“Who
Were the Albigenses and the Waldenses?”
Prepared
by Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT Newsletters // Website: www.toughissues.org
A
1-Page Handout // All emphasis is mine unless otherwise stated. //
January 20, 2011
ANSWER: The Albigenses were Bible-believing Christians who lived in southern France, probably making up the majority of the inhabitants of that region by the 12th century. Both they and the Waldenses were most likely the descendents of the Bible-believing Paulicians. One writer (B.F. Wilkinson) describes the Albigenses as the “western portion of the Waldenses”. The Albigenses and the Waldenses were initially separate from – and independent of – Papal Rome, and they wanted no part of the immorality, the corruption, and the unscriptural doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Alarmed at the rapid growth of these Bible-believing Christians (i.e., the Albigenses and the Waldenses), the Papacy sent army after army to slaughter these innocent Bible-believing Christians (many of whom were farmers), and to loot their property. The Albigenses were exterminated as a people in southern France by these “papal” armies during the Albigensian Crusades.
Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, co-authors of “The History and Sociology of GENOCIDE” (1990), tell us this on page 115 of their book: “The Albigensian Crusades slash through the history of France
and of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church like a gaping wound. From 1208 to
1226 the papacy sent army after army to the South of France to crush the
Albigensian ‘heretics’ and to punish their supporters. …They
[Ed.: i.e., the Albigensian Crusades] began with a calculated act of terror,
the massacre of [Ed.: large numbers of men, women, and children at
the French city of] Beziers; they ended with the establishment of the
Inquisition, one of the most effective means of ‘thought control’ that
Europe has ever known. [Ed: The papal army butchered about 20,000 citizens
of this French city populated at that time by many Albigenses.] They [Ed.:
i.e., the papal armies] were completely successful: The losing faith, the
Albigensian ‘Heresy’, was exterminated. …Their disappearance
as a social group was carefully planned and executed with
persistent cruelty.”
The Waldenses
(also called the “Vaudois”, a French word meaning “valley people”)
existed in the Piedmont region (of northwest Italy) at the base of the Alps many
centuries prior to A.D. 1170 [a date seen in at least one dictionary as the alleged
beginning of their existence]. There is good historical evidence of their
existence as simple, Bible-believing Christians in the Piedmont region in the 2nd
century (several centuries prior to the official establishment
of the hierarchical Roman Catholic Church)! Author Les Garrett tells us:
“The Reformers held that the Waldensian Church was formed about 120 A.D.,
from which date on, they passed down from father to son the teachings they
received from the apostles [Ed.: and not from Papal Rome].”
The Roman Catholic Church would later conduct genocidal war against the Waldenses in southeastern France and northwestern Italy, just as they had earlier made war upon, and exterminated, the Bible-believing Albigenses in southern France during the 13th century. Here are some of the major reasons why the Roman Catholic Church commanded and supported these brutal, genocidal wars against the Albigensian and Waldensian Christians: (1) The Bible-believing Albigensian and Waldensian Christians refused to recognize and submit to Papal authority; (2) They refused to obey “commands” from the Papacy to turn in their Holy Bibles to Roman Catholic authorities; (3) Some of their preachers correctly identified Papal Rome as the “Antichrist” and religious harlot described on the pages of Holy Scripture, and preached sermons to that effect; and, (4) When many of the Roman Catholics who lived with or near these Bible-believing Christians saw the moral, industrious lives that these Bible believers lived – and compared these Bible believers with the corrupt, immoral Roman Catholic priesthood, they began to leave the Roman Catholic Church in droves!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PERSECUTION OF THE ALBIGENSES AND THE WALDENSES:
1. Read the 317-page paperback book, “Rome and the Bible”, by David Cloud. To order this book via credit card, please call toll-free 1-866-295-4143.
2. Watch the 3-hour color DVD
documentary, “A Lamp in the Dark”, by Adullam Films. To order this
DVD documentary via credit card, please call toll-free 1-888-780-5049.
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