waldenses Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a Christian sect of dissenters that originated in southern France in the late 12th century adopted Calvinist doctrines in the 16th century
Vaudois.

So called from Petrus Waldus, or Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who founded this sect about a. d. 1170.

(Eccl. Hist.) A sect of dissenters from the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholic Church, who in the 13th century were driven by persecution to the valleys of Piedmont, where the sect survives. They profess substantially Protestant principles.