WALDENSIAN HERETICS
Teachings
There were two distinct
categories in Waldensian society, the "perfect" and the "believers". The
"perfect" were received into their order according to a special rite so that
could know how to teach others. This group claimed that they possessed
nothing of their own, in particular, no houses or furnishings. If they
had had wives before joining the society, they gave them up. These perfect
believed themselves to be successors of the apostles and were the masters
and confessors of others. They travelled through the country, visiting their
disciples. Believers of the group provided the perfect with necessities and
spread the news of their arrival. Many followers would visit the lodgings of
the perfect, bringing food and drink. Those gathered would listen to the
perfect preach. This would occur mainly at night when others were asleep.
The secrets of the society were not immediately revealed to the
believers. The information given at first referred to what the disciples of
Christ should be like, according to the words of the Gospel and of the
apostles. It was stated that only those who imitated the apostles and held
to the example of their life, would be successors. On this basis, they
argued that the Pope, bishops, prelates and clergy did not imitate this
sanctity because they possessed riches of the world. Further to this, they
claimed that Christ did not entrust his spouse, the Church to these prelates
(etc), and therefore they should not be obeyed. In reference to the clergy,
the Waldensians taught that an impure person could not purify another, nor
could one who was imprisoned free another. An accused person could not
influence a judge in favour of another accused person, nor could one on the
road to perdition lead another to heaven.
In order to make
themselves more readily heard, the Waldensians would teach their believers
things which seemed good and moral, concerning the virtues which should be
practised, and the vices which should be ignored. It was taught that one
should not lie, since according to the Scripture, all who lied slayed
their soul. They preached the universal rule that one should not do to
another what he or she would not want done to them. These words apparently
made a great impact on the listeners.
When preaching on the Gospels
and the Epistles, the Waldensians would speak in French, as only a few of
their believers could understand Latin. This made their words even more
acceptable. Those who could not read, learned the lessons by heart so they
would still be able to teach. The believers were instructed that true
penitence and the purgatory of sins were only available in their current
life and not another, and were compelled to confess their sins. The perfect
would hear the confessions and impose penances which usually consisted of
fasting on Friday and saying the Our Father. According to the Waldensians,
when a person died, the soul left their body. If that person had been saved,
the soul went straight to heaven. The unsaved soul went straight to hell and
would be damned. There was no other place for souls except paradise or hell.
It was taught that prayers said for the deceased were of no use because
those who were in heaven did not need them, and there was no redemption for
those in hell.