 |
Around 1170 a rich merchant from Lyons, Waldo after a religious crisis, decided to live like the apostles, following Jesus. In order to read the Bible, he had many passages translated into the everyday language of the people, he gave away all he had and chose to live in poverty, preaching the Gospel. His choice was not strange, but what was strange is that he chose neither to enter a monastery nor to become a priest.
These closely-connected decisions were not without consequences: the fact that he read the Bible in a language that was not Latin was not heresy, but to preach in public and not be a priest was in conflict with the rules of the Church of that time. The question was not so much one of obedience to the church but the crucial choice to obey only the Bible. This became the vital issue and therefore questioned one of the foundations of the Church of Rome: the authority of the bishop.
The personality and the preaching of Waldo struck a chord in men and women who followed his example and in this way the movement of the "Poor of Lyons" was born. |
|
