Waldenses

A religious sect who seceded from the Church under Peter Waldo, a Lyons merchant, about 1160. They spread rapidly over France and Germany, but their chief seat was in the valleys of Savoy and the Pays de Vaud. They suffered persecution under Philip August us (1180-1223), and again under Francis I in 1540, and finally were almost exterminated by Louvois between 1687 and 1690.