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Concept
Peter Waldo
Summary
Peter Waldo (ˈwɔːldoʊ,_ˈwɒl-; c. 1140 – c. 1205; also Valdo, Valdes, Waldes; Pierre Vaudès, de Vaux, Petrus Waldus, Valdus) was the leader of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages.
The tradition that his first name was "Peter" can only be traced back to the fourteenth century. This has caused some historians, such as Jana Schulman, to see it as likely a later invention. He is considered a Proto-Protestant.
Waldensians
Peter Waldo is regarded by many historians, including Jana Schulman, as having founded the Waldensians sometime between 1170 and 1177.
There were claims that the Waldensians predated Peter Waldo. In his A History of the Vaudois Church (1859), Antoine Monastier quotes Bernard, Abbott of Foncald, writing at the end of the 12th century, that the Waldensians arose during the papacy of Lucius. Monastier takes him to mean Lucius II, Pope from 1144 to 1145, and concludes that the Waldenses were active before 1145. Bernard also says that the same Pope Lucius condemned them as heretics, but they were condemned by Pope Lucius III in 1184.
Monastier also says that Eberard de Béthune, writing in 1210 (although Monastier says 1160), claimed that the name Vaudois meant "valley dwellers" or those who "dwell in a vale of sorrow and tears", and was in use before Peter Waldo.
A claim persisted until the 19th century that Waldo had not begun any new movement but that he had arisen from a pure Christianity established by the Apostles in the Alps soon after Jesus' ascension, and that Waldo was merely perpetuating this pure faith.
Most details of Waldo's life are unknown. Extant sources relate that he was a wealthy clothier and merchant from Lyon and a man of some learning. After establishing himself as a successful merchant, Waldo commissioned monks to create a translated copy of the Bible for him. The clerics from Lyon translated the New Testament into the vernacular "Romance" (Franco-Provençal). This has caused Waldo to be credited with providing to Europe the first translation of the Bible in a 'modern tongue' outside of Latin.
Official source
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