12. Peter Waldo

The first hint of the movement that would become a protest against the decline of the central leadership of the Catholic Church in the late middle ages came with a little known character named Peter Waldo. His reading of the New Testament led him to the conviction that the church leaders had lost their way, and in simplicity of life and message, he attempted to call it back to its New Testament moorings. His followers, the Waldensians, persisted for centuries as a persecuted sect in Europe, but with unfailing vigilance the small group maintained their devotion to Christ and the purity of the gospel message as they understood it.