Waldensians in Milan in the 12th and 13th centuries

Appraising the presence of Waldensians in Milan in the 12th-13th century is no easy matter. There are few sources, and later documents must be treated cautiously. This study draws particularly on a letter from Innocent III to the archbishop of Milan in 1209 in which he refers to a group of Waldensians hostile to the Church of Rome. The mediation of Durand of Huesca, who had already prompted the conversion of other Italian heterodoxies, appears decisive: the portrait he drew for the pontiff of the Waldensian community in Milan emphasized their resemblances with the Poor Catholics, perhaps so that his own "religion" might have an organized presence with the Lombard centre. This inevitably prompts the question: is the bull a reliable source or the means to transmit a contrived image?