Waldensians

Waldensian symbol Lux lucet in tenebris ("A light shines in the darkness"). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldensians#/media/File:Waldenser-Wappen.jpg

Around 1170, a merchant named Peter Waldo sold his possessions and devoted his life to preaching. His preaching sparked a broad movement in what's now France and Italy. Because the Waldensians allowed lay people including women to be preachers, they were quickly called heretics by the Catholic Church and excommunicated in 1184. Medieval Waldensians primarily included "craftsmen, weavers, shoemakers, carpenters, masons etc" and small Waldensian congregations continue to exist.

The Waldensians rejected private property and held possessions in common as the apostles did. They opposed the death penalty, and an inquisitor said “they avoid all forms of commerce to avoid lies, frauds and oaths."

Waldensians were split over how to support themselves economically. Federici explains:

Much controversy took place among the Waldenses on the correct ways of supporting oneself. It was resolved, at the Bergamo Meeting of 1218, with a major split between the two main branches of the movement. The French Waldenses (Poor of Lyon) opted for a life supported by alms, while those of Lombardy decided that one must live out of his/her own labor and proceeded to form workers’ collectives or cooperatives (congregationes laborantium) (di Stefano 1950: 775). The Lombard Waldenses continued to maintain private possessions—houses and other forms of property—and they accepted marriage and the family (Little 1978: 125)."

Fredy Perlman describes medieval Waldensians' beliefs:

"The Waldensians reject all religious orders as worthless. They say the Pope and all his cardinals as well as the Emperor and all kings, dukes, princes and bourgeois magistrates are usurpers and imposters. They say the only Purgatory is the poverty in which so many people are forced to live. They say Christians are idolaters because they prostrate themselves to a cross and to images of saints."