The failure of attempts to convert the Albigenses by
peaceful means led the pope, Innocent III, to preach a crusade against
them. Those who entered upon it were promised the usual privileges of
crusaders. A series of bloody wars now followed, in the course of which
thousands of men, women, and children perished. But the Albigensian sect did
not entirely disappear for more than a century, and then only after numberless
trials and executions for heresy.
THE WALDENSES
The followers of Peter Waldo, who lived in the twelfth
century, made no effort to set up a new religion in Europe. They objected,
however, to certain practices of the Church, such as masses for the dead and
the adoration of saints. They also condemned the luxury of the clergy and urged
that Christians should live like the Apostles, charitable and poor. To the
Waldenses the Bible was a sufficient guide to the religious life, and so they
translated parts of the scriptures and allowed everyone to preach, without
distinction of age, or rank, or sex. The Waldenses spread through many European
countries, but being poor and lowly men they did not exert much influence as
reformers. The sect survived severe persecution and now forms a branch of the
Protestant Church in Italy.
