Peter Waldo: A Brief Biography

Peter Waldo (or Valdes) was born in Lyons, France around 1140. He was a very successful businessman and was known for his kindness and generosity.

One day after dinner with friends, he saw a man fall down dead. This led Waldo to wonder how to become righteous before God. He asked the priests for answers, but was not satisfied with their answers. Waldo also tried doing penance, but did not find peace that way. 

Eventually, Waldo found some books written shortly after the time of the apostles. These books quoted the New Testament regularly, and Waldo became eager for an entire Bible. At the time there were very few Bibles available and they were all written in Latin. Eventually Waldo was able to buy a Bible, although it cost a lot of money. Through reading the Bible, Waldo finally learned about salvation: that it is through Christ alone.

After becoming a Christian, Peter Waldo read about a man named Alexis, who had given all his money to the poor. This, along with reading Matthew 19:21, led Waldo to do the same: he gave his money and possessions to the poor, taking care of both their spiritual and physical needs. 

Peter Waldo wanted the Bible translated into French so everyone could understand it. The church disagreed, not wanting the common people to read and interpret the Bible for themselves, but Waldo had it translated anyway. It was likely the first translation of the Bible into a modern language. As the printing press had not yet been invented, the Bibles had to be copied by hand, making them very expensive. Waldo gave away many New Testaments and individual books, allowing many people to read and understand the Bible for the first time.

Peter Waldo also started a missionary society, which was known as the “poor men of Lyons.” These men took a vow of poverty. They were sent out two by two around Lyons, preaching the word. The often traveled as peddlers, offering the Bible to potential buyers.

The church did not like Peter Waldo and his teaching. He asked the pope for permission to preach, and the pope said he could only if the archbishop agreed. The archbishop did not agree; instead, he told Waldo that if he did not stop preaching, he would be condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake. The archbishop sent men to arrest Waldo, but the people of Lyons hid him for three years. In 1148, Pope Lucius III anathemized Waldo and the poor men of Lyons. The men had to flee, often having no place to sleep except the forest. In 1194, Pope Alfonso II declared that anyone who fed, protected, or listened to Waldo or his followers would be punished. Many people were burned at the stake as a result of this decree; at one time, 35 people were burned in the same fire. Waldo and his followers had to flee to other countries, and used this as an opportunity to preach the gospel to more and more people.

Despite attempts by different popes and other clergy, Peter Waldo was never captured. He was able to travel to many countries, preaching the word. In 1217, Peter Waldo died peacefully in Bohemia.

After his death, the Waldensians became more organized. They rejected the authority and many of the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, such as purgatory, indulgences, prayers for the dead, transubstantiation, and worship of the saints and relics; they held the Bible as the supreme rule of Christian belief and practice. They also started schools to train preachers and sent out evangelists. 

The movement spread to other countries, often to avoid persecution. In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII pronounced a crusade against two Waldensian groups in the Alps along the French-Italian border, and many villages were destroyed. In April 1545 two Waldensian towns in France, Merindol and Cabrieres, along with twenty-eight smaller villages, were attacked by troops sent by the archbishop of Lyons. The towns were destroyed and about four thousand people killed. Many Waldensians fled to Geneva, where they found refuge with John Calvin.  

The Waldensians did not have real religious and political freedom until 1848. They are often thought of as “Protestants before the Reformation”. Although many of them later joined with new Protestant churches, today there are still Waldensian churches in existence in Germany, Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, and elsewhere.

Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Bible Translator

At the age of 12, Ajayi (who hadn’t yet taken the name Samuel Crowther) was captured by Fulani slave traders from his home town of Osugun in what is now Oyo State, Nigeria. He ended up in the Lagos slave market, where he was sold to Portuguese traders who put him on a ship which was then attacked by a British anti-slavery warship. Of the 189 enslaved people on board, 102 died in the attempt to rescue them, but Ajayi survived and was taken by the British navy to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Here he was placed in a mission school, where he learned English and was taught the Scriptures. Along with many others, he decided to follow Christ and, in 1825, was baptized. At that time, it was common to take a new name at baptism and Ajayi took the name Samuel Crowther.

Crowther returned to Abeokuta in what is now Nigeria in 1843 and was reunited with his mother and sisters, whom he had not seen in 24 years. He now applied himself to the Yoruba spelling system, and then started translating the Bible. In 1843, he published his first Yoruba grammar and vocabulary, and in 1852 he published a translation of four New Testament books. Crowther and his assistant, Thomas King, continued to work on the Yoruba translation of the Bible for much of the rest of his life. He also researched and promoted significant work in Nupe, Igbo and other languages. His research eventually led to his receiving a doctorate from Oxford University. The whole Yoruba Bible was published in 1884.

Crowther acknowledged what he called ‘the vernacular principle’ in missions. That is to say, there is no special, sacred language nor one cultural expression of the faith.

To Think About

I found this quote while researching Richard Wurmbrand; it is from his book Victorious Faith:

“There was once a fiddler who played so beautifully that everybody danced. A deaf man who could not hear the music considered them all insane. Those who are with Jesus in suffering hear this music to which other men are deaf. They dance and do not care if they are considered insane.”

Pandita Ramabai, Bible Translator

Rama Dongre, later known as Pandita Ramabai, was born in India in 1858 into a Marathi-speaking family, belonging to the priestly Brahmin caste. There were no schools for girls, but her parents gave her a thorough education in the Sanskrit language. They were, however, very poor. During the great famine of 1876–78, both her parents died from starvation. Pandita went to live with her older brother and became well known for her intellectual abilities and teaching skill, to the point that the University of Calcutta gave her the title Pandita, meaning ‘wise teacher’, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1880 her brother also died and she married a friend of her brother; however, because he was from a lower caste, she was thought to have polluted herself. They had a daughter, and then her husband died too. At 24, she found herself destitute: an impoverished, orphaned widow.

In 1883, Pandita travelled to England for her studies and was invited to stay at an Anglican community. In the community’s London Rescue Home, she saw first-hand how women who had fallen on hard times were helped. This experience moved her enormously. In particular, the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 impacted her. Back in India, she came to know Christ. She wrote: ‘The Holy Spirit made it clear from the Word of God that the salvation which God gives through Christ is present and not something future. I received, I believed and I was filled with joy.’

Her new goal was to translate the Bible into her own language. A translation into Marathi had already been completed in the early 19th century, as well as subsequent revisions too. But Pandita thought that these translations relied too heavily on Sanskrit words and phrases and did not speak to women of lower castes. Her translation had a specific audience: uneducated women of lower castes. She learnt Greek and Hebrew in order to translate the Scriptures into Marathi, and completed her translation just before her death in 1922.

For more information, check out Wycliffe Bible Translators' article about Pandita Ramabai her life and work.

Monarch Song

When I teach my tutoring student, I sometimes let him watch a video that goes along with what we're learning or that just amuses me (and him). We watched a clip from a movie showing someone learning about the concept of writing for the fist time; a video about Gutenberg's printing press; some VeggieTales about grammar (Schoolhouse Polka with Larry); the St. Crispin's Day speech from Hamlet; and various bits and pieces that I've found. We particularly like some of the songs from Horrible Histories and one of our favourites is the Monarch Song. We've listened to it enough that when I hear the name "William" I start to sing in my head "William, William, Henry, Steven, Henry, Richard, John!"

For your entertainment:

 

 I like the lyric one because it's easier to follow the song, but the updated one includes Charles III:

 

Dwight Moody

 As taken from my history class, here is Dwight Moody's “Greatest Mistake”; something to think about as we bring the gospel to people:

Moody was preaching the evening of October 8, 1871. He concluded his gospel message that night by asking the question, “What will you do with Jesus?” Then Moody added, “I wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, and at that time I’ll ask again, ‘What will YOU do with Jesus?”

That evening someone knocked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn and started the Great Chicago Fire. Although it is often blamed on a cow, people actually thought that it was done be a robber; later, a man named Louis M. Cohn confessed that he was running away from an illegal card game in the O’Leary’s barn and accidentally knocked over a lantern. It had been an unusually dry summer and fall, and a strong wind spread the fire quickly, destroying 17,500 buildings and 73 miles of street. Ninety thousand people were left homeless, and it is believed that 300 people died in the blaze. After 24 hours, the rains came and helped quench the fire.

Moody’s church and home were both destroyed, as well as the YMCA, but what felt more keenly was the possibility that among the dead were people who had been in church that evening and whom he had sent away to think about their answer. He viewed that as his greatest mistake. “Now, whenever I preach,” Moody said later, “I press for a definite decision. I would rather lose my right hand than give people even a day to decide for Christ, for I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. The Gospel invitation is a ‘today only’ offer!”

Things to Consider When Studying History

Teaching history is challenging, sometimes because of poor records and other times because of conflicting accounts. I find it best to read widely, trying to consider the world view, historical biases, and purpose for writing of each author. If you're writing for a particular group or ruler, your view will likely be biased in their favour; if you definitely dislike a group or person, your writing will likely be biased against them. It's a challenge to find the truth. There is also the challenge of "when did it happen" when there are conflicting dates or different calendars used in different areas. As a history buff and teacher, I do the best I can and allow for differences when necessary.

There is also the question of how to teach history. Do I teach it in perfect chronological order (which seems impossible), by event, by country, or just randomly? When I taught the early church, I tried for chronological order as much as possible; this was easier because the major events took place in a smaller geographical area. For the Reformation, when things were happening in different countries all at the same time, I taught more by country. Next semester, which is primarily about the 19th and 20th centuries, will be both: I have planned several weeks on mission work in various areas, and then a slightly more chronological overview of major events ("slightly" as there are still things that will overlap and require us to go backwards sometimes, but always with an overall forward trajectory). It can be confusing and challenging, but I do my best to avoid confusing the kids too much!

This is what I tell my history class the first week:

History is not always easy to break into pieces and teach in a nice, chronological order, as there is a lot of overlap between people and events. As a result, despite my attempts to keep moving forward, sometimes we have to move backwards in time. Other times, we move back and forth between places or people to get things somewhat in order and to show how different people intersected in time. It helps to keep a timeline going with the key dates so we can see when things happened in relation to everything else. 

Another challenge is that historians don’t always agree on exactly what happened, why, or when. There can be several different dates for when people were born (although their death dates are usually agreed upon), and different details about what happened. Some of that is due to limited record keeping; some of it is due to different points of view. The winners and losers of battles will have different opinions about what happened, and each side will speak better of themselves than of their opponents. Sometimes it is very difficult to determine exactly what happened in various events. When there are differing records, I have sometimes given multiple options; other times, I have chosen the most prevalent option. If you read something different from what I teach, that’s fine. You can decide for yourself why there are different records of events, who might prefer one or the other view, and which one seems most accurate to you. For the most part, the differences are in smaller details or in the events leading up to the main event, not in the major ideas.

Studying (and Teaching) Church History

I've been teaching Church History for a while now. First it was the occasional lesson to my Sunday School kids, followed by a few years of teaching it to the Wednesday morning homeschool group. A friend of mine convinced me to try teaching a proper class, and that led to Miss Dorothy's Church History Class for high school students. I'm in my third year now; I did year 1 twice and am now teaching (and writing lessons for) year 2. It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying both the learning and the teaching.

A pretty standard question is always: Why bother teaching Church history (or any history for that matter)? Why do we have to learn about the past? How can it be important now?

This is what I teach the kids:

First, we need to see that history repeats itself; what is happening in the world now (no matter what is happening) is nothing new and nothing to be shocked about. It has all happened before and will all happen again if the Lord continues to tarry. 

Second, we need to know what battles have already been fought so we can recognize the same old errors when they pop up under a different name and know how (and why) to fight against them. 

Third, we can draw encouragement and strength from those who have gone before us to help us as we face our own trials and persecution.

Finally, we need to remember that our study of history is not meant to be simply an intellectual pursuit, but is intended to teach us more about the God who is sovereign over all history. If we learn people, places, and dates, but do not learn more about Him, we have not learned history properly.

There you have it: Four reasons to study history in general and Church history in particular.

Just for Fun

This my new favourite thing....

Martin Luther

Today I taught my Sunday School class about Martin Luther. I started by discussing the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr.: that they are two different people who lived over 400 years apart. After that brief lesson, I told my class that they are now smarter (on this topic) than most people who confuse the two (usually because they've never heard about Martin Luther).

We then went through Luther's life. They were confused about the Papal Bull (thinking it was a paper bull at first...which is almost accurate, given that it was a letter) and cheered when Luther and his friends burned it. They were disappointed that the Diet of Worms was a meeting at a place, not a punishment meal. The whole time they were waiting for him to be burned at the stake; there was some hope when he was kidnapped on the way home from Worms, but that turned out to be friends. In the end....he died at home in his bed. It was a disappointment for some of my class, but rather nice for Luther!

Now, for comparison purposes: Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms from two different Luther movies. It's interesting, how differently they portrayed him.

A History Lesson

Once upon a time the Americans tried to take over Canada. They failed miserably. If you ask any American, however, they will either claim that they won or ask what on earth you're talking about.

Fact: the only American I ever spoke with about it claimed an American victory because it was about the issue of impressment of American sailors of British birth by the British, a practice that ended as a result of the war.

Further fact: The impressment issue was not even mentioned in the treaty that ended the war because the issue was already moot; after Napoleon was defeated the British didn't need sailors and quit taking Americans of British birth (they also quit searching American ships for British deserters even though even the Americans had conceded that point).

Final fact: The Americans wanted to take all of Canada. The British/Canadians defended their border. In the end, the treaty returned any claimed territory and the Americans did not get a bit of the Canadas.

Therefore: we won.

And here, to explain it fully, the Arrogant Worms!



Disclaimer: I do not advocate burning down the White House. Ever. By anyone. Unless the Americans attack us again.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There are celebrations and such going on in Germany today, marking the occasion, not only of the coming down of the wall and the reunification of Berlin and then Germany, but the start of the fall of communism.

They say there are (or will be or have been)children where the wall was, holding speakers with recordings of the sound of people chipping at the wall, a sound that no one there will forget, but that the children did not hear; they are part of a generation that has only known a united Berlin and then a united Germany

I remember when the wall came down. I was in grade 10, and in history we were learning about World War 2 and the rise of the Berlin Wall. It was a strange thing, to be learning the beginning and watching the end of an era at the same time. It was a great time to be learning history.