With the Reformation, the Waldensians, who had practiced their distinctive religious customs in secret, began to worship in public. More public witness brought fiercer persecution, often by secular rulers.
The first major post-Reformation persecution broke on the Waldensian émigré communities of the Luberon, in Provence. A merciless decree of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence in 1540 led to an armed assault in 1545, aimed at exterminating the communities. Many were killed, imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or exiled, though Protestantism survived.
In June 1561 the Waldensian community of Calabria was attacked with overwhelming force; maybe 2000 were killed in the campaign, 88 on one day alone. In the Piedmontese Alps, Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, decreed the expulsion of all Waldensians who would not convert. Exceptionally, the communities fought back against the army sent against them, such that in 1561 a ducal edict gave them permission to worship within a tightly defined enclave in the valleys.
Despite this tenuous protection, two decrees from the Savoyard council in 1650 and 1655 revoked earlier permissions and led to a horrendous massacre in the “Piedmontese Easter” of April 1655. After guerilla campaigns by the survivors, peace was eventually made in 1664.