Episode 5: The Waldensians

They were forerunners of the Reformation and sought to follow Christ to the uttermost. Yet “kill them all and let God sort them out” was the cry of the Papal Legate as the Third Crusade was launched against these committed followers of Christ. Though condemned as heretics by the Pope, the Waldensians were actually evangelically-based, Bible-believing, orthodox Christians. Rejecting many of the pagan-like rituals of Medieval Catholicism and reaching out to the poor, sick, and lost; they were more Christian than the institution and its leaders who were condemning them as heretics and persecuting them, according to scholar and historian Ruth Tucker. Though many were killed and massacered, enough survived to be counted as part of the Reformation when it came around 400 years later.