Waldenses

[wɔl'densi:z]

Definition

(noun.) a Christian sect of dissenters that originated in southern France in the late 12th century adopted Calvinist doctrines in the 16th century.

Edited by Clio--From WordNet

Definition

(n. pl.) A sect of dissenters from the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholic Church, who in the 13th century were driven by persecution to the valleys of Piedmont, where the sect survives. They profess substantially Protestant principles.

Editor: Luke

Definition

n.pl. a famous Christian community of austere morality and devotion to the simplicity of the Gospel which originally grew out of an anti-sacerdotal movement originated by Peter Waldo of Lyons in the second half of the 12th century—long cruelly persecuted but still flourishing in the valleys of the Cottian Alps.—adj. and n. Walden′sian.

Edited by Ian