Editing Peter Waldo (section)

== Relationship with Waldenses ==
{{main|Waldensians}}
Peter Waldo is regarded by many historians, including Jana Schulman, as having founded the Waldensians sometime between 1170 and 1177.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waldenses |title= Waldenses |website= Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date= 28 January 2019 |quote= little is known with certainty about the reputed founder, Valdes (also called Peter Waldo, or Valdo). As a layman, Valdes preached (1170–76) in Lyon, France}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15527b.htm |title= Waldenses |last= Weber |first= N. |date= 1912 | website= Catholic Encyclopedia | publisher= New Advent |access-date= 28 January 2019 | quote= The real founder of the sect was a wealthy merchant of Lyon who in the early documents is called Waldes (Waldo)… On the Feast of the Assumption, 1176, he disposed of the last of his earthly possessions and shortly after took the vow of poverty.}}</ref><ref name=Rise/>

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.{{sfn|Monastier|1859|p=58}} Monastier takes him to mean [[Pope Lucius II|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.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15527b.htm |title= Waldenses |last= Weber |first= N. |date= 1912 |website= Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher= New Advent |access-date= 28 January 2019 | quote= Pope Lucius III consequently included them among the heretics against whom he issued a Bull of excommunication at Verona in 1184.}}</ref>

Monastier also says that [[Eberhard of Béthune|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.<ref name=Rise/>