WALDO
530
WALDSASSEN
1233 were marked in Germany by resolute efforts to
stamp out their errors. But soon, adherents of the
sect were found in Bavaria, Austria, and other sec-
tions. They spread in the north to the shores of the
Baltic Sea, and in the east to Bohemia, Poland and
Hungary. With the appearance of new heresies they
at times partly lost their distinctive character. In
Bohemia they amalgamated with the Hussites and
the Bohemian Brethren without losing all their pecu-
liarities.
Protestantism was still more readily accepted. Not only were its teachings universally adopted, but numerous Waldensian communities were merged in the Protestant churches, the ItaUan congregations alone retaining an independent existence and the original name. Those in the Piedmontese valleys enjoyed religious peace from 1536-1559, owing to the political dependence of the districts upon France. A contrary pohcy was pursued by the Dukes of Savoy; but the Waldenses at the very outset successfully resisted, and in 1561 were granted in certain districts the free exercise of their reUgion. In 1655 violence was again fruitlessly resorted to. Later in the same century (1686, 1699) some of them, under stress of renewed persecution, emigrated to Switzerland and Germany. In Piedmont civil equality was granted them in 1799 when the French occupied the country. They enjo.yed this peace until the down- fall of Napoleon I, but again lost it at the return of the house of Savoy. From 1816 onward, however, grad- ual concessions were made to the Waldenses, and in 1848 Charles Albert granted them complete and per- manent liberty. Renewed activity has since marked their history. They founded in 1855 a school of theology at Torre Pellice and transferred it to Florence in 1860. Through emigration they have spread to several cities of Southern France, and also to North and South America. There are five congregations in Uruguay and two in Argentina. Three colonies have settled in the United States: at Wolfe Ridge, Texas; Valdese, North Carolina; and Monett, Missouri. The communities which in the seventeenth century settled in Germany have since severed their connex- ion with the church and abandoned their original language. In Hesse-Darmstadt they were prohibited the use of French in 1820-21; in Wiirtemberg they joined the Lutheran State Church in 1823. The present Waldensian Church has an aggregate mem- bership of about 30,000; it receives financial support from the "American Waldensian Aid Society" founded in 1906, and from a similar organization in Great Britain.
Anontmus Laitdunensis, Chronicon Universale in Bouqcet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules et dela Franre, XIII (Paris, 1786). 680 sqq.; Stephen of Bourbon, Tractatus de septem donis Spiri- tus Sancti in DE LA Marche, Ajiecdoles historiques (Paris, 1877), 290-99, 307-14; Moneta. Adversus Catharos et Valdenses, ed. RiccHlNi (Rome, 1743); Perrin. Histoire des Atbigeois (Geneva. 1G18): Idem. Hisfoire des Vaudois (ibid., 1619); Maitland, Facts and Documents illustrative of the History of the Ancient Waldenses (London. 1832) ; Dieckhoff, Die Waldenser im MittelaUer (Got- tingen, 1851) ; Bernard of Fontcaude. Liber adversus Walden- sium sectam in P. L., CCIV, 793-840; Dollinger, Beitrdge zur Sektengeschichie des Mittelalters (Munich, 1890); Schaff, Creeds of Christendom (New York, 1877), I. 565-80, 874-81; III, 757-770, 799-806; Curtis. .4 History of Creeds and Confessions of Faith (Edinburgh, 1911); Chabrand, Vaxidois et Protestants des Alpes (Grenoble, 1886) ; Brunel. Les Vatidois des Alpes Franqaises (Paris, 1888); Chevauer, Mimoire historique sur les hMsies du Dauphin^ (Valence, 1890); Lea, History of the Inquisition during the Middle Ages (New York, 18SS); LfOER. Histoire gSnirale des Iglises hangUiques des valines de Piimoni ou Vaudoise^ (Leyden, 1669) : Gll.LY, Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Pied- mont (London. 1827); Idem, Waldensian Researches (ibid., 1831); Muston. tr. Hazutt. The Israel of the Alps (2nd ed., London, 1S53); Melia. The Origin, Persecutions and Doctrines of the Waldenses (London, 1870); Markt in Kalb, Kirchcn u. Sekten der Grarnu'arl (2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1907) ; Gibson, The Waldenses, their Home and Historj/ (Edinburgh, 1903) ; XiARTiNft. DieWaldesier u. die husitisrhc Reformation in Bdhmen (Vienna and Leipzig, 1910); MusTON, liihliogrnphie hisloriqueet documentaire de Vlsracl des Alpes (Paris, 18.51) ; Todd, The Books of the Vaudois preserved in Trinity College, Dublin (London, 1865).
N, A. Weber,
Waldo, Peter. See W.u.denses.
Waldsassen (settlement in the woods), Abbey OF, on the River Wondreb, Upper Palatinate, near the border of Bohemia, in the Diocese of Ratisbon. This celebrated Cistercian monastery was founded by Ger- wich von Wolmundstein, a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Sigeberg, with the permission of his former Abbot Kuno, then Bishop of Ratisbon. Gerwich built the monastery (1128-32). The original com- munity was sent to Waldsassen from Volkenrod, in Thuringia, of the line of the Abbey of Morimond. The first abbot was elected in 1133. Soon the mon- astery became one of the most renowned and powerful of the times. As the number of monks increased, several important foundations were made: Sedhtz and Ossegg in Bohemia; Walderbach, near Ratisbon; etc. Several of its thirty-seven abbots up to the Reformation were illustrious for sanctity and learn- ing; of them Hermann the seventh, and John the seventeenth, as well as Gerwich, its founder, and Wigand, the first prior, are commemorated in the menology.
From the middle of the fourteenth century Waldsas- sen alternated with periods of prosperity and deca- dence; wars, famines, excessive taxation, and perse- cution from the Hussites made it suffer much. During the Bavarian War (loOl) the monastery, church, and farm- buildings were burned, but im- mediately afterwards rebuilt, and the new church consecrated in 1517. A few years later part of the buildings were again destroyed during war, and beau- tifully restored bj' George III (1531-37), who was the hist of the first series of abbots. From 1537 to 1560 administrators were appointed by civil authorities. Frederick III, Elector Palatine, named his brother Richard, a Protestant, for this office. The monks were then forced to apostatize or flee, or were put to death. For about a himdred years it remained in this condi- tion, during which time it was almost totally burned in the Swedish war. After the Peace of Westphalia the Catholic religion was restored in Bavaria. In 1669 Waldsas.sen was restored to the Cistercians, and in 1690 Albrecht, first of the second series of abbots (six in number), was elected. The buildings were sumptuously rebuilt, and the number of religious again became considerable. It became especially renowned for its hospitality, particularly during the famines of 1702-03 and 1772-73, and during the French Revolution. Under Abbot Athanasius (1793- 1803) science and learning were highly cultivated. When the monastery fell under the laws of suppression in 1803 it numbered over eighty members, who were dispersed after having been granted a pension by the Crown, which confiscated all their possessions. In 1863 the remnants of the old abbey were bought by the Cistercian Nuns of Seligenthal; the following year they took possession, established monastic enclosure, and opened an institute for the education of girls. Finally it was erected into a regular monastery, with novitiate, to which many candid;ites have been ad- mitted; to-day the monastery numbers over a hundred nuns.
JoNGEUNUs, Notitia Abbatiarum Ord. Cisterciensis (Cologne, 1840); Manrique, Annates Cistercienses (Lyons); Sartorius, Cistercium Bis-Tertium (Prague, 1700); Brunner, Ein Cister- zienserhuch (Wiirzburg, 18S1); Winter. Die Cistercienser des NordasUichen Deulschlands (Gotha, 1868): Binhack. Die Aeble des Cislercienser Slifls Waldsassen tISS-lSOe (Eichstatt. 1887); Idem, Geschichte des Cistercienscrstiftes Waldsassen 1661-1756 (Ratisbon, 1888); Idem, Geschichte des Cislercienser Sliftcs Wald- sassen 1766-1702 (Eichstatt, 1896); Idem. Geschichte des Cisler- cienser Ablei Waldsassen 1791-I79S (Bregenz, 1900); Idem, Geschichte des Cislercienser Sliftes Waldsassen ISOO-ISOS (Pas- sau, 1897); Kalender far Kalholische Christen (Sulzbach. 1867); Dubois, Histoire de Morimond (Dijon, 1852); Chrono-Topo- graphia Cong. Cist. S. Bemardi per Superiorem Germaniam (1720); Janauschek, Originum Cisterciensium, I (Vienna. 1877); Calalogus personarum religiosarum S. Ord. Cisterciensis (Rome, 1906); two MSS., one of the old history of Waldsassen and the other of its present condition.
Edmond M. Obrecht.
