Charismatic Christianity VII

The Waldenses

About 1176 a rich merchant, Peter Waldo, in the town of Lyons in the south of France, got a New Testament translated into the vernacular. The words of Jesus in Matthew 10:5 – 13 impressed him and as a result he sold his possessions and kept only what his family needed for living. Waldo started a career as an itinerant preacher; soon he had a large group of followers who wanted to experience what they read in the Bible. Waldo sent them in pairs to preach the gospel. In 1179 Waldo sought permission from the church leadership for his group to preach the gospel, but Pope Innocent III rejected their application and considered them as unlearned laymen. However Waldo continued his preaching, and as a result,  Pope Lucius III excommunicated the Waldenses from the Church.

The Waldenses were charismatic people; for instance, divine healing was an important part of their doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church accused them of witchcraft because of supernatural phenomena which took place among them. The Waldenses recognized the responsibility of both men and women to preach, to baptize and to administer the Lord’s Supper. For them an institutional recognition of ordination was not important, instead they required the anointing of the Spirit.[1]

Anabaptists

A reformation movement called the Anabaptists began at the time of Martin Luther in Germany and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland. Anabaptism began in Zurich as apart of Zwingli’s reformation movement. They rejected infant baptism and supported, rather, the idea that believers form the congregation. Anabaptists considered Luther and Zwingli as “half -reformers”, and argued that they retained too many things from the old Catholic church system. Anabaptists have been called radical reformers because they wanted the Church to turn back to the apostolic order and New Testament church disciplines.

Anabaptist means “one who re-baptizes”, the name was given to them by their opponents. However Anabaptists did not baptize anew, but considered the infant baptism to be illegitimate and not Biblical baptism at all. They argued that baptism is meant for believers only, this was one of the main reasons why both Roman Catholics and Protestants persecuted them violently. In spite of fierce persecution the number of Anabaptists increased rapidly especially in the heart of Europe. Because of persecution Anabaptists had to organize secret meetings in their homes, in forests and in fields, where they prayed and read the Bible. In these meetings they experienced workings of the Holy Spirit like dancing and speaking in tongues. While reading the Bible they believed that the Holy Spirit gave the illumination, Anabaptists also emphasized the prophetic duty of all believers.[2]

[2] Hyatt 20  02, 78 – 81.