Waldenses

American  

[wawl-den-seez, wol-] / wɔlˈdɛn siz, wɒl- /

plural noun

1. the members of a Christian sect that arose after 1170 in southern France under the leadership of Pierre Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, and joined the Reformation in the 16th century.

---

Waldenses British  

/ wɒlˈdɛnsiːz, wɒlˈdɛnsɪən /

plural noun

1. Also called: Vaudois.  the members of a small sect founded as a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church by Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons in the late 12th century, which in the 16th century joined the Reformation movement

---

Other Word Forms

• Waldensian
  noun
• Waldensian
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Waldenses

First recorded in 1400–50; plural of Middle English Waldensis, from Medieval Latin, after Pierre Waldo; see -ensis

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Waldenses

For nearly seven centuries the Waldenses, the "slaughtered saints" of Milton's sonnet, tenaciously weathered persecution in the valleys of the Cottian Alps.

From Time Magazine Archive

To Waldenses in the U. S. last week came good news from Italy.

From Time Magazine Archive

Curiously enough, in this list he omits Pomerania, where, along the Baltic regions, the Waldenses were thickly scattered from Stettin to Königsberg.

From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume II by Henry Charles Lea

The Waldenses by this time were substantially the only heretics with whom the Church had to deal outside of Germany.

From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume II by Henry Charles Lea

This put an end for a time to the labors of the Inquisition against the Waldenses of Dauphiné, but the troubles of the latter were by no means over.

From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume II by Henry Charles Lea