CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
 Anon/iaous Gift 
 
 in Memory of 
 L.M. Miller D.D. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 BX4881 .M68 
 
 Waldenses : sketches of the evangelical 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 440 603 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029440603 
 
THE WALDENSES. 
 
THE WALDENSES: 
 
 SKETCHES 
 
 Ifye Jb^ogclic^i Gljirisfi^ifis 
 
 VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD, DRAWN BY DOEPLEB, 
 
 AND ENGKATED BY LYONS, LOUDEEBAOK, 
 
 ORB, AND EOBERTS. 
 
 2 1] i 1 9 3 e I p f) i f\ : 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 No. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 1 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 
 
 By A. W. MITCHELL, M.D. 
 
 Id the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 Slote & Mooney, Stereotypers. 
 C. Sherman, Printer. 
 
Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; 
 E'en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
 Forget not : in thy book record their groans, 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 The triple tyrant; that from these may grow 
 An hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way, 
 Early may fly the Babylonian woe!" 
 
 Milton. 
 
 (v) 
 
$lref^ce. 
 
 The Waldensian Church is the "Burning Bush" of 
 Christendom. The history of that people presents to us 
 little else than a series of ferocious persecutions, endured 
 with the most heroic constancy. Planted in the valleys 
 of Piedmont, almost within the shadow of the Papal 
 throne, their scriptural faith and order have been a per- 
 petual and most significant protest against the corruptions 
 of that colossal Hierarchy. Everything pertaining to 
 them has contributed to give point and pungency to this 
 testimony. In age, they antedate the usurpations of the 
 Roman See. Their uncontradicted traditions run back 
 nearly to the Christian era, and warrant the presumption 
 that their church was founded either by the apostles or 
 their immediate successors. They have authentic docu- 
 ments, dating many hundred years before the Reformation, 
 from which it appears, that they never acknowledged the 
 supremacy of the Popes — that they rejected from the be- 
 ginning the monstrous dogmas and superstitious mummeries 
 which Rome has baptized with the sacred name of Christi- 
 anity — that they have steadfastly adhered to the Bible as 
 the only rule of faith and practice — and that their doctrine 
 and polity have, from the first, been precisely what they 
 are now. Such a Church must needs have been persecuted. 
 It was a standing memento of the great apostacy — a 
 
 (Tii) 
 
v iii PREFACE. 
 
 living testimony against its abominations, which Rome 
 could not be expected to tolerate. Again and again, 
 therefore, did her priests and her princes decree its ex- 
 tirpation, and send forth their armies to carry havoc and 
 carnage through all its mountain fastnesses. 
 
 The records of these infamous crusades constitute some 
 of the blackest chapters even in the history of that power, 
 which an inspired pen has delineated as being " drunk 
 with the blood of the saints." The narrative, therefore, 
 is necessarily a sad one. But it has its alleviations. No 
 other annals supply instances of more generous and sublime 
 heroism, than are to be found here. It is something for 
 the Christian to be able to point to a church, which has, 
 from century to century, exemplified the power of the 
 Gospel, as well to sustain individuals and communities in 
 scenes of the deepest suffering, as to guard them against 
 the common dangers and temptations of life. And the 
 devout observer of Divine Providence, may find here new 
 cause to admire and adore the sovereignty and the faith- 
 fulness of Him who is " wonderful in council and excellent 
 in working." It is not, therefore, surprising that enlight- 
 ened Protestants of every name and country, have always 
 taken the liveliest interest in the history of this most re- 
 markable people. 
 
 Let us, too, then say with Moses in Horeb, " I will now 
 turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not 
 burnt." 
 
I i i tj ^ f i 1 ^ i I o i\ g. 
 
 The Protestant Church of Bobbi, Valley of Pelice. (Frontispiece.) 
 
 VlLLAR IN THE VALLEY OF PeLICE, . (Vignette Title Tage.) 
 
 Map of the Waldensian Territory, .... 17 
 
 La Torre (The Waldensian Capital), ... 27 
 
 Pomaret in the Valley of St. Martix, ... 48 
 
 Cluse in Savoy, ....... 102 
 
 Bridge over the Guill (High Alps) 173 
 
 Scene in the Valley of Isere, .... 198 
 
 Valley of Queyraz from the Entrance of Val-Arvieux, 224 
 
 St. Germain in the Valley of Clusone, . . . 251 
 
 Castle of Ivoire (Switzerland), .... 282 
 
 The Balsille during the Attack, .... 292 
 
 (ix) 
 
ant nib. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER 1. Description of the Country 17 
 
 " 2. Antiquity of the Waldenses 27 
 
 " 3. Condition before the Eeformation 39 
 
 " 4. Persecution by Yolande and Cataneo 48 
 
 " 5. The Waldenses of Val-Louise 55 
 
 " 6. The Waldenses of Barcelonette, Queyras, and Erays- 
 
 sinieres 61 
 
 " 7. The Waldenses in Provence 66 
 
 " 8. The Waldenses in Calabria 79 
 
 " 9. Various Martyrs 87 
 
 " 10. The Waldenses in the Valley of the Po 92 
 
 " 11. The Waldenses in the Plain of Piedmont 95 
 
 " 12. The Second General Persecution of the Waldenses of 
 
 Piedmont 102 
 
 " 13. Condition of the Valleys under Castrocaro 132 
 
 " 14. Condition during the Reign of Charles Emanuel Ill 
 
 " 15. The Plague and other Calamities 154 
 
 " 16. More Martyrs 161 
 
 17. The Propaganda 173 
 
 " 18. The Massacres of 1655 183 
 
 19. Gianavel 198 
 
 " 20. Negotiations and Concessions 224 
 
 " 21. Infractions of the Treaty of Pignerol 233 
 
 22. The War of the Exiles 243 
 
 " 23. Conferences at Turin — Arbitration of Louis XIV 251 
 
 Ui) 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER 24. Commencement of the Fourth Persecution 259 
 
 " 25. Massacres and Expatriation 271 
 
 " 26. The Glorious Return of the Waldenses under Arnaud... 283 
 
 ,; 27. Fresh Edict of Expulsion 298 
 
 " 28. The Waldenses in Wurtemberg 303 
 
 " 29. The Waldenses in Hesse D'Armstadt 314 
 
 " 30. History of the Waldenses of Pragela and of the adja- 
 cent Valleys 318 
 
 " 31. Modern History of the Waldenses 351 
 
 " 32. Present Condition of the Waldenses 365 
 
 tpjnnHx. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Polity of the Waldenses 373 
 
 II. Extracts from " The Ancient Discipline cf the Evangelical Church 
 
 of the Valleys." 375 
 
 III. A Confession of Faith of the Waldenses, bearing date A.D. 1120 376 
 
 IV. Catechism of the Ancient Waldenses for the Instruction of Youth, 
 
 composed in the Thirteenth Century 378 
 
 V. Confession of Faith of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont, in 
 
 1669 385 
 
 VI. Extracted from the "Noble Lesson," dated A.D. 1100 391 
 
M 
 
 
Cfjaptn f\xB\ 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 In the northern part 
 of Italy is the beau- 
 tiful plain of the Po. 
 Beyond this region, 
 and separating it 
 from ancient Gaul 
 and Germany, is the 
 great natural barrier 
 of the Alps. These 
 mountains extend in 
 the general form of 
 a crescent, from the 
 western side of the 
 gulf of Genoa, to the 
 eastern side of the 
 gulf of Venice. They 
 are known, in differ- 
 ent parts of their course, by different names, as the Mari- 
 time Alps, the Cottian Alps, the Rhetian Alps, the Noric 
 B 2* (17) 
 
18 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Alps. The Cottian Alps, in the times of the Romans, 
 formed one of the most common routes in passing from 
 northern Italy into Gaul. This route was also sometimes 
 taken in going from Italy into Spain. The country at 
 the foot of the Cottian Alps, on the Italian side, is called 
 Piedmont, while on the side of Gaul it has received the 
 names of Dauphiny and Savoy. High up in the mountain 
 valleys of Piedmont, on the Italian side of the Cottian Alps, 
 has lived from time immemorial the remarkable people 
 whose history we are about to sketch. 
 
 The Waldenses are at once mountaineers and dalesmen. 
 The valleys in which they live are remote from the plain, 
 closely hemmed in by mountains, and in many places ac- 
 cessible only by narrow and precipitous ravines. Much 
 of their time is spent upon the declivities of mountains 
 topped with perpetual snow. Hardy and adventurous, 
 exposed from childhood to a life of toil and danger, they 
 have all that simplicity of character, and that sturdy inde- 
 pendence, which seem in all climes to be the natural inher- 
 itance of the mountaineer. It is, however, from their char- 
 acter as dalesmen, or men of the valleys, that they have 
 received their name. This name, derived primarily 
 from the Latin vallis, a valley, is variously spelled. The 
 French form of the word, which is vol, gives rise to a plu- 
 ral vaux, and thence to the adjective Vaudois. The 
 Italian form of the word gives the adjective Yallenses, 
 strengthened into Valdenses, and thence corrupted in En- 
 glish into Waldenses. The first of these names, Vaudob, 
 is that which they call themselves, and by which they are 
 almost universally known on the continent of Europe. The 
 last, Waldenses, is that by which they are generally called 
 in England and the United States. 
 
 Politically, the Waldenses are hereditary subjects of 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 19 
 
 the house of Savoy. The princes of this house, origi- 
 nally dukes, have gradually risen in dignity to the rank 
 of kings. Their kingdom now includes Savoy, Piedmont, 
 the territories of Nice and Genoa, and the island of Sar- 
 dinia. From this last of its possessions is derived its 
 name, the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Waldensian terri- 
 tory lies wholly within the duchy of Piedmont, and its 
 southern border is about thirty miles from Turin, which is 
 the capital both of Piedmont, and of the whole kingdom. 
 
 The Waldenses were formerly much more numerous 
 than now, and their territory covered a much larger area. 
 Persecution, through a long succession of centuries, has 
 gradually reduced them to their present number of about 
 twenty-three thousand, and at the same time hemmed 
 them in within their present narrow limits, extending 
 not more than eighteen miles in length by fourteen in 
 width, and containing an area of less than three hundred 
 square miles. 
 
 This territory, as before stated, is within the province 
 of Piedmont, lying in a southwesterly direction from Tu- 
 rin, and about thirty miles distant. It is somewhat trian- 
 gular in shape, the base of the triangle being the high 
 dividing ridge of the Alps, which separates Piedmont from 
 Dauphiny in France. From this high ridge, the mountains 
 on the Italian side gradually slope down towards the valley 
 of the Po, and several streams rising near the top of the 
 ridge run an easterly course, converge as they descend, 
 and finally unite and empty into the Po. It is the union 
 of these streams that forms the apex of the triangle. These 
 streams are the Po itself at the south, the Pelice in the 
 centre, and the Clusone at the north. They lie between 
 bold mountain spurs that shoot off from the high dividing 
 ridge which has been named. Between each two of these 
 
20 THE WALDESSES. 
 
 mountain spurs is a valley, forming the natural bed of a 
 river. Each valley and river become in turn the receptacle 
 of numerous small lateral streams and valleys, and so the 
 ■whole territory is a continued series of lofty mountains 
 and deep valleys. 
 
 The river Pelice drains the valley of Luserne, and has 
 several important tributaries. At the entrance into the 
 valley is the parish of St. Jean, 'with a village of the same 
 name. Beyond St. Jean, and near the junction of the 
 Pelice and the Angrogna, stands La Torre, the Waldensian 
 capital. It has been the scene of many calamities, and is, 
 of course, very celebrated in Waldensian history. The 
 next village of importance in passing up this valley is Vil- 
 lar, and beyond that still, high up among the mountains, is 
 Bobbi. The valley of Luserne, in its lower portions, at St. 
 Jean and La Torre, is of considerable width, and contains 
 a good deal of alluvial, or bottom lands, on the banks of 
 the Pelice. Farther up, however, this alluvial slip becomes 
 gradually less, and cultivation is carried on chiefly by ter- 
 races on the mountain sides. At Bobbi, the scene changes 
 from the beautiful into the sublime, and even into the 
 awful. The level alluvial land just about Bobbi expands 
 into the shape of a basin, but higher up it contracts into 
 a narrow strip of a quarter of a mile in width, and finally 
 disappears altogether. Thence up to the mountain ridge 
 which forms the French boundary, there is nothing but 
 deep, and even apparently unfathomable ravines, in which 
 lie the channels of the head stream of the Pelice and its 
 highest confluents, overhung by stupendous masses of rocks. 
 There is not in all the Alps any scenery which is more 
 grand and imposing. Nor are these ravines without inhab- 
 itants. Little hamlets are to be found at various points, 
 in all directions, wherever it is possible to find a spot on 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 21 
 
 the sides of the mountains, in the shape of a basin 
 or terrace, or little hollow, that is susceptible of cultiva- 
 tion. 
 
 The valley of Rora incloses the little stream called 
 Lusernette, which falls into the Pelice below the town of 
 Luserne. The village of Rora, though inconsiderable in 
 size, has been rendered famous in history by the gallant 
 exploits of its people. The scenery of this district, like its 
 history, is full of romantic interest. Few portions of the 
 valley contain so much that is bold, picturesque and beau- 
 tiful in external nature, or so much that is truly marvellous 
 in its heroic reminiscences. It is equally remarkable for 
 the strong attachment of its inhabitants to their native 
 soil. Bleak and barren as the soil is, particularly in the 
 more elevated and rocky portions, yet few of its people 
 have sought a home elsewhere. 
 
 On the north side of the Pelice, is another and large 
 tributary, called the Angrogna, which drains a valley of 
 the same name. This stream takes its rise in a wild moun- 
 tain region, among high Alps, in the very centre of the 
 Waldensian territory. From its secluded position, ren- 
 dering it almost inaccessible to a hostile force, the An- 
 grogna has been in all ages the " Holy Valley" of the 
 Waldenses. Though geographically and physically secon- 
 dary in its character, and only a branch or tributary of 
 the Luserne, yet in its moral and historical bearings, the 
 valley of Angrogna ranks as first in importance. To this 
 retired region have the people often withdrawn, as to an 
 asylum that could not be invaded, when most sorely pressed 
 by their foes. Within this region was the spot, the " Shi- 
 loh" of the valleys, where in former ages the Waldensian 
 Synod often met, and where, above all, was their " school 
 of the prophets." In the Pra del Tor, very high up 
 
22 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 towards the head waters of the Angrogna, secure from 
 interruption, their young men, from the earliest ages of 
 which we have any account of them, were accustomed to 
 assemble from the different valleys, to pursue under the 
 direction of competent pastors such studies as would fit 
 them to preach the gospel. It was perhaps a rude insti- 
 tution, as compared with the well appointed theological 
 Seminaries of this day. But it sent forth many noble 
 bands of missionaries, to preach the pure gospel of Christ, 
 long before the period of the Reformation, and when the 
 rest of the Christian world was enveloped in thick dark- 
 ness. Whilst, in the monasteries and the theological 
 schools of the rest of Christendom, the Bible was a forbid- 
 den or an unknown book, the simple minded young dales- 
 men of the Pra del Tor prepared themselves for the work 
 of the ministry mainly by committing thoroughly to mem- 
 ory the entire gospels and the epistles. 
 
 Leaving the region of the Pelice, and going northward, we 
 come to the river Clusone. This river rises in the extreme 
 northwestern part of the Waldensian territory, and runs in 
 a southeasterly course till it unites, first with the Pelice, 
 and a little further on with the Po. The union of these 
 three streams forms the apex of the triangle of which the 
 Cottian Alps are the base. The region drained by the 
 Clusone has three different names. In the highest part 
 of its course, is the valley of Pragela, lower down is the 
 valley of Perouse, and farther still the valley of the Clu- 
 sone. The first and the last of these valleys have ceased 
 to belong to the Waldenses. That part of the valley of 
 Perouse, which lies east of the Clusone, and which is by 
 far the most extensive and fertile, has also been taken 
 from them. The only part, therefore, of the region drained 
 by the Clusone, that now remains to the Waldenses, is a 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 23 
 
 narrow strip on the western bank, in the middle part of 
 its course, including the three parishes of Parustin, St. 
 Germain, and Pramol. 
 
 On the eastern side of the Clusone, are three important 
 Roman Catholic towns, whose names occur but too often 
 in Waldensian history. These are Pignerol, Perouse, and 
 Fenestrelle. The first named of these has been for many 
 ages the stronghold of those who have persecuted most 
 bitterly the people of the valleys. Hundreds of unfortu- 
 nate victims have here pined away in prison, or have been 
 burnt at the stake, and within its walls have been concocted 
 most of those schemes of mischief which have involved 
 the adjoining valleys in slaughter. 
 
 Napoleon, the imperial road-maker, constructed a noble 
 highway through this valley across the Alps. This road 
 begins at Pignerol, passes Perouse and Fenestrelle, and 
 thence from the upper end of the valley of Pragela, it 
 crosses Mont Genevre into France, descending through 
 the valley of the Durance by Briangon and Embrun. It 
 is the precise route supposed to have been taken by Ju- 
 lius Ctesar on his way to Gaul, and by Hannibal on his 
 invasion of Italy, as it was also by Irenseus and the other 
 early Christian missionaries, who first carried the gospel 
 into Gaul. 
 
 Opposite Perouse, the Clusone receives an important 
 tributary, the Germanesca, which drains the valley of 
 St. Martin. Near the mouth of the Germanesca, and in 
 the small triangular space between it and the Clusone, is 
 the parish of Pomaret, containing a village of the same 
 name. At the distance of a mile or two above Pomaret, 
 the Germanesca passes through a narrow defile, which is 
 there barely wide enough to allow the river to rush through. 
 Stupendous rocks are piled up on each side of the stream, 
 
•24 IHE TVAIDESSES. 
 
 and form a scene of surpassing grandeur. This is the 
 natural gateway of the valley of St. Martin. This won- 
 derful defile seems to have been cleft by the hand of God 
 to form an outlet for the waters of the river. As a space, 
 barely wide enough for a road, has been hewn out of the 
 solid rock, nothing could be easier than to block it up, and 
 effectually prevent the entrance of a hostile force — a mea- 
 sure which the Waldenses have often actually adopted. 
 
 The scenery in the valley of St. Martin frequently 
 changes from the most wild and rugged aspect to the most 
 attractive beauty. Throughout its entire length there is 
 very little bottom land. Wherever there is a spot that is 
 susceptible of cultivation, whether it consists of several 
 acres, or is a mere nook, there the hand of man is at 
 work to turn it to account. 
 
 The first parish above Pomaret is that of Yille Se'che, 
 so called from its chief village, which occupies an accli- 
 vity on the left bank of the Germanesca. It was in 
 this parish that Leger was born, the well known historian 
 of the WalJenses. 
 
 Higher up the valley the scenery becomes still more 
 wild and savage. The bottom grows more and more 
 narrow, and the sides consist of alternate projections of 
 masses of naked rocks and deep intervening wooded 
 ravines. In the ravines which have a northern exposure, 
 and which are far up towards the summits of the moun- 
 tains, masses of snow are seen in midsummer. Every- 
 thing indicates a region belonging to the High Alps. In 
 this Alpine region, however, is found a parish, Maneille, 
 including a village of the same name and several hamlets, 
 and containing several hundred inhabitants. 
 
 Pursuing still a northwest course, and ascending yet 
 higher the deep and gloomy valley, through which a moun- 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 25 
 
 tain torrent comes pitching down, we arrive at the 
 parish of Macel. The valley, long before one reaches 
 this point, becomes exceedingly picturesque. In several 
 places, rocks surmounted with larches and pines, rise per- 
 pendicularly, in awful grandeur, from almost the very 
 edge of the water, so that it would seem impossible to 
 make a road between them and the river. In the upper 
 part of this parish, just beneath the Col-du-Pis, is the 
 hamlet of Balsille, on the left bank of the torrent, and 
 opposite to the famous, cone-shaped mass of rocks, called 
 Balsi. This spot is known as the Thermopylae of the 
 valleys. Here a few hundred dalesmen defended them- 
 selves a long time successfully against twenty thousand 
 French and Savoyard troops, and finally retreated to the 
 mountain in the rear, with scarcely the loss of a man. 
 
 The two parishes last described are not on the German- 
 esca, but on a small branch that comes in from the north- 
 west. The Germanesca itself, in the upper part of its 
 course, comes from the south-east. Ascending this stream, 
 one is struck with the increased wildness and barrenness 
 of the country. The side of the mountain which bounds 
 the river on the right bank has a considerable growth of 
 timber in his ravines. But that on the left bank is com- 
 posed, for the most part, of naked rocks. There is 
 scarcely any bottom land throughout its entire course. 
 What there is, is covered, in many places, with masses of 
 rocks which have detached themselves from the mountain 
 sides. In some cases, the river is almost bloeked up with 
 them. 
 
 At first sight, a stranger would suppose that no human 
 being would ever think of taking up his abode in a 
 region, abounding indeed in sublime and imposing sce- 
 nery, but withal so utterly wild and dreary. Yet even 
 
26 THEWALDENSES. 
 
 here are two populous parishes. The first is Eodoret, the 
 second and highest is Prali. This last is decidedly the 
 wildest and most barren of all the parishes of the Wal- 
 denses. The pines that grow on the sides of the moun- 
 tains are few, scattered, and dwarfish. On the south the 
 valley is completely shut in by the lofty range of mount 
 Julien, whose elevated peaks and sides are covered with 
 snow even in July. Not unfrequently the whole parish 
 is covered with snow during eight and nine months of 
 the year. Avalanches are frequent, and often very 
 destructive. Among the heights south of Prali, are 
 twelve little lakes or ponds, formed by the melting of the 
 snows on mount Julien. They are nearly on the route 
 from Prali over to Bobi, in the valley of Luserne. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES. 
 
 The Waldenses are in all essential particulars Presby- 
 terian in order, and Calvinistic in doctrine. But they are 
 not, technically speaking, Protestants, nor are they to be 
 counted among the Reformed churches. Though Italians, 
 and living upon the very confines of the papacy, they have 
 never had any connection with the church of Rome, and 
 have had therefore none of its corruptions from which to 
 reform. Their poverty and their inaccessible situation 
 were their protection from encroachment, during the earlier 
 centuries, whilst the papal power was gradually acquiring 
 its colossal dimensions. When the reformed churches of 
 Germany, France, and England threw off the yoke of the 
 papacy, and began to restore Christianity within their 
 borders to its original simplicity and purity, the Wal- 
 densian Christians received the tidings with gladness, and 
 had numerous conferences with the Reformers, to their 
 mutual benefit; but they claimed, at that time, as for 
 centuries previous they had claimed, before their temporal 
 sovereigns, that the faith, the worship, and the ecclesiastical 
 organization prevalent among them then, had been handed 
 down among them by uninterrupted tradition from the very 
 earliest ages of Christianity. 
 
 Of the conversion of the Waldenses to Christianity, 
 history gives us no authentic account. Romish historians 
 as far back as the year A. D. 1250, represented them as the 
 
 (27) 
 
23 THE WALBIXSIS. 
 
 oldest sect of heretics, though unable to tell when or how 
 their heresv began. Their own account of the matter 
 uniformly ha? been, that their religion has descended with 
 them from father to son by uninterrupted succession from 
 the time of the apostles. There certainly is no improb- 
 ability in the conjecture that the gospel was preached to 
 them by some of those early missionaries who carried 
 Christianity into Gaul. The common passage from Rome 
 to Gaul at that time lay directly through the Cottian Alps, 
 and Gaul we know received the gospel early in the second 
 century at the latest, probably before the close of the first 
 century. If the apostle Paul ever made that "journey 
 into Spain." (Rom. xv. 26.) which he speaks of in his 
 epistle to the Romans, and in which he proposed to go by 
 way of Rome, his natural route would have been in the 
 same direction, and it is not impossible that his voice -""as 
 actually heard among those retired valleys. The most 
 common opinion among Protestant writers is, that the 
 conversion of the TTaMenses was begun by some cf the 
 very early Christian missionaries, perhaps by some of the 
 apostles themselves, on their way to Gaul, and that it was 
 completed and the churches more fully organized bv a large 
 influx of Christians from Rome, after the first general 
 persecution under Xero. The Christians of Rome, scat- 
 tered by this terrible event, would naturally flee from the 
 plain country to the mountains, carrying with them the 
 gospel and its institutions. 
 
 Such is the opinion of Henry Arnaud, one of the most 
 intelligent of the Waldensian pastors. ' ; Neither has their 
 church ever been reformed," says Arnaud,* •■ whence arises 
 its title of evangelic. The Waldenses are in fact descended 
 
 * Glorious Recovery by the Waldenses of their Valleys. Preface, 
 page 14. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES. 29 
 
 from those refugees from Italy, who, after St. Paul had 
 there preached the gospel, abandoned their beautiful coun- 
 tn r , and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, 
 to these wild mountains, where they have, to this day, 
 handed down the gospel from father to son, in the same 
 purity and simplicity as it was preached by St. Paul." This 
 is not following fables, for there is nothing in the relation 
 either improbable or absurd. When the Christians at Rome 
 were bound to stakes, covered with pitch, and burnt in the 
 evenings to illuminate the city, is it wonderful, if the glare 
 of such fires should induce those yet at liberty, to betake 
 themselves for shelter, to the almost inaccessible valleys of 
 the Alps, and to the clefts of the rocks, trusting to that God 
 in whose hands are the deep places of the earth, and 
 considering that the strength of hills is his ? 
 
 The words of Arnaud were written near the close of the 
 seventeenth century ; but we have others of a much earlier 
 date. The Waldenses complain, that it has been the cruel 
 policy of their persecutors to destroy all the historical 
 memorials of their antiquity. About the year 1559, the 
 Roman Catholics, with a view to exterminate the protes- 
 tants of the valleys, cruelly butchered them, and in order 
 to obliterate every memorial of them, diligently searched 
 for their records, which they committed to the flames. 
 Though on this account the testimonies of their antiquity 
 are not so ample as could be wished, yet we possess a 
 variety of their own declarations on this point previous to 
 the period just mentioned, which have been preserved in 
 the wonderful providence of God. In the Noble Lesson, 
 dated 1100,* are contained the following assertions : 
 
 * This treatise, dated 1100, Leger tells us was found quite entire 
 in a, book of parchment, written in manuscript in an old Gothic 
 character In Leger's time two exemplars were preserved, one at 
 3* 
 
30 THE WALBE5SI6. 
 
 "Xow, after the Apostles, were certain teachers, 
 
 Who taught the way of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 
 And these are found even at the present day. 
 
 If any man love those who are good, he must needs love 
 God and Jesus Chris 
 
 Such an one will neither curse, swear, nor lie. 
 
 Now, such an one is called a Waldensian, and worthy 
 to be punished. 
 
 For, I dare say, and it is very true, 
 
 That all the Popes, which have been from Silvester to 
 this present, 
 
 And all the Cardinals, Bishops, Abbots, and the like, 
 
 Have no power to absolve or pardon." 
 
 In 1530, the Waldenses thus addressed Ecolampadius 
 and other reformers : " That you may at once understand 
 the matter, we are a sort of teachers of a certain necessi- 
 tous and small people, who already, for more than four 
 hundred years — nay as those of our country frequently 
 
 Cambridge, and one at Geneva. Only the latter is now to be found. 
 Mr. Jackson saw it in 1S25. The Lesson is in verse, in their own 
 ancient tongue, that it may be more agreeable to the reader, and 
 that the youth may more easily imprint it upon their memory. The 
 original begins thus : — 
 
 frayre entende una nobla Leyeon. 
 
 S event deven velhar e istar en oreson. 
 
 C. nos veen aquest mont esser pres del chavon 
 
 Mot curios deorian esser de bonas obras far 
 
 C. nos veen mont de la fin apropriar, &c. 
 
 Brethren give ear to a Noble Lesson. 
 
 We ought always to watch and pray, 
 
 For we see this world to be near a conclusion, 
 
 AVe ought to strive to do good works, 
 
 For we see the end of this world to approach, 
 
 A thousand and one hundred years are fully 
 
THEIR ANTIQUITY. 31 
 
 relate — -from the time of the apostles, have sojourned among 
 the most cruel thorns, yet, as all the pious have easily- 
 judged, not without the great favour of Christ ; and 
 having been stung and tormented by the same thorns, 
 have been delivered by promised favour." 
 
 Robert Olevitan, whom Leger* the historian describes as 
 " one of the most excellent pastors of the valleys," in a 
 preface to his French version of the Bible, dated from the 
 Alps, Feb. 12, 1335, dedicates it to God, and not to the 
 rich and pompous, but to the poor church: "No," adds 
 he, "it is to thee alone I present this precious treasure, in 
 the name of a certain poor people, thy friends and 
 brethren in Jesus Christ, who, ever since they were blessed 
 and enriched with it by the apostles and ambassadors of 
 Christ, have still possessed and enjoyed the same." 
 
 In presenting their Confession of Faith to Francis I. of 
 France, 1544, the Waldenses protested that their belief 
 is " entirely such as they have received from hand to hand 
 
 * John Leger, one of the Waldensian pastors, in the seventeenth 
 century, carefully collected a number of ancient documents of the 
 AValdensian doctrine. In the persecution, 1655, the plunderers of 
 the Waldenses deprived him of every leaf of M.S. in order to bury 
 in oblivion all knowledge of their former existence, or long continued 
 principles. With incredible diligence he commenced a new search 
 in the Valleys on the French side of the Alps, where the destruction 
 had not been so severe, and found authentic copies of the same 
 treatises. A number of these he has published in his valuable history 
 of the Waldenses. The Originals he delivered to Sir Samuel Mor- 
 land, who presented them in 1658 to the library of the University of 
 Cambridge. Twenty-one volumes were there deposited, but the first 
 seven are now missing, though Allix quoted from one of these seven 
 in 1690. Copies of some of these are preserved in Geneva. The 
 remaining fourteen volumes, from II to W, are still to be seen at 
 Cambridge. 
 
32 THE WALDENSBS. 
 
 from their ancestors, according as their predecessors, in all 
 times and in all ages, had taught them it." 
 
 These declarations were given by the Waldenses, while 
 in full possession of their documents ; but after the most of 
 these were destroyed in 1559, they still refer to the fact of 
 their antiquity. Accordingly, in 1580, they of the valleys 
 complained to their prince, that a mission of Jesuits and 
 troops possessed themselves of their temples at the hour of 
 public worship, preventing the ministers on the Sabbath 
 from performing their duty, and that the Jesuits had along 
 with them a judge, or lord, and sometimes the lords of the 
 valleys, who were furnished with his Highness' letter. 
 They then add ; "It is a thing true and notorious, most 
 serene Duke, that his said subjects and their ancestors have 
 been taught for a great many hundreds of years, in the 
 true Christian religion, by their ministers, whom they 
 call honourably Barbas, and that they have sometimes 
 taught them in secret and nightly assemblies, in imitation 
 of the primitive church, to avoid the persecution of the 
 ecclesiastics: but afterwards, observing that they took 
 from that quarter a pretext to calumniate them, the matter 
 was reckoned of such consequence, that they have wished 
 to preach publicly, the holy doctrine in which they have 
 been instructed from all antiquity, and from hand to hand 
 by their fathers." 
 
 In one of the manuscripts, dated 1587, and deposited in 
 the library of the University of Cambridge, the question 
 is put : — " At what time have the religion and state (stata) 
 been preached in the valleys ?" The answer is : — " About 
 five hundred years, as can be collected from many his- 
 tories ; but according to the belief of the inhabitants of 
 the valleys, it has been from time immemorial, and from 
 father to son, since the time of the apostles." 
 
THEIR ANTIQUITY. 33 
 
 During the dreadful persecutions of 1655, the churches 
 of Piedmont, in a Confession of Faith, publicly declare 
 their agreement, " in sound doctrine, with all the reformed 
 churches of France, Great Britain, the Low Countries, 
 Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and 
 other places, being ready to subscribe to that eternal 
 truth of God with our own blood, even as our ancestors, 
 since the days of the apostles." 
 
 Let it be observed, then, that the Waldenses maintain, and 
 have done so from the date of their earliest existing histories, 
 that their ancestors inhabited the country which they now 
 occupy, and held the faith which they hold, since the days 
 of the apostles. They are of opinion, that the gospel was 
 preached to their forefathers in those valleys by Christian 
 missionaries from Rome, or other cities in Italy where it 
 had gained extensive ground, or that it was introduced by 
 those who fled from the plain country ; perhaps some of 
 them from Rome itself, or the neighbourhood thereof, dur- 
 ing the persecutions under the Roman emperors. It is 
 probable, that the truth was introduced by both these 
 means. In a petition, presented by the Waldenses to 
 Philibert Emanuel, duke of Savoy and prince of Piedmont, 
 in the year 1559, they use the following language : " We 
 likewise beseech your Royal Highness to consider, that 
 this religion which we profess is not only ours, nor hath 
 it been invented by men of late years, as is falsely re- 
 ported, but it was the religion of our fathers, grandfathers, 
 and great grandfathers, and other yet more ancient pre- 
 decessors of ours, and of the blessed martyrs, confessors, 
 prophets, and apostles ; and if any can prove the contrary, 
 we are ready to subscribe, and yield thereunto." 
 
 Leger, their great historian, states, that all the petitions 
 and addresses of these people to their sovereigns, from the 
 C 
 
34 THE WALDE5SES. 
 
 earliest times, contained a sentence to the same effect, 
 namely, that they had been in the enjoyment of liberty of 
 conscience, "da ogni tempo, da tempo immemoriale," 
 from all time, from time immemorial. " And is it not 
 extraordinary," asks Leger, "that it has never once 
 happened, that any of the dukes of Savoy, or their minis- 
 ters, should have offered the least contradiction to the 
 pretensions of their Waldensian subjects? Again and 
 again it has been asserted by them, ' AVe are descendants of 
 those, who from father to son have preserved entire the 
 apostolical faith in the valleys which we now occupy.' Their 
 pretensions have been passed over in silence. They have 
 been suffered to repeat their demands from reign to reign, 
 and to carry them to the feet of their sovereigns : — ' Per- 
 mit us to enjoy that free exercise of our religion which 
 we have enjoyed from time out of mind, and before the 
 dukes of Savoy became princes of Piedmont.' I have 
 still the copy of a remonstrance, in which I myself inserted 
 these very words, and which the President Truchi, the 
 ablest man in the state, has endeavoured to answer on 
 every other point but this. He has, however, never dared 
 to touch upon our antiquity. And formerly, in the 
 year 1559," continues Leger, " when Emanuel Philibert 
 was told, that his Waldensian petitioners professed the 
 faith which had been handed down to them from their 
 forefathers from the time of the martyrs and apostles, 
 would that great prince and his court have endured to be 
 told this by these poor people, if there had been one par- 
 ticle of truth to be discovered to the contrary, by the 
 ministers of his royal highness, or by his ecclesiastics, or 
 if any of them could have maintained the opposite, and 
 shown, that they did not descend from father to son from 
 the times of the martyrs, and confessors, and holy apostles?" 
 
THEIR ANTIQUITY. 35 
 
 To the above-cited testimonies of the Waldenses them- 
 selves in regard to their origin, it may not be amiss to 
 add what they modestly say on this point, when address- 
 ing the Reformers, in the sixteenth century : — " Our an- 
 cestors," say they, "have often recounted to us, that we 
 have existed from the time of the apostles. In all matters, 
 nevertheless, we agree with you ; and, thinking as you 
 think, from the very days of the apostles themselves, we 
 have ever been concordant respecting the faith. In this 
 particular only, we may be said to differ from you ; that, 
 through our fault, and the slowness of our genius, we do 
 not understand the sacred writers with such strict correct- 
 ness as yourselves." 
 
 Let us now see what their enemies have said on this 
 point. And here there is an abundance of testimony, 
 from which, however, we can extract only a single in- 
 stance. Reinerius uses the following language respecting 
 these people, whom he denominates Leonists. " Concern- 
 ing the sects of ancient heretics, let it be observed, that 
 they have been more than seventy in number ; all of 
 which, save those of the Manicheans, the Arians, the 
 Runcarians, and the Leonists, which have infected Ger- 
 many, have, through God's favour, been extirpated. 
 Among all these sects, which either still exist, or which 
 have formerly existed, there is not one more pernicious to 
 the Church [of Rome] than that of the Leonists ; and this 
 for three reasons. First, because it has been of longer 
 continuance ; for some say, that it has lasted from the 
 time of Sylvester ; others, from the time of the apostles. 
 Second, because it is more general ; for there is scarcely 
 a country, in which it does not exist. Third, because, that 
 whilst all other sects, through their monstrous blasphe- 
 mies against God, strike horror into the hearers, this of 
 
36 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 the Leonists has a great appearance of piety, inasmuch as 
 they live justly before men, and believe, not only, all the 
 articles of the creed, but every sound doctrine respecting 
 the Deity ; only they speak evil of the Roman Church 
 and clergy, to which the multitude of the laity are quite 
 ready to give credence." 
 
 That Reinerius speaks of the Waldenses under the 
 name of Leonists, is quite clear, from what he says in 
 other places. In addition to this, Pilichdorf, a writer of 
 the same century, expressly says, that the persons who 
 claim to have existed from the time of Pope Sylvester, 
 were the Waldenses. And Claude Scyssel, Archbishop 
 of Turin, in the latter end of the fifteenth century, and in 
 the beginning of the sixteenth, and who, from his vicinity 
 to them, as well as from the fact that they were geogra- 
 phically comprehended in his diocese, must have had good 
 opportunities of knowing their origin and history, tells us, 
 that the Waldenses of Piedmont took their origin from a 
 person named Leo, who, in the time of the emperor Con- 
 stantine, execrating the avarice of Pope Sylvester, and 
 the immoderate endowment of the Roman Church, seceded 
 from that communion, and drew after him all those who 
 entertained right sentiments concerning the Christian 
 religion. 
 
 These statements prove, not that the Waldenses origi- 
 nated as this writer suggests, but that they were incon- 
 testably the people meant by the Roman Catholic writers, 
 when treating of the ancient Leonists. 
 
 On the subject of the antiquity of the Waldenses, M. 
 Renouard, author of an elaborate work on the Pro- 
 vengal language and literature, and who discusses this 
 question not as an ecclesiastical historian, but simply as a 
 philologist, says that " the dialect of the Waldenses is an 
 
THEIR ANTIQUITY. 37 
 
 idiom intermediate between the decomposition of the 
 language of the Romans and the establishment of a new 
 grammatical system ; a circumstance which attests the 
 high antiquity of this dialect in the country which this 
 people inhabit." 
 
 In speaking of the Noble Lesson, the oldest work which 
 the Waldenses have, and which was, as is conceded on all 
 hands, written in the twelfth century, and consequently more 
 ancient than the greater part of the songs and other 
 writings of the Troubadours, this author says : — " The 
 language seems to me to be of an epoch already far sepa- 
 rated from its original formation; inasmuch as we may 
 remark the suppression of some final consonants ; a pecu- 
 liarity which announces, that the words of the long-spoken 
 dialect had already lost some portion of their primitive 
 terminations. 
 
 The philogical fact, here stated, proves the high anti- 
 quity of the Waldenses ; for they must have retired to 
 those valleys at a remote period indeed, if they left the 
 plains of Italy before the establishment of the new gram- 
 matical system, of which M. Renouard speaks. " Hence," 
 remarks Mr. Faber, " the primevally Latin Waldenses 
 must have retired from the lowlands of Italy to the valleys 
 of Piedmont, in the very days of primitive Christianity, 
 and before the breaking up of the Roman empire by the 
 persevering incursions of the Teutonic nations. But it 
 is scarcely probable, that men would leave their homes in 
 the fair, and warm, and fertile country of Italy, for the 
 wildness of desolate mountains, and for the squalidity 
 of neglected valleys — valleys, which would require all the 
 severe labour of assiduous cultivation, and mountains, 
 which no labour could make productive — unless some very 
 paramount and overbearing cause had constrained them 
 4 
 
38 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 to undertake such an emigration. Xow a cause, precisely 
 of this description, we have in the persecutions, -which, 
 during the second, third, and fourth centuries, occurred 
 under the emperors Marcus Aurelius, Maximin, Decius, 
 Valerian, and Diocletian." 
 
C Ij a p t ix € 1; i r b 
 
 CONDITION BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The character 
 of the early Wal- 
 densian church is 
 set forth with sing- 
 ular truth and 
 beauty in their an- 
 cient insignia, a 
 copy of which is 
 here given. That 
 church was indeed 
 a " light sinning 
 in darkness," and 
 blessed be God its 
 candlestick has not 
 yet been removed 
 from its place. 
 The Waldenses of 
 Piedmont are, in our view, primitive Christians, who have 
 been preserved in these valleys from the alterations succes- 
 sively introduced by the church of Rome into the evangelical 
 worship. It is not they who separated from Romanism, but 
 Romanism which separated from them, in modifying the 
 primitive worship. Hence the impossibility of assigning a 
 precise date to their origin. The church of Rome, which, 
 
 (39) 
 
40 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 in its commencement, also formed part of the primitive 
 church, did not modify itself all at once ; but, as it became 
 powerful, it assumed, together with the sceptre of rule, the 
 display, the pride, and the spirit of domination which 
 ordinarily accompany power ; whilst, amid the Waldensian 
 valleys, this primitive church, existing in comparative 
 obscurity, remained in its isolation, free, and without 
 tendency to abandon the pure simplicity of its infancy. 
 The independence of the diocese of Milan, and that asserted 
 by the episcopal see of Turin, in its resistance, in the ninth 
 century, to the worship of images, contributed to maintain 
 them in this position.* 
 
 e The following account of the opinions of Claudius, bishop of 
 Turin, 817 — 839, is derived from Allix's "Remarks on the Ecclesias- 
 tical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont :" — 
 
 " AVe need only read his commentary upon the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, to assure us, that he everywhere asserts the equality of all the 
 apostles with St. Peter, though the occasions seemed naturally to 
 engage him to establish the primacy of St Peter, and that of his 
 pretended successors. This we find in ten several passages of that 
 commentary ; he only declares the primacy of St. Peter to consist 
 in the honour he had of founding the church both amongst the Jews 
 and Gentiles, p. 810. And indeed everywhero throughout his 
 writings he maintains, that Jesus Christ is the only Head of the 
 Church. 
 
 " He overthrows the doctrine of merits in such a manner, as 
 overthows all the nice distinctions of the papists on that subject. 
 
 " He pronounces anathemas against traditions in matters of 
 religion : so far was he from giving occasion to others to suspect 
 that he made them a part of the object of his faith, as the church of 
 Home at present doth. 
 
 " He maintains, that faith alone saves us, which is the point that 
 so extremely provoked the church of Rome against Luther, who 
 asserted the same thing. 
 
 "He holds the church to be subject to error, opposite to what at 
 this day the Romanists pretend in so unreasonable a manner. 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 41 
 
 The Waldensian valleys could not always preserve that 
 obscure independence which constituted their security. 
 Romanism, gradually invested with a new worship un- 
 known to the apostles, daily rendered more and more 
 conspicuous the contrast between its pompous innovations 
 and the antique simplicity of the Waldenses. 
 
 To reduce them within the despotic unity of Rome, 
 there were sent against them the agents of a ministry 
 equally unknown in the apostolic period : these were the 
 inquisitors (1308). In consequence of the resistance which 
 they encountered in these remote mountains, the valley ot 
 Luserne was ultimately (1453) put under interdict. But 
 this measure only established more manifestly the line of 
 demarcation which was forming between the two churches ; 
 for although the Waldenses were not separated schism ati- 
 cally from the Bomish church, the external forms of which 
 
 "He denies that prayers after death may be of any use to those 
 that have demanded them. 
 
 " He very smartly lashes the superstition and idolatry which then 
 began to be renewed, being supported by the authority of the 
 Roman see. 
 
 " These things we find in his commentary upon the Epistle to the 
 Galatians : but the other writings of this great man, manuscript and 
 printed, show us yet more of his mind. Indeed, we find him giving 
 very public marks of his zeal for the purity of religion in several 
 points. First, he proposeth the doctrine of the church, in reference 
 to the eucharist, in a manner altogether conformable to the judgment 
 of antiquity, following therein the most illustrious doctors of the 
 Christian church, and showing that he was, as to that matter, at the 
 farthest distance from the opinions which Paschasius Radbertus 
 advanced eighteen or nineteen years after that Claudius had writ his 
 commentary upon St. Matthew." 
 
 It was worth our while to take notice of these opinions of 
 Claudius, because the papists have owned that the valleys of Pied- 
 mont preserved the opinions of Claudius in the ninth and tenth 
 century. 
 4* 
 
42 THE WAIDENSES. 
 
 still included them, they had their own clergy, their own 
 worship, and their own parishes. 
 
 Their pastors were named barbas, the Waldensian term 
 for uncle. It was in the almost inaccessible solitude of 
 the Pra-del-Tor, that their school was situated. There 
 those who were preparing to be barbas learned by heart 
 the gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, the catholic 
 epistles, and a portion of those of St. Paul. They were 
 instructed, further, in Latin, Eomane (old French), and 
 Italian. After this they passed several years in retire- 
 ment, and they were then consecrated ministers by the 
 administration of the sacrament and the imposition of 
 hands. 
 
 They were supported by the voluntary contributions of 
 the people, distributed among them annually in a general 
 synod. A third of these contributions was given to the 
 ministers, a third to the poor, and a third was reserved 
 for the missionaries of the church. 
 
 These missionaries always journeyed in pairs, a young 
 man and an old man, the latter being designated regidor, 
 the former coadjuteur. They traversed all Italy, where 
 they had fixed stations at different points, and in almost 
 all the towns adherents : at Venice, for example, no fewer 
 than 6000, and at Genoa as many. Each pastor bein°-, 
 in his turn, a missionary, the younger men thus became 
 initiated in the delicate duties of evangelization, each being 
 under the experienced conduct of an elder, whom discipline 
 established as his superior, and whom he obeyed in all 
 things, alike from duty and from deference. The old 
 man, on his part, thus prepared himself for his repose, by 
 forming for the church successors worthy of it and of him- 
 self. His own task finished, he could die in peace, with 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 43 
 
 the consolatory assurance of having transmitted the sacred 
 deposit of the gospel to prudent and zealous hands. 
 
 Besides this, the barbas were instructed in some trade 
 or profession by which they might provide, in whole or in 
 part, for their own living. Some were hawkers, some 
 artizans, the greater number surgeons or physicians ; and 
 all were versed in the cultivation of the soil and the nur- 
 ture of flocks. 
 
 At the annual synod, held in the valleys, the past con- 
 duct of the pastors was closely investigated, and their 
 mutations of residence regulated. These mutations took 
 place every third year among the younger pastors ; the 
 old barbas were not removed. A director-general of the 
 church was appointed at each synod, with the designation 
 of President or Moderator ; the latter title ultimately pre- 
 vailed, and subsists to this day. 
 
 There was nothing more remarkable about the early 
 Waldenses, than their missionary spirit. It was by sending 
 out missionaries, two by two on foot, to visit their brethren 
 dispersed in various lands, that they kept alive the little 
 piety which existed in the world at that day. These 
 missionaries knew where to find their brethren ; they went 
 to their houses, held little meetings, administered the ordi- 
 nances, ordained deacons, and sustained the faith and 
 hopes of the tempted and persecuted ones. It is said that 
 these missionaries could go, at one period, from Cologne 
 to Florence, and stay every night at the houses of breth- 
 ren. It is on account of the great number of missionaries 
 which these little and poor churches in the valleys sus- 
 tained, that we read of there being sometimes one hundred 
 and forty or fifty ministers at the meetings of their synods. 
 But few of these were needed at home ; the most were 
 engaged in the foreign work. 
 
44 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 It is also remarkable that almost all the men whom 
 God raised up from time to time, in France, and other 
 countries, for more than six hundred years before the 
 Reformation, seem to have had more or less to do •with 
 the Waldenses ; such as Peter Waldo, Peter Brnys, Henry 
 of Lausanne, and Lollard. 
 
 Not only did preachers go out from the valleys to 
 proclaim the glorious gospel, but humble pious pedlars, or 
 itinerating merchants, of 'whom there were many in the 
 middle ages, scattered the truth by carrying some leaves 
 of the Word of Life, or some manuscript tracts, beneath 
 their merchandize, which they engaged those whom they 
 found to be favourably disposed, to receive and read. 
 
 The following beautiful verses, descriptive of this traffic 
 of the Waldensian pedlers, were published in a valuable 
 religious Journal, a few years ago.* 
 
 THE TAUDOIS MISSIONARY. 
 
 '• 0, lady fair, these silks of mine 
 
 Are beautiful and rare — 
 The richest web of the Indian loom 
 
 Which beauty's self might wear. 
 And these pearls are pure and mild to behold, 
 
 And with radiant light they vie ; 
 I have brought them with me a weary way : 
 
 Will my gentle lady buy t" 
 
 II. 
 
 And the lady smiled on the worn old man, 
 Through the dark and clustering curls 
 
 Which vailed her brow as she bent to view 
 His silk and glittering pearls; 
 
 * The London Christian Observer. 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 45 
 
 And she placed their price in the old man's hand, 
 
 And lightly turned away : 
 But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call — 
 
 " My gentle lady, stay 1" 
 
 III. 
 " 0, lady fair, I have yet a gem 
 
 Which a purer lustre flings 
 Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown 
 
 On the lofty brow of kings ; 
 A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, 
 
 AVhose virtue shall not decay ; 
 Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, 
 
 And a blessing on thy way !" 
 
 IV. 
 
 The lady glanced at the mirroring steel, 
 
 Where her youthful form was seen, 
 Whore her eyes shone clear and her dark looks waved 
 
 Their clasping pearls between ; 
 " Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, 
 
 Thou traveller gray and old ; 
 And name the price of thy precious gem, 
 
 And my pages shall count thy gold." 
 
 V. 
 The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, 
 
 As a small and meagre book 
 Unchased with gold or diamond gem, 
 
 From his folding robe he took : 
 " Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price — 
 
 May it prove as such to thee 1 
 Nay, keep thy gold — I ask it not — 
 
 For the Word of God is free." 
 
 VI. 
 The hoary traveller went his way — 
 
 But the gift he left behind 
 Hath had its pure and perfect work 
 
 On that high-born maiden's mind ; 
 
46 THEWALDENSES. 
 
 And she hath turned from her pride of sin 
 
 To the lowliness of truth, 
 And given her human heart to God 
 
 In its beautiful hour of youth. 
 
 VII. 
 
 And she hath left the old gray walls 
 
 Where an evil faith hath power, 
 The courtly nights of her father's train, 
 
 And the maidens of her bower ; 
 And she hath gone to the Yaudois vale, 
 
 By lordly feet untrod, 
 Where the poor and needy of earth are rich 
 
 In the perfect love of God ! 
 
 The first combined measures taken by the secular 
 authority for the destruction of the Vaudois, do not appear 
 to date before 1209. At that epoch, the emperor Otho 
 IV. having, after the death of his rival, Philip of Suabia, 
 been recognised by the Diet of Frankfort, repaired to 
 Rome, for the purpose of being consecrated by pope 
 Innocent III. who had always favoured him against Philip. 
 On his way he passed through 'Piedmont. The then 
 reigning count of Savoy, Maurice, had taken part against 
 him in his disputes with Philip, and the latter had given 
 him, as a reward, the towns of Quiers, Testona, and 
 Modona. Otho, now triumphant, resolved to punish the 
 partisan of his competitor, by enfeebling him in his own 
 states ; and he accordingly conferred on the archbishop 
 of Turin, who was a prince of the empire, authority to 
 destroy the Waldenses by force of arms. Thus, the long 
 train of persecution which this people had to undergo was 
 not opened by the house of Savoy, but by its enemies ; 
 and when, later, the house of Savoy itself entered on the 
 path of cruelty and depopulation, it was not of its own 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 47 
 
 motion, but ever under foreign influences, the most vin- 
 dictive of which was that of the court of Rome. 
 
 Thus was the primitive church preserved in the Alps up 
 to the epoch of the Reformation. The Waldenses are the 
 chain by which the reformed churches are connected with 
 the first disciples of our Saviour. In vain has popery, 
 renegade from evangelical truths, sought, a thousand times, 
 to break that chain ; it has resisted every shock ; empires 
 have crumbled away, dynasties have fallen, but this chain 
 of scriptural testimony has not been broken, for its strength 
 came, not from men, but from God. 
 
Cjjapter jfaurtl;. 
 
 PERSECUTION BY TOLAXDE AND CATANEO. 
 
 It was a foreigner, the sister of Louis XI., who first 
 commenced the systematic persecution of the Waldenses. 
 This was Yolanrle, who, having married Amadeu3 IX., one 
 of the best and most charitable dukes of Savoy that ever 
 honoured his dynasty, became, in 1472, as his widow, the 
 regent of his dominions. Her name, from Yolande, was 
 converted into Violante, either from some alteration of 
 orthography in the public documents, or in allusion to her 
 violent and vindictive character. 
 
 On the 23d of January, 1476, without putting forth any 
 other complaint against the Waldenses, or alleging any 
 other ground for her rigour than their creed, she ordered 
 the seigneurs of Pignerol and Cavours to bring them, at 
 whatever cost, within the bosom of the Romish church : the 
 Waldenses, in their turn, demanded that the Romish church 
 itself should be brought back to the gospel. The duche83 
 convoked her great vassals to deliberate on the means of 
 reducing to silence these daring protestants — if we may 
 employ the term a century before the Reformation. But 
 she had not the opportunity of carrying her projects into 
 effect, being herself made prisoner by order of the duke of 
 Burgundy, who, being at war with Louis XL, desired to 
 prevent her giving aid to that monarch. The "Waldenses, 
 however, had pertinaciously refused to abjure their alleged 
 
YOLANDEANDCATANEO. 49 
 
 heresy, and Charles, Yolande's second son, accordingly 
 directed an inquiry to be made into this contumacy (1485). 
 This inquiry for the first time officially manifested the 
 profound difference which time had established between 
 the Waldenses, still faithful to the primitive faith, and the 
 Romish church, more and more degenerate. The result 
 was laid before the holy see in 1486. 
 
 In the following year, Innocent VIII. fulminated against 
 the Waldenses a bull of extermination, by which he 
 enjoined all the temporal powers to arm for their destruc- 
 tion. It invited all catholics to take up the cross against 
 them, " absolving from all ecclesiastical pains and pen- 
 alties, general and particular, those who should take up 
 the cross ; releasing them from any oaths they might have 
 taken ; legitimatizing their title to any property they 
 might have illegally acquired ; and promising remission of 
 all their sins to such as should kill any heretic. It annulled 
 all contracts made in favour of the Waldenses ; ordered 
 their domestics to abandon them, forbade all persons to 
 give them any aid whatever, and empowered all persons to 
 take possession of their property." 
 
 Forthwith several thousands of volunteers — vagabond 
 adventurers, ambitious fanatics, reckless pillagers, mer- 
 ciless assassins — assembled from all parts of Italy to 
 execute the behests of the pseudo-successor of St. Peter. 
 This horde of brigands, suitable support of a profligate 
 pontiff, marched against the valleys, in the train of another 
 army of 18,000 regular troops, contributed in common by 
 the king of France and the sovereign of Piedmont. 
 
 Yet no crime was alleged against the unhappy Waldenses, 
 even by the pope himself. His exterminating bull itself 
 admitted that their chief means of seduction was their 
 marked manifestation of sanctity. The destruction of this 
 
50 THEWALDENSES. 
 
 feeble folk seemed inevitable at the hands of so over- 
 whelming a force of foes; but God undertook their defence, 
 breathing a spirit of confusion into the ranks of their 
 enemies, of steady courage into their own. 
 
 The papal legate who was charged with the execution of 
 these sanguinary orders, was an archdeacon of Cremona, 
 named Albert Cataneo, or de Cataneis. He took up his 
 abode first at Pignerol, in the convent of San Larenzo, 
 whence he despatched preaching monks to essay the 
 conversion of the Waldenses, ere he assailed them with 
 arms. These missionaries obtaining no success, he himself 
 advanced into the valleys. The inhabitants sent to him 
 as delegates, John Campo and John Desiderio, who thus 
 addressed him : — " Do not condemn us without hearing us, 
 for we are Christians and faithful subjects ; and our barbas 
 are prepared to prove, in public or in private, that our 
 doctrines are conformable with the word of God. True, we 
 have not followed the transgressors of the evangelical law, 
 who have so long departed from the tradition of the 
 apostles ; we have rejected their corrupt precepts, and 
 refused to recognise any other authority than that of the 
 Bible ; but we find our happiness in a pure and simple life, 
 wherein alone the Christian faith takes root and flourishes. 
 We despise the love of riches and the thirst of dominion, 
 wherewith our persecutors are devoured. Our hope in God 
 is, however, greater than our desire to please men : beware 
 how you draw down upon yourselves his anger by per- 
 secuting us ; for remember, that if God so wills it, all the 
 forces you have assembled against us will nothing avail." 
 
 This noble confidence was not deceived. At the will 
 of God this army of invaders vanished from the Waldensian 
 mountains as rain in the sands of the desert. 
 
 The inhabitants concentrated themselves on the most 
 
YOLANDEANDCATANEO. 51 
 
 inaccessible points ; the enemy, on the contrary, spread 
 themselves over the plains. From strategetic incapacity, 
 or from an ostentatious desire to make a great display of 
 military force, Cataneo resolved to make an attack simul- 
 taneously on all the leading points, to that from the village 
 of Biolet, in the marquisate of Saluzzo, to that of Sezanne, 
 in Dauphiny, his shallow lines occupied the whole country. 
 It was his idea to stifle with one blow the hydra of heresy : 
 with one blow his own power was shattered, his lines 
 broken, and his battalions assailed, in their precipitate 
 flight, by those whom they had come to crush. 
 
 The only weapons employed were pikes, swords, and 
 arrows. The Waldenses constructed shields and cuirasses 
 of skins, covered with the thick bark of the chestnut-tree, 
 and these arrested the enemy's arrows, which, shot from 
 below, penetrated without piercing these defences ; while 
 the Waldenses, vigorous and skilful, full of confidence in 
 God, and better posted, discharged their weapons from 
 above with triumphant advantage. There was one post, 
 however, which, despite the energy of the defence, seemed 
 about to be forced by the enemy — the central point of this 
 great line of operations, on the heights of San Giovanni, 
 near the Angrogna mountains, at a place called Rocca- 
 manante. 
 
 The crusaders having by degrees ascended the mountain, 
 had reached this natural bulwark, behind which the 
 Waldenses had placed their families. These, seeing them 
 draw back, fell on their knees, and exclaimed with fervour, 
 " Lord God, help them ! Lord God, save us !" The 
 enemy, who from a distance beheld their suppliant attitude, 
 sent forth a contemptuous shout of laughter, and hastened 
 their march. "You shall be saved with a vengeance," 
 cried one of their chiefs, named, from his dark complexion, 
 
52 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 U Nero di Mondovi; and as he spoke he raised his visor, 
 in scorn of the poor folk, whom he thought he could insult 
 with impunity ; but at the very instant an arrow, shot by 
 a young man of Angrogna, called Peter Revelli, pierced 
 the forehead of this modern Goliath between the eyes, and 
 laid him dead on the spot. His men, struck with panic and 
 fear, drew back in disorder; the Waldenses, taking advan- 
 tage of their terror, sallied forth, and, rushing upon them, 
 drove them down to the plain, where they dispersed in 
 flight. 
 
 A fresh endeavour was made next day to obtain posses- 
 sion of the redoubtable post. The enemy, adopting a 
 different route, proceeded along the valley of Angrogna, 
 on their way to the Pra-del-Tor, whence, ascending by La 
 Vachera, they would have rendered themselves masters of 
 the whole country. But one of those thick fogs which, at 
 times, suddenly arise in the Alps, came upon them, just as 
 they were involved in the most dangerous and most difficult 
 defiles. Ignorant of the locality, advancing in doubt, 
 uncertain which way to turn, and unable to advance in a 
 body over these rocks, bordered with precipices, they were 
 checked by the first attack of the Waldenses, and speedily 
 defeated. The first who were repulsed fell back on those 
 who were behind them, these on the next, and in a few 
 minutes utter disorder prevailed: retreat s'oon became 
 flight, flight catastrophe, the fugitives falling over the 
 humid rocks into the fatal abysses below. Few of the 
 assailants escaped ; and this decisive rout, due to the will 
 of God rather than to the arms of the Waldenses, completed 
 the deliverance of this valley, which was not again visited 
 by Cataneo's troops. 
 
 On the mountain of Roderi, in the valley of Pragela, 
 the Waldenses, favoured by the nature of the locality, put 
 
YOLANDE AND CATANEO. 53 
 
 to flight the crusaders, by rolling down upon them avalan- 
 ches of rocks ; after this they descended, attacked them, 
 man to man, and prolonged the fight till the evening. The 
 legate then drew off to Dauphiny. There a battalion of 
 his forces, 700 strong, entering the village of Pommiere, 
 in the Val-Louise, which they designed to plunder, were 
 suddenly attacked by the Waldenses ; and all those who 
 escaped the fury of the first assault perished within a few 
 days in the gorges of the mountains. The standard-bearer 
 alone, after remaining concealed in a ravine for two days, 
 came forth to avoid death by starvation and cold, and 
 yielded himself up to the Waldenses, who afforded him 
 sustenance and asylum, with that generous forgiveness of 
 injuries which Christ has inculcated on his faithful. The 
 prisoner's strength restored, he was permitted to depart ; 
 and it was he who made known the total defeat of his 
 companions. 
 
 After these futile and inglorious expeditions, the duke 
 of Savoy withdrew his troops, dismissed the legate, under 
 pretext that his mission was completed, and sent a bishop 
 to the Waldenses to induce them to make overtures for a 
 peace, which, they were assured, would be granted them. 
 The interview of this envoy with the evangelical Christians 
 of the Alps took place in the hamlet of Prasuyt, on the 
 borders of the parishes of Angrogna and San Giovanni. 
 It was there agreed that the Waldenses should send a 
 representative from each of their churches to wait upon 
 the prince, who was to repair, for that purpose, to Pignerol. 
 At this meeting it was that the prince required to see 
 some of their children, in order to ascertain whether it 
 was really true that they were born with black throats, 
 hairy teeth, and goat's feet, as the Romanists asserted. 
 " Is it possible," he exclaimed, when he saw several of 
 5* 
 
51 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 these children, — " is it possible that these are the children 
 of heretics ! What charming creatures ! They are the 
 finest children I ever beheld !" The prejudice thus dis- 
 sipated may appear ridiculous, but it was calculated to be 
 of potent effect in an ignorant age. Superstition, which 
 obscures the moral and religious sense, throws also its 
 veil over all the other parts of the human intellect ; as, on 
 the other hand, the light of the gospel, in illuminating the 
 soul which has received it, elevates, aggrandizes, and puri- 
 fies all the intellectual powers. 
 
Ctfaptu /ift{r. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAL-LOUISE. 
 
 In the general description of the country of the Wal- 
 denses, which is given in the second chapter, we have 
 confined ourselves to the present limits of that people. 
 They extended, however, at one time, far beyond those 
 limits, into similar mountain valleys on the other side of 
 the Alps, into Savoy on the north, into Provence and Dau- 
 phiny in France on the west, into the valley of the Po, and 
 into the plain country between their present territory and 
 Turin. In regard to some of these Waldensian settle- 
 ments, it is difficult to say whether they were the original 
 population, or whether they were early emigrants from 
 the Piedmontese valleys. They were, however, all homo- 
 geneous in character, and they all looked to the Piedmontese 
 valleys as a sort of mother country, the recognized centre 
 and starting point of their race and their religion. Some 
 of the earliest records of the history of this people of God 
 relate to those valleys from which they have been since 
 expelled, and where few, if any, of their name or faith are 
 now to be found. 
 
 Among the French valleys, formerly occupied by a 
 
 Waldensian population, the first to be named is the Val- 
 
 Louise. This is a deep, cold gorge, which descends from 
 
 Mont Pelvoux to the basin of the Durance. The earliest 
 
 ascertained persecution of the people of this valley was 
 
 (55) 
 
56 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 between 1238 and 1243. A century later, in 1335, we find, 
 in the accounts-current of the bailli of Embrun, this singu- 
 lar article ; Item, for persecuting the Waldensian, eight 
 sols and thirty deniers, gold; as though the persecution 
 of these Christians of the Alps had then become a regular 
 department of the public service ! 
 
 Chabert, one of the Waldensian brethren of the valley 
 of Luserne, more than five hundred years before, had 
 bought, from the dauphin John II., a large house in Val- 
 Louise, which he had presented to the brethren of that 
 district for the purpose of their religious assemblies. This 
 edifice the archbishop of Embrun destroyed, in 1348, 
 excommunicating beforehand any persons who should 
 attempt to rebuild it, and burning, at the same time, 
 twelve Waldenses who had been found in the house by the 
 archbishop's satellites. These unfortunate captives, being 
 taken to Embrun, and collected in the square facing the 
 cathedral, amid a crowd of people, and more immediately 
 surrounded by fanatic monks, were enveloped in a yellow 
 robe, on which were painted flames, symbolizing those of the 
 hell to which they were declared doomed ; their heads were 
 shaved, and they were publicly anathematized ; then, with 
 bare feet, and ropes round their necks, they were fastened 
 to the stake and strangled ; fire was then applied ; their 
 bodies returned to dust, their souls ascended to their 
 God. 
 
 A young inquisitor, Francesco Borelli, obtained from 
 pope Gregory XI. pressing letters to the king of France, 
 the duke of Savoy, and the governor of Dauphiny, enjoin- 
 ing them to unite their forces for the purpose of extirpating 
 from the Alps this inveterate heresy. The inquisitor 
 undertook the charge of the temporal arms that were 
 confided to him ; and his persecutions left not a single 
 
THE VAL- LOUISE. 57 
 
 village unassailed. Like the fabulous robe of the centaur, 
 •which destroyed whatever it touched, it seized whole 
 families, whole populations, so that the prisons were soon 
 inadequate to receive the multitude of prisoners. New 
 dungeons were constructed for them, of mere bare walls, 
 designed only to secure and inflict suffering on the captives. 
 
 Borelli began with summoning before him all the 
 inhabitants of these valleys : they did not appear, and 
 he condemned them for not appearing. Thencefoward, 
 exposed to be surprised by his satellites, they suffered the 
 double anguish of their own perils and the anguish of their 
 families. One was seized on the highway, another in his 
 field, another by his fireside ; for fifteen years did this 
 work of extermination proceed. 
 
 At length, on 22d May, 1393, all the churches of 
 Embrun were decked as for a grand solemnity, and the 
 cathedral especially, where the mass of the local clergy, 
 covered with their theatrical decorations, were grouped in 
 the choir, while, near them, a double line of soldiers served 
 at once to keep back the people in the nave, and to guard 
 a troop of prisoners, soldiers of Christ, condemned, for 
 their vindication of his word, to be burned alive. Pres- 
 ently the list of these martyrs was read out to the people. 
 There wtre eighty from the valleys of Frayssinie"res and 
 Argentiere, and one hundred and fifty from the Val- 
 Louise — a large proportion of the population of that valley ; 
 and after each name was pronounced the fatal formula that 
 condemned the living bodies of these two hundred and 
 thirty victims to the stake ! The solitude of the desert 
 now reigned in these depopulated mountains ; and as the 
 wolves abandon the exhausted charnel-house, the inquisi- 
 tors withdrew from these impoverished valleys. 
 
 For a while France had enough to do in saving herself 
 
58 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 from utter destruction at the hands of the English, owing 
 her final safety only to the enthusiasm of a young girl, 
 Joan of Arc. Meantime, the Waldensian churches grad- 
 ually raised up their heads once more, as violets from amid 
 the rocks, the breath of persecution propagating their 
 evangelical faith, as the wind bears afar the fragrance of 
 the flower. But the haughty and brutal animosity of the 
 papacy grew also ; and towards the close of the fifteenth 
 century, Innocent VIII. proclaimed against the Waldenses 
 that war of extermination, the conduct of which, as we 
 have seen in a former chapter, he committed to Albert 
 Cataneo. 
 
 It was in the month of June, 1488, that this worthy 
 legate of the pope, having fruitlessly essayed to subjugate 
 the valleys of Piedmont, passed into France by Mont 
 Genevre, where he caused to be strangled eighteen of these 
 poor folk whom he had made prisoners. Thence he made 
 an onslaught upon Briangon, a town which had been 
 indicated to him as a nest of heresy ; and from this 
 marched upon Frayssinieres, whose few and poorly armed 
 inhabitants retired to a rock overlooking the church, where 
 they were surrounded by the troops, and made prisoners. 
 
 Cataneo's ferocious fanatics thence entered the deep 
 gorge of Val-Louise. The Waldenses, feeling that they 
 could not resist a force twenty times greater than their 
 own, abandoned their poor habitations, placed their old 
 people and children in their rustic carts, with their 
 domestic utensils and such provisions as they could collect, 
 and, driving their herds before them, and singing canticles, 
 retired to the rugged slopes of Mont Pelvoux. This part of 
 the Alps rises more than six thousand feet above the level 
 of the valley. A third of the way up there is an immense 
 cavern, called Aigue-Froide or Ailfrede, from the cold 
 
THE VAL-LOUISE. 59 
 
 springs, nourished by the snows, which are found there. 
 A sort of platform, accessible only over fearful precipices, 
 extends at the mouth of the cavern, the majestic vault of 
 which, after subsiding into a narrow passage, expands once 
 more into an immense hall, of irregular form. Such was 
 the asylum which the Waldenses had selected. They 
 placed at the extremity of the grotto, the women, children, 
 and old men ; the cattle and sheep occupied the lateral 
 cavities of the rock, and the able-bodied men posted them- 
 selves towards the mouth of the cavern, which, after 
 having first barricaded with large rocks the path that led 
 to the grotto, they had walled up with similar materials. 
 Cataneo states, in his Memoirs, that they had with them 
 provisions for more than two years. All their precautions 
 thus taken, they deemed they had nothing to fear ; but in 
 reality they had to fear this very confidence in mere 
 human precautions. 
 
 Cataneo had with him a daring and experienced leader, 
 named La Palud. This captain, seeing the impossibility 
 of forcing the entrenchments of the grotto on the side by 
 which the Waldenses had reached it, led his own men 
 back into the valley ; then, with all the ropes he could 
 collect, he ascended Mont Pelvoux, and, making his way 
 to the precipice overhanging the (entrance to the cavern, 
 descended, by means of the ropes, to the platform. 
 Nothing could have been more easy than for the Waldenses 
 either to cut the ropes, or to slay each soldier before he 
 reached the ground, and then hurl him into the abyss ; but 
 a panic terror seized the unhappy besieged. Some who 
 rushed out from the cavern precipitated themselves down 
 the rocks. Those who essayed resistance were slaughtered 
 by La Palud, who then, not venturing to involve his men 
 in the depths of the cavern, piled up all the wood he could 
 
60 TIIEWALDEXSES. 
 
 collect at the entrance, and set fire to it. Those who 
 attempted to issue forth were either destroyed by the 
 flames, or by the sword of the enemy, while those who 
 remained within were stifled by the smoke. When the 
 cavern was afterwards examined, there were found in it 
 four hundred infants suffocated in their cradles, or in the 
 arms of their dead mothers. Altogether there perished in 
 this cavern more than three thousand Waldenses — including 
 the entire population of Val-Louise. Cataneo distributed the 
 property of these unfortunates among the vagabonds who 
 accompanied him, and never again did the Waldensian 
 church raise its head in these blood-stained valleys. 
 
Chapter liittr. 
 
 HISTORY OF BARCELONNETTE, QUEYRAS, AND 
 
 EEAYSSISIEKES. 
 
 The valley of Barcelonnette in Savoy is a hollow closed 
 in on all sides by almost inaccessible mountains. The 
 period of the first advent hither of the Waldenses is 
 unknown ; but we find that when Farel came to preach 
 here in 1519, at Josiers, the population rejoiced to hear, 
 by the voice of the reformer, the doctrines of their fore- 
 fathers proclaimed aloud in all their evangelical purity. 
 
 In 1366, a rigorous order enjoined all the Waldenses 
 of Barcelonette either to embrace Romanism, or to quit 
 the territory of Savoy ■within a month, under penalty of 
 death and confiscation of their property. Most of them 
 resolved to retire to the valley of Frayssinieres, which be- 
 longed to France ; but it was now deep winter ; the roads 
 were covered with snow and ice ; the women, children, and 
 old men could advance but slowly, so that wearied and 
 cold, they were fain to lie down for the night on the snow, 
 and numbers were frozen into the sleep of death. The 
 survivors reached with difficulty the paternal asylum 
 that had been opened to them. When, however, the gov- 
 ernor of Barcelonnette proposed to distribute the property 
 of the proscribed amongst the catholic population of the 
 -valley, these noble men refused to accept the gift, and 
 the exiles were thereupon permitted to return and resume 
 their possessions, the authorities perceiving that otherwise 
 6 (Gl) 
 
62 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 the land would remain uncultivated, and the valley in a 
 large degree uninhabited. Still the Waldenses were not 
 allowed openly to exercise their religion, but were fain 
 several times in the year to traverse the glaciers to Vars, 
 in the territory of France, to receive the communion and 
 the benediction of a pastor. 
 
 Half a century later (in 1623) persecution recom- 
 menced. A Dominican monk, named Bouvetti, obtained 
 from the duke of Savoy authority to proceed against the 
 "Waldenses of Barcelonnette, to whom he brought once 
 more the alternative of abjuration or exile. The execu- 
 tion of this alternative was pitilessly prosecuted by the gov- 
 ernor of the valley, Francis Dreux ; so that after many 
 fruitless endeavours to effect a modification of their fate, 
 the Waldenses, unshaken in the faith of their fathers, had 
 once more, and now without return, to abandon their 
 native valley, and to seek an asylum in lands less afflicted. 
 Some withdrew to Queyras and Gapencois, others to 
 Orange and Lyon, others to Geneva, others still to the 
 valleys of Piedmont, which seemed their mother-country. 
 
 The inhabitants of Frayssinieres in France, whose 
 laborious habits and pure life the illustrious De Thou has 
 depicted in the most vivid colours, were also in their turn 
 the victims of persecution ; between 1056 and 1290 no 
 fewer than five papal bulls demanded their extirpation, 
 and so early as 1238 the Inquisition preyed upon them. 
 
 In 1344, most of the inhabitants of Frayssinieres, 
 being persecuted, took refuge in the valleys of Piedmo-nt ; 
 but they afterwards returned thence with their barbas, 
 resisted the inquisitors, and were soon stronger than 
 before. 
 
 After the extermination of the Waldenses of Val-Louise, 
 the bloody Cataneo, undertook to deal with those of 
 
BARCELONNETTE, FE AYSSINIERE S, ET C. 68 
 
 Frayssinieres, and summoned them to appear before him 
 at Embrun. Knowing that the object was to obtain their 
 abjuration, they did not attend ; hereupon they were con- 
 demned, as contumacious rebels and heretics, to be burned, 
 and their property to be confiscated to the Romish church. 
 Such of them as were seized were accordingly sent to 
 the stake without any further formality ; and any one 
 who interceded for them, though it were a son for a 
 mother, a father for his child, was immediately impris- 
 oned, and, in many cases, condemned also to the flames as 
 abetting heresy. 
 
 Upon the death of Charles VIII., in 1498, delegates 
 from almost all the provinces of the kingdom repaired to 
 Paris to take part in the coronation of Louis XII. ; and 
 the inhabitants of Frayssinieres took the occasion to 
 depute one of their number to attend, and to lay their 
 complaints before the new sovereign. Louis XII. referred 
 the matter to his council, and after consultation with the 
 pope, papal and royal commissioners were appointed to 
 investigate the subject on the spot. Upon arriving at 
 Embrun, these commissioners had all the documents of 
 the processes against the Waldenses on the part of the in- 
 quisitors laid before them, and having investigated them, 
 censured the bishop, and annulled all the condemnations 
 pronounced against the inhabitants of Frayssinieres. 
 
 After this, the Waldensian Christians in Dauphiny expe- 
 rienced various turns of fortune, some of them memorable 
 indeed, but we have not space to dwell upon them more 
 particularly. During the 17th century, they were per- 
 mitted freely to exercise their religion, and had regular 
 pastors at Restolas, Abries, Chateau-Queyros, Arvieux, 
 Moline, and St. Veran. 
 
 The revocation of the edict of Nantes destroyed their 
 
04 THBWALDEN6ES. 
 
 temples and proscribed themselves. Thousands of them 
 went into exile. Those of Queyras -withdrew into the 
 valleys of Piedmont. Under Lewis XV. their faith being 
 still interdicted, these poor people exercised their worship 
 in the desert, like those of Le Gard and of the Cevennes. 
 When a religious assembly was to take place, the villagers 
 descended separately, by different paths, with spade on 
 shoulder, as if repairing to their work, and all would meet 
 in some solitary nook, where, taking their psalm-books 
 from their bosoms, they would unite in prayer. Whole 
 families were wont to traverse long distances to attend 
 these meetings. Departing in the evening, they would 
 travel all night, and at the entrance of villages the men 
 would take off their shoes and walk barefoot, so that the 
 sound of their steps might not betray them : the feet of 
 the mules or horses, on which the women and children 
 rode, were covered with linen, for *he same purpose, and 
 thus the pious procession would reach the secret place of 
 prayer. Sometimes the gendarmerie, then called the 
 mar£chaussee, would suddenly come upon the assembled 
 worshippers, and in the name of the king, arrest the 
 pastor ; but the assemblies of the desert, dispersed at one 
 point, would rally at another. Where copies of the Bible 
 had, by incessant seizures, become too few to supply the 
 wants of each, societies of young persons were formed, 
 for the purpose of learning the Scriptures by heart, and 
 thus preserving it, in their memory at least, from the 
 menaced confiscation. Each member of these societies 
 was entrusted to retain exactly in his memory a certain 
 number of chapters ; and when the assembly of the desert 
 assembled, these new Levites, standing beside the minister, 
 in face of the faithful, would supply the reading of 
 the interdicted volume, by successively reciting, each in 
 
BARCELONNETTE, FR A YS S INIE RE S, E T C . 65 
 
 his turn, all the chapters of the book indicated by the 
 pastor, for the common edification. Descendants of these 
 glorious men, who thus aided to preserve the protestant 
 church in France through periods of storm, still subsist at 
 Frayssinieres, at Vars, at Dormilhouse, Arvieux, Molines, 
 and St. Veran. A recent apostolate, worthy of represent- 
 ing the ancient Waldensian fervour, has connected with 
 these districts the name of Felix Neff. 
 
 6* 
 
Cljiijibr ieuentjr. 
 
 THE WALDENSES IN PROVENCE. 
 
 Several colonies of the Waldenses established them- 
 selves in Provence towards the close of the thirteenth 
 century. For awhile adhering to a close reserve in their 
 religious worship, and punctually paying all taxes, tithes, 
 and siegneurial dues, they were not interfered with by the 
 Romanists ; but the German reformers having reproached 
 them with cowardice and dissimulation in not more openly 
 manifesting their faith, they ceased to practice their 
 worship in private only. Forthwith the inquisitors were let 
 loose upon them, and one of these, John di Roma, was 
 so excessive in his cruelties and spoliations, during the ten 
 years he acted in these valleys, that the king had him 
 imprisoned. The persecutions, which he had commenced, 
 were, however, none the less continued. In 1534, the 
 bishops of Sisteron, Apt, Cavaillon, and other sees, each 
 in his diocese, sought out the Waldensians, and filled the 
 prisons with them. Having ascertained that these heretics 
 were natives of Piedmont, information was transmitted of 
 their apprehension to the archbishop of Turin; and a 
 commissioner, appointed by him, wrote to the authorities 
 in Provence, directing that proceedings should be sus- 
 pended until full inquiry had been made by him. The 
 bishop of Cavaillon, however, on the 29th of March, 1535, 
 informed him that thirteen of these prisoners had been 
 I GO) 
 
IN PROVENCE. 67 
 
 already burned to death. Others, he said, had died in 
 prison. Thus the intervention of the commissioner was 
 futile against the vehement zeal of these persecuting 
 prelates. 
 
 Clement VIII., a year before his death, promised 
 plenary indulgence to every Waldensian in the French 
 territories who would enter within the pale of popery : 
 not one of them accepted the offer. Thereupon the pope 
 complained to the king of France, who wrote to the par- 
 liament of Aix ; and the parliament ordered the seigneurs 
 of the lands occupied by the Waldensians, to compel their 
 vassals either to abjure or to quit the country. Upon 
 their refusal, an attempt was made to conquer them by 
 intimidation. Some of them were cited to appear before 
 the court of Aix, to explain the causes of their disobedi- 
 ence : they did not attend, and, in default, the court con- 
 demned them to be burned alive. Their brethren there- 
 upon took up arms, and delivered the prisoners. The 
 authorities took up arms, and a civil war seemed inevitable. 
 The case was laid before the king, Francis I. ; and he, 
 thinking to pacify all parties, published in July, 1535, a 
 general amnesty, on the condition that the heretics should 
 abjure within the space of six months. 
 
 The six months passed away, and there was no abjura- 
 tion : thereupon every seigneur and magistrate of these 
 districts assumed the right of exacting abjuration, or of 
 inflicting punishment on the recusant, by means of con- 
 fiscation and imprisonment. Many of the siegneurs used 
 largely this new mode of enriching themselves. Menier 
 d'Oppede grievously abused it. The descendant of a 
 Jewish family, poor, of evil reputation, and remorseless in 
 soul, he took advantage of this crusade against the faithful : 
 collecting a force of armed men, he would issue forth, seize 
 
0,S THE WALDENSES 
 
 upon some Waldensian farmer, and command him to in- 
 voke the saints. " There is but one Mediator between 
 God and man," would the Waldensian reply; "and that 
 is he who is himself both God and man, even Christ." 
 The heretic would then be dragged to the caverns beneath 
 the chateau d'Oppede, and there remain until he paid a 
 heavy ransom, or till death released him, in which case his 
 captor confiscated all his property to his own use. 
 
 These revolting depredations especially disgraced the 
 year 1536. In the following year, the attorney-general of 
 the parliament of Provence, at the instance of the fanatic 
 clergy, and of greedy spoliators, drew up a report, setting 
 forth that the Waldensians were daily increasing. Upon 
 this report the king commanded the court to suppress the 
 rebels ; in June, 1539, he further enjoined it to take 
 cognizance of heresy, and in the following October the 
 court ordered the seizure of one hundred and fifty-four 
 persons, denounced as heretics by two apostates. 
 
 In the excessive fermentation to which such measures 
 naturally gave rise, a mere spark would light up a flame ; 
 and this happened in the following manner. 
 
 The Judge of Apt, taking a fancy to a mill there, 
 denounced the miller, Pellenc, as a heretic ; Pellenc was 
 burned alive, and his mill confiscated to the profit of the 
 denouncer. Some young people of Merindol, whose Pro- 
 vengal veins still boiled with Italian blood, could not 
 restrain their indignation at such iniquity, and in their 
 ignorance or their despair of legal forms, they executed 
 justice for themselves ; they went by night, and destroyed 
 the mill, so unrighteously possessed, at the price of their 
 brother's blood, by his murderer. The judge made his 
 complaint to the court of Aix, and named the persons 
 whom he suspected to have taken part in this violence. 
 
IN PROVENCE. (59 
 
 The court, though it was vacation time (July, 1540), held 
 an extraordinary sitting, and decreed the arrest of eighteen 
 persons. 
 
 The officer appointed to effect the arrest proceeded to 
 Merindol ; he found the houses all empty. " Where are 
 the inhabitants of this village?" he asked, of a mendicant 
 whom he met on the way. " They have fled to the woods, 
 for they heard that the troops of the count de Teuda were 
 going to kill them." " Go seek them," said the officer, 
 "and tell them they shall receive no harm." A few 
 Waldensians made their appearance, and the officer served 
 the summons upon these, ordering them to appear before 
 the court in two months. 
 
 On the 2d of September they assembled together, and 
 addressed to the court a memorial protesting their submis- 
 siveness to its orders, and their fidelity to the king ; and 
 supplicating the court not to be influenced by their enemies, 
 who had already misled it, since, in the summons which 
 they were directed to obey, there were the names of some 
 persons who were dead, of others who had never existed at 
 all, and of infants who could not yet walk. The court, 
 irritated at having its blunders pointed out by these simple 
 mountaineers, replied that the living should appear before 
 it without troubling their heads about the dead. The 
 Waldensians consulted an advocate as to what course they 
 should pursue. " If you desire to be burned alive," was 
 the answer, "you will go before the court." They did not 
 go before it, and, accordingly, upon the 18th of November, 
 1540, the court of Aix pronounced against them an incon- 
 ceivable judgment, condemning to the stake twenty-three 
 persons, seventeen out of whom were named, delivering up 
 their wives and children to any one who could seize them, 
 forbidding all persons to aid them in any way, and order- 
 
70 THE WALDENSES 
 
 ing Merindol, as a place notorious for heresy, to be burned 
 to the ground, and utterly destroyed. 
 
 This decree aroused general indignation, not only in the 
 populace, but in the generous hearts among the nobility 
 and the advocates. The young count d'Allenc, one of the 
 most distinguished members of the Arlesian nobility, waited 
 upon the president Chassanee, made an appeal to his justice 
 and humanity, and obtained a respite, during which tbe 
 court, itself alarmed at the decree it had pronounced, 
 referred the matter to the king, who directed Dubellay, to 
 proceed to Provence, and inquire into the conduct of the 
 Waldenses. 
 
 Upon the report of this nobleman that the Waldenses 
 were retired and quiet people, reserved in their manners, 
 chaste and sober in their lives, and laborious in their habits, 
 but that they did not attend the mass, the monarch, by a 
 letter dated the 18th of February, 1541, proclaimed a 
 general amnesty, pardoning all the condemned on condition 
 of their abjuring their errors of doctrine within three 
 months. This amnesty was not published by the court of 
 Aix till the middle of May, when there only remained two 
 weeks of the stipulated time unexpired ; but had there 
 been but one moment, they would never have sought to 
 save their mortal life, at the expense of their immortal soul, 
 by abjuring the truth. On the contrary, they proclaimed 
 more emphatically than ever their persecuted doctrines, 
 in a confession of faith, dated 6 th of April, 1541, which 
 they transmitted to Francis I., and which the sire de 
 Castelnau read to him. Each point of doctrine was 
 supported by texts of scripture. " Well, what have our 
 people got to say in reply to that?" asked the monarch, 
 from time to time. But his fickle and superficial mind soon 
 forgot the impression thus made upon him. 
 
IN PROVENCE. 71 
 
 The illustrious and learned Sadolet, whose features 
 Raffaelle has transmitted to us in a celebrated picture, 
 heard of this confession of faith, and requested to be 
 furnished with a copy of it. He was at this time bishop 
 of Carpentras, and it was with him the Waldenses of 
 Cabrieres first appeared on the stage ; for, being inhabi- 
 tants of his diocese, it was they who laid before him a 
 copy of the common confession. " We consent," said 
 they, " not only to abjure, but to submit to the severest 
 penalties, if it can be shown to us, out of the holy scrip- 
 tures, that our doctrines are erroneous." 
 
 The cardinal replied to them with kindness, admitted 
 that they had been the victims of black calumnies and 
 false criminations, requested them to come and confer with 
 him, and sought to make them perceive that, without 
 departing from the spirit of their confession, they might 
 modify its letter. He took no pains, indeed, to prevent 
 their perceiving that he himself desired a reform in 
 Catholicism. Had the Waldenses encountered only such 
 examiners as he, blood would not have flown ! He wrote 
 to the pope to express his surprise that the Waldenses 
 were persecuted, while the Jews were spared ; but the 
 poor folk soon lost his protection, for he was recalled to 
 Rome, and thus, removed from his observation, the Wal- 
 denses remained alone in face of their persecutors. 
 
 The term of the amnesty indicated by the royal letter 
 having arrived, the court of Aix ordered the Waldenses 
 to send ten representatives, to declare whether they 
 intended to avail themselves of it, and to conform. One 
 representative alone appeared, named Estene. " We 
 consent to abjure," he repeated, "if our errors can be 
 demonstrated." 
 
 The cardinal de Tournon, excited against the Wal- 
 
72 THE WALDENSES 
 
 denses by the legate of the papal see, sent word to the 
 king that the clergy had rejected the confession of faith 
 •which the sectaries had laid before him, whereupon the 
 governor of the province was ordered to clear it of heresy. 
 The bishop of Cavailln, deputed by the court of Aix, 
 visited Merindol to inquire into the religious views of the 
 Waldenses. On reaching the village, he summoned the 
 principal inhabitants before him, and rejecting all question 
 between them of doctrine, required them at once " to 
 abjure their errors ;" intimating that all he desired was a 
 mere formality on their part, after which they would be 
 left at peace, and at full liberty to place what interpreta- 
 tion they pleased on their abjuration. But the Waldenses 
 were not Jesuits ; they frankly refused compliance, and 
 the bishop withdrew. 
 
 On the 4th April, 1542, he returned, and was equally 
 unsuccessful. Two years then passed away, in suspense on 
 the one hand, in hesitation to act on the other, and then 
 Francis I., on 14th June, 1544, on the plaint of the 
 Waldenses of Cabrieres, issued an edict suspending all 
 proceedings against the Waldenses, restoring them to their 
 social privileges, and releasing such of them as were in 
 prison. The court of Aix, before publishing this edict, 
 sent one of its officers to Paris, to procure, if possible, its 
 revocation. On the 1st January, 1545, letters of revoca- 
 tion were, in the privy council, placed before the king for 
 signature, and he signed them without reading them, or 
 being at all aware of their purport. They were, however, 
 effective for the purpose, and that purpose was the execu- 
 tion of the decree of the 18th November, 1540, and the 
 destruction by fire and sword, not simply of the twenty 
 inhabitants of Merindol, contemplated by the decree, but 
 of the entire population of seventeen villages. The instant 
 
IN PROVENCE. 73 
 
 that this sanguinary order had been thus fraudulently 
 obtained, it was despatched by especial courier to Oppede, 
 the president of the court of Aix, who, as instantly upon 
 its receipt, sent instructions to the governor of Provence, 
 to assemble troops for its prompt execution. No notice 
 was given to the doomed people, lest they should make 
 their plaint before their sovereign, and thus lay bare the 
 fraud of which he was the dupe and they were to be the 
 victims. The soldiers were quietly collected, and they 
 only awaited the arrival of captain Poulain, who was 
 shortly expected from Piedmont. 
 
 He came on the 7th April. Between the 7th and the 
 11th all the preparations were completed for carrying into 
 effect this retroactive sentence. The 12th was a Sunday, 
 but nevertheless the court assembled at the summons of 
 Oppede. 
 
 The inhabitants of Lourmarin were ordered to prepare 
 billets for a thousand foot and three hundred horse. The 
 inhabitants replied by taking up arms. The order was 
 repeated; they required a delay of twelve hours for 
 reflection. " Subjects do not make terms with their 
 sovereign," was the rejoinder. The chatelaine of Lour- 
 marin, Blanche de Levis, came herself to intercede for her 
 people, but she was not listened to. All in tears, she then 
 addressed her vassals, and entreated them to avoid certain 
 destruction, by laying down their arms. " Our destruction 
 would only be the more certain and the more prompt, were 
 we to lay them down," was the reply. "But let us depart 
 quietly, and we will abandon our goods to those who seek 
 them by our death." 
 
 The poor chatelaine, however, could do nothing. The 
 dame de Cental also wrote to Oppede, entreating him to 
 7 
 
74 TIIEWALDEXSES 
 
 spare her vassals. But already the troops, spread over the 
 country, had begun to pillage and destroy. 
 
 Oppede began by setting fire to the houses in La 
 Roque, Ville-Laure, and Trezemines, which had been aban- 
 doned by the Waldenses ; he did the same at Lourmarin, 
 where a hundred and fourteen houses were destroyed. 
 
 On the 18th of April, the combined troops appeared 
 before Merindol ; the inhabitants had retired, but a young 
 man, named Maurice Blanc, who had been late in the 
 fields, was seized by the pillagers. They tied him to an 
 olive tree, and the soldiers, converting him into a mark for 
 their arquebuses, fired at him from a distance. The fifth 
 bullet terminated his sufferings. 
 
 They then set fire to the village, which was entirely 
 consumed. Some women having been surprised in the 
 church, they were stripped naked, subjected to indescrib- 
 able outrages, and then compelled to hold each other by 
 the hand, as in a dance, were urged, at the pike's point, up 
 the castle-rock, whence, already severely wounded and 
 suffering, they were precipitated, one after the other, into 
 the abyss beneath. Elsewhere many were taken and sold. 
 One father had to travel to Marseilles to ransom his 
 daughter. A young mother, endeavouring to escape across 
 the fields, with her infant in her arms, was overtaken and 
 outraged by these ruffians, pressing all the while her 
 nursling to her bosom. 
 
 An aged woman at Lauris, between Cabrieres and 
 Avignon, whose years saved her from this particular 
 brutality, became in their hands an object of insult to 
 humanity and to their own religion. They cut her hair in 
 the shape of a cross, and having covered this tonsure with 
 some tinsel, they led her through the streets, sincinc 
 psalms derisively, in imitation of a procession of priests. 
 
IN PROVENCE. 75 
 
 Coming, at length, to a large oven, which was heated to 
 bake a quantity of bread for themselves, the soldiers 
 pushed their victim to the opening with their pikes, crying, 
 " Enter there, you old devil !" The poor creature, 
 exhausted with her sufferings, was about to enter without 
 resistance, but the soldiers who had prepared the oven 
 would not permit this use to be made of it. 
 
 Signalizing its march by a thousand similar brutalities, 
 under the most various and most revolting forms, the army 
 reached Cabrieres. This fortified town, being within the 
 pope's territory, could not have been touched without the 
 consent of the pontiff, but the vice-legate Mormoiran had 
 furnished Oppede with full power to act as he should think 
 fit. The army came to the town on the 19th of April, 
 and though this was the Sabbath, at once commenced batter- 
 ing the walls. The Waldenses within, occupied in prayer, 
 gave no indication of submission, and the firing continued 
 all day and all night. On Monday morning it was stayed, 
 and Oppede wrote to the besieged, that if they would open 
 the gates of the town, they should receive no harm. The 
 first troops which entered were those from Piedmont, 
 trained and hardy warriors, who were to have begun the 
 carnage ; but, knowing the stipulations of the surrender, 
 the soldiers declared that their honour was concerned in 
 its observance. Meantime, Oppede sent for the principal 
 men of the place, who came without distrust. They were 
 eighteen in number ; their hands were tied, and they were 
 passed among the troops, to which they made no objection, 
 thinking they were merely there as hostages for the tran- 
 quillity of the rest of the population. But as they were 
 traversing the ranks of the Provengal troops, commanded 
 by Oppede, the son-in-law of this man, named de Pour- 
 rieres, cut with his sabre, the bald head of an old man, whose 
 
76 THEWALDENSES 
 
 faltering steps had accidentally approached too near the 
 officer's feet. 
 
 " Kill them all," cried Oppede, when he saw the old man 
 fall ; and instantly the cowardly and frantic troops whom 
 he so fitly commanded, butchered the unhappy hostages, 
 whose quivering limbs, as they lay in recent death, the 
 same de Pourrieres and the sire de Faulcon savagely muti- 
 lated. The heads of the murdered men were raised on 
 pikes, and the soldiers being thus excited, the signal for 
 general massacre was given. A number of women, shut up 
 in a barn, to which fire was applied, sought to save them- 
 selves from the flames by leaping from the walls ; they 
 were received on the points of pikes and swords. Others 
 had retired to the castle. "Death! blood!" exclaimed 
 Oppede, as he pointed out to his soldiers the path to the 
 asylum of the victims. 
 
 But the most horrible scene took place in the church. 
 Hither the great majority of the women had repaired for 
 refuge : the soldiers seized them, stripped them naked, 
 outraged them in the most brutal manner, and then threw 
 some of them from the tower to the ground, while others, 
 after being dragged forth to glut the ruffianism of other 
 soldiers who came up, were finally despatched by being 
 eventerated. The horrors perpetrated on this, and on 
 many similar occasions, were such as it is impossible to 
 describe. The abbe 1 Guerin, who was present at this 
 massacre, states in his deposition that in the church alone 
 "four or five hundred poor women and girls were outraged 
 and slain." 
 
 The prisoners who were not put to death, were sold by 
 the soldiers as galley-slaves. The vice-legate, indeed, 
 acting in the true spirit of popery, refused to grant any 
 quarter whatever. Having ascertained that twenty-five 
 
IN PROVENCE. 77 
 
 women, most of them mothers of families, had concealed 
 themselves in a grotto near Mys, he ordered a party of 
 soldiers thither to exterminate them, though the place was 
 not within the papal territory. On reaching the mouth of 
 the grotto, a discharge of musketry was directed within ; 
 no one came forth, fuel was piled up inside, and a large fire 
 lighted, and all these living creatures of God perished in 
 the flames and the smoke. In this extermination, there 
 were burned seven hundred and sixty-three houses, ninty- 
 nine stables, and thirty -one barns. The number of persons 
 slaughtered was upwards of three thousand. 
 
 While still at Cabrieres, Oppede received a message from 
 the lord of the town of La Costa, entreating him to spare 
 his vassals. This was on the Monday evening. " Let 
 them make four breaches in their walls," replied Oppede, 
 " and we will see." On the Tuesday morning these 
 breaches were commenced, but when the inhabitants saw 
 Oppede's troops advancing as to an assault, they hastily 
 filled up the breaches they had made, and closed the gates. 
 The troops were fain to content themselves that day with 
 destroying the gardens of the castle, which stood outside 
 the town ; the next morning, 22d of April, Oppede wrote 
 to the syndics of La Costa, undertaking that if the gates 
 were thrown open, the inhabitants should receive full pro- 
 tection and justice ; the gates were opened on the faith of 
 this promise, and the furious soldiers rushing in, at once 
 proceeded to the work of massacre, outrage, and destruc- 
 tion. There was a small warren behind the castle ; hither 
 the soldiers dragged their female captives to dishonour, 
 before they slew them. One mother, after in vain seeking 
 to defend her daughter from the brutal ravisher, stabbed 
 herself, and then drawing the ensanguined knife from her 
 
78 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 wound, gave it to her child, as the last resource from 
 dishonour. 
 
 An inquiry into these atrocities was instituted in Sep- 
 tember, 1551, by order of Henry II., who desired to free 
 his father's memory from this stain of blood ; the fraud 
 by which the revocation of the king's pardon had been 
 effected was laid bare, but though the advocate, Guerin, 
 was punished with death, the great criminal, Oppede, not 
 only escaped, but returned triumphant to Provence, where 
 he was welcomed by the clergy, who had blasphemously 
 offered up public prayers and Te Deums in the churches, 
 " for the safety and speedy return of this illustrious 
 defender of the faith." 
 
 The few Waldenses who had escaped death, retired for 
 a while to the valleys of Piedmont. 
 
Cfrapttr «tg[rt[r. 
 
 THE WALDENSES IN CALABEIA. 
 
 The first migration of the Waldenses of Piedmont from 
 their own valleys, to the richer land of Calabria, took place 
 in 1340. By a convention with the local seigneurs, ratified 
 later by the king of Naples, Ferdinand of Aragon, they 
 were permitted to govern their own affairs, civil and spiritual, 
 by their own magistrates and their own pastors. Their first 
 colony was near the town of Montalto. A half century 
 later, rose the town of San Xisto, which afterwards became 
 the capital of the colony ; other towns and villages of 
 theirs were named Vacaresso, LArguelena, San Vincenzo, 
 Le Rosse, contributing to create prosperity in a district 
 that was previously well nigh desolate. 
 
 The marquis di Spinello, struck with the ameliorations 
 effected by these industrious and upright men in the terri- 
 tories which had been ceded to them, invited a number of 
 their body into his own states, gave them lands, aided them 
 to build a town, and authorized them to surround this town 
 with a wall, whence it derived the name of La Guardia. 
 
 Towards the close of the fourteenth century, another 
 migration of Waldenses took place, from Provence into 
 Italy ; these new colonists settling in Apulia, not far from 
 their Calabrian brethren, built their several walled towns, 
 which they named after those whence they had come : 
 La Cellare, Fae't, La Motte. Again, in 1500, other 
 Waldenses from Frayssini^res and Pragela, established 
 
 (79) 
 
80 THEWALDENSES 
 
 themselves in Calabria, on the small river Vollurate, which 
 runs from the Apennines into the Bay of Tarento, whence 
 they, and new comers, spread over other portions of the 
 kingdom of Naples, even to Sicily. Agriculture and the 
 sciences flourished among them. Baarlam of Calabria, of 
 ■whom Petrarch was a disciple, was himself a disciple of 
 the "Waldenses. The missionary pastors, whom the synod 
 at home sent amongst these colonists, remained with them, 
 two at a time, for the space of two years, and were then 
 replaced by others, themselves visiting on their return to 
 their villages all the chief towns of Italy, in each of which 
 they had brethren, more or less numerous. The Wal- 
 densian historian, Gilles, relates that his grandfather, on 
 one of these pastoral visitations to Venice, was assured by 
 the faithful, when he conversed with them, that the city 
 contained no fewer than six thousand members of that 
 body. 
 
 Until 1558, the Waldenses of Calabria remained unmo- 
 lested in their modest and tranquil retirement. In that 
 year, having applied to the synod for the appointment 
 amongst them of a permanent pastor, the application was 
 granted, and there was nominated to the honourable, but 
 perilous post, a young Piedmontese, a native of Conio, 
 named John Louis Paschale, who, having quitted the career 
 of arms to become a soldier of Christ, had prepared 
 himself for the ministry by studies recently completed at 
 Lausanne. 
 
 Paschale departed, accompanied by another pastor, 
 Jacob Boveto, also a Piedmontese, and who suffered mar- 
 tyrdom at Messina, in 1560. 
 
 Upon his arrival in Calabria, Paschale began zealously 
 to preach the gospel as publicly as it was preached at 
 Geneva. Thereupon, there arose a report that a Lutheran 
 
IN CALABRIA. 81 
 
 had come, who was about to destroy everything with his 
 doctrines ; the ignorant murmured, and the fanatics voci- 
 ferated that he must be exterminated with all his adherents. 
 The marquis Salvator-Spinello, suzerain of the Waldenses, 
 who was then at Foscalda, a small town near La Guardia, 
 sent word that some of their body must appear before him 
 and explain their new proceedings ; and, accordingly, a 
 body of them, headed by Paschale, waited upon the 
 marquis. This was in July, 1559. But the zealous young 
 pastor had not to combat, as he had expected, honest errors, 
 in a fair controversy, with evangelical texts and arguments. 
 His enemies sought, not the truth, but silence ; and, 
 accordingly, after listening to Paschale for a few moments, 
 the marquis, finding that submission was not to be expected 
 from the Waldenses, dismissed the flock with a menace, 
 and placed Paschale, and a fellow pastor, Marco Ascegli, 
 who had accompanied him, in the dungeons of Foscalda. 
 Hence, after an imprisonment of eight months, they were, 
 on the 7th of February, 1560, transferred to the dungeons 
 of Cosenza, where Ascegli, after being subjected to the 
 torture, was burned to death. 
 
 On the 14th of April, Paschale was removed from the 
 castle of Cosenza, and in company with twenty -two 
 prisoners, condemned to the galleys, conveyed, under 
 circumstances of great cruelty, to Naples, which they 
 reached on the 23d of April. On the 16th of May, he was 
 taken in chains to Rome, and imprisoned in the Torre di 
 Nona, in a deep, dark, damp dungeon, without the least 
 furniture, br even straw to lie on, and where his arms were 
 bound so tightly with small cords that they entered the 
 flesh. 
 
 For three days several members of the holy office were 
 engaged during four hours each day, in argument with 
 
82 TIIEWALDBNSES 
 
 Paschale, endeavouring to bring him to retract, but in 
 vain ; and on the 8th of September, 1560, he was con- 
 ducted to the Convent della Minerva, to hear his condem- 
 nation pronounced. On the following morning he was 
 taken to the square in front of the castle of St. Angelo, 
 and there, in the presence of pope Pius IV., was strangled, 
 his body burned, and his ashes thrown into the Tiber. 
 
 The attention of the holy office having been thus called 
 to the Waldenses of Calabria, cardinal Alexandrini was 
 despatched to San Xisto, in company with two Dominican 
 monks. These wolves in sheeps' clothing, assuming extreme 
 mildness of demeanour, assembled the inhabitants, assured 
 them that no harm was designed against them, and that 
 if they would merely consent to hear no other preachers 
 than those sent them by the Romish bishop, and dismiss 
 the Lutheran pastors who were misleading them, they had 
 nothing to fear. They then, in order to ascertain how 
 many persons observed the practices of the Romish church, 
 had the bell rung for mass, and invited the people to attend. 
 Not one attended ; on the contrary, the entire population 
 of the town, with the exception of a few young children 
 and aged persons, quitted the place, and withdrew to an 
 adjacent wood. The popish commissioners, repressing 
 their anger, performed mass, and then proceeded to La 
 Guardia. Here, having had the gates closed, they assem- 
 bled the people : "Dear and faithful friends," said they, 
 " your brethren of San Xisto have abjured their errors and 
 attended mass ; we invite you to follow this prudent 
 example, or we shall be compelled, much to our regret, to 
 condemn you to death." The alarmed population, after 
 some hesitation, consented to hear mass ; and after the 
 performance of this ceremony the gates were opened. 
 Wheir, however, some of the people of San Xisto came and 
 
IN CALABRIA. 83 
 
 revealed the truth, the population of La Guardia, indignant 
 at the deceit which had heen practised upon them, and 
 ashamed of their own culpable weakness, assembled in 
 the market-place, resolved to join their brethren in the 
 wood, and were only dissuaded from doing so by the repre- 
 sentations of the marquis of Spinello. 
 
 The grand inquisitor now demanded that the public force 
 should aid him in the complete execution of his mission ; 
 and two companies of soldiers were accordingly placed at 
 his disposal. These he despatched to the wood of San 
 Xisto, to seize the fugitives, but, instead of taking them 
 prisoners, the fanatic troops no sooner discovered the 
 unhappy Waldenses than they fell upon them, killed a 
 great number, put to flight the rest, and pursued these like 
 wild beasts. The fugitives at length attained some high 
 rocks, where they entrenched themselves, and, as the 
 soldiers came up, hurled upon them great stones, with such 
 effect that many were slain, and more wounded, so that 
 the officers deemed it expedient to retreat, and to commu- 
 nicate the result to cardinal Alexandrini. The legate 
 thereupon applied to the viceroy of Naples for greater 
 force, wherewith to suppress this rebellion, as he called it, 
 of the Waldenses ; the viceroy himself marched to San 
 Xisto, at the head of his troops, and there denounced fire 
 and sword against all who should not abjure their heresy. 
 The Waldenses, on their part, fortified themselves on the 
 mountain tops ; and their position became at length so 
 formidable, that the viceroy, not venturing to attack them 
 with the troops he had brought, put forth a proclamation 
 by which he offered a free pardon to all exiles, outlaws, 
 and other criminals, who would aid to exterminate the 
 Waldenses. 
 
 This proclamation, so characteristic of popery, had the 
 
84 THE WALDEXSES 
 
 effect of collecting together a multitude of reprobates, 
 marauders and bandits, many of whom were intimately 
 acquainted with all the by-paths of the Apennines ; and 
 by these the Waldenses in the mountains were hunted 
 down and slaughtered, some dying by the sword, some by 
 fire, some by famine. 
 
 Meanwhile the inquisitor and the monks were not idle. 
 By a foul stratagem, they induced the surviving population 
 of La Guardia, in number seventy souls, to assemble 
 together, and, so assembled, they were seized by soldiers, 
 concealed for the purpose, loaded with chains, and taken 
 as prisoners to Montalto, where they were all subjected to 
 the most cruel tortures by the inquisitor Panza, for the 
 purpose of forcing them, not only to forswear their faith, 
 but to forswear themselves, by admitting against their 
 brethren and their pastors the pretended abominations 
 which the corrupt imaginings of popery had conceived and 
 laid to their charge. To effect a confession of these crimes 
 from the agony of the Waldenses, was a grand object with 
 the inquisitors ; and one unhappy man, Stephano Carlini, 
 was, to this purpose, tortured in so horrible a manner, that 
 his bowels gushed forth. Another prisoner, Verminello, 
 having, in excess of pain on the rack, promised to attend 
 mass, the inquisitor deemed him a likely person, under 
 aggravated torture, to confess also to the crimes which the 
 church of Rome so earnestly desired to bring home to 
 the Waldenses ; and the miserable man was accordingly 
 kept for eight consecutive h-ours upon an instrument of 
 suffering, aptly called hell; but he could not be brought to 
 sanction the atrocious calumnies, an admission of which 
 would have released him from torture. Bernardino Conto 
 was covered with pitch, and burned alive in the market- 
 place of Cosenza. Another martyr, Mazzone, was stripped 
 
IN CALABRIA. 85 
 
 Raked, his body shredded with iron whips, and the mangled 
 frame then beaten to death with lighted brands. Of this 
 victim's two sons, one was flayed alive, and the other 
 hurled from the summit of a tower. From the same tower 
 was precipitated another young man, who, for his prodi- 
 gious strength, was surnamed Samson. As his mangled 
 frame lay, still breathing, on the flag-stones below, the 
 viceroy passed. " What carrion is this ?" he asked. " It 
 is a heretic, who will not die." The viceroy kicked the 
 wretched man's head aside. " Let the pigs come, then, 
 and eat him," said he ; and the barbarous order was 
 executed, the prostrate body of the martyr palpitating 
 with life for some hours, beneath the tearing teeth of 
 the unclean brutes, which a human brute far more unclean 
 and foul than they had set to the work. 
 
 Sixty women of San Xisto had ropes bound round their 
 bodies and limbs so tightly that wounds were made, and 
 these festering, engendered corruption tha.t was removed 
 with hot lime. Afterwards, some of them were burned 
 alive, others starved to death in their dungeons, while the 
 handsomer among them were sold to satisfy the passions of 
 the highest bidder. At Montalto, eighty-eight Waldensian 
 prisoners were crowded in a low, damp dungeon. By 
 order of th-e marquis Buccianici, the executioner came, 
 took the nearest prisoner, led him outside, bound a strip 
 of linen round his head, made him kneel, and cut his throat. 
 Then, placing his knife between his teeth, and holding the 
 ensanguined linen in his hand, the executioner returned to 
 the dungeon, withdrew the next prisoner, and in like 
 manner dispatched him ; and so with the rest, until on 
 that blood-stained ground there lay the headless trunks of 
 eighty-eight martyrs, gentle as lambs, and as lambs slaugh- 
 tered. Other persons were sawed asunder. Others, eighty- 
 
86 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 six in number, having been first flayed alive, had their 
 bodies cleft in two, and the ghastly portions were stuck on 
 pikes along the high road, for the length of thirty-six 
 miles. The preachers and elders of the Waldenses were 
 burned alive, their bodies being covered with resin and 
 Bulphur. For two whole years did the fire and sword of 
 antichrist devour this unhappy district, and sixteen 
 hundred victims gratified with their blood the sanguinary 
 thirst of Rome. A few of the Waldenses effected their 
 escape, and regained, with infinite toil, the valleys of their 
 ancestors. 
 
CtrapUr liintfr. 
 
 HISTORY OF VARIOUS MARTYRS. 
 
 There is no town in Piedmont, under a Waldensian 
 pastor, where some of the brethren have not been put to 
 death. Jordan Terbano was burned alive at Suza ; Hip- 
 polyte Rossiero at Turin ; Michael Goneto, an octogena- 
 rian, at Sarcena ; Villermin Ambrosio hanged on the Col 
 diMeano ; Hugo Chiamps, of Fenestrelle, had his entrails 
 torn from his living body, at Turin ; Peter Geymarali, of 
 Bobbio, in like manner, had his entrails taken out at 
 Luserne, and a fierce cat thrust in their place to torture 
 him further ; Maria Romano was buried alive at Rocca- 
 patia ; Magdalen Foulano underwent the same fate at San 
 Giovanni ; Susan Michelini was bound hand and foot, and 
 left to perish of cold and hunger on the snow at Sarcena. 
 Bartholomew Fache, gashed with sabres, had the wounds 
 filled up with quick-lime, and perished thus in agony at 
 Fenile ; Daniel Michelini had his tongue torn out at 
 Bobbio, for having praised God ; James Baridari perished, 
 covered with sulphureous matches, which had been forced 
 into his flesh under the nails, between the fingers, in the 
 nostrils, in the lips, and over all his body, and then 
 lighted. Daniel Revelli had his mouth filled with gun- 
 powder, which, being lighted, blew his head to pieces. 
 Maria Monnen, taken at Liousa, had the flesh cut from 
 her cheek and chin bones, so that her jaw was left bare, 
 
 (87) 
 
SS THE WALliENSES, 
 
 and she was thus left to perish. Paul Gamier was slowly 
 sliced to pieces at Rora ; Thomas Margueti was mutilated 
 in an indescribable manner at Miraboco, and Susan Jaquin 
 cut in bits at La Torre. Sara Rostagnol was slit open 
 from the legs to the bosom, and left so to perish on the 
 road between Eyral and Luzerna ; Anne Charbonnier was 
 impaled, and carried thus on a pike, as a standard, from 
 San Giovanni to La Torre. Daniel Rambaud, at Paesano, 
 had his nails torn off, then his fingers chopped off, then his 
 feet and his hands, and then his arms and his legs, 'with 
 each successive refusal on his part to abjure the gospel. 
 In March, 1536, Martin Gonin, pastor of Angrogna, was 
 seized on his return from Geneva, at Grenoble, and, after 
 a mock trial, taken from his prison at night, and drowned 
 in the Isere. In June, 1550, Barthelemi Hector, of Poi- 
 tiers, was burned at Turin, for having sold copies of the 
 Bible to the shepherds of the Alps. In 1555, a pastor of 
 Geneva, Jean Vernoux, one of the earliest fellow-labourers 
 with Calvin, Antoine Laborie Quercy, who had quitted 
 the magistracy in order to devote himself more actively to 
 the cause of the gospel, and three friends of theirs, Ba- 
 tailles, Tauran, and Tringalet, were on their way to the 
 Waldensian valleys, seized by the mare'ehaussee, in the 
 gorges of the Col Tamis, and, after a lengthened interrog- 
 atory before the court of Chambery, were all burned in 
 one fire. 
 
 Among the leaders who had signalized themselves by 
 excessive ferocity in the crusade against the Yaudois, 
 under Innocent YIIL, was Captain Varagle, or Yaraille. 
 A son of this man, endowed with remarkable capacity, en- 
 tered into holy orders in 1522, and took up his abode not 
 far from the Waldensian valleys, in the little town of 
 Busque, one of the most retired in Piedmont. Here his 
 
HISTORY OF VARIOUS MARTYRS. 89 
 
 rapid progress in literature and theology, and his eloquence 
 in the pulpit, attracted the attention of his superiors. 
 
 The influence of the Eeformation was now making itself 
 everywhere felt ; and the Romish church comprehended 
 the essential importance of strengthening its power, which 
 the synod of Angrogna had just aided to weaken. Young 
 Geoffrey Varaille, selected to operate as a counterpoise to 
 the impulse of reformation, received the difficult mission to 
 visit the principal towns of Italy, and raise up the credit 
 of the Romish church by his eloquent preaching. He was 
 to be accompanied by an Observantine monk of the convent 
 of Monte Fiascone, named Matteo Baschi, the founder of 
 the Capuchin order, and by ten members of the secular 
 clergy. 
 
 These twelve being assembled together, proceeded, with 
 a view to tne accomplishment of their mission, to examine 
 for themselves the arguments of the reformers against 
 Catholicism. It was not long ere their enlightened minds 
 recognized the force of these arguments so fully, that, 
 becoming themselves objects of suspicion to the popish 
 authorities, they were all imprisoned at Rome, where they 
 remained captives for five years. At the expiration of 
 this period,, Varaille, released from his dungeon, entered 
 the service of the papal legate at the court of France, and 
 abode with him at Paris for a considerable time. Here 
 the rays of the Reformation fell upon his soul with still 
 greater power than in Piedmont; and the massacre of the 
 Waldenses of Merindol and Cabriere's, which became the 
 subject of inquiry before the court of peers, so filled up the 
 measure of his indignation and disgust against a church 
 imbrued in the blood of the just, that he resigned the 
 high position he occupied at Paris, and repaired to Geneva, 
 to investigate, at the fountain-head, the new doctrines, as 
 
90 THE WALDENSES, 
 
 they were called, but which he, to his delighted surprise, 
 soon learned to recognize, on the contrary, as the ancient, 
 the primitive doctrines. 
 
 Yaraille was now nearly fifty years old, but faith makes 
 a man young again ; and full of an ardour he had never 
 known before, he unhesitatingly cast off his past life, to 
 commence a new one, with more of moral force than he had 
 ever yet possessed, and was received among the ranks of 
 those evangelical pastors whom, theretofore, he had 
 approached as an adversary. The Waldensian churches 
 required at this epoch a pastor who could preach in Italian. 
 Geoffrey Yaraille was selected for the duty, and was 
 installed in the parish of San Giovanni, amid those very 
 valleys against which his father had led a crusade. In 
 1557, on his return from a visit to his birthplace, Busque, 
 he was denounced at the foot of Monte Viso, by the prior 
 of Starffade, and apprehended by the nephew of the 
 archdeacon of Saluzzo. He was treated with respect ; 
 handsome apartments were assigned him as a prison, and 
 he was even permitted to go at large on parole. How 
 many ordinary prisoners would have profited by this liberty 
 to escape ! But the Christian is not one, with whom 
 it is lawful to break faith with an enemy. Xay, having 
 learned that the reformers of Bubiana, a portion of his flock, 
 were about to rescue him by main force, he desired them 
 to abstain, and to leave him in the hands of God. 
 
 After various interrogatories he was conducted in chains 
 to Turin. His replies to his judges, and the written propo- 
 sitions which he laid before them in support of his faith,, 
 are a monument of his talents, learning, and piety. During 
 his detention, Calvin wrote thus to him from Geneva : — 
 " Very dear and beloved brother ; Though the news of your 
 imprisonment has deeply grieved us, yet the Lcrd, who can 
 
HISTORY OF VARIOUS MARTYRS. 91 
 
 shed light from darkness, has furnished us with joyful 
 consolation, in the fruits already produced by your trials. 
 Let the glory which sustained St. Paul also inspire you 
 with courage ; for though you are captive, the word of God 
 is not captive, and you can render testimony of it to many 
 who will spread abroad the seed of life they have received 
 from your lips. Jesus Christ requires this testimony from 
 all ; but especially from such as you, under the seal of 
 the ministry you received to preach the doctrine of salva- 
 tion, which is now assailed in your person. Hesitate not; 
 then, to confirm with your blood, if need be, the words which 
 you have taught with your lips. Our Lord has told us that 
 the death of the righteous is precious to him: let this 
 reward suffice for you. I will not dwell on this point, 
 persuaded that you repose firmly on him in whom, whether 
 we live or die abides our eternal happiness. My compan- 
 ions and brethren salute you. — Geneva, 17th Sept. 1557." 
 
 When the sentence of death was announced to the heroic 
 pastor, he replied calmly to his judges, — "Be assured, 
 you will sooner want wood wherewith to burn us, than 
 we ministers ready to burn in seal of their faith : from 
 day to day they multiply ; and the word of God endureth 
 for ever." 
 
 Geoffrey Varaille, having been previously strangled by 
 the humanity of the executioner, was burned at Turin, on 
 29th March, 1558. 
 
(Sliajjhr <B*nt[j. 
 
 THE WALDEXSES IN THE VALLEY OF THE PO. 
 
 The most ancient establishments of the Waldenses in the 
 province of Saluzzo were around Paesano, and in the deep 
 valleys of Cruzzol and Onzino, where the sources of the Po 
 flow from Mount Yisol. It has been stated that their 
 origin in these localities was contemporaneous with that of 
 the other Waldenses who dwell on the left bank of the Po ; 
 but Gilly informs us that the inhabitants of Praviglelmo, 
 Biolet, and Bietonnet, came from the valley of Luserne. 
 This emigration must have taken place at a very remote 
 period, since it was its descendants who peopled the 
 marquisate of Saluzzo ; and we find Waldenses there so early 
 as the thirteenth century. In 1308, inquisitors were sent 
 there " to destroy heresy :" but they were compelled by 
 the population to withdraw, ere they had even begun their 
 "pious labours." A similar attempt, a few years after- 
 wards, had for its sole result the courageous martyrdom, 
 at Saluzzo, of the barba, Martin Pastre. 
 
 It was not until 1499 that violence against the Waldenses 
 in these districts assumed anything of a systematic form. 
 At this period, Marguerite de Foix, marchioness of Saluzzo, 
 the slave of her confessor, became, in the hands of fanati- 
 cism, the facile instrument of persecution. Under the 
 direction of the clergy by whom she was infested, she 
 issued a decree, commanding the Waldenses, under penalty 
 (92 ) 
 
WALDENSES IN THE VALLEY OF THE PO. 93 
 
 of death, either to adopt within her borders Romanism or 
 to quit the country. They adopted the last alternative, 
 and withdrew among their co-religionists into the terri- 
 tories of the seigneurs of Paesano. Hither, the marchio- 
 ness, " having purchased the right to pursue them," had 
 them assailed by two hundred soldiers. Most of them 
 fled to Barges with their herds, but some were taken and 
 thrown into prison. They were tried, with torture, and on 
 the 24th of March, 1510, five of them were condemned to 
 be burned alive on Palm Sunday. The pyre was raised in 
 a field opposite the house of the father of one of the 
 victims, named Maynard ; but when the day of execution 
 came, there was so heavy a fall of snow and rain that the 
 wood would not burn, and the ceremony was posponed 
 until the next day. In the meanwhile, however, a friend 
 having conveyed a file to the captives, they effected their 
 escape, and took refuge with their co-religionists at Barges. 
 Three of the prisoners who remained were, however, 
 burned alive on the 2d of May ; others died under the 
 bastinado ; others perished slowly in the dungeons of 
 Paesano ; a few escaped with exile ; hut the property of all 
 was confiscated, and two-thirds of the proceeds went to the 
 marchioness of Saluzzo, who was thus infinitely more than 
 repaid the outlay she had undergone in the persecution. 
 On the 18th of July, 1510, the Inquisition demolished 
 the church of the "Waldenses. This "-synagogue of the 
 heretics," says a contemporary manuscript, " was white 
 and beautiful without, hut within full of windings, like a 
 labyrinth." In the' year following, five more Waldenses 
 were burned alive at Saint Frons. Meanwhile, all who 
 escaped the fire and the sword, had taken refuge amongst 
 their brethren in the valley of Luserne, by whom they 
 were fraternally supported for five years. From time to. 
 
9t WALDEXSES IN THE VALLEY OF THE PO. 
 
 time, during this period, negotiations were essayed by them 
 with the marchioness of Saluzzo, with a view to their 
 return home; but their letters received no reply. It 
 became necessary that they should no longer be a burden 
 on their charitable brothers, and in 1512 they assembled, 
 armed, in the valley of Rora, and, departing at night, 
 traversed the mountains of Cruzzol, descended into the 
 valley of the Po, reached their homes, fell like a thunder- 
 bolt on their despoilers, drove them from the district, and 
 established once more, by their daring resolution, their 
 own position and the faith of their ancestors. 
 
 For some years the churches of the valley of the Po were 
 tranquil. The breath of the Reformation then began to 
 arouse men's minds ; and in the province of Saluzzo, the 
 seigneurs of Montroux, of Villanova-Solaro, and others, 
 opened their castle halls to meetings of the new reformers. 
 The disciples of these rapidly increased ; and until pastors 
 of their own came, they repaired with zeal to the 
 preachings which now took place regularly in the valley 
 of Luserne. The duke of Savoy made every effort to 
 check this progress of protestanism, but in vain ; and on 
 the 6th of June, 1563, the church of Dronero, one of 
 the most flourishing in the marquisate, obtained, under the 
 edict of pacification which the king of Navarre had 
 procured in favour of his co-religionists, letters-patent 
 authorizing it to open a protestant church at the gates of 
 the town. These letters were by the influence of Mary de 
 Medici, withdrawn in the same year, but the courage of 
 the protestants was not quelled ; and in the following years, 
 favoured by the intestine agitations of France, they organ- 
 ized themselves throughout the marquisate on the footing 
 of the reformed churches, with pastors, deacons, consis- 
 tories, and a regular, and even general, public worship. 
 
Cjjaptn (Blmntfi. 
 
 THE WALDENSESIN THE PLAIN OP PIEDMONT. 
 
 ■ In the space between Turin and the Waldensian valleys, 
 there is probably not a single town in which the reforma- 
 tion of the sixteenth century did not find adherents and 
 sympathy. Romanism had fallen into utter degradation. 
 Cornelio d'Adro, an inquisitor of Raccoms, writing to the 
 holy office, on the 22d of October, 1567 says : — " I cannot 
 adequately depict the decay with which our religion is 
 struck in this country ; the churches are in ruin, the altars 
 stripped, the sacerdotal vestments in rags, the priests 
 ignorant, and everything connected with the church in 
 utter contempt." In this juncture the abler partisans of 
 Rome saw that their most efficient course for stemming the 
 torrent of the new opinions, was in affecting to share them. 
 " Reform is necessary," said they, " and the church herself 
 will undertake it ; do not, therefore, separate from her, or 
 needlessly and unfilially assail her." The Waldenses how- 
 ever, would admit no concessions, insisting upon this decla- 
 ration of our Saviour : " Whosoever shall confess me before 
 men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in 
 heaven : But whosoever shall deny me before men, him 
 will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." 
 The papist3 at length (15th February, 1560) procured, 
 from the duke, an order that none, save the inhabitants 
 of the Waldensian vallevs themselves, should exercise the 
 
 (95) 
 
96 THE WALDE.VSES. 
 
 Protestant worship, and that none should visit the valleys 
 merely for the purpose of attending that worship. The 
 inquisitors forthwith commenced their persecutions through- 
 out Piedmont, and two martyrs were burned alive at 
 Carignano. The Protestants, alarmed like a flock of 
 sheep suddenly assailed, dispersed. The archers then 
 proceeded to the valley of Meano, where they seized a 
 number of TValdenses, and among them their pastor, Jacob, 
 who, upon his reiterated refusals to abjure, was led to the 
 stake, his mouth gagged and his arms bound, and burned 
 alive by a slow fire. 
 
 The city of Turin belonging at this time to France, the 
 catholic clergy obtained (17th February, 1561) from Charles 
 IX., an order for the suppression, in and about the city 
 of the reformed worship. The Protestant pastors were, in 
 pusuance of this order, banished from Turin. The assem- 
 blies of The Religion, for such was the admitted designa- 
 tion of Protestantism, were, first ordered to be watched by 
 the authorities, and then, shortly after, to be altogether 
 suppressed. All who were found guilty, in the very act 
 of common prayers and biblical meditations, were treated 
 as high criminals. The reformers of Conde, of Ozasc, 
 and Frossac, rather than attend mass, renounced their 
 homes and their property, and took refuge among their 
 brethren in the valley of Lucerne. 
 
 The churches of Conio and Caragli had acquired large 
 extension. Men of the higher ranks were prominent in 
 their flocks ; and so long as their valour had been neces- 
 sary to the duke of Savoy, in his wars as an ally of Spain 
 against France, these seigneurs were permitted the free 
 exercise of their religion- 
 
 But peace was concluded ; and the clergy superseding 
 these war-men around the person of the sovereign, urged 
 
THE PLAIN OF PIEDMONT. 97 
 
 upon him that his glory was concerned in re-establishing, 
 in its integrity, the religion of his ancestors. The duke 
 assented; and first, the protestants were forbidden to 
 exercise their worship beyond the limits, of the Walden- 
 sian valleys ; and then, (28tb September, 1561), all the 
 inhabitants were required to place in the hands of the 
 magistrates any books of the Religion, which they might 
 possess. At the same time, the duke ordered all his 
 subjects to attend the preachings of the missionaries he 
 was about to send amongst them. The preaching of one 
 of these missionaries informed the auditory that " God had 
 given them a mild winter that year, that so they might 
 economize wood for burning the Lutherans in the spring." 
 It may be readily conceived that such eloquence as this 
 produced no great effect. On the 28th of December, 
 1561, a fresh edict commanded all persons whosoever to 
 attend mass without further delay ; but scarcely any of 
 the Protestants obeyed the injunction, and the number of 
 recusants being so great, no steps were taken, at the time, 
 to enforce the decree. 
 
 In 1565, however, the duke having ordered the Walden- 
 ses of the valleys — to whom, in 1561, he had granted the 
 free exercise of their religion — to abjure, within two 
 months, the Protestants of Conio were imperatively 
 enjoined forthwith to attend before the magistrates, and 
 make a declaration of Eomish orthodoxy, under penalty 
 of the severest punishments. Fifty-five families were 
 found daring enough, in the presence of the authorities, 
 to repudiate popery, and declare themselves protestants. 
 The humbler among these, knowing the consequences of 
 their recusancy, at once sold their little property and 
 departed elsewhere. A few only, of the more powerful, 
 obtained permission, on the guarantee, in each case, of a 
 9 G 
 
98 THE WALDBNSES. 
 
 Roman Catholic proprietor, to retain their lands and 
 their religion, on the condition that they should not exer- 
 cise that religion either in their own houses or elsewhere, 
 under penalty of the total confiscation of all they were 
 worth. Thus disappeared the church of God from the 
 banks of the Stura. 
 
 The church of Caragli underwent much the same vicissi- 
 tudes 'with those of Conio. In March, 1565, a list of the 
 Reformers there was required from the magistrates, and 
 the number returned was nearly 900. In April, the duke 
 of Savoy sent to Caragli a missionary, and with him an 
 order for all the inhabitants to attend his preachings. 
 The great majority of the Reformers paid no attention to 
 this order : thereupon the duke menaced all who should 
 peisist in their heresy " with his severest displeasure;" 
 and on 10th June appeared an edict, ordering all Protes- 
 tants who would not, within the space of two months, 
 abjure, to quit the territory. The duchess of Savoy, and 
 the seigneurs of Villanova-Solaro, under whose protection 
 the reformers had hitherto prospered, essayed to procure 
 a revocation of this impolitic and cruel edict ; but the 
 influence of the Catholic clergy prevailed, and on 30th 
 November, the decree was carried into execution, popish 
 charity taking the further precaution of prohibiting any 
 of the surrounding populations from giving harbour or 
 aid to the proscribed families who thus preferred exile to 
 abjuration. The noble family of Solaro itself, which now 
 consisted of six brothers, all Protestants, was, upon its 
 pertinacious adherence to the faith it had adopted, 
 banished and dispersed some years afterwards, and its 
 property confiscated. 
 
 Meanwhile under the French rule, the churches of 
 Saluzzo enjoyed toleration ; but their pastors were for the 
 
THE PLAIN OF PIEDMONT. 99 
 
 most part foreigners — Swiss, or Piedmontese ; and, taking 
 advantage of this circumstance, the popish clergy induced 
 the duke of Savoy to demand (1567), from the French 
 lieutenant of the province of Saluzzo, the extradition of 
 any of hia subjects who might have taken refuge there ; 
 and the governor of Saluzzo accordingly ordered all 
 foreigners to quit the territory within three days, and 
 not to return, except upon special permission, under 
 penalty of death and confiscation of goods. By the inter- 
 vention, however, of Henry of Navarre, this decree was 
 withdrawn, and these churches seemed to have a chance 
 of tranquillity. 
 
 When the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place, 
 Biragne, the governor of Saluzzo, received orders to 
 slaughter all the Protestants within his jurisdiction. 
 Appalled at these sanguinary instructions, he submitted 
 them for consideration to the Chapter ; and although 
 several of its members were in favour of complete and 
 immediate execution of the order, the majority, headed 
 by the excellent archdeacon of Saluzzo, Samuel Vacca, 
 insisted that so cruel a decree must be' the result of some 
 misconception or misrepresentation ; and a delay was 
 thus obtained, which saved the lives of the menaced 
 brethren until the reprobation which speedily visited the 
 cowardly slaughter that had taken place, ensured their 
 safety. 
 
 For a while the churches of Saluzzo remained peaceful 
 and flourishing; but in 1597, Charles Emanuel, having 
 taken possession of the marquisate, called upon the 
 churches of Saluzzo to come into the bosom of Catholicism. 
 The churches respectfully declined the invitation, and the 
 duke did not further press the point at the time ; but, 
 becoming undisputed master of the territory under the 
 
100 THE WALDENSES, 
 
 peace of Lyon (17th Jan. 1601), he issued (June, 1601) 
 a decree, ordering all Christians of the evangelical party 
 to quit his states within two months, unless they abjured 
 within a fortnight. The refractory were to be punished 
 with death, and the confiscation of their goods. The 
 Reformers addressed humble but urgent memorials to the 
 duke for the revocation of this decree; and in the hope 
 that the storm would pass over, permitted the two months 
 asigned to elapse without making any preparations for 
 their departure. At the expiration of that period, they 
 received orders at once to depart, or at once to abjure ; and 
 thus taken by surprise, solicited with urgent entreaties and 
 promises on the one hand, and menaced for themselves and 
 their families on the other, many of them, with hearts well- 
 nigh broken, consented to enter the Romish church. The 
 rest withdrew, some to Geneva, some to France, some to the 
 Waldensian valleys. 
 
 As yet, no menace had been directed against the 
 Waldensians of Praviglelmo and of the upper valley of the 
 Po, where the evangelical worship had been exercised 
 from time immemorial. "When the Waldensians of the 
 plain, however, were all banished or dispersed, the Walden- 
 sians of the hills were in their turn, enjoined to abjure or 
 to depart. But these hardy mountaineers, full of indig- 
 nation at this invasion of their long-undisputed rights, 
 assembled in arms, and having first menaced the Catholics 
 among whom they lived, with fire and sword, if during 
 their absence any evil should happen to their wives and 
 children, descended into the plain, took possession of the 
 market-place at Chateau-Dauphin, and threatened to 
 devastate the whole district if the edict against them was 
 not withdrawn. The Catholic population, who had ever 
 
THE PLAIN OF PIEDMONT. 101 
 
 found in the Protestants good and peaceful neighbours, 
 assembled, addressed a memorial to Charles Emanuel, the 
 edict was revoked, and for awhile the Waldensians of 
 Praviglelmo escaped the proscription which fell so heavily 
 upon their brethren. 
 
 9* 
 
(tjfaptn tfmtlftir. 
 
 THE SECOND GENERAL PERSECUTION OF THE 
 WALDENSES OF PIEDMONT. 
 
 After the first general persecution of the Waldenses by 
 Cataneo, which is related in the fourth chapter, the course 
 of the present narrative diverged from the history of the 
 Piedmontese valleys, to give a brief account of the Wal- 
 denses of the adjoining valleys in Dauphiny and Provence 
 on the French side of the Alps, in the valley of the Po, 
 in the plain of Piedmont, and in Calabria. In each of 
 these places numerous Waldenses were formerly to be 
 found, either indigenous or colonists from the mother-val- 
 leys. These places, as we have seen, were signalized by 
 some of the earliest as well as some of the bloodiest perse- 
 cutions of this poor people. Having given as full an 
 account of them as our space permits, we now return to 
 the main thread of the narrative. 
 
 At the time of which we now write, the Waldenses of 
 Piedmont were included within the dominions of the king 
 of France. The Pope, in negotiating a treaty with the 
 French king, Henry II., took occasion to demand the in- 
 stitution of severe measures against the Waldenses. Henry 
 accordingly directed the parliament of Turin to proceed 
 against the so-called heretics. The parliament appointed 
 two commissioners, San Juliano and Delia Chiesa, to re- 
 (102) 
 
THE WALDENSESOF PIEDMONT. 103 
 
 pair to the valleys, to make investigation and report 
 thereon, and to take what course they should think fit for 
 converting the Waldenses to Romanism. These delegates, 
 attended by a numerous suite, reached the valleys in 
 March, 1556, and commenced proceedings by menacing 
 with the severest punishment all who should offer any 
 resistance to their measures. After visiting Perosa, 
 Angrogna, and other places, the commissioners repaired to 
 Luzerna, whence they issued (23rd of March, 1556,) an 
 edict ordering the Waldenses to abjure, and no longer to 
 receive foreign preachers, other than such as should be 
 deputed to them by the archbishop of Turin. One-third 
 of the goods of all contraveners of this decree was to go to 
 the denouncers of them. The Waldenses replied with a 
 profession of faith, based on the Bible, in the spirit of 
 which they declared their resolution to persevere, after the 
 example of their ancestors. The commissioners, by order 
 of the parliament, then proceeded to France, and laid a 
 report of their proceedings before the king, in order to 
 receive his further instructions. It was not until the fol- 
 lowing year that they returned to the valleys, when they 
 informed the Waldenses that the king commanded them 
 forthwith to embrace Romanism. Three days only were 
 granted them for deliberation ; but briefer space would 
 have sufliced. "Prove to us," replied the faithful, "that 
 our doctrines are not conformable with the Word of God, 
 and we are ready to abandon them ; if not, cease to de- 
 mand from us abjuration." "We don't ask you for dis- 
 cussion," returned the commissioners; "we only want to 
 know whether you will turn Catholics : yes, or no !" 
 
 "No!" replied the Waldenses. Thereupon (22nd of 
 March, 1557), forty-six of their principal men were cited 
 to appear before the court of Turin, on the 29th, under 
 
104 THE WALDENSES 
 
 penalty of a fine of five hundred gold crowns for each diso- 
 bedience. Not one of them appeared. A month after- 
 wards, fresh citations were served upon them, and also 
 upon all their pastors and schoolmasters. These citations 
 were equally fruitless. The syndics were ordered to arrest 
 them, but the order was not obeyed ; and the war of Spain 
 and England against France, the mediation in favour of 
 the Waldenses of the Swiss cantons, and the resumption of 
 his states by Philibert Emanuel, who, in 1559, married the 
 sister of Henry II., a lady favourable to Protestantism — 
 combined, for a time, to restore peace and security to the 
 Waldensian valleys. The manly firmness, tempered with 
 mildness and christian meekness, with which the persecuted 
 Waldenses used to touch upon their wrongs, cannot be 
 more thoroughly illustrated than in the following petition, 
 presented by them to Philibert Emanuel : — 
 
 "A supplication of the poor Waldenses, to the most 
 serene and most high prince, Philibert Emanuel, duke of 
 Savoy, prince of Piedmont, our most gracious lord. 
 
 " Festus, governor of Judea, being required by the chief 
 priests and elders of the people, to put to death the apostle 
 Paul, answered no less wisely than justly, that the Romans 
 were not wont to put any to death, before they had brought 
 his accusers face to face, and given him time to answer for 
 himself. We are not ignorant, most gracious prince, that 
 many accusations are laid against us, and that many calum- 
 nies are cast upon us, to make us objects of abomination to 
 all the Christians and monarchs in the Christian world. 
 But if the Roman people, though pagans, were so equita- 
 ble as not to condemn any man before they knew and un- 
 derstood his reasons ; and if the law condemns no man (as 
 it is testified by Nicodemus, John vii.) before he hath been 
 heard, and before it is known what he hath done, the mat- 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 105 
 
 ter now in question being of so great concernment, namely, 
 the glory of the most high God, and the salvation of so 
 many souls, we do implore your clemency, most gracious 
 prince, that you will be pleased to lend a willing ear to your 
 poor subjects, in so just and righteous a cause. 
 
 "First, we do protest, before the almighty and all-just 
 God, before whose tribunal we must all one day appear, 
 that we intend to live and die in the holy faith, piety, and 
 religion of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that we do abhor 
 all heresies that have been, and are, condemned by the 
 Word of God. 
 
 " We do embrace the most holy doctrine of the prophets 
 and apostles, as likewise of the Nicene and Athanasian 
 creeds : we subscribe to the four councils, and to all the 
 ancient fathers, in all such things as are not repugnant to 
 the analogy of faith. 
 
 " We do most willingly yield obedience to our superiors ; 
 we ever endeavour to live peaceably with our neighbours ; 
 we have wronged no man, though provoked ; nor do we 
 fear that any can, with reason, complain against us. 
 
 " Finally, we never were obstinate in our opinions ; but 
 rather tractable, and always ready to receive all holy and 
 pious admonitions, as appears by our confessions of faith. 
 
 "And we are so far from refusing a discussion, or rather 
 a free council wherein all things may be established by the 
 Word of God, that we rather desire the same with all our 
 hearts. 
 
 "We likewise beseech your highness to consider, that 
 this religion we profess, is not ours only, nor hath it been 
 invented by man of late years, as it is falsely reported ; 
 but it is the religion of our fathers, grandfathers, and 
 great grantlfathers, and other yet more ancient predeces- 
 sors of ours, and of the blessed martyrs, confessors, pro- 
 
106 THE WALDENSES 
 
 phets, and apostles ; and if any can prove the contrary, 
 we are ready to subscribe, and yield thereunto. The Word 
 of God shall not perish, but remain for ever ; therefore, if 
 our religion be the true word of God, as we are persuaded, 
 and not the invention of men, no human force shall be able 
 to extinguish the same. 
 
 " Your highness knows that this very same religion hath, 
 for many ages past, been most grievously persecuted in all 
 places ; but, so far from being abolished and rooted out 
 thereby, that it hath rather increased daily ; which is a 
 certain argument that this work and counsel is not the 
 work and counsel of men, but of God, and therefore cannot 
 be destroyed by any violence. Therefore, we beseech your 
 most serene highness to consider what it is to undertake 
 anything against God, that as you may not imbue your 
 hands in innocent blood ! Jesus is our Saviour ; we will 
 religiously obey all your highness's edicts, so far as con- 
 science will permit; but when conscience says nay, your 
 highness knows we must rather obey God than man : we 
 unfeignedly confess that we ought to give Cassar that 
 which belongs to Caesar, provided we give also to God 
 what is due to him. 
 
 " There want not those who will endeavour to incite the 
 generous mind and courage of your highness, to persecute 
 our religion by force of arms. But, magnanimous 
 prince, you may easily conjecture to what end they do it, 
 that it is not of zeal to God's glory, but rather to preserve 
 their own worldly dignities, pomp, and riches ; wherefore, 
 we beseech your highness not to regard or countenance 
 their sayings. 
 
 " The Turks, Jews, Saracens, and other nations, though 
 never so barbarous, are suffered to enjoy their own reli- 
 gion, and are constrained by no man to change their man- 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 107 
 
 ner of living and worship : and we, who serve and worship 
 in faith the true and almighty God, and one true and only 
 sovereign, the Lord Jesus, and confess one God and one 
 baptism, shall we not be suffered to enjoy the same privi- 
 leges ? 
 
 " We humbly implore your highness's goodness, and that 
 for our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's sake, to allow 
 unto us, your most humble subjects, the most holy gospel 
 of the Lord our God, in its purity ; and that we may not 
 be forced to do things against our consciences; for which 
 we shall, with all our hearts, beseech our almighty and all- 
 good God to preserve your highness in prosperity." 
 
 The pertinacious solicitations, however of the nuncio, 
 the prelates, the king of Spain, and several of the princes 
 of Italy, so far prevailed with the duke, that on the 15th 
 of February, 1656, he issued a decree prohibiting all per- 
 sons who were not actually inhabitants of the Waldensian 
 valleys from repairing thither to hear the reformed preach- 
 ing ; and immediately afterwards commissioners were ap- 
 pointed to prevent the biblical worship from being cele- 
 brated beyond the confines of these valleys. These com- 
 missioners were, the duke's brother, Philip of Savoy, count 
 de Kacconis, George Costa, count de la Trinite, and the 
 grand inquisitor of Turin, Thomas Jacomel, an iron- 
 hearted, profligate, grasping man. The count de la Kac- 
 conis soon retired in disgust from the commission, leaving 
 the two others to pursue their career of blood. 
 
 The monks of the abbey at Pignerol hired a band of 
 marauders, whom they sent forth to pillage the Protestants ; 
 and to bring them, women and men, to the monastery, 
 where the poorer sort were burned alive, or sent to the 
 galleys, and the richer imprisoned until they paid ransom. 
 The valley of San Martino was ravaged by the seigneurs 
 
108 THE AVAL DEXSES 
 
 of Perrier, Charles and Boniface Truchet. On 2nd April, 
 1560, before daybreak, they assailed the village of Riocla- 
 reto, killed many of the inhabitants, drove forth the rest, 
 without clothes or food, to suffer cold and hunger on the 
 snow-clad mountains, and took possession of their dwell- 
 ings, vowing that no one should re-enter them until lie had 
 promised to go to mass. It was not until three days after- 
 wards that the despoilers were expelled from the village by 
 its surviving population, with the aid of four hundred Wal- 
 denses from Pragela, who had marched to reinstate their 
 brethren. 
 
 Meanwhile, the count de Racconis, who repaired to the 
 valley of Luzerna, attended one day the preaching of the 
 pastor of Angrogna, and was so much struck with it, that 
 he obtained from the Waldenses a detailed statement of 
 their doctrines, which he promised to lay before the pope 
 in the hope that it might tend to a discontinuance of per- 
 secution. But the pope, Pius, IV., replied — " I will never 
 permit any discussion on points canonically determined. 
 The dignity of the church demands that all should submit, 
 implicitly and without question, to its constitutions ; and it 
 is my duty to proceed, with the utmost rigour, against all 
 who will not so submit." All that the pope would concede 
 was, that a legate should proceed to the village, to absolve 
 "from their past crimes," all who would apostatize, and 
 instruct them without dispute, that is to say, without exam- 
 ination, in their new duties. Accordingly, the com- 
 mander Possevino, was appointed legate by Emanuel 
 Philibert, with instructions to establish, in the Waldensian 
 churches, Brothers of Christian Doctrine, under whose 
 influence intellectual servility would soon have produced 
 that abject submission so essential to the Romish church. 
 
 Possevino proceeded first to the castle of Cavour, whither 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 109 
 
 he summoned the Waldenses of the valley of Luzerna to 
 attend him, by deputies. Three deputies were sent ac- 
 cordingly, and to these the commander, having notified his 
 powers, put the question, whether they would attend the 
 preachings which he himself proposed to address to the 
 population of the valleys? "Yes," replied they, "if you 
 preach the word of God ; but if you preach the'human tra- 
 ditions that destroy the word, No !" Possevino, without 
 any appearance of being offended with this freedom, replied, 
 that he would preach nothing but the pure gospel. 
 
 At this moment a Waldensian of San Germano appeared 
 before the commander, to complain that the Romanists of 
 Miradol, having first despoiled him of his cattle, had de- 
 spoiled him also of a hundred crowns, which with much 
 pains he had collected for their ransom, keeping both cat- 
 tle and money too. "If you had gone to mass," inso- 
 lently replied Possevino, " this would not have happened 
 to you. I shall do nothing for you. This is but the com- 
 mencement of what has been reserved for the heretics !" 
 Such was the first example of justice and pure evangelical 
 doctrine furnished by the representative of the Romish 
 throne and church ! 
 
 The next morning he ascended the pulpit of the great 
 church of Cavour, and, in a fervid harangue, announced 
 that he was about to convict all the Waldensian pastors of 
 heresy, to expel them, and to re-establish mass in the vil- 
 lages. Two days afterwards, he preached at Bubiana, 
 denouncing terrible menaces against the hardened, and 
 making magnificent promises to such as would abjure. At 
 San Giovanni he invited the heads of the Waldensian 
 churches to a conference. 
 
 "Here," said he, "is the statement of the doctrines 
 which you profess, which you yourselves have delivered to 
 10 
 
HO TIIE WALDENSES 
 
 his highness. Do you abide by it ?" " We- see no reason 
 to depart from it." "You undertake therein to repudiate 
 your errors when they shall be demonstrated to you as 
 such?" "We renew the undertaking." "Well, then, I 
 will demonstrate to you, that the mass is found in Scrip- 
 ture. The word massah signifies gent, does it not ? " Not 
 precisely."* " The primitive expression, Ite, missa est, 
 was employed to dismiss the auditory, was it not ?" " That 
 is quite true." " Well, then, you see, gentlemen that the 
 mass is found in the Holy Scripture !" 
 
 To this ludicrous argument the Waldenses replied, that 
 even had the term massah the meaning in Scripture which 
 the commander supposed — which it had not — it would in 
 no degree prove the divine institution of the mass ; and 
 that assuredly private masses, transubstantiation, and other 
 points contested by them, were in no such way justified by 
 his proposition. 
 
 " You are heretics, atheists, reprobates !" exclaimed Pos- 
 sevino, furiously. " I came not here to dispute with you, 
 but to drive you from the country, as you deserve ;" and 
 he forthwith sent orders to the syndics of the various com- 
 munes of the valleys, to expel their pastors, and to provide 
 for the support of the priests whom he should send in their 
 place. The syndics replied that they would only dismiss 
 their pastors in the event of their being convicted of errors 
 in doctrine or conduct ; and that they would not provide 
 for the support of the other persons announced, unless 
 they were equally irreproachable in conduct and doctrine. 
 
 The intercession of the good duchess Marguerite in 
 favour of the Waldenses, was ineffectual against the ma- 
 chinations of the nuncio and the prelates : and in October, 
 1560, the duke levied troops in Piedmont, and offered free 
 
 *Mamah, in Hebrew, means burden, decree, or present. 
 
OF PIEDMONT. HI 
 
 pardon to all convicts, outlaws, and vagabonds who would 
 enrol themselves as volunteers to serve against the Wal- 
 denses. The faithful seemed menaced with total and 
 inevitable destruction : their foes rejoiced, their friends 
 trembled. Among the latter, count Charles of Luzerna, 
 then governor of Mondovi, urgently entreated the Wal- 
 denses, both by letters and in person, to yield to circum- 
 stances, at least so far as to send away their pastors until 
 the storm should have passed over ; but the zealous folk 
 refused, saying, that were they to be ashamed of God's 
 ministers, God would be ashamed of them. 
 
 War was accordingly declared. The Waldensian fami- 
 lies hastily occupied themselves in collecting together such 
 things as were indispensable to life, in order to be ready 
 to retire with their herds into the mountains. The zeal 
 and fervour of the pastors were redoubled. Never had the 
 religious assemblings of the faithful been more numerous. 
 The hostile army approached : the Waldenses fasted, 
 prayed, celebrated the Lord's Supper, and then prepared, 
 without fear, nay, with joy, to receive from the hands of 
 God, all the trials to which he might think fit to expose 
 them. The mountain paths resounded with the psalms 
 and hymns of those who were conveying the aged, the 
 infirm, the women, the children, household goods and pro- 
 visions, to the surest retreats among the hill tops. The 
 counsel of the pastors, indeed, was that they should not 
 attempt to defend themselves with arms, but simply retire 
 from aggression, or await martyrdom amid their families. 
 
 On the last day of October, 1560, a proclamation was 
 posted in all the villages of Angrogna, that the Waldenses 
 would be destroyed by fire and sword, unless they were con- 
 verted to the Romish church ; and on the 1st of November, 
 the popish army, under the command of the count de la 
 
112 THE ffALDEXSES 
 
 Trinte, encamped at Bubiana. Levied in haste, and from 
 all classes of desperate adventurers, these troops, wholly 
 destitute of discipline, gave way to every sort of excess, 
 pillaging before they had struck a blow, and making no 
 distinction, even, between Papist and Protestant. The 
 former, to preserve the chastity of their daughters from 
 the gross brutality of these ruffian soldiers, adopted a 
 course involving the highest testimony ever rendered to 
 the virtues and generosity of the Waldenses. Knowing 
 the austere purity of Waldensian manners, the strength of 
 their retreats, the valour of the defenders of those retreats, 
 these retreats appeared to them the surest asylum for their 
 children, and accordingly, at the very moment that Ro- 
 manism was marching in arms against the Waldenses, the 
 Waldenses were made the depositaries of the menaced 
 honours of the daughters of the Romanist population. And 
 nobly was this confidence justified: the Waldenses defended 
 the sacred deposit thus confided to them, with the same 
 courage and respect as their own families, exposing them- 
 selves equally in their defence, and when the danger was 
 over, restoring them to their parents, without a thought of 
 recompense. 
 
 On the 2d of November, the army crossed the Pelice, 
 and encamped in the meadows of Giovanni. Thence it 
 advanced towards Angrogna, displaying its wings on the 
 hills of Le Cotiere. Several skirmishes took place at this 
 point with about equal advantage, though many of the 
 Waldenses had only slings and cross-bows ; but the small 
 defence-parties left of the Waldenses, were too distant one 
 from the other, to act with vigour. They accordingly 
 retired, fighting as they went, to the higher grounds. 
 The enemy followed, but evening had now set in, and 
 both parties were wearied with the day's skirmishings. 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 113 
 
 On the summit of Le Cotiere, towards Roccatnanante, the 
 Waldenses halted. The enemy, thereupon, also halted, a 
 short distance below, and lighted their fires for the bivouac 
 of the night. The mountaineers, on the contrary, threw 
 themselves on their knees, to offer up thanks and suppli- 
 cations to God, a proceeding which excited infinite 
 laughter and jests on the part of the persecutors. 
 
 At this moment, a Waldensian child who had got hold 
 of a drum, and carried it off to a ravine near at hand, 
 beat it ; and at the sound, the Romanist soldiers, conceiv- 
 ing it to announce the approach of fresh enemies, rose in 
 disorder and seized their arms. The Waldenses observing 
 this movement, and apprehending an attack on themselves, 
 dashed down to repel it. The popish troops, fatigued and 
 taken by surprise, gave way, and on being more closely 
 assailed, threw down their arms, and fled down to the 
 valley, thus losing in half an hour, all the ground it had 
 taken them a day to acquire. The Waldenses, after 
 thanksgiving to God, took possession of the abandoned 
 arms, and made their way to Pra-del-tor. 
 
 Next morning, the count de la Trinite", having rallied 
 his troops, encamped at La Torre, repaired its fortifica- 
 tions, and placed a garrison there, who behaved so out- 
 rageously, that the Romanists of the place were fain to 
 send their wives and daughters away, and to place them 
 under the safe-guard of the Waldenses. 
 
 The small fortresses of Villar, Perosa, and Perrier, 
 were, in like manner, garrisoned with troops. On 
 Monday, the 4th of November, a detachment from La 
 Torre, augmented on the way by the garrison of Villar, 
 attacked Tagliaretto, but were defeated with considerable 
 slaughter. A similar attempt upon Pra-del-Tor was simi- 
 larly unsuccessful ; and on the 9th of November, the 
 10* II 
 
114 THE WALDENSES 
 
 popish general announced that if the Waldenses would lay 
 down their arms, he would go with a small train to cele- 
 brate mass at Angrogna, and then apply his utmost efforts 
 to obtain peace for them. The Waldenses passed a whole 
 night in deliberation whether they should consent ; the 
 desire to manifest their pacific tendencies, to give no 
 pretext to their enemies for violence, and to omit no chance 
 of terminating the war, prevailed, and they determined to 
 accept the count's proposition. 
 
 The count de la Trinite having celebrated mass at 
 Angrogna, without calling upon any of the Reformers to 
 attend, intimated a desire to visit Pra-del-Tor, a place 
 celebrated among the Waldenses as the ancient school of 
 their barbas ; and as the count consented to leave his 
 troops behind him at Angrogna, the Waldenses assented 
 to the visit. 
 
 Pra-del-Tor is situated in a verdant hollow, surrounded 
 by rugged heights, looking from above, like a crater, but 
 below, like an oasis around the desert. The sole acess is 
 a narrow, tortuous path along the edges of the rocks. 
 The population received the count with respect, and he 
 appeared affected by their reception. On his return, at 
 Serres, he had a soldier hanged for having stolen a fowl, 
 but at Angrogna, once more surrounded by his troops, he 
 felt it unnecessary to wear the aspect of over-clemency, 
 and accordingly took no notice of many outrages which, 
 during his absence, had been committed by his men, but 
 returned to La Torre, leaving his secretary at Angrogna 
 to receive the memorial which he had desired the Walden- 
 ses to draw up for presentation to their sovereign. This 
 memorial, which protested the loyalty of the persecuted 
 folk, and entreated the duke to leave their conscience free, 
 in order that his own might not stand laden with the weight 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 115 
 
 of their death before the judgment seat of God, was 
 conveyed to Vercelli by several Waldensian deputies, to be 
 laid before the duke. 
 
 During their absence the count de la Trinite called 
 upon the people of Tagliaretto to lay down their arms, 
 his intention, doubtless, being to avail himself of their 
 defencelessness, to turn that bulwark of the Pra-del-Tor. 
 The people of Tagliaretto went to deliberate on this 
 proposition with those of Bonneto, and while they were 
 absent on this mission, the enemy, eager for violence, 
 attacked their village, plundered and burned their houses, 
 and carried off as prisoners their wives and children. The 
 men assembled at Bonneto, on hearing what had taken 
 place, hastened in arms after the marauders, rescued the 
 captives, and dispersed the enemy. One aged Waldensian, 
 assailed by a popish trooper, fell on his knees to implore 
 mercy ; the soldier raised his sword to strike, but, at the 
 instant, the old man seized him by the legs, threw him 
 down, and himself leaping from a precipice, dragged the 
 enemy with him into eternity. All the Waldenses had 
 quitted the lower portions of the valley for the mountains. 
 The troops of the count de la Trinite having mercilessly 
 ravaged the deserted villiages, ascended to Villar, where a 
 few inhabitants still remained, whom they took prisoners. 
 It was here that a popish soldier of Mondovi ferociously 
 exclaimed; "I'll take some heretic's flesh home with me !" 
 rushed upon a Waldensian, and biting a large piece of 
 flesh from his cheek, swallowed it. 
 
 The Waldenses sought the count de la Trinite, and 
 respectfully, but with firmness, remonstrated against these 
 acts of violence. " Is it not the custom," they asked, " to 
 abstain from hostilities pending a capitulation ? We have 
 laid down our arms, relying upon your word, and now, 
 
116 THE WALDEJfSES 
 
 doubtless against your intentions, your troopers commit all 
 sorts of excesses upon us." The count assured them that 
 had he been present, these things should not have 
 happened, and he returned the prisoners. The booty, 
 however, he kept. 
 
 The irritation of the Waldenses was aggravated by 
 incessant harassings; at length, the count de la Trinite, 
 having assembled their leaders " to discuss the basis of a 
 solid accommodation," promised to withdraw his army, on 
 condition that the Waldenses would undertake to pay a 
 sum of 20,000 crowns. 
 
 " I will get the amount reduced to 16,000 crowns," said 
 the worthy secretary of this worthy master, " if you will 
 give me 100 crowns for myself." The bargain was made, 
 and the Waldenses consented to pay 16,000 crowns 
 ($10,000.) The duke abated one-half of this sum ; the 
 Waldenses, who had nothing left them but their herds, 
 were compelled to sell these, in order to raise money for 
 the payment of the tribute ; but here again they were 
 defrauded. The general, for a sum of money, sold to a 
 few monopolists the right of purchasing the herds, which 
 thus, in a restricted market, were sold for much less than 
 their value. By this sacrifice of their last remaining 
 means, the Waldenses raised 8000 crowns, which were 
 duly paid to the duke. The army should now have with- 
 drawn ; it did not stir ; the Waldenses remonstrated to 
 the general. "You must give up your arms," said he. 
 Some arms were surrendered. "And now," said the 
 general, " before we go, you must give me an undertak- 
 ing to pay the other 8000 crowns ; you engaged to pay 
 16,000, and you have only paid 8000." "But. the duke 
 exempted us from paying the remainder." " That is no 
 affair of mine ; you promised to pay 16,000 crowns, and 
 
OP PIEDMONT. 117 
 
 you shall pay it." The obligation to pay the further 8000 
 crowns was signed. "Now, then, you will remove your 
 troops?" "Not till you have sent away your pastors: 
 it was principally for that object I came." The Walden- 
 ses, in despair, impoverished and defenceless, had no alter- 
 native but to make this agonizing concession also. They 
 resolved to conduct their pastors to Pragela, which at that 
 time belonged to France, hoping, ere long, to bring them 
 back again. The road by the plain being infested by 
 maurauders and assassins, and especially by those in the 
 pay of the monks of Pignerol, it was determined to traverse 
 the Col Julien. This plan having become known to the 
 enemy, an ambush was laid for the pastors near Bobbi ; 
 the pastors escaped, and the maurauders indemnified them- 
 selves by pillaging all the houses in the locality, under 
 pretence of seeking the fugitives. 
 
 The count de la Trinite* withdrew his army, indeed, but 
 it was only into the valley between Briqueras and Cavour ; 
 and he left strong garrisons in La Torre, Villar, Perrier, 
 and Perosa, whom the Waldenses were compelled to 
 support — sheep nourishing wolves. 
 
 A party of the garrison of La Torre, commanded by 
 one Bauster, proceeded one day to a village on the road to 
 Angrogna, and ordered the inhabitants to entertain them. 
 The poor Waldenses produced the best provisions they 
 had ; after eating and drinking their fill, the troopers 
 closed the doors of the court-yard in which they were 
 seated, seized the men who had been waiting upon them, 
 bound them, and carried them away prisoners to La Torre. 
 The unhappy creatures were released a few days after, on 
 payment of ransom ; but they had been so cruelly mal- 
 treated by the papists that one of them died in agony the 
 day after his return home, and another only survived to 
 
118 THE WALDEXSES 
 
 endure a long martyrdom, from the sufferings he had under- 
 gone. The flesh of his feet and hands torn away by 
 torture, hung in shreds, the bones fell off one after the 
 other, and he remained a cripple for life. The same party, 
 under the same leader, surprised in like manner the 
 village of Bonneto, and carried off two brothers, John 
 and Odar Geymeto, whom they put to a cruel death. 
 
 I speak not of the young women and girls who were 
 seized and taken into these dens of iniquity ; the atrocious 
 outrages to which they were subjected may not be de- 
 scribed. 
 
 The deputation sent to Vercelli did not return until Jan- 
 uary, 1561. Their mission had proved wholly futile. 
 After harassing them, day after day, for more than six 
 weeks, with a succession of monks and priests, who essayed 
 to win them over to the mass, they were dismissed with 
 the assurance that unless they and those they represented, 
 forthwith abjured, they should be all exterminated, and 
 they learned that whole troops of idolaters, monks, and 
 priests, were about to be let loose upon their valleys. 
 Such intelligence as this might well have been expected to 
 spread depression and despair through these valleys ; but, 
 on the contrary, no longer fearing to compromise their 
 deputies, who were returned, or their goods, which were 
 gone, or peace, which was manifestly impracticable, the 
 Waldenses reinstated, in each parish, the pastor whom they 
 had removed, raised up their levelled churches, and re- 
 sumed everywhere the songs, the labours, the duties, the 
 joys, and the occupations of their wonted biblical life, fully 
 resolved to defend these and each other. At the same 
 time came letters from Switzerland and Dauphiny, wherein 
 their brethren exhorted them to maintain their courage, 
 placing all their confidence in God. These brethren them- 
 
OF PIEDMONT. \\<J 
 
 selves furnished a signal example of what they taught ; for 
 the reformed in France were now furiously persecuted hy 
 the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine, whom the 
 feeble Francis II. had placed, the one at the head of his 
 armies, the other at the head of his council. Dangers 
 bring men closely together; the valley of Pragela, which 
 then belonged to France, was menaced with the same 
 calamities that threatened the valley of Luzerna. There- 
 upon took place one of those grand and solemn scenes, 
 which, at once heroic and religious, seem rather adapted 
 for an epic poem than for grave history. 
 
 Deputies of the valley of Luzerna repaired to the valley 
 of Pragela, to renew, in the presence of God, the alliance 
 which had ever existed between these primitive churches of 
 the Alps. This alliance was sworn by the combined peo- 
 ple, assembled on a plateau of snow, facing the mountains 
 of Sestrieres and the chain of the Gunivert. Then the 
 inhabitants of Pragela sent, in their turn, delegates and 
 pastors into the valley of Luzerna. 
 
 They reached it on the 21st of January, 15G1. The 
 evening before, there had been published throughout the 
 valley, a ducal proclamation, that, within twenty-four 
 hours, the inhabitants were to decide upon going to mass, 
 or were to be subjected to all the punishment reserved for 
 heretics: to fire, to sword, to cord, the three arguments 
 of Romanism. The expiration of this term coincided ex- 
 actly with the arrival of the Pragalese pastors at Puy, a 
 hamlet built on a verdant slope at a short distance from 
 Bobbi. The pastors, elders, deacons, and faithful of Bobbi 
 and the contiguous hamlets, at once ascended to Puy, to 
 inform the new comers of the sad calamities to which they 
 were reduced ; and there, after earnest prayers to God, for 
 his counsel and aid, considering that no Waldensian would 
 
120 THE WALDENSES 
 
 abjure, that it was impossible for them to procure an asy- 
 lum elsewhere, that it was absolutely determined to crush 
 them, a thing which even a worm will not endure without 
 resistance, it was resolved, with solemn enthusiasm, that 
 they would defend themselves and one another to the death. 
 
 Such was the opening of the most brilliant campaign 
 ever accomplished by persecuted heroes against persecuting 
 fanatics. 
 
 The delegates of Pragela and of Luzerna, standing erect 
 in the centre of the kneeling and enrapt people, pro- 
 nounced these words : — 
 
 " In the name of the Waldensian churches of the Alps, 
 of Dauphiny, and Piedmont, which have ever been united, 
 and of which we are the representatives, we here promise, 
 our hands on the Bible, and in the presence of God, that 
 all our valleys shall courageously sustain each other, in 
 matters of religion, without prejudice to the obedience due 
 to their legitimate superiors. 
 
 "We promise to maintain the Bible, whole and without 
 admixture, according to the usage of the true apostolic 
 church, persevering in this holy religion, though it be at 
 peril of our life, in order that we may transmit it to our 
 children, intact and pure, as we received it from our 
 fathers. 
 
 " We promise aid and succour to our persecuted brothers, 
 not regarding our individual interests, but the common 
 cause, and not relying upon man, but upon God." 
 
 The pastors had scarcely done speaking, when several of 
 the people simultaneously exclaimed : " To-morrow they 
 require from us an ignominious abjuration of our faith : 
 well ! let us, to-morrow, make a signal protestation against 
 the persecuting idolatry that would impose that oath upon 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 121 
 
 The next morning, accordingly, before daybreak, instead 
 of going to mass, they rushed, in arms, to the protestant 
 church, which the papists had already decked out with the 
 frippery usual in their worship. Images, flambeaux, rosa- 
 ries, were thrown into the street and trampled under foot. 
 The minister, Humbert Artus, ascended the pulpit, and 
 selecting for his text, the verse of Isaiah (xlv. 20) : " Assem- 
 ble yourselves and come ; draw near together, ye that are 
 escaped of the nations : they have no knowledge that set 
 up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god 
 that cannot save," pronounced a discourse that confirmed 
 and encouraged the resolution of his auditory, who marched 
 thence to purge the church of Villar also from the gross feti- 
 ches of Roman idolatry. On their way they met the garrison 
 of Villar, leisurely marching to make, as it is thought, a facile 
 prey of the Waldensian recusants. It assailed the reform- 
 ers, who repelled it and drove it back to whence it came. 
 The judges, the monks, the seigneurs, and the podesta, 
 who had all complacently assembled to receive the abjura- 
 tion of the heretics, had scarcely time to take refuge with 
 the fugitive soldiers in the menaced fortress. The Wal- 
 denses laid siege to the place, posted sentinels and videttes, 
 levied stores, and firmly awaited events. 
 
 The garrison of La Torre came next day to deliver the 
 besieged ; but the Waldenses met and routed them on the 
 plain of Teynan ; they returned next day in greater num- 
 bers, and were again repulsed. Three bodies of troops 
 presented themselves on the fourth day, and underwent 
 the same fate. For ten days the Waldenses occupied 
 themselves in making powder, in digging mines, in forming 
 casemates, and in other preparations for taking the citadel. 
 The garrison, at length, reduced to extremities, without 
 ammunition, without provisions, without water, surrendered, 
 11 
 
122 THE WALDENSES 
 
 on condition that their lives should be spared, and that in 
 departing they should have the escort of two pastors, thus 
 manifesting that they had more confidence in these perse- 
 cuted ministers, than in any other protection. The terms 
 were granted, the garrison marched out, and the fortifica- 
 tions of Villar were forthwith destroyed by the con- 
 querors. 
 
 This advantage gained by the Protestants, suggested to 
 the count de la Trinite the expediency of preventing union 
 among them. He drew up his army between Luzerna 
 and San Giovanni, and sent word to the inhabitants of 
 Angrogna that they need fear nothing from him, if they 
 would take no part in the affairs of the other valleys. But 
 the people, rendered cautious by the treachery of which 
 they so often had been made the victims, made no other 
 reply, than the preparing more actively than ever for the 
 common defence. 
 
 They threw up entrenchments, they established posts 
 and signals ; every house became a manufactory of pikes, 
 bullets, and other weapons ; the best marksmen were 
 formed into a body, called the Flying Company, it being 
 their part to hasten wherever danger most menaced. They 
 were always to be accompanied by two pastors, to prevent 
 excesses, unnecessary effusion of blood, and the relaxing 
 in religious exercises. Each morning and evening, and 
 before every engagement, these ministers offered up prayers 
 in the encampment. 
 
 The advanced post of the Waldenses, that of Sonnail- 
 lette, was attacked on the 4th of February, 1561, and the 
 combat lasted till night. Three days after, the popish army 
 marched upon Angrogna in several separate corps, which 
 united on a steep and rocky ascent called Le Coste. But 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 123 
 
 the Waldenses, who occupied the heights, rolled down huge 
 rocks on their ranks, and dispersed them. 
 
 The severest struggle, however, that had yet occurred, 
 took place on the 24th of February. The count had 
 brought to bear all his forces, and all the resources of his 
 strategy, the object being to surprise Pra-del-Tor, where 
 the entire population of Angrogna had assembled, and 
 where they had constructed mills, ovens, houses, and all 
 the appurtenances of a fortified post. This citadel of the 
 Alps was protected, not only by rocks, but also by heroic 
 fighting-men. An attempt had been made to reach it by 
 Tagliaretto, but this access was defended by the conquerors 
 of Villar. Two bodies of troops were accordingly directed 
 against it from other quarters. The one, commanded by 
 Charles Truchet and Louis de Monteil, advancing by the 
 valley of San Martin, the other, under La Trinte, by that 
 of Pramol. These two bodies were to attack Pra-del-Tor, 
 the one by the Col du Laouzon, the other by the Col de la 
 Vachera. On the morning they were to act, a third body 
 appeared at the extremity of the valley of Angrogna, 
 burning and pillaging, in order to draw the defenders from 
 the principal post. But the manoeuvre did not succeed. 
 The troop coming by La Vachera advanced first; the Wal- 
 denses assailed and dispersed it. The second troop was 
 then discovered, slowly descending the mountain side. It 
 was allowed to involve itself in the ravines, and the guides 
 had reached an opening whence they could look down into 
 the valley, and had cried out, "Haste ! haste ! Angrogna 
 is ours !" when the Waldenses, rushing upon them from the 
 rocks, and exclaiming, "It is you who are ours," attacked 
 them with energy. The enemy, confiding in their num- 
 bers, turned upon this small force, but now came up the 
 Waldenses who had defeated the first comers, and who 
 
124 THE WALDBNSES 
 
 assailed the enemy on their left. The latter still resisted; 
 but suddenly the Flying Company appeared on the right ; 
 and the papists, assailed on three sides, turned and re- 
 treated, as best they might, up the arduous ascent. 
 Charles Truchet was prostrated by a stone, and his head 
 was cut off with his own sword : and Louis de Monteil, after 
 he had attained the other side of the mountain was over- 
 taken and slain. All their soldiers would have been slain 
 with them, had it not been for the pastors of the Flying 
 Company, who hastened to the field of battle to save, and 
 to dismiss those who could no longer save themselves. 
 This victory supplied the Waldenses with store of much- 
 needed arms and armour, taken from the enemy. 
 
 To avenge his defeat, the count de la Trinte burned the 
 village of Rora, whose inhabitants, after a long and vigor- 
 ous resistance, retired, over the mountain snows, to Villar. 
 
 It was the next occupation of the Waldenses to construct, 
 with trees, stakes, great stones, and snow, barricades at 
 the narrowest points of the valley. These were scarcely 
 completed, when the count de la Trinte advanced, having 
 divided his army into three corps, two of which, infantry, 
 were to march along the two heights of the valley, while 
 the third, cavalry, followed its centre. A company of 
 pioneers was in front, to level the barricades. The Wal- 
 denses, on their part, advanced on the left bank of the 
 Pelice, till they came opposite Chiabrol, and fired on the 
 cavalry as soon as it appeared ; then, retreating from tree 
 to tree, and from rock to rock, they continued to harass 
 it, until they came to the first barricade, above Villar. 
 Here they halted, and swelled the ranks of the Flying 
 Company, who defended this post. Much of the day was 
 spent in skirmishes, at and about the barricade, upon 
 which the enemy made no impression. Meanwhile, the 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 125 
 
 infantry, who had advanced along the heights, passed, 
 towards evening, beyond the line thus heroically defended. 
 It became, therefore, necessary for the Waldenses to sepa- 
 rate, in order that a portion of their body might repulse 
 these new-comers^ The first of these who appeared had 
 already crossed the torrent Eespart, and were ascending 
 the vine-covered hills which overlook Villar, when the Wal- 
 denses, who had hastened up the opposite ascent, met them, 
 assailed them, and, after a long struggle, compelled them 
 to retreat upon La Torre, with considerable loss. 
 
 In the following week, the Waldenses occupying the 
 heights, the count attacked the hamlet of Boudrina, with 
 a body of 2000 men, and for a while this large force 
 seemed triumphant ; but the Flying Company came up, 
 with the men of Angrogna, and turned the fortune of the 
 day, so that the enemy were routed, and driven back once 
 more to La Torre. The count de la Trinte then retired 
 to Luzerna, and thenceforth left both Villar and Bobbi 
 unmolested. 
 
 But there remained Angrogna, the central position of 
 the valleys, approachable on all sides except from the west ; 
 and having collected a new army of not fewer than 7000 
 men, the count resolved to vindicate his military honour 
 by the taking of Angrogna. 
 
 On Sunday, 17th March, 1561, the Waldensian families, 
 assembled with their defenders at Pra-del-Tor for the 
 worship of God, saw, as they quitted the church, three 
 long trains of soldiers advancing in parallel lines — the 
 one along the heights of La Vachera, the other by the 
 road from Foreste, and the third by that from Serre. 
 
 The approaches to Pra-del-Tor, to which the first two 
 lines of attack were advancing, were defended by a bastion 
 of earth and rock-work, which the Waldenses had taken 
 11* 
 
126 THE WALDEXSES 
 
 the precaution to construct, but the lower path had not 
 been barricaded, though it might have been far more easily 
 so closed than any other access, by reason of the narrow- 
 ness of its path. Indeed, the natural difficulties of the 
 approach, which the Waldenses had considered a sufficient 
 impediment, were so great, that the enemy's column which 
 used it was the last to arrive in sight of Pra-del-Tor. 
 Upon perceiving it, the Waldenses descended to attack 
 them, leaving at the bastion above onlv a few defenders ; 
 but these were armed with long pikes, with which each 
 assailant, as he appeared on the escarpment, was forth- 
 with thrust down the precipice. After a long struggle, 
 however, which cost the lives of two of their number, this 
 little band was about to give way, when the Flying 
 Company, having routed the assailants below, dashed up 
 to the bastion, whose garrison, thus reinforced, at once 
 assumed the offensive. The enemy, furiously attacked, 
 turned and fled. The captain of the band, Sebastian di 
 Yirgile, was slain ; and the number of the soldiers killed 
 was so great, that the Count de la Trinite actually sat 
 down and wept when he beheld the heaps of bodies. At 
 the other bastion, the Waldenses were equally success- 
 ful : they had awaited in firm silence the approach of the 
 enemy, till they came within gunshot, and then, with a 
 general discharge, took the papists by surprise; at a 
 second discharge, the enemy gave way. The Waldenses 
 rushed forth, attacked and decimated the enemy, and 
 dispersed the survivors. As the captain of the battalion 
 afterwards stated, the catholic troopers seemed panic- 
 struck in the presence of these raw mountaineers, and 
 there ran among them this cry — " God must be with these 
 men '.'' It was a matter of no small astonishment with the 
 papists generally at this time, that the Waldenses, thus 
 
OF PIEDMONT. JO? 
 
 triumphant, and familiar with the locality, had not followed 
 up their victory by pursuing the enemy and completely 
 annihilating them, as they might readily have done ; but 
 the chiefs, as Gilly observes, and especially the ministers, 
 would not permit this, having resolved, at the outset, that 
 ■while, under necessity, they would do their best to defend 
 themselves by force of arms, they would never transgress 
 the limits of absolute self-defence, alike out of respect for 
 their superiors, and out of a desire to spare human blood, 
 using every victory granted them by the God of battles 
 with the utmost possible moderation. 
 
 The Romish chiefs attributed these repeated defeats of 
 their troops to the circumstance that they had not been 
 accustomed to warfare in the mountains, asserting that, 
 could they encounter the Waldenses on the plain, they 
 would scatter them like chaff. It so happened that in a 
 few days afterwards an encounter did take place on the 
 plain ; but it was the papists who were scattered like 
 chaff — not the Waldenses. Victory, as Gilly remarks on 
 the occasion, depends not on the greater or smaller number 
 of men, not on the greater or smaller space of battle-field, 
 not on the higher or lower elevation of the ground, but 
 wholly on the merciful aid of the Lord, who, when it so 
 pleases his wisdom, gives the will and the power to triumph 
 to those who support a just cause. 
 
 After these numerous engagments, in which the "Walden- 
 ses only lost fourteen men, the count de la Trinite - sent 
 persons to open negotiations with them ; but while the parley 
 was proceeding, and the attention of the Waldenses thus 
 lulled, he assembled his troops, and marched them, in 
 the night of 16th of April, against the two strongest points 
 in the country — Pra-del-Tor and Tagliarette. Tagliarette, 
 assailed first, was occupied at day-break by a number of 
 
128 THE WALDENSES 
 
 attacking parties, who threw themselves simultaneously 
 upon all the scattered hamlets which constitute the district. 
 The inhabitants, surprised in their sleep, were some slain 
 and some taken prisoners ; and the rest, escaping in 
 their night attire, owed their lives to their agility, and to 
 their knowledge of the mountain paths. The assailants, 
 after plundering the abandoned cottages, descended by 
 Costa-Rossina to the slopes overhanging Pra-del-Tor, to 
 co-operate with the other troops in the projected exter- 
 mination of the Waldenses. 
 
 Now the first proceeding of these, with the opening of 
 each day, was to offer up a prayer to God in common. 
 It was day-break, and they had just terminated this 
 religious exercise, when the first rays of the sun lit up, 
 on the mountain tops, the helmets and cuirasses of the 
 advancing enemy. Six resolute mountaineers, dashing up 
 the ascent, posted themselves in a defile where only two 
 persons could march abreast ; and here they kept in 
 effectual check the long file of the foes who were accumu- 
 lating behind this obstacle. As each two of the enemy 
 turned the rock, they were shot down by the two foremost 
 Waldenses ; the two next were shot in like manner by the 
 two next Waldenses, firing over their comrades' shoulders : 
 the two last Waldenses loaded the weapons as they were 
 discharged. Thus, for a quarter of an hour, the passage 
 was closed. Meantime, other Waldenses ascended to the 
 rocks which, higher up, overlooked the defile in which the 
 enemy's forces were collecting. All at once, upon this 
 armed mass, there rained angular rocks, which crushed 
 whole ranks in their fall, and then, bursting into splinters, 
 rebounded from the bodies like grape-shot, and prostrated 
 fresh victims. Unable to advance, or to deploy, or even 
 to fight, the unfortunate troops retrograded in disorder, 
 
OF PIEDMONT. 1-H) 
 
 and but a portion escaped. The other corps, who had 
 advanced by La Vechera to aid in the attack on Pra-del- 
 Tor, finding their comrades already defeated, joined the 
 survivors in their flight. 
 
 The Waldenses, doubly indignant at being thus basely 
 assailed pending the armistice which they had generously 
 accepted, furiously pursued the fugitives, and harassed 
 them with stones and bullets, up to the plateau of Campo- 
 la-Rama near La Torre. Here the papists, facing about, 
 hastily formed in battle array, hoping to surround the 
 Waldenses, with the aid of fresh troops from La Torre ; 
 but the protestants, giving them no time, either to form or 
 to receive succours, dashed upon them, slew, among the 
 first victims, their leader, Cornelio, and drove them, dis- 
 comfited and in utter disorder, up to the very gates of La 
 Torre. The same evening, the count de la Trinte raised 
 his camp, and retreated to Cavour. It was announced 
 that he was gone to fetch cannon. " Let him bring them," 
 cried the Waldenses ; he'll not take them back with him." 
 But he came not ; and the victors, returning to Pra-del- 
 Tor, covered it, towards La Vachera, with a bastion so 
 large, that it was visible at Luzerna, three leagues off. 
 
 At this period there arrived in the valleys a new legion 
 of defenders. The Waldenses of Provence, who had 
 escaped from the massacres of 1545, doubly inured to war- 
 fare by their misfortunes and by the savage life they had 
 led on the rude slopes of Leberon, issued from their retreats, 
 on hearing that their brethren of the Piedmontese valleys 
 were undergoing persecution ; and either because the cli- 
 mate of Provence had generated in them more violent pas- 
 sions, or that the monstrous cruelties of Menier d'Oppede 
 had infuriated them against all catholics, these auxiliaries 
 were far from imitating the moderation of the Waldenses 
 
 I 
 
130 THE WALDENSES 
 
 with regard to the papists. Animated with a spirit of 
 vengeance, explained, though not excused, by the terrible 
 sufferings they had endured, they scoured the country 
 about the valleys, ravaged the possessions of the catholics, 
 rendered carnage for carnage, and diffused that insur- 
 mountable terror which is created by the fury of despair. 
 The surrounding population, victims at once of the hostile 
 army and of the devastating incursions of these implacable 
 avengers, loudly demanded that this war, so disastrous for 
 all parties, should be concluded. On the other hand, 
 desertion manifested itself in the papist army ; the soldiers 
 would not fight against such adversaries, nor even march 
 towards those formidable mountains, where, as they said, 
 the death of one Waldensian cost the lives of more than a 
 hundred catholics. At last the count de la Trinite fell 
 ill, while the Waldenses, so far from becoming weaker, 
 had defenders more resolute, more powerful, more numer- 
 ous than ever. 
 
 It was considered, therefore, expedient to make terms 
 with them. The first overtures offered merely peace, and 
 this on condition that the Waldenses would send away 
 their pastors, and ransom their brethren who were pris- 
 oners. These conditions were at once rejected. The 
 count de Racconis the (5th of May) wrote to the Wal- 
 denses, inviting them to send delegates to Cavour, to 
 arrange with him the basis of a definite arrangement. 
 The delegates were sent, and on the 5th of June 1561, a 
 decree was issued, granting to the Waldenses, almost 
 every thing which they had asked. It became to them in 
 fact the charter of their liberties. 
 
 The pope, the nuncio, the catholic clergy, raised a 
 vehement outcry against this convention, and did their 
 utmost to frustrate it; but the cause of truth prevailed, 
 
OP PIEDMONT. 131 
 
 and the convention of the 5th of June afforded a solid 
 basis to the Waldenses for the ulterior defence of their 
 liberty of conscience, which, though it underwent there- 
 after many rude assaults, triumphed over them all, for all 
 the persecuted ones placed their trust in Him who said 
 " Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, 
 and thou shalt glorify me." 
 
C [raphe <£[rirhnit[r. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE VALLEYS UNDER CASTROCARO. 
 
 After so protracted an interruption of agricultural 
 labours, after such multiplied pillagings, and burnings, 
 and losses of every description, undergone by the Wal- 
 denses, there was utter poverty throughout their valleys. 
 The confiscated lands, houses, &c, had been stripped of 
 every movable appurtenance, before they were restored ; 
 and many were not restored at all. The monks of Pigne- 
 rol continued their depredations upon the surrounding pro- 
 testants ; and, from time to time, Waldenses escaped from 
 the massacres in Calabria, made their way, hungry, naked, 
 and utterly destitute, to the valleys, and became an addi- 
 tional burden upon the impoverished mountaineers, ever 
 prompt to share with their brethren the little that remained 
 to themselves. Their distress became known, and collec- 
 tions were made for them in Switzerland, in Germany, and 
 even in France. 
 
 They were just recovering from their depression, when 
 Castrocaro, a man who had been their prisoner, and whom 
 they had generously released, professing to the duchess of 
 Savoy, their protector, the most friendly intentions towards 
 them, obtained the appointment of governor of the valleys. 
 But, treacherous both towards his benefactress and towards 
 his benefactors, he was faithful only to the archbishop of 
 Turin, to whom he had promised that he would gradually 
 (132) 
 
THE WALDENSES UNDER CASTROCAEO, 133 
 
 withdraw from the Waldenses all the liberties which had 
 been granted to them, and do his utmost for the complete 
 annihilation of their church. His mode of effecting this 
 object was by successive restrictions ; and first, in 1565, 
 he demanded a revision of the treaty of Cavour, concluded 
 in 1561. 
 
 The Waldenses rejected the proposition. He then pre- 
 tended that they had transgressed it. The Waldenses 
 applied to the duke to maintain its provisions. Castrocaro 
 proceeded to Turin, and returned with new conditions, 
 which he laid before the Waldenses for their signature. 
 But these conditions were not signed by the duke, and the 
 Waldenses refused to subscribe them. Castrocaro menaced 
 them with a war more cruel than the preceding. A con- 
 ference was established at which some concessions were 
 extorted from the representatives of the Waldenses ; the 
 Waldenses disavowed their representatives. The parties 
 were growing embroiled, and this was precisely what the 
 popish governor desired. 
 
 He had a body of troops placed under his command, on 
 pretence of maintaining order, and established himself 
 with this garrison in the castle of La Torre. He thence 
 issued orders to the people of Bobbi to dismiss their pastor, 
 Humbert Artus : and to those of San Giovanni, no longer 
 to admit the protestants of the plain to their religious 
 meetings. 
 
 The Waldenses, by the medium of the duchess, obtained 
 the abrogation of these orders ; but Castrocaro, neverthe- 
 less, on the 10th of September, 1565, issued a proclamation 
 in the valley of Luzerna that all who did not conform 
 should be put to the edge of the sword ; and at the same 
 time wrote word to the duke that the Waldenses were in 
 open rebellion against his authority ; whereupon the duke, 
 12 
 
134 THE WALDENSES 
 
 indignant, ordered the people to obey their governor. The 
 latter forthwith persecuted the faithful under all sorts of 
 pretexts; he removed the learned Scipio Lentulus, pastor 
 of San Giovanni, on the pretext of his being a foreigner ; 
 he arrested Gilles des Gilles, pastor of La Torre, on the 
 pretext, utterly futile, that he had been to Grenoble and 
 Geneva to invite foreign troops against his sovereign. 
 This was the pastor who, in the late war, had, by his ener- 
 getic interposition, saved the life of Castrocaro, as well as 
 those of a multitude of catholic soldiers. This vital ser- 
 vice, which would have inflamed noble minds with eternal 
 gratitude, engendered absolute hatred towards his bene- 
 factor in the base soul of Castrocaro, who having, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1566, seized his liberator, threw him into prison, 
 treated him there, as his grandson relates, " worse than 
 the worst brigand," and had well-nigh effected his death 
 by burning, when the excellent pastor was released on the 
 mediation of the elector Palatine. 
 
 Castrocaro next published an edict commanding all pro- 
 testants, not born within his jurisdiction, to quit it, under 
 penalty of death and confiscation ; but the duchess of 
 Savoy procured the abrogation of this barbarous order. 
 The perfidous governor then essayed to interdict the Wal- 
 denses from assembling in Synod ; but he failed. " At all 
 events," he declared, " he would be present at these synods, 
 in order to prevent plots against the safety of the state;" 
 but the Waldenses protested against this innovation, fear- 
 ing, not his presence, but the precedent. 
 
 In the following year, the wars of religion were rekin- 
 dled in France ; the duke of Cleves, marching at the head 
 of an army of Spaniards against Flanders, was to traverse 
 Piedmont, and his first exploit, it was announced, was to 
 be the extermination of the AValdenses. The fanatics 
 
UNDER CASTEOCAEO. 135 
 
 rejoiced, the Christians mourned, anxiety once more spread 
 through the valleys, and a solemn fast was observed there 
 towards the end of May, to avert the menaced visitation. 
 It was averted ; the storm passed on one side, and while 
 all the rest of Europe was in combustion, the Waldenses 
 enjoyed, for a few years, comparative peace. 
 
 Castrocaro availed himself of this respite, to construct, 
 or rather to complete, the fort of Miraboco, an erection 
 especially obnoxious to the people of Bobbi, by reason of 
 the obstacle it established on the road to Queyras, the free 
 passage of which created some resources for their colayers, 
 or hawkers, who, by that route, conveyed their produce, 
 for sale or exchange, to Upper Dauphiny. Castrocaro, 
 however, had a special hostility to the people of Bobbi ; 
 and his next step was to require from them the surrender, 
 into the hands of the papist pastor of La Torre, of the 
 protestant church of Bobbi, and the land appropriated to 
 the support of its minister. The Waldenses refused, and 
 were, thereupon condemned by Castrocaro to pay a fine 
 of one hundred gold crowns, within twenty-four hours, and 
 a further penalty of twenty-five gold crowns for every day 
 that the one hundred crowns should remain unpaid. Upon 
 an appeal to Emanuel Philibert, this demand was with- 
 drawn, but the Waldenses, seeing the system of persecu- 
 tion once more in such active operation, deemed it neces- 
 sary to renew among themselves that oath of alliance and 
 Christian combination which had been instrumental to their 
 late triumphs; and they accordingly, on the 11th of 
 of November, 1571, signed, by their representatives at 
 Bobbi, the following convention : — 
 
 "When anyone of our churches shall be impeached, 
 individually, all the rest, combined, shall reply, as with 
 one mouth, in assertion of the common rights. No one of 
 
130 .THE WALBEXSES 
 
 us shall adopt any determination, in such a matter, with- 
 out consulting his brethren. All of us solemnly promise 
 and swear to adhere perseveringly to the ancient union 
 transmitted to us by our fathers, never to abandon our 
 holy religion, and to remain faithful to our lawful sove- 
 reigns." 
 
 Amid the vexations which now harassed the Waldenses, 
 especially those of Lower Piedmont, there is a circumstance 
 of a very singular nature to be noted : Charles IX. of 
 France actually wrote a letter of the most pressing nature 
 to the duke of Savoy, in favour of the persecuted. " I 
 have a request to make," wrote he, "of no ordinary kind, 
 but as earnest a one as I could possibly put to you, and it 
 is this : that having, under the influence of passions ex- 
 cited by war-troubles, treated your subjects with extreme 
 harshness, you would, for love of me, and at my prayer 
 and special recommendation, receive them into your good 
 grace, and re-establish them in their confiscated properties." 
 This letter, written at Blois, bears date, 28ih September, 
 1571, Charles IX. being then twenty-one years old. 
 
 " Charles IX." say the Benedictine authors of the Art 
 de Verifier leg Dates, " had received from nature an excel- 
 lent disposition and rare talents ; he was brave to intre- 
 pidity, endowed with marvellous penetration, vivid concep- 
 tion, sure judgment, and expressed himself with a noble 
 facility. But the seductions by which he was surrounded 
 perverted this favourable disposition; the queen-mother 
 herself formed him in the arts of feigning and dissimula- 
 tion ; the marshal de Retz taught him to laugh at oaths ; 
 and the Guise, by their sanguinary counsels, converted the 
 natural impetuosity of his character into cruelty." And 
 there is no doubt that, under other circumstances, he 
 would have been one of the most accomplished and excel- 
 
V N D E R (,' A S T E C A E . 137 
 
 lent princes in the annals of French royalty. But ill 
 example and sinister counsels produced their wonted result ; 
 on the 23rd of August, 1572, within a year after the trans- 
 mission of this letter, took place the massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew. 
 
 Upon the occurrence of that monstrous event, the hopes 
 which the reformed churches had conceived were succeeded 
 by the most agonizing apprehensions. Castrocaro, among 
 the foremost persecutors, alarmed the Waldensian valleys 
 with his menaces of extermination. "Sixty thousand 
 Huguenots have perished in France," he exclaimed, with 
 malignant vehemence, " and do you, miserable handful of 
 heretics, think you are to escape ?" The papist population 
 already congratulated each other on the approching aboli- 
 tion of the Waldenses. The latter began to prepare for 
 the worst; the women and children, conveying the house- 
 hold goods, sought the securest caverns of the upper moun- 
 tains ; the men, remaining behind, prepared their weapons, 
 and, until compelled to make use of them, continued to 
 watch and pray. 
 
 But the cry of horror which resounded throughout civ- 
 ilized Europe at the enormous assassination of August, 
 1572, had its effect upon the duke of Savoy, whose heart 
 was touched, whose intelligence was confounded, at so 
 monstrous an atrocity. He protested energetically against 
 the cruelties which had been perpetrated, vowed that no 
 similar crime should ever sully his life, and assuring the 
 Waldenses that they were in no danger, induced them to 
 return once more to their dwellings. 
 
 A relation of the troubles which, at this epoch, befel the 
 
 Valley of Perosa will more fitly be introduced later, in 
 
 connection with the history of the valley of Pragela ; but 
 
 there is one episode which may find its place here, as 
 
 12* 
 
138 THE WALDENSES 
 
 coming within the general movement of the districts under 
 consideration. 
 
 Amid the almost universal fury now prevalent against 
 the protestants, the pastor of San German, named 
 Francis Guerin, did not hesitate to go forth, himself, alone, 
 to combat Catholicism with that bloodless but most potent 
 weapon — reasoning. One day, in 1573, he proceeded to 
 Pramol, where papism was rampant. It was Sunday, 
 the people were assembled in church, and the cure' was 
 celebrating mass. Francis Guerin mingled with the audi- 
 tory, and waited, in silence, until the service was termi- 
 nated. No one suspected that, amid the crowd, there was 
 a knight of Christ, who, armed with the shield of faith, 
 the hemlet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which 
 is the word of God, was about to make that word triumph, 
 by the power of love and of courage, over the servile forces 
 of superstition. 
 
 The cure having concluded his service, the pastor rose, 
 and asked him whether he had finished. "Yes," replied 
 the cure. "What have you been doing ?" — "I have been 
 celebrating mass." " "What is the mass ?" asked the pastor 
 in Latin. There was no answer. " What is the mass ?" 
 asked the pastor in Italian ; but the poor curate could not 
 answer. Thereupon, relates the Capuchin, brother Au- 
 gustin, in a contemporary manuscript, the protestant min- 
 ister mounted the pulpit, and began to preach against the 
 mass and against the pope, and, among other things, said : 
 " poor folk ! See what you have here — a man who 
 knoweth not what that is he doeth. Every day he says 
 mass, yet he knows not what mass is ; every day he does 
 that which neither he understands, nor you, whom he calls 
 about him. But behold here the Bible, and hear the words 
 of God;" "and thereupon," adds the Capuchin, "with 
 
DXDER CASTROCARO. 130 
 
 his gimcracks, ho perverted the whole district, so that now 
 there is neither cure nor mass to be found there." 
 
 For five years, Francis Guerin acted as pastor of the 
 district thus gained over to the gospel ; he then, at the 
 head of the Waldensian militia, penetrated into the mar- 
 quisate of Saluzzo, then an object of contention between 
 Savoy and France, and, after the respective armies had 
 withdrawn, remained to consolidate there the evangelical 
 churches. 
 
 At length, the Waldenses were relieved from the oppres- 
 sions of Castrocaro. Emanuel Philibert having died in 
 1580, Castrocaro announced that his successor was about 
 to march an army for the extermination of the Waldenses. 
 The latter having, hereupon retired to the mountains, the 
 treacherous governor sent word to the duke that the Wal- 
 denses were preparing to resist his authority, and solicited 
 permission to take rigorous measures against them. A 
 commissioner, however, being sent to investigate the mat- 
 ter on the spot, soon satisfied himself, at once of the inno- 
 cence of the Waldenses and of the odious vexations prac- 
 ticed on them by their calumniators. He found that Cas- 
 trocaro, himself living in pampered luxury in the castle of 
 La Torre, where "he had grown fat and rich," permitted, 
 and not unfrequently ordered, his soldiers to perpetrate 
 every description of excess upon the people around. He 
 had in his palace a breed of ferocious bloodhounds, of un- 
 usual size and strength. His son, Andrew, was so profli- 
 gate a debauchee that no modest woman could quit her 
 house unless with an escort. His three daughters went 
 indifferently to mass and to the protestant church, having 
 no sense of religion whatever, but merely eager to display 
 the frippery in which they delighted. The duke of Savoy, 
 upon being made acquainted with the facts, ordered Cas- 
 
140 THE WALDEXSES UNDER CASTROCARO. 
 
 trocaro to appear before him at Turin ; but, under various 
 pretexts, the governor withheld obedience to the mandate. 
 His highness thus finding that rebellion at La Torre was 
 not on the part of the Waldenses, but on the part of their 
 oppressor, ordered the count of Luzerna to arrest Castro- 
 caro. This, however, was no easy matter, by reason of the 
 fortifications, the desperado soldiers, and the ferocious 
 dogs, who guarded the governor. Treachery, however, 
 aptly did its work upon the treacherous. A captain of the 
 garrison, one Simon, came to an understanding with the 
 count of Luzerna, and by his means Castrocaro was seized 
 in bed on the 15th of June, 1582, and taken to Turin, 
 where he died in prison. His son also expiated his ex- 
 cesses in a dungeon ; the three daughters, with the mother, 
 were left to subsist in obscurity upon a small pension 
 reserved to them out of the father's ill-acquired gains, the 
 residue of which was confiscated to the state. 
 
Cfuptn jPourtuntl;. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WALDENSES DURING THE 
 REIGN OP CHARLES EMANUEL. 
 
 In 1585, Charles Emanuel, who had ascended to the 
 throne of Savoy in 1580, married the daughter of Philip 
 II. of Spain ; and the latter being one of the league against 
 the protestants, it was assumed that his son-in-law would 
 not delay to follow his example. Thereupon the monks 
 and the Jesuits exalted their horns, and menaced the faith- 
 ful with extermination, unless they should consent to a 
 prompt conversion. The fear of the faithful became great, 
 not so much by reason of the immediate vaunts and me- 
 naces of the monks, but by reason of the great papist 
 league which they knew was forming throughout Europe ; 
 and they saw that they must prepare, if not to avert, at 
 least to meet calamity, by more than ordinary recurrence 
 to Almighty God. 
 
 A solemn fast of four days was accordingly observed in 
 the valleys, on the 15th and 16th, and on the 22d and 
 23d of May, 1585, according to the usage of the primitive 
 church in similar emergencies ; and as if to show that the 
 blessing and the favour of God are ever granted to the 
 fervent prayer of man, the Waldenses speedily learned 
 that throughout Dauphiny the Reformers had defeated the 
 soldiers of the league ; and as one-third of the Waldensian 
 valleys appertained to that province, the advantages 
 
 ( Hi ) 
 
142 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 obtained by these greatly contributed to strengthen the 
 position of all. 
 
 In 1595, Charles Emanuel, on his return from recover- 
 ing the fort of Miraboco, 'which had been taken by the 
 French, halted in the market-place at Yillar, and said to 
 the Waldenses who had assembled to congratulate him on 
 his victory: "Be good subjects to me, and I will be a 
 good prince to you — a good father. With regard to your 
 freedom of conscience, and the exercise of your religion, I 
 will make no innovation upon the liberties you have 
 enjoyed hitherto ; and if any one molests you therein, 
 come to me, and I will see to it.'' 
 
 The catholic clergy, irritated at this gracious intima- 
 tion, and unable to effect anything, by violence, against 
 the Waldensian church, attacked it by indirect means. 
 First, it obtained permissson to establish, in all the 
 valleys, catholic missionaries, who were to be entitled to 
 the protestant churches whenever they thought fit ; and, 
 pursuant to this permission, the archbishop of Turin him- 
 self installed a body of Jesuits in the valley of Luzerna, 
 and one of Capuchins in that of San Martin. Several 
 conferences were held between the Jesuits and the pastors, 
 but without the least result. Indeed, there was no one by 
 whom the result of such discussions could be decided. The 
 conference at Appiaso, for example, was presided over by 
 the count of Luzerna : at the close of the discussion, the 
 pastor having replied to the Jesuit, requested the presi- 
 dent to decide with whom the advantages of argument 
 rested. " Gentlemen," replied the count, " if you had 
 disputed the qualities of a good horse or a good sword, I 
 could give you my opinion, for I know something about both 
 matters ; but as to your controversy, I make neither head 
 nor tail of it." On the 2d of August, 1598, there was a 
 
THE KEIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 143 
 
 special conference between the pastor of San German and 
 the Capuchin Berno. The arguments on both sides were 
 printed, but the Inquisition prohibited their being sold ; 
 the inference from which is, that, in the opinion of the 
 Holy Office,- the victory in argument was not on the side 
 of Romanism. Defeated in discussion, the Jesuits had 
 recourse to such acts of violence as were practicable, and 
 imprisonment, fine, and torture effected a few venal 
 conversions. In 1599, there came to La Torre a cure, 
 very bold and blustering, and who seemed much fitter to 
 create disturbances than to conduct a church. His name 
 was Ubertino Braida. His first proceeding was to demand 
 tithes, which the protestants had never paid ; his demand 
 was rejected. He then proceeded to outrage the Walden- 
 ses with all sorts of insults, and, like another Goliah, 
 offered to fight any one of them, hand to hand. But 
 despite his assumption of extreme valour, he always wore 
 a shirt of mail, under his cassock. One evening, some 
 young men, after supper, went to the cure's house, 
 resolved to test his courage, and made a disturbance. 
 The cure ran out at the back door, and took to flight. 
 The young men did not pursue him at all, contenting 
 themselves with a laugh at the result of their experiment. 
 The podesta of La Torre, stimulated by the friends of 
 the fugitive, cited the young men before him, and 
 sentenced them to remain prisoners for a few days, in 
 the house of a gentleman, whom he named. The Walden- 
 ses repaired to the house ; but learning next day that a 
 troop of archers had been despatched to take them to 
 Turin, and cast them into the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
 they took to flight during the night. Next day, they 
 were again summoned to attend before the podesta; and 
 not appearing, were condemned to banishment from the 
 
144 TIIE WALDE>~SE.~. 
 
 states of Savoy, under penalty of the galleys, if they were 
 ever found within its limits. 
 
 The poor young men withdrew into the mountains, 
 where, having provided themselves with arms, they 
 wandered about from place to place, and lived upon the 
 contributions, voluntary or enforced, of the population. 
 Here these banditti (banished then) lived for some years, 
 their number constantly increasing. Prohibition was 
 proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, from affording them aid, 
 food, or shelter ; but they became all the more formidable, 
 imposing black-mail not merely on individuals, but on 
 whole towns. The podesta of La Torre marched against 
 them with some troops, but he was so thoroughly defeated, 
 that, ashamed to show his face again in La Torre, he 
 abandoned his charge there, and retired to Luzerna. 
 
 In the commencement of February, 1602, the arch- 
 bishop of Turin, the governor of Pignerol, and the count 
 of Luzerna, came into the valleys, attended by a troop of 
 Jesuits and Capuchins, and caused infinite disquietude to 
 the protestants, who daily expected to see the Waldensian 
 valleys become the theatre of some catastrophe. The 
 catholics charged all the excesses committed by the ban- 
 ditti on the Waldenses as a body, and loudly demanded 
 of the duke of Savoy to destroy, once for all, this focus of 
 heresy and den of brigands. The Waldenses appointed 
 special ministers to seek out, censure, and exhort the ban- 
 bitti ; and a universal fast was observed throughout the 
 valleys, on the 11th and 12th of August, to conciliate the 
 divine pardon and mercy. The women and children once 
 more sought their mountain retreats ; the men once more, 
 preparing their weapons, assiduously watched and prayed, 
 knowing that the only secure defence is that of our Lord. 
 
 Meanwhile the governor Ponte repaired to La Torre, 
 
TIIE REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 145 
 
 whither he convoked the syndics of all the Waldensian 
 communes, and ordered them to deliver up the banditti. 
 Protesting earnestly their entire fidelity to the sovereign, 
 the syndics replied by attributing the recent calamities to 
 unjust proscriptions, and admitting that some of these 
 wretched outlaws had been guilty of excesses, pointed out 
 the difficulty of separating the guilty from the innocent, 
 and the injustice of punishing all alike, and concluded with 
 an emphatic appeal for amnesty and peace. The governor 
 rejected this proposition, and renewed the order that the 
 banditti should be delivered up, dead or alive ; but a few 
 days afterwards, the governor was himself arrested and 
 deprived of his office, on the charge of having maintained 
 secret relations with the French generals. 
 
 Thereupon count Charles of Luzerna, who enjoyed great 
 influence at court, offered to mediate in favour of the val- 
 leys with the duke, pursuant to a promise he had recently 
 made to that effect, to the elector of Saxony, at Dresden. 
 
 On the 19th of November, 1602, Vignaux and Gillis, 
 deputies, the one for the valley of Luzerna, the other for 
 that of San Martin, waited on the count in his palace at 
 Luzerna. Every one was anxious to have the matter set- 
 tled, for the force of the banditti had been lately aug- 
 mented by a great number of protestants who had been 
 driven from the marquisate of Saluzzo, and the plain of 
 Piedmont. The result of the conference was the appoint- 
 ment of a Waldensian deputation to the duke, at Turin, 
 the count promising the support of his utmost influence. 
 The duke, however, while disposed to make some conces- 
 sions, would not grant an amnesty, and the Waldenses 
 would not accept the former without the latter. At length, 
 after protracted negotiations, the duke issued, from Cunio, 
 on the 9th of April, 1603, a decree granting substantially 
 13 K 
 
14«3 THE WALDESSZS. 
 
 what the Waldenses had asked, including an amnesty for 
 the banditti, so called. 
 
 There still remained, however, the banditti belonging to 
 Saluzzo, Fenile, Bubiana, Yillafranca, and other districts 
 of Piedmont. For the extirpation of these, the duke 
 organized a body of special troops, who were to be main- 
 tained by the Waldenses, and whom he placed under the 
 command of one captain Galline. This officer, however, 
 under pretext of pursuing the outlaws, committed various 
 outrages upon the persons and property of the peaceful 
 inhabitants. One day in July, when the people of Bobbi 
 were all engaged in the fields, he entered the village with 
 
 or" ' o 
 
 his bravoes, killed a young man who, for some reason, had 
 been unable to quit his home, drove out the pastor, and 
 was about to pillage the place, when the villagers, having 
 received an alarm, rushed home. Galline, finding himself 
 surrounded by superior numbers, pusillanimously threw down 
 the sword yet reeking with murder, and entreated for 
 mercy. It was granted, and the Waldenses, taught to 
 observe the great lesson of good for evil, even proffered to 
 escort the band of marauders back to Luzerna, in order to 
 save them from the indignation of the other hardy moun- 
 taineers, who, on hearing of Galline's outrage, were has- 
 tening down to aid their brethren. When the affair 
 reached the ears of the duke, he sent the grand provost to 
 Luzerna, to inquire into the circumstances, and take 
 measures accordingly. The provost announced to the 
 other Waldensian communes that, whatever the result, 
 they would not be affected, on the understanding that 
 they should take no part with the people of Bobbi; 
 but. all without hesitation not only declared that they 
 entirely took part with the people of Bobbi, but that 
 henceforward they would not contribute, in any shape or 
 
THE REIGN OP CHARLES E M A N U E u . 147 
 
 degree, to the support of Galline and his men. The pro- 
 vost returned to Turin, having effected nothing. Count 
 Charles of Luzerna then interposed, and the result of his 
 mediation was an edict, dated 29th of September, 1603, 
 which on the one hand, required the valleys to pay a fine 
 of fifteeen hundred ducatoons, but, on the other, granted a 
 general amnesty for the past, permitted all outlaws to 
 return home without being liable to prosecution, authorized 
 the Waldenses to retain any property they possessed 
 beyond the limits of their valleys, and even to make open 
 profession of their faith in presence of catholics, when 
 desired so to do, (whereas hitherto they had been prohibited 
 from avowing it,) and merely forbade them to defend it by 
 polemical discussions, a prohibition manifestly recognizing 
 its force. These concessions were especially favourable to 
 a great many of the people of Saluzzo, who had taken 
 refuge in the valleys, and who were thus permitted to abide 
 there. Large collections made for them at about this 
 time in France and Switzerland, enabled them to recover 
 somewhat from the effect of the confiscations to which they 
 had been subjected. 
 
 During the few years of tranquillity which the Waldenses 
 now enjoyed, their numbers daily increased; and the 
 church of Copiere was, in 1608, enlarged to its present 
 dimensions. Towards the commencement of 1611, how- 
 ever, the court of Rome, which had succeeded in establish- 
 ing fresh persecutions against the reformed churches of 
 France, and had procured a regiment to be sent into the 
 valley of Barcelonette, for the conversion, in the manner 
 of Rome, of the Waldenses in that locality, sought to effect 
 the employment of similar means of conversion in the 
 Piedmontese valleys. In all great emergencies, the Wal- 
 denses have ever been accustomed, before and above all 
 
148 T II E W A L D E K S E S . 
 
 things, to recur to fasting and prayer, to penitence and 
 supplication : in the present emergency, a public fast was 
 ordered,. 20th of January, 1611. On the morning of that 
 day, a violent earthquake shook all the Waldensian 
 mountains : it seemed an omen ; for, eight days afterwards, 
 the regiment of the baron de la Roche arrived, from Bar- 
 celonnette, in the valley of Luzerna, and immediately pro- 
 ceeded to ravage the district, and put the men and cattle 
 and goods they seized to arbitrary ransom, notwithstand- 
 ing every effort was made to appease their insolence. The 
 exactions and oppression of these troops continued for 
 nearly a month ; they were then removed to new canton- 
 ments, where, attempting to renew the excesses they had 
 perpetrated in the valley of Luzerna, they were all slain 
 by the peasants. 
 
 In 1613, a large portion of the Waldensian militia took 
 part in the war of Montferrat, under the command of the 
 count of Luzerna, and upon the special condition that they 
 should be at full liberty to assemble every night and 
 morning for the celebration of their own religious services, 
 wherever they might be. Their conduct in this campaign 
 obtained for them the grateful praises of their sovereign. 
 In the following year, they were again levied, to take 
 part in the war against Spain, and on this occasion 
 marched in the direction of Vercelli, accompanied, as 
 before, by their pastors. These expeditions gave them 
 opportunities of destroying many prejudices which had 
 been spread abroad against them, and of comforting and 
 strengthening many secret friends of their doctrine who 
 made themselves known to them in various places. 
 
 In 1620, various troubles befell the churches of Saluzzo 
 and other districts contiguous to the Waldensian valleys. 
 Deputies from the latter, who put themselves forward as 
 
THE REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 149 
 
 mediators, were seized and imprisoned, and the sum of six 
 thousand ducatoons was imposed, as the price of their release, 
 and of the cessation of the vexations by which the protes- 
 tants were persecuted. The six thousand ducatoons were, 
 by the numerous exactions of the courts of justice, swollen to 
 nearly eighteen thousand this heavy amount the valley of Lu- 
 zerna advanced, in the expectation that, being a payment for 
 the common interest, the other valleys (Perosa and San 
 Martin) would afterwards contribute their proportion of 
 it. When, however, the 'application for these quotas was 
 made, the two valleys, under the influence of evil counsel- 
 lors, refused to comply with it, disavowing all share in 
 the arrangement. This disavowal was precisely what the 
 popish plotters wanted. " If you have no share in the 
 arrangement," said the magistrates, "you do not partici- 
 pate in its advantages, and you do not come within the 
 amnesty. Let justice take its course." Justice — popish 
 justice — did take its course. The richest inhabitants of 
 Pinache, Clots, and Prali, were immediately arrested, 
 under the pretext of their having taken part in the late 
 troubles, and made to pay for their release ransoms 
 amounting to a much larger sum than the two valleys 
 would have had to contribute as their share of the money 
 paid by the valley of Luzerna for the tutelary edict which 
 they had so imprudently disavowed. Nor was this all : 
 the persecution of these two valleys still went on ; and to 
 effects their cessation, the inhabitants had to pay, in 
 addition to the sums paid by individuals for individual 
 ransom, a fine of three thousand ducatoons to the duke. Nor 
 was this all : they were ordered to demolish six of their 
 churches. This they absolutely refused to do, and there- 
 upon seven regiments of infantry were sent to treat them 
 in all respects as a conquered country ; these troops 
 13 * 
 
150 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 demolished the churches, and ravaged the whole district 
 in its length and breadth. 
 
 Various attempts were made, in like manner, between 
 1620 and 1624, to persecute the valley of Luzerna ; but 
 the privileges which this valley had so highly purchased 
 were not wholly without effect in mitigating oppression. 
 In 1625, the presence of Lesdiguieres in Piedmont, whither 
 he had been invited by the duke of Savoy to act against 
 the Genoese, interposed in favour of his co-religionists, 
 gave respite to the valleys. In 1626-7, one father Buona- 
 ventura, a monk of great note among his own people, was 
 employed as missionary among the Waldenses. When he 
 prayed, he was sometimes, his admirers said, raised from 
 the ground by a mysterious force. Some took him for a 
 saint ; others for a sorcerer. During his progress, several 
 boys of from ten to twelve years old disappeared ; these, 
 it was afterwards ascertained, had been carried off by 
 bravoes in the employment of the worthy monk, and shut 
 up, with a view to their conversion, in the monastery of 
 Pignerol. On the 9th of June, 1627 , several heads of 
 protestant families were arrested simultaneously at Lu- 
 zerna, Bubiana, Champiglone, and Fenile, and taken 
 prisoners to Cavour, with the result which has been already 
 related in this work. 
 
 In 1628, a French army, under the marquis d'Uxel, 
 presented itself at the entrance to the Alps, on its way to 
 Montferrat to serve against the troops of Charles Emanuel. 
 The Waldenses were called upon to defend their moun- 
 tains, and acquitted themselves valiantly of this charge. 
 The duke himself twice visited them, at this time, and 
 paid due homage to their patriotism ; for they received no 
 pay, but only bread. This, indeed was a great point; 
 for the harvest had failed in Piedmont in 1626, and in 
 
THE REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 151 
 
 the spring of 1628 the poor folk had been compelled to 
 sell everything they possessed, in order to purchase food 
 at Queyras. The presence of the French army on the 
 frontiers aggravated their misery by impeding this barter : 
 and, by and bye, the people of Queyras, growing alarmed 
 at the quantity of provisions that were leaving their 
 district, prohibited any further exportations, and even 
 imprisoned the famished wretches who came in search of 
 supplies. 
 
 The monks of Pignerol and their acolytes availed them- 
 selves of these circumstances to seek to purchase, from the 
 starving Waldenses, abjuration at the price of a loaf of 
 bread. In this good work especially signalized himself 
 Marc Aurelio Rorengo, the son of a gentleman of La 
 Torre, who, having quitted the magistracy for the popish 
 church, had been appointed prior of Luzerna on his under- 
 taking to employ his utmost efforts in the suppression of 
 heresy. Having procured a religious corporation to pur- 
 chase his father's house, he immediately converted it into 
 a monastery of reformed Franciscans ; and the brethren, on 
 being installed (23rd June, 1628), at once proceeded to 
 distribute food amongst the famished population, with bril- 
 liant promises to the protestants who would consent to 
 abjure. But, faithful to the example of the primitive 
 church, the Waldenses, rejecting these insidious proffers, 
 made a common store of all their possessions, and dis- 
 tributed daily bread to all who asked for it. The monks, 
 frustrated in this direction, applied their efforts at conver- 
 sion by famine to the Waldensian communes, but with as 
 little success. At Bobbi, the Waldenses would not even 
 permit the monks to perform mass, and they accordingly 
 proceeded to Villar, where they fitted up an old ruined 
 palace, which has since become the catholic church of the 
 
152 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 place. At Rora, two monks were located in a deserted 
 house. The language of these ecclesiastics was at first 
 exceedingly mild and conciliating ; but on the 29th De- 
 cember they showed the scorpion's tail, in the shape of an 
 edict, published by count Bighem, which "forbade all per- 
 sons to trouble or vex, in any way or degree, the very 
 reverend Observantine fathers, whatever they were pleased 
 to do, under penalty of death to the offender, and of a fine 
 of ten thousand gold crowns upon the commune in which the 
 offence should be committed; every informer receiving two 
 hundred gold crowns, and his name being kept secret." 
 Next, count Philip of Luzerna denounced the most terrible 
 menaces against the people of Bobbi and those of Angrogna, 
 who had absolutely refused to permit under any pretext, 
 any Observantines to settle in their districts. 
 
 The governor of Pignerol, count Capri, then proceeded 
 into the valleys, assembled all the syndics and pastors, and 
 informed them that the pope and the duke were resolved 
 that the monks should be established in the mountains ; 
 and that if the Waldenses would not admit them volunta- 
 rily, force would be employed. " To-morrow," he said, 
 " I will have mass performed at Bobbi." 
 
 On the morrow, accordingly, he proceeded with the 
 Romish ecclesiastics to Bobbi ; but every door and window 
 was closed, and not a single person was visible. He sum- 
 moned the syndic, and ordered him to have a stable, at all 
 events, opened for his service ; but the syndic replied, that 
 his authority ceased at the threshold of private houses. 
 " Well, then," exclaimed the count, " I will force open 
 your own house." — "Your Lordship will reflect before 
 you act thus," returned the syndic, with respectful 
 calmness. The count did reflect, that the defenders of the 
 village, though not visible, were none the less near, and 
 
THE REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 153 
 
 he accordingly contented himself with performing mass on 
 the high road, after which he withdrew. Two days after- 
 wards he proceeded to Angrogna on a similar mission, and 
 had precisely the same reception, with the same result. 
 Towards the close of January, 1629, he went to La Tone, 
 in company with a French gentleman, M. de Serres, con- 
 voked the syndics, and attempted to intimidate them into 
 receiving the monks, but to no purpose. On the contrary 
 the Waldenses shortly afterwards assembled in arms, sur- 
 rounded the habitations in which the monks had established 
 themselves, and called upon them to withdraw. They 
 refused ; whereupon, it being prohibited to the men to lay 
 hands upon them, the women approached, forced open the 
 doors, and some of these robust mountaineers, accustomed 
 to carry heavy burdens, shouldering the poor ecclesiastics 
 like so many bundles of wood, carried them oiF. Then- 
 furniture, goods, copes, reliques, &c, were then packed in 
 carts, and transported beyond the limits of the commune 
 after the owners. The clergy complained to the court, 
 and the Waldenses sent deputies to defend them. The 
 result was an edict, dated 22d February, 1629, by which 
 the former concessions to the Waldenses were confirmed, 
 and the vexations practised on them ordered to be discon- 
 tinued. 
 
 On the 16th July, 1630, Charles Emanuel died, aged 
 sixty-eight years and a half, after a reign of half a cen- 
 tury ; and at his death, France took possession of Savoy 
 and part of Piedmont. 
 
Cjjaptn /iftnntij. 
 
 THE PLAGUE AND OTHER CALAMITIES. 
 
 In 1629, the year after the famine, the poor inhabitants 
 of the Waldensian valleys, who, having no harvests of their 
 own, were in the habit of repairing to the rich domains of 
 Piedmont, and giving their services in exchange for a cer- 
 tain quantity of corn, were deprived of this resource, by 
 the popish priests, who, from the pulpits, forbade their 
 congregations to employ a single protestant labourer, and 
 even themselves threatened to kill any follower of the " re- 
 ligion" whom they should find in their fields. 
 
 On the 23d of August, of the same year, at eight in 
 the morning, a formidable storm of rain, suddenly fell upon 
 the Col Julien, and created an inundation on both sides of the 
 mountain. The villages of Prali and Bobbi were so sud- 
 denly invaded by the torrent, that the inhabitants had 
 scarcely time to escape, and many houses were utterly 
 destroyed. In September, there came a wind of intense 
 coldness, accompanied by a dry cloud or mist, and the 
 chestnut crop was utterly annihilated; then there came a 
 second inundation of rain, which destroyed all the grapes. 
 On the 12th of that month, the Waldensian ministers 
 assembled in solemn synod, in testimony of their fraternal 
 union, little deeming that they would never again meet in 
 (154) 
 
THE PLAQUE AND OTHER CALAMITIES. 155 
 
 this world, and that of those fifteen pastors two only would, 
 ere a few months elapsed, survive their brethren. 
 
 In 1G30, a French army, placed, by cardinal Richelieu, 
 under the command of three marshals of France, Dc 
 Schomberg, De la Force, and De Crequi, to oppose the 
 projects of Savoy on Montferrat, made its appearance in 
 the Waldensian valleys. The Waldenses, having in vain 
 appealed to the duke for succours, sent deputies to the 
 marshal de la Force, who was encamped with a detach- 
 ment at Briqueras. "Yield yourselves to the king," 
 replied he, "and we will protect you; otherwise, we will 
 kill, burn, exterminate you." Left without resource, the 
 Waldenses capitulated (5th April), on the assurance that 
 all their privileges should be respected, and that they 
 should not be required to serve against their sovereign. 
 
 Towards the close of April, the king of France set out 
 from Lyon, with all his court, to march upon Savoy. A 
 deputation of Waldenses waited upon him at Moutiers, and 
 obtained the confirmation of their privileges. By the 
 treaty of Ratisbon, which terminated this war, the valleys 
 of Luzerna and San Martin were restored to Piedmont, 
 but those of Perosa and Pragela, with Pignerol, remained 
 in the dominion of France. 
 
 In this same deplorable year, 1630, a scourge still more 
 terrible than war deprived the Waldensian valleys of nearly 
 two-thirds of their population. The heat was excessive at 
 the time when the army of Richelieu entered the valleys ; 
 in that army were many volunteers, who had fled from 
 France to escape the plague, which then raged in that 
 country ; but, in their flight, they had still brought the 
 seeds of the pestilence with them. In the first week of 
 May, this terrible malady manifested itself in the village 
 of Porte, near Perosa. Next it appeared at San Ger- 
 
156 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 mano, then at Prali, and soon it spread throughout all 
 the valleys. The pastors immediately, pursuant to the 
 custom of their church, assembled together to consult the 
 Lord, to seek inspiration from prayer and meditation, and 
 to discuss, one with the other, the course they should pur- 
 sue in this alarming conjuncture. This meeting took place 
 at Pramol. In a few days afterwards, the pestilence 
 broke out at Pramol also, and the pastors began to hold 
 their preachings in the open fields. In June, the com- 
 mune of Angrogna was invaded by the pestilence, and on 
 the 11th of July, there fell beneath its stroke the pas- 
 tor of San Giovanni, and the pastor of Meano ; on the 
 12th the pastor of Prali ; on the 24th, the pastor of 
 Angrogna. Before the 1st of August, seven other Wal- 
 densian ministers died. On the 2d of August, the six 
 surviving ministers met on Mont Saumette, an isolated 
 eminence in the centre of the three valleys, near La Va- 
 chera. Here, after weeping and praying, they distributed 
 among themselves the care of the vacant churches ; but, in 
 a little while, three of the six followed their brethren ; and 
 the three survivors then held a conference on the heights 
 of Angrogna, with deputies from all the parishes of the 
 valleys, to determine upon the means of providing for the 
 celebration of worship. Letters were despatched to Con- 
 stantinople, recalling Antony Leger ; to Geneva, for a sup- 
 ply of protestant clergy ; to Grenoble, imploring the pastors 
 of Dauphiny to come and console and strengthen the Wal- 
 densian church, thus cruelly tried. 
 
 There remained but one pastor for each of the three 
 valleys ; Peter Gilles in that of Luzerna ; Valerius Gros, 
 in that of St. Martin; and John Barthelemy, in that of 
 Perosa. But on the 22d of April, 1631, the plague 
 seized upon John Barthelemy also, and on the 25th he died ; 
 
PLAGUE AND OTHER CALAMITIES. 157 
 
 so that upon the venerable ministers Gilles and Gros, 
 already worn down by years and infirmities, devolved the 
 care of all the churches of the Waldenses. 
 
 The mysterious and terrible scourge, which had subsided 
 during the winter, rose up again, with renewed force, in 
 the spring of 1631, and extended its ravages to the hills 
 of Angrogna and Bobbi, which it had before spared. 
 More than 12,000 persons died in the valleys; in La 
 Torre alone, upwards of fifty families became completely 
 extinct. The crops rotted in the fields, for there was no 
 one to reap them ; the fruits fell from the trees, for there 
 was no one to gather them. During the summer heats, 
 horsemen were seen to fall from their saddles to the 
 ground, seized with sudden death. " The highways," 
 says Gilles, " were so encumbered with the dead bodies 
 of men and animals, that they were almost impassable. 
 Many estates were abandoned, for want, not merely 
 of cultivators, but of proprietors. Towns and villages, 
 lately full of life and occupation, of merchants, artisans, 
 labourers, became silent and desert. Whole families, in 
 numberless instances, disappeared ; there was no family 
 which did not lose some of its members. The venerable 
 minister, Gilles, lost his four elder sons, and being, with 
 the exception of Valerius Gros, the sole surviving pastor 
 of the valleys, found his duties augment with his afflictions ; 
 but God gave him strength to bear his double burden of 
 calamity and labour. He went through all the parishes, 
 preached twice every Sunday, and once at least, every 
 other day ; visited the sick, and consoled the afflicted, calm 
 and serene amid his dying flock, to whom he communi- 
 cated his own unshakable confidence in Him who raises up 
 the fallen and heals those whom he had wounded. His 
 indefatigable devotedness carried him through every 
 U 
 
158 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 danger ; and he was preserved to the Waldensian church, 
 and with him that most complete monument of the ancient 
 Waldensian history, which he has transmitted to us in his 
 chronicle, so rich in details respecting an epoch otherwise 
 but little known. 
 
 The pastor Brunet was the first who hastened from 
 Geneva to succor the valleys ; he arrived in December, 
 1630, the month before the cessation of the plague. 
 Other ministers of the gospel followed ; but none of them 
 could administer divine service in the Italian tongue, 
 which had hitherto been the language of Waldensian 
 preaching and spiritual instruction. It was necessary, 
 therefore, to have the service performed in French ; and 
 as the ancient language of the Waldenses is a dialect 
 between French and Italian, the people soon became 
 accustomed to the new formulary. From this period date 
 the regular relations which have ever since been main- 
 tained between the Waldensian church and that of Geneva. 
 
 The most urgent functions which the new pastors had 
 first to accomplish in the valleys was the re-organization 
 of their churches, so cruelly decimated. "It was a marvel 
 unprecendented in these countries," says Gilles, " to see 
 the multitude of marriages that took place at this time. 
 Everywhere the plague had taken from parents their 
 children, from children their parents, from the husband 
 his wife, from the wife her husband ; so that all being 
 desolate, each sought out a brother or a sister with whom 
 to raise up the fallen habitations and to create a new 
 home." 
 
 War, the other scourge from which the valleys had 
 suffered so grievously, disappeared shortly after the 
 plague. On the 6th of April, 1631, Victor Amadeus 
 signed, at Queyras, a treaty of peace, by which he resumed 
 
TIIE PLAGUE AND OTHER CALAMITIES. 159 
 
 possession of all his states, and obtained some towns in 
 Montferrat, as an equivalent for Pignerol and the valley 
 of Perosa, which remained in the hands of France. 
 
 On the eve of his return to Turin, he received, at 
 Carignano, a deputation from the Waldenses, whom he 
 received with much kindness, saying to them; "Be good 
 subjects to me, and I will be a good prince to you." The 
 prior of Luzerna, Korengo, and the superior of the monas- 
 tery of La Torre, Fra Paolo, no sooner heard of this 
 favourable reception, than they applied themselves to 
 counteract it, and all sorts of offences were alleged at 
 court against the Waldenses; so that, when another 
 deputation of these waited on the prince (8th September, 
 1632), to solicit from him the formal ratification of their 
 privileges, he informed them that an officer of state was 
 about to proceed to the valleys to inquire into the offences 
 which had been laid to their charge, and that to this 
 officer they might state their grievances. Soon after- 
 wards, accordingly, a commissioner, accompanied by 
 Rorengo, visited all the valleys, collected information, and 
 received complaints. The nature of his report is unknown • 
 but, in the following year, another commissioner, Christo- 
 pher Fauzon, summoned a meeting of Waldensian delegates 
 at La Torre, and proceeded first to harangue and then to 
 question them. He told them they were charged with 
 having recently established themselves at Luzerna and 
 Btibiana ; they proved that they had been established in 
 both places from time immemorial. He contested the 
 right of the parishioners of San Giovanni to ring a bell for 
 the purpose of summoning the faithful to church : they 
 showed that this custom had been also immemorial. Ulti- 
 mately, he demanded from the Waldenses a written statement 
 of the proofs by which they assumed to establish their 
 
160 THE VALDENSES. 
 
 right to celebrate the protestant -worship, in each of their 
 parishes. After some hesitation, for the Waldenses 
 feared a new snare, the document was furnished, and the 
 commissioner quitted the valleys. jSTo communication was 
 made with reference to the -written statement supplied 
 by the Waldenses, and things remained in their previous 
 condition. 
 
Cljaptn iulntitli. 
 
 MORE MARTYRS. 
 
 In the time of the Reformation, the Christians of Pro- 
 vence and of the valleys placed themselves in communica- 
 tion with the reformers. The consequent animadversion 
 of the church first assailed the Provencals, about Avignon. 
 The Rome of the west found it necessary to combat the 
 religious awakening which menaced her predominance, and 
 the inquisitor Giovanni de Roma raised the first martyr- 
 pyres on the slopes of Leberon. The proceedings against 
 these victims made known the presence, among the heretics 
 of Provence, of many persons who had come from the val- 
 leys of Piedmont. Hereupon the count of Aix wrote to 
 the senate of Turin, and the senate appointed a commis- 
 sioner, Pantaleone Bersori, to proceed to Provence, and 
 inquire further into the matter. Bersori returned from 
 Provence with numerous and precise data as to the leading 
 Waldensian families in Piedmont, and the high antiquity 
 and extensive ramifications of the ministry of the barbas, 
 accomplishing its work in silence and obscurity, that it 
 might bear more fruit. 
 
 Bersori, furnished with the information he had collected 
 
 in Provence, proceeded to the valleys, and continued there 
 
 the inquisitorial proceedings begun in Provence by the 
 
 court of Aix. There was no want of witnesses ready to 
 
 H* L (id) 
 
l(i£ THE WALDENSES. 
 
 testify to the evangelical faith. One of these, Bernardino 
 Fea, of San Segonzo, upon being interrogated by the judge 
 as to the communications he had had with the heretics, 
 replied : 
 
 " When I was at Briqueras, in 1529, I met Louis Turin, 
 of San Giovanni, who took me with him to his house. 
 There, another inhabitant of San Giovanni, Catalan 
 Girardet, who came in, invited us to go to La Torre, where, 
 he said, we should hear good things ; Louis Turin also 
 requested me to go, and we went. 
 
 " On arriving at La Torre, Catalan conducted us to the 
 house of Chabert Ughet, where, in a large room, we found 
 a number of persons assembled. A barba, named Philip, 
 was preaching, and, after his sermon, he questioned me, 
 and then instructed me in various points of their religion." 
 
 " What did he say ?" 
 
 " That there is no salvation except in Jesus Christ, and 
 that we ought to do good works, not in order that we may 
 be saved, but because we have been saved." 
 
 As this witness had not ceased to attend mass, he was 
 not prosecuted ; but Catalan Girardet was arrested, and, 
 on his refusing to apostatize, was condemned to be burned 
 alive. He died firm and serene, his forehead radiant, amid 
 the flames that were devouring him, with the blessed 
 assurance of the salvation he had received, and of the 
 eternal happiness he was about to receive. 
 
 Shortly after the count de la Trinite* had put the Wal- 
 densian valleys to fire and sword, the pastor of Prali, 
 Martin, was visited by two men who had been in the ser- 
 vice of the seigneurs du Perrier, those malignant foes of 
 the Waldenses, the cruel and treacherous Truchets. The 
 pastor of Prali was a Frenchman ; his • two visitors 
 announced themselves as also Frenchmen ; and Martin 
 
MORE MARTYRS. \Q$ 
 
 received them as countrymen. They expressed a desire 
 to enter the reformed church, and the good pastor invited 
 them to remain his guests, till he had shown them the way 
 of salvation. The parishioners, who distrusted these two 
 men, partly from instinct, partly from the fact that they 
 were recognized as having not long before borne arms 
 against the Waldenses, entreated Martin to be on his 
 guard ; but the simple and excellent man believed in the 
 sincerity of his guests' conversion, and appealed to the 
 Christian sentiments of his flock for a more charitable con- 
 struction. The population of Prali, however, remained 
 full of anxiety, and saw with regret and apprehension the 
 two men still abiding with their beloved pastor, who had 
 no family, and lived in a retired spot. At length, the 
 pastor did not make his wonted appearance at the church 
 for the celebration of divine service. The people, in a 
 state of fearful suspense, hastened to his house. The door 
 was closed ; they knocked ; no one replied. Some of the 
 parishioners forced their way into the cottage through a 
 window, and in an instant their cries of anguish announced 
 a deplorable catastrophe. The pastor Martin lay lifeless, 
 bathed in his own blood. The monsters, whom he had 
 treated as children, had cut his throat, stripped the house, 
 and fled. The Waldenses hastened in pursuit of the assas- 
 sins, but could discover no traces of them. Some time 
 afterwards, however, they audaciously returned to the val- 
 leys in the service of the seigneurs du Perrier, who thus 
 manifested themselves the accomplices, and who had pro- 
 bably been the instigators of this odious murder. 
 
 So fierce was the hostility of the persecutors, that Bar- 
 beri, the duke's commissioner, absolutely arrested and 
 imprisoned the secretary of an embassy sent by the elector 
 palatine to Emanuel Philibert, for the purpose of inter- 
 
164 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 ceding with him in favour of the "Waldenses. The only 
 pretext for seizing the secretary was, that he was a pro- 
 testant pastor; he was, of course, immediately released. 
 In a letter which this official addressed to the Waldenses, 
 he states — " The chancellor Stropiano, in reply to our 
 intercession for you, accuses you of being disturbers of the 
 public peace ; says that the Waldenses are conspiring 
 against the state ; and cites, in support of this accusation, 
 the case of nine Waldenses who lately assembled in a fron- 
 tier town, and whom he arrested as conspirators." Now 
 the simple fact, as to this pretended conspiracy, is, that a 
 a few Christians having met for worship in a private house 
 at Bourg, in Bresse, were engaged in prayer, when a 
 number of archers surrounded the house, and took them 
 prisoners. As it was necessary to devise some charge to 
 justify this gross violation of private right, the Waldenses 
 were accused of being suspected of meeting to conspire 
 against the state ; and as they could not disprove that they 
 were suspected, they were sent to the galleys. 
 
 The Waldenses of Dauphiny and Provence paid at this 
 time, in like manner, their tribute of martyrs to the con- 
 stant testimony of the Christian church against antichrist. 
 
 The valley of La Grave, which slopes from Mont Pel- 
 voux in direction opposite to Val Louise, had been enlight- 
 ened by some wandering rays of the evangelical light, the 
 focus of which was in the centre of the Waldensian valleys. 
 A pedlar of Villar, a remote village of this valley, after 
 having taken his family to Geneva, to be there in- 
 structed and led in the ways of the Lord, himself returned 
 to France in pursuit of his trade. Being a skilful worker 
 in coral, Romeyer proceeded towards Marseilles, for the 
 purpose of purchasing a supply of that article, and on his 
 
MORE MARTYRS. 165 
 
 road endeavoured to dispose of the coral ornaments he had 
 with him. 
 
 At Draguignan, he showed them to a goldsmith of the 
 town, named Lanteaume, who greatly admired them, and 
 was desirous of purchasing them ; but the parties, not being 
 able to agree about the price, separated. There was at 
 this time at Draguignan, the baron de Lauris, son-in-law of 
 Menier d'Oppede, whose name is written in letters of blood 
 in the history of the Waldenses. Lanteaume, loath to see 
 the property quit the place, insidiously counselled Romeyer 
 to show it to the baron de Lauris, who, being a rich seig- 
 neur, might be disposed to purchase it. The cupidity of 
 the baron having been aroused by a sight of the ornaments, 
 Lanteaume went and informed him that the owner was a 
 Lutheran ; and as confiscation of goods always accompanied 
 a sentence of death, the two accomplices came at once to 
 an understanding. Romeyer was arrested by order of De 
 Lauris, in April, 1558. After various private interroga- 
 tories, in which he made no secret whatever of his religious 
 faith, the tribunal of Draguignan assembled for his trial. 
 An Observantine monk, on the preceding day, celebrated 
 a mass to the Holy Ghost, "in order," as he said, "that 
 the Holy Ghost might inspire the judges to condemn the 
 cursed Lutheran to the flames." But his mass did not 
 produce the eifect he desired ; for a young advocate, ad- 
 dressing the tribunal, pointed out that Romeyer had been 
 guilty of no legal offence ; that he had neither preached 
 nor dogmatized in France ; that he was a foreigner ; was 
 only occupied in Provence with his trade ; and that justice, 
 instead of condemning, ought to protect him. The whole 
 bar supported this argument. The judges were half of 
 them for an acquittal, half for condemnation, and the pris- 
 oner was relegated to his dungeon. One of the judges, 
 
160 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 who had voted for condemnation, had previously been with 
 the prisoner in his cell, seeking to intimidate him, and fail- 
 ing therein, had pronounced against him from the bench. 
 
 Upon the decision of the judges being made known, the 
 Observantine monk, who had made a sort of personal mat- 
 ter of the case, and who saw the credit of his masses and 
 his prayers singularly compromised in public opinion by 
 this result of the trial, had the bells of his monastery rung, 
 harangued the mob who assembled at the sound, and 
 insisted that good catholics should not permit an infamous 
 heretic, a Lutheran, an accursed soul, to pollute, with im- 
 punity, the devout town of Draguignan with his presence. 
 Having thus excited the populace, the worthy monk pro- 
 ceeded to the official and consuls of the town, representing 
 that their honour was concerned in preserving intact the 
 excellent reputation of their dear city ; and then, all 
 together, followed by the infuriated mob, went to the ma- 
 gistrates, vociferating that unless they condemned the 
 heretic to be burned alive, they themselves would denounce 
 them to the parliament, the king, the pope, and to all the 
 powers of the earth, to procure their destruction. Such is 
 the religious fervour of popery ! 
 
 The lieutenant of the king, who, at this time, was the 
 representative, in each district, of the administration, 
 invoked the respect due to judicial forms, which ought not 
 to be set aside, even against a heretic. 
 
 " Kill him ! kill him !" cried the people. " Burn him ! 
 burn him !" cried the people. 
 
 The magistrate, unable to appease the tumult, promised 
 to proceed to Aix, and lay the matter before the parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 The populace was, thereupon, about to disperse; but the 
 monk, not satisfied, required that four persons should go to 
 
MORE MA11TYRS. 167 
 
 Aix, at the expense of the town, and urge the condemna- 
 tion of Romeyer. As these four deputies were on their 
 way, they met one of the presidents of the court of 
 Aix, who said to them : " Surely you need not so many 
 formalities to burn a heretic !" The deputation, upon this 
 hint, turned back, and proceeded to expedite the sentence 
 of death. The lieutenant, who pursued his way to Aix, 
 laid the matter before the court, and the court issued an 
 order that the court at Draguignan should not try the pris- 
 oner; but fanaticism was not to be baulked of its prey; 
 Barberi, the attorney-general, repairing to Aix, procured 
 the withdrawal of the prohibition, and permission for the 
 judges at Draguignan to try the prisoner, or in other, 
 words, judicially to assassinate him. 
 
 He was condemned to be first racked, then broken on 
 the wheel, and, lastly, burned to death by a slow fire. He 
 might have relieved himself from all these tortures, by 
 abjuration ; but the monk, who was sent to make this pro- 
 position to him, returned with the announcement that he 
 had found him pertinax, infallibly accursed. Forthwith, 
 from all the pulpits round about, it was announced that, 
 on the 16th of May, there would take place the public exe- 
 cution of an atrocious Lutheran ; and in the town of Dra- 
 guignan itself, proclamation was made by sound of trumpet, 
 that every good catholic should bring a billet of wood to 
 form the funeral pyre. 
 
 On the appointed morning, the deputy-lieutenant, several 
 judges, lay and ecclesiastic, and the consuls of the town, 
 proceeded to the dungeon of the prisoner, to apply the 
 torture. They displayed before him the rack, the cords, 
 the wedges, the iron bars, all the instruments of torture 
 invented by the successors of the martyr-apostle. 
 
1G8 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 "Denounce your accomplices, abjure your errors, and 
 save yourself these torments," said the deputy-lieutenant. 
 
 "I have no accomplices," replied Komeyer; "and I 
 have nothing to abjure, for I profess only the law of 
 Christ. You call my profession perverse and erroneous ; 
 but, in the day of judgment, God will proclaim it, against 
 its transgressors, just and holy." Thereupon, relates 
 Crispin, he was put on the rack, and cruelly stretched by 
 the cords: in his anguish, he called unto God to have pity 
 on him, for the love of Jesus. " Implore the Virgin," 
 cried the idolaters. " There is but one mediator," replied 
 the sufferer, "even Jesus: oh, God, mercy!" and he 
 fainted ; for, upon his refusal to invoke the Virgin, the 
 tormentors had wrested his limbs more cruelly than before. 
 Fearing that he might die before he was burned, the monks 
 and priests disengaged his mangled frame from the wheel ; 
 the bones of his legs and arms were broken, and their frac- 
 tured points came through his flesh. Some cordial was 
 given to him to restore animation, and he was then carried 
 to the place of final execution, and fastened by a chain to 
 the post which rose amid the pyre. 
 
 " Invoke the Virgin and the saints," thundered a monk. 
 The poor pedlar could only reply by a faint movement of 
 the head, in the negative. The executioner, thereupon set 
 fire to the pile. At first, being chiefly composed of 
 branches and brushwood, it flamed furiously ; but soon sub- 
 siding into a mass, the martyr hung suspended from the 
 stake over the devouring heap ; his lower limbs were 
 scorched, his entrails came forth, and his poor frame 
 was already consumed below, when his lips were still 
 seen moving, emitting, indeed, no sound, but testifying, 
 within, a last invocation of the martyr to his God, a 
 last appeal to that Christ who had died for him. 
 
MORE MARTYRS. \QQ 
 
 I may here give an illustration of the arrogant opposi- 
 tion which the Inquisition, from time to time, manifested 
 towards even the crowned heads who sought to save its 
 victims. 
 
 According to the convention at Cavour, in 1561, be- 
 tween Emanuel Philibert and the Waldenses, the latter 
 were in no sort to be proceeded against for any acts which 
 had taken place during the war of 1560. A man of San 
 Giovanni, named Gaspar Orselli, having been taken pris- 
 oner at that epoch, had, to save his life, promised to cathol- 
 icize ; but, upon peace being concluded, he had returned to 
 the open profession of the faith which, at heart, he had 
 never abandoned. The inquisitors thereupon had him 
 seized, and confined him in the dungeons of the holy office 
 at Turin. The Waldenses claimed him, in the name of the 
 amnesty, and the duke ordered the inquisitors to release 
 him ; but they refused to obey. The edict of Cavour was 
 recalled to them. " Our order is not subject to the secu- 
 lar power," replied the worthy Dominicans, who yet were 
 ever ready to make use of the power they refused to recog- 
 nize. Philibert, indignant at this insolent rebellion, sent 
 them word that all the frocked legions in the world should 
 not make him break his word, and that, unless they forth- 
 with released the captive, he would batter their house down 
 upon their heads. 
 
 At this unexpected menace, the holy office forthwith 
 gave way. Orselli was released, and the duke, to whom 
 all honour is due for his firmness on this occasion, wrote 
 (20th of November, 1570) to the Waldenses, assuring them 
 of his continued protection. 
 
 When liberty of conscience was suppressed in Piedmont, 
 the noble family of Bazana, among others retired to the 
 valley of Luzerna, where the evangelical worship was still 
 15 
 
170 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 permitted. A member of this family, Sebastian Bazana, 
 who had received his spiritual training from the lips of the 
 pastor Gilles, destined afterwards to become the narrator 
 of his martyrdom, had, after the death of his father, set- 
 tled with his aged mother, his two brothers, and their 
 families, at La Torre. There his zeal for the Christian 
 faith drew upon him the animosity of the monks, who, 
 watching for the occasion, had him seized at Carmagnola, 
 26th of April, 1622, and threw him into the dungeons of 
 the castle there, whence, after an imprisonment of four 
 months, he was transferred to those of the senate at Turin. 
 The courageous captive was not without intercessors to 
 solicit his pardon, nor Christian brethren to console him. 
 The latter alone were successful. 
 
 " Greatly doth God favour me by your letters and your 
 prayers," he wrote to Gilles on the 14th of July, "for all 
 good comes to us from him, even friendship itself." From 
 the dungeons of the senate he was transferred to those of 
 the Inquisition, at whose gates, as at those of the lower 
 hell, those who enter may leave all hope behind. At first 
 his reception was of the most flattering description, so far 
 as honied words and professions of intense interest in his 
 welfare might go ; but the adopted son of the valleys knew 
 these wolves in sheep's clothing too thoroughly to heed 
 their allurements, and the firm calmness with which he 
 adhered to his convictions soon aroused the wrath of the 
 persecutors. The wolves showed their teeth. Menaces 
 of the most cruel character were soon followed up by still 
 more cruel execution : after threat came torture ; but the 
 victim yielded not. Many powerful intercessions were 
 made in favour of poor Bazana. Among others, Lesdi- 
 guieres himself, though he had, some time before, become 
 a papist, wrote thus (l-5th February, 1623) to the duke 
 
MORE MARTYRS. 171 
 
 of Savoy : " I solicit from your highness the life and lib- 
 erty of one Sebastian Bazana, a prisoner in your city of 
 Turin. He is a man against whom there is no reproach, 
 save his religion ; and if all who profess that religion are 
 to be punished with death, the great Christian princes, with 
 your highness yourself, would have some difficulty in repop- 
 ulating their states. The king of France has taken all his 
 subjects professing that religion into his peace, and I would 
 counsel your highness to do the same. It will be the surest 
 way of firmly establishing tranquillity throughout your 
 dominions." Lesdiguie"res followed up this letter by two 
 others to the same purpose, and the duke of Savoy called 
 upon the Inquisition to comply with their benevolent re- 
 quest ; but the inquisitors answered, with unctuous humil- 
 ity, that the matter was no longer in their hands, having 
 been submitted to the decision of Rome. 
 
 Several months passed away ; for a year and a half 
 Sebastian Bazana protested, by his earnest and energetic 
 resignation, against the violence with which the Christian 
 faith was struck in his person. On the 22d of November, 
 1623, his sentence was announced to him : he was con- 
 demned to be burned alive. " I welcome my death," he 
 answered, with courageous gentleness, "since it is the will 
 of God, and will, I trust, be for his glory. But as to men, 
 they have pronounced an unjust sentence, and they will 
 soon have to render their account for it." I know not 
 whether by fortuitous coincidence, or by the judgment of 
 God, but certain it is, that he who had pronounced the 
 iniquitous judgment, was, that very night, struck with 
 death in his own house. His victim followed him the next 
 morning, 23d of November, 1623. 
 
 As Bazana was quitting the gates of his prison, on his 
 way to execution, they fastened a bandage over his mouth, 
 
172 THE WALDENSES, 
 
 in order to stifle his evangelical voice even at the pyre. 
 But as the executioner was tying him to the stake, the 
 bandage fell off, and the martyr thus proclaimed the cause 
 of his death: — "People," he said, "it is for no crime I 
 die, but for seeking to act in conformity with the word of 
 God ; to sustain truth against error ; to — — ." Here the 
 inquisitors stayed him, by putting light to the pile : Bazana 
 set up the song of Simeon, as versified by Theodore Beza, 
 that touching canticle, sung by the faithful of his church 
 after the sacrament : — 
 
 " Laisse-raoi d&sormais, 
 Seigneur, aller en paix, 
 Car selon ta promesse, 
 Tu fais voir a rnes yeux 
 Le salut glorieux 
 Que j'attendais sans cessc!'' 
 
 But his voice was soon silenced by the flames. 
 
DGE 0V1DK THE GDILL -I Hif 
 
C jj a p t n $ t n t n 1 ? ni 1 1; . 
 
 THE PROPAGANDA. 
 
 Charles Emanuel II. acceded to the throne of Savoy 
 on the 4th of October, 1638, being at that time but four 
 years and some months old. It was under his reign that 
 the most terrible persecutions that ever ensanguined the 
 Waldensian valleys took place, yet we cannot justly make 
 him alone responsible for the crime, since, up to his 
 majority, it was his mother who governed in character of 
 regent. This was Christine of France, daughter of Henry 
 IV. and of Mary de' Medici, who inherited all the hard 
 and haughty attributes of her, grandmother, so that it was 
 the spirit of the Medicis, rather than that of the house of 
 Savoy, which presided over the carnage of 1655. 
 
 From 1637 to 1642, Thomas and Maurice of Savoy, 
 brothers of the late king, disputed, with his widow, the 
 regency of his states, a struggle which occasioned the most 
 disastrous troubles to Piedmont. Then, from 1642 to 
 1659, there was the war with the Spaniards, to eject whom 
 from her dominions Christine found herself necessitated to 
 call in the troops of France. All this while, the fomenters 
 of Rome were pursuing their work against the Waldensian 
 valleys ; and in these pious labours they were now materi- 
 ally aided by the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, a 
 society composed of both priests and laymen, established 
 13* ( ] '3) 
 
174 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 at Rome in 1622, by pope Gregory XV., for the purpose 
 of propagating the catholic faith. This association soon 
 overawed by its influence the secular clergy, who had 
 imprudently admitted it as an ally ; and, ere long, the 
 torch of conflagration in one hand, the sword of death in 
 the other, and its feet in blood, it proceeded to the savage 
 extermination of all doctrines not accordant with its own. 
 Nothing was forgotten in its work, except the gospel : and 
 what has it gained ? that which persecution ever gains — 
 the burden of crimes committed, the responsibility of blood 
 poured forth, the execration of mankind. It was the prior of 
 Luzerna, Marc' Aurelio Rorengo, who planted in the Walden- 
 sian valleys the first shoot of this powerful tree, the branches 
 of which were soon to overspread Piedmont, and cover it 
 with the ensanguined fruits of the most odious fanaticism. 
 A member of the Roman propaganda, a preaching monk, 
 named Placido Corso, noted for his polemical talent, was 
 despatched to the valleys to labour at the conversion of the 
 Waldenses. On arriving, 10th of November, 1637, at La 
 Torre, his first proceeding was to invite the pastor of the 
 place, Gilles, the historian, to a discussion, which was at 
 once accepted. The monk committed to paper all the 
 arguments and data upon which the Roman catholic church 
 arrogates for itself the titles of apostolical and sacred ; 
 Gilles refuted these ; numerous letters were exchanged in 
 continuation of the controversy, until, at length, Placido 
 Corso left his antagonist's last response unanswered. 
 
 Hoping to be more successful in a conference viva voce, 
 where his adversary would not have time for selecting and 
 weighing his arguments, the popish propagandist next 
 applied to Antony Leger, who, recently returned from 
 Constantinople, where he had filled the oflBce of chaplain 
 to the embassy, was now performing the modest duties of 
 
THE PROPAGANDA. 175 
 
 pastor in the ancient parish of San Giovanni ; and it was 
 agreed that a public conference should take place at La 
 Torre, on the 4th of December, 1637 ; Rorengo, at his own 
 desire, acting as president, Scipio Bastia, the younger, as 
 secretary for the protestants, and the Capuchin, Fra Lo- 
 renzo, as secretary for the catholics. 
 
 The first conference was occupied entirely with one of 
 the most difficult questions of canonical theology, that of 
 the apocryphal books. The second conference, which 
 took place on 1st January, 1638, at San Giovanni, lasted 
 till nightfall ; after this the propagandist refused to have 
 anything further to say to a set of dogmatists who he 
 affirmed, made a pope of the bible. The bible was to the 
 Waldenses far more than a pope ; but the servile slave of 
 the holy see could conceive no similitude more effective. 
 The next controversialists who undertook to combat the 
 Waldensian pastors was a Minorite, brother Hilarion ; but 
 after a few letters exchanged with the pastor of Bobbi, 
 Francis Guerin, he also gave up the contest. The victor', 
 however, had subsequently to pay the penalty of his vic- 
 tory, in being (1651) driven from his country by the Inqui- 
 sition. The weapon of dialectics failing them, the papists 
 had recourse to assassination and abduction. A young 
 man, the servant of an English protestant, Mr. Moreton, 
 was assassinated at La Torre ; a girl of Bubiana was 
 carried off by the monks ; her brother, who hastened to 
 her assistance, was slain, and the girl herself taken off to 
 Turin, was never afterwards heard of by her friends. 
 
 In the contest for the regency, the Waldenses armed in 
 support of the duchess Christine, and, opening a way 
 through the Alps to the French succors under Turenne 
 and D'Harcourt, were the means of restoring to the regent 
 one of the most valuable provinces of her realm. The 
 
176 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 return for this eminent service was the cruellest ingrati- 
 tude. Antony Leger, who had taken the lead in assert- 
 ing the claims of Christine, was driven from his parish by- 
 persecution, under the most frivolous pretext, and com- 
 pelled to take refuge at Geneva, where he long lived an 
 honoured professor of the Academy. The next act of 
 arbitrary rule on the part of the regent, in her anxiety to 
 win over the popish clergy from her competitor, the cardi- 
 nal Maurice, of Savoy, was to issue an order (3d Novem- 
 ber, 1637) for all the Waldenses who had settled out of 
 the precise limits of their valleys, to return within those 
 limits in three days. At about the same time, instruc- 
 tions were communicated to the magistrates in favour of 
 the Capuchin missionaries, upon whose denunciation the 
 magistrates were commanded forthwith to arrest all sus- 
 pected persons. In the following year (9th November, 
 1638), another royal decree was published against any 
 territorial extension on the part of the Waldenses, who 
 were prohibited from purchasing or even farming lands 
 beyond their own narrow limits, on pain of confiscation and 
 death. This prohibtion was renewed in April, 1640 ; and 
 with it came orders to the prefect of the province, Rossano, 
 to interdict the protestant worship at San Giovanni, and to 
 close the Waldensian church there. To superintend the 
 execution of this edict, there was sent from Turin a special 
 delegate, a doctor of laws of Moncaliere, and auditor of 
 state, noted for his Romish zeal, one Gastaldo. The first 
 proceeding of this official, after having established him- 
 self at Luzerna, was to cite before him (14th January, 
 1641) all such Waldenses as had property beyond the 
 limits that were assigned to them, which limits had just 
 previously been still further narrowed, by interdicting to 
 the Waldenses the right bank of the Pelice. The persons 
 
THE PROPAGANDA. 177 
 
 so cited having refused to appear, their property of every 
 description was forthwith confiscated to the public exche- 
 quer. Next, in January, 1642, came an edict ordering 
 among other matters, that the Castellans in the Waldensian 
 valleys should lend gratuitous aid to the Capuchin mis- 
 sionaries in all cases where so required by them, should 
 attend all meetings held by the Waldenses, and, were 
 they thought fit, dissolve them. The Waldenses on their 
 part, were prohibited from meeting, except in the 
 presence of the said Castellans, under penalty of fifty 
 golden crowns for each offence and each offender; the 
 edict winding up with promise of exemption from all 
 public charges whatsoever, during the space of five years, 
 to every protestant who would consent to catholicize. On 
 February 17th, 1644, was proclaimed a prohibtion to the 
 Waldenses to quit their limits at all, even for a few hours, 
 except on fair days. On the 18th of September, 1645, 
 the magistrates of the surrounding districts were enjoined 
 to seize all Waldenses found in their localities ; the official 
 celebration of the catholic worship was ordered in all the 
 protestant parishes ; an establishment, which proved an 
 utter failure, was formed at Luzerna, to receive and en- 
 dow young Waldensian girls who would consent to abjure. 
 On the 20th of February, 1650, the propagandists obtained 
 an edict suspending all the privileges which had been 
 granted to the Waldenses, until they should have demol- 
 ished the eleven churches they possessed beyond their 
 own special limits, had dismissed all their foreign pastors, 
 had closed all their numerous trans-territorial schools, and 
 consented to the universal celebration of the catholic wor- 
 ship throughout the valleys. On the 15th of May, in the 
 same year, Gastaldo was directed to restrict the limits of 
 the Waldenses, above San Giovanni and La Torre, and 
 
 M 
 
178 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 to compel all such as were settled in those communes, and 
 in those of Luzernella, Bubiana, Fenile, and San Segonzo, 
 to quit them within three days, under pain of death, and 
 to sell their properties therein within fifteen days, under 
 penalty of confiscation. The wholly protestant communes 
 of Bobbi, Villar, Angrogna, and Rora, were ordered to 
 maintain each a mission of Capuchins ; and foreign protes- 
 tants were prohibited from settling in the valleys, under 
 pain of death themselves, and a penalty of one thousand 
 golden crowns upon the commune that should receive them. 
 Gastaldo, however, little sympathy as he had with the 
 Waldenses, saw the utter monstrosity of this Draconian 
 decree, and by bis intervention it was, after a while, 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Meanwhile, the propaganda had acquired large de- 
 velopment, by the jubilee, which, in 1550, brought to 
 Rome the rich tribute of the superstitious of universal Eu- 
 rope ; a sort of popular enthusiasm arose for this work, 
 access to which was open to all catholics, of whatsoever 
 rank, and which procured plenary indulgence for all, 
 princes and peasants alike, who there met, for once, on a 
 common level. Hence, the propaganda made rapid pro- 
 gress, not only in Italy, but in France, having special 
 councils in all the towns of those countries ; and it was at 
 this time that it added to its original title, de propaganda, 
 fide, the further designation, et extirpandis hereticis. 
 The councils were composed of both laymen and ecclesi- 
 astics, and there being plenary indulgence for all propa- 
 gandists, women also took part in the proceedings, so that 
 there were councils of men and councils of women. At Tu- 
 rin, where the institution became established (31st of May, 
 1650) under the distinguished sanction of a royal ordinance, 
 the male council was presided over by the archbishop of 
 
THE PR OP AG AX DA. I79 
 
 the city and by the marquis di San Tommaso, and the 
 female by the marchioness di Pianeza, who thus sought, in 
 a mistaken religious zeal, to expiate the sins of a dissipated 
 youth. 
 
 Every means Was resorted to by the propagandists to 
 achieve the aim of their society. " The lady propagan- 
 dists," writes Leger, "distributed the towns into districts, 
 and each visited the district assigned to her twice a week ; 
 suborning simple girls, servant-maids, and young children, 
 by their nattering allurements and fair promises ; and 
 doing evil turns to such as would not listen to them. 
 They had their spies everywhere, who, among other infor- 
 mation, ascertained in what protestant families domestic 
 disagreements existed ; and hither would the propagandists 
 repair, stirring up the flame of dissension in order to sep- 
 arate the husband from the wife, the wife from the husband, 
 the children from the parents ; promising them, and, 
 indeed, giving them great advantages, if they would con- 
 sent to attend mass. Did they hear of a tradesman, 
 whose business was falling off, or of a gentleman who from 
 gambling or otherwise was in want of money, these ladies 
 were ever at hand with their dabo tibi, on the condition of 
 apostacy ; and the prisoner was, in like manner, released 
 from his dungeon, who would give himself up to them. 
 To meet the very heavy expenses of this proselytizing, to 
 keep the machinery at work, to purchase the souls who 
 sold themselves for bread, regular collections were made 
 in the chapels and in private families, in the shops, in the 
 inns, in the gambling-houses, in the streets — everywhere 
 was alms-seeking in operation, for the extirpation of her- 
 esy. The marchioness of Pianeza herself, great lady as 
 she was, used every second or third day to make a circuit 
 in search of subscriptions, even going into the taverns for 
 
180 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 that purpose. Twice a week the councils assembled to 
 receive an account of what the members had respectively 
 done, to consult what measures should next be taken, and 
 to arrange for securing the aid, where necessary, of the 
 secular arm — an aid, for that matter, never refused to 
 them. The councils in the market towns were in subordi- 
 nation to those of the metropolitan towns ; these to those 
 of the capital, and these to that of Rome, the great spider 
 that held the threads of all this mighty web." 
 
 All the Waldensian children whom they could abstract 
 from their parents' houses, were considered by these mis- 
 guided zealots as so many innocents rescued from the jaws 
 of perdition ; the greatest sacrifices were incurred, the 
 vengeance of man and the decrees of the laws alike braved, 
 in the abduction of these children, who were then placed 
 with rich catholic families, who undertook their mainte- 
 nance, or in convents, which undertook to wean them 
 gradually from the world, from their country, from the 
 pure affections of the heart, and from the biblical faith, 
 natural and revealed law being alike scorned by the bar- 
 barous spirit of Catholicism. 
 
 Another modus operandi adopted was the establishment 
 at Luzerna, Pignerol, and Perrier, of Monts de Piete,* to 
 which the distressed Waldenses eagerly resorted. Confis- 
 cations, the continuous billeting of troops upon them, for 
 the last few years, deficient harvests, and several tremend- 
 ous conflagrations, had gradually reduced the Waldenses 
 to the last stage of penury. These establishments sup- 
 plied the wretched population with corn, clothing, money, 
 on the security of their houses, furniture, land : when a 
 "Waldensian was known to have in this way pledged his 
 last resource, to save his family from famine, the propagan- 
 - Pawn-broker shops. 
 
THE PROPAGANDA. 181 
 
 dists would come to him, offering full and free restitution 
 of all he had pledged, and quittance for the amount bor- 
 rowed, on condition of his entering the Romish church ; or 
 they would have him first thrown into prison for the debt, 
 :ind then assail him with their treacherous proposals. 
 These means were effective with a few, but the work was 
 found to proceed too slowly. 
 
 The marchioness di Pianeza died : when she had given 
 up all hopes of this world, she bethought herself of her 
 husband, whom she had -not seen for many years : she sent 
 for him, and said — " I have much to expiate, as towards 
 man and towards yourself; my soul is in danger; aid me 
 to save it, by labouring for the conversion of the Wal- 
 denses." The husband gave the promise required : and, 
 as a soldier, sought to fulfil it by soldierly means — by fire 
 and sword. He had a further reason for obeying : his 
 wife left him considerable sums, to be received by him only 
 on the condition of obedience. 
 
 It only remained to create a pretext for violence, and 
 this was not difficult to devise. The monastery of Villar 
 had been destroyed by fire in 1563, and the Waldenses 
 had been charged as the incendiaries. At all events, they 
 had been compelled, in the following year, to rebuild the 
 edifice, so that this matter had nothing to do, as has been 
 alleged, with the persecutions of 1655. Some other ground 
 had to be sought. The cure of Fenile had been assassin- 
 ated ; the assassin being arrested, the propagandists pro- 
 mised him a free pardon, if he would make a public con- 
 fession that he had killed the priest at the instigation of 
 the "Waldenses, and, in especial, of Leger, then pastor of 
 San Giovanni. Berru, who had not shrunk from crime 
 involving capital punishment — he had committed two other 
 murders beside that of the cure — did not shrink from a 
 16 
 
182 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 perjury that was to save his life ; and upon the denuncia- 
 tion of this reprobate, the pastor of San Giovanni was, with- 
 out trial, without even citation, condemned to death as 
 instigator of the assassination, while the real murderer was 
 set at liberty. 
 
 Just at this time, the troops of Louis XIV., which had 
 been succouring the duke of Modena, were on their return 
 home through the valleys, and it was at once resolved to 
 canton them among the Waldenses, so that they might 
 be ready at hand to aid the persecution. 
 
CI;iifitn dMgl;tmitIj. 
 
 THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 
 
 The various provincial councils de extirpandig hckretiois 
 addressed to the metropolitan council at Turin incessant 
 complaints against the Waldcnscs, and these complaints 
 were as incessantly laid before the duke by the archbishop 
 of Turin and the ministers of state; all. of whom were mem- 
 bers of the propaganda. It was not until January, 1655, 
 however, that Charles Emanuel, a prince of clement and 
 amiable character, would take any measures in the matter, 
 and he then merely consented to order Gastaldo to carry 
 into effect the edict of May, 1650, for restricting the limits 
 of his Waldensian subjects. The military operations which 
 ensued are not chargeable against the memory of this 
 prince, who, alike with the Waldenses themselves, was 
 made the dupe of -the insidious machinations of the propa- 
 gandists. The Waldenses fell in thousands, victims of sys- 
 tematic and cruel carnage, and the duke found himself 
 put under the ban of the civilized princes of Europe by 
 reason of that carnage. 
 
 On 25th January, 1655, Gastaldo issued an order that 
 all the protestant families domiciled in the communes of 
 Luzerna and Luzernella, Fenile, Campiglone, Bubiana, 
 Bricherasio, San Segonza, San Giovanni, and La Torre, 
 
 (183) 
 
1&4 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 should transport themselves into the valley and confines 
 of Bobbi, Villar, Angrogna, and Rorata, the only places 
 in the valley in which his highness would tolerate their 
 religion, and this in the space of three days, under pain 
 of death and of confiscation of goods. They were, besides, 
 directed to sell their lands in the said districts within 
 twenty days. All those who would consent to catholicize 
 were exempted from the decree. Further, it was ordered 
 that the catholic worship should be celebrated in all the 
 protestant communes, the Waldenses being prohibited, 
 under heavy penalties, from in any way impeding or dis- 
 turbing such celebration ; and the pain of death was 
 denounced against any person who should dissuade a pro- 
 testant from turning catholic. This order directed that 
 all the members of the families indicated should remove ; 
 but Gastaldo, at first, contented himself with requiring the 
 removal of the heads of these families. They obeyed, and 
 retired to the upper portions of the valley, whence they 
 addressed an earnest remonstrance to their prince, who, on 
 his part, seemed well disposed to clemency, saying to count 
 Christopher of Luzerna, who interceded for the remon- 
 strants — " I am willing they should remain at San Gio- 
 vanni and La Torre, provided they will withdraw from the 
 other localities nearer the plain ; for their adversaries will 
 not let me have any peace till they have got some such 
 concession." The propogandists, meanwhile, were not 
 idle ; they sent a statement to the duke that the Wal- 
 denses were in a state of revolt, and had already caused 
 the cur£ of Fenile to be assassinated. In consequence, 
 when the deputies from the Waldenses again presented 
 themselves at the palace, they were not received, but were 
 ordered to settle the matter with the council of the pro- 
 paganda. The council, in their turn, refused to receive 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 185 
 
 them, on the ground of their being protestants, and inti- 
 mated that -what they had to say, they must say by the 
 mouth of a popish attorney. The popish attorney was 
 sent ; and then the council ordered that deputies must be 
 appointed, competent to subscribe engagements in the 
 name of the whole people. These deputies were sent ; but 
 their instructions bearing that they were to sign nothing 
 in diminution of the privileges from time to time conceded 
 to their constituents, the council refused to receive them, 
 until they had procured unlimited powers. The month of 
 March was occupied with the transmission of protocols, 
 memorials, and supplications from the Waldenses to the 
 duke and to the marquis di Pianeza, and with replies on 
 the part of the latter, full of that tone of moderation which 
 is so easily assumed by men of his cold, hard, calculating 
 temperament. At length, in the beginning of April, 1655, 
 a third Waldensian deputation, consisting of two delegates 
 only, repaired to Turin, furnished with full powers, ena- 
 bling them to accept whatever conditions his highness 
 might be pleased to impose, provided only that their liberty 
 of conscience was not assailed ; in which case they were to 
 request from the duke permission for the Waldenses to 
 withdraw altogether from his states. 
 
 This was putting the question courageously and unam- 
 biguously, so that any answer given could not well be oth- 
 erwise than also unambiguous. The marquis di Pianeza 
 announced that he would give his answer on the 17th 
 April. The deputies repaired to the palace at the 
 appointed hour ; they were told to come at a later period 
 of the day ; they returned — his excellency was still not 
 visible ; they returned a third time, and were then directed 
 to come next day but one. " What does this mean ?" 
 16* 
 
186 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 asked the deputies, the one of the other, filled with impa- 
 tience and anxiety. They soon learned what it meant. 
 
 On the 16th April, the day preceding that on which 
 they had been directed to appear before the marquis, the 
 marquis had quitted Turin, at nightfall, to join the troops 
 who had been directed to await him on the road to the val- 
 leys ; and on the 17th, while the deputies, full of good 
 faith and confidingness, were repairing to his palace at 
 Turin, Pianeza, in whom Jesuitism had annihilated at once 
 nobility of blood and soldierly honour, was on the thres- 
 hold of their valleys, at the head of troops about to subject 
 those valleys to devastation and death. These troops 
 were numerous. Besides those already quartered in the 
 valleys, there were the regiment of Grancey, commanded 
 by Du Petit Bourg, which was quartered at Pignerol ; the 
 city regiment, commanded by Galeazzo ; the regiment of 
 Chablais, commanded by the prince de Montafon ; and that 
 of Saint Damian, commanded by captain Saint Damian ; 
 the marquis de Pianeza acting as general-in-chief. 
 
 On the 17th April, he sent a messenger to La Torre, to 
 order the Waldenses to provide for the entertainment of 
 eight hundred foot and three hundred horse, whom his royal 
 highness had ordered to be quartered in their commune. 
 
 "How can his royal highness require us to lodge his 
 soldiers in a place where his last edict has forbidden us 
 ourselves to live ?" asked the Waldenses. 
 
 " Then why are you here ?" retorted the messenger. 
 
 " We are here for our affairs ; but we have removed our 
 permanent habitation within the limits that have been 
 prescribed to us." 
 
 The messenger returned. Towards evening, the mar- 
 quis, after having passed, without resistance, the line of 
 Bricherasio, Fenile, Campiglone, Bubiana, and San Gio- 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 187 
 
 vanni, whence the Waldenses had withdrawn, arrived under 
 the walls of La Torre, with the city and Damian regiments. 
 It is readily conceivable that this concentration of troops 
 in the valleys, the avowed designs of the propaganda, the 
 high rank of its supporters, the general excitation of pop- 
 ular fanaticism, the warnings of their friends, the menaces 
 of their enemies, had by this time clearly opened the eyes 
 of the Waldenses to the hostile intentions of the popish 
 party, though they knew not to what extent they had to 
 keep off their guard, or how far they were to trust their 
 sovereign, for the deputies whom they had sent to Turin 
 had not returned. What were they to do? They had 
 prayed to God for counsel, they had advised with their 
 pastors, they had written to Geneva for instruction ; the 
 general voice told them to defend themselves; but the un- 
 certainty of their position precluded them from concerting 
 any definite plan. They saw clouds gathering, but they 
 could not imagine the malignity of the tempest that was 
 about to pour down upon them. Had they done so, all 
 hesitation would have disappeared, and the energy of their 
 combined resistance would have been co-equal with their 
 violated rights. In this state of ignorance and indecision, 
 wishing to obey their sovereign and quarter his troops, yet 
 uneasy at seeing in command of those troops one of the 
 chiefs of that propaganda which had vowed their destruc- 
 tion, not venturing either upon confiding compliance or 
 upon determined resistance, they resorted merely to half 
 measures, futile in this case as in all others. Gianavel 
 alone, so early as February, foreseeing the terrible perse- 
 cution about to befall his co-religionists, had collected 
 together a small body of resolute men, with whom he was 
 prepared to act energetically ; but the rest of his country- 
 
188 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 men then regarded his proceedings as too distrustful — too 
 violent ! 
 
 The marquis di Pianeza had arrived under' the walls of 
 La Torre at ten o'clock on the night of Saturday, 17th 
 April ; his whole army encamped on the plain which ex- 
 tends from Les Appiots to Pra-la-Fera and Les Eyrals. 
 The general-in-chief called upon the Waldenses to enter- 
 tain his troops ; the people in the town, in number not 
 more than three or four hundred, replied that it was impossi- 
 ble for them to provide entertainment for such an army ; that 
 there was nothing prepared, and that they must be per- 
 mitted time for considering the matter. All delay was 
 refused; and the townspeople were ordered forthwith to 
 receive the troops, who would otherwise take forcible pos- 
 session of the place. Thereupon the Waldenses entrenched 
 themselves behind the barricade which they had hastily 
 constructed at the entrance to their town, opposite the 
 bridge of Angrogna. The marquis di Pianeza attacked 
 this bastion ; but the besieged resisted so valiantly, that 
 after three hours' fighting, the enemy had made no pro- 
 gress. But about one in the morning, count Amadeus of 
 Luzerna, who was acquainted with the locality, put him- 
 self at the head of the city regiment, and while the other 
 popish troops continued to engage the attention of the 
 besieged, turned the town by the Pelice, advanced silently 
 through the meadows and orchards, and then, entering La 
 Torre by the Strada del Bruni, attacked the Waldenses in 
 the rear. The latter at once faced about, pierced the 
 ranks of the new-comers, and made good their retreat to 
 the hills, having, in the whole engagement, lost only three 
 men. It was now two o'clock in the morning : the Roman- 
 ist, masters of the town, repaired in a body to the church 
 of the mission, where they chanted a Te Deum, amid vehe- 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 189 
 
 ment vociferations of Long live the holy Roman church ! 
 Hurrah for the holy faith! Down with the Barletti! 
 At five o'clock in the morning, the marquis di Pianeza en- 
 tered the town, " with all his nobility," and took up his 
 quarters in the house of the mission. 
 
 It was now Sunday morning — the morning of Palm 
 Sunday, the opening of Holy Week, and the spirit of an- 
 tichrist burned to signalize this Christian festival by a 
 grand massacre of Christians. That very Sunday, accord- 
 ingly, immediately after mass, a body of soldiers, under 
 the command of Mario di Bagnolo, departed, by way 
 of diversion, or appropriate preparation for the com- 
 ing festival, on a "heretic hunt," that is to say, to shoot 
 all the Waldeneses they could find, and burn their houses. 
 In the evening, fresh troops arrived at La Torre, and by 
 Monday, 19th April, the army consisted of not fewer than 
 fifteen thousand men. There was no longer any room for 
 doubt : that ancient project, the extermination of the Wal- 
 desens, so maturely prepared and so unhesitatingly avowed 
 by the more zealous partisans of tho Romish church, was 
 now, at length, to be effectually executed, and thus did 
 popery design to celebrate the Easter of 1655. 
 
 The Waldenses, beholding, from the heights between 
 Angrogna and Tagliarette, devastation and conflagration 
 extending over the plain, put themselves on the defensive, 
 placing sentinels at the advanced points, and small bodies 
 of their militia in the more important passes. But they 
 were poorly armed and inadequately organized, for they 
 had formed no conception of the extent of the perfidy to 
 which they were to be subjected. On the 19th, the troops 
 of the marquis attacked these poor mountaineers simulta- 
 neously on the heights of San Giovanni, of La Torre, of 
 Angrogna, and of Bricherasio. The Waldenses contented 
 
190 THE WALDENSBS. 
 
 themselves with defending their posts. They were one 
 against a hundred, but a powerful support sustained 
 them — confidence in God. All the attacks upon them 
 failed : the enemy could not drive them from any one of 
 their entrenchments. The campaign, ultimately so disas- 
 trous to them, opened with a victory in their favour. 
 
 On the 20th (Tuesday), two attacks only were essayed, 
 one upon the Waldenses of San Giovanni, entrenched at 
 Castello, the other upon the protestants of Tagliarette. 
 Both resulted in favour of the assailed. The former was 
 repulsed with marked success by Captain Grayero ; the 
 latter was equally fatal to the assailants, for the Walden- 
 ses lost only two men, while of the enemy fifty were killed. 
 Leger, who relates these details, took part in this engage- 
 ment. 
 
 The marquis di Pianeza, finding the large army he com- 
 manded thus unavailing against determined resistance 
 occupying advantageous positions, had recourse to a means 
 which, but too often successful against the Waldenses, be- 
 cause they were ignorant of its use, has ever been successful 
 with the Romish church, much of whose power is based on 
 its exercise : he had recourse to perfidy. On the morning 
 of the 21st, two hours before daybreak, he announced, by 
 sound of trumpet, at each of the Waldenses entrench- 
 ments, that he was ready to receive deputies, with whom 
 to treat for an accommodation, in the name of the duke of 
 Savoy. 
 
 Deputies from all the communes of the valley waited 
 upon him accordingly; he received them with infinite 
 urbanity, entertained them at dinner, and conversed with 
 them for a considerable time. He assured them of the most 
 friendly views towards them, said that the order issued by 
 Gastaldo, on the 25th of January, referred only to the 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 191 
 
 inhabitants of the lower valleys, whom it was deemed ex- 
 pedient to remove into the mountains, but that the com- 
 munes of the upper valley had absolutely nothing whatever 
 to apprehend. He expressed the utmost regret for the 
 excesses which had been committed by his soldiers, and, 
 imputing them to the difficulty of enforcing discipline upon 
 so large a body of troops, insidiously took the occasion to 
 say that it was for the very purpose of effecting a better 
 command over them that he had wished to distribute them ; 
 then, representing to the deputies the personal favour 
 they would confer upon their sovereign by receiving, for 
 a while, each commune a single regiment, he expressed his 
 conviction that the duke, touched with so great a mark of 
 confidence, would be induced to recall the decree which 
 affected the Waldenses of the plain. 
 
 The deluded deputies promised their best assistance, and 
 accordingly, despite the energetic opposition of Gianavel 
 and Leger, the communes consented to receive the troops 
 of the marquis di Pianeza. That very evening they took 
 possession of all the roads, installed themselves in the vil- 
 lages and houses, and, regardless of the order given them 
 to behave with caution, did not even await the morning to 
 massacre several of the heretics. 
 
 Their impatience betrayed them. In their eagerness to 
 secure the strong positions in the mountains, while two 
 regiments took the ordinary road to Villar and Bobbi, and 
 a third that of Angrogna, a special detachment began the 
 ascent of Campo La Rama and of Costa Rossina, in order 
 to arrive the more speedily at Pra-del-Tor. This detach- 
 ment, on its way, set fire to the scattered village of Tag- 
 liarette ; the smoke of the burning houses was seen, tho 
 cries of the fugitives and the shouts of their pursuers were 
 heard, on the hill of Rorata, where a signal of distress was 
 
192 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 immediately lighted, and almost as immediately perceived 
 from the heights of Angrogna, whither most of the inhab- 
 itants of the plains, expelled from Bubiana, Campiglone, 
 &c, by the order of Gastaldo, had taken refuge. The 
 inhabitants of Angrogna, thus aroused, saw in their turn, 
 the approach towards them of the invading detachment, 
 which, on its way to Pra-del-Tor, was triumphantly de- 
 scending the opposite hill. On the other side, towards 
 Le Porte dAngrogna was seen advancing the regiment 
 of Grancey. Thereupon the people of Angrogna lighted 
 also their signal fires; and cries of — To Perosa! To 
 Perosa ■' To La Vachara ! Treachery I and so on 
 spread, like electric flames, along the mountain slopes, 
 whence all the men capable of bearing arms hastily with- 
 drew to the heights of La Vachera, and thence by the val- 
 ley of Pramol, to those of Perosa and Pragela, which at 
 that period belonged to France. 
 
 At Bobbi the alarm was raised less promptly, for the 
 regiments of Bagnolo and of Petit Bourg, the former of 
 which was to be quartered at Bobbi, and the other at Vil- 
 lar, arrived quietly by the ordinary road. Some appre- 
 hensions were, indeed awakened when it was found that 
 the soldiers, instead of confining themselves to Bobbi, ex- 
 tended their occupation to Sarcena and Villanova ; but 
 still the officers declared their resolution to maintain the 
 strictest discipline, and the isolated murders which had 
 been perpetrated by the soldiers on the way had not, as 
 yet, reached the knowledge of the Waldenses. 
 
 At Angrogna even, where they found only a few women, 
 children, and old men, feeble guardians of the deserted 
 village, the soldiers abstained, at first, from any excess. 
 Di Pianeza contented himself apparently, with taking up 
 merely his temporary abode there, in order to refresh him- 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1655. 193 
 
 self and his men for a few days ; and meanwhile sought to 
 gain the confidence of the Waldensian children and women, 
 whom he urged to recall their fathers and hushands, on the 
 assurance that no evil was designed them. Some few 
 returned accordingly: woe to them ! Non servanda fides 
 hceretics, said the council of Constance : Ad extirpandos 
 hcereticos, cried the propaganda. In a day or two, the 
 length and breadth of the valley, its villages, its houses, 
 its roads, and its rocks, were occupied by the assassins in 
 the pay of the propaganda ; and now these assassins were 
 called upon to do their work. On Saturday, 24th April, 
 1655, at four o'clock in the morning, the signal for a gen- 
 eral massacre of the Waldenses was given to the traitorous 
 troops, from the tower of the castle of La Torre. The 
 soldiers, forewarned, had risen early, fresh with the sleep 
 they had enjoyed under the roofs of those they were about 
 to slaughter. The men whom, under the solemn engage- 
 ment of security and protection, the Waldenses had fed 
 and housed, were now on foot, throughout the valley, con- 
 verted, by the arts of Rome, from brave soldiers into cow- 
 ardly assassins. 
 
 To give an adequate idea of the horrors that ensued, 
 one's eye must, at a single glance, comprehend the entire 
 valley, take in each house, each room, view every act of 
 death and torment, distinguish, amid the immense voice of 
 aggregate anguish and desolation, each particular cry of 
 destroyed honour, of parting existence. Literally, indeed, 
 did the unhappy Waldenses suffer the things of which the 
 apostle speaks : " They were stoned, they were sawn 
 asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they 
 wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being desti- 
 tute, afflicted, tormented ; (of whom the world was not 
 
 worthy :) they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and 
 17 N 
 
194 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 in dens and caves of the earth." Young children, writes 
 Leger, were torn from their mothers' arms, dashed against 
 the rocks, and their mangled remains cast on the road. 
 Sick persons and old people, men and women, were burned 
 alive in their houses, or hacked in pieces, or mutilated in 
 horrible ways, or flayed alive, or exposed bound and dying 
 to. the sun's noontide heat, or to ferocious animals ; some 
 were stripped naked, bound in the form of a ball, the head 
 forced down between the legs, and then rolled over preci- 
 pices ; some of these poor creatures, torn and mangled by 
 the rocks, but stayed in their downward progress by the 
 branch of a tree, or other prominence, were seen, forty- 
 eight hours after, still lingering in all the torments of pain 
 and famine. 
 
 Women and girls, after being fearfully outraged, were 
 impaled on pikes, and so left to die, planted at angles of 
 the road ; or they were buried alive ; or, impaled as above, 
 they were roasted before a slow fire, and their burning 
 bodies cut in slices, by these soldiers of the faiih as by 
 cannibals. After the massacre, such children as survived, 
 and could be seized, were carried off, and cast, like lambs 
 into a slaughter-house, into the monasteries and convents 
 and private abodes of the propagandists. Next, after 
 massacre and abduction, came incendiarism : monks and 
 priests, and other zealous propagandists, went about with 
 lighted torches and projectiles, burning down the houses, 
 previously ensanguined by the soldiers with the blood of 
 their owners and their families. The terrible narrative 
 given by Leger of these atrocities, was prepared by him 
 from the testimony of eye-witnesse3, who gave their depo- 
 sitions before two notaries, who accompanied him from 
 commune to commune for that purpose. The pen, he says, 
 well-nigh fell from his hand, as he transcribed the horrible 
 
TUB MASSACRES OF 1655. 195 
 
 details. Here, a father had seen his children cut in pieces 
 by the sword, or absolutely torn limb from limb by four 
 soldiers ; there the mother had seen her only daughter 
 cruelly massacred before her face, after having been as 
 cruelly outraged ; there the sister had seen her brother's 
 mouth filled with gunpowder, and the head then blown 
 to atoms; there the husband had seen his wife, about to 
 become a mother, treated in a manner which it would out- 
 rage humanity to describe. Of these, the eyes were torn 
 from the head; of those, the nails from the fingers; some 
 were tied to trees, their heart and lungs were cut from 
 them, and they were thus left to die in anguish. The 
 universal conflagration of the Waldensian houses succeeded 
 the massacre of their inhabitants. In several communes 
 not a single cottage was left standing ; so that this fan- 
 valley of* Luzerna, as Leger expresses it, resembled a 
 burning furnace, whence cries, fewer and fainter, attested 
 that a people had lived. 
 
 All these victims might have lived, had they consented 
 to abjure their faith. Some who were saved from imme- 
 diate death, were thrown into prison, and there subjected 
 to continuous torturings to compel them to apostacy. 
 James and David Prins, of Baudena, near Villar, were taken 
 to the prison of Luzerna, and there, having resisted the ut- 
 most solicitations of the priests, their arms, from the shoulder 
 to the elbow were first flayed in strips, which, the upper 
 end remaining uncut floated on the living flesh beneath ; 
 then, the arms, from the elbow to the hand, were flayed in 
 like manner ; then the thighs to the knee, and then the legs, 
 from the knees to the soles of the feet ; and in this condition 
 they were left to die. These Prins were two of a family of 
 six brothers, who, having married six sisters, lived with their 
 families altogether on one farm, having no separation of 
 
196 THEWALDENSES. 
 
 goods, but each having his particular task ; some in the 
 vineyards, some in the cattle-yard; and all the forty 
 persons of whom this combined family consisted, living 
 together without the least discord, the eldest brother and 
 sister, being as it were, father and mother to the rest. 
 Yet these scenes, so patriarchal, so pure, so touching, so 
 simple, so Christian, were made a prey to the demon of 
 popery, cruel in its superstition beyond the cruelty of the 
 most barbarous savages. 
 
 A farm servant of Bobbi, refusing to apostatize, had the 
 palms of his hands and the soles of his feet pierced with 
 dagger thrusts ; he was then barbarously mutilated, and 
 suspended over a fire, in order that the flame might stay 
 the effusion of blood. Next, his nails were torn from his 
 fingers with pincers ; and as he still adhered to his reli- 
 gion, he was then tied by the feet to the tail of a mule, 
 and so dragged through the streets of Luzerna. Seeing 
 him now at the point of death, his executioners tied a cord 
 so tight round his head that the eyes and the brain 
 were forced out; and the mangled carcass was then thrown 
 into the river. 
 
 From the bell-tower of the catholic church of St. 
 Germain l'Auxerrois issued the signal of the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew ! From the cathedral of Palermo 
 was announced the Sicilian vespers ! From the tower of 
 St. Mary, in the castle of La Torre, glared the fire that 
 lit up the Piedmontese Easter. Oh, Mary ! mother of the 
 Saviour ! if any sword pierce thy breast, it is that of the 
 church which pretends to honour thee the most ; the church 
 which, calling thee queen of the angels, represents thee to 
 the world as queen of the demons ! 
 
 So monstrous were the cruelties with which the work of 
 extermination was accompanied, that several, even of the 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1G55. 197 
 
 officers who had been appointed to execute it, were struck 
 with horror, and resigned their commands, rather than 
 fulfil their orders. In consequence of the general indig- 
 nation expressed by the protestant states of Europe, upon 
 receiving intelligence of the massacre, the duke of Savoy 
 thought it expedient to publish a statement of the transac- 
 tion. This narrative, printed in Italian, French, and 
 Latin, under the title of The Factum of the Court of Savoy, 
 though it endeavoured to make out a favourable case for 
 the duke's government, and charged the Waldenses with 
 bringing all the mischief upon themselves, yet acknow- 
 ledged quite enough to show that the atrocities complained 
 of had really been perpetrated. 
 
 17* 
 
C[nij.iU£ Mtintmiti;. 
 
 GIANAVEL. 
 
 We have mentioned that the Waldenses of Angrogna 
 and the fugitives from the plain of Piedmont had, for the 
 most part, retired to the valley of Perosa. Those of San 
 Martin, forewarned by a benevolent catholic of the 
 approach of the marquis Galeazzo, with orders to put 
 everything to fire and sword, had hastened to the valley 
 of Pragela, while such of the inhabitants of Bobbi as had 
 escaped the massacre had made their way to Queyras, over 
 the rocks and snows, all these places of refuge being then 
 under the rule of the king of France. 
 
 In the hope of excluding the Waldenses from this hos- 
 pitable country, the duchess of Savoy, who seems to have 
 taken a far more active share than her son in these calam- 
 itous events, wrote to the court of France in order that 
 the Waldenses might be restricted within their own valleys 
 and there massacred ; but Mazarin replied that humanity 
 prescribed to him the duty of affording an asylum to the 
 fugitives. 
 
 This concession enabled the latter to rally, to arm, and 
 to organize themselves, with every prospect of returning to 
 their native country more numerous than they had left it, 
 for in these retreats many of their co-religionists from 
 Queyras and Pragela joined them. Meantime, an ener- 
 (198) 
 
GIANAVEL. 199 
 
 getic and able man, sustained, doubtless, by the hand of 
 God (in whom none had ever a more absolute and unques- 
 tioning confidence than had this intrepid warrior), Captain 
 Joshua Gianavel, who alone had foreseen the contemplated 
 treachery, kept the hostile army in check, and by degrees 
 drove it from the valleys. 
 
 It will be remembered that the 24th of April was the 
 day fixed for the general massacre of the Waldenses ; 
 troops had accordingly been quartered in all the larger 
 villages and towns, excepting Rora, which, however, it was 
 by no means designed to spare. On the morning of the 
 day of extermination, the marquis of Saint-Damian had 
 despatched from Villar, to surprise Rora, a battalion of 
 five or six hundred soldiers, under the command of count 
 Christopher of Luzerna, who was called count of Rora, 
 that village being his appanage. These soldiers had 
 crossed the river, and were ascending the little hill of 
 Rumer, when Gianavel, who lived at the foot of an exten- 
 sion of the mountain towards Luzerna, saw the soldiers 
 approaching the menaced village. He at once hastened to 
 ascend the hill by a different route, and collecting on his 
 way six men, determined as himself, and excellent marks- 
 men, posted them advantageously, and long before the 
 troops expected, if at all, to be received by an armed 
 force, and even before they deemed it requisite to form in 
 any regular order, they were received by a fire of musketry 
 from front, and right and left, so surely directed that seven 
 soldiers fell dead ; their comrades retrograded, and those 
 in the rear, imagining there was a numerous ambush at 
 hand, turned round, so that the vanguard were separated 
 from the main body. The Waldenses concealed amid the 
 rocks, which rendered it impracticable for the enemy to 
 ascertain their real number, fired discharge after discharge, 
 
200 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 until the vanguard, in utter confusion, and with half their 
 number slain, also turned and hastened up the hill they 
 had just turned. The rear, which had scarcely attained 
 the summit, seeing the van returning, themselves hastened 
 back at utmost speed, without even waiting to see the 
 assailants, and all fled together towards Villar ; on their 
 way, they had to traverse a w r ood, which lies between the 
 mountains and the Pelice. Gianavel and his men pursued, 
 but in such a manner as still to keep out of sight ; and, 
 concealed, as they advanced, by the trees and shrubs, 
 poured a murderous fire upon the fugitives. 
 
 On his return to Rora, Gianavel informed the inhabi- 
 tants of the peril which had menaced them. Ignorant of 
 the massacres which, during the same day, had been per- 
 petrated in the valley of Luzerna, the Rorans went to the 
 marquis di Pianeza to complain of the aggression which had 
 been essayed against them. He affected to disclaim the 
 whole proceeding. "If any attempted to attack you," 
 said he, "it was not by my orders; the troops under my 
 command would never commit such an outrage. It must 
 have been some party of brigands or Piedmontese vaga- 
 bonds, and I only wish you had cut them all in pieces. 
 However, I will take care that no such thing shall occur 
 again." 
 
 Non servanda fides hareticis ! On the very next morn- 
 ing, five hundred soldiers were despatched to accomplish 
 what the other detachment had failed in doing. Gianavel 
 was again on foot ; he had at this time sixteen men with 
 him, a small force, numerically, but, under his command, 
 and in such a cause, equivalent to an army. Of these 
 seventeen men, eleven were fully armed, the rest had only 
 slings. Gianavel disposed them in three parties, two 
 slingers with each ; the post he had selected was a defile, 
 
GIANAVEL. ,201 
 
 in which scarcely ten men could manoeuvre. No sooner 
 was the van of the popish detachment engaged in this de- 
 file, than the Waldenses fired ; an officer and ten men fell 
 beneath the discharge, which was immediately followed up 
 by a vigorous volley of stones from the slings ; disorder at 
 once arose in the enemy's ranks, and, at the cry, All is 
 lost .' save yourselves ! the entire troop turned round, and 
 commenced a precipitate flight. Gianavel and his men 
 pursued them, leaping from rock to rock like panthers, by 
 their agility, their vigour, and their intrepidity, so multi- 
 plying their numbers, that the enemy had no idea but that 
 they were a large force, while their position behind the 
 brushwood and the rocks enabled them to take that deadly 
 aim, which, with the enemy, was quite impracticable ; so 
 that no fewer than fifty-two of the soldiers were slain 
 ere they made good their retreat to the plains of Luzerna. 
 
 The marquis di Pianeza, thus again frustrated in his 
 projects, sent count Christopher to Rora, to assure the 
 inhabitants of his friendly intentions towards them, and 
 that the advance of the troops against their valley had 
 been the result of a misunderstanding. Certain represen- 
 tations, he said, had been made against them, the falsity 
 of which had been since fully ascertained ; and they 
 had now nothing further to fear. He then proceeded to 
 assemble a battalion more numerous than either of the 
 previous, fully resolved at length to accomplish his pur- 
 pose. It would seem as surprising that the Waldenses 
 should permit themselves to be deceived by such assu- 
 rances, as that a gentleman should make them, were it 
 not that the former, as protestants, regarded lying a sin, 
 whereas the latter, as a propagandist, deemed it a virtue. 
 
 Next day, the 27th of April, a whole regiment made a 
 rapid march upon Rora, occupied the approaches, and then 
 
202 THE W A L DENSE S. 
 
 finding the inhabitants fled, plundered and burned the 
 houses, and set out on their return -with their booty, 
 driving before tbem all the herds of the Rorans, who had 
 themselves taken refuge in Monte Friolante. Gianavel, 
 with his men, had seen the advance of the enemy, but 
 their numbers had rendered it futile for him to assail 
 them on their way. When, however, he perceived them 
 returning, laden with booty and encumbered with the 
 herds they were driving before them, he encouraged his 
 sixteen companions, and, after an earnest supplication to 
 Almighty God, hastened to occupy an advantageous posi- 
 tion at a place called Damassero. Hence, as the first 
 ranks of the enemy appeared, they were assailed with a 
 fatal discharge. Unknowing what might be the numbers of 
 the assailing force, and unwilling to abandon their booty, 
 the soldiers, upon witnessing the fall of their comrades, 
 turned about, and drew off towards Villar. The Wal- 
 denses, better acquainted with the locality than were the 
 foreigners, took a bye-path, which led them past the en- 
 emy, to a place called Pian-Pra, a commanding post near 
 the summit of the mountain that separates Rora from Vil- 
 lar. Presently the hostile army made its appearance, 
 advancing slowly with its booty, and in complete disorder, 
 for its adversaries had disappeared, and it fancied that it 
 would meet with no further obstruction. 
 
 Suddenly, a discharge, point blank, prostrated fourteen 
 or fifteen of its numbers. The soldiers, instead of seekinc 
 to defend themselves, hurried on their march with their 
 booty. They were now on the slope of the mountain, and, 
 availing themselves of this circumstance, Gianavel's party 
 rolled down an avalanche of great stones upon them. As 
 they were hurrying aside to avoid this storm, the Walden- 
 ees with fierce shouts dashed down upon them ; this com- 
 
GIANAVEL. 203 
 
 pleted their confusion, and, leaving their booty behind 
 them, they fled, each man for himself. The great bulk of 
 the regiment reached Villar, but many remained behind, 
 slain on the ascent, or hurled from the precipices. On 
 regaining the Pian-Pra, Gianavel called upon his men to 
 halt. " Let us," he said, "return thanks." The whole 
 party knelt. " Lord God," exclaimed their intrepid 
 leader, " we bless thee for having preserved us ! Protect 
 our people in these calamities, and increase in us thy 
 faith !" This brief address was followed by the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Apostle's Creed, and the Waldenses then 
 rising, sought their families in their mountain retreat. 
 
 The marquis di Pianeza, frantic with rage and shame 
 at hearing of this new check, commanded that a simulta- 
 neous attack should be made upon the Waldenses by all 
 the royal forces from Bagnolo, Cavour, Barges, Bubiana, 
 and Villar. All these were to assemble on a given day 
 and hour at Luzerna ; but the ardent slaughterer of Bobbi, 
 Mario di Bagnolo, resolved to appropriate the entire glory 
 of destroying the "miserable handful of adventurers," as 
 the heroic mountaineers who so valiantly defended their faith 
 and their families were designated, marched to the attack 
 two hours in advance of the other troops. He had with 
 him three companies of regulars, one of Piedmontese 
 volunteeers, and a brigade of Irish, who, banished by 
 Cromwell from their own country for the cruelties exer- 
 cised by them on their protestant countrymen, had been 
 welcomed as brothers by the massacrers of the Waldenses. 
 These worthies, to encourage their zeal, had been promised 
 the gratuitous cession of the lands depopulated of the 
 Waldenses whom they should kill, so that fanaticism and 
 self-interest, the two most potent incentives to courage> 
 urged them on. 
 
204 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 Bagnolo arranged his troops in two squadrons, one 
 of which took the right side, the other the left, of the 
 valley of Rora. He reached, without resistance, the rocks 
 of Rumer, signalized, four days previously, by the first 
 victory of Gianavel, and in which that chieftain had again 
 entrenched himself, his little troop being now augmented 
 to the number of thirty or forty men. But the right wing 
 of the count di Bagnolo, having advanced along the 
 heights, were above the rocks of Rumer, and, suddenly 
 showing themselves, menaced the Waldenses with an 
 attack in the rear, while the other wing of the enemy as- 
 sailed them in the van. Gianavel, with that promptitude of 
 decision and that energy of action which characterize 
 military genius, at once saw what course to adopt, and at 
 once adopted it. To the summit ! he cried ; and, turning 
 about, he left the troops below to pursue their slow and toil- 
 some ascent, while himself and his men, taking steady aim at 
 the troops above, who were just turning the point of the hill, 
 and had not yet had time to form, fired a deadly volley, 
 and then instantly throwing themselves flat on their faces, 
 avoided the discharge which the enemy returned. Amid 
 the smoke of that discharge, the Waldenses then turned 
 suddenly to the right, and, sword in hand, cut their way 
 through the left wing of the assailants, weakened in num- 
 ber by the concentration which the fire of the Waldenses 
 had just attracted in the opposite direction. In a few 
 moments, they were on the summit which Gianavel had 
 indicated to them, and there, posting themselves amongst 
 the rocks, and, strong in the triple energy of a just cause, 
 confidence in their God, and recent success, they intrepidly 
 faced the foe. It was to no purpose that the two de- 
 tachments, now combined, advanced to assail them : they 
 could not get beyond a certain point ; for there the semi- 
 
GIANAVEL. 205 
 
 circle which they formed, with each surging movement on- 
 ward, found its first ranks prostrated by the unerring fire 
 of the practised marksmen above themselves, protected 
 from harm by their position. As the snow melts away 
 from the hill-side under the fire of the sun, so did these 
 troops melt away under the fire of the Waldenses, till at 
 length, their heads growing confused at this so unexpected 
 result, a panic seized them, they turned, and fled, leaving 
 sixty-five of their number dead on the spot, besides the 
 wounded and the dead whom they carried off with them. 
 The Waldenses wished to pursue them along the valley, 
 but Gianavel, with sounder judgment, hastening along 
 the heights, passed the fugitives below, and awaited them, 
 with his invincible fusileers, at a narrow pass called Pierro 
 Oapillo. By and bye, the soldiers came slowly on, taking 
 breath after their flight, and observing no order, in the 
 supposition that their foes had departed. All at once, a 
 fresh discharge of fatal musketry assailed them ; heavy 
 rocks rolled down upon them ; and then, with vehement 
 shouts, a body of men, whose numbers, amid the rocks and 
 brushwood, they could not count, precipitated themselves, 
 sword and pistol in hand, upon them. Resistance was not 
 even attempted : a panic terror, or rather the fear of the 
 God of Jacob, seized upon these utterly amazed troops, so 
 that, instead of fleeing, as best they might, along the road 
 before them, they threw themselves over the rocks and 
 precipices, or essayed to let themselves down by ropes and 
 roots, so that most' of their number perished, either 
 drowned in the torrent below, or dashed against the rocks, 
 or slain by the lead and the steel of their adversaries. 
 Their leader himself, with difficulty extricated from a 
 deep pool, was convej'ed, wounded, bruised, and half- 
 naked, to Luzerna, where he died a few days afterwards. 
 18 
 
206 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 So great was the exasperation of the marquis di Pian- 
 eza, that he assembled all the disposable troops under his 
 command, and actually marched ten thousand men against 
 the little commune of Rora, defended with such perseve- 
 rance by a handful of mountaineers. This was in the 
 commencement of May, 1655. Three thousand soldiers 
 advanced from Bagnolo, three thousand from Villar, and 
 six thousand from Luzerna, to assail, with a combined 
 effort, a little village of fifty houses, already half burned 
 down. 
 
 The battalion coming from Villar arrived first. Gian- 
 avel attacked it from the heights; but meanwhile the other 
 troops occupied the lower portion of the valley, pillaged 
 the village, burned the buildings, committed the most mon- 
 strous outrages, and carried off as prisoners such of the 
 wretched inhabitants as had not perished in the attack. 
 The position had become untenable ; Gianavel had nothing 
 now to defend ; Rora was destroyed, its inhabitants killed 
 or captives. He retired with his heroic cohort to the valley 
 of Luzerna. 
 
 The next day he received from the marquis di Pianeza, 
 a letter in the following terms: "To captain Gianavel. 
 Your wife and daughters are in my hands, having been 
 made prisoners at Rora. I exhort you, for the last time, 
 to abjure your heresy, as the only means of securing from 
 his royal highness pardon for your rebellion, and of saving 
 your wife and daughters, who will be burned alive if you 
 do not surrender. As to yourself, if you persist in your 
 obstinacy, I shall not trouble myself to send any more 
 troops after you, but simply put such a price upon your 
 head, as, had you the devil himself in you, would ensure 
 your being taken, dead or alive ; and if you fall alive into 
 
GIANAVBL. 207 
 
 my hands, be sure there arc no torments so cruel but that 
 you shall undergo them. This letter is for your guidance : 
 I advise you to profit by it." This was Gianavel's reply : 
 " There is no torment so cruel that I should not prefer it 
 to the abjuration of my faith ; and your menaces instead 
 of deterring me from, fortify me still more firmly in, that 
 faith. As to my wife and children, they well know how 
 dear they are to me ; but God alone is master of their 
 lives, and if you make their bodies perish, he will save 
 their souls. May he receive them into his grace ; them 
 and me, if it befal me to come into your hands." 
 
 A price was immediately set upon the head of the heroic 
 mountaineer. 
 
 A son was left to him, a young boy, who had been en- 
 trusted to the charge of a relative at Villar. Fearing that 
 he too might be made a prisoner, the intrepid father con- 
 veyed the child across the Alps into Dauphiny, where he 
 left him in the care of a friend. Then, after giving a few 
 days' rest to his devoted band, and recruiting its numbers 
 from among the Waldenses of Dauphiny, he returned to the 
 valleys, and, stronger, more formidable, and more feared 
 than ever, resumed hostilities against the enemies of hi3 
 faith and of his people. 
 
 Meanwhile the moderator of the Waldensian churches, 
 Leger, had repaired to Paris, where he had printed a man- 
 ifesto, addressed to all the protestant powers of Europe, in 
 reply to which, expressions of the most vivid sympathy 
 and the most active interest came from all directions. No 
 foreign power took so energetic and spirited a part in be- 
 half of the Waldenses at this fatal crisis, as England. 
 Cromwell, as soon as he was informed of what was going 
 on in the valleys, addressed a Latin letter, the composition 
 
208 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 of Milton,* and of which the following is a translation, to 
 the duke of Savoy: — 
 
 " Most serene Prince, 
 " We are informed by letters received from several places 
 in the vicinity of your dominions, that the subjects of your 
 royal highness, professing the reformed religion, have been 
 commanded by an edict, published by your authority, to 
 quit their habitations and lands, within three days after 
 the promulgation of the said edict, under pain of death, 
 and the confiscation of their property, unless they shall 
 enter into an engagement to abjure their own, and to em- 
 brace the Roman catholic faith, before the end of twenty 
 days. "We have learnt also, that, regardless of their hum- 
 ble petitions to your highness, praying that you would be 
 pleased to revoke the said edict, and to grant the same 
 privileges which were anciently conceded by your serene 
 ancestors, your army fell upon them, cruelly slaughtered 
 great numbers, imprisoned others, and drove the rest to 
 fly for refuge to desolate places, and to mountains covered 
 with snow, where hundreds of families are reduced to such 
 extremity, that, it is to be feared, they will all shortly 
 perish with cold and hunger. Upon receiving intelligence 
 of the melancholy condition of this most oppressed people, 
 it was impossible not to feel the greatest commiseration 
 and grief; for we not only consider ourselves united to 
 them by common ties of humanity, but by those of the 
 same religion. Feeling, therefore, that we are invoked by 
 the sacred voice of brotherly love, we declare that we 
 should fail in our duty to ourselves, to God, to our breth- 
 ren, and to the religion we profess, if we were not deeply 
 
 *The original, in the handwriting of the poet's second daughter, 
 Mary, is preserved in the State Paper Office. 
 
GIANAVEL. 200 
 
 moved by a sense of their calamities, and if we did not 
 employ every means in our power to obtain an alleviation 
 of their unparalleled sufferings. It is on this account that 
 we most earnestly entreat, and conjure your highness, in 
 the first place, to call to mind the enactments of your 
 serene ancestors, and the concessions which they made and 
 confirmed from time to time in favour of the Waldenses: 
 which concessions were granted, no doubt, in obedience to 
 the will of God, who desires that liberty of conscience 
 should be the inviolable right of every man, and in con- 
 sideration of the merits of these their subjects, who have 
 ever been found valiant and faithful in war and obedient 
 in time of peace. And as your serene highness has gra- 
 ciously and nobly trodden in the steps of your predecessors 
 in all other things, we again and again beseech you, that 
 you will not depart from them in this instance, but that 
 you will revoke this edict, and any other that is oppressive 
 to your subjects, in consequence of their professing the 
 reformed religion ; that you will restore them to their pa- 
 ternal habitations and property; that you will confirm their 
 ancient rights and privileges ; that you will cause repar- 
 ation to be made for their injuries ; and order an end to 
 be put to all vexatious proceedings against them. If your 
 highness will comply -with this request, you will do what 
 is most acceptable to God ; you will comfort and support 
 the minds of those unhappy sufferers, and you will be con- 
 ferring a favour upon the neighbouring protestant states, 
 and especially upon us, who will ever consider such clem- 
 ency as the effect of our intercession; which will constrain 
 us to do every kind office in return, and will be the means 
 not only of strengthening, but of renewing and increasing 
 the relations and friendship which have subsisted between 
 this commonwealth and your dominions. Promising our- 
 18* 
 
210 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 selves much from your justice and moderation, we heartily 
 
 pray God to, direct your minds and thoughts, and so to 
 
 grant you and your people the blessings of peace and truth, 
 
 and to prosper all your undertakings. 
 
 " Given at our court at Westminster, the 25th day of 
 
 May, 1655. 
 
 " Oliver, Protector." 
 
 On the other hand, the court of Savoy, or rather the 
 duchess, under the influence of the propaganda and of the 
 pontificial nuncio, pursued with vigour the great aim of the 
 papists, the expulsion or extermination of the evangelical 
 worshippers of the valleys. From Mazarin, who had 
 refused to deny the Waldenses a refuge in France, a pro- 
 mise was obtained, that, at all events, no Frenchmen should 
 aid the Waldenses in their valleys. 
 
 The captain of the Swiss guards of the duke of Savoy, a 
 native of Glaris, in which canton there were a number of 
 catholic families dissatisfied with living in a protestant 
 country, proposed to Charles Emanuel to exchange these 
 families for an equal number of protestant families from 
 the valleys. Cromwell, on his part, offered to settle the 
 Waldenses in Ireland, in place of the natives whom he had 
 found it expedient to expel. But the reply of the mode- 
 rator was more conformable with the interests of his own 
 country. He supplicated the Protector rather to send a 
 plenipotentiary to Turin, to negotiate the re-establishment 
 of the Waldenses in their valleys, than to remove them. 
 The plenipotentiary sent in accordance with this request 
 was Sir Samuel Morland, who performed a leading part 
 in the pacification of this unhappy country, and who after- 
 wards wrote a remarkable history of the events which had 
 occurred there. 
 
OIANAVEL. 211 
 
 Most of the protcstant powers added their representa- 
 tions to those of England in favour of the Waldenses, and 
 celebrated fasts and made pecuniary collections in their 
 interest, Cromwell taking the lead also in this matter. He 
 had a narrative printed and dispersed through Britain, set- 
 ting forth the distress of the Waldensian church, and recom- 
 mending a general subscription. He himself set the exam- 
 ple of liberality, by contributing two thousand pounds from 
 the privy purse ; and a sum was shortly raised amounting 
 to not less than thirty-eight thousand two hundred and forty- 
 one pounds, of which, however, only about twenty-two thou- 
 sand reached the Waldenses. Charles II. at the Eestora- 
 tion, to his everlasting disgrace, appropriated the rest of 
 this sum to the gratification of his mistresses, saying, when 
 interrogated about it, that he was under no obligation to 
 pay the debts of a usurper !* 
 
 Another measure of the Protector was to address letters 
 of urgent recommendation to the protestant sovereigns and 
 
 * The subsequent history of this matter is curious. The sixteen 
 thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds, -which Charles 
 so infamously squandered, had been reserved by the Protector as a 
 permanent fund for the assistance of the Waldenses in time to come. 
 In the reign of William III., the queen consort, Mary, desirous of 
 effacing the national disgrace, gave to the Waldenses, during her 
 life, an annual pension of four hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
 This ceased with her death. It was afterwards renewed by queen 
 Anne, and the sum increased to five hundred pounds. This sum 
 continued to be issued from the royal exchequer, until the year 
 1797, under the name of royal bounty. The valleys coming for 
 a time under the dominion of France, the pension was then dis- 
 continued, and the subject was soon lost sight of by those in power. 
 At length, Dr. Gilly and other British Christians succeeded, in 1827, 
 in calling the attention of the government to the subject, and in 
 having the annuity restored. It was, however, reduced to two hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven pounds. 
 
212 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 6tates, that they should come forward in support of the 
 protestant interest. To the king of Sweden he represented 
 the noble conduct which his royal progenitors had pursued, 
 when the reformed religion was menaced in Germany. In 
 a strain of equal eloquence he explained to the king of 
 Denmark the motives of policy which should induce all 
 protestant princes to make a common cause with those who 
 were defending such as were persecuted for the reformed 
 faith. " AYe proclaim," said he, in a tone which was likely 
 to fix the resolution of the wavering, " that we are pre- 
 pared, in conjunction with your majesty, and our other 
 allies of the reformed religion, to use every means in our 
 power to relieve the wants, and secure the safety and 
 liberty of the unhappy sufferers." 
 
 In a letter to the States General, he reminded their High 
 Mightinesses of the effectual struggles which they them- 
 selves had happily made in the adverse times of the 
 protestant church in their own country, and declared his 
 readiness to take any measures, in conjunction with them, 
 for the preservation of the same faith in the valleys of 
 Piedmont. The Protector's negotiation with the king; of 
 France was still more honourable to his character, because 
 he had the difficult undertaking of persuading one Roman 
 catholic prince to act against another. His first letter to 
 his Most Christian Majesty boldly touched upon a very 
 delicate topic, and intimated that the troops of France had 
 been concerned in the cruelties in Piedmont. 
 
 " Most Serene King, 
 
 "The groans of those wretched men, the protestant 
 inhabitants of Luzerna and Angrogna, and other Alpine 
 valleys, within the dominions of the duke of Savoy, who 
 were lately most cruelly murdered, and the lamentable 
 
GIANAVEL. 213 
 
 tidings of the despoliation and the banishment of the sur- 
 vivors of this massacre, which have reached our ears, have 
 constrained us to write this letter to your majesty : more 
 particularly as it has been reported to us (with what truth 
 has not yet been ascertained), that this carnage has been 
 committed by some of your own troops, conjointly with 
 those of the duke of Savoy. It is scarcely possible to 
 believe that such proceedings have been resorted to, for 
 they are neither consistent with the principles of good 
 government, nor with those of your majesty's wise ances- 
 tors, who judged that they were best consulting their own 
 interests, and the peace not only of their own kingdom, 
 but of all Christendom, by permitting their subjects of the 
 reformed religion to live securely and quietly under their 
 protecting sceptre : in return for which indulgence, those 
 grateful men did often perform the most eminent services 
 for their sovereigns, both in peace and war. The dukes 
 of Savoy, in like manner, were wont to treat their subjects 
 of the Alpine valleys with the same benignity ; who, on 
 their side, also displayed the most devoted loyalty, and 
 never spared either their lives or their fortunes in the 
 service of their princes. We feel confident, that your 
 majesty's influence and authority with the duke of Savoy 
 are such, that if you would only employ your mediation, 
 and express your good wishes, you would obtain indemnity 
 for these poor people, and their restoration to their country 
 and former privileges. Such an act would not only be 
 worthy of your majesty, and of the wise example of your 
 ancestors, but would re-assure your own subjects, who 
 would then feel that they need entertain no fears on their 
 own account ; and it would conciliate your protestant con- 
 federates and allies, and bind them to your majesty by the 
 strongest ties of respect and affection. With regard to 
 
214 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 ourselves, whatever indulgence shall be conceded to your 
 own subjects of the reformed religion, or obtained by your 
 intercession for the subjects of others, will be received not 
 only with the same, but even with greater gratitude than 
 we could express for any personal favour that we hope to 
 derive from your majesty's friendship. 
 
 " Given at our court at Westminster, the 25th of May, 
 1655. 
 
 " Oliver, Protector." 
 
 In a second letter, Cromwell gave the king of France 
 to understand, that he expected him, not only to employ 
 his mediation with the duke of Savoy, in behalf of the 
 Waldenses, but to afford shelter and protection to such as 
 should fly for refuge into the French dominions. 
 
 " Most Serene and most Potent King, 
 
 " I am happy to understand, from your majesty's letter 
 in answer to mine of the 25th of May last, that I was not 
 wrong in the opinion, that those most cruel murders, and 
 barbarous massacres, committed by certain troops of yours 
 upon the professors of the reformed religion in Savoy, 
 had neither your command nor authority. I am also ex- 
 tremely rejoiced to find that your majesty has signified 
 your strong disapprobation to your military commanders, 
 who took upon themselves to perpetrate such atrocities 
 without your orders ; and that you have remonstrated with 
 the duke of Savoy upon the subject of such monstrous 
 cruelty, and have interposed your influence and good 
 offices with so much humanity and earnestness, for the re- 
 storation of those unhappy exiles. I did hope that that 
 prince would have conceded something to the intercession 
 of your majesty ; but since neither your mediation, nor that 
 
GIA NAVEL. 215 
 
 of the other sovereigns and states, has been of any avail in 
 their favour, I have thought it my imperative duty to send 
 an ambassador extraordinary to the duke, to give a full 
 explanation of my sentiments, in regard to his excessive 
 cruelty towards the professors of the same religion with 
 ourselves, on no other account but their religion. And in 
 order to promote the success of this mission, I trust your 
 majesty will be pleased to renew your remonstrances, and 
 to give them greater weight than before : and as your 
 majesty has already declared yourself responsible for the 
 fidelity of these poor people to their prince, so you will 
 now take upon yourself to guarantee their security and 
 protection, that repetition of such inhuman cruelty may not 
 be inflicted upon them again. We cannot but expect this 
 from your majesty, as being nothing but a just and royal 
 proceeding, and perfectly consistent with the benignity 
 and clemency with which you have watched over the safety 
 and welfare of so many of your subjects who profess the 
 same religion. By such an act you will conciliate the affec- 
 tions of all the protestants throughout your kingdom, who 
 have given you so many proofs of their loyalty and attach- 
 ment ; and you will satisfy those of foreign nations, that 
 you are not implicated in this iniquity, however much 
 your ministers of state and commanders may be : more 
 especially if your majesty will punish those ministers and 
 commanders who have presumed, upon their own authority 
 and out of their own malignity, to commit such monstrous 
 atrocities. In the mean time, since your majesty disavows 
 this most inhuman and detestable policy, I am confident 
 you will give shelter and protection to such of the dis- 
 tressed refugees as shall fly into your dominions for an 
 asylum, and will not suffer any of your own subjects to 
 assist the duke of Savoy against them. It remains for 
 
216 TIIE WALDENSES. 
 
 me to assure your majesty of the value I set upon your 
 friendship, and of my readiness, at all times to give proof 
 of the sincerity of my respect. 
 
 " Given at our court at Westminster, July, 31, 1655." 
 
 In pursuance of this interposition, Louis XIV. ordered 
 Lesdiguie"rcs to give a favourable reception to all fugitive 
 Waldenses, and to assure them of his royal protection. In 
 the valleys of Queyras and Pragela, belonging to France, 
 men took up arms in support of their persecuted brethren. 
 Many men deserted from the regular army for the same 
 purpose ; and at about this time Gianavel returned to the 
 valleys with his reinvigorated and reinforced troop. 
 
 Captain Giaheri, a native of Pramol, had retired to the 
 valley of Perosa, in the confines of France, with the in- 
 habitants of Bubiana and Angrogna, fugitives under the 
 decree of 22d April. A month afterwards, he returned 
 at the head of these exiles, supported by their co-religion- 
 ists of Pragela, and re-established them in the valleys 
 of Angrogna and Pramol. He then wrote to Gianavel to 
 join him. The latter had, at first, taken a position on a 
 lofty mountain, called la Pelaya di Geymeto, whence he 
 had essayed an attack upon Luzernella, a catholic village, 
 half a league from Luzerna. Repulsed by numbers, he 
 had effected a masterly retreat, in the course of which he 
 received in the leg a bullet, which was never extracted. 
 The wound, however, did not prevent him from pursuing 
 his expeditions; and this attempt upon Luzernella, though 
 in itself frustrated, had important results, for it gave a 
 new aspect to that war of extermination in which, hitherto, 
 the "Waldenses had only acted on the defensive. Inex- 
 pressible terror now began to agitate the Piedmontese 
 towns that lay nearest to the mountains; and each insisted 
 
GIANAVEL. 217 
 
 upon having its entrenchments and its garrison. Some 
 Irish troops, for example, were garrisoned at Bubiana, 
 but they committed such excesses there, that the inhabi- 
 tants were necessitated to expel them ; and thus the per- 
 secutors began to destroy one another. 
 
 Giaheri effected his junction with Gianavel on the 27th 
 May on the banks of the Angrogna, and by this combina- 
 tion the two warriors became infinitely more formidable 
 than ever. The first enterprise which they essayed in 
 common was directed against Garsigliano, which they 
 attempted to surprise that same evening ; but troops has- 
 tening, at the sound of the tocsin, from all the adjacent 
 villages, they were obliged to retire, carrying off with them 
 only some cattle, and six yoke of oxen. Next morning, 
 at day-break, having strengthened themselves by prayer, 
 and feeling the urgency of some energetic demonstration, 
 in order to save their country, they attacked the town of 
 San Segonzo, and took it. To protect themselves, in the 
 assault, from the fire of the enemy, the Waldenses rolled 
 before them great bags full of hay, in which the bullets 
 showered upon them from the walls buried themselves, 
 without touching one of the besiegers. On reaching the 
 foot of the entrenchments, they set fire to the hay, the 
 smoke of which hid them from the townspeople while they 
 were battering in the gates : these once thrown down, they 
 rushed in impetuously, and, after effecting great slaughter, 
 retired with considerable booty. An entire Irish regiment, 
 numbering from seven to eight hundred men, was cut to 
 pieces, with six hundred and fifty Piedmontese troops : all 
 such of the inhabitants as presented themselves unarmed 
 were spared, and only a portion of them taken away pris- 
 oners. The town was then burned. 
 
 It was a terrible execution; but terrible as it was, it was 
 19 
 
21S THE 1VA1DEXSE?. 
 
 expedient, in the essential necessity which the Walden- 
 sians felt, of making their strength appreciated by foes 
 who had hitherto acted towards them as towards, sheep, 
 who were to permit themselves to be slaughtered unresist- 
 ingly. Besides, the Waldensian valleys had been so cru- 
 elly devasted, the blood that had been shed cried out so 
 loud, the irritation had become so profound, that, without 
 attributing such reprisals to the mere spirit of vengeance, 
 one may fairly regard them as a consequence — a necessity. 
 They were useful, moreover, as forcibly impressing on the 
 persecutors the fact that the persecuted were a people not 
 altogether so despicable as had been supposed. Men heed, 
 it is said, only those they love, or those they fear ; the 
 Waldenses, sure of not being loved, were fain to make 
 themselves feared. They effectually attained this object. 
 
 Already the taking of San Segonzo was worth the gain 
 of a battle to them. They had made fourteen hundred 
 enemies bite the dust, while the loss on their own side had 
 been but seven men ; a fact which, incredible as it may 
 seem, was not only a fact, but became immediately known 
 as such, and diffused a panic terror of Gianavel and Gia- 
 heri through all the surrounding towns, which thereupon 
 formed a league for their common defence, and arranged 
 telegraphic signals, which, from the bell-towers, were to 
 give warning of the approach, in any direction, of the Wal- 
 denses, and to indicate their position. 
 
 The population, who suffered at once from the inter- 
 ruption of trade, the maintenance of the troops, and the 
 incursions of the Waldenses, were loud in their demands 
 for peace. 
 
 The marquis de Pianeza endeavoured to get rid of his 
 antagonists by setting a price upon the heads of their 
 leaders ; but their numbers, so far from diminishing were 
 
GIANAVEL. 219 
 
 augmented daily by new recruits from Queyras and Pra- 
 gela. By the 2d June, they consisted of four companies, 
 commanded respectively by Gianavel, Giaheri, Laurens, 
 and Benet. In a council of war, these four captains re- 
 solved to attack Bricherasio. In order to execute this 
 design, the four companies were to take different routes, 
 so as not only to surprise the town, but also to check any 
 succours that might advance towards it. Accordingly, 
 Gianavel occupied the slopes of San Giovanni and La Tay- 
 area, in order to oppose the troops from La Torre and 
 Luzerna; Laurens posted himself near Rocappiatta, to cut 
 off the succours from San Segonzo, which had been par- 
 tially rebuilt ; while Giaheri, descending into the plains of 
 Bricherasio, proceeded to devastate it on his way to the 
 town itself : but the tocsin sounding, the garrisons of the 
 adjacent towns hastened out in such numbers, as to cover 
 Bricherasio, and to compel Giaheri to retrograde to the 
 hills of San Giovanni, where Gianavel had kept in check 
 the troops who had advanced in that direction, and who 
 were now attacked with such impetuosity by the combined 
 Waldensian forces, that they fled after a short resistance, 
 leaving one hundred and fifty of their number dead on the 
 field, while the Waldenses had but one man slain. 
 
 Gianavel next repaired to the mountain Palaya di Gey- 
 meto. Opposite this hill was the town of Villar, which 
 had hitherto escaped destruction at the hands of the 
 enemy, by reason of the number of its inhabitants who 
 had catholicized. Gianavel sent word to these men of 
 Villar, that they must forthwith, by joining him, augment 
 the number of the defenders of their common country, or, 
 on refusal, be treated as apostates, traitors, and enemies. 
 Upon this energetic appeal, the Villarons, from fear or 
 from patriotism, joined the rough warrior who had ad- 
 
220 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 dressed it to them ; and who, his forces thus increased to 
 more than six hundred men, now resolved upon recovering 
 the protestant capital of the valleys — the town of La Torre. 
 The attempt was made, and failed ; but more than three 
 hundred of the enemy's troops fell in the defence of the 
 place. 
 
 Gianavel and Giaheri having established their head 
 quarters on one of the heights of Angrogna, called Le 
 Verne, found it necessary to take energetic measures for 
 the support of their troops, and, accordingly, the inhabi- 
 tants of Crussol, a village situated in the valley of the Po, 
 having inflicted much injury on the Waldenses during the 
 recent massacres, Giaheri resolved to put them under con- 
 tribution. He accordingly departed in the night, at the 
 head of four hundred fifty men, and next morning, at day- 
 break, before the Crusolians could adopt any defensive 
 measures, their village was taken possession of ; they them- 
 selves fled unimpeded to a large cavern in the vicinity, 
 and the "Waldenses drove off more than four hundred 
 cattle and six hundred sheep, which were transported 
 to the mountain Lionza, and there portioned among the 
 victors. 
 
 Meanwhile, the catholics of San Segonzo and the neigh- 
 bouring villages had marched to attack the one hundred and 
 fifty men left at Angrogna ; but were vigorously repulsed 
 by Laurens and Benet. In their retreat they came upon 
 an unhappy Waldensian, Pietro Reggio, solitary and un- 
 armed, whom they seized, and put to a cruel death. 
 
 Two day afterwards, 15th of June, 1655, the marquis 
 di Pianeza, having set on foot all the troops under his 
 command, sustained by a regiment which had just arrived 
 under the orders of M. de Marolles, advanced to attack 
 Gianavel in Angrogna. The troops, who were in four 
 
GIA NAVEL. 221 
 
 divisions, were to strike all at once ; but this simultaneity of 
 operations could not be effected, by reason of the different 
 routes which the army had followed, and the points, remote 
 from each other, which it had occupied. The detachment 
 arriving by Iioccapiatta, gave the signal for attack prema- 
 turely, so that Gianavel, who had with him only three 
 hundred men, had obtained an advantage over the first 
 assailants, before he was assailed, in his rear, by the 
 troops arriving from Pramol. 
 
 In order to keep them separate, he at once made his way 
 to the heights of Roccamanante ; but there he found him- 
 self fronted by the troops arriving from San Giovanni, 
 and at the same moment he perceived the detachment from 
 La Torre advancing. 
 
 In this critical position, assailed from every direction, 
 and having only half of his men with him, the hero of 
 Rora, quick of eye and prompt in execution, retrograded 
 before the battalion from Roccapiatta had time to form, 
 dashed through the centre of that from Pramol, and then, 
 as he had so successfully done at Rora, took up a position 
 on the brow of a hill, the formation of which, on the 
 other side, was a succession of gentle slopes, but, on the 
 other, a sharp and precipitous descent. The four hostile 
 battalions were drawn up at the foot of the slope. Thus 
 hemmed in between a rugged precipice, and an army ten 
 times more numerous than his own force, Gianavel main- 
 tained unbroken a defensive attitude for nearly five hours : 
 then, perceiving some indications of lassitude and hesita- 
 tion in the opposing ranks, Gianavel, having first raised 
 his hands to heaven, and exclaimed, " Oh God ! it is in 
 thy cause ! aid and preserve us !" gave the word to his 
 men, "Forward!" and, like an avalanche of pikes, 
 
 swords, and bullets, the Waldenses dashed down the 
 19* 
 
222 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 slopes with all the impetuosity of long pent-up valour. 
 Without awaiting their shock, the enemy fell back, for the 
 purpose of deploying in the plain. By this manoeuvre 
 they weakened their line : the impetus of the Waldenses 
 broke it. Utter disorder ensued, and those three thou- 
 sand men fled in panic fear, pursued by the Waldenses, 
 who killed more than five hundred of their number, 
 themselves having but one man killed and two wounded. 
 
 But, unhappily, the work did not end here. Having 
 cleared the basin of Angrogna from these invaders, Gian- 
 avel returned to his entrenchments, at the same moment 
 that Giaheri arrived from Pragela. The troops of both 
 leaders were fatigued, the one with fighting, the other with 
 marching ; those of Gianavel had eaten nothing since the 
 morning. While they were hastily refreshing themselves, 
 their leader went to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, 
 and found that they were rallying in the plain of San 
 Giovanni, but that the various corps were still dispersed, 
 and evidently without the least idea of another attack. 
 The indefatigable Waldensian general at once called his 
 men together, and having descended unperceived, fell like 
 lightning upon the heedless foe, who were a second time 
 put to the rout, leaving one hundred of their number dead 
 on the field. The triumph, however, threatened to be a 
 calamity far worse than a defeat, for in the rapid engage- 
 ment, Gianavel, that leader whom the Waldenses could 
 not have replaced, was hit by a ball, which, entering the 
 chest, passed completely through his body. The mouth 
 was at once filled with blood ; he fainted, and for a mo- 
 ment his soldiers thought him dead : reviving, he entrusted 
 the command to Giaheri, to whom he gave his instructions, 
 amid the tears and prayers of his loved and loving soldiers. 
 
GIANAVEL. 223 
 
 He was conveyed on a litter to Pinache, where, after six 
 weeks' suffering, his wound healed. 
 
 His last direction, on quitting Giaheri, had been to un- 
 dertake nothing further that day, on account of the fatigued 
 condition of their troops ; but an emissary coming with 
 information that the town of Osasco could be easily taken, 
 Giaheri, in whom intrepidity ever got the better of pru- 
 dence, and who was eager to signalize himself by some 
 effective stroke, took with him a hundred and fifty soldiers, 
 and marched towards Osasco, under the guidance of the 
 emissary. That emissary was a traitor: he led Giaheri 
 into an ambush, where a squadron of cavalry fell furiously 
 upon the Waldenses, and absolutely overpowered them. 
 In this last struggle Giaheri surported himself in valour : 
 seeing he had been betrayed, he first slew the traitor, and 
 then, having invoked the aid of God, threw himself with 
 his men, sword in hand, upon the Savoy cavalry, and made 
 terrible slaughter of them ; and it was not until he was 
 absolutely covered with wounds, that he fell. His son died 
 by his side, and of all his men, but one survived, who, 
 having concealed himself for some hours in a marsh, swam 
 the Clusone at night, and conveyed the intelligence of their 
 deplorable loss to his countrymen. 
 
 Giaheri was a man zealous alike in the service of God, 
 and in the cause of his country ; brave as a lion, humble 
 as a lamb, and ever assigning the praise of his victories to 
 the Lord ; a master of the scriptures, and well versed in 
 controversy; a man of great intellect, and whose only fault 
 was the incapacity to moderate his valour. 
 
(C tj n \) t tt <£ ra ni t i i t I] 
 
 NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 
 
 The death of Giaheri, and the supposed mortal wound 
 of Gianavel, raised the courage of the papists, and perse- 
 cution seemed to acquire, so far, a new impulse. But, on 
 the other hand, public opinion pronounced itself, more and 
 more energetically, in favour of the Waldenses. The ad- 
 mirers of military skill and soldierly daring were interested 
 by the exploits of the fallen leaders and their heroic fol- 
 lowers ; the sufferings of the Waldensian martyrs exalted 
 the Waldensian cause in the eyes of the pious. Soldiers 
 from almost all countries came and offered their services to 
 the persecuted folk. In the number, were the French 
 lieutenant-general Descombies, and the Swiss colonel, 
 Andrion ; the latter of whom had already distinguished 
 himself in Sweden, France and Germany. The Waldenses 
 themselves possessed leaders of considerable skill. Ber- 
 tino and Podio, of Bobbi ; Albarea, of Villar ; Laurens, 
 of San Martin; with Revel and Gortabella, the lieutenants 
 of Gianavel and Giaheri. The moderator Leger himself 
 had arrived in the valleys on the 11th July, 1(J55, and at 
 once proceeded, accompanied by colonel Andrion, to the 
 valley of Angrogna, where the Waldenses were encamped 
 on La Vachera. In the night, scouts were despatched 
 towards La Torre to reconnoitre the enemy. On reaching 
 (224) 
 

NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 225 
 
 the hamlet of San Lorenzo, those messengers discerned a 
 detachment of Piedmontese troops, who were awaiting the 
 daylight in order to advance and attack the Waldenses. 
 The two scouts mingling with these soldiers, conversed 
 with them in their own language, and so learned the de- 
 signs of their general, M. de Marolles. At daybreak the 
 Waldenses quitted the enemy's camp, and made their way 
 to their own barricades, which they reached just in time 
 to give the alarm. The Piedmontese troops, arranged in 
 four battallions, were occupied from five in the morning 
 till three in the afternoon, in an ineffectual attack upon the 
 Waldensian barricades, though these were defended by 
 only a few hundred men. At length, the lower barricade 
 being taken, the Waldenses retreated to a barricade called 
 the Donjon, higher up, followed by the Piedmontese, who, 
 deeming themselves triumphant, insolently called out : 
 " Advance, wreck of Gianavel !" But down the steep 
 descent the Waldenses rolled stones, or rather rocks, which 
 leaping with thundering roar upon the enemy's ranks dis- 
 persed, broke, and crushed them, as though it had been a 
 massive discharge of grape-shot. 
 
 "Advance, wreck of San Segonza!" cried the Walden- 
 ses in their turn, as, sword in hand, they poured down 
 their serried ranks upon the amazed and discomfitted foe. 
 The result was almost instantaneous ; after a brief show 
 of resistance, the Piedmontese troops, their ranks broken 
 by the avalanche of rocks, and driven in by the avalanche 
 of pikes and swords, turned and fled, leaving two hundred 
 dead behind them, and carrying off with them twice that 
 number of wounded. 
 
 Some days afterwards, the garrison of La Torre made 
 another incursion into the valley of Angrogna, for the pur- 
 pose of burning the remnant of the crops, but they were 
 
 P 
 
22G THE WALDENSES. 
 
 repulsed by captain Bellino, who pursued them to the very 
 gates of the town. 
 
 The Waldenses themselves, under the command of Des- 
 combies, and aided by a small body of cavalry under 
 another French refugee, Charles Feautrier, made, in their 
 turn, an attempt upon La Torre ; their numbers had now 
 reached eighteen hundred armed men, and Gianavel, 
 restored to health, was once more with them. The com- 
 bined forces marched during the night to Monte Chiabasso, 
 distant scarcely a mile from La Torre, and the Waldenses 
 were eager instantly to assault the town ; but the fatal 
 prudence of Descombies interposed. This officer had never 
 yet seen the Waldenses fight, and was ignorant of the 
 locality, so that when some of his French followers, whom 
 he had sent to reconnoitre the citadel of La Torre, reported 
 that it was impregnable, he sounded a retreat, being desir- 
 ous, as he said, of not compromising, in his first engage- 
 ment, the men who had been entrusted to his command. 
 The march of the Waldenses, however, had, meantime, 
 become known, and M. de Marolles at once hastened from 
 Luzerna, towards La Torre, at the head of his regiment, 
 to attack them. The van of the Waldensian army, fol- 
 lowing Descombies, had already withdrawn towards La 
 Vachera, but two of the Waldensian leaders, Bellino and 
 Peronello, resolved to attack the town, and precipitated 
 themselves towards it, with the other moiety of the Wal- 
 densian forces, Gianavel himself, as yet not strong enough 
 to take part in the actual engagement, remaining on an 
 eminence which commanded a view of the town, in order 
 to sound a retreat, should circumstances so dictate. The 
 Waldenses, well acquainted with the locality, made their 
 way into the town, took and burned the Capuchin monas- 
 tery, occupied all the leading streets, and then advanced 
 
NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 227 
 
 to assault the citadel. The garrison, after a brief resist- 
 ance, were about to surrender, when the regiment of M. de 
 Marolles appeared in sight, and Gianavel at once sounded 
 a retreat, which the Waldenses effected, avoiding the supe- 
 rior force of the enemy by their closer knowledge of the 
 locality. 
 
 Meanwhile the remonstrances of protestant Europe were 
 assuming a still more and more emphatic form. Crom- 
 well, especially, displayed in favour of the Waldenses 
 extraordinary zeal and activity. In reply to his letter of 
 the 25th of May, already given, Louis XIV. had said : 
 " To show you that I entirely disapprove of the employ- 
 ment of my troops for such a purpose as attacking the 
 Waldenses, I have already sent several messages to the 
 duke of Savoy, to prevent the further pursuit of that peo- 
 ple, and I have ordered the duke de Lesdiguieres, governor 
 of Dauphiny, to receive, foster, and protect them. I -will 
 assuredly continue my good offices with the duke in their 
 behalf." The French ambassador in Piedmont also 
 received orders to act in the sense of this letter ; similar 
 instructions were given by Holland and Switzerland to 
 their representatives at Turin ; and the Protector of Eng- 
 land sent Sir Samuel Morland upon a special mission to 
 the court of Turin, to present letters of strong remon- 
 strance to the duke of Savoy himself, and to demand an 
 audience, for the purpose of making a public declaration 
 of the indignation which the proceedings against the Wal- 
 denses had excited in England. Cromwell could not have 
 chosen a man better qualified to discharge the duties of 
 such an embassy than Morland. Young, ardent, full of 
 courage, and conscious of the dignity of the character 
 which he had to sustain, as the representative of the com- 
 monwealth of England, he procured an audience at Rivoli, 
 
228 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 ■where the royal family of Savoy were then residing, and 
 in the presence of Madame Royale, and the whole court, 
 he addressed the duke in a Latin oration, which, after a 
 few customary expressions of courtesy, contained truths 
 that none but a stern republican could think of sounding 
 in royal ears. It was the pride, and perhaps the policy, 
 of Cromwell, to transact all his negotiations with foreign 
 powers in the language of ancient Rome. lie would not 
 condescend to hold intercourse in any but his own, or a 
 learned tongue, and he considered that by this means 
 neither himself nor his ministers could be made the dupes 
 of equivocal and ambiguous phrases. Milton was the sec- 
 retary whom he employed to put his own expressions into 
 a correct and classical form. 
 
 The oration, as given by Morland himself, in his quaint 
 translation, ran thus : — 
 
 " May it please your Most Serene and Royal Highness, 
 " I am sent by the most serene prince Oliver, lord 
 Protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, unto your royal highness, whom he heartily 
 saluteth, and with a very high and singular affection of 
 mind towards the person of your serene highness, wishing 
 you life, a long reign, and prosperous success in all your 
 affairs, together with the love and affections of your peo- 
 ple. And this respect doubtless is due to your merit, 
 whether a man consider the most noble inclination, and 
 royal extraction of your highness, together with the high 
 expectation which the world hath from so many eminent 
 virtues, or whether, from perusing the monuments of time 
 past, he call to mind the ancient alliance of our kings with 
 the royal family of Savoy. As for myself, though I be a 
 young man, I confess, and have not much experience in 
 
NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 229 
 
 affairs, yet it pleased my most serene and most gracious 
 master, to send me, being one that is much devoted to 
 your royal highness, and a great lover of all the people of 
 Italy, to negotiate matters of great importance, for so 
 those affairs are to be called, wherein the safety of many 
 poor distressed people and all their hope is comprehended, 
 which indeed consisteth wholly in this, if so be that by all 
 their loyalty, obedience, and most humble petitions, they 
 may be able to mollify and appease the mind of your royal 
 highness, which hath been provoked against them. 
 
 " In behalf of these poor people whose cause truly even 
 commiseration itself may seem to make the more excusable, 
 the most serene Protector of England is also become an 
 intercessor ; and he most earnestly entreateth and be- 
 seecheth your royal highness, that you would be pleased 
 to extend your mercy to these your very poor subjects, 
 and most disconsolate outcasts ; I mean those, who inhab- 
 iting beneath the Alps, and certain valleys under your 
 dominion, are professors of the protestant religion. For 
 he hath been informed, (which no man can say was done 
 by the will of your royal highness,) that part of these most 
 miserable people have been cruelly massacred by your 
 forces, part driven out by violence, and forced to leave 
 their native habitations ; and so, without house or shelter, 
 poor and destitute of all relief, do wander up and down, 
 with their wives and children, in craggy and uninhabited 
 places, and mountains covered with snow. Oh ! the fired 
 houses which are yet smoking, the torn limbs, and ground 
 
 defiled with blood !* 
 
 ***** 
 
 * Fumantia passim tecta, et laceri artus, et cruenta humus. Vir- 
 gines post stupra, differto lapillis ao ruderibus utero, misere efflarunt 
 animas. 
 20 
 
230 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 " Some men, an hundred years old, decrepit with age and 
 bed-rid, have been burnt in their beds. Some infants have 
 been dashed against the rocks, others have had their throats 
 cut, •whose brains have, with more than Cyclopean cruelty, 
 been boiled and eaten by the murderers ! What need I 
 mention more, although I could reckon up very many cru- 
 elties of the same kind, if I were not astonished at the very 
 thought of them. If all the tyrants of all times and ages 
 were alive again, (which I would speak without any offence 
 to your highness, seeing we believe none of these things 
 were done through any default of yours,) certainly they 
 would be ashamed when they should find that they had 
 contrived nothing, in comparison with these things, that 
 might be reputed barbarous and inhuman. 
 
 " In the meantime, the angels are surprised with horror ; 
 men are amazed ; heaven itself seems to be astonished with 
 the cries of dying men ; and the very earth to blush, being 
 discoloured with the gore blood of so many innocent per- 
 sons ! Do not thou, thou most high God, do not thou 
 take that revenge, which is due to so great wickedness, 
 and horrible villanies ! Let thy blood, Christ, wash away 
 this blood !* 
 
 " But it is not my business to make a narrative of these 
 things, in order as they were done, or to insist any 
 longer upon them ; and that which my most serene master 
 desireth of your royal highness, you will better understand 
 by his own letters, which letters I am commanded, with 
 all observance and due respect, to deliver unto your 
 royal highness ; to which, if your royal highness shall, as 
 we very much hope, be pleased to vouchsafe a speedy 
 answer, you will thereby very highly oblige my lord Pro- 
 
 * It was in reference to these same atrocities that Milton wrote his 
 memorable sonnet, which we have prefixed to the present volume. 
 
NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 231 
 
 tector, who hath laid this thing deeply to heart, and the 
 whole commonwealth of England. You will also, by an 
 act of compassion, most worthy of your royal highness, re- 
 store life, safety, and spirit, country and estates, to many 
 thousands of afflicted people, who depend upon your plea- 
 sure ; and me you will dismiss back to my native country 
 with exceeding joy, and with a report of your eminent 
 virtues, the most happy proclaimer of your princely 
 clemency, and one for ever most obliged to your royal 
 highness." 
 
 This oration, stamped with the energetic unction of the 
 puritan, pronounced with the manly confidence of youth 
 and courage, produced a deep sensation. Charles Eman- 
 uel made no reply ; but the duchess, instructed beforehand 
 by her Jesuit advisers, said: "We are deeply sensible of 
 the interest your master takes in our subjects, but; sur- 
 prised that he should listen to such inaccurate statements 
 as those upon which he has evidently acted. Were he 
 better informed of the facts, he would know that what 
 have been represented to him as barbarities, were nothing 
 more than mild and paternal chastisement, inflicted on re- 
 bellious subjects, whose revolt no sovereign could over- 
 look. Nevertheless, in manifestation of our desire to be 
 agreeable to his serene highness, we will not only pardon 
 them, but restore them to our favour, and to the privileges 
 which their ill-conduct has forfeited." 
 
 Morland thrown off his guard by this promise, quitted 
 Turin, on the 19th of July, promising to return and take 
 part, on behalf of the Waldenses, in the negotiations 
 which were to take place respecting them. But care was 
 taken to precipitate those negotiations in his absence, in 
 order that less might be granted ; and accordingly, on the 
 18th of August, 1655, in presence of the Swiss envoys, 
 
232 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 who had arrived after the departure of Morland, and under 
 the influence of the French ambassador, Servient, was 
 concluded, at Pignerol, the treaty of peace, designated the 
 Patent of Grace, which left the poor Waldenses more com- 
 pletely than ever at the mercy of their oppressors, under 
 the mask of establishing their security. This shameful 
 treaty, by which the protestant states were duped, and the 
 Waldensian churches left in the unprotected situation as 
 ever, was very appositely compared to a leper, arrayed in 
 rich clothing and gay attire ; and to Ezekiel's roll, 
 " written within and without, in the mouth as honey for 
 sweetness, but within there were written lamentations, and 
 mourning and woe." 
 
 The Swiss plenipoteniaries had endeavoured to secure 
 more solid guarantees for the security of the Waldenses, 
 such, for example, as the demolition of the fortress of La 
 Torre ; but these were all either refused or eluded. 
 
Ci;n j.itf t €mt\\\\]-i\vi\. 
 
 INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY OF PIGNEROL. 
 
 The baneful effects of this Jesuitical affair were soon 
 felt by the deluded Waldenscs, who, in their pathetic ap- 
 peals for redress, used some of the most affecting expressions 
 in Scripture to signify their distress. " We have no grapes 
 in the vineyard," they said ; "no cattle in the fields; no 
 herds in the stalls ; no corn in the garners ; no meal in 
 the barrel ; no oil in the cruse. The tongue of the suck- 
 ling cleaves to the roof of his mouth, and the young 
 children ask bread, and no man gives it to them." In 
 the translation of a letter, written by the ministers and 
 elders of the valleys to their brethren of Geneva, dated 
 Pinaches, 14th February, 1657, and preserved, among 
 many other Waldcnsian records, in the State Paper Office 
 at London, there occur these touching passages : — 
 
 " Our people are in extreme necessities, the greatest 
 part of our families being destitute of houses, moveables, 
 cattel, or any thing else whereby to subsist. — If you did 
 but know, sirs, the greatness of our miseries, you would 
 certainly have compassion on us, and pitie our sad condi- 
 tion. God is now in good earnest chastizing us for our 
 sins and iniquities, to which wee most willingllie submitt, 
 kissing the rod, and confessing that hee is still just and 
 righteous." 
 
 20 • ( 233 ) 
 
234 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 To the French king, whom they justly considered the 
 main author of their grievances, since it was he who had 
 patched up the perfidious treaty, they addressed an humble 
 petition, imploring his interposition, and urging to see 
 justice done to them. But their only answers were some 
 angry letters, written by the French ambassador (Ser- 
 vient), who had himself assisted in framing the treaty ; 
 and who had sharply rebuked them for their presumption 
 and discontent. One of these letters even reproached 
 them for accepting supplies and moneys from foreigners. 
 These moneys were the contributions received from Eng- 
 land. " Alas ! said the poor sufferers, " was it ever known 
 before that miserable men, after losing the whole of their 
 estates, after having had their houses burnt, and their 
 goods plundered, should have it objected to them, that 
 they received the charity of those who had pity on them, 
 to prevent their perishing of hunger !" 
 
 One of the Swiss ambassadors was so dissatisfied with 
 the terms of the treaty, in the first instance, even before 
 it was concluded, that he strongly remonstrated with his 
 colleagues, and urged them not to consent to it; and 
 afterwards subscribed to a protest, the original attestation 
 of which is among the manuscripts in the university library 
 at Cambridge. 
 
 Cromwell was furious upon finding how completely the 
 protestant states had been overreached, in their negotia- 
 tion with the duke of Savoy, and in the faith they placed 
 in the mediation of the king of France. He wrote to 
 Louis XIV. in a high tone of indignant remonstrance : 
 
 " Most Serene and Potent King, 
 " Tour majesty may remember, that at the time when 
 the negotiation began between us, for the renewal of the 
 
INFRACTIONS OF TUB TREATY 235 
 
 alliance, which has proved so beneficial to the twj nations, 
 and so detrimental to our common enemies, the cruel mas- 
 sacre of the Waldenses took place ; and that we earnestly 
 and pathetically commended the cause of that unhappy 
 people, who appeared to be oppressed and abandoned by 
 all, to your pity and protection. We cannot believe that 
 your majesty neglected to make use of your authority and 
 influence with the duke of Savoy, when it was so incum- 
 bent upon you to exert yourself in the pious and humane 
 character of a mediator ; as for ourselves, and many other 
 princes and states, we interposed all that we could, by em- 
 bassies, letters, and entreaties. The result was, that after 
 a most barbarous slaughter of persons of both sexes, and 
 of all ages, a treaty of peace was concluded, or rather 
 secret acts of hostility were committed, the more securely 
 under the name of a pacification. The conditions of the 
 treaty were determined in your town of Pignerol ; hard 
 conditions enough, but such as these poor people would 
 gladly have agreed to, after the horrible outrages to which 
 they had been exposed, provided that they had been faith- 
 fully observed. But they were not observed : the meaning 
 of the treaty is evaded and violated, by putting a false 
 interpretation upon some of the articles, and by straining 
 others : many of the complainants have been deprived of 
 their patrimonies ; and many have been forbidden the ex- 
 ercise of their religion : new payments have been exacted ; 
 and a new fort has been built, to keep them in check ; 
 from whence a disorderly soldiery make frequent sallies, 
 and plunder or murder all they meet. In addition to these 
 things, fresh levies of troops are clandestinely preparing 
 to march against them ; and those among them who pro- 
 fess the Roman catholic religion have been advised to retire 
 in time; so that everything threatens the speedy destruc- 
 
236 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 tion of such as escaped the former massacre. I do there- 
 fore beseech and conjure your majesty not to suffer such 
 enormities, and not to permit (I will not say any prince, 
 for surely such barbarity never could enter into the heart 
 of a prince, much less one of the duke's tender age, or into 
 the mind of his mother) those accursed murderers to indulge 
 in such savage ferocity, who, while they profess to be the 
 servants and followers of Christ, who came into the world 
 to save sinners, do blaspheme his name, and transgress his 
 mild precepts, by the slaughter of innocent men. Oh that 
 your majesty, who has the power, and who ought to be 
 inclined to use it, may deliver so many supplicants from 
 the hands of murderers, who are already drunk with blood, 
 and thirst for it again, and who take pleasure in throwing 
 the odium of their cruelty upon princes. I implore your 
 majesty not to suffer the borders of your kingdom to be 
 polluted by such monstrous wickedness. Remember that 
 this very race of people threw themselves upon the protec- 
 tion of your grandfather, king Henry IV., who was most 
 friendly disposed towards the protestants, when the duke 
 of Lesdiguieres passed victoriously through their country, 
 as affording the most commodious passage into Italy, at 
 the time he pursued the duke of Savoyin his retreat across 
 the Alps. The act or instrument of that submission is still 
 extant among the public records of your kingdom, in which 
 it is provided that the Waldenses shall not be transferred 
 to any other government, but upon the same condition that 
 they were received under the protection of your invincible 
 grandfather. As supplicants of his grandson, they now 
 implore the fulfillment of this compact : they would rather 
 be your subjects than the duke's, and hope that it may be 
 effected by some mode of exchange, if possible, and if not, 
 that at least they may be taken under your patronage and 
 
INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY. 237 
 
 protection. There are other reasons of state which might 
 induce your majesty not to neglect the Waldenses ; but I 
 would not wish so great a king to be influenced by any- 
 thing but his regard to the faith pledged by his ancestors, 
 and by his own piety, and royal benevolence and magna- 
 nimity. Thus the honour and praise of so glorious an act 
 will be entirely your own, and your majesty will propitiate 
 the grace and favour of the Father of Mercies, and our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, whose name and doctrine you will vin- 
 dicate against such nefarious and inhuman proceedings. 
 
 " Given at our court at Westminster, this 26th of May, 
 1658." 
 
 Cromwell also despatched a letter to the Swiss cantons, 
 plainly signifying his own readiness to go all lengths, in 
 conjunction with them, for the benefit of the Waldenses, 
 and warning them that they were bound, by every consid- 
 eration of interest, as well as feeling, to see that the most 
 ancient stock of the reformed religion be not destroyed, 
 in the remains of its old faithful professors, lest the next 
 blow should fall upon themselves. 
 
 It had been, during the negotiation of the treaty, agreed, 
 on the part of Savoy, that, though the duke could not "so 
 far humiliate himself before his subjects" as to have a 
 clause inserted formally decreeing the demolition of the 
 fortress of La Torre, an object very material with the 
 Waldenses, by reason of past sufferings and future fears, 
 yet that, so soon as the treaty should be signed, his high- 
 ness, "requiring no other fortress than the hearts of his 
 grateful people," would have the castle of La Torre rased. 
 The treaty was signed ; and then, in the space between 
 the text and the signatures, the ducal counsellors interpo- 
 lated this paragraph : " His royal highness grants to the 
 Waldenses the right of addressing to him supplications 
 
238 THE WALDENSE8. 
 
 that the citadel of La Torre may be demolished absolutely, 
 or removed elsewhere." This implication of the right to 
 reject such supplications, rendered that an open question 
 which had been distinctly settled and conceded : this was 
 pointed out by the Waldenses ; the answer was, that the 
 interpolation had been made from some negligence of the 
 copyist. The Waldenses, omitting to insist upon the point, 
 addressed the supplication which the forged clause deri- 
 sively suggested. The duke replied, with an affectation 
 of extreme amenity, that he was happy to grant them a 
 fresh proof of his benevolence, and that he would, accord- 
 ingly, destroy all that portion of the fortress of La Torre 
 " which was not necessary for the defence of his states." 
 
 He did, in fact, pull down a small detached tower, in 
 the plain of La Torre ; but, at the same time, he added 
 largely both to the size and to the strength of the citadel, 
 and, upon the completion of these new works, increased the 
 number of the garrison. 
 
 The French authorities, however, became uneasy at this 
 augmented strength of a fortress so near their own fron- 
 tiers ; and both Lesdiguieres, the governor of Dauphiny, 
 and La Bretonniere commandant of Pignerol, loudly 
 declaring their dissatisfaction, Louis XIV. himself volun- 
 teered to guarantee the full execution of the treaty which 
 had been concluded under his auspices. A synod was held 
 at La Torre to deliberate upon this offer, and the Wal- 
 denses thence forwarded to the monarch a memorial, in 
 which they set forth the various respects in which the 
 patents of grace had been altogther violated : the "Walden- 
 sian prisoners, they said, were not restored to them : their 
 children were still forced or stolen from them ; and the 
 soldiers of the Piedmontese garrison perpetrated, with 
 utter impunity, the gravest outrages upon their persons 
 
INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY. 239 
 
 and properties. JPillage and assassination, violence and 
 violation, continued, then, to be the catholic work of faith ; 
 the propaganda proceeded with its " holy mission." 
 
 One labour of this mission was to sow division among 
 the Waldenses, by the medium of Jesuits, who, under the 
 guise of protestant refugees from Languedoc, introduced 
 themselves into the valleys, and applied all their talents 
 to the perfidious task. Among other vile insinuations, 
 they spread rumours of malversation against those pastors 
 who had been entrusted with the distribution of the collec- 
 tions made abroad for the use of the Waldenses ; and mis- 
 ery being ever mistrustful, these calumnies served, for a 
 while, the treacherous purpose of those who propagated 
 them. New trials, however, soon united all against a 
 common danger. 
 
 The auditor Gastaldo, who, still a member of the pro- 
 paganda, had become governor of the valleys, issued, 15th 
 June, 1657, a decree prohibiting the Waldenses from pub- 
 licly celebrating their worship at San Giovanni, under a 
 a penalty of one thousand crowns of gold against the pie- 
 siding minister, and of two hundred against each person 
 present. New papist missions were established in the val- 
 leys ; the Jesuits got a footing in every direction ; exemp- 
 tions from taxes, and other privileges were granted to all 
 catholic converts, while the protestants were treated with 
 systematic rigour ; the Dauphinese pastors who had come 
 to minister sympathy and consolation, religious and fra- 
 ternal, to the Waldenses of the valleys, were expelled, on 
 the pretext of their being foreigners. 
 
 The persecuted people complained of the oppressions to 
 which they were subjected, in a memorial to the Swiss 
 ambassadors who had negotiated the treaty of Pignerol, 
 and the latter, in their turn, addressed a memorial to the 
 
240 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Piedmontese government, complaining of the infraction 
 of the treaty to which they were parties. The president, 
 Truchsi, in his reply, threw the whole blame upon the 
 Waldenses, who, he absurdly said, were the real infractors 
 of the treaty. The synod of the Waldensian valleys then 
 drew up a detailed statement of their grievances, which 
 was printed at Haarlem, in 1662, and again in 1663 ; 
 but the Piedmontese authorities, so far from remedying 
 the evil, seemed more and more bent upon aggravating it. 
 
 The treaty of Pignerol had exempted the protestants 
 from the payment of the arrears of the public charges for 
 the deplorable year 1655, on the distinct ground of their 
 total inability, by reason of their losses and privations, to 
 pay them. Despite the deep misery from which foreign 
 subscriptions had but partially relieved them, the Walden- 
 ses were now imperatively required to discharge these very 
 arrears ; and, to render the exaction more oppressive and 
 more insulting, the catholics of the valley of San Martin 
 were, at the same time, exempted from the payment of 
 these charges, " as a compensation for the damage done to 
 them by the protestants." 
 
 It was, however, less these money-wounds, than the 
 wounds which affect the spiritual life, that aroused the 
 Waldenses to renewed exertions. The prohibition to per- 
 form their worship in the commune of San Giovanni, was 
 not only a grievous evil in itself, but a menace to all their 
 churches. The edict of Cavour had guaranteed the free 
 exercise of their worship in all places where it was then 
 already established, and San Giovanni was one of these 
 places. The treaty of Pignerol had in no way restricted 
 this guarantee. If one of their parishes were effectually 
 assailed, the rest would soon succumb beneath similar 
 strokes. Public preaching had, indeed, been forbidden to 
 
INFRACTIONS OF TIIE TREATY. 241 
 
 the Waldenses at San Giovanni, so long back as 1620, but 
 the other functions of the protestant ministry had been 
 maintained. 
 
 A general synod was assembled in March, 1658, to dis- 
 cuss this grave question. It was resolved that a memorial 
 should be addressed to the sovereign in person, and that, 
 meanwhile, the pastor of San Giovanni (Leger, the histo- 
 rian) should continue to exercise his ministry there, until 
 the question, so submitted to the duke himself, had been 
 definitely decided. 
 
 This determination on the part of the synod created 
 great indignation at the court of Turin. " The first duty 
 of subjects," it was insisted, "is to obey their prince. In 
 resisting his orders, the Waldenses have rendered them- 
 selves guilty of revolt, and must be treated as rebels, as 
 traitors ;" and the protestant powers whom the synod had 
 entreated to intercede in the matter, were met with the 
 haughty declaration, that the persons in whom they inter- 
 ested themselves, without understanding the real state of 
 the question, were rebels, who must be treated accord- 
 ingly- 
 
 The object of especial irritation, on the part of the 
 propaganda and the popish clergy, was Leger, that coura- 
 geous pastor, who remained at his post, despite menaces 
 and peril. 
 
 Already twice condemned to death, he now braved it for 
 the third, and, as his enemies hoped, last time. He was 
 cited to appear at Turin ; the citation set forth no cause, 
 and Leger did not obey it. A second citation was equally 
 ineffectual. The count of Saluzzo, who took a deep inter- 
 est in the Waldenses — an interest which appears hered- 
 itary in the family — then went to the minister, and, in a 
 friendly manner, remonstrated with him upon the practical 
 21 Q 
 
242 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 inexpediency of his resistance to authority ; but the pastor 
 persisted, and, on the 3d of May, 1658, he received 
 another citation, ordering him to appear, under pain of 
 banishment, and of the confiscation of his property. The 
 pastor hereupon assembled his colleagues at Pinache, then 
 a French town, in order to consult with them what course 
 he should take ; and the result of their deliberations was, 
 that a solicitation should be addressed to the authorities 
 to maintain Leger in his church. This proceeding, which 
 should have been resorted to in the first instance, came too 
 late. The request was rejected by the court; and after 
 three years of sterile negotiations, Leger was, on the 12th 
 January, 1661, condemned, by the senate of Turin, to 
 death, and his co-accused, the deacons and elders of the 
 church of San Giovanni, to ten years labour in the galleys. 
 Leger, thus compelled to withdraw from his native land, 
 retired first to England, then to Geneva, and lastly to 
 Leyden, where he published his General History of the 
 Waldensian Churches, and where he died, about 1G84. 
 
Ctjnjitn (Kranifij-iucoiib 
 
 TUB WAR OF THE EXILES 
 
 San Giovanni's pastor, Leger, and Gianavel, had been 
 condemned to death, twenty other persons to the galleys, 
 and many more were still under prosecution, for having 
 resisted the orders of their sovereign in exercising the pro- 
 testant worship at that town. The condemned men having 
 fled, a price was put upon their heads, and meanwhile 
 troops were sent to demolish their houses and devastate 
 their little farms. The command of the fortress of La 
 Torre was confided to the count di Bagnolo, one of the 
 massacrers of 1655, the zealous servant of the propaganda. 
 His soldiers, with corresponding zeal, committed all sorts 
 of excesses — pillage, conflagration, murder, violation. 
 Many of the poor villagers fleeing from their cottages to 
 escape these outrages, di Bagnolo issued a proclamation 
 forbidding any person to receive these unhappy creatures, 
 under penalty of having his own property destroyed. 
 Every conceivable and inconceivable mode of injuring and 
 irritating the Waldenses was had recourse to. Di Bagnolo, 
 who afterwards died on the scaffold, convicted of one hun- 
 dred and twenty odious murders, was ably aided in this 
 work by the commandant of the fortress of Miraboco, him- 
 self a man who, having been prosecuted for more than 
 
 (243) 
 
■2i4 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 sixty murders committed prior to the marriage of the duke 
 of Savoy, had, on that occasion, received a pardon for his 
 crimes. 
 
 The only mortal help of the Waldenses, under these 
 cruel persecutions, was Gianavel, whose_ troop of exiles was 
 daily augmented by Waldenses expelled from their homes. 
 Daily, also, did some daring exploit signalize the valour 
 of Gianavel and his banditi, as the patriots were designated, 
 who, deprived of their own legitimate means of subsistence, 
 were necessitated to levy contributions for the support of 
 themselves and the distressed mountaineers, on the catholic 
 towns and villages. Not a day passed in which some 
 action, more or less effective, did not take place between 
 the Waldenses and their adversaries; the 25th May, 1663, 
 and the following 17th June, were especially marked by 
 triumphs on the part of the protestants. 
 
 On the 25th of the latter month, the duke of Savoy 
 issued an edict, which, under the pretext of pacifying the 
 Waldenses, commanded them all to take arms against the 
 banditi, who were coolly described as persons assembled 
 together for mere purposes of pillage, having no sort of 
 connexion with the real question at issue. Two hundred 
 and sixty men, drafted from the different communes, were 
 to collect at Chiabasso, over against La Torre, and there 
 await the orders of the commandant of Bricherasio. Each 
 commune was to give a hostage for its fidelity; and, on 
 his part, the duke promised to institute an inquiry at Turin 
 into the conduct of the count di Bagnolo, and, to crown 
 these wondrous benefits, to pardon all the fugitive protest- 
 ants, on condition of their returning home — that is to say, 
 of their placing themselves within his power — in the space 
 of fifteen days. By the same beneficent and friendly edict, 
 Gianavel, was condemned to be torn with pincers, to be 
 
THE WAR OF THE EXILES. 245 
 
 quartered, and then to have his head cut off and stuck at 
 the end of a pike on some elevated point. The condemna- 
 tion of Leger to death was reiterated, and Artus, Bastia, 
 Rivorio, the brothers Muston, Revel, and others, in all 
 thirty-five persons, the prominent leaders of the little Wal- 
 densian army, were condemned to death, and the confisca- 
 tion of their property. Six other persons were condemned 
 to the galleys, and four to ten years' imprisonment. Such 
 was the clemency of the propaganda ! What its rigours 
 were, may be readily imagined. 
 
 The governor of La Torre and the ducal treasurer- 
 general urgently solicited the Waldcnses to accept these 
 conditions ; but the Waldenses left the duke's ultimatum 
 without reply. The commune of Prarustin alone declined 
 to undergo the responsibility of refusal, with the valley of 
 Luzerna ; and the neighbouring seigneurs at once essayed 
 their utmost efforts to augment this dissension. Unable to 
 effect their object, they insisted that, at least, the inhabi- 
 tants of the valley of Luzerna should give a proof of their 
 peaceful spirit, and of their fidelity, by escorting a con- 
 voy of provisions and ammunition to the fortress of Mira- 
 boco. 
 
 This fortress commanded the narrowest part of the valley 
 of Luzerna, and closed the passage into Dauphiny, whither, 
 as has been seen, the Waldenses had frequently withdrawn 
 in times of persecution. It was not, then, without much 
 distrust that, in conveying war munitions to this fortress, 
 the protestants contributed to close this retreat, in case of 
 need, against themselves. But the governor of La Torre 
 and the treasurer-general solemnly assured them, that, in 
 acknowledgment of this act of submission, the most com- 
 plete peace would be accorded them ; and they and their 
 
 21* 
 
246 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 families might return home without the smallest fears for 
 the future. 
 
 The Waldenses were conforming to these counsels, when 
 they heard that troops, secretly despatched from Turin, 
 were marching against them. Six regiments of the royal 
 guard had, in fact, quitted the capital on the 29th June, 
 under the command of the marquis de Fleury, eleven days 
 before the expiration of the delay which had been granted 
 to the Waldenses, within which they might return home, 
 and four days before the expiration of that within which 
 they were to give their answer on the conditions proposed 
 to them. Indeed, as was afterwards ascertained, fresh 
 troops had been secretly directed towards La Torre and 
 Luzerna, even before those conditions were propounded. 
 It is, therefore, futile to excuse the aggression of which 
 the Waldenses were now the object, on the plea that they 
 had not obeyed the edict of 25th June, since the aggres- 
 sion commenced, not merely before they had replied to the 
 conditions of that edict, but even before the edict was com- 
 municated to them. 
 
 The marquis de Fleury marched directly towards An- 
 grogna, by the San Giovanni road. The marquis d'An- 
 grogna, at the head of the cavalry of San Segonzo, 
 proceeded towards the same point by the heights of Roc- 
 capiatta, while the infantry advanced thither by the ascents 
 of Bricherasio. These various corps formed, at daybreak 
 of 6th July, a junction on the higher plateau, where all 
 these roads met, their object being to occupy La Vachera, 
 which, rising above that plateau, commands, as from a 
 central point, the divergence of the three valleys. 
 
 But already a Waldensian corps of observation defended 
 this important post. 
 
 The main body of the Waldensian army, commanded by 
 
THE WAR OF THE EXILES. 247 
 
 Gianavel in person, had taken up a position lower down, 
 on the slopes of San Giovanni ; but when the chief wit- 
 nessed the junction, in his front, of the corps of De Fleury 
 and of Di Bagnolo, he despatched a body of sixty picked 
 men to occupy Le Porte d'Angrogna, a defile opening upon 
 the plateau, and covering at once La Vachera and Rocca- 
 manante, and himself, by the mountain paths so intimately 
 known to him, led the rest of his little army, now number- 
 ing not more than six hundred men, to the heights of Roc- 
 camanante, natural escarpments, almost inaccessible by 
 the enemy. "Here," cried he to his men, "here is our 
 Tabor ! Let us pray to the Almighty for aid and encour- 
 agement." 
 
 The Waldenses had scarcely risen from their devotion, 
 when the enemy were heard approaching. Instantly the 
 besieged spread themselves amongst the rocks, occupying 
 every access, and from every opening pouring down a de- 
 structive fire upon the assailants. Di Bagnolo, directing a 
 halt, examined the position as closely as he could, and 
 then essayed to carry it by assault; but he was signally 
 repulsed. After taking breath, the soldiers attempted 
 another assult, but they were again repulsed. The count 
 had already lost three hundred men : he ordered his soldiers 
 to scale the rocks ; but they had no sooner reached the 
 summit than they were hurled back, one upon the other. 
 Hereupon, a superstitious terror came over them ; they 
 called to mind all the tales that had been forged by the 
 priests, of the Waldenses having made a compact with the 
 devil, in order to secure invulnerability ; of their receiving 
 in their shirts the bullets that, with ordinary mm, would 
 have riddled their bodies ; they hesitated and drew back ; 
 the quick eye of Gianavel perceived the advantage thus 
 afforded him : " Let us sweep these cowards from the hill !" 
 
248 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 he cried to his men ; and those hardy warriors rushed 
 from their entrenchments upon the wavering foe, who, con- 
 firmed in their panic by this daring and impetuous move- 
 ment turned, and, carrying the count di Bagnolo with them 
 in their flight, precipitated themselves tumultuously down 
 the ascent, nor stayed until they had got far into the 
 plain, after losing, on their way, a considerable number of 
 their body. 
 
 Gianavel, rallyinghis heroic army, returned to the plateau, 
 and thence, after a thanksgiving to God for the victory 
 thus vouchsafed, proceeded to rejoin the sixty warriors whom 
 he had sent the Porte d'Angrogna to protect his rear. As 
 he had foreseen, these sixty men so placed had sufficed to 
 keep in check, hitherto, the entire force of the marquis de 
 Fleury. But the latter, having gradually advanced from 
 rock to rock, were about to hem the Waldenses in, when 
 Gianavel, coming up with his six hundred victors, took 
 the enemy in flank ; and the sixty besieged, becoming im- 
 mediately assailants, and dashing from their defile upon 
 the advanced ranks of the foe, the latter, who, on seeing 
 Gianavel's army approach, at once understood that Di 
 Bagnolo had been defeated, also gave way, and, after a 
 short struggle, turned and fled, hotly pursued by the "Wal- 
 denses. Not fewer than six hundred of the enemy fell 
 dead in this engagement, and several hundreds more died 
 afterwards of their wounds, while the Waldenses, favoured 
 by their position, and their knowledge of the ground, lost 
 in all not more than six men. 
 
 Various minor skirmishes took place in the course of 
 the following days ; by each of these the numbers of the 
 enemy were more or less diminished, while those of the 
 Waldenses, so far from lessening, were augmented by 
 
THE WAR OP THE K X I L E S . 249 
 
 fresh accessions, not only of Waldenses, but of French 
 protestants, who came to aid their persecuted brethren. 
 
 The court of Savoy, incredulous that " a handful of 
 rebels" could thus defeat so powerful an army, under com- 
 petent command, imputed the blame to the marquis de 
 Fleury, and accordingly superseded him, appointing the 
 count di San Damiano in his place. , The latter resolved 
 to signalize himself, marched, the day after his arrival, 
 from Luzerna, at the head of one thousand five hundred 
 troops, to attack the village of Rora, defended by fifteen 
 Waldenses and eight Frenchmen. These heroic men did 
 their utmost against the overwhelming force that assailed 
 them, but, as a matter of course, were defeated, and cut 
 in pieces, one of them excepted, who was taken prisoner. 
 
 Intoxicated with this glorious victory, the marquis, next 
 day, made an irruption into the valley of Luzerna, and 
 had reached and set fire to the village of Santa Margarita, 
 when the Waldenses, two hundred in number, descending 
 by the defile of Copiere, attacked them on the sudden, 
 dispersed them, put them to flight, and killed several 
 hundred of them. 
 
 Charles Emanuel, finding that unskillfulness in his gen- 
 erals was not the only cause of the disastrous turn for him 
 which this intestine war was assuming, resolved to try the 
 effect of one comprehensive stroke of intimidation, and ac- 
 cordingly published, 10th of August, 1663, a decree by 
 which all the inhabitants of all the valleys were declared 
 guilty of high treason, and, as such, condemned to death, 
 and the confiscation of their goods. The decree, as a 
 matter of course, produced no effect whatever ; and the 
 Waldenses, suffering as they were from bitter privations, 
 still kept the field, and still defeated the ducal troops, 
 wherever these presented themselves. Next peace was 
 
250 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 offered to the persecuted folk, on condition that they 
 ■would lay down their arms, that they would not raise the 
 question of religion, and that each commune of the valleys 
 having any representation to make should make it separa- 
 tely. In other words, the Waldenses were to place them- 
 selves defenceless in the hands of their relentless foes, 
 were to surrender the very point for which they were con- 
 tending, and were to dissolve the very union which 
 constituted their strength. The offer was at once rejected. 
 Next, the propaganda published a declaration, purporting 
 to be a repudiation, on the part of the Waldenses of 
 Prarustin, of the proceedings of their co-religionists; an 
 appeal to the clemency of the duke ; an entire submission 
 to his will ; and a full acceptance of the edict of 10th 
 August. It was ascertained, upon investigation, first, that 
 this declaration was that of only six persons, five of whom 
 could not even sign their names ; and, secondly, that even 
 these six persons had only contemplated a solicitation for a 
 truce of a few weeks in order that they might gather in the 
 vintage, then ripe. Such was the pitiable policy of the 
 propaganda ! 
 
 At length, upon the mediation of Holland, Germany, 
 and the protestant Swiss cantons, the duke, wearied and, 
 disgusted with a contest in itself revolting to his naturally 
 good sense and good heart, consented to a conference. 
 Ambassadors from the mediating powers reached Turin, 
 in November, 1663, and, an insidious attempt on the part 
 of the priests to compromise the Waldenses in the eyes of 
 their foreign allies having failed, eight deputies from the 
 valleys soon afterwards joined them there, and the confer- 
 ences commenced. 
 

C[mphr <£nmitq-tl;irb 
 
 CONFEKENCES AT T U R IN . — A R B I T R A TI N OF 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 
 On the 17th of December, 1663, the conference between 
 the representatives of the six protestant cantons of Swit- 
 zerland and the representatives of Charles Emanuel, on the 
 subject of the complaints of the Waldenses against the 
 governor of La Torre, opened at the H6tel-de-Ville of 
 Turin. The ducal representatives commenced the proceed- 
 ings by narrating their view of the events which had led 
 to the war, and which, according to them, resolved them- 
 selves into repeated rebellions of the Waldenses. The 
 deputies of the latter replied that the real cause of the con- 
 flicts they so much deplored, was the aggressions and vio- 
 lence of the governor of La Torre. They cited, in proof 
 of their allegations, infinite murders, robberies, tortures, 
 and other violences that had been committed by the count. 
 The count replied that the murders of which he was accused 
 had not been committed by him, but had been the result 
 of private vengeance ; that the only persons who had 
 been killed by his orders were outlaws, who were in rebel- 
 lion against the state, or their friends and relatives. He 
 admitted that private houses might have been broken into ; 
 but this, he said, had only been for the purpose of domi- 
 ciliary visits, necessary for the discovery of persons de- 
 
 (251) 
 
252 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 nounced by the law. He added that, after the 25th of 
 June, he could not be responsible for any excesses which 
 might have been committed, because troops had then come 
 into the valleys over -whom he had no effectual control. 
 He distinctly denied the insults and menaces which had 
 been imputed to him ; but he admitted that he h;id retained 
 a band of devastators, in order to oppose the men of the 
 valleys. The memorial which set forth this defence con- 
 cluded with the assurance "that the sieur di Bagnolo had 
 endeavoured, with every sort of mildness and especial care, 
 to keep the valleys in peace, and to separate them from all 
 intercourse with the bandits, who had precipitated them 
 into so inexcusable a rebellion." The Waldenses were 
 then formally charged with a series of contraventions of 
 the obedience due to their sovereign. And it was said 
 that if they had to complain of violence, they should have 
 appealed to the laws. The answer was, that they had 
 appealed to the laws, and had obtained no redress. With 
 regard to public worship, the Waldenses contended that 
 the right to celebrate their religion had been granted to 
 them by repeated edicts. Upon this point, as upon the 
 preceding, there was a long discussion between the repre- 
 sentatives on both sides, originating in the most futile 
 objections on the part of the popish councillors. The 
 heaviest charge against the Waldenses was, that they had 
 given aid and asylum to the exiles. The simple answer to 
 this was, that the exiles in question were the brothers 
 fathers, or other near relatives of those who had given 
 them assistance, and that to make the assistance so ren- 
 dered matter of criminality, even against the individuals 
 was altogether unreasonable and inhuman; still more un- 
 reasonable was it to make the whole people responsible. 
 These first conferences terminated on the 81st of De- 
 
CONFERENCES AT TURIN. 253 
 
 ccmber ; and, as their result, the ducal commissioners 
 decided that the Waldcnses had no cause of complaint ; 
 and that their taking up arms had been merely for the 
 purpose of exciting sympathy in their favour abroad, with 
 a view to the obtaining pecuniary assistance. The alle- 
 gation was simply ridiculous. The collateral conduct of 
 the propaganda was odious: Ntdla fides servanda haretiuis. 
 While these conferences were proceeding, while the poor 
 mountaineers, hoping a favourable issue, observed on their 
 part the suspension of hostilities, the natural pendant of 
 the state of negotiation, the propaganda were plotting their 
 complete extermination by an act of treachery. The 
 second sitting of tho commissioners was on the 21st of 
 December; on the 20th of December an order was drawn 
 up, regulating " the distribution of the troops for four 
 attacks on the rebels of the valleys of Luzerna and St. 
 Martin, to be made to-morrow." On the morrow accord- 
 ingly, 21st of December, 16G3, the count di San Damiano 
 marched upon Prarustin, by San Segonzo, at the head of 
 sixteen hundred and fifty-five foot and fifty horse ; the 
 marquis de Parelli advanced towards Angrogna by La 
 Garsincra, with fifteen hundred and seventy-six foot and 
 fifty horse, and the count Genegli towards tho same point, 
 but by Le Porte and San German, with a battalion of 
 seven hundred and eighty-six men. Captain Cagnolo 
 occupied the plain of San Giovanni with one hundred 
 horse, ready to proceed wherever circumstances should 
 call him ; while the governor of La Torre, the same count 
 di Bagnolo who was so solicitous for the peace of the Wal- 
 dcnses, was to march against the protestants, at the head 
 of eleven hundred and eighteen men, by Lc Gopiere and 
 Santa Margarita. It was in this latter direction that the 
 attack began. The Waldcnses were driven from Santa 
 
•254 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Margarita upon Le Copiere, and from Le Copiere upon 
 Tagliarette. Here, however, they made a stand, en- 
 trenched among the rocks, until they saw a troop of their 
 brethren marching up from Angrogna. Thus enforced, 
 from assailed they became assailants, and while making an 
 impetuous sortie upon the front of the enemy, while the 
 Angrognese attacked them in the flank, the superstitious 
 terror which the Waldenses had so often before excited in 
 the minds of their adversaries again manifested itself. 
 The papist troops, once vacillating, were speedily put to 
 the rout by the combined Waldenses, who drove them down 
 into the plain of La Torre. At Angrogna itself, defended 
 by captain Prionello, the marquis de Parelli was especially 
 unsuccessful. At San Germano, on the other hand, the 
 count de Genegli completely defeated the "Waldenses, de- 
 vastated their fields and their vineyards, and burned their 
 houses. At Roccapiatta, a poor woman, nearly a hundred 
 years old, and bed-ridden, was burned alive; at San Ger- 
 mano, a young woman, after being monstrously outraged, 
 had the flesh cut from her bones in long shreds, and was 
 then left to die in their torture. Several men, in the same 
 place, were mutilated in a manner that cannot be described. 
 Such are the tender mercies of popery ! But the Wal- 
 denses, though themselves vanquished, made the victory 
 very bitter to their enemies : more than a hundred of the 
 popish soldiery were slain, and there fell, besides, the count 
 de la Trinite, a descendant of him who so cruelly perse- 
 cuted the Waldenses in the preceding century; the young 
 count de Saint-Frons, a descendant of the old persecutors 
 of the Waldenses in the valley of Praviglelino ; captain 
 Biala, and M. de Grand-Maison. 
 
 When the Swiss ambassadors were made acquainted with 
 these aggressions, they loudly complained to the duke's 
 
MEDIATION OF SWITZERLAND. 255 
 
 ministers of so outrageous a violation of the armistice. It 
 was replied, that the troops of his royal highness, heing in 
 want of provisions, had merely taken measures for extend- 
 ing their quarters. "But how do you account for these 
 burnings, these massacres, that have taken place !" — 
 " The Waldenses resisted the movements of our troops, 
 and some slight collisions occurred, in which a few men 
 were killed, and a few houses burned, ly inadvertence ! 
 
 Was the distribution of the troops, on the 20th of De- 
 cember, "for the four attacks on the rebels," an inadver- 
 tence ? 
 
 The Swiss deputies, fain to be content with these 
 manifest falsehoods, resumed the negotiations; and at last 
 it was agreed that the basis of an arrangement should be 
 preserved to the Waldenses, under the title of patents of 
 grace ; for the duke of Savoy could not consent, from the 
 height of his sovereign dignity, to treat these " miserable 
 heretics" on equal terms. Whatever was granted therefore 
 was to be granted as wholly matter of grace : and, being so 
 accepted by the Waldenses, necessarily involved an acknow- 
 ledgment that there had been rebellion on their part, 
 which neither they nor the Swiss ambassadors at all ad- 
 mitted. The Waldenses, accordingly, hesitated whether 
 they should accept the propositions on such terms; but 
 their Swiss protectors urging them not to compromise 
 the question by insisting upon mere points of language, 
 they assented, and it was agreed that a general amnesty 
 should be granted to the Waldenses with the exception of 
 such as had been condemned by the edict of the 25th of 
 June, 1663 ; and, secondly, that Charles Emanuel, should 
 ratify the patents of grace granted at Pignerol, the 18th 
 of August, 1655 ; reserving to himself power to require 
 from the Waldenses guarantees for the future, and fitting 
 
25C THE WALDENSES. 
 
 satisfaction for recent occurrences, under the arbitration 
 of the king of France. 
 
 This arbitratidn, as a matter of course, became the 
 source of a thousand difficulties. The next clause of the 
 patents of grace of 1664 related to religious exercises at 
 San Giovanni. Public worship was forbidden there to the 
 protestants. A pastor might repair thither, twice a year, 
 to visit the faithful, but he was not to reside there, nor 
 even to pass a night there, except in case of absolute neces- 
 sity. He might visit the sick, but he was not to hold any 
 religious meeting, nor even instruct any catechumens with- 
 in the limits of the parish. 
 
 This clause, also, became the source of infinite vexations 
 to the Waldenses, of charges easily made, but with 
 difficulty refuted. A narration of the annoyances and op- 
 pressions which the Waldenses endured under this clause 
 would alone occupy a volume. 
 
 Article sixth enacted that the pastors of the Waldensian 
 churches must thenceforward be natives of the valleys. 
 This condition was beneficial to them, in fortifying their 
 evangelical individuality, which was in danger of becoming 
 enfeebled under the too protracted direction of foreign 
 pastors. 
 
 Article seventh declared that the catholic churches and 
 chapels which had been destroyed in the last war should be 
 rebuilt at the cost of the Waldenses. 
 
 Article eighth provided that the prisoners on both sides 
 should be released. 
 
 An agreement to disarm was respectively adopted upon 
 the promulgation of this document, and the duke of Savoy 
 wrote to the Swiss cantons, by their delegates, that ho 
 would in every respect adhere to the terms of the settle- 
 ment. 
 
ARBITRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 257 
 
 After their infinite troubles, the Waldenses now began 
 to hope that they should enjoy some repose ; when all at 
 once they received orders to send to Turin delegates em- 
 powered, in the name of the entire people, to recognise 
 the guarantees and indemnities required by Charles Eman- 
 uel in virtue of Article second of the treaty. 
 
 On assembling at the appointed place and time, the 
 duke of Savoy informed the Waldenses that they must 
 pay him five hundred and eighty-one thousand francs, as 
 the expense of the war, and a further sum of three hundred 
 and thirty thousand three hundred and sixty-seven francs 
 to indemnify the catholic towns for damages undergone 
 during the war ; fifty thousand francs for rebuilding the 
 walls of Luzerna ; forty thousand for customs' duties 
 omitted ; twenty-five thousand for other taxes omitted ; 
 the sum necessary for repairing the fortifications of La 
 Torre and Miraboco ; &c. &c. In other words, the perse- 
 cuted were required to sacrifice the last wreck of their 
 fortune, and to indebt themselves for the future, in order 
 to defray the expenses occasioned by the barbarities of 
 their persecutors. Such were the indemnities demanded 
 by Charles Emanuel; the guarantees he required were, 
 that at the entrance of each valley, the Waldenses should, 
 at their own cost, erect a fortress, to be garrisoned by 
 ducal troops, who were to be maintained at the expense 
 of the Waldenses ; that they should hold no synod without 
 the presence of one of his officers ; that the Waldensian 
 communes should not thenceforward hold any political 
 union, but each manage its own affairs, without consulting 
 the others: in other words, that they should hand them- 
 selves over to the enemy, to be destroyed in detail. The 
 Waldenses rejecting these preposterous terms, Louis XIV. 
 was appealed to, by common consent, as an arbitrator. 
 
 •>■> # R 
 
258 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 The award of his most Christian majesty was far more 
 moderate than might have been expected. He decided 
 that the Waldenses should contribute fifty thousand francs 
 towards the expenses of the war, and cede to the 
 duke the vineyards of Luzerna, in compensation for the 
 losses he had incurred by " the rebellion" of the protes- 
 tants. Various intercessions for more favourable terms, 
 on the part of different foreign powers, protracted the 
 settlement of the matter, from month to month, from year 
 to year, and at last, in 1670, the duke modifying his de- 
 mands and granting new privileges, he and his Waldensian 
 subjects came to a good understanding ; and the latter, 
 both at the siege of Genoa and at the revolt of Mondovi, 
 did such good service to their sovereign, as to merit, on 
 both occasions, the emphatic thanks proclaimed in the 
 manifest form of orders of the day. On the former 
 occasion, the duke wrote to the apostolic nuncio : 
 " Were I to heed only the dictates of sound policy, I 
 should wish the Waldenses to multiply instead of diminish- 
 ing, for they are faithful, laborious, well-disposed, useful 
 to the country," &c. 
 
 Victor Amadeus, with whom the ducal was destined to 
 become a regal crown, succeeded his father in 1675 ; and 
 being at that time only nine years of age, the affairs of 
 the state were administered under the regency of his 
 mother, who, in his name, fully ratified all the rights and 
 privileges which had been granted to the Waldenses. The 
 independence and repose of this people seemed now estab- 
 lished on a permanent basis ; but the ways of God are not 
 our ways, and the poor churches of the valleys, already so 
 sorely tried, were now, in reality, more than ever in danger 
 of annihilation. 
 
Cfjajitn <Kmt ntij-f ourtjr. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OP THE FOURTH PERSECUTION. 
 
 Gianavel, excepted from the amnesty, and fain to seek 
 refuge in a foreign land, had retired to Geneva, where, in 
 his privacy, he never ceased to apply his energetic mind 
 to the affairs of his oppressed faith and his oppressed 
 country. 
 
 France was, at this time, of all the states of Europe, 
 that which weighed heaviest in the scale of their respective 
 destinies ; but the monarch of Prance, potent as he was in 
 many respects, was quite as weak in others. Resolute 
 towards terrestrial powers, he bowed beneath the power 
 of superstition, and submitted himself, in the credulous 
 terror of ignorance, to the iron sway of the ministers of 
 superstition. His dissolute life, varied with fits of devo- 
 tion, his haughty soul, his utter selfishness, could only be 
 swayed by the accommodating and ambitious power of 
 popery, which, in its turn, used him as a means of crush- 
 ing liberty. The greatest enemy of superstition being the 
 Bible, and all who appealed to the authority of that book 
 incurring the pertinacious hostility of Catholicism, the con- 
 fessors of the most Christian king persuaded this monarch 
 that the most effectual mode by which he could secure at 
 once his renown and his salvation, was the extermination 
 
 259 
 
260 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 of the protestants. The first proceeding of this respectable 
 champion of popery was to set about the purchase of con- 
 versions ; and a regular account current of expenditure and 
 receipts — the former in money, the latter in conversions — 
 was opened, and submitted to the king. Whole troops of 
 vagrants turned this plan to their own account : calling 
 themselves protestants, they would abjure by scores, in 
 one town ; having received the price of their conversion, 
 they would proceed to some other town, abjure again, and 
 receive a fresh reward ; and so, from one end of France to 
 the other, the scandalous farce proceeded, until the money 
 available for such venal apostacy had become exhausted. 
 Before long, however, the royal spouse of Maria Theresa 
 having committed another crying sin against his marriage 
 vow, the popish counsellors about him took advantage of 
 the circumstance to excite a reaction of spiritual fervour 
 in him, of which the protestant worship soon suffered 
 the cruel effects. Twenty-one of their churches were 
 demolished, in the Vivarais, in the single year 1680 ; pro- 
 scriptions multiplied, the exercise of public functions was 
 prohibited to the reformers ; nay. by the ordinance of the 
 2d of December, 1681, they were absolutely forbidden to 
 practice as physicians, notaries, printers, kc, that is to 
 say, were forbidden to make their living by the honest 
 industry to which they had been trained. 
 
 The dragonades came next. Louvois, already laden 
 with the crimes and calamities inflicted upon the Palatinate 
 under his command, wrote to Louis XIV., with reference 
 to the Vivarais : " We must make such desolation in that dis- 
 trict that it may ever after operate as an example." This 
 was not enough : in order to strike a comprehensive blow 
 at protestantism, the edict of Nantes was revoked, 18th 
 October, 1685. The effect of this revocation was instanta* 
 
FOURTH PERSECUTION. 261 
 
 neous and terrible. A great number of French protestants 
 transferred to foreign lands their intelligence, their informa- 
 tion, their virtues, and their fortunes, acquired or to be ac- 
 quired. This single act did more to enfeeble France than 
 all the victories of Louis XIV. had done to strengthen her. 
 
 Hitherto, while men had interdicted the reformed wor- 
 ship, belief had not been interdicted. This improvement 
 was now adopted ; civil death was pronounced upon all 
 protestants, and, of consequence, all their acts were de- 
 clared null and void ; their marriages were set aside, and 
 their children born, or to be born, declared illegitimate. 
 Whoever, having therefore abjured, or appeared to abjure, 
 protestantism, refused, on his or her sick bed, the sacra- 
 ments of the popish church, was drawn out on a hurdle and 
 thrown on the wayside, if he died, or condemned to the 
 galleys if he recovered ; and whether dead or alive, his 
 whole property became confiscated to the king. 
 
 Proceeding from bad to worse, this same king, prostrate 
 and drivelling at the feet of his imperious confessor, Letel- 
 lier, next signed an edict, by which, all protestants being, 
 in the first clause, declared converts to Catholicism, all 
 such of these converts as refused to conform to the prac- 
 tice of the communion to which they were so annexed, 
 were to be treated as relapsed persons ; that is to say, were 
 to be drawn out on a hurdle and thrown on the wayside, 
 dead, or condemned to the galleys, living, their property 
 being, in either case, confiscated to the use of his most 
 Christian majesty. 
 
 Never had such revolting iniquities sullied even the 
 cruel persecutions of the dukes of Savoy. Victor Ama- 
 deus himself emphatically expressed his disapprobation. 
 Many distinguished catholics, such as the cardinal de 
 Noailles, Flechier, Fenelon, protested against the injury 
 
262 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 thus inflicted on the interests of France. Vauban, the 
 great engineer, drew up a memorial, representing this 
 involuntary exile of a hundred thousand Frenchmen as a 
 grave political and social calamity for France ; showing 
 that the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and its attend- 
 ant measures, would most materially damage commerce 
 and trade, disorganize society, and strengthen hostile fleets 
 with nine thousand sailors, and hostile armies with six hun- 
 dred officers and twelve thousand soldiers, among the best 
 then in France. Hereupon " the great king" issued an 
 ordonnance that whosoever should expatriate himself should 
 be condemned to death and confiscation of goods ; that is, 
 he said to his protestant subjects: "You shall be massa- 
 cred and despoiled if you stay in my kingdom, you shall 
 be exterminated and despoiled if you quit it !" 
 
 On the 12th of October, 1685, Louis wrote to the mar- 
 quis d'Arcy, his ambassador at Turin, informing him that 
 he had ordered d'Harleville, governor of the French 
 valleys of Perosa and Pragela, Cesana, Usseaux, Meano, 
 Exili, Traversa, Salabertrans, and Bardonneche, to convert 
 the valleys within his jurisdiction, " by lodging his troops,"* 
 and desiring him to exhort the duke of Savoy, " whose an- 
 cestors had ever ill endured the exercise of the protestant 
 religion," to adopt similar means, in his own valleys, to 
 the same end. On the 27th of October, the marquis 
 informed his sovereign that he had duly impressed upon 
 the duke the extraordinarily favourable opportunity afforded 
 by the vicinity of the French troops, for bringing the fol- 
 lowers of the pseudo-reformed religion to reason ; the duke 
 
 * All protestant?, " obstinate in their heresy," were compelled to 
 lodge, board, and pay for the soldiers, who, on their part, were di- 
 rected to injure, insult, and annoy, in every conceivable and incon- 
 ceivable way, those upon whom they were billeted. 
 
FOUKTH PERSECUTION. 263 
 
 he said, had requested time to consider the matter, for that 
 the enterprise thus counselled had been attempted repeat- 
 edly by his ancestors, not merely without success, but with 
 great detriment to the state. To this, the marquis re- 
 ported, that he had replied that those ancestors had never 
 had facilities so great as were now proffered by the most 
 Christian king, but that, of course, his royal highness 
 " would do as he pleased in the matter ; it was his interest 
 alone that his most Christian majesty thought of." 
 
 On the 10th of November, Louis XIV. again wrote to 
 the marquis, complaining that the duke of Savoy " mani- 
 fested no firm resolution to labour efficaciously at this 
 great affair, which yet can never be brought to a success- 
 ful issue by such slight attempts as those proposed by his 
 royal highness ;" urging that the. duke must be made to 
 understand that his glory was concerned in bringing his 
 subjects, at whatever cost, to the feet of the church, and 
 promising to aid him with any troops he might require 
 "for the execution of so pious a design." In his reply, 
 on the 24th of November, the marquis states that " he had 
 renewed to the duke the offers of his most Christian majesty 
 in aid of the conversion of the Waldenses, but that his 
 royal highness — a prince of extreme reserve and of a very 
 independent turn — had merely repeated his thanks for the 
 interest taken by the most Christian king in his affairs." 
 The ambassador adds : " It seems very doubtful whether 
 the duke will adopt the measures proposed by your majesty, 
 for when the ministers, the marquis di San Tommaso and 
 the president de Truchsis, who both entirely concur with 
 your majesty, have spoken to him on the subject, he has 
 scarcely given them an answer at all." The popish coun- 
 sellors of his most Christian majesty were not to be thus 
 frustrated, and, on the 7th of December, Louis again wrote 
 
264 THE WALDESSES. 
 
 to his ambassador at Turin: "So long as the duke shall 
 suffer Huguenots to subsist on the frontiers of my state, his 
 authority will not suffice to prevent desertion on the part 
 of my Calvinist subjects ; this, he must be clearly sensible. 
 I shall not endure ; and the insolence of these heretics 
 exciting my irrepressible indignation, the result might be 
 that I should no longer entertain towards him those senti- 
 ments of friendship ■which I have hitherto manifested. 
 I feel assured he will seriously reflect hereupon." 
 
 The duke, apparently, did reflect seriously upon this 
 very emphatic intimation, for, on the 31st of January, 
 1686, appeared the fatal edict which caused such infinite 
 misery to the valleys, and seemed, for awhile, to have 
 effected the complete annihilation of the Waldensian church. 
 '•Heresy," the edict set forth, "has extended from the 
 centre of the valley of Luzerna to the heart of Piedmont. 
 Our ancestors have often undertaken to extirpate it, but, 
 by means of the succours which the religionists have 
 received from foreign countries, the holy work of their 
 return to the Romish church has not been accomplished ; 
 and since, at present, the principal reason that existed for 
 tolerating them has been removed, by the zeal and piety 
 of the glorious monarch of France, who has brought to the 
 true faith the heretics contiguous to the Waldensian val- 
 leys, we deem that his most Christian majesty might 
 accuse us of ingratitude for his signal favour, which we 
 still enjoy, were we to let pass the opportunity of exe- 
 cuting this important design, pursuant to the intention 
 ever entertained by our glorious predecessors. 
 
 " Upon which grounds, and for other pressing reasons, 
 we have, of our full authority, certain knowledge, good 
 pleasure, and absolute power, decreed as follows : — 
 
FOURTH PERSECUTION. 265 
 
 " I. The AValdenses shall henceforth and forever cease 
 and discontinue all the exercises of their religion. 
 
 " II. They are forbidden to have religious meetings, 
 under pain of death and penalty of confiscation of all their 
 goods. 
 
 " III. All their ancient privileges are abolished. 
 
 "IV. All the churches, prayer-houses, and other edi- 
 fices, consecrated to their worship, shall be rased to the 
 ground. 
 
 " V. All the pastors and schoolmasters of the valleys 
 are required either to embrace Catholicism or to quit the 
 country within fifteen days, under pain of death and con- 
 fiscation of goods. 
 
 "VI. All the children born, or to be born, of protest- 
 ant parents, shall be compulsorily trained up as Roman 
 catholics. Every such child, yet unborn, shall, -within a 
 week after its birth, be brought to the cure" of its parish, 
 and admitted of the catholic church, under pain, on the 
 part of the mother, of being publicly whipped with rods, 
 and on the part of the father, of labouring five years in the 
 galleys. 
 
 " VII. The Waldensian pastors, who shall abjure the 
 doctrine they have hitherto preached, shall receive a salary 
 greater by one-third than that which they previously 
 enjoyed ; and one-half thereof shall go in reversion to 
 their widows. 
 
 " VIII. All protestant foreigners settled in Piedmont 
 are ordered either to catholicise or to quit the country 
 within fifteen days. 
 
 " IX. By a special act of his great and paternal cle- 
 mency, the sovereign will permit all such persons to sell, 
 in this interval, the property they may have acquired in 
 23 
 
266 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Piedmont, provided the sale be made to catholic pur- 
 chasers." 
 
 It is impossible adequately to describe the consternation, 
 the affliction, the indignation, created throughout the val- 
 leys by the promulgation of this monstrous edict. All the 
 parishes immediately appointed delegates, who assembled at 
 Angrogna, to deliberate upon the defence of the common 
 interests. Their first proceeding was to draw up an ear- 
 nest but respectful supplication to the duke, for the revo- 
 cation of the edict ; but all they could obtain was a brief 
 delay in its execution. The next course was to seek the 
 intervention of the protestant cantons of Switzerland. 
 That generous nation, at once responding to the appeal, 
 addressed earnest letters to the court of Turin, in favour 
 of the Waldenses. The letters remained unanswered. 
 Next, by an extraordinary assembly, held at Baden, 26th 
 of February, 1686, it was resolved that special envoys 
 should be despatched into Piedmont, for the purpose, if 
 possible, of rescuing the Israel of the Alps from the 
 destruction that menaced it. The ambassadors selected, 
 Gaspard and Bernard de Murat, both councillors of state, 
 reached Turin in the beginning of March, and solicited an 
 audience of Victor Amadeus : it was refused. 
 
 Meanwhile, the delay which had been granted to the 
 Waldenses was on the point of expiration, and the urgency 
 of the French ambassador, of the papal nuncio, and of the 
 propaganda, grew daily more pressing upon Victor Ama- 
 deus. Already, in their persecuting ardour, several bands 
 of popish volunteers had commenced hostilities upon the 
 inhabitants of the valleys, and the impatience of the 
 French troops cantoned at Pignerol could hardly be 
 restrained. 
 
 The mountaineers, who numbered three thousand fighting 
 
FOURTH PERSECUTION. 267 
 
 men, and whose strength was daily increased by the acces- 
 sion of foreign brethren, though they prayed for peace, 
 were quite ready to resist the foe with vigour. In the few 
 casual skirmishes to which reference has just been made, 
 they were victorious ; and they daily occupied themselves 
 in the organization of plans for the campaign, which were 
 as regularly communicated to the commandant of La 
 Torre, by a French spy, named Desmoulin, who had got 
 among them in the character of a Dauphinese refugee. 
 The chiefs and the pastors adopted at the same time, a 
 series of regulations which had been drawn up for that pur- 
 pose by Gianavel, ever watchful and earnest in his retreat, 
 and of which the first clause presents a not uninteresting 
 illustration : — 
 
 " Since the war that is raised up against us is an eifect 
 of the hatred against our religion, and that our sins are 
 the cause of that hatred, it behooves every one of us to 
 repent and to amend his life ; to which end, it is expedient 
 that the officers shall have good books to read to the men 
 in the guardhouses, and have prayers celebrated every 
 morning and evening." 
 
 Meantime, the Swiss envoys, having failed to effect an 
 audience of the duke, drew up a memorial, in which, after 
 reciting the edicts by which liberty of conscience and 
 other rights had been guaranteed to the Waldenses, they 
 represented that fidelity to treaties constitutes the stability 
 of states, and their repose; that if the word of princes 
 were not held sacred, protestant powers might treat their 
 catholic subjects as he proposed to treat his protestant 
 subjects ; and that his own glory, his own character, his hu- 
 manity, justice, the prosperity of Piedmont, were all inter- 
 ested in his not becoming the executioner of a faithful 
 
268 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 people, of whom he was the natural protector, and whom 
 he had promised to treat as a father. 
 
 The marquis di San Tommaso, who was entrusted with 
 the charge of replying to this memorial, sought to throw 
 the whole blame upon the Waldenses, as having taken up 
 arms against their lawful sovereign. The ambassador 
 pointed out that it was the duke who had taken up 
 arms against the Waldenses, not only without cause on 
 their part, but avowedly for the purpose of suppressing 
 their religion. "Potent engagements with France," re- 
 joined the minister, incautiously, "have dictated our con- 
 duct." — "If that be so," at once returned the envoys, 
 " you cannot say the Waldenses are to blame, and should 
 cease to persecute them." — "Matters have gone too far, 
 said the marquis ; " but if the Waldenses, to save appear- 
 ances, will outwardly conform to the edict of the 31st 
 January, things may, perhaps, be arranged." 
 
 This proposition was altogether too vague to be accepted, 
 and the envoys accordingly rejected it. They offered, 
 however, to go the valleys, and see what could be done, 
 and a safe conduct was accordingly given to them ; their 
 interposition being all the more heeded, that at this junc- 
 ture, Brandenburg, Holland, and England, had also ad- 
 dressed fresh representations to Victor Amadeus, in favour 
 of his protestant subjects. 
 
 The Swiss envoys reached the valleys on 22d March, 
 and immediately invited the attendance of deputies from 
 all the Waldensian communes, to consult with them. The 
 meeting took place at Chiasso, on 23d March. The Swiss 
 envoys having stated what they had done since their arrival 
 at Turin, and being requested by the Waldenses to counsel 
 them in this emergency, suggested that the best course 
 would be to obtain leave to sell all they had, and quit, in 
 
FOURTH PERSECUTION. 269 
 
 a body, a country whose sovereign had manifestly resolved 
 that they should not dwell there in peace and in liberty of 
 conscience. "Your valleys," said the envoys, "are 
 hemmed in by the states of your enemies ; all the paths 
 to it are guarded ; there is no nation in a position to wage 
 war with Prance, solely in your behalf ; no succours can 
 reach you ; and you yourselves have at the most, three thou- 
 sand fighting men ; you have more than twelve thousand 
 mouths to feed ; your supplies are cut off, and your every 
 step is watched ; an overpowering force awaits but the signal 
 to massacre you. How can you resist ? Rather, we im- 
 plore, you, transport elsewhere the torch of the gospel, of 
 which you are the depositories, than to keep it here to be 
 extinguished in blood." 
 
 The Waldenses, who had expected other counsels, ■who 
 were prepared for strife, and hoped for victory, replied 
 that they could not consent, on behalf of their country- 
 men, to expatriate themselves without a struggle ; and 
 that, at all events, so grave a position must be decided by 
 the whole population. 
 
 The Swiss deputies, unable to wait for this decision, 
 returned to Turin, whence they despatched their secretary 
 to receive the reply of the aggregate Waldenses. On the 
 arrival of this functionary in the valleys (28th March), he 
 found the population in a state of the greatest agitation. 
 Even those who were willing to emigrate were fearful that 
 the proposal to give them free egress from the valleys was 
 merely a snare, so that while journeying forth, in isolated 
 groups, they might be assailed and slain by the enemy. 
 Most of the pastors were, from the outset, in favour of 
 submission ; the mass of the people, were, at first, for re- 
 sistance ; but, after awhile, the communes of Perosa, San 
 Martin, Prarustin, Roccapiatta, Rora, Villar, and La 
 23* 
 
270 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Torre, consented to submit ; the communes of Bobbi, San 
 Giovanni, and Angrogna, with a portion of La Torre, ad- 
 hering to resistance. In the hope of turning this division 
 to advantage, the enemies of the Waldenses induced Victor 
 Amadeus to sign (9th April) an edict, which treated the 
 emigration of the Waldenses as an affair quite settled and 
 agreed upon. When this edict, however, was published 
 (11th April) in the valleys, it agumented the excitement 
 which already prevailed there ; and three days afterwards, 
 at a meeting of delegates from all the communes, at 
 Roccapiatta, it was resolved, that, the conditions imposed 
 by this edict being wholly inadmissible, all idea of sub- 
 mission should be abandoned, and that the Waldenses, 
 acting as one man, should resist to the last gasp, and, re- 
 lying upon the aid of Providence, defend their hearths and 
 altars, as their fathers had done before them. 
 
 Thus the measure which had been designed to separate 
 them had the effect of uniting them more compactly than 
 ever. 
 
 On the 17th April, being Good Friday, the solemn cov- 
 enant was confirmed by another meeting of delegates at 
 Roccapiatta ; and on Easter Sunday the holy communion 
 was received by all the sons of the valleys, heroic disci- 
 ples of the gospel, and resolute to defend it and themselves 
 against vile oppressors. 
 
 It was the last communion they were to partake of be- 
 fore the terrible castastrophe we are about to narrate, and 
 which for awhile effected the total dispersion of this people. 
 
CjjajiUr <£mnitt]-fifttr 
 
 MASSACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 
 
 The generous Swiss ambassadors, finding that their me- 
 diation between the two parties was useless, resolved to 
 leave Piedmont. But foreseeing the inevitable and ap- 
 proaching destruction of that Waldensian church, which 
 was so dear to them, they wrote to Frederic William, grand 
 elector of Brandenberg, to beg him to receive into any 
 vacant territory within his states, a colony of Waldenses, 
 if they should be expelled from their native country. The 
 elector graciously replied that he would give them an 
 asylum at all risks. 
 
 Already the combined forces of France and Piedmont 
 were approaching the Waldensian valleys. Victor Amad- 
 eus II. reviewed his troops in the plain of San Segonzo. 
 His army consisted of two thousand five hundred and 
 eighty-six men of the regiments of Mondovi, Barges, and 
 Bagnolo ; a corps of Piedmontese infantry, and a regi- 
 ment of horse ; while the French auxiliaries were several 
 regiments of dragoons and other calvary; seven or eight 
 battalions of infantry from Dauphiny ; and a portion of 
 the garrisons of Pignerol and Cassale. The signal of 
 carnage was to be given on Easter Monday, 22d April, 
 by three cannon-shots, fired at dawn of day, from the hill 
 of Bricherasio, when a general attack on the two valleys 
 
 (271) 
 
272 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 was forthwith to take place ; the duke of Savoy assailing 
 thatofLuzerna, and Catinat, general-in-chief of the French 
 auxiliaries, that of St. Martin. The latter general 
 quitted Pignerol in the night of Easter Sunday, and, after 
 marching two hours by torch-light, reached the village of 
 St. German as day was dawning. Catinat immediately 
 sent forward a detachment of infantry under the command 
 of lieutenant-colonel Villevielle, who took possession of 
 the town, and drove the Waldenses from their first en- 
 trenchments ; but presently the Waldenses, turning about, 
 repulsed the aggressors. Catinat hereupon sent a detach- 
 ment of horse to sustain his infantry; the fighting extended 
 along the whole line, and lasted for ten consecutive hours. 
 The French infantry grew weary, and the calvary could 
 not operate with any effect on slopes covered with brush- 
 wood, and so pertinaciously defended by the moun- 
 taineers ; and at length the latter, finding the fire of the 
 enemy slacken, made, all at once, a sortie so impetuous 
 that the French surprised and driven in, turned, fled 
 and were chased out of the territory to the left bank of 
 the Clusone. More than five hundred of the enemy were 
 killed or wounded in this engagement, while the Walden- 
 ses lost only two men. Villevielle himself, with thirty 
 men, made his way to the protestant church St. German, 
 where he gallantly defended himself till the evening, 
 against a series of energetic attacks, directed by Henry 
 Arnaud, who, at first a Dauphinese pastor, had emigrated 
 to the valleys from the tyranny of Louis XIV., and was, 
 at this juncture, at once a pastor and a captain of the 
 Waldenses. At night, a detachment of troops from Pig- 
 nerol rescued the gallant French oflicer from his perilous 
 position. 
 
 Meanwhile, Catinat had marched to Perosa. There he 
 
MASSACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 273 
 
 distributed his forces into two divisions ; the first of which, 
 under the command of Melac,. penetrating the valley of 
 Pragela, by Salvage, turned the heights of Pomaret, while 
 the second, led by Catinat himself, was directed towards 
 Les Clots. The next day, 23d of April, this general 
 attacked Rioclaret, opposite the position he had thus taken. 
 
 All the inhabitants of the valley of St. Martin had 
 declared, four days before, that they were willing to avail 
 themselves of the edict of the 9th of April, and to lay 
 down their arms. But Victor Amadeus was not made 
 acquainted with their resolution till the evening before the 
 battle ; he then refused to accept it, declaring it came too 
 late. His troops were already in possession of the ap- 
 proaches to the valleys ; the envoy sent by that of St. 
 Martin could not return thither. The inhabitants of this 
 district were ignorant of the duke's answer ; they trusted 
 to the articles of the edict, and, not expecting an attack, 
 they had made no preparations for defending themselves. 
 The army of Catinat surprised them, thus unprepared, cut 
 them to pieces, and spread themselves over the valley, kill- 
 ing, burning, pillaging. Six families, who were made pris- 
 oners, and were sent to Perosa, were basely massacred on 
 their arrival there. Two young girls of Villa-Secca were 
 slain in their resistance to the outrages of the soldiers : the 
 latter glutted on their dead bodies the brutality of which they 
 had not been able to render them the victims while living, 
 
 Giovanni Ribeto, of Macel, had his limbs burned off in 
 succession, as he successively refused the injunctions to 
 abjure which were made to him in the intervals of his tor- 
 tures. 
 
 At the hamlet of Fontane, near Rodoret, four women 
 were seized as they were fleeing with their infants ; the 
 hapless babes were dashed ruthlessly to the ground, and 
 
 s 
 
274 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 the still more hapless mothers outraged till they died on 
 the dead bodies of their children. 
 
 In all directions the horrors of 1655 were renewed, 
 with even aggravated atrocities. Husbandmen were fast- 
 ened to the end of the ploughshare, and dug into the earth 
 they were tilling. Others were hurled from precipices 
 upon the rugged points below; others torn in pieces by 
 horses ; others tortured to death by mutilations too mon- 
 strous to be described. 
 
 After having thus devastated the valley of St. Martin, 
 Catinat left a few troops there, and marched on to Pramol. 
 
 Melac, who joined him there, had perpetrated at Pom- 
 aret horrors of the same atrocious character ; and on his 
 way he had absolutely, at the pike's point, compelled the 
 outraged Waldensian women and girls, whom he had taken 
 prisoners, to march naked, at the head of his troops, in 
 order to guide them on their way. 
 
 The combined forces of Melac and Catinat encamped on 
 the basin of Pramol, at the hamlet of La Rua, over-against 
 that of Pemiano. The latter was occupied by fifteen hun- 
 dred Waldenses, the inhabitants of the locality, augmented 
 by the men of St. German, who had so valiantly resisted 
 the first attack of the enemy ; so that the protestants were 
 in a condition once more to resist, and, perhaps, once more 
 effectually. Seeing this, the enemy recurred to treachery, 
 a weapon at which the papists are peculiarly expert ; and 
 Catinat sent word to the Waldenses that the inhabitants 
 of the valley of Luzerna had laid down their arms, had 
 waited on Victor Amadeus, and had been received by him 
 into his full grace, which he was equally ready to accord 
 to all his Waldensian subjects who would take the same 
 course. The Waldenses, hereupon, sent two envoys to the 
 French general, to receive from his own mouth the con- 
 
MASSACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 275 
 
 firmation of this news and of this promise. Soldierly- 
 honour revolted not in the breast of this soldier against a 
 deliberate lie: "Lay down your arms," he said, "and all 
 is pardoned." 
 
 The Waldenses, true themselves, believed in the truth 
 of others: they laid down their arms, and received the 
 French regiment, who the next morning entered Pemiano, 
 without distrust. The officer in command of the regiment, 
 captain St. Pierre, then assembled the men of the place, 
 informed them that the duke had been informed of their 
 submission, and was waiting to receive them graciously. 
 They at once departed, under escort, to receive from their 
 sovereign the promised grace, and, the defenders thus 
 removed, and none of the Waldenses being left in the place 
 but women, children, and aged people, the soldiers of 
 Catinat rushed like wild beasts upon this inoffensive multi- 
 tude, massacreing some, torturing others, despoiling all; 
 and as to the women and young girls, subjecting them to 
 atrocities so brutal, that the pen refuses to describe them. 
 The children were taken away, and distributed among the 
 monasteries and convents of Piedmont, or with popish 
 families. Their fathers, who had gone to the camp of 
 Victor Amadeus to make their submission, were cast into 
 the dungeons of Luzerna, Cavour, and Villafranca, where 
 many of them died of privation, grief and sickness. 
 
 But popery was triumphant : treason had served it ; 
 half the population of the valleys was massacred or im- 
 prisoned ; carnage had done its work ; and what remained 
 of the Israel of the Alps was destined to be of short dura- 
 tion. The Te Deums of St. Bartholomew were soon to be 
 heard once again. 
 
 Victor Amadeus had remained in the plain which forms 
 the entrance to the valley of Luzerna, towards La Torre 
 
276 THE WA1DESSES. 
 
 and Rora. It Was there, at a later period, after the 
 wonderful return of the Waldenses to their country, that 
 this prince, vanquished and a fugitive in his turn, came to 
 seek an asylum among the same mountaineers whom now 
 he was using his utmost efforts to destroy or exile. 
 
 His uncle, Gabriel of Savoy, advanced towards the 
 heights of Angrogna. His line of operations extended 
 from Bricherasio to San Giovanni, while the Waldenses 
 occupied, on the summit of the hills of Le Coti^re, a series 
 of posts above and parallel with them. On the 22d of 
 April, Don Gabriel made a simultaneous attack on these 
 posts, from all sides. The Waldenses fought the whole 
 day. On the approach of night, the bivouac fires were 
 lighted on both sides. This girdle of fire environed the 
 mountain at about a third of its height. Serres and Cas- 
 telluzzo belonged to the enemy, Roccamanante and Le Porte 
 d'Angrogna were in the hands of the Waldenses. 
 
 On the 23d of April the battle was resumed. The Wal- 
 denses retired towards the crest of the mountain, in good 
 order, and fighting incessantly the whole day. Towards 
 the evening they encamped all together, at the foot of La 
 Vachera, and fortified their position with entrenchments 
 of rocks and earth. Next morning, Gabriel of Savoy was 
 informed of the surrender of the Waldenses of Pramol, who 
 had trusted themselves into the hands of their foes, and 
 whose defenceless families had been massacred. 
 
 He immediately resolved to employ the same means 
 against his opponents, and sent word to them that their 
 co-religionists of the valley of St. Martin having laid 
 down their arms and obtained grace, he advised them to 
 follow this example, to avoid greater evils ; for if they did 
 not surrender, the French troops, who were in possession 
 of the valley of St. Martin, and that of Pramol, would 
 
MASACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 277 
 
 take them in the rear, and they would be inevitably 
 crushed. 
 
 The Waldenses of the valley of Luzerna, entrenched at 
 the foot of La Vachera, were amazed at this intelligence, 
 and, in their turn, sent envoys to Gabriel of Savoy, who 
 confirmed the news, and sent them back a despatch, signed 
 by himself, which ran thus: — "Do not hesitate to lay 
 down your arms ; be assured that, in submitting yourselves 
 to the clemency of his royal highness, he will receive you 
 favourably, and that he will not injure your persons, nor 
 those of your wives and children." 
 
 A promise so formal, and signed by a royal hand, it 
 seemed unreasonable to doubt ; but the Waldenses should 
 have borne in mind that the hand so signing was also a 
 popish hand, taught to trace, without a shudder, whatever 
 atrocities a priest might dictate. 
 
 The Waldenses, however, put faith in Don Gabriel, and, 
 that very evening, opening their entrenchments to him, 
 placed themselves, without arms and without distrust, 
 amidst his troops. The latter immediately, under pretext 
 of friendly conversation, got around them, then seized 
 them, and, binding them like criminals, dragged them to 
 Luzerna, where they were thrown into the dungeons, 
 already half filled with betrayed Waldenses. 
 
 Thus, almost without striking a blow, the enemy gained 
 possession of these formidable valleys, where the Walden- 
 ses had posts so advantageous, and entrenchments so 
 strong, that, as a popish writer of the time admits, they 
 might have maintained themselves there for ten years. 
 But treachery had immured the male defenders of this 
 sanctuary and of the gospel in the dungeons of popedom, 
 and imprisoned their children in its monasteries and its 
 nunneries ; their outraged wives and daughters, their help- 
 24 
 
278 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 less parents, were massacred; their houses were despoiled 
 and burned, their fields devastated. 
 
 In the valley of Luzerna, Victor Amadeus himself 
 attacked two posts of Waldenses, who were covering the 
 entrance to Pra-del-Tor and the road to Villar. The fight 
 continuing till evening, without any result, the same strata- 
 gem was resorted to by the papists which had succeeded 
 so well at La Vachera and Pemiano : upon the solemn 
 assurance of the Piedmontese chiefs that the duke, who 
 was at hand, would receive them into favour, on their lay- 
 ing down their arms, "as he had already received into 
 favour their brethren of Angrogna and La Vachera," 
 many of the Waldenses surrendered, and were at once 
 sent to join their brethren in the dungeons of the duke ; 
 while those who would not surrender, finding their num- 
 bers so fearfully reduced by stratagem or surprise, aban- 
 doned their posts, and withdrew to Bobbi, the last village 
 of any importance in the valley that remained to the pro- 
 testants. Here, after repulsing several separate attacks, 
 they were surrounded, on the 13th of May, by the entire 
 army of Victor Amadeus and his French allies, and, find- 
 ing themselves unable to withstand this immense force, 
 they cut their way through the enemy's lines, and dispersed 
 amid the depths of La Sarcena and Garino. The popish 
 troopers then proceeded to the work, in which they were 
 so skilled, of massacre, outrage, spoliation, and incen- 
 diarism. Two sisters, Anna and Madalena Vittoria, after 
 undergoing indescribable brutalities, were burned alive in 
 the shed which had been the scene of their dishonour. 
 Daniel Pellenc was flayed alive, and then, a huge stone 
 being laid upon his prostrate and palpitating body, was 
 left to die in agony. One poor woman, who had taken 
 refuge in a cavern, where a goat supplied her with the 
 
MASSACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 279 
 
 nourishment which she, in her turn, communicated to her 
 baby, was surprised by the soldiers ; the infant was thrown 
 down the abyss, on the rocks below ; the mother was 
 dragged before the marquis de Benil, colonel of the regi- 
 ment of Savoy, and interrogated as to the place where her 
 co-religionists had retired. She would give no answer. 
 To make her speak, the soldiers crushed her fingers between 
 iron bars ; this producing no effect, the heroic defenders 
 of the Roman catholic faith broke her legs, and, having 
 violently tied her heels to her neck, rolled her down into 
 the gulf where they had just before cast her infant. Daniel 
 Mondon, one of the elders of Rora, was compelled to wit- 
 ness the decapitation of his two sons, the eventeration of 
 his daughter-in-law, and the massacre of her four children ; 
 he was then driven at the pike's point, his sons' heads and 
 the bleeding remains of his daughter-in-law being sus- 
 pended round his neck, to Luzerna, where he was hanged. 
 
 " All the valleys are wasted, all the inhabitants killed, 
 hanged, or massacred." So wrote, on the 26th of May, 
 1686, a French officer in the army of Catinat ; and the 
 destruction of the Waldensian churches seemed, indeed, at 
 length accomplished. More than one thousand persons 
 had been massacred, more than six thousand lay in prison, 
 and two thousand children, torn from their parents, were 
 immured in various popish establishments. All the Wal- 
 denses, dead or alive, had been declared guilty of high 
 treason, and their property, of whatever description, con- 
 fiscated to the state. Nothing seemed to remain for the 
 valleys but the silence of death and desolation. 
 
 It was from this very desperation of circumstances that 
 the remnant of the Waldenses derived fresh courage. No 
 sooner had their most formidable enemies — the French 
 troops and the militia of Mondovi — withdrawn altogether, 
 
280 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 and the Piedmontese army partially, than, from the depths 
 of the woods and ravines, and from the heights of the 
 craggiest rocks, there crept forth men worn with fatigue 
 and privation, but resolute in their faith and in their 
 patriotism, who, by degrees collecting together on Mont 
 Beces, numbered in all eighty men, with whom were a few 
 women and some children. We know not the names, nor 
 the leader, of this small band, destined, by their heroic 
 valour, to emancipate from prison their betrayed country- 
 men, to recover their confiscated property, and to obtain 
 for them and for themselves, an honourable retreat, with 
 baggage and arms, to a foreign land. 
 
 Animated with the spirit of Gianavel, and aided by the 
 hand of God, these last defenders of the valleys fell like 
 a thunderbolt on the persecutors, who supposed them all 
 exterminated, defeated successively the garrisons of Vil- 
 lar, La Torre, Luzerna, and San Segonzo, seized a large 
 convoy of ammunition and provisions on its way to Pignerol, 
 and then, returning to the mountains, multiplied their 
 numbers by their activity, their strength by their valour, 
 their power by the fear they inspired, and their chances of 
 safety by the incessant losses to which they subjected the 
 enemy. 
 
 Unforeseen in attack, unattainable in retreat, they would 
 fall suddenly on some heedless post, some sleeping canton- 
 ment, fire the buildings or the tents, slay numbers of the 
 enemy, and then retreat, ere the survivors had time even 
 to look at their assailants ; or, in the middle of the night, 
 they would assail some village in the plain, set fire to the 
 outskirts, and menace the entire conflagration of the place, 
 unless a heavy ransom was paid. The marquis de Parelles 
 and Gabriel of Savoy marched against these desperate 
 guerrillas, but to no purpose, and, after having undergone 
 two defeats, the Piedmontese generals offered to the Wal- 
 
MASSACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 281 
 
 denses free egress to any foreign country they might select, 
 if they would consent to retire. The offer was accepted ; 
 but only on condition that all the Waldenses who were de- 
 tained in prison should be released, and included in the 
 concession. Further, these hardy mountaineers stipulated 
 that, in their retreat to a foreign land, each division of 
 exiles should be accompanied by an officer of the royal 
 guard, by way of hostage ; and, moreover, that, to the 
 frontiers of Savoy, the cost of journey should be defrayed 
 by Victor Amadeus. After some hesitation these terms 
 were accorded : it was agreed that the prisoners should be 
 released, and have free egress from the country, and it was 
 further conceded that all the Waldenses should be at liber- 
 ty to dispose of their goods. But as to these goods, the 
 far greater portion had been a prey to pillage and incendi- 
 arism ; and as to the prisoners, so many of them had died 
 under their sufferings in the popish dungeons, that, alto- 
 gether, of the fifteen thousand Waldenses who constituted 
 the protestant population of the valleys but a few months 
 before, only two thousand six hundred remained to avail 
 themselves of the liberty of exile now granted to them. 
 
 Arrangements having been meanwhile made with the 
 Swiss protestant cantons for the reception of the exiles 
 within their territory, the first two detachments, consisting 
 of the men whose valour had procured from the court of 
 Savoy the concession upon which they were acting, arrived 
 at Geneva, on the 25th of November, 1686, in number 
 eighty persons, men, women and children. On the 3d of 
 December, the Waldensian prisoners at Turin were releas- 
 ed, and despatched on their way to Switzerland ; and on 
 the 3d of January, 1687, they were followed by the re- 
 mainder of their countrymen. 
 
 The numerous Waldenses whom persecution in their dun- 
 geons had induced to catholicize, were not permitted to 
 
 24 * 
 
282 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 return to their valleys, but detained in prison for some 
 days after the departure of their countrymen, that they 
 might not join them in their exile. They were then deported 
 to the marshy plains of Vercelli, where they were ordered 
 to remain, under penalty of ten years' labor in the galleys, 
 and where great numbers of them speedily died of typhus 
 fever. Any of them who should presume to set foot in 
 the valleys was to be punished with death. 
 
 The total number of Waldenses, men, women, and chil- 
 dren, who reached Geneva — for hundreds died of the effects 
 of their ill-treatment in prison, of cold and hunger, on 
 their way — was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six. 
 Their reception was most generous ; one-half of the popu- 
 lation of Geneva, headed by the patriot Gianavel, came 
 to meet them at the Arve, the confine-river of their sub- 
 lime territory, and there competed with each other who 
 should receive, within his hospitable dwelling, the greatest 
 number of the exiles. Of the third band of Waldenses, 
 one party, in especial, aroused the interest, the enthusiasm 
 of the Genevese — a patriarchal barba, ninety-six years 
 old, who, heading a tribe of seventy-two children and 
 grandchildren, revived the imposing image of those bibli- 
 cal migrations, which the constant study of the Bible had 
 rendered so familiar to protestants. 
 
 The numbers thus arriving at Geneva could not, of 
 course, be all entertained in that city; some were dis- 
 tributed among the other protestant communities of Swit- 
 zerland, some were conveyed to Brandenberg, some to 
 Holland, and thence to America ; but all who had the 
 choice remained in Geneva, to be near those beloved val- 
 leys, which all cherished the hope and expectation one day 
 to recover. 
 
Chapter <£mrntt]-sixt|?. 
 
 THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF THE WALDENSES 
 UNDER ARNAUD. 
 
 The Waldenses, such of them, at least, as were not still 
 retained in prison, among whom were all the ministers, 
 having quitted the valleys, it hecame a question how these 
 valleys should bo re-peopled. It was at first proposed to 
 settle on them the Irish exiles, who were leading a vagrant 
 life in Montferrat, but there was more than one objection 
 to this plan ; first, the idleness of these islanders, by whose 
 neglect these districts, once so flourishing, would soon be- 
 come barren and waste : secondly, the superior advantage 
 of selling the lands. It was determined, therefore, that 
 they should be put up to auction, and that what remained 
 unsold should be let. The richest properties were added 
 to the private domain of Victor Amadeus ; and others 
 given to his officers. Many catholicized Waldenses were 
 permitted to remain for a few months on their lands ; but 
 ultimately the sale of the confiscated property began on 
 the 15th July, 1689. Some were purchased by individu- 
 als, but most by companies formed for the speculation at 
 Susa, Chambery, Saluzzo, and other places. The whole 
 territory of Angrogna was sold in one lot ; that of Bobbi 
 was bought by bidders from Susa, for forty-four thousand 
 
 (283) 
 
284 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 francs ; that of Villar, by a company of ten persons at 
 Saluzzo. Generally speaking, the preference was given to 
 Savoyards, who, coming from a mountainous and over- 
 peopled country, presented, in both circumstances, greater 
 probabilities of their introducing competent labourers, and 
 plenty of them, into the country. But the expectation 
 was by no means realized ; so that when the Waldenses 
 themselves returned home, they found their valleys in 
 almost the same depopulated and devastated condition that 
 they had left them in. 
 
 These Waldenses themselves, meanwhile, repulsed from 
 Wurtemberg by the policy of its rulers, willing to favour 
 the protestants, yet still more anxious to avoid a collision 
 with their persecutors — repulsed from the palatinate by the 
 dragoons of Louvois — repulsed from Brandenberg by the 
 ill-will of the population — wandering about on the banks 
 of the Rhine and in the mountains of Switzerland, an 
 unwilling burden upon their co-religionists there, — had 
 resolved to attempt the recovery of their valleys, not sim- 
 ply as a means of subsistence, or as satisfaction of patri- 
 otism, but as a duty of conscience. It seemed, indeed, 
 under the circumstances, utterly improbable that this scat- 
 tered remnant should rally under a leader of their own, 
 and march, sword in hand, for the recovery of their pos- 
 sessions ; but Henri Arnaud thought otherwise. Patriotic, 
 ardent, and enthusiastic, his love for his native valleys 
 would not suffer him to be happy in a foreign land, his 
 courage would hear of no obstacles, and his warm imagi- 
 nation represented the arm of God as lifted up to succour 
 the holy undertaking. Lux lucet in tcnebris, " the light 
 shineth in darkness," was the motto of his community, and 
 the words which were ever in his mouth. He thought he 
 saw the cloud which was to go before him by day, and the 
 
RETURN OP THE WALDEHSES. 285 
 
 pillar of fire which was to give him light by night, and he 
 ■was incessant in his importunities, until he had communi- 
 cated his own martial spirit to a few faithful friends, and 
 had girt on what he called the sword of the Lord and of 
 Gideon, which he solemnly swore never to resign, until the 
 images should be torn down from the altars of the thirteen 
 sanctuaries, which, until this fatal epoch, had never been 
 so idolatrously decorated. In a short time his little troop 
 was increased to upwards of eight hundred daring adven- 
 turers, whom he had persuaded to join his standard, from 
 different parts of Germany and Switzerland. 
 
 They were obliged to meet in secret, and their nocturnal 
 assemblies were held in the dark retreats of a forest, which 
 then spread over a long tract of country between Nion 
 and Rolle, and extended down to the edge of the lake of 
 Geneva. 
 
 On the night of Friday, the 16th August, 1689, Arnaud 
 had completed all his preparations ; and, putting himself 
 at the head of his men, he seized some boats on the coast, 
 and crossed the lake. Yvoire, in Savoy, was their place 
 of landing, and they would have had to encounter an en- 
 emy at the first village through which they passed, if they 
 had not wisely taken two persons of some distinction, as 
 hostages for their safe conduct through this part of the 
 country. The route, for the first two or three days, was 
 by passes to which they were perfect strangers, but their 
 hostages were answerable for the fidelity of the guides. 
 On the second day, however, they were nearly betrayed, 
 in epite of all their precautions. The inhabitants of Clu- 
 ses, on the Arve, at first refused to give them a passage 
 through the town, and afterwards despatched a messenger 
 to Sallanches, with instructions for the people of that city 
 to attack the Waldenses in the narrow defile of Maglan, 
 
286 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 while they themselves would assail them in the rear. Most 
 providentially the treacherous scheme was discovered in 
 time, and no other vengeance was taken than to carry off 
 two more hostages from Cluses. The tremendous pass of 
 Maglan, where a few peasants, armed with stones, might 
 stop the progress of a whole army, was cleared before 
 the troops of Sallanches had notice of this extraordinary 
 march ; and though it rained torrents the whole day, 
 the eight hundred reached Cablau before they halted for 
 the night. 
 
 It took them two days only to surmount the difficulties 
 of the Montagne de Haut Luce, and that of the Bon 
 Homme. The latter is a chain of the Alle"e Blanche, and 
 forms part of the Graian Alps. After descending from 
 these snow covered heights, they followed the course of 
 the mountain torrent called Reclus, and penetrated, through 
 a woody ravine, into the plain of Scez, where they en- 
 camped on the fourth evening. It was on this day's march 
 that they passed by the large rock of Gypsum, which 
 stands at the entrance of the defile that leads to Scez, and 
 is well known as La Roche Blanche, which is supposed to 
 be the celebrated white rock on which Hannibal spent the 
 night, after the furious attack which was made upon him 
 by the barbarians. 
 
 On the 21st August, the protestant heroes traversed the 
 valley of the Isere ; and though they expected to find this 
 one of the most perilous of their journeys, yet they arrived 
 at Laval in safety. Nothing can be more fertile, or better 
 cultivated, than this lovely valley, which presents some of 
 the finest Alpine scenery to the eye that is to be met with 
 in Savoy : it was not, therefore, from the difficulty of the 
 passes, or the scarcity of provisions, that Arnaud's troops 
 apprehended interruption ; but from the hostility of the 
 
RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 287 
 
 inhabitants. The population is numerous on each side of 
 the river ; and it was never satisfactorily explained, why 
 the eight hundred were permitted, not only to traverse the 
 valley of the Isere, hut also to cross Mont Iseran, and the 
 still more formidable Mont Cenis, without any well- 
 ordered attempt to stop their progress; for by this time 
 the object of their march was well known at Turin. A 
 few skirmishes was all they had to encounter ; and it 
 was not before the eighth day of their enterprise that 
 they first came in conflict with any large body of regular 
 troops. 
 
 To avoid the garrison of Susa, it was determined to pro- 
 ceed along the banks of the Dora, at the foot of the Col 
 d'Albin, which closes in upon the river, and leaves a pass, 
 which is barely practicable at places even for troops who 
 have no enemy in front. The narrowest part of the defile 
 is near Salabertrand, where a bridge is thrown over the 
 Dora. At this point the Waldenses found their passage 
 disputed by twenty-five hundred French, who summoned 
 them to surrender at discretion. The superiority of num- 
 bers against them was fearfully great; the garrison at 
 Susa were prepared to act against them, if they retreated ; 
 and hemmed in by the rocks on one side, and the river on 
 the other, the little band had no alternative but to advance. 
 
 Having first reconnoitred, to discover if there was any 
 ambuscade, the Waldenses advanced towards the bridge. 
 Some of the enemy, who were entrenched on the other side, 
 called out, Qui vive ? to which the Waldenses replied, very 
 sincerely, Amis; intending to remain so, if they had 
 been suffered to pass without interruption. But the French 
 did not desire to be friends upon these terms ; and shouted 
 "Kill them." A firing then commenced, which lasted a 
 quarter of an hour, during which more than two thousand 
 
288 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 shots were discharged; but Arnaud having ordered his 
 men to lie flat upon their faces, there was but one of them 
 wounded. A Savoyard gentleman, one of the hostages,- 
 declared that he had never seen so terrible a firing take 
 so little effect : and, what was more remarkable, Arnaud, 
 Captain Mondon, of Bobbi, and two other refugees, were 
 not only obliged to expose themselves to it, but held in 
 check two companies, who attempted to charge the Wal- 
 denses in the rear. The Waldenses finding themselves 
 thus placed between two fires, saw that no time was to be 
 lost, and that every thing would depend upon the promp- 
 titude of the moment. At this critical juncture, a voice 
 exclaimed, " Courage, the bridge is gained !" In an 
 instant, the men rose up, and rushed forward, some sword 
 in hand, and others with bayonets fixed. The bridge was 
 carried ; and with such impetuosity did the assailants ad- 
 vance to force the entrenchments, that they were at the 
 very muzzles of the guns, and cut many of the enemy down, 
 before they could fire at them. Never was so violent a 
 shock. The sabres of the Waldenses shivered the swords 
 of the French to pieces. 
 
 The victory was so glorious and decisive, that the mar- 
 quis de Larrey, who commanded and was dangeroush' 
 wounded in the arm, cried out, blaspheming in the usual 
 French style, " Is it possible that I have lost the battle, 
 and my own honour !" Seeing that there was no remedy, 
 he added, Sauve qui peut, and then fled, with several 
 wounded officers, to Briangon ; but not considering himself 
 safe even there, he was conveyed in a litter, to Embrun. 
 
 The conflict lasted two hours ; and the enemy were so 
 completely routed, that many of them, finding themselves 
 intermixed pell-mell among the Waldenses, hoped to 
 escape by being mistaken for them ; but they were all put 
 
RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 289 
 
 to the sword. The field of battle was covered with the 
 dead. Several companies were reduced to seven or eight 
 men, without any officers. All the baggage and ammuni- 
 tion fell into the hands of the Waldenses ; and when the 
 moon rose that evening, not an enemy was to be seen. 
 
 The exiles might have re-established themselves at once 
 among the fastnesses of the valley of St. Martin, but these 
 brave men were not satisfied with a secure retreat ; they 
 resolved to dispossess the Roman catholics, and to restore 
 their brethren to their lands and habitations, or to perish 
 in the attempt. The valley of Luzerna was occupied in 
 great force by French and Piedmontese troops, a detach- 
 ment of whom was ordered to seize the passes of the Col 
 Julien, and to prevent Arnaud's approach on that side of 
 the valley. But nothing could check his impetuous attack. 
 The heights were carried with scarcely any loss on the 
 part of the Waldenses ; and the enemy were pursued from 
 one summit to another, till they retreated into the vale of 
 Bobbi, and took shelter in that village. Bobbi was, at 
 this time, in the hands of the papists, to whom the confis- 
 cated property of the protestants had been assigned. It 
 was taken by storm, and pillaged by the exasperated exiles 
 who, upon this occasion, lost sight of the moderation, by 
 which they had hitherto been governed. 
 
 After these successes, the gallant patriots took an oath 
 of fidelity to each other, and celebrated divine service in 
 one of their own churches, for the first time since their 
 banishment. The enthusiasm of the moment was irrepres- 
 sible ; they chanted the 74th Psalm to the clash of arms ; 
 and Henri Arnaud, mounting the pulpit with a sword in 
 one hand and a Bible in the other, preached from the 129 th 
 Psalm ; and once more declared, in the face of heaven, 
 that he would never resume his pastoral office in patience 
 25 T 
 
290 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 and peace, until he should witness the restoration of his 
 brethren to their ancient and rightful settlements. 
 
 Encouraged by their success at Bobbi, the Waldenses 
 inarched against Villar, where there was a strong garrison, 
 and pressed the enemy so hard, as to force them to retire 
 within the walls of a convent ; but while they were invest- 
 ing the convent, a strong reinforcement arrived from Pig- 
 nerol, relieved the blockade, and obliged the protestants to 
 abandon the valley of Luzerna, and to retire among the 
 strongholds of the valley of St. Martin. This was on the 
 twenty-second day after their landing at Yvoire ; and the 
 detachments, both of French and Piedmontese, who were 
 sent in pursuit, carried such devastation with them, that, 
 for a time, all supplies of provisions were cut off; and for 
 several days, they had nothing to subsist upon but fruit 
 and vegetables. The warfare now assumed a more extra- 
 ordinary turn than ever. The eight hundred had to main- 
 tain their ground against brigades sent against them, by 
 the French king on one side, and the duke of Savoy on 
 the other ; it was no longer a detached force, but a well- 
 appointed army with which they had now to contend. 
 The rocky and barren district of St. Martin afforded them 
 no resources ; the defiles that led into the more fertile 
 valleys were in the hands of the enemy : famine, fire, and 
 sword menaced them in every direction, yet they refused 
 to surrender. Even the fastnesses which, in former per- 
 secutions protected their fathers, were untenable for any 
 length of time, from want of provisions. Scarcely had 
 they taken up a position before they were obliged to aban- 
 don it, in search of supplies ; and it is an extraordinary 
 fact, that for several weeks they had neither food nor am- 
 munition, but what they took from the enemy. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it was impossible that the 
 
RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 291 
 
 little band should concentrate its force, or remain together. 
 It was obliged to separate, and to act in detached parties. 
 Engagements were therefore taking place, almost every 
 day, in different quarters of the valley ; the enemy never 
 knew where they would be attacked next, and at length 
 were so intimidated, that a whole company would fly at. 
 the sound of a single Waldensian fusil. The Waldenses 
 have always been good marksmen, and upon this occasion 
 they exercised their skill most successfully. From the 
 summit of a mountain, from the top of a crag, or from 
 behind a rock or tree, a marksman would frequently take 
 his stand, and deliberately fire several shots before he 
 could be dislodged ; or, knowing every pass and defile, a 
 few of them would make a detour, and pour in a volley 
 upon a bivouacing party of their adversaries, which never 
 failed of causing dreadful slaughter and consternation. 
 
 One great thing in favour of this intrepid force was, 
 that they had no women nor children to encumber them, 
 for these were still in Switzerland; there was nothing to 
 check the most perfect freedom of their movements, no 
 strong places to attack or defend — for what were strong 
 places to them ? They could fall upon their enemy as 
 they pleased and when they pleased ; and if too hardly 
 pressed, they had a secure retreat in their mountains, from 
 which they could sally forth at a more favourable oppor- 
 tunity. They were neither to be beaten by force, nor 
 baffled by cunning. The enemy would, as they thought, 
 surround them. Every possible means of escape seemed 
 cut off; but their intimate knowledge of the mountains, 
 and fearless habits, would enable them to march off by 
 paths which were either unsuspected by the enemy, or con- 
 sidered as utterly impracticable. 
 
 As the winter set in, the hardships and deprivations of 
 
292 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 .these poor men increased; without any shelter for several 
 nights together, worn down by constant fatigue, and half 
 famished for want of food, it is wonderful how they sup- 
 ported their courage. We find them one day at Prali, on 
 the second taking Perrero by storm, and the day after- 
 wards surprising Pomaret. We read of them as being at 
 the last-mentioned place on the 26th day of the month, 
 and on the 29th attacking and defeating five hundred of 
 the Piedmontese at Angrogna. 
 
 There was one fortress which was was deemed quite im- 
 pregnable, and this the Waldenses succeeded in supplying 
 with provisions. It was that of Balsille, situated in front 
 of one of the defiles that lead into the valley of St. 
 Martin, and near the source of a mountain stream which 
 flows into the Germanesca. Just at the point where the 
 craggy sides of the Guignivert, the highest ridge of this 
 chain of Alps, slope down towards the foot of the Col del 
 Pis (a lofty mountain, which prevents all access from the 
 side of Pragela), a rampart of rock stands at the entrance 
 of the pass, and forms of itself a barrier, which requires 
 but little art to render it secure against any force that can 
 be brought against it. The highest part of this rock rises 
 as steep as a wall, and has three stages or terraces, sur- 
 mounted by a sort of natural platform. Upon this plat- 
 form stood a tower, and in the sides of the rock which 
 rose above each terrace, caverns were hollowed out to 
 serve for barracks. Three fountains supplied the fortress 
 with water, and there was no approaching it with any pro- 
 bability of success, but from the side where the stream 
 gushes from the mountain. Numberless assaults were 
 made by the enemy upon this position, but nothing could 
 dislodge the little garrison to whose charge it was confided. 
 When they were most pressed, a messenger from the fort 
 
THE EAXSILLE DURING TEE ATT ACE. 
 
RETURN OP THE WALDENSES. 293 
 
 was despatched to Prali, and a detachment from their com- 
 rades made an unexpected attack upon the French in the 
 rear, while they themselves sallied from their bulwarks, 
 and caused an incredible slaughter. 
 
 One more attack, made by Catinat with all his forces, 
 was repelled ; and the general, resolved not to lose his 
 chance of the baton of marshal, from being again defeated 
 by a handful of mountaineers, delegated the further siege 
 of Balsille to the marquis de Feuguieres, who, on the 14th 
 May, 1690, succeeded in battering down the bastions of 
 the fortress. The French army then mounted to the as- 
 sault, assured of taking the besieged prisoners ; but a 
 thick fog, which arose at this juncture, enabled the Wal- 
 denses to make their escape, under the guidance of captain 
 Poulat, a native of the place, along the edge of precipices 
 never before trodden by the foot of men, and along which 
 they were compelled to creep on their hands and knees : 
 the path was so perilous, that men accustomed to climb 
 the most frightful rocks shuddered when they returned to 
 the spot afterwards, and saw the danger they had escaped. 
 " He who has not seen such paths as these," says Arnaud, 
 in his narrative of this nocturnal retreat, " cannot conceive 
 the danger of them, and will be inclined to consider my 
 account of the march a mere fiction. But it is strictly 
 true ; and, I must add, the place is so frightful, that even 
 some of the Waldenses themselves were terror-struck, 
 when they saw by daylight, the nature of the spot which 
 they had passed in the dark." 
 
 From precipice to precipice, the Waldenses attained the 
 valley of Angrogna, and it was there that they learned 
 the strange vicissitude which had occurred to crown their 
 hopes. 
 
 A rupture had taken place between Louis XIV. and 
 25* 
 
294 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 Victor Amadeus : each was anxious to conciliate the Wal- 
 denses, and to secure the services of the gallant band who 
 had maintained their ground so manfully in the valley of 
 St. Martin, and great offers were made by both parties. 
 Always loyal, the protestants turned a deaf ear to every 
 proposal but that which came from their own sovereign. 
 A treaty was effected, a general amnesty was proclaimed, 
 the exiles and their families were invited to return home, 
 and an order published, that their lands and houses should 
 be immediately restored, and their churches re-opened for 
 protestant worship. 
 
 The quaint style in which Boyer's* translator relates 
 the termination of the war, and his reflections upon the 
 subject will not be considered uninteresting. " The duke 
 of Savoy being forced to break with France, by reason of 
 the hardships that were imposed upon him, this ftpture 
 was the cause of the liberty and deliverance of the Wal- 
 denses ; for having understood that the king of France did 
 solicit them to embrace his part, with offers of re-establish- 
 ing them in the valleys, and giving them liberty of con- 
 science, with free and public exercise of their religion, 
 which would have been very prejudicial to his interest ; 
 for, instead of one enemy, he would have had two upon 
 his back, and would have been deprived of the succours 
 that the protestant princes promised the Waldenses, and 
 of the considerable service that they might do him, in 
 keeping the passes, and in hindering the communication 
 of the troops that were in the Delphinate, with the army 
 commanded by monsieur Catinat; this prince resolved to 
 draw them to his own party. And, to this effect, he set at 
 liberty all the Waldenses that were in prison, as well ministers 
 
 * Boyer's and Arnaud's accounts were published soon after the 
 events took place, and 'were never contradicted. 
 
RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 295 
 
 as others. He sent an act of oblivion to all those that were 
 in arms in the valleys ; and gave to those that were in 
 foreign countries leave to come home, with necessary pass- 
 ports, with orders to all to turn their arms against the 
 French, whom they must look upon as their true perse- 
 cutors, and the cause of all their miseries. 
 
 " He made be brought before him all those that were 
 prisoners at Turin, and told them that he was touched with 
 a deep sense of their miseries ; and commanded them, in 
 his presence, to be clothed, and to be furnished with all 
 things necessary. He excused himself that he had hand- 
 led them so roughly ; and cast all upon the king of 
 France, as the true author of all that had befallen them ; 
 and because the number of the Waldenses was so much 
 diminished that there were scarce two thousand left, after 
 the last persecution, the duke of Savoy made proclamation, 
 that all those protestants that were fled out of France, 
 that would come and dwell in the valleys, and join them- 
 selves with the Waldenses, might do it, and be safe under 
 his protection, and have necessary passports. He ordered, 
 likewise, that at their entrance into Savoy, both the Wal- 
 denses and the French should be furnished with arms, and 
 all things necessary for to pass into the valleys ; which 
 was punctually put into execution. 
 
 " The return of the Waldenses into their country, their 
 entrance into their valleys, and their subsisting there for 
 eight months, are so many wonders and miracles. Is it 
 not a miracle that eight or nine hundred men should under- 
 take to cross an enemy's country of fourteen or fifteen 
 days' journey, where they must climb up high mountains, 
 force divers strait passes, where an hundred might not 
 only stop, but beat three thousand ? And that which is 
 most astonishing is, that these passes were guarded with 
 
296 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 great numbers, and more expert soldiers than the Walden- 
 ses ; they, notwithstanding, forced all those passes with 
 their swords in their hands, and routed them that guarded 
 them, killing a great number in gaining them, with very 
 little loss on their side. 
 
 " It is likewise another miracle, that they got into the 
 valleys the entrances being so difficult, being peopled with 
 Roman catholics, who might have hindered their entrance, 
 being more in number than they ; or at least they might 
 have possessed themselves of the most advantageous posts 
 which were in the mountains, and defend themselves easily, 
 till the succours from France and Savoy, which were in 
 readiness, could come and second them ; but a dreadful fright 
 from God fell upon them, so that they had no courage nor 
 conduct to defend themselves, against Waldenses, who, with- 
 out any trouble or resistance chased them out of the valleys. 
 
 " Is it not likewise a great miracle that a handful of 
 people, without any commanders experienced in warlike 
 affairs, should subsist eight months in the valleys, and fight 
 nine or ten battles against the army of France and Savoy, 
 who were sometimes twenty, but oftener thirty, against 
 one, without being able to drive them out of their fast- 
 nesses, having killed more than two thousand of their 
 enemies ? So many happy successes make it clear that the 
 God of battles inspired them with the generous courage of 
 returning into their own country, to kindle again the candle 
 of his word, that the emissaries of Satan had extinguished 
 there ; that he marched before them, and fought for them, 
 without which it would have been impossible to have forced 
 so many difficult passes, and gained such signal victories. 
 
 "The conduct of God in the re-establishment of the 
 Waldenses is admirable, and make it evident that his divine 
 providence has judgment and ways incomprehensible, sur- 
 passing all human understanding." 
 
RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 297 
 
 All the Waldenses who arrived from their foreign asy- 
 lums were incorporated in the Waldensian regiment which 
 William III. of England, the ally of Victor Amadeus, 
 raised at his own expense, and placed at the disposal of 
 the duke in the common interest of the allies. Throughout 
 the remainder of the year, it was the Waldenses of this 
 regiment, and their co-religionists, who were mainly instru- 
 mental in saving the duke of Savoy from being utterly 
 overwhelmed by the forces of France ; and even after the 
 arrival of prince Eugene to the succour of the duke, the 
 Waldenses still continued to be the most effectual strength 
 of their sovereign. In June, 1692, accordingly, the duke 
 issued a decree by which he granted to the Waldenses 
 full amnesty for all their past offences, of whatsoever 
 kind, the complete restoration of all their rights and 
 privileges, and of all their lands and goods, and un- 
 conditional license to exercise their religion, and for such 
 as had catholicized on compulsion to revert to their 
 former faith. This edict was renewed in March, 1694, 
 after another campaign, in which the Waldenses had taken 
 a distinguished share, had been operated. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1696, the duke of Savoy detached 
 himself from the league which had been acting against 
 France, and made an alliance with that power, under the 
 terms of which all the fortresses that had been taken from 
 him were restored, and his eldest daughter, Marie Ade- 
 laide, was married to the duke of Burgundy, being the 
 fifteenth direct alliance that the house of Savoy had con- 
 tracted with that of France. On the 5th of November, 
 1696, Victor Amadeus, who, a few weeks before, had 
 been generalissimo of the coalition against France, was 
 nominated generalissimo of the French army opposed to 
 the coalition. 
 
Chapter Cmnitij-smntl;. 
 
 FRESH EDICT OF EXPULSION. 
 
 The edict of rehabilitation which the duke of Savoy had 
 issued in 1694, in favour of his faithful subjects of the 
 Waldensian valleys," had excited great indignation at the 
 court of Home; and it was said that the pope's nuncio at 
 Turin had been ordered to protest against the concession, 
 and then to return home, while, on his part, the duke's 
 envoy at Rome had been requested to withdraw from the 
 Eternal City. France, on her part, anxious to create the 
 largest possible amount of antagonism against Victor Ama- 
 deus, had augmented to her utmost power the irritation of 
 the court of Rome. At length, Innocent XIII., the same 
 pontiff who had not long before granted liberty of con- 
 science to the inhabitants of Civita Vecchia, in order to 
 attract commerce to that port, denounced the edict of 
 restoration to the Holy Office, to be examined, or, in other 
 words, condemned. The tribunal of the Inquisition as- 
 sembled in the presence of the pope, and, after an appear- 
 ance of deliberation, issued an edict, by which the ducal 
 decree was "annulled, quashed, and reprobated, with 
 all that it contained, as enormous, impious, and detest- 
 able," and " all archbishops, bishops, inquisitors, &c, 
 were enjoined to act as theretofore against the heretics, 
 
 without regard to the act." 
 (298) 
 
FRESH EDICT OF EXPULSION 299 
 
 The duke of Savoy was for an instant stupified, as it 
 were, by this edict ; but, recalling his dignity as a crowned 
 sovereign, and well knowing that Rome would crush whom- 
 soever showed fear of her, he ordered the senate of Turin 
 to examine the edict. The attorney-general, Rocca, 
 moved, in the senate, that the edict should be declared 
 null, aud that the decree for the re-establishment of the 
 Waldenses should be maintained, still more as an act of 
 justice than as an act of grace. The solicitor-general, 
 Frechignone, supported this motion, and the senate, by a 
 decree of 11th September, 1694, quashed the edict of the 
 Inquisition, prohibited its publication in the states of Sa- 
 voy, under pain of death, and confirmed in all its integrity 
 the edict in favour of the Waldenses. Victor Amadeus 
 communicated this decree to the pope, with the distinct 
 intimation that no sovereign of Europe would thenceforth 
 permit, on the part of the holy see, any such abuse of 
 power. Spain and Austria communicated similar protests, 
 and the pope, thereupon, alleging that he had been misin- 
 formed, ordered his nuncio at Turin to withdraw the edict 
 which had met with such emphatic resistance. 
 
 The Waldenses meanwhile applied themselves to re- 
 establish their old organization. Nearly all the Walden- 
 sian families, proscribed or catholicized, had returned to 
 the bosom of their church and of their country. The Wal- 
 densian militia had taken a prominent rank in the regular 
 troops of Victor Amadeus. The fields were once more 
 cultivated, the houses rebuilt, the altars raised up, and the 
 ecclesiastical directors of this little people endeavoured to 
 have their numbers augmented. 
 
 In the year 1692 there were twelve churches in the val- 
 leys ; but the people could not support as many pastors. 
 The Queen of England, as related on a previous page, 
 
300 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 having been informed of their misery, instituted twelve 
 pensions of a hundred crowns each, for each pastor, and 
 of fifty crowns for each schoolmaster. These payments, 
 not having appeared on the civil list of William III., were 
 suspended for some years after his death ; but a deputation 
 of Waldenses to London then obtained its restoration. 
 There were but nine pastors in the valleys in the earlier 
 part of 1692, but the number was increased by several 
 others in June. In the same year was established the 
 Waldensian Table, or board for managing the affairs of the 
 church ; and its officers immediately wrote to the various 
 protestant states in Europe which had interested themselves 
 in behalf of the Israel of the Alps, acquainting them with 
 their new position, thanking them for their past benefits, 
 and earnestly soliciting a continuance of that tutelary benev- 
 olence by which alone they could raise themselves up from 
 the domestic ruin accumulated by six years of calamity. 
 The appeal was liberally responded to by Holland, Swit- 
 zerland, and England, whose bounty established several 
 schools, and alleviated the more pressing distresses of the 
 Waldenses. 
 
 A series of synods occupied themselves with the orga- 
 nization of the church, the confirmation of discipline, the 
 strengthening of morals, relaxed by so many years of agi- 
 tation, the release of brethren from the galleys, the insti- 
 tution of a system of arbitration, and other reforms and 
 improvements : and matters seemed settling upon a basis 
 of permanent security and repose, when the peace made 
 between Victor Amadeus and France, placed the Walden- 
 ses once more at the mercy of their ancient foes. Chil- 
 dren were once more forcibly taken from their protestant 
 parents, and no redress afforded. The Waldenses were 
 called upon for extraordinary imposts to repay the cost of 
 
FRESH EDICT OF EXPULSION. 301 
 
 troops ; and were peremptorily required, moreover, to pay 
 all the taxes that had accrued in respect of the lands they 
 now occupied, during the time of their exile, and while 
 the lands had been utterly uncultivated. The population, 
 already immersed in poverty, thus found themselves laden 
 with a demand amounting to 300,000 francs, of which, in 
 default of the principal, they were to pay the interest 
 yearly. It became manifestly impossible that they should 
 satisfy this extortion, together with the other imposts that 
 were required from them ; and many of them prepared 
 once more to leave that native land which they had recov- 
 ered so arduously, and the right to the tranquil enjoyment 
 of -which they had earned by such signal aid to their sov- 
 ereign in his difficulties. 
 
 In the spring of 1698, a Jesuit, accompanied by several 
 monks, made a detailed inspection of the valleys; and 
 upon the report which he made to the pope of his inspec- 
 tion, the marquis di Spada immediately proceeded from 
 Rome to Turin, where he had a long conference with the 
 apostolic nuncio. Louis XIV. was at this time persecuting 
 the Protestants of Dauphiny with the most cruel rigour, 
 and the protestants of the valleys f divined that this confer- 
 ence between their deadly enemies had for its object their 
 own extirpation. Their alarm was but too well founded. 
 In the treaty of peace of 18th August, 1696, between 
 France and Piedmont, there was a secret article (the 
 seventh,) which ran thus : " His royal highness shall pro- 
 hibit, under pain of corporal punishment, the inhabitants 
 of the valley of Luzerna, known under the name of Wal- 
 denses, from having any religious communication with the 
 subjects of his most Christian majesty ; nor shall his royal 
 highness permit henceforth the subjects of the king of 
 France to establish themselves in any manner in the said 
 26 
 
302 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 valleys, nor allow any preacher, subject to him, to set foot 
 on the French territory, nor permit the •worship calling 
 itself reformed, in the territories which have been ceded 
 to him." These territories were precisely the valleys of 
 Perosa and Pragela. Pursuant to this treaty, the duke of 
 Savoy, on the 1st of July, 1698, issued an edict by which 
 he ordered that all French protestants established in his 
 states, even the ministers, should, without reference to any 
 permission theretofore obtained to the contrary, quit his 
 states in the space of two months, under the penalty of 
 death. Such of them as had become proprietors in the 
 country, and had not sold their properties within that 
 period, were to receive the market price of the same from 
 the intendant at Pignerol. Further, the Waldensian pas- 
 tors were forbidden to enter the states of the king of 
 France under pain of ten years' labor in the galleys. 
 Moreover, " in order to satisfy the signified desires of his 
 majesty," the inhabitants of the Waldensian valleys were 
 ordered to have no communication with the subjects of his 
 most Christian majesty in matters of religion, under pain 
 of a public whipping for each transgression. 
 
 The agitation and misery occasioned in all the families 
 affected by this edict may be readily imagined. Most of 
 the foreign refugees had formed alliances with the Wal- 
 denses, by marriage or otherwise ; yet all had now to seek 
 another asylum, and more than three thousand emigrants 
 were thus compelled to journey forth into foreign lands. 
 Thither, in the succeeding chapters, we shall follow them. 
 
Cfraptn <Cnuntq~ngI;t[r. 
 
 THE WALDBNSES IN WURTEMBERG. 
 
 Of the thirteen pastors who, in 1698, served the Wal- 
 densian church, seven were foreigners, and were obliged 
 accordingly to expatriate themselves under the edict of the 
 1st of July. Two of these immediately repaired to Swit- 
 zerland and Germany, to prepare there an asylum for their 
 fugitive flocks. A certain number of families had already 
 quitted Pragela, in order to avoid the vexatious proceed- 
 ings of Louis XIV. ; and towards the close of 1697, a 
 portion of the inhabitants of the valley of Perosa joined 
 these first exiles, in consequence of the refusal of Victor 
 Amadeus to recognize, in the reformers of the territory 
 yielded by France, the same rights as those enjoyed by 
 the reformers of the other Waldensian valleys. 
 
 These families, having traversed Switzerland without 
 being able to find a settlement there, addressed themselves, 
 in the commencement of 1698, to the duke of Wurtemberg, 
 with the view of obtaining lands in his territory. This 
 prince, though well disposed in their favour, found his 
 benevolence impeded by the faculty of theology, at Tubin- 
 gen, who considered the Waldenses as stained with Calvin- 
 ism, and who were energetically supported in their opposi- 
 tion by the dudal council. A prince of secondary rank, 
 
 ( 303 ) 
 
304 THE WALDENSES 
 
 however, the count de Nieustadt, a man of ability and of 
 excellent heart, did not permit himself to be influenced by 
 these prejudices. He rightly considered that the active 
 energies of the Waldenses might benefit his district, in 
 which they proposed to establish certain manufactures; 
 and he assigned to the emigrants portions of land in the 
 neighbourhood of Gochseim, with fifteen acres of arable, 
 two of pasture land, and one of vineyard, for the especial 
 use of their future pastor. The privy council, however, 
 operated upon by the enemies of the unfortunate colonists, 
 presented to the count a report, in which they declared 
 that the opinions of the Waldenses were neither conforma- 
 ble with the old Waldensian confession, nor with that of 
 the Moravian brethren, but were altogether tainted with 
 Calvinism, and that therefore the emigrants ought to be 
 refused an asylum in Wurtemberg, unless they consented 
 to adopt the confession of Augsburg. 
 
 The count de Nieustadt, nevertheless, persisted in his 
 project of colonization, as generous towards the exiles as 
 beneficial towards his own territories ; and if at a later 
 period the Waldenses obtained a footing in Wurtemberg, 
 it was owing to the independent spirit and far-seeing intel- 
 ligence of this nobleman. 
 
 Meanwhile was issued the decree of the duke of Savoy, 
 which ordered all foreign protestants to quit his states ; 
 and two thousand exiles made to the gospel the sacrifice 
 of their adopted country, of the beautiful valleys which 
 they had inhabited for ten or twelve years, and in which 
 they had, by official edicts, received authorization to dwell. 
 These two thousand exiles were joined by many Waldenses 
 allied with them by family and other ties, and by all the 
 protestants who had remained in the valley of Perosa, and 
 who were precluded, by a special clause of the treaty 
 
IN WURTEMBERG. 305 
 
 between Louis XIV. and the duke, from exercising in that 
 valley the reformed worship ; so that the total number of 
 emigrants was upwards of three thousand. These put 
 themselves in movement, towards the close of 1698, in 
 seven bands, each led by a pastor. The duke of Savoy 
 had consented to defray their travelling expenses ; but on 
 the third day the minister of finance withdrew this conces- 
 sion, in the hope that want of means might perforce keep 
 the Waldenses in the country, and that there they might 
 be impelled by want and persecution to become Roman 
 catholics. 
 
 But the spirit of unity and of Christian enthusiasm 
 which animated them all, did not permit one of them to 
 wander from the straight path ; the richer ^among them 
 paid for the very poor, and all arrived together at Geneva, 
 that hospitable station of all our great migrations, sus- 
 tained by their confidence in God, the welcome of their 
 brethren, and the succours cordially transmitted from Hol- 
 land and England. The evangelical cantons of Switzer- 
 land consented to entertain them during the winter, on 
 condition, considering the over-population of Switzerland 
 and the bad harvest of 1698, that they would migrate fur- 
 ther in the spring of 1699. 
 
 Meantime, Henri Arnaud, and other Waldensian dele- 
 gates, ha>d been taking steps in Wurtemberg to obtain for 
 their co-religionists a fixed establishment in that country. 
 Arnaud, as chief spokesman, showed to the ducal commis- 
 sioners that the Waldensian church admitted the confession 
 of faith of the Bohemian brethren, as well as that of St. 
 Cyril ; and declared that the Waldenses, if received into 
 Wurtemberg, would be faithful to the government of the 
 country, in peace as in war. 
 
 Pressing solicitations in favour of the Waldenses were 
 
 20 * U 
 
306 THE WALDENSES 
 
 made at the same time to the duke of Wurtemberg, by the 
 courts of Holland and England, from both of which coun- 
 tries large pecuniary aid was also transmitted to facilitate 
 the -establishment of the exiles in the duchy ; and even- 
 tually, despite much opposition, the duke permitted them 
 to take up their abode in his states, on very favourable 
 terms, negotiated chiefly by the Dutch envoy, Walknaer. 
 They were to have full and free exercise of their religion ; 
 to have in each of their churches a consistory, formed of 
 the pastor, deacons, and elders ; to hold synods when 
 occasion required, at which deputies from all the Walden- 
 sian colonies around might attend, a government commis- 
 sioner being present ; one half of the property of those who 
 should die, intestate, during the first twenty years of their 
 residence in AVurtemberg, was to be distributed among the 
 poor brethren of the commune ; they were to be exempt 
 from certain imposts for ten years after their establish- 
 ment ; all the lands in the bailiwicks of Maulbronn and 
 Leonberg, that had remained waste since the Thirty Years 
 War, were assigned to them in full gift, and all the villages 
 they should build were to enjoy the same privileges with 
 the other towns of the duchy ; for the exercise of justice 
 and municipal administration among themselves, they were 
 to establish, in each community, a secular council, consist- 
 ing of a mayor, sheriff, and such other persons as they 
 might judge fittest for the purpose, and which was to have 
 jurisdiction in all civil matters, up to the value of twenty 
 florins ; no foreigner might settle in the colonies they 
 should establish without their consent, and that of the duke : 
 they were permitted to trade throughout the duchy, and 
 to export and import all sorts of merchandise, on payment 
 of the regular dues ; and they might establish such fairs 
 and markets as they deemed necessary. 
 
IN WURTEMBERG. 307 
 
 These privileges were, for the most part, the same with 
 those which the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt had just 
 granted to the Waldenses, at the solicitation of Walkuaer, 
 and they served as the model of all similar concessions 
 which were granted to the faithful in the contiguous states. 
 
 To aid in the support of the Waldensian pastors in these 
 foreign settlements, Arnaud, during his residence in Lon- 
 don, obtained the consent of the British government that 
 the sum of 555Z., which was assigned from the civil list to 
 the pastors of the valleys, should be divided, in fair pro- 
 portions, between them and the pastors of the colonies. 
 
 With respect to the Waldensian colonies in Wurtemberg, 
 six months before the completion of the patent authorizing 
 their establishment in that country, most of their number 
 had arrived (April, 1699) at Maulbronn, where they were 
 lodged, temporarily, in the stockades which had been con- 
 structed at the time of the invasion of Louvois, in 1688. 
 The establishment here of the unhappy exiles was materi- 
 ally aided by pecuniary succours, to the extent of ten 
 thousand crowns, furnished by the States-general of Hol- 
 land ; and already, in August, 1699, the bailiff of Maul- 
 bronn reports, that in the commune of Pinache, the Wal- 
 densian, men, women and children, had made an excellent 
 beginning ; had brought into cultivation lands which had 
 been waste for more than half a century ; and that the 
 happiest results to the land of their adoption were to be 
 expected from their skill and industry in agriculture, and 
 from their admirable conduct. 
 
 The autumn and winter of the first year were, however, 
 a sore trial for the poor colonists. Most of them were 
 without adequate shelter against the inclemency of the 
 weather, and they had neither corn, nor cattle, nor many 
 other articles of first necessity. Thanks, however, to the 
 
308 THE WALDENSES 
 
 kindness of the Dutch ambassador and of the Wurtemberg 
 government, their wants were gradually remedied, and 
 there arose among them the following villages, all bearing 
 names derived from the Waldensian valleys. 
 
 First, in the bailiwick of Leonberg, where, near Heim 1 
 sheim, there had been nearly a thousand acres of waste 
 land, was established the colony of Pinache, in a modest 
 hamlet, whose cottages were each surrounded with a little 
 garden and orchard. The church was built on the hill of 
 Halberg, overlooking on the one side rising ground covered 
 with forest, on the other the verdant and undulating plain 
 of Eltingen. Next, in the bailiwick of Mermsheim, rose 
 Pinache, composed, in the first instance, of one hundred 
 and seventeen families, divided into three groups ; one near 
 Durmentz, another near Grossen-Glappach, and the third 
 near Iptingen. This was one of the most energetic, and 
 consequently one of the most flourishing, of the colonies, 
 and its houses were altogether of a superior construction. 
 
 South of this, in the bailiwick of Dietlingen, was the 
 colony of Luzerna, in German, Wurmberg : between which 
 and Pinache was the hamlet of Serres, the wretched huts 
 of which were scattered over a gentle eminence. 
 
 Beyond Pinache, towards the valley of Eintz, from which 
 it is separated by a magnificent forest, is the bailiwick of 
 Durmentz. Here a hundred and fifteen Waldensian fam- 
 ilies, who were subsequently joined by ninety-six other 
 persons, established themselves on the two banks of the 
 Eintz ; the one colony about the imposing ruins of the castle 
 of Loeffelstelz, or Mugensturn, the other towards Lommer- 
 sheim and Ortisheim ; the village built by the former 
 receiving the name of Chorres, that by the latter, of Sen- 
 gach. The artisans among them were permitted to take 
 up their abode in Durmentz itself, where they occupied a 
 
IN W U R T E AI B E R O . 309 
 
 street still called after them WelaJistrass (French street.) 
 On the opposite bank of the Eintz is Mulacre, where some 
 of the Waldenses settled, Arnaud being one, the house 
 built by whom still stands there, the last but one in the 
 tillage, on the left, as you leave towards Durlach. Sev- 
 eral of the companions of Arnaud took up their abode at 
 Schbnberg, further on towards the mountains of Maulbron. 
 Arnaud himself lived at Schb'nberg, as pastor, for twenty 
 years, and, dying in 1721, aged eighty, his remains rest 
 in its humble church, which so often re-echoed his evangel- 
 ical voice. His place of sepulture is marked by a flat, 
 plain stone, in front of the pulpit, under the communion 
 table. 
 
 Between Schonberg and Maulbronn is the bailiwick of 
 Knittlingen, wherein the Waldenses, on their way to Maul- 
 bronn, took possession of the soil, by depositing therein 
 the remains of one of their pastors, M. Dumas, who had 
 died immediately after reaching the land of refuge. The 
 district of Maulbronn received more than three hundred 
 families, who distributed themselves into three groups ; the 
 first of which, towards Dertingen, built the villages of Lit- 
 tle Villar and Pausselot ; the second, towards the lake of 
 Breitheim ; the third, towards Knittlingen, founded the 
 town of Great Villar, which became the largest of these 
 colonies, numbering, after a while, more than a thousand 
 inhabitants. A suburb of Great Villar forms the hamlet 
 of Diefenbach, where, at present, there remains only one 
 family of Waldensian origin. 
 
 Two years after their expulsion, and when the expa- 
 triated families had founded the colonies of which we have 
 spoken, there still remained a great number of the exiles 
 wandering about without a fixed domicil, which, indeed, 
 many of them had not sought, in the hope of soon return- 
 
310 THE WALDENSES 
 
 ing to their valleys, as after the expulsion in 1686. Some, 
 indeed, had, even retraced their steps, and consented 
 to apostatize, in order to be allowed to remain in the val- 
 leys. To check these evils, Walknaer issued a circular, 
 pointing out the impossibility, under the existing circum- 
 stance, of a return to the valleys, compatibly with an 
 adherence to the true faith, and calling upon the authori- 
 ties in each colony to take measures for the maintenance 
 of regular order. 
 
 In consequence of this remonstrance, the emigrants who 
 were still wandering about, collected together, and formed 
 a colony in the bailiwick of Calw, in an open space of the 
 Black Forest. The village they built here, at first called 
 Borseto, from a village in the valley of Pragela, is now 
 known as Nieu Engstedt. The Waldenses at first employed 
 themselves upon the manufactures of Calw, but afterwards 
 they established a stocking manufactory of their own, now 
 nearly extinct. 
 
 The administration of these little communities was man- 
 aged by a syndic, a deacon, who was also an elder, and by 
 two other elders, all of whom bore the general designation 
 of justiciaries. 
 
 Four years after the foundation of these various colo- 
 nies, fresh events compelled a thousand persons to quit the 
 valley of Pragela, who were all, in like manner, received 
 in Wurtemberg, and settled in the district of Heilbronn, 
 near Brackenheim, a position far more favourable than 
 that of the other colonies, the vine and the mulberry-tree 
 growing there, and the forests being less near. Money 
 contributions from Holland enabled these exiles to build a 
 church and a school, and aided the erection of their towns, 
 which they variously denominated, after their native seats, 
 Usseaux, Mentola, or Fenestrelles, the district, as being 
 
IN AVURTEMBERG. 311 
 
 between Nordheim and Hausen, receiving the appellation 
 of Nordhausen. In this settlement, the most purely Wal- 
 densian of all — for most of the exiles of 1698 were French 
 refugees — the Waldensian type has remained in its great- 
 est purity, in manners, in costume, and in accent. There, 
 as in the valleys themselves, is observed the custom of giv- 
 ing to each guest at a wedding, a piece of ribband, called 
 livree. The faces of the population still retain the Italian 
 character. One circumstance which contributed to pre- 
 serve their homogeneity was that, for a long time, they 
 married, for the most part, only among themselves ; ano- 
 ther was, the practice among them of assembling together, 
 from time to time, and interchanging reminiscences of 
 their native land, its history, its aspect, its manners. 
 
 The potato was introduced into Germany by these colo- 
 nists, who also did much to extend and improve the growth 
 of the mulberry and the grape. 
 
 It was, from the first, a great object with the Grand 
 Consistory of Stuttgard to annex the Waldensian exiles to 
 the Lutheran church. Promises and menaces were alter, 
 nately employed to induce the consistories of the Walden- 
 sian colonies to recognize the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of 
 the Lutheran consistory, but with very little success, for 
 so long as Wurtemberg was governed by catholic princes 
 (till 1797), the administration of that country had no inte- 
 rest in favouring the one protestant body over the other. 
 
 Under the reign of the first Lutheran prince, Frederick 
 I., the Stuttgard consistory induced some of the French 
 pastors, serving Waldensian cures, to lay a petition before 
 the government that the German language might be sub- 
 stituted for the French, in Waldensian preaching and 
 instruction. The king replied that he would permit the 
 introduction of the German language into the colonies, 
 
312 THE WALDENSES 
 
 provided that none of the Waldenses objected. This pro- 
 viso was suppressed by the Lutheran consistory, who, 
 merely announcing the authorization to use the German 
 language, issued an order that thenceforth the Waldensian 
 religious service should be celebrated in German. This 
 order, however, was at once protested against by the Wal- 
 denses, who waited upon the king, for that purpose, at 
 Ludwigsburg, and his majesty not only quashed it, but 
 expressly directed that no such innovations should be 
 attempted, except upon the proposition of the Waldenses 
 themselves. 
 
 On the accession of William I., however, fresh attempts 
 were made to Germanize the Waldensian churches, by 
 favouring mixed alliances between Waldenses and Luthe- 
 rans, by inviting the school-masters to teach in German as 
 well as in French, and lastly, by promising to undertake 
 the support of both pastors and school masters, on the con- 
 dition that these should be Germans. In an assembly of 
 the states, held at Stuttgard, in 1S21, it was resolved, that a 
 sum of twelve thousand florins per annum should be allotted 
 to such Waldensian churches as should place in the eccle- 
 siastical administration of the country .the selection of their 
 pastors and school-masters. At length, in 1822, the last 
 general synod of the Waldensian churches in Wurtemberg 
 took place at Stuttgard. There was much talk of a 
 fusion between the two protestant churches, under the 
 common name of evangelical, such as had already been 
 effected in Baden. There was very little discussion on 
 the part of the dissentients, for they were not heard, and, 
 ultimately, the great object with the Lutheran consistory, 
 of substituting German for French pastors and school- 
 masters in the Waldensian colonies was effected. Next 
 the German Bible replaced the French version, but not 
 
IN WURTEMBERG. 313 
 
 until, at assiduous conferences of competent men, it had 
 been clearly ascertained by the Waldensian pastors, 
 by the close comparison of line with line, that the 
 contents of the German translation were in conformity 
 with the primitive text. This union of the Waldensian 
 colonies with the national church, though at the time 
 deeply painful to the large proportion of the exiles, put an 
 end to many abuses, to many divisions and intrigues, and 
 introduced greater care and regularity into the selection 
 of pastors and schoolmasters. It had the further advan- 
 tage of gradually effacing the separation which had previ- 
 ously existed between the Waldenses and the people of the 
 country. So long as the former spoke among themselves a 
 language of their own, they inspired more or less distrust 
 in all who heard but did not understand them. Moreover, 
 the independence of their church had previously excited a 
 certain degree of jealousy on the part of the national 
 church, which was now removed. 
 
C [rapt n <&tnniti]-uint[F. 
 
 THE WALDENSIAN COLONIES IN HESSE D'ARMS- 
 TADT, AND ELSEWHERE. 
 
 At the period of their first expulsion in 1686, the Wal- 
 denses had already applied to the landgrave of Hesse 
 d'Armstadt, for an asylum in his territories, and the fac- 
 ulty of theology at Giessen, having been consulted on the 
 point, had decided that they might be admitted, on condi- 
 tion of their avoiding all polemics, and of their regarding 
 the prince as chief of the church (Summits Episcopus,) 
 without, however, their being required to modify, in any 
 manner or degree, their confession of faith. 
 
 We have seen these poor exiles returning to their coun- 
 try in 1689, re-established there in 1692, and the influ- 
 ence upon their position of the special peace made by the 
 duke of Savoy with the king of France. In 1698, a body 
 of the unhappy "Waldenses, once more expelled from their 
 native homes, sought a refuge in the hospitable territories 
 of Ernest Louis, landgrave of Hesse dArmstadt, whose 
 concessions, signed 2d May, 1699, served as a model for 
 those afterwards granted to them by Eberhard Louis grand- 
 duke of Wurtemberg. These letters patent open thus : 
 " His Brittannic majesty and their High Mightinesses the 
 States-general of the united provinces of the low countries, 
 having specially recommended to us the Waldenses, who 
 (314) 
 
COLONIES IN GERMANY. 315 
 
 left the valleys of Piedmont, in the month of September 
 last, by the express order of his royal highness the duke 
 of Savoy: several protestant electors and princes of the 
 empire having formally written to us in their favour, and 
 the sieur Peter Walknaer, in his quality of envoy-extraor- 
 dinary of their High Mightinesses, having urged us to the 
 same purpose : 
 
 " We, touched with lively compassion at seeing this peo- 
 ple again wandering about, despoiled of everything, and 
 seeking a retreat and an asylum in Germany, have resolved 
 to receive a portion of them into our states, and to estab- 
 lish them there under our protection, so that no one shall 
 molest or annoy them in any way, provided they consci- 
 entiously observe our orders, and submit to our laws." 
 
 The letters-patent then proceed to set forth a list of 
 thirty-nine privileges conceded to the Waldensian colonists 
 in Hesse d'Armstadt, and which permitted them the free 
 exercise of their religion, in their own language, in their 
 own churches, and by the medium of their own pastors and 
 school-masters, elected by themselves, and who were only 
 to take an oath of fidelity to the landgrave. They were 
 to have their own consistories, their own synods, general 
 and special, their own ecclesiastical government, and their 
 pastors were to have free access to any people of their 
 communion who might be in prison or ill, in any part of 
 the ducal states. In secular affairs, they were permitted 
 to administer justice among themselves, by their own 
 sheriffs, and other officers, and without appeal, up to the 
 sum of fifty florins ; even in criminal matters, they were 
 allowed to try and to sentence, execution only being stayed, 
 until the sentence had received the ratification of the duke, 
 who reserved to himself the prerogative of pardon. They 
 were to have authority to wear arms, and to exercise them- 
 
316 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 selves in their use, and, in case of war, were to form a body 
 apart, commanded by their own officers, and not liable to 
 serve beyond the ducal territories. They were declared 
 admissible to all public offices, civil, political, and ecclesi- 
 astical, and their children to all the colleges and univer- 
 sities. Their ministers and their secular officers were 
 placed on an equality, in all respects, with the correspond- 
 ing functionaries of the ducal states. They were to be 
 permitted to dispose of their property as they thought fit ; 
 the property of any one dying intestate was to be distrib- 
 uted among his next heirs ; if there were no heirs, then it 
 was to be divided between the state and the poor of his 
 commune. The Waldensian colonists were to owe service 
 to no one but the sovereign ; and for fifteen years they 
 were to be exempted from the payment of various public 
 taxes. They were to be allowed to trade in any part of 
 the ducal dominions, without license, and to carry on what- 
 ever industry they should think fit. Whenever it should 
 please God to visit them with the plague, they were not to 
 be expelled from their villages. They were to be per- 
 mitted, in common with the other protestant settlers, to 
 build a town near Keltersbach, where lands were to be 
 gratuitously assigned to them, to be distributed among 
 themselves, and cultivated a3 they should think fit. They 
 were, lastly, to be considered as upon an entire equality, 
 in all respects, with the other inhabitants of the country. 
 
 The result of all this grand display of generosity and 
 liberality, was a few miserable villages built in wretched 
 localities, the access to which, from Darmstadt, is through 
 a dismal forest, whose few roads, rugged with mud and 
 stones, are almost everywhere impenetrable by conveyances 
 of any sort. There are five Waldensian communities in 
 Hesse Darmstadt : Rohrbach, Wembach, Heim, Waldorf, 
 
COLONIES IN GERMANY. 317 
 
 and Welch Neureth. Rohrbach, the residence of the pas- 
 tor, Jacob Montoux, was the capital of these Waldensian 
 colonies. Wembach is not far distant, and near this is the 
 hamlet of Heim ; Waldorf, like Rohrbach, a pastoral resi- 
 dence, lies amid the woods, on the left banks of the Maine, 
 some leagues from Frankfort. 
 
 The exiles in these parishes remained in close union with 
 their brethren who had settled in Wurtemberg, giving 
 each other mutual aid and consolation, holding their syn- 
 ods in common, their pastors participating in the same sub- 
 sidies, and interchanging, from time to time, their pastoral 
 cares. 
 
 The Waldenses in Hesse Darmstadt were, however 
 always poorer than their brethren in Wurtemberg, and 
 their privations became excessively aggravated by the 
 French revolution of 1792, and the consequent wars on the 
 continent. Many of their families have already emigrated 
 to America, and many others only await the means to fol- 
 low their brethren, artisans, robust labourers, accustomed 
 to hard work, and knowing of the world only its necessities. 
 
 In 1801, a colony of sixty-five or seventy families, among 
 whom were four Waldensian families, emigrated to America, 
 under the direction of one Replet, at that time a weaver, 
 afterwards a communist preacher, who is since dead, leav- 
 ing behind him, it is said, a fortune of £240,000. They 
 purchased lands near Philadelphia, which, after having 
 in seven years, brought them to a high state of cultivation, 
 they sold at a large profit, and purchased, with the pro- 
 ceeds, a vast and fertile tract of land on the Mississippi, on 
 which they have since prospered in a very eminent degree. 
 
 27* 
 
CJniptn (Cinrtirtlj. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES OF PR A GEL A, AXD 
 OF THE ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 The history of the Waldenses of Pragela is quite dis- 
 tinct from that of the other valleys, these being often per- 
 secuted, while those were tranquil, and vice versa ; the 
 reason of this being, that Pragela belonged to the king 
 of France, while the others, up to 1713, belonged to Pied- 
 mont. 
 
 The valley of Pragela extends along the banks of two 
 parallel rivers, the Clusone and the Dora, between the 
 crest of the Alps to Pignerol, on the one side, and on the 
 other to Bussolino, near Susa. The adjacent valleys that 
 terminate in, or prolong, the basin of the Dora, are those 
 of Mathias and Meano, on the right bank ; of Chaumont, 
 Exili, and Bardoneche, on the left bank ; and of Thures 
 and Sauzet towards the bottom. The Col de Sestrieres 
 separates this district from, the basin of Pragela, where 
 flows the Clusone, on whose banks are the lateral valleys 
 of Traversa, Puy, Pourrieres, and Yillaret, the latter com- 
 municating with the narrow valley of Meano. Prior to 
 the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the Waldenses of 
 these valleys possessed eleven parishes, eighteen churches, 
 and sixty-four centres of religious assembling, where wor- 
 (318) 
 
THE WALDENSES OF PRAGELA, ETC. 319 
 
 ship was celebrated, morning and evening, in as many 
 hamlets. 
 
 It was at Laus, in Pragela, that was held the famous 
 synod where, two hundred years before the protestant 
 reformation, one hundred and forty protestant pastors 
 assembled ; each accompanied by two or three lay deputies ; 
 and it was from the valley of Pragela that the Gospel 
 of God made its way into France, prior to the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 Before the dominion of the king of France, the Wal- 
 denses of Pragela had been subject to the sway of the Dau- 
 phins. In the accounts of the Chatelain Delphinal, dated 
 6th of November, 1315, under the head of the valley of 
 the Clusone, we find the item: "ninety-three livres tour- 
 nois, three deniers, paid to the inquisitors for the exercise 
 of their functions in the valley ; and again, in the accounts 
 for the year 1345, we find the inquisitors of the valley of 
 Pragela in full operation "against the heretics," there 
 being a regular balance-sheet of receipts and expenditure 
 under this head, the expenditure being the money paid to 
 the inquisitors for pursuing, torturing, and burning the 
 heretics ; the receipts being the amounts realized from the 
 confiscated property of the heretics so burned. In the per- 
 secution of the evangelicals which took place in 1556, the 
 Waldensian churches of Larche, Merona, Meano and Suza, 
 were fiercely assailed, and the minister of Meano was 
 cruelly put to death. 
 
 Under the reign of Charles IX. the protestants of the 
 valley of Pragela had to undergo all the animosity of the 
 Guise, of the marshal de Retz, and of Mary de Medici, 
 being defended, on the other hand, by the princes de 
 Conde, the admiral Coligny, and the king of Navarre. 
 The chiefs of the Huguenot party in Dauphiny were the 
 
320 THE WALDENSES 
 
 intrepid Montbrun and the ferocious Des Adrets, the 
 latter of whom dishonoured the cause by bootless brutali- 
 ties. He invaded Pragela in the spring of 1562, and 
 committed infinite violence upon the catholics, the only 
 result of which was that, when he withdrew, the catholics 
 made the protestants responsible for outrages with which 
 they had had nothing to do. At Briancon, the Waldenses. 
 who had just taken the town, were themselves hemmed in 
 by fresh troops of the enemy, and pitilessly massacred. 
 Another company of the evangelical soldiers were sur- 
 rounded in like manner, in a ruined temple, between 
 Rouilleres and Pragela, and all slaughtered. 
 
 The wars of religion were for a moment calmed in 
 France by the edict of pacification, which Charles IX. 
 signed at Amboise, 19th of March, 1563, an edict con- 
 taining provisions more favourable to the reformers than 
 any they had hitherto obtained ; but it was modified by a 
 royal ordonnance given at Lyon, 9th of August, 1564. 
 
 The haughty and artful Catherine de Medici, however, 
 while affecting a desire to reconcile the two parties, was 
 all the time levying troops wherewith to assail the Hugue- 
 nots. This was in 1567, and at that juncture the duke 
 of Cleves, traversing Piedmont with a Spanish army, on 
 his way to Flanders, had reached Pignerol. Immediately 
 upon his arrival there, he ordered all the Waldenses, 
 native or foreigners, to register themselves individually 
 with the governor of the province in which they dwelt. 
 The same course was adopted towards the reformers of 
 France, the object being to ascertain the exact strength 
 of the party. Birague, governor of Pignerol, prohibited 
 all persons in his district from receiving protestants into 
 their houses, on pain of death, and from every side and 
 every form, danger menaced the unhappy Waldenses. 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 321 
 
 Under these circumstances, the Waldensian churches held 
 a synod in the valley of Clusone (May, 1567), and decreed 
 a general fast, in order to avert God's chastisements by 
 humiliation and prayer. The cloud passed on ; but it 
 was only for a while. The St. Bartholomew ensanguined 
 France, and fear once more spread itself over the valleys. 
 " The catholics," says Gilles, " rejoiced, and rallied the 
 reformists as though God had been abolished." The pro- 
 testant worship was forbidden on French ground, and the 
 protestant churches were shut up ; the protestants con- 
 tinued to celebrate their religious services in the fields or 
 in private houses ; at length, in 1573, the governor of 
 Pignerol ordered the protestants to cease their religion 
 altogether ; they refused, and Birague, marching out his 
 troops by night, surprised the town of St. German before 
 daybreak. Five men belonging to the place were seized 
 as they came out to their work, and hanged ; but the 
 alarm thus given, the rest of the inhabitants defended 
 themselves valiantly, and captain Frache, hastening from 
 the heights of Angrogna with his band of warriors, chased 
 the assailants back to Pignerol, subjecting them on the 
 way to heavy losses. 
 
 Wearied of the fruitless struggle, both parties desired 
 an accommodation, and the Waldenses, in August, 1573, 
 consented to waive, for a month, the public celebration of 
 their worship, and to dismiss their pastor, on the condition 
 that both sides should lay down their arms, that all pri- 
 soners should be mutually surrendered, without ransom, 
 and that there should be no prosecutions of individuals by 
 reason of the late events. But in the following year, 
 Charles IX. died a horrible death at Vincennes, and his 
 brother, Henry III., ascending the throne, at once declared 
 against religious liberty ; and a great council, held at 
 
 V 
 
322 THE WALDENSES 
 
 Lyon, 6th of September, 1574, decreed the rigorous pro- 
 secution of the intestine and cruel war by which it was 
 hoped to destroy the Huguenots. The latter, however, 
 with three princes of the blood at their head, assumed so 
 bold a front, that the papists deemed it expedient to make 
 peace ; and by the edict of the 14th of May, 1576, the 
 protestants obtained the free exercise of their religion, 
 admission to the parliaments, and the possession, by their 
 troops, of a certain number of fortresses, to be held as 
 hostages. These guarantees excited intense indignation 
 among the Roman catholics ; the more ardent among them 
 leagued together ; the crowd followed them, the ambitious 
 placed themselves at their head, the indecision of the king 
 enable'! them to acquire strength, and thus arose the 
 League. 
 
 To repress the League, the menaced party demanded 
 the assembling of the States-general, which were accord- 
 ingly opened by the king at Blois, 6th December, 1576. 
 But the Calvinists did not derive thence the advantages 
 they had hoped. The assembly, all the members of which 
 were Roman catholics, revoked their privileges, and decreed 
 a formal authorization of the League, which they compelled 
 the kino- himself to sign. 
 
 Civil war was thus lighted up once more with greater 
 fury than ever ; but soon, in the fear lest the reformers 
 might call in foreign troops to their aid, Henry III. 
 granted them (5th of October, 1577) a new edict of paci- 
 fication. It was the sixth, and was as little durable as the 
 rest. The war proceeded, and the agitations which it occa- 
 sioned throughout France had their echo in the Waldensian 
 valleys belonging to France, where, under the shield of the 
 League, the enemies of the protestants acquired fresh dar- 
 ing. It was said that a coalition had been formed between 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 323 
 
 Henry III., Philip II., and the duke of Savoy, to annihi- 
 late the church of the valleys ; and to this cruel menace 
 the Israel of the Alps responded by a public fast (15th, 
 16th, 22d, and 23d May, 1585), consecrated to humiliation 
 and prayer. The duke of Savoy, so far from joining the 
 League, strongly denounced its excesses, and the valleys 
 under his rule were consequently tranquil ; but the val- 
 leys of the Dora and the Clusone underwent much suf- 
 fering. 
 
 The edict by which, in February, 1602, after the con- 
 clusion of peace, Charles Emanuel accorded religious lib- 
 erty to the Waldensian valleys, restricting the exercise of 
 the protestant worship to the churches comprehended 
 within the precise limits of those valleys, the churches of 
 Saluzzo and Pragela found themselves excluded from its 
 operation. The members of these churches thereupon 
 assembled together by representatives, at Pragela, and 
 drew up a protest against the machinations and violence to 
 which they were subjected. One effect of this spiritual 
 declaration was to augment the ardour of proselytism in 
 the zealous missionaries whom popery had distributed 
 through the valleys, and whose labours were now aided by 
 the archbishop of Turin in person, who, reaching Perosa 
 on the 25th May, 1602, availed himself of the state of 
 well-nigh famine under which the district was suffering, to 
 offer corn, bread, and money to all who would catholicize, 
 and, on the other hand, to withhold from the reapers per- 
 mission to seek work in the, plain of Piedmont, until they 
 had promised to apostatize ; but his pious labours found 
 scarcely any success. In 1623, by the exertions of the 
 catholics, an order was obtained from the duke, requiring 
 the Waldenses of the valley of Perosa to demolish six of 
 their churches. The order was disregarded; the ducal 
 
324 THE WALDENSES 
 
 troops were ordered into the valley to enforce it, but the 
 Waldenses at once collected in arms, and, aided by the 
 sudden and severe setting-in of winter, expelled the sol- 
 diery, and once more amnesty was proclaimed, and the 
 privileges of the Waldenses confirmed. 
 
 In 1629 and 1630, Louis XIII. invaded Piedmont by 
 Susa and the valley of Pragcla, and his presence amongst 
 the Waldenses had a great influence on their destinies. 
 The last of the wars of religion of which France was the 
 theatre was now at its height. The protestant party, 
 defeated by arms, only raised its head once more by force 
 of discussion. In 1627, the dukes of Rohan and Soubise, 
 the chiefs of the Huguenots, had demanded aid from Eng- 
 land, who had thereupon despatched one hundred and fifty 
 ships to Rochelle. The cardinal de Richelieu constructed 
 a celebrated dike to prevent them from throwing any suc- 
 cours into the town ; but the siege of the place still lasted 
 from 10th August, 1627, to 28th October, 1628, and it 
 then only surrendered in the last extremity, and after 
 twelve thousand of its inhabitants had died of famine. 
 The fortifications of the town were destroyed, the munici- 
 pality abolished, and the exercise of Catholicism established. 
 Louis XIII., who had entered the town on the 1st of 
 November, received a sort of triumph on his return to 
 Paris, which took place on the 23d December. In the 
 interval, several towns of the second class, had been taken 
 from the protestants in the Vivarais and in Languedoc, 
 but many others still held out. 
 
 In the commencement of the year, Charles de Gonzaga, 
 duke de Nevers, had inherited the duchy of Mantua, to 
 which Spain and Savoy disputed his title. The king of 
 France, in his support, marched in person upon Piedmont, 
 the marquis d'Azel commanding his vanguard. In the 
 
OF PR AG EL A, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 325 
 
 spring of 1628, he sought to force the Alps, in order 
 to make his way into the valleys of Italy. All the 
 Piedmontese troops were immediately assembled. On his 
 part, colonel Porporato, commander of the Waldensian 
 militia, convoked a meeting of the Waldensian pastors and 
 syndics at Roccapiatta, for the purpose of applying their 
 interest over their people to the setting on foot the great- 
 est possible number of Waldensian soldiers. The Wal- 
 denses readily promised their co-operation, on the simple 
 condition they should themselves be left to guard the 
 passes of their mountains, a condition which was at once 
 granted. 
 
 The posts so established were inspected by superior offi- 
 cers of the ducal army, and Charles Emanuel himself 
 inspected the entrenchments formed in the valley of Pe- 
 rosa (August 1628). The count de Verrua, one of the 
 duke's most distinguished generals, renewed to the pastors 
 the solicitations for earnest aid made by colonel Porporato, 
 and promised, in his sovereign's name, the most ample 
 religious liberty in return. 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1629, Louis XIII. quitted 
 Paris, for the purpose of crossing the Alps at the head of 
 his army. When he had reached Briangon (end of Feb- 
 ruary) the governor of Pignerol ordered all the male inhab- 
 itants of the valleys capable of carrying arms to hold 
 themselves in readiness to march. Count Philip of Lu- 
 zerna placed himself at their head, and led them into the 
 valley of Perosa. Charles Emanuel himself had advanced 
 into the valley of the Dora. 
 
 On the 4th of March, Louis XIII. crossed Mont Ge- 
 nevre, and on the 6th, forced, in person, the three barri- 
 cades of Susa, defended by the duke of Savoy, who was 
 
 28 
 
326 TIIE 1YALDENSES 
 
 fain to give way before superiority alike in numbers and 
 in courage. 
 
 On the 11th of March he concluded peace with the king ; 
 and, having just before been the ally of the Spaniards, 
 now undertook to fight against them, and to assist France 
 in compelling them to raise the siege of Casale, in favour 
 of the duke de Nevers. 
 
 After the victory he had thus achieved, Louis XIII. 
 received felicitations and addresses of various kinds, among 
 which we may signalize that of the provost of Ouxl. — 
 "Sire,'' said this functionary, "Providence has blessed 
 your arms, because you have consecrated them to the ser- 
 vice of the faith. The numerous triumphs which your 
 majesty has effected in France, over heresy, fill all true 
 catholic hearts with joy ; everywhere do they offer up their 
 prayers to Heaven for your majesty's preservation and 
 glory, assured that Heaven, in conducting you to our land, 
 wills to complete its work in augmenting your glory and 
 our consolation, by raising up the catholic worship, which 
 acquires strength wherever your majesty proceeds, and 
 which vehemently needs such succour in these unhappy 
 valleys, where, bitter truth to say, it has been completely 
 prostrated." To this address was annexed a petition 
 signed by several catholics of the neighbourhood, calling 
 upon the king to restore their religion in all the communes 
 of the upper Dora, where, at that moment, not a single 
 cure existed. Accordingly, by a decree of 1st April, 1629 ; 
 Louis XIII. ordered that the exercise of the Romish reli- 
 gion should be re-established throughout the valleys of 
 Exili, Bardoneche, Cesuna, and Pragela ; and that the 
 popish clergy should immediately resume possession of all 
 the property which had theretofore belonged to them, into 
 whose hands soever it might have passed, and whatsoever 
 
OF PRALEGA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 327 
 
 prescription might be made out in favour of the actual 
 proprietors. 
 
 M. de Verthamont, judiciary of the army of Italy, was 
 directed to superintend the execution of these orders, and, 
 accompanied by Henry d'Escoubleau, archbishop of Bor- 
 deaux, he the next day proceeded to the scene of his 
 labours. The church of Rome, however, had but very few 
 adherents in the upper valleys ; and royal power, though 
 it might give it official access to the villages, could not give 
 it access to men*s hearts. Its priests had parishes without 
 parishioners; and their efforts would have probably re- 
 mained unsuccessful, but for an unexpected circumstance 
 which communicated to them a fresh impulse, and opened 
 to them a wider field of operations. 
 
 The duke of Savoy, who had not conformed to the treaty 
 of Susa, was again menaced by France. In the spring of 
 1630, cardinal de Richelieu marched a considerable army 
 against him. It entered Piedmont by the valley of the 
 Dora, and for a while took the direction of Montferrat, 
 but, suddenly turning to the south, it advanced upon Pig- 
 nerol, and this city, assailed on the 20th March, 1630, 
 surrendered two days afterwards. The citadel, however, 
 held out till the 29th. 
 
 The marshal de Crequi next, on the 21st March, took 
 possession of the valley and castle of Perosa, whence he 
 summoned the valleys of St. Martin and Luzerna to sur- 
 render at discretion. They refused, and sent to the duke 
 of Savoy for succours, which he was unable to furnish. 
 The French army advanced, and encamped at Bricherasio. 
 Charles Emanuel, on the contrary, retreated beyond the 
 Po. Seeing that further resistance was impracticable, the 
 Waldenses surrendered, on condition that they should not 
 be required to bear arms against the duke of Savoy, and 
 
328 THE WALDENSES 
 
 that the free exercise of the protestant religion should be 
 guarranteed to them. Marshal Schomberg accepted these 
 conditions; and thereupon deputies from each of the Wal- 
 densian communes repaired to Pignerol to take the oath 
 of fidelity to the king of France. 
 
 Fresh detachments of French troops arrived every day. 
 The country was utterly exhausted ; plague, famine, and 
 war desolating it all at once. Louis XIIL, who had 
 returned to Lyon in May, passed thence into Savoy, which 
 he rapidly subjected. In July, the duke de Montino 
 readily obtained possession of the marquisate of Saluzzo ; 
 nearly the whole of Piedmont then passed under French 
 dominion, and the siege of Casale, the original cause of 
 all these troubles, was raised by the Spaniards on the 20th 
 October, before the victorious arms of France. 
 
 Charles Emanuel died of grief on the 26th July, 1630, 
 and his son, Victor Ainadeus I., negotiated the peace of 
 Ratisbon in the following October. By this treaty, he 
 recovered all his states, and obtained a few unimportant 
 places in Montferrat. The valleys of the Clusone and of 
 the Upper Dora, and the town of Pignerol, remained in 
 the possession of France. 
 
 The Waldensian population of these districts were 
 entitled to avail themselves, for the celebration of their 
 worship, of the edicts regulating the reformed church of 
 France ; an edict of April, 1630, indeed, especially author- 
 ized them to do so ; but the town of Pignerol demanded 
 that the protestant worship should be interdicted through- 
 out its territory, and this prohibition was granted. Mean- 
 while, the priests who had been established in the valley 
 of Pragela in 1629, and the Capuchin missionaries who 
 had proceeded thither to labour at the conversion of the 
 heretics, had all died, or fled, during the plague of 1630. 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 329 
 
 The prior of Mentola alone remained. Fresh attempts at 
 conversion were made, hut without success. The numbers 
 of the Waldenses, so far from diminishing, increased daily. 
 Louis XIII. had granted them the confirmation of their 
 ancient privileges. By their agricultural operations, their 
 various trades, and their acquisitions thence derived, they 
 were occupying greater and greater space in the country. 
 This very progress drew invidious attention upon them. 
 Their enemies made an outcry against their encroachments. 
 The clergy set the magistracy to work, and the attorney- 
 general laid an information before the sovereign council at 
 PigneTol, that many of the protestants of the valley of 
 Perosa 'were forming establishments beyond the limits 
 within which alone they were permitted to exercise their 
 worship. 
 
 In consequence, the council, by a decree of 17th July, 
 1645, renewed the prohibition to the Waldenses to open 
 schools or churches, to preach, and even to teach, beyond 
 the ancient limits assigned them. It also forbad any 
 foreign protestant to settle in the country, under penalty 
 of the confiscation of his goods, and a fine of one thousand 
 livres upon the commune which had permitted the settle- 
 ment to take place, without giving notice to the registrar 
 of Pignerol ; lastly, the protestants were forbidden to hold 
 any public ofiice, or to purchase or lease any land, beyond 
 their own limits ; to work on catholic festivals ; to dissuade 
 any persons from catholicizing; to buy or sell any pro- 
 testant religious book ; and to hold any municipal meet- 
 ings among themselves without the presence of the local 
 judge, under penalty of a fine of two hundred livres from 
 each of the persons present at such meetings. The edict 
 contained one prohibition addressed to the catholics : the 
 prohibition, namely, to contribute, in any form or degree, 
 
3S0 THE WALDEXSES 
 
 to support of protestant pastors or churches, under penalty 
 of fifty livres fine for each offence. It may be readily 
 imagined that this last prohibition was one of those most 
 exactly observed. Its enactment, however, proves that 
 'the manners of the country had been imbued with that 
 spirit of brotherhood which one observes wherever the 
 Waldenses have lived, and of which even the followers of 
 an opposing faith could not help undergoing the influence. 
 
 The Waldenses, aggrieved by these numerous restric- 
 tions, asserted the rights they had enjoyed under the 
 dukes of Savoy, all whose edicts were preserved by the 
 decree of 17th July ; and upon their remonstrance, the 
 sovereign council declared that " it had not intended to 
 make any innovation upon, nor any change in, the rights, 
 state, and condition wherein the petitioners were, under the 
 rule of the dukes of Savoy, in 1630." 
 
 But the edict of Nantes had granted to the protestants 
 the free exercise of their worship, and full right to hold 
 any office whatever in judicature or finance. The Wal- 
 denses of Pragela now formed a portion of France ; they 
 claimed, therefore, that the benefits of the edict should be 
 extended to them, and this demand was granted by deci- 
 sions of the council, on 10th March, and 19th August, 
 1648. 
 
 Under the influence of this milder legislation, the num- 
 bers and the prosperity of the Waldenses of Pragela 
 rapidly increased. The attempts of Louis XIII. to re-es- 
 tablish Catholicism in their country, had produced only a 
 momentary effect. The churches which he had founded in 
 1622 remained empty and closed ; the vicarages themselves, 
 in which a solitary shepherd had been placed to tend a 
 non-existent flock, were soon deserted ; the plague of 1630 
 killed or dispersed their useless inhabitants, who were not 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. JJ31 
 
 replaced. In many localities the municipality applied the 
 vacated edifices to other purposes. 
 
 At Traversa, the catholic chapel having gone to decay, 
 the Waldenses used its materials in the construction of a 
 church for themselves. This proceeding was denounced 
 by the Romish clergy as a crime, as robbery, sacrilege, 
 rebellion ; and there was extreme excitement aroused on 
 the subject. At length Lesdiguieres interposed, in his 
 character as governor of Dauphiny, and decided that the 
 Waldenses should contribute, towards the erection of a new 
 popish cbapel, the value of the materials which they had 
 taken from the ruins of the old edifice. 
 
 The catholics, whose faith old Lesdiguieres had adopted, 
 were not peculiarly satisfied with his intervention in this 
 matter, for, a few years afterwards, the town of Pignerol, 
 seeking to keep the Waldenses from its territory, to which 
 rising prosperity was enabling them to approximate, 
 addressed a petition to Louis XIV., in which, after pro- 
 testing against the religious liberty which the protestants 
 of Perosa and Pragela vindicated for themselves, the peti- 
 tioners said : " The treaty which gave them this liberty 
 was obtained in January, 1598, by Lesdiguieres, sword in 
 hand. True, it was afterwards confirmed, in general 
 terms ; but considering that this general professed, at the 
 time, the reformed religion, and the king, Henry IV., had 
 been obliged to bring back his subjects by all possible 
 means ; that, moreover, the treaty had been tacitly revoked 
 by the edict of Nantes, which only authorizes the celebra- 
 tion of the protestant worship in those places where it was 
 previously celebrated ; and that the Waldenses of Perosa 
 cannot prove that they enjoyed the free exercise of their 
 worship under the dukes of Savoy, — we request your 
 majesty formally to interdict this worship throughout the 
 
:-!3'2 THE WALDENSES 
 
 territory of Pignerol." This petition was dated in April, 
 1654 ; o.n the 24th of the same month, Louis XIV., then 
 scarcely seventeen years old, and who had not yet been 
 crowned, but who had already begun to serve the exclusive 
 pretensions of the Romish church, from that instinct of 
 despotism common to both, granted its prayer ; and on the 
 4th August was published the royal decree, prohibiting to 
 the Waldenses the public exercise of their religion within 
 the territory of Pignerol. 
 
 The proselytizing ambition of the monks and Jesuits ac- 
 quired fresh strength from this sun of tyranny, " unequalled 
 in the world." as the motto of the great king declares. 
 These attempts at conversion, however, were at first rather 
 troublesome than formidable to the Waldenses, and to 
 themselves rather embarrassing than productive. But 
 more active means were in preparation. The propaganda 
 had established itself, and the Piedmontese Easter was at 
 hand. 
 
 After that terrible explosion of rampant and pitiless 
 fanaticism, that festival of blood, the massacre of 1655, 
 the fugitives who had escaped sought refuge with their 
 brethren in the valleys of the Clusone and Pragela, who 
 took up arms to defend them. In his capacity of mode- 
 rator of the Waldensian churches, Leger now convoked a 
 synod at the hamlet of Capella, between the valley of 
 Dora and that of Pragela, where all the surviving pastors 
 and elders of the devastated districts assembled. It was 
 here that, in two days, this zealous defender of the valleys 
 drew up hi3 first manifesto, publishing to the world the 
 inconceivable cruelties with which the Waldenses had been 
 assailed. The world heard the appeal, and Louis XIV. 
 himself dared not withhold combining his entreaties with 
 those of almost all the other potentates of Europe, to 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 333 
 
 induce the duke of Savoy to efface, as effectually as pos- 
 sible, the traces of this atrocious desolation. 
 
 The governor of Dauphiny was ordered to receive the 
 exiles with humanity, and to provide for their more press- 
 ing wants. But it was most especially from their brethren 
 of Pragela, that they received aid, asylum, and protection. 
 The latter, themselve3, were subjected to heavy trials. 
 The council of Pignerol, not content with having procured 
 the prohibition of their worship throughout its territory, 
 sought to impede their industry, and obtained an order 
 (22d November, 1657) that they should never dwell for 
 more than three days together in the town. In April, 
 1658, a further royal order was published, forbidding all 
 merchants, traders, and innkeepers in Pignerol, from 
 receiving, lodging, or associating with any person of the 
 protestant religion. In the same year the votaries of Pig- 
 nerol and of all the French possessions beyond the moun- 
 tains, were forbidden to recognize in any way, any sale or 
 bequest by a catholic in favour of a protestant. In 1659, 
 the syndics of Pignerol ordered all the reformers settled 
 in the town to remove from it, within eight days, and en- 
 joined all catholics who had relations with them, forthwith 
 to discontinue them. A Jesuit mission was established at 
 Fenestrelle, in September, 1659, and the king prohibited, 
 under the severest penalties, the least attempt to interfere 
 with their projects of conversion. The task of the Chris- 
 tians of Pragela thus became more difficult ; but they were 
 not wanting to their great cause, and the efforts of their 
 adversaries only served to augment the fervour and union 
 of these persecuted churches. 
 
 The valley of Pragela, at the period of the arrival of the 
 Jesuits, was inhabited, from one end to the other, by zeal- 
 ous protestants. "These heretics," wrote their adversa- 
 
334 THE WALDENSES 
 
 ries, " have ten or twelve great churches for Sunday, and 
 more than sixty small ones, where they assemble every 
 other day of the week ; whereas the catholics have only 
 one church, and a few chapels, far remote from one an- 
 other." By such a population the Jesuits were naturally 
 very ill-received. They could scarcely procure lodging 
 for themselves, and 'indeed, as one of them relates, "had 
 it not been for the prior of Mentola, and captain Guyot, 
 they would have had no place wherein to abide, throughout 
 the valley." They persevered, however, energetic in reso- 
 lution, unscrupulous in means : how unscrupulous, may be 
 estimated by the following extracts from a memoir, ad- 
 dressed by the Jesuits to the propaganda, and still pre- 
 served among the royal archives at Turin (No. 425). "It 
 is essential to obtain a pariatis* to arrest three ministers 
 of Pragela, whom the parliament of Grenoble has con- 
 demned to imprisonment (for having presided over their 
 religious meetings) and who have taken refuge in the valley 
 of Luzerna with two other criminals. The marquis de 
 Pianeza must command the governors of Luzerna and St. 
 Martin to seize them, wherever they are found. The peo- 
 ple of Luzerna must be forbidden to lodge the merchants 
 of Pragela, who trade in these parts. There are three 
 heretics gone to trade at Turin, and who are lodging at 
 the Red Horse : it is expedient to seize their merchandize, 
 for as they cannot exist without it, the probabilities are, 
 that they will be converted, if you promise they shall have 
 their goods back. The governor of Suza, Meano, and 
 Jalasso, must prevent the heretics of Pragela from living 
 within his jurisdiction, for they preach their errors there 
 in secret. You must expel from the valley of Luzerna, a 
 person named Martino, a native of Balboutel in Pragela. 
 *An order to imprison at sight. 
 
OF PBALESA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 335 
 
 This young minister has succeeded the pastor Leger, whose 
 house has been demolished ; he is quite as seditious as Le- 
 ger, and capable of doing still more harm than he. . . . 
 The king of France must have notice sent him that the 
 secretary to the governor, and a captain in the citadel of 
 Pignerol, celebrate the protestant religion in their rooms, 
 where they collect together for that purpose a number of 
 Huguenot soldiers; a proceeding that may pervert the 
 catholics. . . . The Waldenses of Pragela must be forbidden 
 to trade with or to sojourn in Piedmont." Another means 
 of conversion, bribery, was also had large recourse to, and 
 had some effect upon the more impoverished among the 
 Waldenses. " By the distribution of not more than two 
 thousand crowns," writes Pelisson Fontanier, one of the 
 proselyters, " we have converted from seven to eight 
 hundred persons to the Romish faith. ... I have sent word 
 that no occasion is to be lost of converting families, and I 
 have authorized their going as high as one hundred francs !" 
 It is well known that a great proportion of these " con- 
 verts" were foreign vagabonds, who passed themselves off 
 as protestants in order to secure these wages of proselytism. 
 Another influence to aid the catholic faith, was that of the 
 dragoons, who were billeted, with full license of every kind, 
 upon the peasantry who professed the evangelical faith, 
 and not withdrawn until a conversion was operated. The 
 governorship of the valley of the Clusone becoming vacant, 
 the prince de Conti purchased the office, for a sum of eight 
 thousand three hundred livres, and conferred it upon a 
 zealous supporter of the missionaries, M. Bertrand, who 
 applied himself fervently to his work. In order to aug- 
 ment the number of the propagandists, Alexander VII. 
 granted (27th July, 1661) plenary indulgence to all breth- 
 ren and sisters who should join the sacred congregation ; 
 
336 TIIE WALDEXSES 
 
 while, on the other hand, the prohibition to the AYaldensiun 
 pastors to preach or teach beyond the strict limits of their 
 assigned residence was rigorously renewed. 
 
 This was not enough ; the members of the Waldensian 
 church had established daily prayer meetings, even in the 
 smallest hamlets, the elder, or the chief elder of the locality 
 acting as pastor. There were sixty of these chapels, and 
 each morning and evening the village bell summoned 
 thither the faithful to prayer and thanksgiving. The 
 ringing of these bells was prohibited : the people then 
 made use of the horns with which they collected their 
 herds together ; upon this, severe penalties were denounced 
 against all persons who should preside over these meetings : 
 the Christians assembled none the less ; each, in his turn, 
 read passages of the Bible, in under tones, and offered up 
 a prayer ; no one of them, in special, had the direction of 
 these pious and modest exercises ; the spirit of God alone 
 presided over them. 
 
 " This race is incorrigible," cried the missionaries ; " we 
 cannot bend it ; we must look to the rising generation." 
 And to this effect, they began by forbidding protectants 
 to keep schools ; next, they forbade them to bring up their 
 own children. " We have gained a great victory in the 
 valley of Perosa," wrote one of the Jesuits, in October, 
 1677 ; " we have obtained a decree that all the children 
 hereafter born of Huguenot mothers and catholic fathers, 
 shall be baptized and brought up catholics." 
 
 In 1678, six new popish cures were established in the 
 valley of Pragela, under the direction and superintendence 
 of the prior of Mentola. In all these new parishes, the 
 deputy-bailiff read the royal proclamation which placed 
 the cures under the especial protection of his most Chris- 
 tian majesty, and prohibited any one from insulting them, 
 
OF PR AG EL A, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 337 
 
 in any way, under severe penalties ; and the popish narra- 
 tive of the proceedings sets forth, with great unction, a 
 list of sacred banners, sacramental plate, chandeliers, 
 copes, crucifixes, pictures, money, &c, the result of public 
 and private subscriptions throughout France, which were 
 bestowed, with infinite formalities, on the installed clergy. 
 The population of the valleys stood far more in need of 
 subscriptions, for their poverty was greater than ever : 
 " so great," writes one of the missionaries, " that we should 
 be sure to convert a large number of them, in their dis- 
 tress, if we had only money enough." The unhappy 
 Waldenses aided each other to the utmost of their power, 
 establishing, for awhile, a sort of community of goods, 
 and distributing supplies of food and other necessaries at 
 the doors of the churches ; but all their efforts, with such 
 limited means, were inadequate to the purpose of preventing 
 distress of the most overpowering degree. All this while, 
 the greatest favours were lavished on the catholics, and, 
 especially, on the recent converts ; they were exempted 
 from various taxes, they were received into the hospitals 
 when ill, they had distributions of money, clothes, and 
 food, regularly administered to them, they were relieved 
 from penalties that they might have incurred, their 
 daughters were promised dowries. Yet, despite all these 
 disadvantages, the evangelical faith not merely remained 
 unsubdued, but actually effected fresh triumphs over 
 popery. This is manifest from a decree of the 11th of 
 July, 1680, forbidding catholics, under rigorous penalties, 
 to embrace protestantism, and protestants to receive 
 catholics in their churches. In July, 1682, there was sent 
 forth an edict prohibiting the Waldensian ministers from 
 holding religious meetings anywhere except at the place 
 of their own actual residence, under penalty of a fine of 
 
 29 W 
 
838 THE WALDENSES 
 
 three thousand livres, and dismissal from their office. In 
 the following August, a decree forbade laymen to assemble 
 together, under pretext of prayer, reading the Bible, or 
 singing of psalms, seeing that such assemblies might 
 become tumultuous. The very means of temporal exist- 
 ence were taken away from the Waldenses, as an effectual 
 mode of striking at their spiritual existence : in this same 
 year, 1682, the Waldenses, by a succession of prohibitions, 
 were forbidden to exercise any profession or trade, from 
 that of lawyer or physician down to that of shoemaker or 
 washerwoman. 
 
 The Waldensian church of Pragela, which had preceded 
 the reformed church of France in the path of evangelical 
 worship, was destined also to precede it to the Calvary of 
 persecution and death. Five months before the revocation 
 of the edict of Nantes, by an act of extreme and excep- 
 tional severity, the exercise of the protestant religion was 
 expressly forbidden throughout Pragela, and all its churches 
 were ordered to be demolished. Special edicts applied 
 these revoltingly arbitrary orders to the valleys of Sezana, 
 Oulx, and Exili. The churches of Fenile, Chaumont, and 
 Salabertrans, in the valley of the Dora, were hereupon 
 demolished, as were those of La Rua, Suchiere, Fenes- 
 trelle, and Usseaux, in the valley of the Clusone. Others 
 were left standing, in order to be converted into catholic 
 churches, and were used as such for four years, when they 
 also were demolished to make way for new edifices. Among 
 these were the churches of Villaret and Traversa, the 
 house and garden of which became the glebe of the cure*. 
 The materials of the demolished edifices were applied to 
 the construction of popish chapels ; a portion of the con- 
 sistorial lands, lately enjoyed by the "Waldensian pastors, 
 was applied to the endowment of the popish livings, and 
 
OP PKAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 339 
 
 the remainder to the establishment of two hospitals, one 
 at Sestrieres, and the other at Fenestrelle. 
 
 It is easy to conceive the desolation which now over- 
 whelmed these ancient churches of Pragela, which had so 
 long enjoyed the privilege of evangelical worship. The 
 Waldenses were plunged in inexpressible depression and 
 anguish. The Bible, which had been transmitted from 
 father to son among them, for so many ages, was about to 
 be taken from them ; the pastors whom they had cherished 
 were already proscribed, and no man could give them refuge 
 under the severest penalties. These worthy descendants 
 of the Barbas, quitted, in bitter sorrow, their despairing 
 flocks ; their eyes, filled with tears, still turned on the path 
 of exile, towards the summits, more and more remote, of 
 their native hills, where they had preached the word of 
 God. A great portion of their people soon followed them, 
 and even many who had been deemed converts to the 
 Romish church. On reaching Switzerland, these exiles 
 sent deputies to the elector of Bradenberg, to request an 
 asylum in his states : " There are already," they said, 
 " six hundred of us, and in the spring of next year (1686), 
 as many more of our countrymen will expatriate them- 
 selves." 
 
 The account of the Waldensian colonies in Germany has 
 already been given. We will now inquire into the condi- 
 tion of the protestants who remained in the valleys. 
 
 Le Tellier, who had been intendant in Piedmont in 
 1640, recalled the Waldenses to mind, half a century after- 
 wards, when, on his death-bed, he included them in. the 
 monstrous provisions of the decree revoking the edict of 
 Nantes, which, with his dying hand, he signed, on the 22d 
 October, 1685. By that revocation, the protestant wor- 
 ship was prohibited throughout the dominions of Louis 
 
340 THE WALDENSES 
 
 XIV. ; its churches were ordered to be demolished, its 
 schools to be closed. Its ministers, who refused to embrace 
 Catholicism, were to quit the kingdom within fifteen days, 
 while those who consented to abjure, were to receive pen- 
 sions one-third larger in amount than the salaries which 
 had been paid them as pastors, half of which pension was 
 to revert to their widows. Every child, thereafter born 
 within the states of his most christian majesty, of whatever 
 parents, was to be baptized a catholic. All protestant 
 emigrants were to return under the paternal and most 
 christian dominion of the French monarch, within four 
 months, under penalty of the entire confiscation of their 
 goods ; and all protestants who should hereafter attempt to 
 emigrate were to be condemned, the men to the galleys, 
 and confiscation of goods, the women to imprisonment and 
 confiscation of goods ; confiscation being, in all cases, a 
 leading feature in the proceedings. The " religionists," 
 as the reformers were designated, were, by the last clause 
 of the edict, permitted to remain in the royal dominions, 
 without practisiny any exercise of religion, until it should 
 please God to enlighten them. 
 
 But what, to the Christian, is physical existence deprived 
 of all the action of spiritual life? The protestants, as 
 Christians, prefered exile to the absence of religious life, 
 and multitudes of them expatriated themselves at this 
 epoch, only the very poorest remaining behind. Two 
 thousand inhabitants of Pragela preceded or followed the 
 expulsion of their brethren from the Piedmontese valleys ; 
 in 1686 and 1687, most of these also returned to their 
 country, and were installed there, pursuant to the decree 
 of Victor Amadeus in 1692. What, meantime, had become 
 of those who remained on the banks of the Clusone ? 
 
 Deprived not only of pastors, but of the right to hold 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 341 
 
 any religious meeting among themselves, they did not hesi- 
 tate regularly to cross the lofty mountains and deep val- 
 leys which separated them from their co-religionists in 
 Piedmont, in order to share with these the service of the 
 Sabbath. From Upper Pragela they repaired to Macel 
 by the Col de Pis, and from the lower part of the valley 
 of Clusone to Pomaret, at the entrance of the valley of 
 St. Martin. In order to accomplish these pious pilgrim- 
 ages of edification and brotherhood, they had to depart on 
 the Saturday evening, returning early on the Monday 
 morning, happy, amid all the difficulties and privations of 
 the journey, that it afforded them at least one opportunity 
 in the week, of meeting together in common supplication 
 and thanksgiving to God. 
 
 Even prayers and exhortations offered up beside the bed 
 of the sick and the dying, became matter of denunciation 
 against the protestants. " The other day,'' wrote a popish 
 missionary of the time, " the vicar-general of the provostry 
 of Oulx gave information against John Challier, of Pour- 
 rieres, who was surprised, praying, after the manner of the 
 protestants, at the bed-side of one Petre Pastre, labouring 
 under a dangerous malady. This is an offence calling for 
 severe punishment.'' 
 
 But even the arduous privilege of traversing the moun- 
 tains to join in prayer with their less restricted brethren, 
 was soon taken from the Waldenses of Pragela. The 
 tyrant of Versailles wrote to his ambassador at the court 
 of Turin : " The presence of the Waldenses of Piedmont 
 on the frontiers of my dominions, occasions desertion on 
 the part of my subjects, and you must represent to their 
 prince that I am resolved no longer to endure this." The 
 result of this haughty assumption has been already nar- 
 rated. The Waldenses of Piedmont, were driven, en masse, 
 29* 
 
342 THE WALDENSES 
 
 from their native land ; and these valleys, the last sanc- 
 tuary wherein, amid the Alps, the word of God was heard, 
 became silent as the tomb. Under such terrible and reit- 
 erated blows, felling, with each stroke, a branch of the 
 ancient tree, utter destruction seemed inevitable. And 
 such, indeed, befell the valley of Pragela, whose church 
 subsided and became extinct, as a lamp without oil. This 
 poor persecuted church, this spouse of Christ, had been 
 deprived of her temples and her ministers, of her prayers, 
 of her prayer-men ; by-and-by, the Romish church claimed 
 the secular possessions, also, of the fugitive Waldenses, and 
 Louis XIV. readily granted the demand. The glebe-lands 
 remained ; these, too, in 1688, were seized by the spoiler- 
 monarch, and transferred to various catholic establish- 
 ments. 
 
 In 1684, and 1686, two new catholic cures were estab- 
 lished in Pragela ; in 1687, five doctors of the Sorbonne 
 were sent thither from Pragela, to aid the missionaries in 
 effacing, as closely as possible, the still vivid traces of the 
 Reformed church. In 1688, several new popish chapels 
 were built ; and, in the words of a contemporary publica- 
 tion, " the catholic religion was making manifest progress, 
 when, in 1690, war having been declared between France 
 and Savoy, a great diminution of piety was observed." 
 
 The fact of the matter was, that the Waldenses of Pied- 
 mont had returned to their valleys, and during the terrible 
 winter of 1689, which they passed at Balsille, their breth- 
 ren of Pragela frequently supplied them with provisions, 
 themselves indulging the hope that, by the chances of war, 
 the valley of Clusone would remain in the possession of 
 Victor Amadeus, and be incorporated with the other Wal- 
 densian valleys. 
 
 This prince invaded Dauphiny in 1692. As the result 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 343 
 
 of an incursion of his troops into Pragela, all that portion 
 of the valley which lies between Fenestrelle and Perosa 
 was given up to the flames, on the 25th of July, 1693, and 
 four parishes were thus rendered uninhabitable. Their 
 population withdrew, some to Savoy, others to the Brian- 
 connais, but most into the Waldensian valleys of Luzerna 
 and St. Martin. The latter there resumed the exercise of 
 the reformed religion, and despite every impediment, con- 
 tinued its exercises, favoured by the war, which endured 
 till 1696. 
 
 By-and-by, in virtue of the treaty of Turin, (18th Au- 
 gust, 1696,) Louis XIV. required that Victor Amadeus 
 should cease to give asylum and protection to protestants 
 of French origin. The duke, in consequence, issued, 1st 
 July, 1698, the decree by which all such protestants were 
 ordered to quit the states of Savoy within two months. 
 The Waldensian pastors were, in like manner, forbidden 
 to enter the territories of France, under pain of ten years 
 labour in the galleys. We have seen what vast misery, 
 and what vast migrations, were the result of these severities. 
 
 In the countries rendered desolate by those migrations, 
 the number of catholic churches multiplied in proportion 
 to the decrease of the population. Towards the close of 
 1698, Louis XIV. had two new Romish chapels built in 
 Pragela, and established eight new cure's, in addition to 
 those which he had already endowed there. Next, the 
 ardent and unscrupulous zeal of the promoters of apostacy 
 was applied to the work of furnishing these new parishes 
 with parishioners ; and, for several years, popish mission- 
 aries, clerical and secular, high and low, male and female, 
 spread themselves over the district, seeking to gain pro- 
 selytes by promises and menaces of every description and 
 degree. In 1703, however, war once more broke out 
 
34 [ THE WALDENSES 
 
 between Piedmont and France, and Victor Amadeus II. 
 forthwith issued a proclamation in which he proffered pro- 
 tection and privilege to the Waldenses of the valleys, if 
 they would take up arms against Louis XIV., and to the 
 Waldenses of Pragela, if they would join their co-reli- 
 gionists in the struggle. The people, whom he had so 
 persecuted, still came forward to defend him, and, ere 
 long, to give him an asylum. They wrested Upper Pra- 
 gela from the dominion of France and from the oppression 
 of the Eomish church. They raised up their prostrated 
 ultars, and, beneath the protection of their victorious arms, 
 the protestant worship was once more re-established. 
 
 In 1708, Victor Amadeus having got possession of 
 Fenestrelle, acquired dominion over the whole valley of 
 Pragela, of which, theretofore, he had only possessed the 
 upper portion. This valley was hereupon subjected to the 
 same administration which already governed the other 
 portions of the Waldensian territory, and the same governor 
 was assigned to them. The courts of England and Hol- 
 land at once applied themselves to the procuring for the 
 protestants of Pragela the same privileges that were 
 enjoyed by their brethren in the other Waldensian valleys. 
 Queen Anne wrote, with her own hand, a letter on the 
 subject to Victor Amadeus. This prince's reply, dated 
 3d of March, 1709, was of the most favourable character ; 
 but he represented that, for various political reasons, it 
 was expedient to delay any public proceeding to the 
 desired effect, until peace should be concluded. Mean- 
 while, in proof of the sincerity of his good-will towards the 
 protestants, he enjoined the popish ecclesiastics of Pragela 
 not to disturb the Waldenses in any way or degree, by 
 reason of their doctrines, and even to permit those who 
 had abjured protestantism to resume it if they so desired. 
 
OP PRALESA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 345 
 
 Four months afterwards, the archbishop of Turin 
 directed his subordinates never to put forward the name 
 or the authority of Victor Amadeus, when they had to do 
 with the heretics. 
 
 There seemed, then, no obstacle now to the re-establish- 
 ment of the Waldensian church at Pragela. The pastors 
 of the adjacent valleys repaired thither for the celebration 
 of divine service. Schools were re-opened, religious meet- 
 ings resumed, family worship once more rendered happy 
 the domestic hearth, and many of the emigrants returned 
 to their homes. 
 
 At the Waldensian synod, held at Angrogna, 11th 
 [November, 1709, the deputies of Pragela presented them- 
 selves, furnished with a commission, signed by the consuls, 
 councillors, and more than a hundred heads of families, 
 in the name of all the protestants of the valley. They 
 demanded admission within the body of the Waldensian 
 churches, which was at once and gladly accorded ; unity 
 of body was with them only a visible manifestation of that 
 unity of faith, which had never ceased to exist, and it was 
 a joyful thing for the various representatives of the Wal- 
 densian church thus to render testimony to the spiritual 
 union which had been maintained among all the members 
 of that church, despite political divisions, despite all the 
 cruel vicissitudes which had agitated their country. 
 
 Though separated, for more than a century, by the 
 sword and the sceptre of two dynasties, they now met 
 together such as they had been in ages long past, for the 
 descent of the evangelical christians dates further back 
 than the descent of kings. 
 
 Without possessing organized parishes, the inhabitants 
 of Pragela had now the privilege of meeting together for 
 the celebration of their worship ; and, as a strong plant, 
 
346 THE WALDENSES 
 
 whose branches are permitted to grow for awhile without 
 being cut, their church made rapid progress. "We see 
 with sensible grief," said the popish cures of Pragela in an 
 urgent memorial to the duke, " inhabitants of this valley, 
 who had been converted, reverting furiously to heresy, and 
 we pray your lordship to put an end to such abomina- 
 tions." The royal council which had been established at 
 Pignerol, and which had recently assumed the title of 
 senate, applied itself to the restriction of a liberty so fatal 
 to popery. To this purpose, it proceeded to impede the 
 paternal relations which were being effected among the 
 various Waldensian valleys ; the ministers of the valley of 
 Luzerna were requested not to visit the valley of Pragela, 
 and the Pragelans and other French refugees, who had 
 settled in the valley of Luzerna, were ordered to quit that 
 valley. The pastors, however, who had nothing to do 
 with the political considerations which regulated the con- 
 duct of Victor Amadeus, and who rightly considered the 
 evangelical Christians of Pragela as one of the most inter- 
 esting portions of their flock, continued to visit them when- 
 ever they were required so to do, and the duties of their 
 own special charge permitted. " On the 27th February, 
 1709," wrote the Romish missionaries, " there came to 
 Pragela a heretic minister who perverted all the people. . . . 
 On the 23d March, M. Bastia (pastor of La Torre), came 
 here and baptized three children ; almost all the popula- 
 tion were present." 
 
 The senate"of Pignerol, though not vested with authority 
 to take any repressive measure against the exercise of a 
 liberty sanctioned by the sovereign, renewed, by way of 
 manifesting its displeasure, the interdiction of the reformed 
 worship in the valleys of Perosa and Pragela. The pro- 
 testants, strong in their right, in their convictions, and in 
 
OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 347 
 
 the necessity to protest against the tyranny from which 
 they had so long and so severely suffered, replied to the 
 manifesto of the senate by the most solemn act of their 
 worship, and on the 7th April, 1710, for the first time in 
 the past twenty-six years, they proclaimed at Usseaux the 
 union of their beloved churches, the communion of all 
 Waldensian hearts, by the celebration of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, in which participated the inhabitants of all the valleys, 
 fused in one sole family, with those of the Dora and the 
 Clusone. 
 
 The catholic clergy of the latter valleys addressed to the 
 senate of Pignerol (28th May, 1710) a manifesto concern- 
 ing the disobedience of the Waldenses to the interdiction 
 which had been directed against them, accompanied with 
 an opinion, drawn up by some lawyers of the party, that 
 the Waldenses of Pragela were not legally entitled to lib- 
 erty of conscience. " His royal highness," said the law- 
 yers, " promised, in the treaty of 21st January, 1704, and 
 by the preceding convention of Utrecht, that the protest- 
 ants who had emigrated from Pragela, might return thither 
 and exercise their religion as freely as they had done be- 
 fore they quitted the valley ; the same privilege being 
 granted to all other persons of the religion who might settle 
 there, on the condition that none of them, should attempt, 
 in any manner to divert the catholics from their religion, 
 or to do them any harm. " Now these protestants of Pra- 
 gela quitted that valley, precisely because their worship 
 was interdicted there. They had not, then, liberty of con- 
 science before they quitted it ; in the terms of the treaty, 
 liberty of conscience should therefore be withdrawn from 
 them." In consequence of these proceedings, the duke of 
 Savoy, by way of arriving at an estimate of the importance 
 the protestants of Pragela, required from them a state- 
 
348 THE TVALDENSES 
 
 ment, ia detail, of their numbers, and of the amount of 
 their property. The return made to this requisition show- 
 ing that their numbers and property were not such as to 
 make them formidable, the vexations recommenced. The 
 Dutch ambassador complaining of this, the marquis di San 
 Tommaso, minister of foreign affairs, replied that the Wal- 
 denses were turbulent rebels, who were treated with far 
 more consideration than they deserved. Soon after this, 
 they were commanded to observe the catholic festivals, and 
 in every way the propagandists resumed their work of 
 oppression. All assemblages of more than twelve persons 
 were prohibited, and next, the public exercise of the pro- 
 testant religion was interdicted throughout Pragela. The 
 English ministry, who had been favourable to the Wal- 
 denses, had meanwhile gone out of office, and, amidst more 
 absorbing political events, the interests of the Waldenses 
 were set aside by the protestant powers. By an arrange- 
 ment with Louis XIV., Victor Amadeus, at the same time, 
 succeeded in acquiring the valley of Pragela, on condition 
 of extirpating protestantism from the district, while by the 
 further exchange of the valley of Barcelonnette for the 
 county of Nice, he deprived England of the sole ground 
 upon which she should claim a right to intervene on the 
 frontiers of Italy. 
 
 Thus was the religious future of a whole people sac- 
 rificed, by political machinations, to the ambition of po- 
 pery. The treaty of Utrecht was signed on the 11th 
 April, 1713. Towards the close of the preceding month, 
 Victor Amadeus had manifested towards the Waldenses 
 the most favourable disposition ; but, the treaty concluded, 
 the monarch assumed towards the unhappy protestants an 
 altogether changed aspect, and repairing, for the purpose 
 of being crowned, to Sicily, where he remained till the 
 
OF PRAGBLA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. 349 
 
 middle of 1714, he left the enemies of the Waldenses full 
 time and opportunity to destroy the church of Pragela. 
 First, the intendant Pavia ordered that, for the future, no 
 Waldensian schoolmaster should be instituted without the 
 consent and approbation of the catholic clergy; next, 
 several schoolmasters, already instituted, were summarily 
 expelled ; then, the protestant councils, syndics, and other 
 magistrates of the Valley, were replaced by catholic mag- 
 istrates ; and by-and-by, in May, 1714, the commandant 
 of Perosa entered Pragela at the head of a body of troops, 
 forced open, in the middle of the night, the houses of the 
 leading Waldenses, and seizing the heads of these families 
 in their beds, loaded them with chains, and carried them 
 off as prisoners to Fenestrelle. The English ambassador 
 at the court of Turin made hereupon strong representa- 
 tions, in the name of his own sovereign, and in that of 
 Frederick William of Prussia, and these representations 
 had, for awhile, the effect of modifying the tyranny prac- 
 tised upon the unfortunate Pragelans ; but it was only for 
 awhile ; in all directions the pastors, the elders of the Wal- 
 densian communes, were seized, imprisoned, fined, com- 
 pelled to pay the expenses of the arbitrary persecutions 
 conducted against them, or, in default of payment, stripped 
 of all their little possessions. The schools were closed ; all 
 private meetings for prayer, of more than ten persons, 
 interdicted, under a penalty of ten gold crowns for each 
 offence ; they were forbidden to work on catholic festivals ; 
 and finally, on the 6th of February, 1719, came a decree 
 prohibiting the celebration of the reformed worship in any 
 shape whatever, and commanding that all future children, 
 born of Waldensian parents, should within six hours after 
 their birth, be baptized as catholics. To avoid this intol- 
 erable injustice, recourse was had to emigration, a fresh 
 30 
 
350 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 band departing after each fresh act of depression, until 
 the Waldenses of Pragela disappeared from their valley, as 
 snow from the mountain. 
 
 The great blow of all was the edict of the 20th of June, 
 1730, promulgated under the designation of Instructions 
 with respect to the Waldenses. Under this edict, all per- 
 sons born in the Romish church, or who had abjured protest- 
 antism, for whatever motive, and who had since returned 
 to the reformed church, were condemned to death, unless 
 they again reverted to Catholicism, within six months, or 
 quitted the country. The inhabitants of Pragela, Sala- 
 bertrans, Bardoneche, and Chateau Dauphin, were all to 
 be taken as being catholics, without reference to their own 
 opinions, and no other religion than the Romish was to 
 be permitted in any shape or degree, in these valleys. All 
 French protestants who, since 1698, had settled in the 
 Waldensian valleys, were to quit them within six months, 
 never again to re-enter them, under pain of a public whip- 
 ping for the first offence, and of five years' labour in the 
 galleys for the second. After the promulgation of this 
 edict, the number of the Waldenses who expatriated them- 
 selves became so great, that the government grew alarmed, 
 and endeavoured to take measures for retaining the popu- 
 lation ; but it was to no purpose ; before the end of the 
 year, more than eight hundred protestants had quitted the 
 Waldensian valleys for Holland, Switzerland, and Ger- 
 many ; the few who remained in Piedmont were compelled 
 to accept the public profession of Catholicism. 
 
CjnijiUc <£I;irtt]-fu0t. 
 
 MODERN HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES. 
 
 From 1730 to the end of the eighteenth century, the 
 Waldenses experienced various changes of fortune, which 
 our limits do not allow us to dwell upon. Near the close of 
 the century, they are found mixed up in the general con- 
 flict of the European powers, consequent upon the French 
 revolution. One of the incidents connected with this part 
 of their history is worthy of notice, for the atrocious con- 
 spiracy that was plotted against them, and the memorable 
 deliverance which they experienced. 
 
 In 1793, Victor Amadeus III., now king of Sardinia, 
 ' having joined Austria in the war against France, armed 
 the Waldenses, and entrusted to them the guardianship of 
 their own frontier, under general Gaudin. Papal fanati- 
 cism conceived the idea of a second St. Bartholomew 
 against the protestant families thus deprived of their 
 natural protectors, who were occupied, at a distance from 
 home, in the defence of their country. The plan contem- 
 plated no less than the massacre of the entire protestant 
 population. The execution of this plot was fixed for the 
 night of the 14th May, 1793. The list of conspirators 
 contained more than seven hundred names. A column of 
 assassins, assembled at Luzerna, was, at a preconcerted 
 signal, to spread themselves over the communes of San 
 
 ( 351 ) 
 
352 THE WALDENSBS. 
 
 Giovanni and La Torre, and put all to fire and sword. 
 The house of the cure of La Torre, his church, the convent 
 of the Recollets, and some other catholic houses in the 
 place, were filled with cut-throats, alike ready for pillage 
 and murder. But there were also generous catholics, who 
 had refused to join this odious conspiracy. 
 
 Signor Odetti was a captain of the Piedtnontese militia, 
 then embodied, and acting against the French invaders, 
 and a little before the fatal blow was to have been struck, 
 he had been invited to join the conspirators in the mas- 
 sacre of the AValdenses. Signor Odetti was a rigid Roman- 
 ist, and it was expected that the well-known severity of 
 his principles would induce him to sanction any measure 
 for the destruction of heresy. The cure of Luzerna, M. 
 Brianza, was also admitted into the secret ; but these two 
 worthy men had too much of the real spirit of Christianity 
 even to conceal, and much less to join in the plot. Bri- 
 anza sent a private messenger to La Torre, to apprise the 
 inhabitants of their danger, but did not succeed in putting 
 them sufficiently upon their guard. Odetti, knowing that 
 the hour of action was so near that nothing but very 
 prompt measures could frustrate the sanguinary design, 
 set out from Cavour himself, which is on the other side of 
 the Pelice, and at some distance from La Torre, and has- 
 tened to his friend, to give him the alarming information. 
 "I am afraid," said he, "that I am too late to prevent 
 bloodshed. There is a conspiracy against you. The 
 assassins are even now on foot ; but if I cannot save you, 
 I will perish with you. The honour of my religion is at 
 stake ; I must justify it by sharing your danger." 
 
 The consternation in La Torre was beyond all descrip- 
 tion at the horrible intelligence, which was now spread 
 from house to house, and every habitation soon assumed 
 
TIIEIR MODERN HISTORY. 353 
 
 the appearance of hopeless terror. The windows were 
 closed and barred, and piles of stones were collected to 
 hurl down upon the heads of the assailants ; but aged 
 men, and women, and children, were the only persons left 
 to use them. The strength and flower of the population 
 were eight or nine miles off, and occupied in defending 
 the mountain passes against the French. Scarcely a man 
 who could bear arms was away from this loyal duty ; and 
 yet this was the moment at which no less than seven hun- 
 dred bigoted monsters had sworn to exterminate all the 
 protestants of the valley of Luzerna, and to spread mur- 
 der and devastation from San Giovanni to Bobbi. 
 
 Not an instant was to be lost ; the day was already 
 arrived when captain Odetti gave the information, and at 
 sunset the murderers were to begin to assemble. 
 
 The only chance of safety consisted in sending notice 
 of the plot to General Gaudin, a Swiss Officer, who com- 
 manded the Piedmontese troops on the nearest frontier. 
 That brave man turned a deaf ear to the messenger, be- 
 cause he could not believe in the existence of so base a 
 conspiracy. Another and another messenger arrived, but 
 with no better success. At length several fugitives made 
 their appearance from La Torre ; the dreadful news reached 
 the Waldensian soldiers themselves, and, in a state of the 
 utmost apprehension for the lives of their families, they 
 insisted upon being despatched to their succour. The 
 general became sensible of his error, but not in time to 
 give him hopes of being able to preserve the innocent vic- 
 tims. The day was wearing away, the fatal hour was 
 named in which the work of blood was to commence, and 
 nothing but extraordinary speed could possibly enable a 
 detachment to reach the spot before it began. To repair 
 his unfortunate error, the general commanded the brigade 
 30* X 
 
354 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 of Waldenses to march instantly, and followed himself with 
 another division. 
 
 The wretched husbands and fathers pursued their way 
 in almost frantic desperation. The imminent danger of 
 their wives and children rendered any regularity of march 
 out of the question ; they precipitated themselves down 
 steeps which they would have shuddered to encounter upon 
 any other occasion, urged each other on with wild shouts, 
 and prayed aloud to Heaven to give them additional speed. 
 As they advanced on the road, they were repeatedly met 
 by parties of distracted women and frightened children, 
 sent forward from La Torre to hasten their pace. Many 
 of these, in their terror and despair assured them, tbat 
 they were too late : that the business of death was even 
 then proceeding. 
 
 With breathless haste, and in a state of excruciating 
 suspense, they hurried on. The shades of evening fell 
 with increasing darkness, and with them a storm of rain 
 that brought the torrents down the mountains, and threat- 
 ened to impede their further advance. They began to ac- 
 cuse Providence of being leagued against them. The 
 waters poured down from the heights in such accumulated 
 violence, that it was almost madness to prosecute their 
 inarch ; nothing but desperation could have prompted them 
 to go on. The last torrent that they had to pass was 
 rushing with unusual impetuosity, but they dashed through 
 it in safety, and in a few minutes after arrived within sight. 
 of La Torre. At the same moment they heard the tolling 
 of the vesper bell of the convent of the Recollets ; this, 
 they had been told, was to be the fatal signal for the assas- 
 sins to sally forth. 
 
 The unhappy men felt that they were too late. " We 
 will revenge," they cried, "if we cannot prevent!" — and 
 
THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 355 
 
 their speed was not abated. They rushed into the street 
 of the village ; the tramp of their feet, and the clangour 
 of their arms, were heard within the houses ; and, to the 
 unutterable joy of these gallant deliverers, hundreds of 
 voices were raised to welcome and bless their appearance. 
 
 The arm of God had done that which man's could not 
 do. The time was not enough to allow of the arrival of 
 the Waldenses, before the signal was to have been given 
 for the conspirators to put themselves in action ; but the 
 rain-storm, and the violence of the torrents, which had no 
 terrors for men advancing in a good cause, had alarmed and 
 stopped the murderers. Many of those who should have 
 arrived at the rendezvous had not reached it, and those 
 who were there dared not move forward upon this san- 
 guinary enterprise until their numbers were increased. 
 
 Considering the violent state of excitement to which the 
 passions of the Waldensian soldiery were raised, it is na- 
 tural to suppose that, surrendering themselves up to the 
 feelings of the moment, they wreaked their vengeance 
 upon the most criminal, at least, of their enemies. But 
 no; not a drop of blood was spilt. Satisfied with the 
 preservation of their friends, they were guilty of no vio- 
 lence upon the persons or property of any of the papists 
 who were accomplices in the plot. The assassins escaped 
 in the darkness of the night, and the Waldenses took no 
 other steps towards their chastisement, than to forward a 
 list of the conspirators to the government, who made no 
 inquiry into the matter, and suffered them to go unpun- 
 ished. 
 
 In 1799, Suwarrow invaded Piedmont at the head of a 
 Russian army. In a threatening proclamation, addressed 
 to the Waldenses, he reproached them with fostering the 
 French, the enemies of public tranquillity. " The old 
 
356 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 attachment of your ancestors to Christian tenets," he 
 said, " has procured for you the protection of England. 
 The French declare themselves hostile to that power ; and 
 that power, your benefactress, is it not now our ally ?" 
 Already the Russian troops had arrived at Pignerol. " On 
 the 3d of June, 1799," says Appia, in his memoirs, "fore- 
 seeing that the enemy would appear in great numbers 
 towards Luzerna, I rose at the break of day ; but before 
 I was dressed, the Cossacks were already dashing about 
 the streets of La Torre, uttering fearful hurrahs. 
 
 " My colleagues were absent; the invaders had already 
 begun to pillage the houses ; Pierre Vole defended his 
 against them. I shuddered at the idea of presenting my- 
 self to three or four hundred furious men, who, perhaps, 
 could not comprehend what I had to say. ' M. Appia, 
 take care,' said a catholic who met me; 'you have your 
 tricoloured cockade still on.' I thanked bim for his sug- 
 gestion, and substituted a piece of white paper for the 
 dangerous cockade ; I then, praying God to aid me, and 
 hoping to be useful to my country, directed my steps 
 towards the Cossacks. They had just massacred eight of 
 Zimmerman's hussars. My heart trembled, as if it were 
 hanging by a thread ; I advanced towards the officer who 
 seemed to be the chief in rank. ' What do you want, and 
 who are you ?' said he to me, in German. 
 
 " ' I am a magistrate here,' replied I, ' and my name 
 is Appia. What do you require of the inhabitants of La 
 Torre ?' 
 
 " ' That they lay down their arms, and surrender all the 
 French they have in their hands.' 
 
 " ' No one is armed. The French are gone.' 
 
 " ' Do you answer for the truth of your words?' 
 
 " ' Yes, sir.' 
 
THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 357 
 
 " ' In that case, I 'will sound a retreat.' 
 
 " He did so, and I then began to search for my col- 
 leagues. The first two I saw had been afraid to come out, 
 because they had heard that they were going to put the 
 town to fire and sword. I re-assured them, and we set 
 out together for San Giovanni. Arrived there, we met 
 three patrols of troops, whom we could not make to under- 
 stand us. At this moment an officer appeared on the 
 bridge. We waved a white handkerchief to him ; he an- 
 swered in the same manner, and we advanced towards 
 him. He told us to join him at Luzerna, at the house of 
 colonel Worsach. We went there ; he received us very 
 courteously. After I had put some requests, which he 
 immediately granted, he said to us : — ' Gentlemen, return 
 to your houses, tell the inhabitants to be tranquil, and to 
 resume their labours without fear.' 
 
 " I begged him to give me this order in writing. 
 
 " ' Go and write it, and I will affix my signature.' 
 
 " We entered the house of the cure, where we wrote the 
 order ; but the colonel was already on horseback ; we 
 hastened to carry it to him, and he signed it on the pom- 
 mel of his saddle. I asked him for authority to establish 
 patrols, to protect us from pillage. 
 
 "' Go,' replied he, 'all that you will do will be done 
 well.' And he added this authorization to the note he had 
 signed. 
 
 " He had spoken to us partly in Latin, and partly in 
 German. 
 
 " We set out, very much gratified with the results of 
 our mission, and immediately established a special guard 
 in each Waldensian commune." 
 
 On the arrival of prince Bagration at Pignerol, a depu- 
 tation of the Waldenses waited upon him, with the sub- 
 
358 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 mission of their valleys. They were most kindly received 
 by him, and, the next day, presented to Suwarrow. 
 
 " At the appointed hour," writes Appia, one of the 
 deputation, " we were introduced in the dining-room ; 
 we saw a little old man enter in a white jacket, a la 
 Neyserlitz, white breeches, a little leathern cap on his 
 head, and with short, soft boots that fell down over his 
 heels ; ... it was the marshal. The count took me by 
 the hand, and presented me. I was about to repeat the 
 act of submission, but he said to me, ' That is not neces- 
 sary ; I know it all :' he then embraced me, pronouncing 
 these words — Pace, amicizia, e fratellanza. 
 
 " A servant then brought him a large glass full of raw 
 brandy, which he drank off at once. The same servant 
 then brought in a dish, on which were a dozen great rad- 
 ishes, with salt and oil. He crunched half a dozen of 
 these between his hard gums, as though he had young 
 teeth, and then coming up to me, put three into my hand, 
 and had a glass of brandy brought for me. When we had 
 eaten our radishes, he asked us — ' Gentlemen, of what 
 religion are you ? Do you say thou or you to God ?' We 
 gave him an outline of our faith, and he then turned to an 
 old Danish general, and said, ' Pray for these gentlemen.' 
 The general clasped his hands, and began a prayer with 
 infinite unction ; but he did not please the marshal, who 
 stopped him, and himself recited one, which the Danish 
 general repeated after him, word for word. This singular 
 scene at an end, we all went to breakfast, and after it the 
 marshal sent count Zuccati with us to the president of the 
 council, and by this intervention we procured the guarantee 
 for the safety of our valley which we had sought." 
 
 When Napoleon, in 1805, went to Milan, to place on 
 
THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 359 
 
 his brow the iron crown, he received at Turin a depu- 
 tation from the Waldensian Table. 
 
 Buonaparte noticed M. Peyrani, the head of the depu- 
 tation, immediately, and accosted him in a style of unusual 
 condescension, and even respect. 
 
 iV. You are one of the protestant clergy ? 
 
 P Yes, sire, and the moderator of the Waldensian 
 church. 
 
 N. You are schismatics from the Roman church ? 
 
 P. Not schismatics, I hope, but separatists from scru- 
 ples of conscience, on grounds that we consider to be 
 scriptural. 
 
 N. You have had some brave men among you. But 
 your mountains are the best ramparts you can have. 
 Csesar found some trouble in passing your defiles with 
 five legions. Is Arnaud's " La Bentre'e Glorieuse" cor- 
 rect? 
 
 P. Yes, sire, believing our people to have been assisted 
 by Providence. 
 
 N. How long have you formed an independent church ? 
 
 P Since the time of Claude, bishop of Turin, about 
 the year 820. 
 
 N. What stipends have your clergy ? 
 
 P- We cannot be said to have any fixed stipends at 
 present. 
 
 N. You used to have a pension from England ? 
 
 P. Yes, sire, the kings of Great Britain were always 
 our benefactors and protectors till lately. The royal 
 pension is now withheld, because we are your majesty's 
 subjects. 
 
 N. Are you organized ? 
 
 P. No, sire. 
 
360 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 JV. Draw out a memorial, and send it to Paris. You 
 shall be organized immediately. 
 
 The memorial was sent, but it was only after long 
 delays, on Napoleon's return to Paris, that without wait- 
 ing for the inquiry into the national property with which 
 the Waldenses had been endowed by the executive com- 
 mission, he confirmed for the Waldensian pastors the dota- 
 tion they had received, without prejudice to the salary 
 allowed them by the state. At the same time he signed 
 the imperial decree of the sixth of Thermidor, year XIII. 
 (25th July, 1805), by which their churches were formed 
 into three consistories : one at La Torre, another at Pa- 
 rustin, and a third at Villa Secca. 
 
 There is nothing further to call for comment in the his- 
 tory of the Waldenses under the sway of Napoleen. The 
 regular march of the government and the impartial obser- 
 vance of the laws pursued their course, without any remark- 
 able incident. 
 
 In April, 1814, Victor Emanuel IV. regained the scep- 
 tre of Piedmont ; he had been king since 1802, but had 
 not yet reigned. An English fleet had gone to Sardinia 
 to convey him from exile to the throne of his ancestors. 
 The Waldenses thought it expedient to send a deputation 
 to Genoa to receive him on his landing. Accordingly, the 
 pastors and mayors of all the communes assembled at Roc- 
 capiatta on the 4th May, 1814. 
 
 The deputies, Messrs. Appia and Peyrani, went to 
 Genoa, and sought to obtain an interview with general 
 Bentinck, commander of the British forces ; but, not being 
 successful, they referred their request to his banker and 
 to the reverend Mr. Wennock, chaplain of the British 
 forces, who took a warm interest in their case. The 
 request was simply that the king would treat the "Walden- 
 
THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 361 
 
 ses as favourably as his other subjects ; but Victor Ema- 
 nuel, so far from complying with a request recommended 
 by the representative of the great and generous nation 
 which had just restored him to his throne, on his return to 
 Turin issued an edict which revived all the ancient intoler- 
 ant and exclusive measures against the Waldenses. By 
 this edict, the injunction to lay aside all work on catholic 
 festival days ; the prohibition to acquire property beyond 
 the valleys ; the interdiction of all civil public employ- 
 ments ; the obligation to have in their communal councils 
 a catholic majority ; and many other vexatious measures, 
 were renewed. 
 
 The Waldenses sent a deputation to Turin, to endeavour 
 to procure the revocation of the decree. The deputation 
 was received on the 28th May, 1814. " I will grant the 
 "Waldenses all I can," replied the king. His intentions 
 were very good, but the catholic clergy prevailed. The 
 lands granted to the Waldensian pastors by Napoleon were 
 resumed by the masters of its sovereign and foes of the 
 Waldenses. The church which the Waldenses had built 
 at San Giovanni was closed, and they were obliged to 
 celebrate their religious services in the ruined church of 
 Chiabasso, built on the confines of Angrogna. 
 
 The sole result of this second deputation was a royal 
 •patent, which confirmed the indulgences they had enjoyed 
 before 1794. The deprivation of the resources on which 
 the salary of their pastors depended, and the new impe- 
 diments in the way of their worship, obliged them to have 
 recourse once more to their sovereign. 
 
 The principal object of this third deputation was to claim 
 the use of the church of San Giovanni. The king declined 
 giving an immediate answer, but manifested favourable 
 intentions. 
 31 
 
362 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 The deputation then obtained an interview with the 
 British ambassador, who promised to interest himself in 
 their behalf. Meantime, the congress of Vienna had com- 
 menced its sittings. The Waldensian Board drew up a 
 memorial, but, fearing to annoy a monarch whom they 
 believed to be generous, forbore to issue it. This monarch 
 had less consideration for them. A manifesto was pub- 
 lished on the 4th January, 1815, to put in force all the 
 ancient laws against them. It was in vain that the Wal- 
 denses renewed their representations : they were more 
 severely oppressed. 
 
 The ancient edicts, however, which were now again in 
 force, were still more rigid; and it was considered an 
 indulgence on the part of the government to limit itself to 
 the edicts it had issued. 
 
 Napoleon, returned from Elba to Paris, with the daring 
 resolve to regain the throne by his sole presence, had, 
 in two months, levied more than four hundred thousand men. 
 
 It was thought that the Waldenses, considering the lib- 
 erties they had acquired from the emperor, and the oppres- 
 sions they had suffered from Victor Emanuel IV. would 
 take part with Napoleon. 
 
 The moderator of the valleys sent a despatch to them, 
 advising them how to act : he prayed them to show that 
 they were descended from those ancient Waldenses who, 
 though sometimes ill-treated, did not allow the faults of 
 their superiors to make them forget to rush to their suc- 
 cour in time of need ; and expressed the hope, that the 
 king, in consideration of the wisdom of their conduct and 
 of their attachment to his royal person, would give the 
 Waldenses unequivocal proofs of his attachment and pater- 
 nal care. This hope was far from being realized ; but the 
 fidelity of the Waldenses was not shaken, and their good 
 
THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 363 
 
 conduct was a permanent protest against the perfidious 
 insinuations that were made against them. The govern- 
 ment had announced their intention to take from the Wal- 
 denses all the property which they had held under the 
 French administration, in order to restore it to the catholic 
 parishes, which were now once more estahlished. But the 
 cure's wanted them, besides, to make the Waldenses pay a 
 sum equivalent to the revenues of this property, during 
 the whole time they had enjoyed it. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, they sent a memorial to their sove- 
 reign, in which they set forth the sufferings and misery 
 of their pastors. They reminded him that they used to 
 receive two supplies from England, one of them termed 
 royal, the other national, which, together,- raised the in- 
 come of each pastor to about four hundred livres Piedmon- 
 tese. The British ambassador supported the prayer of the 
 Waldenses; and in February, 1816, Victor Emanuel issued 
 an edict, to this purport: — 
 
 First. That the pastors shall receive a fixed salary, the 
 amount to be hereafter fixed. 
 
 Secondly. That the property acquired by the Waldenses 
 without their ancient limits may be retained by the pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 Thirdly. That the protestants shall be allowed to exer- 
 cise civil occupations, such as those of engineer, architect, 
 surgeon, &c. 
 
 Soon afterwards, the king consented to allow the Wal- 
 denses to resume their religious services in the church of 
 San Giovanni. At this time a census was made of the 
 Waldensian population, and there were found to be — 
 Protestants .... 16,975 
 Catholics .... 4,075 
 
 Total . . 21,050 
 
3C4 THE WALDEXSE3 
 
 The Waldenses took no part in the political events of 
 1821, which led to the abdication of Victor Emanuel IV., 
 in favour of his brother, Charles Felix ; but they suffered 
 the displeasure and opposition of the new government, 
 ■which seemed disposed to revive many of the former re- 
 strictive and oppressive edicts against them. 
 
Cfrnptn (Bl;irtq-0nonit. 
 
 PRESENT CONDITION OP THE WALDENSES. 
 
 The Waldensian churches shared in the decline of vital 
 piety which prevailed so generally in the protestant 
 churches in the latter part of the last century. But there 
 has been a blessed resuscitation of true piety and zeal, both 
 among ministers and people, and there is now everywhere 
 active among them the same undaunted, self-denying, 
 Christian spirit that characterized them through so many 
 long centuries of oppression. The first impulse of this 
 awakened life has been traced to one remarkable individual. 
 
 A young officer of the artillery had exclaimed, in a mo- 
 ment of sorrow: " God, give me to know the truth, and 
 deign to manifest thyself to my heart." He then recom- 
 menced his studies, and devoted himself to the evangelical 
 ministry. 
 
 That young man was Felix Neff, led by Providence to 
 that part of the French Alps where the Waldensian church 
 had been established. He triumphed over all obstacles ; 
 he taught the inhabitants to irrigate their meadows, to 
 improve their lands ; but he more particularly lent himself 
 to the task of vivifying their souls. 
 
 The next year he went to the Waldensian valleys of 
 Piedmont, and was forcibly struck with the richness of the 
 vegetation, so strongly contrasting with the aridity of the 
 31* (365) 
 
366 THE WAIDEJfSES. 
 
 French valleys. But he was still more struck with the 
 spiritual degeneracy of the Waldenses. 
 
 Prayer meetings were formed by him without the official 
 circle of the church. These were denounced to the intend- 
 ant of Pignerol, and by him to the moderator ; but the 
 latter pronounced them within evangelical legitimacy, and 
 refused to allow any interference. Thus was religious zeal 
 revived in the valleys, and with it came enlarged solicitude 
 for the temporal wants of the church. 
 
 The idea of building a hospital in the valleys occurred to 
 a few generous persons ; the king authorized its founda- 
 tion, and the representatives of the protestant powers, at 
 Turin, gave, in every direction, facilities for the attainment 
 of this important object. Count de Waldburg Truchsess 
 the representative of Frederick William III. of Prussia, 
 was especially prominent in promoting the undertaking. 
 On learning that they were authorized to purchase a site 
 for the purpose, he remitted to them the sum necessary for 
 the purchase. This sum was part of a gift of twelve thou- 
 sand francs, which had been made to the Waldenses by the 
 emperor Alexander of Russia, at the instance of the count. 
 
 It was next determined to appoint a delegate, to'collect 
 the contributions which had been promised in foreign coun- 
 tries. The delegate departed in May, 1824; and after 
 visiting Switzerland, Berlin, Paris, and England, returned 
 in 1826. The protestant colonies in Genoa, Turin, and 
 Rome, likewise contributed their charity and their sym- 
 pathies. In Geneva, and other towns of Switzerland, as 
 well as in other countries, committees were formed in aid 
 of the funds, and considerable sums were collected. M. 
 Paul Appia, pastor of the French protestant church at 
 Frankfort on the Maine, visited the Netherlands, and after- 
 wards Paris, and raised important contributions, by his 
 
THEIR PRESENT CONDITION. 867 
 
 eloquent sermons ; the kings of Great Britain, Prussia, and 
 the Netherlands, added their names to the list of subscri- 
 bers, and at length a sufficient capital was raised, not 
 merely to build the hospital, but, by the aid of subsequent 
 collections, to endow it with a revenue of fourteen thou- 
 sand francs. 
 
 This first establishment was erected in the valley of Lu- 
 zerna ; a few years afterwards, a branch institution was 
 erected in the valley of St. Martin. At the same period, 
 the reverend Dr. Gilly, having drawn the attention of the 
 English public to the Waldensian valleys, by the narrative 
 of his journey thither in 1823, became, so to speak, the 
 founder of the college of the Holy Trinity, which was 
 established at La Torre. 
 
 A branch of this institution was soon afterwards, by the 
 exertions of Major Beckwith and others, formed in the 
 valley of St. Martin. It is to Major Beckwith that is 
 owing especially the erection or enlargement of a hundred 
 schools in the valleys, with adequate endowments ; but it 
 is to Dr. Gilly that the valleys are indebted for the interest 
 aroused by his works, in favour of the Waldenses, not only 
 in Majbr Beckwith, but in the committee which, formed in 
 London in 1825, has so materially promoted the ameliora- 
 tions which have since taken place. 
 
 The more complete organization of the public services 
 and of spiritual instruction, became next a leading object 
 with the ecclesiastical staff of the valleys. The articles 
 of discipline were scattered through a hundred synodical 
 acts. M. George Muston, pastor of Bobbi, and assistant 
 moderator, undertook to collect and classify them ; he con- 
 secrated two years to the task, and the result of his labours 
 was then submitted, first to the members of the Waldensian 
 Board separately, and next to the aggregate synod, which, 
 
368 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 on the 5th December, 1833, adopted and enacted it. It 
 is divided into seven chapters, and comprehends two hun- 
 dred and sixty-nine articles. The number of parishes was 
 about the same time augmented in the valleys. There had 
 been but thirteen of these from 1686 to 1829, but in the 
 latter year Macel was detached from the parish of Ma- 
 nilla, and Rodoret from that of Prali, thus forming two 
 additional cures. 
 
 The introduction of lay members into the administration 
 of the Waldensian church was made in 1823, and from 
 that period the union has been closer between the pastors 
 and their flocks, and the management of affairs far more 
 satisfactory to all parties. Brotherly conferences are 
 held, twice a year, by all the assembled pastors, and fre- 
 quently by the pastors of each valley among themselves. 
 A special school for the training of young men destined 
 to the ministry was established in 1828 ; and, since 1848, 
 all these candidates for the pastorship are instructed in 
 Italian, with the view to the gradual restoration, in the 
 valleys, of this their true national tongue, which became 
 superseded by the French language, owing to the intro- 
 duction, after the plague of 1630, of fifteen pastors from 
 Geneva. 
 
 The library of the college of La Trinite has of late 
 years greatly increased, and therein are now deposited all 
 the attainable archives of the Waldenses. 
 
 The Waldenses were visited by the Rev. Dr. Baird, of 
 the United States, first in 1837, and again in 1843. Dr. 
 Baird has done much, by his printed publications, and by 
 lectures, to make known in this country the present con- 
 dition of this interesting people. In the spring of 1853, 
 the Rev. Mr. Revel, the Moderator of the Waldensian 
 Synod, visited the United States, and was present at the 
 
TIIEIR PRESENT CONDITION. 369 
 
 meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 church, and of several other important ecclesiastical bodies, 
 whom he addressed in reference to the present wants and 
 condition of his people. The special object of his mission 
 was to obtain the means of endowing their theological 
 Seminary. 
 
 It is not surprising, after the great political movements 
 of 1848, that tottering thrones should have extended to 
 more than one people the tardy fruits of their liberties ; 
 and, thus considered, the civil and political emancipation 
 of the Waldenses would be no extraordinary event : but 
 the king of Sardinia had of his own free will engaged in a 
 liberal course of policy, long before the revolutionary ex- 
 plosion of 1848. He had emancipated the Waldenses, 
 and given a constitution to his people, without any pres- 
 sure from without, and simply from the impulse of his own 
 noble heart and lofty intelligence. It may have been 
 seen that the rigour of the ancient edicts had been weak- 
 ened by the individual act of the sovereign. These edicts, 
 although still existing in form, had fallen into desuetude. 
 
 The Roman clergy had also changed its system of 
 attack on the "VValdensian church. Violence and oppres- 
 sion being no longer in vogue, they had recourse to a 
 weapon already employed in former ages — discussion; 
 which, however, now assumed the milder form of pastoral 
 letters. Bigex, bishop of Pignerol, commenced this task ; 
 and on. the appearance of the first of his pastorals, the 
 Waldensian public was very much excited, whether from 
 the novelty of the thing, or from the fear of possible con- 
 sequences. Several pastors thought themselves bound to 
 reply, and they did so by manuscript refutations, which, 
 reproduced in many copies, circulated from family to 
 family. This paper warfare soon ceased, producing no 
 
 Y 
 
370 THE WALDEXSES. 
 
 result to those who opened it. It was resumed by several 
 of the successors of M. Bigex, but the only effect was, 
 that public opinion inclined more than ever towards the 
 Waldenses. 
 
 Charles Albert himself felt the influence. In his quality 
 of grand master of the order of St. Maurice and St. Laza- 
 rus, he consented, in 1844, to be present at the dedication 
 of the temple, of the new church of St. Maurice and St. 
 Lazarus, established at La Torre. Previous to the cere- 
 mony, orders had been given at La Torre to prepare lodg- 
 ings for the troops of the line who were to come as his 
 majesty's guard, and dark recollections clouded the thoughts 
 of most of the people ; when suddenly they heard that the 
 king had dismissed the guard, saying, "I need no guard 
 among the Waldenses." 
 
 Before quitting the valleys, the king placed in the hands 
 of the syndic of La Torre, large alms for the poor of both 
 communions ; and when he resumed the road to Turin, he 
 could see, like a sparkling diadem, a girdle of bonfires, 
 which testified the joy and gratitude he had left behind 
 him. Shortly afterwards, in memory of the good and 
 loyal reception he had received from the Waldenses, he 
 caused a small monumental fountain to be erected at the 
 gates of La Torre, with this inscription : — 
 
 IL RE CARLO ALBERTO AL POPOLO CHE 
 
 L'ACCOGLIEVA CON" TAN'TO AFFETTO.* 
 
 MDOCCXLV. 
 
 The decoration of the order of St. Maurice and St. Laza- 
 rus was afterwards given to General Beckwith, as to the 
 benefactor of the Waldenses. 
 
 * " The king, Charles Albert, to the people who received him with 
 bo much affection." 
 
THEIR PRESENT CONDITION. 371 
 
 Towards the close of 1847, the social and political 
 reforms, long meditated by the Piedmontese government, 
 began to be developed, in the amendment of legal proce- 
 dure, the introduction of trial by jury, &c. On the 22d 
 November, 1847, was promulgated the organic law of the 
 communal and provincial councils, whereby all restrictions 
 were removed from the election of Waldenses. This mea- 
 sure was soon followed by the institution of the national 
 guard.. 
 
 A petition to the sovereign, at the head of which ap- 
 peared the name of the marquis d'Azeglio, was next drawn 
 up, seeking the civil emancipation of the Waldenses and 
 the Jews. The generous marquis himself presented this 
 address to the sovereign, which was supported a few days 
 afterwards by another petition from the Waldenses. Pub- 
 lic opinion sustained the movement ; and on the 17th of 
 February, 1848, there appeared an edict, granting to the 
 Waldenses a full participation in all the civil and political 
 rights enjoyed by the other subjects of the king, including 
 the privilege of frequenting the public schools, and of 
 obtaining degrees at the university. No sooner was this 
 decree known in the valleys than it excited an enthusiasm 
 there, in which catholics alike with protestants took part. 
 It was amidst the rejoicings occasioned by this edict, and 
 by the constitution which had been granted to the Sardi- 
 nian states by their beloved sovereign, that the revolution 
 broke out in France, which, among its other effects, induced 
 the abdication of that monarch in favour of his eldest son, 
 Charles. Emanuel V. 
 
 The Waldenses were, in especial, mourners at the abdi- 
 cation and subsequent death of him to whom they owed 
 so much, by whom their political existence was changed, 
 and under whom a new era commenced for them. 
 
372 THE WALDENSES. 
 
 They are at this time enjoying a degree of civil and 
 religious liberty to 'which for long centuries they had been 
 strangers. The Sardinian government is now almost the 
 only government, even professing to be liberal, that 
 remains on the continent of Europe, and it continues to 
 manifest every disposition to accord to the Waldenses the 
 uninterrupted enjoyment of that freedom in which they 
 are so abundantly prospering. 
 
Si |i j ni i) i x . 
 
 I. Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Polity of the Waldenses. 
 
 The Waldenses disclaim the name of " Protestant." They say 
 they never eame out from Koine, inasmuch as they were never in 
 Home. They are simply an Evangelical Church, and their proper 
 title is " The Evangelical Church of the Valleys." In the present 
 work, they are sometimes called " Protestants," and their opponents 
 " Catholics," for convenience, though the latter are more commonly 
 designated " Roman Catholics," and " Papists." 
 
 In the matter of church order, the Waldenses are more closely 
 allied to the Presbyterian Church than to any other. They are, 
 in truth, in all essential particulars, Presbyterians. They have 
 in each congregation a consistory, equivalent to the Church ses- 
 sion. The consistory is composed of the pastor, the elders, and 
 the deacons. The deacons have the care of the poor. The 
 elders are first nominated by the congregation, and then elected 
 by the consistory. They are regularly installed, after sermon, 
 in the church, and have a charge to watch over the spiritual 
 interests of the flock, to aid the pastor, to reprove the erring, to 
 exhort to the performance of duty ; and two of them are appointed 
 to represent the congregation in the higher ecclesiastical tribunal. 
 The Waldenses believe in the parity of the ministry, their pastors 
 or " barbas" being all equal. They have ecclesiastical supervision 
 by a court of review and control. They have but one superior 
 ecclesiastical court, viz : the synod, which includes the functions 
 of both presbytery and synod. The Waldensian synod anciently 
 met every year, in the month of September. In times of persecu- 
 tion its meetings were, of course, liable to frequent interruptions. 
 Later in their history, it met once in three years. It now meets 
 once in five years. The synod is composed of all the ministers, who 
 are actual pastors or professors in their college, and of two elders 
 from each parish. The two elders from each parish have, however, 
 32 (373) 
 
371 APPENDIX. 
 
 but one rote. The synod elect one of their own ministers as mod- 
 erator, whose office continues till the time of the next meeting. His 
 office, however, gives him no power beyond that of any presiding 
 officer, and it expires with the appointment of his successor. He 
 has no inherent right of ordination. When that rite takes place, the 
 ordainers are the ministers as such, the presiding officer simply 
 taking the lead. The ceremony of ordination is precisely similar 
 to the corresponding rite as it is practised in the Presbyterian 
 Church of the United States. 
 
 As there is considerable expense in getting from government the 
 necessary permit to hold a synod, and sometimes this permit is 
 withheld entirely for a time, the Waldenses have delegated the ex- 
 ecutive powers of the synod to a sort of committee ad interim, called 
 the Board or Table. This committee consists of the moderator, the 
 assistant-moderator, the secretary, and two elders elected by the 
 synod. They carry into effect the decisions of the synod in the 
 intervals of its meetings ; superintend the churches and schools, 
 including the conduct of both pastors and teachers ; carry on the 
 foreign and domestic correspondence ; choose the deputations to 
 foreign countries ; suspend unworthy pastors and school-masters ; 
 examine and ordain candidates for the ministry ; superintend the 
 young men who are studying for the ministry ; settle difficulties be- 
 tween ministers and their congregations, &c. They are in fact the 
 executive of the synod, whenever the latter is not in session. 
 
 Among the ancient documents of the Waldenses, is one dating as 
 far back as A. D. 1120, called " The Ancient Discipline of the 
 Evangelical Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont." In this docu- 
 ment, are two articles relating to the ministry. The education of 
 ministers is described as consisting mainly in committing to memory 
 a large part of the scriptures. They " get by heart all the chapters 
 of St. Matthew and St. John, with all the Epistles called canonical, 
 and a good part of the writings of Solomon, David, and the Proph- 
 ets." They are represented as asking a call from the people, and 
 being ordained by the imposition of hands. They are under the 
 inspection of one another, and are provided with food and clothing 
 by the persons whom they teach. Ministers committing gross sins 
 are to be deposed. The church has the right to choose its own leaders. 
 The pastors are to assemble statedly in general council or synod. 
 But not a word is said of prelatical bishops, nor of superior and infe- 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 rior orders in tho ministry. They had no such distinctions among 
 them, at the time -when they first became known to the Reformers, 
 nor have thoy had any such since ; and they have uniformly main- 
 tained, as they maintain now, that from time immemorial thoy have 
 had but the ono order of ministers, the barbas, or pastors of individ- 
 ual congregations, with elders and deacons in each congregation. 
 
 In doctrine, the Waldensian formularies are thoroughly C'alvinistic. 
 Thoy hold the doctrine of sovereign unconditional election to eternal 
 life ; the doctrine that Christ died in a special sense for his elect 
 people; the doctrine of justification by the imputed righteousness 
 of Christ alone ; of sanctification by the special power of the Holy 
 Spirit, and of the final perseverance of the saints in holiness. They 
 reject at the same time tho doctrine of the mass, of purgatory, the 
 worship of the Virgin, and, generally, thoy " account, as an unspeak- 
 able abomination before God, all these inventions of men, namely, 
 the feasts, and the vigils of saints, the water which thoy call holy 
 as lifewise to abstain from flesh upon certain days, and the like." 
 
 II. Extracts from the " Ancient Discipline of the Evangelical Churches, 
 of the vallet/s of Piedmont," dated A. D. 1120. 
 
 ART. II. CONCERNING PASTORS. 
 
 " All those who are to be received as pastors among us, while they 
 remain with their relations, entreat us to receive them into the min- 
 istry, as likewise that they would be pleased to pray God that they 
 may be made worthy of so great a charge ; but the said petitioners 
 present such supplications to give a proof of their humility. 
 
 " We also appoint them their lessons and set them to get by heart all 
 the chapters of St. Matthew and St. John, with all the Epistles called 
 canonical, and a good part of the writings of Solomon, David, and the 
 prophets. 
 
 " And afterwards having good testimonials, they are by tho impo- 
 sition of hands admitted to the office of preaching. 
 
 " He that is last received ought to do nothing without the license 
 of him that was received before him ; and in like manner the former 
 ought to do nothing without the license of his associate, to the end 
 that all things among us may be done in good order. 
 
 " Our food and clothing are administered unto us, and given gra- 
 tuitously, and by way of alms by the good people whom we instruct. 
 
370 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Among the other powers which God hath given to his servants, 
 he hath given them authority to elect the leaders who govern the 
 people, and to constitute the elders in their charges, according to 
 the diversity of the work in the unity of Christ, which is proved by 
 the saying of the Apostle in the epistle to Titus, in chap. i. " For 
 this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the 
 things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had 
 appointed thee." 
 
 " When any of us, the aforesaid pastors, fall into any gross sin, 
 he is both excommunicated and prohibited from preaching. 
 
 ART. IV. CONCERNING ELDERS, THE COLLECTIONS, AN'D COUNCILS. 
 
 " Rulers and elders are chosen out of the people, according to 
 the diversity of the work, in the unity of Christ. And the Apostlo 
 proveth it to Titus, chap. i. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, 
 that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and 
 ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." 
 
 " The money which is given us by the people, is by us carried to 
 the aforesaid general council, and there delivered publicly in the 
 presence of all ; and afterwards the same is taken and distributed 
 by our stewards ; part of the money being given to such as are sent 
 upon journeys for the occasion, and part of it given to the poor. 
 
 " Wo that are pastors assemble once a-year to treat of our affairs 
 in a general council." 
 
 III. A Confession of Faith of ihe Waldenses, bearing date A. V. 
 1120, taken from ilie Cambridge MSS. 
 
 "Article I. — We believe and firmly hold all that which is con- 
 tained in the twelve articles of the symbol, which is called the 
 Apostle's Creed, accounting for heresy whatsoever is disagreeing, 
 and not consonant to the said twelve articles. 
 
 " Article II. — We do believe that there is one God, Father, Son, 
 and Holy Spirit. 
 
 " Article III. — We acknowledge for the holy canonical Scriptures, 
 the books of the Holy Bible, viz : — 
 
 " The Books of Moses, called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
 Deuteronomy ; Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 
 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Kehemiah, Esther, Job, 
 Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, the 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 Song of Solomon, the Prophecies of Isaiah and Jeromiah, the Lamen- 
 tations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, 
 Jonas, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zaohariah, 
 Malaehi. 
 
 " Here follow the books Apocryphal, which are not received of the 
 Hebrews. But we read them (as saith St. Jerome in his Prologue 
 to the Proverbs) for the instruction of the people, not to confirm the 
 authority of the doctrine of the church, viz ■ — 
 
 "Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with the 
 Epistle of Jeremiah, Esther from the tenth chapter to the end, the 
 Song of the Three Children in the Furnace, the History of Susanna, 
 the History of the Dragon, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees. 
 
 "Here follow the books of the New Testament: — 
 
 " The Gospel according to Sts. Mathew/Mark, Luke, John, the 
 Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 Cor- 
 inthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colos- 
 sians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, 
 Titus, Philemon, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. 
 James, the first Epistle of St. Peter, the second Epistle of St. Peter, 
 the first Epistle of St. John, the second Epistle of St. John, the third 
 Epistle of St. John, The Epistle of St. Jude, the Revelation of St. 
 John. 
 
 " Article IV. — The books above said teach this, that there is one 
 God, Almighty, all-wise, and all-good, who has made all things by 
 his goodness ; for he formed Adam in his own image and likeness, 
 but that by the envy of the devil, and the disobedience of the said 
 Adam, sin has entered into the world, and that we are sinners in 
 Adam and by Adam. 
 
 " Article V. — That Christ was promised to our fathers who received 
 the law, that so knowing by the law their sin, unrighteousness and 
 insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ, to satisfy for 
 their sins, and accomplish the law by himself. 
 
 "Article VI. — That Christ was born in the time appointed by 
 God the Father. That is to say, in the time when all iniquity 
 abounded, and not for the cause of good works, for all were sin- 
 ners ; but that he might show us grace and mercy, as being faithful. 
 
 "Article VII. — That Christ is our life, truth, peace, and right- 
 eousness, also our pastor, advocate, sacrifice, and priest, who died 
 32* 
 
378 APPENDIX. 
 
 for the salvation of all those that believe, and is risen for our justi- 
 fication. 
 
 " Article VIII. — In like manner, we firmly hold, that there is no 
 other mediator and advocate with God the Father, save only Jesus 
 Christ. And as for the Virgin Mary, that she was holy, humble, 
 and full of grace ; and in like manner do we believe concerning all 
 the other saints, viz : that being in heaven, they wait for the resur- 
 rection of their bodies at the day of judgment. 
 
 " Article IX. — Item, we believe that after this life, there are only 
 two places, the one for the saved, and the other for the damned, 
 the which two places we call paradise and hell, absolutely denying 
 that purgatory invented by antichrist, and forged contrary to the 
 truth. 
 
 " Article X. — Item, we have always accounted as an unspeakable 
 abomination before God, all those inventions of men, namely, the 
 feasts and the vigils of saints, the water which they call holy. As 
 likewise to abstain from flesh upon certain days, and the like ; but 
 especially their masses. 
 
 " Article XL — We esteem for an abomination and as antichris- 
 tian, all those human inventions which are a trouble or prejudice to 
 the liberty of the spirit. 
 
 " Article XII. — "We do believe that the sacraments are signs of 
 the holy thing, or visible forms of the invisible grace, accounting it 
 good that the faithful sometimes use the said signs or visible forms, 
 if it may be done. However, we believe and hold, that the above 
 said faithful may be saved without receiving the signs aforesaid, in 
 case they have no place nor any means to use them. 
 
 " Article XIII. — We acknowledge no other sacrament but Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " Article XIV. — We ought to honour the secular powers by sub- 
 mission, ready obedience, and paying of tributes." 
 
 IV. Catechism of the Ancient Waldenses for the instruction of their 
 Youth, composed in the Viih century. 
 
 Minister. If one should demand of you, who are you, what would 
 you answer ? 
 
 Child. A creature of God, reasonable and mortal. 
 
 Min. Why has God created you ? 
 
 Ans. To the end that I might know him and servo him, and be 
 saved by his grace. 
 
APPENDIX. 379 
 
 Min. "Wherein consists your salvation ? 
 
 Ans. In three substantial virtues, which necessarily belong to 
 salvation. 
 
 Min. Which are they? 
 Ans. Faith, hope, and charity. 
 Min. How can you prove that ? 
 
 Ans. The apostle writes, 1 Cor. xiii., " Now abideth faith, hope 
 and charity, these three." 
 Min. "What is faith ? 
 
 Ans. According to the apostle, Heb. xi., "It is the substance of 
 things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." 
 Min. How many sorts of faith are there ? 
 Ans. There are two sorts, viz., a living and a dead faith. 
 Min. "What is a living faith ? 
 Ans. It is that which works by charity. 
 Min. What is a dead faith ? 
 
 Ans. According to St. James, it is that which without works is 
 dead. Again, faith is null without works ; or a dead faith is to be- 
 lieve that there is a God, and not to believe in him. 
 Min. What is your faith ? 
 Ans. The true catholic and apostolic faith. 
 Min. What is that ? 
 
 Ans. It is that which in the result (or symbol) of the apostles, is 
 divided into twelve articles. 
 Min. What is that ? 
 
 Ans. I believe in God the Father Almighty, &c. 
 Min. By what way can you know that you believe in God ? 
 Ans. By this, that I know and I observe the commandments of 
 God. 
 Min. How many commandments of God are there ? 
 Ans. Ten, as is manifest in Exodus and Deuteronomy. 
 Min. Which be they ? 
 
 Ans. " Hear, Israel, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have 
 none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image, 
 or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven," &c. 
 
 Min. What is the sum or drift of these commandments ? 
 Ans. It consists in these two great commandments, viz., Thou 
 shalt love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself. 
 Min. What is that foundation of these commandments, by the 
 
380 APPENDIX. 
 
 which every one may enter into life, and without the which founda- 
 tion none can do anything worthily, or fulfil the commandments ? 
 
 Ans. The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the apostle speaks in the 
 1 Cor., " Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which 
 is Jesus Christ." 
 
 Min. By what means may a man come to this foundation ? 
 
 Ans. By faith, as saith St. Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 6, " Behold, I lay in 
 Sion a chief-corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on 
 him shall not be confounded." And the Lord saith, " He that be- 
 lieveth hath eternal life." 
 
 Min. "Whereby canst thou know that thou believest? 
 
 Ans. By this, that I know him to be true God, and true man, who 
 was born, and who hath suffered, &c, for my redemption, justifica- 
 tion, and that I love him, and desire to fulfil his commandments. 
 
 Min. By what means may one attain to those essential virtues, 
 faith, hope, and charity ? 
 
 Am: By the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Min. Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit? 
 
 Ans. Yes, I do believe. For the Holy Spirit proceeds from the 
 Father and the Son ; and is one person of the Trinity ; and according 
 to the Dirinity, is equal to the Father and the Son. 
 
 Min. Thou believest God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
 Holy Spirit ; thou hast therefore three Gods. 
 
 Ans. I have not three. 
 
 Min. Tea, but thou hast named three. 
 
 Ans. That is by reason of the difference of the persons, not by 
 reason of the essence of the divinity. For although there are three 
 persons, yet notwithstanding there is but one essence. 
 
 Min. In what manner dost thou adore and worship that God on 
 whom thou believest ? 
 
 Ans. I adore him with the adoration of an inward and an outward 
 worship. Outwardly, by the bending of the knee, and lifting up the 
 hands, by bowing the body, by hymns and spiritual songs, by fasting 
 and prayer ; but inwardly, by an holy affection : by a will conform- 
 able unto all things that are well pleasing unto him. And I serve 
 him by faith, hope and charity, according to his commandments. 
 
 Min. Dost thou adore and worship any other thing as God? , 
 
 Ans. No. 
 
 Min. Why? 
 
APPENDIX. 381 
 
 « 
 Ans. Because of his commandment, whereby it is strictly com- 
 manded, saying, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
 only shalt thou serve." And again, "I will not give my glory to 
 another." Again, " As I live saith the Lord, every knee shall how 
 before me." And Jesus Christ saith, " There shall come the true 
 worshippers, which shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." 
 And the angel would not be worshipped by St. John, nor St. Peter, 
 by Cornelius. 
 Min. After what manner prayest thou ? 
 
 Ans. I pray, rehearsing the prayer given me by the Son of God, 
 saying, " Our Father which art in heaven," &c. 
 
 Min. What is the other substantial virtue appertaining to salva- 
 tion? 
 
 Ans. It is charity. 
 Min. What is charity ? 
 
 Ans. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit by which the soul is reformed 
 in the will, being enlightened by faith, whereby I believe all that 
 ought to be believed, and hope all that ought to be hoped. 
 Min. Dost thou believe in the holy church ? 
 Ans. No, for it is a creature ; but I believe that there is one. 
 Min. What is that which thou believest concerning the holy 
 church ? 
 
 Ans. I say, that the church is considered two manner of ways, 
 the one substantially, and the other ministerially. As it is con- 
 sidered substantially, by the holy catholic church is meant all the 
 elect of God, from the beginning of the world to the end, by the 
 grace of God through the merit of Christ, gathered together by the 
 Holy Spirit, and fore-ordained to eternal life ; the number and 
 names of whom are known to him alone who has elected them, 
 and in this church remains none who is reprobate; but the church, 
 as it is considered according to the truth of the ministry, is the 
 company of the ministers of Christ, together with the people 
 committed to their charge, using the ministry by faith, hope, and 
 charity. 
 
 Min. Whereby dost thou know the church of Christ ? 
 Ans. By the ministers lawfully called, and by the people partici- 
 pating in truth of the ministry. 
 
 Min. But by what marks knowest thou the ministers ? 
 
 Ans. By the true sense of faith ; by sound doctrine ; by a life of 
 
382 APPENDIX. 
 
 good example ; by the preaching of the gospel, and a due adminis- 
 tration of the sacraments. 
 
 Min. By -what mark knowest thou the false ministers ? 
 
 Ans. By their fruits ; by their blindness ; by their evil -works ; 
 by their perverse doctrine, and by their undue administration of 
 the sacraments. 
 
 Min. Whereby knowest thou their blindness ? 
 
 Ans. When not knowing the truth, which necessarily appertains 
 to salvation, they observe human inventions as ordinances of God. 
 Of whom is verified what Isaiah says, and which is alleged by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Matt, sv., " This people honour me with their 
 lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship 
 me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 
 
 Min. By what marks knowest thou evil works ? 
 
 Ans. By those manifest sins of which the apostle speaks, Gal. v., 
 saying, " That they which do such things, shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 Min. By what mark knowest thou perverse doctrine ? 
 
 Ans. When it teacheth contrary to faith and hope ; such is 
 idolatry of several sorts, viz., towards a reasonable, sensible, 
 visible or invisible creature. For it is the Father alone, with his 
 Son and the Holy Spirit, who ought to be worshipped, and not any 
 creature whatsoever, when the}- attribute to man and to the work 
 of his hands, or to his words, or to his authority, in such a manner, 
 that men ignorantly believe that they have satisfied God by a false 
 religion, and by satisfying the covetous simony of the priests. 
 
 Min. By what marks is the undue administration of the sacra- 
 ment known ? 
 
 Ans. When the priests, not knowing the intention of Christ in the 
 sacraments, say, that the grace and the truth are included in the 
 external ceremonies, and persuade men to the participation of the 
 sacrament without the truth, and without faith. But the Lord 
 chargeth those that are his to take heed of such false prophets, 
 saying, " beware of the pharisees," that is to say, " of the leaven 
 of their doctrine." Again, "Believe them not, neither go after 
 them." And David hates the church or the congregation of such 
 persons, saying, " I hate the church of evil men." And the Lord 
 commands to come out from the midst of such people, Num. xvi., 
 " Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 theirs, lest ye be consumed in their sins." And the apostle, 2 Cor. 
 vi. 14, " Be yo not unequally yoked -with unbelievers. For what 
 fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what com- 
 munion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ 
 with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? 
 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ? Wherefore 
 come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and 
 touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." Again, 
 2 Thess. "Now we command you, brethren, that you withdraw 
 yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly." Again, 
 Rev. sviii., " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers 
 of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'' 
 
 Min. By what marks are those people known who are not in truth 
 within the church ? 
 
 Ans. By public sins, and erroneous faith. For we ought to fly 
 from such persons, lest we should be defiled by them. 
 
 Min. By what ways oughtest thou to communicate with the holy 
 church ? 
 
 Ans. I ought to communicate with the church in regard of its 
 substance, by faith and charity, as also by observing the command- 
 ments, and by a final perseverance in well-doing. 
 
 Min. How many things are there which are ministerial ? 
 
 Ans. Two. The word and the sacraments. 
 
 Min. How many sacraments are there ? 
 
 Ans. Two ; namely, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Min. What is the third virtue necessary to salvation? 
 
 Ans. Hope. 
 
 Min. What is hope ? 
 
 Ans. It is a waiting for grace and glory to come. 
 
 Min. How does a man wait (or hope) for grace ? 
 
 Ans. By the mediator Jesus Christ, of whom St. John saith, 
 "Grace comes by Jesus Christ." Again, "We have seen his 
 glory, who is full of grace and truth, and we all have received of 
 his fulness." 
 
 Min. What is that grace ? 
 
 Ans. It is redemption, remission of sins, justification, adoption, 
 and sanctification. 
 
 Min. Upon what account is this grace hoped for in Christ ? 
 
384 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ans. By a living faith, and true repentance, saying, " Repent yo» 
 and believe the gospel," 
 
 Min. Whence proceedeth this hope ? 
 
 Ans. From the gift of God, and the promises of which the apostle 
 mentioneth, 'He is powerful to perform whatsoever he promiseth." 
 For he hath promised himself, that whosoever shall know him, and 
 repent, and shall hope in him, he will have mercy upon, pardon, 
 and justify, &c. 
 
 Min. What are the things that put us beside this hope? 
 
 Ans. A dead faith, the seduction of antichrist to believe in other 
 things besides Christ, that is to say, in saints, in the power of that 
 antichrist, in his authority, words, and benedictions, in sacraments, 
 reliques of the dead, in purgatory, which is but forged and con- 
 trived, in teaching that faith is obtained by those ways which oppose 
 themselves to the truth, and are against the commandments of God. 
 As is idolatry in divers respects. As also by wickedness and simony, 
 &c. Forsaking the fountain of living water given by grace, and 
 running to broken cisterns, worshipping, honouring, and serving 
 the creature by prayers, by fastings, by sacrifices, by donations, by 
 offerings, by pilgrimages, by invocations, &c. Relying upon them- 
 selves for the acquiring of grace, which none can give save only God 
 in Christ. In vain do they labour, and lose their money and their 
 lives, and the truth is, they do not only lose their present life, but 
 also that which is to come ; wherefore it is said, that " the hope of 
 fools shall perish." 
 
 Min. And what dost thou say of the blessed Tirgin Mary ? For 
 she is full of grace, as the angel testifies — " I salute thee full of 
 grace." 
 
 Ans. The blessed Virgin was and is full of grace, as much as is 
 necessary for her own particular salvation, but not to communicate 
 to others, for her Son alone is full of grace, and can communicate 
 the same as he pleaseth, and " we have all received of his fulness, 
 grace for grace." 
 
 Min. Believest thou not the communion of saints ? 
 
 Ans. I believe that there are two sorts of things wherein the 
 saints communicate — the first substantial, the other ministerial. 
 As to the substantials, they communicate by the Holy Spirit, in 
 God, through the merit of Jesus Christ ; as to the ministerials or 
 ecclesiastics, they communicate by the ministry duly performed, 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 namely, by the word, by the sacraments, and by prayer ; I believe 
 both the one and the other of these communions of saints. The first 
 only in God, and in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost by the 
 Holy Spirit. The other in the church of Christ. 
 
 Min. "Wherein consists eternal life ? 
 
 Ans. In a living and operating faith, and in perseverance in the 
 same. Our Saviour says, John xvii., " This is life eternal, to know 
 thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
 And " he that endures to the end shall be saved." 
 
 V. A Confession of Faith published by Hie Evangelical Churches of 
 Piedmont, in 1669. 
 
 " Having understood that our adversaries, not contented to have 
 most cruelly persecuted us, and robbed us of all our goods and 
 estates, have yet an intention to render us odious to the world, by 
 spreading abroad many false reports, and so not only to defame our 
 persons, but likewise to asperse with most shameful calumnies that 
 holy and wholesome doctrine which we profess, we look upon our- 
 selves as obliged, for the better information of those whose minds 
 may perhaps be preoccupied by sinister opinions, to make a short 
 declaration of our faith, such as we have heretofore professed and 
 held, and do at this day profess and hold as conformable to the word 
 of God ; and so overy one may see the falsity of those their calum- 
 nies, and also how unjustly we are hated and persecuted upon the 
 account of our profession. 
 
 " We believe, 
 
 " 1. First, that there is one only God, who is a spiritual essence, 
 eternal, infinite, all-wise, merciful, just, and, in sum, all-perfect; and 
 that there are three persons in that one only and simple essence, 
 viz : the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
 
 "2. That the same God has manifested himself unto us by the 
 works of Creation and Providence, as also in his word revealed unto 
 us, first by oracles in several manners, and afterwards by those 
 written books which are called the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 " 3. That we ought to receive those Holy Scriptures (as we do) 
 
 for sacred and canonical, that is to say, for the constant rule of our 
 
 faith and life : as also to believe that the same is fully contained in 
 
 the Old and New Testament ; and that by the Old Testament we 
 
 33 Z 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 must understand only such books as God did intrust the Judaical 
 shurch with, and which that church always approved and acknow- 
 ledged to be from God : namely, the five books of Moses, Joshua, 
 the Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 of Samuel, 1 and 2 of the Kings, 1 and 
 
 2 of the Chronicles, the 1 of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, the 
 Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, 
 the four great, and the twelve minor Prophets : the New Testament 
 contains only the four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, the 
 Epistles of St. Paul — 1 to the Romans, 2 to the Corinthians, 1 to the 
 Galatians, 1 to the Ephesians, 1 to the Philippians, 1 to the Colos- 
 sians, 2 to the Thessalonians, 2 to Timothy, 1 to Titus, 1 to Phile- 
 mon, and his Epistle to the Hebrews ; 1 of St. James, 2 of St. Peter, 
 
 3 of St. John, 1 of St. Jude ; and lastly, the Revelation. 
 
 " 4. We acknowledge the divinity of these books, not only from 
 the testimony of the church, but more especially because of the eter- 
 nal and undoubted truth of the doctrine therein contained, and of 
 that most divine excellency, sublimity, and majesty, which appears 
 therein ; besides the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who gives us to 
 receive with reverence the testimony of the church in that point, 
 and opens the eyes of our understanding to discover the beams of 
 that celestial light, which shines in the Scripture, and prepares our 
 taste to discern the divine favour of that spiritual food. 
 
 " 5. That God made all things of nothing by his own free will, 
 and by the infinite power of his word. 
 
 " 6. That he governs and rules all by his providence, ordaining 
 and appointing whatsoever happens in this world, without being 
 author or cause of any evil committed by the creatures, so that the 
 defect thereof neither can nor ought to be any ways imputed unto 
 him. 
 
 '' 7. That the angels were all in the beginning created pure and 
 holy, but that some of them are fallen into irreparable corruption 
 and perdition ; and that the rest have persevered in their first purity 
 by an effect of divine goodness, which has upheld and confirmed 
 them. 
 
 " 8. That man was created clean and holy, after the image of 
 God, and that through his own fault he deprived himself of that 
 happy condition, by giving credit to the deceitful words of the 
 devil. 
 
 "9. That man by his transgression lost that righteousness and 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 holiness -which he received, and is thereby obnoxious to the wrath 
 of God, death, and captivity, under the jurisdiction of him who has 
 the power of death, that is, the devil; insomuch that our free will 
 has become a servant and a slave to sin ; and thus all men, both 
 Jews and Gentiles, are by nature the children of wrath, being all 
 dead in their trespasses and sins, and consequently incapable of the 
 least good motion, or inclination to any thing which concerns their 
 salvation : yea, incapable to think one good thought without God's 
 special grace, all their imaginations being wholly evil, and that 
 continually. 
 
 " 10. That all the posterity of Adam is guilty of his disobedience, 
 and infected by his corruption, and fallen into the same calamity 
 with him, even the very infants from their mothers' womb, whence 
 _ is derived the word of original sin. 
 
 " 11. That God saves from that corruption and condemnation 
 those whom he has chosen from the foundation of the world, not 
 for any disposition, faith, or holiness that he foresaw in them, but 
 of his mere mercy in Jesus Christ his Son ; passing by all the rest, 
 according to the irreprehensible reason of his free will and justice. 
 
 " 12. That Jesus Christ having been ordained by the eternal 
 decree of God to be the only Saviour, and head of that body which 
 is the church, he redeemed it with his own blood in the fulness of 
 time, and communicates unto the same all his benefits, together 
 with the gospel. 
 
 " 13. That there are two natures in Jesus Christ, viz., divine and 
 human, truly united in one and the same person, without either 
 confusion, separation, division, or alteration ; each nature keeping 
 its own distinct proprieties ; and that Jesus Christ is both true 
 God and true man. 
 
 " 14. That God so loved the world, that is to say, those whom he 
 has chosen out of the world, that he gave his own Son to save us 
 by his most perfect obedience (especially that obedience which he 
 expressed in his suffering the cursed death of the cross), and also 
 by his victory over the devil, sin, and death. 
 
 " 15. That Jesus Christ having fully expiated our sins by his 
 most perfect sacrifice once offered on the cross, it neither can nor 
 ought to be reiterated upon any account whatsoever, as they pre- 
 tend to do in the mass. 
 
 " 16. That the Lord having fully and absolutely reconciled us 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 unto God, through the blood of his cross, by virtue of his merit 
 only, and not of our works, ■we are thereby absolved and justified 
 in his sight, neither is there any other purgatory besides his blood, 
 which cleanses us from all sin. 
 
 " 17. That we are united with Christ, and made partakers of all 
 his benefits by faith, trusting and confiding wholly to those promises 
 of life which are given us in the gospel. 
 
 " 18. That that faith is the gracious and efficacious work of the 
 Holy Spirit, which enlightens our souls, and persuades them to 
 lean and rest upon the mercy of God, and so thereby to apply unto 
 themselves the merits of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " 19. That Jesus Christ is our true and only mediator, not only 
 redeeming us, but also interceding for us, and that by virtue of his 
 merits and intercession we have access unto the Father, for to make 
 Our supplications unto him, with a holy confidence and assurance 
 that he will grant us our requests, it being needless to have recourse 
 to any other intercessor besides himself. 
 
 "20. That as God has promised us that we shall be regenerated 
 in Christ, so those that are united unto him by a true faith ought 
 to apply, and do really apply themselves unto good works. 
 
 " 21. That good works are so necessary to the faithful, that they 
 cannot attain the kingdom of heaven without the same, seeing that 
 God hath prepared them that we should walk therein ; and there- 
 fore we ought to avoid vice, and to apply ourselves to Christian 
 virtues, making use of fasting, and all other means which may con- 
 duce to so holy a thing. 
 
 " 22. That although our good works cannot merit anything, yet 
 the Lord will reward or recompense them with eternal life, through 
 the merciful continuation of his grace, and by virtue of the un- 
 changeable constancy of his promises made unto us. 
 
 " 23. That those who are already in the possession of eternal life 
 by their faith and good works ought to be considered as saints, 
 and as glorified persons, and to be praised for their virtue, and 
 imitated in all good actions of their life,, but neither worshipped nor 
 prayed unto, for God only is to be prayed unto, and that through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 " 24. That God has chosen unto himself one church in the world 
 for the salvation of mankind, and that same church to have one only 
 head and foundation, which is Christ. 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 "25. That that church is the company of the faithful, who hav- 
 ing been elected before the foundation of the world, and called with 
 an holy calling, come to unite themselves to follow the word of 
 God, believing whatsoever he teaches them, and living in his fear. 
 
 " 26. That that church cannot err, nor be annihilated, but must 
 endure for ever, and that all the elect arc upheld and preserved by 
 the power of God in such sort, that they all persevere in the faith 
 unto the end, and remain united in the holy church, as so many 
 living members thereof. 
 
 " 27. That all men ought to join with that church, and to con- 
 tinue in the communion thereof. 
 
 " 28. That God does not only instruct and teach us by his word, 
 but has also ordained certain sacraments to be joined with it, as a 
 means to unite us unto Christ, and to make us partakers of his 
 benefits ; and that there are only two of them belonging in common 
 to all the members of the church under the New Testament — to wit, 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " 29. That God has ordained the sacrament of Baptism to be a 
 testimony of our adoption, and of our being cleansed from our sins, 
 by the blood of Jesus Christ, and renewed in holiness of life. 
 
 " 30. That the Holy Supper was instituted for the nourishment 
 of our souls, to the end that eating effectually the flesh of Christ, 
 and drinking effectually his blood, by the incomprehensible virtue 
 and power of the Holy Spirit, and through a true and living faith, 
 and so uniting ourselves most closely and inseparably to Christ, we 
 come to enjoy in him and by him spiritual and eternal life. 
 Now to the end that every one may clearly see what our belief is as 
 to this point, we have here inserted the very expressions of that 
 prayer which we make use of before the Communion, as they are 
 written in our Liturgy or form of celebrating the Holy Supper, and 
 likewise in our public Catechism, which are to be seen at the end 
 of our Psalms ; these are the words of the prayer, — 
 
 " Seeing our Lord has not only once offered his body and blood 
 for the remission of our sins, but is willing also to communicate the 
 same unto us as the food of eternal life, we humbly beseech him so 
 to give us of his grace, that in true sincerity of heart and with an 
 ardent zeal we may receive of him so great a benefit ; that is, that 
 we may be made partakers of his body and blood, or rather of his 
 whole self, by a sure and certain faith. 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 " The words of the Liturgy are these — Let ns then believe first 
 the promises which Christ (who is the infallible truth), has pro- 
 nounced with his own mouth, viz., that he will make us truly par- 
 takers of his body and blood, that so we may possess him entirely, 
 and in such sort that he may live in us, and we in him. The words 
 of our Catechism are the same, Nella Dominica 53. 
 
 "31. That it is necessary the church should have ministers known 
 by those who are employed for that purpose, to be learned, and of 
 a good life, as well to preach the word of God as to administer 
 the sacraments, and wait upon the flock of Christ (according to the 
 rules of a good and holy discipline), together with the elders and 
 deacons, after the manner of the primitive church. 
 
 "32. That God hath established kings and magistrates to govern 
 the people, and that the people ought to be obedient and subject 
 unto them, by virtue of that ordination, not only.for fear, but also 
 for conscience-sake, in all things that are conformable to the word 
 of God, who is the King of Kings, and the Lord of lords. 
 
 "33. Finally, that we ought to receive the symbol of the apostlesi 
 the Lord's Prayer, and the Decalogue, as fundamentals of our faith 
 and of our devotion. 
 
 " And for a more ample declaration of our faith, we do here reit- 
 erate the same protestation which we caused to be printed in 1603, 
 that is to say, that we do agree in sound doctrine with all the re- 
 formed churches of France, Great Britain, the Low Countries, Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and others, as it is 
 represented by them in their confessions ; as also we receive the 
 Confession of Augsburg, and as it was published by the authors, 
 promising to persevere constantly therein with the help of God, both 
 in life and death, and being ready to subscribe to that eternal truth 
 of God, with our own blood, even as our ancestors have done from 
 the days of the apostles, and especially in these latter ages. 
 
 " Therefore we humbly entreat all the evangelical and protestant 
 churches to look upon us as true members of the mystical body of 
 Christ, suffering for his name sake, notwithstanding our poverty and 
 lowness ; and to continue unto us the help of their prayers to God, 
 and all other effects of their charity, as we have heretofore abund- 
 antly found and felt, for the which we return them our most humble 
 thanks, entreating the Lord with all our heart to be their rewarder, 
 and to pour upon them the most precious blessings of grace and 
 glory, both in this life and that which is to come. Amen." 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 VI. Extract from the " Noble Lesson," dated A. D., 1100. 
 
 But in this ia clearly manifested tho malioo of those men, 
 
 That they who will curse, lie, and swear, 
 
 He that -will frequently put his money to usury, kill, 
 
 And avenge himself on those who hurt him ; 
 
 This they say is a good man, and to be accounted faithful. 
 
 But lot him take heed he be not deceived at the end ; 
 
 When ho has received the stroke of death, and when death seizes 
 
 him, and ho becomes almost speechless, 
 Then ho desires the priest to confess him : 
 But according to the Scriptures he has delayed to long, for that 
 
 commands us 
 To repent whilo we have time, and not to put it off till the last: 
 The priest as'koth him if he hath any sin, 
 He answers two or throe words and- so hath done ; 
 Tho priest tells him ho cannot be forgiven, 
 If he do not restore, and examine well his faults : 
 When he hoars this, he is very much troubled, , 
 And thinks with himself, if he restore entirely, 
 What shall he leave his children, and what will the world say 1 
 Then ho commandeth his children to examine their faults, 
 And buyoth of the priest his absolution ; 
 
 Though he hath a hundred livres of another and better penny, yet 
 The priest acquits him for a hundred pence, 
 And sometimes for less when ho can get no more, 
 Telling him a large story, and promising him pardon, 
 That he will say mass for him, and for his ancestors ; 
 And thus ho pardons them, be they righteous or wicked, 
 Laying his hands upon their heads, 
 (But when he leaves them ho makoth the better cheer) 
 And telling him that he is very well absolved. 
 But, alas ! they arc but sadly confessed who are thus faulty, 
 And will certainly be deceived in such an absolution, 
 And ho that maketh him believe it sinneth mortally. 
 For I dare say, and it is very true, 
 That all tho popes which have been from Sylvester to this present, 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 And all Cardinals, Bishops, Abbots, and the like, 
 
 Have no power to absolve or pardon, 
 
 Any creature so much as one mortal sin, 
 
 It is God alone who pardons, and no other. 
 
 But this ought they to do who are pastors, 
 
 They ought to preach to the people, and pray with them, 
 
 And feed them often with divine doctrine ; 
 
 And chastise the sinners with discipline, 
 
 Namely, by declaring that they ought to repent. 
 
 First that they confess their sins freely and fully, 
 
 And that repent in this present life, 
 
 That they fast and give alms, and pray with a fervent heart, 
 
 For by these things the soul finds salvation : 
 
 Wherefore we Christians which have sinned 
 
 And forsaken the law of Jesus Christ, 
 
 Having neither fear, faith, nor love, 
 
 We must confess our sins without any delay, 
 
 We must amend with weeping and repentance, 
 
 The offences which we have committed, and for those three mortal 
 
 sins, 
 To wit, for the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of 
 
 life, through which we have done evil ; 
 We must keep this way. 
 If we will lovo and follow Jesus Christ, 
 We must have spiritual poverty of heart, 
 And love chastity, and serve God humbly, 
 For so we may follow the way of Jesus Christ, 
 And thus we may overcome our enemies,