r^l n

I

THE

WMDENSES 9 9

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I /or tie /aumibig' e/ a. Colltgi miftisCoiony"

Cift ot the
Rev. Heber H. lieadle

THE WALDENSES.

THE WALDENSES:

SKETCHES

Il|e Jb^ogclic^l 6l|lr{3ti^K)S

VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT

OOKPILED FOR THE BOARD OF PCBLICATION
CHIEFLY FROM 'THE ISRAEL OF
THE ALPS"

^ h i I ^ 9 e 1 p I) 1 5 :
PRESBYTERIAJSr BOARD OP PUBLJCATIOISr
AJSTD SABBATH-SCHOOL "WORK,
No. 13S4 CHESTNUT STKEET.

Ertebed. according to Act of Congress, in ihe rcu 18&3,
Bt a. W. MITCHELL, M.D.
In the Clerli's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District sf Penn.
sjlvaliia.

Slote <t MooNET, Stereotypers.

AvKNOffi, 0 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 stcnes,
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)

PREFACE.
The Waldensian Church is tlie " Buening 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 Reformatioii,
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
(vii)

viii 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-
tirpatioi., 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 sufi'ering, 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, "Twill now
turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not
burnt."

]lii|^ii^^iioK)3.

The Protestant Church of Boebi, Valley of Pelice. (Frontisjiiece.-,
ViLLAR IN THE VaLLEY OF PelICE, . (Vignette Title Tagc.)
Map of the Waldensian Territory, .... 17
La Torre (The Waldensian Capital), ... 27
POMARET IN the VaLLEY OF St. MaRTIN, ... 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)

ontents.

MSI
CHAPTER 1. Description of the Country  IT
" 2. Antiquity of the Waldenses  27
" 3. Condition before the Reformation  39
" 4. Persecution by Yolande and Cataneo  48
" 5. The Waldenses of Val-Louise  55
" 6. The Waldenses of Barcelonette, Qaeyras, and Frays-
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  141
" 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 Concensions  224
" 21. Infractions of the Treaty of Pignerol  235
" 22. The War of the Exiles  243
" 23. Conferonces at Turin — Arbitration of Louis XIV  261
(xi)

xii CONTENTS. PAQI
CHAPltfl ei. Commencement of the Fourth Persecution  259
" 25. Massacres and Expatriation  271
" 16. The Glorious Return of the Waldenses under Arnaud... 283
" n. Fresh Edict of Expulsion  298
" J8. The Waldenses in Wurtemberg  303
" 19. The Waldenses in Hesse D'Armstadt  314
" SO. History of the Waldenses of Pragela and of the adja
cent ValleyB  318
" 31. Modern History of the Waldenses  351
" 32. Present Condition of the Waldenses  36S

^ppf nHx.

PAoa
I. Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Polity of the Waldenses  373
IL Extracts from " The Ancient Discipline of the Evangelical Church
of the Valleys."  375
III. A Confession of Faith of the Waldenses, bearing date A.D. 1130  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
VL Extracted from the "Noble Lesson," dated A.D, 1100  391

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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 difiierent names, as the Mari
time Alps, the Cottian Alps, the Rhetian Alps, the Noric

2*

mt

18 THEWALDENSES.
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. Tha
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 Vallenses,
strengthened into Valdenses, and thence corrupted in En
glish into Waldenses. The first of these names, Vaudois,
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
'n 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 ofi" from the high dividing
ridge which has been named. Between each two of these

20 THEWALDENSES.
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
sevei-al 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 ViV
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 chiefiy 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 THEWALDENSES.
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 difi"erent 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 difierent 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 Csesar 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 recks are piled up on each side of the stream,

24 THEWALDENSES.
and form a scene of surpassing grandeur. This '.s the
natural gateway of the valley of St. Martin. This won
derful defile seems to have been c'eft 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
efi"ectually 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 Ville S^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 Waldenses.
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, colie-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 blocked 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
8

26 THE WALDENSES.
here are two populous parishes. The first is Rodoret, 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 ofi" 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)

28 THEWALDENSES.
oldest sect of fieretics, though unable to tell when or how
their heresy began. Their own account of the matter
uniformly has 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. 28,) 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 was
actually heard among those retired valleys. The most
common opinion among Protestant writers is, that the
conversion of the Waldenses was begun by some of 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 by a large
infiux of Christians from Rome, after the first general
persecution under Nero. 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 Re?overy by the Waldenses of their Valleys. Preface,
page 14.

ANTIQUITY OF THE W^ALDENSES. 2J
from those refugees from Italy, who, after St. Paul had
there preached the gospel, abandoned their beautiful coun
try, 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 fiames.
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 THEWALDENSES.
"Now, 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 Christ.
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 1825. 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 memorv. The
original begins thus : —
0 fray re enteude unanobla Leygon.
Sovent deven velhar e istar en oreson.
C. nos veen aquest mont esser pres del chavon
Mot curios deoriau esser de bonas obras far
C. nos veen mont de la fin apropriar, &o.
0 Brethren give ear to a Noble Lesson.
We ought always to watch and pray.
For we see this world to be near a conclusion,
We 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 accomplished.

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
Waldensian 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 coii»menced 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 H to W, are still to be seen at
Cambridge.

32 THEWALDENSES.
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 /row 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. 3.3
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, Swiizerland, 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 fied 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

31 THEWALDENSES
earliest times, contained a sentence to the same efi"ect,
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 ofi'ered the least contradiction to the
pretensions of their Waldensian subjects ? Again and
again it has been asserted by them, 'We 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 sufl"ered 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 V

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 difi"er 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-
mfes against God, strike horror into the hearers, this of

36 THEWALDENSES.
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 wxteenth, 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
ven gal 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. Thephilologicalfact, 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
i

38 THE WALDENSES.
to undervake such an emigration. Now 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,
Va'.erian, and Diocletian."

Cfiapter ^(lirb

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 shining
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 late to their origin. The church of Rome, which,
(39)

40 THEWALDENSES.
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.*
* 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 :" —
" We 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 everywhere 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
Rome 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. -H
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
nnd 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 oi
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 schismati
cally from the Romish 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 ua 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 opirions of Claudius in the ninth and tenth
century. i*

42 THEWALDENSES
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, Romane (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 being,
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 fiom deference. The old
man, on his part, thus prepared himself for his repcse, by
forming for the church successors worthy of it and cf 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 fiocks.
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 WALDENSES.
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 Bruys, 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 VAUDOIS MISSIONARY.
I.
" 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 '' behold.
And with radiant light they vie ;
I have brought them with me a weary way ;
Will my gentle lady buy ?"
IL
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 Chriatiar Observer.

BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 45
And sh« placed their price in the old man's haod,
And lightly turned away :
But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call —
" My gentle lady, stay !"
III.
" O, 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.
Whose virtue shall not decay ;
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee.
And a blessing on thy way !"
IV.
Tbe lady glanced at the mirroring steel.
Where her youthful form was seen.
Where her eyes shone clear and her dark locks 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 I
Nay, keep thy gold — I ask it not —
Fw ihe 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 Vaudois 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 ot his rival, Philip of Suabia,
been recognised by the Diet of Frankfort, repaired to
Rome, for the purpose of being consecrated by pope
Innocent HI. 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 infiuences, 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.

PERSECUTION BY YOLANDE AND CATANEO.
Ir was a foreigner, the sister of Louis XL, who first
commenced the systematic persecution of the Waldenses.
This was Yolande, who, having married Amadous 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 duchess
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,
nowever, had pertinaciously refused to abjure their alleged

Jp

YOLANDE AND CATANEO. 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 ofiicially 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 ho
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
6 D

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 fiourishes.
We despise the love of riches and the thirst of dominion,
wherewith our persecutors are devoured. Our hope in Go4
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 tho most

YOLANDE AND CATANEO. 61
inaccessible points ; the enemy, on the contrary, spi iad
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,
" 0 Lord God, help them ! 0 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 THEWALDENSES.
n Nero di llondovi; and as he spoke he raised his vist>r,
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 ic
fiight. 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 advancf; 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 AValdenses 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
6*

64 THE WALDENSES.
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, hut 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 tht
soul which has received it, elevates, aggrandizes, and puri
fies all the intellectual powers.

HISTORY OF THE VAL-LOUISE.
In the general description of the country of the Wal
denses, which is gi-ven in the first 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 denier s, gold ; as tho'ugh 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 IL, 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. 5^
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 infiict suffering on the captives.
Borelli began with summoning before him all tho
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 wfere eighty from the valleys of Frayssini^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 THEWALDENSES.
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 fiower. 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
«avern, 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 THEWALDENSES.
collect at the entrance, and set fire to it. Those who
attempted to issue forth were either destroyed by the
fiames, 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 Waldensiaa
church raise its head in these blood-stained valleys.

HISTORY OF BARCELONNETTE, QUETRAS, AND
FRAYSSINIERES.
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 (61)

g2 THEWALDENSES.
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 afllicted.
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 valfeys of Piedmont ;
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,
tne bloody Cataneo undertook to deal with those of

BARCELONNETTE, FR AYSStNIERE S, ET C. 63
Frayssinieres, and summoned them to appear befoie 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 fiames 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 tho 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, ChSteau-Queyros, Arvieux,
Moline, and St. Veran.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes destroyed their

(54 TH-EWALDEN6E8.
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 the same purpose, and
thus the pious procession would reach the secret place of
prayer. Sometimes the gendarmerie, then called the
marechaussee, 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, FRA YSSINIE RES, ETC. 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 Dorrailhouse, Arvieux, Molines,
and St. Veran. A recent apostolate, worthy of represent
ing the ancient Waldensian fervour, has connected with
these districts the nams of Felix Neff.
6« E

C^japtfr leuEntjr.

THE WALDENSES IN PROVENCE.
Several colonies of the Waldenses established them-
Belves 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 seigneurial 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 hira
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. Tho
bishop of Cavaillon, however, on the 29th of March, 1535,
informed him that thirteen of these prisoners 'lad beeij
(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 seigneurs used
largely rliis 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

6(1 THEWALDENSES
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 t.tke
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. 69
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
rng 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 the
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
(vere 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
Bave 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 6th 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, whoso 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 flowed ! 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 THEWALDENSES
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 bad 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 hare 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 J;he 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
refiection. " 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 onry 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 T II E AV A L D E N S E S
spare her vassals. But already the troops, spiead over the
country, had begun to pillage and destroy.
Oppede began by setting fire to the houses in La
Roqiie, 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, singing
psalms derisively, in imitation of a procession of priests.

INPROVENCE. 75
Coming, at length, to a large oven, which was heated to
bake a -juantity 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 cf 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 fiames 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 c ime 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 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, ninety-
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 THEWALDENSES.
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 IL, 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.

CfraiitFr figMti

THE WALPWNSES IN CALABRIA.
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, L'Arguelena, 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 buUd 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, Faet, La Motte. Again, in 1500, other
Waldenses from Frayssinieres and Pragela, established (79)

80 THE WALDENSES
themselves in Calabria, on the small river VoUurate, 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.
l^e 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 fiock 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, or 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 holj office were
engaged during four hours each day, in argument with

82 THEWALDENSES
Paschale, endeavouring to bring him to retract, but ic
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
When, however, some of the people of San Xisto came and

IN CALABRIA. ,S3
revealed the truth, the population of La Guardia, indignant
at the deceit which had been 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 fiight 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 WALDENSES
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 hours upon an instrument of
suffering, aptly caWedhell; 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
naked, 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 sumamed 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 thai was remoA'ed
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 the 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-
8

86 THE WALDENSES.
six in number, having been first fiayed 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
sulphur. 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.

Ctiapttr Hdintii

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
di Meano ; 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 flesih 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,
(871

88 the WALDENSES,
and sh^ was ihus left to perish. Paul Garnier 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, 1556, 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 marechaussee, 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 Vaudois,
under Innocent VIII., was Captain Varagle, or Varaille.
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 Reformation 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 Cabrieres, which became the
subject of inquiry before the court of peers, so filled up the
measure of his indignation and disgust against a chui-ch
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 f:)untain-head, the new doctrines, as
8*

90 THEWALDENSES,
they were called, but which he, to his delighted surprise,
soon learned to recognize, on the contrary, as the ancient,
the primitive doctrines.
Varaille was now nearly fifty years old, but faith makes
d 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 Varaille 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 Vise, 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. Nay, 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 Lord, who can

HISTORY OF VARIOUS MARTYRS. 91
ehed 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 (aptive, the word of God
is not captive, and you can render testimony of it to many
\ho 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
wc 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 strivngled by
the humanity of the executioner, was burned at Turin, on
29th March, 1558

(!D[ja|iter €tn\^.

THE WALDENSES IN THE VALLEY OP 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 Visol. 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 flnd 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 1

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 ; but 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, but 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 supy orted for five years. From time to

94 WALDENSES 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.

Cljaiiin Chuentj)

THE WALDENSES IN THE PLAIN OP PIEBMONT.
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 papists at length (15th February, 1560) procured,
from the duke, an order that none, save the inhabitants
of the Waldensian valleys themselves, should exercise tha
(95)

96 THE WALDENSES.
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 Waldenses, 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 fcfr 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 fiocks ; 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
Dpon 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, (28th 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, th > 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 eloquenoe 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 Romish 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 Q

98 THE WALDENSES.
Roman Catholic proprietor, to retain their lands ana
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 his 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, -^nd for awhile the Waldensians of
Praviglelmo escaped fl{» proscription which fell so heavily
upon their br'jtbrw

C|inpttr Cmelflti.

THE SECOND GENERAL PERSECUTION OP 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 WALDENSES OF PIEDMONT. IQ.^
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 sufficed. "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 aprear 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 IL, 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-
\)le 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-

OP 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, tljat you will be pleised 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
religioti 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 grandfathers, and other yet more ancient predeces
sors of ours, and of the blessed martyrs, confessors, pro-

106 THEWALDENSES
phets, and ap)stles; 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 extin;ruish 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 Csesar 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, 0 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 net 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 Racconis, George Costa, count de la Trinite, and the
grand inquisitor of Turin, Thomas Jacomel, an iron-
hearted, profiigate, grasping man. The count de la Rac
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, cr sent to tho
galleys; and the richer imprisoned until they paid ransom.
The valley of San Martino was ravaged by the seigneurs

108 THE WALDENSES
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 he 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 popo
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 Emanue'
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 tho
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 Germane 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

110 THE 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 sent, 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
*Massa}i, in Hebrew, means burden, decree, or present.

OF PIEDMONT. HI
pardon to all ccnvicts, 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 su;est retreats among the hill tops. The
counsel of the pistors, 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-
rerted to the Romish church ; and on the 1st of November,
the popish army, uiider the command of the count de la

112 THE WALDENSES
Trint^, encamped at Bubiana. Levied in haste, and from
all classes of desperate adventurers, these troopx, 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 summi' of Le Cotiere, towards Roccamanante, the
Waldenses ha\ted. The enemy, thereupon, also halted, a
short distince 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 Trinity, 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* H

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 ck'sired 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 theii- conscience free,
in order that his own might not stand laden with the weight

OF PIEDMONT. 116
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 tha 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 fiesh 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 arm?, relying upon your word, and now.

11(5 THE WALDENSES
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 obli Ration 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 Trinity 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 aw.iy 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 h>me, and another only survived to

118 THE WALDENSES
pndure a long martyrdom, from the sufferings he had under
gone. The flesh of his feet and hands torn av/ay by
torture, hung in shreds, the bones fell off one after tho
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 renresented,
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 courasre.
placing all their confidence in God. These brethren them-

OF PIEDMONT. 119
solves furnished a signal example of what they taught ; for
the reformed in France were now furiously persecuted by
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, 1561. 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, thai
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 seveml 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
OS."

OF PIEDMONT. 121
The next morning, accordingly, before daybreak, instead
Df going to mass, they rushed, in arms, to the protestant
church, which the papists had already decked out with tho
frippery usual in their worship. Images, fiambeaux, 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
t;3caped 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
b3sieged ; 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 pjwder, in digging mines, in forming
casemates, and in other preparations for taking tLj 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 u.
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 png;igement, 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. \IS
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 WALDENSES
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 sohliers 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 s<ion 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, tho

OF PIEDSVONT. 125
infantry, who had advanced along the heights, passed,
toward* 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 Respart, 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 THEWALDENSES
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 only 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 fied. The captain of the band, Sebastian di
Virgile, 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 .«tated, 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. 127
triumphant, and familiar with the locality, had not fi.llowed
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 Trinity 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. Tagliaretto,
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
theii 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 terminatied 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

OP PIEDMONT. 129
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 fiight.
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 Trinite 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, ^ith 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 Waldenseii
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 fur 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 fristrate it: but the caijse 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[ia|itn ^[lirinntli.

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
(182)

THE WALDENSES UNDER CASTROCARO. 133
withdraw from the Waldenses all the liberties which had
6een 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 1566,
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 froih the representatives of the Waldenses ; the
W^aldenses 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 infiamed 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 CASTROCARO. 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 any one 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

[¦^{j THE WALDENSES
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 les 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 excet

UNDER CASTROCARO. 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 approaching 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 ana 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, .it 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 :
" 0 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

UNDER CASTROCARO. 139
his gimcracks, he 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 gainod 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 profii
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 WALDENSES 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.

CjiaptH /ourtnnt[i.

CONDITION OP THE WALDFNSES DURINJ THE
REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL.
In 1585, Charles Emanuel, who had ascended to the
throne of Savoy in 1580, married the daughter of Philip
n. 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
( 141)

142 THEWALDENSES.
obtained by these greatly contributed to strengthen thi
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 Villar, 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 REIGN 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 .tcts 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 THE WALDENSES.
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 men) 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 tp 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,

THE 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, wh'le 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

146 THE WALDENSES.
what the Waldenses had asked, including an amnesty for
the banditti, so called.
There still remained, however, the banditti belonging to
Saluzzo, Fenile, Bubiana, Villafranca, 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
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 pioffered 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 anj shape or

THE REIGN OP CHARLES EMANUEu. 147
Jegree, to the support of Galline and his men. The pro
vost returned to Turin, having effected nothing. Couut
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 THE WALDENSES.
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 Saluzzc
and other districts contiguous to the Waldensian valleys.
Deouties from the latter, who put themselves forward as

THE REIGN OF CHARLES EMANUEL. 149
mediators, were seiztd 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 infiuence 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 Buena
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 theii patriotism ; for thev received no
pay, but only bread. This, indeed was a great point;
for the harvest had failed in Piedmontin 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 :
ind, 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 tc settle in their districts.
The governor of lignerol, 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 AValdenses 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 Torre,
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 off. Their
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.

C[iapter /iftnnt[i.

THE PLAGUE ANT 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
(151)

THE PLAGUE AND OTHER CALAMITIES. 153
this world, and that of those fifteen pastors two only would,
ere a few months elapsed, survive their brethren.
In 1630, a French army, placed, by cardinal Richelieu,
under the command of three marshals of France, De
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 «f 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 tho
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, 1681, the plague
seized upon John Barthelemy also, and ou the 25th he died ;

PLAQUE 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 AValdenses.
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 devotcdness carried him through every
14

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 tho 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

THE 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, Rorengo, 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
Bubiana ; 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 theii

160 THE WALDENSES.
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. No communication was
made with reference to the written statement supplied
by the Waldenses, and things remained in their previous
condition.

Cljiipttr |uieBnt[i.

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 agains*;
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
14* L (161)

162, THE WALDENSES.
testify to the evangelical faith. One of these, BernarJino
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 fiames 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 Trinity had put the Wal
densian valleys to fire and sword, the pastor of Prali,
Martin, was yisited by two men who had been in the ser
vice of the seigneurs dii ferrier, those malignant foes of
the Waldenses, the cruel and treacherous Truchets, ^he
pastor of Prali was a Frenchman ; his two visitors
announced themselves as also Frenchmen ; and Martin

MORE MAtlTYRS. 163
received them as countrymen. They expreb.sed 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 fiock 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 fied. 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 intor-

164 THE WAlDENSES.
ceding with him in favour of the Waldenses. The onlj
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 hou^e, 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 hi»

MORE MARTYRS 165
road endeavoured to dispose of the coral ornaments he had
with him.
At Dragiiignan, 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 kistory 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 he 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 fiames." But his mass did not
produce the effect 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,

16b 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

MOREMARTYRS. 167
Aix, at the expense of the town, and urge the condemna
tion of Romeyer. As these four deputiej 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.

168 THE WALDENSES.
" Denounce your accomplices, abjure your errors, and
save yourself these torments," said the deputy-lieutenant
"I have no accomplices," replied Romeyer; "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 fiesh. Some cordial was
given to him to restore animation, and he was then carried
fco 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.

MOREMARTYRS. 169
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 releasa
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 WALDENSES.
permitted. V 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 fiattering 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 (15th 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." Lesdiguieres 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-moi d&sormais.
Seigneur, aller en paix.
Car selon ta promesse,
Tu fais voir eI mes yeux
Le salut glorieux
Que j'attendais sans cessel"
But his voice was soon silenced by the flames.

BiilDUE OVEtt THE G C 1 1, L.— (H 10 H ALPS.)

C li i\ jj t f t ^ e D ni t n n 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, tht-
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 Gongregatio de Pro-pagandd Fide, a
society composed of both priests and laymen, established
13- ? (173)

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 flrst 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 office 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 wag
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 «itti 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 Turei ne
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 person?

THE PROPAGANDA 177
BO cited having refused to appear, their property of every
description was forthwith confiscated to the public exche
quer. Next, in January, 1G42, 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 ofiender; the
edict winding up with promise of exemption from all
public charges whatsoever, during the space of five year*,
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 his 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

THEPROPAGAND\. 179
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 fiattering 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 he 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 incurrtd, 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 confiagrations, 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-
* Pa-wn-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,
and 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.

Cliaptu' (lBig[)tnnt[)

THE MASSACRES OF 1655.
The various provincial councils de extirpandis hcereticis
addressed to the metropolitan council at Turin incessant
complaints against the Waldenses, 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)

184 the WALDENSES.
should transport themselves into the valley and confine!*
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*

Jg6 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 OP 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 ei.'citation 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. Gianave'
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-

Igg THE WALDENSES.
men then regarded his proceedings as too distrustful — to<l
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 Applets to Pra-la-Fera and Les Eyrals.
The ^-eneral-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 bills, 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 fur the hob/ faith! Doivn with the Barbetti!
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 the 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 confiagration
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

jgO THE WALDENSES.
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 cne 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 1665. 191
mhahitants 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 if Rorata, where a signal of distress was

]92 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 d'Angrogna was seen advancing the regiment
of Grancey. Thereupon the people of Angrogna lighted
also their signal fires; and cries of — To Perosa! To
Perosa I To Da Vachara ! Treachery ! and so on
spread, like electric fiames, 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.
Ui pianeza contented himself apparently, with taking up
merely his temporary abode there, in order to refresh him-

THE MASSACRES OF 1655. I93
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 husbands, 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 extirpandcs
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

1()4 THE WALDENSES.
m dens and caves of the earth." Y'oung 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 faith 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-witnesses, who gave their depo
sitions before two notaries, who accompanied him from
commune to commune for that purpose. The pen, he says,
well-niij;h fell from his hand, as he transcribed the horrible

THE 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
heccme 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 confiagration of the Waldensian houses succeeded
the massacre of their inhabitants. In several communes
not a single cottage was left standing ; so that this fair
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, w ere 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 fiayed in strips, which, the upper
end remaining uncut fioated 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 altogethei on oti'i farm, having no separation of

196 THE WALDENSES.
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 I'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 flre 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 1655. 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 b jen perpetrated.
17*

Clia|itfi; 3litiHtnnt[j.

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 fied together towards Villar ; on their
way, they had to traverse a wood, 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 hcereticis ! 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 WALDENSES.
finding the inhabitants fied, plundered and burned the
houses, and set out on their return with their booty,
driving before them 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 tG
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 seeking
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 ffiorm, the Walden
ses with fierce shouts dashed down upon them ; this com-

GIANAVEL. 203
pleted their confusion, and, leaving their booty behind
them, they fied, 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. " 0 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,
ind Villar. All these were to assemble on a given day
ind 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 WALDENSES.
Bagnolo arranged his troops in two squadrons, one
of whi'^h 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
rf 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 fied, 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
Capillo. B}'- 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 conveyed, 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 Plan-
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 yc/urself, 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

GIANAVEL. 207
my hands, be sure there are 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 abjuraticm 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 his
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
* Tlie original, in the iiandwriting of the poet's second daughter
Mary, is j)reserved in the State Paper OfiBce.

GIANAVEL. 209
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
ns 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* 0

210 THE WALDENSES.
sdvos 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 infiuence 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.

GIANAVEL. 211
Most of the protestant 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 Restora
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
80 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 powpr.
At length. Dr. Gilly and other British Christians succeeded, in 1827,
in calling the attention of the government to the subject, and ic
having the annuity restored. It was, however, reduced to two hun
dred and seventy-seven pounds.

212 THE WALDENSES.
States, 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. " We 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

5IANAVEL. 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
beheve 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,
hut 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

£14 THE WALDENSES.
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,
1656. "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 Juke of Savoy upon the subject of such monstrous
ci-uelty, 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

GIANAVEL. 215
of the other sovereigns and states, hay 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 THE 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
Lesdiguieres 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,
nen 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

218 THE WALDENSES.
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 tho
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 fied 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 mu^t 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 a4

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 tho
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 thein-
selves fied 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 Reggie, 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

GIANAVEL. 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 Roccapiatta, 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 soldierSi

GIANAVEL. 223
He was conveyed on a litter to Pinache, where, after siy
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, anc"
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,
havino- 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.

Clinptff ^ranitlHli.

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-
tip.o 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, 1655, and at
Dnce 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

226 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 :ONCESSIO^S. 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 wero
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 emt)assy 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. He 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
iffairs, 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 acruderibus utero, miserd efflarunt
animas. 20

230 THE WALDENSaS.
" 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, 0 thou most high God, do not thou
take that revenge, which is due to so great wickedness,
and horrible villanies ! Let thy blood, 0 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, infiicted 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 plenipotentiaries had endeavoured to secure
more solid guarantees for the security of the Waldenses,
3uch, for example, as the demolition of the fortress of La
Torre ; but these were all either refused or eluded.

C[}a|.itf t Craentq-first.

INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY OF PIGNEROL.
The baneful effects of this Jesuitical affair were soon
fcit by the deluded Waldenses, who, in their pathetic ap
peals for redress, used some of the most affecting expressions
in Scripture to signify their distress. " We hare 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 Waldensian 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." 2C • ( 233 )

234 THE waldenses.
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,
" Your majesty may remember, that at the time when
the negotiation began between us, for the renewal of the

INFRACTIONS OF THE 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
infiuence 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 suffei 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 Savoy in 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, the}' 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 laight
induce your majesty not to neglect the Waldenses; but I
would not wish so great a king to be infiuenced by any
thing but his regard to the faith pledged by his ancestors,
and by his own ]iiety, 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 WALDENSES.
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 Bretonni^re 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
nnd properties. Pillage and assassination, violence and
violation, continued, then, to be the catholic worlc 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 THE 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 tne 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 cau^.e.
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
ihree 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 Q-cneral History of the
Waldensian Churches, and where he died, about 1684.

Ctiaptn tfraentq-snonb.

THE 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
fied, 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)

244 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 bd

THiS WAR OP THE EXILES. 245
quartered, and then to have his head cut off and stuck at
the end of a pike on siime 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 tneir 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 Waldenses 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 theij
ai*

246 THE W,\LDENSES.
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 r.ecure invulnerability ; of their receiving
in their shirts the bullets that, with ordinary men, 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 fiight, 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 mora or less diminished, while those of the
Waldenses, so far from lessening, were augmented by

THE WAR OF THE EXILES. 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 hundrel
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
c'ay, 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 fiight, 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 trorps,
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 wculd 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^aptH Cmrntii-tljirb.

CONFERENCES AT TH R IN. — ARBITR ATI ON 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 had retained
a band of devastators, in ordei to oppose the men of the
valleys. The memorial which set forth this defence con
eluded 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 31st of De-

CONFERENCES AT TURIN. 253
cember ; and, as their result, tho ducal commissioners
decided that the Waldenses had no cause of complaint;
and that their la,king up arms had been merely for the
purpose of exciting sympathy in their favour abroad, with
a view to the obtaining pecuniary assistance. The allc'^
gation was simply ridiculous. The collateral conduct of
the propaganda was odious: Nulla fides servanda hcereticis.
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 the 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, 1663, 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
Garsinera, with fifteen hundred and seventy-six foot and
fifty horse, and the count Genegli towards the 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
denses, was to march against the protestants, at the head
of eleven hundred and eighteen men, by Le Copiere and
Santa Margarita. It was in this latter direction that the
attack began. The Waldenses were driven from Santa
22

254 THE WALDENSES.
Margarita upon Le Copiere, and from Le Copiere up an
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 troopii, 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 Germane, 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
mane, 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-
euted 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 Praviglelmo; captain
Biala, and M. de Grand-Maison.
When the Swiss ambassadors were made acquainted with
ihese 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, being 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, by 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

256 THE WALDENSES.
satisfaction for recent occurrences, under the arbitration
of the king of France.
This arbitration, 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 he
would in every respect adhere to the terms of the settle
ment.

ARBITRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 257
After their inf nite 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 otlifr 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.

258 THE WALDENSES.
The iward of his most Christian majesty was far mort
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 w.-tys, and the poor churches of the valleys, already so
sorely tried, were now, in reality, more than ever in danger
of annihilation.

CSraptn Ciiiniti]-fourrli.

COMMENCEMENT OP THE FOURTH PE RSE CUTI Olf.
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 France, 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, &c., 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 instant*

FOURTH PERSECUTION. 2C1
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-
q[uired. This single act did more to enfeeble France than
ill 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, wero
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 WALDENSES.
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 fleeti
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 protestants, " 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 incou-
eeivable way, those i.pon whom they were billeted.

FOURTH PERSECUTION. 263
he said, had requested time to consider the matter, for that
the enterprise thus counselled had been attempted lepeat-
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.
nromising 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-
Bellors of his most Christian majesty were not to be thus
frustrated, and, on the 7th of December, Louis again wrote

264 THE WALDENSES.
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 bo
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 Waldenses 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 horn, 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 cur^ 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 thty 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 earnes,t 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 effect
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 ivspose ; 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 t"o 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. 209
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 ; al. the paths
to it are guarded ; there is no nation in a position to wage
war with France, 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.

CJniptH Cmnitq-fiftli,

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 oi 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 gsneral attack on the two valleys

272 THE WALDENSES.
was forthwith to tak .• place ; the duke of Savoy assailing
that of Luzerna, 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 flve 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 officer 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 Torra

276 THE WALDENSES.
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 Cotiere, 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

MAS ACRES AND EXPATRIATION. 277
ake them in the rear, and they would be inevitably
crushed. The Waldenses of the valley of Luzerna, entrenched al
the foot of La Vachera, were amazed at this intelligence.
and, in their turn, sent envoys to Gabriel of Savoy, whc
confirmed the news, and sent them back a despatch, signed
by himself, which ran thus: — "Do not hesitate to laj
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 tho
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 efl'ect, 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 WALDENSES.
and the Piedmontese army partially, than, from tho 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
Deces, 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 wero 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 tho
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 WALDENSES.
return to their <ralleys, 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.

CJiapln ffiffli^ntq-sixtji.

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 became a question how these
valleys should be 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 fiourishing, 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 WALDENSES.
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
tho 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 ho
saw the cloud which was to go before him by day, and the

RETURN OF THE WALDENSES. 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 sh'uld 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 spite of all their precautions. The inhabitants of CIu-
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 Closes. The tremendous pass ot
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 Montague de Haut Luce, and that of the Bon
Homme. The latter is a chain of the All^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, but 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 confiict 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'Albln, 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 fiat 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
80 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 »n
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 dangerously
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 pent, and then fied, with several
wounded officers, to Brian9on ; but not considering himself
safe even there, he was conveyed in a litter, to Embrun.
The confiict 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 enem)' 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
cf 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 ''ffice in patience
25 T ¦ ' ' '

290 THE WALDENSES.
and peace, until he should witness the restoration of bis
brethren to their ancient and rightful settlements.
Encouraged by their success at Bobbi, the Waldenses
marched 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 thy

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, indifferent 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 cingle 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 BALSILLE DL'RINU THE ATTACK

RETURN OF 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 nouses should
be immediately restored, and their churches re-opened for
protestant worship.
The quaint style in which Beyer'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 rupture
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 contradiotee"

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 Coine 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 WALD.NSES.
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-establishinent 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 rVALDENSES. 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.

C|inp{n: ^uinitq-seuentlj.

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 Rome ; 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 XIIL, 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, and 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 t(
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,

500 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 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 cf 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.

Cfrajitn tfmfn!i]-ngl;t[i.

THE WALDENSES 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 XrV. ; 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 ducal 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 infiuenced 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, h»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
26* 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 Wurtemberg, 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 tho
weather, and they had neither corn, nor cattle, nor many
other articles of first necessity. Thanks, however, to tha

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'
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
Df Eltingen. Next, in the bailiwick of Mermsheim, rose
Pinache, composed, in the first instance, of one hundred
ind seventeen families, divided into three groups ; one near
Durmentz, another near Grossen-Glappach, and the third
aear 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 Loiumer-
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 WURTE.MBERG. 309
street still called after them Welchstrass (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
village, on the left, as you leave towards Durlach. Sev
eral of the companions of Arnaud took up their abode at
Schonberg, further on towards the mountains of Maulbron.
Arnaud himself lived at Schonberg, 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 fiat,
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 hiuidred
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-

2\Q THE WALDENSES
ing to their valleys, as after the expulsion in 1G86. 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 WURTEMBERG. 311
between Nordheim and Hansen, 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,

812 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 1821, it was resolved, that a
sum of twelve thousand fiorins 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 consistcry,
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 vVURTEMBERG. 313
until, at assiduous conferences of competent men, it had
been clearly ascertained by the Waldensian pastors,
hy 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.

27

C^iij-itrr Cttipntq-nintlj.

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 [Summus Hpiscopus,)
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 d'Armstadt, 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 JNIightinesses, having urged us to tho
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 fiorins; 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 WALDENSES.
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 as 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, Heira, 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
whiclr they have since prospered in a very eminent degree.

Clmpter ^[lirt'utji.

HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES OF PRAGELA.AND
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 versd; 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 Villaret, 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.
Th ' 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 Briangon, 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
J"rance, 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 tho
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

522 THE WALDENSES
Lyon, 6tb 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
enabled 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 Romasn catholics, revoked their privileges, and decreed
a formal authorization of the League, which they compelled
the king 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 IL, 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 ducaj

324 THE WALDENSES
troops tvrre ordered into the valley to enforce it, but th»>
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 Pragela, 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 partjr,
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 XIIL, 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 PRAGELA, AND IDJACENT 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 XIIL quitted
Paris, for the purpose of crossing the Alps at the head of
his army. When he had reached Brian9on (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 XIIL 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

526 THE WALDENSES
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 XIIL
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, hitter 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 XIIL 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
Those hands ^oever it might have passed, and whatsoever

OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLE1S. 827
prescription might be made out in favour of the actual
pioprietors. 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 bt
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 26th
October, before the victorious arms of France.
Charles Emanuel died of grief on the 26th July, 1630,
and his son, Victor Amadeus 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 tho
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, but without success. The numbers
of the Waldenses, so far from diminishing, increased daily.
Louis XIIL ha'd 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
Pignerol, 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 office, or to purchase or lease any land, beyond
their own limits ; to work on catholic festivals ; to dissuade
any persons from catholicizing; to buyer 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,
28*

330 THEWALDENSES
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 infiuence of this milder legislation, the num
bers and the prosperity of the Waldenses of Pragela
rapidly increased. The attempts of Louis XIIL 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. 331
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 chapel, 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, 1593, 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 th«

332 THE WALDENSES
territory of Pignerol." This petition was dated in Aprilj
1654 ; on 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 his first manifesto, publishing to the world the
inconceivable cruelties w'iih 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, ta

OF PRAItELA, 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, theiiiselvei, 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 tho
Jesuits, was inhabited, from one end to the other, by zeal
ous protestants. " These heretics," wrote their adversa-

{{34 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.
¦"¦.^n order to imprison at sight.

OF PRAGELA, 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
apphed himself fervently to his work. In order to aug
ment the number of the propagandists, Alexander VII.
grmted (27th July, 1661) plenary indulgence to all breth
ren and sisters who should join the sacred congregation;

336 THE WALDENSES
while, on the other hand, the prohibition to the Waldensian
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 tliese 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 protestants
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,

CF PRAGELA 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 evangeliciil 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

338 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 psahns, seeing that such assemblies might
beaome 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
washerw'oman. 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, tho
house and garden of which became the glebe of the cur^.
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

OF PRAGELA, AND ADJACENT VALLEYS. SS9
the remainder to the establishment of two hospitals, one
at Sestrieres, and the other at ^ene^trelle.
It is easy to conceive the desolation which now over-
¦whelmed these ancient churches of Pragela, which had sc
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 ¦v\'omen 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 hfe,
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 beccm"
of those who remained on the banks of the Clusone 'C
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 1G92. 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 cur^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

344 THE WALDENSES
between Piedmont and France, and Victor Amadeus 11.
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 Romish church. They raised up their prostrated
altars, 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.

OF PRAGELA, 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
lo 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 fiom which
they had so long and so severely suflered, 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-

848 THE WALDENSES
ment, in 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
c runty 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 1 1th
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 tho

OF PRAGELA, 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.

C[jiifiln' Cljirtq-first.

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 WALDENSES.
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, wero filled with cut-throats, alike ready for pillage
and murdei. But there were also generous catholics, who
had refused to join this odious conspiracy.
Signer Odetti was a captain of the Piedmontese 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 Waldenses. Signer 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

THEIR 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 repaii
his unfortunate error, the general commanded the brigadt
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, that
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
march ; 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
^t in safety, and in a few minut'es 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 bouses ; and, to tho
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 him 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 (liat 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. 859
bis 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.
N. 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.
Caesar found some trouble in passing your defiles with
five legions. Is Arnaud's "La Rentr^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.
N. Draw out a memorial, and send it to Paris. Yon
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 XIIL
(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 TV. regained the scep
tre of Piedmont ; he had been king since 1802, but had
not yet reigned. An English fieet 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. 36]
res 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.
Tho 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.

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 AValdensian 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 tho
fidelity of the Waldenses was not shaken, and their good

THEIR MODERN HISTORY. 363
conduct was a permanent protest against the jierfidious
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 established. But the
cur^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 tho
Waldensian population, and there were found to be —
Protestants .... 16,975
Catholics .... 4,075
Total . . 21,050

364 THE WALDENSES
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 opp-^owv* H*'** »gainst them.

Ctiaptef €\)U\]\-sttnni,

PRESENT CONDITION OF 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 : " 0 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. (305)

366 THE WALDENSES.
French ¦valleys. But he was still more struck with Ae
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. 367
eloquent sermom ; 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 Major 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,

868 THE WALDENSES.
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 curfes.
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 Trinity 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
i.he 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 1858,
the Rev. Mr. Revel, the Moderator of the Waldensian
Synod, visited the United States, and was present at the

THEIR 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 Waldensian chnrch. 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

;-^70 THE WALDENSES.
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 cue
l'accoglieva con TANTO AFFETTO.*
mdcccxlv.
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 witk
10 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
guari 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-
lie 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.

I |i |] ni H X .

L Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Polity of the Waldemes.
The Waldenses disclaim the name of " Protestant." They say
they never came out from Rome, inasmuch as they were never in
Rome. 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
hy the consistory. They are regularly installed, after sermon,
in the church, and have a charge to watch over the spiritUiil
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 (3")

374 APPENDIX.
but one vote. 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 tho
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
assistantrmoderator, 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. I). 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
n 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 th«
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 superi ir and inf»

APPENDIX. 375
rior orders in the ministry. They had no such distinctions among
them, at the time when they first became known to the Reformers,
nor have they had any such since ; and they have uniformly main
tained, as they maintain now, that from time immemorial they have
had but the one 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 Calvinistic.
They 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 the doctrine of the mass, of purgatory, the
worship of the Virgin, and, generally, they " account, as an unspeak
able abomination before God, all these inventions of men, namely,
the feasts, and the vigils of saints, the water which they call holy
as lifewise to abstain from flesh upon certain days, and the like."
II. Extracts from the " Ancient Discipline of the Evangelical Churclies,
of ihe valleys of Piedmont ," dated A. D. 1120.
ART. n. 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
ihe 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 the 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
uught 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 wC instruct.

376 APPENDIX.
" Among the other powers which God hath given to his servaDta,
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,
be is both excommunicated and prohibited from preaching.
ART. IV. CONCERNING ELDERS, THE COLLECTIONS, AND COUNCILS.
" Rulers and elders are chosen out of the people, according to
the diversity of the work, in the unity of Christ. And the Apostle,
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.
" We that are pastors assemble once a-year to treat of our affairs
in a general council."
III. A Confession of Faith of the Waldenses, bearing date A. D,
1120, taken from the 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, Nehemiah, Esther, Job,
Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, tha

APPENDIX. 377
Song of So omon, the Prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Lameu
tatioiis of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
Jonas, Miuab, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah,
Malachi. " 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, Bcclesiasticus, 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,
lie 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*

B78 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 JesuB
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 tha
Iruth. " 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 XI. — 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 Vith century.
Minister. If one should demand of you, who are you. whit 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 serve him, and b#
solved by his grace.

\PPENDIX. 379
Min. Wherein consists your salvation?
Ans. In three substantial virtues, which necessarily belong to
siJvation. Min. Which are they?
Ans. Faith, hope, and charity.
Min. How can you prove that ?
.4718. The apostle writes, 1 Cor. xiii., "Now abideth faith, hips
and charity, these three."
Min. What is faith ?
Ans According to the apostle, Heb. xi., "It is the substance .^f
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 ?
Atis, It is that which works by charity.
Min. What is a dead faith ?
Ans. According to St. James, it is that which without works a
dead. Again, faith is nuU 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 ?
.4718. It is that which in the result (or symbol) of the apostles, is
divided into twelve articles.
Min. What is that ?
.4718. 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 ol
God. Min. How many commandments of God are there ?
Ans. Ten, as is manifest in Exodus and Deuteronomy.
Min. Which be they ?
Ans. " Hear, 0 Israel, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have
none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image,
r.r any likeness of any thing that is in heaven," &c.
Min. What i.s the sum or drift of these commandments ?
Ans. It consists in these two great cummandmenta, viz.. Thou
Knalt 1 )ve God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself.
M,P What is that foundation of these commandments, by the

380 APPENDIX.
which everyone may enter into life, and without the which found»
tion none can do anything worthily, or fulfil the commandments ?
Ans. The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the apostle speaks in tha
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 ?
^718. 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?
.4?i8. 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?
Ans. 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 Divinity, 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. Yea, 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?
.4718. No.
Min. Why?

APPENDIX. 381
Ann. 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 bow
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 eoul 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 ?
4718. No, for it is a creature ; but I believe that there is one.
Min. What is that which thou believest concerning the holy
shurch? .4?!*. 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 tho
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 •-artioi-
pating in truth of the ministry.

isters

Min. But by what marks knowest thou the mm
A,^. By the true sense of faith ; by sound doctrine ; ny r, ..lo of

382 APPENDIX.
good example ; by the preaching of the gospel, and a due admin B-
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, xv., " 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 they 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 q.dministration 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 tho 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. SS3
theirs, lest ye be consumed in their sins." And the apostle, 2 Cor.
vi. 14, " Be ye 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 ?
A.id -vhat 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. xviii., " 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 ?
.4ms. 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 ?
.4ns. 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.
jifm. 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 ?
Atis. It is redemption, remission of sius, justification, adop»iDH
and sanctification.
Min. Upon what account is this grace hoped for in Christ t

384 APPENDIX.
Ans. By a living faith, and true repentance, saying, " Repent y»
and believe the gospel."
Min. Whence proceedeth this hope?
.4718. From the gift of God, and the promises of which the apostlt
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 Lope?
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 Virgin 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 tho
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. 38J)
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
game. 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 the 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 every 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 Judaicai
church 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, I and
2 of the Chronicles, the 1 of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, the
Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs,
ths 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 rightf ousnegs and

APPENDIX. 387
holineE.8 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, togethei
with the gospel.
" 13. That there are two natures in Jesus Christ, viz., divine and
human, truly united in on« 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 recon iiled us

888 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 chuich to have one )nly
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 are 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.
3«'

890 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 pa?
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 *o 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 160;\
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 is clearly manifested the malice 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 let him take heed he be not deceived at the end ;
When he has received the stroke of death, and when death seizes
him, and he becomes almost speechless.
Then he desires the priest to confess him :
But according to the Scriptures he has delayed too long, for thit
commands us
To repent while we have time, and not to out it off till the last :
The priest asketh him if he bath any sin.
He answers two or three words and so hath done ;
The priest tells him he cannot be forgiven,
If he do not restore, and examine well his faults :
When he hears 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 ?
Then he commandeth his children to examine their faults.
And buyeth 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 he 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 he pardons them, be they righteous or wicked.
Laying his hands upon their hnadu,
(But when he leaves them he maketh the better cheer)
And telling him that he is very well absolved.
But, alas ! they are but sadly confessed who are thus faulty,
And will certainly be deceived in such an absolution.
And he that maketh him believe it sinneth mortally.
For I dare say, and it is very true.
That all the popes which have been from Sylvester to this presems,

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 they 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 tho 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 love 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.

VHA >K».