The First Reformer?

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY! 499 YEARS AND COUNTING!

Okay, so today is Reformation Day, the day that Martin Luther so famously nailed a list of topics for discussion to a church door in Germany that eventually resulted in the doctrine of the Church being saved from the heresies of Roman Catholicism.

So, in celebration of Reformation day, all sorts of articles and memes get posted, at least one of which that was shared to me from Baptist page by my wife (yes, I realize how awesome it is that my wife follows theology pages.) asked who the original Reformer was. Luther was there, but also listed were Jan Hus, John Wycliffe, and Huldrych Zwingli. The concept was to answer the question, who was really the first Reformer.

My immediate reaction wasn't actually on the list, because the man I responded with off the top of my head was Peter Waldo.

Who?

Peter Waldo lived from 1140-1205AD in modern day France. He is credited with starting the Waldensian movement, a group declared heretical, and his works have not survived to us today, because there was not the printing press that Luther benefited from and his works were destroyed faster than they could be copied. What we know of him we know from what his opponents said about him. Among the work he was rumored to have done was having passages of the Bible translated into the local dialect of his region. Waldo tried to get approval from Pope Alexander III without success and the Third Lateran Council condemned his teachings though it stopped short of excommunicating him. Alexander's successor, Lucius the III was not as tolerant, and he and the Fourth Lateran Council excommunicated him. 

After Excommunication

This did not stop Waldo's followers, however. They continued to preach all the way through the Protestant Reformation of Luther and in 1858 were finally given religious freedom in Italy. Many of the Waldensians in the central part of the continent of Europe joined in with Protestant groups at the later Reformation though some continued to identify as a separate group. 

Beliefs

A few things of note: They affirmed the Apostle's Creed. They believed in original sin, they believed that the work of Christ fully satisfied the debt of sin. They rejected the doctrine of purgatory, the rejected the idea that saints could mediate on behalf of Christians, the Catholic mass, the validity of holy water, all feast days or holidays, and saw them as unChristian restrictions on Christian liberty. They believed that while the Sacraments should be practiced, they were not necessary for salvation, and saw them as outward symbols of a spiritual reality. The ONLY sacraments they held were Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Of particular interest is their confession of 1120, but two different Waldenses confessions can be found here.

Final Thoughts

There's come discussion as to whether or not all of the beliefs of the Waldenisians as a group are completely orthodox. That's beyond our purview here. What does seem clear is that Peter Waldo was an early example of someone willing to try to reform the Church and in many ways sought to do so towards very Scriptural aims. For my money, he's the First Reformer.

Semper Reformanda, Soli Deo Gloria.