The WALDENSES

Section Two

The Waldenses Through the Reformation

Chapter 11    The Waldenses in the Plain of Piedmont   
Chapter 12    Second General Persecution of the Waldenses of Piedmont Chapter 13    Condition of the Valleys Under Castrocaro    
Chapter 14    The Waldenses During the Reign of Charles Emanuel   
Chapter 15    The Plague and Other Calamities   
Chapter 16    More Martyrs       
Chapter 17    The Waldenses in Provence   
Chapter 18    The Waldenses in Calabria   
Chapter 19    The History of Various Martyrs   
Chapter 20    The Waldenses in the Valley of the Po   
Chapter 21    The       
Chapter 22    The       

In the space between Turin and the Waldensian valleys, there is probably not a single town in which the reformation of the sixteenth century did not find adherents and sympathy. Romanism had fallen into utter degradation. Cornelio d’Adro, an inquisitor of Raccoms, writing to the holy office, on the 22^nd of October, 1567 says, "I cannot adequately depict the decay with which our religion is struck in this country; the churches are in ruin, the altars stripped, the sacerdotal vestments in rags, the priests ignorant, and everything connected with the church in utter contempt." In this juncture the abler partisans of Rome saw that their most efficient course for stemming the torrent of the new opinions, was in affecting to share them. "Reform is necessary," said they, "and the church herself will undertake it; do not, therefore, separate from her, or needlessly and unfilially assail her." The Waldenses however, would admit no concessions, insisting upon this declaration of our Savior: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven: But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." The papists at length (February 15, 1560) procured, from the duke, an order that none, save the inhabitants of the Waldensian valleys themselves, should exercise the Protestant worship, and that none should visit the valleys merely for the purpose of attending that worship. The inquisitors forthwith commenced their persecutions throughout Piedmont, and two martyrs were burned alive at Carignano. The Protestants, alarmed like a flock of sheep suddenly assailed, dispersed. The archers then proceeded to the valley of Meano, where they seized a number of Waldenses, and among them their pastor, Jacob, who, upon his reiterated refusals to abjure, was led to the stake, his mouth gagged and his arms bound, and burned alive by a slow fire.

The city of Turin belonging at this time to France, the catholic clergy obtained (February 17, 1561) from Charles IX, an order for the suppression, in and about the city, of the reformed worship. The Protestant pastors were, in pusuance of this order, banished from Turin. The assemblies of the Religion, for such was the admitted designation of Protestantism, were, first ordered to be watched by the authorities, and then, shortly after, to be altogether suppressed. All who were found guilty, in the very act of common prayers and biblical meditations, were treated as high criminals. The reformers of Conde, of Ozasc, and Frossac, rather than attend mass, renounced their homes and their property, and took refuge among their brethren in the valley of Lucerne.

The churches of Conio and Caragli had acquired large extension. Men of the higher ranks were prominent in their flocks; and so long as their valor had been necessary to the duke of Savoy, in his wars as an ally of Spain against France, these seigneurs were permitted the free exercise of their religion.

But peace was concluded; and the clergy superseding these war-men around the person of the sovereign urged upon him that his glory was concerned in re-establishing, in its integrity, the religion of his ancestors. The duke assented, and first, the Protestants were forbidden to exercise their worship beyond the limits of the Waldensian valleys; and then (September 28, 1561), all the inhabitants were required to place in the hands of the magistrates any books of the Religion, which they might possess. At the same time, the duke ordered all his subjects to attend the preachings of the missionaries he was about to send amongst them. The preaching of one of these missionaries informed the auditory that "God had given them a mild winter that year, that so they might economize wood for burning the Lutherans in the spring." It may be readily conceived that such eloquence as this produced no great effect. On the 28^th of December, 1561, a fresh edict commanded all persons whosoever to attend mass without further delay; but scarcely any of the Protestants obeyed the injunction, and the number of recusants being so great, no steps were taken, at the time, to enforce the decree.

In 1565, however, the duke having ordered the Waldenses of the valleys—to whom, in 1561, he had granted the free exercise of their religion—to abjure, within two months, the Protestants of Conio were imperatively enjoined forthwith to attend before the magistrates, and make a declaration of Romish orthodoxy, under penalty of the severest punishments. Fifty-five families were found daring enough, in the presence of the authorities, to repudiate popery, and declare themselves Protestants. The humbler among these, knowing the consequences of their recusancy, at once sold their little property and departed elsewhere. A few only, of the more powerful, obtained permission, on the guarantee, in each case, of a Roman Catholic proprietor, to retain their lands and their religion, on the condition that they should not exercise that religion either in their own houses or elsewhere, under penalty of the total confiscation of all they were worth. Thus disappeared the church of God from the banks of the Stura.

The church of Caragli underwent much the same vicissitudes with those of Conio. In March 1565, a list of the Reformers there was required from the magistrates, and the number returned was nearly nine hundred. In April, the duke of Savoy sent to Caragli a missionary, and with him an order for all the inhabitants to attend his preachings. The great majority of the Reformers paid no attention to this order; thereupon the duke menaced all who should persist in their heresy "with his severest displeasure," and on June 10 appeared an edict ordering all Protestants who would not, within the space of two months, abjure, to quit the territory. The duchess of Savoy, and the seigneurs of Villanova-Solaro, under whose protection the reformers had hitherto prospered, essayed to procure a revocation of this impolitic and cruel edict; but the influence of the Catholic clergy prevailed, and on November 30, the decree was carried into execution, popish charity taking the further precaution of prohibiting any of the surrounding populations from giving harbor or aid to the proscribed families who thus preferred exile to abjuration. The noble family of Solaro itself, which now consisted of six brothers, all Protestants, was, upon its pertinacious adherence to the faith it had adopted, banished and dispersed some years afterwards, and its property confiscated.

Meanwhile under the French rule, the churches of Saluzzo enjoyed toleration; but their pastors were for the most part foreigners—Swiss or Piedmontese—and, taking advantage of this circumstance, the popish clergy induced the duke of Savoy to demand (1567), from the French lieutenant of the province of Saluzzo, the extradition of any of his subjects who might have taken refuge there; and the governor of Saluzzo accordingly ordered all foreigners to quit the territory within three days, and not to return, except upon special permission, under penalty of death and confiscation of goods. By the intervention, however, of Henry of Navarre, this decree withdrawn, and these churches seemed to have a chance of tranquility.

When the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place, Biragne, the governor of Saluzzo, received orders to slaughter all the Protestants within his jurisdiction. Appalled at these sanguinary instructions, he submitted them for consideration to the Chapter; and although several of its members were in favor of complete and immediate execution of the order, the majority, headed by the excellent archdeacon of Saluzzo, Samuel Vacca, insisted that so cruel a decree must be the result of some misconception or misrepresentation; and a delay was thus obtained, which saved the lives of the menaced brethren until the reprobation which speedily visited the cowardly slaughter that had taken place, ensured their safety.

For a while the churches of Saluzzo remained peaceful and flourishing; but in 1597, Charles Emanuel, having taken possession of the marquisate, called upon the churches of Saluzzo to come into the bosom of Catholicism. The churches respectfully declined the invitation, and the duke did not further press the point at the time; but, becoming undisputed master of the territory under the peace of Lyon (January 17, 1601), he issued (June 1601) a decree, ordering all Christians of the evangelical party to quit his states within two months, unless they abjured within a fortnight. The refractory were to be punished with death, and the confiscation of their goods. The Reformers addressed humble but urgent memorials to the duke for the revocation of this decree; and in the hope that the storm would pass over, permitted the two months assigned to elapse without making any preparations for their departure. At the expiration of that period, they received orders at once to depart, or at once to abjure; and thus taken by surprise, solicited with urgent entreaties and promises on the one hand, and menaced for themselves and their families on the other, many of them, with hearts well-nigh broken, consented to enter the Romish church. The rest withdrew, some to Geneva, some to France, some to the Waldensian valleys.

As yet, no menace had been directed against the Waldensians of Praviglelmo and of the upper valley of the Po, where the evangelical worship had been exercised from time immemorial. When the Waldensians of the plain, however, were all banished or dispersed, the Waldensians of the hills were in their turn, enjoined to abjure or to depart. But these hardy mountaineers, full of indignation at this invasion of their long-undisputed rights, assembled in arms, and having first menaced the Catholics among whom they lived, with fire and sword, if during their absence any evil should happen to their wives and children, descended into the plain, took possession of the market-place at Château-Dauphin, and threatened to devastate the whole district if the edict against them was not withdrawn. The Catholic population, who had ever found in the Protestants good and peaceful neighbors, assembled, addressed a memorial to Charles Emanuel, the edict was revoked, and for a while the Waldensians of Praviglelmo escaped the proscription which fell so heavily upon their brethren.

After the first general persecution of the Waldenses by Cataneo, which is related in the fourth chapter, the course of the present narrative diverged from the history of the Piedmontese valleys, to give a brief account of the Waldenses of the adjoining valleys in Dauphiny and Provence on the French side of the Alps, in the valley of the Po, in the plain of Piedmont, and in Calabria. In each of these places numerous Waldenses were formerly to be found, either indigenous or colonists from the mother-valleys. These places, as we have seen, were signalized by some of the earliest as well as some of the bloodiest persecutions of this poor people. Having given as full an account of them as our space permits, we now return to the main thread of the narrative.

At the time of which we now write, the Waldenses of Piedmont were included within the dominions of the king of France. The pope, in negotiating a treaty with the French king, Henry II, took occasion to demand the institution of severe measures against the Waldenses. Henry accordingly directed the parliament of Turin to proceed against the so-called heretics. The parliament appointed two commissioners, San Juliano and Della Chiesa, to repair to the valleys, to make investigation and report thereon, and to take what course they should think fit for converting the Waldenses to Romanism. These delegates, attendee by a numerous suite, reached the valleys in March 1556, and commenced proceedings by menacing with the severest punishment all who should offer any resistance to their measures. After visiting Perosa, Angrogna, and other places, the commissioners repaired to Luzerna, whence they issued (March 23, 1556) an edict ordering the Waldenses to abjure, and no longer to receive foreign preachers, other than such as should be deputed to them by the archbishop of Turin. One third of the goods of all contraveners of this decree was to go to the denouncers of them. The Waldenses replied with a profession of faith, based on the Bible, in the spirit of which they declared their resolution to persevere, after the example of their ancestors. The commissioners, by order of the parliament, then proceeded to France, and laid a report of their proceedings before the king, in order to receive his further instructions. It was not until the following year that they returned to the valleys, when they informed the Waldenses that the king commanded them forthwith to embrace Romanism. Three days only were granted them for deliberation, but briefer space would have sufficed. "Prove to us," replied the faithful, "that our doctrines are not conformable with the Word of God, and we are ready to abandon them; if not, cease to demand from us abjuration." "We don’t ask you for discussion," returned the commissioners, "we only want to know whether you will turn Catholics: yes, or no!"

"No!" replied the Waldenses. Thereupon (March 22, 1557), forty-six of their principal men were cited to appear before the court of Turin, on the 29^th, under penalty of a fine of five hundred gold crowns for each disobedience. Not one of them appeared. A month afterwards, fresh citations were served upon them, and also upon all their pastors and schoolmasters. These citations were equally fruitless. The syndics were ordered to arrest them, but the order was not obeyed; and the war of Spain and England against France, the mediation in favor of the Waldenses of the Swiss cantons, and the resumption of his states by Philibert Emanuel, who, in 1559, married the sister of Henry II—a lady favorable to Protestantism—combined, for a time, to restore peace and security to the Waldensian valleys. The manly firmness, tempered with mildness and Christian meekness, with which the persecuted Waldenses used to touch upon their wrongs, cannot be more thoroughly illustrated than in the following petition, presented by them to Philibert Emanuel:

"A supplication of the poor Waldenses, to the most serene and most high prince, Philibert Emanuel, duke of Savoy, prince of Piedmont, our most gracious lord.

"Festus, governor of Judea, being required by the chief priests and elders of the people, to put to death the apostle Paul, answered no less wisely than justly, that the Romans were not wont to put any to death, before they had brought his accusers face to face, and given him time to answer for himself. We are not ignorant, most gracious prince, that many accusations are laid against us, and that many calumnies are cast upon us, to make us objects of abomination to all the Christians and monarchs in the Christian world. But if the Roman people, though pagans, were so equitable as not to condemn any man before they knew and understood his reasons; and if the law condemns no man (as it is testified by Nicodemus, John 7) before he hath been beard, and before it is known what he hath done, the matter now in question being of so great concernment, namely, the glory of the most high God, and the salvation of so many souls, we do implore your clemency, most gracious prince, that you will be pleased to lend a willing ear to your poor subjects, in so just and righteous a cause.

"First, we do protest, before the almighty and all just God, before whose tribunal we must all one day appear, that we intend to live and die in the holy faith, piety, and religion of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that we do abhor all heresies that have been, and are, condemned by the Word of God.

"We do embrace the most holy doctrine of the prophets and apostles, as likewise of the Nicene and Athanasian creeds: we subscribe to the four councils, and to all the ancient fathers, in all such things as are not repugnant to the analogy of faith.

"We do most willingly yield obedience to our superiors; we ever endeavour to live peaceably with our neighbours; we have wronged no man, though provoked; nor do we fear that any can, with reason, complain against us.

"Finally, we never were obstinate in our opinions; but rather tractable, and always ready to receive all holy and pious admonitions, as appears by our confessions of faith.

"And we are so far from refusing a discussion, or rather a free council wherein all things may be established by the Word of God, that we rather desire the same with all our hearts.

"We likewise beseech your highness to consider, that this religion we profess, is not ours only, nor hath it been invented by man of late years, as it is falsely reported; but it is the religion of our fathers, grandfathers, and great 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. The Word of God shall not perish, but remain for ever; therefore, if our religion be the true word of God, as we are persuaded, and not the invention of men, no human force shall be able to extinguish the same.

"Your highness knows that this very same religion hath, for many ages past, been most grievously persecuted in all places; but, so far from being abolished and rooted out thereby, that it hath rather increased daily; which is a certain argument that this work and counsel is not the work and counsel of men, but of God, and therefore cannot be destroyed by any violence. Therefore, we beseech your most serene highness to consider what it is to undertake anything against God, that as you may not imbue your hands in innocent blood! Jesus is our Saviour; we will religiously obey all your highness’ edicts, so far as conscience will permit; but when conscience says nay, your highness knows we must rather obey God than man: we unfeignedly confess that we ought to give Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, provided we give also to God what is due to him.

"There want not those who will endeavour to incite the generous mind and courage of your highness, to persecute our religion by force of arms. But, O magnanimous prince, you may easily conjecture to what end they do it, that it is not of zeal to God’s glory, but rather to preserve their own worldly dignities, pomp, and riches; wherefore, we beseech your highness not to regard or countenance their sayings.

"The Turks, Jews, Saracens, and other nations, though never so barbarous, are suffered to enjoy their own religion, and are constrained by no man to change their manner of living and worship: and we, who serve and worship in faith the true and almighty God, and one true and only sovereign, the Lord Jesus, and confess one God and one baptism, shall we not be suffered to enjoy the same privileges?

"We humbly implore your highness’ goodness, and that for our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s sake, to allow unto us, your most humble subjects, the most holy gospel of the Lord our God, in its purity; and that we may not be forced to do things against our consciences; for which we shall, with all our hearts, beseech our almighty and all-good God to preserve your highness in prosperity."

The pertinacious solicitations, however of the nuncio, the prelates, the king of Spain, and several of the princes of Italy, so far prevailed with the duke, that on the 15^th of February, 1656, he issued a decree prohibiting all persons who were not actually inhabitants of the Waldensian valleys from repairing thither to hear the reformed preaching; and immediately afterwards commissioners were appointed to prevent the biblical worship from being celebrated beyond the confines of these valleys. These commissioners were the duke’s brother, Philip of Savoy, count de la Racconis, George Costa, count de la Trinité, and the grand inquisitor of Turin, Thomas Jacomel, an iron-hearted, profligate, grasping man. The count de la Racconis soon retired in disgust from the commission, leaving the two others to pursue their career of blood.

The monks of the abbey at Pignerol hired a band of marauders, whom they sent forth to pillage the Protestants, and to bring them, women and men, to the monastery, where the poorer sort were burned alive, or sent to the galleys; and the richer imprisoned until they paid ransom. The valley of San Martino was ravaged by the seigneurs of Perrier, Charles and Boniface Truchet. On the 2^nd of April, 1560, before daybreak, they assailed the village of Rioclareto, killed many of the inhabitants, drove forth the rest, without clothes or food, to suffer cold and hunger on the snow-clad mountains, and took possession of their dwellings, vowing that no one should re-enter them until he had promised to go to mass. It was not until three days afterwards that the despoilers were expelled from the village by its surviving population, with the aid of four hundred Waldenses from Pragela, who had marched to reinstate their brethren.

Meanwhile, the count de Racconis, who repaired to the valley of Luzerna, attended one day the preaching of the pastor of Angrogna, and was so much struck with it, that he obtained from the Waldenses a detailed statement of their doctrines, which he promised to lay before the pope in the hope that it might tend to a discontinuance of persecution. But the pope, Pius IV, replied, "I will never permit any discussion on points canonically determined. The dignity of the church demands that all should submit, implicitly and without question, to its constitutions; and it is my duty to proceed, with the utmost rigor, against all who will not so submit." All that the pope would concede was that a legate should proceed to the village, to absolve "from their past crimes," all who would apostatize, and instruct them without dispute, that is to say, without examination, in their new duties. Accordingly, the commander, Possevino, was appointed legate by Emanuel Philibert, with instructions to establish, in the Waldensian churches, Brothers of Christian Doctrine, under whose influence intellectual servility would soon have produced that abject submission so essential to the Romish church.

Possevino proceeded first to the castle of Cavour, whither he summoned the Waldenses of the valley of Luzerna to attend him, by deputies. Three deputies were sent accordingly, and to these the commander, having notified his powers, put the question, whether they would attend the preachings which he himself proposed to address to the population of the valleys. "Yes," replied they, "if you preach the word of God; but if you preach the human traditions that destroy the word, No!" Possevino, without any appearance of being offended with this freedom, replied that he would preach nothing but the pure gospel.

At this moment a Waldensian of San Germano appeared before the commander, to complain that the Romanists of Miradol, having first despoiled him of his cattle, had despoiled him also of a hundred crowns, which with much pains he had collected for their ransom, keeping both cattle and money too. "If you had gone to mass," insolently replied Possevino, "this would not have happened to you. I shall do nothing for you. This is but the commencement of what has been reserved for the heretics!" Such was the first example of justice and pure evangelical doctrine furnished by the representative of the Romish throne and church.

The next morning he ascended the pulpit of the great church of Cavour, and, in a fervid harangue, announced that he was about to convict all the Waldensian pastors of heresy, to expel them, and to re-establish mass in the villages. Two days afterwards, he preached at Bubiana, denouncing terrible menaces against the hardened, and making magnificent promises to such as would abjure. At San Giovanni he invited the heads of the Waldensian churches to a conference.

"Here," said he, "is the statement of the doctrines which you profess, which you yourselves have delivered to his highness. Do you abide by it?"

"We see no reason to depart from it."

"You undertake therein to repudiate your errors when they shall be demonstrated to you as such?"

"We renew the undertaking."

"Well, then, I will demonstrate to you that the mass is found in Scripture. The word massah signifies sent, does it not?"

"Not precisely."*

"The primitive expression, Ite, missa est, was employed to dismiss the auditory, was it not?"

"That is quite true."

"Well, then, you see, gentlemen, that the mass is found in the holy Scripture!"

To this ludicrous argument the Waldenses replied, that even had the term massah the meaning in Scripture which the commander supposed—which it had not—it would in no degree prove the divine institution of the mass; and that assuredly private masses, transubstantiation, and other points contested by them, were in no such way justified by his proposition.

"You are heretics, atheists, reprobates!" exclaimed Possevino, furiously. "I came not here to dispute with you, but to drive you from the country, as you deserve"; and he forthwith sent orders to the syndics of the various communes of the valleys, to expel their pastors, and to provide for the support of the priests whom he should send in their place. The syndics replied that they would only dismiss their pastors in the event of their being convicted of errors in doctrine or conduct; and that they would not provide for the support of the other persons announced, unless they were equally irreproachable in conduct and doctrine.

* Massah, in Hebrew, means burden, decree, or present.

The intercession of the good duchess Marguerite in favor of the Waldenses was ineffectual against the machinations of the nuncio and the prelates; and in October 1560, the duke levied troops in Piedmont, and offered free pardon to all convicts, outlaws, and vagabonds who would enroll themselves as volunteers to serve against the Waldenses. The faithful seemed menaced with total and inevitable destruction; their foes rejoiced, their friends trembled. Among the latter, count Charles of Luzerna, then governor of Mondovi, urgently entreated the Waldenses, both by letters and in person, to yield to circumstances, at least so far as to send away their pastors until the storm should have passed over; but the zealous folk refused, saying that, were they to be ashamed of God’s ministers, God would be ashamed of them.

War was accordingly declared. The Waldensian families hastily occupied themselves in collecting together such things as were indispensable to life, in order to be ready to retire with their herds into the mountains. The zeal and fervor of the pastors were redoubled. Never had the religious assemblings of the faithful been more numerous. The hostile army approached; the Waldenses fasted, prayed, celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and then prepared, without fear, nay, with joy, to receive from the hands of God all the trials to which he might think fit to expose them. The mountain paths resounded with the psalms and hymns of those who were conveying the aged, the infirm, the women, the children, household goods and provisions, to the surest retreats among the hilltops. The counsel of the pastors, indeed, was that they should not attempt to defend themselves with arms, but simply retire from aggression, or await martyrdom amid their families.

On the last day of October 1560, a proclamation was posted in all the villages of Angrogna, that the Waldenses would be destroyed by fire and sword, unless they were converted to the Romish church; and on the 1^st of November, the popish army, under the command of the count de la Trinté, encamped at Bubiana. Levied in haste, and from all classes of desperate adventurers, these troops, wholly destitute of discipline, gave way to every sort of excess, pillaging before they had struck a blow, and making no distinction, even, between papist and Protestant. The former, to preserve the chastity of their daughters from the gross brutality of these ruffian soldiers, adopted a course involving the highest testimony ever rendered to the virtues and generosity of the Waldenses. Knowing the austere purity of Waldensian manners, the strength of their retreats, the valor of the defenders of those retreats, these retreats appeared to them the surest asylum for their children, and accordingly, at the very moment that Romanism was marching in arms against the Waldenses, the Waldenses were made the depositaries of the menaced honors of the daughters of the Romanist population. And nobly was this confidence justified; the Waldenses defended the sacred deposit thus confided to them, with the same courage and respect as their own families, exposing themselves equally in their defense, and when the danger was over, restoring them to their parents, without a thought of recompense.

On the 2^nd of November, the army crossed the Pelice, and encamped in the meadows of Giovanni. Thence it advanced towards Angrogna., displaying its wings on the hills of Le Cohere. Several skirmishes took place at this point with about equal advantage, though many of the Waldenses had only slings and crossbows; but the small defense parties left of the Waldenses were too distant one from the other to act with vigor. They accordingly retired, fighting as they went, to the higher grounds. The enemy followed, but evening had now set in, and both parties were wearied with the day’s skirmishings.

On the summit of Le Cotiere, towards Roccamanante, the Waldenses halted. The enemy, thereupon, also halted, a short distance below, and lighted their fires for the bivouac of the night. The mountaineers, on the contrary, threw themselves on their knees, to offer up thanks and supplications to God, a proceeding which excited infinite laughter and jests on the part of the persecutors.

At this moment, a Waldensian child who had got hold of a drum, and carried it off to a ravine near at hand, beat it; and at the sound, the Romanist soldiers, conceiving it to announce the approach of fresh enemies, rose in disorder and seized their arms. The Waldenses observing this movement, and apprehending an attack on themselves, dashed down to repel it. The popish troops, fatigued and taken by surprise, gave way, and on being more closely assailed, threw down their arms, and fled down to the valley, thus losing in half an hour, all the ground it had taken them a day to acquire. The Waldenses, after thanksgiving to God, took possession of the abandoned arms, and made their way to Pra-del-Tor.

Next morning, the count de la Trinité, having rallied his troops, encamped at La Torre, repaired its fortifications, and placed a garrison there, who behaved so outrageously, that the Romanists of the place were fain to send their wives and daughters away, and to place them under the safeguard of the Waldenses.

The small fortresses of Villar, Perosa, and Perrier, were, in like manner, garrisoned with troops. On Monday, the 4^th of November, a detachment from La Torre, augmented on the way by the garrison of Villar, attacked Tagliaretto, but were defeated with considerable slaughter. A similar attempt upon Pra-del-Tor was similarly unsuccessful; and on the 9^th of November, the popish general announced that if the Waldenses would lay down their arms, he would go with a small train to celebrate mass at Angrogna, and then apply his utmost efforts to obtain peace for them. The Waldenses passed a whole night in deliberation whether they should consent; the desire to manifest their pacific tendencies, to give no pretext to their enemies for violence, and to omit no chance of terminating the war, prevailed, and they determined to accept the count’s proposition.

The count de la Trinité having celebrated mass at Angrogna, without calling upon any of the Reformers to attend, intimated a desire to visit Pra-del-Tor, a place celebrated among the Waldenses as the ancient school of their barbas; and as the count consented to leave his troops behind him at Angrogna, the Waldenses assented to the visit.

Pra-del-Tor is situated in a verdant hollow, surrounded by rugged heights, looking from above, like a crater, but below, like an oasis around the desert. The sole access is a narrow, tortuous path along the edges of the rocks. The population received the count with respect, and he appeared affected by their reception. On his return, at Serres, he had a soldier hanged for having stolen a fowl, but at Angrogna, once more surrounded by his troops, he felt it unnecessary to wear the aspect of over-clemency, and accordingly took no notice of many outrages which, during his absence, had been committed by his men, but returned to La Torre, leaving his secretary at Angrogna to receive the memorial which he had desired the Waldenses to draw up for presentation to their sovereign. This memorial, which protested the loyally of the persecuted folk, and entreated the duke to leave their conscience free, in order that his own might not stand laden with the weight of their death before the judgment seat of God, was conveyed to Vercelli by several Waldensian deputies, to be laid before the duke.

During their absence the count de la Trinité called upon the people of Tagliaretto to lay down their arms, his intention, doubtless, being to avail himself of their defenselessness, to turn that bulwark of the Pra-del-Tor. The people of Tagliaretto went to deliberate on this proposition with those of Bonneto, and while they were absent on this mission, the enemy, eager for violence, attacked their village, plundered and burned their houses, and carried off as prisoners their wives and children. The men assembled at Bonneto, on hearing what had taken place, hastened in arms after the marauders, rescued the captives, and dispersed the enemy. One aged Waldensian, assailed by a popish trooper, fell on his knees to implore mercy; the soldier raised his sword to strike, but, at the instant, the old man seized him by the legs, threw him down, and himself leaping from a precipice, dragged the enemy with him into eternity. All the Waldenses had quitted the lower portions of the valley for the mountains. The troops of the count de la Trinité having mercilessly ravaged the deserted villages, ascended to Villar; here a few inhabitants still remained, whom they took prisoners. It was here that a popish soldier of Mondovi ferociously exclaimed, "I’ll take some heretic’s flesh home with me!" rushed upon a Waldensian, and biting a large piece of flesh from his cheek, swallowed it.

The Waldenses sought the count de la Trinité, and respectfully, but with firmness, remonstrated against these acts of violence. "Is it not the custom," they asked, "to abstain from hostilities pending a capitulation? We have laid down our arms, relying upon your word, and now, doubtless against your inventions, your troopers commit all sorts of excesses upon us." The count assured them that, if had he been present, these things should not have happened, and he returned the prisoners. The booty, however, he kept.

The irritation of the Waldenses was aggravated by incessant harassings; at length, the count de la Trinité, having assembled their leaders "to discuss the basis of a solid accommodation," promised to withdraw his army, on condition that the Waldenses would undertake to pay a sum of 20,000 crowns.

"I will get the amount reduced to 16,000 crowns," said the worthy secretary of this worthy master, "if you will give me 100 crowns for myself." The bargain was made, and the Waldenses consented to pay 16,000 crowns ($10,000). The duke abated one half of this sum; the Waldenses, who had nothing left them but their herds, were compelled to sell these, in order to raise money for the payment of the tribute, but here again they were defrauded. The general, for a sum of money, sold to a few monopolists the right of purchasing the herds, which thus, in a restricted market, were sold for much less than their value. By this sacrifice of their last remaining means, the Waldenses raised 8,000 crowns, which were duly paid to the duke. The army should now have withdrawn; it did not stir; the Waldenses remonstrated to the general. "You must give up your arms," said he. Some arms were surrendered. "And now," said the general, "before we go, you must give me an undertaking to pay the other 8,000 crowns; you engaged to pay 16,000, and you have only paid 8,000."

"But the duke exempted us from paying the remainder."

"That is no affair of mine; you promised to pay 16,000 crowns, and you shall pay it."

The obligation to pay the further 8,000 crowns was signed.

"Now, then, you will remove your troops?"

"Not till you have sent away your pastors; it was principally for that object I came."

The Waldenses, in despair, impoverished and defenseless, had no alternative but to make this agonizing concession also. They resolved to conduct their pastors to Pragela, which at that time belonged to France, hoping, ere long, to bring them back again. The road by the plain being infested by marauders and assassins, and especially by those in the pay of the monks of Pignerol, it was determined to traverse the Col Julien. This plan having become known to the enemy, an ambush was laid for the pastors near Bobbi; the pastors escaped, and the marauders indemnified themselves by pillaging all the houses in the locality, under pretense of seeking the fugitives.

The count de la Trinité withdrew his army, indeed, but it was only into the valley between Briqueras and Cavour; and he left strong garrisons in La Torre, Villar, Perrier, and Perosa, whom the Waldenses were compelled to support—sheep nourishing wolves.

A party of the garrison of La Torre, commanded by one Bauster, proceeded one day to a village on the road to Angrogna, and ordered the inhabitants to entertain them. The poor Waldenses produced the best provisions they had; after eating and drinking their fill, the troopers closed the doors of the courtyard in which they were seated, seized the men who had been waiting upon them, bound them, and carried them away prisoners to La Torre. The unhappy creatures were released a few days after, on payment of ransom; but they had been so cruelly maltreated by the papists that one of them died in agony the day after his return home, and another only survived to endure a long martyrdom, from the sufferings he had undergone. The flesh of his feet and hands torn away by torture, hung in shreds, the bones fell off one after the other, and he remained a cripple for life. The same party, under the same leader, surprised in like manner the village of Bonneto, and carried off two brothers, John and Odar Geymeto, whom they put to a cruel death.

I speak not of the young women and girls who were seized and taken into these dens of iniquity; the atrocious outrages to which they were subjected may not be described.

The deputation sent to Vercelli did not return until January 1561. Their mission had proved wholly futile. After harassing them, day after day, for more than six weeks, with a succession of monks and priests, who essayed to win them over to the mass, they were dismissed with the assurance that unless they and those they represented forthwith abjured, they should be all exterminated, and they learned that whole troops of idolaters, monks, and priests, were about to be let loose upon their valleys. Such intelligence as this might well have been expected to spread depression and despair through these valleys; but, on the contrary, no longer fearing to compromise their deputies, who were returned, or their goods, which were gone, or peace, which was manifestly impracticable, the Waldenses reinstated, in each parish, the pastor whom they had removed, raised up their leveled churches, and resumed everywhere the songs, the labors, the duties, the joys, and the occupations of their wonted biblical life, fully resolved to defend these and each other. At the same time came letters from Switzerland and Dauphiny, wherein their brethren exhorted them to maintain their courage, placing all their confidence in God. These brethren themselves furnished a signal example of what they taught; for the reformed in France were now furiously persecuted by the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine, whom the feeble Francis II had placed, the one at the head of his armies, the other at the head of his council. Dangers bring men closely together; the valley of Pragela, which then belonged to France, was menaced with the same calamities that threatened the valley of Luzerna. Thereupon took place one of those grand and solemn scenes, which, at once heroic and religious, seem rather adapted for an epic poem than for grave history.

Deputies of the valley of Luzerna repaired to the valley of Pragela, to renew, in the presence of God, the alliance which had ever existed between these primitive churches of the Alps. This alliance was sworn by the combined people, assembled on a plateau of snow, facing the mountains of Sestrieres and the chain of the Gunivert. Then the inhabitants of Pragela sent, in their turn, delegates and pastors into the valley of Luzerna.

They reached it on the 21^st of January, 1561. The evening before, there had been published throughout the valley, a ducal proclamation, that, within twenty-four hours, the inhabitants were to decide upon going to mass, or were to be subjected to all the punishment reserved for heretics—to fire, to sword, to cord, the three arguments of Romanism. The expiration of this term coincided exactly with the arrival of the Pragalese pastors at Puy, a hamlet built on a verdant slope at a short distance from Bobbi. The pastors, elders, deacons, and faithful of Bobbi and the contiguous hamlets, at once ascended to Puy, to inform the newcomers of the sad calamities to which they were reduced; and there, after earnest prayers to God, for his counsel and aid, considering that no Waldensian would abjure, that it was impossible for them to procure an asylum elsewhere, that it was absolutely determined to crush them, a thing which even a worm will not endure without resistance, it was resolved, with solemn enthusiasm, that they would defend themselves and one another to the death.

Such was the opening of the most brilliant campaign ever accomplished by persecuted heroes against persecuting fanatics.

The delegates of Pragela and of Luzerna, standing erect in the center of the kneeling and enrapt people, pronounced these words:

"In the name of the Waldensian churches of the Alps, of Dauphiny, and Piedmont, which have ever been united, and of which we are the representatives, we here promise, our hands on the Bible, and in the presence of God, that all our valleys shall courageously sustain each other, in matters of religion, without prejudice to the obedience due to their legitimate superiors.

"We promise to maintain the Bible, whole and without admixture, according to the usage of the true apostolic church, persevering in this holy religion, though it be at peril of our life, in order that we may transmit it to our children, intact and pure, as we received it from our fathers.

"We promise aid and succor to our persecuted brothers, not regarding our individual interests, but the common cause, and not relying upon man, but upon God."

The pastors had scarcely done speaking, when several of the people simultaneously exclaimed, "Tomorrow they require from us an ignominious abjuration of our faith—well! let us, tomorrow, make a signal protestation against the persecuting idolatry that would impose that oath upon us."

The next morning, accordingly, before daybreak, instead of going to mass, they rushed, in arms, to the Protestant church, which the papists had already decked out with the frippery usual in their worship. Images, flambeaux, rosaries, were thrown into the street and trampled under foot. The minister, Humbert Artus, ascended the pulpit, and selecting for his text the verse of Isaiah (45:20), "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save," pronounced a discourse that confirmed and encouraged the resolution of his auditory, who marched thence to purge the church of Villar also from the gross fetiches of Roman idolatry. On their way they met the garrison of Villar, leisurely marching to make, as it is thought, a facile prey of the Waldensian recusants. It assailed the reformers, who repelled it and drove it back to whence it came. The judges, the monks, the seigneurs, and the podesta, who had all complacently assembled to receive the abjuration of the heretics, had scarcely time to take refuge with the fugitive soldiers in the menaced fortress. The Waldenses laid siege to the place, posted sentinels and videttes, levied stores, and firmly awaited events.

The garrison of La Torte came next day to deliver the besieged, but the Waldenses met and routed them on the plain of Teynan; they returned next day in greater numbers, and were again repulsed. Three bodies of troops presented themselves on the fourth day, and underwent the same fate. For ten days the Waldenses occupied themselves in making powder, in digging mines, in forming casemates, and in other preparations for taking the citadel. The garrison, at length, reduced to extremities, without ammunition, without provisions, without water, surrendered, on condition that their lives should be spared, and that in departing they should have the escort of two pastors, thus manifesting that they had more confidence in these persecuted ministers, than in any other protection. The terms were granted, the garrison marched out, and the fortifications of Villar were forthwith destroyed by the conquerors.

This advantage gained by the Protestants suggested to the count de la Trinité the expediency of preventing union among them. He drew up his army between Luzerna and San Giovanni, and sent word to the inhabitants of Angrogna that they need fear nothing from him, if they would take no part in the affairs of the other valleys. But the people, rendered cautious by the treachery of which they so often had been made the victims, made no other reply than the preparing more actively than ever for the common defense.

They threw up entrenchments, they established posts and signals; every house became a manufactory of pikes, bullets, and other weapons; the best marksmen were formed into a body, called the Flying Company, it being their part to hasten wherever danger most menaced. They were always to be accompanied by two pastors, to prevent excesses, unnecessary effusion of blood, and the relaxing in religious exercises. Each morning and evening, and before every engagement, these ministers offered up prayers in the encampment.

The advanced post of the Waldenses, that of Sonnaillette, was attacked on the 4^th of February, 1561, and the combat lasted till night. Three days after, the popish army marched upon Angrogna in several separate corps, which united on a steep and rocky ascent called Le Coste. But the Waldenses, who occupied the heights, rolled down huge rocks on their ranks, and dispersed them.

The severest struggle, however, that had yet occurred, took place on the 24^th of February. The count had brought to bear all his forces, and all the resources of his strategy, the object being to surprise Pra-del-Tor, where the entire population of Angrogna had assembled, and where they had constructed mills, ovens, houses, and all the appurtenances of a fortified post. This citadel of the Alps was protected, not only by rocks, but also by heroic fighting men. An attempt had been made to reach it by Tagliaretto, but this access was defended by the conquerors of Villar. Two bodies of troops were accordingly directed against it from other quarters. The one, commanded by Charles Truchet and Louis de Monteil, advancing by the valley of San Martin, the other, under La Trinté, by that of Pramol. These two bodies were to attack Pra-del-Tor, the one by the Col du Laouzon, the other by the Col de la Vachera. On the morning they were to act, a third body appeared at the extremity of the valley of Angrogna, burning and pillaging, in order to draw the defenders from the principal post. But the maneuver did not succeed. The troop coming by La Vachera advanced first; the Waldenses assailed and dispersed it. The second troop was then discovered, slowly descending the mountain side. It was allowed to involve itself in the ravines, and the guides had reached an opening whence they could look down into the valley, and had cried out, "Haste! Haste! Angrogna is ours!" when the Waldenses, rushing upon them from the rocks, and exclaiming, "It is you who are ours," attacked them with energy. The enemy, confiding in their numbers, turned upon this small force, but now came up the Waldenses who had defeated the first comers, and who assailed the enemy on their left. The latter still resisted, but suddenly the Flying Company appeared on the right, and the papists, assailed on three sides, turned and retreated, as best they might, up the arduous ascent. Charles Truchet was prostrated by a stone, and his head was cut off with his own sword; and Louis de Monteil, after he had attained the other side of the mountain, was overtaken and slain. All their soldiers would have been slain with them, had it not been for the pastors of the Flying Company, who hastened to the field of battle to save, and to dismiss those who could no longer save themselves. This victory supplied the Waldenses with store of much-needed arms and armor, taken from the enemy.

To avenge his defeat, the count de la Trinté burned the village of Rora, whose inhabitants, after a long and vigorous resistance, retired, over the mountain snows, to Villar.

It was the next occupation of the Waldenses to construct, with trees, stakes, great stones, and snow, barricades at the narrowest points of the valley. These were scarcely completed, when the count de la Trinté advanced, having divided his army into three corps, two of which, infantry, were to march along the two heights of the valley, while the third, cavalry, followed its center. A company of pioneers was in front, to level the barricades. The Waldenses, on their part, advanced on the left bank of the Pelice, till they came opposite Chiabrol, and fired on the cavalry as soon as it appeared; then, retreating from tree to tree, and from rock to rock, they continued to harass it, until they came to the first barricade, above Villar. Here they halted, and swelled the ranks of the Flying Company, who defended this post. Much of the day was spent in skirmishes, at and about the barricade, upon which the enemy made no impression. Meanwhile, the infantry, who had advanced along the heights, passed, towards evening, beyond the line thus heroically defended. It became, therefore, necessary for the Waldenses to separate, in order that a portion of their body might repulse these newcomers. The first of these who appeared had already crossed the torrent Respart, and were ascending the vine-covered hills which overlook Villar, when the Waldenses, who had hastened up the opposite ascent, met them, assailed them, and, after a long struggle, compelled them to retreat upon La Torre, with considerable loss.

In the following week, the Waldenses occupying the heights, the count attacked the hamlet of Boudrina, with a body of 2,000 men, and for a while this large force seemed triumphant; but the Flying Company came up, with the men of Angrogna, and turned the fortune of the day, so that the enemy were routed, and driven back once more to La Torre. The count de la Trinté then retired to Luzerna, and thenceforth left both Villar and Bobbi unmolested.

But there remained Angrogna, the central position of the valleys, approachable on all sides except from the West; and having collected a new army of not fewer than 7,000 men, the count resolved to vindicate his military honor by the taking of Angrogna.

On Sunday, March 17, 1561, the Waldensian families, assembled with their defenders at Pra-del-Tor for the worship of God, saw, as they quitted the church, three long trains of soldiers advancing in parallel lines—the one along the heights of La Vachera, the other by the road from Foreste, and the third by that from Serre.

The approaches to Pra-del-Tor, to which the first two lines of attack were advancing, were defended by a bastion of earth and rock-work, which the Waldenses had taken the precaution to construct, but the lower path had not been barricaded, though it might have been far more easily so closed than any other access, by reason of the narrowness of its path. Indeed, the natural difficulties of the approach, which the Waldenses had considered a sufficient impediment, were so great, that the enemy’s column which used it was the last to arrive in sight of Pra-del-Tor. Upon perceiving it, the Waldenses descended to attack them, leaving at the bastion above only a few defenders; but these were armed with long pikes, with which each assailant, as he appeared on the escarpment, was forthwith thrust down the precipice. After a long struggle, however, which cost the lives of two of their number, this little band was about to give way, when the Flying Company, having routed the assailants below, dashed up to the bastion, whose garrison, thus reinforced, at once assumed the offensive. The enemy, furiously attacked, turned and fled. Tile captain of the band, Sebastian di Virgile, was slain; and the number of the soldiers killed was so great, that the Count de la Trinité actually sat down and wept when he beheld the heaps of bodies. At the other bastion, the Waldenses were equally successful; they had awaited in firm silence the approach of the enemy, till they came within gunshot, and then, with a general discharge, took the papists by surprise; at a second discharge, the enemy gave way. The Waldenses rushed forth, attacked and decimated the enemy, and dispersed the survivors. As the captain of the battalion afterwards stated, the catholic troopers seemed panic-struck in the presence of these raw mountaineers, and there ran among them this cry: "God must be with these men!" It was a matter of no small astonishment with the papists generally at this time, that the Waldenses, thus triumphant, and familiar with the locality, had not followed up their victory by pursuing the enemy and completely annihilating them, as they might readily have done; but the chiefs, as Gilly observes, and especially the ministers, would not permit this, having resolved, at the outset, that while, under necessity, they would do their best to defend themselves by force of arms, they would never transgress the limits of absolute self-defense, alike out of respect for their superiors, and out of a desire to spare human blood, using every victory granted them by the God of battles with the utmost possible moderation.

The Romish chiefs attributed these repeated defeats of their troops to the circumstance that they had not been accustomed to warfare in the mountains, asserting that could they encounter the Waldenses on the plain, they would scatter them like chaff. It so happened that in a few days afterwards an encounter did take place on the plain; but it was the papists who were scattered like chaff—not the Waldenses. Victory, as Gilly remarks on the occasion, depends not on the greater or smaller number of men, not on the greater or smaller space of battlefield, not on the higher or lower elevation of the ground, but wholly on the merciful aid of the Lord, who, when it so pleases his wisdom, gives the will and the power to triumph to those who support a just cause.

After these numerous engagements, in which the Waldenses only lost fourteen men, the count de la Trinité sent persons to open negotiations with them; but while the parley was proceeding, and the attention of the Waldenses thus lulled, he assembled his troops, and marched them, in the night of the 16^th of April, against the two strongest points in the country—Pra-del-Tor and Tagliarette. Tagliarette, assailed first, was occupied at daybreak by a number of attacking parties, who threw themselves simultaneously upon all the scattered hamlets which constitute the district. The inhabitants, surprised in their sleep, were some slain and some taken prisoners, and the rest, escaping in their night attire, owed their lives to their agility, and to their knowledge of the mountain paths. The assailants, after plundering the abandoned cottages, descended by Costa-Rossina to the slopes overhanging Pra-del-Tor, to cooperate with the other troops in the projected extermination of the Waldenses.

Now the first proceeding of these, with the opening of each day, was to offer up a prayer to God in common. It was daybreak, and they had just terminated this religious exercise, when the first rays of the sun lit up, on the mountain tops, the helmets and cuirasses of the advancing enemy. Six resolute mountaineers, dashing up the ascent, posted themselves in a defile where only two persons could march abreast; and here they kept in effectual check the long file of the foes who were accumulating behind this obstacle. As each two of the enemy turned the rock, they were shot down by the two foremost Waldenses; the two next were shot in like manner by the two next Waldenses, firing over their comrades’ shoulders; the two last Waldenses loaded the weapons as they were discharged. Thus, for a quarter of an hour, the passage was closed. Meantime, other Waldenses ascended to the rocks which, higher up, overlooked the defile in which the enemy’s forces were collecting. All at once, upon this armed mass, there rained angular rocks, which crushed whole ranks in their fall, and then, bursting into splinters, rebounded from the bodies like grape-shot, and prostrated fresh victims. Unable to advance, or to deploy, or even to fight, the unfortunate troops retrograded in disorder and but a portion escaped. The other corps, who had advanced by La Vachera to aid in the attack on Pra-del-Tor, finding their comrades already defeated, joined the survivors in their flight.

The Waldenses, doubly indignant at being thus basely assailed pending the armistice which they had generously accepted, furiously pursued the fugitives, and harassed them with stones and bullets, up to the plateau of Campola-Rama near La Torre. Here the papists, facing about, hastily formed in battle array, hoping to surround the Waldenses, with the aid of fresh troops from La Torre; but the Protestants, giving them no time, either to form or to receive succors, dashed upon them, slew, among the first victims, their leader, Cornelio, and drove them, discomfited and in utter disorder, up to the very gates of La Torre. The same evening, the count de la Trinité retreated to Cavour. It was announced that he was gone to fetch cannon. "Let him bring them," cried the Waldenses, "he’ll not take them back with him." But he came not; and the victors, returning to Pra-del-Tor, covered it, towards La Vachera, with a bastion so large, that it was visible at Luzerna, three leagues off.

At this period there arrived in the valleys a new legion of defenders. The Waldenses of Provence, who had escaped from the massacres of 1545, doubly inured to warfare by their misfortunes and by the savage life they had led on the rude slopes of Leberon, issued from their retreats, on hearing that their brethren of the Piedmontese valleys were undergoing persecution; and either because the climate of Provence had generated in them more violent passions, or that the monstrous cruelties of Menier d’Oppede had infuriated them against all Catholics, these auxiliaries were far from imitating the moderation of the Waldenses with regard to the papists. Animated with a spirit of vengeance, explained, though not excused, by the terrible sufferings they had endured, they scoured the country about the valleys, ravaged the possessions of the Catholics, rendered carnage for carnage, and diffused that insurmountable terror which is created by the fury of despair. The surrounding population, victims at once of the hostile army and of the devastating incursions of these implacable avengers, loudly demanded that this war, so disastrous for all parties, should be concluded. On the other hand, desertion manifested itself in the papist army; the soldiers would not fight against such adversaries, nor even march towards those formidable mountains, where, as they said, the death of one Waldensian cost the lives of more than a hundred Catholics. At last the count de la Trinité fell ill, while the Waldenses, so far from becoming weaker, had defenders more resolute, more powerful, more numerous than ever.

It was considered, therefore, expedient to make terms with them. The first overtures offered merely peace, and this on condition that the Waldenses would send away their pastors, and ransom their brethren who were prisoners. These conditions were at once rejected. The count de Racconis (the 5^th of May) wrote to the Waldenses, inviting them to send delegates to Cavour, to arrange with him the basis of a definite arrangement. The delegates were sent, and on the 5^th of June, 1561, a decree was issued, granting to the Waldenses almost everything which they had asked. It became to them in fact the charter of their liberties.

The pope, the nuncio, the catholic clergy, raised a vehement outcry against this convention, and did their utmost to frustrate it; but the cause of truth prevailed, and the convention of the 5^th of June afforded a solid basis to the Waldenses for the ulterior defense of their liberty of conscience, which, though it underwent thereafter many rude assaults, triumphed over them all, for all the persecuted ones placed their trust in Him who said, "Call upon me in the day, of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shaft glorify me."

After so protracted an interruption of agricultural labors, after such multiplied pillagings, and burnings, and losses of every description, undergone by the Waldenses, there was utter poverty throughout their valleys. The confiscated lands, houses, &c., had been stripped of every movable appurtenance, before they were restored; and many were not restored at all. The monks of Pignerol continued their depredations upon the surrounding Protestants; and, from time to time, Waldenses escaped from the massacres in Calabria, made their way, hungry, naked, and utterly destitute, to the valleys, and became an additional burden upon the impoverished mountaineers, ever prompt to share with their brethren the little that remained to themselves. Their distress became known, and collections were made for them in Switzerland, in Germany, and even in France.

They were just recovering from their depression, when Castrocaro, a man who had been their prisoner, and whom they had generously released, professing to the duchess of Savoy, their protector, the most friendly intentions towards them, obtained the appointment of governor of the valleys. But, treacherous both towards his benefactress and towards his benefactors, he was faithful only to the archbishop of Turin, to whom he had promised that he would gradually withdraw from the Waldenses all the liberties which had been granted to them, and do his utmost for the complete annihilation of their church. His mode of effecting this object was by successive restrictions; and first, in 1565, he demanded a revision of the treaty of Cavour, concluded in 1561.

The Waldenses rejected the proposition. He then pretended that they had transgressed it. The Waldenses applied to the duke to maintain its provisions. Castrocaro proceeded to Turin, and returned with new conditions, which he laid before the Waldenses for their signature. But these conditions were not signed by the duke, and the Waldenses refused to subscribe them. Castrocaro menaced them with a war more cruel than the preceding. A conference was established at which some concessions were extorted from the representatives of the Waldenses; the Waldenses disavowed their representatives. The parties were growing embroiled, and this was precisely what the popish governor desired.

He had a body of troops placed under his command, on pretence of maintaining order, and established himself with this garrison in the castle of La Torre. He thence issued orders to the people of Bobbi to dismiss their pastor, Humbert Artus; and to those of San Giovanni, no longer to admit the Protestants of the plain to their religious meetings.

The Waldenses, by the medium of the duchess, obtained the abrogation of these orders; but Castrocaro, nevertheless, on the 10^th of September, 1565, issued a proclamation in the valley of Luzerna that all who did not conform should be put to the edge of the sword; and at the same time wrote word to the duke that the Waldenses were in open rebellion against his authority; whereupon the duke, indignant, ordered the people to obey their governor. The latter forthwith persecuted the faithful under all sorts of pretexts; he removed the learned Scipio Lentulus, pastor of San Giovanni, on the pretext of his being a foreigner; he arrested Gilles des Gilles, pastor of La Torre, on the pretext, utterly futile, that he had been to Grenoble and Geneva to invite foreign troops against his sovereign. This was the pastor who, in the late war, had, by his energetic interposition, saved the life of Castrocaro, as well as those of a multitude of catholic soldiers. This vital service, which would have inflamed noble minds with eternal gratitude, engendered absolute hatred towards his benefactor in the base soul of Castrocaro, who having, in February 1566, seized his liberator, threw him into prison, treated him there, as his grandson relates, "worse than the worst brigand," and had well-nigh effected his death by burning, when the excellent pastor was released on the mediation of the elector Palatine.

Castrocaro next published an edict commanding all Protestants, not born within his jurisdiction, to quit it, under penalty of death and confiscation; but the duchess of Savoy procured the abrogation of this barbarous order. The perfidous governor then essayed to interdict the Waldenses from assembling in Synod, but he failed. "At all events," he declared, "he would be present at these synods, in order to prevent plots against the safety of the state"; but the Waldenses protested against this innovation, fearing, not his presence, but the precedent.

In the following year, the wars of religion were rekindled in France; the duke of Cleves, marching at the head of an army of Spaniards against Flanders, was to traverse Piedmont, and his first exploit, it was announced, was to be the extermination of the Waldenses. The fanatics rejoiced, the Christians mourned, anxiety once more spread through the valleys, and a solemn fast was observed there towards the end of May, to avert the menaced visitation. It was averted; the storm passed on one side, and while all the rest of Europe was in combustion, the Waldenses enjoyed, for a few years, comparative peace.

Castrocaro availed himself of this respite, to construct, or rather to complete, the fort of Miraboco, an erection especially obnoxious to the people of Bobbi, by reason of the obstacle it established on the road to Queyras, the free passage of which created some resources for their colayers, or hawkers, who, by that route, conveyed their produce, for sale or exchange, to Upper Dauphiny. Castrocaro, however, had a special hostility to the people of Bobbi; and his next step was to require from them the surrender, into the hands of the papist pastor of La Torre, of the Protestant church of Bobbi, and the land appropriated to the support of its minister. The Waldenses refused, and were thereupon condemned by Castrocaro to pay a fine of one hundred gold crowns, within twenty-four hours, and a further penalty of twenty-five gold crowns for every day that the one hundred crowns should remain unpaid. Upon an appeal to Emanuel Philibert, this demand was withdrawn, but the Waldenses, seeing the system of persecution once more in such active operation, deemed it necessary to renew among themselves that oath of alliance and Christian combination which had been instrumental to their late triumphs; and they accordingly, on the 11^th of November, 1571, signed, by their representatives at Bobbi, the following convention:

"When any one of our churches shall be impeached, individually, all the rest, combined, shall reply, as with one mouth, in assertion of the common right. No one of us shall adopt any determination, in such a matter, with out consulting his brethren. All of us solemnly promise and swear to adhere perseveringly to the ancient union transmitted to us by our fathers, never to abandon our holy religion, and to remain faithful to our lawful sovereigns."

Amid the vexations which now harassed the Waldenses, especially those of Lower Piedmont, there is a circumstance of a very singular nature to be noted. Charles IX of France actually wrote a letter of the most pressing nature to the duke of Savoy, in favor of the persecuted. "I have a request to make," wrote he, "of no ordinary kind, but as earnest a one as I could possibly put to you, and it is this: that having, under the influence of passions excited by war-troubles, treated your subjects with extreme harshness, you would, for love of me, and at my prayer and special recommendation, receive them into your good grace, and re-establish them in their confiscated properties." This letter, written at Blois, bears date, 28^th September, 1571, Charles IX being then twenty-one years old.

"Charles IX," say the Benedictine authors of the Art de Vérifier les Dates, "had received from nature an excellent disposition and rare talents; he was brave to intrepidity, endowed with marvellous penetration, vivid conception, sure judgment, and expressed himself with a noble facility. But the seductions by which he was surrounded perverted this favourable disposition; the queen-mother herself formed him in the arts of feigning and dissimulation; the marshal de Retz taught him to laugh at oaths; and the Guise, by their sanguinary counsels, converted the natural impetuosity of his character into cruelty." And there is no doubt that, under other circumstances, he would have been one of the most accomplished and excellent princes in the annals of French royalty. But ill example and sinister counsels produced their wonted result; on the 23^rd of August, 1572, within a year after the transmission of this letter, took place the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

Upon the occurrence of that monstrous event, the hopes which the reformed churches had conceived were succeeded by the most agonizing apprehensions. Castrocaro, among the foremost persecutors, alarmed the Waldensian valleys with his menaces of extermination. "Sixty thousand Huguenots have perished in France," he exclaimed, with malignant vehemence, "and do you, miserable handful of heretics, think you are to escape?" The papist population already congratulated each other on the approaching abolition of the Waldenses. The latter began to prepare for the worst; the women and children, conveying the household goods, sought the securest caverns of the upper mountains; the men, remaining behind, prepared their weapons, and, until compelled to make use of them, continued to watch and pray.

But the cry of horror which resounded throughout civilized Europe at the enormous assassination of August 1572, had its effect upon the duke of Savoy, whose heart was touched, whose intelligence was confounded, at so monstrous an atrocity. He protested energetically against the cruelties which had been perpetrated, vowed that no similar crime should ever sully his life, and assuring the Waldenses that they were in no danger, induced them to return once more to their dwellings.

A relation of the troubles which, at this epoch, befell the valley of Perosa will more fitly be introduced later, in connection with the history of the valley of Pragela; but there is one episode which may find its place here, as coming within the general movement of the districts under consideration.

Amid the almost universal fury now prevalent against the Protestants, the pastor of San German, named Francis Guerin, did not hesitate to go forth, himself, alone, to combat catholicism with that bloodless but most potent weapon—reasoning. One day, in 1573, he proceeded to Pramol, where papism was rampant. It was Sunday, the people were assembled in church, and the curé was celebrating mass. Francis Guerin mingled with the auditory, and waited, in silence, until the service was terminated. No one suspected that, amid the crowd, there was a knight of Christ, who, armed with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, was about to make that word triumph, by the power of love and of courage, over the servile forces of superstition.

The curé having concluded his service, the pastor rose, and asked him whether he had finished. "Yes," replied the curé.

"What have you been doing?"

"I have been celebrating mass."

"What is the mass?" asked the pastor in Latin. There was no answer.

"What is the mass?" asked the pastor in Italian, but the poor curate could not answer. Thereupon, relates the Capuchin, brother Augustin, in a contemporary manuscript, the Protestant minister mounted the pulpit, and began to preach against the mass and against the pope, and, among other things, said, "O poor folk! See what you have here—a man who knoweth not what that is he doeth. Every day he says mass, yet he knows not what mass is; every day he does that which neither he understands, nor you, whom he calls about him. But behold here the Bible, and hear the words of God." "And thereupon," adds the Capuchin, "with his gimcracks, he perverted the whole district, so that now there is neither curé nor mass to be found there."

For five years, Francis Guerin acted as pastor of the district thus gained over to the gospel; he then, at the head of the Waldensian militia, penetrated into the marquisate of Saluzzo, then an object of contention between Savoy and France, and, after the respective armies had withdrawn, remained to consolidate there the evangelical churches. At length, the Waldenses were relieved from the oppressions of Castrocaro. Emanuel Philibert having died in 1580, Castrocaro announced that his successor was about to march an army for the extermination of the Waldenses. The latter having hereupon retired to the mountains, the treacherous governor sent word to the duke that the Waldenses were preparing to resist his authority, and solicited permission to take rigorous measures against them. A commissioner, however, being sent to investigate the matter on the spot, soon satisfied himself, at once of the innocence of the Waldenses and of the odious vexations practiced on them by their calumniators. He found that Castrocaro, himself living in pampered luxury in the castle of La Torre, where "he had grown fat and rich," permitted, and not unfrequently ordered, his soldiers to perpetrate every description of excess upon the people around. He had in his palace a breed of ferocious bloodhounds, of unusual size and strength. His son, Andrew, was so profligate a debauchee that no modest woman could quit her house unless with an escort. His three daughters went indifferently to mass and to the Protestant church, having no sense of religion whatever, but merely eager to display the frippery in which they delighted. The duke of Savoy, upon being made acquainted with the facts, ordered Castrocaro to appear before him at Turin; but, under various pretexts, the governor withheld obedience to the mandate. His highness thus finding that rebellion at La Torre was not on the part of the Waldenses, but on the part of their oppressor, ordered the count of Luzerna to arrest Castrocaro. This, however, was no easy matter, by reason of the fortifications, the desperado soldiers, and the ferocious dogs, who guarded the governor. Treachery, however, aptly did its work upon the treacherous. A captain of the garrison, one Simon, came to an understanding with the count of Luzerna, and by his means Castrocaro was seized in bed on the 15^th of June, 1582, and taken to Turin, where he died in prison. His son also expiated his excesses in a dungeon; the three daughters, with the mother, were left to subsist in obscurity upon a small pension reserved to them out of the father’s ill-acquired gains, the residue of which was confiscated to the state.

In 1585, Charles Emanuel, who had ascended to the throne of Savoy in 1580, married the daughter of Philip II of Spain; and the latter being one of the league against the Protestants, it was assumed that his son-in-law would not delay to follow his example. Thereupon the monks and the Jesuits exalted their horns, and menaced the faithful with extermination, unless they should consent to a prompt conversion. The fear of the faithful became great, not so much by reason of the immediate vaunts and menaces of the monks, but by reason of the great papist league which they knew was forming throughout Europe; and they saw that they must prepare, if not to avert, at least to meet calamity, by more than ordinary recurrence to Almighty God.

A solemn fast of four days was accordingly observed in the valleys, on the 15^th and 16^th, and on the 22^nd and 23^rd of May, 1585, according to the usage of the primitive church in similar emergencies; and as if to show that the blessing and the favor of God are ever granted to the fervent prayer of man, the Waldenses speedily learned that throughout Dauphiny the Reformers had defeated the soldiers of the league; and as one third of the Waldensian Valleys appertained to that province, the advantages obtained by these greatly contributed to strengthen the position of all.

In 1595, Charles Emanuel, on his return from recovering the fort of Miraboco, which had been taken by the French, halted in the market-place at Villar, and said to the Waldenses who had assembled to congratulate him on his victory, "Be good subjects to me, and I will be a good prince to you—a good father. With regard to your freedom of conscience, and the exercise of your religion, I will make no innovation upon the liberties you have enjoyed hitherto; and if anyone molests you therein, come to me, and I will see to it."

The catholic clergy, irritated at this gracious intimation, and unable to effect anything by violence against the Waldensian church, attacked it by indirect means. First, it obtained permission to establish, in all the valleys, catholic missionaries, who were to be entitled to the Protestant churches whenever they thought fit, and, pursuant to this permission, the archbishop of Turin himself installed a body of Jesuits in the valley of Luzerna, and one of Capuchins in that of San Martin. Several conferences were held between the Jesuits and the pastors, but without the least result. Indeed, there was no one by whom the result of such discussions could be decided. The conference at Appiaso, for example, was presided over by the count of Luzerna; at the close of the discussion, the pastor having replied to the Jesuit, requested the president to decide with whom the advantages of argument rested. "Gentlemen," replied the count, "if you had disputed the qualities of a good horse or a good sword, I could give you my opinion, for I know something about both matters; but as to your controversy, I make neither head nor tail of it." On the 2^nd of August, 1598, there was a special conference between the pastor of San German and the Capuchin Berno. The arguments on both sides were printed, but the Inquisition prohibited their being sold; the inference from which is, that, in the opinion of the Holy Office, the victory in argument was not on the side of Romanism. Defeated in discussion, the Jesuits had recourse to such acts of violence as were practicable, and imprisonment, fine, and torture effected a few venal conversions.

In 1599, there came to La Torre a curé, very bold and blustering, and who seemed much fitter to create disturbances than to conduct a church. His name was Ubertino Braida. His first proceeding was to demand tithes, which the Protestants had never paid; his demand was rejected. He then proceeded to outrage the Waldenses with all sorts of insults, and, like another Goliath, offered to fight any one of them, hand to hand. But despite his assumption of extreme valor, he always wore a shirt of mail under his cassock. One evening, some young men, after supper, went to the curé’s house, resolved to test his courage, and made a disturbance. The curé ran out at the back door, and took to flight. The young men did not pursue him at all, contenting themselves with a laugh at the result of their experiment. The podesta of La Torre, stimulated by the friends of the fugitive, cited the young men before him, and sentenced them to remain prisoners for a few days, in the house of a gentleman, whom he named. The Waldenses repaired to the house, but learning next day that a troop of archers had been dispatched to take them to Turin, and cast them into the dungeons of the Inquisition, they took to flight during the night. Next day, they were again summoned to attend before the podesta; and not appearing, were condemned to banishment from the states of Savoy, under penalty of the galleys, if they were ever found within its limits.

The poor young men withdrew into the mountains, where, having provided themselves with arms, they wandered about from place to place, and lived upon the contributions, voluntary or enforced, of the population. Here these banditti (banished men) lived for some years, their number constantly increasing. Prohibition was proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, from affording them aid, food, or shelter; but they became all the more formidable, imposing blackmail not merely on individuals, but on whole towns. The podesta of La Torre marched against them with some troops, but he was so thoroughly defeated, that, ashamed to show his face again in La Torre, he abandoned his charge there, and retired to Luzerna.

In the commencement of February 1602, the archbishop of Turin, the governor of Pignerol, and the count of Luzerna, came into the valleys, attended by a troop of Jesuits and Capuchins, and caused infinite disquietude to the Protestants, who daily expected to see the Waldensian valleys become the theatre of some catastrophe. The Catholics charged all the excesses committed by the banditti on the Waldenses as a body, and loudly demanded of the duke of Savoy to destroy, once for all, this focus of heresy and den of brigands. The Waldenses appointed special ministers to seek out, censure, and exhort the banditti; and a universal fast was observed throughout the valleys, on the 11^th and 12^th of August, to conciliate the divine pardon and mercy. The women and children once more sought their mountain retreats; the men once more, preparing their weapons, assiduously watched and prayed, knowing that the only secure defense is that of our Lord. Meanwhile the governor Ponte repaired to La Torre, whither he convoked the syndics of all the Waldensian communes, and ordered them to deliver up the banditti. Protesting earnestly their entire fidelity to the sovereign, the syndics replied by attributing the recent calamities to unjust proscriptions, and admitting that some of these wretched outlaws had been guilty of excesses, pointed out the difficulty of separating the guilty from the innocent, and the injustice of punishing all alike, and concluded with an emphatic appeal for amnesty and peace. The governor rejected this proposition, and renewed the order that the banditti should be delivered up, dead or alive; but a few days afterwards, the governor was himself arrested and deprived of his office, on the charge of having maintained secret relations with the French generals.

Thereupon count Charles of Luzerna, who enjoyed great influence at court, offered to mediate in favor of the valleys with the duke, pursuant to a promise he had recently made to that effect, to the elector of Saxony, at Dresden.

On the 19^th of November, 1602, Vignaux and Gillis, deputies, the one for the valley of Luzerna, the other for that of San Martin, waited on the count in his palace at Luzerna. Everyone was anxious to have the matter settled, for the force of the banditti had been lately augmented by a great number of Protestants who had been driven from the marquisate of Saluzzo, and the plain of Piedmont. The result of the conference was the appointment of a Waldensian deputation to the duke, at Turin, the count promising the support of his utmost influence. The duke, however, while disposed to make some concessions, would not grant an amnesty, and the Waldenses would not accept the former without the latter. At length, after protracted negotiations, the duke issued, from Cunio, "the 9^th of April, 1603, a decree granting substantially what the Waldenses had asked, including an amnesty for the banditti, so called.

There still remained, however, the banditti belonging to Saluzzo, Fenile, Bubiana, Villafranca, and other districts of Piedmont. For the extirpation of these, the duke organized a body of special troops, who were to be maintained by the Waldenses, and whom he placed under the command of one captain Galline. This officer, however, under pretext of pursuing the outlaws, committed various outrages upon the persons and property of the peaceful inhabitants. One day in July, when the people of Bobbi were all engaged in the fields, he entered the village with his bravoes, killed a young man who, for some reason, had been unable to quit his home, drove out the pastor, and was about to pillage the place, when the villagers, having received an alarm, rushed home. Galline, finding himself surrounded by superior numbers, pusillanimously threw down the sword yet reeking with murder, and entreated for mercy. It was granted, and the Waldenses, taught to observe the great lesson of good for evil, even proffered to escort the band of marauders back to Luzerna, in order to save them from the indignation of the other hardy mountaineers, who, on hearing of Galline’s outrage, were hastening down to aid their brethren. When the affair reached the ears of the duke, he sent the grand provost to Luzerna, to inquire into the circumstances, and take measures accordingly. The provost announced to the other Waldensian communes that, whatever the result, they would not be affected, on the understanding that they should take no part with the people of Bobbi; but all without hesitation not only declared that they entirely took part with the people of Bobbi, but that henceforward they would not contribute, in any shape or degree, to the support of Galline and his men. The provost returned to Turin, having effected nothing.

Count Charles of Luzerna then interposed, and the result of his mediation was an edict, dated 29^th of September, 1603, which, on the one hand, required the valleys to pay a fine of fifteen hundred ducatoons, but, on the other, granted a general amnesty for the past, permitted all outlaws to return home without being liable to prosecution, authorized the Waldenses to retain any property they possessed beyond the limits of their valleys, and even to make open profession of their faith in presence of Catholics, when desired so to do (whereas hitherto they had been prohibited from avowing it), and merely forbade them to defend it by polemical discussions, a prohibition manifestly recognizing its force. These concessions were especially favorable to a great many of the people of Saluzzo, who had taken refuge in the valleys, and who were thus permitted to abide there. Large collections made for them at about this time in France and Switzerland enabled them to recover somewhat from the effect of the confiscations to which they had been subjected.

Turing the few years of tranquility which the Waldenses now enjoyed, their numbers daily increased; and the church of Copiere was, in 1608, enlarged to its present dimensions. Towards the commencement of 1611, however, the court of Rome, which had succeeded in establishing fresh persecutions against the reformed churches of France, and had procured a regiment to be sent into the valley of Barcelonnette, for the conversion, in the manner of Rome, of the Waldenses in that locality, sought to effect the employment of similar means of conversion in the Piedmontese valleys. In all great emergencies, the Waldenses have ever been accustomed, before and above all things, to recur to fasting and prayer, to penitence and supplication; in the present emergency, a public fast was ordered, the 20^th of January, 1611. On the morning of that day, a violent earthquake shook all the Waldensian mountains; it seemed an omen, for, eight days afterwards, the regiment of the baron de la Roche arrived, from Barcelonnette, in the valley of Luzerna, and immediately proceeded to ravage the district, and put the men and cattle and goods they seized to arbitrary ransom; notwithstanding every effort was made to appease their insolence. The exactions and oppression of these troops continued for nearly a month; they were then removed to new cantonments, where, attempting to renew the excesses they had perpetrated in the valley of Luzerna, they were all slain by the peasants.

In 1613, a large portion of the Waldensian militia took part in the war of Montferrat, under the command of the count of Luzerna, and upon the special condition that they should be at full liberty to assemble every night and morning for the celebration of their own religious services, wherever they might be. Their conduct in this campaign obtained for them the grateful praises of their sovereign. In the following year, they were again levied to take part in the war against Spain, and on this occasion marched in the direction of Vercelli, accompanied, as before, by their pastors. These expeditions gave them opportunities of destroying many prejudices which had been spread abroad against them, and of comforting and strengthening many secret friends of their doctrine who made themselves known to them in various places.

In 1620, various troubles befell tire churches of Saluzzo and other districts contiguous to the Waldensian valleys. Deputies from the latter, who put themselves forward as mediators, were seized and imprisoned, and the sum of six thousand ducatoons was imposed as the price of their release, and of the cessation of the vexations by which the Protestants were persecuted. The six thousand ducatoons were, by the numerous exactions of the courts of justice, swollen to nearly eighteen thousand; this heavy amount the valley of Luzerna advanced, in the expectation that, being a payment for the common interest, the other valleys (Perosa and San Martin) would afterwards contribute their proportion of it. When, however, the application for these quotas was made, the two valleys, under the influence of evil counselors, refused to comply with it, disavowing all share in the arrangement. This disavowal was precisely what the popish plotters wanted. "If you have no share in the arrangement," said the magistrates, "you do not participate in its advantages, and you do not come within the amnesty. Let justice take its course." Justice—popish justice—did take its course. The richest inhabitants of Pinache, Clots, and Prali, were immediately arrested, under the pretext of their having taken part in the late troubles, and made to pay for their release ransoms amounting to a much larger sum than the two valleys would have had to contribute as their share of the money paid by the valley of Luzerna for the tutelary edict which they had so imprudently disavowed. Nor was this all. The persecution of these two valleys still went on; and to effect their cessation, the inhabitants had to pay, in addition to the sums paid by individuals for individual ransom, a fine of three thousand ducatoons to the duke. Nor was this all; they were ordered to demolish six of their churches. This they absolutely refused to do, and thereupon seven regiments of infantry were sent to treat them in all respects as a conquered country; these troops demolished the churches, and ravaged the whole district in its length and breadth.

Various attempts were made, in like manner, between 1620 and 1624, to persecute the valley of Luzerna; but the privileges which this valley had so highly purchased were not wholly without effect in mitigating oppression. In 1625, the presence of Lesdiguières in Piedmont, whither he had been invited by the duke of Savoy to act against the Genoese, interposed in favor of his co-religionists, gave respite to the valleys. In 1626–7, one father Buonaventura, a monk of great note among his own people, was employed as missionary among the Waldenses. When he prayed, he was sometimes, his admirers said, raised from the ground by a mysterious force. Some took him for a saint, others for a sorcerer. During his progress, several boys of from ten to twelve years old disappeared; these, it was afterwards ascertained, had been carried off by bravoes in the employment of the worthy monk, and shut up, with a view to their conversion, in the monastery of Pignerol. On the 9^th of June, 1627, several heads of Protestant families were arrested simultaneously at Luzerna, Bubiana., Champiglone, and Fenile, and taken prisoners to Cavour, with the result which has been already related in this work.

In 1628, a French army, under the marquis d’Uxel, presented itself at the entrance to the Alps, on its way to Montferrat to serve against the troops of Charles Emanuel. The Waldenses were called upon to defend their mountains, and acquitted themselves valiantly of this charge. The duke himself twice visited them at this time, and paid due homage to their patriotism; for they received no pay, but only bread. This, indeed was a great point; for the harvest had failed in Piedmont in 1626, and in the Spring of 1628 the poor folk had been compelled to sell everything they possessed in order to purchase food at Queyras. The presence of the French army on the frontiers aggravated their misery by impeding this barter; and, by and bye, the people of Queyras, growing alarmed at the quantity of provisions that were leaving their district, prohibited any further exportations, and even imprisoned the famished wretches who came in search of supplies.

The monks of Pignerol and their acolytes availed themselves of these circumstances to seek to purchase, from the starving Waldenses, abjuration at the price of a loaf of bread. In this good work especially signalized himself Marc Aurelio Rorengo, the son of a gentleman of La Torre, who, having quitted the magistracy for the popish church, had been appointed prior of Luzerna on his undertaking to employ his utmost efforts in the suppression of heresy. Having procured a religious corporation to purchase his father’s house, he immediately converted it into a monastery of reformed Franciscans; and the brethren, on being installed (June 23, 1628), at once proceeded to distribute food amongst the famished population, with brilliant promises to the Protestants who would consent to abjure. But, faithful to the example of the primitive church, the Waldenses, rejecting these insidious proffers, made a common store of all their possessions, and distributed daily bread to all who asked for it. The monks, frustrated in this direction, applied their efforts at conversion by famine to the Waldensian communes, but with as little success. At Bobbi, the Waldenses would not even permit the monks to perform mass, and they accordingly proceeded to Villar, where they fitted up an old ruined palace, which has since become the catholic church of the place.

At Rora, two monks were located in a deserted house. The language of these ecclesiastics was at first exceedingly mild and conciliating; but on the 29^th of December they showed the scorpion’s tail, in the shape of an edict, published by count Bighem, which "forbade all persons to trouble or vex, in any way or degree, the very reverend Observantine fathers, whatever they were pleased to do, under penalty of death to the offender, and of a fine of ten thousand gold crowns upon the commune in which the offence should be committed; every informer receiving two hundred gold crowns, and his name being kept secret." Next, count Philip of Luzerna denounced the most terrible menaces against the people of Bobbi and those of Angrogna, who had absolutely refused to permit under any pretext, any Observantines to settle in their districts.

The governor of Pignerol, count Capri, then proceeded into the valleys, assembled all the syndics and pastors, and informed them that the pope and the duke were resolved that the monks should be established in the mountains, and that if the Waldenses would not admit them voluntarily, force would be employed. "Tomorrow," he said, "I will have mass performed at Bobbi."

On the morrow, accordingly, he proceeded with the Romish ecclesiastics to Bobbi, but every door and window was closed, and not a single person was visible. He summoned the syndic, and ordered him to have a stable, at all events, opened for his service; but the syndic replied that his authority ceased at the threshold of private houses. "Well, then," exclaimed the count, "I will force open your own house." "Your Lordship will reflect before you act thus," returned the syndic, with respectful calmness. The count did reflect, that the defenders of the village, though not visible, were none the less near, and he accordingly contented himself with performing mass on the high road, after which he withdrew. Two days afterwards he proceeded to Angrogna on a similar mission, and had precisely the same reception, with the same result. Towards the close of January, 1629, he went to La Torre, in company with a French gentleman, M. de Serres, convoked the syndics, and attempted to intimidate them into receiving the monks, but to no purpose. On the contrary, the Waldenses shortly afterwards assembled in arms, surrounded the habitations in which the monks had established themselves, and called upon them to withdraw. They refused, whereupon, it being prohibited to the men to lay hands upon them, the women approached, forced open the doors, and some of these robust mountaineers, accustomed to carry heavy burdens, shouldering the poor ecclesiastics like so many bundles of wood, carried them off. Their furniture, goods, copes, relics, &c., were then packed in carts, and transported beyond the limits of the commune after the owners. The clergy complained to the court, and the Waldenses sent deputies to defend them. The result was an edict, dated 22^nd February, 1629, by which the former concessions to the Waldenses were confirmed, and the vexations practiced on them ordered to be discontinued.

On the 16^th of July, 1630, Charles Emanuel died, aged sixty-eight years and a half, after a reign of half a century; and at his death, France took possession of Savoy and part of Piedmont.

In 1629, the year after the famine, the poor inhabitants of the Waldensian valleys, who, having no harvests of their own, were in the habit of repairing to the rich domains of Piedmont, and giving their services in exchange for a certain quantity of corn, were deprived of this resource, by the popish priests, who, from the pulpits, forbade their congregations to employ a single Protestant laborer, and even themselves threatened to kill any follower of the "religion" whom they should find in their fields.

On the 23^rd of August, of the same year, at eight in the morning, a formidable storm of rain, suddenly fell upon the Col Julien, and created an inundation on both sides of the mountain. The villages of Prali and Bobbi were so suddenly invaded by the torrent, that the inhabitants had scarcely time to escape, and many houses were utterly destroyed. In September, there came a wind of intense coldness, accompanied by a dry cloud or mist, and the chestnut crop was utterly annihilated; then there came a second inundation of rain, which destroyed all the grapes. On the 12^th of that month, the Waldensian ministers assembled in solemn synod, in testimony of their fraternal union, little deeming that they would never again meet in this world, and that of those fifteen pastors two only would, ere a few months elapsed, survive their brethren.

In 1830, a French army, placed by cardinal Richelieu under the command of three marshals of France—De Schomberg, De la Force, and De Crequi—to oppose the projects of Savoy on Montferrat, made its appearance in the Waldensian valleys. The Waldenses, having in vain appealed to the duke for succors, sent deputies to the marshal de la Force, who was encamped with a detachment at Briqueras. "Yield yourselves to the king," replied he, "and we will protect you; otherwise, we will kill, burn, exterminate you." Left without resource, the Waldenses capitulated (April 5), on the assurance that all their privileges should be respected, and that they should not be required to serve against their sovereign.

Towards the close of April, the king of France set out from Lyon, with all his court, to march upon Savoy. A deputation of Waldenses waited upon him at Moutiers, and obtained the confirmation of their privileges. By the treaty of Ratisbon, which terminated this war, the valleys of Luzerna and San Martin were restored to Piedmont, but those of Perosa and Pragela, with Pignerol, remained in the dominion of France.

In this same deplorable year, 1630, a scourge still more terrible than war deprived the Waldensian valleys of nearly two thirds of their population. The heat was excessive at the time when the army of Richelieu entered the valleys; in that army were many volunteers, who had fled from Prance to escape the plague, which then raged in that country; but, in their flight, they had still brought the seeds of the pestilence with them. In the first week of May, this terrible malady manifested itself in the village of Porte, near Perosa. Next it appeared at San Germano, then at Prali, and soon it spread throughout all the valleys. The pastors immediately, pursuant to the custom of their church, assembled together to consult the Lord, to seek inspiration from prayer and meditation, and to discuss, one with the other, the course they should pursue in this alarming conjuncture. This meeting took place at Pramol. In a few days afterwards, the pestilence broke out at Pramol also, and the pastors began to hold their preachings in the open fields. In June, the commune of Angrogna was invaded by the pestilence, and on the 11^th of July, there fell beneath its stroke the pastor of San Giovanni and the pastor of Meano; on the 12^th, the pastor of Prali; on the 24^th, the pastor of Angrogna. Before the 1^st of August, seven other Waldensian ministers died. On the 2^nd of August, the six surviving ministers met on Mont Saumette, an isolated eminence in the center of the three valleys, near La Vachera. Here, after weeping and praying, they distributed among themselves the care of the vacant churches; but, in a little while, three of the six followed their brethren; and the three survivors then held a conference on the heights of Angrogna, with deputies from all the parishes of the valleys, to determine upon the means of providing for the celebration of worship. Letters were dispatched to Constantinople, recalling Antony Leger; to Geneva, for a supply of protestant clergy; to Grenoble, imploring the pastors of Dauphiny to come and console and strengthen the Waldensian church, thus cruelly tried.

There remained but one pastor for each of the three valleys; Peter Gilles in that of Luzerna, Valerius Gros in that of St. Martin, and John Barthelemy in that of Perosa. But on the 22^nd of April, 1631, the plague seized upon John Barthelemy also, and on the 25^th he died; so that upon the venerable ministers Gilles and Gros, already worn down by years and infirmities, devolved the care of all the churches of the Waldenses.

The mysterious and terrible scourge, which had subsided during the winter, rose up again, with renewed force, in the spring of 1631, and extended its ravages to the hills of Angrogna and Bobbi, which it had before spared. More than 12,000 persons died in the valleys; in La Torre alone, upwards of fifty families became completely extinct. The crops rotted in the fields, for there was no one to reap them; the fruits fell from the trees, for there was no one to gather them. During the summer heats, horsemen were seen to fall from their saddles to the ground, seized with sudden death. "The highways," says Gilles, "were so encumbered with the dead bodies of men and animals, that they were almost impassable. Many estates were abandoned, for want, not merely of cultivators, but of proprietors. Towns and villages, lately full of life and occupation, of merchants, artisans, laborers, became silent and desert. Whole families, in numberless instances, disappeared; there was no family which did not lose some of its members. The venerable minister, Gilles, lost his four elder sons, and being, with the exception of Valerius Gros, the sole surviving pastor of the valleys, found his duties augment with his afflictions; but God gave him strength to bear his double burden of calamity and labor. He went through all the parishes, preached twice every Sunday, and once at least, every other day; visited the sick, and consoled the afflicted, calm and serene amid his dying flock, to whom he communicated his own unshakable confidence in Him who raises up the fallen and heals those whom he had wounded, His indefatigable devotedness carried him through every danger; and he was preserved to the Waldensian church, and with him that most complete monument of the ancient Waldensian history which he has transmitted to us in his chronicle, so rich in details respecting an epoch otherwise but little known.

The pastor Brunet was the first who hastened from Geneva to succor the valleys; he arrived in December 1630, the month before the cessation of the plague. Other ministers of the gospel followed; but none of them could administer divine service in the Italian tongue, which had hitherto been the language of Waldensian preaching and spiritual instruction. It was necessary, therefore, to have the service performed in French; and as the ancient language of the Waldenses is a dialect between French and Italian, the people soon became accustomed to the new formulary. From this period date the regular relations which have ever since been maintained between the Waldensian church and that of Geneva.

The most urgent functions which the new pastors had first to accomplish in the valleys was the re-organization of their churches, so cruelly decimated. "It was a marvel unprecedented in these countries," says Gilles, "to see the multitude of marriages that took place at this time. Everywhere the plague had taken from parents their children, from children their parents, from the husband his wife, from the wife her husband; so that all being desolate, each sought out a brother or a sister with whom to raise up the fallen habitations and to create a home."

War, the other scourge from which the valleys had suffered so grievously, disappeared shortly after the plague. On the 6^th of April, 1631, Victor Amadeus signed, at Queyras, a treaty of peace, by which he resumed possession of all his states, and obtained some towns in Montferrat, as an equivalent for Pignerol and the valley of Perosa, which remained in the hands of France.

On the eve of his return to Turin, he received, at Carignano, a deputation from the Waldenses, whom he received with much kindness, saying to them, "Be good subjects to me, and I will be a good prince to you." The prior of Luzerna, Rorengo, and the superior of the monastery of La Torre, Fra Paolo, no sooner heard of this favorable reception, than they applied themselves to counteract it, and all sorts of offenses were alleged at court against the Waldenses; so that, when another deputation of these waited on the prince (September 8, 1632), to solicit from him the formal ratification of their privileges, he informed them that an officer of state was about to proceed to the valleys to inquire into the offenses which had been laid to their charge, and that to this officer they might state their grievances. Soon afterwards, accordingly, a commissioner, accompanied by Rorengo, visited all the valleys, collected information, and received complaints. The nature of his report is unknown; but, in the following year, another commissioner, Christopher Fauzon, summoned a meeting of Waldensian delegates at La Torre, and proceeded first to harangue and then to question them. He told them they were charged with having recently established themselves at Luzerna and Bubiana; they proved that they had been established in both places from time immemorial. He contested the right of the parishioners of San Giovanni to ring a bell for the purpose of summoning the faithful to church; they showed that this custom had been also immemorial. Ultimately, he demanded from the Waldenses a written statement of the proofs by which they assumed to establish their right to celebrate the Protestant worship, in each of their parishes. After some hesitation, for the Waldenses feared a new snare, the document was furnished, and the commissioner quitted the valleys. No communication was made with reference to the written statement supplied by the Waldenses, and things remained in their previous condition.

In the time of the Reformation, the Christians of Provence and of the valleys placed themselves in communication with the reformers. The consequent animadversion of the church first assailed the Provençals, about Avignon. The Rome of the West found it necessary to combat the religious awakening which menaced her predominance, and the inquisitor Giovanni de Roma raised the first martyr-pyres on the slopes of Leberon. The proceedings against these victims made known the presence, among the heretics of Provence, of many persons who had come from the valleys of Piedmont. Hereupon the count of Aix wrote to the senate of Turin, and the senate appointed a commissioner, Pantaleone Bersori, to proceed to Provence, and inquire further into the matter. Bersori returned from Provence with numerous and precise data as to the leading Waldensian families in Piedmont, and the high antiquity and extensive ramifications of the ministry of the barbas, accomplishing its work in silence and obscurity, that it might bear more fruit.

Bersori, furnished with the information he had collected in Provence, proceeded to the valleys, and continued there the inquisitorial proceedings begun in Provence by the court of Aix. There was no want of witnesses ready to testify to the evangelical faith. One of these, Bernardino Fea, of San Segonzo, upon being interrogated by the judge as to the communications he had had with the heretics, replied, "When I was at Briqueras, in 1529, I met Louis Turin, of San Giovanni, who took me with him to his house. There, another inhabitant of San Giovanni, Catalan Girardet, who came in, invited us to go to La Torre, where, he said, we should hear good things; Louis Turin also requested me to go, and we went. On arriving at La Torre, Catalan conducted us to the house of Chabert Ughet, where, in a large room, we found a number of persons assembled. A barba, named Philip, was preaching, and, after his sermon, he questioned me, and then instructed me in various points of their religion."

"What did he say?"

"That there is no salvation except in Jesus Christ, and that we ought to do good works, not in order that we may be saved, but because we have been saved."

As this witness had not ceased to attend mass, he was not prosecuted; but Catalan Girardet was arrested, and, on his refusing to apostatize, was condemned to be burned alive. He died firm and serene, his forehead radiant, amid the flames that were devouring him, with the blessed assurance of the salvation he had received, and of the eternal happiness he was about to receive.

Shortly after the count de la Trinité had put the Waldensian valleys to fire and sword, the pastor of Prali, Martin, was visited by two men who had been in the service of the seigneurs du Perrier, those malignant foes of the Waldenses, the cruel and treacherous Truchets. The pastor of Prali was a Frenchman; his two visitors announced themselves as also Frenchmen; and Martin received them as countrymen. They expressed a desire to enter the reformed church, and the good pastor invited them to remain his guests, till he had shown them the way of salvation. The parishioners, who distrusted these two men, partly from instinct, partly from the fact that they were recognized as having not long before borne arms against the Waldenses, entreated Martin to be on his guard; but the simple and excellent man believed in the sincerity of his guests’ conversion, and appealed to the Christian sentiments of his flock for a more charitable construction. The population of Prali, however, remained fall of anxiety, and saw with regret and apprehension the two men still abiding with their beloved pastor, who had no family, and lived in a retired spot. At length, the grantor did not make his wonted appearance at the church for the celebration of divine service. The people, in a state of fearful suspense, hastened to his house. The door was closed; they knocked; no one replied. Some of the parishioners forced their way into the cottage through a window, and in an instant their cries of anguish announced a deplorable catastrophe. The pastor Martin lay lifeless, bathed in his own blood. The monsters, whom he had treated as children, had cut his throat, stripped the house, and fled. The Waldenses hastened in pursuit of the assassins, but could discover no traces of them. Some time afterwards, however, they audaciously returned to the valleys in the service of the seigneurs du Perrier, who thus manifested themselves the accomplices, and who had probably been the instigators of this odious murder.

So fierce was the hostility of the persecutors, that Barberi, the duke’s commissioner, absolutely arrested and imprisoned the secretary of an embassy sent by the elector palatine to Emanuel Philibert, for the purpose of interceding with him in favor of the Waldenses. The only pretext for seizing the secretary was that he was a Protestant pastor; he was, of course, immediately released. In a letter which this official addressed to the Waldenses, he states, "The chancellor Stropiano, in reply to our intercession for you, accuses you of being disturbers of the public peace; says that the Waldenses are conspiring against the state; and cites, in support of this accusation, the case of nine Waldenses who lately assembled in a frontier town, and whom he arrested as conspirators." Now the simple fact, as to this pretended conspiracy, is that a few Christians having met for worship in a private house at Bourg, in Bresse, were engaged in prayer, when a number of archers surrounded the house, and took them prisoners. As it was necessary to devise some charge to justify this gross violation of private right, the Waldenses were accused of being suspected of meeting to conspire against the state; and as they could not disprove that they were suspected, they were sent to the galleys.

The Waldenses of Dauphiny and Provence paid at this time, in like manner, their tribute of martyrs to the constant testimony of the Christian church against antichrist.

The valley of La Grave, which slopes from Mont Pelvoux in direction opposite to Val Louise, had been enlightened by some wandering rays of the evangelical light, the focus of which was in the center of the Waldensian valleys. A peddler of Villar, a remote village of this valley, after having taken his family to Geneva, to be there instructed and led in the ways of the Lord, himself returned to France in pursuit of his trade. Being a skillful worker in coral, Romeyer proceeded towards Marseilles, for the purpose of purchasing a supply of that article, and on his road endeavored to dispose of the coral ornaments he had with him.

At Draguignan, he showed them to a goldsmith of the town, named Lanteaume, who greatly admired them, and was desirous of purchasing them; but the parties, not being able to agree about the price, separated. There was at this time at Draguignan, the baron de Lauris, son-in-law of Menier d’Oppede, whose name is written in letters of blood in the history of the Waldenses. Lanteaume, loath to see the property quit the place, insidiously counseled Romeyer to show it to the baron de Lauris, who, being a rich seigneur, might be disposed to purchase it. The cupidity of the baron having been aroused by a sight of the ornaments, Lanteaume went and informed him that the owner was a Lutheran; and as confiscation of goods always accompanied a sentence of death, the two accomplices came at once to an understanding. Romeyer was arrested by order of De Lauris, in April 1558. After various private interrogatories, in which he made no secret whatever of his religious faith, the tribunal of Draguignan assembled for his trial. An Observantine monk, on the preceding day, celebrated a mass to the Holy Ghost, "in order," as he said, "that the Holy Ghost might inspire the judges to condemn the cursed Lutheran to the flames." But his mass did not produce the effect he desired; for a young advocate, addressing the tribunal, pointed out that Romeyer had been guilty of no legal offence; that he had neither preached nor dogmatized in France; that he was a foreigner; was only occupied in Provence with his trade; and that justice, instead of condemning, ought to protect him. The whole bar supported this argument. The judges were half of them for an acquittal, half for condemnation, and the prisoner was relegated to his dungeon. One of the judges who had voted for condemnation had previously been with the prisoner in his cell, seeking to intimidate him, and failing therein, had pronounced against him from the bench.

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