The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (/wɔːlˈdɛnsiːz, wɒl-/), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois,

are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity

before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the late twelfth century,

the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy. The founding of the

Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around

1173 preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.

Waldensian teachings came into conflict with the Catholic Church and by 1215 the Waldensians were

declared heretical, not because they preached apostolic poverty, which the Franciscans also preached,

but because they were not willing to recognize the prerogatives of local bishops over the content of

their preaching, nor to recognize standards about who was fit to preach. Pope Innocent III offered

the Waldensians the chance to return to the Church, and many did, taking the name "Poor Catholics".

However, many did not, and were subjected to intense persecution and were confronted with organised

and general discrimination in the following centuries. In the sixteenth century, the Waldensians were

absorbed into the Protestant movement, under the influence of early Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger.

In some aspects the Waldensians of the Middle Ages could be seen as proto-Protestants, but they mostly

did not raise the doctrinal objections characteristic of sixteenth-century Protestant leaders. They

came to align themselves with Protestantism: with the Resolutions of Chanforan on 12 September 1532,

they formally became a part of the Calvinist tradition. They are members of the Community of Protestant

Churches in Europe and its affiliates worldwide. They were nearly annihilated in the seventeenth century.

The main denomination within the movement was the Waldensian Evangelical Church, the original church in

Italy. In 1975, it merged with the Methodist Evangelical Church to form the Union of Methodist and

Waldensian Churches—a majority Waldensian church, with a minority of Methodists. Another large

congregation is the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Río de la Plata in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.