From the beginnings of papally-appointed inquisitors in the 1230s, the Church followed a procedure against accused “heretics.” Suspects were taken and interrogated, the preachers about their beliefs, and the supporters or “friends” about how they supported and protected the preachers. Those who confessed fully and promised to live as good Catholics, were dismissed with a penance; the obstinate, or second offenders, were handed over to the secular authorities for execution, usually by burning.
The ferocity of persecution varied according to the dedication of individual inquisitors. Waldenses were pursued in the Languedoc in the 1240s and 1290s, then in the Danube Valley, in Bohemia, and in Brandenburg in the 14th century. In the Waldensian valleys in the Dauphiné, mostly to the west of the Alpine passes, a series of campaigns from the 14th century culminated in the Waldensian “crusade” of 1487-8. An army was sent to suppress resistance, and maybe thousands of Waldenses were captured; at least 160 were killed. Exceptionally, in this case the Waldenses sued to retrieve their property and obtained a French royal edict reversing the crusade in 1509.
The Waldenses of the Piedmontese valleys were so tenacious in defending themselves that relatively little persecution reached them before 1560.