The Waldensian community in Calabria

After having fled the persecutions in the Alpine zones, the Waldensian community was perfectly integrated, since the Swabian period, in small centres in Calabria such as Guardia, Montalto, Vaccarizzo and San Sosti. Nevertheless, in the middle of the sixteenth century, they espoused Lutheranism, dedicating themselves to proselytising and favouring the descent of their itinerant preachers into the South of Italy, the so-called barba (beards), among whom Luigi Pascale was a prime example. The response of the Catholic Church, in particular, that of the Curia of Consenza, was immediate and violent, but in spite of the multiplication of arrests, trials, invitations to abjure and threats on the part of the Marquesses of Fuscaldo and Montalto, not only did the Waldensians not renounce their faith but they hid in forests and took up arms. The efforts of two Jesuits who were sent on purpose to convert them were in vain. The extermination of the Waldensians was inspired by Cardinal Ghislieri, later Pope Pius V, at the orders of the Viceroy of Naples Pedro Afán de Ribera, the Duke of Alcalá. While the Waldensians of Calabria were slaughtered and parts of their dismembered bodies were exposed along the roads near Cosenza, Luigi Pascale himself was tortured and executed in Rome.