This ties in with what J. B. Russell called "Reformist heretics," those
who started out as critics and ended up outside, sometime impelled by a
hostile reception. What little I have read about Peter Waldo suggests
that this was how the Poor of Lyons got themselves into trouble.
(Speaking of modern survivals, there is a Chiesa Valdensiana in Rome.)
tom izbicki
I have another modern survival, and also a question. One of my students (a
lapsed Mormon convert), was staying with a friend who told him his son had
returned from a Mormon mission in Italy. I don't remember all the details, but
at some meeting telling how successfully the Mormons are penetrating the world,
the leader told how Waldensians in mountainous Italy were converting to
Mormonism "by the thousands". Picturing those thousands of Waldensians
converting to Mormonism has given us lots of laughs, but does anyone
know how many people would claim to be Waldensian today?
Here in the States you get bragging rights
if you have a Native American ancestor (My husband proudly claims his Mohawk
great-grandmother, who was also Will Rogers' grandmother). Is being a
Waldensian in that same class?
Kris Utterback
University of Wyoming
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