The
title is an axiom for every pursuit known to humanity from politics to
religion. It is by no means original with me, since Santayana wrote (in
The
Life of Reason, 1905) that: “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.” Yet on this rainy day her in Lourmarin I write and I
have a modest agenda in this brief dip into history where I presently reside.
Here in
Lourmarin stands a Protestant church, unusual among Provencal villages dominated
by Catholic cathedrals. Fifteen kilometres from Lourmarin, in Mérindol, a
massacre of 3,000 villagers occurred. These innocents, known as Waldensians (or
Vaudois), after their organizer, Pierre Vaudès (Anglicized to Valdo), emerged first in Lyon in the
1170's. They believed in the priesthood of believers, congregational polity, preached
in local language, preached from the Bible, rejected ecclesiastical authority, had
a low view of some sacraments and soon came into conflict with the Catholic
church, that declared them heretics by 1215. This Mérindol genocide happened in
1245, spread to other villages including Lourmarin, which was burnt to the
ground because the population was predominantly Waldensian. In time, protection
and freedom of religion was granted and revoked from one French king to another
and from one Pope to another. The Waldensians built a church in Lourmarin in
the 1600’s, but in 1663 the temple was destroyed under order of Louis XIV with
his campaign of une foi, un loi, un roi.
Finally
in 1805 permission was granted to buy a piece of land on which to build a
church.. The Protestant community of Lourmarin did not have the means to
finance the entire construction of their church and the Municipal Council came
to their aid and decided in 1811 to pay for the building of the church. The
neighboring village of Puyvert and its protestant community contributed the
furnishings to the church. In 1817 this austere and neoclassic temple, located
between the local château and the village of Lourmarin, was inaugurated. Due to
the quality of its architecture and the uniqueness of a Protestant heritage in
Provence, this temple was placed on a supplementary list of Monuments
historiques in 1991.
Recent
heavy coverage of Pope Francis in America makes this next note of interest. In 2015 following a visit to a
Waldensian Temple in Turin Italy, Pope Francis apologized for the Church's
"un-Christian and even inhumane positions and actions" and asked
Waldensian Christians for forgiveness for their persecution.
 |
| Santayana |
I return
to Santayana's quotation. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it.” I listen carefully to what politicians, journalists, friends,
preachers, blog respondents say. In Canada, too frequently, repetition of
insults, abuses, and intolerances occur because the young have no knowledge of
the past and older ones have forgotten or are reticent to remember it for the
benefit of us all. And don't tell me religious intolerance tops the list.
Secular intolerance of faiths and faith positions are equally offensive.
Freedoms of thought, conscience and religion should still be of paramount
importance to Canadians.
