Waldenses

Protestant religious sect, founded in about 1170 by Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons. They were allied to the Albigenses. They lived in voluntary poverty, refused to take oaths or take part in war, and later rejected the doctrines of transubstantiation, purgatory, and the invocation of saints. Although subjected to persecution until the 17th century, they spread in France, Germany, and Italy, and still survive in Piedmont.