are present in a marriage. Divorce is not even considered.

Summer 1972  The Synod decides that voting pastors can no longer outnumber “lay” members, including among the latter also members by right (Board members and one deacon for every seven). Until 1848, elected members had always been about two-thirds of the Synod. In the years immediately before 1972, pastors made up well over half the assembly, with the right to vote

16 March 1973  The Leuenberg Concord is approved by European Lutheran, Reformed and others, aimed at full church communion among them. Since the Concord mentions the biblical foundation less stringently than in the 1655 Waldensian Confession of Faith, in the subsequent decades it has been used as a pretext for an increasingly “free” interpretation of Scripture

21 February 1974  The General Discipline of the Waldensian Evangelical Churches comes into force. Approved by the previous year’s Synod, it replaces the 1902 Constitution, in continuity with the Articles of 1558

1974  First feminist camp at Agape

August 1975  Integration covenant between the Waldensian and Methodist churches in Italy

Winter 1975/1976  A group of conservative Waldensians begin meeting periodically, usually in a house at the entrance to Val Pellice, to discuss how to counter the Waldensian Church’s drift away from the Gospel

April 1976  The group launches a petition to the Synod expressing “deep sorrow because the socio-political commitment of part of the Waldensian Church, the Federation of Evangelical Churches of Italy and their media not only results in propaganda for certain parties, but even alters the scriptural concept of the Church”, asking the Synod to acknowledge the real (though undeclared) division that has occurred and to affirm that the Church is the home of all, and that its leadership at every level cannot be influenced by political ideologies but must be inspired solely by the Gospel

21 June 1976  Pastor Tullio Vinay is elected Senator in the Casale Monferrato-Chivasso constituency for the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which also fields him in the constituency covering the Waldensian Valleys (where he is not elected). He is the first and only full-time Waldensian pastor elected to Parliament and the first to stand for such office

22 August 1976  The petition launched in April, signed by 3,338 church members despite hostility from several pastors and the complete absence of information in the church weekly, is delivered to the Synod presidency by Giorgio Mathieu

23-26 August 1976  The Synod examines a motion presented by some of its members who signed the petition taking up its themes, but distorts its content to such an extent that the original proponents vote against or abstain

24 October 1976  In reaction to the poor treatment of the petition, its supporters organize a “Revival Service” in Torre Pellice attended by 500 people, with a sermon on Jeremiah 17:5 by professor Adriano Donini. After that service the Waldensian Evangelical Testimony movement is born

Autumn 1978 Over three hundred scholars meeting in Chicago draft the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 25 articles, the first of which is “The authority of Christ and that of the Scriptures are inseparable”. In the 2020s The True Waldensians/Waldensian Old Paths movement supports this declaration 

1980  The FGEI (see year 1969) campaigns against the installation of American nuclear missiles at Comiso. They never took such initiatives against the corresponding Soviet missiles aimed at Italy

August 1983  The Synod examines several motions on the installation of American nuclear missiles in Sicily. None are approved: the Spini-Malan motion, which reaffirms the need to work for peace but asks to suspend judgement because it is a purely political issue, is heavily defeated; the main motion calling for the removal of American weapons is considered too mild by the more politicized deputies and pastors, who present another that also fails to obtain a majority

21 February 1984  Moderator Giorgio Bouchard and the President of the Republic Sandro Pertini sign the “Intesa” (concordat) between the Waldensian Board and the Italian Republic. At the Waldensians’ request, it states: “The Italian Republic acknowledges that the Waldensian Board, in the conviction that the religious education and formation of children and young people is the specific responsibility of families and churches, does not request to provide catechesis, religious doctrine or worship practices in state schools.” All forms of Waldensian religious education cease in public schools in the Valleys and even at the Waldensian College (middle and high schools) in Torre Pellice

1984  First “gay camp” at the Waldensian Ecumenical Centre of Agape

1984  Claudiana publishes the three-volume History of the Waldensians by Amedeo Molnár, Augusto Armand-Hugon and Valdo Vinay

11 August 1984  The law approving the Intesa between the Italian Republic and the Union of Waldensian and Methodist Churches is promulgated

21 February 1988  Theology professor Vittorio Subilia writes to pastor Pietro Valdo Panascia about the Waldensian situation: “We have lost the centre; biblical references have fallen away; we occupy ourselves only with a false and leveling ecumenism, the Third World, ecology, conformity to social problems. Since 1700 there has not been a situation of such gravity.”

Summer 1993  American politician Jimmy Jacumin, on the centenary of the founding of his city Valdese, North Carolina, visits the Waldensian Valleys and is deeply impressed by Waldensian history and historic sites. The idea is born to reproduce them in Valdese, NC

5 October 1993 On the Synod and Board’s request, the part of the national church fund given to the church is limited reducing the amount in proportion to the taxpayers who do not make a choice

31 December 1997  The debt of the Waldensian hospitals in Piedmont exceeds in one year the entire church budget (around 4 billion lire), reaching 11 billion lire.

4 July 1998  After four years of work, desired and designed by state senator Jimmy Jacumin, the “Trail of Faith” is inaugurated in Valdese, North Carolina, reproducing the historic sites of the Waldensian Valleys

August 1998  Neither the Synod nor other church bodies address the hospital debt problem

31 December 1998  The debt of the Waldensian hospitals in Piedmont rises to 22 billion lire – more than the estimated total real estate assets of the church

1999 (date unknown)  The Waldensian Board guarantees the enormous hospital debt with the whole real estate church property. The matter is not mentioned in the report to the Synod.

1999 Synod  The CIOV (commission responsible for Waldensian hospitals) reports to the Synod a yearly increase in hospital debt of only 4 billion lire instead of the actual 11 billion. The Synod takes no action despite the total debt being triple the entire church budget

1999  The Waldensian publishing house Claudiana releases the book Omosessualità (“Homosexuality”) by Waldensian pastor Gabriella Lettini, which states: “Those who proclaim that homosexual men and women are sick or sinners have the right to express their opinion with the same ‘right’ that racists have to despise people who do not belong to the white race, or neo-Nazis to insult Jews… The Christian tradition is complicit in every episode of violence and discrimination against homosexual men and women. Until Christians become part of the solution to this state of affairs, Christianity will be part of the problem.” In short, if one has to choose between homosexuality and Christianity, it is the latter that must lose

2000  The debt of the Waldensian hospitals in Piedmont exceeds 30 billion lire.

Summer 2001  The Federation of Evangelical Churches of Liguria and Southern Piedmont, the Waldensian Evangelical Church of Genoa-Sampierdarena, and the Ecumenical Centre of Agape (Waldensian) join the Genoa Social Forum, organizer of the protests against the G8 summit in Genoa, which also degenerated into serious rioting and devastation. Among the adherents: Gay Antagonism, Arcigay, Arcilesbica, Red Devil, Gay and Lesbian Action, Red Witches Feminist Collective, 15 squatted social centers, several anarchist collectives, etc.

2001  The debt of the Waldensian hospitals exceeds 40 billion lire.

January 2002  While the hospital debt exceeds 30 million euros (60 billion lire) – seven times the entire annual church budget, far exceeding the value of all church property including temples and historic sites – the Board begins to sound the alarm, claiming the only cause is the Region’s failure to increase service reimbursements

2002  First “Lesbian Camp” at the Waldensian Ecumenical Centre of Agape.

2003  The debt of the Waldensian hospitals exceeds 40 million euros (over 80 billion lire). Without external intervention, all Waldensian real estate (temples, presbyteries, historic sites – valued at less than 20 million) would pass to creditor banks, the hospitals would close, 550 employees would lose their jobs, and the church would still have millions in debt to pay. Political mediation by local party leader Giorgio Mathieu, Senator Lucio Malan and Regional Assembly member Emilio Bolla obtains a commitment from Regional President Enzo Ghigo to pass a regional law by which the Region assumes all debts and incorporates the hospitals and staff into the regional health system. Thus the danger that the Waldensian Church would lose its entire patrimony is averted – but it loses the hospitals

18 May 2004  Approval of the Regional law by which Piedmont Region assumes the debts of the Waldensian hospitals (40 million euros); the hospitals and their 550 employees pass to the regional health service

8 February 2007  Waldensian pastor Letizia Tomassone, in an interview with daly newspaper Corriere della Sera states that in the past years she had  liturgically celebrated several same-sex marriages. No disciplinary action is ever taken against her, although her deeds are openly contrary to Waldensian discipline

8 June 2009  A law is promulgated which, on request of the Waldensian Synod and Board, assigns to them the full share of the national church fund. Due to the big number of taxpayers who chose the Waldensian (more than 300,000) the amount received by the Waldensian Board, from 14 million euro for the 2008, goes up to 40 million euro for the 2009. A large number of the subscribers are attracted by the ultra liberal positions of the church about LGBTs requests and, more generally, by the leftist political agenda of the church’s leadership   

27 March 2010  On RAI DUE national television channel, Waldensian pastor and theology professor Letizia Tomassone declares: “In my life this has been and is a great richness – the possibility of experiencing very significant relationships, even long-term ones, with both women and men, whereas classical traditional Christianity in all its forms tends to make one feel guilty if one is not adequately heterosexual. So I see it not as a problem but as the discovery of the possibility, the joy of becoming fully what one is, and of recognizing that in this there is also a gift from God.”

11 April 2010  Signature collection begins for the referendum, called by its promoters “for public water”, but in reality aimed at repealing the rule allowing the management of economically relevant local public services to be awarded by public tender. The promoters’ committee (a constitutionally relevant body) includes the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI) – and therefore also the Waldensian Church without any prior Synod involvement – alongside hundreds of mainly far-left associations. In the Senate, the rapporteur i of the law to be repealed was the only Protestant senator, Lucio Malan, Waldensian

April 2010  Waldensian pastor Alessandro Esposito celebrates the solemn liturgical blessing of the union of two women in the church of Trapani and Marsala (the media, uncontradicted, call it a “marriage”) without any synodical decision authorizing such an act and while the current Document on Marriage radically excludes it

23 May 2010  Waldensian pastor and theologian Paolo Ricca celebrates the baptism of two children in the Rome temple (Via IV Novembre), calling the two men presenting them “parents”: the biological father and his partner

15 June 2010  The “dissident” website valdesi.eu is launched, calling for adherence to the 1655 Confession of Faith against decline and anti-biblical positions 

28 July 2010  With a paid insertion in the weekly newspaper Riforma, five Waldensian church members, Ivan Caradonna, Fabrizio Malan, Lucio Malan, Sergio Malan and Giorgio Mathieu, promote an Appeal for Fidelity to the Confession of Faith in view of the upcoming synodical discussion on liturgical blessings for same-sex couples.

22 August 2010  The Synod to which the Appeal is addressed begins

25 August 2010  Synod chairman, magistrate Marco Bouchard, forbids former moderator Gianni Genre from speaking about the Appeal or even mentioning it

27 August 2010  With 105 yes, 9 no, 29 abstentions and 37 not voting, the Synod approves a motion allowing individual churches to decide whether to celebrate liturgical blessings for same-sex couples. valdesi.eu recalls that not only is the blessing of homosexual couples contrary to the 1655 Confession of Faith, but states that delegating liturgical and doctrinal decisions to local churches is contrary to the 1561 Pact of Union (repeatedly reaffirmed over the centuries), which requires unanimity of all churches on liturgical and doctrinal matters

30 August 2010  The Italian Evangelical Alliance expresses solidarity with the Waldensian minority that opposed liturgical blessings for same-sex couples. Similar positions follow from the Federation of Pentecostal Churches and other evangelical denominations

24 December 2010  Waldensian pastor Aldo Comba writes on Riforma: “In subscribing to the 1655 Waldensian Confession of Faith, Waldensian pastors undertake to exercise their ministry in line with the Reformed theological tradition, but not to adhere to every single formulation of the document.” Despite numerous requests from valdesi.eu, no pastor ever denies this statement, according to which pastors solemnly subscribe to a document they do not share and will not put into practice

23 May 2011 Lucio Malan asks the Consistory of the Waldensian Church of Luserna San Giovanni, of which he is a member, to expel him because the Waldensian Church, as such, has made itself a promoter of the referendum to repeal the legislation on local public services, for which he is the principal political figure responsible: either the Church should not have taken a position because this is not a matter of faith, or it is a matter of faith and he should therefore be expelled. The Consistory rejects the request in the name of “freedom to dissent”.

26 June 2011 The Waldensian Church of Milan celebrates, with two pastors and in the presence of television crews, journalists and photographers, the first liturgical blessing of a male couple since the 2010 synodal approval

28 June 2011 Waldensian pastor Domenico Maselli, former president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, states in a letter to the newspaper Il Tirreno that he has not blessed gay couples and has no intention of doing so

8 July 2011 The Italian Evangelical Alliance states that the Milan blessing is contrary to the Gospel. Similar statements follow from the Italian Baptist Churches and other denominations.

8 July 2011 In an interview with the weekly magazine L’Espresso, Pastor Platone states that opposition to blessings for same-sex couples exists only among Pentecostals

July 2011 The valdesi.eu group publishes paid advertisements in the Pinerolo weekly L’Eco del Chisone and the Turin newspaper La Stampa, after they had previously been rejected by the Waldensian weekly Riforma. They reiterate the dissent of many Waldensians regarding the politicization of the Church and its departure from Scripture, while complaining about the censorship they had experienced

22 July 2011 Waldensian theologian Paolo Ricca, in an extensive article in Riforma, states that blessings for same-sex couples are outside Scripture and wrong

Late July 2011 In an interview with Riforma, Moderator Maria Bonafede describes the 58% of synodal votes that approved blessings for same-sex couples as an “ample majority”; she states that “full and unreserved acceptance” of same-sex couples through their blessing “is one hundred percent biblical”, that “the discussion of the subject of blessing in the Bible is secondary”, and reveals that the multi-ethnic Waldensian churches opposed the decision, something that had never been reported by the Waldensian media

21 August 2011 The Synod opens. The official report distributed to all delegates states that in the ethnic churches opposed to blessing same-sex couples “there is no specific argument, but an ancestral homophobia deriving (…) from the Bible”. The same report reveals that the issue “provoked violent reactions of rejection and even brought to light threats of division” of the communities. “These situations occurred particularly in communities with a strong presence of brothers and sisters from Africa, or more generally from the Global South as well as from Eastern Europe”. The media, included those run by the Waldensian Church, never reported about these threats

21 August 2011 For the first time in its history, and contrary to the regulations, church members are not allowed to attend the proceedings of the Synod, but may only watch television coverage. Since votes are taken by a show of hands, they thus effectively become secret. The same thing will happen at all subsequent synods, undermining their regularity

26 August 2011 Around 11:00 a.m. the Synod rejects a motion in favor of persecuted Christians.

26 August 2011 Around 11:15 a.m. the Synod approves, with 109 votes in favor, 9 against, 9 abstentions and 53 non-voters, a motion of condemnation against valdesi.eu website, promoter of the Appeal for Fidelity to the Confession of Faith. In the entire history of the synods, there is no record of any formal condemnation of anyone, not even of persecutors who massacred men, women and children. The document accuses the website of conducting a “campaign of denigration”, improperly using the name “Valdesi”, publishing unauthorized videos of the synodal proceedings (which is untrue), and making personal attacks against pastors

29 August 2011 Valdesi.eu responds point by point to the generic accusations contained in the synodal motion and asks, including through letters to all pastors, that they mention specific cases of denigration or personal attacks. Some respond, either distancing themselves from the synodal motion or citing matters that have nothing to do with denigration or personal attacks.

Autumn 2011 The Federation of Pentecostal Churches ends, after more than 10 years, its dialogue with the Waldensian Church because of the blessings for same-sex couples

26–31 August 2012 The Synod, again behind closed doors, contrary to the regulations, decides to amend the 1971 Document on Marriage. The approved text is not yet known, but its approach is clear: “There is no static and immutable concept of marriage, nor an indispensable link between family and marriage or between family and parenthood”

31 August 2012 Press conference concerning the synodal decision on the family. Pastor Paolo Ribet defines “family” as the fact that “two people get together” and states that the 1971 Document is outdated because many things have changed since then. Pastor Platone states: “we never had such a fixed idea of marriage; rather, we are people who enter into agreements, which are temporary and not indissoluble.” Pastor Enrico Benedetto, professor of practical theology at the Waldensian Faculty of Theology, adds that “from a Protestant perspective marriage does not exist” and concludes: “Let us move beyond good and evil; let us try to live with a benevolent outlook – which is the outlook of the Gospel – toward the situations of life we encounter, which we do not always get to choose. Let us invest what we encounter with an impulse that is not a judging impulse. If the Gospel is not this, then what on earth is it?”

3 September 2012 Synod President Marcella Tron Bodmer responds to the request to cancel the 2011 condemnation of valdesi.eu, stating that it could not be examined for procedural reasons

21 December 2012 According to bizarre theories based on the Mayan calendar, widely reported by the media, the end of the world was supposed to take place on this day. According to the English version of Wikipedia, only three villages would have survived the catastrophe. Among them was Pra del Torno, a Waldensian stronghold during the persecutions, because the Waldensians were supposedly said to have kept the “Holy Grail” there for a brief period

13 January 2013 The weekly Riforma attempts to present a conference attended also by a pastor from a small church to which no more than 1% of Italian Pentecostals belong Asia “dialogue with the Pentecostal world on homosexuality”.

26 May 2013 The first blessing of a lesbian couple following the Synod’s authorization in 2010 takes place in Rome

14 June 2013 The Federation of Italian Evangelical Youth (Waldensians and others) officially takes part in the Rome Gay Pride

25 July 2013 In the weekly Riforma, a Waldensian pastor who had previously been a member of the Board writes that there are “biblical passages affected by homophobia”. In the same issue of the weekly, another pastor expresses support for a bill imposing imprisonment for “homophobia”, including for people merely belonging to groups that promote “homophobia”.

2 and 5 August 2013 Val Pellice: first “Days of Ancient Waldensian Paths”, organized on the initiative of “Daniela Valdese” (Daniela Michelin Salomon), author of the blog of the same name, Pastor Paolo Castellina (riforma.net) and valdesi.eu.

August 2013 The Synod presidency rejects the appeal against the 2011 condemnation of valdesi.eu on the grounds that it was not a specific “measure” against which an appeal could be made to the Synod. Curiously, the Synod has even considered appeals concerning money to be paid to former employees. Yet, according to those who represent the Synod, the condemnation for reasons of faith would apparently is not worthy of discussion in that forum

October 2013 Paolo Castellina’s book The Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1655 is published

15 November 2013 Riforma reveals that over the previous 10 years the number of members of the Waldensian Church has decreased by 9.2%

2 December 2013 The ecclesial movement Sentieri Antichi Valdes* (“Ancient Waldensian Paths”) is founded

12 January 2014 Statement by Sentieri Antichi Valdesi on the family. First words: “The family is the fundamental nucleus of society, firmly established by the Word of God”

17 February 2014 Statement by Sentieri Antichi Valdesi: “The Word of God, the source of our life. No to doctrinal relativism”.

6 May 2014 The Waldensian publishing house Claudiana publishes a book whose title is blasphemous, written by “theologian” Marcella Althaus-Reid, with a preface, expressing full support, written by Waldensian pastor and Theology professor Letizia Tomassone. Many chapter titles are also sexually themed blasphemies. Among other things, the book contains a “reinterpretation” of the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom, in which the “good ones” are “the welcoming Sodomites” and Lot’s wife, while Lot himself and God (defined as “fascist”) are the “bad ones” 

6 July 2014 On the radio program Uomini e profeti, Daniele Garrone, Dean of the Waldensian Faculty of Theology, defines the principle of Sola Scriptura as follows: “the way we have of dealing with another word, that is, what I think, say, believe about God I do not find within myself, I do not want it simply to be an extension of my consciousness, but I develop it as the hermeneutics of a discourse addressed to me.” The center is therefore no longer the Word of God, but hermeneutics.

8–19 August 2014 Val Pellice: second edition of the “Days of Ancient Waldensian Paths”

24 August 2014 For the first time, Pope Francis sends a message of good wishes to the Waldensian Synod. However, thanks to the online publication by one of the delegates, it emerges that the text invokes the intercession of the Virgin Mary on the Synod, something noted only by valdesi.eu and subsequently acknowledged but minimized by Riforma. The text of the message is never published by official Waldensian bodies, but only by the Vatican and valdesi.eu

25 August 2014 The Synod rejects, by 77 votes to 71, a motion from the Examination Committee asking pastors to account for their work to church councils and consistories

29 August 2014 The Synod approves a motion in favor of persecuted Christians, who suffer severe discrimination, torture, forced conversions and thousands of deaths every year. In the text they are compared to the victims of homophobia in Italy

2014 The share of the 8-per-thousand income tax allocation due to the Waldensian Board reaches €41 million

22 June 2015 Pope Francis visits the Waldensian Temple and, addressing the Moderator, says: “I ask you to forgive us for the un-Christian, even inhuman, attitudes and behavior that, throughout history, we have had toward you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us!” Sentieri Antichi Valdesi, noting that the present official Waldensian leadership has little standing to speak on behalf of the Waldensians who were persecuted for remaining faithful to Scripture, expresses appreciation for the request for forgiveness and accepts it

16 August 2015 The book collecting the principal articles published on the valdesi.eu website is released under the title What Is the Waldensian Church Today?

23 August 2015 The Waldensian Synod considers Pope Francis’s request for forgiveness and formulates a response so convoluted that newspapers headline it: “The Waldensians say they cannot forgive” Further clarification from the Waldensian side is needed to explain that they actually intended to forgive  

26 August 2015 A Document on Families, replacing 1971 Bible-based document, is presented to the Synod. It expresses in various ways the full acceptance of homosexuality, asserting, without even attempting to demonstrate it, that the “homosexual relationships condemned in the Bible have nothing in common with a loving relationship between people of the same sex as it is commonly recognized today in our modern societies”. Homosexual relationships are treated as entirely equivalent to marriage. The very few biblical quotations are completely out of context: Jesus’ saying “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder” is used to assert that “we are all called to love our neighbor and to justice, not to a specific model of relationship”. The verses from Genesis concerning the creation of woman are cited to support the claim that “diversity can also exist between people of the same sex”; therefore homosexual relationships are said to be God’s will just as relationships between men and women are, “aware that God’s love is capable of a love that does not wear out”. The document also states that the form of the family is determined by state laws.

November 2015 The Waldensian Synod approves a motion “for the full integration of homosexual brothers and sisters”, invites churches to undertake and continue the path followed thus far, expresses concern that broad sectors, although a minority, of Italian public opinion still maintain attitudes of closure and homophobic discrimination, sometimes invoking a “distorted view” of the Gospel in support of their positions, and calls on the Churches to strongly oppose every form of discrimination against homosexual brothers and sisters as well as the exploitation of the Word of God for these purposes. After local churches – very ambiguously – had been left free in 2010 to decide whether or not to practice blessings for homosexual couples, that freedom now ceases, and those who do not accept the new practice are accused of “discrimination”.  So, after only five years the Synod contradicts itself, proving that 2010 was a tricky compromise

2016 The Waldensian Presbyterian Church of Monett, Missouri, becomes part of the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO), founded in 2012 by Presbyterian churches affiliated with the Presbyterian Church that broke away for theological and bureaucratic reasons, particularly because of the latter’s decision to ordain openly homosexual pastors and celebrate same-sex marriages. ECO now includes 383 local churches, 500 pastors and approximately 130,000 church members.

29 January 2016 Rome. Representatives of 24 evangelical denominations, including Sentieri Antichi Valdesi, approve the document Which Family for Which Evangelical Witness?, reiterating that “In the Bible, marriage, and by extension the family founded upon it, is an institution established from the beginning as the culmination of the goodness of creation”, and that its subjects are a man and a woman, complementary to one another (Genesis 2:18), a view “fully accepted in the teaching of Jesus”. “The family represents a pre-legal and pre-political reality established by God.” The text describes the Document on Families presented to the 2015 Waldensian Synod as “flattened out in line with contemporary social trends rather than guided by biblical convictions”. Which Family urges “those within historic Protestant churches to make their dissenting voices heard, distancing themselves from positions that clash with the Gospel”.

6 February 2016 Service of Sentieri Antichi Valdesi according to the ancient Waldensian liturgy, in a hall on Via Generale Martinat in Torre Pellice

11 April 2016 valdesi.eu website reaches one million visitors.

17 May 2016 “Sentieri Antichi Valdesi” condemns as falsely evangelical the participation of Waldensians and other evangelicals in events for the “World Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia”. Such an action “corrupts and subverts biblical anthropology and the Gospel itself”.

8 July 2016 An article published by Riforma states that it is evident that “the three principal monotheistic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, are structured and constructed with the purpose of excluding women from society, if possible from the world, relegating them to the role of supporting actors, concubines, shadows”. As far as Judaism and Christianity are concerned, the Bible demonstrates the opposite.

10 July 2016 “Marriage” of two men at the Waldensian Temple in Palermo. This is how all the newspapers describe it. The “grooms” display a “blessing certificate” to the photographers

21 August 2016 Opening service of the Waldensian Synod. The Assembly stands to hear the reading of what the liturgy sheet itself calls a “Confession of Faith”, entitled Post-Apostolic Creed. It is in fact a non-apostolic or anti-apostolic text in which the concepts of the first four articles of the official Confession of Faith (those concerning Scripture) are ignored; Jesus is the messiah only “of the tormented and the oppressed”, he did not die for our sins but “for having proclaimed the Kingdom of God”, the Holy Spirit “makes us companions of the risen one”, and peace on earth is believed in, “for which it makes sense to work”. After contradicting it so many times in practice, this is the first time that the authentic Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1655 is formally repudiated. Indeed, this year as well, its subscription by newly ordained pastors is not mentioned in official statements, even though it is still required by the regulations

23 August 2016 The far-left website “Radio Blackout” publishes an article claiming that in the 1970s the Waldensian Church supported armed struggle against the Government, namely groups such as the Red Brigades

26 August 2016 valdesi.eu website reports on “Radio Blackout” article

27 August 2016 The Moderator, Pastor Eugenio Bernardini, states, according to an article on Riforma, that “God welcomes in his immense grace all forms of family”. Since this is not stated anywhere in the Bible, valdesi.eu (sarcastically) points out that this implies a new Revelation

29 August 2016 Moderator Eugenio Bernardini officially denies the statement attributed to the Waldensian Church by “Radio Blackout”, calling it a “misleading inaccuracy” and stating: “we have never given support—as a church—to any movement, even less so to one prepared to take up arms”

August 2016 In a letter to the Waldensian churches, the Moderator recommends that liturgical blessings be given only to homosexual couples and not to heterosexual couples. He states that the whole issue should be re-examined because of the Italian law on civil unions

9 September 2016 An article on Riforma reveals that the Waldensian Church membership has fallen to 17,096, a decline of 2,502 in nine years

22 October 2016 On the occasion of Waldensian Day, the British committee supporting the Waldensian Church (English Committee in Aid of the Waldensian Church Missions) promotes a celebratory book about Pope Bergoglio, The Promise of Francis

20 August 2017 Opening service of the Waldensian Synod. The Assembly stands to read what the liturgy sheet calls a “Confession of Faith”, entitled Post-Apostolic Creed. It is the same as the previous year (see 21 August 2016), in profound contrast with the authentic 1655 Confession of Faith, completely detached from the Bible, ideological, pantheistic, anti-Trinitarian—in short, non-Christian. The de facto replacement of the true Confession of Faith is now complete; the decision was made somewhere unknown, by someone unknown. In practice, the Synod acknowledges that it has nothing to do anymore with the historic Waldensian Church

24 August 2017 The “Waldensian Dissent” group posts on the door of every temple in Val Pellice a leaflet reproducing Pastor Paolo Castellina’s article “The Measure Is Full”. It quotes Revelation 18:4: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive any of her plagues”, which is commented upon as follows: “This appeal has often been used throughout the centuries as that same appeal addressed by Christ to His faithful so that they may clearly separate themselves not only from the lifestyle of this world, which proudly opposes God and His moral laws, defying Him, but also as an appeal to leave corrupt and idolatrous churches which, although improperly bearing the name of Christ, have compromised themselves with the world by embracing it like a prostitute for vile gain. Indeed, we are faced with a spiritual prostitution similar to that into which ancient Israel had repeatedly fallen and which the prophets denounced.”

19 September 2017 A new substantial decline in the membership of the Waldensian Church is reported in an article in *Riforma*. From 17,096 to 16,809 in a single year: a decline of 287 people in one year and 2,789 over the previous ten years. In the Valleys, the Waldensians have fallen to 8,544, approximately one third of the number before 1848. During the last year, the valleys lost 258 members, 200 through death and the remainder through emigration or membership cancellation

April 2020 ‘Veri Valdesi’ begins publishing the Psalms, mainly using the melodies of the Genevan Psalter commissioned by John Calvin, with translation, versification and performances produced by Veri Valdesi. At present there are original translations from Hebrew of 115 psalms, original versifications of 53, and 121 different executions

26 August 2023 Motion: “The Waldensian Synod condemns legislation aimed at defining surrogacy as a universal crime”. It is a legislation promoted by the Brothers of Italy party, of which Waldensian Senator Lucio Malan is a high ranking member. He remarks: “Centuries of fidelity to biblical foundations and principles, a fidelity paid for with atrocious persecutions and massacres, stand in contrast to an entity that today has become a secondary and superfluous flag-bearer for the most extreme demands of the various ‘Pride’ marches. This motion supports turning mothers into instruments for producing children who are taken away from them for money, with the children themselves becoming commodities, on sale by contract”

10 August 2024 “Sentieri Antichi Valdesi” continues its witness under the name “Veri Valdesi”. Veri Valdesi therefore recognizes all the official statements previously issued by Sentieri Antichi Valdesi. On 21 July 2025, the denominatioss are unified as “Veri Valdesi – Sentieri Antichi Valdesi”

October 2026 Hazelgreen Reformed Chapel assumes the name of Waldensian Reformed Chapel Hazelgreen (Missouri). In the Chapel Darrell Todd a Sunday bible-based service is held, Heidelberg Catechism is studied, under the leadership of Darrell Todd Maurina. The real Waldensian spirit is still alive, by God’s grace!   

2026 The Waldensian future depends on those who share the will to keep high the light that shines in the darkness, and who, amid a thousand dangers, in the past as well as today dare to proclaim the true Gospel against every counterfeit, every form of oppression, and every attempt to turn it into something different. Whoever is Waldensian, or feels solidarity with the true mission of the Waldensian movement, can only wish, even today, to defend the Bible as the Word of God and spread its message. Those interested may write to [lettere@valdesi.eu]