Lucius III

The Waldensians are named after a 12th-century merchant from Lyon named Valdo who shunned his wealth and began preaching on the streets, prompting Pope Lucius III to excommunicate him and his followers, and declare them heretics.

The cathedral is supported by about a dozen ancient pillars — shipped from Rome by Pope Lucius III, who wanted to cement the Vatican’s relationship with Sicily’s new Norman overlords with an appropriate gift.

They were excommunicated by Pope Lucius III in 1184 and endured several centuries of persecution.

After the triumph of the papacy, stringent decrees, as we have seen, were issued by Lucius III., and edicts were promulgated by Henry VI. in 1194, and by Otho IV. in 1210, but they were practically inefficient.

Again they applied to Rome for authority to found an order of preachers, but Lucius III. objected to their sandals, to their monkish copes, and to the companionship of men and women in their wandering life.