Babylon.” Rejecting clerical sacraments, prayers for the dead, and relic cults, they
established their own church of perfecti, who administered sacraments and confession.
Waldo himself never gave up hope of a reconciliation, and some followers, such as
Durand of Huesca and the “Catholic Poor,” returned to the church. Radical
Waldensianism spread rapidly throughout Europe from the Pyrénées to central Europe,
developing a parallel ecclesiastical structure while maintaining a commitment to
evangelical Christianity. Despite inquisitorial persecution, they survived into the modern
period, providing fertile ground for Protestantism in the 16th century. A Waldensian
church survives in Italy to this day.
Richard Landes
[See also: HERESIES, APOSTOLIC; HERESY; INQUISITION; PREACHING;
SAINT ALEXIS, VIE DE; WITCHCRAFT; WOMEN, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF]
Audisio, Gabriel, ed. Les Vaudois des origines a leur fin (XIIe—XVIe siècles). Turin: Meynier,
1990.
Biller, P. “Thesaurus absconditus: The Hidden Treasure of the Waldensians.” In The Church and
Wealth, ed. W.J.Sheils and Diana Wood. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987, pp. 139–54.
Gonnet, Jean, and Amedeo Molnar. Les Vaudois au moyen âge. Turin: Claudiana, 1974.
Lerner, Robert E. “A Case of Religious Counter-Culture: The German Waldensians.” American
Scholar 55(1986):234–47.
Marthaler, B. “Forerunners of the Franciscans: The Waldenses.” Franciscan Studies 18(1958):133–
42.
Patchovsky, Alexander, and Kurt-Victor Selge. Quellen zur Geschichte der Waldenser.
Gümüterscloh: Mohn, 1973.
Selge, Kurt-Victor. Die ersten Waldenser. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1967.
Thouzellier, Christine. Catharisme et Valdéisme en Languedoc a la fin du XIIe et au début du XIIIe
siècle. Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1969.
Wakefield, Walter, and Austin Evans, eds. Heresies of the High Middle Ages. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1969, pp. 200–42, 278–89, 346–51.
WALTER
. See also GAUTIER
WALTER OF SAINT-VICTOR
(d. after 1180). Prior of the abbey of Saint-Victor at Paris, Walter is known chiefly for his
harsh attack on the dialectical method in Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae, which
singled out Peter Abélard, Peter Lombard, Peter of Poitiers (canon of NotreDame), and
Gilbert of Poitiers for sharp criticism. Walter is also the author of some twenty sermons,
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1836