A COLLECTION OR NARATIVE Sent to his Highness the LORD PROTECTOR of the COMMONWEALTH of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, & IRELAND, etc. CONCERNING The Bloody and Barbarous Massacres, Murders, and other Cruelties, committed on many thousands of Reformed, or Protestants dwelling in the Valleys of Piedmont, by the Duke of Savoy's Forces, joined therein with the French Army, and several Irish Regiments.  
Published by Command of his Highness.  
Printed for H. Robinson, at the three Pigeons in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1655.   

To his Highness the Lord Protector of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND, and the Dominions thereto belonging.  
May it please your Highness,  
YOUR Highness having thought it convenient that I should put in print the writings I have received concerning the horrible massacre committed upon the poor Protestants of Piedmont, I humbly dedicate them to your Highness, as to whom they do of right belong, not only because they were sent me to present to your Highness, or that your Highness hath received them from other hands, but chief for that every one knowing the Piety of your Highness, and the fervent Charity you have testified to the poor Protestants, the straight Communion you hold with them, and the care you have of their preservation, it seems as if your Highness were particularly interested herein. And so much the more, because this cruel action was chiefly executed by the Irish, as in revenge to those who have driven them out of their own Country for the cruel Massacres they there committed. So that every one believes your Highness will express a deep resentment hereof, and will endeavour the consolation and reestablishment of many thousands of persons escaped from this Butchery, who have chosen rather to quit their Houses and Goods, than to make shipwreck of their Faith. This also is an occasion, which God by his providence hath set before your Highness, to show the incomparable zeal which you have for his service and Glory, and to give to the Protestants an evident prof of the affection your Highness bears them, and to confirm them in the confidence they have conceived of your Highness' Protection. This all the Israel of God expects from your Highness upon this occasion, looking upon your Highness as a Zerubbabel, whom God hath sent for the repairing of his Jerusalem. I beseech the Lord, who by the marvellous dispensations of his Providence, hath raised your Highness to this great dignity, that he would grant you to be the Protector of the people of God in all Nations, as he hath in this, and that he would long preserve your Highness, to the end you may employ the power he hath given your Highness for the accomplishment of his great Works, for the defence of his whole Church, the preservation of them which remain, and the reestablishment of the desolate and afflicted for the propagation of his Gospel, the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the Glory of his great name.  
Which is the Prayer, My Lord, of Your Highness' most humble, faithful, and obedient, servant, J. B. Stouppe.   

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.  
AMongst all the Churches of Christ, that do profess the pure & holy Religion which he hath taught in his Word, that of the Waldenses is the most considerable, as well for her Antiquity, as for the sharp and continual persecutions it hath suffered. Her Antiquity is such, that no man can truly find out her beginning: so that even her Adversaries say, that the Heresy of the Waldenses (thus they call their Doctrine) began in the Apostles days, and always hath been in the Valley of Angrogna. But of all the Certificates which many Papists have given of the antiquity of the Waldenses, and of their Doctrine, that of Reynerius, a Roman Inquisitor, whose Write have been procured to us by Gretserus the Jesuit; is most remarkable: for thus he speaks of them. Amongst all the Sects that are in the World, there is none that hath been, or is still more perncious than that of the Waldenses or Leonistes, for three Reasons; First, because it hath lasted longer than all others, some saying it began in Sylvester his time, others deriving them from the Apostles. Secondly, because it is so Universal, that there is no Country where it is not. Thirdly, because the Professors of it live more uprightly before men, and hold all the Articles of the Apostles Creed, blaspheming only against the Church of Rome and hating it.  
But however this Reynerius, living about the end of the Eleventh age of the Church and the beginning of the twelfth, and so there being above 400. years since he did call the Waldenses an old Sect, he shows clearly they had then been a time in the Church. 
* Bishop Usher, de Successione, etc. Pag. 151. and 210.  Besides it is certain▪ as we find in many credible Historians, that 1160. a great number of faithful souls, called then the poor of Lions, or Waldenses, because they had been taught by Peter Waldus, a man of great Erudition and singular piety, being persecuted at Lions, by the Roman Clergy, by reason of the Reformation, which he procured unto the Church, they retired into those Valleys, where finding the Natives to be of their own opinions, they composed together those reformed Churches of the Waldenses, which have ever since subsisted: Which proves, that the reformed Religion professed in those Valleys did not begin within an age or two of this, as some ignorant adversaries say; but that it hath been either from the very Apostles, or from the first ages, and that the Waldenses found there th' seed of the true Religion, having nothing to do on either side, but to encourage each other to do better and better, and to set up the Banner of truth, in the view of the world. Since that time, those poor Churches have always been the mark for worldlings to shoot at, and spend against them all the arrows of their malice. Satan hath done all he could against them, and Antichrist hath spared nothing to destroy them, fires have been kindled, and flames blown up, to reduce them into ashes: they have had experiments of the barbarous cruelty of men. And as there is no war so bloody, as that which is undertaken in hatred of Religion; so to suffer proscriptions and exiles, confiscations of goods, and imprisoning, torturing, and killing of bodies have been the ordinary exercises of the faithful in those Countries. Yet notwithstanding the great Massacres acted therein from Age to Age, God by his providence hath always preserved a considerable number of them, which made up many fine and flourishing Churches, although they were always under the Cross.  
I will not enlarge my discourse, to make a description of the persecutions they have suffered, since a large Volume would not suffice for that I will only say something of those evils they have been exposed to these two last years. There was great probability they should of late, in the time of their Prince's Coronation, enjoy some quietness and tranbuillity▪ since they had obtained the confirmation of their Possessions and old Privileges; but they were soon frustrate of their hope; For the Court of Rome, and the Pope's servants and Agents did work so cunningly, that they were deprived of the benefit of those Privileges; Commerce was forbidden them, many men driven out of their Habitations, and finally after the publication of a Crusade, they were 1653. assaulted by a great Army, which had wholly extirpated them, if God had not assisted them by an extraordinary Rain, which did oppose the endeavours of their Adversaries, and made them vain. And because this bloody Design did not succeed them well, they endeavoured afterwards to ruin wholly those faithful persons by extraordinary Impositions and Burdens much above their own strength, and which were not set upon the Papists in those parts. Thus they did engage them unto great expenses to obtain again the Confirmation of their Privileges, and being obtained, their Enemies exacted from them prodigious sums of money to have it sealed. Yea, the matter was brought to that height of injustice, to make them bear the charges of those, who were come to fight and ruin them. Besides all that, there being a French Army in those parts, it was sent to take its winte quarters in the midst of those Churches, which thus were wholly deprived of what remained for their subsistence.  
But all that was but a beginning of greater sorrow: for if they had then cause to groan and sigh, they have had since occasions to shed whole streame● of tears; since they have tried, how far the cruelty of the persecutors of truth may go, and found that th●re is neither fidelity nor law in the behalf of those, who profess true Christianity in those Valleys. They thought, they had in some sort stilled the Sea, and that a blessed Calm had succeeded the furious Storm, when after a long Negotiation, in which they had consumed great sums, they had obtained of their Prince the confirmation of their ancient Privileges. But they were soon deceived of their hopes; for instead of keeping promises to them, Orders came, as from their Prince, against all those of the Reformed Religion dwelling in Luserne, Lusernette, Bubiane, Fenil, Bricheret, St. John, St. Second, La Tour, and Campiglion, which is the best and most fruitful ground in the Valley of Luserne, as being in the plain, with a strict Injunction to quit their habitations within thre● days, or go to Mass upon pain of Life and Confiscation of their Goods; Proceed directly contrary to the Concessions or Grants of their Prince, twice confirmed by the present Duke, with his express Declaration not to change any thing therein. The Minister designed and sent for the execution of that cruel Order hath bee● one Andrew Guastaldo, who hath the Title of the Keeper of the Catholic Faith against the Heretics of the Valleys; and who is likewise one of the Council de propaganda fide, lately erected at Turin. He caused these Orders to be published in the places already named, the 25th. of January last past, and notwithstanding the extraordinary Snow and Rain, which then caused great Inundations or overflowings of water he (with the greatest Inhumanity that can be imagined) expelled all sorts of persons without distinction of quality, or sex, or age, and without commiseration of women with child, and lying in, nor of the sick and weak, nor of old persons and sucking Infants. Many thousands of all sorts were expelled and forced to retire into the Rocks, there to be frozen or famished. They did often address themselves unto their Prince, and sent many Deputies to beseech him to revoke that Order, producing their most just complaints, and showing their Reasons in all humility; But all without effect, because their Judges were their Adversaries, and that those, before whom their Cause was h●ard, were members of the said Council de propaganda fide, and Slaves unto the Pope.  
In the mean time, these poor Fugitives complaining but in vain, that their Goods were plundered, their Grounds laid waste, their Houses burnt and demolished, some of them went down to keep them, then presently they were declared Rebels, and all Ears were stopped to their cries, and no hand would receive their humble Petitions; Yet some, to deceive them, put them in hope to be reestablished, while by the means of the general confession of Papists to their Priests before Easter; all the men of Predmont, able to bear Arms, were enjoined to be ready at a day appointed, that so they might set on those Protestants; all being sworn to keep that Plot secret. Every one was ready the 27th. of last April, and with many the Roman Clergy met at the Rendezvouz, where printed Bills of full pardon of sins were distributed to every man, besides the spoil of the pretended Heretics given to them who should destroy them. To this Militia of P●edmont, the French Army, and some Irish Regiments, joined themselves, who together plundered, and wholly burnt all the houses of the Plain, interdicted to Protestants, by the Order already spoken of.  
After that first furious exploit and ignoble action, the Marquis of Pianess, who did command that Army, would assault the passages and places of the mountains, where all those did retire who had escaped the fury of their enemies: but seeing he could not do it openly by force, he resolved to use a damnable policy, and detestable treachery to ruin them. He sent therefore for the Deputies of Angrogne, Villar, and Boby, of the Vale of Lusern, and promised them, yea with an Oath, that if they would receive a Regiment of Horse in those places, and one of Foot in each, and lodge them for three days, no injury should be done them. Those poor souls, who believed him not capable of so black a treachery, to testify their submission to his Highness' Orders, received those wicked Regiments, which were no sooner in, but the whole Army did follow, and presently began their work, and put all to fire and sword, making an horrible slaughter of all they found, without distinction of quality, age or sex, young and old, men, women and children, rich and poor, were all indifferently killed, although by very different torments, and with such cruelties, as can hardly be imagined. Many were burnt alive, some hanged by the feet to a tree; Others torn in pieces, divers were strangely slashed and cut, than Salt ane Pepper being laid on their wounds, and their Shirts put on again, they were burnt in that sort, and so made Martyrs in an unknown way to all preceding Tyrants and Monsters. Some being stripped naked, and tied head and legs together, were tumbled down the Mountains. Others were nailed unto the ground through the belly with stakes, and others were spit through the fundament, after the manner of the Turks, and others through the middle. Many women having first been ravished, and endured divers outrages and ignominies, had afterwards their heads chopped off. A great number of little children have been barbarously butchered, some being cast down headlong from high places, others pulled asunder by two Soldiers, who held them by the feet, and a third sort had their brains dashed out. Finally, such strange cruelties have been used against them, as were unknown to the very Heathens, far from being exercised by Christians.  
This butchery being ended there, they went to the Vale of peruse and St. Martin's, where upon pain of death they commanded all Protestants to go to Mass, or to quit the Country within 24 hours. They left their goods and possessions, and did all quietly departed, except some few who turned Papists. But notwithstanding their quiet retreat, all their houses were burnt, that so they might never return, even as it had been acted in the Valley of Lucerna. Thus the Reformed Religion hath been wholly rooted out of the Valleys of Piedmont by slaughters and banishments, and nothing hath been left there, but for the Roman Catholics.  
Yet though there be about 6000 of them barbarously murdered, or that died since by cold, famine or other accidents, there are above sixteen thousand of those, who saved their lives from the Massacre acted on their brethren in the Vale of Lucerne, and who have been expelled out of peruse and St. Martin, who all retired into the Vales of Cluson and Queeras, deprived of all goods, and all equally reduced unto an extreme want, subsisting even by the charitable helps of the Churches, who did receive them, or of few others, who have sent them their alms. In the mean time, as we ought not to doubt, but that God will revenge the blood of those, who have been so barbarously butchered: so is it the duty of all the faithful, to have a true compassion of the calamities of those who remain, and are banished for the cause of Christ, to implore God's assistance by supplications and prayers, for their preservation and deliverance; and finally to communicate their Goods to them for their relief. Indeed as we are all members of one and the same Body, and obliged to be sensible of the Evils of one another, we ought above all to be lively touched by the afflictions of those faithful witnesses of Jesus, who have suffered for his sake to maintain his truth, and the profession of his Gospel. It had been easy for them all to preserve their Goods, and acquire new possessions, if they had been willing to make a Shipwreck of their Faith: If the spirit of Christ dwell in us, that same spirit, who quickens us all, and hath fortified those faithful souls in their sufferring disgraces and losses for God, ought also to move us to secure them with all our power.  
What they humbly desire of us, is neither to enrich themselves, nor to make us beggars. They beg only a small part of our abundance; not to employ it in excess or riot, but in the preservation of their lives, which they are in danger to lose through want. If we have a true horror of the cruelty of their bloody enemies, how can we refuse them what Christ doth ask of us for their consolation? Who fails in so just a duty, instead of showing himself a friend to Christ, and to his Saints persecuted for him, declares himself half their enemy, and seems to embrace the party of their Persecutors in their detestable cruelty. For if those inhuman Papists have unjustly spoiled them of all their goods, we should approve what they have done in not affording them what's necessary for their subsistence. If (as 'tis very true) they have sinned against our Brethren, through malice and rage, let us beware to make ourselves guilty towards them, through our hardness and want of compassion. If they have stripped them, and almost starved them, shall we, who (by God's grace) are well clothed and fed, leave them both naked and hungry? If their Enemies have wounded them, may we not pass for their false Friends, if we give them no salve, but see and suffer them bleeding, without binding their wounds, and applying some remedies? If th●se cruel Murderers have taken away the lives of many, shall we refuse to preserve theirs, who remain after that great slaughter? Yea, in refusing to help the living, are we minded to make their condition worse than that of their dead friends? for it is certain, that it is a greater cruelty to make a man languish in misery, and to starve him, than to kill him outright.  
I hope that all faithful Christians and Saints of this Country, being lively touched by the sad and lamentable condition of those poor fugitives, who are persecuted for righteousness sake, will open them their bowels of mercy, and will give them liberally such portion of their goods, as may satisfy their hunger, and help them to subsist. So they shall have in their conscience the joy and comfort to have contributed to the restauration of those poor Churches, which God hath raised and preserved miraculously so many Ages together. Those Sanctuaries they shall reedisie, will without intermission offer their prayers to God for their Benefactors prosperity and salvation. Those members of Christ will bless them for their sense of their misery, God's Angels will rejoice for their effectual compassion, and God himself having (as it were) smelled the sweet odour or savour of the sacrifice of their Alms, will now recompense them with all his temporal and spiritual blessings, and hereafter will crown them in Heaven with Glory and immortality.   

A Brief Apology in the behalf of the Reformed Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont; With a Narrative of what hath happened in the execution of the Arrest issued against them the 25 th'. of January, 1655.  
WHereas we are forewarned by the word of God in the Apocalypse, that the rage and cruelty of the infernal Dragon towards the latter end of the world, would be in no wise abated; but seeing his time of persecuting the Saints to be but short, be the more vehemently incensed against them, the Reformed Churches in several parts, especially those next unto us in Piedmont, have very often heretofore, as well as now, had sad experience of the truth of this particular. For, notwithstanding that the Duke of Savoy, who is Sovereign Prince of the Valleys of Piedmont, after a most tedious and chargeable Application made unto him, did by an edict expressly promise, that he would confirm unto them an enjoyment of the liberty of Religion, and of those Privileges granted to them by his predecessors Dukes of Savoy; yet through the powerful persuasion of the Congregation (as it is called) for propagation of the Faith, and extirpating of Heretics erected at Turin, or rather by virtue of that Authority which they usurp over Princes, he soon forgot his promise, and beyonnd all men's expectatations one Gastald was sent with a Commission, who calls himself Conservator General of the Catholic Faith against the Reformed Professors, affirming that he hath received instructions from the Prince, whereby Command is given touching all of the Reformed Profession within the several Towns and Precincts of Lucerne, Lusernette, St. John, La Tour, Campiglion, Fenil, Bobiane, Bricheras, and St. Second, both inhabitants and strangers, that in case they will not, within three days embrace the Popish Religion, they must for ever bid farewell to their Native Country, their Houses, their Lands, and Possessions: adding moreover, that it should be death without mercy, if after that space of time any of them were taken in those places.  
Hereupon, no sooner was the time limited overpast, but immediately the Missionary Monks and Popish Priests sent in upon them a world of Cutthroats and Villains, who not only gape after the prey like hounds, and hunt for ihe precious life of these miserable Exiles, but also discharge their rage and fury against their houses, and Lands by cutting down and rooting up the very Trees.  
In the mean time, these our poor brethren knew not where to complain of these injuries, and lay open their Cases, nor to whom, being deprived of all possibility of making any address to the Prince; and if any offer to present Petitions in their behalves, they are presently snapped, and sent away to the Congregation for propagating the Faith, and extirpation of Heretics; that is, to their Adversaries the Archbishop of Turin, the Prince's Confessor, the Abbot de la Monta, the Prior of Rorene, and some others, who are politic Pensioners to the Pope. Now, as touching this Persecution against the Protestants, whereby they are made to departed within three days upon pain of death, into such desolate places, as are hardly sufficient to receive and sustain the Native inhabitants, the iniquity and injustice of the proceeding appears even in this, that the poor Protestants, through the influence of their Adversaries and accusers upon the Magistrate, were without hearing, or the least Summons sentenced to banishment, upon pain of death, without giving them any respite, or admitting them to make any Protestation or Appeal, unless their Petitions were drawn in such form as might please the Commissioner, who is the great Protector of this persecution, and according to the mind of their Adversaries, in such terms as they should prescribe, whereby they must necessarily betray themselves and their Cause; and then, after execution of the foresaid penalty, they have been pleased to give some of the poor Exiles a hearing, and permitted them to plead their Cause, and that only by a Popish Advocate or Proctor, who had been so charmed and terrified by the Clergy, that before he entered upon the Cause, he was feign to crave pardon upon his knees for undertaking to plead it.  
And as for the pleading, it was not managed before competent and lawful Judges, but the Protestants chiefest adversaries sat in judgement, the Archbishop of Turin, the Duke's Confessor, the Abbot de la Monta, the Prior of Rorene, and some others, devoted to the Court of Rome; yea, and in the Arch Bishops own house. Moreover, whereas according to certain Grants made by the Prince, leave was given to the Protestants to dwell in their wont habitations, where they had a Toleration, and it remains on their part to be proved, that those were the accustomed places of their habitation, the matter was so handled by the Romish Clergy, that they endeavoured as much as in them lay, to hinder the Papists from giving any testimony on the behalf of their Neighbours of the Reformed Religion, concerning this their habitation, which at length our brethren made a hard shift to wrest out of them, to the exceeding regret and indignation of the Clergy, and so proved at last by those authentic testimonials under the hands of their Popish Neighbours, that all those places, out of which they were driven, have been places inhabited by Protestants time out of mind.  
But to the end that it may more fully and clearly appear, upon what account of right or wrong the Popish adversaries do incite their Sovereign, the Duke of Savoy, who is yet but young, to the driving of the poor Protestants out of their ancient patrimonies and places of abode, in the midst of a sharp and terrible winter, and this upon pain of death, unless within three days after publication of that decree of perpetual banishment, they immediately quit their native Country, or else abjure the true, and devote themselves and their families to the Romish Religion. It is to be observed (omitting the mention of their more ancient rights and privileges, and the long possession which they have held beyond the memory of man) that in the 
* They are to be seen in the History of the Martyrs, set forth in French to the year 1561.  Edicts set forth by the Dukes of Savoy, and the agreements, made for the Protestants enjoying a liberty of Religion, the limits appointed for the public preaching of the Reformed Religion, do not extend so far as the dwellings of those men that profess it, nor are the limits of their dwelling to be contracted into so narrow a compass as the places limited for preaching. But that the reformed professors have a right of habitation in those places out of which they are now expelled, is evident, not only by an ancient prescription of many ages, seeing their Fathers, Grandfathers, Great-Grandfathers, and other their Ancestors, have inhabited there before them, but also by those very Grants and Concessions confirmed by Duke Charles Emanuel, wherein it was acknowledged by public Edict, that this habitation was derived to them from their fathers. For when he, through the instigation of the Court of Rome, had by a surreptitious decree commanded them to departed thence towards the latter end of the year one thousand six hundred and two: afterward, being well informed of their right, he by an authentic Charter gave them leave to dwell there again; for the confirmation of which Charter, they paid six thousand Ducatoons into the Duke's Exchequer, upon the 17 th'. day of August, Anno, 1620. and it was confirmed again by the Prince now reigning, upon the 29th of Decemberr, Anno, 1655. And yet now, contrary to faith given, upon the 25 th'. of January last, in the depth of winter, not sparing even women with child near delivery, nor those that had Infants hanging on their breasts, they were all without distinction, both men, women, and children, driven out to wander through frost and snow in a most bitter season, without the least warning or delay: And no sooner had these old inhabitants quitted their ancient inheritances for the saving of their lives, but those savage Thiefs that gaped after the prey, presently fell to plundering and spoiling their houses, driving away their Cattle, felling and cutting down trees, or else rooting them up. In a word, they destroy all, and by this means attempt to drive these poor wretches to th● utmost point of desperation; and if any man endeavour to withstand or oppose them, they immediately cry out he is a Traitor. So I commend these miserable exiles to the mercy of God, and the compassion of their brethren of the reformed Churches.   

Andrea's Galstaldus, Doctor in Law, Conservator and ordinary Auditor, sitting in the Honourable Chamber of accounts of his Royal Highness, and General Conservator of the holy Faith, appointed to put in execution all orders which are published against the pretended Reformed Religion, in the Valleys of Lucerne, peruse, and St. Martin, and particularly appointed by his said Highness for this special business.  
ACcording to the power given us by his Highness, by his Letters dispatched to us in due form, signed Violetta, and sealed, bearing date of the thirteenth of this Month; and in performance of the instructions given us, as also at the instance made to us by Master Barth●lomew Gastaldus, intervening in the behalf of the Royal Exchequer; we ordain and command the first Sergeant or Bailiff sworn to make command and injunction to all the heads of Families, and to each particular of the pretended Reformed Religion, of whatsoever estate, condition and degree, no inhabitant excepted, possessing any goods in the territories of Lucerne, Lucernette, Saint John, la Tour, Bobiane, Fenill, Campiglion, Bricheras, and St. Second, within three days next after the publication hereof, to relinquish and abandon with their Families the said places, and to transport themselves into those places and limits which by the good pleasure of his Royal Highness are prescribed unto them, viz. Bobiane, the valley of Angrogne, Rorata, and Country of Bonetti, under pain of life, and confiscation of their houses, possessions, and goods which are extant without the said limits, in case they cannot within twenty days make proof before us that they are Catholics, or that they have sold their estates unto some Catholics: His Royal Highness declaring, that it was never his design, not of his Royal Predecessors, by any act done or to be done, nor his intention, much less his will, to enlarge their bounds; and that if any thing hath been done or published to the contrary, it was both against his own orders, or those of his Magistrates, but a mere usurpation against the disposition of those Acts, as it is manifest; and therefore the transgressors have undergone the penalties mentioned in his Declarations: Besides that, his Highness doth intent, that in all those places, and each of them, where they are lovingly tolerated, the sacrifice of the holy Mass be celebrated; Prohibiting all subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion, to give any molestation in deeds or words, to the Father's Missionaries, and those that officiate under them, much less to disturb or divertany of the pretended Reformed Religion from turning Catholics, under pain of death; Charging, and particularly commanding each particular Minister of the pretended Reformed Religion, to see the forementioned injunctions inviolably observed, as they will answer it at their utmost perils; Declaring his intention to be, that the execution hereof be done by posting or fixing Copies of these presents, which shall be at the like value, as if they had been made and intimated to each in particular.  
Given at Lucerne, the 25 th'. of January, 1655. Andrew Galstaldus Commissioner.   

A second Apology in the behalf of the Reformed inhabiting the Valleys of Piedmont.  
THe History of the Reformed Churches, whom God hath preserved in a corner of Italy, in the valleys of Piedmont, as miraculously as he did Moses his Bush in Horeb, not only since the year 1100. when the poor Vaudois and Albigeois retired themselves thither, well knowing that the traditions of the Romish Church, namely, the modern, had no access there, but also time out of mind, that is always, and from all time, as saith the Monk Belvedere in his book entitled a Relation to the Congregation de propagandâ fide, and as it is gathered out of Thuanus his History and many others, is at large described in several books written to that purpose by Mr. du Perrin, and lately by Master Giles Pastor in those quarters; and shall yet further be seen, God willing, by a second Edition which will come forth, with an exact addition of what hath happened since; and very suddenly by as ample a Manifest as the case doth require it, that will be more particularly made manifest, which now in these few lines is but slightly touched, concerning their number, their extent, their fights, their deliverances, the Edicts, Privileges and Concessions, by virtue whereof they have enjoyed the peaceable habitation, and the exercise of their Religion, the disturbances, which from time to time the Romish Clergy hath raised unto them, and the deliverances the Lord hath vouchsafed them, until these latter days, wherein he hath broken down their hedges, and the Boars of the wood have utterly wasted that Vineyard, and the Hawks have chased and torn to pieces that Dove even in the very clefts of the Rocks.  
In the years 1560. and 1561. Emanuel Philebert Duke of Savoy, and Prince of Piedmont, at the instigation of the Romish Clergy sent a mighty army to destroy the poor Reform of the Valleys of Lucerne, peruse and Saint Martin in the said Piedmont, hard by the Dauphinè, under the command of the Count de la Trinité. That War was long and bloody. After they grew weary of it, both parties came to an agreement, bearing, among several other heads, the permission unto all of the Reformed Religion to inhabit all places and lands of the aforesaid three Valleys, wherein were any afore the War begun. In consequence of which agreement and Concession they were restored into Lucerne, Lucernette, Saint John, la Tour, Fenil, Bobiane, and Saint Second, which places are lower towards the plain about Turin and Pinerol, as well as into the more remote places towards the neighbouring Mountains of Dauphiné, and they have been preserved there and protected by their Princes until the year 1602. Then Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont of glorious memory, after the banishment of the reformed out of the Marquisate of Salluces, gave leave to his Delegates to pubblish several Orders against the inhabitants of the Valley of Lucerne, who dwelled towards the South of it, beyond the river called Pelice, viz. the Reformed of the Borroughs of Lucerne, Bobiane, and Fenil, which are but small dependences of the Church of Saint John, but would not suffer them to touch the rest. And indeed it shall not be found, that during the former persecutions, any Duke of Savoy hath ever pretended that all the other places, nor any of them, of those marked in the Order, be out of the limits of the habitation granted to the Reformed.  
It is very remarkable, that soon after, viz. in April 1603. he made a Decree, whereby he ordered to those of Lucerne, Bobiane and Fenil, who alone had been turned out, to inhabit again their houses, and enjoy their estates, recalling all orders to the contrary. He confirmed the same by a Decree of the 29th of September in the same year, in the first Article. And he kept them in the possession until the year 1620, at which time yet they offered to stir against those of the same Lands of Lucerne, Bobiane and Fenil; but the clemency and Justice of his said Royal Highness was yet such, that he no sooner had granted the order for their banishment, but presently he recalled it, and granted them again a fine Decree, whereby he declared That he was willing, and intended that all the pretended Reform (for such are his words) should peaceably enjoy their habitation, in all the places formerly granted and accustomed, such as the aforesaid were: Ordered that they should be no more molested therein, and even granted them the enjoyment of some Temples pretended to be lower towards the plain; then the limits of the preaching extended unto; and that he granted for a Sum of 6000 Ducatoons he exacted from them. All these have been confirmed by the Ducal Chamber and the Senate, and were observed during all the rest of the life of the same Charles Emanuel. After him, Victorio Amedeo his successor of glorious memory, left them also in the full enjoyment of whatsoever his Predecessors had granted unto them, and specially the free commerce in his Dominions, and the peaceable habitation in all the places which are questioned in the order which shall follow, having only deprived them, contrary to their ancient Concessions, of bearing any public Office, saying, that if his Father and Granfather had granted them that privilege, for his part he was not willing to continue it; or as now the Marquis of Pianess doth speak, that graces of Princes are not unalterable.  
Afterwards, Madam Royal during the time of her whole Regency, hath yet preserved them in the same state without disturbing them for their habitation, and even in 1638. issued out a fine Decree, bearing an express promise of a confirmation and observation of their ancient Edicts.  
Charles Emanuel now reigning, by the grace of God, being come to his Majority, the Reformed presently after demanded of him in all humility the confirmation of their ancient privileges. He granted them the same in 1649. with some small restriction; yet the Reformed not having hoped any thing better, were willing and desired to have the same confirmed by the Ducal Chamber, They had promise that so it should be done, having received the Decree, and agreed about the money, and kept the whole business in suspense, until his Royal Highness (because the valleys had refused him some houses to have the Mass said in them, in such Commonalties, where there were no Romish Catholics) should have seized on such as he pleased, ex Officio, as saith his order of 1650, as Master of the Lands. This being done, the said Chamber granted them in June and September, 1653 and in May, 1654. not only the confirmation of their ancient Concessions, to be as they were in use, as speak the Decrees aforesaid formerly passed, but as they had been in use under his Predecessors, & as they were found in their Decrees, without adding or diminishing. And there by he restored them to the ability of bearing public charges, and the right of habitation of the Commonalty of Campiglion, and of the Borough of Bobiane, from whence they had been expelled: But when the confirmation of these new Decrees hath likewise been granted, and the money disbursed, at the time appointed, when they should have received it, a Patrimonial Advocate was raised up, who alleged, that the Congregation de propagandâ side ought to be acquainted with it. The said Congregation then opposed the foresaid confirmation. The Reformed applied themselves again to his Royal Highness, who referred them to the said Congregation, but they refused the same, as being their adversary parties: They were referred to the Marquis de Piannesse, the head of the said Congregation; they appeared before him, as being chief Ministers of State to his Royal Highness; but he declared unto them, that they should never expect audience, unless they should first pass a procuration, promising to accept and yield to whatsoever should be ordained. They answered, that ever they had dealt with their Princes by humble requests and Petitions, and never by Procurations: He replied, that without such Procuration no Petition would be received; therefore they dressed such a Procuration unto two Deputies, whereby they grant them full power to accept of, and to promise whatsoever should be ordained, saving only their Consciences and their Concessions. He refused to see the same, or to receive it with that restriction; and on the 13. of January of this present year 1655. he drew, or caused to be drawn an order by the Delegat Gastaldo, who published the same on the 25. of that Month, bearing that those of Lucerne, Bobiane, and Fenil (who formerly had been molested) and S. John, la Tour, and S. Second, should within three days forsake their houses, under pain of death, unless within twenty days they would go to the Mass.  
That rigorous order much surprised them; yet those of the plain to avoid the violence of their bad neighbours, presently obeyed the same, and altogether made their protestations before the Delegat, and demanded again, that they might apply themselves to his Royal Highness, and to have an act how they had appeared: It was denied them & all the proofs they offered of their just title of habitation in those places, rejected, without being examined. In the mean while their neighbours pillaged, plundered, and ruined their houses, plucked up the young Trees, and cut off the tallest; They complained of it, and had this answer returned unto them, that if these exiled persons would watch, and give notice of those that were guilty, they would be brought to punishment; thereupon some of them went down to keep their houses. Presently they were declared Rebels, and therefore not a word more of addresses, petitions, or supplications must be heard of; they were left to sleep for a while. In the mean time, by means of the Auricular Confession afore Easter, all the Piedmont is disposed to fall on them upon a day appointed. The Father knows nothing of the Son, nor the Brother of his Brother, and yet the twelfth of April, without any gathering of Soldiers, or any foregoing preparation, all is found ready; All men able to bear Arms in Piedmont, with all the Clergy, came to the Rendezvous: Printed Bills were distributed among them, bearing a pleniary Indulgence all pardon, besides the booty to all those that would go and fight against the pretended Heretics. To the Army of Piedmont that of the French was presently joined, which before quartered in Dauphine, and was made to come over the Alps. All these Troops and Soldiers did wholly waste and burn the Plain, where the interdicted places, mentioned in the aforesaid order, were situated.  
That done, the marquis de Pianess quartered in the Monastery of the Franciscan Friars at la Tour, (who, as well as the rest of their Brothers in Piedmont, are all Spaniards.) There he called the Deputies of Angrogn, Villar, and Boby, of the Vale de Lucerne; he much flattered them, and told, that as to them, they were in the limits which his Royal Highness was resolved to tolerate; that no harm would be done unto them, if only they would receive a Regiment of Foot, and a Troop of Horse in each Commonalty, engaging his word, and with oath promising the word of his Royal Highness; But threatening them in case of refusal, that they should be declared Rebels. The Deputies not having leave to confer about it, and seeing the French Forces, with all the Piedmont ready to fall on them, and hoping that the word engaged to them would be performed, and that his Highness would not wholly destroy those places, they consented thereunto, came up with those Forces, and forbade the Reformed to shoot at them; But they were no sooner in those strong places, but the rest of the Army fell on on all sides, seized on the tops of the Mountains, put to the sword and fire whatsoever they met in their way, and did practise there the cruelties, whereof the Pattern may be seen in the here annexed papers.  
Thus was Vale Lucerne destroyed. From thence they came to Vale peruse and St. Martin, an Order was sent them either to go to Mass, or to be gone out of the Country within twenty four hours, under pain of death, and forfeiture of their estates. They thereupon forsook their houses, and fled into the King of France's Country, and thereby all gave obedience, except a very little number of small people, who turned Papists; but notwithstanding their retreat, their houses were burned to ashes, and all the Country made waste, as the Vale Lucerne; having thereby wholly rooted out the Reformed Religion in the valley of Piedmont, not one Temple, nor one house, neither man nor beast having been left there, only for the Romish Catholics.   


A third Apology for the said Churches against the Calumnies falsely imputed to them.  
REceiving Information from a friend touching the Answer made at Turin, I perceive those enemies of the truth, the Vassals of the Court of Rome, who contrived it with no less Art than malice, do follow their old course, and after the example of him, who is both a murderer and a liar, yea the Father of lies, cover, and so increase their cruelty by false Calumniations. For, whereas they would not seem to be unjust in this banishment forced upon the Reformed Waldenses, they endeavour to asperse them with fictious and Imaginary Crimes, and yet dare not charge them expressly with any one Particular in writing, for fear lest the Parties accused should disprove it, which they know might easily be done. For, when the Protestants had made Answer to such Accusations as were brought against them by Gastald before the Duke's Deputy, he ingenuously confessed those Crimes were objected against them without cause, to wit, those pious frauds or officious lies spread abroad by the Monks and Priests, to draw an Odium upon the Protestants. Si accusasse sufficiat, quis erit innocens? If it be sufficient to accuse, who then can be innocent? If an accuser only in general terms say a man is wicked, what Answer can be made in order to a Purgation?  
The Protestants for their parts, call God, Angels, and men to witness, that they are most injuriously charged with those things. Yea, they humbly pray, entreat, and beseech they may be brought to a Trial, that if any be found guilty he may be severely punished. But here the Romish Clergy interpose, endeavouring with their Scarecrow of Excommunication, and threats of everlasting damnation, so to terrify their seduced people, that no Papist dare give any Testimony, though in things most evidently known, to clear the innocency of Protestants, for fear lest he should be thought a favourer of Heretics; And hereupon, those Monks and Priests, the Contrivers of those Officious lies, presuming upon their own power, through the terror of Excommunication, and knowing very well, that no Papist will dare to give in any evidence for the refelling of their Impostures, do with a brow of brass most audaciously devise and object whatever they please against the Reformed Professors: But if the difference in Religion and consideration of parties were set aside, and the whole cause brought to a hearing before impartial Judges, without respect of persons, and if witnesses might have liberty to give in their Testimony according to truth, without fear of Excommunication, all the Calumnies of the Adversaries against the Protestants would soon come to nothing. They made no scruple to render them odious to the Prince, by accusing them of Rebellion, but the thing itself is clear enough to the contrary: For, those Protestants that were suddenly driven out of their ancient Inheritances, lived some of them quiet and secure in their Cottages; others wand'ring about in divers Countries, being scattered fare distant from each other, dwelled in many places but a few of them among great numbers of Papists, minding nothing else but their Plough and tillage of the ground. At that time they had no Meetings nor Commerce with one another. Every one of them with his poor family rested in peace under his own Vine and his own figtree, until they were driven out by Gastald the Duke's Commissioner, without allowing them the benefit of any legal Protestation and Appeal. What universal conspiracy than can be fastened upon all those men, who were dispersed up and down in Towns, Villages, and Fields? That they lived in the seats of their Fathers, and their ancient Possessions, and that they had not attempted any alteration of affairs, nor in any wise exceeded the Bounds and limits set and prefixed to their habitation, they are able to prove by undoubted Arguments and infallible Witnesses from the very place itself. We understand indeed by Letters, only of two Crimes objected against certain Protestants; of which the one was a foolish childish exploit of certain Boys, both Protestant and Popish, at la Tour, who upon occasion of a marriage between two persons of unequal years, brought out an Ass belonging to the Bridegroom, to mock the Bride and make mockery of the Wedding; Whereupon the Monks took occasion to wrest the matter against the Protestants, as intended by them to the disgrace and reproach of their Mass; but upon a hearing of the business by the Prince's Commissioner, before whom the Protestants made their defence, he acquitted them as innocent in this Particular, and promised that in time to come no further mention should be made of it; Nevertheless, the Monks are up with it ever and anon in other Places, where the falsehood of their Calumnies is not known. The parents of those wanton Boys ought not to suffer for their childish do, much less ought that whole Church, and the Protestants of other Churches; and if they deserve Banishment for this, the same punishment ought also with as much reason to be inflicted upon those Papists, whose children were in the same transgression. The other crime objected is indeed more grievous, but very wrongfully put upon the Protestants, and that is the Murder of a certain Priest of Fenil, whereas it is generally known to the meanest persons there, that not a drop of that blood can be aspersed upon the Reformed Churches. And if the Magistrate had thought any of the Protestants of Fenil in the least wise guilty of that bloodshed, he would not, I suppose, have banished them with the rest, but rather have cast them into prison, that they might have been punished according to the heinousness of the fact: And therefore when all the Protestants of Fenil were promiscuously commanded by Gastald to departed, and let go without taking notice of any man for so horrible a Crime, he thereby gave sufficient testimony to the innocence of the Protestants in this matter. And truly, in the Decree of banishment he makes not the least mention of that horrid business; but by declaring, those persons should be exempted from banishment, that would abjure the Reformed Religion, he sufficiently showeth, that the turning them out of all in the midst of winter, at three day's warning, upon pain of death, was resolved and executed to this end and purpose, that the men being reduced to harship and misery, might by this means be compelled to a renouncing of their Religion. But put case that any man among the Protestants of Fenil had committed that wickedness, it cannot be concluded therefore that the rest of them in Fenill, much less that those of the same Religion in Lucerne, Lusernette, Bobiane, St. John, la Tour, Bricheras, and St. Second, aught in justice to be thrust out of their ancient possessions; For, the guilt of this murder, though it had been committed by a Protestant, it could by no means be imputed to these, or to any of the inhabitants of other Towns and Corporations that are fare distant from them. As by the Law of God and common Justice, so also by several Decrees of the Dukes of Savoy made in favour of the Protestants, September 29. 1603. and June, 4. 1653. it is prohibited, that the innocent should not suffer for the guilty; so the Professors of the Reformed Religion do not desire to hinder, but make it their humble and earnest Request, that such as are guilty may be brought to punishment.  
From hence then, it is obvious enough to any man, upon what account it is that the enemies of the Refor●●●●hurches have not only driven very many of them 〈…〉 their native Country and ancient dwellings into banishment, but go on still to persecute them by a most cruel and bloody war; which they have cause to believe is not carried on against them by the proper inclination and direction of the Prince himself, but through the persuasion and instigation of the Congregation for propogating the Faith and extirpation of Heretics, who have usurped the cognizance of this Controversy; being the only persons that have hindered the Protestants from being heard by the Prince, when they have presented their Petitions, or made any Addresses to his Royal Highness: But yet they so ordered the matter, that they directed divers Courtiers (their creatures) to feed the poor Protestants with hope that the ears of the Prince being wearied out with continued Petitions, they might at length obtain the favour to have their business brought to a trial before competent Judges; while in the mean time they prepared Forces underhand, with which they make it their business to fall upon them unawares and oppress and destroy them. It is against this unjust violence that the Protestants endeavour to defend themselves. They struggle not against their Prince, but with the said Congregation for extirpating Heretics, who as in the hearing and judging of this Cause, so also in the bloody execution of their sentence by the sword, have for the covering of their injustice, made use of the name and Authority of the most illustrious Prince.  
Moreover, they with the like injury blame those Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont, about those Letters of intercession written on their behalf to the Duke of Savoy, by foreign Magistrates of the Reformed Religion, as if they applied themselves to States & Princes abroad for protection, whereas those Letters are no more but friendly offices, written without the privity of those Churches, much less upon their entreaty, and sent by those Magistrates of their own accord, induced thereto by a Pious and Zealous affection, and out of a brotherly commiseration of that most grievous calamity, which might have moved even stocks and stones, and whereof they had sufficient notice from other Parts, seeing the turning of so many men, women, children, Infants, and sick persons, out of doors to the wide world in the midst of winter, at three days warning upon pain of death, was become a most notorious business, which cried out aloud of itself, and by reason of the wand'ring of those miserable Exiles, who were forced to rove up and down like vagabonds to beg their bread. Nor could they be ignorant how unjustly those their Protastant brethren of the Valleys of Piedmont were oppressed by their Adversaries in the Congregation for propagating the Faith, who had openly arrogated to themselves the judging of the Cause of those our brethren, in the Archbishop of Turin's house, contrary to all the Rules of judicial proceeding, and abused the Authority of the Duke of Savoy to oppress and destroy them,   

An Appendix to the foregoing Apology.  
AS we are informed by several Letters, the ruin long intended by the enemies of the truth of the Churches of Piedmont, by the permission of God, being angry because of our sins, is now executed. Indeed they had put off the execution by feigned shows and hopes of reconciliation, that they might the while provide all necessaries to compass their ends; But against our expectation upon the 16. of April 1655. the Army, made up of the Forces of the Duke of Savoy, and of the King of France, amongst which were some Irish Regiments, fell upon the Churches of the Valley of Lucerna, and with them the Militia of Piedmont, and a crew of banished thiefs, felons, and other malefactors, let on purpose out of prison, and from all parts flocking together in hope of prey; whose incursions in an hostile manner the Reformed mistrusting at first, and fearing to be crushed ere they could be heard, when all means of approach by supplication to his Highness the Duke of Savoy was taken from them, they withdrew themselves into the mountains. But the Commander of that Army, the marquis of Pianesse, sewing the Fox skin to that of the Lions, feigned he had no other intention then to entreat the Reformed that they would approve to the Prince their faith and obedience, not by bare words, but by real facts, viz. by quartering only for three days three Regiments of the Army, viz. one at Angrogne, another at Villars, and a third at Boby; which if they did, he faithfully promised that no harm to them or theirs should be done; which when it was granted by the Reformed, and they had received the three Regiments, presently the whole Army rushed upon them, no difference made of men, women, children, or sucking babes, dashing them against stones, some laying hold on them by the legs, and either dismembering them, or hurling them headlong into precipices, with such fury, that the very rocks were wet & bloody with their brains, and that in sight of the mothers, who after the murder committed upon their children, were themselves likewise murdered, as it was done in the Borough of Villars and Boby, with such horrible butchery, that some appeared to be indeed partakers of the cross of Christ, by being nailed to trees and put to lingering deaths: amongst whom one Paul Clement, a man of a dvery upright life, who being nailed the head ●ownward did undergo with great constancy the butchery and continued in holy prayers to God to the very last; others, especially of the weaker age and sex, striving to fly from the ●●ry of the soldiers, being driven through Preof pices into the mountains full of snow, died of cold, and of other accidents; as the numerous family of the L. Scipion Bastia. In the Countries of St. John and la Tour, they fell with fire and Sword upon Churches and private houses; this holy fire being kindled by a Priest and a Franciscan Friar, thereby to prove himself a Seraphin with his St. Francis, to whom his Disciples give the seat of Lucifer. This disaster being made in the Churches of Lucerne, the Commander of the neighbour Valleys under the Duke of Savoy, namely in that of peruse, St. Martin and Rupelate, as glorying at the thing done, commanded the Inhabitants of those places, in case they did not turn Papists, to leave the Country: Whereupon those who perferred the richesses' of Christ and Heaven to the earthy Country, cheerfully went out, carrying his shame, and followed him in huge numbers. The names of the banished, who persevered in the faith, and how many they be, are not yet known to us; for those of Lucerne having been overwhelmed unawares, they made an escape and fled where they could. Of many thousands, a very few have carried any thing with them, whereby they might for some days preserve life. Those that remain do by the bowels of Christ beseech all godly men to open their hearts unto them, that they may receive of him a greater reward, and may reap so much the greater harvest, that the field of God to receive seed, is the greater.    

An Abstract of a Letter written from the Vale of peruse the 17 of April 1655. Describing the beginning of the murders and cruelties committed on the said Reform.  
OUr tears which are no longer of water but of blood, and do not only offuscate our sight, but do also suffocate our poor hearts, and cause us to hold our pens with a trembling hand, as they are led by brains, not only dulled by the blows, they just now received, but also extremely troubled by the new alarms and assaults made on us, do hinder us from framing such Letters as we could wish, and such as the strangeness of our desolations should require. But we do entreat you to excuse us and to gather from among our sobbings the sense of what we should be willing to express unto you. Notwithstanding the reports spread abroad that we would not stoop to make our addresses to his Royal Highness, about the molestations raised against us, whereof you have had notice, Yet we never ceased from writing, petitioning, and sending of Deputies; But all the while, as formerly, we have been referred, sometimes to the Counsel de propagandâ fide, sometimes to the Marquis de Planness. The three last times they were flatly refused audience, under pretence they had not Letters of attorney sufficiently authorising them to promise and accept of whatsoever his Royal Highness should be pleased to offer. And especially at the instigation, and by means of the Romish Clergy an Army of five or six thousand men was secretly raised, who unexpectedly fell upon St. John and la Tour, being encouraged by the presence of the said Marquis the Piannesse, who having seized on the said places, was presently reinforced, not only by all such among our neighbours, as were able to bear arms, but by the whole Piedmont, where it having been spread abroad, that our goods were given to be plundered, they came all upon us with such an impetuous fury, and chief a crew of banished rogues, prisoners and guilty persons, upon hope of saving their own souls and filling their pockets. It was not all, that they might the better oppress us, five or six regiments of the French Army were sent against us, besides the Irish, to whom, they say our country is given to possess it, and other forces that are coming up daily towards us, under pretence of taking quarters and refreshing themselves in the Valleys. That innumerable number of men, together with the licentiousness of the Marquis de Piannesse, being stirred up by the Monks, and led and set on by our bad neighbours, hath so surprised us on all sides and with such violence, yea and with such a dreadful treason, specially in Engrogne, Villar and Boby, to whom the said Marquis had engaged his word, that if they would but quarter for three days a regiment in each place or Commonalty, they would have no harm, that in a moment all hath been brought to confusion, and the Inhabitants having done somewhat towards the saving of their Temples a little lower from the fury of the Boutefeux, were forced to fly for saving their Wives and children, not only those of the plain, who were retired into the Mountains, but also the Inhabitants of the said Mountains themselves, seeing they were betrayed and surprised at the back door. Yet they could not use such diligence, but that many of them were overtaken in several places, as among the rest at Villar and Boby, where they were kept in without any possibility of saving their lives, the enemies having possessed themselves of the Fort of Mirebouc▪ to hinder them from saving of themselves, and an horrid massacre was done on them. In a certain place or corner they villainously tormented one hundred and fifthty women and small children, and having cut off their heads, they dashed others against the Rocks; and the prisoners they took, who were fifthteen years of age and upwards, who would not yield to go to Mass, were hanged by them, or nailed to some trees the feet upwards, which torments they constantly and resolutely endured. We hear that those of quality have been carried to Turin, as among the rest one of our poor Brethren Mr. Gros Minister and part of his family.  
In the vale of Luserne there is neither booty nor  left: What hath been saved from the plunder is very little; the rest hath furnished several Towns of the enemies in Piedmont: As to the moveables they have all been lost also. There are some whole Commonalties, as those of St. John and la Tour, where not one house hath escaped the fire, nor their Temples neither; the firing of them all hath been managed by a Franciscan Friar and a Priest. Among those desolations the mother hath lost her child, the husband his wife, the richest are brought to beggary, and in great sorrow; and are so much the farther from being comforted that some Churches being yet left untouched in the vale of peruse and St. Martin which was a refuge to those that were persecuted, this day they have received a command to be gone out of hand, under pain of death, namely those that are within the dominions of his Royal Highness, having no longer time but to be gone immediately.  
However, these our fine flourishing and ancient Churches are lost without ressource, except God be pleased to work wonders for them: Our time is come, our measure was full. But take pity of the ruins of Jerusalem and lament for the wound of the poor Joseph; but above all have a real compassion, opening your bowels to many thousands of persons brought to poverty and beggary, for having been desirous to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes. Sirs and most dear Fathers and Brothers, you have ever been as a sacred anchor, to whom after God our poor Churches have had recourse in their afflictions; take pity on them for God's sake, at this time, when they have not felt the rod, but the Iron bar, in doing and procuring some good, both to the Pastors and to the sheep, who are scattered; working for them according to your wisdom, and that as speedily as you can or think fit. We expect that grace from your goodness, commending ourselves and our poor scattered flocks to your holy prayers, praying to God that he might be pleased to preserve you, and to prosper your holy Labours:   

Lion, the 8th of May 1655.  
THe persecutors at the first assault having lost most of their men by the courageous resistance of our men, they were out of hopes to compass their design by open force. Their Head dissembled his evil will, and made a show as if he had received order from the Prince to spare these poor people, and to promise them, from his part a pardon for what was passed; provided for the time to come they should prove wiser and better subjects, and on condition that they should presently quarter in the Valleys some Forces that were about Pinerol, both of the French Army, and of that of his Royal Highness. Whereupon the Valleys having consulted, they were advised to accept of that unlucky condition, which they did; and assoon as the said forces were come into the place assigned unto them for their quarters, they were commanded to seize on all the passages and avenues, and to make an end of our people, which they were ready to execute, because of the booty they hoped to have; so that they killed and plundered whatsoever they met with, without distinction of women or children. Four Elders and among them Mr. Paul de Rossane, as Pious and Religious a man as ever I knew, were hanged at la Tour; eighteen men, and among them Mr. Gros, a Minister, were carried prisoners to Turin; and those who could escape that desolation, are fled towards the Dauphine.   

A Continuation of the description of the murders, and cruelties committed on the Reformed, in the Valleys of Piedmont, on the 6. and 7. of April 1655.  
MY Lord Marquis of Pianess, having many times reiterated to the Deputies of the Churches of the Valleys with asseveration (as they do affirm) that upon the Paroll of his Royal Highness and his own (they giving testimony of their confidence and obedience, by the Reception of such Regiments) they should not receive any injury, They did thereupon suffer them to enter without any resistance whatsoever, hoping the rather that it should have been so, seeing those places were reserved, even in the order lately published, and never questioned, as to their habitation, But those of St. John, who had all their goods and families in Angrogne, and for whom there was no Quarter, hasted thither to save their Wives and Children, which also did those of Angrogne, who soon perceived the Treachery, and how the Papists keep Faith to the pretended Heretics. The said Marquis also kept Prisoners the Deputies of St. John and Angrogne, who went thither to treat upon his Parole; and as the Troops agreed on, were going up by the way appointed, three or four thousand men got before them by a backway, near La Tour, climbing up with an incomparable swiftness, putting all to the Sword they met with, and firing the Houses of Angrogne, near the Meadow of La Tour, being one of the strongest places, and at the furthest distance; and that they executed even before the others were come into the middle of Angrogne which they had chosen for their Quarter. The other Troops did the like near St. John towards Bricheras, and in many other places near la Tour, so long as Day light permitted.  
Amongst so many furious assaults, so many violent attempts, and so black deceits and treasons, the air being all on fire by reason of the flames, or all duskish by the smoke of  Houses and Churches, did resound nothing else but the Cries, Lamentations and fearful scrieching, made yet more pitiful by the multitude of those Echoes, which are in those Mountains and Rocks.  
The Mother hath lost her sucking Child, the Husband his Wife, the Brother his Brother, some have been barbarously massacred, whilst they were busy in saving some of their goods, others having fled to escape to the tops of the Mountains, were forced to cast themselves into the hollows of Rocks, and amongst the Snow, without fire, without nourishment, without covering, sick, old, wounded, Women with Child, of whom many miscarried, and lay dead near their Children, after they had sustained themselves with a little Snow, which was put and melted in their mouths instead of Sugar. Amongst many, who were forced to run away barefoot and barelegged, several persons of great quality had their legs and feet so long frozen by Snow and Ice, that they have altogether lost them.  
On the morrow after, being the 21. the Boutefeus' and murderers were not idle: A Monk of the Order of St. Francis and a Priest, who were desirous to have the honour to be the chief Incendiaries, with their fire works (which they easily could do) did not fail to set on fire the Church of St. John, and almost all the remaining houses, part in Angrogne, and part in La Tour. And where they found any Corner free from the first fires, the Priest did but discharge his Carbine to make an end of in; And the Soldiers being fleshed with blood, did run to the very tops of the Rocks and places, which seemed to be inaccessible, to cut the throats of all such as they should find there. It was not a difficult thing to them so to do, since they were not in a posture to make any other resistance, but by their tears, which might have caused the most barbarous Tartarians and Cannibals, to let fall their Arms out of their hands. At Taillareta very small Village situated upon one of the highest hills of La Tour, they offered a thousand injuries to an hundred and fifty Women and little Children, and then cut off their heads; whereof they did boil many, and eat their Brains, but left off, saying, they were too unsavoury, and that it went against their Stomach; they cut many others in pieces and bits, which they threw the one at the other. From a poor woman that escaped them, and is yet living, although she was cruelly treated by them, they took her little Child in swaddling Bands, and threw him from a precipice with many others. And there have been many others, who have been torn and split in the middle by two Soldiers, who took those innocent Creatures, one by one leg, and the other by the other, and after they had torn each one his half, they beat one another with it. They stripped naked many people, without distinction either of age or sex, and cut their Bodies after such a manner, as would make one tremble to hear it recited, and then threw upon them Salt and Gunpowder, and then putting on them their Shirts again, they set them on fire, making them burn upon these poor martyrized Bodies. Others being naked were tied Neck and Heels together, and rolled down some Precipices. They were so barbarous as not to exempt one Peter Symond of Angrogne, being 100 years old, nor his wife, who was 95 years; They burned a great many in their houses, refusing to kill them before, though they requested it: To others they opened their Breasts; too others they pulled out their Guts, and cut off their privy parts; After they had abused several women, they thrust many stones in their privy parts, and walked them in this posture till they died. They hanged others upon trees by the feet, and left them in that estate till they died. They gaunched many both by the fundament after the Turkish manner, and a Cross. They staked others through the Belly to the ground, and drove the Stakes into the earth as far as they could. Of those whom they brought alive before the Marquis, and who would not abjure their Religion, they carried many to Turin, and amongst others Master Gross, and Mr. Aghit, Ministers of Villars and Boby, and that after they had seen the admirable constancy of John Paillas, and Master Paul Clement, that a poor Peasant, this an Elder and Deacon of the Church of La Tour, the former having chosen the Gibbet rather than the Mass, the other was carried near him to appall him; but as he was on the top of the Ladder, and the Missionaries redoubling their exhortations, saying, it was yet time enough if he would turn Catholic, he spoke to the Executioner to do his duty, desiring him to dispatch, and prayed God to pardon those Murderers, although (said he) he saw, as present, the Vengeance that God would take for so much innocent blood spilt.  
My pen falls from my hand in describing these things; yea, the very thoughts of them makes my whole Body to tremble, my Hair to stand up; A Heart of Adamant, a hand of steel, and a pen of Iron, could not express half the horrid Prodigies of cruelty and lamentable spectacles which were seen, unheard of amongst the most barbarous in former ages, fare from ever being exercised in Christendom. You might have seen here the leg of a Woman, there the head of a Child, sometimes the privy Members of a man, the Entrails of another, and sometimes the pieces of another, whom the Beasts had not yet made an end of eating. Tears obscure my sight, and the violence of my sobbings hinders me from proceeding further.  
Having paused here a little and taken breath, I shall say farther, that a poor old man, being ninety five years old, called Mr. Thomas Margher, having been taken among the rest, a French Officer, who was present at his Martyrdom, relates of him, that at the first time he refused to go to Mass, his Nose was cut off; then being asked again whether he would go to Mass, and having answered he would rather choose to die, one of his Ears was cut off, and then the other; and so every time he said he would not go to the Mass, one or other of his Limbs was cut off; at length they hanged him as they did the other two above named: and then this good old man with a smiling countenance would say to his Executioners, Do ye tie and torment my Body as much as you please, yet you cannot touch my Soul, nor have ye any Prisons or Chains that can keep it from going to Heaven; but to the contrary according to the course of Nature, having so little time yet to live in this World, ye do but hasten my Deliverance and my Happiness. Then having given thanks to God for the honour he did him to suffer for his name, he prayed the Hangman to perform his duty.  
Of the spoil of Provisions, of Wine spilt in abundance by those who pulled off the iron hoops from the vessels, of the Cattles, or of their plunder, say we any thing; The very Women came from the furthest part of Piedmont and carried away all to the very Brooms.  
A very few of them, who made shift to get away with some of their Cattles, upon the neighbouring Mountains of Val peruse, saved some of them there, all the rest were plundered. The French, Irish, Piemontois, banished persons and released criminals, divided the Spoil amongst themselves, and many of them killed one another in the division of it; That which they could not carry away they set on fire, and those poor people that escaped as Brands rescued from the fire, the one almost as rich as the other, being of Val peruse, Val Cluson and Queiras, some of them drawing lamentably after them their miserable families with Cries and Tears, others weeping and bewailing the loss of theirs.  
Val Luserne was destroyed, which did contain 7 Churches, each containing about three or four thousand persons, except Roche-platt and Roras, which had something less. Before the Troops assaulted the rest, the Deputies of the Valleys desired the protection & intercession of Monsieur de la Bertoniere. Lieutenant & Governor for his Majesty at Pineroll, and of Monsieur de Corselles, Captain in the Regiment of Navarr, who said he had found in their Royal Highnesses a great inclination to pity, desired them to intercede for them, which they did with a great deal of Diligence, and presented their Petition to his Royal Highness, and at the same time gave their Letters to the marquis of Pyanessa, to whom (as they were informed) however things went, all would be referred.  
The Contents of the Letter shows that of the Petition to wit.  
Most Excellent Lords.  
PResuming that near the infinite clemency of his Royal Highness, there may be yet some Grace and Mercy for us, his poor and disconsolate Subjects upon our due humility and submission to him, we have sent to him our Petition in the best form the present disturbances will permit us, referring ourselves wholly to his good pleasure, and promising to conform ourselves to whatever he shall prescribe, if he will only give us leave to enjoy the liberty of our Consciences, so that we may serve God according to his Word; in the mean time we supplicate his Highness that it would please him to cause these strange Hostilities to cease, which are committed against his intention, and also your Excellencies; Of which we thought it our duty, not only to give advice to your Excellency, but also as to one that hath full Power and Authority, and to whom we are informed all shall be referred: We make to you the same Supplications and Promises, imploring your Grace and Protection.  
Given at Val Cluson the third. of May 1655. Your Excellencies most humble, most obedient and devoted servants, the Deputies of the Valleys of Lusern, peruse, and St. Martin.  
It was signed by a great number.  
Let the Reader take notice that these poor people, for to endeavour to preserve yet this small part of Val peruse, which belongs to his Royal Highness, with the small and poor Valley of St. Martin (notwithstanding their entire and irreproveable sidelity and innocence) did humble themselves, but all to no purpose as yet, except God be pleased to touch the Hearts of the Superiors, or deliver them by other means  
Every one doth ask, But what may be the reason these poor folk have been so dealt with? Fare from hence reasons enough and causes of it are alleged; whereof they do not so much as speak of upon the place.  
First, Some say that the Reformed have killed a Priest at Fenill in the lower Vale of Luserne; But that Priest hath been killed but sixteen days after publication of the aforesaid Edict, and was murdered by the Secretary of the Perfect of that Province, who is a Romish Catholic, and had already slain another Priest in the same place. A young man of the Reformed Religion, having been accused to have been partaker with him therein, hath been delivered by the said, Reformed into the hands of Justice and of the Delegate of his Royal Highness; who having deposed there, that the said Secretary called Pagot had persuaded him to go along with him in that horrid execution, promised to give him three hundred Pistols, but that he had refused to do it, and took only two, to bind him not to say a word of it, hath been released and declared not guilty. After this, considering the scruples of some yet, the same man hath several times presented himself to Madam Royal and the chiefest of her Ministers, and the Reformed have still represented him upon all occasions to be examined and brought face to face before the parties, but they still refused it, holding him as fully justified, and the other convicted. Besides, though among the Reformed there should have been found a Thief, neither their Concessions nor their Laws do suffer the innocent to be punished for the guilty. Such Assassinations were never committed by order of the Reformed, and could have no advantage by the death of an inconsiderable Country Priest, who could never do them neither good or evil.  
Secondly, Some say that at La Tour an Ass hath been dressed like a Monk. It is a Diabolical invention. In a word it was thus. The Youth of the place, partly Papists, partly Reform, to jeer and mock at a very Heterocliticall Marriage, made a Charivary, as they call it, and took the Ass of the Bridegroom, whom they did set on the top of the Oven in a public place, where it was seen of all, all the day long; and nothing therein touched the Monks, nor the Mass, nor the Host. The Roman Catholics in such occasions have often set up Asses upon the top of their Pinnacles in those places.  
Thirdly, Therefore the published Order alleges no such reasons, only the marquis de Piannesa, as appears in the answer he got M. Gibeline (the Roman Catholic Attorney of the the Reformed at Turin) to make, said, that his Royal Highness was willing to abase their pride, for having craved the Protection of the Foreign Princes, because the Lords of Zurick and Berne, after the Order published against them (though not required, but out of their own inclinations) had sent to his Royal Highness some Letters in their behalf. Let the Reader judge of the validity of this Reason.  
This Fourth is most cried up in Piedmont. viz. That the Reformed have cruelly murdered the Catholics in Ireland, and have wholly expelled them; and that they ought to murder the Reformed in Piedmont, and clear the State of them, to lodge the Irish in their place. Let yet the Reader judge of this reason. Besides it is false the Reformed have murdered the Catholics in Ireland, but to the contrary.  
Therefore it remains that there hath been no other true cause of this, but the haved they bear to the Religion; it being known to all the world, that no Subjects have ever been true or more obedient to their Prince than they, who never stirred, when all the rest of the State was up in Arms; who still paid their Taxes, though ever burdened, have borne extraordinary Winter Quarters, aflorded their men for the war, as often as demanded, and even some few days afore their desolation, sent their Militias for the service of his Royal Highness, upon the receipt of his very first command.  
I have hastily given you a Copy, of this tract, of the horrible furies of the Adversaries, desiring you to see if his Highness, the Serenissime Lord Protector, could take occasion to insert in the Treaty with France, the re-establishment of our Brethren escaped from the Massacres, which they have caused the Irish to do, as in revenge of their being banished out of their Country, for Massacring the Protestants there. Your Brother hath assured us, he will give us the Charity ordained by your Church, A general Collection in your Quarters will be necessary, there being so many thousands despoiled of all, that are seeking for refuge. There are two Ministers viz. Master Gross and Master Aghi● Prisoners at Turin, God strengthen and deliver them, and conserve you and your Colleagues, whom I salute,  
remaining May 8. 1655. Most honoured Brother, wholly yours.   

A Letter written to his Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, etc. about the said Murders Massacres and cruelties, sent together with the said descriptions.  
To his Highness My Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.  
ALthough his Highness the Lord Protector be well informed of whatsoever comes to pass in most places of the world, yet we have thought he would not be sorry to see, as in a contracted picture, the horrid cruelties practised by the Duke of Savoy's men, upon the Faithful in the Valleys of Piedmont; That is to say, upon such people, that, if any in the world, did live in the greatest purity, and the greatest innocency; whose only crime is, that neither they, nor their Fathers, nor their Ancestors, 500 years since, would ever pollute themselves with the Roman Superstitions and Idolatries.  
The whole Christendom have their eyes fixed on his Highness, and all good men hope that he will avenge, or rather God will avenge, by his hand, such a hellish barbarousness. If we should have a less knowledge of his Zeal, and of his Heroical courage, we would tell him what once Mordecai said to the Queen 
Esther c. 4. v. 14.  Esther, If thou holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise from another place; But thou and thy Father's house shall be destroyed: And who knoweth whether thou art come to such a high dignity for such a time as this?  
But at his Highness possesses lights altogether extraordinary, he will of himself consider that God hath given him a great power, to employ it to his glory; and that he hath put a victorious sword in his hand, to be a revenger to execute wrath upon those that do evil. 
Rom. c. 13. v. 4.  So that, as since the Greation of the World, nothing hath been seen so dreadful, so nothing shall be punished in such an exemplary manner.  
It is hoped that with him several Protestant Princes will embrace so just a cause. But if there be any that be not sensibly moved by so deep and so sharp a wound, and that having power, yet be not willing to prosecute and pursue those Martherers, and those Incendiaries, that saying will be applied unto them of the Prophetess Deborah, Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord with the mighty. 
judge's c. 5 v. 2 3.   
In the mean while, your Highness will spread through the whole earth the sweet savour of his name, and as it hath been said, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, so hereafter they will say, the sword of the Lord and of OLIVER. His praises will be celebrated to the world's end, and they will say that the Protector of Great Britain, is become the Protector of all those that are persecuted for righteousness sake.  
All those that do sincerely love God, and that are sick because of the bruise of Joseph, will hearty pray unto God, that he might be pleased to prolong the days of his, Highness, to settle his Government, and to pour upon his posterity his most holy and most precious blessings.  
Let his Highness be assured that this draught hath been made by a faithful hand, and let him have the goodness not to inquire who he is that sends it. It is not so much the voice of men, or the blood of the Martyrs, as the voice of God himself, who cries for vengeance for the injury done to his great name, and who commands him to work the deliverance of those that are Prisoners for the Lord Jesus, and to restore to their Native Country the poor banished men, who like the faithful of old, are wand'ring in the wildern●sses, in the Dens, in the Mountains and in the clefts of the earth: That they might sing as those that returned from the Babylonian Captivity, When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream: Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, etc. 
Psal. 126. v. 1. 2.   
FINIS