Pierre Waldo

Pierre Waldo was a successful cloth merchant in Lyon in the late 1100's who underwent a religious conversion in about 1170. He renounced his wealth, gave half to his wife, and distributed the other to the poor. As the anonymous author from the 13th century reports: “Then Waldo went to his wife and gave her the choice of keeping his personal property or his real estate, namely, he had in ponds, groves and fields, houses, rents, vineyards, mills, and fishing rights. She was much displeased at having to make this choice, but she kept the real estate. From his personal property… but the greatest of his money he spent for the poor.”

Waldo soon gathered followers known as “the Poor Men of Lyons” or the Waldenses. Pope Alexander III (1159 – 1181) affirmed his vow of poverty in 1179, but he was forbidden to continue preaching because he was a layperson. However, he and his followers were excommunicated for violating the ban on preaching and were banished from Lyon. Pope Lucius III (1181 – 11845 included them among the heretics in his Bull of excommunication at Verona in 1184.