Our self and communal identity is important for everyday life. Our identity determines how we act, where we live, who we love, and how we worship. Identity is especially important in a religious context, including the religious community of the Waldensians. Do the present day Waldensians share an identity with their medieval ancestors; how is this identity constructed? I argue that the medieval and modern day Waldensians create a similar cultural and religious identity which is constructed through three specific practices: the commitment to the vita apostolica, medical practices, and education and the perpetuation of a historical narrative. Although these practices have evolved with modernity the summation of the practices form a coherent communal identity across time. In order to demonstrate the shared cultural and religious identity of the Waldensians of the Middle Ages and present day I examined inquisitorial documents, religious tracts, pamphlets, and conducted interviews. I have set these findings in the larger social context of the Middle Ages and Modern Era in order to show that although similarities of practice exist with other groups the summation of the three specific practices especially with the creation and perpetuation of a historical narrative creates a unique communal identity. This is important for future examination of other religious communities and how similar communal identities do not negate uniqueness of the said community. This study also shows that the evolution of practices does not detract from the continuation of communal identity. Thus although the cultural practices of the Waldensians evolved over time the communal identity remained strong and continues to thrive today.

The thesis traces the beginnings of these reformation movements: Waldensians, Hussites, Unity of Brethren, Lutherans and Anabaptists. It also deals with the situation in Roman Catholic church since all the movements spring out of it. Furthermore the author is answering the question whether these movements have a common denominator, that links them together. If the answer is yes the author also covers what preconditions are necessary for the reformation to occur. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis addresses four years of the turbulent history regarding a small Italian Reformed group, better known as Waldensians, that lived in the duchy of Savoy (or Italian Piedmont). It will focus on how the Swedish press presented their issues to the Swedish readership in the years 1686-1690. The source is the Ordinarie Stockholmiske Posttijdender, a newspaper that started to be published during the final years of the Thirty Years’ War, and which is the only preserved Scandinavian and Lutheran newspaper survived (until these days). Within the newspaper there are few and short reports on the Reformed groups from the Piedmont area that sometimes are in disaccord. This paper aims to see how Swedes portrayed the Waldensians through media within the Swedish Lutheran State. One main argument is that the newspaper represents a slow process of knowledge of the Waldensians. Only during the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697), the newspaper started considering them as one of the many examples to discredit Sweden’s enemies. The Swedish newspaper is thus also understood as part of the wider European news network during the centuries of the absolutistic European States and as a tool propagating the State’s view on foreign events.

This dissertation deals with the life story of the medieval nobleman Ulrich III. of Neuhaus. The goal of the dissertation is to portray his life and work and put them in a larger context of the period in which he lived, that is the first half of the fourteenth century. Despite the fact that Ulrich III. did not hold any important office but devoted his life to administering his large dominion instead, he is one of the most important persons of the Neuhaus family. He contributed significantly to the structural changes of Jindřichův Hradec, for example by issuing an order to complete the Saint John the Baptist Church and inviting the Order of Friars Minor Conventual to live there. A confirmed Catholic, he lead the first Crusade against the Waldensians, who settled on his dominion. He also had a chamber in the Jindřichův Hradec castle decorated with a wall painting based on the legend of Saint George, the patron saint of the Teutonic Order, an order that had settled in Jindřichův Hradec alongside the Knights Templar. Due to the fact that he belonged to the Neuhaus family, he acquired the Castle of Telč in Moravia. The Castle subsequently became a significant property of the Neuhaus family until the Neuhaus family became extinct in 1604. With regard to the politics, Ulrich III supported King John of...

The general aim of this thesis is to analyse and compare archival materials concerning Huguenot and Walloon families, and to carry out a sample analysis of these and whether it is possible to find the cities of origin where they lived until the Nantes Edict was revoked in 1685 and they were forced to flee because of their reformed faith. The selected sources consist primarily of materials from the French departmental archives and materials accessed via the internet as digitalized pictures (.jpg-files) and so on.  The descriptive section of this thesis concerns literature about Huguenot and Walloon history, genealogy, and exodus, as well as research into archive and information sciences primarily access and findability. I begin by describing the overall view, to set the stage. Then, I investigate the European archives. Thirdly, I proceed with a time intensive sample analysis of 30 known families from varying places in France, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden and finally, I attempt to clarify the difficulties that arise concerning findability and why those arise.  The method is genealogical research on sources accessible by the internet, and it turns out in the conclusion that 50% of the chosen families can be found in their home parishes, even if findability issues often show themselves, both because we’re talking about a religious minority, people fleeing the country, and a large geographic area. It was heartening and surprising however, that my search was successful in finding so many of the 30 families, and interesting to note which areas were easier to search than others.  The findability issues are further deepened because the archives’ Internet pages are not optimally designed as their metadata is often insufficient, and the pages furthermore so difficult to navigate since they are both widely different from each other, and because they are not, in the words of Wendy M. Duff, managing to hit the “perfect pivot point” between archiving and usage. Reasons for this include a lack of descriptive data attached to the digitalised files, and because .jpg-files are often not searchable, as observed as well by Catherine Styles.  More user research is required in the area of archives, so that better and easier access to these webpages can be guaranteed, especially given varying userbases and their differing needs in searching.