a case for the Waldenses ancient origin

Ephesians 3:21 Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

1. Peter Waldo still preached the evangelical New Testament gospel over a century before Wycliff and Huss; not to mention over 3oo years before Luther!
The roman Catholic and mailine protestant argument always ignores the existence of the waldensees.
Catholics always start off there argument with claiming a 1500 year gap in church history. But in order to do this they lie! They deny the existence of not only the waldenses but multiple churches throughout he centuries. Even if the Waldensees were off the table. You still have the montanist, Donatist,Paulicans, lumbees and several similar sects. The fact is that these people not only existed but were murdered for their faith. I for one will not forget their sacrifice.



2.The Waldensian name is of Italian origin

“Cardinal Peter Damian, one of the able builders of the papal edifice,
in his campaign (A.D. 1059) against these primitive Christians in northern Italy, called
them Subalpini. The word in common parlance to designate these borderers of the Alps
was ‘Vallenses,’ from which in time the V was changed into W; one of the l’s into d,
and they have since the twelfth century generally been called Waldenses.”
To verify that all of this is correct, I would like to refer to the Junior Classic Latin
Dictionary, Latin-English and English-Latin, by Antonio J. Provost, head of the Modern
Language department, University of Notre Dame. Note: the abbreviations used from
this source are: f. = feminine gender; s. = substantive; fig. = figuratively; poet. =
poetically.
In the English-Latin section, p. 203 it says, “ valley, s. vallis, convallis, is f. ” Then
in the Latin-English section it says on p. 154, “ vallis, is f. valley, vale, fig. (poet.)
hallow.” In this same section, p. 27, under “ convallis ” it says: “ convallis is, f. deep
valley.” From these definitions in Latin, it is clear that the term “Waldenses ”
(“ Vallenses ”) meaning “ people of the valley ” has absolutely nothing to do with the
historical character by the name of Peter Waldo. It’s a Roman Catholic lie.
To demonstrate that the Junior Classic Latin Dictionary is correct, we will now go
to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language under “ valley ” which has
the usual English definition. This dictionary goes beyond others as it has an appendix of
Indo-European Roots. Before we go to the appendix, let’s read the origin of the word at
the end of the definition: “ [Middle English, valley from Norman French, from Vulgar
Latin vall.ta (unattested), from Latin vallis, valls. See wel-3 in Appendix] ”, and we will
drop in at #10: “ Perhaps variant wall- in Latin valls, vallis, valley (‘that which is
surrounded by hills ’ ): VAIL1, VALE1, VALLEY.” You will notice the “ variant wall- in Latin ”
suggests a “w” sound in place of the “ v ” sound, and may be the reason why
“ Vallenses ” had evolved into “ Waldenses ”.
Again we will go to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
for a history of the letter “W” in our alphabet: “ The letter W is a descendant of the
letter V. Around 1000 B.C. the Phoenicians and other Semites of Syria and Palestine
began to use a graphic sign in the forms [not able to show here] . They gave it the name
w.w and used it for a semiconsonant w, as in English know, knows. After 900 B.C.,
when the Greeks borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, they developed two
signs from w.w. The first sign, which they called upsilon, ‘ bare u,’ they used for the
vowel u. The Greek form without the tail passed via Etruscan to the Roman alphabet, in
which it was used for two sounds, semiconsonantal w and vocalic u, as in the writing of
VENIO and IVLIVS. In later Roman times the sound w became v. Before the Norman
Conquest of England the Anglo-Saxons used the Latin letter V, as in the Uncial form,
for the sounds u, v, and w. Later the habit developed to use V for u and v, but to write
V doubly for the sound w. Gradually the two separate letters were linked to form a new
character, as in the Cursive form. Our modern printed letters, capital and lower-case,
are formally constructed by analogy with the printed V, while the written forms revert to
the Cursive.”
With this comprehensive explanation, one can now see why the term
“ Vallenses ” developed into “Waldenses ” especially during the Middle Ages around
400 to 1200 A.D."
Clifton A. Emahiser’s Teaching Ministries
E-mail caemahiser@sbcglobal.net



3. The 1120 A.D. confession of faith was uncovered by Samuel moreland in 1658. Moreland was commission by Oliver Cromwell to give aid to the Waldenses and to research their history. The Waldenses were massacred by the Roman Catholic church at that time. just three years earlier they printed there third confession of Faith. So they obviously gave permission. The document found was dated 1120.

Now one can claim that this document was forged by the Waldensees. However, the confession doesn't match the 2nd one. The first is more anabaptist and allows reading from the apocrypha. Yet the second does not. The third is entirely more reformed than anabaptist. Apparently the first is also written in Italian.

4. None of the Waldensees confessions, nor other writings from the ancient church ascribe Waldo to be the founder of the church. Yet this is odd among reformers. When we look at the way protestants honor Luther, Calvin, Wesley etc. It would seem odd that the Waldenses not give respect to their supposed church father.

“This theory sweeps away at a breath not only the apostolic but the Italian origin of the Waldensian church, making it no older than the year 1160, when Peter Waldo began his ministry in france.” Pg. 25
“The Waldenses except a few recently, have never, during these seven centuries, recognized him as their head. Their oldest writings, their confessions of faith, their catechisms and poems, are not his, and make no mention of him.
Hecould not have found a church which by the very confessions of its enemies already existed, and which is well known to have professed in the ninth century evangelical doctrines opposed to those of the Roman Church.” Pg 26
A short history of the Italian Waldenses
Sofia Bompiani
Harvard college Library, from the library of Frank Dyer Chester, class of 1891, The gift of Joseph C. Willey 1939





5. Waldenses were commonly accused to be the same as the albigenses as well as Paulicans. It is obvious that similarity points to the fact that these groups held the same faith. which is much more ancient than Peter Waldo.
Catholic apologists typicaly lump these groups together in the same heresies, but then deny that they were unified and providing an alternative church. The Waldenses confessions of faith show just what faith they are.
The Inquisition was used to destroy all these so-called "heretics" in order to keep an iron grip on their "holy Roman Empire". But if the Waldenses had an evangelical faith then perhaps these other groups did as well. After all why were medeival europeans really so concerned with preserving Iranian doctrine?

6. Waldenses of the past testified to their ancient origin.
Many site Waldensees of this century giviong up on there doctrine. However the waldensees church has grown apostate. it would be comparable to interviewing an anglican Bishop on his views and assuming the same was true in the late 1500's. The waldenses today sadly deny the Bible and salvation. They are only genetic relatives. Yet the Waldenses of that day indeed believed that their church streched back to the apostles.

7. voltaire reveals that there was historical revisionism among french catholics.

“‘Auricular confession was not received as late as the eighth and ninth centuries
in the countries beyond the Loire, in Languedoc and the Alps – Alcuin complains of this
in his letters. The inhabitants of those countries appear to have always had an
inclination to abide by the customs of the primitive church, and to reject the tenets and
customs which the church in its more flourishing state judged convenient to adopt.
“‘Those who were called Manichaeans, and those who were afterward named
Albigenses, Vaudois, Lollards, and who appeared so often under different names, were
remnants of the first Gaulish Christians, who were attached to several ancient customs,
which the Church of Rome thought proper to alter afterward.” (Voltaire, Additions to
Ancient and Modern History, vol. 29, pp. 227, 242.)