The upcoming 500-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on October 31 will focus on the Catholic monk Martin Luther’s militant attempts to reform the Catholic Church from within. After all, fundraising was threatening to obscure the Church’s most basic teachings.
The selling of indulgences for quick cash was way too much for the fundamentalist Luther, who protested to authorities in the Holy Roman Empire, then “global” for Europeans, but kept in check by entwined political empires like the Habsburgs. Centralized control was firmly in place, as it is today.
Reform may have been kept within the Catholic Church if the MEDIA juggernaut hadn’t come along just at the time of Luther’s dissent. In the past, attempts at reform had been easily smashed by the all-powerful church.
Wealthy businessman Peter Waldo lived in the 12th century when Christian militants decided that the “church on Sunday” approach was too routine in France’s Provence (compare Tracy Turner’s “Luberon Lavender Valley” above). A direct-action revival was needed. This was an activist time for Catholics, who were being sent off to retake the Holy Lands from the Christian-killing Muslims.
Reform was in the air. “Know God directly and personally all day long” was Peter Waldo’s belief as he gave up all his money and material possessions to take a vow of poverty. “The best things in life are free” remains a core principle of Christianity even today. Waldo set off to preach on foot. His followers have been with us ever since.
Thoreau was just following suit when he argued that “Possessions are like leg-irons.” In Walden, he mentioned the pond’s namesake in connection with the Waldenses. After all, Thoreau shared Waldo’s moral grounding in simplicity and poverty.
Waldo believed that the Catholic Church put too much emphasis on the church as go-between with all of its buildings and pastors and hierarchical management bodies. Faith alone was the guide, and this could only be learned by reading the Bible, not through “interpretations” by ministers who might pick-and-choose their own trendy emphases.
Like Luther, Waldo worked to have the New Testament translated into the local language so that people could study the Bible on their own. Both Waldo and Luther refused to support concepts like Purgatory and Veneration of the Saints which seemed more man-made than Bible-taught.
It might be argued today that if Protestants want a real revival based upon the zeal that drove the Reformation forward, then studying Peter Waldo might provide a sound basis of discussion. What was there about this twelfth-century reformer that the church would find anathema today?
