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Title: The Vaudois of Piedmont
A Visit to their Valleys
Author: John Napper Worsfold
Release Date: November 4, 2008 [EBook #27135]
Language: English
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THE VAUDOIS OF PIEDMONT.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT
_STANFORD'S GEOGL. ESTABT. LONDON._]
THE
VAUDOIS OF PIEDMONT:
A Visit to their Valleys,
WITH A SKETCH OF THEIR REMARKABLE HISTORY AS
A CHURCH AND PEOPLE
TO THE PRESENT DATE.
With Map of the Valleys.
BY
REV. J. N. WORSFOLD, M.A.,
_Vicar of Christ Church, Somers Town, London._
_"TRITUNTUR MALLEI REMANET INCUS."_
LONDON:
J. F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1873.
PREFACE.
An eminent living scholar, Dr. Tischendorf, has remarked, that in these
days there is need of "little books on great subjects." It was something of
that feeling which led me to the idea of supplementing the large and
learned works of Muston, Monastier, Gilly, and others, by a pocket volume,
so small that the tourist might not feel it an incumbrance, and yet so
comprehensive, that those who have not the leisure for larger works, might
obtain useful knowledge of the Waldenses.
Whether I shall have succeeded in this aim the public must judge.
I may, however, add that the absorbing nature of my parochial work has
prevented my doing justice to the subject, from a literary point of view,
and, therefore, I must ask my readers to kindly think of it merely as an
earnest desire to diminish somewhat of the lack of information which I have
discovered even among educated and benevolent persons, with regard to the
history and ecclesiastical character of the Vaudois.
And, secondly, to evoke help towards their work generally, but especially
to call out contributions, by means of which a MEMORIAL CHURCH may be
erected near the site of the ancient college of the Vaudois, at Pra del
Tor, Val Angrogna, and so still further illustrate the accuracy of the
ancient motto of the Vaudois, "The hammers are broken, the anvil remains."
"TRITUNTUR MALLEI REMANET INCUS."
_13, Oakley Square, N.W., July, 1873._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
THE JOURNEY AND ITS MOTIVE 1-5
CHAPTER II.
THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE VALLEYS, AND TOPOGRAPHICAL
FEATURES 6-8
CHAPTER III.
ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES AS A DISTINCT
COMMUNITY 9-13
CHAPTER IV.
CREED AND ORGANIZATION OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH 14-22
CHAPTER V.
THE BEGINNING OF PAPAL PERSECUTIONS 23-27
CHAPTER VI.
THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE WALDENSES FROM THE
RISE OF THE ROMAN INQUISITION TO THAT OF THE PROTESTANT
REFORMATION 28-37
CHAPTER VII.
PEACE BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN INITIATES THE SECOND
GREAT PERSECUTION OF THE VAUDOIS.--THEIR LOYALTY
AND THEIR CONDITION DOWN TO A.D. 1655 38-44
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE BLOODY PASCHA"--LOYALTY EVEN BEYOND THE POWER
OF PERFIDY AND PERSECUTION TO QUENCH.--REVOCATION
OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.--THE CRIMES OF
LOUIS XIV. INVOLVES THE VALLEYS IN TROUBLE, EVEN
GREATER THAN BEFORE.--TREACHERY OF GABRIEL OF
SAVOY.--EXILE 45-51
CHAPTER IX.
RORA AND JANAVELLO 52-62
CHAPTER X.
THE VALLEYS REGAINED UNDER HENRI ARNAUD 63-89
CHAPTER XI.
THE VAUDOIS FROM THEIR RETURN TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,
AND THE RESTORATION OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY
TO THEIR DOMINIONS 90-95
CHAPTER XII.
THE VAUDOIS FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE EDICT OF
EMANCIPATION 96-103
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH, FROM THE GENERAL PEACE TO
THE DATE OF VISITS FROM DR. GILLY AND GENERAL
BECKWITH 104-113
CHAPTER XIV.
WALDENSIAN CHURCH PROGRESS IN ITS OWN VALLEYS, FROM
1827 TO 1848 114-119
CHAPTER XV.
THE CHURCH OF THE VALLEYS AS THE EVANGELIST OF
ITALY.--ITS HOME CLAIMS AND NEEDS 120-130
THE VAUDOIS OF PIEDMONT.
CHAPTER I.
Early on the morning of Easter Monday, 1871, in company with a devoted
Italian pastor, I left my temporary home in the comfortable "Grand Hotel,"
in the little town of Pallanza, to gratify a long-felt desire of visiting
that part of Europe made sacred by ages of heroic suffering and courageous
endurance for faith and fatherland--the valleys of Piedmont. As we steamed
up the lake Maggiore the thin mist of early morn cleared off, and by the
time we had passed the far-famed Borromean Islands the eye was ravished
with the scenes of beauty on every side. Trees and flowers bloomed forth in
the lovely vesture of an Italian spring, and the hills, villas, and gardens
on the shores of the lake were imaged forth as in a mirror on its own fair
bosom.
In this reverie of delight our boat landed us at Arona, where we
disembarked and entered the train for Turin. We reached the latter city in
about three hours, and after a short delay at the refreshment-room, called
upon the Vaudois pastor, the Rev. J. P. Meille, who received us most
kindly, and showed us over the stately temple belonging to his church,
situated in one of the best streets (the Corso del Re), and which, by its
imposing character, as compared with the general simplicity of the Vaudois
ecclesiastical buildings, fitly illustrates their altered circumstances as
a Church and a community--no longer persecuted, plundered, proscribed, and
down-trodden!
The erection of this building was indeed the first public and palpable
evidence that the era of political and religious liberty for the Waldenses,
inaugurated by the edict of emancipation, dated February 17th, 1848, was
really to be enjoyed by them. Its foundations were laid on the 29th
October, 1851, by a solemn ceremonial. Delegates from the table of the
Vaudois Church, the consistory of Turin, and all the representatives of
Protestant states, together with a numerous concourse of sympathizers and
lookers-on, were present. This great innovation upon the long reign of
intolerance was not accomplished without considerable effort. In the first
place, it was necessary to obtain the authorization of the government, and
this was the more difficult from the circumstance that liberty of
conscience and public worship were not _formally_ inscribed on the
"_Statuto_," so that the government might have refused the authorization,
and yet not have violated the strict letter of the law. Happily, however,
the president of the council of ministers at that time was the Count
Cavour, whose influence procured the necessary permission. Many attempts,
however, were made to undo this concession, and even when the royal
sanction had been obtained these efforts were so numerous and influential
that nothing but the proverbial justice of the sovereign, and the
constancy of his minister, availed to secure success. The last piece of
opposition to the desire of the Vaudois and their friends was made by a man
whose name remained as the living incarnation of the former régime, the
Count Solaro Margherita, who, during the long years under the reign of
Charles Albert, had held the helm of the state, and was completely in
bondage to the Jesuits. Though infirm in body, he betook himself to the
presence of the successor of his ancient master, and falling on his knees,
said to him, "Sire, do not refuse one of the most faithful servants of your
dynasty the last favour that he will ask of you before he quits this earth,
viz., that you do not allow the good and loyal city of Turin to have the
grief and shame of seeing erected within its walls an edifice set apart for
the preaching of heresy." (See MEILLE'S _Life of Gen. Beckwith_.) The king
referred the suppliant to his ministers, who never dreamt of recalling
their decision, and the good work proceeded. So that within a little over
two years from its commencement the dedication of the temple took place, on
the 15th of December, 1853. There was a great gathering of all ranks of
society, including the greater portion of the diplomatique body resident in
Turin, the senators, the deputies, a delegation from the national guard of
the city with their officers at their head. This last circumstance seems to
have given special umbrage to the more bigoted Romanists, inasmuch as their
organ, _L'Armonia_, wrote as follows:--"The 15th of December will be
written among the most disgraceful in the annals of Piedmont--_the Eighth
Anniversary of the Immaculate Conception_, and the Valdesi have appointed
it as the day for the solemn opening of the Protestant temple." And it
goes on to say, those who have ordered the national guard to take part in
the ceremony "have attempted to dishonour the city militia."
But gratifying as it was to me to contemplate this sacred edifice, yet we
were anxious not to lose time in reaching the valleys, so we left by the
afternoon train for Pinerolo, a town of ominous memories as regards its
past connection with its Protestant neighbours. Missionaries, monks, and
soldiers have often started forth from this point to molest or destroy
those whose virtues they should rather have endeavoured to imitate. The
last enterprise of this kind was brought about by the instigation of
Archbishop Charvaz of Pinerolo, during the years 1840-1844.
From the railway station at Pinerolo we changed our conveyance, and took a
seat on the outside of the diligence for La Torre. On our way we passed the
small towns of San Secondo, celebrated as the place where a Christian
martyr suffered in the third century, Bricherasio, where deeds of violence
were perpetrated against those whose forefathers owned the soil from which
their children have been long excluded. Although the shades of evening were
closing over us ere we finished our journey, yet we could not fail to be
impressed with the nature of the territory to which we were drawing nigh.
Monte Viso reared its snow-crested cone with a seeming sense of its
majesty. It has been beautifully described as looking like a pyramid
starting out of a sea of mountain ridges, and from certain points of view
to surpass even Mont Blanc in grandeur, inasmuch as it stands out in larger
space, and so makes a more powerful impression on the senses. Although but
12,000 feet high, no one has been able to scale the summit of its gigantic
rocks. "Free from the tread of human foot, it is the Jungfrau of the South,
the powerful spirit which watches over our valleys; for in the shade of its
granite sides the torch of the gospel found refuge for its light." Full of
grand emotions as we neared the spot, our diligence brought us to the
little capital, La Torre Pelice, where, under the hospitable roof of the
Bear Hotel, we rest for the night.
CHAPTER II.
Before narrating my personal adventures in the valleys, I fancy I may
consult the profit of my readers if I give a brief topographical outline of
the district of which La Torre is the chief town. It lies about thirty
miles south-west of Turin, having Mont Viso and the French province of
Dauphiny for its south-western border. Mont Genevre is the extreme point in
the north-westerly direction, and from its sides the boundary of the upper
portions of the valleys turns in a north-easterly direction along that
ridge of the Alps which separates Savoy from Piedmont by the Col de
Sestrieres, Fenestrelle, Perousa, down to the plains, including the valleys
of Pragela, San Martino, Perousa, Angrogna, and Pelice, or Lucerna, and
terminating with the parish of San Giovanni as its most easterly point;
though formerly the Vaudois territories extended to the entire valley of
the Clusone, and they had several churches in the neighbourhood of Susa, as
well as in the principality of Saluzzo to the south-east. However,
persecution and confiscation have now reduced them to a tract which is
about twenty-two miles in its greatest length by a little over sixteen in
its extreme width. Its area may be about three hundred square miles, and as
so large a space is covered with mountains, it imposes considerable
difficulties in the way of productive cultivation. Its population is about
twenty thousand persons, which at one time were almost exclusively
Protestant, but the disabilities imposed on the Vaudois (of which we shall
speak in another chapter) have compelled many of them to leave their native
valleys for France, Germany, America, and other countries, in order to
obtain a livelihood. As regards scenery, it is difficult to describe its
surpassing loveliness, and certainly no exaggeration to say that the
traveller in this district is often favoured by a combination most
delightful, viz., the soft luxuriance of Italy in the lower slopes and
broader valleys, joined with the wildness and grandeur of Switzerland in
the narrower glens and loftier mountain ranges. And this apart from the
wealth of its historic glories. In reference to climate, the valleys of
Pelice, Angrogna, with Perousa, are warm and productive, those of Martino
and Pragela cold and barren. The soil in the mountain parishes yields the
same kind of vegetables and corn as are to be found in our North of England
parishes; the mountain slopes yield pasturage for cattle, and the higher
ridges are covered with the pine, elm, and ash trees. In the lower valleys,
particularly in the parishes of San Giovanni, Lucerna, La Torre, you will
observe the chestnut, mulberry, and the vine. As to roads and means of
communication, there is nothing to complain of, particularly from the month
of June to September; though I found it so hot in the month of April as to
be obliged to stay in-doors from noon to about four o'clock in the
afternoon. As to accommodation for travellers, I can speak well of the Bear
Hotel at La Torre; and I have read a good account of the Sun at Perousa, as
likewise the Red Rose at Fenestrelle, for passing travellers. Having given
the above with a view of answering questions often asked, especially by
intending tourists, I return to the story of my own observations in La
Torre. The place is not unlike other small towns in the Swiss cantons.
There are a fair sprinkling of shops, with post-office, town-hall, and
market-place. In the centre of the latter I observed a prominent sun-dial,
with the following very appropriate motto, _Vita fugit sicut umbra_.
CHAPTER III.
THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES.
After enquiring as to the geographical position of the Waldensian valleys,
the next most frequent questions which arise are: Who are the Waldenses?
how long have they been in the valleys of Piedmont? what circumstances led
to their taking up their abode there? and what has given to their history
that peculiar characteristic which makes every detail both of their past
and present so intensely interesting to all the lovers of piety and
patriotism wherever the story of their high-souled courage or their
long-enduring faith has reached? It is to answer these questions, as
briefly and yet as accurately as possible, that we address ourselves in
this chapter.
And, first of all, we would state very distinctly that there is no ground
for believing that their name of Waldenses is taken from that of Peter
Waldo, the celebrated merchant of Lyons. Not only because they date their
origin centuries before his time, but also because the names they bear of
Waldenses, Vaudois, and Valdesi all refer to the place of their abode, and
not to that of any individual whose opinions they had embraced, or whose
leadership they had followed. It may further be observed, in opposition to
the opinion of the Waldenses being named after Peter Waldo, that his
second name does not appear as applied to him prior to his condemnation as
an heretic; and, moreover, the various ways in which it is written, _e.g._,
sometimes Valdo, sometimes Valdus, at other times Valdesius or Valdensis,
shows that the word was not a proper name, but a mere appellative. So with
regard to the idea that Vaudois comes from Vaudes, a sorcerer, it would be
more correct to say that the term sorcerer was one applied by the
inhabitants of the plains to those who were Vaudois, or hill-men, under the
notion that the inhabitants of such localities practised sorcery. Hence we
are compelled to assume that the name is purely geographical, and applied
from time immemorial to the persons living in those valleys of Piedmont
which have ever formed part of the Italian territory, and are not to be
confounded with the Swiss Canton de Vaud, bearing a name so like because of
the similarity of geographical conformation.
In answer to the next question, How long have the Waldenses lived in the
locality from which they derive their name? _Da ogni tempo, da tempo
immemoriale_--from all time, from time immemorial--is the claim set up by
them in their earliest documents, and repeated over and over again in their
petitions to the House of Savoy for liberty of conscience.[A] Nor is there
any attempt to refute this claim of antiquity on the part of their princes
or their persecutors.
To this statement of the Waldenses themselves we will add corroborative
testimony from others.
Their enemies. We begin with Reinerius the Inquisitor, A.D. 1250. He refers
to the Waldenses under the term of Leonists, and says that this sect has
been of longer continuance (than the others to which he refers), having
lasted, some say, from the time of Pope Sylvester (314), and others from
the time of the apostles.
Pilichdorf, a writer of the same date, expressly asserts that the Waldenses
claimed to have existed from the time of Pope Sylvester, and Claude
Seyssel, Archbishop of Turin from the close of the fifteenth century to the
beginning of the sixteenth, and whose diocese extended to the valleys of
Piedmont, says that the Waldenses took their origin from Leo, a person in
the time of ye Emperor Constantine, who, hating the avarice of Pope
Sylvester and the immoderate endowment of the Church of Rome, seceded from
her communion, and "_drew after him all who entertained right sentiments
about the Christian religion_."
Next in order we may take the testimony of Rorenco, Grand Prior of St. Roch
in Turin, and one of the lords of the valley of Luserne. He was
commissioned to investigate the history of the "men of the valleys," and
published the result of his labours in the year 1632. He says "that the
Waldenses were no new sect, but had been in those valleys for more than
five or six centuries," and in proof of this remarks further, that "no
edict of any prince who gave permission for the introduction of this
religion into these parts can be found. Princes only give permission to
their subjects to continue in the religion of their ancestors." Cassini, an
Italian priest, declares that the tradition handed down was, that "the
Waldenses were as ancient as the Christian Church."
Another writer, Henri de Corvie, describes them as men descended from "an
ancient race, inhabiting the Alps, and have been always attached to ancient
customs." Voltaire, an impartial witness, speaks of the Waldenses as "the
remains of the first Christians of Gaul." If it be asked for documentary
proof, in the possession of the Waldensians themselves, it should be
remembered that Leger, the historian, collected together all that he could
find, and that these were taken from him when he was imprisoned in Turin,
A.D. 1655. Still, documents of great value and antiquity have been
preserved, and among these must be enumerated "The Noble Lesson," a
didactic poem of about five hundred lines. Three MSS. of this poem are
preserved in the libraries of the Universities of Cambridge, Geneva, and
Dublin, and the date assigned is _early_ in the twelfth century. The
dialect in which it is written is also considered by some as an
unquestionable proof of the high antiquity of the document. For example,
the eminent philologist, M. Renouard, writing as a philologist, and not as
an historian, remarks that "_the dialect of the Vaudois is an idiom
intermediate between the decomposition of the language of the Romans and
the establishment of a new grammatical system_." This philological
circumstance shows the extreme earliness of the period at which the
Waldenses must have betaken themselves to the Cottian Alps, inasmuch as it
proves that they left the Italian plains before the establishment of the
new grammatical system referred to by M. Renouard. This is the opinion of
Mr. Faber, who contends that "the primevally Latin Vaudois 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 incursions of the Teutonic nations." And this leads to
another question. Why did these people leave their homes in the fertile
plains and betake themselves to the less temperate climate and the rugged
soil of a mountainous region? Plainly there must have been some very urgent
cause, and that cause may be readily perceived in the record of the
persecutions against the Christians under the Pagan emperors during the
second, third, and fourth centuries.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] E.G.--In a memorial to Philibert Emmanuel, A.D. 1559, they say, "This
religion which we profess is not only ours ... but it was the religion of
our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and other yet more ancient
predecessors 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_."
CHAPTER IV.
We come now to the creed and organization of the Waldensian Church. First,
as regards the rule of faith, it expresses its belief in the supremacy of
the Word of God in terms precisely identical with the Sixth Article of the
Church of England. And, in a document previously referred to, declares, "We
do protest before the Almighty and All-just God, before whose tribunal we
must all one day appear, that we intend to live and die in the holy faith,
piety, and religion of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that we do abhor all
heresies that have been and are condemned by the Word of God.
"We do embrace the most holy doctrine of the prophets and apostles, as
likewise of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. We subscribe to the four
councils, and to all the ancient fathers, in all such things as are not
repugnant to the analogy of faith." They protest against the assumptions
and the encroachments of the papacy much in the same way as do the
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; they also accept the
opinions of evangelical Christendom in relation to the fall of
man--justification by faith alone; redemption through the merits of the
lord Jesus Christ; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; fruitfulness in good
works as the necessary result of a living faith; the character of worship
acceptable to God; the obligations and privileges of the Lord's day, and
of the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, as appointed by the
Lord Jesus Christ, and binding upon the grateful observance of His
believing people. It is not true, as has sometimes been asserted, that they
have ever rejected the practice of infant baptism. They have prepared and
enjoined the use of a very sound and full catechism, in which the children
of the Waldenses are carefully instructed previous to their admission to
the Lord's table.
So far we have sketched the leading points in the creed of the Waldensian
Church. We now come to its organization. There seem to have been three
epochs, so to speak, in reference to this feature of its history. For some
eleven hundred years it remained as a portion of the universal and
primitive church, rejecting the encroachments of the papal power, and the
corruptions of Christian doctrine which that power imposed, not by
authoritative enactments so much as by irregular influences, upon the
greater part of the Western Church. During this time the church in the
valleys of Piedmont retained that system of church government and worship
which had been accepted by most, if not all, sections of the Christian
Church in the third and fourth centuries. It was, therefore, during this
period that the Waldensian Church enjoyed the privilege of that episcopacy
which she never rejected as a matter of principle, but became deprived of
by circumstances which gave her no choice. In proof of this I refer to that
passage in the letter of Jerome to Riparius respecting Vigilantius, whose
zealous and persevering opposition to the worship of saints, images, and
relics, &c., had greatly provoked the irascible monk of Bethlehem. "I saw
(says Jerome) a short time ago that monster Vigilantius. I would fain have
bound this madman by passages of Holy Writ, as Hippocrates advises to
confine maniacs with bonds; but he has departed, he has withdrawn, he has
hurried away, he has escaped, and from the space between the Alps, _where
Cottius reigned_,[B] and the waves of the Adriatic, his cries have reached
me. Oh, infamous! he has found _even among the bishops_ accomplices of his
wickedness."
Here then we learn that in the country inhabited by the Waldenses there
were bishops opposing the corruption and contending for the priests of the
Christian faith. Nor was this confined even to Northern Italy; for we learn
that two centuries later Gregory the Great, who was pope from A.D. 590 to
604, censures Seremius, bishop of Marseilles, for not only forbidding the
adoration of images (which Gregory says he would have commended), but for
actually destroying the images themselves. Towards the middle of the eighth
century the prelates of the Gallican Church especially distinguished
themselves by their determined opposition to such doctrines as the worship
of images and relics, masses for the dead, purgatory, celibacy of the
priests, supremacy of the popes, &c., errors inculcated, it would seem, by
the English monk Boniface, who has been called the apostle of Germany.
The correspondence between Pope Zachary and Boniface further reveals the
existence of a Christian community in Germany, holding a faith more
evangelical, and observing a ritual more scriptural, than that which Rome
was seeking to impose; _e.g._, Zachary says in his tenth letter: "As for
the priests, whom your fraternity report to have found (who are more
numerous than the Catholics (_sic_) wandering about disguised under the
name of bishops or priests, not ordained by Catholic (_i.e._, Romish)
bishops, who deceive the people) ... they are false vagabonds," &c.
But the most interesting proof of the existence of evangelical resistance
to popish corruption is that afforded by the conduct of Claude, bishop of
the metropolitical see of Turin, and in such close proximity to those
valleys whose history we are considering.
Claude, bishop of Turin, was a native of Spain, and so incidentally brings
to mind the remembrance of the fact that Spain, too, had upon her soil in
days gone by those who loved "to worship God in sincerity and truth." He
was chosen by Louis the Meek for the bishopric of Turin, on the ground of
his scriptural piety and evangelical eloquence. Being attacked by Jonas,
bishop of Orleans, and others, he defended himself with great ability; and
in reply to the charge that he was seeking to establish a new sect, he
answers, "I, who remain in the unity of the Church, and proclaim the truth,
aim at forming no new sect; but, as far as lies in my power, _I repress
sects_, schisms, superstitions, and heresies; I have combated, overthrown,
and crushed them, and, by God's assistance, I shall not cease to do so to
the utmost." These words of Claude, "I repress sects," seem clearly to
imply that in the diocese of Turin disaffection to Romish innovation had a
recognized existence, and definite, though not of necessity an
independent, organization; and that Claude, standing firm upon the platform
"of the faith once delivered to the saints" as the true centre of unity,
was attaching to himself all those whose principles were analogous to the
ancient church of the valleys. And I think we may fairly assume that the
fifteen years' episcopate of so distinguished a prelate must have given a
great assistance to that portion of his people who sought "to stand in the
old ways." Indeed the Marquis de Beauregard, in his _Historic Memoirs_,
expressly states that this bishop had a great number of adherents, that
they were anathematized by the pope, persecuted by the lay princes, chased
from the open country, and _so forced to take refuge in the mountains_,
where they have kept their ground from that time, always checked, but
always endeavouring to extend themselves. (Vol. ii. p. 50.)
After the time of Claude, however, the connection of the church in the
valleys with that to which it originally belonged became probably less and
less distinct, owing to the more decided growth of corruption and the
extension of papal influence, so that, as regards the greater portion of
Europe, primitive faith and practice was submerged by papal superstition
and tyranny. Therefore about this time, as appears from the Waldensian book
entitled _Antichrist_, the church of the valleys entered on what we call
its second epoch, and became isolated as regards organization, though not
as regards doctrine, from the earlier church. This epoch may be regarded as
reaching down to about the seventeenth century. I fix upon this date
because of the remarkable providence which befell the Vaudois Church in
1630.
This was none other than a pestilential visitation brought into the valleys
by the French troops, who were at this time occupying the valleys. By this
terrible plague some ten thousand of the Vaudois perished, including twelve
pastors. Only three pastors being now left, application was made to Geneva
for assistance, and pastors being sent from thence introduced a polity
which was Presbyterian rather than Episcopalian. Still the marked deference
to authority, the succession of the ministers elected by their predecessors
from time to time, the orderly administration of the sacraments, the use of
the creeds and of a liturgy, the entire absence of any protest against the
orders of the ministry customary in the early church, while so much is so
pointedly said respecting corruptions of doctrine, clearly sustain the
inference that the Waldensian Church adapted herself to the form of
organization adopted by the reformed churches of the continent not from
choice, but from such a concurrence of circumstances as completely
vindicates her from any wilful departure from the traditions of her earlier
history.
It was at this time also, and from the circumstance that the pastors
supplied from Geneva could only officiate in the French tongue, that the
French language was used in worship.
This brings me to notice the organization of the Waldensian Church as it
now exists, and has existed for the last two hundred years. The full and
formal confession of faith is that which was agreed upon by the synod of
1655, and confirmed in the years 1839 and 1855.
The Evangelical Waldensian Church, in its widest sense, embraces all those
churches whom God in His mercy has condescended to preserve from time
immemorial, and subject to numberless persecutions in the valleys of the
Italian Alps. It also includes those churches which have been more recently
added. As regards organization, the Waldensian is subdivided into parishes,
and is governed by means of a general assembly of the parish, a consistory,
synod, and table.
The general assembly of the parish is composed of all the members of the
church, being men who are twenty-five years of age. To this assembly
belongs (_a_) the nomination of the pastors; (_b_) the deputies to synod;
(_c_) the elders and deacons; (_d_) the initiative of any proposal for
altering the constitution of the church.
It is always presided over by the pastor, or, in his unavoidable absence,
by a member of the consistory chosen for the purpose.
The Consistory is composed of the pastor, who presides, the elders, and the
deacons, the last of whom have only a deliberative vote. Its functions are
to provide for the spiritual wants of the parish, and also the poor and
sick; to assist in the distribution of the elements at the administration
of the Holy Communion; to nominate the teachers and superintend the
schools, either wholly or in association with the communal council; also to
administer church discipline; distribute parochial charities and funds for
religious purposes. On this behalf each consistory appoints its own
treasurer.
The Synod is the representative assembly of the Vaudois Church, and
consists of all recognized pastors and certain laymen chosen by the
parishes. It takes cognizance of every matter affecting the welfare and
duties of the church; it alters, adds, or abolishes all rules and
regulations connected with its administration or discipline; it directs the
course of theological study and admission to the ministry; it nominates the
members of the table or any special bodies of commissioners for particular
occasions; it superintends all evangelic work, whether in the valleys or
its numerous mission stations in other places. It now meets yearly, but in
former times its meetings were seldom, and were attended by a
representative of the civil power.
THE TABLE is the executive of the Vaudois Church, and consists of five
members, the moderator, assistant moderator, and secretary being pastors,
with two laymen. The table is appointed by the synod from year to year, and
responsible to that body in respect of its operations.
The officers of the Vaudois Church are pastors, evangelists, elders, and
deacons. To exercise the office of pastor a person must be set apart by the
laying on of hands, previous to which he must ([alpha]) have attained
the age of twenty-three, ([beta]) have the requisite gifts for the work
of the ministry, ([gamma]) be of irreproachable character, ([delta])
receive a certificate from his university or other place of education,
([epsilon]) profess convictions in harmony with the doctrines and
discipline of the Vaudois Church. These points are decided by the table, in
concert with the whole body of the pastors of the church. Furthermore, a
pastor is not allowed to have the sole care of a parish before he has
reached the age of twenty-five years.
It is not necessary to speak of the functions of the evangelists, as the
name itself is explicit, and the office one common to all evangelical
churches, although denominated by a different title, _e.g._ catechist,
reader, lay missionary.
The elders are lay members of the church of well-known religious character,
residing in the parish, and not receiving any benefit from the funds they
may be called upon to administer. At an election of an elder for the first
time he is required before installation to undergo an examination by a
commission from the consistory of his own parish, assisted by a pastor from
the nearest adjoining parish. The elder is chosen for life, unless he
voluntarily resigns, or falls into a breach of church discipline, or
becomes incapacitated by failing health; in the latter case, however, he
retains the title of honorary elder.
_The deacons_ must have much the same qualifications as the elders. They
are elected for five years, and their special work is the care of the sick
and needy. In addition to a zealous observance of the Lord's-day, the
Waldensian Church pays a religious regard to Christmas-day, New-year's-day,
Ascension-day, and Good Friday, which last it keeps with great solemnity as
a fast-day common to the whole Church of Christ.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] The Cottian Alps are to the north of Mount Viso, and among them are the
valleys of the Waldenses.
CHAPTER V.
THE BEGINNING OF PAPAL PERSECUTIONS.
"We kept Thy faith 'gainst kings of might,
And potentates infernal;
We kept Thy faith in Rome's despite,
By help of grace supernal.
The foe was fierce, the war was long;
But oh! our helper was more strong,
Our lover was eternal."
During the struggles of the papacy for temporal aggrandizement and
political usurpation, which marked its character from the seventh to the
twelfth centuries, anything so religious as even the attempt to convert
heretics by fire and sword seems little attended to. But in the twelfth
century arose the epoch in which men were to be thrown into a burning fiery
furnace who would not bow down to the tyranny of him who sat enthroned in
the city of the seven hills. Otho IV., Emperor of Germany by favour of the
pope, first gave his sanction to the persecution of the Waldenses, at the
instigation of James, bishop of Turin, about the end of the 12th
century.[C] But the first _systematic_ persecution began under the regency
exercised by Yolande, widow of Amadeus IX., Duke of Savoy, A.D. 1475. The
expression (in her directions to the governors of Pinerolo, Cavour, and the
magistrate at Lucerna), "It is our pleasure that the inhabitants of the
valley of Lucerna especially may be able _to enter_ into the bosom of the
holy mother church," would seem to recognize the fact that the Vaudois were
a community independent of Rome, otherwise we should expect the word
return, which is so generally used in reference to heretics, as the Church
of Rome delights to stigmatize all who reject her sway. This edict of
Yolande led to the martyrdom of Vaudois pastors, some by fire, some by
hanging, some in ways more revolting and excruciating, at Turin and other
places. But the destruction of a few victims would not satisfy the
malignant spirit of the papal antichrist, therefore the work of persecution
must be organized on a larger scale. Innocent VIII. selected Albert de
Capitaneis, Archdeacon of Cremona, as his agent for the accomplishment of
this pious design.
"One of the saintly murderous brood,
To carnage and the crosier given,
Who think through unbelievers' blood
Lies their directest path to heaven."
(MOORE, slightly altered.)
The papal bull initiating this work of shame promised to all who should
engage in it "plenary indulgence, with remission of their sins once and at
the hour of death." It also gave permission to appropriate the lands and
goods of the heretics. All along the valley of the Po, and over the regions
of the Cottian Alps, the bull of Innocent was talked of. Charles VIII. of
France and Charles II. of Savoy sanctioned its design. The year 1488 marks
an era of suffering for the Vaudois and of infamy to Rome.
Some 18,000 soldiers responded to the call of De Capitaneis. He forms them
into two bodies. One proceeds to devastate Dauphine and the district near
from the west, while the other division, attacking from Piedmont, is to
ravage the east; and as the two bodies approach each other they aim to
enclose their victims, and so to prevent their escape. These victims were
all unprepared for the vengeance which impended. Engaged in peaceful
tillage, they had no means of defence, but fled to the rocks and caves,
where their persecutors followed them, and being unable to reach them in
their retreats, they piled up fuel at the mouths of the caverns, and so
compelled the Vaudois to choose between death by suffocation or the sword.
By such conduct some 3000 persons, including 400 young children, perished
in the vale of Loyse. The Val Pragela also suffered much. But in the
Clusone, after the first feelings of surprise had passed away, the
inhabitants successfully repulsed their invaders. In the valley of Lucerna,
San Giovanni, La Torre, Villaro Bobbio, and their hamlets, fell into the
hands of the enemy. Still their career was sometimes checked by successful
resistance, and deserved retribution. An example of this occurred to a
detachment numbering some 700 Piedmontese troops, who were attempting to
surprise the valley of San Martino by way of the Col Juliano. This body of
soldiers, on reaching Pommiers, was attacked with such vigour and
determination by the inhabitants of Prali, that only one of their number
escaped destruction. This was an ensign, who concealed himself under a
mass of snow, which had been excavated by the summer heat. Cold and hunger
eventually compelled him to descend and ask mercy from those whom he had
come to destroy. His petition was granted, and he was allowed to depart
with the news of the defeat and destruction of his companions.
After this humiliating repulse, the invaders sought to attack the vale of
Angrogna, as being the heart and centre of the valleys, and the place of
refuge and defence to their threatened inhabitants.
Indeed, the Vaudois, unable to contend with the enemy's troops in the
plains, had betaken themselves (as many as could) to that natural fortress,
the Pra del Torre, which God had provided in the upper part of the Val
Angrogna. I shall have much to say about this sacred and glorious spot--the
more than a Thermopylæ to these Christian heroes, ennobled by a bravery
equal to that of the Spartan, but radiant with brighter memories. But here
I only digress to add that the invaders' attempt to get possession of this
valley from the heights of Roccamanente were happily frustrated. The
Vaudois had to endure a severe contest, for which they prepared themselves
by prayer. Their enemies, with their leader, seeing them on their knees,
ridiculed their piety and threatened their destruction. But Le Noir of
Mondovi, himself having raised his visor on account of the heat, and to
show his contempt for his adversaries, was mortally wounded between his
eyes by an arrow. His companions were so terrified that they retreated with
great loss. The enemy, however, irritated and ashamed, renewed the attack
from another position on the side of Rocciaglia. They sought to enter the
Pra del Torre by a narrow defile. At this moment a _thick fog_ so confused
them that they were afraid to move lest they should run into danger. The
Angrognians, emboldened by this interposition of Providence, issued forth
from their retreats, and by means of their knowledge of the locality cut
off the escape of their enemies, and forced them over the precipitous rocks
into the foaming torrent, where large numbers perished, including a man of
gigantic size named Saquet, whose eventful death has caused the pool in
which he fell to be called Tompi Saquet.
After similar attempts in other parts of the valleys, during which time
much blood was shed, this first of the great persecutions, which had lasted
a year, ended in 1489, by Charles II., Prince of Piedmont and Duke of
Savoy, who felt ashamed of the cruelties which were inflicted.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Monastier gives some very interesting information on the persecution of
the Vaudois out of Piedmont (chap. xiv.), which lies beyond the scope of
this volume.
CHAPTER VI.
Although the story of the long-continued and heroically endured sufferings
of the Vaudois may have been the most prominent thought in the minds of
those who recall their history, yet it is at least to the Christian as
important to remember their works of faith and labours of love in the cause
of Christ. Indeed were it not for the latter we should never have known the
former. It would seem as if the missionary zeal of the Waldenses was one of
the chief causes (or at least occasions) of the persecutions which they
endured. Hence Bernard de Foucald (_Monastier History_), a writer of the
twelfth century, says, "These Waldenses, although condemned by Pope Lucius
II., continued to pour forth, with daring effrontery, far and wide all over
the world, the poison of their perfidy."
Indeed a church whose motto was a burning torch, and whose directory that
sacred word which counsels the followers of Christ to "let their light
shine before men," was not likely to be content with possessing the truth
merely for itself. So we learn that in the distribution of the funds
contributed by the church a portion was assigned to the purpose of
maintaining a body of pastors for the foreign work. These pastors being
trained and set apart by the barbes for the work of the ministry were named
by the synod for their special sphere of labour. The work of preparation
for the ministry involved the learning by heart of the first and fourth
gospels, the whole of the canonical epistles, and a large portion of the
Old Testament. The missionaries to foreign churches generally remained
abroad for two years. Although this work was one of danger, no reluctance
to undertake it was evinced. This shows the power of the gospel in their
hearts, as well as the deference shown by the younger pastors to their
seniors in the ministry of the Word and sacraments. As a rule it would seem
that the synod despatched their missionaries two and two. Thus, following
the example of the great Head of the Church, and providing for the
necessities of the times, one of the two was selected as more or less
acquainted with the character of the places and persons they were about to
visit.
The mode in which the Waldensian missionaries laboured illustrated at times
the wisdom of the serpent as well as the harmlessness of the dove; _e.g._,
they obtained access to the higher classes in the character of pedlars.
Having displayed their goods, chiefly of an ornamental kind, and a purchase
had been concluded, if the pedlar were asked, "Have you anything else for
sale?" he would reply, "I have jewels far more precious than these, and if
you will not betray me to the clergy I will make you a present of them."
Being answered satisfactorily on this point, he would proceed to say, "I
have a pearl so brilliant that by means of it one may learn to know God; I
have another so splendid that it kindles the love of God in the heart of
him who possesses it." And then he would proceed to quote various portions
of Scripture.
The following verses from a modern poet happily describes one of these
incidents--
"'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.'
"The 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 grey and old;
And name the price of thy precious gem,
And my pages shall count thy gold.'
"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!
Nay, keep thy gold--I ask it not--
FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS FREE.'
"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;
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.
"And she hath left the old grey walls,
Where an evil faith hath power,
The courtly knights 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!"
But another mode of spreading the gospel in distant parts was by
colonizing. This measure was forced upon the Waldenses by the cruelties to
which they were exposed in the South of France. Their earliest colonies
(A.D. 1340) were at Apulia and Calabria, and in Liguria. The lords of the
soil in Southern Italy permitted them to settle on favourable terms. They
built several towns, such as Oltromontani, grew in temporal prosperity, and
lived in peace for many years. As regards ecclesiastical matters, they
maintained direct communion with their brethren in the valleys, who
supplied them with pastors. These pastors, in their journeys backwards and
forwards, visited their faithful brethren scattered throughout Italy. The
barbes, indeed, possessed a house in each of the cities of Florence, Genoa,
and Venice. As regards numbers, it is not unlikely that the Waldenses in
Italy, France, and Germany at this time (the close of the fourteenth
century) were about eight hundred thousand. Venice alone contained six
thousand Vaudois, it is said, at this time. But this state of external
peacefulness continued only for a time. The very superiority of the Vaudois
to their neighbours attracted attention to their religious peculiarities.
The Romish clergy complained "that they did not live like other people in
matters of religion; that they made none of their children priests or nuns;
that they did not concern themselves about chants, wax tapers, lights,
bells, or even masses for the dead; that they had no images in their
temples," &c. All this criticism was intensified by the news of that great
reformation of the sixteenth century, which awakened alike the fears and
the rage of Rome, and sent forth her legionaries everywhere like
blood-hounds keenly on the scent for the tracks of heresy.
They were not long before they met with the evidences of a purer faith than
that of the pope's in the sunny regions south of the Tiber. The Waldenses
in Calabria had heard of the revived faith and growing zeal of their
brethren in Piedmont. They determined, like them, to lay aside all
concealment of their religious profession, and openly to proclaim their
heart-deep convictions as to the vital principles of the gospel of Christ.
As a means of a higher and truer confession of Christ, they sought a
colleague for their pastor, Etienne Négrin (who was from the valleys), from
Geneva. A young Piedmontese, Jean Louis Pascal, was just then finishing his
studies at Lausanne. Brought up as a papist and a soldier, he renounced his
former creed and profession for that of the gospel of Christ. Nor was it
without cost of another kind he undertook the perilous work of the ministry
in Calabria. He was engaged in marriage to Camilla Guerina, and in setting
out for Italy (though unconsciously to themselves, perhaps) they parted for
ever as regards this world.
His ministry was greatly blessed in Calabria. The light so often placed
under a bushel was elevated conspicuously by the candlestick of his
labours. But while believers rejoiced, superstitious bigots raved. The
Marquis Spinello, chief proprietor in the Vaudois colony, alarmed for his
credit with the clergy, and contrary to his former kindness, sends for the
principal offenders, including the pastor and his friend, Marco Uscegli.
The two latter were cast into prison, and the former dismissed with
threatenings. This happened about 1558 or 1559, and was followed by more
determined measures of the bishop of the diocese and the pope. The latter
deputed Cardinal Alexandrin, inquisitor general, to extirpate heresy in the
kingdom of Naples. All attempts failing to induce attendance at mass, they
were pursued by soldiers, and obliged to make an armed resistance, which
led to the flight of their assailants. After a few days the Vaudois, who
had fled to the woods, were hunted by dogs. Nearly all were captured or
killed on the spot. Those captured were tortured in the most horrible way
to extort confessions of misdeeds which their enemies had fabricated. One
Bernard Conte, who had thrown away a crucifix forced into his hands, was
daubed with pitch, and then set on fire. Their sufferings are too many and
revolting to recount. Let it suffice to add that the bodies of the victims
were so numerous as to line the roads for a distance of thirty-six miles,
being placed on stakes for that purpose from Montalto to Chateau-Vilar. The
pastor, Etienne Négrin, was either tortured or starved to death. But Pascal
was reserved for a more public immolation. On the 9th of September, 1560,
an immense crowd assembled in the courtyard of the castle of St. Angelo. A
scaffold had been erected close by with a pile of faggots. A stage with
seats furnished suitably for the use of the pope, Pius IV., his cardinals,
and ecclesiastics of all ranks, was placed near. When the martyr reached
the scaffold he declared to the people that he was put to death for no
crime but that of confessing with boldness his Master and Saviour Jesus
Christ. "As to those who hold the pope to be God upon earth and vicar of
Jesus Christ," he said, "they are strangely mistaken, seeing that in
everything he shows himself to be a mortal enemy of Christ's doctrine and
service." He was then put to death, but not before he had "made the pope
and his cardinals gnash their teeth." In this way the Waldenses were driven
out of Calabria, at a time, let it be remembered, when in the gracious
providence of God the Reformation was being firmly established in England.
We pass on then to consider what was the condition of the Vaudois in their
own valleys after the termination of their sufferings narrated in the fifth
chapter. We have glanced at the revival of true religion in the valleys and
Vaudois colonies. Suffice it, then, to add that the sympathy shown by Farel
(present at the Synod of Angrogna, 1532), Ecomlapadius, Bucer, and others,
all served to encourage the reviving zeal of that church which had so long
held aloft the standard of God's truth, though at times it may be somewhat
weary with the strife and burden involved in that high distinction of
witnessing for Christ in a world that either forgot or denied Him. One of
the signs of the earnestness which characterized the Vaudois Church at this
time was the translation of the Holy Scriptures into French (for the
benefit of the reformed churches) out of the Romaunce dialect, in which the
Vaudois had possessed the word of God from time immemorial. A further proof
of piety was shown in the erection of buildings for public worship, A.D.
1535. The first temple was at St. Lorenzo, near Chamforans, the site of
the Angrogna Synod; and a second was built at Serre, in the same valley.
This latter temple was standing at the time of our visit, though needing
repair. It would seem that the evangelical spirit was so decided at this
period that the few priests who continued hovering about the valleys in the
hope of effecting perversions retired in despair. The process of church
building went on, so that in 1556 several temples existed in the Val
Lucerna and San Martino. But such a state of things was not permitted to
continue without fresh opposition. In the year 1556 the Pope and Henry II.
of France give orders to the parliament of Turin to repress these heretical
movements. They send out two of their body, who visit the valley of San
Martino, and publish an edict threatening all who refuse obedience to its
commands. They summoned before them a labourer, and asked him why he had
taken his child for baptism to the temple at Angrogna? He replied, "Because
baptism was there administered according to the institution of Jesus
Christ." The same man, on being commanded to have his child re-baptized,
asked for permission to pray before he gave his answer. Having done this,
he asked the magistrate to give him a paper assuming the responsibility and
the sin of the transaction. This demand so embarrassed his persecutor that
he was discharged without further molestation. A noble representative,
however, of the class of pedlars of which we have spoken before did not so
easily escape his persecutors. This devoted Christian, Barthélemi Hector,
of Poictiers, visited from place to place with copies of the word of God,
which he read to the people at their work, and sold to those who could
buy. On this errand of mercy he betook himself to the slopes of that
mountain (La Vachere) which overlook the Pra del Tor. The eagle of the
Romish inquisitors tracked him on his rounds, and carried him to Turin that
he might answer for so foul a crime! His judges addressed him in the
following strain: "You have been surprised in the act of selling heretical
books." He responded with the courage of one who knew in whom he believed.
"If the Bible contains heresies for you, it is _truth for me_!" But,
replied the judges, "You use the Bible to keep men from going to mass." "If
the Bible keeps men from the mass it proves that God condemns it as
idolatry," he replied; and when further called upon to retract, he asked,
with holy dignity, "Can I change truth as if it were a garment?" Such
courage and skill in defending his position impressed his judges, and they
hoped, by long delay and promises of pardon, to shake his firmness. But he
was upheld by the grace so richly vouchsafed, and he died exclaiming,
"Glory to God that He judges me worthy of death for Him." This martyrdom
was followed, about two years later, by two other remarkable cases. The
first was a young student educated by the republic of Berne, named Nicolas
Sartoire. He was returning for a few weeks' holiday to his native land, and
had scarcely crossed the frontier of Piedmont when, resisting all
temptations to deny his faith, he was burnt at Aosta, on the 4th of May,
1557.
The second, Geoffrey Varaille, was a man of fifty, _the son of one of those
who had taken part in the persecution of 1488_.
While following his duties as a monk, he was convinced of the errors of
popery, and after a period of study received ordination, and became pastor
of San Giovanni in 1557. He was waylaid while on a visit to Busca, his
native place, and carried to Turin, where he made a noble confession of his
faith amidst the flames on the 29th of March, 1558. Other victims would
have been sacrificed had not the Protestant princes of Germany and the
evangelical cantons of Switzerland intervened, and so for a little longer
the church in the valleys had a measure of rest prior to the outburst of
another fierce attack.
CHAPTER VII.
The death of Mary Queen of England put out the fires of persecution in our
own beloved land; but, alas! served to rekindle them in the devoted valleys
of the Alps. By the treaty of Cambresis, 1559, the kings of France and
Spain bound themselves anew to the extirpation of heresy. Moreover, they
agreed that the conquests made by each country during the preceding eight
years should be restored. Thus all the gains of Francis I. and Henry II. of
France were given up, and Philibert Emmanuel of Savoy was transposed by a
scratch of the pen from the condition of a landless mercenary into that of
a sovereign prince. Would that he had been free to rule as his own
disposition and that of his evangelical consort, Margaret of Navarre, would
have prompted! But the provisions of the treaty bound him to persecute
rather than protect his loyal subjects in the valleys. Too soon the
evidences of this appeared. First came edicts forbidding any one to attend
non-Catholic preaching. Then commands to hear mass. After that were kindled
the fires in which many bravely endured the worst rather than abjure the
faith. These proceedings were, however, preliminary to an attack on the
valleys. So the Vaudois betake themselves to united prayer for guidance.
After deliberation it was resolved to address the duke, the duchess, and
the council of the state. In these addresses they set forth the antiquity
of their religion, the conformity of their belief with the creeds and four
first councils of the church, and the writings of the early fathers, and
vindicate themselves from the calumnies of their enemies, also protesting
their loyalty to their prince. After much difficulty these documents
reached the parties addressed, but owing to the interference of the pope
nothing satisfactory was gained. The monks of Pinerolo signalized
themselves by the ardour with which they harassed the Vaudois. They
employed large numbers of vile characters as mercenaries to make incursions
into the valleys. On one occasion they secured possession of a pastor by
treachery. Having alarmed his parishioners, they attempted his rescue. Some
of these were slain at once by the ruffians from the abbey, others were
captured, and by a refinement of cruelty (such as the Church of Rome
surpasses all her competitors in) were made, especially the women, to carry
the faggots for the fire which was to burn their beloved minister.
Occasionally these frocked and sandalled ruffians met with deserved
retribution at the hands of those whose homes they desolated. But these
things were but the distant rumbling of the tempest, which ere long would
burst upon the faithful Christians of the Alps. Their leaders foresaw what
was coming, and before the army of persecution actually invaded their soil,
they strengthened themselves by praise and prayer, by the word of God, and
the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
Thus "strengthening each other's hand in God," they waited the progress of
the soldiers. These numbered over four thousand, commanded by the Count de
la Trinité. Twelve hundred of them first attacked the heights of Angrogna,
and although the defenders numbered but one in six of their assailants, yet
they are repulsed with a loss of sixty dead, while the Vaudois only lost
three. Other attacks were equally unsuccessful, and so La Trinité persuades
the Angrognians to a truce by which they are powerless to resist, although
he still continues his own plans of devastation, plunder, and confiscation.
Those cruelties drive the people of La Torre to caves and rocks, although
it is winter. An instance of cruelty may be narrated in the case of a man
aged a hundred and three, who was found by the soldiers hidden in a cave
under the guardianship of his granddaughter, a maiden of seventeen. After
taking the life of the venerable man, they seek to dishonour the girl, who,
preferring death, leaped over the precipice into the stream below. As she
did so, tradition says she sang one of their hymns, and that its melody
even now floats in the air of those mountain regions, and is heard by the
shepherd as he pastures his flock on the slopes of the Vandalin by "the
Maiden's Rock." La Trinité continued his persecutions during a period of
fifteen months. The Vaudois organized themselves successfully, and were
favoured with remarkable deliverances, which we shall refer to more
appropriately in a later chapter, as they were chiefly connected with the
Pra del Tor. We may, however, state here that some of the most decisive
triumphs against the enemy were obtained by means of a troop of one hundred
picked marksmen, called "the flying company," because their services were
available in all places according to the varying emergencies of their
situation. A treaty of peace so nearly approximating to justice as to be
denounced by the pope as "a pernicious example," and by a "liberal" Roman
Catholic historian[D] as "a blameable weakness," was concluded at Cavour on
the 5th of June, 1561, and honourably fulfilled by Philibert Emmanuel to
the end of his days, although the Vaudois were still to bear the cross of
their Master. The first hardship coming upon them was that of hunger,
thirst, and homelessness. Their joy at the departure of the men of war was
sadly diminished by the sight of their ruined homes and devastated
vineyards and fields. Alas! for them no fig tree could bloom, no vine yield
its fruit. The flock had been cut off from the fold, and the herd driven
from the stall. The fields could yield no meat, and the time for sowing was
past. To add to those disasters, their poor brethren, flying from Calabria
naked and destitute, were seeking shelter and nourishment at their hands.
Mercifully, however, sympathizing hearts in Germany and Switzerland, nobly
led by the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Marquis of Baden,
the energy of Calvin, and seconded by the churches of Strasbourg and
Provence, supplied their great distress.
Persecution was renewed by indirect means. Castrocaro, forgetful of the
kindness showed him during the late war, when he was taken prisoner by the
Vaudois while fighting against them, undertook the task of harassing the
valleys. He occupied the castle at La Torre. He ill-treated many of the
pastors, especially Gilles. He built the fort at Miraboc, tried to prevent
the meetings of the synods, &c. Large numbers had again to choose between
the idolatrous mass or the dungeon unless they betook themselves to
flight.
It was at this time that the Elector Palatine wrote a remonstrance which
deserves to be perpetuated out of regard both to its own merits and those
of the noble writer. Addressing the Duke of Savoy, he said, "Let your
highness know that there is a God in heaven ... from whom nothing is hid.
Let your highness take care not voluntarily to make war upon God, and not
to persecute Christ in the person of His members; for if He permit this for
a time in order to exercise the patience of His people, He will
nevertheless at last chastise the persecutors by horrible punishments. Let
not your highness be misled by the seducing discourses of the papists, who,
perhaps, will promise you the kingdom of heaven and eternal life, provided
... you exterminate these Huguenots, as they now call good Christians; for
assuredly no one can enter the kingdom of heaven by cruelty, inhumanity,
and calumny." He also points to the folly of persecution by reminding him
that "the ashes of the martyrs are the seed of the Church;" and further,
"that the Christian religion was established by persuasion and not by
violence, ... that it is nothing else than a firm and enlightened
persuasion of God, and of His will, as revealed in His Word and engraven in
the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit; it cannot when once rooted be
torn away by tortures," &c.
It is probable that the effect of so plain and forcible a remonstrance
helped to protect the Vaudois of Piedmont from the horrible cruelties which
befell their brethren in France during the infamous massacre of St.
Bartholomew. On the 19th of October, 1574, died the good Duchess of Savoy,
Margaret of France, who had been the courageous and faithful friend of her
husband's Protestant subjects. Shortly after her death Castrocaro, like
another zealous persecutor of the Waldenses under La Trinité, Charles
Truchet, perished ignominiously; the former by his own sword, taken from
him by his adversaries; the latter in prison, deserted by those whose
willing tool he had been in deeds of blood! Philibert Emmanuel was
succeeded by his son Charles Emmanuel in 1580. An invasion of the French in
1592 was attempted as the means of prejudicing the new king against his
faithful subjects in the valleys, but happily in vain, and he assured them
of his gracious disposition in an interview at Villaro. However, the
Waldenses were annoyed by the visits of popish missionaries, headed by the
Archbishop of Turin. Unable to succeed in open discussions, the monks had
recourse to bribing persons of bad character. They also laid claim to
tithes, closed the schools, and pursued other forms of oppression. In 1624
they were commanded to destroy the temples in their six communes. And
during these years the inquisition ever and anon laid hold of some fresh
victim for the dungeon and the stake. A merchant of La Torre, named Coupin,
Sebastian Basan, and Louis Malherbe, were added to the noble army of
Vaudois martyrs, besides scores who languished and died by secret violence
between the years 1601-1626.
The monks renewed their old game of kidnapping the children of the Vaudois.
An effort was made to establish convents all through the valleys by
Rorenco, prior of Lucerna. The only place they could succeed in was that of
La Torre, where evangelical worship was forbidden. After the invasion of
the French came the terrible plague in 1630. A brief interval of peace and
hope beamed upon the valleys with its smile; but, alas! it was but brief.
The restlessness of papal hostility soon awoke to new deeds of cruelty.
Two monks, in the month of May, 1636, appeared in the market-place at La
Torre with crucifix in hand, and by their abusive language tried to
exasperate the people. And even the noble fidelity of the Vaudois to their
young prince, Amadeus II. (only five years of age), at the death of his
father, against the attempt of his two uncles, supported by Spain, nor the
sufferings they endured at this time from the armies of the uncles, nor the
patriotic successes they achieved, seem to have obtained for them anything
beyond the most temporary respite. Their temples were again closed. Antonie
Leger, pastor of San Giovanni, was obliged to flee for his life. He settled
in Geneva as professor of theology and Oriental languages, having lived in
the service of the Dutch ambassador at Constantinople many years. And,
indeed, things were being put in train for that most furious, perhaps, of
all the tempests which the irrepressible pride and cruelty of Rome made to
lash its strong rage upon the heads and homes of those whose only fault
was--
"They would not leave that precious faith
For Rome's religion, false, impure;
No! no! they rather would endure
To lose their all, yea, even death."
FOOTNOTES:
[D] BOTTA, vol. ii. _Storia d'Italia_.
CHAPTER VIII.
The event to which allusion is made in the close of the foregoing chapter
recalls my thoughts and observation, as I stood in the streets of La Torre
on what was, as regards the ecclesiastical season, the very anniversary
period of that frightful tragedy perpetrated some 214 years before, and
remembered still as the "Bloody Pascha." The coincidence seemed to bring
home the remembrance of the awful event with a more realizing emphasis. And
it was in this train of thought that I cast my eyes upward to the
overhanging crag of Castelluzzo. The murderous designs of the edict
proclaimed by Gastaldo on the 25th January, 1655; viz., "That all and every
one of the heads of families of the pretended reformed religion, of
whatever rank or condition, without any exception, both proprietors and
inhabitants of the territories of Lucerna, Lucernetta, San Giovanni, La
Torre, Bibbiana, Fenile, Campiglione, Bricheariso, and San Secondo, should
remove from the aforesaid places within three days to the places allowed by
his highness, the names of which places are Bobbio, Villaro, Angrogna, and
Rora. Persons contravening the above will incur the penalty of death and
confiscation of all their goods, unless within twenty days they declare
themselves before us (Gastaldo) to have become Catholics," received its
fulfilment by a signal given from this spot on the 24th of April, 1655.
The Vaudois had made every submission short of going to mass; but all was
in vain, as their extirpation had been determined on by a branch of the
inquisition established at Turin in the year 1650. This council was
presided over by the Archbishop of Turin, as regards one committee. The
Marchioness Pianezza filled the same office over another whose members were
ladies! She seems to have breathed the same spirit of ferocity and cunning
as that which characterized the conduct of her husband, who commanded the
fifteen thousand troops whose gentle entreaties were to win the Vaudois to
the orthodoxy of Rome! This army fitly included three regiments of French
soldiers, red-handed from the slaughter of the Huguenots; twelve hundred
Irish, exiled for their crimes in Ulster; and a number of Piedmontese
bandits, attracted by the love of plunder and the promised benedictions of
the Church in return for their meritorious labours in extirpating heretics.
Two monks led this band of miscreants. One of them, seated on a waggon,
brandishing a flaming torch in his left hand and a sword in his right,
exhorted the troops to burn and slay. His companion, an aged friar, carried
a crucifix before him, exclaiming, "Whoever is a son of the holy church
does not pardon heretics; they are the murderers of Christ!" The soldiers,
inflamed by these appeals to their fanaticism, went forward with the cry,
"Viva la S. Chiesa." They found La Torre deserted; for the people had
betaken themselves to the mountains, from whence they could descry the
soldiers pillaging their homes. However, they knew that their enemies would
not be satisfied with anything less than their lives, and these they
resolved to sell as dearly as possible. Pianezza's troops attacked them on
the 19th and 20th of April; but the Vaudois on each occasion drove back
their assailants with great loss. It was the bravery of the Vaudois at this
time that led the Duke of Savoy to say that the skin of a Vaudois cost
fifteen or twenty of his best Catholics. Indeed, during this siege fifty of
the Piedmontese soldiers were slain by the Vaudois, with only a loss of two
by the defenders. The perfidious marquis then resolved to seek by fraud
what he was unable to obtain by force.
He invited the deputies--among whom were Leger, the historian and pastor;
also the brave Joshua Janavello--to meet him at the convent of La Torre
early on Wednesday morning. He represented that he was only in pursuit of
those obstinate persons who had resisted the orders of Gastaldo; that the
others had nothing to fear, provided they would consent to receive a
regiment of infantry and two companies of horse soldiers, _as a mark of
obedience and fidelity to their prince_, for two or three days. He then
entertained them sumptuously, and sent them back to their communes to
persuade their brethren of his sincerity and kindness. Leger and Janavello
saw through the trick, but, alas! the others fell into the snare.
Accordingly the Vaudois consented to receive the soldiers into their houses
and to entertain them as friends. They allowed them to occupy their
hiding-places and strongholds, from whence no fair fight had ever driven
them. The very eagerness of the soldiers to penetrate into these recesses,
and their brutality on their way to the Pra del Tor, opened the eyes of the
Vaudois to their miserable condition. It is remarkable that the deputies
from Angrogna were the readiest to believe in Pianezza's promises, and
also the first to fall victims to his murderous soldiery. On Thursday and
Friday Pianezza was occupied with three things--first, in keeping those of
the Vaudois on the French frontier from escaping to that country; secondly,
in persuading the inhabitants of the valleys of his "good intentions;" and
thirdly, resting his soldiers in readiness for the day of slaughter. On
Good Friday the Vaudois observed the day according to the usage of their
church, by fasting and humiliation. They could not meet in their churches;
but in their caverns and mountain dells they cried to the Lord for
deliverance from their great distress, and for strength to remain faithful
under persecution. The Lord heard their cry; but the church of the valleys
was destined to pass through such a sea of suffering, inflicted in the name
of the holy Catholic church, as would have made many a pagan persecutor
blush with shame. At four o'clock in the morning of Easter-eve, on a signal
given from the top of Castelluzzo, Pianezza's troops rose to slaughter the
persons under whose roofs they had slept, and of whose food they had
partaken the night before. Surely a religion which thus degrades men into
monsters should have few apologists in our day. The mind recoils from the
enumeration of the horrors of that "bloody Easter." Human depravity, goaded
on by every motive which spiritual wickedness could suggest, celebrated
such a carnival as must have staggered even a Nero. Men, women, and
children were torn limb from limb, after suffering every possible outrage
and indecency. Some were rolled from their native rocks to afford merriment
to their butchers. Others were impaled on the trees by the wayside.
Neither age nor sex hindered this work of brutality; and it is even said
that not only did the wretches burn the living bodies of their victims, but
also regaled themselves with their flesh, yea, in the presence of their
suffering fellows! When these pious soldiers of holy church could no longer
slay the Vaudois they burnt their houses and farm buildings, and destroyed
their vineyards, with the fruit-trees and other products of the soil.
Nor was Pianezza content with these horrible proceedings at La Torre and
its immediate vicinity. On the evening of the same day, Saturday, April
24th, Rora was attacked by five hundred men, the day after by a larger
body, the next day by more soldiers still--all in vain. A fourth attack,
like the others, was successfully repelled by their noble captain,
Janavello, who, with a very small body of helpers, inflicted terrible loss
upon the troops, even causing the death of their leader, Mario. These
continuous defeats so enraged Pianezza, that he sent them a message to
attend mass within twenty-four hours on pain of death. They replied, "We
prefer death to the mass a hundred thousand times." On this he assembled a
force of ten thousand to attack their village. Janavello fought like a
lion, but was overpowered by numbers. His wife and three daughters, with
some others, were taken captive. One hundred and twenty-six persons were
put to death, and the scenes of the former week were renewed in all their
horrible atrocity. The news of this frightful massacre sent a thrill of
horror through all that portion of Europe whose sensibilities had not been
drugged by the poisonous teaching of the Church of Rome, viz., that
heretics are malefactors, and as such may be lawfully exterminated like
wild beasts. The representatives of England, Holland, and Switzerland
protested against these doings. Cromwell set an example to all rulers,
whether kings or presidents. His envoy, Sir Samuel Morland, read a despatch
in the presence of Carlo, Emmanuel II., Duke of Savoy, and of his mother,
who, under the instigation of the Romish priests, had caused the massacre,
which contained the following passage:--"If all the tyrants of all times
and ages were alive again, 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." The poetical fervour of Milton
gave forth the following noble invocation:--
"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold!
* * * * *
Forget not; in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold,
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they to heaven."
The result of these circumstances was the delusive treaty of Pinerolo,
agreed to in the month of August, 1655. This treaty was hurried on in spite
of the request of the plenipotentiaries from England and Holland for a
delay, in order that they might secure better terms for the inhabitants of
the valleys. While freedom of worship was promised, it was restricted by
many irksome conditions; _e.g._, preaching was forbidden in the commune of
S. Giovanni and the town of La Torre, and, moreover, the castle of the
latter place was rebuilt and garrisoned, a grievance which the Vaudois had
especially protested against. The grievances which grew out of the treaty
of Pinerolo, and the events which preceded that ill-conditioned arrangement
in the interval between the week of massacre and the date of its signature,
are so closely connected with the exploits and history of Janavello, that I
feel it better to let my account of La Torre rest here, and proceed to
narrate my visit to Rora, the residence of that patriotic soldier and pious
chieftain.
CHAPTER IX.
RORA AND JANAVELLO.
In order to reach this spot, my companion and I left the town of La Torre
by a street bounded on one side by Trinity College. We then crossed the
Pelice by a somewhat rustic bridge, and found ourselves very quickly
immersed in woods on the mountain side with numberless bye-paths. These
paths were very circuitous, and we had occasion often to ask our way from
some friendly woodman or inhabitant of a wayside chalêt. Every now and then
we came to a kind of table-land, where we could indulge in a panoramic
survey. The steepness of the ascent, and the occasional ruggedness of our
path, served to intensify our realization of the interest of the locality,
as the scene of so many heroic deeds by Janavello and his little but brave
band of patriots against the assailants of their hearths, faith, and homes.
About an hour and a half from the time we had left La Torre we came to the
Plas Janavel, which constitutes a magnificent amphitheatre, planted with
vines, and corn, and chestnut trees. From this locality we bore away in a
south-westerly direction, over a rocky eminence crowned with wood, and
descended through gardens and orchards to a kind of ravine or narrow
valley, on the sloping side of which stands Janavello's house. We found an
old, but obliging, Roman Catholic in possession of the premises, once so
bravely defended by their patriotic owner. However, overwhelmed by numbers,
he was compelled to retreat after performing prodigies of valour, his
sister, with babe at her breast, being shot by his side. We were shown the
entrance to the subterranean outlet by which Janavello made his escape. The
initials G. G., with the date of the year, we also read, cut in the stone
above.
So soon, however, as Janavello had placed his little son, only eight years
of age, in the care of friends in Dauphiny, he returned to his native
valleys, and became the David of his people against the bands of
Philistines who were yet in the land. The skill and bravery already
displayed by Janavello in so successfully resisting the troops of Pianezza,
led the latter at first to attempt to win over the patriot warrior by
offering him a pardon for himself and the safe return of his wife and three
daughters (who had been captured at Rora) if he would renounce his
"heresy," but threatening him if he refused with the severest treatment. To
this Janavello nobly replied, "That there were no torments so cruel, nor
death so barbarous, which he would not prefer to abjuration; that if the
marquis made his wife and daughters to pass through the fire, the flames
could only consume their bodies; that as for their souls, he commended them
to God, trusting them in His hands equally with his own, in case it should
please Him to permit his falling into the hands of the executioners."
Janavello's troop, led by himself and his lieutenant, Jahier, had many
successful contests with the enemy during the months of May, June, and
July. They captured the town of Secondo, occupied by their enemies, and
while putting to death large numbers of the Irish soldiers who had been
guilty of such enormities, they yet spared the sick, aged, and children,
unlike the treatment accorded to themselves. One of their chief services,
however, was to keep in check the garrison which had been placed in the
fort at La Torre. A splendid victory on the heights of Angrogna was sadly
clouded by a wound received by Janavello. For a time it was thought to be
mortal. However, Janavello, being removed to a distance, gradually
recovered; but a yet worse thing happened later in the day. Jahier, to whom
the command had been entrusted by Janavello, with the request to cease the
conflict for that evening, was induced by a traitor to disregard that
instruction, and fell, with fifty of his men, into an ambush of the enemy.
Jahier, his son, and all his companions but one, fell, covered with wounds,
and fighting with the courage of heroes. Leger speaks of Jahier as a
perfect captain, had it not have been for his imprudent boldness.
However, Janavello mercifully recovered from his wound, and when the
Vaudois, wearied beyond endurance by the cruelties inflicted upon them by
the successive governors of that fort at La Torre which had been most
unjustly restored in 1655 after its destruction by the French in 1593,
could no longer submit, the hero of Rora (notwithstanding a price was set
upon his head) assembled some two or three hundred patriots to resist the
plundering bands of De Bagnol and Paolo de Berges. Such was the terror
caused by these wretches that the people of Giovanni, La Torre, Rora, and
Lucerna, fled to the mountains on the French territory. Then, as if
disappointed of his prey, De Bagnol issued an edict commanding them within
three days to return and present themselves at the fort. No exception was
to be allowed for age, sex, or condition. The majority were wise enough to
disobey this order, but some, thinking they might be allowed to cultivate
their lands again, ventured to return, but, alas! they had occasion to
bitterly lament the result. Whilst the commandant of the fortress of La
Torre ordered the fugitives to return, Janavello exerted his influence to
keep them back. Before the final date, June 25th, 1662, had arrived, an
army, commanded by the Marquises of Fleury and Angrogna, appeared at the
entrance of the Val Pelice, so that the Vaudois could no longer doubt the
intentions of their enemies. But at this stage happened one of those
remarkable displays of loyalty to their prince on the part of the Vaudois
which was only equalled by their fidelity to God. The troops of the duke
were prevented by the armed population of the valleys from crossing the end
so as to reach the fort of Mirabouc beyond Bobbio, which was then destitute
of provisions, and which it was desired to reinforce. Under these
circumstances the commanders of the Piedmontese troops requested the chief
persons of the commune to give a proof of submission and good-will to their
sovereign by escorting a convoy which was on its way to the fortress. They
were assured that if they would do this that peace would be promptly
restored. The devoted Vaudois, more willing to risk their own safety than
appear to distrust their prince, complied with this request; yea, even more
than once, though a war of extermination was being urged against them; for
their enemies, unable to discover any marks of merit in those they
stigmatized as heretics, were seeking to occupy the heights of La Vachere
and obtain possession of their citadel, the Pra del Torre. On the 6th of
July, 1663, the enemy ascended the mountains from four different points.
The two first divisions, numbering four thousand men, were fortifying
themselves on the hill of Plans before attempting to force through the
narrow pass called the gate of Angrogna, occupied by a detachment of
Vaudois placed there by Janavello. In the meantime the two other divisions
of the enemy's force, approaching from the side of Giovanni and La Torre,
repulsed the six or seven hundred mountaineers who had been hastily
gathered at that point; but when they reached the rocks and ruins of
Roccamanetto, the scene of many a victory won by the patriot bands, and
which, said Janavello on this occasion, is "our Tabor," the Vaudois stayed
the course of their assailants and finally compelled them to retreat with
considerable slaughter. Janavello then gave thanks to God, and after
leaving a guard led his troops down the valley, exclaiming, "Let us sweep
these cowards from the hills!"
After a determined charge in flank, and the renewed efforts of the Vaudois
already posted at the gate of Angrogna, the Piedmontese fled, leaving
behind them over six hundred dead, besides many wounded. As the results of
these discomfitures, a new general was appointed for the Piedmontese
troops, Count Damian; and although other successes followed the arms of the
patriots, yet they suffered a reverse at St. Germano, and frightful
cruelties were perpetrated by their enemies; _e.g._, at Roccapiatta they
burnt to death a woman nearly one hundred years of age, and bedridden. At
St. Germano a young woman is treated with every possible indecency, and
then left to die, after having her flesh cut from her bones. Other
atrocities also were wrought upon persons falling into the hands of the
soldiers, which it is impossible to recite. The Duke of Savoy now began to
feel disappointed at the results of this persecution of his subjects; and
the deputies of the Swiss cantons tried to obtain honourable conditions for
the Vaudois. Therefore a kind of amnesty was published Feb. 14th, 1664,
which, although professing to confirm the articles of the treaty of
Pinerolo, really abridged many of the privileges formerly enjoyed by the
Vaudois. It also imposed a fine of two million francs. Janavello was
refused any share in the benefits of this treaty, and consequently retired
to Geneva, where his valuable counsel stood Arnaud in good stead at a later
period. In the war between Charles Emmanuel of Savoy and the Genoese, in
1672, the Vaudois rendered such cheerful and valuable help that their
sovereign was constrained to make a public acknowledgment of their
services. A brighter day now seemed dawning upon these faithful valley men.
To be the object of their ruler's confidence and affection was a pleasure
as sweet to their taste as rare in their experience. But, alas! this
pleasant change is but a break in the dark clouds which have so long
overshadowed their troubled life, and but the precursor of a storm of
bitterness and cruelty unsurpassed even in their annals of woe and sadness.
Charles Emmanuel died on the 3rd of June, 1678. For a few years, under the
regency of his widow and the reign of his son, Victor Amadeus VII., there
was peace. But just at the time when their services against the banditti
of Mondovi might seem to have added to their claims and expectation, new
dangers appear.
It was in this wise. Louis XIV. of France thought to atone for the misdeeds
of a life of sensuality by the forced conversion of his subjects to popery,
and so, after a series of preliminary brutalities, to which he had been
stimulated by his confessor and others, he revokes the edict of Nantes, and
gives to the prosperity of his country a blow from which it has never
recovered. But the grand monarque of France was not content to tread this
royal road to heaven alone. He wished his neighbour of Savoy to share in
the benedictions of the pretended successor of St. Peter. However, the
young duke shrank from imitating such conduct, until he was politely
reminded by the French ambassador that his master would drive away the
heretics with fourteen thousand men, but that he would also retain their
valleys for himself. In consequence of this Amadeus engages to join with
the king of France in shedding the blood of the saints. A painful
foreboding of suffering filled the minds of the Vaudois as soon as they
heard of the revocation of the edict of Nantes; but they were not prepared
for the actual severity of the edict of January 30th, 1686, which forbade,
under pain of death, all religious services except the Romish, and ordered
the destruction of their temples, the banishment of their ministers and
schoolmasters, and the baptism and education of their children henceforth
in the false creed of Rome. This was indeed the bitterest drop in their cup
of overflowing grief. Staggered by the enormity of the evil, they first of
all sought the ear of their own prince. Disappointed, they began to make
preparations to defend themselves against the troops which were gathering
on their frontiers. On the 22nd of April the popish army began its march,
the Piedmontese led by Gabriel of Savoy, uncle of the duke, the French
commanded by Catinat. The latter began operations in the valley of Clusone.
They attacked the Vaudois entrenchments at Pramol, but were so obstinately
resisted, although they outnumbered the defenders as six to one, that after
ten hours' fighting they fell back, followed by the Vaudois as far as the
temple of St. Germain, when the night closed the encounter; and on the next
day they were protected by reinforcements from Pinerolo. The five hundred
Frenchmen killed and wounded on this occasion furnished the pretext for
horrible cruelties practised by that portion of the troops which were
commanded by Catinat himself in the defenceless valley of Martino.
In the meantime Gabriel of Savoy was attacking the valley of Angrogna. The
Vaudois, although weakened by divisions, and lacking such leaders as
Janavello and Leger, yet fortified the heights of La Vachere, and for a
whole day successfully resisted their assailants. But, unfortunately, they
were induced to believe the promise made to them in a note signed by
Gabriel of Savoy, in the name of his nephew, that "if they laid down their
arms they should not be injured, either in their own persons or in those of
their wives and children." This promise, and similar ones made to other
groups of the Vaudois at Pra del Torre, Permian, near Pramol, and other
retired spots in the neighbourhood of La Torre, were all shamefully
disregarded. The people of Bobbio were the last to give way, after a brave
resistance, which they continued on the rocks of the Vandalin. Frightful
deeds of shame and cruelty now prevailed all through the valleys. Two
examples may suffice, although by no means the worst in some respects. A
woman takes refuge in a cave, with her little babe and a goat, which
furnished the means of their subsistence. Unfortunately the poor animal was
heard to bleat by some of the soldiers who happened to be near. These
wretches seized the child and, in the presence of its mother, threw it over
the precipice, and then led the mother herself to a jutting crag that she
might die there in the greatest agony. A second case is that of the pastor
of Guigot, near Prali. He had secreted himself under a rock, and believing
the enemy to be at a distance, was consoling himself by singing a psalm.
For this offence, after months of suffering in prison, he was condemned to
death. He died with the Saviour's words on his lips--"Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit." The cruelties inflicted on the Vaudois at this
time were even greater than those resulting from the massacres of 1655;
but, in addition to all that took place within the valleys themselves,
there remain the wrongs perpetrated upon those who were dragged from their
loved, though desolated, homes. Some fourteen thousand persons were
distributed in thirteen or fourteen prison fortresses. Husbands were
separated from their wives, parents from their children, some two thousand
children being placed among papists for the purposes of perversion. These
were chiefly sent to the district of Vercelli, in Piedmont. And thus the
church of Rome won a triumph even more complete than her sanguinary labours
in the low countries. She had now silenced the gospel in Italy. That pure
flame in the valleys of Piedmont no longer shone amidst the darkness.
Those pious mountaineers no longer sang their psalms by hill-side, nor
offered the worship of a free heart in their lowly dells. The pure morals
of those shepherds and vine-dressers no longer rebuked the foul
licentiousness which flourished amid the benedictions of Santa Chiesa,
provided heretics were exterminated. That gospel which apostles taught, and
Rome once received, was no longer heard from the lips of pastors who
disdain the polluting touch of hands more able to confer the gifts of Simon
Magus than those of Simon Peter.
But yet these children of a pure faith are not conquered. They leave their
homes in the months of November, December, and February. Hundreds perish by
the way. How could it be otherwise? At that season of the year, and after
the treatment they had received in the dungeons in which they had groaned,
even strong men would have shrank from crossing the Alps, to say nothing of
the aged women and young children. Alas! O Rome, thy tender mercies are
cruel! The Swiss Protestants did nobly to soften the horrors of the
treatment awarded to their suffering co-religionists. They not only
remonstrated at the Court of Turin, but provided clothing and food to
assist the sufferers; they kept a solemn fast-day; they made collections;
they stationed themselves, by the consent of the Piedmontese authorities
(let it be said), at various places along the route. So by the end of
February, 1687, some two thousand six hundred Vaudois, men, women, and
children, were received within the hospitable walls of the city of Geneva.
Afterwards their numbers reached three thousand, and these were all that
remained out of a population of about sixteen thousand, dragged or driven
from the valleys. Nine pastors had been imprisoned in the citadel of Turin
with their families, and although their liberation was earnestly asked for
by the Swiss commissioners, it does not appear that they were ever allowed
to join their exiled brethren in Switzerland. However, the Vaudois, though
deeply touched with the kindness shown them by their friends in Switzerland
and Germany, yet sighed after their own dear valleys. Although Janavello
could not lend them active aid by his no longer stalwart arm and heroic
presence, yet he took a deep interest in the preparations for their return,
and praised God that He had provided them a captain. Who this captain was,
and the nature of the deliverance wrought by his instrumentality, must be
left for another chapter.
CHAPTER X.
Henri Arnaud was born at Die, in Dauphiny, in 1641. He was educated for the
Christian ministry, but, owing to the troubles of the period, betook
himself to a military life for a time. He entered the service of William
Prince of Orange, afterwards King William III. of England, who was regarded
at that time as the hereditary champion of Protestant interests in Europe,
and the determined opponent, as he afterwards proved, of the restless
ambition and persecuting tyranny of Louis XIV. of France. The Prince of
Orange thought highly of the military talents and the personal character of
Henri Arnaud, and promoted him to the rank of captain in his army. He
seems, however, to have reverted to the intention of his early life, about
the year 1684, inasmuch as we find him occupying the important post of
pastor at La Torre during the eventful year 1686, the year of the
revocation of the edict of Nantes. Amadeus II., goaded on by the
threatenings and entreaties of the French king, renewed the persecution of
his faithful Vaudois, by the publication of a severe edict in January, and
by the invasion of their territory in the April following. The Vaudois
defended themselves with such courage and success that, after ten hours'
fighting, the invaders were compelled to retreat as far as the temple at
Germano. The close of the day gave a respite to the enemy, and enabled
them to obtain reinforcements from Pinerolo. In this successful repulse of
the French and Piedmontese troops, and which resulted in the death or
wounding of 500 Frenchmen, Henri Arnaud played a conspicuous part. But when
subsequently the Vaudois were ready to confide in the faithless but
plausible proposals of Gabriel of Savoy, Henri Arnaud refused to trust
himself to the enemies of his country, and as his warnings were disregarded
he escaped to Switzerland. Here he was providentially preserved and
protected for a yet greater opportunity of service to the land and church
of his adoption. The promise of Gabriel of Savoy to the Vaudois, that if
they laid down their arms they should not be injured, either in their own
persons or in those of their wives and children, was shamefully
disregarded; therefore, after terrible sufferings in the summer and autumn,
several thousands quit their much-loved valleys, and cross the Alps in the
worst season of the year rather than abjure the faith of their fathers.
About two thousand six hundred of these exiles reach the hospitable city of
Geneva by the end of February, 1687. Later on some hundreds more were added
to their numbers. Beside Henry Arnaud, there was already at Geneva the
heroic Janavello. Deeply touched as were the exiles with the Christian
sympathy shown to them by friends in Switzerland and Germany, gratefully
impressed as they were with the efforts making for their settlement in
these hospitable countries, yet their thoughts would often revert to their
native valleys. They not only sighed over the remembrance of the pastures
where they had fed their flocks, but they also groaned for the temples of
God which had been broken down. For the voice of truth which was now
silenced in the land of martyrs and confessors, and simultaneously grew up
the hope and the desire of returning to the place which had been for so
long the home of their fathers. When Henri Arnaud found that this project
had the approval of the veteran Janavello, he repaired to Holland, to lay
the design before the Prince of Orange, who warmly entered into the design,
and promised substantial assistance towards its realization. After two
premature attempts and many difficulties, Arnaud, who was residing at this
time with his family at Neufchâtel, made his arrangements so well that many
hundreds of the Vaudois succeeded in assembling in the forest of Prangins,
near the little town of Nyon on the shore of the lake Leman.
Between nine and ten o'clock in the evening of the 16th of August, 1689,
Arnaud gave the signal for embarkation by falling on his knees by the side
of the lake, and imploring in a loud voice the almighty and all-gracious
Being, who had been their helper in the past, to prosper their attempt to
regain their native valleys, and re-erect the standard of evangelical truth
on their own beloved fatherland. The patriot band set out in fifteen boats,
and having landed, the first detachment returned for those left behind.
Only three of the boats, however, made the second journey in safety, and so
some were not brought from the Swiss side of the lake. When Arnaud reviewed
his forces he found there were some 900 men who had safely crossed the
lake. A small band indeed for so great an enterprise; a very inadequate
force to contend with thousands of disciplined troops, and to overcome the
obstacles which would be raised by hostile populations through whose
territories they must pass; to encounter the fatigue of forced marches over
craggy precipices, along deep and dangerous defiles--in addition, to do all
this with but slender equipments of food and other necessaries. Still, no
one draws back. They have counted the cost. They deem the prize at which
they aim worthy of the risk they run. They are sustained by the
recollections of past deliverance. "Our fathers trusted in Thee, and Thou
didst deliver them; they cried unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted
in Thee, and were not confounded," was the sentiment which sped them onward
in their arduous march. Nor did Arnaud neglect any suitable means of an
ordinary kind for ensuring success. He divided his 900 men into twenty
companies, organized with reference to their native communes; _e.g._,
Angrogna had three companies, with their captains; San Giovanni two, &c.
They were arranged to march in regular military order, having a vanguard,
centre, and rear, observing the strictest discipline. Beside Arnaud, there
were two other pastors with the little army, Chyon of Pont à Royans, in
Dauphiny, and Montoux of the Val Pragela. The first, however, was soon lost
to the expedition; for, having incautiously entered the first village they
reached in order to obtain a guide, he was taken prisoner, and detained at
Chambéry until the peace. As soon as the army was ready to march, the
patriot band again sought the blessing of the God of their fathers. They
then set out in a southerly direction, passing through the little town of
Yvoire, and compelled Savoyard gentlemen and priests to accompany them as
hostages and guides. The alarm felt at first by the people through whose
villages they passed subsided when their orderly conduct became known, so
that after a time the peasants, with their ministers, were seen approaching
and watching the troops as they filed off, and even crying after them, "May
God be with you!" In some cases refreshments were also supplied, and
remuneration refused. However, a different experience awaited them as they
set out by a mountain path for Boëge, a little town on the river Menoge, in
the province of Faucigny. Here the gentry made a great show of resistance,
and although they made them prisoners, together with 200 armed peasants
under the command of a quartermaster, yet the circumstance convinced Arnaud
that he must take precautions, otherwise the expedition would be greatly
hindered. Therefore one of the gentry of Boëge was instructed to write a
letter informing the people of the next town that they were not to be
alarmed at the approach of the Vaudois, but to give them a free passage,
and supply them with provisions, for which they always paid. So they passed
on without very remarkable events, except privations and exposure to wet
and cold day by day, until, crossing the Arve, they reached Sallenches, at
the foot of the mighty monarch of European mountains, Mont Blanc. The sight
of the mountain seems to have severely tested the resolution of some of
Arnaud's followers, and it required all his skill and energy to inspire
them with courage to make the passage through the defile of the Bonhomme.
Indeed, the descent of the column was more hazardous than the ascent. To
accomplish this in many cases they were compelled to assume a sitting
posture, and slide down the face of the rocks. On the evening of the
fourth day the patriots reached the town of Sey, on the Isère, and met with
a good supply of provisions. On the evening of the fifth day Arnaud and his
colleague, Montoux, for the first time since they had started, lodged,
supped, and rested for three hours in peace. The next day they ascended
Mont Iseran, and resting at Maurienne in the evening, they ascended the
Mont Cenis the day after, and seized all the post-horses, to prevent the
news of their arrival being so easily communicated. From this point they
branched off in the direction of the little Mont Cenis, as being a less
frequented road, and spent the night very uncomfortably in the woods.
On the eighth day they left the valley of Jaillon, and would have proceeded
by way of Susa, crossing the Dora Riparia, but having unsuccessfully
attempted to dislodge a body of troops and peasants who commanded a portion
of that road, Arnaud decided on regaining the heights. This they did, but
not without much suffering and a loss of forty men, including two captains
and two surgeons. After this the Vaudois proceeded through the pass of
Touille, to the west, coming out by Oulx, still in the valley of the Dora,
but several leagues distant from Susa, and in the line now traversed by the
masterpiece of modern engineering, viz., the Mont Cenis Tunnel. Arnaud's
design was to cross the river by the bridge of Salabertrand, between Oulx
and Exilles, but learning from a peasant, of whom they had asked for food,
that an excellent supper was preparing for them, they understood it was
dangerous to remain. After taking refreshment, therefore, Arnaud renewed
the march, and discovered some thirty-six camp fires, and shortly after
the vanguard encountered the enemy's outposts.
As was the invariable custom, an interval of prayer preceded their further
advance, made under cover of the night. Approaching the bridge, they are
asked, "Who's there?" and answer, "Friends;" to which the enemy reply,
"Kill! kill!" emphasized by a tremendous fire for a quarter of an hour.
Arnaud, however, saved his men by commanding them to lie on the ground at
the first shot. Still they were in great danger, for a portion of the enemy
had got to the rear of the Vaudois, and so they were exposed from both
sides. Realizing their desperate position, a cry was raised--"Courage! the
bridge is won!" At those words Arnaud's men rushed headlong, sword in hand,
and with bayonets fixed forced the entrenchments of the enemy. Thus, by the
favour of God, 800 men, unaccustomed to war, and exhausted by fatigue, won
a victory over a body numbering some 2,500 troops, exclusive of those who
had attacked them in the rear, and the peasants who assisted in the fray.
The defeated lost six hundred of their men, besides twelve captains and
other officers; the victors, only fifteen killed and twelve wounded. Their
hostages, however, took advantage of the battle and escaped, with the
exception of six of the oldest. Apart from the successful repulse of the
troops intended to obstruct their journey, this splendid victory at the
bridge of Salabertrand gave to the conquerors military stores and other
booty. Arnaud's men would have been glad to have rested, but prudence bid
them not to linger. So, having destroyed so much of the spoil as they were
unable to appropriate, they set forward. The explosion of the enemy's
powder, set on fire by the Vaudois, mingled with their own shouts of
triumph and the notes of their trumpets, as with exulting hearts they
renewed their march, exclaiming, "Thanks be to the Lord of hosts, who hath
given us the victory over all our enemies." However great as was their joy,
so great had been their labours that twenty-four of their number were so
overpowered by fatigue that they fell asleep on their moonlight march
through the valley of the Dora, and were captured by the enemy, so that
these twenty-four added to the forty previously lost in the passage of the
Jaillon, diminished the full measure of their satisfaction. Still they
press forward, and as the light of another day dawns upon them (the ninth
of their journey and the Lord's Day) they had climbed the summit of Mont
Sci, and from it looked with beating hearts upon the peaks of their own
loved mountains. Indeed it was only the valley of Pragela (a district
closely associated with their own in faith and worship until his so-called
Christian majesty banished the profession of the gospel from its
boundaries) that interposed between them and the object of their march. On
this Pisgah top Arnaud gathers his men around him, and beneath the roof of
heaven and amidst the walls of surrounding mountain slopes, glistening with
the brightness of the rising sun, pours out the psalm of glad thanksgiving,
and offers the prayer of the contrite heart.
On Tuesday, August 27th, 1689, the brave Vaudois, who had crossed the lake
of Geneva only eleven days before, now set foot in the first village of
their own territory, viz., Balsille, at the north-west extremity of the
valley of San Martino. This was indeed a solemn moment, recalling the
successful labours of the past and suggesting the difficulties and
anxieties of the future. Arnaud would doubtless examine minutely into the
condition and number of his men, and as he did so painfully consider the
losses he had sustained, reducing the patriot band to about seven hundred
men. This review is necessary in order to explain the otherwise sanguinary
character of the determination to refuse all quarter to the troops which
attacked them in their endeavours to regain possession of their native
valleys. Hence the Vaudois put to death the guard on the Alps of the Pis,
and at Balsille; this was the greatest number they did so treat. From
Balsille Arnaud led his men into the valley of Prali, and subdivided his
army into two divisions. On reaching the hamlet of Guigot, they rejoiced to
find their temple still standing, and purging it of the superstitious
ornaments introduced by the Papists, these seven hundred patriot warriors
laid down their arms and sang the 74th Psalm--
"Hast Thou cast us off for ever?
Will Thine anger no more cease?
Shall Thy people never, never
Dwell again, O Lord, in peace?
Oh, behold the desolation!
See Thy holy place defiled!
Scattered is Thy congregation,
And Thy sanctuary spoiled.
"Rise, O Lord, in might victorious,
Rise and give Thy people aid;
Come, O come in triumph glorious,
Overwhelm Thy foes dismayed.
Circled with a thousand wonders,
Girt with all Thy power and strength,
Mid ten thousand thousand thunders
Save, redeem Thy own, at length!"
They also sung the 129th Psalm, and then Arnaud, taking his text from some
verses of the latter psalm, spoke to them, and exhorted them to endure
hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The memories of the place as the
scene of the martyrdom of the pastor Leydet, who was barbarously put to
death near this spot by Papists who overheard him singing psalms, would
tend to deepen their emotion and fill their souls with firmer resolves to
dare and die for faith and fatherland.
Their courage soon found employment in dislodging a body of 200 troops who
were entrenched at the ports of San Guliano. These men contemptuously dared
them to the fight, shouting, "Come on, varlets of the devil, we occupy all
the passes, and there are three thousand of us!" The Vaudois accepted the
challenge, and at a single charge drove them from their trenches and
captured all their stores, a very valuable acquisition to the conquerors.
Moreover they slew thirty-one of the fugitives, and lost but one of their
own number. Following up their successes, they besieged Bobbio, and drove
away those who had dispersed its rightful and former occupants. After this
they hold a solemn conclave for devotional and deliberative purposes. M.
Montoux, Arnaud's colleague in the pastoral office, addressed them, and
then Arnaud himself read the following oath, which was solemnly agreed to,
viz., "God, by His divine grace, having happily reconducted us to the
inheritance of our fathers, there to establish the pure service of our
holy religion, ... we, pastors, captains, and other officers, swear and
promise before the face of the living God, ... neither to separate nor
disunite while God grants us life, even should we have the misfortune to be
reduced to three or four.... And to the intent that union, which is the
soul of our affairs, should remain inviolable among us, the officers shall
swear fidelity to the soldiers, and the soldiers to the officers, promising
together to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to deliver, if possible, our
brethren from the cruel woman of Babylon, and with them to re-establish and
maintain his kingdom till death, and observe all our lives with good faith
this present ordinance." As I stood upon this consecrated platform
(Sibaud), April 11th, 1871, I not only felt richly rewarded for the steep
climb, from which the good pastor of Bobbio sought to dissuade me, but I
gained an enlarged view of the wonderful power of the gospel of Christ in
ennobling and constraining the souls of these valley men to such deeds of
daring and suffering. If, as I firmly believe, the gospel teaches that
willingness to do and suffer for Christ is the evidence of our belonging to
Him, how luminous and abundant are the title-deeds of the Vaudois to be
reckoned "not least among the churches of God." May the spirit of the oath
still survive, and the day come when every one of those who inhabit the
locality shall be as true to the gospel of the grace of God as Arnaud and
his brave troops!
After this solemn convocation, and sundry additions to their military
organization, an attempt was made by Arnaud to rescue Villaro from the
Papists as Bobbio was rescued. At the first the enemy fled, some across the
Pelice, and others to the convent. While the Vaudois were closely pressing
them in this last-named retreat, their own position was turned by the
arrival of a large body of troops. These troops, 12,000 in number, drove
back the Vaudois to Bobbio, and threatened to exterminate them all. Eighty
made good their escape over the Vandalin by scattering themselves in all
directions, and afterwards rejoining the main body. Montoux, the assistant
pastor, being thus separated from his friends, was captured by the enemy,
and detained a prisoner at Turin until the peace. Arnaud three times gave
himself up for lost. Three times, with six of his men, he betook himself to
prayer; and three times the Lord sent him deliverance. At last he escaped
to the same mountain ridge where the eighty previously dispersed awaited
his arrival.
The check received at Villaro led Arnaud to retire from the inhabited parts
of the valley of Lucerna to the mountain heights, from which they could
attack detachments of troops at favourable intervals, and to which they
could betake themselves for safety in spots difficult of access, and easily
defended by a small number against large bodies of troops. These mountain
recesses, indeed, play an important part in the history of the Vaudois
generally, as well as in the exploits of Janavello and Arnaud in
particular. One of our sweetest English poets has beautifully apostrophized
the feelings of the brave valley men in the following exquisite lines:--
"For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God!
Thou hast made Thy children mighty
By the touch of the mountain sod,
Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge
Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God.
"The banner of the chieftain
Far, far below us waves,
The war-horse of the spearman
Cannot reach our lofty caves.
Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold
Of freedom's last abode;
For the strength of the hills we thank Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God.
"For the shadow of Thy presence,
Round our camp of rock outspread;
For the stern defiles of battle,
Bearing record of our dead;
For the snows and for the torrents,
For the free heart's burial sod;
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God."
It was chiefly on the heights above Sibaud, the slopes of the Vandalin, La
Vachera, and Mont Cervin, that they carried on their predatory and
guerrilla warfare. At one time they attacked 600 men, killed one hundred,
and lost only four. But they suffered almost incredible privations. Their
food oftentimes consisting of only wild fruits, raw cabbages, and other
vegetables uncooked. Occasionally they met with better fare; _e.g._, being
at Prali for two days they cut down all the corn in the neighbourhood, and
ground it at the mills in the place. Nor did they forget their duties as
Christians in the midst of all these hardships. Arnaud administered the
holy communion to the troops who were with him, as well as to those in
retreat above Bobbio. The retreat of the Piedmontese troops under the
command of the Marquis de Parelle, enabled the Vaudois to keep in
possession of the valley of San Martino, and to lay up a stock of corn,
grapes, chestnuts, apples, and walnuts. The flying camp also were able to
capture some convoys of provision, so that they could look forward to the
winter (this was now Sept. 16th) without much fear as to supplies. The
Vaudois were now in three divisions; the larger part in the valley of San
Martino, another body next in number who were scouring the valley of
Angrogna, and the third and smaller division at Serre de Cruel over Bobbio.
This last detachment destroyed the convent of Villaro lest it should be
turned into a fortress. They pulled down the popish church at Rora, reduced
the village to ashes, and brought away much spoil. However, as soon as the
Piedmontese soldiers were able to cover the mountains with troops they
retaliated by setting on fire the Vaudois asylum at Serre de Cruel. The
Vaudois resisted, and did much execution; but at last, terrified by the
numbers of their adversaries, they forsook their new fortifications at
Pausettes and Aiguille, leaving behind them all their winter stores. They
were pursued from rock to rock, obliged to hide in the most loathsome
caverns, and to subsist almost without food, which was procured only at the
peril of their lives. Nothing but a special Providence kept them from
entire destruction, and enabled them to rejoin the main body of their
friends in the valley of San Martino. The French troops engaged in thus
hunting the Vaudois in the month of October were commanded by M. de
l'Ombraille, and, with the Piedmontese under Parelle, covered all the
villages and passes excepting a few small hamlets and byways. Hence the
position of the patriots was one of great danger. Some deserted, and
perished miserably by the enemy. A council was held at Rodoret. Divisions
of opinion arose, and ruin seemed at hand. At this critical moment Arnaud
summoned them to prayer. After this he exhorted his companions to sacrifice
their own views for the common good, and advised a retreat upon Balsille.
This they happily consented to, and the same night they were on their way
to the spot. The dangers of the road may be supposed from the circumstance
that much of it had to be passed on their hands and knees, and from the
fact that when the Vaudois afterwards saw the places by daylight they were
filled with horror.
We shall not be able to realize the good Providence which befriended them
at this time unless we consider for a moment the exact position of their
new retreat. The chief group of houses in the village of Balsille is close
to a torrent at the foot of the mountains in the extreme north-west of the
Val Martino. A stone bridge, close to which is a mill, unites the two parts
of the village lying eastward, at the foot of the steep rocks of
Guignivert, which rises towards the west, and is thickly wooded at its
base.[E]
From this natural wall a rock projects against the river and over the
dwellings, forming quite a natural fortress. It was supplied with water by
three fountains. On this rock, then, the Vaudois determined to await the
enemy, instead of fleeing from mountain to mountain as they had previously
done. To this end they excavated, threw up entrenchments, made covered
ways, and executed a series of defences in harmony with what might have
been the suggestions of a skilful military engineer. They had three lines
of defence within the fortifications on the lower rock, and then, on an
eminence yet higher, they constructed a little fort, with triple
entrenchment, and lastly, overlooking all, they posted a watch to give
notice of the least movement of the enemy. In addition to this they
repaired the mill at the foot of their fortifications. During this Arnaud
preached twice a week and conducted daily prayer. The Vaudois had only been
a few days at their work, when the French battalions, unable to meet with
them at Rodoret, followed them down the valley, having already surprised
their outposts at Passet, though without inflicting loss. On the 29th of
October the enemy surrounded them with troops from Friday to Sunday. They
also tried to force the bridge, but were compelled to retreat, leaving
sixty men killed and as many wounded, while the Vaudois had not lost a man.
In the month of November the French captured one of Arnaud's men, who had
gone to nurse a sick friend, and in spite of the entreaties of the judge
at Pérousé, a Roman Catholic, the commandant, De l'Ombraille, insisted on
his execution. They made no further assault upon the castle, but having
burnt all the houses, farm buildings, corn stacks, &c., they retired,
telling the Vaudois "to have patience, and they would return after Easter."
They were now comparatively free in their movements, and felt intensely
thankful to that gracious Father who had preserved them through so many
dangers, and given them, to retain possession of, the land they had come to
reclaim. They were about 400 strong, exclusive of that division which had
fixed itself on the mountains of Angrogna, and the two little bands which
still found a refuge in the wilds of the glen Guichard, or among the rocks
overhanging Bobbio.
The question of food made them anxious. But that God who had so wonderfully
provided for them in the past, had made as remarkable provision for this
necessity. A fall of snow had covered the corn which had ripened in
September, but was left standing in the fields by this circumstance. Thus
hidden from the enemy, a sudden thaw revealed the treasure thus mercifully
laid up for these patriot warriors. In addition to the corn, strong
detachments made requisitions on the valleys of Pragela and Queyras, and so
obtained supplies of butter, salt, wine, and other provisions. A sad
incident of the winter arose from the condition of one of those little
parties, whom the chances of war or some imprudence separated from the main
body. A band of twelve, concealed in a cave behind L'Essart, near Bobbio,
were obliged by hunger to come out for provisions. On returning, they
thought they had been tracked in the snow, and so decided to betake
themselves to a new place of refuge in La Biava. Scarcely had they set out,
however, than they discovered 125 peasants in pursuit of them. They threw
down their baggage, and having reached a commanding height, poured down
such an effective volley that their assailants sought a truce, and
acknowledged twelve dead and thirteen wounded, though not one of the
Vaudois was the least hurt. Their victory did not, however, relieve them
for long. Although their refuge was secure, the extreme cold made it
untenable, and they were compelled to seek a milder climate. Saddened by
suffering, and resolved to protect themselves, they met on their way an
armed band. Assuming that they were enemies, they fired and killed one of
the party, when, to their great grief, blended with unutterable joy, they
discovered that they were brethren. With tears in their eyes they embraced
each other, and found the safety and succour they had almost despaired of
in the castle at Balsille.
During the winter months messages were sent to induce the Vaudois to
withdraw from their native land. To this Arnaud sent suitable replies, and
also strengthened the fortifications in the only part which had been left
open by the river side.
On the 1st of May, 12,000 Piedmontese troops and 10,000 French, making a
total of 22,000 troops, under the command of Catinat, surrounded Arnaud's
retreat. A body of horse soldiers concealed themselves in the neighbouring
woods, but were received with so effective a discharge of shot as to
inflict great loss. The main body of the assailants drew up to the foot of
the rock, but had to make a rapid retreat, with severe loss both in dead
and wounded. After this an engineer, having surveyed the approaches to the
castle through a glass, ordered a picked corps of 500 men to advance in
that direction, supported by some 700 peasants of Pragela and Queyras, for
the purpose of destroying the fence of trees and palisades constructed by
Arnaud. Their attack was covered by the fire of 700 men, drawn up in line
of battle. But all was in vain; the fortifications were impregnable, and
the Vaudois, taking advantage of their confusion, poured down upon them
with such vigour that only ten or twelve men escaped. The commander and two
sergeants who remained by his side were taken prisoners, but not a single
Vaudois was injured. The enemy retreated in great confusion, and Arnaud,
assembling his men for thanksgiving and prayer, spoke so powerfully that
both pastor and people, officers and men, were affected to tears. On
searching the bodies of the slain, a number of popish charms were found,
vainly used as preservatives against the attacks of men who were supposed
to be in league with the evil one.
Catinat, like the Marquis de Larcy, in the affair of the bridge at
Salabertrand, was so mortified at his want of success, that he declined to
head another assault against the Vaudois, therefore he entrusts the command
to the Marquis de Fequières. This new attack, on the 10th of May, deprived
Arnaud and his men of the privilege of the Holy Communion, which they had
desired to partake of on Whit Monday. The day following that on which the
enemy's vanguard was observed, de Fequières formed his men into five
divisions, and completely invested the Vaudois stronghold. Finding the
discharge of musketry useless, he planted a cannon, loaded with balls
weighing eight pounds, on the Mont Guignivert, exactly opposite to La
Balsille. He then hoisted a white flag, and afterwards a red, signifying
that unless the besieged asked for peace that no quarter would be granted.
They had previously refused to surrender, on the ground "that they looked
to the aid of God to protect them in the heritage of their fathers, but
that if it were otherwise, they would not yield while life lasted."
The day following a breach was made, and an assault directed to three
different points. The attacking columns were covered by a furious
cannonade, and yet, wonderful to relate, none of the defenders were struck.
However, the lower entrenchments had to be abandoned, and M. de Parat, the
French prisoner, put to death, he acknowledging the necessity of the
sentence. Indeed, a crisis had come. Balsille could not be defended much
longer. The watch on the summit had been driven away by the enemy
commanding the opposite rocks. Happily the darkness was coming on, and by
its aid one means of safety was looked for, viz., flight. But when the
Vaudois looked out upon the glare of the enemy's camp fires their hearts
almost sank within them. And the French, on their part, were joyfully
anticipating their speedy destruction. But He who had so often fought for
Israel only permitted them to be reduced to such straits that they might
learn afresh how completely He was on their side. The camp fires, having by
their light revealed a possibility of escape through a frightful ravine,
were extinguished, so far as service to the enemy was concerned, _by means
of a thick fog_! So under cover of this shield of the Almighty the devoted
band, led by Captain Poulat, a native of Balsille, let themselves down by
an opening in the rocks. The journey was one of great difficulty. Branches
of trees and projecting ledges of rocks were used to assist the descent,
which was chiefly made in a sitting or sliding posture. Nor could the
fugitives altogether escape the neighbourhood of the French patrols, so
closely were they posted to the castle. One of the Vaudois, using his hands
to save himself from falling, let drop a kettle he was carrying, which by
its rolling down excited the notice of the sentinel, who at once gave the
challenge, "Who goes there?" But as the kettle made no reply, the men
passed on, Arnaud humorously relates. After descending the precipitous
sides of Mont Guignivert, the Vaudois directed their steps southward
towards Salse. It was now two hours after the break of day, and they were
cutting steps for themselves in the snow. A portion of the enemy's watch
discovered that they had escaped, and gave the alarm. Very quickly the
enemy pursued them in their journey, first of all for rest at Salse, then
on to Rodoret. Finding this, the Vaudois betook themselves to the summit of
Galmon, where they halted, and Arnaud reviewed his men. The sick and
wounded were sent to a declivity to be tended by the surgeon of M. Parat,
under a strong guard. The main body passed the night in the wood of
Serrelémi. A fog fortunately rising, enabled them to advance to a hamlet
called La Majère, where a shower of rain gave them a much-needed supply of
water. On the 17th of May, 1690 they had a sharp skirmish in the village
and churchyard of Pramol. They killed fifty-seven, and captured the
commandant, from whom Arnaud learnt that in three days Victor Amadeus would
have to decide as to the question of continuing his alliance with France,
or of uniting with England and other European states against Louis XIV.
Arnaud, who by his former intimacy with the Prince of Orange, now William
III. of England, was well acquainted with European politics, at once saw
how important was this news, and awaited the result with corresponding
anxiety.
The day after (Sunday), whilst Arnaud and his men were on the heights of
Angrogna, two messengers, sent by General Palavicini, announced the
decision of Victor Amadeus, and offered terms of peace in his name. The
sudden pleasure of such a communication, after nine months of hardship,
toil, and fighting, might have been too much for these poor persecuted
ones, had it not been tempered with doubts as to its truthfulness. But
gradually events confirmed their hopes, and scattered their fears.
Provisions were sent to Arnaud's men. The ministers, Montoux and Bastie,
with others who had been confined at Turin, now hastened to meet their
brethren. Everywhere they seemed treated with confidence; and, in
conjunction with the Duke's troops, they made several successful attacks
upon the French.
One of Arnaud's men having captured a courier carrying despatches for the
King of France, Palavicini, commander-in-chief of the troops of Piedmont,
was ordered to bring Arnaud with him into the presence of Amadeus. The
latter received the Vaudois deputation most graciously, and expressed his
desire that they should be henceforth friends, assuring them "that if they
hazarded their lives in his service, he also would hazard his for them."
In proof of this cordial reconciliation, Amadeus conferred the rank of
colonel on the brave Arnaud, the chieftain of the Vaudois. He also granted
permission for the families of the banished ones to return to their
valleys, and decreed the restoration of their ancient possessions. Early in
July Arnaud hastened to Milan to meet the refugees from Switzerland and
Germany, who with wives and children set out for their native valleys,
aided even by the kind help of those who, like the Elector of Brandenburg,
had given them shelter at some expense in his dominions, but who now made
fresh sacrifices to gratify the longing of their hearts.
Victor Amadeus was faithful to his promise, and not only allowed the exiles
to return to home and faith, but he also consented that some who under the
severity of trial had abjured their faith should be allowed the privilege
of returning to their first and purer creed. In return for this kindness,
as well as in strict conformity with their own patriotic and pious
principles, the Vaudois greatly assisted the Duke of Savoy in his war with
France, is the testimony of Botta in his _Storia d'Italia_. The Count of
Saluzzo also testifies "that they hastened to join the Marquis de Perelle,
_who had not long before attacked them_, and that their skirmishes cost the
enemy, whom they drove from Lucerna, more than a thousand men." Beauregard,
in his "_Historical Memories of the House of Savoy_," says, that "_the
barbets_, by their bravery, made themselves formidable to the French;" and
with regard to the siege of Coni, mentions with special praise the services
of a troop of "eight hundred Vaudois, under the command of a chief
celebrated among them." This chief, no doubt, was Arnaud; but whilst he was
anxious that they should render to their prince every possible help in a
military point of view, the latter sought to carry out his intention of
restoring the Vaudois to their property; but there were great difficulties
in the way.
By the edict of May 23rd, 1694, the ancient rights of the Vaudois are
acknowledged, and the persecuting decrees of January and April, 1686,
revoked. The pope, Innocent XII., tried to invalidate the decree, but the
Senate of Turin confirmed the edict of their sovereign, and prohibited the
bull of the pope.
So, all the prospect seemed fair, and the Vaudois, so long and cruelly
persecuted, might hope for an era of prosperity; for the time and means not
only to cultivate their desolated vineyards, to lead their flocks again to
pasture on their mountain slopes, and rebuild their thatched homesteads,
but also to restore the pure worship of their own and their fathers' God.
But, alas! "put not your trust in princes" was a sentiment which might have
been graven deeply on the memory of the all-confiding, all-enduring
Vaudois.
Victor Amadeus was persuaded by the crafty Louis XIV. to forsake his allies
in the war against France, and become again a vassal of the proud and
perfidious French king. And therefore, while he remains true to the
engagement to protect the ancient inhabitants of the valleys against their
inveterate persecutor, he makes a secret treaty (1696) by which, firstly,
intercourse between the professors of the reformed faith in France and
Savoy is prohibited; secondly, French soldiers enlisted in the Vaudois army
are no longer allowed to remain in the service of the duke; thirdly,
refugees from France were to be expelled the valleys.
This crafty device of the mean and cowardly French king resulted in the
banishment of seven of the most valuable Vaudois pastors, viz., Montoux,
the companion of Arnaud, five of their colleagues, natives of Pragela or
Dauphine, and _Arnaud himself_! It was indeed with a heavy heart that the
brave and trusted leader, the tried and sagacious counsellor, the devoted
and accomplished pastor of the Vaudois, left for ever those churches in
whose service he had wrought such exploits, and on whose behalf he had
dared death in a thousand shapes and suffered almost incredible privations.
His only consolation, and without it, hero as he was, Arnaud might have
died from grief, lay in the mighty fact, that he had been privileged to
accomplish a work inferior to none in the annals of history. With a motive
infinitely higher than that of Zenophon, his exploits as a soldier are
equal in skill, endurance, and bravery to his; while, as regards results,
the contrast is still more favourable to Henri Arnaud's work.
The Greeks, it is true, were brought back to their country, but remained
mercenaries to the last, while the Vaudois both regained their homes, and
succeeded in replanting the standard of their faith so firmly under the
favour of Almighty God that never since has it been in such danger of
extinction as Arnaud delivered it from.
"Since then 'abide the chosen race
Within their ancient dwelling place,'
Since then 'upon each Alpine height
Truth sits enthroned in Rome's despite.'"
Some 3,000 French Protestants withdrew with Henri Arnaud from the valleys.
Their first resting-place was Geneva, which twelve years before had so
charitably welcomed the persecuted Vaudois. Arnaud reached Geneva August
30th, 1698, and speedily sought a place of habitation for his brethren. The
Duke of Wurtemberg provided a home for these victims of the cruelty of
Louis XIV. in a place to the west and north of Stuttgardt. On this occasion
the exiles had no hope of returning, and they settled down in their new
abode and called their rising settlements by the names of their former
villages in the valleys of Perosa and Pragela. The Duke of Wurtemberg
treated these people with every kindness. As regards church matters and
education they carried out their own home arrangements, assisted by funds
from England. In a colony, Schoenberg, near Dürrmenz, Arnaud passed the
remainder of his life. He declined the pressing offer of our King William
III. to take the command of a regiment in the English army. Having led the
Vaudois once back to their native soil, and established them in their
earthly Goshen, his only desire now was to lead the flock entrusted to his
care amid the green pastures of the gospel upward to the heavenly Canaan.
He died on the 8th of September, 1721, having reached the goodly age of
four score years. He was twice married, and left behind him three sons and
two daughters.
Within the humble precincts of a temple built with walls of clay, and a
bell, whose sound was never heard beyond the cherry-trees of the village,
gratitude and respect have assigned a place of honour to the mortal remains
of this truly great man. The ashes of Henri Arnaud lie beneath the
communion table. An engraving suspended below the pulpit gives the features
of the hero of San Germano of Salabertrand and the Balsille.
While on his tombstone is the following Latin inscription:--
"Beneath this Tomb lies
HENRI ARNAUD,
PASTOR AND ALSO MILITARY COMMANDER OF THE
PIEDMONTESE VAUDOIS."
In the centre of the monument--
"Thou seest here the ashes of Arnaud, but his achievements,
labours, and undaunted courage none can depict. The son of
Jesse combats alone thousands of foreigners; alone he terrifies
their camp and leader. He died September 8th, 1721, aged lxxx."
FOOTNOTES:
[E] A modern traveller thus graphically describes the place as he saw it in
1854:--"And now came in view the glorious Balsille, springing from the bed
of the Germanasca, and its successive wooded aiguilles rising like
pinnacles up the steep roof of a Gothic cathedral.... Around it gape
fearful ravines, each with its headlong torrent, separating it from the
grand heights of the d'Albergian on the north, and the mount Guignivert on
the south; whilst it is attached to the summit of the Col du Pis on the
west. The peaks of Balsille are fringed with pines, but the rocks
themselves are so pointed and broken that they resemble tops of pines on a
Titan scale. There are four principal peaks, and so the mountain has been
named Quatre Dents." The term château, or castle, used in this narrative
was applied to a kind of grassy platform at the top.
CHAPTER XI.
Although the Vaudois were not wholly despoiled of the fruit of their heroic
efforts in fighting their way back to their native valleys, yet the cruel
banishment of the French Protestants, and the removal of so many of their
gifted and devoted leaders, was a very heavy calamity. It placed almost
insuperable difficulties in the way of their reorganization. Furthermore,
they were greatly harassed by the imposition of taxes far beyond their
means, and most unjustly levied _only_ on the Protestants. Very
dishonourable attempts were also made to seduce their children from the
profession of evangelical principles. They were not allowed to repair their
shattered temples, and were deprived of a proper number of pastors; so that
altogether they were in an evil case. Their proverbial and long-tried
loyalty to their prince, however, flourished in spite of these
discouragements. Victor Amadeus, having joined England and Holland against
France, was besieged in Turin by the latter power in 1706. He was so hardly
pressed by the French troops as to be obliged to take refuge among his
faithful subjects of the valleys. A family named Durand had the honour of
giving shelter to their fugitive prince; and when by the forced marches of
Prince Eugene deliverance was at hand, King Amadeus conferred the right of
burying in their own garden on the family which sheltered him, as well as
bequeathed his own silver spoons and drinking-cup to the family. I had the
pleasure of seeing one of these spoons, preserved in the museum at La
Torre, on the occasion of my visit in 1871. Eugene and the Duke of Savoy
ascended the heights of the Superga (a hill about six miles from Turin)
together. The prince, detecting some mistakes in the movements of the
French troops, exclaimed, "It seems to me that these people are already
half beaten;" whereupon the duke vowed, if Turin were delivered from the
French, that he would erect a monument on that spot to the Virgin. He kept
his vow, and the present imposing structure, used as a mausoleum for the
House of Savoy, was begun in 1717, and finished fourteen years after. But
he was not equally mindful of his obligations to his devoted Vaudois, who,
in addition to protecting their prince at the risk of their own safety,
also inflicted great injury upon the French troops when obliged to raise
the siege of Turin. Indeed the vexations to which the Vaudois were
subjected by the interference of the French court as the ready instrument
of papal cruelty and intolerance provoked the kindly interposition of
Frederick I. of Prussia on their behalf. However, Amadeus would not protect
the converts from Catholicism, although he was firm in maintaining the
rights of the Vaudois within the narrow limits which had been conceded.
Still these faithful subjects of the House of Savoy had to bear many
grievous acts of injustice, from which they were exempted by the express
words of the royal edicts. However, they endured all these irritations from
papal lawlessness without being led away by the seductive promises and the
illusory hopes of freedom and happiness which so largely unsettled the
continent of Europe by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.
Indeed so sensitive were they of anything which might bring their loyalty
into question that they actually suspended one of their pastors from his
functions for six months because he had inadvertently alluded to
revolutionary principles from his pulpit! I may add that the same principle
of wise abstention from all political discussions still characterize the
Vaudois pastors, both in the valleys and the mission-field of the Italian
peninsula.
In the wars between France and Savoy at this time the Vaudois had the
guardianship of the frontiers entrusted to them. In 1793 the French tried
hard to move the Vaudois from their fidelity by the most attractive
promises of civil and religious liberty. Although they refused to listen to
these promises, yet the ready tongue of calumny took advantage of
circumstances connected with the surrender of the fort of Mirabocco to
asperse their integrity. Investigation showed that if Musset (the only
Vaudois officer present at the time) had been in command, the place would
have been defended to the last. Still such was the spirit engendered by
popish fanaticism, that a most frightful conspiracy to murder the
defenceless Vaudois women and children of San Giovanni and La Torre, while
their fathers and brothers were all away guarding the frontiers, was
concocted. Happily for the credit of Christianity and humanity it was
discovered and revealed in time by two members of the Romish faith, who
were too honourable to sanction such a scheme. These gentlemen, Brianza,
priest of Lucerna, and Captain Odetti, gave notice to the Vaudois.
Messengers were at once despatched to the mountains. General Gaudin at
first refused to let them go to the defence of their homes, disbelieving
the existence of the conspiracy until he was shown the names of seven
hundred of those engaged in it. Then he hesitated to weaken his forces
against the French; but a stratagem happily relieved him of his
embarrassment, though eventually he lost his command for his humanity,
_while none of the conspirators were punished_! Instead of this a Vaudois
captain, Davit, was executed, and others placed under arrest upon unjust
suspicions. By these proceedings a feeling of disquietude was provoked,
which only the appointment of General Zimmerman, a native of Lucerna, was
able to calm.
An armistice taking place in the spring of 1796, and Charles Emmanuel IV.
coming to the Sardinian crown, the British ambassador sought more
considerate treatment of the Vaudois. In reply to this appeal they were
allowed to repair and enlarge their temples, and even to remove them to
more commodious sites. In 1798 Charles Emmanuel IV. was only allowed the
island of Sardinia by the all-conquering French, who took possession of
Piedmont, and annexed it as a province to France. This event gave to the
Vaudois in a moment every social right, every political privilege, and,
above all, the religious freedom they had for centuries fought, and bled,
and suffered in vain to procure, at least in its entirety!
However, the position of the Vaudois was one of difficulty. Under the rule
of their _de facto_ government they took part in repressing the uprising of
the Piedmontese against the French at Carmagnola. And when three hundred
wounded soldiers, fleeing from the Austrian army, who pursued them to the
Vaudois frontiers, reached Bobbio in a state of appalling destitution, M.
Rostaing, the pastor, and his people, fed them out of their scanty stores,
dressed their wounds, and carried them on their shoulders over frightful
precipices, and along snow-covered defiles impassable to ordinary traffic.
This act of humanity (gratefully acknowledged by the French commander,
Suchet) would have drawn upon them a fresh outpouring of oppression, had
not the Russian general taken a truer estimate of their position. He
allowed them to retain their arms on the condition that they used them only
in self-defence. Napoleon's victory at Marengo, on the 14th June, 1800,
consolidated the French rule over Piedmont. But the Vaudois experienced
dreadful privations at this time, owing to the ravages of the soldiers of
the two armies, French and Austrian, and a period of scarcity. The stipends
of the pastors were also in great part wanting. The French government made
a provision out of appropriations formerly given to the Romish priests and
monks. Indeed, after a conversation which Napoleon held in a most agreeable
manner with M. Peyrani, moderator of the Vaudois Church, he assigned
stipends of one thousand francs yearly to the pastors of parishes, together
with an extra allowance of two hundred francs for work as secretaries of
the communes. On this occasion Napoleon referred in a spirit of admiration
to the exploits of Arnaud and other brave leaders of the Vaudois, and also
drew from M. Peyrani the statement that his church had an independent
existence from about the year 820. At this time the Vaudois rebuilt their
temple at Giovanni, closed since the year 1658. However, it was barely
finished when it suffered much damage from an earthquake, the shocks of
which were felt for a period of four months in the neighbourhood of
Pinerolo, and in other parts, both of Italy and France. Although the
prevalence of this earthquake inflicted great suffering on the Vaudois by
the cessation of all industrial pursuits, the necessity of living in tents,
and the general terror and alarm which it inspired, yet the actual loss of
life did not extend to more than three cases. There were many remarkable
deliverances. Notwithstanding this visitation of Providence, it does not
appear that religious life existed to the degree of former times. The
spirit of atheism stirred up in France; the prevalence of a cold
materialistic philosophy in those seminaries where the students for the
Waldensian ministry had to seek instruction; the absorption of the thoughts
by the reports of military expeditions; the bewitchery attached to the name
and achievements of Bonaparte, not only made the young men of the valleys
willing to enrol beneath his standard, but also had a tendency to restrict
the simplicity and the piety so characteristic of their forefathers to
those who from sex or age were left outside of that turbid wave which swept
others into the current of its power. In 1815 came the downfall of the
proud empire erected by the military prowess and boundless ambition of the
first Napoleon. How this affected the Vaudois we will consider in our next
chapter.
CHAPTER XII.
On the return of Victor Emmanuel I. to the throne of his fathers, with
augmented dominions, the Waldenses had such favourable expectations from
his knowledge of them that out of respect to his feelings they abstained
from certain efforts which they might have used at the congress of Vienna
for the preservation of their rights. Unhappily, these hopes were not
realized. The king passed an edict restricting the Vaudois to the
concessions enjoyed before the French occupation; and in place of the
stipend of one thousand francs for their pastors he assigned them only half
the amount. The Romish priests, not content with the restoration of the
infamous hospital for abducting Protestant children at Pinerolo, and other
grants made by the French, actually set up a claim for income which had
accrued during the period of their dispossession. This, however, Count
Crotti, superintendent of the province, refused, on the ground that the
Vaudois administered not only lawfully, but in such a way as to enhance
rather than diminish the value of the property. The temple of Giovanni was
also closed again, but only for one year, though the use of it was
accompanied by an injunction to place a screen before the entrance, so as
to mollify the opposition of the priest of the Romish chapel exactly
opposite in the same village. The king further allowed the Vaudois to
retain property outside the valleys acquired during the French occupation;
also to follow, besides ordinary trades, the professions of surgeon,
apothecary, and architect.
As the old machinery of fire and sword was no longer available, the enemies
of the Vaudois sought to win them from their principles by the issue of
pastoral letters from the bishops of Pinerolo. Messrs. Bigez, Rey, and
Charvaz engaged in these attempts, but without success, the pastors
refuting their epistles, especially MM. Geymet, Rodolph, Peyran, and
Mondon. Victor Emmanuel having abdicated in 1821, was succeeded by Carlo
Felice, a bigoted Romanist. He published a decree for restricting the
liberties of the Vaudois according to the terms of the edict of 1622. He
also allowed a bull of Pope Gregory, which forbids "to those of the
pretended reformed religion" the right of trading among the Romanists. By
means, however, of protests from the representatives of England and Prussia
this last act of tyranny was not persevered in. Still, when the Waldenses
asked to see their king, he denied them audience in the following terms:
"Tell them they only want one thing; that is, to be Catholics." Their
loyalty, indeed, was conspicuous; for they stood almost alone in 1821, when
the rest of Piedmont was wavering in its fidelity to the house of Savoy. In
1831 Carlo Alberto ascended the throne. Although greatly under the
influence of the Church of Rome, he yet showed a spirit of justice towards
his Vaudois subjects. For instance, he not only removed the disability by
which they were denied an officer's commission in the Sardinian army, but
on the occasion of the death of Major Bonnet, a Vaudois in his service, who
had been buried without the honours due to his rank, he commanded that the
body should be exhumed and removed to La Torre at his expense, and there be
interred with all the respect due to the aged soldier. He further settled
an annuity upon the major's children. Something of this same alternation
between subjection to Rome and the aspirations of justice showed itself in
another transaction of his reign, namely, that of the erection of a church
and priory for the accommodation of eight missionary fathers of the order
of St. Maurice and Lazarus at La Torre. These buildings stand at the very
entrance of the town as you approach from Giovanni. I confess their
presence suggested disagreeable thoughts to my mind. They seemed so out of
harmony with the spirit of the new era of justice and freedom, and to
awaken so many memories of past oppressions. But these thoughts were as
nothing to the gloomy apprehensions which actually filled the minds of the
Vaudois at the date of their erection. They were not a little perplexed,
beside, as to the way in which they should act on the occasion of the visit
of their king to attend the ceremonial of this church consecration.
However, a gracious Providence interposed on their behalf, and showed the
character of their sovereign in an assuring light. First of all he sent
back the troops of the line which were proposed as his escort. Instead of
these he consented to be received by the militia of the valleys, stating,
in reply to those who urged a guard of regular troops, "I require no guard
in the midst of the Vaudois." The king was most cordially welcomed, and,
being deeply touched by his reception, ordered each company of the militia
to pass before him according to their communes, and with their respective
colours. He also gave an audience to the Vaudois Table, left money to be
distributed among the poor, in which the Protestants shared; and to
perpetuate the memory of this visit of September 24th, 1844, caused a
fountain to be erected close by with the inscription, "Il re Carolo
Alberto, al popolo che l'accoglieva con tanto affetto." "The king Charles
Albert to the people who welcomed him with so much affection."
This pleasing episode in the history of the Vaudois forms a fitting prelude
to the advent of a yet more substantial token of good-will on the part of
their sovereign. I mean that edict of emancipation which, while it did
justice to the people of the valleys, also, by the circumstances of their
inclusion, made the kingdom of Sardinia a true pattern of constitutional
monarchy; kept her true amidst the perfidy and violence by which the
sovereigns of other states withdrew on the morrow the boon of the
yesterday, and in consequence reaped a harvest of anarchy and disorder;
while brave Piedmont has not only remained firm as a rock, but has been
gathering to itself, one by one, the minute subdivisions of the Italian
peninsula, until at length we see its true and faithful sovereign, "il Re
galantuomo," the monarch of all that stretches from the Tyrol on the north
to Sicily on the south. "His sceptre rules and banner waves" from the shore
of the Adriatic to the valleys of the Alps. And throughout the length and
breadth of that land, whilst neighbouring countries, notably those most
servile to the papacy, Spain and France, have been convulsed by terrors and
paralysed by intestine and foreign wars, the tricoloured flag of the
Italian kingdom floats triumphantly above the walls of ancient Rome, and
such an era of peaceful contentment and commercial enterprise has begun as
its proud cities and luxuriant plains have long been strangers to. Just as
with regard to God's Israel of the East, so does it seem to have been with
this modern Israel of the West. The nations who persecuted and despoiled
the sons of Abraham have been despoiled themselves. The nations who
befriended the Jews have risen to power and influence. Likewise the
persecutors of God's faithful ones in the valleys of the Po, notably the
priest-king and France, have been scourged; whilst the countries which
befriended them in their long series of trials, the Protestant states of
Germany, Holland, and our own land, have been distinguished by a constantly
augmenting prosperity. Oh, that men were wise! Oh, that politicians would
remember that it is righteousness which exalteth a nation. The thought that
Piedmont became the Zoar of the living Church of God, when its members fled
from the Sodom of pagan and papal persecution and corruption, is not one of
the least of the grounds of hope, that not only shall its political
expansion continue, but that with it shall also be united that nobler gift
of the gospel of Christ, in its purity and power conveying the glorious
liberty of the children of God to the millions who have so long groaned
beneath the bondage of Antichrist.
But these thoughts remind us that the precious boon of emancipation for the
Vaudois did not descend upon them without an intervening period of doubt
and struggle.
The political changes first announced in October, 1847, did not include the
Vaudois within their range. Hence they had to ask for a special act by
which their freedom should be conceded. All the liberals supported this
demand. At a banquet at Pinerolo, Audifredi, an advocate, said, "Twenty
thousand of our brothers stand, so to speak, enclosed and isolated between
two torrents in our delightful valleys. They are honourable, laborious,
strong in mind and body, equal to other Italians. With enlightened
dispositions and by severe sacrifices they have educated their children,
but oppressed by burdens they do not enjoy the rights of other citizens. To
us it belongs, as their nearest brethren, to vote that by an universal
brotherhood there shall no longer be the embankment of these torrents, that
the country should be their mother and not their stepmother, and that as
they are judged suitable to defend their country by the arm, so it should
be allowed that they can enlighten and elevate it by the mind. _Evviva la
emancipazione dei Valdesi._"[F]
An immense petition was drawn up, headed by the names of Marquis Roberto
d'Azeglio, Count Cavour, Cesare Balbo, and, strange to say, the Bishop of
Pinerolo. The attorney-general, Count Sclopis, supported the memorial,
because, said he, by careful examination of the criminal records of the
government, "no other population of the country could be compared with the
Vaudois in morality and virtue." At length the _statuto_ was published in
the _Official Gazette_ on the 25th of February, 1848 (though dated the 17th
of that month). On the evening of that day the residences of the English
and Prussian ambassadors were brilliantly illuminated, as likewise the
houses of nearly all the Protestants in Turin. Moreover, the news of this
happy event soon spread itself over the valleys. At nightfall some
hundreds of bonfires were kindled on the hills, and even upon the tops, yet
crowned with snow, and thus the joyous demonstrations of the Protestants of
the capital were united in by their brethren on the hill sides.
But two days after this there was a yet greater demonstration of gladness.
Deputations from all parts of the kingdom met in Turin to express their
united thanks to their monarch for the constitution bestowed upon his
people. The Vaudois assembled in large numbers, and, with the Protestants
inhabiting the city, formed a column of more than six hundred persons,
headed by ten pastors, and bearing aloft a magnificent banner of the
colours of Savoy, on which was written, embroidered in large silver
letters, these simple but expressive words--
"A RE CARLO ALBERTO I., VALDESI RICONOSCENTI."
(The grateful Waldenses to Charles Albert.)[G] While the large procession
was waiting to start, a deputation was sent to the Vaudois, begging that
they would take the place of honour. "Vaudois," they said, "until now you
have been the last; to-day justice must be done you, and you shall walk at
our head!" And so it was. The Vaudois column, preceded by its banner, and
surrounded by twelve children, dressed in the Italian costume of the
sixteenth century, opened the march; and then a spectacle unknown in the
annals of Piedmont was displayed in the capital, and by it to the kingdom.
In every street wherever the procession traversed, wherever appeared the
flag of the persecuted Church, hands clapped, handkerchiefs waved, hats
(even that of a priest) rose in the air, "Evviva ái Valdesi! Evviva
l'emancipazione!" burst from thousands of mouths, and many of the
spectators, leaving the ranks, came and hung upon the neck of some member
of the column, accompanying the act (sufficiently expressive in itself) by
words of a most affecting and brotherly character. The enthusiasm was
indescribable. What a contrast between the acclamations of that day and the
cries of "Death to the heretic!" which in other times these same streets so
often heard at the passing of some confessor of the gospel to a cruel
death![H]
What these festive proceedings foreshadowed as to the extension and
deepening of the piety and power of the church of the valleys must be
reserved for our next chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] _Gli Evangelici Valdesi_, per PAOLO GEYMONAT, Professore di Teologia in
Firenze.
[G] This banner was afterwards presented to the king, and most graciously
received by him.
[H] _Le General Beckwith, sa vie a ses travaux._ By J. P. MEILLE, Pasteur.
CHAPTER XIII.
We concluded our last amidst the gladness of heart which filled the souls
of myriads to whom social progress, political freedom, and evangelical
truth were precious. Our object now is to recount the fruits of that
enlargement accorded to the Vaudois; and in order to do this we must take a
retrospect of their religious condition for some few years before the
arrival of that grand epoch. At that period the state of things in the
valleys was far from satisfactory. Not to recount, as among the causes,
those political disabilities to which reference has been previously made, I
will refer to some additional circumstances of a vexatious and depressing
character. One was the hindrances to the obtaining the most indispensable
religious books, such as Bibles, catechisms, hymn-books. With each parcel
of Bibles and New Testaments, the moderator was obliged to sign a formal
undertaking that not a single copy should be sold, nor even lent to a Roman
Catholic. Again, in all the communes of the valleys, where nearly all the
proprietors were Protestants, and scarcely a Roman Catholic could be found
who was not either living on alms or employed as a daily labourer, the law
required that the _majority_ of the members of the communal council should
be always and necessarily composed of Romanists.
As regards primary education, the valleys were more favourably
circumstanced than other parts of the kingdom. Out of a population of some
twenty thousand, nearly four thousand attended school, at least during the
winter months. However, it will be seen that the real work of education was
not in so satisfactory a condition as the above statement, in a superficial
point of view, might imply. To show this we will descend to details as to
the schools, their kind, structure, fittings, and teachers.
First, then, we take the HAMLET SCHOOLS, about one hundred and twenty in
number. They were carried on generally in a _stable_, and the place was
neither remarkable for space nor cleanliness; so that on one side, in a
narrow division, would be thirty or forty children, separated from the
sheep or the goats by so slender a space that not infrequently the heads of
the children and the animals would combine in a way more grotesque than
effective for educational purposes.
The amount of didactic efficiency to be expected in the teacher may be
surmised from the circumstance of his salary being sometimes less than the
munificent sum of threepence-halfpenny per day! With such machinery we may
feel it was an achievement to be grateful for, if by the end of the
winter's session the children had learnt to read, write, and cipher
moderately, and could repeat by heart a prayer for morning and evening, the
Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, and the Apostles' Creed.
Second. There were also the PARISH SCHOOLS, open ten months in the year,
and attended during the winter by a large number of children, the majority
of whom had to leave on the advent of spring to work in the fields. Those
not so required remained in the district or hamlet schools. The buildings
in which the parish schools were conducted were not exactly stables, but
yet entirely destitute of the light, air, fittings, and furniture requisite
for school-work. The only reading-books were a French Bible and Italian
acts of parliament. So much, then, for the primary schools. The condition
of the _secondary or grammar schools_ was not much more encouraging. The
institution was migratory, and aimed to teach fifteen or twenty pupils,
divided into five classes, under one teacher, not always very competent,
and badly paid, as much Latin and Greek as would secure their admission as
students in the academies of Strasbourg, Lausanne, or Geneva. But we pass
from schools to things religious and ecclesiastical. Morals were
comparatively pure; there was a respect for religion; a frequent attendance
on public worship; a deep attachment to their ancestral faith; a
disposition to endure everything rather than deny it; and affection and
esteem for their pastors. As regards the pastors, they were, almost without
exception, faithful to the ancient evangelical orthodoxy.
But there was that which both pastors and flocks were very imperfectly
acquainted with, viz., on one side the aim and mission of the church, and
on the other the true nature of the fruits intended to be produced by the
preaching of the gospel. In a word, there was a lack of true spiritual
energy, a realization of the need and preciousness of salvation. There was
the outward shell of orthodoxy, but the living soul of godliness was
wanting. Jesus Christ was present in name, but absent in reality.
In the administration of the church there were many serious defects. The
meeting of the synods was very difficult, partly because of the suspicions
of the government, and partly from the unwillingness of the communes to
bear the expense connected therewith. Again, the synods themselves answered
but imperfectly to the design of their institution, and their influence on
the spiritual state of the church very small. The Table, in its turn,
forgetting that its duties were essentially religious, sunk insensibly into
a kind of higher tribunal for secular affairs. The same tendency showed
itself in the bosom of the consistories.
However, amidst these deep shades some gleams of light, the heralds of
better things, began to show themselves. The first of these hopeful signs
was due to the liberality, as regards its beginning, of Madame Geymet, who
in the year 1826 laid the foundation of a hospital for the poor Waldensians
at La Torre. Madame Geymet was encouraged warmly by Pastor La Bert, the
then moderator of the Waldensian Church, and Pastor Cellerier, of Geneva,
who made a collection in aid of the object. The Count Waldburg Truchsesse,
Prussian ambassador at Turin, obtained help from Prussia; Dr. Gilly, by
means of the committee in London, sent large help from this country.
Holland, France, and Russia also joined in the effort; so that at length
the brave projector had the satisfaction of seeing _two_ hospitals grow out
of her once ridiculed scheme. The second hospital was erected at Pomaret,
for the especial benefit of the valleys of San Martino and Pragela.
Another means of awakening at this time arose from the arrival of some
young ministers, who had just left the foreign academies, especially that
of Lausanne, where the influence of a spiritual revival had been
particularly felt. A visit paid to the different parishes of the valleys in
1826 by Felix Neff and Pastor Blanc, of Mens, resulted in much spiritual
fruit.
These were but streaks of morning light, however. Long years had to pass,
and many painful struggles to be engaged in, before the Sun of
Righteousness shone clearly with His beneficent rays on the thick woods and
the shady corners of these lovely valleys. Among those who have been the
means of promoting the revival of true religion in the Waldensian Church
stand out conspicuously the names of Dr. Gilly and General Beckwith. The
former paid his first visit to the valleys in 1823. As that visit became
the germ of so much blessing to the Vaudois, it is not unimportant to
recall the providential circumstance which led to that visit. Referring to
the doctor's own narrative,[I] he says, "I happened to attend a meeting of
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on a day when a very
affecting letter was read to the board, signed Ferdinand Peyrani, minister
of Pramol, 'and requested that some aid might be sent, in books or money,
to the ancient Protestant congregation in the mountains of Piedmont, who
were struggling hard against poverty and oppression.'" The society voted
forty pounds' worth of books, including those mentioned as specially needed
for use in their churches. But from the date of this incident Dr. Gilly
sought after fuller information respecting the Vaudois, and determined on
visiting their valleys. This purpose he carried into effect early in the
year 1823, and on his return home the next year he published an account of
his journey, his object being to excite an _immediate_ interest on behalf
of these people. How largely he succeeded, so as to entitle him to be
reckoned among their chiefest benefactors, we shall have occasion to remark
later on. But, apart from the formation of a large and influential
committee in London, by which considerable sums of money were raised "to
assist the Vaudois in maintaining their ministers, churches, schools, and
poor," he was the means of invoking the sympathy and aid of one who
consecrated his life, strength, and means in one almost unbroken series of
efforts for their amelioration--I mean General Beckwith. This distinguished
philanthropist was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 2nd, 1789. He was
baptized by the names of John Charles, and entered the 95th Regiment in the
year 1803. His first years as a soldier were spent in Hanover, Denmark, and
Sweden. In 1809 he was engaged in the Peninsular War, being present at the
disastrous retreat from Corunna and the sieges of Salamanca and Toulouse.
For his services at the last place he received a gold medal and the rank of
major, March 3rd, 1814. During these campaigns he was never wounded,
although exposed to great danger. One morning, among others, his old
servant had scarcely reached the skirts of a forest in which the enemy had
an ambuscade than his master's horse was killed by a ball, and the rider
overthrown. The servant thought it was all over with his master, but the
sad thought had hardly entered his mind when Beckwith sprang up and cried
out, "All right, John," and by a quick movement escaped beyond reach of
the enemy's fire.
On the return of Napoleon from Elba, Beckwith rejoined the standard of
Wellington, and took a prominent part in the battle of Waterloo. On this
day he had four horses killed under him, but received no personal injury
until he was struck by a cannon ball in the left leg from the retreating
fire of the French. After three months' unsuccessful treatment amputation
was declared necessary. This random shot, like the bow drawn at a venture
in an ancient battle, was pregnant with mighty consequences, not only to
Beckwith personally, but to that interesting people to whom as yet he had
never given a thought.
Beckwith, though only twenty-six years of age, was made a
lieutenant-colonel on the field of battle, and received the silver medal
struck to commemorate the victory. Had he not lost his leg he would
probably have risen to the highest distinction as a soldier. But if so he
might never have become the instrument of such extensive blessings to the
Vaudois as was destined in the providence of God.
The first foundation stone, so to speak, on which was to be erected the
spacious superstructure of his after benevolence began at the time of his
retirement to the château of Mont St. Jean, during the period of weakness
resulting from his wound at Waterloo. The owner of the mansion had a little
girl, six years of age, who was a most attentive nurse to him. She hardly
ever left his bedside, and by her childish prattling, innocent
pleasantries, and tender sympathy, won his regard, and spread a charm over
a time of pain and depression; so much so, indeed, that when the time of
separation came it greatly distressed him, and in after life he never spoke
of her without evident emotion.
But it was in this way God led him first to that benevolent interest in the
young which afterwards became so marked a feature of his character.
But up to this time, whilst Beckwith was not a sceptic, yet his faith was
not of an operative kind, he was taken up with those pursuits which
belonged solely to time. The means employed by God to awaken him to a
knowledge of the real aim of life was a copy of His own Word. This treasure
had lain unused at the bottom of his portmanteau until he lay wounded at a
little village near Courtray, in Belgium. Then he began to read with an
interest not previously felt, and it became to him the word of life. When
he was questioned about the circumstances of his conversion, he used to
reply, in his graphic way: "The good God said, 'Stop here, you rascal!' and
He has cut off my leg, and I think I shall be the more happy without it."
Of Beckwith's character as a soldier one of his former companions writes
thus: "I always regarded Beckwith as an officer of very brilliant promise,
for he embodied all the requisites of a great commander: remarkable
quickness in conception, imperturbable coolness in the time of action,
admirable power of organization, with indomitable courage. When he was
major he always left a position of safety to mix in the thick of the fight,
and I remember meeting him in the breach of Ciudad Rodrigo at the head of
an attacking column when he might have been in the rear." The same person
also testifies to Beckwith's care of his men, extending even to minute
particulars about clothing. Also, that he was a great favourite with his
brother officers on account of his intelligence and amiability. After
recovering somewhat from his wound he returned to England, and visited
America during this time. Shortly after his arrival in England from the
latter place he sought out his old companions in the army, and among others
he called on the Duke of Wellington.
It was while calling at Apsley House on one of these occasions he was shown
into the library, and whilst waiting a short time for the duke his eye fell
upon a number of new books, including _Dr. Gilly's Visit to the Vaudois_.
On leaving he obtained a copy of the book. The result was that he
determined to visit the valleys himself, which event happened in the autumn
of 1827.
Owing to the weather he stayed only a few days, but returned the following
year, and continued his visits to the valleys year after year, until, in
1833, a severe illness obliged him to remain in England. In the autumn of
1835 he returned, and lived in the valleys with Pastor Bonjour, at St.
John's, for the next five years. Again, after an interval of two years, he
returned to the valleys, living at the ancient castle of La Torre. In 1836
the Vaudois Table had his portrait painted, and engravings distributed
through the valleys. In 1844 the synod presented him with a cup of honour,
also Dr. Gilly and the Count Waldburg Truchsesse. In 1846 he was promoted
to the rank of major-general in the English army, and also received the
dignity of a Knight of St. Maurice and Lazarus from the king of Sardinia.
In 1850 he married a Vaudoise. In 1862 he dies among the people he had so
long loved and served, and is buried at La Torre, amid the profoundest
grief and deepest veneration of the whole population.
FOOTNOTES:
[I] _Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont in the year
1823._ By WILLIAM STEPHEN GILLY. 2nd Ed. C. and J. Rivington.
CHAPTER XIV.
Our last chapter closed with a brief sketch of the life of Beckwith, so
that in the present I might be free to speak of the work done, without
interpolations as to the personal movements of him who was in several
respects the chief worker. To those who desire to read the full particulars
of General Beckwith's life, I very earnestly commend the deeply interesting
work of Pastor J. P. Meille, to whose pages I am greatly indebted.
Beckwith was early impressed with the conviction that God had
providentially preserved the Vaudois, that they might be the agents of
evangelizing Italy, through the political changes which were being wrought
in that country by means of the kingdom of Sardinia. He was the first to
recognize this important truth, and he never lost sight of it, either in
the motive which it supplied for his own efforts, or in the influence he
sought to bring to bear upon others. This belief in the mission of the
Vaudois quickened all his sympathies and guided all his plans. To turn to
these plans, one of the earliest was the improvement and extension of
primary education. Beckwith saw at once the value of the Quartier schools,
and he began to erect a better class of buildings for this purpose. First
of all he bore the whole expense, excepting the site; afterwards he paid
the cost of labour in erecting the buildings, but required the inhabitants
to supply material as well as site. He also oftentimes contributed largely
to augment the salary of the underpaid teachers. Some one hundred and
twenty buildings, commodious and well-situated, were the result of these
efforts.
But the improvement in the hamlet schools brought out more distinctly the
sad condition of the parish schools. To overcome difficulties, Beckwith
would say to the parish authorities, You need a better school and residence
for your teacher; if you will raise a thousand francs (about a fourth or
fifth, according to circumstances), I will supply the rest.
If this offer was accepted, the colonel generally made the contract, and
overlooked the erection of the building.
In this way, a little by little, some this year and others the next, in
nearly every commune of the valleys there rose up commodious edifices, duly
furnished with all the requisites of teaching. The change was immense from
the narrow, confined, ill-ventilated, badly lighted, and unfurnished
buildings which had previously existed.
The reformation, however, in the buildings and their fittings was not the
only thing requisite for a good school. Good teachers were also needed, and
to procure these it was necessary to augment the scale of stipend. At the
time under review the highest salary was from three to four hundred francs
(£12 or £16) per annum. Beckwith set about this task, and being ably
supported by the moderator of the church, M. Bonjour, he had the
satisfaction of seeing an arrangement made by which the salaries of the
teachers were raised one-third. This augmentation began on the 1st of
January, 1837. But the good effected by this movement was not simply the
increased pay of the teacher; it raised the work in public estimation, and
gave to the teacher's position a degree of security which enabled him to
devote himself more entirely to teaching as a distinct profession.
Another means for advancing education was that of increasing the personal
efficiency of the teachers themselves. To accomplish this, the teachers of
all the parish schools in the valleys were sent for a course of instruction
at the normal college at Lausanne. The expense of this important measure
was borne entirely by Beckwith. And, moreover, to secure permanently the
above results, a rule was adopted by the synod in 1839, that henceforth
every teacher in the Vaudois parish schools must produce a certificate of
didactic power, as well as moral fitness for the office.
Beckwith's next movement was the establishment of a boarding-school for
girls. I had the pleasure of visiting this very interesting and important
institution in 1871, and was struck by the efficiency and excellence of its
character. But it is time to refer to his exertions in connection with
SECONDARY instruction. Although Dr. Gilly very deservedly has the chief
credit in reference to the erection of that noble college of the Holy
Trinity at La Torre, which forms so imposing and interesting an object to
the Christian tourist, and which constituted so marked an epoch in the
restoration of piety and sound learning among the pastors and general
population of the valleys, yet it must be acknowledged that the many
difficulties associated with this grand enterprise would hardly have been
surmounted, had it not have been for the presence on the spot of so true a
friend to the Vaudois, and so able an ally of the noble projector of the
college, as his military colleague.
Not only did he provide a building for the grammar school whose location
had been one of the difficulties connected with the establishment of the
college, but he also superintended the erection of the buildings, and gave
a sum of ten thousand francs towards the cost. Dr. Gilly acknowledges these
things in a letter to the moderator under date of April 28th, 1835. He also
was instrumental, with Dr. Gilly, in founding a grammar school at Pomaret.
This school was subsequently enlarged by the efforts of the Rev. Dr.
Stewart, of Leghorn, another warm-hearted friend of the Waldensian Church.
In 1847 Beckwith erected a group of houses, just above the college, for the
residence of the professors. But important as were the reformations sought
and obtained in the educational machinery of the valleys, yet it was almost
as needful to improve the character of the ecclesiastical edifices used by
the Vaudois. Few were such as fitted the purposes to which they were set
apart. There is nothing surprising in this when we consider the
circumstances of the Vaudois through so many centuries. But, easy as it is
to account for the lack of edifices appropriate to the decent and reverent
worship of Almighty God at the period referred to, the thing itself was
nevertheless a misfortune. Hence in 1843 Beckwith offered to restore the
temple at Rodoret, which was in a most deplorable state. The temple was not
alone in its need; the parsonage-house, a very crazy building, was
destroyed by an avalanche on the 16th of January, 1845, burying beneath its
ruins the pastor, his wife, their little child, aged five months, and
servant, the only living creature escaping being the pastor's dog! The new
temple being finished in March, Beckwith commenced operations for the
erection of a suitable presbytery. The total cost of the new building was
thirteen thousand francs, contributed chiefly by Beckwith, but with the
help of the commune, Dr. Stewart, of Leghorn, and friends in Dublin and
America.
His next work was the restoration of the church at Rora. This matter was
accompanied by a pleasing incident. He was speaking of the affair at the
house of a friend in England. A little girl of the family overheard the
conversation, and, approaching the general, offered him a penny, saying she
would like to assist in building the church. He was much touched by this
action of the child, and taking her on his knees, said, "Yes, my friend;
with that which you have given me I will build the church; and your penny,
placed in the corner stone, will tell all the world that you have been the
founder." The new building was consecrated in January, 1846. Other temples
and presbyteries were restored, including that of Prali. The churches of
Coppier and Angrogna were restored in 1847 by Mrs. General Molyneux
Williams. But a greater work was accomplished in 1852, when Beckwith
erected a church for the parish of La Torre, which, under the influence of
oppressive edicts, had been deprived of its temple for hundreds of years.
This edifice is, both as regards dimensions and architecture, suited to the
position it holds as the parish church of the capital of the valleys; those
valleys no longer dreading the approach of sanguinary bands to pillage and
destroy, its people no longer crushed beneath a bondage which refused them
the opportunities of worship in their own parochial boundaries according
to the creed and ritual of their sainted and heroic forefathers. This grand
work was the last preliminary to that church extension and missionary
revival which the era of emancipation made possible to the Vaudois Church,
and which Beckwith had so long eagerly and clearly anticipated.
CHAPTER XV.
The first exercise of evangelical liberty accorded to the Vaudois Church
was shown in the attempt to preach the gospel and establish a place of
Protestant worship, at what, in point of geographical nearness, was the
neighbouring city, but not in the past the _neighbourly_ city of Pinerolo.
The work was, however, accomplished chiefly by the munificence of American
Protestants. Then came the opening of the edifice, which so worthily
represents the Vaudois cause in Turin. Beckwith took a very energetic part
in this important work. But the actual modern mission work of the Vaudois
Church may be said to have begun in May, 1849, when Professor Malan
preached in the temple at St. Giovanni (for the first time for centuries
past) the gospel in the Italian language.
The Count Guiccardini and some other persons of social position at Florence
and its neighbourhood joined the Vaudois Church in 1850. The same year a
Vaudois missionary was appointed to Turin, chiefly by the liberality of two
English gentlemen, Messrs. Brewin and Milsom. In 1851 a great many
refugees, for conscience' sake, from Florence (the result of evangelistic
labours there), fled to Turin and swelled the numbers of the Vaudois
congregation.
Also on the evening of the day on which was laid the foundation of the new
temple, Mazzarella, a Neapolitan advocate, deputy of parliament, and judge
of the court of appeal at Genoa, was one of ten catechumens received into
the membership of the Vaudois Church.
At the same time the gospel was finding its way into Genoa, a city devoted
to Mariolatry. On the very day on which the Table decided to send M.
Geymonat from Turin to work in Genoa, they received an application by
letter from Genoa to admit to their communion and ministry a very
distinguished ex-priest of Rome. This was no other than Dr. De Sanctis,
rector of the Magdalen and professor of theology, &c., at Rome. Excepting
during a short period, to which I need not refer, the connection thus begun
between Dr. De Sanctis and the Vaudois continued until his lamented death
on the last day of December, 1869. But there are two points I will allude
to. First, the incidental means of his conversion. This was by a little
treatise put into his hands at a time when he was preparing a series of
lectures in defence of the decrees of the Council of Trent as compared with
the word of God.
Secondly, the ground on which he sought admission into the Vaudois Church.
In the letter addressed to the Table, dated August 17th, 1852, he states
that he had abandoned the Church of Rome for nearly five years, and from
the moment of his separation until then his thoughts "always turned to the
Church of the Valleys, _because he recognized it as the true, primitive,
apostolic Italian Church_." "During these five years," he adds, "I have
lived among Christians who have proposed to me many times, with a view to
my temporal advantage, that I should join some church; but I have always
refused, thinking that _an Italian, sincerely seeking the good of his
compatriots, should not belong to any other church than the ancient
Italian Church_." I have transcribed these words, because I feel strongly
their importance as coming from one so well able to estimate the value of
the Vaudois in its past history and its adaptation to the necessities and
opportunities of evangelizing that country so much needing the gospel of
Christ--the Italy of to-day. It seems to me that it is for this very
purpose that the little community confined within so narrow a space, apart
from the more populous and frequented parts of Europe, has been preserved,
in spite of so many attempts at extermination. What the seven thousand who
did not bow the knee to Baal were to the rest of Israel, so it would seem
that the faithful few in the valleys of Piedmont are intended to be in
reference to that new kingdom of Italy, of which they form one of the most
ancient provinces. And the whole attitude and character of the Church of
the Valleys confirms this feeling. They can appeal to their brother
Italians as no foreigners can. Their very sufferings give them a right
which cannot be ignored. Mazzarella eloquently acknowledged this when he
visited La Torre. Again, by the removal of their college to Florence; their
literary enterprise in such publications as the _Amico di Casa_, _Amico Dei
Fanculli_, _La Rivista Christiana_; the talent, zeal, and organizing power
of their missionary agency, they show themselves fully alive to the
privileged responsibilities of their position in Italy, and fully entitled
to the hearty confidence and liberal support of all who desire the
supremacy of evangelic truth in that land which has been so long the head
quarters of the papacy!
The following statement of agencies will confirm my assertion:--
-----------+-------------------+------------------+----+----+----+----+----
DISTRICT. | STATION. | AGENTS. Pastors.
| | | Evangelists.
| | | | Communicants.
| | | | | Day Scholars.
| | | | | | Sunday
| | | | | | Scholars.
| | | | | | |
-----------+-------------------+------------------+----+----+----+----+----
PIEDMONT |Susa |Sig. A. Castioni | .. | 1 | 14 | 0 | ..
| | | | | | |
,, |Courmayeur |Sig. F. Costabel | .. | 1 | 17 | 15 | ..
| | | | | | |
,, |Aosta and Vallata |Sig. S. Girardone | .. | 1 | 19 | 11 | 9
| | | | | | |
,, |Ivrea and } | | | | | |
| neighbourhood } |Rev. Daniel Revel | 1 | .. | 70 | .. | 15
,, |Castelrosso- } | | | | | |
| Verolengo } | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Pietra Marazzi |Sig. T. Pugno | .. | 1 | 24 | 6 | 4
| | | | | | |
,, |Monte Castello } |Sig. Rüggle | .. | 1 | 22 | 26 | 18
,, |Pecetto } | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Torino |Rev. Benjamin Pons| 1 | .. |108 |230 |190
| | | | | | |
,, |Pinerolo |Rev. Philip Cardon| 1 | .. |110 | 49 | 35
| | | | | | |
LIGURIA |Genoa |Rev. Mattheo | 1 | .. |150 | 50 | 75
| | Prochet | | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |San Pier d'Arena |Rev. A. B. Tron | 1 | .. | 22 | 25 | 10
| | | | | | |
,, |Favale |Sig. Stefano | .. | 1 | 27 | 19 | 13
| | Cereghino | | | | |
| | | | | | |
LOMBARDY |Milan |Rev. Jn. David | 1 | .. |125 | 20 | 65
| | Turin | | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Como and } |Rev. Daniel Gay | 1 | .. | 42 | 17 | 13
,, | Val d'Intelvi } | | .. | .. | 28 | .. | ..
| | | | | | |
,, |Brescia and } | }| 1 | .. | 42 | .. | 17
,, | Castiglione } |Rev. John Pons(1)}| .. | | 16 | .. | 6
| delle Stiviere} | }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Guidizzolo |Sig. P. Forneron | .. | 1 | 13 | 18 | 24
| | | | | | |
VENETIA |Venice |Rev. John B. | 1 | .. |225 |103 | 96
| | Pons(2) | | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Verona |Rev. John Pons | 1 | .. | 40 | 12 | 18
| | | | | | |
EMILIA |Guastalla |Rev. B. Gardiol | 1 | | 51 | 28 | 26
| | | | | | |
THE MARCHES|Ancona |Sigs. Calvino & | .. | 2 | 30 | .. | ..
| | Vittorini | | | | |
| | | | | | |
COMARCA |Rome |{Rev. John Ribetti| 1 | .. | 68 | 76 | 45
| |{Rev. Henry Meille| 1 | .. | | |
| | | | | | |
NEAPOLITAN |Naples |{Rev. M. Devita | 1 | .. |150 |129 | 40
TERRITORY | |{Sig. Henry Tron | .. | 1 | | |
,, |Fragneto |{ | .. | .. | 8 | .. | ..
| | | | | | |
,, |San Bartolommeo |Sig. Falletti | .. | 1 | 14 | .. | ..
| | | | | | |
SICILY |Catania |{Rev. Emilio Long}| 1 | 1 | 50 | 30 | 40
| |{Sig. A. Bellecci}| | | | |
| | | | | | |
| |{Rev. Augustus }| | | | |
,, |Messina |{ Malan }| 1 | 1 | 93 | 20 | 34
| |{Sig. G. G. Trom }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Palermo |{Rev. John S. Kay}| 1 | 1 | 67 | 78 |36
| |{Sig. E. Bosio }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Trabia |Sig. S. Trapani | .. | 1 | 7 | 44 | 24
| | | | | | |
,, |Trapani |Sig. G. Fasulo | .. | 1 | 2 | .. | 15
| | | | | | |
,, |Riesi |{Rev. E. Long, }| 1 | .. | .. | .. | ..
| |{ temporarily }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
| |{Rev. Auguste }| | | | |
| |{ Meille, Rev. }| | | | |
TUSCANY |Florence |{ Professors }| 4 | .. | 52 |120 | 38
| |{ Geymonat, A. }| | | | |
| |{ Revel, and E. }| | | | |
| |{ Comba }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Pisa |Rev. P. Weitzecker| 1 | .. | 60 | 26 | 20
| | | | | | |
| |{Supplied from }| | | | |
,, |Lucca |{ Florence }| | .. | 38 | 22 | 8
| |{ temporarily }| | | | |
| | | | | | |
,, |Leghorn |Rev. P. Rostagno | 1 | .. | 78 |236 |130
| | | | | | |
,, |Rio Marina, Elba |Rev. S. Bonnetto | 1 | .. | 70 |158 | 22
-----------+-------------------+------------------+----+----+----+----+----
|40 Stations. | | 24 | 16 |1952|1568|1086
-----------+-------------------+------------------+----+----+----+----+----
From this it will be seen that the Waldensian Church has at this moment
forty stations and forty missionaries labouring in Italy and Sicily, of
whom twenty-four are ordained ministers who have attended the college
curriculum of nine years required by the Waldensian Church, four are
probationers who have also attended their whole college course, and only
wait till their year of probation as missionaries has expired to be also
ordained, and the other twelve are lay evangelists, or schoolmaster
evangelists, who have given satisfactory proof of their piety and ability
to teach. The number of day schools instituted in connection with these
mission stations is fifty-eight, taught by fifty-nine teachers, and
attended by 1,568 pupils, according to the return made to the Synod in
August, though I am inclined to think that there has been an increase in
the number since then. There are thirty-eight Sabbath schools, at which
there has been an attendance of 1,086 scholars, the greater number of whom
are children of parents still professing Catholicism. The congregations
begin to recognise the obligation of doing something to support divine
ordinances among themselves, and this year they have contributed to the
funds of the Evangelization Commission the sum of 21,217,84 lires, about
£848 sterling, being upwards of £400 sterling more than last year. The
number of communicants up to the middle of August was 1,952, and that of
catechumens 214, while the number of hearers was then stated at Sabbath
worship at a maximum of 3,220. This is a brief account of the mission-work
of the Waldensian Church in Italy, apart altogether from the pastoral and
educational work carried on in the fifteen parishes of the valleys, and in
the college of La Tour, which I have not time to enlarge on at present.
But whilst I desire to evoke the sympathy of English-speaking Christians
everywhere on behalf of the Italian mission-work of the Waldensian Church,
my chief object in sending out this little volume has been to call
attention to some wants of the Vaudois in their own home-field. It is
delightful to an English visitor to those valleys to recount the long lines
of deserved connection between his own country and this Goshen of the
Alps--a line reaching from the days of our first Charles, strengthening
visibly during the time of Cromwell, revived under William and Mary, and
Ann, continuing still through the time of the Georges; though suspended for
awhile by the interference of European warfare, yet again rekindled by the
energy and eloquence of Gilly, expanded and deepened by the devotedness of
Beckwith, and other benefactors following in his train too numerous for us
to register, but not one of them ignored or forgotten by the grateful
valley-men benefitted by their Christian kindness. Apart from the
institutions to which I have already adverted, there is another which meets
the eye of the visitor at La Torre, as he turns up the Val Angrogna. This
is the Vaudois Orphan Asylum and Industrial School, established by the
British Ladies' Association, the secretary of which is Miss Hathaway,
Cheltenham. As the title indicates, the orphans are taught useful
industries, such as straw-hat plaiting, lace and needle-work. Articles thus
made are disposed of for the benefit of the institution, which provides a
home for sixty children. Very great was the need of such a place in the
valleys, and deeply encouraging have been the fruits of this work of faith
and labour of love. Not to extend my little book too far beyond its
original design, viz., that of a "handy-book on the valleys brought down to
date," I can only add that it seems to me that the chief wants of the
church in her own valleys are--first, a better sustenance for her pastors;
the very circumstance that those pastors are now expected to take their
places side by side with the foremost men of other churches in the
Continent of Europe for the defence and spread of God's truth justifies
this plea, if it were otherwise weak, which it is not.
Secondly, help in the restoration of her ancient sanctuaries, and one or
two additional ones. One thing that struck me as a painful void was, the
absence of any public monument of the past events of the wonderful history
of the Vaudois. It is true, in one sense, that the whole place is a museum
of relics; that every rock has some thrilling tale, every mountain slope
and hill-side graven upon it the memory of saints and martyrs. Yet I
confess that those who do remember what has passed, and that those who wish
that generations yet to come may know the history of these valleys, may
well desire that some external tokens stood out to impress the passer-by
with suitable emotion. I had this feeling most strongly as I reached the
Shiloh of the valleys--the Pra del Tor.
Our route lay through the luxuriant and lovely Val Angrogna, which now
rejoiced in the fascinating charms of springtide. Everywhere the eye rested
on scenes of softness and beauty, the turf not unlike that which gives such
a charm to an English landscape, while the undulating slopes were covered
with an unutterable profusion of flowers. As we advanced higher up the
valley we were strongly reminded of the words of a French writer:
"Sometimes in leaving a gorge our attention was absorbed by a beautiful
meadow. A strange intermixture of wild and cultivated nature met our eye
everywhere, betraying the hand of man where one would have thought it
impossible for him to penetrate. By the side of a cavern we find houses;
branches of the vine where we only looked for brambles; vineyards in desert
places, and fields amidst the overhanging rocks." All this is true beyond
exaggeration, especially after you leave the village of Angrogna, with its
parsonage-house in the most picturesque situation of any we encountered.
About half an hour from this spot the scenery becomes wildly grand,
especially as you draw nigh to the torrent. On one side is the lofty
Vandalin, and on the other precipitous rocks; while in the narrow valley
the stream rushes down with its roar and foam, forming beautiful cascades,
and reminding you of some of the grandest scenery in Switzerland. But,
greatly as I was delighted with the topographical interest of my journey,
yet I would not forget that it was the people and their fathers' deeds and
sufferings that had led me to undertake this rather fatiguing enterprise;
and long before I reached the Barricata, or Pra del Torno, I had a great
enjoyment in being taken by a Vaudois mechanic, who left his work at
Angrogna, and would have no acknowledgment but my thanks, in order to show
me one of those wonderful hiding-places in the very heart of the mountains,
where the God of the hill and of the Vaudois so effectively succoured his
people. The particular cavern I was shown was most difficult of access,
not only by its seclusion, but also on other grounds; the entrance would
only admit one or two persons at a time; but once within there seemed space
enough for about a hundred persons. Here I understood large numbers of the
persecuted Vaudois had found a refuge and a sanctuary in its holiest and
happiest sense. The words, "He shall dwell on high: his place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks," came to my thoughts with a freshness and
fulness of meaning not previously realized. But the testimony of this
valley is everywhere, "The Lord fought for Israel." The next point of
remarkable interest shows this, viz., the Barricata, which is a kind of
entrance to the enclosure known as Pra del Torno. At this spot the rocks on
either side come down close to the mountain, so that only a mere ledge of
rock remains as a path. Consequently, a small number of men could at this
point drive back a host; and here, during the persecutions of the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the contemptuous foes of
the Vaudois met with humiliating and disastrous repulses, while the Vaudois
themselves escaped comparatively unhurt. This circumstance led the enemy,
during the persecution of 1560, under the Count de la Trinita, to place his
men on the heights above Roccamanente; but his one thousand two hundred men
were successfully driven back by less than one-twentieth of that number of
the Vaudois; and when he renewed the attack with scornful assurance of
victory, a few days later, the Vaudois, who were engaged in prayer at the
time, having despatched six of their number, who were slingers, to a
commanding point above the assailants, obtained a still more triumphant
victory, without loss on their own side, but with terrible slaughter to
the enemy, including eight of his chief officers.
Time fails to recount all that might be said of these celebrated regions. I
must, however, make passing mention of the beautiful mountain peak a little
higher up on the right hand as you approach Pra del Torno, _i.e._, La
Vachera. On the 11th of June, 1655, after the Piedmontese troops were
unable to force the Barricata, though they tried from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
they advanced towards La Vachera. The Vaudois went up higher. Thinking this
to be a retreat, the Piedmontese soldiers exclaimed, "Advance, wreck of
Janavello!" The Vaudois responded, "Advance, wreck of San Segonzo!"
accompanied by such a shower of stones that the soldiers fled in greatest
confusion, leaving behind them two hundred dead, and carrying away more
than twice that number of wounded. Indeed, this defeat was so decisive that
the persecutors were constrained to acknowledge "God was with the Barbets,"
and that whereas "formerly the wolves eat the dogs (_i.e._, barbetti), now
the dogs (barbetti) eat the wolves."
But we now come to the goal of our journey to-day, Pra del Torno, a very
sanctuary, embosomed amidst the everlasting hills, the site of the ancient
college of the Vaudois clergy, from whence they went forth to preach the
doctrines of a pure faith even before Wickliffe rose as the morning star of
the Reformation in our own land. Nature is still there in all its grandeur;
but I must confess to a feeling of sadness as I beheld a church under the
patronage of the Virgin Mary in these valleys, where so much noble blood
had been shed for the maintenance of the truth as it is in Jesus, but no
place of worship for the descendants of the men who were ready to die, but
not ready to dishonour God by participating in a worship contrary to His
blessed Word. And my regret was not lessened when I learnt that the
evangelical Vaudois has to make an eight hours' journey to his nearest
temple, and that his pastor would have a journey of similar character to
make to the sick and aged members of his flock in this secluded spot. I
found a schoolroom, erected by General Beckwith, in a dilapidated state,
and the poor old schoolmaster very infirm from sickness and age. My desire,
therefore, is to raise funds either to greatly improve the schoolroom, or,
better still, to erect a neat temple in this consecrated spot, so as at
once to commemorate the piety and heroism of the dead, and to provide for
the wants of the living. The pastor of the parish, the Rev. J. Durand
Canton, has informed me how great a boon such a place would be. The Table
have also assured me of their hearty co-operation. Several subscriptions
have been kindly promised. F. A. Bevan, Esq., of the firm of Messrs.
Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard Street, has kindly consented to
receive donations for the object: they may also be sent to me. Let each
reader of this volume join in the work, and so, by the divine blessing, it
shall be accomplished; and another object also, viz., that which makes the
church of the valleys a holy bond of union between Christian brethren in
both hemispheres; and between those whose church polity may differ, but
whose creed is one in all essential points, and who proclaim as the one
thing needful a living faith in a living Saviour, the one Mediator between
God and men, the man CHRIST JESUS.
INDEX OF PLACES AND PERSONS.
Amadeus II., 44, 84-91.
Angrogna, Vale of, 125.
Arnaud, Henri--
His birth and early life, 63.
Exploits at Germano, Salabertrand, Villaro, 69, 73.
Privation of himself and troops, 75, 76.
Banishment, 87.
Latter days and death, 88, 89.
Azeglio, Marquis, 101.
Balsille--
Description of, 70, 78.
Siege of, 80, 81.
Escape from, 82, 83.
Beckwith, General, 109-112.
Barthélemi, martyr, 35.
Brandenburg, Elector of, 85.
Bricherasio, 4.
Bucer, 34.
Calabria, Persecutions in, 33.
Castelluzzo, Crag of, 45.
Castrocaro, Signal death of, 43.
Catinat, Marshal, 80, 81.
Cavour, Count, 101.
Charles Felix, Bigotry of, 97.
Charles Albert, Justice of, 98, 99.
Children kidnapped, 43, 90.
Claude, Bishop of Turin, 17.
Colonies of the Vaudois, 31.
Cromwell espouses the cause of the Vaudois, 50.
Cutti, Count of, as a ruler, 96.
De la Trinité, Count, 39.
Ecomlapadius, 34.
Edicts of 1686, 58.
Elector Palatine, Noble letter of, 42.
Emancipation, 101.
Emmanuel, Philibert, 10, 38, 43.
Exile of the Vaudois, 61.
Earthquake, Severe, 95.
Farel, 34.
Fequières, Marquis of, plants a cannon on Mont Guignivert, 82.
Fog, Providential, 27, 82, 83.
Gastaldo, Edict of, 45.
Geneva--
City of, kindness of to the exiles, 61.
Lake of, 65.
Gilly, Rev. Dr., 107, 108.
Jahier, 54.
Janavello, 54.
Bravery of, 56.
Banished, 57, 64.
Jerome, 15, 16.
Juliano, Colonel of, rout of soldiers, 25, 72.
La Torre, Pelice, 44, 52.
Leger, 44, 46.
Leidet, Pastor of Guigot, martyred, 60.
Louis XIV. of France, an inveterate persecutor of the Vaudois, 86.
Maggiore, Lago, 1.
Maiden's Rock, The, 40.
Margaret of Navarre, 42.
Milton's Sonnet, 50.
Monks of Pinerolo, 39.
Marengo, Battle of, 94.
Mont Blanc, 67.
Mont Cenis, 68.
Nantes, Edict of, revoked, 58.
Noir of Mondovi, Remarkable death of, 26.
Otho, Emperor of Germany, 23.
Outburst of Romish intolerance at the opening of Vaudois Temple in
Turin, 3.
Pascal, Jean Louis, 33, 34.
Persecution of 1686, 46, 60.
Poulat, Captain, 83.
Pra del Torre, 26, 127.
Prali, 71.
Popes--
Silvester, 11.
Zachary, 16.
Innocent VIII. 24.
Innocent XII. 86.
Lucius, 28.
Pius IV., presiding at a martyrdom, 34.
Gregory, 16, 97.
Re-baptism of a child prevented, 35.
Rodoret Temple, 118.
Avalanche at, 117.
Return glorious, first Sunday at home, 70.
Refugees met at Milan, 85.
Remarkable supply of food, 79.
Salabertrand, Capture of bridge, 69.
San Secondo, 4.
Sartoire, Nicolas, martyred, 36.
Seyssel, Claude, 11.
Sibaud, Oath of, 73.
Solaro, Count of, 3.
St. Germano, Cruelties at, 56, 57.
Synods--
Remarkable, 19.
Angrogna, 35.
Turin--
Opening of the Vaudois Temple at, 3.
Proclamation of _Statuto_, 101-103.
Truchet, a persecutor, his death, 43.
Temples built, 34.
Vaudois Church--
Its antiquity, 9, 13, 24, 94.
Creed, 14.
Organization, 15, 22.
Missions, 29, 31, 122.
Victor Emmanuel I., 97.
Viso, Monte, 4.
Vigilantius, 15, 16.
Varaille, Geoffrey, martyr, 36.
Waldensian loyalty to House of Savoy, 1.
Waldensian Pedlars, 29-31.
Wurtemburg, Duke of, 88.
William III., 63.
Zeal of Seremius, Bishop of Marseilles, against images, 16.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES |
| |
| General: corrections to punctuation and format not individually |
| noted |
| |
| Page 4: enterprize standardised to enterprise |
| |
| Page 10: No quotes in original around How long have ... their name? |
| etc. Replicated in this version as it is believed to be intentional |
| |
| Page 14: docrine corrected to doctrine |
| |
| Page 21: [alpha]-[epsilon] are the Greek letters in the original |
| |
| Page 33: Chateau not standardised as it is part of a place-name |
| |
| Page 34: characterised standardised to characterized |
| |
| Page 36: Vacherè standardised to Vachere |
| |
| Page 39: attemped corrected to attempted |
| |
| Pages 41, 55 Miraboc, Mirabouc not standardised as it is not clear |
| if they refer to the same place |
| |
| Page 51: garisoned corrected to garrisoned |
| |
| Page 52: chalêt as in original |
| |
| Page 76: l'Ombraile standardised to l'Ombraille |
| |
| Page 84: Palavacini standardised to Palavicini |
| |
| Page 87: Zenophon as in original |
| |
| Page 94: assignd corrected to assigned |
| |
| Page 115: No quotes in original around You need ... the rest. |
| Replicated in this version as it is believed to be intentional |
| |
| Page 116: Amount of 21,217,84 lires as in original |
| |
| Page 131: Brandenburgh standardised to Brandenburg; Barthelemei |
| standardised to Barthélemi |
| |
| Page 132: Claude, Seyssell re-indexed as Seyssel, Claude, for |
| consistency with other index entries and the text; index entry for |
| Cutti, Count of refers to page for Count Crotti in original; |
| Guignevert standardised to Guignivert |
| |
| Page 133: Lago, Maggiore re-indexed as Maggiore, Lago |
| |
| Footnote A: Phillibert standardised to Philibert |
| |
| Footnote E: chateau standardised to château; aigulles corrected to |
| aiguilles |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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