Editing Calabria (section)

==== Waldensian emigration in Calabria ====
The settlement in the land of Calabria of [[Waldensians|Waldensian]] peoples from the valleys bordering the [[Western Alps]] - predominantly the [[Germanasca]], [[Chisone]] and [[Pellice]] valleys<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genre |first=Arturo |date=1986 |title=A proposito degli studi sulla parlata e l'origine dei Calabro-Valdesi |trans-title=About the studies on the speech and origin of the Calabro-Valdesians |journal=Bollettino dell'atlante linguistico italiano |language=it |volume=8-10 |pages=5-25}}</ref> - might have taken place in the Swabian period, in the 13th century, although it spread mainly from the first half of the 14th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Galli |first=Edoardo |title=Cosenza seicentesca nella cronaca del Frugali |publisher=Collezione Meridionale Edizioni |year=1934 |volume=6 |language=it |trans-title=Seventeenth-century Cosenza in Frugali's chronicle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alvaro |first=Corrado |date=April 1942 |title=Una comunità piemontese in Calabria |trans-title=A Piedmontese community in Calabria |journal=Le Vie d'Italia |language=it}}</ref>

Historian Pierre Gilles, author in 1644 of A History of the Reformed Churches, recounts how in 1315 some landowners in Calabria offered the Waldensians land to cultivate, in exchange for an annual fee, with the power to establish communities there free of feudal obligations. This would have favored the founding, or repopulation, of numerous urban centers, such as San Sisto and La Guardia (now called [[Guardia Piemontese]] because of its Waldensian origins), inhabited mainly by Waldensians, thus giving rise to a linguistic island in central Calabria, where the most common dialect is [[Occitan language|Occitan]], a dialect typical of the [[Aosta Valley]] and northern [[Piedmont]]. Here the Waldensian community would live until the second half of the 16th century, when, during the [[European wars of religion]] between [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and [[Protestantism|Protestants]], the Waldensians adhered to the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] faith, suffering persecution by the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] [[Viceroyalty|viceroyal]] authorities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilles |first=Pierre |title=Histoire ecclésiastique des Églises Reformées, recueillies en quelques Vallées de Piedmont et circonvoisines, autrefois appellées vaudoises |year=1644 |language=fr |trans-title=Ecclesiastical history of the Reformed Churches, collected in some valleys of Piedmont and surrounding areas, formerly called Waldensian}}</ref>