Editing Waldensians (section)

==== Massacre of Mérindol (1545) ====

{{Main|Massacre of Mérindol}}
[[File:Massacre of the Vaudois of Merindol.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|[[Massacre of Mérindol|Massacre of the Mérindol Waldensians]] in 1545]]
Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of seclusion and reports were made of [[sedition]] on their part, French King [[Francis I of France|Francis{{nbsp}}I]] on 1{{nbsp}}January 1545 issued the "Arrêt de Mérindol", and assembled an army against the Waldensians of [[Provence]]. The leaders in the 1545 massacres were [[Jean Maynier d'Oppède]], First President of the [[Parlement of Aix-en-Provence|parliament]] of [[Provence]], and the military commander [[Antoine Escalin des Aimars]], who was returning from the [[Italian Wars]] with 2,000 veterans, the ''Bandes de Piémont''. Deaths in the [[Massacre of Mérindol]] ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on the estimates, and several villages were devastated.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rvEBMIIcHQkC&pg=PA405|first=R. J.|last=Knecht |year=1984|title=Francis I|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-5212-4344-5|page=405}}</ref>

The treaty of 5 June 1561 granted amnesty to the Protestants of the Valleys, including liberty of conscience and [[freedom of religion|freedom to worship]]. Prisoners were released and fugitives permitted to return home, but despite this treaty, the Vaudois, with the other French Protestants, still suffered during the [[French Wars of Religion]] in 1562–1598.

As early as 1631, Protestant scholars began to regard the Waldensians as early forerunners of the Reformation, in a manner similar to the way the followers of [[John Wycliffe]] and [[Jan Hus]], also persecuted by authorities, were viewed.

Although the Waldensian church was granted some rights and freedoms under French King Henry{{nbsp}}IV, with the [[Edict of Nantes]] in 1598, persecution rose again in the seventeenth{{nbsp}}century, with an extermination of the Waldensians attempted by the Duke of Savoy in 1655. This led to the exodus and dispersion of the Waldensians to other parts of Europe and even to the Western Hemisphere.