From the Poor Men of Lyons to the Protestant Waldensians

Two aspects would now appear certain. First, the difference of one generati on between the Waldensians' decision to adopt the tenets of the Reformation , and the concrete application of this decision in the community. Second, t heir decision brought them to abandon the Poor Men of Lyons' medieval relig ious traditions. Studies published since 1988 have pointed particularly to the Waldensians in the Dauphine and Fribourg (Switz). Two essential issues are still to be settled: why did the Waldensians embrace the Reformation? W hat remained of their Waldensian religious past, once they had become Prote stants?