Editing Waldensians (section)

== Teachings ==
The Waldensians were associated by councils and papal decrees with the [[Catharism|Cathars]]; however they differed radically from them: the Waldensians never espoused [[Gnosticism|gnostic]] or [[Dualism_in_cosmology#Cathars|dualist]] views or [[mysticism]], and they did not reject the sacraments in total.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schaff |first=Philip |title=History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1049–1294 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xii.vii.html |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> The Waldensians initially saw themselves as a "church within the Church".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1049–1294 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xii.vii.html |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref>

The Waldensians taught certain doctrines also held by the Catholic Church: they accepted the [[Trinity]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1049–1294 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xii.vii.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and the earliest Waldensians staunchly defended the Eucharist.<ref name="Alvarez2012"/> However, at least some of them later began to develop a more symbolic view of the bread and wine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waldenses {{!}} Description, History, & Beliefs {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waldenses |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Audisio | first = Gabriel | date = 2007 | title = Preachers by Night – The Waldensian Barbes (15th – 16th Centuries) | location = Leiden – Boston | publisher = Brill | page = 44 | isbn = 9789004154544}}</ref>

The earliest Waldensians taught the [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]] and affirmed the necessity of priests for the offering of the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]].<ref name="Alvarez2012">{{cite web |last1=Alvarez |first1=Sandra |date=15 November 2012 |title=The Eucharist and the Negotiation of Orthodoxy in the High Middle Ages |url=https://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/the-eucharist-and-the-negotiation-of-orthodoxy-in-the-high-middle-ages/ |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=Medievalists |language=English |quote=The earliest Waldensian sources show a strong belief in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They drew on Peter Lombards’ "Sentences" to respond to the Cathars and explain how evil men could consume the Eucharist. Nothing here was heretical or deviated from Orthodoxy.}}</ref> However they denied the right of sinful priests to give the Eucharist.<ref name=":2" /> 

Early forms of the Waldensian Mass sought to recover the early Christian liturgy and contained a sevenfold repetition of the [[Lord's Prayer]], with the Eucharistic elements being consecrated through the [[sign of the cross]].<ref name="Macy1984">{{cite book |last1=Macy |first1=Gary |title=The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period: A Study of the Salvific Function of the Sacrament According to the Theologians, C. 1080-c. 1220 |date=1984 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-826669-3 |page=57 |language=en}}</ref> The Waldensians observed the forty-day fast of [[Lent]] and practiced [[Friday fast|Friday abstinence]].<ref name="Audisio2007">{{cite book |last1=Audisio |first1=Gabriel |title=Preachers by Night: The Waldensian Barbes (15th-16th Centuries) |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15454-4 |page=192 |language=en}}</ref> 

Both Waldensian and Catholic sources, however, imply that the Waldensians rejected infant baptism, at least to some extent. This is seen from ''The Noble Lesson'', which refers to Christ specifically calling to baptize those who believed, and Reinerius Saccho mentioning how the Waldensians believed that the "ablution which is given to infants profits nothing".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Roberta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xaKXWpSx-KcC&dq=%2C+they+condemn+all+the+Sacraments+of+the+Church%3B+in+the+first+place%2C+as+to+baptism%2C+they+say+that+the+Catechism+is+nothing+-+%2A%2Aalso%2C+that+the+ablution+which+is+given+to+infants+profits+nothing&pg=PA177 |title=Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook |last2=Bellenger |first2=Dominic |date=2013-06-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-40513-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=William |first=Jones |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACpNCgAAQBAJ&dq=noble+lesson+infant+baptism&pg=PT31 |title=History of the Christian Church: From the Birth of Christ to the 18th Century |publisher=Delmarva Publications, Inc. |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Waldenses: Description, History, & Beliefs |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waldenses |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Thus there seems to have been an understanding among the Waldensians that infants could be saved without baptism.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Schaff |first=Philip |title=History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1049–1294 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xii.vii.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> They rejected confession to priests, the practice of venerating the saints, the use of oaths, secular courts and prayers for the dead.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waldenses {{!}} Description, History, & Beliefs {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waldenses |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> 

Waldensians held and preached a number of doctrines as they read from the Bible. These included: 
# The atoning death and justifying righteousness of Christ;
# The [[Godhead in Christianity|Godhead]];
# The fall of man;
# The incarnation of the Son;
# A denial of [[purgatory]];<ref name="moreland">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c788AAAAcAAJ |first=Samuel |last=Moreland |year=1658 |title=History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont |publisher=Henry Hills}}</ref>
# The value of [[voluntary poverty]];
# Perhaps, the [[universal priesthood]] of believers,<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://opc.org/OS/html/V5/2e.html |last=Vos |first=J. G. |title=The Use and Abuse of Church History |journal=[[Ordained Servant]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=April 1996}}</ref> as according to de Bourbon they claimed that all good men are priests.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume V: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1049–1294 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xii.vii.html |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref>

They also rejected a number of concepts that were widely held in Christian Europe of the era. For example, the Waldensians held that temporal offices and dignities were not meant for preachers of the Gospel; that [[relics]] were no different from any other bones and should not be regarded as special or holy; that [[pilgrimage]] served only to spend one's money; that [[Christian vegetarianism#Partial fasting and temporary abstinence|meat might be eaten any day]] if one's appetite served one; that [[holy water]] was no more efficacious than rain water; and that prayer was just as effectual if offered in a church or a barn. They were accused, moreover, of speaking blasphemously of the Catholic Church as the [[Whore of Babylon|harlot of the Apocalypse]].<ref>Inquisitor Reyenerious, A. D. 1250, and extracted by Allix (Chap. 22)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morland |first=Samuel |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofevangel00morl |title=The history of the Evangelical churches of the valleys of Piemont : containing a most exact geographical description of the place, and a faithfull account of the doctrine, life, and persecutions of the ancient inhabitants; Together, with a most naked and punctual relation of the late bloudy massacre, 1655; And a narrative of all the following transactions, to the year of Our Lord, 1658 .. |date=1658 |publisher=London : Printed by Henry Hills for Adoniram Byfield |others=Princeton Theological Seminary Library |pages=143}}</ref> They rejected what they perceived as the idolatry of the Catholic Church and considered the papacy as the Antichrist of Rome.<ref>{{cite book | title = Historical Studies | first = Eugene | last = Lawrence | year = 1876 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historicalstudie00lawr/page/202 202]–204 | url = https://archive.org/details/historicalstudie00lawr}}</ref>

{{lang|oc|italic=yes|[[La nobla leyczon]]}} (''The Noble Lesson''), written in the [[Occitan language|Occitan]] language, gives a sample of the medieval Waldensian belief. Once it was believed that this poem dated between 1190 and 1240,<ref>Bosio, Enrico, "''La Nobla Leyczon considérée au point de vue de la doctrine, de la morale et de l'histoire" (in French), ''Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Vaudoise'', no. 2 (dic.{{nbsp}}1885), pp.{{nbsp}}20–36.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=TAYLOR |first=Daniel T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUFVAAAAcAAJ |title=The Voice of the Church on the Coming and Kingdom of the Redeemer; Or, a History of the Doctrine of the Reign of Christ on Earth. Revised and Edited with a Preface by H. L. Hastings. Third Edition |date=1856 |pages=129 |language=en}}</ref> but there is evidence that it was written in the first part of the fifteenth century.<ref>Montet, Edouard, ''La noble leçon, texte original d'après le manuscrit de Cambridge'', 1888, pp.{{nbsp}}19–26.</ref> The poem exists in four manuscripts: two are housed at the University of Cambridge, one at Trinity College in Dublin, and another in Geneva.<ref>Montet, Edouard, ''La noble leçon, texte original d'après le manuscrit de Cambridge'', 1888, p.{{nbsp}}19.</ref>

[[Reinerius Saccho]] gave the following charges against the Waldensians:<ref name=":0" />

* The Pope is the head of all errors
* The Monks are Pharisees
* Christians should obey God instead of the Prelates
* That no one is above one another in the church
* No one should kneel before a priest
* Tithes should not be given
* Bishops should not have royal rights
* They condemn the Catholic sacraments 
* The Church has erred by prohibiting the marriage of the clergy<ref name=":0" />

The Waldensians would, later in their history, adopt a number of doctrines from the [[Calvinism|Reformed churches]] due to the French Reformer [[William Farel|Guillaume Farel]], who introduced Reformation theology to Waldensian leaders. They officially adopted Reformed theology at a conference at Cianforan 1532. As a result of the conference, the Waldensians officially modified some of their previous positions such as their rejection of secular courts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waldenses {{!}} Description, History, & Beliefs {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waldenses |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>