It looks like you touched all the bases.

According to Umberto Uco, all of western civilization's modern problems can be traced to the legacy of the Middle Ages. He lists merchant cities, a capitalist economy, standing armies, the national state and supernatural federation, class struggle, the idea of heresy and ideological deviation, a concept of unrequited love, church-state conflict, and technological transformation of labor. Umberto Eco, "The Return of Middle Ages," in Travels in Hyperreality, trans. William Weaver (London 1987), p. 64.

You did not say much about the impact of the crusades.

Karen Armstrong emphasizes the Crusades, how they were used to advance the power of the western Church, and their impact on the modern world. Karen Armstrong, Holy War, Anchor Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., ©1988, 1999, 2001.

Of particular interest to me was what she had to say about a Crusade or holy war of extermination in France initiated by Pope Innocent III against a Christian sect, the Catharists of southern France, and the centuries later, efforts by the later Popes to exterminate the Waldenses.

In the 13th century, the Waldenses resided in northern France while the Catharists occupied southern France. (Armstrong, supra, at p. 390.) At the time that the Waldenses were targeted for extermination in 1560, they resided largely in southern France and the Holy Roman Empire.

As you pointed out, there are many web sites by Caldwells either claiming descent from these pre-reformation Protestant evangelists, or at least retelling the stories. I would suggest readers take a look at the one posted by Michael Caldwell. Just go to "Caldwell Links" at this web site, and you will see the link. The hit the link, History of the Caldwell Name.

Armstrong observed a key difference between Catholics and Catharists: "Crusading was based on the cult of the Cross and Holy Sepulchre, but the Catharists did not believe Jesus had died on the Cross. Pilgrimage to the tombs of saints and veneration of relics had been crucial to Crusader piety, but a Catharist would not venerate either a tomb or a relic, because the dead body was a shameful husk, which the purified spirit had left behind. Because the world was evil, the idea of a holy land or a holy city were contradictions in terms." (pp. 391-392.)

The elite of the Catharists, called the Perfect, lived lives of complete chastity and strict evangelical poverty. They did not reside in monasteries but toured the countryside, begging for bread, like the apostles. Their followers were not expected to be celibate, but marriage was forbidden. (p. 391.)

In 1207, Pope Innocent III accused the Catharists of "abstaining from certain vices in order that men should think them pious: but in reality they are "the worst of men" given over to "many-sided deceit." (p. 570, fn 40.) He wrote to King Philip Augustus, asking him to exterminate the heretics, the first time that a Pope was calling upon Christians to kill other Christians. (p. 393.) Although Armstrong is of the view that Innocent suffered from an irrational neurosis, she also observes that throughout the Middle Ages and the Reformation tolerance was of dubious repute among society generally.

The anti-Catharist extermination began on July 22, 1209. The Abbott Arnauld-Amalric led a large army of Crusaders that surrounded the city of Beziers, where a large portion of the inhabitants were Catharists. The city surrendered. When asked how the soldiers were to separate heretics from Catholics, legend claims that Arnauld replied: "Kill them all; God will know his own." (Armstrong, supra, at p. 397.) Armstrong is of the opinion that more likely what occurred is that the Catholics were urged to leave the town to save their lives but stood by their fellow citizens and died fighting for their sakes. (Armstrong, supra, fn 49, p. 571.)

Armstrong explains that the 13th century Waldenses were disorganized evangelists imitating the life of Christ, going from town to town, preaching to common people, and never developed churches, bishops and dioceses, or drew the interest of wealthy donors, as had the Catharists. As such, they posed less a threat to the Catholic Church. (p. 392.)

The 16th century Waldenses had a reputation for non-violence, in contrast to the German Lutherans, which helps explain why so many of them fled persecution by migrating to lands to which the Inquisition did not reach.