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AUTHOR: 
 
 MUSTON, ALEXIS 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 ISRAEL OF THE ALPS 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1866 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT 
 
 Master Negative # 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC MirRQFQRM TARHFT 
 
 Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record 
 
 Restrictions on Use: 
 
 938.14 
 J.19712 
 
 1 .1'J i i- ^ M. 
 
 JAiston, Alexis, 1810- 
 
 The Israel of the Alps, a complete history 
 of the V;aldenses of Piodiriont, and their colonies 
 prepared in great port from unpublished docu- 
 inents. By Alexis L'uston •,, Tr. by the Rev* 
 John I.iontgomery ... London, Blackie, 1866. 
 
 2 V. plates, fold. mps. 23 cm. 
 
 • f 
 
 Journra of a VaufJois officer, concerning the 
 military operations v/hich folloived the return of 
 the Vaudois to their oivn country in 1689, and 
 particularly the siege of the Balsill© iA 1690"- 
 V. II p. 491-506 
 Biolionraphy: 
 
 V. II, p. £397J-489. 
 
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 HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES. 
 
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 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 A COMPLETE 
 
 HisTopr :^ ht'. JM: Waldenses 
 
 • •«,••• •• • • ^ • »• • • 
 
 . OE. PIED.MONT, 
 
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 i?LNr> THEIR COLOOSriES; 
 
 PREPARED IN GREAT PART FROM UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 
 
 By ALEXIS MUSTON, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT BOURDEAUX. DBoME, FRANCE. 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 By the rev. JOHN MONTGOMERY, A.M. 
 
 ^WITH asr TJ lyE E 12, O TJ S EDKTC3-I2,^-VI 
 
 3SrC3-S- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BLAGKIE AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 AND GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH. 
 
 MDCCCLXVL 
 
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 CI.ASOOW : 
 
 W. O. BLACKI* AND CO., PRINTERS. 
 VILLAFIELO. 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 "No people of modern times," says Boyer, "exhibits so much 
 analogy to the ancient Jewish people, as the Yaudois of the Alps 
 of Piedmont; no history has more abounded in marvels than theirs, 
 no church in martyrs." 
 
 These words sufficiently explain the title of the present Work, 
 The Israel of tlie Alps} Let me state its origin and its object. 
 
 For more than fifteen years, I have been occupied with assiduous 
 researches into the history of the Yaudois. My intention was to 
 have taken up again the volume published in 1834, and to have 
 carried out the work on such a scale as would have made it amount 
 to eight or ten volumes octavo. 
 
 But a work of such a size could not have served to supply the 
 actual wants of the public. I proposed, therefore, to publish 
 separately the Sources of the History of the Vaudois, with the 
 principal historic documents, and a rapid but complete sketch of 
 the history itself. On the one hand, however, circumstances have 
 compelled me to renounce the idea of publishing the Sources; on 
 the other, I have foimd that a complete summary of the history of 
 the Yaudois could not be comprehended in a single volume, because 
 the unpublished part of that history is as considerable as that 
 already known, or perhaps even more so. 
 
 The question of the origin of the Yaudois and of the organiza- 
 
 > The choice of tliis title has been influenced by another consideration. The 
 author of this work had commenced, in 1834, the publication of a History of the 
 Vaudois, of which only the first volume has ever appeared. If he had given to 
 the present work the title of a History of the Vavdois, it might have been con- 
 founded with the previous work, from which it is in reality quite distinct. The 
 volume published in 1834, by Levrault, at Strasburg (where it is still to be found, 
 as well as at Reinwald's, in Paris), contains a description of the Vaudois valleys, 
 with dissertations, and a great number of quotations relative to the origin and 
 doctrine of the Yaudois. This large amount of matter has not been again em- 
 bodied in the Israel of the Alps. The previous volume also contains a map of the 
 valleys, and fac-similes of the principal authors who have treated of Vaudois his- 
 tory. Far from being a sort of former edition of the present work, the previous 
 volume would rather serve as an introduction to it, rendering it more complete. 
 
VI 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACK 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 Vll 
 
 tion of their clmrch, prior to the Reformation, required to be re- 
 examined. The primitive character of their doctrines had not 
 been completely determined, for want of documents. The particu- 
 lar histories of the Vaudois of Le Queyras, of Barcelonette, of Val- 
 louise, and of Freyssinieres, had never been written in a connected 
 manner ; the histories of Merindol and of Cabrieres had been often 
 written, but never elucidated; it was likewise necessary that the 
 documents connected with the judicial proceedings which preceded 
 and followed the decree pronounced by the court of Aix, on the 18th 
 of November, 1540, should be subjected to a fresh scrutiny, which, 
 to the best of my knowledge, had been attempted by no one. 
 
 Details relative to the Vaudois martyrs, will be found in this 
 work collected for the first time. The very interesting history of 
 the churches of Saluces was almost unknown, and here forms half 
 a volume.* 
 
 There was a gap betwixt the close of the very full chronicle of 
 Gilles, and the period at which Leger commences his documentary 
 history. A second gap occurred betwixt Leger and Amaud; and 
 from that writer to our own days, no considerable collection of new 
 documents was to be met with. 
 
 Very many histories of the Vaudois had, indeed, been written, 
 general or particular, extensive or brief. Each of them contains 
 interesting facts, or presents interesting historic views; but nowhere 
 is there to be found a collection of documents, arranged with just 
 regard to the proportionate value of historic facts. There have 
 been few events in our history of so great importance as those 
 which led to and those which followed the ofiicial re-establishment 
 of the Vaudois in their own country; yet the most complete his- 
 torians have hitherto scarcely taken the least notice of them. A 
 whole volume of the present work is devoted to these remarkable 
 facts, which occupy only a few pages in the works of my predeces- 
 sors. The expulsion of the inhabitants of the valleys, in 1686 and 
 1687, was not narrated in detail, except in contemporary pamph- 
 lets, which have now become very rare; the expulsions of 1698 and i 
 1730, have not been so narrated at all. The first part only of the 
 history of the Vaudois colonies in Germany had been written, but 
 not in the French language. The whole of this history will be 
 found in The Israel of the Alps. That of the Vaudois of Prage 
 who, at one time, were themselves alone more numerous than t 
 inhabitants of aU the other Vaudois valleys put together, had nevei 
 been written in any language ; eight chapters are devoted to it in 
 this work. Finally, from 1730 to our own days, new historic 
 
 * [The original is in four volumes.] 
 
 ) 
 
 phases have brought the Vaudois under the indirect influence 
 of the philosophy of the eighteenth century, under that of the 
 French Revolution, that of the Austro-Russian invasions, and 
 that of the empire of Napoleon. Nothing of aU this had been 
 related as its historic importance deserved; and it is only since the 
 Restoration, that documents have been printed which begin to 
 throw a sufficient light upon the destmies of the Vaudois church. 
 
 In the present work, all these gaps have been filled up; and if it 
 be thought that these volumes surpass the limits of an abridgment, 
 I would say. Gather together the works which have been written 
 on the Vaudois— run over their tables of contents— compare it 
 with that of the present work, and see if these volumes do not 
 comprehend more variety of matters than all the other books which 
 have been written on this subject, which, however, would of them- 
 selves, form a large library, as any one may satisfy himself, by 
 casting a glance over the Bibliography/ with which T/te Israel of 
 the Alps concludes. Perrin (an 8vo volume of 248 pages) has 
 only furnished me with matter for two half chapters; Gilles (a 
 4to volume of more than 600 pages), has furnished me with three 
 complete chapters and seven half chapters ; I have derived a whole 
 chapter and four half chapters from Leger (a folio volume of 
 212 and 385 pages); from Arj^aud (an octavo of 407 pages), I 
 have derived two chapters and a half; and the whole of the Ger- 
 man authors who have written on the Vaudois colonies, have sup- 
 plied me only with what amounts to about three half chapters. 
 All the rest has been drawn from works exclusively relating to 
 particular parts of the subject, or from unpublished documents. 
 
 Whatever judgment may therefore be formed of the present 
 work, I venture to think, that it must be admitted to have really 
 given a new aspect to the history of the Vaudois; and that The 
 Israel of tlie Alps not merely contains the most complete history 
 of the Vaudois which has hitherto been published, but that, were 
 all which has hitherto been published collected together, it would 
 be equivalent only to a very limited portion of what is here pre- 
 sented. As far as the nature of the work permitted me, I have 
 always allowed the authors from whom I had occasion to quote, to 
 speak in their own words— not merely in order to afibrd therea!der 
 a gratification which otherwise he could have found only by search- 
 ing into i-are books or manuscripts, but more especially in order 
 to give greater variety to the narrative, and to restore as far as 
 possible the impress of contemporary emotions. 
 
 It has often happened that I have discovered errors in the works 
 which I have consulted, even in those of greatest reputation and 
 
VIU 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 f: 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 IX 
 
 learning; I have corrected them, according to the best of my m- 
 formation, but without taking any particular notice of them; Iot 
 this would have produced no change in the page which contamed 
 the error, and I would have thought it somewhat at vanan^ 
 with that gratitude which we owe to writers who have devoted 
 their labours to subjects in which we are most warmly interested. 
 The number of these inaccuracies forbids me to presume that my 
 own work can be exempt from them. I would be very thankfid 
 if any one would put it in my power to remove them. ^.^ 
 not been printed as fest as it could be prepared, I would ah«idy 
 have corrected some sUps,^ and would likewise, I doubt not, have 
 changed some strong expressions here and there, which the homble 
 ZiS^ter of the fects narrated has drawn involuntarily fi-om my 
 indignant pen. These reflections of a writer's own feebngs may 
 render his style more animated, but are scarcely compatible with 
 the calm dignity of history. Besides such errors of style, and errors 
 of the press, there must unquestionably be many other unpeifec- 
 tions discoverable in this work. But as it is the first which pre- 
 sents the history of the Vaudois in a complete form, and is certainly 
 the most accurate of all yet in existence upon that subject, I hope 
 for some indulgence as due to the long and laborious researches 
 
 which it has cost me. ^ ,, • ^i a. * 
 
 These researches have been prosecuted most of all in the ^tate 
 Paper Office of the Court of Turin. The papers there preserved 
 having been put into my hands only in bundles unaxranged, 1 
 have taken notes from them and quoted them with few exceptions 
 axjcording to a running number which marks the order in which I 
 received them. The Diplomatic Archives of France supplied me 
 with many precious documents, for which I am indebted to the 
 kindness of M. Guizot, then minister of foreign affairs Ihe Me- 
 cords of the Council of State of Geneva, have been made available 
 for m Israel of th^ A Ips, by the obliging attentions of the mmister, 
 M le Fort I obtained access to the State Paper Offi.ce ol the 
 Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, through M. Du Thill, then 
 minister of the interior. The archives of Baden, of Stuttgart, of 
 Frankfort, of Berlin, and of the principal cantons of Switzerland, 
 have also been consulted, either by myself in person or hj corres- 
 pondents. The records of the old Court of Accounts at Grenoble, 
 those of the Semite and of the Ccmrt of AcccmnU at Turm have 
 likewise augmented my store of materials. I have been mdebted 
 for numerous documents to the municipal archives of Pignerol, of 
 
 > The presfent translation enjoys the character of a new edition, in virtue of 
 corrections and additions by the Author. 
 
 Lucerne, of Fenestrelles,' of Brian^on, of (Jap, and of some other 
 towns both of Piedmont and of France. And here I ought to 
 express my deep-felt gratitude to my relative and friend, M. Ail- 
 laud, professor at Pignerol, who searched for me the archives of the 
 IrUeTidance of that city. Access to those of the bishopric was 
 obtained for me by the author of Historical Researches concerning 
 ilie Origin of the Vaudois (see the Bibliography, section il, § iv., 
 No. 9). Without referring in this jilace to anything else than the 
 researches which he fiicilitated, I value too highly the privilege of 
 having been enabled to complete them in such a manner, not to 
 testify a just sense of gratitude to him on that account. 
 
 I have derived much assistance from the admirable collection of 
 rare pamphlets, comprising also a number of valuable manuscripts, 
 contained in the Royal Library at Turin. I owe an expression of 
 my thanks to M!^L De Promis, Des Ambroix, De CocciUo, De Sa- 
 luces, Duboin (son of the celebrated civilian, whose great collection 
 he still continues to increase), Bonnino, deputy-keeper of the re- 
 cords of the Court of Accounts, and Sclopis, author of TJie History 
 of the Laws of Piedmont, who have facilitated my researches by 
 their communications, their kind offices, or their advice. The 
 learned M. Cibrario, member of the historical commission for the 
 Monumenta Patriae, and of the Academy of Sciences at Turin, has 
 with similar kindness taken an interest in my labours. He has, 
 moreover, been at the trouble of making some researches himself, 
 and sending me several documents of very great interest, which 
 otherwise I could not have procured. 
 
 At Paris, I have found no less disposition to assist me. M. De 
 Salvandy, then minister of public instruction, caused a very im- 
 portant manuscript to be placed at my service, which, without his 
 authority, I could not have consulted. M. Michelet was kind 
 enough to point out to me in the national archives of France, some 
 documents hitherto unknown.^ 
 
 ' A voluminous record of an investigation concerning the hardships inflicted by 
 John de Roma upon the Vaudois of Provence. The following is the title marked 
 upon a detached slip — " [Cayer de procedures, &c.] : — Record of proceedings in 
 1533, in virtue of a commission from Francis I., King of France, of date 12th Fe- 
 bruary, 1532, against John de Home, of the order of the Jacobins, who, after 
 having been expelled from Avignon by the Cardinal de Clermont, withdrew into 
 Provence, where, without being legally recognized or authorized, he performed the 
 functions of an inquisitor, and conducted himself towards the lieges of that pro* 
 vince in an outrageous and vexatious manner, contrary to all public order." 
 
 This manuscript, which, according to another note, used to be contained in a 
 bag, and was not included in the Inventory under the head of ihe Government of 
 Provence, consists of eight quires of paper, of small foHo size. On the back is 
 affixed the rescript of Francis I., which authorizes the prosecutions. The deposi- 
 
 Vol. I. b 
 
▼Ui 
 
 AUTHOB'8 PREFAOL 
 
 ktming ; I have corrected them, according to the best of my m- 
 fonnatioD. but without taking any particular notice of them; for 
 this wouUi have produced no change in the page which contained 
 the error, and I would have thought it somewhat at varianc^ 
 with that gratitude which we owe to writei-s who have devoted 
 their labours to subjecto in which we are most warmly interested. 
 The number of these inaccuracies forbids me to presume that my 
 own work can be exempt from them. I would bo very thankful 
 if any one would put it in my power to remove them. If it had 
 not been printed as fast as it could be prepared, I would already 
 have corrected some slips,^ and would likewise, I doubt not, have 
 changed some strong expressions here and there, which the horrible 
 character of the facts narrated has drawn involuntarUy from my 
 indignant pen. These reBections of a writer's own feelings may 
 render his style more animated, but are scarcely compatible with 
 the calm dignity of history. Besides such errors of style, and errors 
 of the press, there must unquestionably be many other imperfec- 
 tions discoverable in this work. But as it is the first which pre- 
 sents the history of the Vaudois in a complete form, and is cei-tainly 
 the most accurate of all yet in existence upon that subject, I hope 
 for some indulgence as due to the long and laborious researches 
 
 which it has cost me. 
 
 These researches have been prosecuted most of all in the SUUe 
 Pap^ Office oj tlie Court of Turin. The papers there preserved 
 having been put into my hands only in bundles unarranged, I 
 have taken notes from them and quoted them with few exceptions 
 according to a running number which marks the order in which I 
 received^'them. The Diplomatic Archives of France suppUed me 
 with many precious documents, for which I am indebted to the 
 kindness of M. Guizot, then minister of foreign afiairs. The Be- 
 cords of the Council of State of Geneva, have been made available 
 for The Israel of the Alps, by the obliging attentions of the minister, 
 M le Fort. I obtained access to the State Paper Office of the 
 Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, through M. Du Thill, then 
 minister of the interior. The archives of Baden, of Stuttgart, of 
 Frankfort, of Berlin, and of the principal cantons of Switzerland, 
 have also been consulted, either by myself in person or by corres- 
 pondents. The records of the old Court of Accounts at Grenoble, 
 those of the Senate and of the C(mrt of Accounts at Turin, have 
 likewise augmented my store of materials. I have been indebted 
 for numerous documents to the municipal archives of Pignerol, of 
 
 » The prewnt transition enjoys the character of a new edition, in virtue of 
 corrections and additions by the Author. 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 IX 
 
 Lucerne, of Fenestrelles, of Brian^on, of Gap, and of some other 
 towns both of Piedmont and of France. And here I ought to 
 express my deep-felt gratitude to my relative and friend, M. Ail- 
 laud, professor at Pignerol, who searched for me the archives of the 
 Intendance of that city. Access to those of the bishopric was 
 obtained for me by the author of Historical Researches concerning 
 the Origin of the Vaudois (see the Bibliography, section ii., § iv., 
 No. 9). Without referring in this place to anything else than the 
 researches which he facilitated, I value too highly the privilege of 
 having been enabled to complete them in such a manner, not to 
 testify a just sense of gratitude to him on that account. 
 
 I have derived much assistance from the admirable collection of 
 rare pamphlets, comprising also a number of valuable manuscripts, 
 contained in the Royal Library at Turin. I owe an expression of 
 my thanks to MM. De Promis, Des Ambroix, De Coccillo, De Sa- 
 luces, Duboin (son of the celebrated civilian, whose great collection 
 he still continues to increase), Bonnino, deputy-keeper of the re- 
 cords of the Court of Accounts, and Sclopis, author of The History 
 of the Laws of Piedmont, who have facilitated my researches by 
 their communications, their kind offices, or their advice. The 
 learned M. Cibrario, member of the historical commission for the 
 Monumenta Patriae, and of the Academy of Sciences at Turin, has 
 with similar kindness taken an interest in my labours. He has, 
 moreover, been at the trouble of making some researches himself, 
 and sending me several documents of very great interest, which 
 otherwise I could not have procured. 
 
 At Paris, I have found no less disposition to assist me. M. De 
 Salvandy, then minister of public instruction, caused a very im- 
 portant manuscript to be placed at my service, which, without his 
 authority, I could not have consulted. M. Michelet was kind 
 enough to point out to me in the national archives of France, some 
 documents hitherto unknown.^ 
 
 ' A voluminous record of an investigation concerning the hardships inflicted by 
 John de Boma upon the Vaudois of Provence. The following is the title marked 
 upon a detached slip — "[Cayer de procedures, &c.]: — Record of proceedings in 
 1533, in virtue of a commission from Francis I., King of France, of date 12th Fe- 
 bruary, 1532, against John de Eome, of the order of the Jacobins, who, after 
 having been expelled from Avignon by the Cardinal de Clermont, withdrew into 
 Provence, where, without being legally recognized or authorized, he performed the 
 functions of an inquisitor, and conducted himself towards the lieges of that pro- 
 vince in an outrageous and vexatious manner, contrary to all public order." 
 
 This manuscript, which, according to another note, used to be contained in a 
 bag, and was not included in the Inventory under the head of the OovemmerU of 
 Provence^ consists of eight quires of paper, of small folio size. On the back is 
 affixed the rescript of Francis I., which authorizes the prosecutions. The deposi- 
 
 VOL. I. ^ 
 
if' 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 X author's preface. 
 
 M. Sordet, keeper of the records of the H6td de Ville at Geneva, 
 and Professor Diodati, curator of the Hbrary there, as well as the 
 pastors Lavit, Claparede, Vaucher-Mouchon, &c., have, in the most 
 obUging manner, facilitated my researches. I have been permitted 
 to consult the Archives oftl^ Venerable Company, known under the 
 name of the Archives 0/ St. Peter, The distinguished histonaii, 
 Professor Merle D' Aubign6, has assisted me, both by givmg me the 
 benefit of his information and by communicating documents m his 
 possession. And, finally, 1 am indebted to M. Lombard-Odier, 
 banker, for a copy of an interesting manuscript, the work of a pro- 
 scribed Vaudois in 1729. I am not less bound, however, to express 
 my thanks to my young feUow-countrymen, MM. Tron, Geymonet, 
 Paiise, Bert, Rivoire, and Janavel, then students at Geneva, who 
 were kind enough to employ themselves in transcribing for me 
 everything that I required. M. Monastier, an author, who, ]ike 
 them, is a native of the valleys of Piedmont, and has produced a 
 recent and much-valued history of the Yaudois, communicated to 
 me notes and extracts which he coUected when engaged in his own 
 labours. Another native of the valleys, M. Appia, in whom the 
 French church at Frankfort recently lost an eminent and venerated 
 pastor, most freely made me welcome to the whole resources of his 
 rich collection of documents connected with the history of the 
 country of his birth, and gave me the benefit of aU his information, 
 his advice, and his reminiscences. I regret that this just tribute 
 of my gratitude can only be paid to his memory. A venerable 
 Vaudois pastor, the late M. Mondon, the successor of Scipio Amaud 
 in one of the Vaudois colonies in Germany, but whose removal 
 from this world preceded by a long time that of M. Appia, ex- 
 pressed the same interest in my undertaking. To him I owe the 
 use of the first sheets of the original manuscript of the Eeturn, now 
 
 deposited at Berlin. 
 
 In the Vaudois vaUeys, the gentlemen holding offices connected 
 with the Table have, in more instances than one, placed at my 
 disposal official documents and notes moSt valuable for their accu- 
 racy; and the pastor M. Joshua Meille, and his son-in-law, M. Voile, 
 
 tions of the witnesses commence on the first page of fol. 8i.-.VatoaZ Archives of 
 
 ' France, compartment J, No. 851. j 4. j r««„^ 
 
 An liipubl^hed letter of Margaret of France, Duchess of Savoy dated from 
 Turin 1 June, 1566 rThurin ce premier jour dejuing 1566"], and relative to the 
 Vaudiis, has also been communicated to me by Professor Ch. Bomie ; but too late 
 to be of much service. It will be pubUshed, along with other valuable documents, 
 t^e^r^te of the researches of that learned professor, in a Life of Ee,^ie of France 
 Dv^hess ofFerrara, which wiU shortly gratify the impatient expectations of aU 
 who are acquainted with his patient and admirable labours. 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 have in other ways contributed to the increase of my collection of 
 unpublished papers. I am bound to make the same acknowledg- 
 ment in regard to M. Gay, of Le Villar, and M. Antoine Blanc, of 
 La Tour, as well as to my friend M. Am^dee Bert, whose Historic 
 Scenes, recently published, have excited in Italy so great an interest 
 in favour of the Vaudois. 
 
 Amongst foreigners, the reverend Dr. Todd, of Dublin, and above 
 all others, the reverend Dr. Gilly, of Durham, have laid me under 
 particular obligations by transmitting to me information which 
 they alone were able to furnish. 
 
 Finally, I owe the warmest expressions of gratitude to Pro- 
 fessor Schmidt, author of the Ilistori/ of the Catliari, who has 
 been kind enough to look over the proof-sheets of the Bibliography 
 of The Israel of the Alps; as also to MM. Mailhet, Arnaud, and 
 Olivier, who have gone over the manuscript and the proof-sheets 
 
 of the whole work. 
 
 I cannot mention all the public libraries to which I have been 
 more or less indebted in the preparation of this work. Those of 
 Lyons and Grenoble contain ancient Vaudois manuscripts in the 
 Romance language ; as do also those of Geneva, ZUrich, and Dub- 
 lin. Those of Avignon and of Carpentras possess other manu- 
 scripts, which, although more modem, are not less interesting. 
 
 M. Frossard, author of a History of tJie Vaudois oj Provemie, and 
 M. Barjavel, author of the Historical Dictionary of Vaucluse, have 
 augmented, by the fruits of their studies, the notes which I had al- 
 ready collected on the subject treated of by the first of these writers. 
 
 I have attempted, in various ways, to have researches made at 
 Prague, in order to discover, if possible, some documentary traces 
 of the relations anciently subsisting betwixt the Vaudois and the 
 evangeUcal churches of that country; but these attempts have been 
 
 fVmitless 
 
 The charter-chests of a number of families have been opened to 
 my investigations— amongst others, those of the Counts of Lu- 
 cema— but at a time when I could not go in person to examine 
 them. I have not the less pleasure in recording here the respect- 
 ful expression of my gratitude. 
 
 It would have been equally desirable to have seen, if possible, 
 the episcopal records of Suza and of Saluces— those of the Arch- 
 bishopric of Turin, and of the Inquisition formerly existing there— 
 those of Aceil, of CaraH, of Dronier, and of other towns, in which 
 the Vaudois had numerous adherents in days of yore— as well as 
 those even of the Holy Office at Home. And I have no doubt 
 that there are still many sources of information altogether un- 
 
J 
 
 1 , 
 
 ^ AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 known to me. However, I have succeeded in forming, I beUeve, 
 theTost numerous collection of historical documents, relative ^ 
 the Vaudois, which any historian has aa yet possessed. 1 am 
 etcTa^happy in having been enabled to fill up the lamentable 
 bknks which have hitheito existed in that memorable ^^'J. 
 
 But the operation of accumulating a gi-eat mass of historical 
 materials is Z more the distinguishing function of the h^onan 
 than the operation of bringing together ^^e.^^f ^.^f^^^f^"^ 
 is the distinguishing function of the architect. With the ^me 
 materials m^y be erected either a monument of stnking b^ut^ 
 or one of the most commonplace description. What gives ite 
 proper character to a work of art, is its leaving m the mmd a 
 predse idea corresponding with the purpose for which it was 
 intended. France possesses two such works, the smallest and the 
 cn-eatest of their kind, I believe, in Europe-the Mmson carree of 
 Nismes, and the Cathedral of Stra^burg, of which both the one and 
 the other leave a distinct idea, an abiding impression m the mind 
 -an impression which wiU remain in the memory of the traveller 
 more vivid and perfect than that of the street in which, perhaps he 
 has long had his abode. Unity, harmony, and proportion distin- 
 guish those things of which our minds thus readUy take hold. 
 Without these qualities in the completed work, a great collection 
 of materials is nothing else, in history or in architecture, than a 
 mere heap: these alone give the work a higher character, whether 
 it be "veat or small. I do not deny that I have been ambitious 
 that my Uttle work should exhibit these characteristics. 
 
 Hitherto, the chronological method has been almost exclusively 
 foUowed in all the histories of the Vaudois. This method consists 
 in relating, year by year, all which occurs in the different countries, 
 or different series of facts with which we have to do. It^PPf '«' 
 at first sight, the most natural, and would be m reality the best, 
 if each f^ct had neither cause nor effects. On the contiury, it i. 
 only the linking together of these causes and effects that renders 
 our view of any fact complete; but as the origin of events is often 
 to be traced fer back, and the consequences stretch far mto the 
 future, the chronological method breaks up the connection, cutting 
 asunder the exhibition of a fact and its consequences, by the ac- 
 count of a contemporaneous feet which has no relation to it It 
 follows that blanks are concealed fi-om observation a,midst these 
 incomplete exhibitions of historic facts; and these blanks are often 
 involuntarily produced by the very pen of the writer, who is com- 
 pelled, by the chronological succession, to pass from one fact to 
 Zther, instead of proceeding in a contmuous manner with the 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 development of the same fact. This development, then, becomes 
 like a broken picture, whose fragments are scattered at great dis- 
 tances. It is what might be expected, that the reading of histories 
 written after this method ordinarily leaves in the mind none but 
 very confused historic ideas, or rather leaves it without precise and 
 
 dominant ideas. 
 
 The analytic method, on the contrary, after having classified 
 the events, exhibits them in all their amplitude. Their aspect is 
 presented entire and distinct, and consequently the mmd of the 
 reader more readily lays hold of the unity of the whole group. 
 But this method is necessarily very tedious and difficult. After 
 the documents have been collected, a selection and critical exami- 
 nation must be made : those which may serve as sources of historic 
 information must be placed by themselves, and vaUd authorities 
 must be distinguished from doubtful testimonies. It is then ex- 
 pedient to arrange them all in chronological order, with the view 
 of having a general representation of the whole subject which is to 
 be investigated. After this, the whole must be divided into dis- 
 tinct epochs, in order to detach from the historical picture the 
 different outlines which are afterwards to be fiUed up with details. 
 It is then necessary to fix upon the series of documents in each 
 epoch, relating to facts of the same nature, and to withdraw from 
 the group those which relate to things of a different kind. FinaUy, 
 it remains to arrange these different series of documents, with a 
 view to the historic exhibition of the facts which they tend to 
 establish, so that these facts shaU elucidate each other. All these 
 things have been done for the History oftlw Vavdois which I now 
 give to the public, of which, perhaps, I may say that the plan has 
 cost me more time and trouble than anything else m the work. 
 I venture to hope that its simpHcity would prevent this from bemg 
 perceived. Whatever may be the scale upon which it may yet 
 happen that the History of the Vaudois shall be again taken up— 
 whether it shaU be extended to ten volumes or reduced to one— 
 this plan, I beUeve, wiU always be found suitable. 
 
 The two chapters which treat of the Yaudois martyrs, are the 
 only ones in this work which I have borrowed, without modmca- 
 tion, from my original pubUcation. Numerous notes have been 
 appended to those which I have had to compose entirely trom 
 unpublished documents— such, in particular, a^ the two first chap, 
 ters of the fourth volume— [Part II., Chapters xviii. and xix.J— 
 the matter for which, although presenting Httle variety, wa^ very 
 considerable in amount; and, in general, all those which treat of the 
 history of the Yaudois from 1690 to 1814. 
 
XIV 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 author's preface. 
 
 XV 
 
 If circumstances should permit me, hereafter, to publish entire 
 the documents which I have used as authorities, the suppression of 
 which has, more than aU other things, contributed to restrict this 
 book to moderate dimensions, I will have accomplished almost all 
 that I would desire or think it in my power to do with regard to 
 the history of the Vaudois. 
 
 An examination of the various arguments by which it has re- 
 cently been attempted to disprove the existence of the Vaudois 
 previous to Valdo, will be found in the Bibliography at the end of 
 this Work.^ In some instances, I did not possess the means of 
 verifying, for this Bibliogi-aphy, the titles of certain works with 
 which I was unacquainted. I have not, however, on that account, 
 thought it necessary to refrain from noticing them, according to 
 the indications of them which I had obtained. 
 
 Something would, no doubt, have been gained, with regard to a 
 number of important questions concerning the original sources of 
 the history of the Vaudois, had they been here subjected again to 
 tlie fiery trial of a better sustained and more profound analysis. 
 Many things may yet remain to be said concerning the origin of 
 the Vaudois, and their relations with the other sects of the middle 
 a^es. But the present work was meant to contain statements of 
 fact rather than dissertations, and to have dwelt in this way upon 
 particular points would not have consisted with its plan. A desire 
 to present as condensed a historic narrative as possible, and an am- 
 bition to fill up the immense blanks which still subsisted in the 
 modern history of the Vaudois, have been paramount in directing 
 the preparation of those volumes. I have been obliged to carry on 
 my labours in a little village, destitute of any learned library, and 
 at a great distance from the printing-office. This will account for 
 erratay a mere allusion to which will certainly be enough to obtain 
 for them the indulgence of intelligent readers, who will easily rec- 
 tify slight imperfections. 
 
 I have thought it my duty to indicate, at the head of each chap- 
 ter, the authorities and sources of information particularly connected 
 with each, and I conclude The Israel of the Alps with a list of the 
 works which form general sources of information, relating through- 
 out to the whole history of the Vaudois. Notwithstanding the 
 large nimiber of authors contained in this list, there are but few of 
 them who can be regarded as authorities, the greater part having 
 
 * Concerning the opinion which would make the Vaudois derive their origin 
 from Valdo, see Bihliogr., part I. sect. Ii. § iii. article 24. Concerning the anti- 
 quity of the Vaudois MSS. in the Romance language, see part IT. sect. i. § i. Con- 
 cerning the Nohla LeyczoUy see the same section, § iii., MS. 207, art. 5, &c. 
 
 done nothing but copy from one another. Besides, with the ex- 
 ception of the earlier ones, who have derived their information 
 from original documents, and of a few subsequent writers, who have 
 brought the aids of an exact criticism to the elucidation of obscure 
 point\ the rest are only of inferior interest. Yet there is none of 
 them to be despised, for they may be found to present valuable 
 details of fact, and new views of passages of history. 
 
 If I had written, as was my original intention, a critical and 
 documentary history of the Vaudois, I would have quoted almost 
 all these works, and made parts of them the subject of discussion. 
 Having attempted nothing here but to narrate events as completely 
 and aslbriefly as possible, I have confined myself to the authorities 
 upon which I depend for them— all discussion has been avoided, 
 and all means of abridgment have been studiously employed. 
 
 The mere substance of official documents has ahnost always been 
 given— speeches have not been given at full length— narratives of 
 judicial examinations have been transfoi-med into simple dialogues, 
 by which means the diluting phrases, " Being then asked," « He 
 replied," &c., have been avoided. Occasionally in place of men- 
 tioning in succession the written communications of a negotiation, 
 I have suppressed them altogether, saying merely, " It was then 
 proposed," «It was replied," &c. And when the documents 
 which I had before me proved respecting any historic personage, 
 and upon the authority of sure witnesses, that such a personage 
 had spoken to such or such an effect, had made such or such an 
 answer, or had brought forward such or such considerations, I have 
 thought it right to substitute for the narrative form that of direct 
 address, making the i^erson himself speak instead of relating what 
 he said. This method was common with the historians of 
 antiquity ; and whilst I have been very reserved as to the use of 
 it, I have always attended with the greatest care to the exact 
 accuracy of the words, as expressing the thought which they were 
 meant to convey. I shall perhaps be told that it is the duty of 
 the historian neither to abstract nor to add. But in what sense 1 
 What sort of text is it of which not a single word may be 
 changed^ When he has before his eyes a number of different 
 accounts of the same event or series of events, a number of docu- 
 ments, of which each by itself is insufficient, but which taken 
 together present the subject in a clear enough light— when he 
 has to pursue his search for the truth through a heap of judicial 
 records, police reports, diplomatic notes and private correspondence, 
 contemporary pubHcations bearing the stamp of party spmt, 
 narratives intentionally falsified or involuntarily left incomplete. 
 
XVI 
 
 AIJTHOR'S PREFACK 
 
 iournals varying in the accuracy of their information, &c.-i8 it 
 il^m Z comparison, the combination, and the persevenng 
 and critical examination of uU these confused elements, that ^i^t^ 
 must be framed? It is as important, in such a ^^se, that the 
 materials should be rightly estimated and classified, as that they 
 
 should be of large amount. 
 
 I shall not sa^r more on this subject. There are, of course, m 
 this book, impe Actions which I am aware of, and others of which 
 I L ign;rant. I can only offer, by anticipation the e^pre-on of 
 my gratitude to those who may be pleased to point out to me a^ 
 impr^ements of which it may be susceptible. But if I am 
 Jused of being ina«=ui.te, upon the sole ground ot my Wng 
 departed from the idea, hitherto prevaJent, I ^-^'f^-^fj^ 
 the sources from which my information is derived, and mform 
 yourselves, before you pronounce an opinion. 
 
 I am far from concealing that my sympathies are with the 
 oppressed and against their oppressor.; but I have never b^u 
 c^Liously inaccurate; and in every ins ance - -'""^/'J^ 
 of history have called me to say anythmg to the credit of the 
 ad^ies of the Yaudois, I believe that I have done it a. fully 
 
 n^f S St aTarge number of histories of the Vaudo^ 
 They are all incomplete. Another recapitulation would have 
 2^«ll purpose. I assigned myself the ta.k o writing then- 
 So^ so as to make it complete. That undertaking presented 
 IS is which it may well be believed were not smaH, as no one 
 Tad yet surmounted them. In default of other good q-liti^' 
 the Ion. and fatiguing labours which I have been obliged o 
 under^: in order to :tUin my object of pi-esenting the truth 
 :-ttout blanks, may perhaps obtain for me the approbation of 
 my readei-s and of the Vaudois who love their native land 
 
 iTave prayed God to support me in my labours; a^d I pray 
 him now to render them sei-viceable to my native country anfl to 
 the truth. 
 
 ALEXIS MUSTON. 
 
 BouRDEAUX (Deome), 18 September, 1850. 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The translation of this work was undertaken in tlie belief, which 
 remains unshaken in the translator's mind, of its being the most 
 complete and interesting history of the Vaudois yet given to the 
 world. The lively and graphic style, of which the English reader 
 may perhaps find here but an imperfect representation, although 
 it adds much to the value of the work, is far from being its chief 
 merit. The author has evidently devoted no small amount of 
 labour to its preparation, both in the acquisition and in the arrange- 
 ment of his materials. He has added to the stores of historic in- 
 formation previously accumulated, and has elucidated points that 
 were formerly obscure, by his researches amongst documents inac- 
 cessible to previous historians. He has also, more fully than any 
 previous author, brought the whole history of the Vaudois into 
 one view — not only that of the Church in the Piedmontese valleys 
 from the earliest period to the present day, but also that of the 
 Vaudois inhabiting the French territory, of the Vaudois settle- 
 ment in Calabria, and of the colonies which Vaudois exiles founded, 
 who sought a refuge from persecution in different parts of Germany. 
 
 Few subjects have greater claims to the regard of all Christians 
 than that of which this work treats. Even if the opinion were 
 admitted, against which Dr. Muston contends, that the Vaudois 
 derived their name and their origin as a distinct Christian com- 
 munity from Peter Waldo, the merchant of Lyons, who became 
 a preacher of righteousness, and a witness against the corruptions 
 of the Church of Rome, in the end of the twelfth century, it would 
 be impossible to regard without deep interest that light shining 
 in the midst of dai'kness throughout so many centuries, and the 
 testimony so long maintained, amidst so many conflicts, by these 
 Reformers before the Reformation. But the interest with which 
 we contemplate the Vaudois (or Waldenses), is greatly increased 
 when we acknowledge them as possessing a stUl higher antiquity — 
 
 Vol I. c 
 
xviii translator's preface. 
 
 a^ giving his name and, in part at least, his knowledge of the truth 
 to Waldo, instead of deriving theirs from him-a^ forming a con- 
 necting Unk between the primitive church and the churches of the 
 
 Keformation. , . , • i i i « 
 
 The reader of Yaudois history cannot read with unmmgled plea- 
 sure. History records no deeds of cruelty more atrocious, no per- 
 secutions more terrible. But scenes which the benevolent mind 
 would fain shut out from its contemplation, are yet invested with 
 the highest and most endxiring interest by the triumphs of faith 
 or possess a very great historic value a3 manifestations of the spirit 
 of Popery, and as proofs of the identity of the Church of Rome with 
 that Babylon of the Apocalypse, in which, when the Lord makes 
 inquisition for blood and proceeds to the judgment l^^S f ^™ 
 shall be found « the blood of prophets, and of saints, and ol ail that 
 
 were slain upon the earth." ^ 
 
 The high testimonies of approbation which Dr. Muston s work 
 has received from the historians Thierry and Michelet, the late 
 lamented Dr. GiUy, and others most competent to judge, have 
 already in part been made known by the pubUshers in their pros- 
 pectus of this translation. The translator may be permitted to 
 add, that the manner in which Dr. Huston's work ha^ been treated, 
 even by those continental writers who, in magazines and in works 
 recently published, have argued in support of opinions contrary to 
 his, on the important question of the origin of the Vaudois, has 
 been such as to exhibit their high sense of its importance. Dr. 
 Herzog, in his recent work on this subject {Die romaiiischen Wal-- 
 denser, ihre vorreformatoriscJien Zustdnde und Lehren, u, 8. w?.), 
 describes Dr. Huston's history as containing a rich store of pre- 
 cious materials. Constant reference has been made to it in the 
 whole of the recent discussions concerning the Yaudois. 
 
 To the question of the origin of the Yaudois, the translator has 
 ventured to devote an Appendix. He would have been glad to 
 have entered more largely into this subject than he has been able 
 to do— the necessary Umits of the work preventing him. His 
 desire, however, was not so much to adduce any argument of his 
 own, which he could scarcely pretend to do, as to exhibit the state 
 of the controversy on the Continent concerning the historic apos- 
 toUcity of the Yaudois— a question of great interest and impor- 
 tance, although certainly not of so great importance as some have 
 ascribed to it. This he has in some measure endeavoured to do; 
 and imperfect as it is, he is not without hope that the appendix 
 devoted to this subject, may be of use in directmg attention to 
 facts and arguments with which, if he may judge from all he has 
 
 translator's preface. 
 
 XIX 
 
 seen in print, very few persons in this country seem to have much 
 acquaintance. 
 
 It may be proper, and yet, perhaps, it is not quite necessary, for 
 the translator here to say that he does not hold himself responsible 
 for every sentiment contained in the work which he has translated, 
 nor wish to be understood as assenting to it. He differs from the 
 author in some instances in which he has not thought it requisite 
 to append any note; but in no case did he think it warrantable to 
 change what the author had written. Dr. Huston has been al- 
 lowed to speak for himself, and to say to the British public what 
 he originally thought fit to say to that of France and Switzerland. 
 On various points, religious, political, and historical, the translator 
 would have expressed himself otherwise; but he remembered that 
 the work was Dr. Huston's and not his, and he is confident that 
 it will find general approbation among the religious public of 
 Britain, for the evangelical, liberal, and generous sentiments with 
 which it is pervaded. 
 
 The work, as now issued, is not, however, a mere translation of 
 the Israel of the Alps, as published six years since in France, but 
 possesses, at the same time, the character of a second edition. 
 Some corrections and additions have been made by the author, 
 and maps and plates now accompany the work for the first time. 
 The plates are chiefly, as wiU be seen, from sketches by Dr. Hus- 
 ton himself. 
 
 The translator has only to add, that concerning the form and 
 spelling of proper names, he felt considerable difficulty. The 
 French form, generally used in the original, is sometimes the least 
 familiar to British readers. It has been thought best to prefer 
 the most familiar form — French or Italian, as it might be. And 
 if a perfect imiformity has not in all cases been preserved, it is 
 hoped that no difficulty will thence arise to the reader. 
 
'\ 
 
 ^\ t 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 Page 
 
 Author's Preface, v 
 
 Translator's Preface, xviL 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 Preliminary Remarks on the Origin of the Vaudois 1 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS FROM THEIR ORIGIN, TO THE TIME WHEN THEY 
 WERE CIRCUMSCRIBED WITHIN THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT ALONE. 
 
 Chapter I. — Origin, Manners, Doctrine, and Organization of the Vaudois 
 Church in Ancient Times 17 
 
 Chapter II. — First Persecution — Yolande and Cattan^e. (From a.d. 
 1300 to A.D. 1500.) — Persecution and Conflicts ahout the year 1308 — Per- 
 secution by Yolande, Duchess of Savoy, in 1476 ; and by her son, Charles 
 I., Duke of Savoy, in 1485— Bull of Extermination against the Vaudois by 
 Pope Innocent VIII. in 1487 — Crusade against them — Albert Cattanee, 
 the Pope's Legate — Defeat of the invading force in the Italian valleys — 
 Negotiations with the Duke of Savoy — Strange fancies then prevalent 
 among Papists with regard to the Vaudois '.50 
 
 Chapter III. — History op the Vaudois op the Val Louise, from their 
 Origin to their Extinction. (a.d. 1300 to a.d. 1500.) — Some account 
 of the Val Louise — Early persecutions there — The Inquisitor Borelli — 
 Martyrdoms at Embrun in the end of the 14th century, and desolation of 
 the Vaudois valleys in France — Cattanee — Massacre of the whole popula- 
 tion of the Val Louise in 1488..., 37 
 
 Chapter IV. — ^History op the Vaudois op Barcelonnette, Le Queyras, 
 AND FRETSSiNiiiRES, (A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1650.) — Some account of the 
 Valley of Barcelonnette — Persecution in 1560— Return of the fugitive 
 population — Persecution in 1623 — The Vaudois finally expelled — The Val- 
 ley of Freyssiniferes — Early persecutions — The Inquisitor Ploy^ri — Mar- 
 tyrdoms in the end of the 15th century — Relaxation of persecution by 
 Jjouis XII. — Brief of Pope Alexander VI. — Struggles of the 16th century 
 —The Protestants seize Embrun— Lesdiguiferes — The Valley of Queyras in 
 the end of the 16th century — Struggles and Successes of the Protestants^ 
 
XXll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 
 ft 
 
 Page 
 The llcvocation of the Edict of Nantes — Present Protestantism of the 
 French valleys — Nefi". 44 
 
 Chapter V. — History op the Vaodois op Provence. — M^rindol and 
 Cabri£res. (a.d. 1350 to a.d. 1550 ) — Settlement of the Vaudois in Pro- 
 vence — Persecutions of the 1 6th century — Cruelties of Menier D'Oppbde 
 — Proceedings against the inhabitants of M^rindol — Singular Deliverance 
 of many from death — The Vaudois of Cabribres — Cardinal Sadolet — Cardi- 
 nal De Toumon — The Bishop of Cavaillon at Mdrindol — Edict of Francis 
 I. suspending prosecutions — Revocation of that Edict surreptitiously ob- 
 tained — Menier D'Opp^de destroys M^rindol, Cabri^res, La Coste, and 
 other places, and butchers their inhabitants — Protestantism in modern 
 times on the slopes of the Leberon 53 
 
 Chapter VI. — The Vaudois in Calabria, (a.d. 1400 to a.d. 1560.) — Set- 
 tlement of the Vaudois in Calabria — Montalto, St. Xist, and other places 
 founded by them — La Guardia — Correspondence maintained between the 
 Vaudois of Calabria and those of the Alps — John Louis Paschal appointed 
 pastor — Commencement of persecution in 1559 — Sufferings of Paschal and 
 of Mark Usc^gli — Paschal conveyed to Rome — Attempts to induce him to 
 recant — His martyrdom — Cardinal Alexandrini in Calabria — Falsehood 
 and cruelty — Slaughter of the Vaudois of St. Xist and La Guardia — Fear- 
 ful massacres and atrocities — Escape of a small renmant of the Calabrian 
 Vaudois to Piedmont — Protestantism extinguished in Calabria 72 
 
 Chapter VIL — Influence of the Reformation in the Vaudois Valleys. 
 — The Synod and the Bible, (a.d. 1520 to a.d. 1535.) — Deputation of 
 the Vaudois to the Reformers — The deputies arrested as they return — 
 Martyrdom of Peter Masson at Dijon — Synod at Angrogna in 1532 — Dis- 
 sensions — IjCtter from the Churches in Bohemia — Synod at Pral, 1533 — 
 Oliv^tan's Bible — Mission of Martin Gonin to Geneva — He is arrested 
 on his way home, and put to death at Grenoble 93 
 
 Chapter VIII. — History of aNumber of Martyrs. — Brief notices of many 
 martyrs — Martyrdom of Stephen Brun at Embrun, in 1538 — Of Bartholo- 
 mew Hector at Turin, in 1556 — Of John Vernoux, Anthony Laborie 
 Quercy, and three others, at Chambery, in 1555 — Letter of the martyr 
 Quercy to his wife —Narrow escape of the Barba Gilles in the neighbour- 
 hood of Chambery — Geoffroy Varaille burned alive at Turin in 1558 — 
 Nicholas Sartoire at Aosta, in 1557 — Extraordinary escape of a Vaudois 
 minister — Martyrdoms of Mathurin and his wife, and of John De Cartignon, 
 at Carignan, in 1560 — Brief notices of other martyrs — Horrible cruelties 
 , inflicted on Odoul Geymet 105 
 
 Chapter IX. — History op the Evangelical Churches of Paesane, Pra- 
 viGLELM, AND Saluces. (a.d. 1550 to A.D. 1580.) — The marquisate of 
 Saluces— Inquisitors sent to extirpate heresy in 1308 — Persecutions of 
 1499-1510 — Margaret De Foix, Marchioness of Saluces— Expulsion of 
 the Vaudois from Saluces — They take refuge in the other valleys — Their 
 return to Saluces in 1512 — Influence of the Reformation — Increase and 
 extension of the church 128 
 
 Chapter X. — History op the Progress and Extinction op the Reforma- 
 tion at CoNI, AND IN THE PlAIN OS PlEDMONT. (A.D. 1550 tO A.D. 1580.) 
 
 — The Reformation in towns near the Vaudois valleys — Timidity — Perse- 
 
 r 
 
 Page 
 cution— Many of the Protestants take refuge among the Vaudois — Martyr- 
 dom of the Pastor Jacob — Protestantism in Turin— Persecutions in various 
 parts of Piedmont — The churches of Coni and Carail — Persecutions— Sup- 
 pression of the Reformation in Coni 136 
 
 Chapter XI. — History op the Reformed Churches op Carail, Chi^ri, 
 AND Dronier. (a.d. 1560 to a.d. 1605.)— Commencement of persecution 
 against the Reformed Church of Carail— The noble family of Villanova- 
 Sollaro— Activity of the Popish clergy— Suppression of the Reformation at 
 Carail— Condition of the church in the marquisate of Saluces— St. Bartho- 
 lomew's Day — Vacca, Archdeacon of Saluces, resists the massacre of the 
 Protestants— French civil wars— The marquisate of Saluces becomes part 
 of the dominions of the Duke of Savoy — The Protestant Church of Dronier 
 — Its suppression — Persecuting measures adopted against the Vaudois of 
 Praviglelm, and of the whole upper valley of the Po 143 
 
 Chapter XII. — A Sketch of the Vicissitudes endured by the Christians 
 of the Valleys situated around the Vaudois Valleys, particularly 
 
 THOSE OF BUBIANO, LUCERNA, CamPILLON, AND FeNIL. (A.D. 1560 tO A.D. 
 
 1630.)— Protestants in the neighbourhood of the Vaudois valleys forbidden 
 to attend religious meetings there— Fines and confiscations— Count Wil- 
 liam of Lucerna — Treaty of Cavour— Castrocaro, governor of the Vaudois 
 valleys— Unsuccessful attempts to proselytize at Lucerna and Bubiano — 
 Certain of the Vaudois summoned to Turin — Interview of Valentine 
 Boulles with the Duke of Savoy— Theological discussion between a 
 Vaudois pastor and a Jesuit— Captain Cappell— Systematic persecution of 
 the Protestants of Lucerna — Confirmation of Vaudois privileges— Extortion 
 and injustice — Peter Queyras and Bartholomew Boulles — Arrests — Suffer- 
 ings of the Protestants of Bubiano and other places — Final prohibition of 
 
 Protestantism beyond the limits of the Vaudois valleys 155 
 
 Chapter XIII.— Revival op the Evangelical Churches op Saluces, and 
 NEW Vicissitudes to which they were subjected, (a.d. 1602 to a.d. 
 1616.)— Valleys of the Stura, the Vrayta and Valgrane— Edict of 12th 
 June, 1602— The Protestants driven into exile — Persecution conducted by 
 the Capuchin Ribotti — Effects of long-continued oppression — The Digiunati • 
 — Irritation and disorder — Negotiations — The Duke of Savoy grants favour- 
 able terms to the Vaudois -Protestant churches spring up anew— Popish mis- 
 sionaries — Expatriation of Protestants — Their manifesto — A breathing time 1 74 
 
 Chapter XIV. — Conclusion op the History of the Churches op Salu- 
 ces; particularly of those of Aceil, Verzol, St. Michael, and Pra- 
 viglrlm. (a.d. 1616 to a.d. 1633.)— Lesdiguibres intercedes for the 
 Vaudois of Saluces— Increase of Protestantism in the valleys of the Stura 
 and of Mayra — The Bishop of Saluces at Dronier — Protestant worship in- 
 terrupted—Proscriptions—Vexations—Renewed intercessions of Lesdi- 
 gui^res— Disorders— Plot for a general massacre of the Reformed in the 
 province of Saluces — Outrages and cruelties — Martyrdom of Peter Mar- 
 quisy and Maurice Mongie— The pope grants to the Duke of Savoy a tithe 
 of ecclesiastical revenues for six years— Further persecutions— Sentence 
 of banishment against the inhabitants of Praviglelm and Paesane— Inter- 
 cession of Lesdiguiferes— The churches of Saluces gradually weakened by 
 continued persecutions— Victor Amadeus— Extmction of the churches of 
 Saluces 154 
 
XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Tage 
 
 XXV 
 
 Pcuge 
 
 '< 
 
 Chaptee XV—More Martyrs, (a.d. 1535 to a.d. 1635.)-Inquisitoml 
 proceedings instituted both by the Court of Aix and the Senate of Tunn- 
 Martyrdom of Catalan Girardet-The pastor of Pral treacherously mur- 
 dered-Intercessions of the Elector Palatine on behalf of the Vaudois- 
 The Secretary of the Palatine Legation arrested on account of his being a 
 Protestant minister-Conspiracy against the state, a deceitful pretext for 
 severities agamst the Vaudois-Suflferings of the French Vaudois-Martyr- 
 dom of Komeyer, a merchant of VUlar d'Ar^nes, at Draguignan~Many 
 persons put to death on account of religion-Gaspar Orsel delivered from 
 the inquisitors-Capture and escape of the pastor of Praviglelm-Brief 
 notices of sufferers-M. Jean of Marseilles-Secret murders in prison- 
 Martyrdom of Peter Marquisy and Maurice Monge of Aceil-Si^ermgs 
 and release of Paul Roeri de Lanfranco— The case of Sebastian Bazan— 
 Imprisonment and trials of Bartholomew Coupin-His attempted escape 
 —His death— The brothers Malherbe— Daniel PeUlon ^^ 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 FROM THE TIME WHEN THE VAUDOIS WERE RESTRICTED WITHIN THE LIMITS 
 OF THEIR VALLEYS, TO THE DATE OF THEIR TOTAL BANISHMENT. 
 
 Chapter I.-Matters Preliminary to the Second General Persecuiion 
 
 OP THE VaUDOIS of THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. (A.D. 1520 tO A.D. 1560.) 
 
 —Increasing number of attendants at the public worship of the Vaudois— 
 Building of places of worship-Friendly disposition of the Dukes of Savoy 
 in the earlier part of the 16th century-Pope Paul IV.-Commissioners of 
 the Parliament of Turin sent to the valleys in 1556-Fanatici8m-Firm- 
 ness of the Vaudois-Profession of faith— Threatenings of persecution- 
 Charles and Boniface Truchet, seigneurs of Le Perrier-Their attempt to 
 seize the minister of Rioclaret-Flight of the people of Rioclaret-An aged 
 pastor and another prisoner burned alive at Pignerol-The people of Rio- 
 claret saved by the other Vaudois, who take up arms for their assistance- 
 Remarkable fate of the seigneurs of Le Perrier-PhUip of Savoy, Count of 
 Racconis, at Angrogna-Many instances of violence-Poussevin com- 
 mandant of Fossano-ffis argument in favour of the mass-The syndics of 
 the valleys refuse to send away the pastors-An army collected against the 
 Vaudois in 1560— Vain attempts to bring them even to apparent conces- 
 sions—Friendly interposition of Count Charles of Lucerna - 
 
 Chapter II.-History op thb Second General Persecotion which took 
 PLACE IN THE Vaudois Valleys. (a.d. 1560 to A.D. I561.)-The army 
 under the command of the Count De La Trinity marches against the Vau- 
 dois-Its excesses even against adherents of the Church of Rome-Rem^k- 
 able proof of the estimation in which the morality of the Vaudois was held- 
 First skirmishes-Successive defeats of the Count De La Trmit^—At- 
 tempted negotiations-The Count De La Trinity visits the Pra-du-Tour 
 
 233 
 
 — His perfidy — Combats—Cruelties — A large sura extorted from the 
 Vaudois to secure the withdrawal of the invading army — Further 
 treachery — The Vaudois send their pastors to Pragela — Outrages and 
 horrible atrocities — Unsuccessful deputation to the Duke of Savoy — The 
 Vaudois swear a covenant in the Val Cluson — They adopt measures for 
 more effective resistance — Partial contests, in which the Vaudois are suc- 
 cessful — They take Le Villar — Their Flying Company — Further defeats 
 of the assailants — Treacherous attempt to engage the Vaudois in negotia- 
 tions, and to attack them by surprise — Final defeat of the Count De La 
 Trinity, and terms of peace granted to the Vaudois 250 
 
 Chapter III. — Castrocaro, Governor op the Valleys, (a.d. 1561 to a.d. 
 158L) — Distress prevailing in the valleys — Refugees from Calabria — Cas- 
 trocaro appointed Governor of the Valleys — His scheme for the gradual 
 destruction of the Vaudois Church — He proceeds to impose new restrictions 
 —His arbitrary proceedings — His duplicity — He misrepresents the Vaudois 
 at Court — Kind intentions of the Duchess of Savoy — Gilles Des Gilles, 
 pastor of La Tour, seized and committed to prison — Castrocaro frustrated 
 in some of his attempts — New dangers — A solemn fast — Deliverance from 
 fear — Further arbitrary measures of the Governor — A new covenant sworn 
 by the Vaudois — Charles IX. of France writes to the Duke of Savoy in 
 favour of the persecuted Protestants of the plains of Piedmont — Massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew — Threats of Castrocaro — Consternation of the Vaudois 
 — They are re-assured by the Duke of Savoy — Francis Gu^rin, pastor of St. 
 Germain, boldly challenges a popish priest to public controversy — Death 
 of the Duchess of Savoy — Controversial discussions — A son of the pastor 
 of La Tour carried off by night — Castrocaro 's tyranny and misgovemment 
 become known to the Duke of Savoy — He refuses to appear at Turin, and 
 is carried thither a prisoner — The reward of a traitor and persecutor 277 
 
 Chapter IV. — State op the Vaudois during the reion op Charles Em- 
 manuel. (A.D. 1580 to A.D. 1630.) Gli Banditti.— Troubles in the 
 valley of Pdrouse— -The Jesuits in the valley of Lucerna — A solemn fast of 
 four days— Deaths of two aged Vaudois pastors— War between France and 
 Savoy— Sufferings of the Vaudois — Proceedings of the Romish clergy — 
 Apostasy of a Vaudois minister, Andrew Laurent — His consequent miseries 
 — The Jesuits in the Valleys — Discussions between them and Vaudois pas- 
 tors — Ubertin Braida, priest of La Tour — The Banditti'-ThQ Digiunati-^ 
 Irritation and excesses — A fast — Governor Ponte — Count Charles of 
 Lucerna — Captain Galline attacks Bobi, but is defeated and spared by the 
 Vaudois — Count Charles of Lucerna obtains favourable terms for the Vau- 
 dois, and tranquillity is in some measure restored — Death of Vaudois pas- 
 tors — New alarms— A fast— Earthquake— The regiment of the Baron De 
 La Roche in the Valley of Lucerna — The Vaudois compelled to pay a large 
 sum of money — Disunion among them — Further injustice and exactions — 
 
 Destruction of a number of places of worship — Continued vexations 
 
 Rorengo, Prior of Lucerna— Resistance to the establishment of monks in 
 the valleys 289 
 
 Chapter V.— The Plague and the Monks, (a.d. 1627 to a.d. 1643.)— 
 Famine — The Vaudois prevented from obtaining employment — Extra- 
 ordinary storms — Convent erected at La Tour — War between France and 
 Savoy— Sufferings of the Vaudois— The plague— Meeting of the pastors 
 Vol. I. d 
 
XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXVU 
 
 at Pramol— Deaths of pastors— Terrible ravages of the disease— Three 
 pastors alone left in the valleys — New pastors obtained from Geneva — 
 Victor Amadeus I. — Rorengo and the pastor Gilles— Government com- 
 missioners in the valleys— Polemical works — Public discussions — Anthony 
 L^ger • 
 
 Patje 
 
 310 
 
 .321 
 
 Chapter VI.— The Propaganda, (a.d. 1637 to a.d. 1655.)— Charles Em- 
 manuel II. of Savoy— The Duchess Christina of France— Disputes as to the 
 regency — The Propaganda instituted— Rorengo — Placido Corso— Public 
 discussions — Crimes and cruelties — Terrible conflagrations — Civil war — 
 The Vaudois support the Duchess Christina — Protestant worship prohi- 
 bited at St. John — Other severe edicts — Women in the Propaganda — The 
 Marchioness of Pianesse— Her dying charge to her husband — The resi- 
 dences of the monks burned at various places in the valleys — False charge 
 brought against a Vaudois pastor, of having instigated the assassination 
 of a priest 
 
 Chapter VII. — The Piedmontese Easter, or the Massacres of 1655. 
 (Saturday, the 24th of April, bemg Easter Eve.)— Proceedings of the 
 Society de propaganda ^— Gastaldo, the duke's lieutenant in the 
 valleys — Severe measures — Prolonged and fruitless negotiations — The 
 Marquis of Pianesse— His deceitfulness— He puts himself at the head of 
 troops for the extermination of the Vaudois— Indecision of the Vaudois, 
 who are in part deceived by false pretences— Janavel — The Vaudois resist 
 the Marquis of Pianesse at La Tour, but are defeated— Further combats 
 — Further treachery of Pianesse — Massacre on the day before Easter — 
 Fearful atrocities— M. Du Petitbourg refuses to conduct his troops upon 
 occasion of this massacre— His subsequent exposure of its enormities 337 
 
 Chapter VIII.— Janavel and Jahier. (April to June, 1655.)— The fugi- 
 tive Vaudois find an asylum in the French dominions— Janavel, with a 
 small band, obtains wonderful victories over the troops of Pianesse— 
 Pianesse has recourse again to the arts of treachery — He ravages Rora, 
 but is attacked and defeated by Janavel as he retires with his booty— 
 Pianesse marches against Rora with almost ten thousand men — Janavel's 
 wife and daughters made prisoners — His constant resolution —The Duchess 
 of Savoy and the French court— Mazarin refuses to take part against the 
 Vaudois as she desires— Cromwell oflFers them a refuge in Ireland— Inter- 
 cessions of foreign powers— Collections made for the Vaudois in Protes- 
 tant countries— The Vaudois continue in arms— Another Vaudois troop 
 takes the field under Jahier — Janavel makes an attempt to seize Lucer- 
 nette, but fails— Jahier and he efi"ect a junction— They seize St. Segont— 
 Further successes — Janavel is severely wounded — Jahier is killed 355 
 
 Chapter IX.— End op the Conflict, Negotiations, and Patents op 
 Grace. (June to September, 1 655. )— Foreigners come to the assistance 
 of the Vaudois— Further successes of their arms— They fail in an attempt, 
 conducted by the French General Descombies, to take the Fort of La Tour 
 
 Intervention of Cromwell — His ambassador, Morland, at Turin— Treaty 
 
 of Pignerol 
 
 Chapter X.— Infractions op the Treaty op Pignerol— Lager's Vicissi- 
 tudes, (a.d. 1655 to a.d. 1660.)— Grievances not redressed by the 
 Treaty of Pignerol— The Fort of La Tour— Continued operations of the 
 
 I 
 
 
 373 
 
 Page 
 Propaganda — Gastolda, governor of the valleys — New vexations —Viola- 
 tions of the treaty — Question of the right to meet for public worship at 
 St. John — Leger, pastor of St. John, the object of the particular hostility 
 of the Romish party — He is condemned to death, and flees from the 
 country — His labours and trials in his exile — Odious conduct of Charles 
 XL of England, with regard to money collected in that country during 
 the time of Cromwell, for the Vaudois 381 
 
 Chapter XI. — The War op the Outlaws, (a.d. 1660 to a.d. 1664.)— 
 De Bagnol, commandant of the fort of La Tour — Qli Banditti — This 
 troop of proscribed and desperate men makes reprisals on the persecutors 
 of the Vaudois— Edict of 25th June, 1663 — Treachery and violence — 
 The Vaudois assailed by troops under the Marquis De Fleury — Defeat of 
 the assailants— Edict of 10th August, 1663 — The Vaudois, under Janavel, 
 continue the defensive war — An attempt to divide the Vaudois by getting 
 a few of their number to consent to the conditions of the edict of 10th 
 August — Intervention of foreign Protestant powers 390 
 
 Chapter XII. — Mediation op Switzerland; Treachery of St. Damian; 
 Conferences at the Town's-house op Turin; Arbitration op Louis 
 XIV. (a.d. 1664 to a.d. 1680.)— Conferences between the ambassadors 
 of the Protestant cantons of Switzerland and delegates of the Duke of 
 Savoy — Complaints against the Count De Bagnol — His defence — Charges 
 brought against the Vaudois — The question of public worship at St. John 
 — Treacherous invasion of the valleys during the conferences — Further 
 negotiations — Terms agreed upon — Difficulties still renewed — Death of 
 Charles Emmanuel II 402 
 
 Chapter XIII. — Exile of Janavel, Revocation op the Edict op Nantes, 
 Preliminaries op a Fourth Persecution, (a.d. 1680 to a.d. 1685.) — 
 Janavel retires to Geneva — Louis XIV. — Revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes — Janavel becomes apprehensive of danger impending over the 
 Vaudois — The Duke of Savoy in a condition almost of vassalage to France 
 — Demands of the French monarch with regard to the Vaudois — He 
 urges the duke to extreme measures — The Propaganda and the Papal 
 nuncio second his efforts — Janavel's letter to his brethren in the valleys, 
 and directions for their conduct in the approaching struggle 414 
 
 Chapter XIV. — Commencement op the Fourth General Persecutdn 
 IN the Valleys. (January to the end of April, 1686.) — Edict of 31st 
 January, 1 686 — Consternation in the valleys — Delegates meet at Angrogna 
 — Petition to the Duke — Attempted intervention of the Protestant cantons 
 of Switzerland — the valleys invaded by French troops — Organized resis- 
 tance — Endeavours of the Swiss ambassadors— Proposal that the Vaudois 
 should leave their native country — Division of opinion among them — 
 They finally resolve to abide by and defend their valleys — Celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper at Easter, 1686 426 
 
 Chapter XV. — War and Massacre in the Valleys. (April to May, 1 686.) 
 — The Swiss ambassadors endeavour to secure a place of refuge for the 
 Vaudois in Brandenburg — The valleys invaded by the combined troops of 
 France and Piedmont — Catinat, the French commander-in-chief — His 
 treachery — Successes of the invaders — Cruelties and outrages — Gabriel 
 of Savoy — His treachery towards the Vaudois — Fearful cruelties— Con- 
 
1* 
 
 XXVlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Fa{;« 
 
 .437 
 
 flicts— Massacres— Prolonged sufferings and martyrdom of Leydet, pastor 
 of Pral 
 
 Chafteu XVI.— Termination of the Contest; Memoirs op a Prisoner; 
 Captivity and Dispersion op the Vaudois in various Towns, (a.d. 
 1G86— May to September. )— The last body of defenders of the valleys- 
 Further treachery practised against them— The valleys, after great mas- 
 sacres and devastations, seem entirely reduced— The invaders depart- 
 New bands of Vaudois appear in arras in the valleys of Lucerna and St. 
 Martin— It is at last stipulated that all the survivmg Vaudois shall be 
 permitted to go into exile — Journal of a prisoner — Sufferings of the 
 prisoners 
 
 Chapter XVII. — Total Expulsion op the Vaudois, who are carried 
 away to Verceil, or conducted into Exile. (September, 1686, to 
 September, 1687.)— Sympathy manifested by Swiss and other Protestants 
 — Vaudois refugees begin to arrive at Geneva — Vaudois children detained 
 as proselytes— Sufferings of Vaudois who, to escape persecution, had 
 apostatized — Sufferings of those who went into exile — Arrival of succes- 
 sive bands of exiles at Geneva — Their kind reception there— Continued 
 detention of most of the Vaudois pastors by the Duke of Savoy 164 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 452 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHATEAU QUEYRAS, IN THE Valley of the Guil, Dauphint, 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 On the right are the Mountauxs of Arvie\ix, on the left the gorge of the River 
 Gail, where it struggles through a continued gulf, flanked by walls of tre- 
 mendous rocks fringed with pines. For several miles the river occupies the 
 whole breadth of the defile, with the exception of a narrow path hewn out 
 of the rock, which in some places will scarcely allow two persons to pass. 
 
 PRA DU TOUR, IN THE Mountains of Anqeoqna, Engraved Title. 
 
 Here the ancient Vaudois had the school of their Barbas or Pastors, the secret 
 source of those vivifying missions which they sent to both extremities of 
 Italy. Not a vestige, however, can now be traced of the buildings of the 
 ancient college which formerly existed in this moimtain retreat. The Vaudois 
 regard the Fra du Tour almost as a sacred spot. A Roman Catholic chapel was 
 erected here, with the view of drawing over the Waldenses to the Church of 
 Rome, but the project, as might have been e:^>ected, signally failed. 
 
 GENERAL MAP— to Illustbate the History op the Waldenses, . 1 
 
 Compiled from the best engraved authorities, together with original materials, 
 supplied by Dr. Moston. 
 
 PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS, 
 
 This view is taken from the Mountain of Lucemette, and affords a very compre- 
 hensive and interesting prospect of the Vaudois country. 
 
 THE CONFLUENCE OF THE GUIL AND THE DURANCE, 
 
 On the left are the Moimtains of Freyssinifere ; towards the centre is the town 
 and fort of Mont Dauphin, situated on a lofty rock at the junction of the 
 two rivers. The defences of this fortress, which commands four valleys, and 
 is considered one of the keys to France, were designed by Vauban, in 1694. 
 A little farther to the right is the small town of Guilestre ; behind is ih» 
 gorge of Queyras ; and on the right are the mountains which separate this 
 valley from that of Barcellonette. 
 
 17 
 
 40 
 
XXX 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 THE TOWN OF SALUCES, in the Valley op the Po, . 
 
 The principal objects are the ancient castle of the Marquises of Saluces, now 
 converted into a house of correction ; and the cathedral, with its lofty and 
 el^ant tower, erected in the fifteenth century. In the distance is seen Mount 
 Viso, one of the highest of the Alps, from the flank of which the Po takes its 
 rise. 
 
 I" 
 
 PAOI 
 
 128 
 
 THE TOWN OF LE VILLAR, IN the Valley op Lucebna, . . 268 
 
 Looking west. In the centre of the town, to the right, is the Protestant church, 
 with a tower surmounted by a spire. The building with the square tower, 
 a little to the left, is the Roman Catholic church. In the distance are seen 
 the mountains forming the extremity of the Valley of Lucema. 
 
 LA TOUR, THE Principal Town op the Vaudois Valleys, . . 376 
 
 The view is taken from the (^artier des Monnets. The entrance of the Valley of 
 Lucema is seen on the left, and that of the Valley of Angrogna on the 
 right. The Waldensian College, the principal seminary of learning in the 
 Vaudois Valleys, is situated near this town, at the opening of the Valley of 
 Lucema. Previous to the erection of this seminary, which bears the name 
 of the College of the Holy Trinity, the youth of the Waldenses used to resort 
 to Geneva and Lausanne for their education. It occupies a very picturesque 
 position on an acclivity overlooking the river P61is. 
 
 THE TOWN OF BOBI, and Mount Bariound, in the Valley op 
 Lucebna, ^ 
 
 The view is taken from the wood of Balsille. Mount Bariound, the cleft sum- 
 mit of which presents an appearance so remarkable, formed one of the 
 strongholds of the Waldenses in their celebrated " Retum" in 1689. It com- 
 mands a magnificent view, extending to the banks of the Po. 
 
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 THE 
 
 ISRAEL OF THE ALPS 
 
 INTKODtrCTION. 
 
 PHELIMINAET REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 The origin of the Vaudois forms one of the most interesting ques- 
 tions of ecclesiastical history. I regret that the narrow limits of 
 this -work, and the want of sufficient resources of learning within 
 my reach, do not permit me to treat it so thoroughly as I would 
 have desired. It merits a lengthened and profound discussion ; it 
 is a subject much richer than it at first sight appears. A man of 
 learning, and possessed of the necessary means for the investigation 
 of this question, would doubtless find his labour abundantly re- 
 warded. 
 
 All that I can do at present, is to lay before the reader a few 
 considerations, such as have occurred to me in my studies, and 
 which have sufficed to determine my own opinion on this point. 
 There are, however, persons of high standing, who do not agree 
 with me concerning the existence of the Vaudois anterior to Valdo. 
 The passages which I proceed to quote are extracts from private 
 correspondence ; I hope their publication will not be thought an in- 
 discretion, but rather a tribute of respect to the learning of the 
 writers, and an evidence of my own impartiality. 
 
 ** I believe," says M. Schmidt, " that the Vaudois Church has 
 
 no need of any attempt to exalt her reputation, by placing before 
 
 her historic period a sort of fabulous period, remounting to the 
 
 days of the apostles ; that church appears to me to have sufficient 
 
 claims to respect, when she is regarded as tracing her origin to a 
 
 simple layman of Lyons, whose piety, moderation, and courage may 
 
 always be an example to us. To have clearly asserted the doctrine 
 
 of the gospel three centuries before the Beformation, and to have 
 
 maintained it thenceforward with heroic fidelity, in the midst of 
 Vol. I. • J 
 
I 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [iNTEODUCTION. 
 
 persecutions and of martyrdoms, is, in my estimation, so Jonoux^ble 
 Lt I have not even a wish to embellish this mdisputable fa.t, by 
 the addition of a long period which is not certam at all. • • • ' 
 Sl^rthen, the positive fact of Valdo, why should I not be satisfied 
 with itfkt lea'st so long as it cannot be;> W that there -re Y-d^ 
 before him?"^ " On the point now under consideration, the most 
 elLwllesiastical historians of Germany, MM Gieseler and 
 Neander, have long ago renounced the opinion which refers the origm 
 of the Yaudois to the days of the apostles. They trace them back only 
 to Yaldo . You bring forward the edict issued by Utlio i V . 
 
 in 1209,' and thence conclude that the Yaudois must have been 
 numerous and ancient in the valleys of the Alps. Numerous let it 
 be granted that they were, although in strictness it might be dis- 
 puted . But as to their being ancient, that is, more ancient 
 than Yaldo, I do not think that it foUows. Yaldo began his c^eer 
 at Lyons about 1170; nine years afterwards he soUcited from Pope 
 Alexander III. authority to preach. After the lapse of other five 
 years in 1184, Lucius III. pronounced an anathema against his 
 disciples. From 1184 to 1209 is a period of twenty-five years, or 
 rather from 1170 to 1209 are thirty-nine years; during this mter- 
 val of nearly forty years, the Yaudois may have spread fax enough, 
 and in ^ct they did ; only consider the facility with which the 
 adversaries of Bome then propagated their doctrines; consider, in 
 paxticulax, the state of mind then prevailing throughout Upper 
 Italy. ... I shaU say nothing of the arguments wHch you 
 deduce from the Milanese ritual, and from the Epistle to the Lao- 
 diceans. . . . How I think on these points you may see from 
 my last letter."— He reckons these arguments insufficient.—" All 
 the certain facts, established by historic documents, are without 
 exception subsequent to 1170, that is to say, to the appearance of 
 Yaldo. Prior to this epoch, there is not so much as one. Produce 
 me the least possible fact anterior to this epoch, and I lay down 
 my arms."'-^ "You quote to me a bull of Urban II., mentioning 
 the Vallis Gijrontana as a focus of heresy in 1096. In the first 
 place, aQow me to say, I have never maintained that there were no 
 manifestations of an aati-cathoUc spirit before the days of Yaldo. 
 But in order to establish a true historic connection, a perfect iden- 
 tity of doctrines, it would be necessary to know that heresy of 
 which the focus was in the aforesaid valley. . . . Even admit- 
 ting that the heresy in question was analogous to the Yaudois 
 dodirines, this would only prove that before Yaldo there were 
 
 » Letter from M. Schmidt, author of the History of the CaihaH, Strasburg, 
 April 28 1830. ^ From the same, May 20, 1850. 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 'i^. 
 
 / 
 
 iNTaODUCTlON.J 
 
 OEIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 already persons who believed something similar to what he after- 
 wards believed; but to conclude, therefore, that he derived either 
 his birth or his doctrine from these men, is to make a great scdtits 
 in probando"^ 
 
 The reader will here observe that M. Schmidt grants almost all 
 that I desire, for it is by no means necessaiy to prove that Yaldo 
 was descended from the Yaudois ; it is enough if the Yaudois be 
 acknowledged to have existed before his time. 
 
 I think it my duty also to quote the words of M. Gieseler on this 
 subject, from a letter which he was kind enough to address to me : — 
 " In the first place, you remind me that, according to the testimony 
 of authors comparatively recent, Peter de Bruys was sprung from 
 a certain valley, which Urban II., in the year 1096, describes as 
 infested with heresy; and thence you think yourself entitled to 
 infer, that the doctrine which Bruys held in common with Yaldo, 
 flourished in that valley before Yaldo's time. Indeed, it cannot 
 be doubted that before the days of Yaldo, Peter de Bruys and 
 Henry condemned the errors of the Catholic Church, as well as the 
 monstrous opinions of the Cathari, and sought to return to the 
 pure doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. Nor is it improbable that 
 Peter sowed the seeds of his doctrine in his native valley, and left 
 followers there ; and thus we can explain how Urban might call 
 that valley frill of heretics. And it is also likely enough, that of 
 the remaining disciples of Peter and Henry, many joined the Yal- 
 denses (Yaudois), in whom they found the same zeal for the doc- 
 trine of the Bible j and thus it probably came to pass, that no trace 
 of the Petrobrusians and Henricians appears at any subsequent 
 period. But that the Yaudois themselves existed before the days 
 of Peter de Bruys, and that Peter himself was one of them, I can 
 by no means admit. For, in the first place, he taught many things 
 very contrary to the doctrine of the Yaudois. He denied that 
 infants ought to be baptized, and that the sacrament of the body 
 and blood of Christ was celebrated after its celebration by Christ 
 himself. He required monks to marry. On the other hand, it is 
 well known that the Yaudois did not at first oppose the doctrine 
 and institutions of the Catholic Church, and that they sought only 
 the free preaching of the simple doctrine of the gospel. Moreover, 
 they held celibacy in high estimation; and their leaders themselves 
 lived in celibacy." ^ Such is the principal argument of M. Gieseler 
 in this letter, of which a part only is here given. The opinions 
 of Neander, Herzog, and Schmidt on this point are substantially 
 
 » Letter from M. Schmidt, author of the History of the Cathari, Strasburg, 
 July, 10, 1850. * Letter dated Gottingen, June 20, 1850. 
 
^'1 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [iNfROUUCTIOH. 
 
 iNTflODUCTlOaJ 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 ii 
 
 the same. I cannot discuss it here; but I must observe, 1st, that 
 the doctrines of Bruys are more extreme than those of the Yaudois; 
 2d, that doctrines held in protestation against the Romish Church 
 exLted before the bii-th of Bruys, in the very valley in wHch he 
 is said to have been bom ji 3d, that Bruys may have derived from 
 the valley of his birth, and which wa^ one of the Vaudois vaUeys 
 of Dauphiny, the germs of that opposition to the Romish Church 
 which became the leading characteristic of his own opinions, after 
 these had become independent of the influences predominant around 
 liim in his earliest years ; 4th, that the extremeness in the opinions 
 of Bruys, discordant with the moderate character of the Vaudois, 
 may itself have led him to withdraw to a distance from them, in 
 order to make proselytes elsewhere; 5th, that this spii'it of modera- 
 tion, which it is generally acknowledged that the Vaudois have 
 displayed, is the usual fruit of time and experience; and that if it 
 was already manifested among them in the days of Bruys, it would 
 be an evidence of the long previous existence of those whom it 
 characterized; and, 6th, that whilst the antiquity of the Vaudois 
 would explain the calm maturity of their doctrines, the excitable 
 character of Bruys would account for the violent extremeness of 
 his. All analogies appear to me to be in favour of my opinion. 
 
 In these vaiious letters the difficulty has also been represented to 
 me of deriving the name Vaudois from Vaux, or Valdenses from VaMiSj 
 as well as the vagueness of the expressions of Otho IV. in his edict 
 of 1209, and the want of documents anterior to the 12th century. I 
 have examined most of these objections in other parts of this work. 
 My readers will estimate for themselves the value of these ob- 
 jections, and of the answers made to them. But I think it right 
 still to add here a few of the reasons which lead me to regard the 
 Vaudois of the Alps as of greater antiquity than the days of Valdo 
 of Lyons. 
 
 In the first centuries of the Christian era, each church founded 
 by the disciples of Christ had a unity and an independence of its 
 own. They were united by the same faith, but that faith was not 
 imposed by authority upon any one. Each of these churches thus 
 had its independent organization, as each individual may have his 
 particular constitution and mode of life, whilst the general charac- 
 ters of human life are common to all men. That desire for a visible 
 imity, which characterizes all human governments, impelled the 
 Emperor Constantino to seek the union of all the Christian churches 
 of the empire under a uniform legislation. The spirit of domina- 
 tion soon extended from the civil government to the ecclesiastical ; 
 
 ' See Chap, i., and uotes. 
 
 the institution of patriarchs^ preceded that of the papacy ;2 the 
 latter was slowly matured,^ and the exclusive character which its 
 organization finally assumed, caused the separation which then took 
 place between the Eastern and Western churches.* 
 
 Scarcely had this rupture taken place when Popery stiiTcd up 
 the Crusades,5 and soon afterwards those internal persecutions by 
 which it efiected the destruction of the Albigenses.^ But down to 
 this time the Bible had been read in the vulgar tongue in France;^ 
 and in Piedmont^ the diocese of Milan maintained its indepen- 
 dence, the Ambrosian ritual preserved there the recollections of the 
 4th century, and the Vaudois could still find shelter and peace be- 
 hind this venerated shield.^ 
 
 St. Ambrose did not acknowledge any authority on earth as 
 superior to that of the Bible; ^^ and he wished that for the study of 
 it, men would recur to the original text.i^ If any passage appeared 
 obscure, he did not admit that the word of man should interfere with 
 the word of God in order to determine its sense, but he recom- 
 mended the Christian to endeavour to decide for himself the doctrinal 
 import of obscure passages, by comparing them with other passages 
 of Scripture relating to the same subject.^'-^ The Bible was to be 
 elucidated only by its own light. Moreover, he declared that nobody 
 could pretend to call himself the successor of St. Peter, unless he 
 had the faith of St. Peter; and he said with regard to a certain 
 
 > It was the second Council of Constantinople, in 381, which gave the title of 
 patriarchs to the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. 
 
 2 It was Boniface III. who received for the first time, in 1607, the title of 
 CEcumenical Bishop, or Universal PontifiF. 
 
 » The principal institutions of Catholicism, the celibacy of the priests, ecclesias- 
 tical investiture, &c., are to be referred to the days of Gregory VII., who was 
 elected pope in 1073, although the establishment of some of them had been 
 
 attempted before. 
 
 * This schism, long foreseen upon account of a number of increasing dififerences 
 which the autonomy of the Christian churches at that period still permitted to 
 subsist, may be regarded as completed in 1054, by the excommunication which 
 Leo IX. pronounced against the Patriarch of Constantinople. 
 
 * The first Crusade was preached by Urban IT. to the Councils of Placentia and 
 of Clermont, in 1095 and 1090. ^ ^^ 1^^^- 
 
 ' The Council of Toulouse, held in 1129, prohibited the reading of the Bible in 
 the vulgar tongue. 
 
 8 See in the Bibliography at the end of this work (Part II. sect. i. § 11), what 
 relates to the translations of the Bible made by the Vaudois into the vulgar tongue. 
 
 » The diocese of Milan originally comprehended Liguria, Emelia, Flaminia, 
 Venetia, the Cottian Alps (where the Vaudois valleys are), the Grajan Alps, and 
 Rhetia, now the country of the Grisons. 
 
 " St Ambros. Be fide, ad Gratianum, lib. i. c. 4. This and the following cita- 
 tions are extracted from a series of articles entitled "Origini et dottrine della Val- 
 dese," published in the journal La Buona Novella. 
 
 " De Spiritu Sancto, lib. ii. c. 6, and De Incaimaiione, c. 8. 
 
 *2 St. Ambrose, Sermon XIII. on Psa. cxviii. 
 
I 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [LNTiODrcTiorc. 
 
 llTRODUCTION ] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 pope, Pope Liberius, that he was a decided Arian.^ The sinner, 
 according to him, is justified only by the merits of Christ;*-^ we can 
 derive no merit from our own works,^ the sacraments confer no 
 grace of themselves, they are only the visible sign of that which 
 we receive from the Saviour.* St. Augustine, who wa^ the disciple 
 of St. Ambrose, admitted only two sacraments, Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper, and there is no reason to believe that his master 
 ever acknowledged a greater number. Nor was the worthy Bishop 
 of Milan any more a believer in the bodily presence of Christ in 
 the Eucharist,^ or in the renewal of his sacrifice at each celebra- 
 tion of the sacrament of the Supper.^ It may readHy be beUeved 
 that he must have rejected as idolatrous all worship rendered to 
 other objects than the Divine Being ;^ and as to the worship of 
 
 images, he called it Paganism.^ 
 
 St. Ambrose occupied the see of Milan for twenty-three years, 
 he died in the year 397, and the influence of his evangelical doc- 
 trines long continued to be felt in his diocese. Nor did he stand 
 alone in the maintenance of these doctrines. One of his contem- 
 poraries, Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, condemned also, like him, 
 the worship of images,^ maintained the authority of the Bible, 
 rejected that of ilome,i« rejected also aU pretension to meritorious 
 works," and added to the influence of St. Ambrose by that which he 
 himself exerted. His successor, Gaudentius, and Bufinua of Aquileia, 
 maintained the same doctrines.^2 xhe latter, a simple priest, having 
 been condemned by Pope Anastasius, as a paiiiizan of the followers 
 of Origen; the Bishop of Aquileia, to whose authority he was im- 
 mediately subject, maintained him notwithstanding in the post 
 which he occupied, thus afibrding us a proof of the ecclesiastical 
 independence which the north of Italy enjoyed at that period. 
 This bishop, who is called by St. Jerome one of the best instructed 
 and most pious prelates of his time, did not, any more than his pre- 
 decessors, recognize any authority superior to that of the Bible,^^ 
 and it ought to be observed that in explaining the passages on 
 
 * De Pcenitentia, lib. i. c. 6. 
 
 2 De Jacobo et Vita Beata, lib. i. c. 5, 6, &o. » I>c bono mortis, c. 2. 
 
 * Be Sjnritu Sancfo, lib. iii. c. 2. Epist. Ixxxiv., Ixxi., &c. 
 
 * Comment, in Luc.y Hb. x. c. 14. • De officiis, hb. i. c. 14. 
 ' Defide, ad Oraiian.y lib. i. c. 7. 
 
 » De omciis, lib. i. c. 26. Defaga sceculiy c. 5. 
 
 * Ilceresesy c. 49. " Ibid. c. 40, 41. '' Ibid. c. 47. 
 
 »2 As to Philastrius, see his letter to Benevolus, and his sermons; the second of 
 which is certainly intended to combat the notion of the real presence of the body 
 of Christ in the Eucharist. As to Eufinus; on the authority of the Bible, see Apud 
 Ci/pr. pp. 552 and 553; on the objects of faith, see his treatise on the Creed, &c. 
 
 " Sti, Crcmatii Sermones, serm. II. pp. 162, 175, &c. 
 
 ^vhich it has since been attempted to found the doctrine of purga- 
 toiy, he makes no mention of that popish dogma.i His successor, 
 Niceas, who Uved about the year 420, also formaUy rejects the 
 whole theory of personal satisfaction and expiation, acknowledgmg 
 the right to pardon sins as belonging to God alone, and the merits 
 of Christ as obtaining pardon for us.'-^ ^ ^ 
 
 The end of this century was disturbed by the invasions of the 
 barbarians. Aquileia and Milan were ravaged by Attila; the 
 Huns the Heruli, and the Goths successively burst into Upper 
 Italy • and we need no written testimonies to convince us that 
 Rome with difficulty able to defend herself, could not then extend 
 over these countries an authority to which they had not been 
 subjected before, and from which we afterwards find them free. 
 
 In the commencement of the following century, St. Laurence, 
 who was translated from the see of Novara to that of MHan, about 
 the year 507, declares, contrary to the opinions at present received 
 amono- Papists, that repentance is the only means by which we can 
 obtai]^ the pai'don of our offences, and that pardon cannot come to 
 us by the intercession of any creature whatever, nor by any human 
 absolution, but only by grace and the love of Christ. FinaUy, says 
 he, we must trust in God rather than in men.^ Ennodius, in his 
 Life of St. Epiplianius, Bishop of Pavia, in relating the cu'cum- 
 stances which attended the death of that prelate, makes no mention 
 of confessor, or absolution, or indulgence, or cross, or banners, or 
 images, or holy water, or litanies, or any of the other things which 
 are so prominent at the present day in the popish ceremonial on 
 
 such an occasion. 
 
 About the middle of the 6th century, a part of the bishops of 
 Upper Italy* refused to adhere to the decisions of the Council of 
 Chalcedon, held in 553; and in 590, nine of them separated them- 
 selves from the Eoman Church, or rather they solemnly renewed 
 the protestation of their independence of it. The bishops bemg 
 then elected by the people of their diocese, we may presume, 
 without doing any violence to histoiy, that the latter were imbued 
 with the same doctrines and with the same spirit. 
 
 The permanence of this state of things in Upper Italy, is attested 
 in the 7th century bv a new Bishop of Milan, Mansuetus, a.d. 677. 
 To combat the opinion that the pope is the head of the church, he 
 directs attention to the fact that the Councils of Nice, Constan- 
 
 » Sti. Crcmatii Sermones, serm. II. p. 166. 
 
 2 Ad virginem lapsam, inserted in the works of St. Ambrose. 
 
 3 See, in Mabillon, Vetcj-a Analecta, the three discourses of this bishop, which 
 are stUl extant. Pp. 20 40. * Those of Venetia, Tstria, and Liguna. 
 
8 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [iNTRODUCTIOW. 
 
 Lntboduction J 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 1 
 
 tinople, Chalcedon, and many others, had been convoked by the 
 emperors, and not by the pope. This bishop himself was not afraid 
 to condemn Pope Honorius as a Monothelitej^ and thus gives us a 
 new proof of the independence then enjoyed by the diocese of Milan, 
 across which the Vaudois would have been obliged to pass, in order 
 
 to reach Rome. 
 
 The kingdom of Lom])ardy itself was solicitous for the preser- 
 vation of this independence. Thus everything contributed to its 
 maintenance ; and it may be supposed that, satisfied with the first 
 successes obtained in the towns, Rome thereafter paid less regard to 
 the relics of independence which might still subsist in the mountains. 
 We know, moreover, that ancient manners and ancient liberties 
 have at all times been less easily eradicated from such situations. 
 
 However, we are not reduced to the necessity of supporting this 
 idea by mere inferences ; and the 8th century still presents us with 
 examples of resistance to the pretensions of the papal see in Upper 
 Italy. As these pretensions are more strongly urged, we find the 
 resistance also becoming more vigorous in the following centuries, 
 and we can follow its traces quite on to the 12 th century, when 
 the existence of the Vaudois is no longer doubted by anybody. 
 
 The Council of Narbonne, at which a nmnber of bishops of Upper 
 Italy were present, recommended to the faithful no other prayers 
 than the Pater and the Credo. The Council of Frankfoi-t, at which 
 also Italian prelates were present, formally condemned the worship 
 of images. St. Paulinus, Bishop of Aquileia, maintained, like his 
 predecessors, the symbolical character of the Eucharist,^ the nullity 
 of satisfactory works,^ the sovereign authority of the Bible in mat- 
 ters of faith,* and the efficacious mediation of one only mediator be- 
 tween God and ir.an, even Jesus Christ.^ 
 
 But the grasping ambition of the Church of Rome, overcoming by 
 degrees the resistance made in quarters nearest to its centre of ac- 
 tion, forced back towards the chain of the Alps, the limits, still be- 
 coming narrower, of that independence inherited from past ages, 
 which had at first opposed it over the whole of Upper Italy. This 
 independence was defended, in the 9th century, by Claude of 
 Turin; in whom, at the same time, we behold the most dis- 
 tinguished advocate of evangelical doctrines whom that age pro- 
 duced. Whilst the Bishop of Milan^ contented himself with deplor- 
 ing the corruption of the Roman Church,^ by which he had been 
 
 See the investigation of this fact in the Buona Novdla, i. 298. 
 
 2 In his book against Felix U Urgel, written by order of Charlemagne, p. 17C6. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 1792. ♦ Ibid. p. 1795. * Ibid. p. 1793. « Angilbert. 
 ' See an extract from these complaints in the Buona Novdla, i. 32G. 
 
 reduced to subjection, but in whose iniquities lie did not tate part, 
 the Bishop of Turin boldly declared against the innovations which 
 she had so long sought to introduce into the sphere of his influence 
 and power. The numerous works of this prelate on different 
 books of the Bible,« had prepared him for defending it agamst the 
 attacks of Popeiy; and strong in the might of truth, Claude of Turm 
 owned Jesus Christ as the sole Head of the church,- attached no 
 value to pretended meritorious works, rejected human traditions, 
 acknowledged faith alone as securing salvation, ascribed no power 
 to prayers made for the dead, maintained the symbolical character 
 of the Eucharist, and, above all, opposed with great energy the wor- 
 ship of images, which he, like his predecessors, regai-ded as absolute 
 
 Thus ' the doctrines which characterized the primitive church, 
 and which still characterize the Vaudois Church at the present day 
 have never remained without a witness in the countries inhabited 
 by the Vaudois; and if men had been silent, the Bible would have 
 spoken. In the 10th century, Atto, Bishop of Verceil, still appears 
 ai their defender; he maintains the authority of the word of God, 
 and does not admit that of the fathers of the church, except in so 
 fcir as they agree with it ; insisting that the chxvtdh is founded only 
 upon the Christian faith, and not upon the pre-emmence of any 
 apostle or pontiif-that the pope has no administrative authority 
 beyond the see of Eome, and that aU the faithful ought to partake 
 
 of the Eucharist.* •<. . i 
 
 But the oppressive tendencies of the Church of Eome manifested 
 themselves in the cruel measures of which the Jews were then the 
 victims. Ignorance and superstition made rapid progress, iho 
 light of human learning passed for a time to the midst of Mahome- 
 tanism. The conflicts in Spain and in Italy against the Ma- 
 hometan power, were for a Uttle while an obstacle in the way of 
 
 the pontifical despotism. 
 
 In the 11th century, although there were abeady numerous 
 monasteries in Lombardy, the vows of those who entered them 
 
 < In 815 he wrote three books on Genesis and a commentary on St. Matthew. 
 Ke.\%!ir h: pTuishea a — n.:. o t, E^^^^^^^^^^ ^^'^thTrot Zr 
 
 tsrE:~i:is:::i:^C ::t;"tr There is a^^^ 
 
 hto a c^en^r^ on the'book of Ruth, but none ot his works have been pnnted 
 
 except his commentary on the Epistle to the Gahitians. 
 2 Comment, in Galat, Bibl. PP. i. 810. , „, j„ „„ tt,„ f!»u«.na 
 
 » On these various points see the same work of Claude on the Galatians, 
 
 nn 789-8M the eXot which MabiUon gives from his commenta.7 on Leviticus. 
 
 pp. vsy-sn, ine e="ra'^<: " ^ referred to in the Buona Novella, 
 
 and also a citation by Meyer, hb. m. c. ^\'-^pl^^^ ^ .„^^. ,^. „„., 
 
 1. 52b. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 i 
 
10 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [l.NTUODCCTIOW. 
 
 Inteoduction.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 11 
 
 Avere not yet rendered irrevocable by any other autliority than that 
 of their own consciences; and in the 12th centuiy all the priests of 
 Upper Italy were still free fi-om the yoke of the celibate. This 
 independence, so long disputed by Rome and maintained by the 
 Lombard clergy, was a protecting shield for the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 Thus we see that the Apostolic Church of Italy, disowned and 
 proscribed by papal pride, gradually retired from Rome, withdrew 
 into Upper Italy, and sought a retreat in the wilderness to pre- 
 serve her purity. We see her first sheltered in the diocese of 
 Milan, where Popery still pursues her. She then retires into the 
 diocese of Verceil, and thither also the hostile pretensions of 
 Popery are extended. She takes refuge in the diocese of Turin, 
 but Popery stiU gains upon her, and at last she seeks an asylum 
 in the mountains. We find her in the Yaudois valleys ! 
 
 The inhabitants of these valleys, previously unregarded, became 
 an object of attention from the 12th century, not because they 
 were new opponents of Rome's domiaation, but because they 
 remained alone in their opposition. Rendered distinct by her 
 isolation, their chui'ch found her own pale a sepai'ate one for this 
 reason only, that she herself had never changed. But as they did 
 not form a new church, they could not receive a new name; and 
 because they inhabited the valley Sj they were called Vaudois. 
 
 Let us now see how these events are reflected in their o?.ii 
 writini^??. 
 
 St. Peter and St. James, in addressing their epistles to the 
 Catholic Churchj show us that it was something very difierent from 
 Catholicism. They meant by the Catholic Church the whole body 
 of Christians of that time — Christians who were apostolic. Now 
 the Vaudois, in theii' most ancient works, wi'itten in the Romance 
 tongue, at a date when there existed schismatical sects which have 
 now disappeared, speak of themselves always as being in union 
 with the Catholic Church,^ and condemn those who separate from 
 
 * Aquosta nostra fe katliolica se conten en li articles de la fe e en le sagrament 
 de la sancta gleysa. — [TLis is our catholic faith, which is contained in the articles 
 of faith, and in the sacraments of the holy church.] — ^Vaudois MSS. of Geneva, 
 No. 208, fol. 3. 
 
 Non te conselha daquiUi que son devis de la sancta gleysa. — [Take heed not to 
 follow the counsel of those who are separated from the holy church.] — MS. 201), 
 Treatise on Eepentance. 
 
 Nos creen qu'el meseyme Dio eslegis a si gloriosa gleysa .... ma quilla sia 
 sancta e non socza. — ["We believe that God himself has chosen imto himself the 
 glorious cliurch . . . that it may be holy and undefiled.] — ^MS. 208, de li Articles 
 de la fe, § 5. 
 
 Sobre totas cosas nos desiren lonor de Dio e lo perfeit de la sancta gleysa, e 
 que nos sian fedels membres de Yesliu Xrist. — [Above all things, we desire the 
 
 ■ 
 
 ( 
 
 it,i but, at the same time, the doctrines which they set forth in 
 their works are only those of the primitive Catholic Church, and 
 not at all those of later Catholicism. The successive corruptions 
 which gradually constituted it, were everywhere introduced by 
 small degrees, and did not for a long time reach the tlireshold 
 of their secluded valleys. 
 
 When they did become known there, the Vaudois boldly stood 
 up against that variety of invented thingf^;^ which they called a 
 horrible heresy,^ and unhesitatingly pointed them out as the cause 
 why the Church of Rome had departed from the primitive faith.'^ 
 They no longer give to Popery the name of the Catholic Churchy 
 but speak of it as the Roman Church; and then also they openly 
 separated from it,*^ because it was no longer the primitive church, 
 
 honour of God and the profit of the holy church, and that we may be faithful 
 members of Jesus Christ.]— MS. 208, fol. 14. 
 
 Crezen la sancta gleysa esse funda tant fermament sobre la ferma peyra, que las 
 portas d'enfern, non poissan per alcuna maniera prevaler encontra ley.— [We 
 believe that the holy church is so firmly founded upon the rock that the gates of 
 hell cannot, in any manner, prevail against it.] — Geneva MS. 208, fol. 15. 
 
 * Pren conselh de le bon preyre, daquelle lical son conjoint a la gleysa antica 
 e apostolica, ressemilhant dobras de sanctita e de fe. Ma non te consellur daquiUi 
 que son devis de la sancta gleysa.— [Take counsel from good priests, from those 
 Avho are united to the ancient and apostolical church, in the similarity of works of 
 holiness and of faith. But take not counsel from those who separate from the holy 
 church.]— Geneva MS. 207, Treatise on Eepentance. 
 
 Cum le sant doctor dion 
 
 Alcuna cosa, o afiermant 
 
 Sobre oppinion tant 
 
 Coma fe, hereticant. 
 —[When the holy doctors say anything, or affirm upon {humani opinion as a 
 matter of faith, they fall into heresy.]— Geneva MS. 208, fol. 15. 
 
 2 Circa la varieta de las cosas emergent.— Vaudois MSS. in library of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, C. V. 22, fol. 180, and Geneva MS. 208, fol. 14. 
 
 3 La horrenda heretication. — Ibid. 
 
 « Ayczo es la causa del departiment de la Gleysa Eomana.— (Dublin MSS. C. V. 
 25.) Here is the came of the deviations of the Roman Church. In recent 
 copies, and in works printed since the Reformation, this title is to be found in the 
 following form, Ayczo es la causa del nostro despaHimait de la Gleysa Romanay 
 i.e., Here is the cause of our separation from the Roman Church ; and the work, 
 in fact, has for its object to cut off all connection with that church, so that, with- 
 out violence to its contents, either of these different forms may be adopted. 
 
 * The following are the first lines of the last-quoted work, according to the MS. 
 of Dublin, class C. V. 25.— (I am indebted for this communication to the oblig- 
 ing kindness of the learned Dr. Gilly, author of so many remarkable works on the 
 Vaudois, and who has just published, from the original MSS., their ancient trans- 
 lation of the gospel according to St. John) : — 
 
 Al nom del nostre Segnor Yeshu Xrist ! Amen.— (In the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ! Amen.] 
 
 La causa del nostre departiment de lunita de la costuma de la Romana Gleysa, 
 e de totas cosas semblant en part o en tot en aquellas cosas, lasquals contradigon a 
 la verita : es de doas raanieras. Luna causa es la verita saludivos : lautra la falsita 
 
i 
 
 '» 
 
 Y 
 
 i 
 
 12 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Introductio.v, 
 
 I^TROuucTlO^.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 13 
 
 fl 
 
 siicli as tlieirs had been left to them by their fathei-s, but a corrurt 
 chiirch, delighting in vain superstitions. 
 
 Here, let me remark, we have one of the strongest intrinsic 
 proofs of the apostolic descent of the Vaudois, for the Church of 
 Rome was also, in its origin, the Apostolic Chui-ch, being under the 
 guidance of St. Paul, and if the Vaudois had been separate from 
 It from the beginning, they could not have been apostoHc them- 
 selves; if they had separated from it at a later period, without 
 previously having had any independent existence, their existence 
 would only have dated from that separation. But, on the con- 
 trary, they had existed from the commencement of the common 
 life; that life had been preserved amongst their mountains; they 
 might probably believe that it was also preserved elsewhere and 
 when Its corruptions became so striking, that the primitive apostoli- 
 cal character of the Church of Rome was completely effaced they 
 refused to give it the name of Catholic, and showed in what it had 
 departed from true catholicity. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be said, that there were no Christians in the 
 Alps m the time of the apostles. But the ApostoHcal Church did 
 not die with the apostles; in the ei-a of the martyrs the seeds of it 
 were sown all over Italy. The Ambrosian office, which the Vaudois 
 were reproached for having retained after it had been abolished 
 elsewhere,! was not set up except in the 4th century; and the 
 %>istle to the Laodiceans, which they preserved in some of their 
 manuscripts,^ also leads us back to the same date. 
 
 Thus the name Vaudois, in its original use, did not designate a 
 particular sect, but merely the Christians of the valleys. When 
 this name had become a term of reproach among the Papists the ' 
 Ignorance of the middle ages made it synonymous with magician 
 
 ^f^'«^:/yth;l^^ Tr i ^- -P--«- from the ritual unity [unit, of 
 
 T^mhlZe t Wo IT"" ^''""^: "°.^ ^'""^ ^" *^"SS, in whole or part, having 
 resemblance thereto and contrary to the truth, may be viewed in two wavs Tl,o 
 
 Zt:j;::z'J!^:^' *^^' ^^^^^ -^-^ *^^ ^^-^ *^ «^« ^^^^ 
 
 La verita pertenent a la salu ea de doas manieras: luna essential, o substancial 
 
 ^se^s^blf 1 ' J^t.'T^' ^"^ ' ^ '^''' - ^^^P-^- paremameTen 
 
 may be'feS^^ *"^*^ pertaining unto salvation 
 
 may be viewed in two ways, in its substantial essence and in rites: and wherever 
 fals^eW 13 found, it will be found equally as falsehood in substanc'e a^d fl^hood 
 
 Farther on they distinctly use the word ReformcUion in respect of all the abuses 
 which have been introduced into the church, pronouncing it to be nece^ry iTtI at 
 church wishes s ill to be called Christian. Still farther on they pL^, ^oLt it 
 out as the Antichrist.-^ Perrin, pp. 253-295. ^ ^ 
 
 ■f;o;^er, HUt. dcs Alpes, &c.-MS. of Gap, p. 2G3. 
 
 ' ^iWc Vaudoise, public library of Lyons, No. CO. 
 
 or infidel;^ but the Vaudois themselves called themselves only by 
 the name of Christians, and above all, endeavoured to merit it. 
 
 That the Vaudois, notwithstanding their small number, remained 
 the representatives of the universal church, and were the precur- 
 sors and not the disciples of the Reformation, is entirely owing to 
 the word of God, the gospel of Christ. It may be that they did 
 not understand it always so well as the Reformers ; that they shared 
 in some of -the religious forms of the Romish Church ; that they 
 even admitted doctrinal articles which we do not admit at the 
 present day (the distinction, for example, betwixt mortal and venial 
 sins); it is not their infallibility for which we would contend, 
 but that which gave them their strength, their unity, their perse- 
 verance in the gospel, in one word, their individuality as a church, 
 at once Catholic when viewed in reference to the Bible, and Pro- 
 testant when viewed in reference to Catholicism ; their maintenance 
 of the absolute authority of the word of God, and of the doctrine 
 of salvation by Jesus Christ. The Vaudois, therefore, are not 
 schismatics, but the continued inheritors of the church founded by 
 the apostles. This chiurch then bore the name of Catholic, and 
 was persecuted by the Pagans. Afterwards, becoming powerful and 
 persecuting in its turn, it underwent a vitiation of its very nature 
 in Catholicism, whilst it was preserved in the Vaudois valleys 
 simple, free, and pure, as in the time of persecution. 
 
 We find, accordingly, that the writers nearest to the time of 
 Valdo do not speak of the Vaudois as if they were the disciples of 
 that reformer, but present them to our notice as if they derived 
 their origin from their valleys.^ Moreover, it was in these valleys 
 that, according to writers of the same country, opponents of the 
 Vaudois, Peter de Bruys, the precursor of Valdo, was born;^ from 
 
 * See Jacques Duclerc, Memoircs sur la Vaudoiscric d' Arras. — MS. of the 
 ancient library of the abbey of Saint Waast, at Arras, fol. G. Even Joan of Arc 
 was condemned as a Vaudoise. — See Mezeray, Michelet, &c. 
 
 2 Dicti sunt ... a valle densa. — (Bernard, Contra Valdenses et Arianos in 
 Gretzeri Opera, t. xii., prefatory part of the work.) Valdenses . . , , eo quod in 
 valle. — (Eberhard, Liber Anti-JuBresis, c. xxv. This writer elsewhere calls the 
 Vaudois by the simple name of Mountaineers, which still further confirms the idea 
 that he regarded them as originally belonging to their mountains. — See Max. 
 Bill. Patrum, vol. xx. col. 1039.) 
 
 ' Father Albert, (in his History of the Diocese of Embrun, i. 56), and the 
 Jesuit Fournier, (in hia History of tlie Maritime or CottianAlps, and particularly of 
 their metropolitan city, Embrun, a MS. in fol., of which the original, in Latin, is 
 at Lyons, and the translation, which I quote, in the library of the Little Seminary 
 at Gap), also Raymond Juvenis (author of unpublished Historical Memoirs and 
 Procureur du Eoi, at Gap, about the end of the 17th century), say that Peter 
 de Bruys derived his descent from the Val-LouisCy one of the Vaudois valleys 
 of Dauphiny. 
 
14 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [fNTRODUCTION. 
 
 Intboductios ] 
 
 OrJGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 15 
 
 wliicli it would follow that the doctrines common to these two 
 reformers mnst have been known in these valleys before the appear- 
 ance of Yaldo. These doctrines, in fact, axe already alluded to 
 before that period, and even in official documents.^ 
 
 The name of Valdo seems to have been neither a baptismal- nor 
 a family name.^ If it was only a designation, we may suppose that 
 it was given in consequence of his connection with the Vaudois ot 
 the Alps,* and his propagation of their doctrines. But even if a 
 Christian at Lyons named Valdo,^ had participated in these doc- 
 trines, and had left his disciples the name of Vaudois, it woidxl not 
 follow that the Vaudois of the Alps were the disciples of Yaldo. 
 We even find this name and these doctrines in a poem m the 
 Romance tongue anterior by half-a-century to Valdo. But the date 
 of the poem has been disputed; it shaU be examined m a subse- 
 quent part of this work.^ 
 
 The edict of Otho IV., of date a.d. 1209, ascribes to the Vau- 
 dois of Piedmont a notoriety and an influence so great, that it may 
 
 t The Val-Loiiise is mentioned as infested icitli heresy so early as the year 109G 
 in a bull of Urban II., cited by Bninet, Seigneur de l'Argenticre.-( Co?/cc<tow of 
 Ads, Papers, and Proceedings relative to the perpetual emphyteosis of the Tithes of 
 the BrianQonnais, p. 55.) In this bull the Val-Louise is called Vallis Gyrontana, 
 from the name of the Gyron, or Gyr, a torrent which flows through it. Concern- 
 ing the different names of this valley, see at the commencement of chap. iii. of 
 part I. of this work. 
 
 '^ Because he was called Peter.-*' Prcdicto Petro, qrddam se adjunxit qm diclm 
 crat Johannes, et erat de Z«r7c?uno."-PhiUchdorfiu3, Dc Hceresi Valdensuan, c. i. 
 
 Lihliotheca Max. PP. t. xxv. 27S. . , , . , 
 
 3 Family names were not in use at that period. Individuals received some 
 designation derived from their profession, their personal appearance, or their 
 character, as, James the Weaver, Thomas the Red, Richard Canir-dc-Lion, kc, 
 
 * In his character of a foreign merchant. To this notion is objected the difficulty 
 cf deriving the words Valdo and Valdcnscs from vallis, a vaUey. But how many 
 words have we which have not followed, in their formation, the rules of an exact 
 etymolo-y? These arbitrary derivations were especially numerous m the middle 
 acres The objection would be of force only if that disputed derivation were the 
 flct supposed in a hj-pothesis of our framing, but it existed already in the days of 
 Valdo. Valdcnses .... dicfi sunt .... a valle dcnsa.—{fiec note at hoitom of 
 p 13 ) Moreover, Eberhard de Bethune calls the Vaudois Vallenses, giving the 
 sameetymology of the word.-(See note above referred to.) De Thou calls them 
 indifferently Vallenses, Valdenses, or Convallenses.— iftsfor. lib. xxvii., &c. 
 
 5 The name of Valdo was not rare in the middle ages. In 739 we have Valdo, 
 Abbot of St. Maximin, at Treves; in 760, and in 830, the same name occurs again 
 amongst the freemen, subscribers for donations to the abbey of Wissembourg ; in 
 786 lived Valdo, Abbot of Pvichenau, near St. Denys; in 881 Valdo, Bishop of 
 Freissingen; in 907 Valdo, member of the Synod of Vienne; in 960 Valdo, Bishop 
 cf Como, &c.— Letter of M. Schmidt, May 26, 1850. 
 
 • La Nobla Leyczon, bearing the date a.d. 1100. For discussion of the subject 
 of this date, see in the Bibliography of the Israel of the Alps, part I. sec. ii. § 3, 
 art. xxiv., and part II. sec. i. § 3; MS. 207, art. v. 
 
 
 be presumed they were already of long standing in the country.^ 
 Supposing that the disciples of Yaldo had taken refuge in the Alps 
 about the end of the 12tli century, it would be very difficult to 
 admit that they could have so filled both the Yaudois valleys of 
 Dauphiny and those of Piedmont in less than one generation, as to 
 have acquired that influence which is ascribed to them, alike by this 
 edict on the one hand, and by that of Alphonso of Arragon, Marquis 
 of Provence, on the other.^ It would be impossible to account for 
 such an increase, save on the supposition that the new refugees had 
 already in that country brethren of their own religion f whilst their 
 settling in that countiy can hardly be explained but by supposing 
 the previous existence of their brethren in religion there.* On 
 either of these suppositions, the Yaudois of the Alps must have 
 been prior to the disciples of Yaldo. 
 
 The idiom of the Nobla Leyczon being the language of the Alps, 
 and not that of the Lyonnais,^ this poem must have been written 
 by inhabitants of the mountains, and not by strangers. But since 
 it cannot have been composed, except between the years 1100 
 and 1190^ — since in 1100 the disciples of Yaldo of Lyons were not 
 yet in existence — since in 1190 scarcely six years had elapsed from 
 the time of their banishment from Lyons, ^ and it is not probable 
 that in so short a time they could have acquired a new language, 
 so as all at once to endow it with the most perfect works which it 
 had yet produced — since, moreover, in the precarious position in 
 which they were placed, they must have had something else to 
 do than to write poems — and, finally, since in the J!^obla Leyczon 
 there is no mention of Yaldo nor of his disciples, not even an 
 allusion to their existence, T am compelled to believe that it is 
 
 » See Monumenta Patrice, III. col. 488. The fault found with the Vaudois in 
 this decree is in these words, Zizaniam scminant, which, according to the notion 
 of some, would seem to indicate that their presence in that country was recent, 
 but, in my opinion, would rather imply that their activity had increased. 
 
 2 In 1192, according to D'Argentre {Collectio judic. dc novis errorib. t. i. fol. 83),— 
 in 1191, according to Eymeric [Directorium Inquisit. p. 282), Alphonso II. was 
 Marquis of Provence. The Vaudois are named in that edict. "We may there- 
 fore consider them as existing in Provence at that date. 
 
 3 Without this it can scarcely be explained how they could have known that 
 they would find an asylum there. 
 
 * That is, if the disciples of Valdo did indeed take refuge in the Alps. 
 
 * See the Bibliography of the Israel of the Alps, part II. sec. i. § 1, art. vii. 
 and § 2, MS. 7. ^ The same Bibliography, part I. sec. ii. § 3, art. xxiv. 
 
 ' In 1179 Valdo presented to Pope Alexander III. a translation of the Bible into 
 the vulgar tongue, and was present at the Council of Lateran, where divers heretics 
 were condemned. But it does not appear that Valdo was of the number, as Mapes, 
 Archdeacon of Oxford, who was present at that council, reports that the Pope 
 embraced Valdo and granted him part of the things which he demanded. This la 
 
IG 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [liNTBOlJUCTION. 
 
 I 
 
 
 not among the disciples of Valdo tliat we ai'e to look for tlie author 
 
 of that poem. 
 
 In fact, if the Vaudois of Lyons had found it necessary to write 
 such a work, it is evident that they would have written it in the 
 lanoTiaf^e which was familiar to them, that is to say, in the idiom 
 of the Lyonnais, and not in that of the Alps. And, even supposing 
 that they could have known the latter idiom, I confidently say that 
 they would not have employed it, at least, not unless there had 
 been already in the Alps natives who held the same doctrines with 
 themselves, for otherwise, these natives would have been their ad- 
 versaries, and the disciples of Valdo, whose object it was to conceal 
 themselves, would have avoided the language of their adversaries, 
 i-ather than made choice of it. Whence I conclude, that these 
 poems were not their productions ; — that they are to be ascribed 
 to natives of the Alps who spoke that language; — and that these 
 natives were Vaudois anterior to Valdo. 
 
 Their history is only a portion of the great history of the mar- 
 tyrs; they acquired new importance, from century to century, by 
 the very calamities which they endured. Their importance, always 
 religious, does not secure their title to a place in the political re- 
 cords of the nations; yet the place of this people, so small in num- 
 bers, is one of such prominence in the records of human opinion, 
 that the course of their history through calm and storm up to the 
 present day, is to be traced with the greatest interest. 
 
 Their existence, by exceptional provision, under an oppressive 
 and violent government, has now terminated. The era of the 
 martyr people has lately been brought to a close by the hand of 
 modern liberty. Let us trust that we may look upon the past as 
 a history concluded, and that a new career opens up to the Vaudois 
 of glorious progress in the future. May they always carry along 
 with them the true spiiit of Christianity ! 
 
 confirmed by the Chronicle of Laon, according to which it even appears that Valdo 
 had obtained authorization for preaching, but under certain reservations. Moneta 
 also gives us to understand the same thing.— (Authors cited by Gilly, JRomaunt 
 Version, Introd. p. Ixxxix.-xciv.) But these reservations were probably not 
 attended to; and Valdo was condemned in the Council of Verona (by Lucius III., 
 in 1184), when the emperor engaged to exert himself for the extirpation of heretics. 
 It was in consequence of this condemnation, between 1185 and 1188, that Valdo 
 was expelled from Lyons with his disciples. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS, FPxOM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE 
 TIME WHEN THEY WERE CIRCUMSCRIBED WITHIN THE 
 VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT ALONE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN, MANNERS, DOCTRINE, AND ORGANIZATION OF THE 
 
 VAUDOIS IN ANCIENT TIMES.^ 
 
 The Vaudois in the Early Ages— their Ecclesiastical Independence— their Barhas, 
 or Ministers and Missionaries— their Adherents in different parts of Italy — 
 their Church Government, and Mode of Worship— their Doctrine— Sacraments, 
 Confession, &c.— Persecutions— Persecution by the Emperor Otho IV. in 1200. 
 
 The Vaudois of the Alps are, in my opinion, primitive Christians, or 
 descendants and representatives of the primitive church, preserved 
 in these valleys from the corruptions successively introduced by the 
 Church of Rome into the religion of the gospel. It is not they 
 who have separated from Catholicism, but Catholicism v/hich has 
 separated from them by changing the primitive religion. 
 
 Hence arises the impossibility of assigning any precise date for 
 the commencement of their history. The Church of Rome, which 
 at first also was a part of the primitive church, did not change all at 
 once ; but as it became pow^erful, it adopted, along with the sceptre, 
 the pomp, the pride, and the spirit of domination which usually 
 accompany the possession of power; whilst, in the retu-ement of the 
 Vaudois valleys, that primitive church was reduced to an obscure 
 existence, retaining its freedom in its isolation, and thenceforth 
 little tempted to abandon the pure simplicity of its first days. Tlie 
 independence of the diocese of Milan, to which the Christians of the 
 Alps then belonged, and that of which the episcopal see of Tm-in 
 
 * AUTHOErriES.— Ancient Vaudois MSS. in the Romance language, deposited in 
 libraries— of Lyons, No. 60; of Grenoble, No. 488 (ancient shelves, 8595); of 
 Geneva, Nos. 43, 206, 207, 208, 209; and of Trinity College, Dublin, class A. IV. 
 13, class C. V. 18, 21, 22, class C. IV. 17 and 13. 
 
 Vol. 1. 3 
 
18 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 19 
 
 If 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 gave evidence, by opposing the worship of images in the 9th cen- 
 tury/ must have contributed to their security in that situation. 
 
 The Vaudois have been represented as deriving their origin from 
 Valdo of Lyons, and it is indisputable that that reformer had dis- 
 ciples to whom he left the name of Vaudois; but this is not suffi- 
 cient to prove that the Yaudois of the Alps derive their origin from 
 him. Many circumstances, on the contrary, seem to establish their 
 existence anterior to his time,- and perhaps it was from them that 
 he derived the name by which he is now known. ^ 
 
 The Yaudois valleys could not always preserve that unnoticed 
 independence in which their secui'it}" consisted. Catholicism having 
 gradually attired itself in new forms of worship unknown to the 
 apostles, made the contrast daily more striking between its pomp- 
 ous innovations, and the ancient simplicity of the Yaudois. In 
 order, therefore, to reduce them to the despotic unity of Rome, 
 there were sent against them the agents of a ministry equally un- 
 known to apostolic times. These were the inquisitors.'* In con- 
 sequence of the resistance which they encountered in these retired 
 mountainous regions, the valley of Lucerna was placed under ban."* 
 But this measure served only to make more manifest the line of 
 demarcation betwixt the two churches ; for whilst the Yaudois had 
 not schismatically separated themselves from the Catholic Church, 
 w^hose external forms they still retained, they had their own clergy, 
 their own religious service, and their own parishes. 
 
 Their pastors were designated Barbas.^ It was in the almost 
 inaccessible solitude of a deep mountain-pass that they had their 
 school, where the whole influences of external nature were opposed 
 to anything soft and yielding in the soul.^ They were required 
 
 ' Sec, in particular, the Life of Claude of Taring who occupied the episcopal see 
 for more than twenty years after having declared against these innovations. — ^Bas- 
 nage, Church History, ii. 1308. 
 
 * Bernard de Fontcaud (de fonte calido), who died in 1193 (Herzog, De orig, 
 etpristino statu Wald., &c., p. 2), wrote Contra Valdenscs ct Arianos. He makes 
 no mention of Valdo in this work. The Vaudois are classed with the Arians, 
 but not confounded with them. Eberhard, or EVRARD DE Bethune {Biblioth, 
 Max. PP. t. xxiv.), the time of whose death is unknown, but cannot be far from 
 that of the preceding author, spealcs of the Vaudois without speaking of Valdo, 
 from which it may be inferred that ho knew nothing of the latter, who was pro- 
 bably his junior, and that the Vaudois of whom he speaks are anterior to Valdo. — 
 See the Bibliography at the end of this work, part I. sec. ii. § 3, art. xxiv. 
 
 ' In consequence of his probable connection with the Vaudois valleys, for he was 
 a foreign merchant, and his name was Peter. 
 
 * Driven from the Valley of Angrogna in 1308, they reappeared in that of 
 Lucerna in 13.32.— Brief of John XXII., July 20, 1332. 
 
 * In 1453, by Nicolas V. — Sea the concluding chapter of the Bibliography. 
 
 * A title of respect ; in the Vaudois idiom literally signifying an uncle. 
 ' This pass, situated in the valley of Angrogna, is called Pra du Tour. 
 
 to commit to memory the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, 
 the general epistles, and a part of those of St. Paul. They were 
 instructed, moreover, during two or three successive winters, and 
 trained to speak in Latin, in the Romance language, and in Italian. 
 After this they spent some years in retirement, and then were set 
 apart to the holy ministry by the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, and by imposition of hands. They were supported by the 
 voluntary contributions of the people. These were divided annually 
 in a general synod : one part was given to the ministers, one to the 
 poor, and the third was reserved for the missionaries of the church. 
 These missionaries always went forth two and two, to wit, a 
 young man and an old one. The latter was called the Regidor, and 
 his companion the Coadjutor. They traversed Italy, where they 
 had stations organized in many places, and secret adherents in 
 almost all the towns. At Venice they reckoned 6000 j^ at Genoa 
 they were not less numerous. Vignaux speaks of a pastor of the 
 valley of Lucerna, who was away from it for a period of seven years.- 
 The Barba Jacob was returning from a missionary tour in 1492, 
 when he was arrested by the troops of Oattan6e on the Col do 
 Coste-Plane, as he passed from the valley of Pragela to that of 
 Freyssinieres;^ and the records* of judicial investigations directed 
 ngainst the Yaudois from 13.50 to 1500, and so often quoted by 
 Bossuet,^ make mention also of the characteristic circumstance ot 
 these habitual journeys. 
 
 What a delightful and truly festival time it must have been to 
 these scattered Christians, when the missionary pastor came amongst 
 them, expected all the year with the certainty of the regularly re- 
 turning seasons! — a time soon past, but fraught with blessings, and 
 in which the fruits of the soul and the harvest of the Lord made 
 progress towards maturity. 
 
 Each pastor was required to become missionary in his turn. The 
 younger ones were thus initiated into the delicate duties of evan- 
 gelization — each of them being under the experienced guidance 
 of a man of years, who, according to the discixjline of his church, 
 was his superior, and whom he was bound to obey in everything, 
 as matter of duty, and not merely out of deference. The old man, 
 on his part, thus made his preparation -for repose, by training for 
 
 » GiUes, p. 20. ^ Quoted by Perrin, p. 241. 
 
 ' Perrin, p. 241, marginal note 4. 
 
 * These records foVmerly belonged to the private library of Colbert, from which 
 they passed to that of the Marquis of Seigneky. Bonnet and Belong quote them 
 la their dictionaries. I know not what has become of them. A manuscript in 
 folio, in the library of the Little Seminary of Gap, contains a number of fragment a 
 of them, which I have consulted. * History of Variations, b. xi. § ci. et scq. 
 
20 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALrS. 
 
 [PaBT FlHtiT. 
 
 Chap l] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 21 
 
 the chui'ch successors worthy of it and of himself. His task })eing 
 accomplished, he could die in peace, with the consolatory assurance 
 of having transmitted the sacred trust of the gospel into pinident 
 
 and zealous hands. 
 
 Besides this, the Barbas received instructions in some trade or 
 profession, by Avhich they might be enabled to provide for their 
 ovvn wants. Some were hawkers, others artisans, the greater part 
 physicians or surgeons, and all were acquainted with the cultivation 
 of the soil and the keeping of flocks, to the care of which they 
 had been accustomed in their early years. Very few of them were 
 married; and their perpetual missions, their poverty, their mis- 
 sionaiy tours, their life always spent amidst warfare and dangers, 
 make it easy to understand the reason of their celibacy. 
 
 In the annual synod, which was held in the valleys, inquiiy was 
 made concerning the conduct of the pastors, and changes of resi- 
 dence were made amongst them. The Barbas actually employed 
 in the ministry, were changed from place to place every three 
 years — two of them always exchanging places with one another, 
 except the aged men, who were no longer removed. A general 
 director of the church was named at each synod, with the title of 
 president or moderator. The latter title became more prevalent, 
 and continues to this day. 
 
 The Vaudois Barbas were bound to visit the sick, whether sent 
 for or not. They nominated arbiters in disputes; they admo- 
 nished those who behaved ill, and if remonstrances produced no 
 eflfect, they went the length of excommunication; but it was very 
 rare. Their preaching, catechizing, and other exercises of instruc- 
 tion and devotion, were generally similar to those of the Keformed 
 churches, except that the worshippers pronounced, with a low voice, 
 the prayer which preceded and that which followed the sermon. 
 The Vaudois had likewise hymns, which they only sung in private; 
 which, moreover, a^eos with what we know of the customs of the 
 
 primitive church. 
 
 Their doctrines were equally analogous, or rather were remark- 
 ably identical with those of the apostolic times, and of the earliest 
 fathers of the church. They may be briefly summed up in these 
 few words : — Tlie absolute authority and inspiration oftlie Bible ' — 
 
 » Nos creen .... tot czo qu'es contenu al velh e al novel Testament esser 
 Bcgella e auctentica d'l sagel d'l sant Sperit . . . e tota la ley d'Xt. istar tan ferma 
 en verita que una lettra o un poinct d'ley meseyma, non poissa mancar ni deflfalhir. — 
 I We believe that all which is contained in the Old and New Testaments is sealed 
 and authenticated by the seal of the Holy Spirit, . . . and that the whole law of 
 Christ is so firmly established in truth, that not one letter nor one point of it can 
 be lacking or fail.}— Vaudois MS. of Trinity College Library, Dublin, C, V, 22, 
 
 J 
 
 '^^ 
 
 r 
 
 t 
 
 f 
 
 tlie Trinity in the GodJiead^ — tlce sinful state of man- — and free 
 salvation by Jesus Christ^ — but above all, faith working by 
 love.^ 
 
 It may, perhaps, surprise many to be told that, before the Re- 
 formation, the Vaudois never disputed with the Bomish Church 
 the number of the sacraments which it received.'' They, in fact, 
 contented themselves with remai'king that Jesus Christ instituted 
 only two of them; and as the gospel, upon which they always 
 founded, had not formally indicated that number, nor even made 
 use of the word sacrament^ it was very natural for them to acqui- 
 esce concerning this point in the decision of the church, as they 
 after wai'ds did in that of the Beformers.'' 
 
 under the title Tvesor e lume de fe, fol. 17G, et seq., and in No. 208 (unpaged) of 
 the Vaudois MSS. of Geneva. 
 
 * Lo premier article de la nostra fe es que nos creyen en un dio payre tot poissant, 
 . . . local dio es un en trenita. — [The first article of our faith is, that we believe 
 in one God, the Almighty Father, . . . which God is one in Trinity.]— Authorities 
 as above. Dublin, fol. 180.— Geneva, de li articles d'lafe: See also the catecliism, 
 Interrogations menors, published by Perrin, &c. 
 
 ^ Nos sen conceopu en pecca e en miseria. Larma tray soczura de pecca. Pecca, 
 Koczura, enequita sovent, pensen, parlen, eobren fellonosament.— [We are conceived 
 in sin and in misery. The soul carries along with it a defilement of sin. Sin, 
 defilement, and iniquity attend us; we think, speak, and act wickedly.]— Za 
 Barca. MS. of Geneva, No. 207, and of Dublin, No. 21. 
 
 3 This point of doctrine is the special subject of the fourth article of faith set 
 forth in the Dublin MS. No 22, and Geneva MS. No. 208. 
 
 L' hereta celestial, el meseyme, Xrist, filh de dio, promes donar a li veray coo- 
 tivador de la fe.— [Jesus Christ, himself the Son of God, promises to give the 
 heavenly inheritance to those who truly continue in the faith.]— Geneva MS. 609. 
 
 Nostra salu . . . e premierament en la eslecion e donacion de gra delle sua 
 gracia, fayent agradivols, . . . secondament en la participacion del merit de notre 
 Segnor Salvador Yeshu Xrist.- [Our salvation is primarily in the election and free 
 gift of his grace, making us agreeable to him. Secondly, in the participation of 
 the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.] — MS. of Dublin, C, V, 25, first 
 piece : Ay czo es la caiisa del despartimcnt de la Gleysa Eomana. 
 
 * Non possibla cosa es ali vivent, complir li comandament de dio silh non han la 
 fe : e non puon amar luy perfectament ni cun carita silh non gardan li seo com- 
 andament. — ^[It is impossible for any in this life to fulfil the commandments of God 
 if they have not faith ; and they cannot love him perfectly, nor with a proper love, 
 if they keep not his commandments.]— Vaudois MSS. of Geneva, No. 208, fol. 2. 
 
 « The Vaudois MS. of Dublin, C, V, 22 (left hand side of fol. 181), contains a 
 tract de li set sacrament. This is partly found in the MS. 208 of Geneva, fol. 17- 
 26, and in MS. 209, fol. 9, where marriage is called lo cart sagrament* de la gleysa, 
 with this observation i-^ 
 
 Enayma elfo aiosta non despartivolment al cal el es desser garda sant e non socza. 
 — [Although it has been added, not according to an exact classification, yet it 
 ought to be kept holy and not polluted.] 
 
 • The passages of the Vaudois writings in the Komance language, which have been 
 
 • The diversity of orthography, which may be remarked in the same worda of different quota- 
 tions, is owing to the difference of copies, or of the era at which they were made; sometimes, 
 but rarely, to the negligeuce of the copyists; and oltca to the uncertainty of the orthography 
 itself, before the language was properly formed. 
 
22 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part First. 
 
 CUAP. l] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 13 
 
 They admitted Confession','' but let us obsen-e in what circum- 
 stances. Confession, say they, is of two kinds; the first must be 
 made to God from the inmost heart ; without which, no one can be 
 saved.2 The second kind is that which is made with audible voice 
 to the priest, in order to receive counsel from him ; and this con- 
 fession is good, when that of the heart has preceded it. But, alas ! 
 many confide only in the latter, and faU into perdition.^ 
 
 They admitted the sacrament oi Repentance, but again let us note 
 how " Acts of repentance axe excellent, and becoming on the part 
 of every sinner; but they must proceed from abhorrence of sm, and 
 sorrow for having committed it. Otherwise it is a false repentance, 
 and a false repentance alienates a man from God as much as a true 
 repentance brings him near to him."^ Such a false repentance is 
 that which reposes upon vain satisfactions ; for what good thmg 
 
 already published, and which have tended to give currency to a different opinion 
 either on this question or on the following, must have been modified in the copies 
 which have served as the basis of these publications, for they do ^ot correspond 
 with the primitive text of the most ancient MSS. Many proofs of this might be 
 adduced, but the plan of the present work forbids. It is enfcient for me to 
 guarantee the correctness of my own quotations, which have all been taken from 
 
 the original MSS. ^ « , ^ „ ■, e\r\f 
 
 1 See Dublin MS. 22, ful. 213, et scq. ; Geneva MS. 200, fol. 17,-^nd 207, con- 
 cluding treatise de la Penitencia, fol. antepenult. ; and concerning absolutum, which 
 they did not admit, see DubUn MS. 22, fol. 383. . , ^ 
 
 - Al repentent se conven la confession, lacal es en dui modo. La promiera es 
 
 interior, czo es de cor al Segnor dio E sencza aquella confession, alcun non 
 
 se po salvar.-Geneva MS. 207, final treatise, article Quartament. 
 
 3 La seconda confession es vocal, czo es al preyre, per pilhar conselh de liiy. 
 e aquesta confession es bona, cun aquella premiera . . . sere devant anna. Ma 
 oylas ! moti home desprcczan aquesta interior . . . o solament se confidan a la 
 vocal, e aqueUa creon que lor sia abastant a salu . . . e cagic en despercion.-- 
 Subsequent part of the same paragraph. See also Geneva MS. 209, treatise cfe la 
 Penitencia, with some modifications in the terms. The same treatise is to be found 
 InthesixthshelfofMSS. at Dublin, art. 37. 
 
 * Such is the general import of the treatise on Mepentance, Dublin Mb. ^J; 
 Geneva MS. 207, at the end, and MS. 209, at the beginning. 
 
 En ayma lome sapropria a dio e al regno de li eel per la vera pemtencia; 
 cnayma el se delogna de dio e del regne de li eel per la falsa penitencia.— [As much 
 as man draws near to God and to the kingdom of heaven by true repentance, so 
 much does he alienate liiraself from God and from the kingdom of heaven by a 
 false repentance.] 
 
 La vera es habandonnar lipecca comes et plorar lor, e degitar totas las caysons 
 de li pecca, e doler se sencza fin, e annar a dio de tot lo cor. . .—[True repentance 
 is to forsake sins which we have committed, and to mourn over them, and to avoid 
 all occasions of sin, lamenting [the commission of sin] without ceasing, and going 
 to God with the whole heart.] 
 
 Donca lo repentent deo irar lo pecca . . . e aquilh que non ban en odi li pcca 
 de li autre, e non desvian lor segont lo lor poer . . . aitals non son veray penitent, 
 &c. (the beginning and end of the treatise.)— [He who repents must therefore 
 hate sin . . . and he who does not abhor it even in others, turning them from 
 it to the utmost of his power . . . such a man knows nothing of true repentance.] 
 
 • » 
 
 can you do that you were not bound in duty to have done? and if 
 you do not those things which you ought, what shall you substitute 
 for them? The whole world could not deliver us from our sins; 
 but he alone has made satisfaction for them, who is both Creator 
 and creature at once, namely Christ.^ 
 
 Therefore, with good reason, they add that idolatry has no other 
 cause than these false opinions by which Antichrist takes away 
 grace, truth, authority, invocation, and intercession from God, in 
 order to ascribe them to the ministry and to the works of his own 
 hands, namely, the saints and purgatory.^ 
 
 The Vaudois, however, do not cease to recommend almsgiving,^ 
 as a means of fighting against sin, by the giving up of those riches 
 which might have served as its iustrument, and by the help of the 
 prayers of the poor thus solicited.^ It is with the same object that 
 they recommend yas^iw^, by which a man is humbled;^ but fasting 
 without charity is like a lamp without oil, it smokes and does not 
 
 Encara al pentent conven la satisfacion, e aquesta es de grev condicion . . 
 per laqual alcun punis la cosa non raczonivol laqual el fey ; e aquesta satisfacion 
 perman en tre cosas czo es en oracion, en dejunis e en almosinas, &c. — [There 
 is still one thing of great importance pertaining to him who truly repents, to wit, 
 satisfaction .... by which there are some who punish the unreasonable thing 
 which they have done; and this satisfaction consists in three things, namely, 
 prayer, fasting, and alms.] — Same treatise de la Penitencia. 
 
 * En tant sistent punicion o veniancza quant es aquel contra loqual I'a pecca. 
 Donca la pena o loffencza es non mesurivol, e non mesurivol es dio contra loqual ha 
 pecca. Donca oylas, non deoria peccar per alcuna cosa, ni encar per tot lo mont. Car 
 tot le mont non poeria deslivrar del pecca. Donca lo es manifest que alcun de si non po 
 satisfar per lo pecca ; ma aquel sol satisfare, local es creator e creatura czo es Xrist, 
 local a satisfait per li nostra pecca. — [The pardon or punishment ought in reason 
 to be according to the greatness of him against whom we have sinned. Wherefore 
 there is no more proportion betwixt the punishment and the offence, than there 
 is betwixt God and the sinner. [The offence is infinite against an infinite God.] 
 Wherefore, alas ! a man ought not to commit sin for the sake of anything, not 
 even of the whole world, for the whole world could not deliver us from sin. It is, 
 therefore, manifest that no one, of himself, could offer satisfaction for sin; but 
 that he alone could satisfy who is both creator and creature at once, to wit, 
 Christ, who has satisfied for our sins.] — Extract from Geneva MS. 209, obtained 
 through the obliging attention of M. Tron, minister, native of the Vaudois val- 
 leys. It is to be found, also, at the end of MS. 207, and in the Dublin MS. 22, 
 fol. 358. 
 
 2 i^Ton es alcuna altra causa didolatria sinon falsa opinion de gratia, de verita, 
 de authorita, d'envocation, d'entrepellacion [intercession\ laqual el meseyme Ante- 
 christ departic de dio e en Li menestier e en las authoritas e en las obros de 
 las soas mans, e a li sanct e al purgatori ; e aquesta enequita de Antechrist es dreita- 
 ment contra de la fe, e contra lo premier comandament de la ley. — ^Vaudois book 
 of Antichrist, quoted by Perrin, p. 287, Leger, p. 81, and Monastier, p. 355. 
 
 » De Valmosina, Geneva MS. 209, p. 21, and in the Vergier de consoladon which 
 concludes the volume. See also the Liber Virtutum of MS. 206, and this last-named 
 treatise in the Dublin MS. 22. 
 
 ■* Geneva MS. 209, p. 40. * Id. art. RcTnedi contra li pecca. 
 
f 
 
 ( : 
 
 21. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 f 
 
 give light. ^ Frayer is, according to them, essentially implied in 
 love;'- and they add that patience, and constancy, and gentleness, 
 and resignation, and charity, are the seal of the Christian.^ As for 
 those who would devolve upon others the care of their salvation, 
 seeking the prayers of priests and of monks, masses, indulgences, 
 neuvaines, &c., they forget the word of God, which declares that 
 eveiy one shall bear his own burden.* They recommend, indeed, 
 that men should go to the priests, who have t/ie power of binding 
 and of loosing;^ but let us take notice how they understand this, 
 " that is to say, who know how to give good advice for a man's de- 
 liverance from the bondage of sin."^ Not that they expect any 
 
 ' Lo dejuni sencza labnosina non es alcun ben ; czo ea sencza lalmosina de 
 cnrita et es pardonar a li seo enemis e prager per lor ; lo dejuni sencza I'ahno- 
 sina es enayma la lucerna sencza holi, laquel fma e non luczis. — [Fasting without 
 alnjsgiving does no good: to wit, without the almsgiving of charity, which consists 
 in pardoning our enemies, and praying for them. Fasting without almsgiving is 
 like a lamp without oil, which smokes and does not give light.] — Geneva MS. 209, 
 fol. 20. 
 
 "^ Aqael non laissa de aurar loqual non laissa damarj e aquel laissa de amar 
 local laissa de aurar. — [He ceases not to pray who never ceases to love ; and he 
 ceases to love who ceases to pray.] — ^Vaudois MS. of Geneva, 209, fol. 8. This 
 admirable sentiment is much more just than that of M. Courier, so often quoted, 
 He wlu) works, "prays, and it is more evangelical I In this quotation may be seen 
 on example of the variableness which then prevailed in orthography; local and 
 loqual ; damar and de amar. 
 
 * Donca, non basta a lome de junar et orar et far autras cosas ; car aquesta? 
 cosas son petitas ; ma suf rir paticntament czo que dio permet, play plus a dio que 
 aquellas cosas que lome eilegis de si, cun czo sia que aquellas cosas aiudon. — 
 I Wherefore it is not enough for a man to fast, to pray, and to do other [««cA like] 
 things; for these things are small. But to suffer patiently what God permits, 
 pleases him more than these things which are of the choice of man himself; how- 
 ever these things contribute to it.] — Geneva MS., end of the volume, and Dubbn 
 MSS., vol. vi. § 11. 
 
 * La penitencia es vana lacal es dereczo feria e socza plus greoment. Car li gey- 
 raent non profeitan alcuna cosa se li pecca son replica. Moti scampan lacrimns 
 non deffalhivolment e non deffalhon de peccar. Cum lome retorne al pecca la 
 cayson es aquesta: car el non es converti a dio de tot lo cor. Es decebivol aquesta 
 penitencia permanent en comprament de messas preypals, en communion annuals 
 e en hinficar capellas . . . &c. — [The repentance is vain, which [admitting of re- 
 lapse] is again more seriously broken and defiled ; for lamentations are good for 
 nothing, if the man falls back into sin. Many cease not to shed tears, and cease 
 not to sin. When a man falls again into sin, the reason is that he has not been 
 converted to God with his whole heart. That repentance is deceitful which is 
 limited to the purchase of presbyterial masses, to annual communions, and the 
 decoration of chapels.] — Passages extracted from the first four paragraphs of the 
 treatise de la Penitencia, Geneva MS. 207, at the end. 
 
 * Aquel que se vol verament pentir quera lo prever local sapia ligar e desligar. — 
 [He who would truly repent should go to the priest, who knows how to bind and 
 to loose.] — De la Penitenciay art. iv. § 2. 
 
 * Ligar e desligar, czo es ben conoisse lo pecca, e ben conselhar. — [To bind and 
 to loose, signifies, to discern sins well and to give good counsel [to the sinner]. — 
 Geneva MS. 209, art. de la Penitencia. 
 
 Chap. 1.] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 25 
 
 absolution from them, for this they designate a delusive thing ;i but 
 because, they say, as a sick man seeks the best physician who can 
 assist nature in him, and free him from his malady, even so the 
 sinner ought to seek the best counsellor in order to get quit of sin; ^ 
 and that feeling of guiltiness, the strength of which attests the 
 sensibility of the soul in which it is experienced, presses so sore 
 amongst these rustic and ancient Yaudois, that they never cease to 
 bring forward the expression of it again and again in their different 
 works. "We have turned aside fi'om the path of truth. The 
 light of righteousness shines not in us." " The sun of understand- 
 ing is covered with clouds; iniquity holds us fast in its trammels."^ 
 " I am weak for that which is good, and strong for that which is 
 evil."* "In the name of God, my bretliren, renounce the world, 
 that you may follow the Lord."^ " The works of man are of little ^ 
 avail for salvation." ^^ Such is their mode of speaking. They like- 
 
 » . . . Se ere satisfar par li seo pecca per czo que li es encharja del preire. . . . 
 Aquesta penitencia decebivol perman en assolucion preipals. . . .— f . . . He sup^ 
 poses he has made satisfaction for [the guilt of] his sins, because he has intrusted 
 the priest with them. . . . Such is the delusive repentance which priestly ab- 
 solution engenders.]— Same treatise, De la Penitenciay No. 207, art. ii. and iii. 
 
 2 Coma fay lo malate per recobrar la sanita corporal, cerca lo melhor mege . . . 
 &c.— [As the sick man does in order to recover his bodily health, seeking the best 
 
 pliysician . . . &c.] . ra • -i. 
 
 Enayma spiritualment per lo bon conselh de li bon preire . . . &c.— [bo spiritu- 
 ally, by the counsels of good priests* . . . &c.] 
 
 Car silh refudan desser ressemilhadors de U apostol, ilh faren a vos come iuda. - 
 [For if they refuse to be like the apostles, they wiU serve you like Judas.]— Same 
 treatise; but in MS. 209, for the last leaves of MS. 207 have been torn off, and 
 
 are awanting. 
 
 » Nos haven erra de la via de verita, e lo lume de justicia non luczis a nos, e lo 
 Bolelh dentendament non nasque a nos. Nos sen lacza en las vias denequita e sen 
 anna en las vias greos, e haven mesconoysu la via del Segnor.— MS. 207, last trea- 
 tise, § vi. The following is a literal translation of these last phrases :— " The sun 
 of understanding has not risen [been born] for us ; we are entered into the ways of 
 iiiquity, and have walked in evil ways, and have not known the ways of the Lord." 
 
 * Temeros soy a far ben e ferment pereczos. 
 E ardi a far lo mal e mot evananczos. 
 —[I am timorous, and very slow to do good ; but courageous and very forward to 
 do evil.]— Vaudois Poems. Confession of Sins. Dublin MSS. C, V, 21. 
 * Prego vos carament per I'amor del Segnor, 
 Abandonna lo segle serve a dio cum temor. 
 —[I pray you affectionately,by the love of theLord,to abandon the world, and to serve 
 God without fear. l-Zoiy^weZCoTn/tM-f. Geneva MS. 207, and Dublin, 21, first part. 
 « Cant lome ha sapiencia e non ha lo poer 
 Dio li o reconta perfait cant el ha bon voler ; 
 Ma cant elba poiscencza e grant entendament 
 Li profeita mot poc cant al seo salvament. 
 • It 18 not to be taken for granted that this word priest was exclusively applied to tlie Catliolic 
 priests; it was probably also a general de.iguatiun which the Vaudols gave to their pastors; for 
 in respect to the conaecraUon of these pastors, it is said that they were received into the office of 
 ti.e priesthood, m Voffici del preterage.-Book of George Morel. Dublm MsS. C. V. 18. 
 
 Vol. I. ^ 
 
26 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Faet Fibst. 
 
 CUAP. 1.] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 27 
 
 I » 
 
 I 
 
 i| 
 
 tf 
 
 wise add that it is impossible for man to perform liis duties without 
 faith. " Yes, I know that thou canst do nothing by thyself; but 
 call upon the Lord for help, and he will hear thee."^ 
 
 Finally, let us take notice that the Yaudois acknowledged, like 
 the Catholics, the distinction rejected by Protestants, betwixt 
 mortal sins and venial sins ; -^ but that they were very far from 
 meaning by these terms to extenuate the heinousness of any sin, 
 because they said of sin in general, "Sin annihilates man, and brings 
 him down from the position which he ought to occupy." ^ These 
 terms, moreover, which may be traced to a very high antiquity in 
 the annals of the church, might be thought to derive countenance 
 from that passage of St. John, "All unrighteousness is sin; and 
 there is a sin not unto death."* 
 
 The Yaudois had also their own houses of retirement from the 
 world. ^ In the number of the thirty-two propositions which were 
 
 — [When a man has understanding and has not power, God accounts him perfect, 
 if so be that his will is right ; but when a man has [mere] power and [barren] 
 knowledge, this avails him very little for his salvation.]— Za Novel Sermon, another 
 Vaudois poem, contained in the same MSS., published entire by Hahn, and frag- 
 ments of it by Raynouard and Monastier. 
 
 * Non possibla cosa es a li vivent complir li comandament silh non han la fe. 
 (Geneva MS. 508, fol. 2.) Yo say que tu non poyres far ayczo de tu meseyme; 
 ma apella dio, lo teo ajudador, e el esauczire tu, si tu seres fidel e istares curios 
 [desiroits] de la toa salu. — Geneva MS. 209, fol. 20. 
 
 2 For this see the same MS. 209, fol. 20 and 21 ; MS. 208, exposicio de li X com- 
 andament, at the exposition of the fourth commandment ; MS. 207, scTisec de la 
 pmitencia, art. vi. § 2. This word sensec, which has sometimes been translated 
 xentiment or sensation, signifies merely followeth. It is a form of expression fre- 
 quently employed in passing from one subject to another; thus, after having 
 treated of spiritual almsgiving (prayers, counsels), the author writes, ara sensec della 
 Imosina corporal, ** Here followeth of corporal almsgiving." 
 
 ' Lo pecca non es alcuna cosa natural, ma es corrucion del ben, e defet de gracia, 
 car lo pecca aniquiUa lome e lo fay defalhir del bon esser. — [Sin is not anything 
 natural [having its existence in the proper nature of things], but is the corruption 
 of good, and want of grace ; for sin annihilates man, and deprives him of all good 
 existence [well-being]. — Qual cosa sia pecca. Geneva MS. 209, fol. 21. 
 
 4 1 John V. 17. 
 
 * Alcun d'nos ministres d'levangeli, ni alcunas de las nostras fennas non se 
 maridan. — ^Exhibition of the practices and doctrines of the Vaudois Church before 
 the Reformation, presented by the Vaudois deputies to the Reformers. — Book oj 
 George Morel. MSS. of the Bible in Trinity CoUege, Dublin, C, V, 18. (Dr. Todd, 
 the librarian, has given, at considerable length, a monograph of this MS. in No. 
 113 of the British Magazine, p. 397, et seq.) Another passage may still be given 
 from this MS. relative to the ordination of the Barbas,* and to the subject of this 
 note : — Tuit aquilh liqual se recebon entre de noe en ToflSci del ministier evangelic 
 
 * The Barbas, or Vaudois pastors, do not appear to have Lad a particular dress. An eye-witness 
 describes them as clothed in a long white woollen robe (which probably means nothing more thaa 
 au ample garment, with long skirts).— National Library of Paris, MSS. of Brienne, vol 204,.— Infor- 
 mat'wna of 25/A October, 1541; deposition of the tliird witness.— Others have seen some of them 
 wearing a gray diTess.— Judicial Investigations eoneerning the Vaudois; MSS. of Trin. Coll. Lib., 
 Dublin. C. V. 19, vol Is h 18; and in AlUx, "Some Remarks," Stc., p. 318. 
 
 ascrihed to them, and which were affixed upon the gates of the 
 cathedral of Embrun, in 1489, the following occurs, "They deny- 
 that a Christian should ever take an oath." I cannot say, how- 
 ever, that they have anywhere made so absolute a declaration on 
 this subject ; but it is certain that they considered it as a fruit of 
 perfection, that truth should never need from the lips of man 
 the guarantee of any kind of oath. The perfect man, said they, 
 ought not to swear ; ^ and these words imply, on the other hand, the 
 lawfulness of oaths, from the very absence of perfection, for no one 
 is perfect here below. 
 
 Their opposition to the Church of Rome was always founded 
 upon the Bible ; "■^ the character of a Christian, according to them, 
 was to be found in the Christian life, and the Christian life was a 
 gift of the grace of God. 
 
 The Barbas went once a year to each of the scattered hamlets of 
 
 their parishes, ^ in order to listen to each person apart in a private 
 
 confession. But this confession had no other object than to obtain 
 
 the salutary counsels of Christian experience, and not a delusive 
 
 absolution. 
 
 venent la plus part del gardament de las bestias e del coltivament della terra, e de 
 beta de 25 o alcuna vecz de 30 ancz, e al pos tot sencza letras. E prove li predit 
 requerent entre de nos, trecz o quatre mecz dyvern, per trecz o quatre ancz, si ilh 
 son de manieras convenivols e agradivols .... Apres aquestas cosas, li predit 
 requerent son amena en alcun luoc, alcal alcunas nostras fennas, lasquals sou 
 nostras, serous* en Jeshu Xrist vita en vergeneta; e en aquest luoc li predit 
 demoron un an el alcuna vecz dues; e poi en apres aquest temp consuma, son 
 receopu cum lo sagrament de la eucharistia, e cimi limposicion de las mans en loffici 
 del preverage e della predication ; e en apres aiczo li trameten predicar duy a duy. 
 These ideas, so precisely expressed, serve to corroborate what we have said before. 
 Part of these details may be found in Schultetus, AnnaJ^s Evangelii Renovati, and 
 in Kuchat's History of the Reformation in Switzerland, t. iii. 
 
 • Neun perfect non deoria husar de jurament. — Chap. xvi. of the Vergier de Con- 
 solacion, Geneva MS. 209; and DubUn MS. C, IV, 27. 
 
 - In no polemical writing of the time will we find so large a number of quota- 
 tions from the Bible as in those of the Vaudois. Many of the passages which they 
 quote are at the present day differently understood, but nowhere was the authority 
 of the Bible ever more respected. 
 
 ' Plebeculam nostram semel singulis annis quia per diversos vicos habitant, 
 adimus, ipsamque personam in confessione clandestine audimus. — Exhibition of 
 the customs of the Vaudois Church, made by its deputies (George Morel and Peter 
 Masson) to the Eeformers. — Quoted by Schultetus, Annates Evangelii Renovati, 
 p. 299. We may suppose that the district examinations prevailing at the present 
 day in the Vaudois Church are a relic of this custom. Each pastor is bound to go 
 annually to each of the principal hamlets or quarters of his parish, to conduct 
 there a separate religious service, to receive conmiunications, and to give the most 
 confidential advices, according to circumstances. — A. M. 
 
 * To follow on, to continue ; hence the word series. This, therefore, is not an error of the 
 transcriber, as has been supposed, and a proposal made to read servon {serve) ; moreover, it is 
 impossible to say, serton en Jeshu Xrist. The translation of the passage is, spend their life in e/r- 
 ffiiiity in Jesus Christ. 
 
 i I 
 
t 
 
 w 
 
 fi 
 
 £8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'ABT First. 
 
 Such was, in its principal features, the state of the \ audoia 
 Church of the middle ages. In a poem in the Romance language, 
 entitled La Nobla Leycz<m, aad which is of the date of the end of 
 the nth century, or the commencement of the 12th, the Yaudois 
 are said to have been already persecuted upon account of their 
 customs and their doctrines. We may form a ready notion of that 
 war of a corrupt world against a people, the severe purity of whose 
 manners condemned at once its disorders and its superstitions. 
 *' If there be any one of whom it is said, that he will not slander, 
 nor swear, nor lie, nor be guilty of dishonesty, or theft, nor give 
 himself up to dissoluteness, nor revenge himself upon his enemies, 
 they call him a Vaudois, and exclaim 'Death to him!'"i But these 
 were, unquestionably, nothing more than the results in particular 
 and isolated instances of that hostility which the spirit of ^ evil 
 always excites in the hearts of worldly persons and impenitent 
 sinners, against the visible finiits of evangelical sanctification. 
 
 The first measures of a more general character, adopted by the 
 secular authorities for the destruction of the Vaudois, do not 
 appear to have been earlier than the year 1209. At that epoch 
 Otho IV. was elected Emperor of the West, at Cologne, by a part 
 of the empire, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. This ceremony 
 took place in 1198j but, in 1206, he was defeated by Philip of 
 Swabia, his rival, and retired to England, to the court of King 
 John, his uncle. He returned two years afterwards, having heard 
 of the death of his rival. He was then recognized by the diet of 
 
 ' I give the text of the passage according to the different versions : — 
 
 e nos o poen ver 
 
 Que si n'i a alcun bon que ame a teme Jeshu Xrist 
 Que non volha maudire, ni jurar, ni mentir 
 Ki avoutrar, ni aucir, ni penre de I'autruy, 
 Ni venjar se de li seo enemis 
 Ith dion qu'es Vaudes o degne de punir. 
 — (Raynouard, Selections from the Original Poetry of the Troubadours, ii. 73-10;^, 
 V. 367-372 of the poem.) This version agrees with that of the Gleneva MS. 207; 
 that of the Cambridge MS. published by Morland, pp. 99-120, presents the follow- 
 ing text, with which I have contrasted, in italics, the different readings of the 
 version published by Lcger, pp. 26-30 : — 
 
 ; . e nos o poen veyr 
 
 Morland : Que sel ama alcun bon quel vollia amar Dio e temer Jeshu Xrist 
 Leger : Que sel se troba alcun bon que voUia amar Dio e temer Jeshu Xri&t 
 Que non vollia maudire ne jurar [nijura] ni mentir 
 Ni avoutrar, ni aucir [aucii'e] ni penre de I'autruy 
 Ni veniar se de li sio enemic 
 lUi diczon [dison] quel es vaudes [Vaudds] e degne de punir [murtrj. 
 
 The text of the Mbla Leyczon, published by M. Hahn {GeschicMe der Waldeiiscr 
 vnd xericandier Sekien, Stutgard, 1848), agrees with that of Kaynouard. 
 
 Chap. 1 ] 
 
 EARLY VAUDOIS CHURCIT. 
 
 29 
 
 f 
 
 Frankfort; and in the following year he repaired to Rome, in 
 order to be crowned emperor by Pope Innocent III., who had 
 always favoured him in opposition to Philip. On this journey he 
 passed through Piedmont; but Thomas, the then reigning Count 
 of Savoy, had taken part against him in his disputes with Philip, 
 who, in recompense for his support, had given him the towns of 
 Quiers, Testona, and Modon. Otho IV., irritated against the 
 old partizan of his rival, thought good to avenge himself of him by 
 weakening his power within his own states, and for this purpose he 
 gave to the Archbishop of Turin, who was a prince of the empire,^ 
 authority to destroy the Vaudois by force of arms. So that the 
 long course of successive persecutions through which they were 
 to pass, was not commenced by the Duke of Savoy, but by his 
 enemies; and when, at a later period, the house of Savoy itself 
 adopted the same methods of cruelty and depopulation, it was never 
 of its own spontaneous movement, but from foreign influences, of 
 which the most pressing were those of the court of Rome. 
 
 The branch of the Counts of Piedmont reigned for 176 years, 
 and the last four of them bore the title of Princes of Achaia. 
 Their residence was at Pignerol, and you wiU not find, says the 
 Marquis of Beauregard, in his Historical Memoirs,'^ that these 
 princes, who dwelt so close to the Vaudois, or the first Marquises 
 of Saluces, ever persecuted them. It has even been supposed that 
 some of the Counts of Lucerna,'^ immediate vassals of the empire, 
 and principal lords of these valleys, at a very ancient period, were 
 partakers of their religious opinions. 
 
 Thus was the primitive church preserved in the Alps to the 
 very period of the Reformation. The Vaudois are the chain which 
 imites the reformed churches with the first disciples of our Saviour. 
 It is in vain that Popery, renegade from evangelical verities, has a 
 thousand times sought to break this chain; it resists all her efforts. 
 Empires liave crumbled — dynasties have fallen — ^but this chain of 
 scriptural testimony has not been broken, because its strength is 
 not from men, but from God. 
 
 » The title of Prince of the Empire had been given in 1160 to the bishops of 
 Turin, Maurienne, and Tarantaise, by Frederic 1., with the object also of weak- 
 ening the house of Savoy, which had abandoned his party to espouse the cause of 
 the pope, Adrian IV., in the politics of the time. The papacy has brought ruin 
 even on its supporters. ^ H* •^« 
 
 * Some writers have alleged that the arms of the Counts of Lucema bore, like the 
 seal of the Vaudois churches, a torch {lucema), surrounded by seven stars. But 
 this is an error; the escutcheon of that family bears argent, three bands gules. 
 This coat of arms is, moreover, exhibited above the title of the Memoire istoriche 
 of Rorengo, in virtue of his title of Conti di Luzei-na. 
 
30 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»x V 
 
 iBtir. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIKST PERSECUTION.— TOLANDE AND CATTANfiE.* 
 (feom A.D. 1300 TO A.D. 1500.) 
 
 Persecution and Conflicts aW the year ISOS-Persecution by Yolande Duohesa 
 of Savoy, in 1476; and by her son, Charles I., Duke of Savoy, ?» l^^"^! 
 of Extermination against the Vaudois by Pore Innocent VIII. in 1487-Cra 
 sade against them-Albert Cattanee, the Pope's legate-Defeat of the invading 
 force in the Italian vaUeys-Negotiation» with the Duke of Savoy-Strange 
 fancies then prevalent among Papists with regard to the Vaudois. 
 
 In the beginning of the 14th century (somewhere about the 
 year 1308), the inquisitors having entered the vaUey of Angrogna, 
 where already synods of 500 delegates were sometimes held^ the 
 Vaudois repeUed them by force of arms.' It is even alleged that 
 the Catholic prior of the place lost his life in this collision. Few 
 details of these events liave been preserved, and they do not seem 
 to have been productive of any veiy important consequences. 
 
 It was a foreigner, a female, the sister of Louis XI., who first 
 signalized herself by exciting bloody persecutions against the Vau- 
 dois; from which glorv and martyrdom equally resulted to them. 
 Her name was Yolaaide, and she had become the wife of Amadeus 
 IX., one of the mildest and most charitable of those dukes of 
 Savoy whose names are an honour to their dynasty. She was lett 
 a widow in 1472, and named regent of his dominions. After this we 
 find her caUed Violante, perhaps in consequence of an alteration ot 
 orthography occurring in the pubhc documents of the tmie, or per- 
 haps in allusion to her cruel and vindictive character. 
 
 On the 23d of January, 1476, without having previously found 
 any fault with the Vaudois, without having expressed any displea- 
 sure against any of their proceedings, without aUegmg for her 
 severities any reason but their religious belief, she commanded the 
 Seicmeurs of Pignerol and Cavour to bring them back, by whatever 
 me^ns, to the ,^e of the Komish Church. The Vaudois demanded 
 that that church itself should be brought back to the gospel. The 
 
 intt:;Zofthe4.Uc^rj.m/:C ^^^Tr^^^^ 
 
 pour sermr a PBist. du Dauphrm." ^ol-J"™' " i.. ^^ ^^^ L^^^ aUquando 
 ' " Frequentes congregationes, per modum oapittdi . . . • m 1 j„i„ 1332. 
 
 quiugentiValdenses fuenmt congregati."-Bnef of John XXII..^^^ J»ly. 1« 
 ' •' Maim insurrexeruut armata. --Id. 
 
 CuAi'. 11] 
 
 FIRST PERSECUTION. 
 
 31 
 
 > 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 ducliess convoked her great vassals to consult with them as to 
 the means of reducing to silence these hardy Protestants, if we may 
 employ the term a century before the Reformation. But she had 
 not time to give effect to her designs, for very soon after she was 
 forcibly carried off, by order of the Duke of Burgundy, who was at 
 war with Louis XI., and who feared that she would give some 
 assistance to the French king. 
 
 The Yaudois, however, had refiised to abjure their evangelical 
 heresy, and Charles I., the second son of Yolande, having mounted 
 the throne, gave orders that an investigation should be made con- 
 cerning this resistance (a.d. 1485). The result of this investiga- 
 tion was laid before the Holy See in 1486, and exposed, for the 
 first time, in an official manner, the wide difference which the lapse 
 of ages had produced betwixt the Yaudois, always faithful to the 
 primitive religion, and the Eomish Church, which had gradually 
 become more and more degenerate. 
 
 In the following year Innocent YIII. fulminated against them 
 a bull of extermination, by which he enjoined all temporal powers 
 to take arms for their destruction. He summoned all CathoHcs to 
 a crusade against tnem, " absolving beforehand all who should take 
 part in this crusade from all ecclesiastical penalties, genei'al or 
 special, setting them free from the obligation of vows which they 
 might have made, legitimating their possession of goods wliich they 
 might have wrongfully acquired, and concluding with a promise of 
 the remission of all sins to every one who should slay a here- 
 tic. Moreover, he annulled all contracts subscribed in fe,vour of the 
 Yaudois, commanded their domestics to abandon them, forbade any 
 one to give them any assistance, and authorized all and sundry to 
 seize upon their goods." ^ 
 
 Forthwith some thousands of volunteers, persons ambitious of 
 distinction, vagabonds, fanatics, men without lawM employment, 
 needy adventurers, plunderers of every description, and pitiless 
 robbers and assassins, assembled from all parts of Italy to execute 
 the behests of the pretended successor of St. Peter. This horde of 
 depredators and brigands, an army worthy of a pontiff whose own 
 life was scandalous,'^ marched upon the valleys, in company with 
 18,000 regular troops, jointly famished by the king of France and 
 the sovereign of Piedmont. 
 
 * This bull may he seen in L^ger, II. c. 1, pp. 8-20. 
 
 » Innocent VIII. was the father of eight children ; whence the distich of t^at 
 period : — 
 
 **Ocio nocens genuit totidemque piieUas; 
 JUunc merito poterit dkere Roma patrem." 
 
^^^^ 
 
 32 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'AET First. 
 
 Chap. 11 j 
 
 FIRST PERSECUTION. 
 
 83 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 And of wliat extraordinary crimes, then, could this pontiff have 
 regarded the unhappy Vaudois as guilty ] He lays no crime to their 
 charge ; he acknowledges, on the contrary, in his bull of extermina- 
 tion, that their principal means of seduction was their great appear- 
 ance of sanctity. To massacre Christians because their good conduct 
 attracted the esteem and sympathy of their neighbours ! it could 
 only have been thought of by that haughty and merciless power 
 which they themselves already ventured to call Antichrist. But 
 how could a people so few and so feeble resist such formidable forces 
 as now came to assail them*? At the very commencement of their 
 history, the Vaudois seem on the point of being crushed and anni- 
 hilated for ever. And so they would have been, if the hand of 
 God liad not undertaken then* defence. It was He whose breath 
 filled the ranks of their enemies with infatuation, and the hearts 
 of his children with courage. 
 
 The papal legate commissioned to watch over the execution of 
 these sanguinary orders, was an archdeacon of Cremona, named 
 Albert Cattanec, generally called De Capitaneis. He fixed his 
 head-quarters at Pignerol, in the convent of Saint Lawrence, and 
 sent preaching monks to attempt the conversion of the Vaudois 
 before attacking them with arms. These missionaries were utterly 
 unsuccessful. He then proceeded in person to the valleys. The 
 inhabitants sent two deputies^ to him, who addressed him in these 
 terms : " Do not condemn us unheard, for we are Christians and 
 loyal subjects ; and our Barbas are ready to prove, either in public 
 or in private, that our doctrines are agreeable to the word of God, 
 for which reason they ought rather to be held worthy of praise than 
 of blame. It is true that we have not thought fit to follow the 
 transgressors of the evangelical law, who have long ago departed 
 from the tradition of the apostles ; we have not thought fit to con- 
 form ourselves to their corrupt precepts, nor to recognize any other 
 authority than that of the Bible; but we find our happiness in a 
 life of simplicity and purity, by which alone the Christian faith 
 strikes its roots deep, and spreads out its branches. We contemn 
 the love of wealth and the thirst of power with which we see our 
 persecutors consumed; and our hope in God is stronger than our 
 desire to please men. Take heed that you draw not his wrath upon 
 yourselves by persecuting us, and be assured that, if God wills it. 
 all the forces which you have assembled against us will avail 
 you nothing." This holy confidence did not deceive them. God 
 
 ' The names of these deputies were John Compo and John Desiderio. The 
 details following are from the Memoirs of A Ibcrt CattarUe, preserved amongst the 
 proofs of the Uistory of Charles VJII, 
 
 \ 
 
 willed it, and that army of invaders vanished from around the 
 Vaudois mountains like the rain that has fallen on the sands of the 
 desert. 
 
 The inhabitants concentrated themselves on the most inaccessible 
 points ; the enemy, on the contrary, were spread out over the plain, 
 and whether from incapacity for strategy, or from his pride moving 
 him to make a grand display of his military force, Cattan^e thought 
 proper to commence an attack upon all points at once ; so that fi:om 
 the village of Biolets, situated in the marquisate of Saluces, to that 
 of Sezanne, which belonged to Dauphiny, liis lines, without «,ny 
 depth, occuj)ied all the country. He proposed to destroy by a single 
 efibrt the hydra of heresy. By a single effort his own forces were 
 shattered ; for his lines, weakened by the way in which they were 
 extended, were everywhere broken, his battalions driven back in 
 precipitate flight, and assailed in rear by those whom they had 
 come to assaiL 
 
 The weapons employed in this combat were only pikes, swords, 
 and bows. The Vaudois had hastily made for themselves great buck- 
 lers, and even cuirasses, of the skins of beasts, covered again with 
 the thick bark of chestnut-trees, in wliich the arrows of the enemy 
 stuck without doing them any harm. These arrows, coming with 
 reduced force by reason of the distance, and because they were shot 
 from a lower towards a higher ground, penetrated into the bark 
 without having power to pass through it ; the Vaudois, on the con- 
 trary, skilful, energetic, and, above all, full of confidence in God, and 
 better posted for defence, shot down from above with an advan- 
 tage which gave them the victory. 
 
 There was, however, one post where, notwithstanding the vigour 
 of their defences, the enemy seemed on the point of forcing a pas- 
 sage. It was the central point of this great line of operations on 
 the heights of St. John, where they abut upon the mountains of 
 Angrogna, at a place called Rochemanant. The crusaders had in- 
 vaded this quarter from beneath, mounting step by step, and closing 
 their ranks around that natural bulwark behind which the Vaudois 
 had sheltered their families. Seeing their defenders yield, these 
 families threw themselves upon their knees with many tears; 
 women, and children, and old men united together in fervently 
 crying, " Dio aijutad ! O Lord, help us ! O my God, save us ! " 
 This cry of prayer was the only cry which broke from their hearts 
 in their distress, and arose to heaven. But their enemies laughed 
 at it, and seeing this company upon their knees, hastened their ad- 
 vance. "My fellows are coming — ^they are coming to give you 
 your answer," exclaimed one of their chiefs, surnamed tlie Black of 
 
 Vol. I. 5 
 
s^ 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet FlR-T. 
 
 CUAP. Il] 
 
 FIRST PERSECUTION. 
 
 35 
 
 f! 
 
 Mondavi, because of his swarthy complexion; and immediately, 
 joining bravado to insult, he raised the visor of his helmet, to show 
 that he was not afraid to encounter the poor people whom he m- 
 suited. But at that moment a steel-pointed arrow, let fly by a 
 young man of Angrogna, named Peter Revel, struck this new Go- 
 liath with such violence, that it penetrated into his skull, between 
 his eyes, and laid him dead. His troop, struck with terror, fell 
 back in disorder; a panic seized them; the Yaudois took advantage 
 of the moment, and impetuously rushed forward, hurHng their ad- 
 versaries before them, and, eagerly continiiing the pursuit, swept 
 them into the very plain, where they left them vanquished and 
 dispersed. Then, 're-ascending to their families so miraculously 
 delivered, they likewise flung themselves upon their knees, and all 
 together gave thanks to the God of armies for the victory which 
 they had just gained. 
 
 ** O Dieu de mon salut, Dieu de ma delivrance !" 
 
 [0 God of my salvation, God of my deliverance] might they have 
 sung, if that beautiful hymn had then been composed. But they 
 had all its sentiments in their hearts. It is trust in God which 
 is the real strength of man ; the humble Israel of the Alps was then 
 invincible, like the people of Moses under the command of Joshua. 
 A new attempt was made next day to seize on that formidable 
 post, where the strength of victory from on high seemed seated 
 with these heroic mountaineers. The enemy took a different route ; 
 ascending by the bottom of the valley of Angrogna, in order to 
 penetrate to the Pra du Tour, whence, mounting by La Yachera, 
 they would have been masters of the whole region. But a dense 
 and dangerous mist, such as sometimes unexpectedly appears in the 
 Alps, settled down upon them just at the very moment when they 
 were entangled in the paths most full of difficulty and of peril. 
 Ignorant of the locality, marching apprehensively, uncertain of the 
 route which they ought to take, and not able to advance except 
 singly, over rocks, upon the brink of precipices, they gave way be- 
 fore the first assault of the Yaudois, and not being able to range 
 themselves in order of battle, they were easily defeated. The first 
 who were repulsed fell back precipitately, overthrowing those who 
 were next to them; the confusion spread further and further; dis- 
 order reigned everywhere; the retreat became a flight, the flight a 
 catastrophe, for those who attempted to retrace their course slid 
 over the humid rocks, of which the edge was concealed by the mists. 
 Others, again, thinking to find in these sinuosities a way of escape, 
 precipitated themselves into the chasms in which the former had 
 
 already perished. Yery few succeeded in making their escape ; the 
 greater part losing their way in the depths of the ravines, or on the 
 
 crests of the rocks. 
 
 This decisive defeat, which is to be ascribed to the will of God 
 rather than to the arms of the Yaudois, accomplished the deliver- 
 ance of that valley, in which the troops of Cattan6e never appeared 
 again. The detachment which was destroyed in so complete and 
 unexpected a manner, was the last which showed itself upon the 
 banks of the Angrogna before the period of the Reformation. The 
 captain who commanded it was caUed Saguet de Planghere, and the 
 chasm into which he fell is called to this day, after the lapse of four 
 centuries, the Toumpi de Saguet — Saguet's hole. 
 
 On the mountain of Roderi, in the valley of Pragela, the Yaudois, 
 says Cattanee, favoured by the nature of the grounds, put the cru- 
 saders to flight, by rolling down upon them avalanches of rock; 
 after which they descended, attacked them in close combat, and pro- 
 longed the battle until evening. A few, however, were made 
 prisoners, and conducted to Mentoules, to be subjected to the cere- 
 monies of a vain abjiu:'ation. 
 
 The legate charged with the commission of extermination next 
 proceeded to Dauphiny, to the valley called the Yal Louise, of 
 which we shall presently speak ; but, before concluding this chap- 
 ter, it remains to be told that one battalion of the enemy, seven 
 hundred strong, having come from that valley to the valley of St. 
 Martin, by the Col d'Abries, was observed above Pral, directing 
 its course towards the village of Pommiers. Tliither the Yaudois 
 repaired to wait for it. The soldiers, inflamed with pride by the 
 massacre which they had just perpetrated in Dauphiny, entered the 
 hamlet in disorder, dreaming only of pillage, and supposing them- 
 selves already victors. But, being suddenly attacked on all sides, 
 they were unable to make any defence, and were all slain or put 
 to flight. Those who escaped in the flrst instance, perished, ere 
 long, amongst these unknown mountains, everywhere occupied by 
 courageous defenders. The bearer of the colours concealed him- 
 self alone in a ravine, where he remained two days ; after which, 
 cold and hunger compelled him to come out, and to seek an asylum 
 from the Yaudois, who supplied him with aU that he required, show- 
 ing that generous forgetfulness of offences, with which Christ in- 
 spires his faithful servants. Having recovered strength, he re- 
 joined the army to which he belonged, and was able to inform them 
 of the total defeat of his companions. Thus was this army dissi- 
 pated, which, to a people so few in number, was reaUy formidable. 
 But it was to them that it was said, " Fear not, little flock, for it 
 
36 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part F 
 
 iR&r. 
 
 CllAP. Ill] 
 
 THE VAL LOUISE. 
 
 S7 
 
 « 
 
 i; 
 
 
 
 is your Fathers good pleasure to give you tlie kiDgdom,"* and, 
 as they themselves said, " If Grod be for us, who can be against 
 war 
 
 After these expeditions, productive neither of advantage nor of 
 glory, the Duke of Savoy withdrew his troops — dismissed the 
 legate, upon the pretext that his mission was terminated — and 
 sent a bishop amongst the Yaudois in order to bring them to take 
 the first steps with the view of obtaining a peace, of which the 
 assurance was held out to them. The interview of this envoy with 
 the evangelical Christians of the Alps, took place at the hamlet of 
 Prasuyt, situated on the confines of the communes of Angrogna 
 and St. John. It was resolved that the Vaudois should send a 
 representative of each of their chiirches to their prince, who was to 
 come to Pignerol to receive them. It was during the conferences 
 there held, that this prince asked to see some of their children, 
 that he might satisfy himself, by personal observation, whether they 
 were really bom with black throats, rough teeth, and goats' feet, as 
 the Catholics pretended. '' Is it possible," said he, when he saw a 
 number of them with his own eyes, "that these are the children of 
 heretics] What charming creatures they are! they are by far the 
 prettiest children I ever saw." Thus was overthrown a ridiculous 
 prejudice, but which could not fail to be powerful in an age so 
 little enlightened as to admit of its finding its way even to the 
 mind of a prince. 
 
 Superstition, obscuring the moral and religious perceptions, 
 casts its shadows equally over all the regions of human intel- 
 ligence ; as, on the other hand, also, the light of the gospel enlight- 
 ening the soul which is opened to receive it, elevates, augments, 
 and purifies all the powers of the mmd. Of this, the Vaudois 
 themselves are a proof, for they had taken their place, three cen- 
 turies before these events, at the head of modern literature, hav- 
 ing been the first to write in the vulgai' tongue. That wliich they 
 then used was the Romance language, for all the eai*ly remains of 
 which we are indebted to the Vaudois. It was from this language 
 that the French and Italian were formed. The religious poems of 
 the Vaudois still continue to be the most perfect compositions be- 
 longing to that period ; and they are also those in which the rays 
 of the gospel shine with the greatest brightness. 
 
 Thus — whilst the colossal shadow of the Roman empire, when its 
 sun was sinking, and the no less dreadful shadow of the pontificate, 
 whose ambition succeeded to that of the empire, still covered Italy — 
 the summits of the Alps were already brightened with a new 
 
 ' Luke xii. 32. 
 
 daNvn, which the Reformation was afterwards to extend over the 
 whole world. It is not because the Vaudois were the precui-sors of 
 the Reformation that we connect them with the primitive church, 
 but because they were primitive Christians, and pioneered the way 
 for the Reformation. Their past history illustrates what the gospel 
 teaches all to expect; but none will have sorer trials to endure than 
 those of the martyr people, whose glory, like that of Christ, is de- 
 rived from sufferings, wrongs, and abasement. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF THE VAL LOUISE, FROM THEIR 
 
 ORIGIN TO THEIR EXTINCTION.^ 
 (a.d. 1300 TO A.D. 1500.) 
 
 Some account of the Val Louise— Early persecutions there— The Inquisitor Borelli 
 —Martyrdoms at Embrun in the end of the 14th century, and desolation of the 
 Vaudois valleys in France— Cattanee— Massacre of the whole population of the 
 Val Louise in 148S. 
 
 Those primitive Christians, who have received the name ot 
 Vaudois, did not inhabit some of the valleys of Piedmont only, 
 but also of Fi-ance. Of what consequence were the boundaries 
 of the two states to them 1 Their only desire was to live in tran- 
 quillity and in proximity to each other. We find them, from 
 time immemorial, in the profound retreats of the BrianQonnais as 
 well as amongst the Alps of Italy. 
 
 The valleys which they appear to have most anciently inhabited 
 
 ' Authorities.— (7t7^, Perrin.—" Lettres sur la VaZloum," by Father Roussig- 
 nol, 8vo, Turin, 1804. — "Mewioircs de Cattanee," in Godefroy, *'I£ist. de 
 Charles VIII."—" Becueil dcs Actes, pieces et procedures concernant VemphiUose 
 pei-petuelle des dimes du Brian^onnais;' &c., 24mo, 1754.—" Les Transactions 
 aimbeH, dauphin du Viennois, Prince du Briangonnais, ct Marquis de Sezane," 
 kc.y fol. lQ45.—Chori€r, *' Uist. Oen. du Dauphin^," {ol.—Thuanus, *' Uistor, sui 
 Temporis," lib. xxvii. — " Memoires pour servir a VHist. du Dauph.,'* (Paris, 
 1711), fol. {Valbonays.)—M.^. *' Hist. Gen. des Alpes . . . et imrtic. d' Embrun 
 leur Metropolitain€f" fol. translated by Juvenis. Gap; Library of the Little 
 Seminary. (The original is at Paris, and a copy at Lyons).—" Inventaire des 
 Archives de la Cour des Comptes, a Grenoble," 34 vols. fol. (Reg. du Brian§onnais 
 et de I'Embrunois. )—^2/mari Bivallii, " De Allobrogibus," 4to, National Lib- 
 rary, Paris, No. 6014. — **De Episcopis Ebredun^ensibus." Library of Lyons, 
 carton 119. *' Collectanea Hist," fol. 900.— See also the MS. 735 in the same 
 library, as well as " Gallia Christiana," t. iii. pp. 1052-1100, and proofs, 1 77.— 
 " Pieces concernant VArcJieviche d^ Embrun." Paris Library, vol. 517, 518 of the 
 *' Fonds Fontanim" and '' FmdsGaigni^res," portfolios A, 1M,1^.—*' Memmres 
 sur VEyl. Metrop. d'Embrun." Library of Grenoble, No. 439, MS. in 4to.— 
 " Memoires sur le Dauphin^." Library of Valence, MSS. Nos. 162 and 2125, fol. 
 
I 
 
 S8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 are, on the side of France, those of Freyssinieres, Val Louise, and 
 Barcelonnette; on the side of Piedmont, those of the Po, of Lucerna, 
 and of Angrogna, as also those of Pragela and St. Martin. 
 
 Val Louise is a deep and bleak i*avine, which descends from 
 Mount Pelvoux to the basin of the Durance. It was formerly 
 called Val Gyron,^ from the name of the Gyr, a torrent which 
 flows in it. At a later period it was named Val Fute, in Latin 
 Vallis Puta^a, because of the great number of hills or jmyts which 
 it contains, as the names of its villages attest : Puy St. Vin- 
 cent, Puy St. Eusebe and Puy St. INIartin — puya, in the patois of 
 the country, still signifying an eminence. As to the name Val 
 Louise, it is generally said to have been derived from Louis XII., 
 the father of his people, in commemoration of benefits which he 
 had thought its inhabitants worthy to receive.''^ 
 
 They began to be persecuted between 1238 and 1243;^ and 
 again, a century after, in 1335, we find amongst the current 
 accounts of the Bailiff of Embrun this singular article, Item, for 
 persecuting the Vaudms, eight sols and thirty deniers of gold ; * as 
 if the persecution of these Christians of the Alps had then become 
 a regular part of the public service, a constant duty and always 
 attended to. Alas! it was but the expression of that continual 
 and increasing hatred with which Popery, based upon tyranny, has 
 always regarded the gospel, the source of all kinds of liberty. 
 
 One of the Vaudois brethren of the valley of Lucerna^ had pur- 
 chased from the dauphin, John II., more than five hundred years 
 ago, a good house in the Val Louise, which he had presented to 
 the brethren of that neighbourhood, in order that they might be 
 able to hold their religious meetings in a more becoming manner; 
 but the Archbishop of Embrun caused it to be destroyed in 1348, 
 excommunicating by anticipation any one who should attempt to 
 rebuild it ; and twelve unfortunate Vaudois, who were seized upon 
 that occasion, were subjected to all the tortures which superstition 
 and cruelty could inflict. Conducted to Embrun, in front of the 
 cathedral, in the midst of a great concourse of people, surrounded 
 by fanatical monks, and clothed in yellow robes, upon which were 
 painted red flames, symbolical of those of hell, to which they were 
 deemed devoted ; they had an anathema pronounced against them, 
 
 * It is thus designated, Vallis Gyrontana, in a bull of Urban II., of date a.d. 
 1096. 
 
 ' This name may, however, be found in use under Louis XI., as appears by his 
 letters, dated from Arras, 18th May, 1478. 
 
 * Chorier, lib. xii. c. 5. * Raynaldi Annales, n. 69. 
 
 * His name was Chabert. See Inventories of the Records of the Court of Accounts 
 al Chtnoble, the volume concerning the Brianjonnais. 
 
 
 i'. 
 
 Chap III ] 
 
 MARTYRDOMS AT EMBRUN. 
 
 89 
 
 their heads were shaved, their feet made bare, and ropes passed 
 round their necks ; after which, at the sound of the bells which tolled 
 their funeral knell, the Catholic clergy raised a chant of execra- 
 tion and of death. The poor captives were dragged, one after 
 another, to a pile, surrounded with executioners. O saintly souls ! 
 not captives but free indeed, filled by the Spirit of the Lord with a 
 courage so strong and so meek, those pictured flames with which 
 your tunics were covered, were the symbol only of those flames in 
 which you were to be consumed ! From the midst of death you 
 passed not into the torments prepared for the slaves of the wicked 
 one, but into the blissful serenity of that heaven which is promised 
 to the faithful servants of the Lord, on the wmgs of your faith 
 and of the prayers of your friends ! 
 
 The fire was applied to the pile; and the martyi^, who had lived 
 like the primitive Christians, were foTind able also to die like them. 
 The executioners quickly strangled them ; their bodies returned to 
 the dust, of which they were made, and their souls ascended to God 
 
 who gave them. 
 
 When a church is persecuted, we have a sure sign that it is a 
 living church ; that its progress in sanctification grates upon the 
 wicked, disquieting and irritating them, and arming against it their 
 selfish passions. The inquisitors even caused the bodies to be dis- 
 interred from their graves, of those who were named to them as 
 having died without receiving the aids of the church, because they 
 thought the Redeemer sufficient for them; and these exhumed 
 bodies, after their memory had been cursed, were cast into the 
 flames. Their ashes were dispersed to the four winds ; and as 
 fenaticism is always united, in the Church of Rome, with the 
 most sordid interests and passions, all the property which they had 
 left to their heirs was confiscated, insomuch that even the aliena- 
 tions which had taken place since their decease, to the prejudice 
 of the archiepiscopal exchequer, were declared null. It may be 
 imagined what trouble, what disorder, what desolation such ani- 
 mosities must have produced in families : but their most valued pos- 
 sessions were not those which were thus taken from them; and if 
 the love of money leads to crime, the love of the treasures of heaven 
 leads to holiness. All that could be done, however, to daunt simple 
 and courageous hearts was tried upon this occasion. To these sacri- 
 legious ceremonies of violating graves, breaking open coffins and 
 pubHcly burning their contents, aU the people had been convoked, 
 in name of that fearful church which thus pursued its victims 
 even in death ; and still more powerfully to strike men's minds by 
 this apparatus of terror, all persons present were adjured with im- 
 
40 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt First. 
 
 Chap. Ill ] 
 
 MAETYRDOMS AT EMBRUN. 
 
 41 
 
 
 I 
 
 precations to regard with abhorrence the doctrines on account of 
 which these corpses had been deprived of the rest of the tomb ; 
 but they remained steadfast in their faith even when they beheld 
 the bones of their fathers scattered. This steadfastness was after- 
 wards to be put to sorer trials. 
 
 A young inquisitor, named Francis Borelli, obtained from Pope 
 Gregory XI. urgent letters addressed to the King of France, to 
 the Coimt of Savoy, and to the governor of Dauphiny, calling upon 
 them to unite their forces for the purpose of extirpating this 
 inveterate heresy from the Alps. But it was stronger even than 
 kings, for it was the word of God, the gospel of the earliest times, 
 the counsel of eternity. The inquisitor as to religion undertook the 
 charge of the carnal weapons which were intrusted to him ; and 
 the persecutions directed by Borelli did not leave the most secluded 
 village out of their net. Like the fabulous robe of tlie centaur, 
 which consumed the body upon which it was flung, it laid hold of 
 entire families, of the populations of whole districts, of those who 
 were not perfectly submissive everywhere, and very soon the prisons 
 of these vast provinces were not sufficiently spacious to contain the 
 multitude of prisoners. New dungeons were constructed for them, 
 but with such haste that they wanted everything but what was 
 necessary to cause suffering to the captives. 
 
 The valley of the Durance, with its side valleys of Le Queyras, 
 Freyssinieres, and Val Louise, was more shockingly decimated than 
 any other district. It might have been thought that the plague 
 had passed over it : but it was only the inquisitors ! 
 
 Borelli commenced by causing all the inhabitants of these val- 
 leys to be summoned before him. They did not appear, and he 
 condenmed them for not appearing. Thenceforth, always liable to 
 be surprised by his assassin bands, they suffered doubly from their 
 own dangers and from the distress of their families. One was 
 seized on the road, another in the field, another in his house. No 
 one knew, when he embraced his father at worship in the morning, 
 if he would see him again at evening prayer ; and the father who 
 sent away his sons to the harvest field could have no confidence 
 that they would eat of that which they went to reap. 
 
 We may imagine what painful anxieties must then have suc- 
 ceeded, under the domestic roof, to the peace of former times ! For 
 fifteen whole years this work of depopulation, misery, and blood- 
 shed, was carried on in these mountains in name of the Catho- 
 lic religion. The deadly breath which laid so many low, which 
 ruined so many families, and made so many hearts desolate, was 
 breathed from the Vatican— that dreadful mount, which resembles 
 
 Olympus only in its false gods, Sinai only in its thunders, and 
 Calvary in bloodshed. 
 
 At last, on the 22d of May, 1393, all the churches of Embrun 
 were decked out as for a great solemnity; the Church of Rome had 
 a festival, for blood was to flow. The pagan images, which load her 
 altars with their gilded insensibility, remind us of those idols at 
 whose feet human victims were wont to be immolated. All the 
 clergy, covered with their theatrical ornaments, were congregated 
 in the choir. Double ranks of soldiers kept the people within the 
 nave and surrounded a troop of prisoners. And who were they? 
 Soldiers of Christ who came to contend for the faith. What was 
 their crime 1 That faith itself. How many are there ? Listen ! 
 their names are just to be read, aad their sentence pronounced. 
 What is that sentence 1 The same for aU; condemned to be 
 burned aUve. The list is read, and eighty persons from the valleys 
 of Freyssinieres and Argentiere ai-e already devoted to the pile. 
 But no inhabitant of the Val Louise has yet been mentioned— 
 that quiet retreat, opening amongst the rocks like a dove's nest— 
 wHl it be spared] No. Popery does not forget it; her watch- 
 word is Death : she can admit of no alternative but to be burned 
 aUve upon the earth for resisting her, or to serve her and go to 
 hell. The Vaudois had thought it better to resist, and a new 
 catalogue of one hundred and fifty names, all belonging to the Val 
 Louise is read over in that church, now no longer the house of 
 God, but rather a den of infamy, a cave of hangmen : and after 
 each name there sound, like a funeral knell, those ^tal words which 
 crown them all — "condemned to be burned alive 1" It was the 
 half of the population of that unhappy valley ; and in these Hsts— 
 which appear to us so execrable, but to the Church of Rome so 
 natural— might sometimes be found, one after another, the names of 
 all the members of the same family. In this horrible solenmity, 
 no fewer than two himdred and thii-ty victims were devoted at once 
 to the stake, in the name of the God of the gospel. And for what 
 reason] For having been faithful to the gospel. 
 
 But the secret of these numerous condemnations is still more 
 shameful than even their cruelty ; the property of the condemned 
 was confiscated for behoof of the bishop and the inquisitors. The 
 spoils of these poor people went to provide for the junketings of 
 
 the cler^^'v. 
 
 Beyond all question, unity of faith must at that time have made 
 great progress in that afflicted country; but it was the soHtude 
 of the desert that long prevailed in these depopulated mountains, 
 which the inquisitors professed to have reduced to the peace of the 
 
 Vol. I. ^ 
 
42 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tiest. 
 
 Chap. III.] 
 
 MASSACRE IN VAL LOUISE. 
 
 43 
 
 tl 
 
 cliurcli ; they shoiild have said to the silence of the tomb. But 
 everything comes to an end upon earth — even fanaticism ; as the 
 wolves abandon a chamel-hotise which they have emptied of its 
 contents, so the inquisition retired from these impoverished valleys. 
 
 France was then groaning under the pressure of her wars with 
 the English, Dauphiny being one of the last provinces which 
 remained faithful to the feeble king, Charles YII. A young girl, 
 Joan of Arc, soon reopened to her the gates of Rheims and 
 the path of victory. During this time the Vaudois churches 
 slowly recovered a little. Like the flowers of their own rocks, made 
 liai'dy by the storms, their energy increased in the midst of dangers; 
 and as the winds bear the fragrance of flowers to a distance, so 
 the gale of persecution propagated their evangelical faith. Thus 
 the influence of these churches increased by reason of their very 
 sufierinfrs. The violent and ferocious animosity of the Popish 
 paganism equally increase(^. Such was the state of things when 
 the close of the 15th century approached, that epoch at which, as 
 we have seen in the preceding chapter. Innocent VIIT. opened 
 against the Yaudois a crusade of extermination. 
 
 It was in the month of June, U88, that the papal legate, Albert 
 Cattanee, having attempted in vain to subjugate the valleys of 
 Piedmont, passed into France by Mount Genevi-e, where he hanged 
 eighteen of the poor people whom he had made prisoners. He 
 descended to Briangon, a town which had been described to him as 
 being then particularly infested with heresy; thence he marched 
 upon Freyssinieres, whose inhabitants, few in number and ill- 
 provided with arms, retired to the rock wliich rises above the 
 church, but the troops surrounded it and made them prisoners. 
 
 Success inspiring these fanatical soldiers with courage, or rather 
 with ferocity, they invaded, with great shouts, the deep ravine of 
 Val Louise. The Yaudois, terrified and perceiving that they could 
 make no resistance to forces twenty times their number, abandoned 
 their poor dwellings, set the old people and the children as hastily 
 as possible upon their rustic beasts, drove their flocks before them, 
 and carrying with them what they could of provisions and domestic 
 utensils, bade a last adieu to the homes in which they were born, 
 and retired, praying to God and singing hymns, to the steep slopes 
 of Mount Pelvoux. This giant of the Alps, which has been called 
 the Yisol of the Brian^onnais, rises to the height of more than 
 6000 feet above their valley. At about a third part of this eleva- 
 tion there opens in the mountain an immense cavern, called Aigue 
 Fraide, or Ail f rede, because of copious springs of water, fed by the 
 snows, which continually flow from it. A kind of platform, to 
 
 which there is no possibHity of mounting but by fearful precipices, 
 extends to the opening of the cavern, whose majestic vault very 
 soon contracts into a naiTow passage, and expands again into an 
 immense irregular hall. Such was the asylum which the Yaudois 
 liad chosen. In the farthest part of the grotto they placed then- 
 women, children, and old men ; the flocks were disposed of m the 
 lateral apartments of the rock ; the strong men plaeed themselves at 
 the entrance, after they had built up the approach to it, filled the 
 path with rocks, and committed themselves to the care of God. 
 Cattanee says that they had carried with them victuals enough 
 to maintain themselves and their families for more than two years. 
 AU their precautions were taken, their intrenchments could not 
 be forced; what had they to fear? 
 
 Their danger was in the very confidence which these human 
 precautions had inspired. Keposing securely in the means of 
 defence which they had provided for themselves, they forgot too 
 much that it is faith alone which wiU remove mountains and deliver 
 
 from the greatest perils. 
 
 Cattanee had with 1dm a bold and experienced commander, 
 named La Palud. This captain, seeing that it was impossible to 
 force the entrance of the grotto on the side by which the Yaudois 
 had approached it, because of the intrenchments by which they 
 had sheltered themselves, redescended into the valley, gathered 
 together all the ropes which could be procured, and once more 
 clhnbed the Pelvoux, promising to his soldiers a complete victory. 
 Wheeling round the rocks, they clambered up the steep slope, and 
 fixing cords above the opening of the cavern, slid down in full 
 equipment right in front of the Yaudois. If the latter had put 
 more confidence in the protection of God than in that of their 
 intrenchments, they would not have been seized with fear when 
 they saw these prove insufficient. Nothing could have been more 
 easy or natural than to cut the ropes by which they saw their 
 enemies descend, or to kill them in succession as they arrived 
 within reach of their weapons, or to hurl them into the abyss which 
 the platform overhung, before they had time to act upon the offen- 
 sive. But a panic seized the unfortunate Yaudois, and in their dis- 
 tinction they precipitated themselves amongst the rocks. La Palud 
 made a frightful slaughter of those who attempted any resistance; and 
 not daring to enter into in the depths of the cave from which he 
 saw these terror-stricken people issue, he heaped up at the entrance 
 all the wood which he could find; the crusaders set it on fire, and 
 all who attempted to come out were consumed by the flames or died 
 by the edge of the sword. When the fire was extinguished there 
 
44* 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Fibst. 
 
 were found, says Chorier, under the vaults of that cavern, 400 little 
 children smothered in their cradles, or in the arms of theii' mothers. 
 There perished apon this occasion, he adds, more than 3000 Vau- 
 dois. It was the whole population of Val Louise. Cattan6e dis- 
 tributed the property of these unfortunates amongst the vagabonds 
 who accompanied him ; and never since that time has the Vaudois 
 Church arisen again from her ashes in these blood-stained valleys. 
 
 Thus the very men whom prayer made victorious in the most 
 critical moments, were utterly destroyed in circumstances the most 
 favourable for defence, in consequence of putting too much con- 
 fidence in themselves. And how many may we every day see fall 
 in consequence of distrusting themselves too little, which is, in fact, 
 not trusting in God as they ought ! 
 
 This terrible example shown to the other Vaudois churches, 
 plunged them into grief, but led them also to prayer; and thereby 
 their spiritual strength was renewed, so that, if some still died be- 
 neath the palms of martyrdom, the mother church made a success- 
 ful resistance, holding up the standard of the cross. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAXTDOIS OF BARCELONNETTE, LE QUEYRAS, 
 
 AND PREYSSINlfiRES.^ 
 (A.D. 1300 TO A.D. 1650.) 
 
 Some account of the Valley of Barcelonnette— Persecution in 1560— Return of the 
 fugitive population— Persecution in 1623— The Vaudois finally expelled— The 
 Valley of Freyssinidres— Early persecutions— The Inquisitor Ployeri— Martjrr- 
 doms in the end of the 15th century— Relaxation of persecution by Louis XII. 
 —Brief of Pope Alexander VI.— Struggles of the 16th century— The Protestants 
 seize Embrun- Lesdigui^res- The Valley of Queyras in the end of the 16th 
 century — Struggles and Successes of the Protestants — The Revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes— Present Protestantism of the French valleys— Neff. 
 
 Being in Dauphiny, we may as well pursue the story of the vicissi- 
 tudes which the ancient Vaudois experienced all around the present 
 Vaudois valleys, before resuming the series of events which have 
 befallen them in the latter down to our own days. 
 
 » Authorities. — The same as in the preceding chapter, and, in addition, "JJwf. 
 Giogr. EccUs. et Civile du Dioc^e d'Emhrun, par M***." 1783, 2 vols. 8vo. (The 
 author of this work was Father Albert. It was to it that a reply was made in the 
 **Cinq Lettres par un Vaudois des Gaules Cisalpines.'* The author of the latter 
 work was Paul Appia. It is also worthy of being consulted.) — Ladoncette, " Sta- 
 tistique des Hautes-Alpes, Byo.— Felix Neff, Memoirs, Biographies.^AlBO, various 
 papers in the archives of Gap, Embnin, Brian^on, Pignerol, and Turin, too nu- 
 merous to be particularly mentioned. 
 
 ClIAl' IV J 
 
 BARCELONNETTE. 
 
 45 
 
 The Vaudois were, in process of time, rooted out, not only of the 
 Val Louise, but also of Barcelonnette, Saluces, Provence, and Cala- 
 bria, where they were anciently established. They have Ukewise 
 more recently been exterminated in the valley of Pragela. 
 
 The valley of Barcelonnette is a deep ravine, sh\it in upon all sides 
 by almost inaccessible mountains. It belonged in former times to 
 Piedmont, but it was in the possession of France from 1538 to 
 1559, after which it reverted to Piedmont till 1713, when it was 
 finally ceded to France in exchange for the two little valleys of 
 Sexare and Bardoneche, situated towards Brian^on. 
 
 This vale of Barcelonnette, with the Httle lateral valleys which 
 open into it, anciently bore the name of Terres-Neuves (the Few 
 Lands), probably because they had been recently discovered. It is 
 not known at what date the Vaudois began to occupy them. Farel 
 preached there in 1519. The place of worship was at Les Josiers. 
 The inhabitants, much interested and delighted to hear the voice of 
 the reformer, gloried that the doctrines of their fathers, in all their 
 evangelical completeness, were thus publicly proclaimed. But this 
 publicity attracted to those who professed them the dreaded atten- 
 tion of the Church of Rome. The ferocious inquisitors ascended 
 even to that peaceful retreat of poverty and prayer. This took 
 place in 1560, the same year in which the valleys of M6ana, of 
 Suza, and of Pragela, were laid waste. 
 
 « The persecution," says GiUes, « raged so fiercely then against 
 the faithful of these countries, that they were all made prisoners or 
 compelled to flee, so that they were for a long time wanderers 
 amongst these wild mountains, and in great want of food and shel- 
 ter. Those who were seized, and who refused to abjure, were sent 
 to the gaUeys. As for apostates, their condition was not much 
 better, for besides the remorse of conscience which continually tor- 
 mented them, they were distrusted and despised, so that some of 
 them also returned to the right way." These last, who, having 
 become Catholics, returned again to the gospel, received the name 
 of Rdapsed. The severest penalties were denounced against them, 
 but the Catholics themselves had Httle esteem for men who were 
 converted with the knife at their throat. How could they even 
 respect doctrines for whose advancement the use of such means was 
 
 found necessary] , , 
 
 However, a few years after (in 1566), a rigorous edict enjomed 
 aU the Vaudois of Barcelonnette to embrace CathoHcism, or to leave 
 the dominions of Savoy within the space of one month, under pain 
 of death and confiscation of goods. The greater part of them 
 resolved to retire into the valley of Freyssinieres, which belonged to 
 
4G 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 France; but it was then the time of Christmas, the most inclement 
 geason of the year; the women and children became faint by the 
 way; the snow which covered the mountains augmented the fatigue 
 and dangers of the route; night had come on before they could 
 reach the ridge, so that the proscribed race were obliged to lie down 
 upon a bed of frozen snow, and the cold so seized upon them in 
 their sleep as to change the sleep of many into that of death. Those 
 who died were soonest at the end of their sufferings, but how keen 
 must have been the anguish of the survivors who next morning had 
 to behold sixteen of their chHdren corpses, stiffened by the frost in 
 the arms of their wretched mothers ! The survivors, with great 
 difficulty, reached the fraternal asylum which was opened to them. 
 The governor of Barcelonnette would then have distributed 
 amongst the Catholics the possessions abandoned by these unhappy 
 fugitives, but, to the credit of the inhabitants of these mountains, 
 it must be told that no one would consent to accept them. These 
 Catholics were far behind in the path in which their Church had 
 
 advanced. 
 
 The Vaudois, therefore, were at liberty to return to their abodes, 
 and take possession again of their property. The authorities winked 
 at their return, without which these districts must have remained 
 waste, and these mountains unpeopled; but in order to the exercise 
 of public worship, they were under the necessity of traversing the 
 glaciers again, and repairing to Vars in the dominions of France. 
 And these himible Christians, already so severely tried, did not 
 hesitate to travel that long and arduous journey, several times a 
 year, to enjoy the privilege of mutual edification, and to receive the 
 benediction of a pastor. What a lesson for the Christians of our 
 
 day! 
 
 But, half a century after, in 1623, severities were recommenced. 
 A Dominican monk, named Bouvetti, obtained authority from the 
 Duke of Savoy to institute proceedings against the Vaudois of Bar- 
 celonnette, to whom he brought a new edict of abjuration or exile. 
 This edict was mercilessly carried into execution by the governor 
 of the valley, Francis Dreux, so that, after many fruitless petitions 
 and efforts to obtain some mitigation of their lot, the Vaudois, un- 
 shaken in the faith of their fathei-s, were compelled again to forsake 
 their native country, to which they were now never to return, 
 going into hopeless exile, and seeking an asylum in countries less 
 afflicted than their own. Some retired into Le Queyras and the 
 Gapen9ois, others to Oi-ange or Lyons; some went to Geneva, and 
 many to the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont, which they regarded as 
 their mother coimtry. Thus was this retired valley left to silence 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 FKEYSSINlfiRES. 
 
 47 
 
 and depopulation, whick had been liappy when it was forgotten, and 
 in which, whilst it was forgotten, the gospel had been proclaimed 
 
 and enjoyed in peace. . 
 
 The persecuting Church gloried in this destruction as a triumph 
 Thus human passions, to glorify themselves, take for their pedestal 
 the very vices which serve them, and, encouraged by the errors ot 
 Ms age, the man of power makes a merit of his excesses and mis- 
 
 deeds 
 
 The inhabitants of Freyssinieres, whose laborious habits and 
 blameless manners the illustrioas and unfortunate De Thou has so 
 well described, made resistance to their persecutors. Louis Xli. in- 
 deed had said, after a judicial investigation concerning them, Ihese 
 brave people are better Christians than we." But they were so in 
 virtue of the gospel, and Rome could not endure this. From the 
 commencement of the 13th century to the end of the I8th, she 
 never ceased to persecute them; and between the year 1056 and 
 the year 1290, five bulls of different popes demanded their exter- 
 mination. The inquisitors preyed upon these unhappy valleys from 
 the year 1238; and in order to discover if an accused person were 
 really guilty, we are told that these official defenders of the Cathohc 
 faith applied to him a red-hot iron; if it burned him it was a sign 
 of heresy, and he was condemned. What times and what manners ! 
 Would to God that the uncertainty of the documents would permit 
 us not to believe such things ! 
 
 In 1344, says an old MS., the greater part of the people 
 of Freyssinieres being persecuted, fled into the valleys of Piedmont; 
 but they returned with the Barbas, resisted the inquisitors, and 
 were soon stronger than before.* It remained for the inconceivable 
 cruelties of BorelU and of Veyletti to enfeeble them anew. Louis 
 XL put an end to the proceedings of these agents of the holy office 
 in 1478. They were succeeded by Francis PloySri, whom Cattan^e 
 left there after his extermination of the whole Vaudois of Val 
 
 Louise. . .^ 
 
 This inquisitor commanded the inhabitants of Freyssinieres to 
 
 appear before him at Enibrun. They knew that it was m order to 
 obtain from them an abjuration of their faith; it could therefore 
 be of no use for them to go, and no one went. Thereupon they 
 were condemned to death for contumacy, as rebels, heretics, and 
 relapsed; and, as usual, all the goods of these poor people were con- 
 fiscated for the profit of the Church. This was the thing which 
 interested and attracted her most, and which constituted her motive 
 ■ MS. Memoirs of Raymond Javenis, iu the Librariea of Grenoble and Car- 
 pentras. 
 
48 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALTS. 
 
 fPAKT Finsr. 
 
 Chap IV.] 
 
 FRENCH VALLEYS. 
 
 49 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 for these condemnations. What cared her monks for the sorrows, 
 the inexpressible distress, and misery of om- families, if they could 
 provide well for themselves, and give themselves up to all the gross- 
 ness of their clerical sensuality ! All of the unfortunate Vaudois 
 who could be apprehended were therefore committed to the flames 
 without more formality; for the surest means of seizing upon confis- 
 cated lands was to slaughter their owners; and whosoever ventured 
 to intercede for the condemned, were it a son for his mother or a 
 father for his chHd, was immediately thrown into prison, brought 
 to trial, and often condemned as an abettor of heresy. 
 
 The Vaudois had no repose till after the death of the feeble 
 Charles VIII., which took place in U98. Deputies from almost 
 all the provinces of the kingdom then repaired to Paris, to be pre- 
 sent at the coronation of Louis XII. The inhabitants of Freys- 
 sinieres were there also represented by a procurator, who was 
 commissioned to lay their complaints before the new sovereign. 
 Louis XII. remitted this business to his council; the pope was 
 written to upon the subject, and commissioners, both apostoUcal 
 and royal, that is to say, representing the pontifical power and the 
 royal authority, were named to proceed to the spot and there make 
 exact inquiry into the facts of the case. 
 
 Having arrived at Embrun, they caused all the papers connected 
 with the proceedings instituted against the Vaudois by the inquisi- 
 tors to be laid before them, found fault with the bishop, and annuUal 
 aU the condemnations pronounced for contumacy against the inhabi- 
 tants of Freyssinieres. But the bishop would not assent to an arrange- 
 ment which entailed upon his clergy the loss of the property acquired 
 by these odious confiscations. He grounded his resistance upon what 
 one of the commissioners had said publicly in the hostelry of the 
 Angel, where they had been lodged, " Would to God that I were 
 as good a Christian as the worst of these people !" from which the 
 prelate concluded that this judge must have favoured the heretics 
 at the expense of justice. However, Louis XII. ratified the 
 decisions of the commissioners by letters dated at Lyons, 12th Oc- 
 tober, 1501, and the commissioners obtained from the pope a brief 
 which rendered the king's decision binding upon the clergy. This 
 pope was Alexander VI., and the brief w^as obtained through the 
 intermediation of his son, Csssar Borgia, who had come to France, 
 bringing to Louis XII. a bull of divorce, in exchange for which he 
 received, along with the title of Duke of Valentinois, the veiy part 
 of Dauphiny in which the valley of Freyssinieres is situated. 
 
 Borgia and Alexander VI. had something else to do than to trouble 
 themselves about the doctrines which were professed there! The 
 
 inhabitants had treated an ecclesiastical tribunal with contumacy, 
 and an absolution was necessary for this in order to render inopei^- 
 tive those proceedings which the king desired to have annuUed; 
 nothing could be refused to the king, and Alexander VL was gene- 
 rous in the matter of absolutions. But the cause for which one was 
 sought appeared to him too insignificant for such long writing^ 
 Nothing but contumacy ; a pretty peccadillo ! And so to make it 
 something worth the trouble, he granted to the Vaudois a com- 
 p^hensive absolution, not only from that of which they were 
 charged, but also from all sorts of fraud, usury larceny, simon>^ 
 adulter;, murder, and poisoning; for no doubt these thmgs being 
 so common at Rome, it was quite natural to -PP-^/J^^^^^f^ 
 common everywhere. The simple and austere life of the Vaudoi 
 stood in no need of these sin-breeding indulgences and the ev^ 
 which resulted frw their employment remained entirely with the 
 church which had recourse to them. 
 
 Half a century after, dui'ing the heat of the wars which filled up 
 the 16th century, an attack was directed against the Vaudois of 
 Freyssinieres and Le Queyras, by the military commandant of Em- 
 brun, who marched against them at the head of 1200 men belonging 
 to Embrun and the Brian^onnais. But Lesdiguieres, then scarcely 
 twenty-four years of age, hastened by the Champsaur to the defence 
 of his brethren in the faith. He encountered their enemies at St. 
 Crispin and cut them in pieces. 
 
 The Protestants, in their turn, thought to seize upon Embrun. 
 A stmtagem was devised for this purpose. The day of the feast of 
 the Conception, in December, 1573, was fixed for the execution of 
 it; but it was mismanaged, and its author. Captain La Breoule 
 having fallen into the hands of the Catholics, was strangled, dmgged 
 through the mud, quartered, and the parts suspended upon four 
 gibbets at the four gates of the city. Twelve years aftei% Lesdi- 
 guieres seized the place. He first attacked the town of Charges, 
 which was fortified. The inhabitants and soldiers, trusting m the 
 fortifications, did nothing but chat and divert themselves. Lesdi- 
 guieres, advancing by paths which were concealed from observation, 
 planted his ladders against the walls and entered the town. "We 
 are come to dance with you," said he, making his appearance. The 
 gaiTison were declared prisoners; they attempted to defend them- 
 selves and perished by the sword. A regiment of 500 arquebusiers 
 came from Embrun to retake this place, but they fell mto an am- 
 buscade which Lesdiguieres had planted for them at the hill of La 
 Coulche, where they were cut in pieces. The victorious chief then 
 caused the approaches to Embrun to be reconnoitred, and took pop- 
 
 VOL. I. ' 
 
 1^ 
 
50 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF TUE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt F 
 
 l&liT. 
 
 session of it on the 17th of November, 1586. A part of the soldiers 
 who defended it retired into a sort of central fortress, of which there 
 still remains a portion caUed the Tour Brune, contiguous to the an- 
 cient bishop's palace. Fire was appUed to it, and during this fire the 
 papers of the episcopal archives were thrown out of the windows in 
 order to save them. Among them were the records of investiga- 
 tions against the Vaudois; a soldier laid hold of them and sold 
 them, and from hand to hand they have passed into the hands of 
 our historians. The cathedral of Embrun then became a Protes- 
 tant church, for the bishop had fled at the commencement of the 
 siege, with all his clergy. 
 
 Two days after this exploit Lesdiguieres proceeded to besiege 
 Guillestre, which was taken, and of which he levelled the walls, 
 never since rebuilt. He then ascended the nigged valley of the 
 Guill and took Chateau Queyras. The resistance which he met 
 with at this place increased the irritation of his troops and the 
 effervescence already prevailing in the vaUey. The victorious Pro- 
 testants incurred the guilt of bloody reprisals against the Catholics, 
 by whom they had been so long oppressed. For some years pre- 
 vious in particular, troops of fanatics had frequently assailed their 
 habitations and passed through their villages, scattering everywhere 
 desolation and death, instigated to these outrages generally by 
 Captains De Mures and De La Cazette. 
 
 In 1583, the Reformed of Queyras being threatened with a speedy 
 attack, called to their aid their brethren in faith from Piedmont, 
 for considerable forces were preparing to attack them. The Vau- 
 dois of the valley of Lucema were the first to arrive for their 
 defence. They seized on Abries ; the enemy were masters of Ville 
 VieiUe, situated two hours' march lower down. A traitor, named 
 Captain VaUon, left the Catholic troops, came to Abries, and said 
 to the Protestants, " I am one of your brethren; I have been made 
 prisoner, and they have made me swear not to take up arms again, 
 but I have obtained permission to leave the camp, and I am come 
 to tell you that if you do not retire you will all be cut in pieces." 
 " You spy !" exclaimed the Vaudois, " if you would not be cut in 
 pieces yourself in the first place, begone immediately." The traitor 
 disappeared, and the enemy's forces advanced. The cavalry came 
 by the bottom of the valley, and two bodies of troops by the lateral 
 slopes of the mountains. The Vaudois were intimidated at the 
 sight of forces so superior to their own. "What ! are you afraid 1" 
 cried Captain Pellenc of Le Villar. Let a hundred men follow 
 me, and God will be with us ! All followed him. Captain Fraiche, 
 who had already delivered the Vaudois of Exiles from the soldiers of 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 FRENCH VALLEYS. 
 
 51 
 
 La Cazette, was the first to rush upon the enemy. He caused their 
 centre to give way, but their two wings closing together, the little 
 Vaudois troop was on the point of being surrounded. They 
 retreated over the heights of Val Pr6veyre j there they met their 
 brethren of the valley of St. Martin, who had also come on the 
 same summons ; then they resumed the offensive with impetuosity • 
 they had the advantage of the ground, and the avalanches of stones 
 wliich they rolled down before them broke the first ranks of the 
 Catholics. They dashed into the opening, struck down, dispersed, 
 overwhelmed, and swept away the aggressors, and pursued them as 
 far as Chateau Queyras. The skirmishes which afterwards took 
 place were terminated by the victory of Lesdiguieres, who made 
 himself master of the whole valley, where cruelties and spoliations, 
 unworthy of their name, were then perpetrated by the Protestants. 
 Lesdiguieres maintained his protectorate there until the Edict of 
 Nantes. The Vaudois then had it in their power to enjoy the 
 free exercise of their worship. During the 17th century they had 
 pastors at Kistolas, Abries, Chateau Queyras, Arvieux, Moline, 
 and St. Veran. These pastors were sent by the synod of the val- 
 leys of Piedmont, as the Barbas had been in former times, who 
 cherished with so much care the sacred fire of the primitive faith 
 in churches much more distant. 
 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was attended with the 
 destruction of their places of worship, and their renewed proscrip- 
 tion. It is well known what numbers of French Protestants were 
 then driven into exile. Those of Le Queyras re-entered the val- 
 leys of Piedmont with the Vaudois who had been expelled from 
 
 thence. 
 
 Under the reign of Louis XV., the reformed religion being still 
 interdicted, the Protestant churches of Dauphiny had their meet- 
 ings for worship " in the wilderness," like those of Gard and the 
 Cevennes. When a meeting was to be held anywhere, the villagers 
 might be seen descending separately and by different paths, their 
 spades over their shoulders as if they were going to the field, and 
 then they met in some solitary retreat, where the psalm-books were 
 drawn forth from their labourers' dresses. Entire famiUes travelled 
 great distances to be present. They left home in the evening and 
 travelled all night. At the outskirts of villages the men took 
 off their shoes and walked barefooted along the silent street, lest 
 the clatter of their iron-shod soles should betray their passing. 
 The feet of the beast which bore the wife and children were wrapped 
 in cloths, which prevented noise; and the caravan, fatigued but 
 rejoicing, arrived with much emotion at the fiirtive rendezvous of 
 
52 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Fikst. 
 
 CUAP. V.j 
 
 VAUDOIS OF PROVENCFm 
 
 53 
 
 pi-ayer and edification. Sometimes, it is true, the soldiers of the 
 gendarmerie, then called the mar6chauss6e, suddenly made their 
 appearance, when aU were engaged in the exercises of piety, and in 
 the kinf^'s name arrested the pastor. Bloody collisions took place. 
 The bullets of Popery oftener than once mangled the gospel of Christ; 
 but the "assemblies of the wilderness" dissolved in one quarter, 
 were resumed in another. Where, by the incessant confiscations 
 of which they were the object, copies of the Bible had become too 
 rare to suffice for the wants of all, societies of young people were 
 formed, with the view of committing it to memory, and in this 
 way saving themselves from that privation of it with which they 
 were threatened. Each member of these pious associations was 
 intrusted with the duty of carefully preserving in his recollection a 
 certain number of chapters, and when the assembly of the wilder- 
 ness met again, these new Levites, standing around the minister, 
 with their faces towards the people, instead of the reading of the 
 interdicted pages, recited in succession, and each in his turn, all the 
 chapters of the book named by the pastor for common edification. 
 
 It was thus that the Protestant churches of France passed 
 through these stormy times. In the valleys of Dauphiny, which 
 were anciently Vaudois valleys, the descendants of these glorious 
 martyrs have survived their misfortunes, and still subsist at Freys- 
 sinieres, Vars, Dormilhouse, Arvieux, Molines, and St. Yeran. A 
 recent apostolatc, displaying, like those of the ancient Yaudois, the fer- 
 vour which animated the primitive church, has connected with these 
 countries the name of Felix Neflf, which history has already placed 
 alongside of that of Oberlin, the famous benefactor of the Yosges. 
 The young missionary and the aged patriarch had the same ardour; 
 fur souls do not become aged, and what are our years in comparison 
 with eternity? Even centuries are nothing. Happy are these 
 churches which have combated during centuries for a cause that 
 cannot be destroyed, and whose contests and triumphs shall be 
 celebrated in the world of immortality ! 
 
 The chapters following will show us the heroic and patient 
 defenders of this cause in other places also, but everywhere the same. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 history of the vaudois of provence. — merindol and 
 
 cabri£:res.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1350 TO A.D. 1550.) 
 
 Settlement of the Vaudois in Provence — Persecutions of the 16th century— 
 Cruelties of Menier D'Oppede— Proceedings against the inhabitants of M6rindol 
 —Singular deliverance of many from death— The Vaudois of Cabrieres— Car- 
 dinal Sadolet-Cardinal De Tournon— The Bishop of Cavaillon at Merindol— 
 Edict of Francis I. suspending prosecutions— Revocation of that Edict surrep- 
 titiously obtained— Menier D'Oppede destroys Merindol, Cabrieres, La Coste, 
 and other places, and butchers their inhabitants— Protestantism in modern 
 times on the slopes of the Lcberon. 
 
 The Vaudois established themselves in Provence during the reign 
 of Charles II., who possessed vast lordships at once upon both sides 
 of the Alps, and who therefore assumed the title of Count of Pied- 
 mont and of Provence. This was about the end of the 13th cen- 
 
 » AUTHOBITIES.— " Histoire de VexScution de CahriZres, de Mirindol, et d^avires 
 licux de Provence ; ensemble une relation partie. de ce qui passa aux cinquante audi- 
 ences de la cause de Merindol,'' par Louis Aubery de Mauriez. 4to, Pans, 16i5.— 
 Camerarius, " De excidio reliq. Valdensium . . . lugubris narratw. Heidelberg, 
 1606. (Edited thirty years after the death of the author, by his nephew, Louis 
 Camerarius.)— "Jyi«e. 7n4mor. de la persec. et saccagement du peuple de Merindol, 
 Cabrieres, et autres circonvoUins." 32mo, 1556. (Ascribed to Du BeUay, Seigneur 
 of Langez, who was commissioned by Francis I., in 1541, to make an investigation 
 concerning the Vaudois of Provence.)-'* i^a pcrs^c. de cevx de Mer et Ccd>r., 
 peuples fideles en Provence." Crespin, Hist, des MaHyrs, edit. 1619, fol., from 
 fol. 133 to fol. 159, and fol. 182 to 186.-** Xc3 Vaudois de Provence, par Louu 
 Frossard:' Svo, 1848, pp. 2^1.—''Essai kistor. sur les Vaudois de Provence . . . 
 par Paulin Roman." 4to, Strasburg, 1830.-" Observ. sur les prelimvnaires de 
 Vex^cution de CabrUres et de Mer.,'' by Mcolap, in the Hist, de I' Acad, des In- 
 script, et Belles Lettres, t. xviii. p. 377 (a superficial work).-Dreux de Radier, 
 Aiiicles cHtiques sur Vexec. de Cabr. et de Mer., in the Journal de Verdun, Sept. 
 1753, p. 189.— "iJevue de Comtat," Nos. for February and March, 1839. *' Sur les 
 debcUsjudiciaires qui eurent lieu devant la chambredu roi en 1450; Jacobi AvheHi, 
 ParisiensisAdvocati, pro MerindolisetCaprariensibus actio," . . . fol., Lyons, 1619. 
 Some of the pleadings on the other side have also been published. See, amongst 
 others, that of the defender of Menier (the advocate Robert), &c. Many small 
 pamphlets were published after Aubery's pleadings. De Thou speaks of these 
 events in his history, book v. The lives of the Baron of Oppede and of the Baron 
 of La Garde, who took part in these proceedings, have been published separately. 
 
 MSS —"Plaidoyers et autres actes intervenus en la cause de ceux de Merindol et 
 Cabrieres, depuis 1540 jusques en 1554," a folio of more than 1000 pages. National 
 Library, Paris, No. 204. (It is by this MS. that I have been chiefly guided m this 
 work.)— "Pieces concemant I'affaire de Merindol," en 1540, Library of Aix, No. 
 7dS.—" Enquite contre Jean de Roma, en 1520." Paris (Archives de la Re- 
 publique, section met.).— " Discours des guerres de la conte de Venayssm et dela 
 Provence,", . .hy Lays dePerussiis,4io (Library of Avignon).— " B'i«(. c«c fa vt//« 
 
5i 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part I'ibst. 
 
 
 tury. At the commencement of the next centuiy, the persecutions 
 directed against the Vaudois of Dauphiny caused some of them to 
 take refuge with their brethren in the faith upon the banks of the 
 Durance. 
 
 At the close of the ten years' war between Louis II., Count of 
 Provence, and Raymond of Toulouse,^ this district remained de- 
 populated; and as Louis II. was obliged to sell part of it in order 
 to provide for the expenses of that war, the Seigneurs of Boulier 
 Cental, and of Rocca Sparviera, bought from him at that time the 
 valley of Aigues, which stretches from north to south along the soft 
 slopes of the Leberon. But these seigneurs already possessed, in 
 the marquisate of Saluces, great estates cultivated by Yaudois. 
 They engaged some of that people, therefore, to come and cultivate 
 their new possessions likewise, and these lands were conveyed to 
 them by einphyteosis, that is to say, upon perpetual lease. 
 
 From the most distant parts of Calabria, where other Yaudoia 
 were also settled, numbers of them returned to the valleys from 
 which they originally sprung, and passed from thence into Pro- 
 vence, as there were also some from Provence who went to settle 
 in Calabria ; so great was then the fraternity subsisting among all 
 these communities, or rather these dispersed parishes of an united 
 church. 
 
 " In place of priests and of cures," says a Catholic author of that 
 country,'-^ " they had ministers who, under the name of Barbas, pre- 
 sided in their secret religious conventicles. However, as they were 
 seen to be quiet and reserved, and as they faithfully paid their taxes, 
 tithes, and seigneural dues, and were moreover very industrious, 
 they were not disturbed upon the subject of their practices and 
 doctrines." 
 
 But the Reformers of Germany, to whom they sent a deputation 
 along with their brethren of Piedmont, warmly urged them to 
 abandon this reserve, reproaching them as guilty of dissimulation, 
 because their exercises of religion were only conducted in secret. 
 Scarcely had they made a more open display of their separation 
 from the Church of Rome, when inquisitors were sent against them. 
 
 (TApt,^* by Remerville. Library of Carpentras. — *' Hist, de la vUle de Femes . . . 
 avec ce qui s'estpassS deplus interessant . . . &c." (The author of this MS. was 
 Dr. Giberti.) In the same library, Nos. 606 and 607.— De Cambis Velleron, 
 '* Annates d'Avigncm," first volume. Library of Avignon.— MSS. of Peyresk. Eeg. 
 xxxi. vol. ii., at foL 361, &c. Library of Carpentras. 
 
 » From A.D. 1389 to A.D. 1400. 
 
 2 Histoire des guerres excitees dam le comtat Venaissin, par les Calvintstes du 
 XVIe Steele, t. i. p. 39. This work, published anonymously, was written by Fa- 
 ther Justin, a Capuchin monk, of Monteux, near Carpentras. 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 CiiAP. v.] 
 
 rERSECUTIONS. 
 
 55 
 
 One of these, called John de Roma, perpetrated many outrages 
 during a period of ten years which he spent in that region.^ 
 
 At last the king caused him to be imprisoned, and an investiga- 
 tion, whose voluminous records are preserved to this day,^ was 
 made concerning his exactions and cruelties. Nevertheless, the 
 proceedings which he had instituted were continued. In 1534, 
 says Gilles, the Bishops of Sisteron, Apt, Cavaillon, and othei-s, each 
 in his own diocese, caused inquisition to be made for the Yaudois, 
 and filled the prisons with them. Learning that these heretics de- 
 rived their origin from Piedmont, they wrote about them to the 
 Archbishop of Turin, and he named a commissioner, who wrote to 
 Provence that these proceedings should be suspended until he had 
 made more perfect inquiry on his side. But the Bishop of Cavaillon 
 repHed, on the 29th of March, 1535, tliat thirteen of the prisoners 
 had already been condemned to be burned alive. Of this number 
 was Anthony Pasquet, of St. Segont. The spirit of the martyr who 
 gave his name to that village was not yet extinct there. Others 
 had died in prison; the bishop mentioned in particular Peter Chal- 
 vet, of Rocheplate. Thus the intervention of the commissioner, 
 who was himself a native of Rocheplate, was inefiectual to coun- 
 teract the zeal of these prelates, and especially of the Parliament of 
 Provence, more eager apparently for condemnations than for justice. 
 Clement YIII., a year before his death, promised plenary indul- 
 gences to all Yaudois who should return to the bosom of the Popish 
 Church. None availed themselves of the offer. The pope com- 
 plained to the King of France, who wrote on the subject to the 
 Parliament of Aix; and the Parliament ordered the seigneurs of 
 the lands occupied by the Yaudois, to compel their vassals to abjure 
 or to quit the country. As they refused, an attempt was made to 
 overcome them by intimidation. Some of them were cited to ap- 
 pear before the court of Aix, to explain the causes of their refusal; 
 they did not attend, and the court condemned them by default to 
 be burned alive. Thereupon their brethren took up arms ; one 
 named Eustace Maron put himself at their head, and they proceeded 
 to rescue the prisoners. The authorities became alarmed, the effer- 
 vescence extended, and a civil war was just on the point of breaking 
 out in the district. The king, Francis I., was informed of it, and 
 thinking to pacify all, he caused a general amnesty to be proclaimed 
 in July, 1535, on condition that the heretics should abjure within 
 
 six months. 
 
 Tranquillity was restored, and the six months passed away; 
 
 » From A.D. 1521 to 1532. 
 
 2 National Archives, Paris (Michelet, Letter of April 20, 1830). 
 
56 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut I 
 
 IBST. 
 
 I* 
 
 1 
 
 no one had abjured, and each of the seigneurs or magistrates 
 in these regions arrogated the right of arbitrarily exacting the 
 required abjuration, or punishing the Vaudois at his own plea- 
 sure by confiscation and imprisonment. This latter mode of pro- 
 ceeding may be said to have become truly fashionable. It was 
 known that the Christian would rather give up his fortune than 
 his creed, and he was deprived of his fortune in order to punish him 
 for retaining his faith. It was a new way of acquiring wealth. 
 Many availed themselves of it to a large extent ; Menier D'Oppede 
 went beyond all bounds. He was poor, of Jewish descent, a man 
 of doubtful integrity, of unquestionable selfishness, infatuated witli 
 self-conceit, like all men of little minds, and disdaining people of 
 low rank with a pride all the more contemptuous because he him- 
 self was but a miserable upstart. The apostasy of his grandfather 
 seemed to irritate him all the more against the religious steadfast- 
 ness of the Yaudois; the sternness of his character prevented his 
 shi-inking from the use of any kind of means, and his ambition made 
 all kinds lawful. Marching with a troop of armed men, he would 
 seize the Yaudois in their fields. " Call upon the saints for deli- 
 verance," he would say to them. " There is no other mediator be- 
 tween God and man," the Yaudois would reply, " but he who is 
 both God and man, that is Christ." " Thou art a heretic ; abjure 
 thy errors." Upon the refusal of the Yaudois, he flung them into 
 the cellars of the castle of Oppede, which served him for a prison, 
 and did not release them without the payment of a large ransom, 
 or if they died, he confiscated their goods. 
 
 These shocking depredations were particularly numerous in 153 G. 
 Next year the procureur-geneml of the Parliament of Provence, 
 solicited at once by the fanatical clergy and by the interested spolia- 
 tors, made a report, in which he represented that the Yaudois were 
 daily increasing. On this report the king required the court to re- 
 press the rebels; and the year foUoAving (June, 1539) he authorized 
 it to take cognizance of the crime of heresy. After the month of 
 October in that same year, the court issued warrants for the arrest- 
 ment of 154 persons, whom two apostates had denounced as heretics. 
 
 It may be imagined what an excessive fermentation such mea- 
 sures must have produced in the country ; and though we can here 
 give only a brief sketch, we may say that no historian has yet com- 
 bined together those details, an acquaintance with which, however, 
 is necessary, that the course of events may be understood. In cir- 
 cumstances such as these, a spark may cause a conflagration. This 
 actually happened in the manner which we now proceed to show. 
 
 The mill of the Plan d'Apt was an object of desire to the magis- 
 
 Chap. v.j 
 
 M^RINDOL. 
 
 o^ 
 
 fcrate of that town. He denounced Pellenc, the miller, as a heretic. 
 Pellenc was burned alive, and his mill confiscated for behoof of the 
 man who had denounced him. Some young men of Merindol, in 
 whose Provengal veins the Italian blood still boiled, were unable to 
 contain their indignation at such iniquities, and in their igno- 
 rance of legal forms, to which, however, no recourse would have 
 remained for them, they executed justice after the manner of the 
 populace and according to the notions which children form of it; 
 they destroyed, during the night, the mill of which the man who 
 had destroyed their brother had so unrighteously obtained posses- 
 sion as the price of his blood. The magistrate of Apt made his 
 complaint to the court of Aix, and named the persons whom ho 
 suspected of having had a hand in this business. The court, although 
 it was vacation time (it was in July, 1540), held an extraordinary 
 meeting, and ordered the apprehension of eighteen suspected per- 
 sons. The officer commissioned to intimate to them the decree of 
 the court, proceeded to Merindol, where he found all the houses 
 deserted. " Where are the inhabitants of this village 1" said he to 
 a poor man whom he met upon the road. "They have taken refuge 
 in the woods," said the other, " because they were told that the 
 troops of the Count de Tende^ were coming to kill them." "Go 
 and seek them," said the officer, " and tell them that no harm will 
 be done to them." Some Yaudois came, and the officer summoned 
 them to appear before the court within the space of two montlis 
 from that date. 
 
 On the 2d of September they all met, and addressed a petition to 
 the com-t, in which they protested their submission to its authority 
 and their loyalty to the king, entreating the court not to lend an 
 ear to their enemies, who would mislead it in the execution of jus- 
 tice, " for," say they, " in the summons which has been served upon 
 us we find persons indicted to appear before you who are dead, and 
 others who never existed, and children of so tender an age that 
 they cannot even walk alone." The court, annoyed that simple 
 countrymen should point out such mistakes in its decrees, replied 
 that they must appear, without concerning themselves about the 
 dead. The Yaudois consulted an advocate to know what they ought 
 to do. " If you wish to be burned alive," said he, " you have nothing 
 to do but to come." The poor people did not attend ; and the day for 
 which they were summoned being past, the court of Aix, on the 1 8th 
 of November, 1540, pronounced against them an inconceivable sen- 
 tence, condemning to the pile twenty-three persons, of whom only 
 seventeen were designated by name. " The court," such are also the 
 
 > Then Governor of Provence, August, 15 tO. ^ 
 
 Vol. I. 8 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 CH&r. V.j 
 
 CARDINAL SADOLET. 
 
 59 
 
 1 
 
 fui-ther terms of that sentence, " delivers over their wives and their 
 children to any one who can lay hold of them, prohibits all and 
 sundry from giving them any assistance, and as the village of MIrindol 
 is notoriously known to be a retreat of heretics, appoints all the 
 houses and buildings of that place to be demolished and burned." 
 
 This decree caused a general indignation amongst all persons of 
 enlightenment, especially amongst all the generous spirits belonging 
 to the noblesse and the bar, as may be inferred from the following 
 anecdote, boiTowed from the writers of the time : — The President 
 of the court of Aix was dining with the bishop of that city. "Well, 
 Monsieur de Chassan6e," said a woman, who lived in a shameless 
 manner with the prelate, " when are you to execute the decree of 
 Merindoll" The president made no answer. "What decree do 
 you mean]" asked a young man. The lady informed him. "It 
 must certainly be a decree of the parliament of women," ironically 
 exclaimed the youthful D'Allenc, one of the most eminent of the 
 Arlesian noblesse. A councillor named De S6nas gravely affirmed 
 its sad reality. "No; it is impossible to believe anything so bar- 
 barous," exclaimed the Seigneur of Beaujeu. A member of the 
 parliament, who was also one of the company, thought to put an 
 end to the conversation by a joke. "Ah! Seigneur de Beaujeu," 
 said he, pointing to the young lady, as she sat between the bishop 
 and the president, " if you are going to attack the gowns you will 
 have no easy work of it !" The witticism caused a laugh, but the 
 person to whom it was addressed replied with indignation, " It is 
 atrocious! I have had to do with the inhabitants of Merindol, 
 and nowhere have I met with more decent people." " I would have 
 been astonished," said the mistress of the episcopal palace, " if no- 
 body had been found to defend these misbelievers 1" " I would have 
 been still more surprised," rejoined the young man, "if a new 
 Herodias had not loved to see the shedding of innocent blood." 
 " Come ! come !" said the aged De Senas, " we are here to enjoy 
 ourselves, and not to dispute." Hereupon the discussion ter- 
 minated ; but, a few days, after the Count D'AUenc waited upon the 
 President Chassan6e, appealed to his sentiments of justice and 
 humanity, and obtained a suspension of the decree. The court 
 itself was alarmed at the decree which it had passed, and wrote to 
 the king to remit the matter to his judgment. 
 
 Francis I. commissioned Dubellay, Seigneur of Langez, to repair 
 to Provence, and make investigation as to the conduct of the 
 Vaudois. " They are quiet and peaceable people," says he, in his 
 report, " reserved in their manners, chaste and sober, veiy indus- 
 trious, but very little in the habit of attending mass." Upon this 
 
 report, the monarch proclaimed a general amnesty (by letters, dated 
 18th Febniary, 1541), whereby, leaving all that was past to be for- 
 gotten, he granted pardon to all the accused, upon condition that 
 within three months they should abjure their errors of doctrine. 
 These letters of grace, which came to the court in the beginning 
 of March, were not published by it till the month of May. 
 There remained only a fortnight for the Vaudois to avail them- 
 selves of them; but, if it had been only one moment, they would 
 not have sought to prolong their lives by abjuring the truth and 
 giving up their souls to death. On the contrary, they proclaimed 
 their persecuted doctrines more distinctly than ever, by a confes- 
 sion of faith, drawn up on the 6th of April, 1541. This was sent 
 to Francis I., and the Sire de Castelnau read it to him; each point 
 of doctrine being supported by passages of the Bible. " Well ! and 
 what have they got to say in answer to this?" exclaimed the king. 
 But his imsettled and shallow mind could not remain faithful to 
 the impressions which it had received; he very soon forgot these 
 words of approbation which a scriptural production had drawn from 
 liini a production of which, indeed, enlightened Catholics them- 
 selves could not but approve. 
 
 The illustrious and learned Sadolet, whose features Raffaele has 
 preserved to us in a celebrated painting, and who was then Bishop 
 of Carpentras, caused a copy to be sent to him; and it is here that, 
 for the first time, the Yaudois of Cabrieres appear upon the 
 statue, for they belonged to the diocese of Carpentras, whilst Me- 
 rindol formed part of that of Cavaillon. They made haste them- 
 selves to convey to Cardinal Sadolet a copy of their common con- 
 fession. " We are ready," said they, on presenting it, " not only to 
 abjure, but to be subjected to the severest penalties, if it can be 
 shown to us, from the Holy Scriptures, that our doctrines are 
 erroneous." The cardinal answered them kindly, acknowledged 
 that they had been the objects of black calumnies, ^ invited them 
 to come and hold conference with him, and endeavoured to con - 
 vince them that without changing in any respect the purport of 
 their confession, they might mitigate its terms. He did not seek 
 to hide from them that he himself was desirous of a reform in 
 Catholicism. If the Yaudois had always been examined before 
 men such as he, blood would not have been shed. 
 
 Sadolet wrote to the pope that he was astonished to see proceed- 
 ings adopted against the Yaudois, whilst the Jews were spared ; 
 but his protection was soon withdrawn from them by his removal 
 from the country ; for, being called to Rome, he lost sight of them, 
 
 ' Mcras calumnias etfalms criminationes .... 
 
 ii 
 
60 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tikst. 
 
 and the Yaudois had now none to deal with but their perse- 
 cutors. 
 
 Tlie term of amnesty, announced by the letters of grace, being 
 expired, the court of Aix commanded the Yaudois to send six 
 mandatories, to declare whether they intended to take advantage 
 of it and to conform to its conditions. One man alone presented 
 himself, named Eslene: "We are ready to abjure," he once more 
 said, " upon condition that our erroi-s be proved to us." Othei-s 
 claimed the benefit of the amnesty without reservation ; and of this 
 number were those persons in particular who had been condemned 
 by the decree of the 18th of November, 1540; so that the decree 
 ceased, by this very circumstance, to have any object, yet after- 
 wards it served as a pretext for their total extermination. This 
 fact, which has not been noticed by any writer, exposes the dis- 
 order and iniquity then existing where tlie Yaudois were concerned, 
 in respect of what was called the administration of justice. 
 
 A whole year now elapsed without any very notable inci- 
 dent, except the martyrdom of an humble hawker [colporteur] of 
 books, who was surprised at Avignon in the very act of selling a 
 Bible. His trial was soon finished : in the eyes of the Church of 
 Rome his crime was unpardonable. All means were tried in order 
 to make him abjure, but he had been too long familiar with the 
 word of God to bow to the word of men. His steadfastness (which 
 the evangelical colporteurs of our days seem to have inherited, 
 and which they display in the midst of humiliating treatment 
 sometimes experienced by them, where their predecessors would 
 have incurred the penalty of death) did not forsake him in his last 
 moments. Condemned to be burned alive at the place of public 
 execution, he was chained to a post; to which the volume of the 
 Holy Scriptures was also attached. "Ah!" cried he, "how can I 
 complain of my being put to death, when the word of God is burned 
 along with me]"' The Bible and the Christian were consumed 
 together in the flames; but the Yaudois were only the more con- 
 firmed in their faith and constancy. 
 
 The Cardinal De Toumon, stirred up against them by the Legate 
 of the Holy See, transmitted to the king information that the 
 clergy had condemned the Confession of Faith which they had 
 presented. The king demanded to be apprised of the results which 
 had been produced by the letters of grace which he had granted, 
 and at the same time wrote to the governor of the province^ re- 
 qidring him to cleanse that region of heresy. 
 
 The Bishop of Cavaillon was one of those who most strongly 
 
 * Then the Sire de Grignan. 
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 A REMARKABLE CONVERSION. 
 
 61 
 
 maintained that they shoidd make an end at once with the heretics. 
 The court of Aix delegated him, along with one of his councillors, 
 to make inquiry at MIrindol how the Yaudois stood affected with 
 regard to religion. Having arrived in the village, he sent for the 
 hailli, whose name was Maynard, and for the principal persons of 
 the place, and without touching upon any question of doctrine, 
 said to them, " Abjure your errors, whatsoever they may be, and I 
 will hold you as dear as I now hold you guilty: if not, then tremble 
 for the penalty of your obstinacy." "Would your grace," said 
 the bailli, " be pleased to tell us what points we are required to 
 abjure?" " It is needless," said the bishop ; " a general abjuration 
 will satisfy us." " But according to the decree of the coui-t," said 
 they, " it is upon our Confession of Faith that we ought to be 
 examined." "And what is thatf' said the bishop's councillor, 
 who was a doctor of divinity. The bishop presented it to him, 
 saying, " See ! the whole thing is full of heresy." " In what place 1 '* 
 said Maynard. "The doctor will tell you," replied the prelate. 
 " I would need two or three days to examine it," remarked the 
 theologian. " Yery well ! we will come back next week." 
 
 Eight days after, the doctor of divinity went to his bishop. " My 
 lord," said he, " I have not only found this paper conformable 
 to the Holy Scriptures, but, moreover, I have learned to under- 
 stand them better during these two or three days, than during all 
 the rest of my life." " You are under the influence of the devil," 
 said the prelate. The councillor withdrew; and as we shall not 
 meet with him again in the course of this history, it may here be 
 added that this circumstance led him to search the Scriptures still 
 more than he had yet done, and that, a year after, he went to Geneva, 
 where he embraced Protestantism. Had the Confession of Faith 
 of the Yaudois churches produced only that result, there is enough 
 of good in the convemon and salvation of one immortal soul, to 
 make us regard it with feelings of satisfaction, whatever temix)ral 
 misfortunes may have ensued from it. 
 
 However, a few days after the bishop had dismissed this con- 
 scientious theologian, he filled up his place at Cavaillon with a 
 doctor of the Sorbonne, recently come from Paris. 
 
 \Yith him the prelate returned to Merindol. They met some 
 children on the way, and the bishop gave them a few pieces of money, 
 recommending them to learn the Pater and the Credo. " We know 
 them," said the children. "In Latin?" "Yes; but we cannot 
 give the meaning of them except in French." " What need is there 
 of so much knowledge ? " said the bishop; " I know many doctors 
 who would be at a loss to give the meaning of them." " And what 
 
62 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS, 
 
 [tabt FiKsr. 
 
 Chap, v] 
 
 EDICT OF FRANCIS T. 
 
 63 
 
 ■ J 
 
 9f 
 
 i 
 
 ' 
 
 purpose would it serve to know them, if one did not know what the 
 words meant ?" replied Andrew Maynard, who now made his appear- 
 ance before them. "Well, do you know it yourself?" said the pre- 
 late. " I would think myself very unhappy if I were ignorant of 
 it," replied the bailli. And he explained the meaning of a portion. 
 "T could not have believed," exclaimed the churchman, with a 
 peculiar clerical oath, " that there had been so many doctors at 
 Merindol." " The least among us could tell you as much as I," re- 
 plied the bailli ; " only ask one of these children, and you shall see." 
 But, as the bishop kept silence, he went on : " If you will permit, 
 one of them shall himself ask questions at the rest." And they did 
 it so readily and beautifully, that everybody marvelled. 
 
 The bishop then, sending away all the strangers, said to the Vau- 
 dois, " I know very well that there is not so much ill amongst you 
 as people think ; nevertheless, to satisfy men's minds, it is necessary 
 that you should submit to some appearance of abjuration." " What 
 would you have us to abjure," said they, " if we are in the truth V 
 " It is nothing but a mere formality that I require of you," said 
 the bishop ; " I demand neither notary nor signature. Let the 
 •bailli and the syndic only make an abjuration here, in secret, and 
 in your name, as vague as they please, and I will put an end to all 
 these prosecutions." The Vaudois kept silence, and made no reply. 
 "What is it that restrains you?" said the bishop, to remove all 
 difficulty; "if you do not think fit to keep by that abjuration, 
 nobody will be able to convict you, neither by your act nor your sig- 
 nature." But the upright and honest minds of these simple moun- 
 taineers could not enter into such sinuosities of popish consciences. 
 " We are frank and sincere, my lord," said they, " and we are not 
 disposed to do anything that we cannot keep by." Oh! do not the 
 reservations and prudent dissimulations of worldly wisdom seem 
 wretched indeed, when contrasted with that generous blindness of 
 honesty and truth 1 For if the Vaudois had but thought fit to say, 
 " We abjure our errors," making application of that expression to 
 some other thing altogether than their doctrines, perhaps they 
 might have been saved. But Jesuitism is not of Vaudois origin. 
 The bishop withdrew. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1542, he returned vnih a recorder of the 
 tribunal, and a commissioner of the parliament. The inhabitants 
 of Merindol were summoned together again : the papers in their 
 case were read ; some remaiks were exchanged betwixt the bailli 
 and the recorder ; but the commissioner becoming impatient, com- 
 manded them to be silent, and required the Vaudois to give their 
 conclusive reply. "Our reply," said they, "is, that oui- errors 
 
 ought to be pointed out to us." The commissioner asked the bishop 
 to do it. The bishop replied that public report was a sufficient 
 inculpation of the heretics. " And was it not to ascertain if these 
 reports were well founded that the investigation wa^ appointed ?" 
 said Maynard, in name of the Vaudois. The bishop, sufficiently em- 
 barrassed, then called upon a preaching monk, who was with him, 
 to preach a sermon to them. The monk pronounced a long discourse 
 in Latin, and every one withdrew. But the commission not having 
 followed up this investigation, another year passed, during which 
 the Vaudois enjoyed some measure of tranquillity. Nay, the in- 
 habitants of Cabrieres du Cantal (for there is also a Cabrieres 
 d'Aigues), having been attacked by a band of marauders, amongst 
 whom were some soldiers of Avignon, addressed their complaints to 
 Francis L; and the monarch, comprehending at last the intrigues of 
 their enemies, signed, of his own accord, on the 14th of June, 1544, 
 an edict, by which he suspended all proceecUngs commenced against 
 the Vaudois, ordaining that they should be re-estabUshed in all their 
 privileges, and that those of them who were prisoners should be set 
 at Uberty, and which concluded with these words, "And seeing that 
 the Procureur-General of Provence is a relative of the Archbishop 
 of Aix, their sworn enemy, a councillor of the court shall be ap- 
 pointed in his place to inform me if they are innocent." It looked as 
 if aU was on the point of being thus brought to an end ; and seeming 
 just to approach a peaceful conclusion of this agitated di^ama, we 
 are farther than ever from anticipating the terrible catastrophe 
 with which it was really to close. 
 
 The court of Aix, before publishing the letter of Francis I., 
 sent one of its officers, named Courtin, to Paris, in order if possible 
 to obtain the revocation of it. A sum of sixty livres was allowed 
 him for this journey. He had letters of recommendation to the 
 Cardinal De Tournon, and to the Procurmr du Roi of the privy 
 council. In a meeting of this council, on the 1st of January, 1545, 
 the letters of revocation were presented to the king for signature. 
 Fmncis L signed them without reading them ; afterwards he re- 
 pented of it, and inquiry was made by whom these lettei^ had l>een 
 prepared, and by whose hands they had been brought to him. Ihe 
 name of the Promrmr du Roi in the privy council ^as fohn 
 Leclerc "Was it you," he was asked, " who signed this paper f 1 
 have no recoUection of it." The seal was broken ; there was no 
 signature. The persons commissioned to inquire into the matter 
 sent for Leclerc's substitute, whose name was WiUiam Potel. He 
 was asked, "Was it you who prepared the paper?" "Yes, but J 
 did not sign it." "Who got you to write it?" "It was M. Oour- 
 

 I,. 
 
 Qi 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 MfiRINDOL. 
 
 65 
 
 I 
 
 tin, an officer of the Parliament of Provence." " Why did you not 
 sign it?" "Because it wanted the packet of documents connected 
 with it." "By whom were these letters of revocation, which have 
 been surreptitiously obtained and illegally drawn up, introduced 
 into the privy council 1 " "By Monsieur the Cardinal De Tournon." 
 The cardinal was called. "Who gave these documents to your 
 eminence?" "The officer of the court of Aix, sent by the presi- 
 dent, D'Opi^ede" (for D'Oppede had succeeded Chassan^e in 1543). 
 "Whose business was it to present them for his majesty's signa- 
 ture?" "The grand chancellor's." This dignitary was sent for, 
 and the letters of revocation were exhibited to him. He was asked 
 if he had ever had them in his hands. He said, "Yes; but as they 
 did not appear to be regular, I did not think it proper to present 
 them for signature to the king." "Then who presented them?'' 
 " He who coimtersigned them." They looked and found that this 
 was the minister De L'Aubespine. He was summoned before the 
 commission, and acknowledged his signature, but he said that the 
 paper had not been written in his office. None of his clerks had 
 any better recollection of it. The hand of the clergy, working in 
 secret, had left no trace of the tortuous course by which these letters 
 had passed. Moreover, says the advocate-general of 1550, the seal 
 was of white wax, and the counter-seal green, a thing quite unusual. 
 
 It is therefore beyond doubt that these letters had been dis- 
 honestly fabricated, and presented at unawares for the signature of 
 the king. Let us now see what they contained. 
 
 " Considering," it is there said, " that the heretics of Lucerna 
 have established themselves in Provence, and preach there ; that the 
 Vaudois publicly manifest their heresy, that they trouble the coun- 
 try ... . <fec., the court of Provence shall proceed to execute the 
 decree of the 18th of November, 1540,alllettersof grace of later date 
 notwithstanding, and we ordain the governor of the province to ap- 
 ply himself with all vigour to the execution of justice in this matter." 
 
 What justice, O God! what iniquity! And this business be- 
 comes blacker still, if we consider that the privy council, even if 
 the papers had come to it in the regular way, had no power to de- 
 cree anything contrary to the letters of grace and evocation, which 
 had been granted by the monarch himself It was an equally fla- 
 grant, and still more deplorable contravention of law, that whilst the 
 decree of the 18th of November, 1540, only bore the condemnation 
 of a small number of the inhabitants of M^rindol, yet under the 
 pretext of the execution of that decree was included the destruc- 
 tion by fire and sword of a whole population, occupying seventeen 
 villages, all of which were ravaged and destroyed. 
 
 i! 
 
 Scarcely had this sanguinary order been obtained, when Courtin 
 sent it to D'Oppdde, by an express courier. This courier arrived 
 at Aix on the 13th of February, 1545. The court of Aix imme- 
 diately wrote to Courtin, signifying its great satisfaction; to M. De 
 Grignan, Governor of Provence, requiring him to have troops ready 
 for their service; and to the Cardinal De Toumon, congratulating 
 him on the triumph which he had obtained. * 
 
 Here, again, a new infraction of judicial forms took place. The 
 Vaudois, who were trusting to the suspension of proceedings, in 
 terms of the royal letters of 14th June, 1544, ought to have re- 
 ceived immediate notification of these new papers, which gave efiect 
 to the original decree. They received no notification of the kind; 
 all was carefully concealed from them ; the troops were collected 
 in silence ; and advantage was taken of the feeling of security 
 amongst the poor people to make preparations for their death. The 
 enemies of the Vaudois did not wish that they should have time to 
 address to their sovereign a reclaiming petition, which might have 
 led to a detection of the viUainy of which he had been the dupe, 
 and of which they were to be the victims. They only waited until 
 a certain Captain Poulain, Baron of La Garde, who was then in 
 Piedmont, and who was soon to conduct a body of veteran troops 
 to Roussillon, should pass through Provence, in order to employ 
 these troops in that service. He arrived on the 6 th of April. 
 From the 7th to the 11th all the necessary preparations were made 
 for the execution of that retroactive sentence, which had never 
 even been notified to those whom it concerned. The next day, the 
 12th of April, was the Sabbath ; nevertheless, the court met on the 
 summons of Menier D'Oppede. The king's advocate, whose name 
 was Gu6rin, formally demanded the execution of the decree, to 
 which these letters of revocation were supposed to have restored all 
 its force. The court accorded his demand, named commissioners, 
 and required D'Oppede, as the king's lieutenant, in absence of the 
 governor, to take vigorous measures for the execution of justice — 
 an odious mockery 1 Immediately after, D'Oppede wrote to the 
 Warden of Apt to take arms and seize upon aU the heretics of the 
 neighbourhood ; he then caused his commissioners to set out, who 
 that same evening arrived at Pertuis. 
 
 At the same time orders were sent to the inhabitants of Lour- 
 marin to prepare billets for 1000 infantry, and 300 cavalry. The 
 inhabitants replied by taking up arms. The summons was repeated ; 
 they demanded a delay of twelve hours to consider of it. "What ! " 
 it was answered, "shall subjects make terms with their prince?" 
 The Chatelaine of Lourmarin, Blanche de L^vis, came in person to 
 
 Vol. I. 9 
 
66 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PABT ITlKST. 
 
 Chap. V.J 
 
 MASSACRES. 
 
 67 
 
 intercede for them. She was not listened to. Thereupon she went 
 to the public square of the village, into the midst of the inhabi- 
 tants, and with many tears adjured them to lay down their arms, and 
 not to expose themselves to certain destruction. " Our destniction 
 will only be the more speedy if we do so," was their reply. "But at 
 least send a petition," said she. " Well," said they, " let them only 
 allow us to leave the country, and we will abandon our property to 
 those who wish to get possession of it by our death." But the poor 
 chatelaine could give them no assistance in this matter. The Lady 
 of Cental also wrote to D'Oppede to entreat him to spare her 
 vassals. But Captain Vaujuine had already arrived at Cadenet. 
 The troops spread over the country commenced to pillage and to 
 biun. The fii-st column, led by D'Oppede, marched upon Lour- 
 marin. The second, conducted by the Baron of La Garde, marched 
 upon La Motte and Cabrieres d'Aigues. The third, under the 
 orders of Vaujuine and De Redortier, proceeded towards M^rindol 
 and Cabrieres du Comtat.^ 
 
 D'Oppede commenced, upon the way, by setting fire to the houses 
 of La Roque, Ville Laure, and Trezemines, which had been deserted 
 by the Vaudois; he did the same at Lourmarin, where 114 houses 
 were destroyed by the flames. He then ordered the officers and 
 the consuls of Apt to collect all the forces possible at Roussillon, 
 and to proceed thither and await his orders. 
 
 On the 18th of April, the united troops of D'Oppede, Vaujuine, 
 Eedortier, and Poulain, appeared before M6rindol. The inhabitants 
 had fled from it, but a young man, whom some circumstance had 
 detained in the fields, was seized by the spoilers. His name was 
 Maurice Blanc. He was tied to an olive tree, and the soldiers 
 making a target of his body, seemed to delight in insulting his 
 agony by discharging their pieces at him from a distance. He ex- 
 pired, pierced by five arquebuse balls. Just so many were the 
 wounds which his Saviour had received upon the cross. The young 
 martyr of Merindol committed his soul to him, with the exclama- 
 tion, •' O Lord, receive my spirit into thy hands ! '* 
 
 They then set fire to the village, which was entirely destroyed. 
 Some women, says a person who was present, having been siu-prised 
 in the church, were stripped of their garments, and the barbarians, 
 making them join hands as for a dance, compelled them, by severely 
 pricking them with their daggers and pikes, to march round the 
 castle, amidst shouts of laughter and outrages, of which they were 
 
 » According to the report of this expedition, drawn up by Brisaons, criminal re- 
 corder to the court of Aix, who was associated with the commissioners in order to 
 draw it up. 
 
 I 
 
 the objects. After this they took them, abeady covered with blood, 
 and flung them, one after another, from the top of the rock upon 
 which the castle was built. Many others were taken elsewhere 
 and sold. A father had to go as far as Marseilles to redeem his 
 daughter. A young mother, who was fleeing across the corn-fields 
 with her infant in her arms, was seized and violated by these soldiei-s, 
 or rather brutes, whilst she still continued to hold her babe pressed 
 to her breast. An old woman, whose age secured her from similar 
 outrage, was treated by them in a way which insulted both hu- 
 manity and their own religion. They shaved her in the form of a 
 cross, and having decked her mth some worthless ornaments, 
 dragged her through the streets, chanting in derision, after the 
 manner of priests. This took place at Lauris, on the way between 
 Cabrieres and Avignon. The procession arrived where there was 
 an oven ready for baking bread, and the soldiers, pushing their 
 victim forward with their weapons, said to her, " Go in there, you 
 old damned wretch!" The poor woman was going m without 
 resistance, so much had she been tormented, when those who had 
 heated the oven objected, and prevented her from bemg thrown 
 
 Amidst such brutalities, a thousand times repeated, under differ- 
 ent and more revolting forms, the army came to Cabrieres. It was 
 a fortified town in the territories of the pope. The king's troops 
 had no power to touch it without the consent of the pontiff. But 
 the vice-legate, Mormoiron, hastened to put into the hands of 
 D'Oppede the most unlimited powers for this expedition. 
 
 They arrived at Cabrieres on the 19th of April, which was also 
 a Sabbath. The walls were battered from morning to night, in 
 order to make a breach in them— a becoming sanctification of the 
 day of the Lord ! The Vaudois, who were shut up in that place, 
 prayed and offered an unyielding resistance. The attack was con- 
 tinued aU night without effect. On Monday morning D'Oppdde put 
 a stop to the firing. He wrote, with his own hand, to the Vaudois, 
 that if they would open the gates of their town he would do them 
 no harm. He probably knew that, according to the decision of the 
 Council of Constance, there is no necessity for keeping faith with 
 heretics. The Vaudois, less familiar with the canonical science, 
 which teaches perjury, than with the Bible, which enjoins sincerity, 
 judged by its maxiims of the king's word, or that of the President 
 of the court of Aix, and opened to him the gates of Cabrieres. 
 The first troops which entered were the veteran bands of the Baron 
 of La Garde, newly arrived from Piedmont, men inured to all the 
 dangers of war. It was by them that the carnage was to be com- 
 
6S 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Fibst, 
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 MASSACKKS. 
 
 69 
 
 menced, but knowing the terms of capitulation which had been 
 agreed upon, the soldiers asserted that it concerned their honour to 
 oppose the infraction of them. The commissioners of the court of 
 Aix and of the vice-legate entered into a discussion with them 
 upon this point. Meanwhile Menier D'Oppede caused the principal 
 persons of the town to be called, who came with unhesitating con- 
 fidence. They were eighteen in number. Their hands were tied, 
 and they were ordered to the midst of the troops. They supposed 
 that they were only made hostages, to secure the tranquillity of the 
 rest of the population. But as they moved along the ranks of the 
 Provengal troops commanded by D'Oppede, his son-in-law, named 
 De Pourri^res, struck with his cutlass the bald head of an old man, 
 whose tottering step had caused him to touch him in passing. 
 "Kill them all!" cried D'Oppede, seeing him fall, and in a moment 
 these dastardly and fanatical troops fell upon them and butchered 
 them. After they were dead, the same De Pourrieres, and the Sire 
 de Faulcon, went about amongst them and mutilated their corpses. 
 The heads of these unfortunate men were carried about on pikes. 
 The passions of the soldiery were roused ; the signal for massacre 
 had been given. Some women, shut up in a bam, which was set on 
 fire, sought to save themselves by leaping from its walls. They were 
 received upon the points of partizans and swords. Others had 
 retired into the castle. " Their death ! their blood !" cried D'Op- 
 pede, and pointed out to his soldiers the way to their place of refuge. 
 But how shall I describe the scene which took place in the 
 church] It was the most horrible and sacrilegious scene of all; for 
 it was there that a great number of the women and young girls of 
 the place had taken refuge. The soldiers rushed upon them, stripped 
 them, committed the most shocking outrages upon them, and then 
 some were thrown down from the steeple; others were taken away 
 to be still further abused. Pregnant women might be seen with 
 their bellies ripped up, and the bloody fruit of their womb fallen 
 from them. Mutilated bodies, still breathing, lay scattered before 
 the porch. The advocate Guerin, who was present there, said in 
 his deposition, " I think I saw four or five hundred poor souls of 
 women and children killed in that church." 
 
 The prisoners who were not put to death by order of the presi- 
 dent, were sold by the soldiers to those who recruited for the royal 
 galleys. However, the vice-legate would not sufier any quarter to 
 be given. Such was the spirit of Popery in its most exalted repre- 
 sentatives. This legate also, having learned that twenty-five 
 persons, the greater part of whom were mothers of families, were 
 concealed in a cave towards Mys, although it was not within 
 
 .,•^ \i 
 
 the boundary of the papal territories, marched thither with soldiers 
 to destroy them. Arriving at the entrance of the cave, he gave 
 orders for discharges of musketry, but no one came out. There- 
 upon he caused a great fire to be kindled in the mouth of the cave, 
 and every living creature in it was stifled to death. Five years 
 after their dried bones were still to be seen, as was ascertained in 
 those judicial investigations of which we are presently to speak. 
 The general results of these investigations, which may here be 
 stated, were, that in this extermination 763 inhabited houses, eighty- 
 niue stables, and thirty-one barns were burned. As to the number 
 of the slain, it could not be ascertained with precision, but it was 
 estimated at more than 3000. 
 
 Whilst he was still at Cabri^res, D'Oppede received a message 
 from the Seigneur of La Coste, praying him to spare his vassals. 
 This was on Monday evening. " Let them make four breaches in 
 their walls," replied D'Oppede, ^* and then we shall see." On Tues- 
 daj" morning the breaches were commenced. Two officers, with a 
 few soldiers, arrived. The Seigneur of La Coste offered them a 
 refreshment before the gate of the castle. Two domestics served 
 it. TThe soldiers sat down to eat, and whilst they eat there ar- 
 rived, with a great sound of drums and trumpets, the bulk of the 
 forces of Menier D'OppMe, marching as to an assault. The inha- 
 bitants of the little town were alarmed, closed the gate^, and 
 interrupted the making of the breaches, which had been commenced. 
 The soldiers scattered themselves through the gardens of the castle, 
 which were on the outside of the walls of the town, tore up the 
 plants, cut down the fruit-trees, burned the arbours, and dragged 
 about over the parterres, which they had covered with ruin and 
 confusion, their prisoners, whom they cruelly maltreated. Within 
 the walls the soldiers who had got admission killed the two domes- 
 tics who served them. 
 
 Next day, being Wednesday, the 22d of April, D'Oppede wrote 
 to the syndics of La Coste to persuade them to open the gates of 
 the town, promising justice and protection. The gates were opened, 
 and that instant the furious soldiery rushed into the streets, destroy- 
 ing, plundering, ravishing, massacring, and burning in all directions. 
 A little warren lay behind the castle. Thither the soldiers dragged 
 the captives whom they seized, to deprive them of their honour 
 before depriving them of their life. Mothers attempted to defend 
 their daughters, and to save them from the perpetrators of these 
 brutalities. One, seeing the fruitlessness of her efforts, pierced her 
 bosom with a knife, and held it out bleeding to her daughter, that 
 she might stab herself with it also. " Oh ! I am overcome with 
 
 ,1 
 
70 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fibst. 
 
 Chav. V] 
 
 THE CHURCHES OF THE LEBERON. 
 
 71 
 
 all these horrors," exclaiins the king's advocate, who pleaded in the 
 evocation of this affair before the court of Peers. " Spare me from 
 speaking of the wretches who flung themselves from the top of the 
 walls, or hanged themselves upon the trees, or stabbed themselves, 
 the victims trodden under foot, or wandering about and dying 
 of famine, or torn by the ravens, or seized and killed, or sold and 
 sent to the galleys." ^ The very cattle of these poor people perished 
 for want of shelter, for it was forbidden to harbour a Vaudois, or 
 anything that had appertained to them. A poor woman, ready to 
 die of hunger, asked a morsel of bread at the door of a ferm-house. 
 " It is forbidden," they said. " If men forbid you, God commands 
 you," cried she. But that cry did not save her, and the Church of 
 Home was able to reckon one triumph more. 
 
 What, then, became of such of these unfortunate Vaudois as suc- 
 ceeded in making their escape from present death? Assembled 
 upon the wild brows of Leberon, they prayed God to enlighten their 
 enemies, and entreated from him the strength which they needed, 
 that they might not be tempted, in consequence of their misery and 
 their calamities, to abandon their faith or to adopt any evil course. 
 Their calamities were not yet, however, at an end, for after the 
 regular troops came the marauders. The inhabitants of the village 
 of Les Jourdains scoured the country with flags flying, and returned 
 to their homes with mules laden with booty. Those of Puypin 
 rifled their own churches, hoping that this spoliation might be laid 
 to the charge of the Vaudois. Those of Mount Furon killed or 
 sold some wandering children, whom they contrived to seize. Those 
 of Garambois murdered an old man in a cistern. In short, there 
 was nothing but violence, spoliation, and death everywhere. The 
 country-house of Cantal, which was then the most beautiftd in Pro- 
 vence, was burned. 
 
 The lady of that place, as guardian of her son, whose lands had 
 been ravaged, addressed a complaint to the king. This complaint 
 was brought before the second tribunal of the kingdom, called the 
 Queen's Chamber. The parties concerned in these ravages were 
 cited to appeal* before this court, but they refused, sheltering them- 
 selves behind the authority of the decrees, in virtue of which they 
 pretended to have acted. It became necessary to revert to the 
 decrees themselves, and to examine them; but for this the Queen's 
 
 Chamber was not competent, and the case was carried before the 
 supreme tribunal of the kingdom, called the King's Chamber, after- 
 wards called the Court of Peers. Thus it came to pass that all 
 these acts of iniquity and barbarity were inquired into by judicial 
 investigations, the records of which place them all in a clear light, 
 though to those who have not consulted them the connection of 
 events is sufficiently obscure. 
 
 This case was tried in September, 1551, during the reign of 
 Henry II., who sought to cleanse away this stain of blood from the 
 memory of his father. Nevertheless, the most guilty were not pun- 
 ished; the advocate Guerin alone was condemned to death, and 
 D'Oppede returned in triumph to Provence. But we may form 
 some notion of all the intrigues which the clergy must have put in 
 operation to save him, from the fact that on the news of his acquit- 
 tal hymns of thanksgiving were sung in the churches. 
 
 Public prayers were made in Provence to ask of God the preser- 
 vation and speedy return of this illustrious defender of the faith ! 
 " Truth prevails over all." This maxim of history condemns him 
 now. Its tribunal, superior even to that of the Court of Peers, 
 is not accessible, like the tribunals of men, to the corrupting influ- 
 ences of the mighty, whom it judges even in their graves. 
 
 Those of the Vaudois who survived retired into the valleys of 
 Piedmont, and afterwards returned to Provence when the storm was 
 past. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes overthrew once more 
 the places of worship which they had rebmlt upon the banks of the 
 Durance. Under the deplorable reign of Louis XV. the vexatious 
 treatment of the Protestants was continued in a more hypocritical 
 and more undignified maoner. At the present day Protestantism 
 flourishes again on the desolated slopes of the Leberon, but reUgious 
 indifference has wrought greater ravages amongst souls than the 
 persecutions of former times. The inhabitants of these regions 
 scarcely know their history. May the remembrance of their an- 
 cestors, recalled in these pages, lead them to an imitation of them! 
 That Bible which made them so great, even in adversity, can alone 
 restore the Vaudois character to these churches, which have forgot- 
 ten their very origin, and lost even the dignity of misfortune. 
 
 I 
 
 ;« 
 
 .1 
 
 * Viros et morte peremptos, 
 
 Indigna : raptasque, soluto crine^ pudlas; 
 Et late miser is subjecta incendia vicis. 
 
 The Chancellor Michel De L'H6pital. Epist, ad Franc. Olivarium » , » de caum 
 Merindolii . . . &c. 
 
72 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fie«t. 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VAUDOIS IN CALABRIA.\ 
 (A.D. 1400 TO A.D. 1560.) 
 
 Settlement of the Vaudoia in Calabri^Montalto, St Xist and other places 
 founded by them-La Guardia-Correspondence maintained between the Vau- 
 doia of Calabria and those of the Alps-John Louis Paschal appointed pastor- 
 Commencement of persecution in 1559-Sufferinga of Paschal and of Mark 
 Usce-U-Paschal conveyed to Rome-Attempts to induce him to recant-His 
 martWom-Cardinal Alexandrini in Calabria- Falsehood and cruelty- 
 Slaughter of the Vaudois of St. Xist and La Guardia-Fearfol massacres and 
 atrocitie^Escape of a small remnant of the Calabrian Vaudois to Piedmont 
 —Protestantism extinguished in Calabria. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that the Vaudois had also churches 
 in Calabria. The foUowing is the account which Rorengo gives of 
 their emigration thither. 
 
 Two young men of the Vaudois valleys happened one day to be 
 in Turin, in a hostelry, to which also a Calabrian nobleman came 
 to lodge. The young men talked about their affairs, and the desire 
 which^'they felt of going and settling somewhere out of their own 
 country, where the cultivation of the soil began to be insufficient 
 for the wants of the population. The stranger said to them, « My 
 friends, if you choose to come with me, I will give you delightful 
 plains instead of your rocks." The young Vaudois accepted his 
 offer, on condition of their obtaining the consent of their famihes, 
 which they went to ask, and in the hope that they might not be 
 the only ones to accept this offer, but that others of their feUow- 
 countrvmen would accompany them. 
 
 The'people of the valleys did not think it proper to come to any 
 determination before acquainting themselves with the places in 
 which it was proposed to establish them. For this purpose they 
 sent commissioners into Calabria, accompanied by the two young 
 men to whom the lord of the place had offered land. 
 
 "In that country," says GiUes, "there were beautiful streams 
 
 1 AUTH0BITIE3.-Pe»'rm, QUlcs, Liger.-M^Crie, *< History of the Progress and 
 Suppression of the Eeformation in Italy, in the mh century'^ (translated). Paris, 
 1831 8vo p. 290.-itf««e, *' Les Vaudois en CaXahre au XlVe sr In the Revue 
 Suisse ii'p m-Q5S, and e87-709.—Th<maso Costa,*' Seeonda parte dd compendia 
 del Vistoria di Napoli," p. 257.-^ PoHa, *' Historia Eeformaiionis Eccle^ 
 Hheticm " ii 210 SIO. —PaHaleon, *' Herum m ecclesia gestarum histona, p. 667. 
 -Giannone] " Hist. gH. du roy. de Naples." -Hondorff, " TJi^airum histor.," &c. 
 
 Itorengo, Crespin, &c. , - xt. ▼ • -x* j. 
 
 (Still unconsulted.-Archives of Cosenza, of Naples, and of the Inquisition at 
 
 Home). 
 
 < • 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 SETTLEMEi^TS IN CALABRIA. 
 
 73 
 
 and little hills, clothed with all sorts of fruit-trees growing promis- 
 cuously, according to the soil which they affected, such as olive and 
 orange trees. In the plains were vines and chestnuts ; along the 
 lower hills, walnuts, oaks, beeches, and other hardwood trees; on the 
 slopes and crests of the mountains, larches and firs. Everywhere 
 were to be seen in abundance lands fit for cultivation, with few to 
 cultivate them." 
 
 In the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont, on the contrary, there were 
 more labourers than there were fields for them to cultivate; they 
 were like a bee-hive which has become too small through the pros- 
 perity and increase of its population. Emigration was therefore 
 soon resolved upon, and a new swarm of these heaven-blessed and 
 flourishing families prepared to transport to a distance their indus- 
 trious habits and pure manners, indicative throughout of the spirit 
 of the first times of the gospel. 
 
 The young people who were to go made haste to marry; those 
 who had properties sold all; and every one put his affairs in order. 
 It must have been in the year 1340 that this took place ;^ and never 
 before had these peaceful valleys known so general a movement, an 
 agitation so great and so profound, extending everywhere amongst 
 their families. The festivities which celebrated their domestic alli- 
 ances were mingled with the grief of separations. More than one 
 nuptial procession was changed into the caravan of exile. They 
 could say, indeed, like the Hebrews, setting out for the promised 
 land, " The tabernacle of the Lord shall go before us," for they bore 
 with them their hereditary Bible, the gospel of consolation and of 
 courage, that holy ark of the new covenant and of peace of heart. 
 Yet the old mtn, and still more the poor mothers, must have wept 
 many tears on beholding the departure, for an unknown region, of 
 those youth in whom were centred all the earthly hopes of their 
 declining days. Accordingly, the whole Vaudois family accom- 
 panied the first steps of this young colony on its departure. At the 
 base of their mountains they embraced and wept, praying together 
 to the God of their fathers to bless them always, both the one por- 
 tion and the other, at the two extremities of Italy. 
 
 Thereafter the emigrants moved away in silence from their native 
 country, and most of them never to return to it again. They took 
 twenty-five days to reach Calabria, not accomplishing theii* journey 
 without many privations, and perhaps regretful longings after their 
 native land, becoming dearer to them the farther that they removed 
 from it. But they bore a part of their country along with them, 
 as they were entirely surrounded with fellow-countrymen and with 
 
 * Compare, as to this date, Perrin, p. 196, and Gilles, p. 19, lines 10 and 24. 
 Vol. I. iQ 
 
 II 
 
■^.. h 
 
 
 74 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt First. 
 
 familiar objects; above aU, they bore with them in their h^rts 
 Zt confidence in the Almighty wMch is better than coxmtry or 
 
 ^Xving arrived at the places which they were to i^f *' *^^y 
 agreed u;>n the conditions of their settlement. The lords of the 
 sou granted them veiy favourable conditions. According to the 
 terms agreed upon, the Vaudois were bound only to pay a certam 
 „Xen° to the owners, and upon this were left at liberty to mai^e 
 their agricultural labours, according to their own pleasure. The 
 right was granted to them of combining themselves in one or more 
 independent communities, of naming their own rulers both civd or 
 ecclesia^ical, and, finally, of imposing rates and coU^ctuig *hem 
 without being bound to demand any authorization, or to render any 
 account of what they did. These conditions, thus arranged, became 
 a sort of charter to the Vaudois in this new country. 
 
 Thus was there secured to them an amount of libertyjeiy great 
 for that period; and their sense of its value is proved by the feet 
 that they caused these conditions to be drawn out in an authentic 
 instrument, which at a later period was confirmed by the King ot 
 Naples, Ferdinand of Arragon. 
 
 The first Uttle town founded by these new colonists was situated 
 near the town of Montalto; and as the inhabitants had pa^d, in 
 order to settle in it, over the mountains which separate that region 
 from Upper Ibdy, the place of their residence was called Borgo 
 d'Oltramontani, the town of Outremont, or town of the Ultra- 
 montanes. Half-a-century later, they built St. Xist which be- 
 came afterwards the capital of that colony. Dunng the interval, 
 and after the foundations of these towns were laid, the hamlets 
 of Vacarrisso, L' Argentine, St. Vincent, Les Rousses and Mon- 
 tolieu sprung up, the names being in general merely those of the 
 places where they were btult. These numerous villages attest 
 the increasing prosperity of a country previously almost without 
 
 inhabitants. , 
 
 It is indeed, remarkable what a civilizing influence the gospel 
 
 possesses, diffusing blessings amongst the people ^^^^\:^^^' "^ 
 proportion to the purity in which it is received. The Vaudois 
 tohes, so flourishing in the midst of a land filled with supereti- 
 tion and wretchedness, presented then the same contrast which is 
 Btm remarked in our own days between Protestant and Cathobc 
 countries. Let men draw what inference they may, it is mdisput- 
 able that Brazil, where the Church of Rome is absolute, is vepr 
 inferior in enlightenment, in morality, and in prosperity, to the 
 United States of North America, where Protestantism has diflused 
 
 Chip. TI.] 
 
 SETTLEMENTS IN CALABRIA. 
 
 75 
 
 SO mucli of liberty and life. In Europe, what a difference betwixt 
 Spain, the country of inquisitors, and Germany, the country of the 
 Reformation ; betwixt Catholic Ireland and Protestant Scotland! 
 France itself has only improved in its condition as Catholicism has 
 lost power. And under the sky of Italy, in these fertile regions of 
 Calabria, at the period to which our history relates, the industrious 
 and united Yaudois made the striking contrast to appear for the 
 first time. 
 
 Peacefully enjoying the privileges which they had obtained,. 
 £iithful in the payment of their taxes and their tithes, and satis- 
 fied to abide within the restricted circle of their own beliefs and 
 affections, they might have been supposed to be reserved for the 
 happiest destinies. Yes ! God gave them, indeed, all the means 
 of quiet happiness, but Rome took them away. The Marquis of 
 Spinello, struck with the improvements which they had introduced 
 in the lands intrusted to them, invited them to his estates likewise. 
 He authorized them to surround with walls the town which they 
 built. This town was, for this reason, called La Guardia, as being 
 appointed to perform the principal part in guarding their country. 
 
 Towards the end of the 14th century, their brethren of Provence 
 being persecuted, many of them returned to the valleys from which 
 their fathers had emigrated ; but finding them too densely peopled 
 to be able to accommodate new inhabitants, and some even of their 
 own inhabitants desiring also to leave their native land, they 
 formed together a new emigration, descending again into Italy, 
 and settling on the frontiers of Apulia, not far from their Cala- 
 brian brethren. The villages which owed their origin to these 
 new colonists, were all surrounded with walls, and were called by 
 the same names with those which their inhabitants had left. 
 There was a La Cellaie, after a place in the valley of Angrogna ; a 
 Faetj after a place in the valley of St. Martin ; a La Motte, after 
 a place at the base of the Leberon, near Cabrieres d'Aigues, in 
 Provence. 
 
 Even in a.d. 1500, some Yaudois left Freyssinieres and Pragela, 
 to settle in Calabria. They fixed their residence upon the banks of 
 a little river, called the Yolturate, which flows from the Apennines 
 into the sea of Tarentum. Latterly, says Gilles, they extended 
 themselves into divers other parts of the kingdom of Naples, and 
 even into Sicily. 
 
 It is evident that the blessing of God rested upon these Yaudois 
 colonies in their prosperity; and not only agriculture, but the 
 sciences flourished among them ; for Barlaam of Calabria, of whom 
 Petrarch was the disciple, was himself, according to some writers, a 
 
▲.^ 
 
 76 
 
 THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAET ruisT. 
 
 disciple of the Vaudois. Sprung from aU parts of the Alps where 
 Sbretl^en dwelt, they formed amongst themselves a representa- 
 tio^of the whole Yaudois nation. We may therefore miagme 
 what satisfaction they must have felt in that country, m w^h 
 they found, a^ it were, all their native countries brought together 
 Moreover, they frequently received visits from pastors of the 
 Seys The Vaudois Synod renewed the appointments for thi. 
 purpose every two years. Each of these pastors waa accompanied 
 by a fellow-labourer younger than himself, and after two yea.^ 
 soioum amongst their brethren of these churches they returned to 
 the mother church ; for the Yaudois Church did not act upon he 
 principle of assigning the same field of labour to its pastors for the 
 whole period of their ministry. . xv^ 
 
 But they did not take the same road, m their return to the 
 valleys, which they had followed in going to Calabna. If they had 
 gone by the right of the Apennines, by Genoa and Naples they 
 fetumed by the left, along the coasts of the Adriatic This change 
 of route wL not without design - for in almost all the cities of 
 Italy, as in Genoa, Yenice, Florence, and even Rome itself, they 
 had brethren, and a private house in wHch they met. It was not 
 untU they had ax^complished this evangelistic pilgrimage, of which 
 the last station wa^ MHan, that the missionary pastors returned to 
 their own country. It must have been an occasion of great Christian 
 iov for these poor isolated souls, whose secret sympathies made 
 them look so eagerly for the coming of their pastors, when a pre- 
 concerted signal by the stranger who knocked at their door, made 
 him known as the missionaiy from the Alps, whom the Yaudois 
 Church sent to them once every two years. . , ^r, . 
 
 Conducted with every demonstration of kindness into the hos- 
 pitable abode, where the recoUection of the Barbas who had pre- 
 ceded him wa^ preserved as a family treasure, from generation to 
 generation, he found that abode his own, and that family his flock ; 
 a small flock no doubt, but under the care of the Good Shepherd. 
 The faithful minister carried with him his commission m the gos- 
 pel, which he was always ready to exhibit. How eagerly they must 
 have pressed around him, and questioned him regarding the churches 
 ^hich he had visited in his journey, the brethren with whom 
 he had met, and the Barba who had been with them two years 
 before '2 Frequently the replies communicated melancholy news, 
 and then they prayed together, and meditated on the Sacred 
 Books. The man of God, a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, 
 received, according to the custom of the ancient Yaudois and of 
 » GiUes, p. 20. » MeiUe, B^. Suisse, ii. 653. 
 
 Chap. YL] 
 
 CALABRIA. 
 
 77 
 
 the primitive church, the evangelical confession of these humble 
 believersj and then parted from them to go on his way, and to seek 
 other hidden ones whom he was to comfort and confirm. Gilles 
 relates that his grandfather, upon a visit which he made to the 
 faithful in Yenice, was assured by themselves that they were about 
 6000 in number.^ 
 
 But all improvement, however slight, which purifies the heart, 
 elevates also the mind, and developes the understanding. This we 
 have already seen illustrated in the way in which the Yaudois 
 distinguished themselves, as the first to make use of their common 
 language for the composition of verse — ^that beautiful Romance 
 language, which was extinguished in the blood of the Albigenses, 
 and with which a literature full of promise, and a civilization that 
 might have proved important for the world, irrecoverably perished. 
 In Calabria, likewise, attention was drawn to the Yaudois by the 
 enlightenment which distinguished them in an age of darkness; 
 and when the Reformation had broken out, the Church of Rome, 
 becoming more observant of religious movements — ^whilst these, on 
 the other hand, acquired a greater strength — could not but fix her 
 eyes upon those Protestant churches which had preceded Protes- 
 tantism, those primitive churches which had survived the apostolic 
 times. Their existence was their condemnation : they must needs 
 be utterly destroyed. 
 
 Already, at difierent times, says Perrin,^ "the clerical race had 
 made complaint that these ultramontanes did not live religiously, 
 like other people; but the seigneurs restrained the cures, saying 
 that these cultivators of the soil came from distant and unknown 
 regions, where, perchance, the people were not so much addicted to 
 the ceremonies of the church; but that in the main they were 
 remarkable for honesty, charitable towards the poor, punctual in 
 paying their rents, and full of the fear of God ; that therefore there 
 was no reason why their consciences should be troubled about a 
 few processions, images, or lights, which they had less than the 
 other people of the country." This restrained those who looked 
 upon them with ill-will, and prevented for a time the murmurs of 
 their neighbours, who, not having been able to draw them into 
 alliances by intermarriage, became jealous when they saw their 
 lands, their cattle, and their labom-s, more blessed of Heaven than 
 their own. Thus they remained in liberty, prospering as the 
 people of God, even in the land of bondage. The priests them- 
 selves, says Meille, had never levied such large tithes as since the 
 Yaudois had come to make the country more productive. To drive 
 » Gilles, p. 20. a P. 197. 
 
 I 
 
78 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part First. 
 
 them away would have l)een to render themselves poor, and they 
 held their peace. 
 
 However, the Calabrian brethren came to know that their fellow- 
 Vaudois of the Piedmontese valleys, yielding to the counsels of the 
 Reformers, had erected places of worship, instead of the private 
 houses in which they had previously been accustomed to assemble; 
 and they thought it their duty also to make an outward manifesta- 
 tion of their existence as an evanglical church. " But the Barba 
 who was then with them, an aged and prudent man," says the 
 historian Gilles, whose great-grandfather he was, "represented to 
 them that zeal must be contented without always pushing things 
 to the uttermost ; for it was necessary for them to consider if, in 
 their circumstances, they were able to act as freely as their brethren 
 of the Val Lucerna, and to make themselves as conspicuous, Avith- 
 out endangering the destruction of their churches. In short, he 
 counselled them to bend to the times, and even secretly to put 
 their afiairs in order, so that they might retire to a place of safety 
 in the moment of peril." "Some," adds the chronicler, "followed 
 his counsel, and were saved; others, who thought it judicious, pro- 
 ceeded, but slowly, to act upon it, and in this way many lost their 
 lives; but the majority did nothing, either because they were too 
 much attached to that country to be able to make up their minds 
 to quit it, or because they had too much confidence in God to 
 entertain any fear." In the meantime, the Barba Stephen Negrin, 
 of Bobi, in the valley of Lucerna, succeeded the aged Barba Gilles, 
 who returned to his native country. 
 
 But the Calabrians wished to have a settled pastor, who should 
 not qmt them. For this purpose they sent to Geneva one of their 
 number, named Mark TJscegli, and familiarly know by the name of 
 Marquet, one of those endearing names of childhood, which are 
 sometimes retained in later life. He was commissioned to solicit 
 from the Italian Church which then existed there, the means of 
 having a minister in Calabria, who should reside amongst his 
 brethren of that country, and devote himself entirely to them. 
 His request was granted ; and to this honourable but perilous post 
 a minister, still very yo\mg, was nominated, himself also a Pied- 
 montese, who had quitted the profession of arms to become a soldier 
 of Christ, and who had prepared for the ministiy of the gospel by a 
 course of study recently terminated at Lausanne. 
 
 The name of this young man was John Louis Paschal; he was 
 bom at Coni, and two days before his being selected to be sent into 
 Calabria, he had been betrothed to a young woman of his own 
 nation, Camilla Guarina, bom like himself in Piedmont, and who 
 
 I 
 
 ' 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 JOHN LOUIS PASCHAL. 
 
 79 
 
 •w* 
 
 like himself had fled to Geneva, in order to live according to the 
 gospel. When he made known to her the call which he had 
 received, and asked her consent to leave her and go into Calabria, 
 the poor girl could only answer him with tears. "Alas!" she 
 exclaimed, "so near to Rome, and so far from me!" But she was 
 a Christian, and she submitted. 
 
 Paschal set forth, accompanied by TJscegli, by another pastor, 
 and by two schoolmasters also destined for the Vaudois. The 
 name of this second pastor was Jacob Bovet; he also was from 
 Piedmont, and he suffered martyrdom at Messina, in 1560. These 
 two friends, natives of the same country, brethren in faith, in de- 
 votedness, and in courage, were not to be separated, even in death. 
 
 Scarcely had Paschal arrived in Calabria, when he began to 
 preach the gospel in public, as was done at Geneva, the Vaudois 
 desiring it, and his own zeal urgiQg him so to do. " Thereupon," 
 says Crespin, "there arose a great noise in these countries, that a 
 Lutheran had come and was destroying everything by his doctrines. 
 The ignorant murmured, the fanatical exclaimed that he must be 
 put to death with all his adherents. The Vaudois alone pressed 
 around him with the joyous affection of brethren, and always 
 hungering the more for the word of life, the more that he multiplied 
 it to them, like the bread broken by the Lord. Thereupon the 
 Marquis Salvator Spinello, principal feudal lord of the Vaudois, 
 who at that time happened to be at Foscalda, a little town near 
 La Guardia and St. Xist, sent to ask the attendance of some of the 
 inhabitants of these towns, that they might explain matters to him. 
 The Vaudois thus summoned, entreated their minister. Paschal, to 
 accompany them, and to state their reasons for the course which 
 they had pursued." This was in the month of July, 1559. 
 
 Mark TJscegli went along with them, and when they had arrived 
 at Foscalda they went into a hostelry before going to appear before 
 the marquis. There a secret friend of their doctrines, who was one of 
 that nobleman's own household, came to request a conversation with 
 them. " Listen to me," said he ; "you have powerful enemies; the 
 best defence of the feeble is to keep out of their way; I advise you 
 therefore to go back without presenting yourselves." " What !" ex- 
 claimed Paschal, "shall I skulk away without defending myself, 
 without contending for the tmth, without pleading for my beloved 
 church !" " The only object of pleading is to gain a cause," replied 
 the pmdent adviser; "in this instance it can only be gained by 
 keeping silence." " That would not only be feeble, but shameful," 
 rejoined the young minister, breaking out in holy ardour; "the 
 Christian is not to measure his strength, but to do his duty. 
 
80 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 1_Paiit FnisT. 
 
 Moreover," added he, "the help of God cannot fail us in this 
 conflict; where is there more strength than in his word 1" "Its 
 strength goes for nothing with those who do not listen to it. Take 
 heed ! you will not be judged according to the word of God, but 
 according to that of men." " What then !" replied the courageous 
 pastor, " the honour of defending the word of God is better than 
 that of triumphing over men." " You will defend it better by 
 preaching it to your churches, which desire it, than by exposing it 
 to the contempt of those who wish to suppress it." " But it is my 
 churches themselves which are called to account, and their pastor 
 ought to be there." Besides all this, Paschal felt so profoundly 
 convinced, so assured, so strong in the excellence of his cause, that 
 he did not despair of being able to make it good, even before the 
 most prejudiced minds. One soul brought captive to the foot of 
 the Saviour*s cross was of more value, in the estimation of the pas- 
 tor, than all earthly good. The secret emissary, who came to give 
 this warning of human wisdom, retired discomfited before this 
 holy foolishness of the cross. The Vaudois presented themselves 
 accordingly before the Marquis of Spinello, accompanied by their 
 young and ardent defender. 
 
 But he had not to contend, as he expected, in an honest contest, 
 by reasons and gospel statements, against errors sincerely held. His 
 enemies desired not truth but silence ; they wished not to destroy 
 error, but the protests which were made against it. Poor Paschal, 
 therefore, had the grief of being at once deprived of the friends 
 whom he already had, and of the adversaries whom he expected 
 to find. The marquis, after having heard him for some moments, 
 during which the Yaudois kept silence, sent them away, whom 
 alone he had cited, and retained Louis Paschal and Mark Uscegli 
 as prisoners, who came to defend them. They remained for eight 
 months in the prisons of Foscalda ; to youth and mental activity 
 an anticipation of the tomb ! Bat the tomb is the gate of heaven 
 to redeemed souls, and celestial consolations cheered the two young 
 Christians in their dungeon. 
 
 After this long period of trial they were removed to the prisons 
 of Cosenza, where it would seem that Mark Uscegli was subjected to 
 torture, for we read these words in a letter of Paschal, written on 
 the 10th of March, 1560, " God has preserved me alone from the 
 torture." Alas ! it was only to reserve him for martyrdom. 
 
 " My companion, Marquet," says he, in another place, " was soli- 
 cited by the Count D'Acillo to recant, and as he particularly put 
 forward the authority of the pope to pardon all sin, Marquet 
 said, * If the pope had had the power of pardoning sins, it would 
 
 \ 
 
 Chap. VI. ] 
 
 MARK USCEGLI— PASCHAL. 
 
 81 
 
 have been needless for Jesus Christ to have come and died for 
 sinners.' " 
 
 A Spaniard, who was present, exclaimed, " What ! a clown, that 
 can neither read nor write, will meddle and dispute !" " We have 
 nothing to do with disputations," said an auditor of the Holy Office, 
 who was also there, "but to know if thou wilt abjure, ay or no." 
 "No," replied Uscegli " Ah, well then, it goes the devil's way!" 
 replied the auditor, and signed himself four times with the sign 
 of the cross. From this moment we hear nothing more of poor 
 Marquet ; and it makes one's eyes fill with tears to find that in- 
 fantile diminutive applied, at the close of his torture, to the young 
 man whom his mother had so called amidst the caresses which she 
 lavished upon his childhood. 
 
 In the month of April, Paschal was conducted fi:om Cosenza to 
 Naples, along with twenty-two prisoners condemned to the galleys, 
 and three companions, whom he does not name. " The person who 
 was appointed to conduct us," says he, in a letter addressed to his 
 afflicted bride, " put on me manacles so tight that I could not repose 
 either by day or by night. I was obliged to bribe him to open 
 them a little, and he did not take them off till he had succeeded in 
 getting from me all the money which I possessed. The galley slaves 
 were fastened by the neck to a long chain; they got nothing but 
 coarse herbs for their food, with a slice of bread, and when one of 
 them fell down from inanition and fatigue, they forced him to rise 
 again by beating him unmercifully." Is it possible that sinful men 
 can so treat their brethren? But the despotic and merciless spirit 
 of Rome would transform brethren into executioners. " During 
 the night," continues the prisoner, " the beasts were better treated 
 than we, for at least they gave them litter, whilst, as for us, we 
 were left on the bare ground." ^ Nine days were spent ia this way 
 ere they arrived at Naples, and in the bark which conveyed them 
 thither he ceased not to preach and exhort, proclaiming the fulness 
 and the necessity of the salvation which is by Jesus Christ. It is 
 evident that he was one whom menaces and maltreatment could 
 not intimidate. 
 
 Paschal was brought to Cosenza on the 7th of February; he left 
 it on the 14th of April. He entered the prisons of Naples on the 
 23d of that month, and was transferred to those of Home on the 
 16th of May, 1560. There this fervent and zealous disciple of 
 Christ arrived with irons on his feet and hands ! But consider how 
 Christ endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, and 
 remember that thus they persecuted the prophets which were before 
 
 > Letter of Paschal^ in Crespin, fol. 514. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 11 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 1^ 
 
n 
 II 
 
 82 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t Fisst. 
 
 Chap. VL] 
 
 PASCHAL IN THE DUNGEON. 
 
 i 
 
 you. Blessed, without doubt, must this new apostle of the Gentiles 
 be deemed, imprisoned, like St. Paul and St. Peter, in that great 
 city of Rome, which has always aimed at reigning over the earth. 
 •^ Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven." ^ 
 
 He entered the city by the Gate of Ostium, the same by which 
 also the apostles and primitive martyrs were conducted into it. 
 Fourteen centuries had passed, and the same scenes were to be 
 renewed again in the name of the idols of Popery, more bloody than 
 those of the Gentiles. Paschal was imprisoned in the Tower of 
 Nona, where very few, says Crespin, were permitted to see him. 
 Already dead as to his connection with the world, nothing can be 
 known of the proceedings with regard to him, save only that he 
 was frequently interrogated and urged to recant, but without effect. 
 
 His brother, Bartholemew Paschal, who had neither abjured 
 Roman Catholicism nor the brotherly affection of the carnal heart, 
 resolved to make an attempt to save him, or at least to see him 
 again. Determining to undertake a journey to Rome for this pur- 
 pose, he set out from Coni, with a recommendation from the gover- 
 nor of that city, and a letter from the Count de la Trinity, whose name 
 has so melancholy a celebrity in the annals of the Vaudois valleys, 
 where we shall presently see that he conducted an atrocious perse- 
 cution. In consequence of these introductions from persons so 
 powei-ful, and so high in credit at the papal court, and perhaps, also, 
 because it was hopea that his influence might lead his brother to 
 abjure, Bartholemew Paschal succeeded in making his way to the 
 gloomy and fetid dungeon where John Louis was confined. 
 
 "I went last evening," he wrote to his family, "to pay my 
 respects to the Grand Inquisitor of the faith, the Cardinal Alexan- 
 drini, but when I spoke to him of my brother, he replied sharply, 
 that that fellow had been a great pest in the country, and that even 
 in the bark he had done nothing but preach his nonsense." Is not 
 this the very way in which the pagan inquisitors of former times 
 must have spoken of St. Paul ? "I then went," he says, " to speak 
 to the judges who examined him. They told me that he became 
 always more and more obstinate, and that his was a bad business. 
 I entreated them in his favour, and they replied that for any other 
 crime, however enormous, pardon might have been possible, but 
 that for having attacked the Church, at least unless he recanted, 
 there could be no pardon." Was this indeed the church of Him 
 who pardoned his executioners] " Then," continues Bartholemew 
 Paschal, " I returned to seek the cardinal, and at last I obtained 
 
 » Matt. V. 10. 
 
 J 
 
 83 
 
 leave to visit my brother. Great God!" he exclaims, "it was 
 frightful to see him amidst the gloom of these damp walls, meagre, 
 pale, enfeebled, bareheaded, his arms tied with small ropes, which 
 went into the flesh, ill of fever, and not even having sti-aw to lie 
 upon." 
 
 "Do good even to your enemies," said Jesus and the apostles. 
 
 "But," continues the letter of Bartholemew, "desiring to em- 
 brace him, I cast myself down upon the ground, and he said to me, 
 *My brother, why do you distress yourself so much? Know you 
 not that a leaf cannot fall from a tree without the will of God?' 
 The judge who accompanied me imposed silence upon him, saying, 
 ' Hold your peace, you heretic !' And I added, ' Is it possible, my 
 brother, that you are obstinate in disowning the Catholic faith, 
 which everybody else holds?' ^I hold that of the gospel,' he 
 replied. * Think you, then,' said the judge, 'that God will condemn 
 all those who do not follow the doctrine of Luther and Calvin?' 
 
 * It is not for me to determine,' replied he, ' but I know that he 
 mil condemn those who, knowing the truth, do not profess it.' 
 ' You speak of truth — ^you disseminate errors.' 'Prove me that 
 by the gospel.' But the judge, instead of answering his question, 
 said to him, ' You would have done far better to have remained 
 still in your own house, enjoying your inheritance, and dwelling 
 among your brethren, instead of rushing into heresy and losing all 
 that you had.' ' I have nothing to lose upon the earth,' he replied 
 
 * that I must not lose sooner or later, and I acquire an inheritance 
 in heaven, which all the powers of the earth shall not be able to 
 take from me.' " 
 
 Is not this still the language of the primitive Christians, and of 
 their idolatrous persecutors, who only lived for the good things of 
 this world? 
 
 During three whole days, successive members of the Holy Office 
 dealt with Paschal, for more than four hours at each time, in the 
 hope of inducing him to recant, and perhaps, also, of being able 
 then to give him up to his brother; but they could get no con- 
 cession. "Then," resumes Bartholemew, "I entreated liim to 
 yield a little, and not to bring upon his family the disgrace of a 
 condemnation. *Must I honour my Saviour less than them, 
 that I am to become perjured to him?' 'You will honour him in 
 your heart, although you remain in the Church.' 'If I am ashamed 
 of him on the earth, he will deny me in heaven.' ' Ah ! my dear 
 brother, return to the bosom of your family, we would all be so 
 happy to have you there.' ' Would to God that we were all met 
 again, united in the Saviour's love ! for my native skies would be 
 
 

 { 
 
 84i 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Fimt. 
 
 pleasanter to me than the vaults of this prison. But if I remain 
 here, it is because Jesus abides with me, and my Saviour is better 
 to me than my family.' 'Would it be to lose him, to come with usi 
 'Yes; for the gate of my dungeon will not open except by means 
 of an abjuration, and that would be the loss of my soul.' ' Your 
 friends, then, are nothing to you?' 'Jesus says, he that is not 
 ready to give up his father or his mother for my sake, is not 
 worthy of me.' Then," says Bartholemew, "I went the length 
 of promising him the half of all that I had, if he would come back 
 with me to Coni ; but he, with tears, answered me that to hear me 
 utter such words afflicted him much more grievously than the 
 fetters with which he was bound : 'for' said he, ' the world passeth 
 away, with the lusts thereof, but the word of God endureth for 
 ever.' And when I wept also, he added, 'God grant me such 
 strength that I may never forsake him !' Then the monk said to 
 him, ' If you will die, die then !'" 
 
 We see, in these three personages, the regenerate man, whose 
 soul speaks according to the Spirit of God ; the natural man, full 
 of regard for the things of this world, of which he knows the 
 value, and yet also full of kindly affection; and, finally, the man 
 besotted by superstition, such as Rome has made him, ignoble and 
 cruel, interrupting the intercourse of soul and heart, the conversa- 
 tion between the martyr and his brother, by such gross invectives 
 as have now been related. 
 
 "Three days after," the brother of John Louis Paschal continues, 
 " I found means to speak with him again, and when the monk was 
 proceeding to exhort him anew, he said to him, ' All your argu- 
 ments are founded upon human pmdence, but do not shut your 
 eyes to the grace of God, for you will be inexcusable before him. 
 'The monk was very much astonished, and said 'God have mercy 
 on us!' 'O, that he may!' added the prisoner. But the day fol- 
 lowing, without uttering a word, he made a sign to me that I 
 should begone, having perceived that the inquisitors had begun to 
 suspect me ; and so I left him without speaking, and returned to 
 Piedmont." 
 
 Here we have still the natural man, timid, because he has no 
 strength but his own, in contrast with the Christian, invincible, 
 because he confides in the strength of Christ. 
 
 Now thou art alone, then, poor Paschal ! buried alive in the 
 bowels of the earth, waiting to be consumed alive by the fire! 
 But the best of fathers, of brothers, and of friends is still ever with 
 
 thee ! 
 
 " The affection which I bear to you," he writes to his bride, 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 .i 
 
 'r 
 
 . 
 
 Chap. VI ] 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF PASCHAL. 
 
 S5 
 
 "increases with the increase of my love to Grod; and the more that 
 I have made progress in the Christian religion, the more also have 
 I loved you." Then, giving her to understand that his death might 
 soon be expected, he says, "Console yourself in Jesus Christ; and 
 let your life be an exhibition of his doctrine." Such were the 
 exhortations which Paschal addressed to Camilla. Guarina, who was 
 to mourn him as his widow, without having become his wife. 
 
 On Sabbath, the 8th of September, 1560, he was conducted from 
 the tower Bi Nana to the convent Ddla Minerva, there to hear his 
 condemnation. " He confirmed, with a steadfast and joyful heart," 
 says Crespin, " all the answers which he had already given, render- 
 ing thanks to God for having called him to the glory of martyrdom; 
 and next day, being Monday, the 9th of September, he was con- 
 ducted to the square of the castle of St. Angelo, near the bridge over 
 the Tiber, where the pile had been prepared." Pope Pius IV. was 
 present at this execution; " but," observes Perrin, " he would have 
 been glad to have been elsewhere, or that Paschal had been dumb, 
 or the people deaf; for that worthy man spake many things which 
 moved the spectators and displeased him much." Upon this account 
 the inquisitors caused him to be presently strangled, feai-ing, per- 
 haps, that his voice might still be raised in midst of the flames to 
 proclaim the truth. The flames, therefore, only consumed his 
 corpse, and his ashes were cast into the Tiber. 
 
 Thus died this courageous martyr, removed from his consort 
 before having married her, and from his congregation before having 
 resided among them, but not removed from the profession of the 
 Christian faith without having done it service; for his example 
 itself was of more value than all the sermons which he could have 
 preached throughout the course of his life. 
 
 During his captivity, the Marquis of Spinello, who had ever pre- 
 viously shown himself the zealous protector of the Vaudois, in con- 
 sequence no doubt of the solid advantage which he derived from 
 their rents, being apprised of the severity of the court of Rome, 
 and fearing, not without cause, that it might be extended to the 
 lands which owned him as their feudal superior, thought proper at 
 least to prevent the consequences of the accusation which was al- 
 ready brought against him, of having introduced and fe,voured here- 
 tics. Perhaps he might also hope, by coming forward against them, 
 to keep in his own hands the means of affording them more effica- 
 cious protection. Be this as it might, he himself accused them of 
 heresy, and demanded from the Holy Office the means of bringing 
 them to submission. '^ However, it was well known," says Gilles, 
 "that in secret he desired their preservation. Upon this," con- 
 
 I 
 
86 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 'Pabt Iimt. 
 
 tinues he, "the Bishop of Cosenza applied himself to that busi- 
 ness; and the marquis, under the guise of assisting him, always 
 contrived to effect some mitigation of his measures." ^ 
 
 But the proceedings of Paschal and his companions having made 
 known at Rome the importance of the evangelical churches of Cala- 
 bria, the Holy Office deemed it not too much to send thither the 
 Grand Inquisitor himself. Cardinal Alexandrini, fresh from the exe- 
 cution iOf the young and courageous pastor of these ancient churches, 
 which he also had witnessed, prepared therefore to visit them. He 
 arrived at St. Xist, accompanied by two Dominican monks, who 
 put on an aspect of the greatest affability, like the wolves in sheeps' 
 clothing of whom the gospel speaks. They caused the inhabitants 
 to be assembled, and said that their intention was to do no harm 
 to anybody (by and by they slaughtered every one) ; that they 
 were come only to bring them in an amicable way to cease listening 
 any longer to any ministers but those sent by the bishop ; and that 
 if they would dismiss the Lutheran schoolmasters and preachers by 
 whom the neighbourhood was - still infested, they would have 
 nothing to fear. And then, no doubt, in order to obtain evidence 
 for themselves as to the number who had a regard for the rites of 
 the Church of Rome, they caused the bell to ring for mass, and 
 summoned the people to attend it. No one came. All the inha- 
 bitants with one consent left the town, and retired into a wood, 
 leaving in their houses only a small number of children and of aged 
 persons. The monks, without appearing to feel at all irritated, 
 went through the mass by themselves ; then, leaving that deserted 
 town, they proceeded to La Guardia, of which they took the pre- 
 caution to close the gates behind them. 
 
 The bells were rung; the people assembled. "Most dear and 
 beloved Christian brethren," said the monks, "your brethren of 
 St. Xist have abjured their errors, and unanimously attended at 
 the most holy mass; we invite you to follow so wise an example; 
 otherwise we shall be obliged, with great sorrow, to condemn you 
 to death." This treacherous language left no room for hesitation 
 between the two alternatives; the people, filled with alarm, thought 
 it best to follow the example of their brethren, who, of course, had 
 acted without constraint, and submitted to hear mass. After this 
 ceremony the gates of the town were opened. Some of the people 
 of St. Xist arrived, and the truth was discovered. Immediately 
 the whole population of La Guardia, indignant at such treachery, 
 and ashamed of their own weakness, assembled again in the public 
 square, crying from all sides that Rome lived only by errors and 
 
 »Gilles, p. 178. 
 
 5^ 
 
 Chap. VL] 
 
 SLAUGHTEB OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 87 
 
 superstitions. The monks endeavoured to calm the irritated 
 people, who, in order to avoid hearing them any longer, resolved 
 to go and join in the woods theii* neighbours of St. Xist. But 
 the Marquis of Spinello arrived, and endeavoured to restrain them ; 
 and with difficulty, says M'Crie, by his representations and pro- 
 mises, succeeded in preventing them from carrying their design 
 into execution. Thus already were the Vaudois divided, part in 
 the town, and part in the woods. 
 
 The Grand Inquisitor, in virtue of the powers with which he 
 was invested, now required the aid of the military to execute his 
 commission. Two companies of soldiers were placed at his disposal. 
 He sent them into the woods of St. Xist to bring back the 
 fugitives; but scarcely had they discovered their retreat, when 
 they fell upon them, crying, "Kill! kill!" The unfortunate 
 Vaudois tried to make their escape ; the soldiers pursued them in 
 all directions, as if they were engaged in the destruction of wild 
 beasts. At last some of the fugitives gathered upon a mountain, 
 and demanded a parley. The captain of the soldiers advanced. 
 "Spare us!" they exclaimed, "spare us! what harm have we done 
 youl Have pity on our wives and children ! Have we not been 
 here for centuries, without having given any cause of complaint? 
 Are we not loyal subjects, industrious labourers, and peaceable well- 
 doing people?" "You are devils, transformed into angels of light, 
 to seduce the simple," was the reply, "but the Holy Office has 
 unmasked your errors." " Well, then," said they, " if we may not 
 be permitted to profess the faith of our forefathers in peace, in these 
 countries which we have rendered fertile, we offer to leave them, 
 and to retii^e into another country." "You will go to sow there the 
 poison of your heresy. No mercy for the rebels!" cried he. And 
 giving the order for his troop to attack them, he advanced with his 
 men amongst the rocks where the Yaudois had sheltered themselves. 
 But seeing the fruitlessness of their endeavours, the necessity of 
 fighting, and that the only hope of safety for their families was 
 in victory, which depends upon God alone, the fugitives laid hold 
 of such weapons as they had been able to make or provide them- 
 selves with, loosened masses of rock, which they hurled upon their 
 assailants, crushing many to death, and then rushed out and dis- 
 persed them, killing half of their number, and finally intrenched 
 themselves anew upon the heights which they had so valiantly 
 
 defended. 
 
 But what avails courage against numbers, without miraculous 
 assistance, like that which was granted to the Israelites against 
 Sennacherib? Cardinal Alexandrini addressed himself to the 
 
 . 
 
88 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Fa»t Fikst. 
 
 Chap. VI ] 
 
 ATROCITIES. 
 
 8d 
 
 Viceroy of Naples, representing the legitimate self-defence of the 
 Vaudois as an open rebellion against authority. The viceroy set 
 out in person, at the head of his troops, and arriving at St. Xist, 
 made proclamation that all should be destroyed by fire and sword 
 if the Ultramontanes did not abjure their heresy. 
 
 This was not the means to subdue them; for, determined not 
 to abjure, they resolved also to defend 'themselves. Their party 
 immediately acquired a strength and an unity which till then they 
 had wanted. The Vaudois with enthusiasm fortified themselves 
 on the mountains ; and their position very soon became so formi- 
 dable, that the viceroy did not venture to attack them with the 
 troops which he had brought. Thereupon he issued a new procla- 
 mation, by which he ofiered to all the fugitives from justice, and 
 banished and condemned persons who lived as vagabonds in the 
 kingdom of Naples, pardon of their offences, on condition that they 
 should come and range themselves imder his banners for the ex- 
 termination of the heretics. This was just what Cattan^e had 
 done ; and such are the supporters of the cause of Rome, whence 
 blood and infamy everywhere flow, as a sponge soaked in mud 
 empties itself when it is grasped in the hand. 
 
 A multitude of outlaws of the worst character, and wretches of all 
 ages, marauders and robbers, who knew all the paths of the Apen- 
 nines, offered themselves for his service. The Vaudois were sur- 
 rounded, pursued, waylaid on the approach to their place of retreat, 
 and slaughtered by men in ambush; the forests, in which they 
 could not be got at, were set on fire; the greater part of them 
 perished, and many of those who made their escape, died of famine 
 in the caverns to which they retired. 
 
 But what did the monks and inquisitors now do? " We cannot 
 endure the sight of bloodshed ! " they exclaimed, " these extermina- 
 tions are revolting to us ; O ! come, come with us into the fold of 
 the Church; with us you will find nothing of that display of war- 
 like weapons which is so disagreeable to men of peace." And the 
 better to testify their aversion to it, they removed to a distance 
 from the town, inviting the inhabitants of La Guardia who still 
 survived to join them there without arms. Alas! poor people, 
 always deceived by the great deceiver of the nations, the woman 
 who speaks with a sweet voice, and afterwards precipitates both 
 bodies and souls into hell ! they still Listened to this perfidious invi- 
 tation; they assembled, but the soldiers were concealed close by, 
 and seventy Vaudois, the number of the fii*st disciples of our Lord, 
 were seized and loaded with chains. These new confessors of the 
 gospel, in presence of a new Paganism, more cruel and more trea- 
 
 If 
 
 cherous than the ancient, were carried prisoners to Montalto. There 
 they were subjected to torture; the inquisitor, Panza, made them 
 all endure the rack, the cords, the wheel, the iron wedges, or the 
 boiling water, to compel them not only to abjure their religion, 
 but also to denounce their brethren and their pastors ! 
 
 O Rome, hypocrite that thou art! shedding crocodile tears 
 because thou canst not now, in thy decrepitude, glut thyself with 
 human flesh as in time past ; what need have we in contending 
 against thee, to enter into the lists of controversy? Thine own 
 acts condemn thee better than our words, and thy history shall 
 be thy burial-dress. The truth is every day preparing it for thy 
 reception ; and when the gospel shall have overcome thy principles 
 of hatred and of pride by its maxims of humility and love, it will 
 triumphantly inscribe upon thy tomb, Hate only evil, but love the 
 evil-doers. 
 
 One of the things which the torturers were especially anxious 
 to obtain from those who were submitted to their hands, was the 
 confession of the pretended abominations of which the Vaudois 
 were accused, and with which it was desired to reproach their 
 morals, on the testimony of their own brethren. Is this Holy 
 Office of the Catholic faith, then, to be accounted a court of justice, 
 or a den of villains, which seeks not only to slaughter its victims, 
 but to load them with infamy ? 
 
 Stephano Carlino, from whom they thought to extort this con- 
 fession, was tortured in so horrible a manner, says M'Crie, that his 
 bowels were forced out of his belly. Another prisoner, named 
 Verminello, had promised, in the extremity of his suffering, to 
 attend mass. This yielding made the inquisitor hope that by 
 augmenting the violence of the tortures he would at last extort a 
 confession of the crimes which he was so desirous to fasten upon 
 the Vaudois, and of which no testimony had yet been obtained. 
 With this view, the unhappy captive was kept for eight whole 
 hours on an instrument of pain, called the hell, but Verminello 
 constantly denied the truth of these atrocious calumnies. Bernar- 
 dino Conto was covered with pitch at Cosenza, and burned alive 
 before all the people. Another martyr, named Mazzone, was 
 stripped of his garments and scourged with small iron chains, and 
 when his flesh had been thus torn in pieces, he was dragged through 
 the streets, and killed at last by blows with burning billets of 
 wood. Of his two sons, the one was flayed alive, as a sheep is 
 flayed by the butcher, and the other was flung down from the sum- 
 mit of a tower. , 
 
 To this same tower a young man was conducted, of prodigious 
 Vol. I, j2 
 
90 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet r 
 
 lUT. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 ATROCITIES. 
 
 91 
 
 strength, and who upon that account had been sumamed Samson. 
 But the strength of the Christian's soul was still more remarkable 
 than the physical strength of the Israelite. As he had resisted 
 all attempts which had been made to get him to abjure, he was 
 urged at least to confess. " I only confess to God," replied he. 
 "Come to mass, or you are a dead man." " Jesus says, if ye believe 
 in me, though ye were dead ye shall live." "Well! kiss this 
 crucifix." " My Jesus is not upon that piece of wood, but in 
 heaven, from which he shall come again to judge the living and 
 the dead." "You will not kiss it?" "I do not choose to be an 
 idolater." And the soldiers flung him down upon the pavement. 
 Much injured, but still alive, he implored the mercy of God. The 
 viceroy happened to pass by. "What piece of carrion is that?" 
 said he, looking at him. " A heretic, who could not die." The 
 ruler gave him a kick upon the head, saying, "Make him food 
 for the pigs." Yet the poor young man continued to live for 
 twenty-two hours before he breathed his last. Which was most 
 contemptible in all this? — king or priest? But before these powers 
 the nations of the earth still prostrate themselves. O when shall 
 Christ make them free ! 
 
 Sixty females of St. Xist, as Gilles relates, were tortured in such 
 a way, that the cords having entered into their flesh, and no re- 
 lief being given them, devouring vermin were engendered in their 
 wounds, which could only be killed by quicklime. Some of them 
 consequently died in the dungeons into which they were cast; 
 others were burned alive, and the best-looking were sold, as in 
 Turkey, to the highest bidders, who, of course, were also the basest 
 of men. 
 
 But all these atrocities were yet surpassed by the barbarous 
 scenes enacted at Montalto, under the government of the Marquis 
 Buccianici. " Poor wretches ! " exclaims an eye-witness, ^ " eighty- 
 eight prisoners were shut up in a low chamber. The executioner 
 came ; he entered and laid hold of one, and after having wrapped a 
 linen cloth round his head, he led him out to the ground adjacent 
 to the building, caused him to fall down upon his knees, and cut 
 his throat with a knife. The blood spouted upon his arms and 
 clothes; but removing the bloody cloth from the head of the man 
 whom he had killed, he entered again, took another prisoner, and 
 slaughtered him in the same manner. My whole frame still shud- 
 ders when I figure to myself the executioner with his bloody knife 
 between his teeth, and the dripping cloth in his hand, his arms red 
 with the blood of his victims, going in and coming out again almost 
 
 ^ Ascanio Caraccioli, M'Crie, p. 295. 
 
 t/j 
 
 
 a hundred times in that work of death. It is impossible to 
 imagine the gentleness and patience of these poor people, who were 
 thus taken like lambs from the fold. All the old men met their 
 death with imperturbable calmness. I could scarcely restrain my 
 tears at the time. And about eight o'clock a decree was issued, 
 which condemned to the torture a hundred women who were after- 
 wards to be put to death. The number of the heretics who were 
 arrested in Calabria is said to have amounted to 1600, and they 
 were all condemned to die. It is said that they originally came 
 from the valleys of Piedmont." 
 
 " Some of them," adds a Neapolitan historian,^ " had their throats 
 cut; others were sawn through the middle of the body, or flung 
 headlong from the tops of rocks. The father saw his son die, and 
 the son his father, without showing the least sign of grief, but, on 
 the contrary, glorying in their being delivered from their woes, and 
 going to rejoin one another in the bosom of that Jesus who died 
 for them." And the historian from whom I quote mocks at this 
 heavenly resignation, and says that it was an evil spirit of which 
 these resigned victims were possessed. The same thing was said of 
 Jesus Christ. Blessed are they who tread with such faith the 
 path of sorrow which He trod ! 
 
 Another eye-witness, who was one of the suite of Cardinal 
 Alexandrini, th\is completes this mournful story: "Before my 
 lord's arrival, eighty-six relapsed heretics had been flayed alive, 
 and then cut into two parts, and the pieces placed upon stakes all 
 along the road for a space of thirty-six miles. This mightily 
 strengthened Catholicism, and considerably shook the cause of 
 heresy. There are already 1400 of these Ultramontanes in the 
 prisons ; some still wander amongst the mountains, but ten crowns 
 are promised for every head that is brought in. Soldiers have 
 been sent in pursuit of them, and every day some prisoners are 
 secured. Their number has at last become so considerable, that 
 my lord, along with the Commissary and the Grand Vicar of 
 Cosenza, have resolved to subject the greater part of them only to 
 penance, excepting the most obstinate, who will be put to death. 
 As for the preaching ministers and leaders of this sect, they will 
 be burned alive. Five of them have already been sent to Cosenza, 
 in order to undergo that punishment, anointed with rosin and 
 sulphur, so that, being gradually consumed, they may sufier the 
 more for correction of their impiety. Many women remain pri- 
 soners, all of w^hom w ill be buined alive. Five of them are to be 
 
 » Thomaso Co&to, seconda parte dd Compendio ddV Istoria di Sapoli, p. 257, 
 

 92 
 
 THE ISRAEI. OF THE ALPS. 
 
 £Pa»x Fiest. 
 
 Chap. VII.] INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 93 
 
 burned to-morrow." This letter is dated 27th June, 1561,^ and 
 terminates with a gross joke about the state of pregnancy of some 
 of these ill-fated females, 
 
 When our indignation is roused against the authors of such 
 atrocities, we are ready to declare that the Church of Rome should 
 be called the church of devils. Pagans, barbarians, savages could 
 not act so cruelly ; it was left for Popery to degrade man beneath 
 the level of the brutes. A man is burned alive ! it is a terribly 
 laconic expression ! How much pain and suffering does it describe ! 
 What, then, when a whole people is given over to such a death ! 
 Can we fail to recognize in persecuting Rome the great whore of 
 the Apocalypse, drunk with the blood of saints and of martyrs? 
 the abominable city, in which is fotmd the blood of all those who 
 have been slain on the earth ^'-^ 
 
 The pastor, John Guerin, who came to Calabria from Bobi to 
 succeed the Barba Gilles, already mentioned, died of hunger in the 
 prisons of Cosenza, because he would not renounce the gospel — 
 the immortal food of his soul amidst all his cruel torments. The 
 four principal persons of the town of La Guardia were hanged 
 upon trees, on a little hill called Moran. The town of St. 
 Agatha, near Naples, paid also its tribute of victims to Rome's 
 thirst for blood. And how many more places besides these, of 
 which the very names have not reached us ! For two years the 
 rage of the monster, whom the Vaudois called Antichrist, devoured 
 that unhappy country. For two whole years the piles were always 
 kindled, the prisons choked, the executioners bathed in blood. 
 
 A few of the unfortunate Vaudois succeeded in making their 
 way back to the valleys of Piedmont. But through what a series 
 of difficulties and perils ! Orders were given to the keepers of all 
 bridges, and to those who had the charge of vessels, or of any kind 
 of conveyances, that they should suffer no traveller to pass without 
 a note from the priest of his parish. Innkeepers were threatened 
 with severe penalties who should receive strangers without this 
 safe-conduct ; so that these poor persecuted people were constrained 
 to travel by night, passing rivei*3 by fording, hiding themselves in 
 the woods, living upon roots, upon what they could timidly glean 
 in the fields, and the fruits which they found on some kinds of 
 trees ; yet thus did a number of families, the females habited in 
 male attire, succeed, after multiplied dangers and unparalleled 
 fatigues, in regaining the retreat of their forefathers. O, how bliss- 
 ful to them after hardships so great and protracted, must have 
 
 ' It was written by Luiggi d'Appiano, and is preserved by Gilles, pp. 182-4. I 
 have only given extracts. * Rev. xvii. 6, 6; xviii, 24. 
 
 
 been the peaceful security of the Vaudois valle5''s, which, however, 
 were also to be subjected to much suffering ! 
 
 But it appears that all the Vaudois of unhappy Calabria were 
 not yet destroyed ; for Pius IV. afterwards sent the Marquis of 
 Butiana to accomplish the extirpation of heresy in that country, 
 and in order to encourage him in the work, promised to reward 
 his success by granting a cardinal's hat to Joseph Butiana, his 
 son. He had no difficulty in succeeding. The Inquisition, that 
 great prop of Popery, which has declined ever since it was abolished 
 — that power of hell, which, however, has not prevailed against 
 the church of God — had long enough wrought its work of ruin 
 now in these evangelical districts. 
 
 The people of Rome themselves, irritated at the bloody atroci- 
 ties which it had perpetrated, burned its palace on the death of 
 Paul III. This, no doubt, was because they were not so good 
 Catholics as they ought to have been. Accordingly, Pius IV., 
 whose pontificate was signalized by the events which we have just 
 narrated, transported the seat of the Holy Office to the opposite 
 bank of the Tiber, to the same place which is said to have been 
 occupied by the ancient circus of Nero, in which so many of the 
 primitive Christians were delivered over to the teeth of wild 
 beasts. And these were primitive Christians, too, who perished 
 at Cosenza, at La Guardia, and at St. Xist ; only for wild beasts 
 were substituted the priests, the monks, and the inquisitors of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS. — 
 
 THE SYNOD AND THE BIBLE.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1520 TO A.D. 1535.) 
 
 Deputation of the Vaudois to the Reformers— The deputies arrested as they return 
 —Martyrdom of Peter Masson at Dijon— Synod at Angrogna in 1532— Dissen- 
 sions— Letter from the Churches in Bohemia— Synod at Pral, 1533— Oliv^tan's 
 Bible— Mission of Martin Gonin to Geneva— He is arrested on his way home, 
 and put to death at Grenoble. 
 
 The great events of the Reformation, the report of which was 
 fraught with such dismal consequences in Calabria and in Pro- 
 vence, could not remain without influence on the Vaudois valleys, 
 
 > AUTHOBITIES.— (^iWea, L4ger.^Claude JBaduel, "Ada MaHyrum . . ." (A 
 translation of Crespin.)— " 5iWc of Olivetan" (printed at Serrieres, near Neu- 
 ch&tel, in 1535) ; the preface.— /d. for the Brief DUcours des per84cviiona sur- 
 
 > 
 
94! 
 
 THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 ! 
 
 from wkch the eyangeUcal churches of these countries had ori- 
 ginated m former times. Let us contemplate the condition of Catho- 
 
 T' f *»"« ^Reformation, and of the Vaudois at that period. 
 
 The first Christian churches founded by the apostles were i^U- 
 gious societies united to one another by the bonds of faith and 
 chanty but mdependent in their organization. Hence, the parti- 
 cular churches could remain long united to the univeiml church 
 without renouncing that liberty of conscience which belonged t<^ 
 them in their individual capacity.- The Vaudois Church is an 
 instance in point; and the long strife which the Papal Church had 
 to mamtam, in order to reduce the greater part of other churches 
 under its authority, afibrds a more general, but a certain proof that 
 they were not from the first subject to it. The word church then 
 signified no more than a simple assembly; and the distinctive cha- 
 ractenstic of the Christian assemblies was that they were churches 
 01 brethren. 
 
 Catholicism, in its first establishment, changed the meaning of 
 
 avadeditselfforthis purpose of theelementsofthat Paganism which 
 had recently been supreme. Setting up again the fragments of its 
 broken altars-restoring, for the sake of their imposing character, its 
 old abandoned pomps-it connected the recoUection of idolatrous 
 t^ivals with altered names and new legends; in a word, it adopted 
 the forms of Pagamsm in order to attract the Pagans to itself; and 
 this It caUed converting them ! The grandeur of Catholicism arose, 
 therefore, entirely from the grandeur of the religions which preceded 
 It; but, at the same time, it stifled the Christian spirit beneath the 
 magnificence of these borrowed externals; spiritual worship gave 
 place to a worship consisting in spectacles, and whilst there w^ no 
 mtention of renouncing the gospel, the go.,pel was supplanted. The 
 invasions of the barbarians had just overthrown the Roman empire 
 and Catholicism was nothing else than the ,-esult of a hideous com- 
 bmation of corrupt Paganism with the savage barbarism which 
 destroyed the ancient civilization. Then wa^ this church seen to 
 
 S ^1^6 w""- ^K* ™°*""»«°" of «'"'«''k, which was tTm „; ■ i^ 
 
 in the i»ri<^To^^, No?^i* p'^a^rtrrn "'*''" "«• '"'^ >« "«" 
 M. Merle T)'A„I>.w- t l/^ ' '^' '"' ^ »««•)— Documents sent to mo bv 
 
 Chap. VIL] 
 
 DEPUTATION OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 95 
 
 i 
 
 
 i 
 
 grow up to all the height of that edifice of past times which had 
 been cast down ; and, like a building spared in a great inundation, 
 stood alone for centuries within a level but darkened horizon, amidst 
 the ruins of the ancient world gradually disappearing or undergoing 
 change. 
 
 Its pride increasing with its strength, Popery now aimed at 
 subjecting the temporal powers to the spiritual power, of which it 
 arrogated the name to itself; and thus did it unconsciously pro- 
 claim the superiority of mind over matter, even whilst it had, so to 
 speak, wedded itself to matter in its wholly material worship. The 
 human mind awoke, and protested against a worship so unworthy 
 of itself; the dawn of restored letters cast its first i-ays upon 
 the Bible, which also gave forth its protest ; all generous hearts 
 gathered around it, with the ardour of life, to destroy in its name 
 the carnal forms of a monument of death ; and, as two chords in 
 unison vibrate in response to one another, notwithstanding the dis- 
 tance which separates them, the sensation at once produced in the 
 Vaudois Church by the Keformation, gives evidence of the secret 
 harmony which existed between .them, and which alone could account 
 for the feeling of mutual afiection with which the hearts both of 
 the Vaudois and the Reformers were suddenly moved. The Vau- 
 dois hastened to send to the Reformers some of their Barbas, George 
 Morel, of Freyssini^res, and Peter Masson, to whom in Latin docu- 
 ments is given the name of Latomus. 
 
 " It is not without surprise," said they to (Ecolampadius, " that 
 we have learned the opinion of Luther with respect to freewill. 
 All creatures, even the very plants, have properties peculiarly their 
 own ; and we would suppose that such is the case with men also, 
 to whom God has given strength to do good, to some more, and to 
 some less, as the parable of the talents appears to teach. And as to 
 predestination, we are much troubled about it, having always 
 believed that God created all men for eternal life, and that the 
 reprobate only become so by their own fault ; but if all things take 
 place of necessity, so that he who is predestinated to life cannot 
 become reprobate, nor those who are destined to condemnation 
 attain salvation, of what use are sermons and exhortations?" They 
 came afterwards to understand that the Divine foreknowledge has 
 nothing to do with man's prudential arrangements, and that the 
 will itself is a gift of the grace of God, from whom all things derive 
 their life, motion, and being, and the heart of man its willing and 
 its doing according to his good pleasure. On this point, as on 
 many others, the Reformers of Switzerland and of Strasburg gave 
 the Vaudois evangelical replies, which filled them with joy. 
 
c 
 
 96 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PABT FlMT. 
 
 ClIAf. VII.] 
 
 SYNOD AT ANGROGNA. 
 
 As they returned with their treasure, and passed through Dijon, 
 on their way home to Dauphiny, their pious conversation revealed 
 them to be Lutherans. This was crime enough in that inhospitable 
 
 city. 
 
 France, however, had preceded Germany and Switzerland in a 
 reforming movement, which was evidently destined either to revive 
 or to destroy the Catholic Church. Nowhere had the imperious 
 ambition of Popery been more energetically repressed than by the 
 French nation. The sister of the reigning monarch, Margaret of 
 Valois, Duchess of Alen9on, had become a convert to the gospel 
 under the learned and unpretending instructions of a professor of the 
 Sorbonne, and a bishop of Meaux.i But in France, also, a reaction 
 displayed itself so much the more strongly, as the avowal of Bible 
 doctrines had been made with greater reserve. 
 
 The Vaudois delegates, returning from Strasburg to the valleys, 
 were arrested, as we have seen, at Dijon. The particiilars of this 
 event are not known, but the issue was that George Morel suc- 
 ceeded in making his escape, with the precious packet of letters and 
 religious instructions which he boye to his compatriots ; but, as if 
 no other price than that of a martyrdom would have been propor- 
 tionate to their worth, Peter Masson sealed them with his blood, 
 dying on the 10th of September, 1530, with the calmness of a 
 Christian who feels that he is redeemed. 
 
 The glorious news had already resounded amongst these moun- 
 tains that Popery was falling to ruins, and that the everlasting 
 gospel was rising again as a sun of life to shine upon a renovated 
 world. In 1526, a pastor of Angrogna, named Gonin, had been in 
 Germany, and had brought back the publications of Luther. 
 
 Several conferences were held, to discuss the explanations given 
 by the Keformers. It was necessary that their minds should be 
 brought to harmony, even as their hearts were harmonious already. 
 Finally a synod was held in the commune of Angrogna, to which 
 representatives of all the Yaudois parishes repaired, not only from 
 the valleys, but also from Calabria, Saluces, Provence, and Dauphiny. 
 This solemn assembly was held in the open air, at the hamlet of 
 Chanforans, in presence of all the people.'-^ It met on one of those 
 shady pieces of level ground situated half-way up the mountains, 
 in a verdant amphitheatre, shut in like an arena for giants by the 
 distant slopes of the Pra du Tour, then crowned with sparkling 
 
 97 
 
 snows. 
 
 * Lefebvre and Brissonnet. 
 
 2 En presencia de tuti li ministri et eciam Dio del popvlc, (MS. of George 
 Morel, Dublin, C, V, No. 18.) 
 
 Already a rapid change of opinions and relations had taken place 
 all around the Vaudois valleys; many persons who until then had 
 remained indifferent to the gospel, had begim to seek after it. 
 The seigneurs of Miradol, Kivenoble, and Solaro, appeared at the 
 council of faith and liberty. Some of the Keformers of Switzerland 
 also came thither. Farel came mounted on a white horse, with 
 that noble demeanour which belongs to persons of high birth. 
 Saulnier accompanied him, and all thronged ai-ound the steps of 
 these illustrious but unassuming men, who came to seal the com- 
 pact of brotherhood between the successors of the primitive church 
 and the promoters of a new era of evangelization. The Synodal 
 Assembly met at Angrogna, on the 12th of September, 1532, and 
 lasted for six days. 
 
 *'The Keformers," says one who was present at that meeting, 
 "were greatly rejoiced to see that people, who had ever proved 
 faithful— that Israel of the Alps, to whose charge God had com- 
 mitted for so many centuries the ark of the new covenant thus 
 
 eager in his service. And examining with interest," says he, "the 
 manuscript copies of the Old and New Testaments in the vulgar 
 tongue which were amongst us"~it will be perceived that it is a 
 Vaudois who speaks—" correctly copied with the hand at a date 
 beyond all memory, they marvelled at that favour of Heaven which 
 a people so small in numbers had enjoyed, and rendered thanks to 
 the Lord that the Bible had never been taken from them. Then, 
 also, in their great desire that the reading of it might be made pro^ 
 fitable to a greater number of persons, they adjured all the other 
 brethren, for the glory of God and the good of Christians, to take 
 measures for circulating it, showing how necessary it was that a 
 general translation should be made of it into French, carefully com- 
 pared with the original texts, and of which large numbers should be 
 printed." All the Vaudois applauded the design, and, according to 
 the author just quoted, joyfully agreed to the work proposed;^ so 
 that it is to the existence of these ancient Vaudois manuscripts, 
 the first in which the Bible was ever presented in the vulgar 
 tongue (being what was then called the Komance tongue), that the 
 Christian world was afterwards indebted for the first complete 
 translation of the Bible printed in French.^ 
 
 This preliminary decision of the Vaudois Synod was not, it is 
 evident, one of the least important. They proceeded then to the 
 
 > These details are derived from the prefatory notes in 0Hv6tan's Bible fol 3 
 (right hand) : Apologie du translateur. ' 
 
 2 The translation of Guiart des Moulina was prior to this, but it was not made 
 from the original languages. 
 
 Vol. I. JO 
 
98 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paht Fikst. 
 
 Hi 
 
 discussion of the articles upon which there existed some diversity 
 of opinion between the Yaudois and the Reformei-s. 
 
 The first question which was examined related to the subject of 
 oaths. Jesus Chi-ist says, " Let your yea be yea, and your nay, 
 nay.^' i The Christian must never He. When an oath is tendered 
 to him, is it lawful for him to swear? The assembly decided in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 The second question received the following answer :— " No works 
 are to be called good but those which God has commanded, and none 
 are to be called evil but those which he has forbidden." This doc- 
 trine, which seems to imply the possibility of things indifierent in 
 the life of man, is a slight modification of the ancient opinions of 
 the Yaudois, according to which everything in us, without excep- 
 tion, is either good or evil. 
 
 In the third place, auricular confession was rejected, as conti-aiy 
 to Scripture; but mutual confession and secret reproof were main- 
 tained. 
 
 The next question is delete in the contemporary manuscript 
 from which these particulars are derived, but these are the words 
 of it: "Does the Bible forbid us to work on Sabbath ?— Conclu- 
 sion : Men may not engage on that day in any works but those of 
 charity or of edification." 
 
 Afterwards we read : "Articulate words are not indispensable to 
 prayer ; genuflections, beating of the forehead, trembling and agita- 
 tion, are things superfluous. It was decided that Divine service 
 ought to be carried on in spirit and in truth." 
 
 " Is the imposition of hands necessary ? " Both this question and 
 the answer to it are delete in the manuscript, but the words can 
 still be read, a^ follows :—« The Apostles made use of imposition of 
 hands, as also did the Fathers of the church; but it is an external 
 thing, in which every one is lefb at liberty." 
 
 The thirteenth question bears that marriage is prohibited to no 
 one. The fifteenth, that to attempt to impose vows of celibacy is 
 an antichristian thing and work. 
 
 The last eight articles are these : — 
 
 "XYIII. Every kind of usury is forbidden in the word of 
 God." (By usury was then understood the receipt of any kind of 
 interest for money lent.) This sentence is also effaced ; but there 
 remains after it a statement that loans ought to be made and 
 granted in mere and entire charity. 
 
 "XIX. All the elect have been specially chosen before the founda- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 > Matt. V. 37. 
 
 Chap. Til j 
 
 DISSENSIONS. 
 
 99 
 
 4^ 
 
 i ! 
 
 " XX It is impossible that those who are appointed unto salva- 
 tion should not be saved. 
 
 " XXI. Whosoever asserts freewill denies completely the pre- 
 destination of God. 
 
 " XXII. The ministers of the word of G^d ought not to wander 
 about, nor to change their residence, unless it shall be for the good 
 of the church. 
 
 " XXIII. They are warranted to have, for the maintenance of 
 their families, other revenues besides the fruits of apostolical com- 
 munion." 
 
 There is then, also, something said of the sacraments, which 
 according to the Holy Scriptures are reduced to two, Baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Hence it appears that questions the most diverse, relating to 
 worship, discipline, and doctrine, were discussed in this interesting 
 meeting. It was terminated by words full of brotherly kindness 
 and prayer : — " Since it has been according to the good- will of the 
 Most High," we read in the account already quoted, "to permit us 
 to assemble in this place so large a number of brethren, we have 
 with one consent agreed to the present declaration. The spirit 
 which animates us being not of men, but of God, we implore Him 
 that, according to the directions of his love, nothing may henceforth 
 divide us ; and that when we are far sepai-ated from one another, 
 we may always remain united in the same mind, whether for the 
 teaching of these doctrines, or for expounding to others the Holy 
 Scriptures." Such was the declaration signed by the greater part 
 of those who were present. However, this agreement was not 
 unanimous; for there were, says Gilles, a number who dissented, 
 and two pastors having refused to sign, withdrew from the Synod. 
 Thus, although based upon the gospel, these first articles of faith, 
 framed by the breath of men, became the cause of the first schism 
 which ever broke out in the Yaudois Church. It must be observed, 
 however, that the two dissenting pastors did not belong to the 
 valleys, but to Dauphiny. 
 
 They proceeded to Bohemia, to the brethren of that country, 
 who maintained, though by rare intercourse, a constant connection 
 with the Yaudois churches, amongst which their spiritual guides 
 came to receive instruction in the word of God. The Barbas 
 whom they found officiating there, had therefore also passed some 
 time in the valleys in their youth. But the report of the crusade 
 which had been raised against them in 1487, had caused the Bo- 
 hemians to take for granted the entire destruction of these 
 beloved and primitive churches of the Alps. The two ministers 
 
100 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Fikst. 
 
 who then arrived amongst them from these churches, re-assured 
 them therefore on this point; but they complained bitterly that 
 foreign doctors had brought amongst them new doctrines, which 
 the Synod of Angrogna had too readily adopted. Thereupon the 
 churches of Bohemia wrote a fraternal letter to those of Piedmont, 
 entreating them not to lay aside their ancient customs, and, above 
 all, to be very circumspect in the matter of doctrine. 
 
 The Dauphinese ministers brought back this letter to the valleys, 
 eight months after they had left them. A new synod was held 
 at Pral, on the Uth of August, 1533. The communication from 
 the brethren of Bohemia was there considered, to which it was 
 replied that no doctrine had been nor would be received in the 
 Vaudois Church on the authority of human doctors, but only on 
 that of the Bible. This synodal assembly approved also of the 
 resolutions of the preceding year. The foreign pastors, persisting 
 in their dissent, retired from the valleys; but a fact less excusable 
 than their dissent, was the abstraction of several ancient manu- 
 scripts and papers concerning the history of the Vaudois, of which 
 they took possession before they went away. 
 
 Whilst the dissenters were signalizing themselves in a manner so 
 little to their credit, the strict and devoted body of the Vaudois 
 clergy steadfastly pursued the paths of that faith which worketh 
 by love, preparing with the utmost diligence the translation of the 
 Bible, which the Synod of Angrogna had resolved to print. 
 
 Ten years before, the four gospels had already been published in 
 French, by Lefebvre D'Etaples.^ The remainder of the New 
 Testament, and thereafter some fragments of the Old, appeared at 
 Antwerp, from 1525 to 1534. Olivetan, who was appointed to 
 superintend the Vaudois version, doubtless profited by these 
 labours; but it must be believed that other Vaudois likewise 
 assisted him, for the preface to the Bible which bears his name is 
 dated from ike Alps, this seventh of February, 1535. It is a large 
 folio volume, of somewhere about 2000 pages (for the sheets are 
 not numbered). It is printed in Gothic characters, in two columns, 
 with remarkable neatness, and beara the following title : La Bible 
 qui est toute la saincle escripture, en laquelle sont contenus le Vieil 
 Testament et le Nouveau, translates en franqoys, le Vieil de Lebrieu 
 et le Nouveau du Grec? Then follows this motto, from the prophet 
 Isaiah: Ecoutez deulx, et toi terre preste laureille, car Leternd ' 
 
 > Printed at Paris in 1523. 
 
 2 The Bible ; that is, the whole of the Holy Scriptures, in which are contained the 
 Old Testament and the New, translated into French, the Old from the Hebrew 
 «nd the New from the Greek. ' 
 
 Chap. VII ] 
 
 OLIVfiTAN'S BIBLE. 
 
 101 
 
 parle.^ The name of the prophet quoted is written Isaiah, which 
 recalls, better than the modem French orthography [Esa'ie], the 
 Hebrew pronunciation. The date of this publication is noted at 
 the end of the volume, in these terms : acheve d'imprimer en la ville et 
 comie de Neufchastel, par Pierre de Wingle, diet Pirot, Van 
 M.D.XXXV., le iiijsme jour de Juing? This Bible cost the 
 Vaudois 1500 golden crowns; and it would be surprising that a 
 people so few in number should be able to make such very con- 
 siderable sacrifices, if we did not know that faith makes the greatest 
 works possible, and that the feeblest can do all things when Christ 
 strengthens them. 
 
 This undertaking, originated through the influence of Farel, 
 
 himself a Frenchman, was also prosecuted with a special regard to 
 the Reformed Church of France. The Vaudois, who address that 
 church as a sister, say to her in the preface— calling to remembrance 
 the refuge which the disciples of Valdo had sought amongst them— 
 
 "The poor people who make you this present were driven forth and 
 banished from your company more than three centuries ago; they 
 are the true people of patience, who, in faith, and hope, and charity, 
 have silently vanquished all the assaults and efforts which their 
 enemies have been able to make against them." "They are the 
 people of joyous affection and of constant courage," replied the 
 churches of France by one of their synods; "their name is the 
 little flock ; their kingdom is not of this world ; their motto is 
 piety and contentment; they are a church which has endured con- 
 flicts, and is embrowned and sun-scorched without, but fair and of 
 goodly appearance within; whose footsteps the greater part amongst 
 us have failed to follow; for religious zeal exists only in the monu- 
 ments of history, and in the ashes of our fathei-s, which are still 
 warm with their ardour for the propagation of the gospel." These 
 admirable sentences, so true at that period, but much more true 
 in our days, are extracted from a little work composed by order 
 of the Synod of Brian9on, held from the 25th to the 30th of Jime, 
 1620. It is entitled, A Brief A ccount of the Persecutions which liave 
 in these days befallen the churches of the Marquisate of Saluces.^ 
 
 These churches likewise belonged to the great Vaudois family; 
 and of them we shall presently come to treat. But before bringin<» 
 this chapter to a close, I must still speak of the Vaudois minfster 
 of the parish within which was held the Sjmod of 1532, the Barba 
 
 » Attend, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. 
 
 3 The printing was completed in the city and county of Neufch&tel, by Peter de 
 "Wingle, called Pirot, in the year 1535, on the 4th day of June. 
 
 8 Brief discoun des persmUiona advenues en ce tmp8 am EglUes du marQuisat 
 de Seduces, 
 
i 
 
 102 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fimt. 
 
 Martin Gronin, pastor of Angrogna, who, in order to complete the 
 work of instruction and of renovation set on foot by that synod, un- 
 dertook to go in person to Geneva, to procure the religious publica* 
 tions necessary for his countrymen. He had formerly visited the 
 churches of Provence, and he was now to visit those of Switzer- 
 land. This Christian mission, which the enemies of the gospel 
 rendered very perilous, was undertaken in 1536. The Bible of the 
 Vaudois had been published in 1535; so that, a year after having 
 diffused through the world the book of books, this people, as eager 
 to be instructed as to teach, demanded in return from the world, 
 the tribute of that enlightenment for which it was indebted to the 
 Bible. 
 
 Gonin had already, in 1526, made an excursion amongst the 
 Reformers, and had brought back a great number of books. The 
 worthy Barba left the valleys again, ten years after, at the conclu- 
 sion of winter, because the roads being then more difficult and less 
 frequented, were also less closely watched. Another Vaudois, by 
 name John Girard, accompanied him to Geneva, where he intended 
 to found a printing establishment, specially with the view of pro- 
 viding for the wants of his own countrymen. He did actually 
 found it, and it fell to his lot afterwards to print the narrative of 
 the first persecutions undertaken against the Vaudois in the 16th 
 century. As for Barba Martin Gonin, after having made choice 
 of the books which he was commissioned to procure, he set out 
 again for the Vaudois valleys, in the month of March, 1536. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy was then at war with the King of France, 
 who had just seized upon Bresse, Savoy, and great part of Pied- 
 mont. The Bernese took advantage of these circumstances to 
 re-assert their claim to the right bank of the Leman, which the 
 Duke of Savoy still possessed. It was at this time that they 
 seized upon the Pays de Vaud, and that they embraced the Refor- 
 mation. They had carried their invasions as fer as Chablais and 
 the Pays de Gex. 
 
 To shim these scenes of conflict, Martin Gonin was obliged to 
 take a different road from that by which he had formerly travelled ; 
 he went through France, and as he traversed the Champsaur in 
 order to reach the Gapengois, and thence to gain the Vaudois valleys 
 of Dauphiny, he incurred the suspicion of being a spy of the Duke 
 of Savoy, and was arrested. He was conducted to Grenoble, where 
 he was examined by some members of the Parliament, and obliged 
 to reply to their interrogatories ; but they, being persuaded of his 
 innocence, commanded him to be set at liberty. The jailer, before 
 giving effect to this decision, and with the intention unquestionably 
 
 i.1 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. YU] 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF GONIN. 
 
 103 
 
 of robbing his prisoner of any valuables which he might find about 
 him, took upon himself to search him, under pretext of making 
 him free of all possible suspicion. Having set about this odious 
 proceeding, he thought that he discovered papers concealed under 
 the lining of his dress. These were no other than the brotherlj'- 
 letters of Farel, Saulnier, and other ministei'S of Geneva, which 
 these worthy servants of Christ had sent to their Christian brethren 
 in the valleys, by the hands of their pastor. The jailer took 
 possession of these writings, and to justify himself to the judges, 
 perhaps to gain credit for his bad action, he delivered them to the 
 provost, who commanded him to convey Gonin back to prison. 
 
 Two days after, the captive was summoned to a new examination, 
 as a person accused of Lutheranism. Being called upon to reply, 
 he said, " I am not a Lutheran, for Luther did not die for me, but 
 Jesus Christ only, whose name I bear." "What is your doctrine?" 
 " That of the gospel." " Do you go to mass ? " " No." " Do you 
 acknowledge the authority of the pope?" "No." "Do you ac- 
 knowledge that of the king?" "Yes; for the powers that be are 
 ordained of God." " But the pope is also one of the powers that 
 be." " Only by the support of the devil." At these last words the 
 judges, in a fury, instead of proceeding further with the examina- 
 tion of the accused, who demanded to be allowed to prove all his 
 beliefs fix)m the Bible, commanded him to be silent, declared him 
 a heretic, and condemned him to death. 
 
 But Grenoble was a city of more enlightenment than Dijon. The 
 new light had penetrated to it. The seigneurs of Bonne, Villars, 
 Mailhet, and Bardonanche, with other families of high descent, had 
 already in some measure imbibed those doctrines which made 
 them, in the contests that soon followed, strenuous defenders of 
 the Reformation. It was dreaded that the evangelical language 
 of the Vaudois Barba might excite too much sympathy ; it was 
 thought proper, therefore, that his execution should not be public, 
 "for fear," as the narratives say, "that his engaging manners and 
 fair speech should create some commotion amongst those that 
 should be present." Accordingly, it was resolved that he should 
 be strangled by night, and that his corpse should then be cast 
 into the Is^re. 
 
 Meanwhile, the humble martyr prayed for the advancement of 
 the kingdom of God, for his afflicted family, for his church, and his 
 fellow-countrymen. "0 Lord!" he cried, from the depths of his 
 dungeon, " be pleased to hasten that happy time when there shall 
 be only one flock and one Shepherd!" He sought consolation in 
 the present from the hope of the ftiture, and the Lord answered 
 
104» 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Fiksx. 
 
 his prayer, by hastening his own entrance into the felicity of 
 heaven. On the 26th of April, 1536, about three o'clock in the 
 morning, unaccustomed feet were heard on the damp stair of his 
 prison. The light of a dark lantern fell upon its dismal steps. 
 The door was opened, and the executioner and his assistants ap- 
 peared on the threshold. " I see plainly what you come for," said 
 the pastor, prepared to die; "but do you think to deceive God?" 
 "In what?" inquired they. "You intend to throw me into the 
 river, when there is nobody to see ; but will not God see you 1 " 
 "' Get your ropes ready," said the executioner to his men, without 
 replying to the Christian martyr. " And you, poor sinners," said 
 Gonin to the other prisoners, " remember that there is pardon in 
 one only, that is in Jesus Christ; and were your souls red even as 
 crimson, he could make them white as snow." "What is the 
 meaning of this talk?" said his companions in misfortune. "The 
 stains most indelible, even according to human laws," he replied, 
 " can be washed out by Him. Bepent, and be converted, for the 
 kingdom of God is at hand." 
 
 "Are the ropes ready?" said the executioner, interrupting him. 
 The assistants stepped forward, and proceeded to carry into effect 
 what was called human justice. They bound the hands of the martyr. 
 They then conducted him to the banks of the Isere. There the 
 executioner, having tied a rope to one of his feet, allowed him to 
 kneel and to pray to God; afterwards he put a small rope round his 
 neck, and passing a stick through it, twisted it in such a way ^s to 
 tighten it more and more. No longer able to breathe, Gonin fell 
 upon the ground. Here the strangulation was finished, and when 
 they saw that he was motionless, they cast him into the river. 
 But the coolness of the water restored the doomed man to life : his 
 body quivered, his limbs moved — would he then survive that execu- 
 tion? No; the executioner, with foresight of such a possibility, 
 retained hold of the rope which he had attached to the foot of the 
 victim. He kept the convulsed and dying body floating until its 
 agonies were ended. The movements communicated through the 
 cord became more and more feeble, and when the last quiverings 
 had ceased in that double suffocation by rope and by water, the 
 line was cut, and the river bore away the body of the Vaudois 
 martyr, whilst his soul winged its flight to heaven. 
 
 < 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 > . 
 
 CHA.P viil] 
 
 MARTYRDOMS. 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HISTORY OF A NUMBER OF MARTYRS.l 
 
 Brief notices of many martyrs — Martyrdom of Stephen Brun at Embrun, in 1538 
 — Of Bartholomew Hector at Turin, in 1556— Of John Vernoux, Anthony 
 Laborie Quercy, and three others, at Chambery, in 1555 — Letter of the martyr 
 Quercy to his wife — Narrow escape of the Barba Gilles in the neighbourhood of 
 Chambery — Geoffrey Varaille burned alive at Turin in 1558 — Nicholas Sartoire 
 at Aosta, in 1557 — Extraordinary escape of a Vaudois minister — Martyrdoms 
 of Mathurin and his wife, and of John De Cartignon, at Carignan, in 1560 — 
 Brief notices of other martyrs — Horrible cruelties inflicted on Odoul Geymet. 
 
 " There is not a town in Piedmont," said a Vaudois Barba, in his 
 memoirs,^ "in wliich some of our brethren have not been put to 
 death." 
 
 Jordan Tertian was burned alive at Suza ; Hyppolyte Roussier 
 was burned at Turin ; Villermin Ambroise was hanged on the Col 
 de M^ane ; Ugon Chiamps, of Fenestrelle, was taken at Suza, and 
 conducted to Turin, where his bowels were torn out and flung into 
 a basin, without his sufierings being terminated even by this fright- 
 ftd torture. Peter Geymonat, of Bobi, died at Lucerna, with a living 
 cat in the interior of his body. Mary Bomaine was buried alive at 
 Boche-Plate. Madeleine Fontane suffered the same fate at St. 
 John ; Michel Gonet, a man almost a hundred years of age, was 
 burned alive at Sarcena. Susanna Michelin, at the same place, was 
 left in a dying state upon the snow. Bartholomew Frache, having 
 been hacked with sabres, had his wounds filled with quicklime, 
 and expired in this manner at Fenil. Daniel Michelin had his 
 tongue torn out at Bobi, for having praised God. James Baridon 
 died, covered with brimstone matches, which they had fastened 
 between his fingers, and about his lips, his nostrils, and all parts of 
 his body. Daniel Bevel had his mouth filled with gunpowder, which 
 
 > Authorities.— Pcrrm, pp. 151-160— Gilles, pp. 53, 67, 74, 134, 180, 208, 
 290, 318, 426, 454, 553, kc—Leger, part ii., pp. 115-138. — Crespin, fol. edition of 
 1619, fol. 3, 117, 320-334, 41S-A22.—Borengo, *' Memorie historicke . . ." pp. 64, 
 66. — Foumiery *' Mistorie des Alpes marUimes et Cottiennes, et paHiculi^rement 
 (TEmhrun leur metropolUaine . . . ." &c. MS. in fol. Translation of Juv^nis ; 
 Library of the Little Seminary at Gap, fol. 260-320. (The original is in Latin, 
 and is in the Library of Lyons. There is a copy at Paris.)—" Cartulaire de VAh- 
 baye d'Oulx/^ MS. fol. ; Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. — Memoirs of the 
 Capuchin Missionaries (in Italian), in the same archives. — Archives of Grenoble 
 (of the Court of Accounts, the Parliament, and the former Bishopric). 
 
 Still unconsulted. — Documents to be found in the archives of the Holy Oflfice, 
 and of the archbishopric of Turin ; the bishoprics or municipalities of Asti, Carig- 
 nan, Pancalier, Carail, Saluces, and Suza; and the archives of the Inquisition at 
 liome. Vignaux, quoted by Perrin, p. 151. 
 
 Vol. I. . 14 
 
T*^ 
 
 •-Wi 
 
 m i pm ei ' j> i 
 
 V 
 
 106 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt FiasT. 
 
 was set on fire, and the explosion of which tore his head in pieces. 
 Mary Mounin was taken in the Combe of Liousa ; the flesh of her 
 cheeks and of her chin was removed, so that the jaws were exposed, 
 and in this way she was left to die. Paul Garnier was slowly 
 mangled at Rora, Thomas Marguet mutilated in an indescribable 
 manner at the Fort of Mirabouc, and Susanna Jaquin cut in pieces 
 at La Tour. A number of young women of Taillaret, in order to 
 escape outrages still more dreadful to them than death, flung them- 
 selves from a precipice, and perished among the rocks. Sarah 
 Rostagnol was cleft up through the middle of her body, and was 
 left in a dying state on the road from Eyrals to Lucema. Anne 
 Charbonnier was impaled alive, and borne in this state like a 
 banner, from St. Jean to La Tour. At Paesane, Daniel Pam- 
 baud had his nails torn out, then his fingers were cut off", then his 
 feet and hands were severed by blows of hatchets, and then his 
 arms and legs were separated from his body, upon each refusal 
 that he made to abjure the gospel. 
 
 There is not a rock in the Vaudois valleys which may not be 
 looked on as a monument of death, not a meadow but has been the 
 scene of some execution, not a village but has had its martyrs. 
 No history, however complete, can contain a record of them all. 
 I shall relate a few of the most striking fe,cts, in connection with 
 the circumstances which led to them. In the present chapter I 
 shall only seek to collect together those which occurred in an iso- 
 lated manner, before the era of great persecutions. The first me- 
 morial in this martyrology belongs to the valleys of Dauphiny. 
 
 Two years after the mai-tyrdom of Martin Gonin at Grenoble, a 
 young man, named Stephen Brun, born at Peortier, in the valley 
 of the Durance, was imprisoned at Embrun as a heretic. He was 
 a simple farmer; but God is glorified in the humblest of his crea- 
 tures, and often chooses the weakest to confound the strong. 
 
 Stephen had a wife and five children ; they therefore attempted 
 to persuade him to abjure for the sake of his family. "Those who 
 do the will of God are my family !" said he. " Do you really wish 
 to leave your wife a widow, and your children orphans 1" *' Christ 
 says to them, * I will not leave you orphans.' He is the heavenly 
 husband of faithful souls. An immortal Pedeemer is better than 
 a husband who must die." " But can you not postpone your death 
 by coming to mass." *'Say, rather, that I would hasten it, for 
 that would be the death of my souL" " Are you not afraid of the 
 punishment which is in preparation for you 1" " Christ says, *Fear 
 not those who can only kill the body, but rather fear him who is 
 able to cast both soul and body into hell V " " Prepare, then, for 
 
 f 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 Chap. Vin.] 
 
 MARTYEDOM OF BEUN. 
 
 107 
 
 death." " I prepare for immortality." And when they came to 
 announce to him his condemnation, he exclaimed that it was his 
 libemtion. 
 
 The day of his execution having arrived, the executioner came 
 to tell him that his death was now to take place. " It is life," said 
 he, " of which you assure me !" 
 
 It was on the 16th of September, 1538, a tempestuous day. 
 Stephen was fastened in the centre of a pile, which had been raised 
 on the esplanade of the episcopal palace of Embnm. Scarcely 
 had the fire been set to it, when it blazed with prodigious violence 
 beneath the feet of the martyr. But the flames, being carried 
 away by the wind, scarcely ascended to his chest, and did not choke 
 him, as happens when they rise over the head. The fire consumed 
 in succession his limbs and the lower parts of his body, but Stephen 
 continued to breathe, and was still alive after an hour of this cruel 
 torment. An hour passed in the flames : what an age of distress ! 
 The first martyr mentioned in the Bible, that other Stephen who 
 was stoned, did not confess his Saviour with more courageous reso- 
 lution. When the wood of the pile had been renewed, the fire 
 seemed as if it would go out without taking away the life of the 
 sufierer. Stephen remained always standing, like Shadrach in the 
 fiirnace. Hereupon the executioner, who held in his hand a long 
 iron hook, used for stirring the fire, gave him a blow on the head 
 with it, to kill him, and stabbed him in the bowels, which gushed 
 out into the fire when he drew back the hook. At last the body 
 of Stephen fell, and they covered it with burning brands, which 
 very soon reduced it to ashes. 
 
 "They that will live godly," says St. Paul, "shall sufier perse- 
 cution." Jeremiah and Daniel were cast into the pit and to the 
 lions; Isaiah was sawn asunder with a wooden saw; Zechariah was 
 slain between the temple and the altar; St. John was beheaded. 
 "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted]" said 
 the first Stephen to the Pharisees. That martyr, whilst they 
 stoned him, saw the heavens opened, and the Son of man, who, 
 seated at the right hand of the Father, called him to himsel£ The 
 poor martyr of Peortier expired without any wonders appearing 
 around him, but in him God did make wonders to appear. 
 
 " Wherein, then, consists the power of the martyr ]" exclaims a 
 Catholic orator. " It consists in his being right, and altogether right, 
 and in being able to say. Kill me I but ye shall not make me speak 
 anything but what I now speak. I know no power in the world 
 more formidable than that of a man strong in his convictions, and 
 allowing himself to be put to death for his doctrines. It was thus 
 
M 
 
 108 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Fiest. 
 
 that the salvation of the world began." It was thus, we may add, 
 that the Christian church kept its ground in the Vaudois valleys, 
 and that it sprung to new life in the world at the voice of the 
 Reformers. 
 
 But the antichi-istian power, which St. Paul calls the son of per- 
 dition, and which exalts itself above all that is called God, setting 
 itself in opposition to God, makes it its great object to destroy the 
 Bible in order to maintain its supremacy. A hawker of Bibles 
 became at this time its victim, and although he was not a native 
 of the Vaudois valleys, a memorial of him is entitled to a place in 
 their history, because he was doing them a service, and his blood 
 was mingled with that of their martyrs. 
 
 Bartholomew Hector was bom at Poictiers. Having become 
 acquainted with the gospel, he retired to Geneva with his wife and 
 children. Being settled there, in order to earn a living for his 
 family, he went from place to place, selling copies of the Holy 
 Scriptures. He had come to Piedmont in the month of July, 
 1555, and had already disposed of a large number of Bibles in the 
 hamlets of the Yaudois valleys. One day, having ascended to the 
 very highest summer huts [cliahts] upon the mountains of An- 
 grogna, he stopped at the Alp of La Vachere. (The name of Alp 
 or Alpage is given to the places to which the Vaudois shepherds 
 conduct their flocks in simimer. During the brief period that they 
 are free from snows, these lofty peaks seem as if they hastened to 
 clothe themselves with flowers, and pour forth in a few days all 
 the riches of their annual vegetation). Next day he proceeded to 
 a place still higher up, the Alp of Infemet, whose rapid slopes 
 look down upon the immense rocks of the Pra du Tour. The ven- 
 der of Bibles was not to be arrested by the obstacles of the path, 
 and the weight which he carried seemed light when he thought of 
 the good which he was to do; for it must not be forgotten that at 
 these great elevations, so remote from the ordinary abodes of the 
 Vaudois people, the herdsmen and alpagers who attend their flocks, 
 are necessarily in part deprived of that spiritual nourishment which 
 would be presented to them in the centre of their parish. 
 
 Bartholomew Hector, satisfied, it would appear, with his excur- 
 sion, resolved to proceed from the Alp of Infemet to that of 
 Laouzoun, and thence to the valley of St. Martin. But on his 
 way down he was arrested at Rioclaret, by the seigneurs of the 
 place, named Truchet, who had him conveyed to Pignerol, from 
 which a catalogue of his books was forwarded to the senate of 
 Turin. 
 
 After having left him to suffer and to pray for seven months. 
 
 '4» 
 
 Chap. VIU.] 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW HECTOR. 
 
 109 
 
 forgotten in the prisons of Pignerol, they thought fit at last to 
 take steps in his case. His first examination took place on the 
 8th of March, 1556. 
 
 " You have been caught selling heretical books," they said to 
 him. " If the Bible contains heresies in your estimation, in mine 
 it contains the truth." " But they make use of the Bible to keep 
 people from going to mass." "If the Bible keeps them from it, it 
 is because God does not approve of it ; for the mass is a piece of 
 idolatry." This last reply made his position a great deal worse in 
 the eyes of the defenders of the state worship, which owned no sal- 
 vation apart from itself " Out of Christ," said the colporteur, 
 " I grant that there is no salvation, and by His grace I will not 
 forsake Him." 
 
 His examination was resumed next day. He endeavoured to 
 set forth the doctrines of the gospel. " We will hold no discus- 
 sions with error," said the court. " But judges are appointed to 
 discern between error and truth ; permit me then to prove that I 
 am in the truth." If you are not in the Church, you are not in 
 the truth." " I am in the Church of Christ, and I prove it by the 
 gospel." " Return to the Church of Rome, if you would save your 
 life." " Jesus says, *He who would save his life shall lose it, and he 
 who shall lose his life for my sake, shall live for ever.' " " Think 
 of the abjuration which is required of you ; it is the only means 
 left you of saving yourself." " What about the saving of my body, 
 if I lose my soul ] " The urgency and threats employed to get him 
 to abjure, thus remaining without effect, he was sent to Turin. 
 
 It was not the Duke of Savoy who was then sovereign of that 
 country, but Francis I., the nephew of Charles III., whom he had 
 driven from the throne. 
 
 Bartholomew Hector appeared before new judges, who were 
 much inclined to lenity. But the strength of his convictions could 
 bend to no compromise. " If you are resolved not to abjure your 
 faith," they said to him, "at least you may retract your former 
 declarations." " Prove to me," said he, " that they are erroneous." 
 " It is not proving that is in question, but living,'' said they. My 
 life is in my faith," he replied ; " it is it which has made me speak." 
 The judges, not venturing to take upon themselves the condenma- 
 tion of a man so simple and so firm, and to whose charge no crime 
 was laid, came to a decision, on the 28th of March, 1556, to remit 
 the case to the inquisitors. It was just what Pilate did when he 
 delivered Jesus into the hands of lawless men, and sent him away 
 from the judgment hall. 
 
 On the 27th of April, the humble vender of Bibles appeared 
 
h ^ 
 
 110 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Fikst. 
 
 before the Holy Office. It would seem that his evangelical and 
 penetrating discourse, the sincere fe,ith of his soul, and his modest 
 and resigned air, had troubled the conscience even of that tribunal; 
 for the inquisitors adjourned the case, and adjoined with themselves 
 for trial of it the Vicars-General of the archbishopric of Turin and 
 of the abbey of PigneroL In their presence Hector remained 
 always the same; there was a change of his judges, but no change 
 of his cause. 
 
 He was again assured that for a simple retractation his life 
 would be spared. Greater men than he have not looked so nar- 
 rowly into such a question. But those who are first upon the 
 earth are often the last in heaven. He who was one of the last 
 here below, manifested a celestial resolution and mildness in the 
 midst of these temptations. " I have said the truth," he exclaimed; 
 '^ how can I change my words and make a retractation? Can a man 
 change the truth as he would change his garment?" Truly, the 
 poor seller of Bibles was well worthy of his noble employment; 
 his pious hands did not profane the book which he distributed to 
 men; why should men have pronounced against him a sentence of 
 death? 
 
 Further delay was, however, granted him to reflect and abjure ; 
 but the more he reflected, the more he was convinced. Eternity 
 would have passed without his abjuring. The period allowed him 
 expired on the 28th of May; but it was prolonged to the 5th, 
 and then to the 10th of June, with fresh exhortations to him each 
 time to recant. It is perhaps more difficult to resist the urgency 
 which is accompanied with indulgence than violence and severity. 
 But Hector, without abating his humility, swerved not a hair's- 
 breadth, saying, that whoever should take away one tittle from 
 the Holy Word, should lose his part in the kingdom of heaven. 
 He preferred to lose his part, already so full of trouble, in terres- 
 trial existence. 
 
 The ecclesiastical tribunal, faithfid to the traditions of Rome, 
 by which the commandments of God have been so often ann idled, 
 could only declare him guilty of heresy. But it did this as if with 
 regret ; for, in delivering him to the secular arm, it recommended 
 him to the indulgence of the judges who were to pronounce the 
 penalty incurred by this crime. The law was express; the penalty 
 was death. The secular judges, therefore, sentenced the man to 
 be burned alive, in the square of the castle at Turin, on a market 
 day. This sentence was passed on the 19th of June, 1556; but 
 from regard to the recommendation of the ecclesiastical judges, the 
 court authorized the executioner to strangle the condemned man 
 
 Chap. Till.] 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW HECTOR. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ? 
 
 '4 
 
 m 
 
 during the kindling of the pile. When the sentence was read 
 to him in the prison, he exclaimed, "Glory be to God, for that he 
 has thought me worthy to die for his name!" 
 
 Other persons still came to persuade him to abjure, promising to 
 obtain for him in that case the revocation of the sentence. Hector 
 urged them to be converted, and to embrace the gospel. His dis- 
 courses were so touching, and so full of unction, that he was threat- 
 ened with having his tongue cut out, if he took upon him to speak 
 to the people on his way to the place of execution. Perhaps a 
 dread of the efiect which he might produce, may serve to explain 
 the long indulgence of his judges. Be this as it might, Hector 
 paid no attention to the threat, and during his whole course from 
 his prison to the pile, he ceased not to utter words of Chi-istian 
 truth. 
 
 Certainly there was in this man a power by which his affrighted 
 judges were unconsciously overborne; for, at the moment of his 
 ascending the pile, a new enussary arrived from the court to pro- 
 mise him life and liberty even then, if he would only retract his 
 heretical opinions. He had only to say, I disavow all heresy ; it 
 would have pledged him to nothing; he might have retained his 
 beliefs, he might have returned to his family; how many strong 
 reasons might have been urged to excuse such reservations ! But 
 no such artifice of expression even occurred to the candid mind of 
 the persecuted Christian; to him it would have appeared a dis- 
 avowing of his faith — an absolute recantation. Accordingly, stand- 
 ing by the pile which was about to reduce him to ashes, and beside 
 the executioner who was presently to strangle him, the humble 
 colporteur of the Alps, upon this unexpected intelligence of a par- 
 don which it would have been so easy for him to have secured, 
 instead of replying to the messenger, fell on his knees, and said, 
 " O Lord ! give me grace to persevere unto the end ; pardon those 
 whose sentence is now to separate my soul from my body; they are 
 not unjust but blind. O Lord ! enlighten by thy Spirit this people 
 who are around me, and bring them very soon to the knowledge 
 of the truth." The people wept, astonished that such a man should 
 be put to death, who spake only of God. But the executioners, 
 having received orders to perform their work, caused Hector to 
 ascend the pile ; the wood was kindled, powder and sulphur were 
 thrown upon the fire to conceal the last agony of the martyr, and 
 at the same moment he fell down strangled; so that his death was 
 very quick, and might even be called very pleasant, as he fell asleep 
 with such security in the bosom of his God. 
 
 Somewhere about the same time, a pastor of Geneva, named 
 
112 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 Chap. VUlJ 
 
 ANTHONY LABORIE QUERCY. 
 
 113 
 
 John "Vemoux, had been sent into the Yaudois valleys to exercise 
 the ministry of the gospel. He was one of the first fellow-labourers 
 of Calvin, along with whom he had taken part in the Synod of Poic- 
 tiers, which accqjnplished the organization of the Reformed Church 
 of France. When he came to the valleys he was accompanied by 
 Anthony Laborie Quercy, formerly a royal jvdge at Caiart, who 
 had abandoned the magistracy to devote himself the more actively 
 to the cause of the gospel. Having sojourned for some months in 
 Piedmont, they returned together to Geneva, in order to make the 
 arrangements necessary for their permanent settlement amongst 
 the Vaudois. 
 
 These arrangements having been made, and their preparations 
 terminated, they again left Geneva for the valleys, accompanied by 
 two friends, named Batailles and Tauran, and by a third named 
 Tringalet, who had no intention to follow them any farther than 
 the frontiers of the Genevese territory, but who, being a most inti- 
 mate friend of Anthony Laborie, could not bring himself to leave 
 him at the appointed time of separation. " I will not leave you," 
 said he; "I will go with you to these Vaudois valleys, which have 
 preceded our blessed Reformation in the way of salvation." "The 
 Vaudois have never been reformed," said another, "they are still 
 primitive Christians, witnesses of the Apostolic Church." " You 
 increase my impatience to see them," said he; "it is of the Lord; 
 I am resolved not to leave you." His mind was made up, and they 
 did not part. The whole five proceeded together towards the val- 
 leys of Piedmont. 
 
 Having passed through a part of Savoy, they arrived at Fau- 
 cigny, where they received a mysterious warning that they would 
 need to be upon their guard. They turned aside from the great 
 roads, and took the mountain paths. But it became evident that 
 whoever gave them warning had been possessed of good informa- 
 tion, for in the gorges of the Col Tamis they were descried by 
 soldiers of the marechauss^e,^ who laid hold of them. Being canied 
 prisoners to Chambery, they made no attempt to conceal their faith, 
 and received many solicitations to renounce it. But Christian 
 faith, when it has been felt in the heart, is not a consort that can 
 be so readily parted with. 
 
 On the 10th of July, 1555, after a long conference, in which he 
 vainly attempted to convince them of heresy, the judge who con- 
 ducted the examination exclaimed, " Of what use is all this ? do 
 you not know that you will be put to death as heretics, if you do 
 not relinquish your errors T " Yes," replied the pastor Yernoux, 
 
 ' An armed police. 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 " the first thing which we learned from our Master was, that who- 
 soever will follow him must expect persecution." " But Jesus does 
 not command you to die T " He tells us that as many as will walk 
 in his steps must take up his cross; and he bore his own cross to 
 Calvary." " You are very young men : think upon the life that is 
 before you." " The life which is before us is in the heavens, and, 
 far from extinguishing our hope, you give us more impregnable 
 assurance of it." " Is it possible that men can speak in this way of 
 a condemnation to deaths' " It is by death that our souls attain 
 to the fuhiess of their life." And in spite of aU which the judges 
 could do to obtain some concession on their part, nothing could 
 triumph over the heroic firmness of these courageous disciples of 
 Christ. They were, indeed, worthy to preach his word who could 
 thus die for him! Blessed are the pastors whose lives correspond 
 
 to such deaths ! 
 
 Being declared guilty of heresy, the two pastors, Yernoux and 
 Laborie, who were already numbered amongst the clergy of the 
 Yaudois churches, and their three travelling companions, were 
 delivered over to the secular tribunals. By a first sentence, of date 
 the 21st of August, 1555, they were only condemned to the gal- 
 leys, but the king's procurator appealed from this judgment, and 
 the case had to be tried anew. The respect felt for them appears 
 to have increased as their case proceeded. So, when Laborie refused 
 to take oath upon a crucifix, they brought him a Bible, which was 
 contrary to all ordinaiy practice, for Popery had proscribed it 
 everywhere. Again, after his examination, the president kindly 
 laboured to show him that he might live in peace and serve God 
 as freely in his own proper place of abode as at Geneva. Laborie, 
 who preferred to live in exile along with fellow-believers, rather 
 than in his native country, where the gospel did not yet prevail, 
 mildly replied, "The primitive Christians called one another 
 brethren, and awakened Christians must still have brethren." 
 " But," said the president, " it is not serving God to withdraw in a 
 scandalous manner from the Church." " The scandal is owing to 
 those who have abandoned the purity of his worship, and not to 
 those who return to it," said Laborie. Thereupon the president, 
 assailing him on the subject of his doctrines, endeavoured to prove 
 to him by the Holy Scriptures, that man was not predestinated 
 from all eternity, either to evil or to good; that a great many of 
 the Catholic ceremonies, although superfluous, were nevertheless 
 tolerable, as the gospel did not condemn them, and as St. Paul 
 himself had circumcised Timothy, although he made so great an 
 opposition to circumcision. 
 
 Vol. I. 15 
 
* l J ' M ' 
 
 114 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 £pakt FiBjrr. 
 
 It was a thing so rare at that time for a CathoHc judge to con- 
 descend to enter the arena of discussion with the Bible in his hand, 
 that I have thought it necessary to mention it. This dealing 
 with Scripture, moreover, making him iamiUar with evangeUcal 
 doctrine, could not feil also ere long to create in his own mind some 
 misgivings on the subject of heresy. 
 
 The accused frankly declared their opinions. Circumcision, they 
 said, was founded upon a commandment of God, whilst the popish 
 superstitions had no other origin than the errors of man. Not 
 being able to convince their prisoners, the judges entreated them, 
 with almost paternal earnestness, to return of their own accord to 
 the Church, and not to compel them unwillingly to pronounce an 
 inevitable condemnation. They even added, that they themselves 
 desired a true reform in the Church, but not out of the Church. 
 " Would to God, gentlemen," said Laborie, upon hearing this, "that 
 all the ecclesiastics of France thought as you do, for we would very 
 soon be of one mind ; and if I am a heretic, my lord president is 
 not far from being like myself." The councillors smiled ; and one 
 of them repUed, " Nay, you must become like him, and not he like 
 you." 
 
 But this irresolute, undecided position, intermediate between 
 truth and error, between the church and the world, between Christ 
 and BeHal, will not do for men of candid and devoted hearts. It 
 is the broad way in which many walk ; but the newly-appointed 
 pastors of the valleys and their Christian friends walked in a more 
 narrow and a less agreeable path ; less agreeable, I mean, for the 
 worldly, but more productive of happiness for the children of Christ. 
 
 After this sitting they separated Laborie from his companions, 
 and finding himself alone, he prayed earnestly to God that he would 
 not suffer him to faU. " Thus I continued," he says, in one of his 
 letters, "praying and meditating till two o'clock in the morning." 
 
 Next day he adjured his judges, by the regard they had for their 
 immortal souls, not to put away from them the knowledge of sal- 
 vation which was offered them. He represented to them the duties 
 of their office, and told them that being appointed defenders of the 
 truth, they ought not to condemn the truth. "If we are not in 
 th^ truth," said he, "prove it; if we are, acquit us; for you have 
 to judge the cause of Jesus in our persons, and you cannot be 
 amongst those who judge in ignorance, for God has given you much 
 light." " They listened to me," he says, " for about an hour with- 
 out interruption, and I saw that some of the younger ones wept." 
 " Did not God enjoin Moses to punish heretics ?" said one of the 
 most skilful. "I granted him that," says Laborie, in his own 
 
 I 
 
 •I 
 
 Chap. Vlll.] 
 
 ANTHONY LABORIE QUERCY. 
 
 115 
 
 account of the examination, "and even cited the case of Servetus, 
 who had endured the penalty of his crime at Geneva ; but only 
 take heed, said I, that you do not treat the true children of God as 
 heretics !" " Ah, well ! my friend," said one of the judges, " give us 
 a simple retractation of your heresies, without specifying any of 
 them." " It would be as base in me to make a half -abjuration of the 
 truth, as to recant it altogether." " This will commit you to nothing 
 in respect of the future ; and your life may still be useful, even to 
 your own cause." " I should serve it ill, if I were to begin by 
 betraying it." "You will do it still less service when you are 
 dead." " The death of the faithful is a seed of life, which remains 
 behind them longer than their works would have done." This was 
 indeed to renounce life for the sake of immortality. 
 
 On the 28th of August, all the five were condemned to be burned 
 alive. They were left at liberty to see one another, to write to 
 their friends, their relatives, and their colleagues at Geneva. "We 
 give thanks to God," say they, "and await the hour, commending 
 ourselves to your prayers." The most admired stoicism of anti- 
 quity is not worthy to be compared with this serene and impressive 
 resolution of the Christian's soul. Courage shines forth only upon 
 occasions; but resignation is courage become habitual and abiding. 
 It originates not with man, but with God. 
 
 Anthony Laborie was united in marriage to a young woman 
 who had been born a Catholic, but converted to the gospel. The 
 following are passages of the letters which he wrote to her in order 
 to prepare her for her approaching widowhood : — 
 
 " Anne, my beloved sister and most faithful spouse, you know 
 how well we have loved one another, so long as it has pleased the 
 Lord to leave us together; his peace has continually remained with 
 us, and you have completely obeyed me in everything. I pray 
 you, therefore, that you be always found such as you have been, 
 and better, if it be possible, when I am no more. If your youth 
 is alarmed at the world and poverty, I advise you to marry again, 
 with another brother who equally fears God; and thenceforth 
 think no more of me as having been your husband, but as a hand- 
 ful of ashes; for from this moment we are no longer united, 
 except by the bond of that fraternal charity, in which I hope for 
 your prayers so long as I am alive. When your father shall be 
 apprised of my death, I doubt not but he will seek after you to 
 win you back to Popery; but I entreat you, in the name of the 
 Lord, to remain firm in your adherence to the truth. Trust in 
 God; pray to him, love him, and serve him, and he will not for- 
 sake you. Our little girl, as well as yourself will be dear to him ; 
 
116 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 1; 
 
 for he is the protector of the widow and the father of orjihans. The 
 example of Moses should suffice to assure you of this."^ What 
 affecting thoughts are contained in these grave and calm sentences ! 
 
 Calvin also addressed to the prisoners at Chambery exhortations 
 which may be reckoned austere. " Since it has pleased God to 
 employ you in this sei-vice [martyrdom], continue to do as ye have 
 begun. If the door is closed against you, that you may not edify 
 by doctrine those to whom you had dedicated your labours [the 
 Vaudois], the testimony which you bear will not fail to console 
 them even from afar; for God will give it power to resound where 
 human voices never could have reached."-^ What men and what 
 times were these ! And is this only the chief of a sect; is it not 
 rather another Moses, the legislator of a people newly won to the 
 Lord, who dares to speak of martyrdom as of an ordinary service? 
 And what disciples are these men devoted to a cruel death, who 
 bid farewell to their families as if only for a brief separation ! O 
 liord! increase our faith; it seems as if faith itself had died upon 
 the piles of the martyrs ! 
 
 The prisoners at Chambery still remained ignorant of the day 
 when their execution was to take place. One morning they were 
 brought forth from the prison ; they supposed that they were to 
 be led to some new examination ; but a friend found means to 
 acquaint them on the way of the fate which awaited them. *' Let 
 us give thanks to God," said Laborie, "that he has thought us 
 worthy to be martyrs for himself!" But the pastor Yernoux, 
 more sensitive, and liable to be moved by unexpected impressions, 
 could not help being seized with an involuntary agitation. A cold 
 sweat covered his temples; befell into a nervous trembling ; his 
 resolution seemed about to fail. But all at once he found himself 
 inwardly strengthened, the soul reinvigorated the body, the hand 
 of God sustained him. "My brethren," said he, with humble 
 firmness, " I pray you be not scandalized at my weakness, for I 
 have experienced within myself the most terrible conflict which 
 could possibly be endured. But glory be to God, who by his spirit 
 has overcome the flesh ! Let us go forward ! I can do all things 
 through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
 
 And his Saviour did not abandon him. For the executioner 
 having laid hold of him to fasten him first to the pile, he demanded 
 a moment for prayer, and it being granted him, these words pro- 
 ceeded from his dying lips, breathing the assurance of his heai-t : 
 « O Lord God, Eternal and Almighty Father, I confess before thy 
 Holy Majesty that I am nothing but a poor sinner, incapable of 
 » Crespin, fol. 329. * Crespin, fol. 332, 333. 
 
 Ceap. Vlll.] 
 
 ESCAPE OF GILLES. 
 
 117 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 '»< 
 
 myself of doing any good. Be pleased, then, to have compassion 
 upon me, O God of all goodness, the Father of mercy, and to 
 pardon my sins for the love of Jesus Christ thy Son, my only 
 Redeemer!" He knelt upon the pile, and pronounced that admir- 
 able confession of sins, which proceeded for the fii-st time from the 
 lips of Theodore Beza, in midst of the great Synod of La Rochelle. 
 This affecting and powerful prayer is well known, as still in use in 
 the reformed churches. But how much more impressive must it 
 have been when uttered by that pastor, on the top of the pile on 
 which he was to die, than as pronounced from pulpits, by so many 
 careless voices, without danger and too frequently without life ! 
 
 Laborie stepped upon the pile with firmness of manner and a 
 joyful countenance, as if he had been going to a festival. And 
 that triumph of these regenerate souls was indeed a festival 
 Isaac may have groaned upon Mount Moriah ; but behold ! the 
 Christian pastor offers himself for a holocaust with joy in his heart 
 and a smile upon his lips. How mighty the power of that faith 
 which works such wonders ! 
 
 Tringalet prayed for his enemies. The two other martyrs also 
 spoke some pious sentences, and all five having been strangled, 
 were left to the flames, which only devoured their corpses. 
 
 A short time after, the Barba Gilles, already mentioned in the 
 history of the churches of Calabria, returning from these countries 
 by Venice and the Tyrol, passed into Germany, and making his 
 way back through Switzerland, stopped at Lausanne. There he 
 made the accquaintance of a young pastor of great talent, but of a 
 very delicate constitution, named Stephen Noel. Having obtained 
 his consent to devote his services to the Yaudois churches, they 
 set out for together for Piedmont; but in passing through Savoy, 
 they were accosted one evening in an hostelry near Chamb6ry, by 
 an officer of justice, who began to address them "with a profusion 
 of compHments," says Gilles, " which were by no means desired." 
 They passed themselves off as relatives of some soldiers whom they 
 were going to see in the camp. (It was during the time of the 
 wars of Francis I. in Italy). But the officer of justice, not seem- 
 ing more than half satisfied, expressed his desire of having further 
 conversation with them in the morning. They had no wish to wait 
 for him ; and through the protection of their host, who favoured 
 them (but above all through that of God, who kept them in safety), 
 they were enabled to make their escape during the night, turned 
 aside into by-paths, and amved safe and well in Piedmont. 
 
 But there, also, other martyrs were to shed their blood. The 
 reader will recollect the crusade commenced by Innocent VUL 
 

 113 
 
 TnE ISRAEL 01? THE ALPS. 
 
 [[Pa AT FlUT. 
 
 against the Vaudois. Amongst the chiefs who signalized them- 
 selves at the head of these sanguinary troops, was a Captain 
 Varagle (pronoimced Varaille), whose son, a youth of remarkable 
 intelligence, entered into orders in 1522. He resided at a short 
 distance from the Vaudois valleys, in Busque, a Httle town more 
 isolated from the rest of the world than almost any other in Pied- 
 mont His rapid progress in learning, his knowledge of theology, 
 and his eloquence in the pulpit, attracted the attention of hi^ 
 superiors. 
 
 It was at this period that the influence of the Reformation was 
 everywhere felt. The Church of Rome perceived the necessity of 
 strengthening its tottering power. The Synod of Angrogna, at 
 which Farel and Sauhiier had been present, had just given a more 
 Hvely impulse to that movement of disquietude, of inquiry, and of 
 awakening, which then agitated all the better class of minds. 
 Young Varagle was chosen for the work of repressing it. (His 
 name was Geofl5:ey, and I shall write his surname Varaille, in order 
 to conform the orthography to the pronunciation.) 
 
 To him was intrusted the difficult task of visiting the principal 
 cities of Italy, in order to restore the credit of the Romish Church 
 by his eloquent discourses. An Observantine monk of the convent 
 of Monte Fiascone, in the county of Urbino, was commissioned to 
 a^)Company him. His name was Matteo Baschi, and it was he 
 who, reforming the order of the Cordeliers in 1525, originated 
 that of the Capuchins, which very soon reckoned nearly 500 con- 
 vents in Europe, and more than 25,000 monks. With these two 
 missionaries ten other members of the secular clergy were joined 
 for this important enterprise. 
 
 Being compelled, in order to accompHsh it, to examine for 
 themselves the arguments employed by the reformed against 
 CathoUcism, they soon perceived their force, and presently became 
 themselves suspected of an inclination in favour of the doctrines 
 which they were appointed to combat. These suspicions grew into 
 certainty, and they were all imprisoned at Rome upon this serious 
 charge. Their captivity lasted for &ye years. ^ It may be sup- 
 posed that this long detention was not long enough to efface from 
 their minds the impressions which were regarded with so much 
 alarm ; if their minds were upright and sincere, this seclusion, as 
 it kept them from attending to anything else, was only calculated 
 to confirm them the more. Such was its effect on Varaille. 
 
 Renouncing from the first all active opposition to the Reforma- 
 
 « Minntee of the aittingB of the ParUament of Turin, of 27th and 28th Septem- 
 ber, 1557. ^ 
 
 J 
 
 11 
 
 Chap. VIU.] 
 
 GEOFFKEY VARAILLE. 
 
 119 
 
 tion, he attached himself to the Legate of the Holy See at the court 
 of France, and accompanied him to Paris, where he abode for some 
 time. But the distant rays of the Reformation, that dayspring 
 from on high, which opened up the era of modern liberty by the 
 outbreaking light of the gospel, reached him with still greater power 
 in the French capital. The massacre of the Vaudois of M^rindol 
 and of Cabrilres, the case relative to which was about this time 
 pleaded before the Court of Peers, excited his indignation and disgust 
 against a church drenched with the blood of the righteous. Com- 
 pelled unquestionably by his conscience, he spontaneously quitted 
 the high position which he occupied at Paris, and proceeded to 
 Geneva, in order to study the new doctrines at their fountain. 
 
 What an epoch was that in which the great interests of religion 
 had so powerful a reality, that a regard to them alone was sufficient 
 to change, in this way, the whole course of a life ! 
 
 Varaille was at this time nearly fifty years of age; but his feith 
 made him young again, and, filled with an ardour which his youth 
 had not known, he cast off without hesitation all his previous con- 
 nections, ready to begin life anew with a moral strength which he 
 had never possessed before. This man, laden with half a century 
 of Popery, had felt the truth of the words spoken by our Lord to 
 Nicodemus, and humbly received the imposition of hands, that he 
 might be numbered amongst the evangelical pastors destined to 
 defend that cause with which all that he had previously had to do 
 had been in the character of an adversary. The Vaudois churches 
 now applied for a pastor who could preach in Italian. Geoffrey 
 Varaille was sent to them, and was settled in the parish of St. 
 John. Here, then, was he in these same valleys in which his father 
 had conducted a persecuting crusade. O, how unlike are God's 
 ways to our ways ! The son was called to take charge, as a pastor, 
 of that same flock which his father had sought to exterminate. 
 
 After having spent some months in the valleys, he desired to see 
 the little town of Busque, where he was bom ; his feimily was not 
 yet quite extinct there, and a few evangelical Christians who began 
 to appear in that place, were to him a family whom his heart did 
 not less dearly love. This journey, however, was not without 
 perils ; he received notice that spies were employed by his enemies 
 to watch his movements. But his courage seemed to have increased 
 with his years, as if under his white hairs the ardour of youth had 
 returned along with evangelical fervour. In truth, the life of the 
 soul is in old men a youth without decay, the dawn of immortality. 
 
 Nevertheless, he enjoyed the satisfe^ion of visiting his family, 
 and edifying the brethren at Busque, without anything happening 
 
 II 
 
120 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Fibst. 
 
 to him. But on liis return, passing by Barges, at the base of the 
 Mount Yiso, he was denounced by the Prior of the abbey of Staf- 
 farde (to which a part of the Vaudois valleys had been granted in 
 the 9 th century)/ and airested by a criminal officer, a nephew of 
 the Archdeacon of Saluces. 
 
 He was treated with respect; a richly furnished house was 
 assigned him for his prison, and he was even allowed to be at large 
 upon parole. How many ordinary prisoners would have taken ad- 
 vantage of it to have fled ! But the true Christian is not like one of 
 those Papists who declared in their council- that a man may break 
 his word without breaking the law of God. Having even learned 
 that some of the reformed of Bubiano, who formed part of his parish, 
 had an intention of coming to deliver him by force, he sent them 
 word to refrain, and to leave the matter in the hands of God. 
 And yet the edicts of Francis I., who had conquered Piedmont, 
 and of Henry II., who then reigned there, authorized the greatest 
 severities against him. 
 
 After several examinations he was conducted to Turin, firmly 
 bound. The responses which he made to his judges, and the writ- 
 ten arguments which he presented to them in support of his reli- 
 gion, are a monument of his talents, his knowledge, and his piety. 
 
 During his imprisonment, Calvin wrote to him from Geneva a 
 letter in Latin, of which the following is a ti*anslation : — 
 
 " Most dear and beloved brother 1 — ^Whilst the news of your 
 imprisonment has extremely grieved us, the Lord, who can bring 
 light out of darkness, has united therewith a cause of joy and con- 
 solation, in the spectacle of the fruits which your affliction has 
 already produced, and the glory which sustained St. Paul ought 
 also to impart courage to you ; for if you are bound, the Word of 
 God is not bound, and you have it in your power to testify regard- 
 ing it to many, who will spread farther abroad the seed of life 
 which they have received from your mouth. Jesus Christ requires 
 this testimony from every one ; but he has laid the obligation in 
 a more especial manner upon you, by the seal of the ministry which 
 you have received, to preach the doctrine of salvation which is now 
 assailed in your person. Remember, then, to seal, if need be, with 
 your blood, that doctrine which you have taught with your mouth. 
 He has promised that the death of his own shall be precious to 
 him j let this recompense suffice you. I shall dwell no longer on 
 this point, persuaded that you repose confidently on him, in whom, 
 whether we live or die, our eternal happiness is to be found. My 
 
 » Amongst, others, the Cmibe of Giausarand, or Vol Guichard. See Monw 
 mentapatrice, T. I., No. DXIII, anno 821. ^ Qecum. Const. 1415. 
 
 Chap. VIIL] 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF VARAILLE. 
 
 121 
 
 (wv 
 
 I 
 
 vr 
 
 companions and brethren salute you. — Geneva, 17th of September, 
 1557." 
 
 It would have been pleasant to have met with more tender out- 
 pourings of the heart, in the great man whose name a portion of 
 the Christian church still bears. But perhaps this inflexibility was 
 necessary to that commanding influence over the minds of others 
 by which he consolidated the Reformation. 
 
 The humble Vaudois pastor encouraged no one to face death, but 
 he went forward to it himself with a heroic firmness. When the 
 sentence of death was announced to him, he said with a solemn 
 voice, " Be assui'ed, gentlemen, that you will sooner want wood for 
 piles, than ministers of the gospel to seal their faith upon them ; 
 for they multiply daily, and the word of God endures for ever." 
 The court, Crespin says, pronounced sentence of death against him, 
 rather for fear of reproach, than from conviction that he deserved 
 it. O Pilate, Pilate ! how numerous are thy race in the world ! 
 
 Geofirey Varaille was burned alive in the square of the castle at 
 Turin, on the 29th of March, 1558. When he had ascended the 
 pile the executioner approached ; it was thought that he meant to 
 apply the fire. Not at all ; he knelt at the feet of the martyr, 
 entreating him to pardon him the death which he was about to 
 inflict upon him. " Not only thee," replied Varaille, " but all those 
 who have caused it." Then, whilst the assistant executioners ap- 
 plied the fire in front, the principal executioner strangled him from 
 behind ; " and many people," says Crespin, " relate, as a notable fact, 
 that a dove flew around the fire and rose into the air, which was 
 esteemed a sign of the innocence of the martyr. But for the cir- 
 cumstances of this death, we have confined ourselves to the prin- 
 cipal matter, without curiously staying upon mere externals." The 
 true miracles of the gospel are the miracles of faith, for the gospel 
 of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, unto aU those that 
 believe. 
 
 Along with Varaille, says Gilles, there was conducted to the 
 place of execution, a good old man, who had already sufiered much 
 for the cause of truth, and after he had been compelled to witness 
 the death of that worthy martyr of the Lord, and had been 
 whipped, red hot irons were taken from that same pile, and he was 
 marked with them, with the king's mark. 
 
 In the same year, a young man, who was bom at Quiers, a short 
 
 distance from the Vaudois valleys, happening to be at Aosta, on 
 
 Good Friday, heard a preacher who said that the sacrifice of Jesus 
 
 Christ was renewed daily in the sacrifice of the mass. "Christ has 
 
 only died once," murmured the young man, "and he is now in 
 Vol. I. iQ 
 
122 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Fibst. 
 
 Chap. Vlli.] 
 
 MATHURIN. 
 
 123 
 
 heaven, from wliicli he will not come again until the last day." 
 " You do not. then, believe in his corporal presence in the hosti" 
 demanded a clerk, named Ripet. " Truly, God forbid ! Do you 
 knov/ the creed f "Yes; but what of thatl" "Is it not there 
 said that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father 1" 
 "Yes." "Well, then, he is not in the host." Not being able 
 to reply to this argument, they imprisoned him who used it. 
 
 He was twenty-six years of age ; his name was Nicolas Sartoire. 
 His friends contrived to secure his escape by night ; he then left the 
 town of Aosta, the ancient Augusta Prjetoria, a place full of ruins 
 and superstitions, and as he had already dwelt at Lausanne, he took 
 the way by the St. Bernard, to take refuge in Switzerland. But 
 at the village of St. Remy, the last which he would have had to 
 pass through before crossing the frontier, he was arrested anew, 
 and brought back to prison. His friends of Aosta then wrote to 
 those whom he had at Lausanne, that they should apply to the 
 authorities of Berne, who might demand him, as an inhabitant of 
 that country. These attempts were made, but without effect. 
 Nicolas Sartoire was tortured. " Retract your errors !" said the 
 ecclesiastical judge. "Prove to me that I have errors." "The 
 Church condemns you." « But the Bible acquits me." "You incur 
 the punishment of death by your obstinacy." " He who shall per- 
 severe unto the end shall be saved." " You wish, then, to die?" 
 "I wish to have eternal life." And torments, as well as solicita- 
 tions, were without effect. 
 
 After the rack, he was made to endure the strapado, but his 
 courage did not forsake him. "And for his obstinacy," says the 
 sentence, "he was condemned to be burned alive." His friends 
 implored him to retract ; assured, they said, of being able still to 
 obtain his pardon. "The pardon which I desire," he replied, "I 
 have already obtained from my God." This courageous child of 
 the Lord died on the pile, at Aosta, on the 4th of May, 1557, 
 refusing to the last to purchase life by abjuring his religion. 
 
 About the same time, says Gilles, one of the ministers of the 
 valley of Lucerna, returning from Geneva, was taken prisoner at 
 Suza, and conducted thence to Turin. He displayed the same 
 steadfastness, and his judges displayed the same barbarity. He was 
 condemned to be burned alive. But it appears that his dignity, his 
 gentleness, and the imposing and modest seriousness of his speech, 
 had produced a profound impression upon those around him, for 
 the day of the execution being come, one of the executioners feigned 
 himself ill, and concealed himself; the other, after having put to 
 death some malefactors, afraid of being compelled to execute the 
 
 m *. 
 
 minister, fled ; so that the execution being prevented from taking 
 place, the minister found means to make his escape, and returned 
 to his church.i Gilles has not preserved the name of this pastor; 
 he relates in the briefest way this extraordinary history, in which 
 we see the executioners fleeing before the victim — the executioners 
 more conscientious than the judges, and refusing to have anything 
 to do with the execution — the executioners giving the Church of 
 Rome a lesson of humanity ! Many others Christians of the Vau- 
 dois valleys, or of the places adjacent, were also condemned to 
 death in the 16th century; but very rare were the instances in 
 which they succeeded in escaping the execution of the sentence, 
 and the example is perhaps unparalleled of a pastor returning to 
 his church after having been spared by four or five executioners. 
 
 In 1560, many of the reformed or Vaudois of Piedmont were 
 made prisoners, having been surprised in the very fact of social 
 prayer and religious assemblies beyond the limits of the actual 
 territory of the Vaudois valleys; and by a procedure more worthy 
 of Mahometans than of Christians, they were condemned to bo 
 burned three days after their incarceration, without pleadings, with- 
 out examination, mthout the formalities of trial, and simply on the 
 strength of the accusation alone. 
 
 However, if they made profession of Popery, they were set at 
 liberty; but if they refused to go to mass their heresy was demon- 
 strated ; in that case they had these three days allowed them to 
 abjure, and if they did not yield, an end was put to their life. Ab- 
 juration or death: such was the language of the jurisprudence 
 matured beneath the shade of Catholicism. 
 
 It was in the town of Carignan that the executions commenced. 
 A French fugitive, named Mathurin, was the first seized. The 
 commissioners enjoined him to abjure his religion if he would escape 
 death. He preferred to die. " We give you three days to reflect," 
 said they, " but after that time you will be burned alive if you 
 refuse to come to mass." The family of Mathurin were more dis- 
 tressed than himself He had married a Vaudois woman. His 
 wife applied to the commissioners for leave to see him. " Provided 
 that you do not harden him in his errors," said they. "I promise 
 you," she replied, "that I will not speak to him except for his 
 good." The commissioners never thought of any greater good than 
 life, and conducted the young woman to the prisoner, m the hope 
 that she would persuade him to prolong his days by a recantation. 
 But the courageous daughter of the martyrs dreaded, on the con- 
 trary, that her husband might be induced to follow that course out 
 
 * Gilles, chap. x. p. 67. 
 
mm 
 
 f/ 
 
 124 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet First 
 
 of affection for her, or through human weakness, and the good 
 which she wished to do him was to confirm him in his resolution. 
 " Accordingly," says our old chronicler, " she exhorted him, in pre- 
 sence of the commissioners, as earnestly as possible, steadfastly to 
 persevere in his religion, without putting the death of the body, 
 which is of brief duration, in the balance against the eternal 
 salvation of his soul." The commissioners, transported with rage, 
 on hearing language so different from what they expected upon her 
 part, loaded her with reproaches; but she, unmoved and earnest, 
 continued to address her husband, saying to him, with a firm and 
 gentle voice, " Let not the assaults of the wicked one make you 
 abandon the profession of your hope in Jesus Christ." " Exhort 
 him to obey us, or you shall both be hanged," cried the magis- 
 trates. "And let not the love of this world's possessions make 
 you lose the inheritance of heaven ! " said the Christian woman, 
 without pausing in her calm exhortations. " Heretical she-devil!" 
 they exclaimed, "if you do not change your tone, you shall be 
 burned to-mon-ow." "Would I have come to persuade him to 
 die rather than to abjure," she replied, " if I could myself seek to 
 escape death by apostasy?" "You should fear, at any rate, the 
 torments of the pile." " I fear him who is able to cast both body 
 and soul into a more terrible fire than that of your billets." 
 * Hell is for heretics ; save yourselves by renouncing your errors." 
 "Where can the truth be if not in the words of God?" "This 
 will be the destruction of you both," said the magistrates, if that 
 name can be given to such cruel ^natics. "Blessed be God !" said 
 the woman to her husband, " because having united us in life, he 
 will not separate us in death ! " " Instead of one, we shall have 
 two of them to bum," sneeringly muttered the executioner's satel- 
 lites." " T will be thy companion to the end," the heroic woman 
 simply added. "Will you come to mass and have your pardon?" 
 said the magistrates again. " I would much rather go to the pile 
 and have eternal life." "If you do not abjure, Mathurin shall be 
 burned to-morrow, and you three days after." " We shall meet 
 again in heaven," replied she, mildly. " Think of the delay that 
 is still granted you." " The length of it is of no consequence, for 
 my resolution is for life." " Say, rather, it is for death." "The 
 death of the body, but the life of the soul " " Have you nothing 
 else to say to us, you damned obstinate wretch?" "Nothing; 
 except that I beseech you not to put off my execution for three 
 days, but to let me die with my husband." Her request was 
 granted. She had entered the prison a free woman, but she 
 remained a captive, and only came out again to mount the pile. 
 
 I 
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 DE CARTIGNON — GIRARDET. 
 
 125 
 
 The name of this woman was Joan, and this name, pronounced in 
 such circumstances, involuntarily recals that of Joan of Arc. Why 
 should not the heroism of the Christian woman be admired as much 
 as that of the young female warrior of Orleans? Ought the vic- 
 tims of faith to be less thought of than those of battle? Alas! 
 one may more readily become illustrious in this world by taking 
 the lives of his enemies, than by giving his own for the love of the 
 brethren. But those who do so give their lives, do it not with an 
 
 eye to worldly glory. 
 
 The two martyr spouses had a last evening of prayer and medi- 
 tation to spend together on this earth. It is pleasing to think that 
 it cannot have been the least sweet of their evenings, for Jesus 
 says, " Wherever even two shall be met in my name, I will be with 
 them, in the midst of them." And when were the conditions of 
 that promise ever more completely realized than at that hour? 
 
 Next day, being the 2d of March, 1560, a pile was formed in 
 the public square of Carignan, and there these worthy confessors of 
 the gospel died, holding one another by the hand, and with souls 
 imited in the love of the Saviour. 
 
 A new pile was formed twelve days after, in the same place, for 
 the execution of a yoimg man who had been arrested three days 
 before, on the way from Lucerna to Pignerol. His name was John 
 De Cartignon, and as he was a jeweller, he was called Johanni 
 delle Spinelle. He had already been a prisoner upon account of 
 religion ; it was upon this account that he had retired to the valley 
 of Lucerna, for he was not a native of it. Finding himself once 
 more a captive, he concluded that this would be the last time. 
 "My deliverance," he said, "will not come from men, but from 
 God." And, indeed, God sustained him, for he endured the torment 
 of his execution with rare courage. 
 
 The inquisition called these atrocious barbarities acts of faith — 
 cmtos da/e. Such were, therefore, the acts of the Catholic faith ; 
 those of the Protestant faith were glorious martyrdoms. Which 
 are most worthy of the name ? 
 
 " In 1535," says Gilles, " Bersour having been commissioned to 
 proceed against the Vaudois, laid hold of so great a number of them 
 that he filled with them his castle of Miradol, and the prisons and 
 convent of Pignerol, as well as the dungeons of the inquisition at 
 Turin." Many of the prisoners were condemned to be burned 
 alive. One of them, Catalan Girardet, of St. John, on his way to 
 the place of execution, lifted two stones, and rubbing them one 
 against another in his hands, said to the inquisitors, " See these 
 impenetrable pebbles; all that you can do to annihilate our 
 
- 1 « i *l >l 
 
 126 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Piut. 
 
 Ch/p. VIIL] 
 
 JOHN AND UDOLPH GEY^IET. 
 
 127 
 
 J I 
 
 cliiirclies, will no more destroy them than I can wear away and 
 destroy these stones." He endured his death with admirable firm- 
 ness. These words of his have caused his name to be preserved ; but 
 how many others died like him, and with the same courage? 
 
 Many i)risoners also perished without its being ever known what 
 became of them ! Such was the case at this period with Mai*k 
 Chanavas of Pinache, Julian Colombat of Villar Perouse, and 
 George Stale of Fenil. 
 
 Let us bestow a thought upon these unknown victims, whose 
 sufierings and courage perhaps increased together during whole 
 years of unmeasured distress, occasioned at once by their being for- 
 gotten, and by disease and hunger. Some one striking circumstance 
 is enough to give distinction to a name, but this perseverance 
 throughout ages (for in dungeons a year is an age), this termless 
 resignation, does it not require even more strength of soul, and 
 ought it not to excite in us even more profound sympathies than 
 the enthusiasm of a moment ? 
 
 A few years later, the pastor of St. Germain was brought by a 
 traitor within the grasp of a troop of malefactors in the pay of the 
 abbey of Pignerol. Some of his parishioners, who attempted to 
 defend him, were arrested along with him. But the torments and 
 death of the victims of Rome, and the victories of their faith, were 
 things then so common, that Gilles, without even mentioning the 
 name of this pastor, merely tells us that, after having overcome all 
 the temptations which were employed in order to make him abjure, 
 he was condemned to be burned alive by a slow fire ; and adds that 
 some women of St. Germain, who were prisoners along with him, 
 were constrained to carry faggots to the pile where their pastor 
 was patiently enduring martyrdom. What a picture, however, is 
 here presented to us of holy resolution maintained in the midst of 
 horrors ! 
 
 Still later, in 1560, the hamlet of Les Bonnets, situated between 
 La Tour and Le Villar, was assailed by soldiers, who came at once 
 from both of these hist-named places, where at that time were for- 
 tifications, which are now demolished. After having destroyed and 
 pillaged everything, they bore ofi" fourteen prisoners. Two men 
 alone had escaped them.^ These men hastened to post themselves 
 above a steep slope by which the aggressors must pass. No sooner 
 had the troop of spoliators got upon this declivity with their 
 prisoners, than the two Vaudois, who lay concealed, set in motion 
 a great number of stones, which rolled down upon them, and threw 
 them into confusion, so that twelve of the prisoners found oppor- 
 tunity of taking to flight. The two captives who remained in the 
 
 f 
 I 
 
 hands of the assailants both belonged to a family named Geymet ; 
 the name of the one was John, that of the other TJdolph. They 
 were conveyed to the castle of La Tour. There, after both cruelties 
 and promises had been employed in order to make them abjure, the 
 captain of the garrison, named Joseph Banster, strangled John 
 Geymet with his own hands. Udolph was fastened to a table, 
 stripped of his garments, and put to death by an unparalleled tor- 
 ture. The following is the simple and laconic account which Gilles 
 gives of it : — " The soldiers having collected a great number of those 
 creatures which live in the dung and carrion of animals, filled there- 
 with a bowl, which they placed upon his belly, and fastened it to 
 his body, so that these vermin went into his entrails and devoured 
 him, he being yet alive. These cruelties have been related by the 
 very soldiers of the garrison. Thus died this poor martyr, in the 
 sixtieth year of his age." 
 
 Here let us pause. The mind recoils, horror-stricken, from the 
 thought of so many victims, and of such atrocious refinements of 
 cruelty. Was this a race of savages, who could ruthlessly shed 
 so much blood *? And if they did it in name of their religion, ought 
 not that religion to be execrated of mankind? Can altars which 
 have been served by the inquisition, by Jesuitism, and by simony, 
 pretend a right to the servile homage of civilized men ! Cain killed 
 his brother through envy, in a moment of passion, without having 
 known the light of the gospel; he killed him alone; but Rome, 
 which assumes the name of Christian, beneath whose very tiara the 
 tradition of assassination has been transmitted — Rome has destroyed 
 thousands of victims, has murdered them in cold blood, has pre- 
 meditated their death, has prolonged their agonies, has invented 
 refinements of torture, and whensoever the interests of her own 
 empire were concerned, her work has been to betray, to corrupt, 
 and to kill. 
 
 But these poor oppressed ones, the victims of her tyranny — ^these 
 Christians who enjoyed no rest, and martyrs who exhibited no 
 weakness — ^knew also well that it is said in the gospel, " Blessed are 
 they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." But it is not necessary to sufier martyrdom 
 in order to die unto the Lord; and every Christian, however mean 
 his condition, says, in the words recorded in ancient Bible history, 
 " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
 like his." 
 
128 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [^Pabt First. 
 
 Chap. IX ] 
 
 MARQUISATE OF SALUCES. 
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF PAESANE, 
 
 PRAVIGLELM, AND SALUCES.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1550 TO A.D. 1580.) 
 
 The Marquisate of Saluces — Inquisitors sent to extirpate heresy in 1308 — Perse- 
 cutions of 1499-1510 — Margaret De Foix, Marchioness of Saluces — Expulsion 
 of the Vaudois from Saluces — They take refuge in the other valleys — Their 
 return to Saluces in 1512 — Influence of the Reformation — Increase and exten- 
 sion of the church. 
 
 In the bottom of the basin and on the elevated level grounds of 
 Paesane, and in the deep valleys of Cruzzol and Onzino, where the 
 head-waters of the Po descend from Mount Visol, the Vaudois 
 appear to have had their most ancient settlements in the province 
 of Saluces. It has been alleged that their origin amongst these 
 mountains was contemporaneous with that of the other Vaudois 
 who inhabit the left bank of the Po. But Gilles informs us that 
 the inhabitants of Praviglelm, Biolet, and Bi6tonnet, came from the 
 valley of Lucema. This emigration must be referred to a very 
 remote date, since those who descended from it had peopled the 
 
 * AuTHOBlTlES. — Perririy Qilles, Liger, Rorengo. — ** Brief discours des persecu- 
 tions advenues aux eglises du marquisat de Saluces.^' Qenlve, chez Paul Marceau, 
 1620. (This work was composed by order, and printed at the expense of the Synod 
 held at Brian^on in June, 1620.)— *' Memoralilis historia persec. bdlorumque in 
 pop. tfulgo Valdensem appellatum, &c." Oenevce. Excudehat JEustathius Vignon 
 M.D.LXXXI. (Small 8vo, of 150 pages in italics.) — ^* Relatione atVeminentissima 
 congreyatione de propaganda fide, dei luoghi di alcune voile di Piemonte, alVA.R. 
 di Savoja sogetti . . ." Torino. No date, small 18mo, pp. 523. — Massi, ** Storia 
 dePinerolo . . ." 3 vols. — Semeria, ** Storia delta chiesametropolitanadi Torino." 
 8vo. 1840. — '* Xc banissement des gens de la religion prUendue reformie, hors des 
 estais de Savoye, le tout, selon Vordonnance et arrest de V Inquisition et Sinai dc 
 Piedmont" Paris, M.D.C.XIX. (Relates exclusively to the Vaudois of Saluces. ) — 
 " Lettres des fidiles du marquisat de Saluces, souveraineti du due de Savoye, envoyees 
 a MM. les Pastews de VEglise de Genive, contenantes Vhistoire de leurs persecu- 
 tions, . . . . &c." — *' Jouxte la copie ecintea Geneve." 1619. — Solen, ** Diario dei 
 fatti successi in Torino, . . . &c." — Muletti, *' Mim. hist, sur le marquisat de Sa- 
 luces," (t. vi.) — Costa de Beauregard, *' Mem. hist, sur la maison roy. de Savoie." 
 Turin, 1816. 3 vols. 8vo. — " Litterce qucedam nondum editce . . . ex authogra- 
 phis . . . edidit Bretsneider." Leipsiae, 1835. 8vo. — (Contains a letter of the 
 pastor of Praviglelm, dated 23d July, 1563. ) — General and particular histories of 
 Piedmont, and of the Marquisate of Saluces. — ** UArt de verifier les dates." — His- 
 tories of France (for the period during which Piedmont was included in the French 
 dominions). — ^Various documents found in the archives of Saluces, Lucema, Pig- 
 nerol, and Turin.— A MS. of the Royal Library at Turin, the " Chronicle of the 
 family of the Sollaros" (in Italian). — Private letters of MM. Cibrario, Duboin, 
 C^sar of Saluces, &c. — Some of the authorities here noted belong to the subsequent 
 ohapters. 
 
 I 
 
 marquisate of Saluces, and we find that the Vaudois were already 
 there in the 13th century. We know, indeed, that the Vaudois 
 of Provence issued from it; and in the confession of faith which 
 they presented to Francis L, on the 6th of April, 1541, they refer 
 their settlement in Provence to more than 200 years before that 
 date. 
 
 The Vaudois of Saluces themselves, including those of the 
 valleys of the Po, gave out that they and their fathers had ex- 
 isted in that countiy from time immemorial, i Perhaps it was 
 this which gave rise to the opinion, which has recently been 
 expressed, that the Vaudois of all other parts of Piedmont issued 
 from these districts ;2 but Gilles positively affirms that those 
 of Saluces themselves derived their origin from the valley of 
 Lucerna.^ 
 
 The marquisate of Saluces dates its existence from the 12 th 
 century. This tract of country was given as a dowry to Beatrix, 
 grand-daughter of Adelaide of Suza, who enlarged the abbey of 
 Pignerol, and in whose behalf the emperor, Henry the Aged, her 
 son-in-law, erected the fiefs of the territory of Saluces into a mar- 
 quisate. They remained, therefore, dependent, as secondary fiefs, 
 upon the marche of Suza, and when the territory of Seuzie passed 
 into the hands of the Counts of Savoy, these counts found them- 
 selves also the suzerains of the Marquises of Saluces. 
 
 In 1308 inquisitors were sent into this region to destroy heresy; 
 but after having been repulsed and defeated in discussion, they 
 sustained a new defeat in their attempt to triumph by means of 
 violence. Surroimded in a castle, and retained as prisoners by the 
 inhabitants of the district which they came to convert, and who 
 seemed to be unanimous in repelling them, they were compelled to 
 submit to conditions instead of imposing them, and retired from 
 these countries without having even commenced the work for 
 which they had come thither.* Pope John XXII., in his brief to 
 John de Badis, intimated to the Mai-quises of Saluces, to the Counts 
 of Lucerna, and to the Duke of Savoy, his desire that they would 
 assist the inquisition with all their power against these disorgan- 
 izers of the Church of Rome. But the power most formidable to 
 that church, and effectual in disorganizing it, is the word of God, 
 and not the rebellion of men. Let the Bible reign in any place, 
 
 * Perrin, p. 185. Leger, p. cxi. 
 
 2 De Rougemonf, *' Precis d' ethnographic, de statist, et de giographie hist." t. i. 
 p. 210. » Gilles, p. 18. 
 
 * Proenominati hceretici ipsum InquisUorem in quodam castello patenter et publice 
 cbsederunt, sic cum oportuit quod inde recedere, inquisitionis huju^modi officio rdicto, 
 toialiter imperfccto.—Brief of John XXII. to John de BadiP, 23d July, 1332. 
 
 Vol. I. £i» 
 
130 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part ITiest. 
 
 Chap. IX.] 
 
 EXPULSION OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 131 
 
 and there Popery must be overcome. This appeal of the pontiff 
 had no other result than the apprehension of a Barba of the valley 
 of Lucema, named Mai-tin Pastre. He was on his way to the 
 churches of Saluces, and he justified, by a courageous martyr- 
 dom, the choice which had been made of him for that evangelical 
 mission. 
 
 The edict of the Duchess lolande, in 1476, enjoining the chate- 
 lains of Pignerol, Cavour, and Lucema, to cause all the Vaudois 
 of the Italian Alps to return within the pale of the Catholic 
 Church, could not but affect in some measure those on the right 
 bank of the Po; but ib was in 1499 that they began to be assailed 
 with the most direct violence. 
 
 Margaret de Foix, the widow of the Marquis of Saluces, finding 
 herself free from his control, and being a slave to her confessor, 
 became in the hands of fanaticism a ready instrument of persecu- 
 tion. She was connected by family ties with Pope Julius II., and 
 obtained from him the creation of a bishopric in the marquisate. 
 In return for this favour, she erected, at her own expense, the 
 episcopal palace in which Anthony de la Rovera, the first bishop 
 of Saluces, and nephew of Julius II., was received more as a prince 
 than as a pastor. It was she, also, who built the church of St. 
 Clara, in which her tomb may be seen unto this day ; but whilst 
 she built churches of stone, she sought to destroy the living church, 
 which preserved within it the gospel of the earliest times; and at 
 the instigation of the clergy by whom she was surrounded, she 
 issued a decree, by which the Vaudois were enjoined, under pain 
 of death, to embrace Catholicism or to quit the country.^ 
 
 The unfortunate people retired to the banks of the Po. The 
 marchioness would have pursued them, but the seigneurs of 
 Paesane, with whom the fugitives had found shelter, represented 
 that to themselves alone, in concert with the bishop and the inqui- 
 sitors, belonged the right of proceeding in that way against any 
 persons on their lands; their OAvn vassals, moreover, were almost 
 aU of the Vaudois faith. The marchioness then purchased from 
 the bishop and inquisitors the right of prosecution which belonged 
 to them ; and being thus possessed of two-third.s of that barbarous 
 jurisdiction, she sent out missionaries, whose tirst act was to ordain 
 all the inhabitants of St. Frons, Praviglelm, Paesane, Biolet, 
 Bietonet, Serre di Momian, and Borga d'Oncino, to come and per- 
 form an act of penitence at Paesane, before Brother Angiolo Kic- 
 ciardino de Saviglian. 
 
 No one came, and the prosecutions commenced. Two men were 
 
 » Muletti, vi. 29, 331. 
 
 arrested at St. Frons. '*To what place do you belong?" "To 
 these mountains." "Are you Vaudois?" "We all are." "Ab- 
 jure the heresy." "When it has been proved to us." It was not 
 proved, but the two Christians were thrown into prison. Two others 
 were arrested in another place, and likewise declared themselves 
 Vaudois. The one belonged to Praviglelm, and the other to 
 Oncino. " None of our people will abjure," said they to the in- 
 quisitors. The Marchioness of Saluces then armed 200 men, and 
 caused them to march towards the mountains. The greater part 
 of the inhabitants fled to Barges with their cattle, but some were 
 taken and cast into prisons. Their trial having been finished, and 
 tortures not spared,^ five of them were condemned to death on the 
 24th of March, 1510. Their execution was reserved for Palm 
 Sunday. Human victims ! the offerings of the Church of Rome 
 to its false gods ! 
 
 The Vaudois prisoners were to be burned alive, in a meadow 
 situated opposite to the paternal home of one of them, named 
 Majrnard. This name, which occurs also amongst the persecuted 
 in Provence, attests the afiiliation of the Vaudois churches of the 
 two sides of the Alps. The pile was prepared, but when the day 
 came, there fell such a quantity of rain and snow, that the wood 
 could not be got to burn. The execution was put off to the next 
 day. During the night, a secret friend managed to convey a file 
 to the imhappy captives, and they freed themselves from their fet- 
 ters, and glorifying God for this deliverance, took refrige at Barges 
 with their brethren in the faith. 
 
 The executioners revenged themselves upon other prisoners for 
 the fiight of these victims. Mary and Julia Gienet, with one of 
 their brethren, named Lanfre Balangier, were burned alive on the 
 bank of the Po, on the 2d day of May following. But the prisons 
 were not yet emptied. Many were subjected to the ignoble and 
 cruel punishment of the bastinado, and many died under these atro- 
 cious inflictions. Some of their companions in captivity perished 
 by slow degrees in the subterranean dungeons of the castle of Pae- 
 sane. Some made profession of repentance, a small number were 
 pardoned, and all who could make their escape retired to Barges, 
 and from thence into the valley of Lucema. 
 
 The property of these poor people was confiscated, two-thirds of 
 it going to the Marchioness of Saluces. It was a profitable busi- 
 ness, for she made more by it than the right of prosecution had 
 cost her. Accordingly, she gave a share of the spoils of the here- 
 tics to the monks of Riffredo. The traffickers in human blood are 
 * Uditi testimoniiy non risparmiati itormenti. — ^Muletti, vi. 385. 
 

 «l 
 
 ^1 
 
 132 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First, 
 
 a Step in advance of brutes, which give up no part of their prey. 
 The last third of these confiscations was divided betwixt the seiff- 
 neurs of Oncino and Pacsane, on whose lands they had taken place. 
 They had opposed the murder, but they shared the spoil. 
 
 At length, on the 18th of July, 1510, which the reader will ob- 
 serve was before the Reformation, the Inquisition caused the Yau- 
 dois place of worship to be demolished ; which a contempomry 
 manuscript calls the stjnagogue of the heretics, saying that it was 
 white and of good appearance on the outside, but full of windings 
 within, and constructed almost like a labyrinth ! 
 
 Next year, also, five Vaudois were burned alive at St. Frons. 
 Unfortunate race, but worthy of admiration ! Confiscation deprived 
 them of their property, their families were decimated by the sword, 
 the piles of their martyrs became more and more numerous, but 
 their faith did not perish. 
 
 All those who had escaped the weapons of the soldiers and the 
 flames of the Holy Office, and who were hidden in the mountains, 
 or had fled to Barges and Bagnols, retired to the valley of Lucema, 
 where seigneurs more powerful and more just protected their vas- 
 sals against such aggressions. And what shows better than any 
 other consideration the primitive brotherliness wliich really pre- 
 vailed amongst the Vaudois, and the profound practical charity 
 which governed their lives, is the fact that all this large number of 
 refugees lived for five whole years with the poor mountaineers of 
 those Vaudois valleys, which had been the cradle of their race.^ 
 Sharing at once in their bread and their worship, praying and 
 labouring with them, the proscribed refugees continued always ex- 
 pectant of some termination of that precarious state of things. 
 They were mostly divided amongst the communes of Angrogna, 
 Bora, and Bobi, and had named a syndicate, commissioned to watch 
 over their common interests. 
 
 Numerous applications were made as soon as possible to the 
 Marchioness of Saluces that they might be permitted to return to 
 their ancient possessions. All these petitions remained unanswered. 
 However, the prolonged sojourn of so many new families with a 
 people themselves so few as the inhabitants of the valley of Lucema, 
 was a thing that must some time have an end. To recover posses- 
 sion of their native coimtry was a duty recommended to them by 
 a regard for others, enforced by justice, and which it belonged to 
 their courage to perform. An intrepid man stood up in the midst 
 
 * They did not all arrive at the same time, but successively from A.D. 1505 io 
 1510, and their removal took place in 1512. Some of them, therefore, must have 
 remahiod only two years, and some of them seven. 
 
 Chap, ix] 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE BEFORMATION. 
 
 133 
 
 of them. "My friends !" he exclaimed, "let us return to our own 
 inheritances ! it will be the best way of gaining possession of them." 
 "But will not those who occupy them prevent usi" " We will take 
 again, in spite of them, what they took in spite of us. Let us put oiu: 
 trust in God ! his blessing is upon justice and not upon iniquity. 
 If we have been persecuted for our faith, we shall also be protected 
 by it, for it is of God, and God is mightier than oui- enemies." They 
 assembled in arms in the valley of Bora, set out by night, traversed 
 the mountains of Crussol, descended into the valley of the Po, 
 reached their ancient abodes, fell like thunder upon their plunderers 
 when unarmed, fought with them, overthrew them, pursued those 
 who made any resistance, cleared the country of them, got the upper 
 hand in it through the terror which audacity and success inspire, 
 re-established themselves in their hereditary possessions, and brought 
 back to their old abodes the faith of their forefathers. Only five 
 Vaudois lost their lives in this expedition. Why did they not 
 more frequently listen to the voice of that courage which restored 
 to them theii' native land ! Valour has a more imposing effect than 
 weakness; and the moderation of the Vaudois has many a time 
 doubled the arrogance of their enemies. 
 
 After this the churches of the valley of the Po enjoyed tran- 
 quillity for some years. The news of the Beformation began to 
 agitate men's minds. We have seen what effect was thereby pro- 
 duced in the other Vaudois valleys. New light was diffused 
 everywhere. The evangelical doctrines spread all around these 
 mountains, which, for so long a time before, had been brightened 
 by the dawn of that bright day. 
 
 As in France the upper classes of society were the first to pro- 
 duce defenders of the Beformation, so the noblest families of Pied- 
 mont soon partook of the honour of being connected with it. In 
 the province of Saluces the seigneurs of Montroux opened their 
 castle for the religious meetings of the new reformed. Several 
 members of the family of Villanova Sollaro embraced their religion. 
 The Duke of Savoy himself wrote to them several times to persuade 
 them to relinquish it. These urgencies, from so high a quarter, 
 added still more importance, in public estimation, to the profession 
 of evangelical religion which they were intended to overthrow. 
 The number of the reformed increased instead of diminishing; 
 they demanded pastors, and, imtil these should come, betook them- 
 selves with eagerness to the regular preaching which went on in 
 the valley of Lucerna. 
 
 This influx of hearers from other parts, who thus crowded to the 
 living springs of grace as to another Siloah, very soon became so 
 
 i 
 
134 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF. THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa.rt FiK3T. 
 
 considerable that the Duke of Savoy prohibited his subjects, who 
 did not belong to the Vaudois valleys, from being present at these 
 preachings.^ At the same time, he himself sent Catholic missionaries 
 to oppose the progress of these doctrines. But the doctrine was the 
 doctrine of the gospel, and they were to oppose God! therefore 
 they failed. Yet Duke Philibert displayed all possible personal 
 activity to promote the success of his preachers. He wrote no 
 fewer than four letters, in the month of May, 1565, to the Chate- 
 iain, to the Podestat, to the Official, and to the inhabitants of 
 Carail, in order to recommend the missionary whom he sent to 
 them. 
 
 But as the whole marquisate of Saluces was then under the 
 dominion of France, these endeavours produced little effect there. 
 On the contrary, the number of the reformed increased daily, and 
 in consequence of the Edict of Pacification^ newly obtained by the 
 King of Navarre in fav^our of his co-religionists, the church of 
 Dronero, one of the most flourishing in the marquisate, obtained 
 from the Royal Council letters-patent,'^ which authorized the open- 
 ing of a Protestant place of worship without the gates of the town. 
 Louis de Birague, who at this time succeeded the Count de Nevers 
 as the king's lieutenant in the province of Savoy, wrote to the court 
 to have this authorization withdrawn. Charles IX. himself^ replied, 
 in these terms : — " By the advice of our much honoured lady and 
 mother j^ we declare by these j^resents, that in the edict of pacification 
 we never intended to compreJiend the exercise of religion in the towns 
 of Piedmont.''''^ Thus did Catharine de Medicis exercise her fatal 
 power even over these churches of brethren ! But their courage 
 was not daunted; and next year they spontaneously organized 
 themselves as reformed churches. They had pastors, deacons, and 
 consistories, and established a regular religious service, which only 
 could not always be conducted in public. 
 
 France was then desolated by wars of religion ; the Huguenots 
 had been massacred at Vassy and in Champagne; the Guises 
 excited the Catholic party ; the Protestant party was supported by 
 the Boui'bons. These intestine commotions distracted the attention 
 of the government from the external provinces. The churches of 
 Saluces, protected by their isolation, were permitted peacefully to 
 increase beyond the reach of these distant storms. Accordingly, in 
 a few years they became numerous and flourishing. The times of 
 quiet are those which offer the least materials for histoiy. Happy 
 
 •? 
 
 Chap. IX] 
 
 INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 135 
 
 is the peoi)le all whose vicissitudes can be compreheuded in a page \ 
 But spiritual history advances with all the conversions which take 
 place when that of human actions stands still. This epoch was one 
 of the most fruitful for the gospel in the province of Saluces. Ten 
 pastors, serving twenty-one churches, independent of those of Coni, 
 Carail, and Ozasc, already exercised the gospel ministry there in 
 1567.^ By this we may see with what life they were filled, and 
 what splendid promise they gave for the future, if liberty of con- 
 science might have been allowed to prevail. But the great conquests 
 of humanity are not attained in a day. In yielding liberty Rome 
 would have fallen into destruction; but it is by her own tyranny 
 that she is doomed to perish. 
 
 Let us leave the churches of Saluces to the enjoyment of their 
 short-lived prosperity, and consider what was then taking place 
 aroimd them in other parts of Piedmont. 
 
 * The following are the names of these pastors, and of the parishes which were 
 assigned them by the Synods of 2d June and 14th October, 1567, held, the one at 
 Praviglelm, the other at Dronero, or Dronier : — 
 
 The pastor Galatee (who was sent to plead the cause of these churches before 
 Charles IX.) had for his field of labour Saluces, >SaviUan, Carmagnole, Lavodis 
 (L6vadiggi), and VUlefald. (The names in italics are those of places where there 
 was a place of worship.) 
 
 The minister Segont de Masseran (Mattervo) had in his district Verzol, Alpease, 
 and Costilloles. 
 
 Francis Trucchi served the church of Dronier; Andrew Lacianois those of 
 St. Damian, Paillers, and Cartignano; Peter Gelido that of Aceit (Asceglio); 
 James Isoard those of St. Michael, Pras, and Chianols. 
 
 Francis Soulf was pastor of Praviglelm ; and Bertraud Jordan of Biolet, and of 
 Bietonet, 
 
 Besides these, two other pastors, who were not present at the Synod, served the 
 churches of Demont and Tcsteone. Lastly, there was also a pastor at Carail 
 (Caraglo), whose name is not preserved. 
 
 » Edict of 15th February, 1560. 
 ^ From Dieppe, 7th August, 1563. 
 
 2 Dated 6th June, 1563. 
 * Catharine de Medicis. 
 
 • Thia letter is preserved in the Archives of Pignerol, class xxv. file i. No. 3. 
 
 S' 
 
136 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt First. 
 
 Chaf. X.] 
 
 DOMINIC BARONIUS. 
 
 137 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 niSTORY OF THE PROGRESS AND EXTINCTION OF THE REFOR- 
 MATION AT CONI, AND IN THE PLAIN OF PIEDMONT. ^ 
 
 (a.d. 1550 TO A.D. 1580.) 
 
 The Reformation in towns near the Vaudois valleys — Timidity — Persecution — 
 Many of the Protestants take refuge among the Vaudois — Martyrdom of the 
 Pastor Jacob — Protestantism in Turin — Persecutions in various parts of Pied- 
 mont — The churches of Coni and Carail — ^Persecutions — Suppression of the 
 Reformation in Coni. 
 
 In the space between Turin and tlie Vaudois valleys, there is per- 
 haps not a single town in which the religious reformation of the 
 16 th century did not find adherents, and obtain the sympathy of 
 many. 
 
 Catholicism had fallen into a state of degradation of which we 
 can scarcely form an idea at the present day. An inquisitor of 
 Eacconis,- Avriting to the Holy Office of Rome in 1567, says, "I 
 cannot describe to you the utter decay of everything connected 
 with religion in this country; the churches in ruin, the altars 
 despoiled, the sacerdotal vestments tattered, the priests ignorant, 
 and all things held in contempt." Like the quickening dawn of 
 morning, the evangelical revival, therefore, spreading over that bare 
 and arid soil, restored life and vigour, and a thousand unexpected 
 views of heaven and of earth opened at once before the spiritual 
 vision of men. Life increased along with truth ; the dew came 
 with the light. The people, who had hitherto partaken of the 
 immovable petrifaction of Popery, now illustrated and verified that 
 saying of the Saviour's forerunner, "Even of these stones God 
 is able to raise up children to Abraham." But, like children, also, 
 they were weak and timid. That dawning light was not then able 
 to give them either the courage of conviction or the martyr's faith. 
 Moreover, the most artful i artisans of Rome restrained the natural 
 development of the new opinions, by appearing to participate in 
 them. "A reform is necessary," said they; "every one feels it; 
 the Church will make it; this is not the time for separating from 
 her." 
 
 ^ Such was the language of Dominic Baronius,^ who was at that 
 time in Piedmont, and who was oftener than once in communication 
 
 » Authorities. — The same as in the preceding chapter. 
 
 2 His name was Cornelio D'Adro; his letter is dated the 22d of October, 1567. 
 (Archives of Turin.) 
 
 ' He was a native of Florence; his namesake, Caesar Baronius, who was a 
 cardinal, and librarian of the Vatican, was a Neapolitan. 
 
 with the doctors of the Yaudois churches. Perhaps his conviction 
 was sincere, seeing that he wrote, in his book on Human Institu- 
 tions, with reference to the serious conniptions which Popery had 
 introduced into the celebration of the Lord's Supper, " Weep ye, 
 and lament, for the sacrilegious profanation of this divine mystery ! 
 I would restrain my pen, but, O God ! the zeal of thy house con- 
 sumes me. Impiety, idolatry, ambition, venality surround thine 
 altars !" And yet he did not dare openly to abandon that idolatry 
 and impiety. Rome pardoned his ofience upon account of his sub- 
 mission. " He affected to wonder," says Gilles, " that he found no 
 danger in launching out against the abuses of the papacy, but in 
 the time of persecution he made use of a hypocritical dissimulation, 
 and persuaded others to do the same." Maximilian of Saluces, one 
 of his adherents, wrote thus to the Vaudois pastors : " We condemn, 
 as well as you, the errors of the Papal Church, we desire that they 
 may be reformed; but, in the first place, it is necessary that we 
 reform ourselves inwardly, and that we know how to accommodate 
 ourselves to circumstances, and not to expose ourselves to need- 
 less perils in too sharply attacking received usages." Such was also 
 the language of Erasmus, and even to a certain extent that of 
 Melancthon. 
 
 The Vaudois pastors expressed themselves with less eloquence, 
 but they acted with more courage. " Our rule of conduct," said 
 they, "ought to be that declaration of Jesus, 'Whosoever shall 
 confess me upon earth, him will I confess in heaven ; and whoso- 
 ever shall deny me upon earth, him will I deny in heaven.' We 
 choose rather to be rejected by the Papal Church than by our 
 Saviour." 
 
 The pastors of Geneva likewise sent to the different towns of 
 Piedmont in which the gospel had begun to be introduced, letters 
 strongly encouraging to perseverance. Celsus of Martiningue, 
 who was pastor of the Italian church in that town, wrote to Ba- 
 ronius, with the view of inducing him to follow a course more open 
 and evangelical. But the greatest effort to which the convictions 
 of the latter, who was an abbi, ever proved equal, was that of intro- 
 ducing certain modifications in the manner of celebrating mass. 
 He would have wished to reunite the two parties, and that by 
 measures deemed sufficient upon both sides; but his example caused 
 many persons to stop half-way in a course which would otherwise 
 have resulted in a complete change. This hesitation on the one 
 side, augmented the decision upon the other. The duke was 
 solicited to issue an express prohibition of Protestant religious 
 
 services beyond the bounds of the Vaudois valleys, and to restrain 
 Vol. I. 13 
 
138 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pait Fibst. 
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 PROTESTANTISM IN TURIN. 
 
 139 
 
 those from repairing to the valleys who did not inhabit them. This 
 prohibition was published on the 15th of February, 1560. 
 
 Proceedings were immediately commenced against the Protestants 
 in Piedmont. The uncle of the reigning duke had been stirred up 
 to undertake the charge of these proceedings himself. ^'The officers 
 of justice," says Gilles, "were incessantly running up and down, 
 apprehending upon the highways, in the fields, and even in their 
 houses, persons obnoxious upon account of their religion, whom 
 they afterwards delivered into the hands of the commissaries." 
 These commissaries were inquisitors, and the stake was their ulti- 
 mate argument. Two martyrs were burned alive at Carignan, in 
 the beginning of the year. 
 
 The Protestants, afirighted, like a flock of sheep surprised in a 
 novel and dangerous situation, dispersed in disorder. Those of 
 Carignan and of Vigon retired to Quiers or Chieri; those of Bubiano 
 and of Briqueras to La Tour. As at that time a part of Piedmont 
 belonged to France, the fugitives were able to get out of reach of 
 the inquisitorial prosecutions both in the French villages and in the 
 Vaudois valleys, where the religious liberty which was at that time 
 assailed but energetically defended, was in the following year 
 officially guaranteed. 
 
 The officei's of justice then turned in the direction of Suza, 
 entered the valley of Meane, and made a great number of prisoners. 
 Their pastor, named Jacob, was condemned to be burned alive. 
 " The will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven," said the 
 old man. And amidst the torments which the earth had in store 
 for him, he served the Lord with as lively a faith as the elect can 
 amidst the celestial beatitudes. Pardon was offered him upon con- 
 dition of his abjuring, but he refused; and that he might not be 
 able to make a public profession of his faith, he was conducted to 
 the pile with his mouth gagged, and his arms tied. There he was 
 burned in a slow fire. But his countenance, fiill of resignation and 
 of resolution during this cruel torture, so shook the minds of the 
 judges, that the Senator De Corbis resolved to have nothing more 
 to do with such prosecutions; and the Comit of Racconis, says 
 Gilles, "was so softened towards the reformed, that thereafter, 
 instead of persecuting them, he did all that was in his power to 
 procure their deliverance from their troubles." Thus the silent 
 death of the martjrr was productive of more advantage to his 
 brethren than a victory won in the field of battle. He had con- 
 quered on the pile, where courage is more difficult than in the 
 excitement of combat. 
 
 The city of Turin at that time belonged to France. In it there 
 
 
 a 
 
 were pastors who preached publicly to an audience which always 
 became more and more numerous. The Catholic clergy obtained the 
 appointment of deputies, who were commissioned to present them- 
 selves before Charles IX., in name of the inhabitants of that city, 
 to induce him to take measures for repressing this Protestantism. 
 The young monarch replied, on the 17th of February, 1561, by a 
 letter to the governor of Turin, and a proclamation to his "good 
 and loyal subjects," in both of which he announced his resolu- 
 tion not to suffer the practice of the reformed religion either in 
 the city or in the vicinity. Scarcely had these documents arrived 
 at Turin, when the Protestant pastors were ordered to remove from 
 it. It would appear that they had very soon after contrived to 
 return, for it was found necessary to renew this order of banish- 
 ment next year. This was only the prelude to a more general 
 measure. Catharine de Medicis had written, at the same time 
 with her son, to the Duke of Savoy, to inform him that the king's 
 intention was to put an end to the reformed worship thi-oughout 
 the whole extent of Piedmont. She therefore entreated Em- 
 manuel Philibert to take steps for the same purpose in his own 
 dominions. 
 
 It might have been hoped that the duke would not have entered 
 into these violent measures, as his wife, Catharine of France, sister 
 of Henry II., was favourable to the Pteformation, having acquired 
 a knowledge of it in the company of the Queen of Navarre, and of 
 Rene of France, the daughter of Louis XII., who participated in 
 the new opinions. But Philip of Savoy, uncle of the duke, had 
 been gained to the Catholic party by the Archbishop of Turin, and 
 prepared to aid it by force of arms. It was he who, under the 
 name of the Count of Racconis, distinguished himself in a manner 
 so little to his honour, in the persecutions instituted at this time 
 against the inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys, as we shall shortly 
 see. The influence which he then exercised over his august nephew, 
 united with that which the brief of Pope Pius IV. must have had—a 
 brief dated I5th November, 1561, by which that pontiff adjured all 
 the inhabitants of Piedmont to be upon their guard against heresy, 
 and to put it away from them— decided Emmanuel Philibert to 
 adopt severe measures against the Protestants. The courtier pre- 
 lates by whom he was surrounded, incessantly endeavoured to 
 interest his thirst for glory in their annihilation; they would have 
 liked to have destroyed by a single blow all those evangelical 
 churches, of which the germs began to appear so full of life in aU 
 parts of Piedmont. The first step taken was to enjoin all magis- 
 trates to watch over assemblies for religion; that was the expres- 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 f 
 
 140 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet First. 
 
 sion employed; the next was to forbid these assemblies. Those 
 who were taken in the fact of joining in social prayer and medita- 
 tion on the Scriptures, were treated as criminals. The towns of 
 Chieri, Ozasc, Busque, and Frossac, became the theatres of cruel 
 and often bloody proceedings against the reformed. Of this we 
 have seen proofs in the preceding chapter, in perusing the details 
 which have been presarved concerning some of their inliabitants 
 who suffered martyrdom at that time. 
 
 The Countess of Moretta, who protected the reformed, was her- 
 self obliged to retire before their persecutors. The Countess of 
 Carde, who also protected them, having died, they were constrained 
 either to go to mass or to leave their native land. The same in- 
 jimction was intimated to those of Ozasc and of Frossac. These 
 simple and sincere men, although newly bom to the gospel life, were 
 already nourished with the pure spiritual milk which strengthens 
 the soul of the Christian. They had tasted that the Lord is gra- 
 cious, and rather than abandon his ways, they renounced their 
 countiy, their goods, the homes in which they were born, and their 
 hereditary fields, in order to preserve their religion. These unfor- 
 tunate persons, or rather these happy faithful ones of Christ, almost 
 all repaired to the valley of Lucerna, where they were kindly 
 received, as the fugitives of Paesane and St. Frons had been half-a- 
 century before. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the churches of Coni and Carail there had been 
 an increase of the number of awakened souls, who from a little flock 
 grew up more and more into a holy nation, a peculiar and willing 
 people ; and as the dawning light first touches the summits of the 
 mountains in the horizon over which it is to spread, so it was 
 chiefly amongst the upper classes that the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation were received. 
 
 After a war of twenty-three years, peace had been concluded 
 betwixt France and Spain. ^ The Duke of Savoy had been the 
 ally of the latter power, and had lost all his possessions, which, 
 however, were now restored to him, with the exception of Turin, 
 Pignerol, and Saluces. Many of the seigneurs who fought by his 
 side had embraced Protestantism. So long as their aid seemed 
 necessary to him, he had allowed these valiant adherents of the 
 Reformation to enjoy liberty of conscience and religious quiet, 
 which the recollection of their services secured to them. But 
 scarcely had the more eminent of the secular clergy resumed the 
 place of these men of arms around their sovereign, than the voice 
 of honour was succeeded by that of the church. The duke was 
 > By the treaty of Chateau Cambresis, April, 1559. 
 
 1 
 
 !• 
 
 Ceap. X.] 
 
 THE DUKE OF SAVOY. 
 
 141 
 
 told that having returned to possession of his hereditary states, hia 
 glory required the re-establishment also, in its integrity, of the 
 religion of his ancestors. It was by these artful methods that a 
 prince was induced to become the executioner of his most feithful 
 subjects, to weaken his states, and to destroy his people ; and this 
 they called glory ! " Woe unto them ! " says the prophet, " that 
 call evil good, and good evil." 
 
 The duke began by interdicting the Protestants from all kinds 
 of public worship beyond the limits of the Vaudois valleys ; then 
 he issued an edict at Coni,^ by which all the inhabitants were re- 
 quired to give up to the magistrates all books of religion which 
 they might possess. As the Bible is simply called the hook, so the 
 profession of its doctrines revived by the Reformation was simply 
 called religion. These terms, by general use, came to be acknow- 
 ledged as part of the language, the popular good sense, which in- 
 stinctively created this form of speech, thus unconsciously attesting 
 the truth that religion was indeed there and there alone. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy at the same time enjoined his subjects to 
 attend the preaching of the missionaries whom he was about to 
 send them. But what did the missionary thus recommended preach 
 at Carail ? Clie Dio faceva far Vinvernata bona, accioche d'il mese 
 seguente avanzas (sic) a fare di legna per poter hruschiar gli luterani; 
 that is, " that God was giving them so mild a winter that year, in 
 order that they might be able to save wood for burning the here- 
 tics in the succeeding months." It may be imagined that this 
 eloquence was not very persuasive in the way of inducing souls to 
 prefer the religion of the stake and pile to that of the gospel. 
 Accordingly, the preacher was very soon forsaken; but, in the 
 month following, on the 28th of December, 1561, a fresh edict 
 renewed the order to deliver up all bibles to the magistrates, and 
 enjoiued all the inhabitants of the country to go to mass without 
 more ado. But the number of those who refused was so great, that 
 no step durst be taken to obtain the execution of this edict. Nay, 
 about this time Emmanuel Philibert conceded the free exercise 
 of their worship to the inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys; ^ the 
 seigneurs who had followed him in the war still enjoyed in their 
 independence the benefit of the remembrance of their recent ex- 
 ploits; and it was impossible to proceed with severe measures so 
 quickly as the Church of Rome would have desired. 
 
 But a few years after, in 1565, the same prince having com- 
 manded the Yaudois to abjure within the space of two months, 
 
 » 28th September, 1561. 
 
 * At Verceil, on 10th January, and at Cavour, on 3d July, 1561. 
 
 
\ 
 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 
 142 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Fibst. 
 
 effect was given in the Church of Coni to the edict of 1561. Each 
 family was required to appear before the magistrates, and to make 
 a declaration of Romish orthodoxy, under peril of the severest 
 penalties. 
 
 It may be conceived that these obstacles must have had the effect 
 of retaining in the Church of Rome men who perceived its errors, 
 but were timid— men of enlightened minds, but feeble, who had 
 embraced the cause of the Reformation. However, there were still 
 found fifty-five families who, in presence of the magistrates, had 
 the courage openly to renounce all connection with Popery, and to 
 declare themselves Protestants. It was an act of proscription; and 
 accordingly the greater part of them, knowing the full consequence 
 of that avowal, made haste of their own accord to set their affairs 
 in order, to sell what they possessed, and to retire elsewhere. 
 
 A few only of the most influential and respected obtained, under 
 special security fi-om a Catholic proprietor, the favour of retaining 
 both their properties and their beliefs, but solely on condition that 
 they should abstain from any religious exercise, whether in their 
 houses or elsewhere, under pain of total confiscation of all that 
 they possessed. The poorer class, less encumbered with this world's 
 goods, had rejected all shackles; the rich suffered them to be 
 imposed upon them. The Protestant party was divided; it would 
 have been better for them if they had resisted together, for the Bible 
 assuies us that there is great strength in the unity of brethren. 
 It was at this same period that the young martyr of Coni, whose 
 life has been given in the history of the Vaudois of Calabria, died 
 at Rome. That humble Bethany fi-om which he derived his birth, 
 was less cruelly treated than the adopted church to which he 
 devoted himself; but the flock that was begining to be formed at 
 Coni disappeared, as well as the ancient Church of Calabria. 
 
 The bundle being loosed, each separate stick is easily broken. 
 The humbler of the people had removed from the place; the noble 
 families retired to their estates, hoping to live there in greater 
 freedom and ti-anqmllity. It seemed, in fact, as if they were forgot- 
 ten for some time, and they allowed themselves to be lulled into a 
 false security; but very soon, by a gradual process, noiselessly and 
 secretly, they were decimated; their most eminent members were 
 taken away, the persons of greatest zeal being arrested in their 
 dwellings, on the pretext, always plausible, that they had been 
 guilty of family prayer and of the secret worship of their God. 
 
 Of these new prisoners there were some who made their escape; 
 part of them by their courage, and part by means of bribes. Some 
 l>erished in dungeons, a number were put to death, and some at 
 
 1 
 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 COM]MENCEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 
 
 143 
 
 last abjured, imder the constraint of violence, the faith which they 
 had embraced from conviction. 
 
 Thus that church ceased to exist upon the banks of the Stura, 
 where, thenceforth, the truth shed only rare and trembling gleams. 
 It was brought into being beneath the radiance of Divine grace ; 
 its enemies sought to drown it in blood ; and it may be said of it, 
 that its beauty departed from it as soon as it ceased to be free. 
 The light placed under a bushel is in a fair way for going out. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES OF CARAIL, CHIERI, 
 
 AND DR0NIER.1 
 
 (a.d. 1560 TO A.D. 1605.) 
 
 Commencement of persecution against the Reformed Church of Carail— The noble 
 family of Villanova-SoUaro— Activity of the popish clergy— Suppression of the 
 Reformation at Carail— Condition of the church in the marquisate of Saluces— 
 St. Bartholomews Day— Vacca, Archdeacon of Saluces, resists the massacre of 
 the Protestants— French civil wara— The marquisate of Saluces becomes part of 
 the dominions of the Duke of Savoy— The Protestant Church of Dronier— Its 
 suppression— Persecuting measures adopted against the Vaudois of Praviglelm 
 and of the whole upper valley of the Po. 
 
 The church of Carail was destined to endure nearly the same vicis- 
 tudes as that of Coni. In the first place, a list of the reformed was 
 demanded from the magistrates.^ In this list were immediately 
 included nearly 900 persons, although many were absent, and their 
 names did not appear there.^ An ancient house at Carail, that of 
 Villanova-SoUaro, was distinguished by attachment to the doctrines 
 of the gospel ; and it was under its protection that the church against 
 which proceedings were now commenced had risen and been shel- 
 tered. The Duke of Savoy caused letters to be written about the 
 commencement of the year * to the heads of this noble family, that 
 if they wished to retain the favour of their prince, they must 
 cease to extend their support to a heresy already too widely 
 spread. But the seigneurs of SoUaro, whlist they protested their 
 
 ' Authorities. — The same as in Cliapter IX. 
 
 ■ In the month of March, 1565. 
 
 ■ Letter of Gioanetto Amaudo, one of the commissioners appointed to prepare 
 this list. Chronicle of the family of Villanova-Sollaro. (MS. of the Royal Library 
 at Turin.) ^ 27th February, 1565. 
 
144 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt First. 
 
 devotedness to their sovereign, demanded the privilege of proving 
 also their devotedness to their religion. 
 
 After the list was prepared, Emmanuel Philibert himself wrote 
 to them,i and summoned the Count of Sollaro to his presence. 
 He urged him, in the strongest manner, to return within the pale 
 of the Church of Rome, sternly declaring his resolution not to suffer 
 two religions in his dominions. But the count respectfully replied, 
 that he would render to Caesar the things which were Cesar's, but 
 to God the things which were God's. 
 
 A few days after the duke sent a missionary to Carail,'- command- 
 ing all the inhabitants of the town to attend his preaching. The 
 greater part of the reformed refused to go. Thereupon an officer 
 of the Council of State apprised the syndics that they must get 
 ready a special list of these latter within the space of four days;^ 
 and at the same time there arrived a proclamation by the duke, in 
 which he exhorted all the reformed of the town to change their 
 doctrines, threatening them with his wrath if they persisted in their 
 heresy. The greater part of these Christians now took to flight, 
 which left a great blank, and spread desolation over the country. 
 The duke perceived that he had gone too far, or rather too fast, and 
 he sought to bring them back, by causing a letter to be written to 
 them on the 20th of May, in which he urged them to return to 
 their homes, promising that no new step should be taken without 
 new notice. But this new notice was not Ions: of making its 
 appearance. On the 10th of June an edict was published, by which 
 all the Protestants of Carail who would not abjure were ordered 
 to leave the country within the space of six months. A year 
 was allowed them to effect the sale of their properties, by agents 
 appointed for that purpose. 
 
 A number of efforts were made to obtain the revocation of this 
 edict, at once so unjust, so impolitic, and so barbarous. The Duchess 
 of Savoy besought her husband to recal it. The seigneurs of 
 Sollaro, who enjoyed a credit merited alike by their enlightenment, 
 their illustrious rank, and their virtues, repaired to the presence of 
 their sovereign, who seemed at first to yield to their remonstrances ; 
 but scarcely were they gone when the influence of the Catholic 
 clergy enveloped him again; and on the 30th of November, 1565, 
 the Podestat of Carail received orders to have the edict of the 10th 
 of June put in execution. In this state of things the reformed had 
 only to choose between the two alternatives, abjuration or exile. 
 They did not hesitate, but made their preparations for departure. 
 
 > On the 14th of April. 
 
 » He arrived at Carail on the 28th of April. 
 
 » On the 8th of May, 1565. 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 Cm4?. X.] 
 
 ACTIVITY OF THE POPISH CLERGY. 
 
 145 
 
 Popish charity, however, thought fit not even to leave them the 
 solace which remains for the proscribed ; the inhabitants of the 
 neighbouring districts were prohibited from receiving the fu'ri- 
 tives. 
 
 We may form some notion of the character and the activity 
 which Rome must have displayed in these proceedings against so 
 great a number of people, by her bloodthirsty eagerness, in the 
 case of a single person, neither of title nor rank. In that same 
 year the Cardinal Bobba wrote from Rome to the Duke of Savoy, 
 by order of his Holiness (what a title of mockery ! ), to inform him 
 that he would recal the nuncio accredited to his court, if he refused 
 to put to death a relapsed heretic of Vercelli. The letter is dated 
 from Rome, 22d of October, 1566. The name of the prisoner was 
 George Olivet. He was a proselyte whom Catholicism had not been 
 able to retain. His Holiness, the Holy Church, the Holy Office 
 demanded that he should die; it was made an occasion of diploma- 
 tic rupture; and these pretensions to holiness which Popery is con- 
 tinually putting forth in the midst of the most odious iniquities, 
 involuntarily recal what has been said of bravery—those who boast 
 of it most have least of it in reality. From this document 
 we learn that the Duke of Savoy, notwithstanding his severities, 
 was still accused of resistance to the plans of Rome. No master 
 can be more difficult to serve than tyranny, and none is more 
 ungrateful. 
 
 Orders were therefore transmitted to the governors of the 
 suiTounding towns, that the fugitive reformed should not be 
 received in them. Emmanuel PhiUbert even wrote to this 
 effect to the governors of Saluces, Nice, and Provence, as well as 
 to Charles IX., to whom by this means he hoped to make himself 
 agreeable. The instructions did not bear that shelter must be 
 absolutely refused to the reformed, but that they must not be 
 received without their promising to abjure. This measure, however, 
 was equivalent to an absolute proscription, for if they had chosen to 
 have abjm-ed, they would have had no need to have sought shelter 
 so far from home. 
 
 The good Duchess of Savoy, fuUy perceiving how inhuman and 
 senseless these arbitrary orders were, besought her husband at least 
 to postpone the execution of them till he had gone in person to 
 Carail, to judge with his own eyes of their propriety. Emmanuel 
 PhUibert arrived at Carail about the end of the month of August 
 1566. Two days before his arrival he had commanded all Pro^ 
 testants not belonging to it to leave it. On his approach, the 
 reformed of the place fell into the error of betaking themselves 
 
 Y OL. I» ^ Q 
 
i ' 
 
 146 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet First. 
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 FAMILY OF VILLANOVA-SOLLARO. 
 
 U7 
 
 I 
 
 :; 
 
 also to fliglit. That flight was regarded as a mark of alienation 
 from their soverign, and of sympathy for the sti'angei's whom he 
 had just expelled. It may be imagined that good reasons might 
 perhaps be assigned for these movements, but in reality the people 
 only yielded to a feeling of alarm and apprehension, which did not 
 stay to reason. 
 
 The duke was irritated, and immediately caused a proclamation 
 to be issued in Carail, expressly forbidding any kind of provisions 
 being carried out of the town, in order to punish in this way the 
 reformed who had unfortunately left it upon his arrival. 
 
 Such a reception was certainly little calculated to induce a long 
 stay, and he very soon departed again, leaving a garrison in the 
 town, the soldiers of which were to be maintained and lodged in 
 the very houses of the Protestants, whether fugitive or remaining 
 at home, until the latter should return to Catholicism. But as 
 those who had fled did not come back to the town, they were 
 summoned to appear before the Podestat of Coni, who was then 
 advocate-fiscal, and a noted opponent of biblical doctrines. These 
 wandering and dispossessed families not daring to ai)pear before 
 him, he pronounced against them sentence of confiscation of pro- 
 perty, and of banishment. 
 
 The Archbishop of Turin then repaired to Carail,^ in the hope 
 of bringing back the people the more readily to the Church of 
 Rome. He made his appearance there escorted by a numerous 
 suite, and manifested at first only paternal and benevolent feelings, 
 calling the fugitive Christians poor wandering sheej:). He sent 
 them safe-conducts, and invited them to conference with himself 
 Some came, but the gi^eater part stayed away, and of those who 
 came a small number were drawn back to Popery. The sentence 
 of banishment and confiscation was confirmed against those who 
 did not appeal*, or who resisted the solicitations of the prelate. 
 
 However, indications of war having appeared between Savoy! 
 and France, Emmanuel Philibert gave orders to the Podestat of 
 Coni to restore the dispersed Protestants to their residences, on 
 condition that they should abstain from all exercise of their reli- 
 gion, imder pain of death. The rich returned ; the poor preferred 
 exile. But those who returned were not long till they found 
 reason to repent of it. They were arrested one after another, 
 under pretext of religion, as had already been done in the town 
 of Coni. Once an-ested, if they refused to abjure, they were 
 allowed to perish in the prisons, unless, indeed, they were sent to 
 the galleys. 
 
 » On the 20th of September, 1566. 
 
 m 
 
 The family of Villanova-Sollaro displayed the greatness of true 
 nobility amidst these adversities. They had supported the Pro- 
 testant Church in the days of its growth, and they did not abandon 
 it in its downfall. Conviction imposes a necessity as well aS 
 nobility,^ said these ancient seigneurs of a region once so flourish- 
 ing and now rendered so desolate. There were six brothers of this 
 family. The chancellor. Count of Stropiano, their relative, assem- 
 bled them in name of his royal highness, to entreat them to abjure, 
 but they were immovable. " Let our sovereign," said they, " de- 
 mand any other sacrifice, and we shall have pleasure in making it." 
 " He repeats to you, by my mouth," said the chancellor, " that it is 
 his resolution not to suffer two religions in the country." These 
 noble Protestants understood the threat conveyed in these words, 
 returned to Carail, sold a part of their lands, and retired to the 
 marquisate of Saluces, then in the possession of France. During 
 five years of trouble and domestic agitation, they were sometimes 
 in France, sometimes in Piedmont, wanderers and always kept in 
 alarm. The narrative of these events has been preserved in the 
 chronicle which still exists of that illustrious and ill-fated house. 
 
 In 1570, the seigneurs of SoUaro were summoned to appear 
 before the Senate of Turin, with other persons of rank, guilty, 
 like them, of having returned to the gospel, an offence which the 
 Church of Rome could by no means pardon. Through the influential 
 intercessions made for them, amongst which the first place must 
 be assigned to those of the Duchess of Savoy and of the Elector 
 Palatine,'^ the prosecutions against them were suspended for a 
 short time. But they were subsequently renewed ; and the Sol- 
 laros were condemned and banished, their property confiscated, and 
 the members of their family dispersed and forgotten. 
 
 The third of these six brothers retired to the valley of Lucerna, 
 where his descendants continued to exist for more than a century. 
 Of this branch of the family was that pious and beautiful Octavia 
 SoUaro, whose sad story Gilles has preserved in one of the pages of 
 his simple and unadorned chronicles. 
 
 One of the descendants of this third brother, called Vallerio 
 Sollaro, appeared before the Synod of Villar, held in 1607, in order 
 that he might obtain the hand of a yoimg girl of the valley of 
 St. Martin, who refused to marry him because he was of noble 
 
 » An allusion to the French proverb, Noblesse oblige.— TUAVSLATOn. 
 
 2 He had sent to Turin, in February, 1566, a special ambassador, named Junius, 
 The advocate-fiscal, Barberi, having learned that his secretary, Chaillet, was a 
 Protestant minister, caused him to be arrested in the very hotel of the ambassador. 
 To this secretary we are indebted for a narration of all the operatione of the em- 
 Irassy, in a long letter, preserved by Gilles, chap, xxxiii. 
 
148 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 SAMUEL VACCA. 
 
 149 
 
 V 
 
 birth, and she was a simple peasant. The representations which 
 the Synod itself addressed to the young noble on the unsuitableness 
 of so unequal an alliance, did not shake his resolution, and the 
 marriage took place. The ancient escutcheon was not, how- 
 ever, dishonoured by this alliance ; for the antiquity of the Vau- 
 dois family was higher still, and its patents of nobility, inscribed in 
 the word of God, are more imperishable than the heraldic dis- 
 tinctions of men. 
 
 Whilst in the territories of the Duke of Savoy the Church of 
 Carail thus disappeared before tyrannic persecution, the churches of 
 Saluces enjoyed, under the dominion of France, a toleration equal to 
 the other Protestants of that country; but their pastors were 
 mostly foreigners, some natives of Switzerland, some of the Vaudois 
 valleys, and some of other parts of Piedmont. 
 
 In these latter regions all foreigners had already been commanded 
 to leave the country within the space of twenty-four hours. ^ Next 
 year, the Vicar of Chieri, a town not far from Saluces, received 
 orders to cause all Protestants to depart from that ten-itory, who 
 had fixed their residence in it without his authorization, or whose 
 permitted time of sojourn had expired.^ The Duke of Savoy at 
 the same time demanded of the lieutenant of the king of France in 
 the province of Saluces,^ that he should cause all who were not 
 bom within the kingdom to remove out of his government, and 
 that he should not receive any fugitive natives of Piedmont who 
 might retire to it. The governor of Saluces gave orders ac- 
 cordingly. Persons not natives of the province were commanded 
 to qviit it with their families within the space of three days, and 
 prohibited from returning to it without special permission, under 
 penalty of death and confiscation of goods.* 
 
 This blow was principally directed against the pastors who were 
 not natives of the marquisate; but not being able to determine 
 upon forsaking their flocks, they remained in the country. Truchi, 
 a native of Cental in Provence, and Soulf, a native of Coni in Pied- 
 mont, were imprisoned at Saluces. Their colleague, Galatee, al- 
 though a very aged man, repaired to La Rochelle to address the 
 King of Navarre in their favour, and was happily successful. The 
 Duke of Nevers, governor of Saluces, even received orders to 
 set all the prisoners at liberty.* These poor churches, after a 
 brief alarm, raised their heads again with more than their former 
 courage, like a vigorous plant, which the storm, that does not 
 
 > Edict of 20th April, 1566. 
 * Then the Duke of Nevers. 
 « By letter, dated 14th October, 1571. 
 
 I 
 
 4^ 
 
 ^ Edict of Ist April, 15G7. 
 
 * Decree of 19th October, 1567. 
 
 altogether break it down, causes to strike root more deeply in the 
 soiL 
 
 Upon hearing of the marriage of the King of Navarre (Henry IV.) 
 with Margaret of France, the sister of Charles IX., they thought 
 themselves secure of a long period of peace. But they left Catha- 
 rine de Medicis out of their calculations. All at once burst the 
 sanguinary thunders of St. Bartholomew ; sixty thousand victims 
 butchered in a few days. The news of this event were welcomed 
 in Catholic countries with transports of inexpressible joy. Pius V. 
 had just died, after having launched a bull of excommunication 
 against all princes who tolerated heretics in their dominions. He 
 did not live to enjoy the slowly ripened fruit of his labours; but 
 his successor, Gregory XIII., although less cruel than he, did not 
 repudiate the heritage. He caused a medal to be struck, public 
 rejoicings to be made, and Te Deum to be sung in honour of this 
 prodigious extermination. 
 
 An order to cause all the Protestants of the province of Saluces 
 to be massacred in one night, had been sent to Birague, who was 
 then governor. Ignorant that this measure related to the whole 
 of France, he was troubled at the order, and submitted it to the 
 Chapter of the place. Some gave their opinion in favour ot a com- 
 j)lete and immediate execution of it ; but sentiments more humane 
 were also expressed, and here I cannot but proclaim the Christian 
 joy which I feel in being able to ascribe them to a Catholic priest, 
 the Archdeacon of Saluces, Samuel Vacca by name, who strenu- 
 ously opposed the massacre of the Protestants. " It is only a few 
 months," said he, " since we received letters-patent from the king, 
 that the pastors who were in confinement should be set at large, 
 and their flocks left at liberty. But nothing has since happened 
 which can be regarded as a reason for such a change ; it must be 
 supposed that this cruel order has been occasioned by false reports. 
 Let us inform his majesty that these are honest and peaceable 
 people, and that nobody has anything to lay to their charge, except 
 in regard to their religious opinions, and if the king persists in his 
 design, it will always be but too soon to carry it into execution." 
 
 Thus the Protestants of Saluces were saved, for the reprobation 
 which immediately arose against these base butcheries prevented 
 the renewal of them. Borengo censures this moderation, saying 
 that it served only to strengthen the cause of heresy ; let us hope, 
 on the contraiy, that it will serve to cover many inquisitorial sins 
 and cruelties, veiling them with the grateful and blessed recollec- 
 tions which are connected with the name of one worthy old man. 
 Why are there not more to emulate his fame ! " The time is 
 
150 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 If 
 ■f. 
 
 
 coming, 
 
 says a writer on political economy, " when Rome would 
 give all the St. Bai-tholomews, all the proscriptions, all the atUos- 
 da-fe in the world for a single act of faith, of hope, and of charity." 
 
 Amidst the anxiety which the news of these massacres occasioned 
 almost everywhere, the Duke of Savoy hastened to re-assure the 
 Vaudois valleys, by strongly declaring that he reprobated such 
 crimes ; and at Saluces also, a number of Protestant families, dread- 
 ing the execution of the orders which had been received, took refiige 
 with Catholic families, on whose kindness they could reckon, and 
 who sheltered them as brethren till the storm was past. Thus did 
 humanity triumph on the Italian side of the Alps, and it is a 
 pleasant page of our histoiy, in which we can twice pay so just a 
 tribute to our adversaries and our sovereigns. 
 
 In 1574, the Marshal de Bellegarde was appointed governor of 
 the province of Saluces. He was a man superior to the preju- 
 dices of his time. This ajipointment followed upon the return of 
 Henry III., who quitted the throne of Poland, from which he fled 
 as from a prison, to mount the throne of France, left vacant by the 
 imtimely, mysterious, and terrible death of Charles IX. 
 
 The new governor, by his impartiality to all under his jurisdiction, 
 was not long of exciting the complaints of the Catholic party, then 
 all powerful at the court. But the king himself became a partisan ; 
 he consented to be chief of the League, setting an example of coali- 
 tion to those of the opposite side. Lesdiguieres stood forward as 
 leader of the reformed in the rich valleys of the Isere and the Du- 
 rance. When things were in this state the Mai-shal was requested 
 to resign his government. The reformed entreated him not to 
 leave them, and De Bellegarde remained at Saluces. The governor 
 of Provence was ordered to march against him; but Lesdiguieres, 
 at the head of the Protestants of Dauphiny, hastened to his support. 
 The Vaudois of Lucerna and of Pragela joined him, and the 
 governor of Saluces was maintained in his position. Complaints 
 were made to the Duke of Savoy, relative to the aid which his sub- 
 jects had lent to a stranger; remonstrances were addressed by the 
 duke to the magistrates of the valleys, and prosecutions commenced 
 against the Vaudois who had taken arms; but the almost simulta- 
 neous death of the Marshal and the prince put an end to this affair.^ 
 
 During this time, however, the churches of Saluces increased in 
 strength. The pastor of St. Germain,'-^ who had already brought 
 the Catholics of Pramol to embrace Protestantism, had, with ardour 
 
 « The Duke of Savoy died on the 30th of August, 1580, and the Marshal De Belle- 
 garde on the 4th of December of the same year. 
 * Francis Guerin. 
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 CHURCHES OF SALUCES. 
 
 151 
 
 T 
 
 and activity worthy of a soldier of the cross, followed the Vaudois 
 troops as they passed into the marquisate, and remained in that ter- 
 ritory in order to give gi'eater consistency and strength to the Pro- 
 testant communities which were already there, by organizing them 
 in a manner similar to that of the churches of the valleys. A 
 general synod was held for that purpose at Chateau Dauphin, in 
 which all these churches were represented. 
 
 In the valley of Maira, the Catholic and Protestant chiefs even ' 
 formed a common alliance, promising one another, says Gilles,' 
 '•good friendship and union, without injury or reproach on account 
 of religion; but, on the contrary, mutual aid in case of necessity, 
 against any assailant whomsoever." The people have always under- 
 stood more of brotherhood than kings and pontiffs. A religious 
 system pervaded by the spirit of formalism and the feelings of a 
 body corporate, unites men not in a brotherhood, but in an associa- 
 tion. 
 
 At this time, therefore, the churches of Saluces had peace, and 
 flourished. The numerous conversions which we have related, 
 sufficiently prove that this fine country was not hostile to the Re- 
 formation, and that it would nowhere have spread more rapidly, if 
 human thought had been respected in that liberty which inalienably 
 belongs to it. But the sword, chains, and fire, were employed to 
 combat thought, — the arms of the Romish Church, but not of the 
 gospel. Neither kings nor pontiffs have ever respected liberty any 
 more than brotherhood. 
 
 It is probable that the reformed churches of Saluces would have 
 subsisted unto this day, like those of Dauphiny and the Cevennes, 
 if that province had remained under the dominion of France. 
 Henry IV. soon ascended the throne, and during a number of yeai-s 
 these churches continued to increase and to gain strength. The 
 Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598, appeared to give them a lasting 
 stability. But war was then raging between France and Piedmont, 
 and the marquisate of Saluces was successively taken and retaken 
 by the two powers, until it remained at last in the possession of the 
 Duke of Savoy, in terms of the treaty of 17th January, 1601, con- 
 cluded at Lyons, betwixt Henry IV. and Charles Emmanuel. By 
 this treaty, the King of France ceded to the duke his possessions 
 in Piedmont, to Avit, the provinces of Saluces and Pignerol, in 
 exchange for La Bresse and Le Bugey. It was said in reference to 
 this exchange, that the King of France had made a ducal peace, 
 and the duke a royal one. 
 
 But it must be observed that, twelve years before this event, in 
 1588, Charles Emmanuel had already seized upon the marquisate, 
 
152 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 \?Aaj I'lMT. 
 
 Chap. Xf.] 
 
 CHURCH OF DRONIER. 
 
 153 
 
 l 1 
 
 .1 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 taking advantage of the civil wars by which France was then para- 
 lyzed. Scarcely had he made himself master of this province, than, 
 faithful to the engagements into which he had entered with his 
 allies, he began to require the reformed churches of Saluces to con- 
 form to the Catholic worship. The letter which he wrote them 
 to this purpose is dated 27th March, 1597. The evangelical party 
 respectfidly replied that they were grateful for the interest which 
 his royal highness testified in their spiritual welfare, but that they 
 entreated him to do them the favour to respect their conscientious 
 convictions, and to maintain things as they were when they became 
 his subjects : — " Our religion is founded on the Holy Scriptures," 
 said they in conclusion, " as are also our loyalty and our behaviour, 
 and we hope that your royal highness will always find in us faith- 
 ful subjects, upright citizens, and serious Christians." The duke 
 pushed his efforts no farther at that time, the province of Saluces 
 being then a very insecure possession. But after the treaty of 
 Lyons, when he found himself its undisj:>uted master, he issued a 
 decree by which all Protestants were required to quit his dominions 
 within two months, unless they abjured within fifteen days.^ Disre- 
 gard of this decree was to be punished with loss of life and confisca- 
 tion of goods. 
 
 The most considerable of the Protestant chui'ches which had 
 arisen was at that time the church of Dronier (Dron^ro), situated 
 at the entry of the valley of Mayra (Valle di Magra), in one of 
 the richest basins of that fertile country. " Scai'cely," says Rorengo, 
 " were there any traces of Catholicism there to be seen." '^ In the 
 first instance, missionaries were sent thither, who made few prose- 
 lytes ; and thereupon Charles Emmanuel was solicited to employ 
 means more expeditious. The Church of Rome has never triumphed 
 except by aids which have nothing to do with conviction and the 
 power of truth. In this we have one evidence that it cannot defend 
 itself nor triumph by the word and faith ; it needs the help of vio- 
 lence and servility. Why, then, should it be called a church ? 
 
 When the edict of proscription, apostasy, or death, was issued by 
 the Duke of Savoy, the Church of Dronier showed its respect for 
 the covenant of its God. An earnest and respectfiil supplication, en- 
 forced by strong arguments, was addressed to the sovereign on the 
 part of the Vaudois and the reformed. Meanwhile they were fer- 
 vent m prayer, and as they were encouraged to hope for the revoca- 
 tion, or at least the mitigation of that barbarous edict, they soothed 
 themselves with the idea that it might be only a passing gust, after 
 which they would again enjoy the calm. The threatening aspect 
 * July, 1601. - Memorie istorichi, p. 145. 
 
 J 
 
 
 f 
 
 ' 'i ifllliip 
 
 of the clouds which began to arise in the horizon of their happiness, 
 betokening calamity, they regarded as a warning to serve God bet- 
 ter, and not to forsake him. 
 
 With such thoughts they allowed the time pointed out in the 
 edict to slip over, without having sold their properties or made 
 their prepai-ations for departing, — I do not say without abjuring, 
 for of that none of them thought. At the end of two months they 
 received inexorable ordere to conform without delay to the clerico- 
 ducal edict. Then, full of affright and anxiety, taken by surprise, 
 losing their self-possession, beset upon all hands by the most press- 
 ing solicitations from monks and magistrates, trembling for their 
 families, and scarce knowing what they did, a great number of that 
 disorganized church were hurriedly gained over to the ranks ot 
 the Church of Rome. It was against their consciences ; but that 
 was of no consequence to Popery. It gloried in these external con- 
 versions, as it still glories in its mere external and material unity, 
 which hypocrisy always suffices. 
 
 Those who had strength enough of faith to forsake their country 
 and all that they possessed, withdrew to France, or to Geneva, or 
 to the Vaudois valleys, where they found an asylum, notwithstand- 
 ing the edict which banished them from the ducal dominions. 
 
 They had nothing left ! the world would say. But are the trea- 
 sures of a good conscience and the peace of God nothing 1 
 
 It seems surprising, however, that all the reformed and Vaudois 
 of the province did not act with more energy and concert, opposing 
 a courageous resistance to these iniquities. Their adversaries them- 
 selves were afraid of it ; and therefore they had spread the report 
 on all hands, and did not cease to repeat that, although the edict 
 was so general, it was not meant against any but the Protestants 
 of the plain, and that those of the mountains would not be disturbed, 
 provided always they kept themselves quiet during the proceedings 
 against the former. "Bear ye one another's burdens," says the 
 Bible, "and so fulfil ye the law of Christ." The inhabitants of 
 the mountains left their Christian brethren of the plain to bear 
 their trials alone, and in their turn they had none to help them in 
 those which awaited themselves. Scarcely had the Protestants 
 been got out of the way who occupied the districts nearest to 
 the great towns, when the injunction to conform to the edict 
 was formally addiessed also to those of the most retired villages. 
 The influence under which this edict was concocted, was effectual 
 to extend still further its range of depopulation and death. 
 
 Hitherto, however, no threat had been addressed to the Vaudois 
 
 of Praviglelm and of the whole upper valley of the Po, where they 
 Vol. I. gQ 
 
154 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [VAti First. 
 
 Chap. XIL] 
 
 PROTESTANTISM FORBIDDEN. 
 
 155 
 
 
 had exercised their evangelical worship from time immemorial. 
 They regarded the maintenance of it as a right acquired by anti- 
 quity, and did not think it possible that it could be disputed. But 
 the crying injustice of which their brethren were the victims ought 
 to have opened their eyes; for if justice and humanity were not 
 respected in the plain, what reason was there they should be re- 
 spected amongst their rocks? And if they could bear to see the acts 
 of injustice which touched not themselves, why should they not be 
 exposed to similar sufferings] 
 
 But they did not reason so far, and as they were told that the 
 edict did not concern them, they lived as tranquil as if it had never 
 existed. At last, when all their brethren were banished or disr- 
 persed, they were given to understand in their turn that they must 
 submit to the edict as well as the others. 
 
 Then these apathetic mountaineers, seeing the question assume 
 the form of one of life and death for themselves, transported with 
 an indignation which perhaps they had long restrained, flew to 
 arms without premeditation or concert, made vows of courage and 
 mutual aid, and by their union, their energy, and their valour, 
 saved, for some time, at least, their imperilled cause. Abandoning 
 their flocks, their houses, and their families, they assembled in arms, 
 and threatened the Catholics amongst whom they dwelt that they 
 would destroy all with fire and sword, if any ill befell their wives 
 or their children. They then descended to the plain, marched 
 against their oppressors, seized upon the fortress of Chateau Dau- 
 phin, and threatened to lay everything waste if the measures which 
 had already caused so much distress were not revoked in so far as 
 they were concerned. 
 
 The Catholics, who had never suffered from the neighbourhood 
 of the Protestants, and who must have well understood the reason 
 of their irritation, were the first to intercede for them, less from 
 desire of justice than from fear of their resentment. Numerous 
 petitions were addressed to Charles Emmanuel ; the magistrates of 
 the country themselves gave advice that a troop so determined 
 should not be driven to despair; a former pastor of Praviglelm, 
 Domenic Vignaux, who was then pastor at Villar in the valley of 
 Lucema, and who had preserved friendly relations with the gover- 
 nor of Saluces, joined his entreaties to those of the inhabitants of 
 the country in favour of his former parishioners ; and at last the 
 inhabitants of those deep valleys where the Po takes its rise, were 
 permitted to return to their abodes, and to preserve their religion. 
 
 This success was obtained without effusion of blood, so true it is 
 ihat energy spares it more than feebleness. How many martyrs 
 
 have perished, one after another, by the most cruel sufferings, who, 
 if they had acted in concert, would have been saved by the mere 
 display of courageous resistance ! But notwithstanding their pre- 
 sent triumph, the Vaudois of Praviglelm, in consequence of having 
 held their peace when their brethren were proscribed, fell after- 
 wards into that state of isolation which is fatal; and their churches, 
 like the other churches of Saluces, are now destroyed. In the 
 following chapters we shall see some of the events which led to their 
 extinction. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE VICISSITUDES ENDURED BY THE CHRISTIANS 
 OF THE VALLEYS SITUATED AROUND THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS; 
 PARTICULARLY THOSE OF BUBIANO, LUCERNA, CAJ^IPILLON, 
 
 AND FENIL.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1560 TO A.D. 1630.) 
 
 Protestants in the neighbourhood of the Vaudois valleys forbidden to attend reli- 
 gious meetings there — Fines and confiscations — Count William of Lucema — 
 Treaty of Cavour— Castrocaro, governor of the Vaudois valleys— Unsuccessful 
 attempts to proselytize at Lucerna and Bubiano^Certain of the Vaudois sum- 
 moned to Turin— Interview of Valentine BouUes with the Duke of Savoy- 
 Theological discussion between a Vaudois pastor and a Jesuit — Captain Cappel 
 — Systematic persecution of the Protestants of Lucema — Confirmation of 
 Vaudois privileges — Extortion and injustice — Peter Queyras and Bartholomew 
 BouUes— Arrests— Sufferings of the Protestants of Bubiano and other places 
 — Final prohibition of Protestantism beyond the limits of the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 We have already seen that, in the beginning of the year 1560, the 
 Duke Emmanuel Philibert had prohibited all the inhabitants of 
 his dominions from going to hear the Protestant ministers in the 
 Vaudois valleys, and from celebrating the reformed worship without 
 the limits of these valleys.'^ But this edict did not specify how far 
 their limits were to extend. Commissioners were appointed, who 
 were to determine this at their discretion, according to the cases 
 which arose, and to prosecute those who were guilty of what they 
 should deem contraventions of the edict. 
 
 But as the contravention of the edict was punishable with a 
 fine of 100 crowns,^ and as the half of this sum was to go to the 
 
 * Authorities. — The same as in Chapter IX. 
 
 2 Edict of Nice, 15th February, 1560. » In terms of the above edict. 
 
II 
 
 s . 
 
 ¥ 
 
 156 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 £Part Fiasx, 
 
 informers, there were sure to be found, in the vicinity of the 
 Vaudois valleys, some ardent lovers of Catholic worship and of the 
 money of the reformed, who would lie in wait as spies of the 
 humble pilgrimage of the Christians of the plain going to the 
 mountain assemblies. The monks of the abbey of Pignerol even 
 took into their pay a troop of miscreants, who scoured the country 
 and made prisoners of these poor people. Whilst this troop chiefly 
 devoted its labours to the valley of Perouse, it cai-ried its efforts 
 and its ravages as far as Briquei-as, Fenil, and Campillon. There, 
 moreover, their place was more than supplied by Count William 
 of Lucerna. A vain silly man, who delighted in showing himself 
 off like a peacock on a richly caparisoned horse, making a display 
 of his glittering ornaments, he had dissipated his fortune in the 
 pursuit of pomp and pleasures, and he thought to recover it again 
 by the wages of espionage. It was he who advised the Duke of 
 Savoy to build the fort of Mirabouc.^ 
 
 "At that time," says Gilles, *•' the most influential and wealthiest 
 of the inhabitants of Garsiliano, Fenil, Bubiano, and other little 
 towns situated in the vicinity of the Vaudois churches, were of 
 the same religion with us, and very diligent in their attendance on 
 our woi-ship. Nay, the greater part of the population of Campillon 
 and Fenil was Protestant." 
 
 The Count of Lucerna gathered about him a few persons of birth 
 and brutality like his own, and of these, along with his domestics 
 well armed, he formed a little troop of brigands, or rather of sbirri, 
 whose exploits consisted in surprising and arresting the Protestants 
 as they went to the valleys to attend the religious assemblies. 
 These noble adventurers hoped to enrich themselves by the spoils 
 of their victims, and they even settled by anticipation the division 
 of the property of most of them. Captain Scaramuzza had the 
 property of Claude Cot, of Vigon, who took refuge in the valley of 
 Lucerna in 1560. Coimt William obtained an assignation of 
 1000 crowns, of which 800 were to be taken from the commune 
 of Kora, and 200 from those of the plain; but the general persecu- 
 tion which then arose against all the inhabitants of the valleys, and 
 which was terminated by the treaty of Cavour (concluded on the 
 5th of June, 1561), made that right of spoliation worthless, and 
 destroyed all the future prospects of these banditti. 
 
 By this treaty, all the Protestants of Bubiano, Fenil, Briqueras, 
 and other towns contiguous to the territory of the valleys, were 
 
 » By letter, dated Bubiano, 24th October, 1560. It ia in the State Archives, 
 amongst the Correspondence of Emmanuel Philibert with his Ministers; but the 
 Puke of Savoy at that time was Charles III. 
 
 Cl!AP. Xll] 
 
 PROTESTANTISM FORBIDDEN. 
 
 157 
 
 authorized to repair thither freely, and to attend public worship. 
 The Vaudois won their liberty of conscience by the most generous 
 eflforts and the most heroic exploits. The inhabitants of the towns 
 just named, whose goods had been confiscated, and who had been 
 obliged to flee, were allowed to return freely to their possessions. 
 Of this number were three lawyers of Campillon, the Podestat of 
 Angrogna, who belonged to Bubiano; Clarenton, a physician, and 
 Beinier, a lawyer, also of that town; Anthony Falc, who afterwards 
 devoted himself to the ministry; Daniel and Baptist Florins, as 
 well as a great number of merchants, farmers, and artisans of every 
 description. 
 
 The above-mentioned towns thereafter enjoyed some yeai-s of 
 real tranquillity, for which they were indebted to the energy of the 
 Vaudois people, who had secured it for them. 
 
 Without having the right to open places of worship, the in- 
 habitants of these towns had the right of repairing to those of the 
 Vaudois, and of celebrating family worship in their own houses. 
 They even had it in their power to send for the pastors in case of 
 sickness, or in order to the funeral service of those of their own 
 religion. In 1564, however, the Dominican Garossia attempted 
 to apply to them the provisions of an edict of the year preceding, 
 relative only to other towns of Piedmont, by which the Catholics 
 were interdicted from having anything to do with the Protestants. 
 He attempted also to take from them the Bibles and religious 
 books which they used ; but, resting upon the tenns of the treaty 
 of Cavour, they sheltered themselves from his designs: and by the 
 confirmation of all their privileges, which was granted to the 
 Vaudois in 1574, for the payment of 4000 crowns, they still 
 obtained a further abatement of the restrictions under which they 
 were placed. 
 
 But the clergy, by their unprincipled proceedings, gradually 
 obtained the upper hand again. In 1565, Castrocaro, then gover- 
 nor of the valleys, caused the place of worship at St. John to be 
 closed; and the Countess of Cardes, the Baroness of Termes, and 
 other persons of high rank, who were accustomed to come from 
 their castles, to attend at the celebration of the Lord's Supper in 
 the valleys, according to the reformed worship, received orders to 
 abstain from so doing in future. The Vaudois pastors met and re- 
 solved to resist the iniquitous attempts of the governor. They wrote 
 to the Duchess of Savoy, and by her good offices they obtained 
 from Emmanuel Philibert a new confirmation of their liberties. 
 However, intrigues and vexations of every kind continued to press 
 upon the scattered Protestants of Piedmont. The goods of Claude 
 

 h 
 
 I 
 
 158 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fiest. 
 
 Cot, a rich burgess of Vigon, had been confiscated. The ambassa- 
 dor of the Elector Palatin was then at Turin. The Duke of Savoy- 
 wanted to make him a present: "Would your royal highness," 
 said he, " give me the house which has been confiscated at Vigon." 
 It was bestowed on him in absolute possession, by a ducal patent 
 of the 12th of April, 1566. The worthy ambassador, Junius, 
 immediately restored it to the persecuted family. But Junius had 
 no sooner departed, than Castrocaro, who was then governor of 
 the Vaudois valleys, prohibited all the reformed of Lucerna, 
 Bubiano, and Campillon, from attending the Protestant worship 
 of the valleys, under pain of death.^ He caused those who did not 
 give heed to this order to be apprehended. They appealed to the 
 duke : the Vaudois also sent two deputies to represent to him 
 that the Edict of Cavour authorized their fellow-Protestants of 
 the plain in attending their worship. A new authorization con- 
 fii-med the privilege, and all who had been made prisonei's upon 
 this occasion were released, through the intercession of the good 
 duchess. 
 
 But by degrees the limits were narrowed within which burned the 
 radiant fires of evangelical truth and of independence; and at last, 
 by an edict of the 25th of February, 1602, the towns of Lucerna, 
 Bubiano, Campillon, Briqueras, Fenil, Montbrun, Garsiliano, and 
 St. Segont, the only towns in which religious liberty was main- 
 tained, were completely detached from the territory of the valleys. 
 This was done in the hope that the bond being thus broken which 
 attached the Protestants of the plain to those of the mountains, 
 their unity of faith would be equally broken, and their mutual 
 relations and brotherhood. 
 
 Forthwith the governor of the province and the Archbishop of 
 Turin repaired to these regions, accompanied by a grand train 
 of preaching monks, polemical clergy, Capuchins, Jesuits, and mis- 
 sionaries, in hope of accomplishing at once the conversion of all 
 the Protestants. When a few trembling green leaves still remain 
 upon the uppermost boughs of a tree which the winds have swept 
 bare, a light breeze will be enough to l)ring them down. But the 
 sap by which these churches were nourished still retained all its 
 vitality. 
 
 The prelate having arrived in the beginning of the month of 
 February, had taken up his abode in the palace of the counts of 
 Lucerna. After having held some private conferences with the 
 count and the governor, he began by causing all the heads of Pro- 
 testant families residing in Lucerna to be summoned into his pre- 
 
 > This order was dated 2l8t April, 1566. 
 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 
 CnAp. XII ] 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO PROSELYTIZK 
 
 159 
 
 sence. " There were a good number of them," says Gilles, " and 
 these among the principal families of the country, who had always 
 dwelt in it from time immemorial." His royal highness, they were 
 told, was resolved not to sufier two religions in that town, " and he 
 has sent us to you," said the prelate and governor, " for your own 
 good, that you may make up your minds to live as good and faith- 
 ful Catholics, which if you do not, you will be obliged to sell your 
 goods and leave the country." Of course these insinuating speeches 
 did not remain unanswered; but more energetic language was next 
 employed. " You cannot resist the orders of your sovereign with- 
 out being accused of rebellion, and then you will be treated as 
 rebels; whilst if you return to your duty," that is to say, to the 
 Church of Rome, " not only will you save all your property, but 
 you will be largely rewarded." " If it is a duty," replied the more 
 resolute ones firmly, " why speak of reward ? and if not, why try to 
 make us deviate from our duty?" "Those will be rewarded who 
 do what is agreeable to their sovereign." " Our fidelity ought to 
 be agreeable to him, and he would have reason to doubt it if we 
 were unfaithful to our God." The greater part of the Protestants 
 of Lucerna, therefore, remained unmoved by the offers and the 
 threats with which they were plied; but the resolution of some 
 gave way. Presently proclamation was made that exemption from 
 taxes was granted to those who had newly become Catholics, and 
 to those who should intimate an intention of following their ex- 
 ample. ^ 
 
 The archbishop, the governor, and the count then proceeded to 
 Bubiano, where all to a man were inflexible. 
 
 Attributing this imanimous resistance to the heads of two or 
 three eminent families, as zealous for their religion as influential 
 and honom'able in virtue of their station, they caused them to be 
 cited to Turin, before the Duke of Savoy. There were Peter Morese, 
 Samuel Falc, and the brothers Matthew and Valentine Boulles. 
 The last-named had married a young woman, by birth a Catholic, 
 but converted to Protestantism, a god-daughter of the Count of 
 Lucerna. On their arrival in Tuiin they were surrounded by 
 devoted courtiers, who said to them, " Take care what you do ! for 
 our prince is very angry at you four, for having prevented the con- 
 version of the Protestants of Bubiano. He proposes to speak to 
 you in a friendly way ; but if you think proper to oppose him, you 
 may expect something rough and disagreeable." They paid little 
 
 * These exemptions were dated on the 22d of February. They -were renewed on 
 the 10th of May, and are to be found in the Archives of the Court of Accounts at 
 Turin, Reg. Patenti e concessioni, No. xxvi. fol. 198 and 2G8. 
 
tm^ 
 
 mmm 
 
 il 
 
 '4' 
 
 160 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [?A&r FlRS-E. 
 
 heed, however, to these artful suggestions, and presented themselves 
 at the palace, where his highness caused them to be informed that 
 he would receive them in private, one by one. 
 
 Valentine Boulles was the first introduced. The duke spoke 
 kindly to him. "I desire," said he, "that my subjects should all 
 be united in the same religion ; and knowing how useful you have 
 it in your power to be in promoting these views in the part of the 
 country in which you dwell, I have thought fit to see you, that I 
 may myself exhort you to follow the religion of your prince, and to 
 gain your neighbom-s to it. Be persuaded," added he, "that in 
 acting thus, besides the spmtual advantage which will thence result 
 to yourself, you will reap other benefits, by which you will learn 
 how great satisfaction you have given to your sovereign." "After 
 the service of God," replied the Christian, " there is none to which 
 I deem it so much an honour to devote myself as that of your high- 
 ness; and I am ready heartily to spend in it my life and my pro- 
 perty. But my religion is more precious still to me than my life. 
 I believe it to be the true religion, the only religion founded upon 
 the word of God, and I cannot abandon it without losing all peace, 
 all consolation. Your highness may rest assured of my devotedness 
 to your service, but be pleased to leave me my religion, without 
 which I could not live." " And think you, then," rejoined the 
 duke, "that I have not taken care for the salvation of my soul? 
 If I were not persuaded that my religion is the true one, I would 
 not follow it, and I would not try to get any other person to follow 
 it. However, I am disposed to make those who embrace it under- 
 stand how agreeable their so doing is to me ; but I do not wish to 
 do violence to anybody's conscience. You may retire." 
 
 Valentine Boulles was conducted out by another gate from that 
 by which he had entered, and his companions were told that he had 
 yielded to the solicitations of his prince, and had become a Catholic. 
 They having then been successively introduced, replied to the duke, 
 that having lived hitherto in the Protestant religion, they would 
 have deemed it a precious favour to have been permitted to die in 
 it, but that if his highness demanded the contrary, they were ready 
 to do all that was agreeable to him. " That is really agreeable to 
 me," said the duke, " and I will know how, in fitting time and place, 
 to make you know it." 
 
 Notwithstanding these words of favour, they went out little com- 
 forted by their weakness; but what was their grief when they 
 learned the firmness of their brother, and the more satisfactory 
 words which the duke had addressed to him, leaving him his free- 
 dom of conscience ! The poor men were so humbled for their fall 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. XII,] 
 
 VALENTINE BOULLES, 
 
 161 
 
 that far from waiting to receive the favours of their prince, they had 
 scarcely returned to the valleys when they made public profession 
 of repentance, to expiate that fiiult and re-enter the fellowship of 
 their church. The promise to the contrary had doubtless been 
 wrung from them by a sort of surprise, but advantage was taken 
 of it to represent to the duke that the conversion of the Vaudois 
 was not so difficult a thing to secure, theii- adversaries not being 
 ashamed to say that, like the sheep of their fields, they would all 
 follow where the first went. "These persons," they said, "were 
 made to believe that the first had become a Catholic, and the rest 
 agi-eed to abjure; afterwards they learned that he had remained in 
 his errors, and they immediately returned to them. Let your high- 
 ness, then, display a little energy in the work which has been under- 
 taken, and when two or three families have been converted, all the 
 rest will follow like a flock." Such were the irreparable conse- 
 quences of that momentaiy weakness. The rising again, it is true, 
 was as prompt as the fall had been sudden, the repentance as deep 
 as its occasion had been serious; but nothing could destroy the 
 impression which that moment had produced. 
 
 The honourable firmness of Valentine Boulles had been respected 
 by the prince, and the Vaudois, respected like him, might have found 
 in their sovereign's justice reason to entertain better prospects for 
 the future; for men will treat those more considerately whom they 
 respect, than those whom they despise, and whose constancy they 
 hope to shake; and from that time forth the inhabitants of the 
 valleys were treated with a sort of disdain and rigour, very unlike 
 the habitual moderation of Charles Emmanuel. If each of the 
 persons summoned from Bubiano had only studied his conscience, 
 and not considered his situation or what another might have done 
 before him ; if each of them had replied to the prince with the 
 noble and respectful firmness of the first who appeared in his pre- 
 sence, perhaps their church would have been saved. But its ene- 
 mies saw their opportunity for making a first assault upon it, and 
 they did not suffer the opportunity to escape them. 
 
 Immediately afterwards, in fact, an order was published, requir- 
 ing all the Protestants of Lucerna, of Bubiano, of CampiUon, and of 
 Fenil, to become Catholics, or to leave the country within five days, 
 under pain of death and confiscation of goods. 
 
 The churches of the valley lost no time in addressing a petition 
 to the sovereign, setting forth arguments to persuade him to revoke 
 this edict. They reminded the duke that, in returning from the 
 Fort of Mirabouc, taken from the French in 1595, he had said to 
 the Protestants who came to congratulate him at Villar, " I will 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 21 
 
162 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [rABT First. 
 
 make no change in regard to your religion; and if any one molest you, 
 I will redress it as soon as I am informed of it." To this the duko 
 caused it to be replied that he had not changed his intentions con- 
 cerning tliem, but that what was being done related solely to the 
 heretics dwelling beyond the limits of their valley. The governor 
 of Pignerol, renewing his previous orders, then enjoined the Pro- 
 testants who were in these latter circumstances to quit their abodes 
 within two days, unless they obtained special permission from the 
 archbishop to remain. Some individuals went to the prelate 
 to obtain this ; but, as may well be supposed, he insisted, in the fii'st 
 place, upon having an abjuration fi^m them. " We would not like 
 to abjure without knowing wherein our religion is wrong," replied 
 the people with simple good sense. Forthwith appeared clergy, 
 and monks, and Jesuits, who entangled them amidst a confused mass 
 of theological arguments, for which the reading of the Bible had 
 not prepared them. " We cannot dispute with you," replied they, 
 " but if you would be pleased to confer with our pastor, and to 
 prove to him that the mass and other ceremonies of your worship 
 are not contrary to the word of God, we promise you that we will 
 attend them without so much scruple." 
 
 The archbishop, thinking himself sure of victory, made haste to 
 send a safe-conduct to the pastor, Augustus Gros, who had been 
 named to him, and who was himself a former Augustine monk of 
 Villefranche, converted to Protestantism. But he, remembering 
 the decision of the Council of Constance, which sanctions breach of 
 fe,ith on the part of a Catholic towards persons of another com- 
 miftiion, refused to go to Bubiano, and proposed St. John or An- 
 grogna ft>r this meeting, " not refusing," said he, " to confer with 
 the prelate, or with those of his theologians whom he may think 
 proper to send, with the weapons of the word of God, and according 
 to the conditions essential to a sober and well-conducted debate." 
 
 The archbishop accepted this proposal, and nominated to enter 
 the lists a Turin professor, by name Anthony Marchesi, a doctor of 
 theology, and rector of the Jesuits in that capital. The commence- 
 ment of the conferences was fixed for the 12 th of March. They 
 were opened, on the part of the Catholics, by the exposition of 
 this thesis — The mass was instituted by Jesus Christy and is to he 
 found in the Holy Scripture. The Jesuit displayed great talent in 
 his argument in support of it. But the pastor, coming after, and 
 exposing in detail, one after another, all the parts of the mass, 
 demanded that the whole ceremonial should be shown him in the 
 Bible. Marchesi was then obliged to grant that the gi-eater part 
 of the rites had been instituted by the Church of Rome at divera 
 
 ^Vi 
 
 Chap. XU] 
 
 THE JESUIT DEFEATED. 
 
 163 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 times and in diverse circumstances. " Then," said the pastor, " I 
 promise to go myself to the mass, and to exhort my hearers to 
 go, provided that it be stripped of all these human additions, and 
 restored as it was instituted by Christ." The Jesuit looked down 
 to the ground ; silence prevailed throughout the meeting, and the 
 president of the conference declared that, this first question being 
 exhausted, the consideration of that of auricular confession would 
 be put ofi* till next day. 
 
 Each went his own way, but the Papists returned no more. 
 Some time afterwards Augustus Gros was informed that the Je- 
 suit boasted of having had the advantage in this conference. " I 
 would have been very much surprised if he had spoken otherwise," 
 replied the pastor ; " he had not the courage to confess the truth 
 contained in the word of God; what could be more confidently 
 expected, then, than that he would deny a truth uttered by the 
 lips of men ?" 
 
 The archbishop, with all his suite, retreated after this unsuccess- 
 ful conference; and instead of the great triumph of conversion, 
 with the expectation of which they had flattered themselves, the 
 enemies of the Protestants were obliged to be contented with sub- 
 jecting them to partial and vexatious treatment in a multitude of 
 ways. 
 
 Valentine BouUes, in particular, the first of the persons sum- 
 moned from Bubiano who had appeared before the Duke of Savoy, 
 and whom they accused of having destroyed, by his perseverance, all 
 the good efiects of that experiment, was exposed to incessant recrimi- 
 nations. His wife, a Catholic by birth, was daily subjected to urgent 
 solicitations that she should return to the church in which she had 
 been baptized. Wearied out at last by this life of perpetual oppres- 
 sion, they resolved to flee from it, and to seek a more ti'anquil 
 existence, with the peaceful exercise of their religion and conjugal 
 happiness, in the seclusion of a retreat at a distance from all these 
 wicked annoyances. They therefore quitted Bubiano, and settled at 
 the lower part of the valley of Lucerna, in the little village of Bobi. 
 
 In 1619, a Protestant joiner having died at Campillon, the 
 seigneur of that place objected to his being buried in the ordinary 
 cemetery of the Protestants, which was contiguous to that of the 
 Catholics, pretending that the proximity of the mortal remains of 
 a heretic would pollute the holy earth set apart for the reception 
 of the coffins of faithful Papists. Alas ! they place holiness in the 
 earth i-ather than in the heart ; a cemetery is the fit emblem of 
 their church, which is motionless as death. Why should human 
 2)ride and fanaticism carry division even into the tomb? 
 
164. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Y 
 
 IBST. 
 
 It must be observed that, a few days before, an edict prohibiting 
 the Vaudois from assembling at a funeral in greater number than 
 six persons, had been secretly published. I say secretly puhlislved, 
 because it concerned the Protestants alone, and had been read only 
 at the close of the Catholic service. The greater part of those 
 interested in it were therefore completely ignorant of it. The 
 seigneur of Campillon, to carry out his opposition to this funeral, 
 collected his armed retainers. The Protestants, on their side, took 
 arms, under the dii'ection of Captain Cappel. The obsequies took 
 place without a conflict, in consequence of the firm front presented 
 by the Vaudois, but all who were present were denounced as hav- 
 ing infringed the edict. The trial of this case belonged to the 
 podestat of Lucerna; but, by an infraction of the juridical laws then 
 in force, the provost-general of justice took it up, and sent out his 
 officers in pursuit of the Vaudois, who were very soon entangled 
 amidst the meshes of inextricable assignations, protocols, compear- 
 ances, examinations, confrontings, and proceedings, to such a degree 
 that no criminal case ever assumed such formidable dimensions as 
 this. An unjust judge is the scourge of a people ! 
 
 The greater part of the accused were condemned for contumacy, 
 but it was thought proper that they should be made prisoners. The 
 most difficult to lay hold of was Captain Cappel, " a terrible man," 
 says Gilles, " and who made himself to be much dreaded." 
 
 Treachery came to the aid of injustice. The colonel of a regi- 
 ment offisred a company to this redoubtable captain, and invited liim 
 to meet him on that business at Pignerol. " Remember your Virgil," 
 said one of his friends, to whom he made known this proposal — 
 
 ** Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."^ 
 But his own boldness prevailed over this prudent advice. He 
 repaired to Pignerol, was conducted into the castle, and retained a 
 prisoner. From thence he was transferred to Turin, thrown into a 
 dungeon, and condemned to death. Two Vaudois, Samuel Truchi 
 and the minister Guerin, brothers-in-law of Lesdiguieres, besought 
 that illustrious general to intercede for the unfortunate captain; and 
 in September, 1620, Lesdiguieres, having come to Turin, obtained 
 a pardon for Cappel. However, he was destined to die in prison ; for 
 in 1630 he was arrested anew, and died of pestilence in the prisons 
 of Pignerol. 
 
 After he was first an'ested, the provost-criminal caused all the 
 
 other Protestants who had been present at the fimeral of the poor 
 
 artisan of Campillon, to be summoned to appear before him within 
 
 three months. At the end of that time, not having appeared, they 
 
 * I dread the Greeks, even when they come with gifts. 
 
 I 
 
 / 
 
 Chap. Xll.] 
 
 DEPUTIES AT TURIN. 
 
 165 
 
 were all condemned for contumacy, and declared to be banished 
 from the dominions of his royal highness. Thereupon theii^ fel- 
 low-Christians of all the valleys made common cause with them, 
 offered them an asylum, and interceded Avith the sovereign. For 
 fear that the duke might find fault with the unjust severities of 
 which they had been made the victims, and that at the close of the 
 reckoning the seigneur of Campillon, the eager mover in the whole 
 affair, might find himself in a dangerous predicament, that seigneur 
 thought proper to interpose in their favour. We shall by and by 
 tee whether or not he was sincere in so doing. 
 
 His interposition was offered to the Vaudois by a Papist, who 
 called himself a Protestant. This commencement did not pro- 
 mise much sincerity. The seigneur signified his confidence of 
 obtaining remission of the sentence, provided the co-religionists 
 of the parties would address a petition to the sovereign in which 
 they should offer him money. This might have seemed a gross 
 insult to his royal highness, but he knew nothing about it, for his 
 seigneural excellence of Campillon took charge both of the i)etition 
 and the money. Meanwhile the provost-criminal continued to 
 carry his sentence into execution against the Protestants residing 
 at Lucerna, on the right bank of the Pelis. 
 
 At length the Vaudois themselves sent deputies to Turin. The 
 duke was not there ; his ministers demanded from them 5000 duca- 
 toons (nearly 30,000 francs i), that an end might be put to the 
 vexations of which they complained. It may well be said that 
 they were all alike, seigneurs, provosts, and ministers. The deputies 
 could not venture to engage for the payment of such a sum; the 
 3000 livres which the seigneur of Campillon had already taken 
 charge of had made them timid ; they returned to the valleys, and 
 the provost continued more actively his prosecutions, processes, in- 
 timations, and sentences, which always issued in heavy expenses. 
 
 At last, they learned that Charles Emmanuel was on his return 
 to Turin. New deputies immediately repaired thither; a new 
 petition was presented, new difficulties were every day thrown in 
 their way, and finally they retired, leaving the charge of theii* busi- 
 ness to two delegates remaining on the spot — Anthony Bastie, a 
 notary of St. John, and James Fontaine, the gonfalonier or stand- 
 ard-bearer of Le Villar. At the end of some months they obtained 
 a draft of a decree, of which the following were the principal pro- 
 visions : The ancient privileges of the Vaudois to be confirmed, 
 
 and all the proceedings commenced against them, upon account of 
 religion, to be abolished, upon payment of the sum of 6000 duca- 
 
 » Or about £1200 sterling. 
 
166 
 
 THE ISIIAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet First. 
 
 I 
 
 toons (34,800 francs^). It contained an injunction, moreover, that 
 the Protestants should not labour in public on the days of tho 
 Catholic festivals ; that they should show reverence to processions, 
 or retire out of their way ; and finally, that they should close the 
 new place of worship which they had opened at St. John (at Les 
 Stalliats). 
 
 "May it please your royal highness," said the deputies to 
 Charles Emmanuel, "for many years the humble confidence which 
 your faithful Protestant subjects- have reposed in your goodness, 
 has been entertained with fair words and good hopes, without any 
 amelioration of their condition. At the present time it is still pro- 
 posed to restrain the exercise of our religion, and on this account 
 a considerable tribute is exacted from us." They might have added, 
 in reference to the proceedings which it was proposed to abolish, 
 *' Ought the cessation of an injustice to be purchased? and would 
 its long continuance not rather give a right to compensation?" 
 
 Be these things as they might, the duke replied with his accus- 
 tomed amiability and suavity, saying that tliere was nothing he de- 
 sired more than to see them contented. But those who surrounded 
 him were less noble, less just, and, above all, less disinterested. 
 When the Vaudois deputies were about to depart, to cany this 
 reply to the valleys, the procurator-fiscal caused them to be arrested 
 and detained until the complete payment of tho 6000 ducatoons, 
 which the advisers of his royal highness had decided to impose 
 upon the Vaudois. 
 
 This was on the 12th of March, 1620; they were kept prisoners 
 for five months in the castle, which still stands beside the museum 
 of painting in Turin ; and on the same day the governor of Pig- 
 nerol, Ponte by name, upon the suggestion of the Archbishop of 
 Turin, caused twelve Vaudois to be likewise incarcei-ated, who had 
 come to the market of Pignerol. There was no help for it but to 
 resolve upon payment of the tribute demanded. Long negotiations 
 still took place, and at last, on the 20th of June, 1620, an edict 
 was issued conformable to the projected arrangement, save only that 
 it contained nothing relative to the Catholic festivals and cere- 
 monies. 
 
 Next year, in the month of April, new annoyances were com- 
 menced against the Vaudois, in regard to a valuation of property, 
 which required them to present themselves individually at Pignerol, 
 which some of them had failed to do. The great means employed 
 
 ' Or about £1400 sterling. 
 
 ^Sujets d£ la religion. The Protestants are frequently designated gens dc la 
 religion, or rcligionnaires. — Tb. 
 
 Chap. XII.] 
 
 THE TRIBUTE AUGMENTED. 
 
 167 
 
 against the Vaudois, which consisted in raising criminal prosecutions, 
 on pretext of rebellion against the orders of the sovereign, was 
 again resorted to ; and in order to escape, these unfortunate adher- 
 ents of a persecuted religion consented to augment their tribute by 
 another 1000 ducatoons. 
 
 This sum was apportioned amongst all the inhabitants of the 
 valleys, although those of Campillon alone had been originally the 
 cause of the tribute. The distress was great ; many families were 
 obliged to pinch themselves in the very necessaries of life, and mur- 
 mured at such hardships. Then it was that the monks and Jesuits 
 set their emissaries to work amongst the poorer and more isolated. 
 This influence was brought to bear, especially along the disputed 
 boundary line where Protestantism was in contact with Bomanism, 
 in the towns of Bubiano, Campillon, Fenil, Garsiliano, and Briqueras. 
 
 The agents of the clergy, both regular and secular, under pre- 
 tence of compassion for the hardships endui^ed by these poor fami- 
 lies, offered, with all appearance of generous interest, not only to 
 pay their quota of the debt for which the Vaudois were subscribing, 
 but also to obtain for them a long exemption from taxes, and even 
 immediate rewards, on condition that they would only consent not 
 to reject boons still more precious, namely, the abandonment of 
 Protestantism, and the adoption of the Church of Bome. A num- 
 ber were prevailed upon, and thus sold themselves, yielding to the 
 fallacious and gilded seductions of the tempter. 
 
 Thus, under these perpetual assaults, these scattered churches, 
 consisting of no great numbers of persons, were weakened, being 
 constantly exposed to the danger either of violence or of tempta- 
 tion. And when in our own days we see so much religious indif- 
 ference prevailing amongst religious communities not only enjoying 
 freedom, but loaded with gifts, addressed with invitations rather 
 than with threats, surroimded with encouragements instead of ob- 
 stacles, honoured instead of being despised for the discharge of their 
 duties — when we see scriptural faith and life extinguished before 
 the breath of selfishness and corruption, by the mere power of the 
 infirmities of our nature — we may well be astonished that the scat- 
 tered Christians of the plain of Piedmont should have been able to 
 survive at all, during a whole century, the numerous falls which 
 made gaps in their ranks, or the strokes of persecution which were 
 meant for their destruction. 
 
 I cannot recount in detail all their distresses, all the troubles 
 with which they were beset, or the injuries to which they were for 
 a long time subjected. Charies Emmanuel might, perhaps, have 
 been inclined to be favourable rather than hostile to them, but 
 
168 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaRT FlJLST. 
 
 when the aDimosity of the government against them was abated, 
 they had to endure that of private enemies. After the judicial 
 proceedings followed the doings of the fanatics. 
 
 In 1624, for example, two Protestants being in the public square 
 of Bubiano, some new converts reproached them with remaining 
 faithful to a religion which had never made men anything but 
 martyrs. " If I were in the prince's place," said one of them, " I 
 would very soon make you abjure." " In what way?" " By force." 
 " We thank God that he has given us a prince more moderate than 
 you." This saying was reported to the magistrates in the follow- 
 ing amended form : *' The Protestants said that the prince is less 
 zealous for religion than the new converts." 
 
 " The prince is insulted !" exclaimed the Catholics. The magis- 
 trates, urged on by their clamours, caused the two unfortunate 
 Protestants to be prosecuted for the crime of lese-majesty. They 
 were not only heretics, but rebels. The name of the one was Peter 
 Queyras, and that of the other, Bartholemew Boulles. They suc- 
 ceeded at first in withdi'awing from the pursuit of which they were 
 the objects, and which, to say the truth, does not seem to have been 
 urged with much rigour. The whole affair seemed to be forgotten, 
 when Queyi-as was one day invited to dine with a seigneur of the 
 valley. His conduct will show whether or not the seigneur was 
 truly noble. He caused his servants to arrest the Protestant, and 
 deliver him to the sbirri of Lucerna. He was cast into prison, 
 and Boulles, his innocent accomplice in the language laid to his 
 charge, thereupon fled to the mountains of Bora. 
 
 Queyras was conveyed to the dungeons of Turin. His liberation 
 was demanded in vain. The inquisition supposed that a new victim 
 had come into its hands. But the wife of the prisoner took her 
 infant in her arms, went and cast herself at the feet of the prince, 
 and informed him that the words spoken by her husband were a 
 tribute to the wisdom of the sovereign, and not an insult to him; 
 and supplicating in favour of the father of the child which she car- 
 ried with her, she had the good fortune to obtain the pardon which 
 she asked. « A faithful wife," says the Biljle, " is a treasiu-e from 
 the Lord." The princes of the house of Savoy almost never showed 
 themselves unjust or cruel, unless under the influence of the Church 
 of Bome. 
 
 Next year (in 1625) a senator came to Bubiano, and, in virtue 
 of secret informations of which he was possessed, caused many per- 
 sons to be apprehended in that district. A petition was addressed 
 to Charles Emmanuel, to obtain th6 enlargement of the captives. 
 The duke replied that that business belonged to the judge Barberi, 
 
 *^*-^» 'V.'Vh* 1^ 
 
 Chap. XII ] 
 
 ARBITRARY IMPRISONMENTS. 
 
 169 
 
 who had been commissioned to inquire into it ; but his benevolence 
 did not forget it, and after a time they were set at liberty. 
 
 Thus the Protestants of Bubiano and of the neighbouring towns 
 still retained, at that date, some measure of liberty of conscience, 
 which they owed to the sovereign's toleration ; for, according to the 
 edict of 28th September, 1617, their religion was not to have been 
 tolemted for more than three years beyond the bounds appointed 
 by the edict of 1602. Not residing within these boundaries, they 
 must have abjured, or sold their goods, to withdraw to some other 
 quarter, or have incuired the penalties pronounced by the edict. 
 Some authors even say that only three months were allowed them 
 for this purpose ; and eight years had now already passed without 
 their having either abjured or sold their lands. They might, there- 
 fore, hope for the permanent continuance of this favour, the pro- 
 longation of which had been tacitly conceded to them by the 
 kindness of the sovereign. The monks and the inquisitors were 
 only the more eager to proceed against them ; they wished to make 
 victims of them, and not to see them indulged. 
 
 One day ten young persons were apprehended on their way to 
 Pignerol j the monks of the abbey turned it to their own account. 
 Subsequently a man and woman, both advanced in life, were seized 
 at Briquei-as, and conducted to Cavour. The inquisition made them 
 its prey. Eveiy now and then, indeed, travellers or foreign mer- 
 chants were surprised on their journeys, and cast into dungeons, 
 where they often remained without being heard of more. 
 
 In 1627 a number of persons were arrested simultaneously at 
 Bubiano, Campillon, and Fenil. The prisoners were in the first 
 place conveyed to Cavour, then to the castle of Villefranche, after 
 which nothing more was to be heard of them. Their relatives, 
 their friends, and all their compatriots, were deeply afficted. Ur- 
 gent solicitations were addressed to Count Philip of Lucerna, who 
 appears to have been no stranger to these acts of violence, and from 
 whom none but evasive answers could be obtained. The Vaudois 
 then addressed a petition to their prince, and sent deputies to pre- 
 sent it to him. A person of noble birth offered his intervention 
 with the sovereign; it was accepted; they set out and came to 
 Turin. " I have a friend in great favour at court," said their new 
 protector; "intmst me with your petition to show it to him, and 
 I promise you his support." The petition was given up, but not 
 returned. The Yaudois demanded it. « I have presented it to the 
 duke," replied their noble friend, " but his highness was excessively 
 angry, because of a report which accused you of having taken arms 
 to rescue the prisoners by force. I have assured him of the false- 
 VOL. L 22 
 
 
I' 
 
 I* 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 170 
 
 * THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Fiest. 
 
 hood of that report, and I hope to calm him completely ; but you 
 will be obliged to make some outlay, and you will not forget, in 
 particular, to pay me the great expenses which I have incurred on 
 
 this occasion." 
 
 The people of the valleys were much discontented with the turn 
 which this affair took, and found great fault with their deputies for 
 having let the petition pass out of their hands, which they ought 
 thems'^lves to have presented to the sovereign. At last a reply was 
 obtained, and they were informed that this business was remitted to 
 the judgment of the Archbishop of Turin and the grand chancellor. 
 To the latter they therefore addressed themselves ; but he replied 
 that his highness, and the heir presumptive of the crown, were 
 about to take it into their own considemtitm. The unhappy cap- 
 tives were therefore transferred to Turin, after a preventive deten- 
 tion of several months, ignorant even what crime was laid to their 
 charge. The brother of Sebastian Bazan, whose name we shall 
 meet*' with again in the next chapter of martyi's, was amongst the 
 number of these prisoners. Some more weeks passed, dui-ing which 
 the archbishop died ; and after this, upon the renewed petition of 
 the Vaudois, the duke ordered the chancellor to bring the affair to 
 
 a close. 
 
 On the 21st of July, Barb^ri, abusing his high position, repaired 
 to Lucema, escorted by a troop of constables and officers of justice, 
 or rather brigands; for, violently entering the houses of the re- 
 formed, they pillaged at discretion, and drew up an inventory of what 
 they left. They went on to Bubiano, where they repeated the same 
 proceedings, and thence, in like manner, to Campillon and FenU. 
 After this he published an order, requiring all the notaries and syn- 
 dics of these communes to render him an exact account of all the 
 possessions of the Protestants, who, he said, were all guilty, in one 
 way or other, and merited, without exception, to be condemned to 
 death, and to have their goods confiscated; but that, of his clemency, 
 he would permit them to live, on condition that they should pay 
 a large ransom. What justice ! What a senator ! 
 
 The Vaudois, indignant, refused to pay this monstrous tribute. 
 Thereupon the report was spread that an army was coming to 
 exterminate them. The inhabitants of Bubiano, and of the other 
 towns of the plain, hastened to convey their families to the moun- 
 tains, and to carry off whatever they had most valuable. The 
 mountaineers, on the other hand, descended in arms, and posted 
 themselves before Lucema, to be ready to receive the army that was 
 spoken of. But another senator, named Syllan, being then at 
 liucei-na on his own private business, sent emissaries to re-assure the 
 
 
 11 
 
 if 
 
 ^ 
 
 Chap. Xll] 
 
 FRAUD DETECTED. 
 
 171 
 
 Vaudois as to this subject. He afterwards caused them to be in- 
 formed, that if they would pay the expense of Barberi's troop it 
 would be withdrawn, and the movables which had been taken 
 away would be restored. 
 
 It seemed a little hard to pay the expense of the injustice to 
 which they had been subjected; but the Catholics of Bubiano and 
 the other towns above-named, offered to the Vaudois to pay for 
 them the half of the sum, in order to be delivered from that horde 
 whose presence was disastrous for all. This act of brotherliness 
 upon the part of the people was more Christian than all the acts of 
 pei-secution on the part of the church. The offer was accepted, and 
 Barberi accordingly went away with the tribute which he had 
 sought. But it soon came to be known that he had received no 
 orders from the prince to act against the Vaudois ; and they there- 
 fore drew up a detailed account of all the hardships to which they 
 had been subjected, and it began to be spoken of that they should 
 be made to pay something again, in order to get a stop put to them, 
 when unexpected circumstances occurred, which completely changed 
 the aspect of this affair. 
 
 Many persons had been apprehended at Lucema, Garsiliano, and 
 Briqucras, but it often happened that when the case of one of these 
 prisoners was to be proceeded with, he was not to be found. On the 
 other hand, the informations against persons alleged to frequent the 
 Protestant worship in the valleys, multiplied so much, that the 
 higher authorities could not conceive that the Vaudois had so great 
 a number of adherents in Piedmont. What rendered the whole 
 thing still more incomprehensible was, that some of the captives 
 who had disappeared from the prisons were again seen at liberty 
 amongst the mountains. Let us tell the whole story of this mystery 
 at once. The informers received a reward from the magistrates, 
 and the inferior magistrates received a ransom from the accused, 
 who were too happy to escape in this way from these unjust and 
 cruel prosecutions. The prospect of these ransoms and recom- 
 penses had made the whole neighbourhood of the valleys a mere 
 prey to a set of informers. But the work of the wicked deceives 
 him. These informations began to include persons higher in station 
 and influence, who, instead of compounding, proved the falsehood 
 of the accusation, and brought the accuser to punishment. 
 
 Thereupon the superior authorities, whose uprightness is one of 
 the glories of Piedmont, suspended all the prosecutions which had 
 been begun. A severe investigation was instituted concerning the 
 previous course of these proceedings, and many false witnesses were 
 discovered, who had caused the innocent to be condemned, and who 
 
 mmmmi 
 
 ^s^ 
 
 MiM 
 
I 
 
 172 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 CttAP. xu] 
 
 PERRON OF CAMPILLON. 
 
 173 
 
 1, 
 
 were in their turn condemned to the galleys. But the Church of 
 Rome, which attacks evangelical truth, must needs defend calumny j 
 and, by the intervention of the Jesuits, many of these false wit- 
 nesses succeeded in escaping the punishment to which they had 
 become liable. 
 
 The Vaudois made no complaints; they were too happy to have 
 their brethren restored to them. The prisoners of Villefranche 
 were set at liberty. Those of Campillon and Bubiano, of Fenil and 
 Briqueras, were not long of returning to the bosom of their families. 
 The attempts directed against them had resulted in mischief to 
 their enemies. The feet of the plotters of evil were taken in the 
 snares which they themselves had hid. The eternal wisdom of 
 Heaven never fails to be justified in these things by the perpetual 
 follv of men. 
 
 In consequence of this restoration to legal rigiits, the Christians 
 of Bubiano, Campillon, and Fenil — where the reformed, Gilles says, 
 were more numerous than the Catholics ^ — obtained the privilege 
 of continuing, secondo it solito (according to use and wont), the free 
 exercise of their family worship, as well as the power of repaii-ing 
 to the valleys for public worship, and even of sending for the Vau- 
 dois pastors in case of sickness or death. Their right to have a 
 Protestant schoolmaster was also recognized. 
 
 This was nothing more than what was allowed by the edicts of 
 the 10th of January and 5th of July, 15G1; but it was a great 
 victory to have maintained them. The Catholic clergy were not 
 long of disputing their enjoyment of the fruits of it, and, under the 
 most futile pretexts, raised prosecutions against the Vaudois, which 
 always concluded with the alternative of apostasy or a ransom, 
 "insomuch," says the author above quoted, " that there was no fault 
 so petty but it was very difiicult to settle for it without this condi- 
 tion, nor crime so enormous that it was not readily to be pardoned 
 to those who would abjure their religion." 
 
 The monks, in particular, ceased not to complain of the pretended 
 vexations which they endured from the Vaudois. At I^a Tour, 
 for example, where an ancient Protestant cemetery was just beside 
 the walls of their convent, and the use of the cemetery had upon 
 that account been interdicted- to those of our religion, it so hap- 
 pened that the inmates of the cloisters exposed some of the bones 
 in digging the foundation for a wall. A Vaudois woman gathered 
 up the bones and buried them. Forthwith the monks wrote to 
 Turin that the Vaudois impeded them in their labours, carried 
 away their materials, were guilty of thefts from them, <tc. And 
 
 ' Gilles, p. 402. 2 By decrees of 2d July, 1618, and 25th June, 1G20. 
 
 in this manner, upon false i-eports, severe prosecutions sometimes 
 lodged the innocent in prison. 
 
 La Fontaine was not yet born : but it seems that the fable of 
 the wolf and the lamb was already kno^vn ; for the learned and 
 simple historian who relates these facts, boldly compares these 
 monks to the wolves, " incessantly crying," says he, " that the lambs 
 were troubling the water." 
 
 But the monks were kept in countenance by others ; and some- 
 times the secular authorities, and sometimes the seigneui-s, played 
 the part of the wolves. We have seen proof of this in the ambus- 
 cades of William of Lucema, and the ransoms of those who were 
 condemned. In 1629, for example, a Protestant of Campillon, 
 named Perron, was assailed in his own house by a band of con- 
 stables, whom his four sons and he valiantly repelled for half-a-day. 
 One of his sons was killed, and another dangerously wounded. 
 But particulars of this kind are so numerous, that they cannot all 
 
 be mentioned. 
 
 Under the reign of Victor Amadeus I., orders were given to the 
 authorities of Lucerna, Bubiano, Briqueras, Campillon, and Fenil, 
 and often reiterated, to proceed with the extirpation of tlie heretics 
 who could not be got to relinquish their heresy. These orders 
 were dated on the 9th and 11th of November, 1634, the 6th and 
 27th of May, 1635, the 10th of April, 1636, and the 3d of Novem- 
 ber, 1637. But whether the sentiments of the sovereign were 
 milder than his words, or whether the indulgence of the judges 
 mitigated the severity of his decrees, the Vaudois continued to 
 exist in these towns, where they had existed so long. 
 
 An edict of 28th January, 1641, definitively pronounced their 
 goods confiscated everywhere without the limits of the valleys. 
 On the 17th of February, 1644, they were forbidden to come with- 
 out the temtory of these valleys, except for the purpose of traffick- 
 ing at the fairs; but it appears, nevertheless, that there were 
 always some shoots of the old evangelical churches remaining at 
 Lucerna, Bubiano, Campillon, Fenil, and Briqueras; for the prohi- 
 bition against the Vaudois residing in these towns was frequently 
 renewed at later dates. It is repeated in the edicts, amongst others, 
 of the 31st of May and of the 15th of September, 1661, of the 
 31st of January, 1725, and of the 20th of June, 1730. 
 
 It was reserved for our days to see these unjust and puerile bar- 
 riers at last disappear, which had been raised betwixt one set of 
 people and another, in order to circumscribe thought. The doc- 
 trines of the gospel, like the enlightenment of civilization, will not 
 be confined within manorial boundaries. What have the marches 
 
 ^mm 
 
 maumm^ 
 
174 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»T FiUT. 
 
 CUAP. XIII.] 
 
 A CRUEL EDICT. 
 
 175 
 
 )' 
 
 of a territory to do with the limits of error and of truth ? May 
 these fair regions soon recover, in their liberty, the gifts which once 
 they exhibited so admirably in the days of their bondage ! 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REVIVAL OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF SALUCES, AKD 
 NEW VICISSITUDES TO WHICH THEY WERE SUBJECTED.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1602 TO A.D. 1616.) 
 
 Valleys of the Stura, the Vrayta and Valgrane— Edict of 12th June, 1602— The 
 Protestants driven into exile — Persecution conducted by the Capuchin Ribotti 
 — Effects of long-continued oppression — The DigiuncUi — Irritation and disorder 
 — Negotiations — The Duke of Savoy grants favourable terms to the Vaudois — 
 Protestant churches spring up anew — Popish missionaries — Expatriation of 
 Protestants — Their manifesto — A breathing time. 
 
 The number of Protestants in the province of Saluces was not con- 
 fined to the members of the churches which we have named, but 
 in the valley of the Stura, in the valley of the Vrayta, and in Val- 
 grane, there were fugitives from the great towns, who had retired 
 to the most secluded villages. Thither each of them brought with 
 him a portion of the evangelical light of their dispersed church, a 
 spai'k of the common faith, which was thus extended in their exile. 
 
 Light has the property of communication without diminution ; 
 it enlarges its sphere by multiplying the centres from which it 
 shines. Accordingly, the number of enlightened souls increased 
 around the proscribed refugees, and these forgotten villages gradu- 
 ally became new churches. Moreover, many of the families which 
 had embraced the external forms of Catholicism when it was im- 
 posed upon them by violence, hastened to return to the natural 
 expression of their faith when the oppression had ceased. 
 
 Then, also, the persecuting attention of Popery was again drawn 
 to them. The edict of the 25th of February, 1602, which inter- 
 dicted Protestant worship without the limits of the Vaudois val- 
 leys, had no other object than to put an end to it in the towns of 
 the province of Pignerol, situated on the outskirts of these valleys; 
 but it was made a terrible weapon in the province of Saluces. 
 
 In the first place, missionaries were sent thither under the direc- 
 tion of Father Ribotti, in order that those who did not yield to 
 their arguments might be treated as hai*dened and obstinate rebels. 
 
 > AUTHOBITIES.— As in Chapter IX. 
 
 The governor of Dron^ro and the vice-seneschal of Saluces were 
 invited to assist in this enterprise. 
 
 The reformed then addressed a petition to Charles Emmanuel,^ 
 in the hope of obtaining some mitigation of the provisions of that 
 edict, the force of which they felt, without being named in it. They 
 entreated, amongst other favours, that they might not be subjected 
 to any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but only to the civil magistrates; 
 and nothing could be more just, because the ecclesiastical tribunals 
 belonged to the Church of Rome, and could not be expected to 
 judge, but only to condemn the adherents of another communion. 
 They asked, also, that those of their religious persuasion who had 
 been for more than seven years settled in that part of the country, 
 should not be driven into exile; and, finally, that mixed marriages, 
 solemnized by Protestant ministers whilst the province belonged 
 to France, should not be annulled. This was, however, the thing 
 which the Catholic clergy demanded most of all, without any regard 
 to the confusion of every kind which this measure could not fail to 
 produce in families. 
 
 These three points were conceded to the Vaudois of Saluces. But 
 before this was done, a priest of the neighbourhood had taken upon 
 him to issue, upon his own private authority, an order of expulsion 
 against all the reformed of his parish. This abuse of power was 
 complained of to the Duke of Savoy, who replied that he would 
 write upon the subject to the governor. 
 
 The reformed and the Vaudois originally belonging to this 
 province, had therefore reason to hope that for them days of tran- 
 quillity were at last come ; but through the solicitations of the 
 Capuchins and Jesuits, the justice promised and the concessions 
 obtained, very soon gave place to new severities. On the 12th of 
 June, 1602, appeared the following edict : — 
 
 "Having laboured, by all means possible, for the extirpation of 
 heresy, in order to the glory of God and the salvation of souls, we 
 are grieved to learn that in the marquisate of Saluces, the people 
 whom we have prohibited from the exercise of their worship live 
 without ostensible religion, and thereby run the risk of falling into 
 atheism. To prevent this horrible evil, we ordain all the adherents 
 of the pretended reformed religion, whether born in the country 
 or only settled in it, to embrace the Catholic faith within fifteen 
 days, or to leave our dominions and to sell their properties within 
 the space of six months, under pain of confiscation and death." 
 
 The Protestants of these regions, preferring the pains of exile to 
 a base desertion of the faith of their fathers, left the province of 
 
 » On the 15th of May, 1602. 
 
1 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 176 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 fpAttT I'lRST. 
 
 Saluces in a body, and retired once more to that Ephraim of the 
 Vaudois valleys, where the exiled always found a refuge, where 
 Christians always found brethren, and where sacred consolations 
 were always ministered to the afflicted. 
 
 But many of them settled upon the left bank of the Cluson, 
 in the vaUey of Perouse, at Les Fortes, Pinache, Doublon, and 
 Perouse itself, where, according to an edict recently promulgated,! 
 the reformed worship was equally to be abolished ; and the Capu- 
 chin Ribotti, always breathing out fury against the Vaudois, pur- 
 sued thither also these unfortimate and fugitive victims. 
 
 Aided by the urgency of the nuncio, and solicitations directly 
 addressed by Paul V. himself to the Duke of Savoy, Ribotti ob- 
 tained an edict, 2 by which that prince renewed in a more general 
 manner the prohibition to celebrate Protestant worship in his 
 dominions, without the arbitrary limits to which the territory 
 of the Vaudois valleys had been restricted. The Protestants did 
 not make any haste to abjure, and the duke did not make any 
 haste to punish; but by multiplying his prohibitions, he multiplied 
 the claims which Popery could urge for the employment of mea- 
 sures so severe as to be effective. The prince, notwithstanding his 
 natural mildness, could not refuse to cause the orders which he had 
 ah-eady issued to be put in execution; but it may be easily enough 
 se^ from the instructions which he addressed in these circum- 
 stances to the governors of provinces, that the real author of these 
 cruelties was the pope, and not himself. "Desiring," said he, 
 " that the holy enterprise of the extirpation of heresy should be 
 accompHshed in our dominions, and his Holiness having for this 
 purpose sent missionaries, at the head of whom is Father Ribotti, 
 we enjoin all our officers to render him all assistance. "^^ Then' 
 denying himself the credit of his own clemency, he recommended 
 them to treat the Vaudois with some tenderness, and to make 
 them suppose that they owed it to the personal kindness of Father 
 Ribottij for assuming, with good enough reason, that that monk 
 would be pitiless, the duke wrote a private letter to the governor 
 of Saluces, in which he said, " In order that his severities may not 
 make hjm too odious to these poor people, you will take care to 
 show them mdulgence in some things, and to gmnt them some 
 mitigations, as if they were owing to his intercession."* But the 
 missionaries imderstood nothing of the employment of any such 
 means; and at this juncture the above circular was issued, which 
 was by no means calculated to calm men's tempers. The unhappy 
 ^th Ma'\^^'' annoyed, proscribed, dispossessed, and now again 
 
 » Circnla^^of ^*«?«r^*«>v.v -./.^ * Issued on the 3d of July, 1602. 
 
 ^.ircniar of oth September, 1G02. * Tim letter is dated 8Ui July, 1602. 
 
 Chap. XIII ] 
 
 THE DIGIUNATL 
 
 177 
 
 chased from their abodes, already also exasperated and excited by 
 a troop of discontented and banished men like themselves, but who 
 certainly had not the same Christianity, assembled in an armed 
 band among the mountains. They proclaimed themselves the de- 
 fenders of the oppressed, not concealing their intention of resisting 
 the troops of the sovereign himself, if he should employ his troops 
 against them or their adherents. 
 
 But there were no stores of provisions in the mountains ; and for 
 subsistence this body made frequent forays into the plain, supply- 
 ing themselves with victuals by pillage, in which the Catholics, 
 and those who had recently become Catholics, were the principal 
 sufferers. Hence arose many reprehensible disorders. 
 
 This famished band received the name of the band of the Digiu- 
 nati, and by the intimidation which they exercised, they compelled 
 a number of Protestants who had recently become Catholics, to 
 return to the Reformed Church, which violence had driven them 
 to leave. Wretched and deplorable conversions on both sides ! But 
 what was only an exception with Protestantism, was habitual with 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy, having been informed of these troubles, 
 commanded the magistrates to cause the syndics of the communes 
 which were frequented by the Digiu7iati to be summoned before 
 them, and to make each of these syndics responsible for the dis- 
 orders committed in his commune. At the same time, he enjoined 
 the Protestants of the towns situated in the plain of Piedmont, on 
 the border of the Vaudois valleys, to quit their abodes, or else 
 to become Catholics within the space of fifteen days.^ 
 
 The irritation of the parties had reached its height, when, in 
 addition of all other calamities, a general famine aggravated the 
 distress of the numerous fetmilies of Protestants, who, without 
 having left the territories of Savoy, lived in wandering and banish- 
 ment. The Digiunati became the agents of depredation and ven- 
 geance; and in spite of the severe but ineffective proceedings 
 adopted against them — ^in spite of the express prohibition to give 
 them any harbour, assistance, or supply of food — their number 
 continued to increase. All the fugitive victims of persecution 
 or of famine joined them. Exerting themselves in this vagabond 
 and savage life to do as much injury as possible to their enemies, 
 they became every day more dreaded. Their presence in the 
 mountains afforded a kind of refuge for all who were persecuted, 
 and the exasperation continually incres^sed, from the combination 
 of 80 many miseries and animosities, 
 
 1 Orders of ^ March aQd 28th May, 1602. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 83 
 
 ( 
 
178 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Fikst. 
 
 Chap. XIH.] 
 
 A GENERAL AMNESTY. 
 
 179 
 
 <i 
 
 i 
 
 Four young men of Bubiano having met with one of the agents 
 of the Inquisition, killed him as they would a mischievous beast, 
 and went to join the Digiunati. Another assassination was com- 
 mitted upon the person of a Catholic of Bagnols, who had come and 
 joined himself to the refugees in order to betray them; "and 
 besides these," says Gilles, " they performed many other acts of 
 vengeance, which displeased well-disposed people, notwithstanding 
 all the pretexts and all the reasons which they brought forward in 
 opposition to their censures." 
 
 But disorder is like a conflagration; it increases by its own 
 violence. And ought we to be astonished that these unfortunate 
 people, with a price set upon their heads, should have endeavoured 
 both to defend and to avenge themselves 1 In times of war the 
 nations eagerly rush to that systematized murder, which decimates 
 them without dishonour; and in times of persecution, is it not 
 conceivable that proscribed persons, whose lives are more cruelly 
 threatened than in a battle, may have been drawn into crimes of 
 which, in other circumstances, they would have been incapable? 
 What is said of offences may be applied also to these excesses — woe 
 be to those by whom they come ! 
 
 The inhabitants of the surrounding districts, moreover, including 
 the Catholics themselves, although suffering from this state of 
 things, regaitled the resistance made by these unfortunate people, 
 driven as they were to despair, as most natural; and all their 
 wishes were, not for their death, but for an arrangement which 
 would permit the proscribed to return to their ordinary life. 
 "Scarcely were we arrived at Lucema," says a traveller of that 
 period, "when we were surrounded by men and women, entreating 
 us with clasped hands that an accommodation might be come to. 
 In this we remarked the judgment of God; for the banished people 
 had been driven from Lucema upon account of their religion, and 
 now these were the Papists, who could not venture out of the 
 town because of the banished." This traveller was the Count of 
 Lucema, who interposed on their behalf and particularly on behalf 
 of those of Saluces, who had been so long time dispersed. He 
 demanded that a petition should be intrusted to him. All the 
 Vaudois and Reformed churches, from Suza to Coni, constituting, 
 as they said, one body in Christ, made haste to sign it.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, the Digiunati continued their raids. Six of them 
 having come down to Lucema to buy victuals,2 the Chevalier of 
 
 Apri^ ^*^^' ^^^* '^^ ^^^^ ^^ Charles Emmanuel was on the 9th of 
 3 This was on the 6th of March, 1603. 
 
 Lucema^ and Captain Crespin of Bubiano, aided by 100 armed 
 men, resolved to apprehend them. They cut off their passage at 
 both ends of a narrow street, in which they were transacting busi- 
 ness ; and they, finding themselves hunted like deer, knowing that 
 a price was set upon their heads, perceiving that they were sur- 
 rounded, yet with no safety but in flight, rushed upon their 
 enemies with the courage of despair, drove back the soldiers, killed 
 the captain, and passed through the midst of the fifty men whom 
 he commanded, without leaving a single prisoner in their hands. 
 The soldiers pursued them, and the Digiunati took different routes, 
 and all escaped, with the exception of one, who, having leaped from 
 the top of a wall, broke his thigh in falling, and could not save 
 himself. He was taken, fastened to four horses, and torn in pieces 
 alive. This was not the way to calm men's minds. 
 
 At length the petition of the Vaudois was presented to Charles 
 Emmanuel. The duke perceived how dangerous it was for the 
 Catholics, as well as for the Protestants, that the causes of these 
 fatal divisions should be perpetuated, and he decided^ that all the 
 banished should be permitted to return to their habitations, that 
 the confiscations which had taken place of their goods should be 
 annulled, and even that Protestants who had become Catholics 
 should have the right to return to the church which they had left, 
 if their consciences demanded it. 
 
 However, a certain number of the Digiunati were excepted from 
 these provisions, and orders were renewed to deliver them up dead 
 or alive. But this was only a desperate fraction of that numerous 
 people who everywhere arose to hail with delight the restored 
 religion of their fathers, insomuch that in that region, where, on 
 the day before, all was Catholic, at least in appearance, a multitude 
 of Protestant families suddenly flung off the veil of the established 
 superstitions, and openly proclaimed their respect for the Bible. 
 Thus the churches of Saviglano, Levadiggi, Demont, Dron^ro, and 
 St. Michael speedily re-appeared. Their elements were not to be 
 formed, they were only to be united together again. Some of them 
 were found to be stronger after this revival than they had been 
 previously; as, for example, those of St. Damian, Verzol, and Aceil. 
 But like those srwarms of devouring locusts which return to a plain 
 that sprouts again and becomes green, the Jesuits and Capuchins 
 re-appeared in these countries when they began once more to flour- 
 ish. This would have been of little consequence if they had kept 
 
 * The brother of the count, who offered to become intercessor for the Vandoia 
 with the sovereign. The chevalier's name was Emmanuel, that of the count was 
 Charles. » At Coni, 9th April, 1603. 
 
180 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t FiasT. 
 
 Chap. XIIl] 
 
 VAUDOIS DECLARATION. 
 
 181 
 
 if 
 
 themselves to preaching and discussions. The doctrines of the 
 Bible would only have gained thereby; it is by conflicts that they 
 are confirmed. Yes ! by conflicts, but not by bloodshed. 
 
 These new missionaries ^ had, in the first place, frequent confer- 
 ences with the pastors. The governor of the province took a fancy 
 to bring them together at dinner, in order to be present at their 
 discussions. A number of monks and Catholic priests were led, by 
 these discussions with the Protestants, to embrace the gospel, which 
 strengthened the Protestant cause. Thus the Reformed Church 
 recruited itself, and added to its forces from the very ranks of those 
 who came to combat against it. It was in the valley of the Vrayta, 
 which at that time belonged to France, that that church most 
 rapidly extended itself " The Protestants," says Rorengo, " held 
 their meetings there both by day and by night ; their worship was 
 public, and the poor Catholics themselves durst not set out their 
 faces to go to mass, for fear of hearing the cry of idolaters raised 
 against them !" 
 
 One of the ministers of this valley was a converted priest, and 
 his example had been followed by numbers of his parishioners. ^ 
 Short as the time had been during which the field had been left 
 open to the Reformation, it had established itself everywhere, solely 
 by the influence of the Bible, mightier than the secular arm. 
 
 It was in 1603 that the Capuchin missionaries came to the valley 
 of the Vrayta, in order to prepare the way for the employment of 
 new measures of severity. They first made their appearance at 
 Chateau Dauphin, a place surrounded by wild and rugged moun- 
 tains of vast height. Particular mention is made of their superior, 
 Joseph de Tenda, and of Brother Zachary, author of four polemical 
 volumes against the Reformation. From Chateau Dauphin they 
 proceeded to the Val de Grano, and established missions at Carail, 
 Aceil, and Verzol, at the entry to Saluces. They re-opened the 
 deserted churches, restored the pageants of the Catholic worship, 
 and renewed the annoyances against the Protestants. As for the 
 Jesuits, they had one residence at Aceil, another at Dronier, another 
 at St. Damian, and a fourth in the manor-house of Chateau Dau- 
 phin. What must have been the activity in mischief of all these 
 men planted in difierent locaHties, and associated for the same cause, 
 
 » The Jesuits had, however, been introduced into the diocese of Saluces in 1596. 
 
 • Rorengo attributes his conversion to a motive adduced in so many cases, that 
 it must certainly be deemed a very powerful one by those who so often aUege it. 
 It was, he says, from the desire to break the ceUbate, to which he had bound him- 
 self when he entered into orders ; and as if it were not enough to have made it a 
 crime in him to have taken a wife, the worthy Rorengo goes on to accuse hiia 
 of bigamy. All this without proofs, as usual.— J/moric latorichi, p. 178. 
 
 emulating each other in their exertions in their common work, 
 stimulating each other to the destruction of heresy, convinced, per- 
 haps, that theirs was the true religion, but animated with a bitter 
 zeal, very remote from the spirit of the gospel ! Was there not in 
 this a real plague to the Protestants, analogous to that of the swarm 
 of insects which brought upon Egypt desolation and death 1 
 
 " It is impossible to relate all the efforts which these missionaries 
 at that time made."^ These words of Rorengo suggest much. We 
 know not what the efforts were of which he speaks ; but we may 
 judge of a tree by its fruits ; and at this time, says Perrin,^ " not 
 only was the free exercise of religion interdicted at Saluces, in the 
 valley of the Mayra, which contained Verzol, St. Damian, Aceil, 
 and Dron^ro, but also, by a new edict, all the Protestants were 
 required to become Catholics. Inquisitors were sent from house to 
 house, and more than 500 families were compelled to go into exile. 
 They retired into the dominions of France, part of them to Pro- 
 vence, where they aided in restoring the ancient Vaudois churches 
 of the Leberon, part of them to Dauphiny, where they added to 
 the churches of Pragela, which was then included in that province." 
 
 Thus, like the waters, which always foUow a natural inclination 
 in flowing towards the central basins among the hills, these people, 
 truly attached to the gospel, kept by their spiritual native land 
 when they removed beyond the horizon of the districts in which 
 they were bom. 
 
 But before thus dispersing and separating from one another — 
 before thus going into exile — they drew up a declaration, which all 
 the other churches of the Vaudois valleys subscribed along with 
 them, in order to make known the causes of this proscription. 
 
 " Let all men know," say they, " that it is not for any crime or 
 rebellion that we are this day deprived of our properties and our 
 abodes. This happens by reason of an edict of abjuration or exile, 
 which his royal highness, deceived, no doubt, by false reports, has 
 issued against us. But our forefathers and our families having 
 been brought up in the doctrine professed at this day by the Re- 
 formed Church, we are resolved to live and die in it. And, there- 
 fore, we declare and affirm, that this doctrine which they would 
 prohibit to us, is held by us to be the only true doctrine — the only 
 doctrine approved of God, and the only doctrine able to conduct us 
 in the way of salvation. And if any one pretend that we are in 
 error, far from being obstinate in defending it, we profess ourselves 
 ready immediately to abjure it, upon our being convinced by the 
 
 * Le diligenze de Padri missionai'ij, tartto gesuiii che capuccini, furono indicibUi, 
 Rorengo, p. 179. a p. I84. 
 
 J 
 
4M«i 
 
 182 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaET FlBST. 
 
 Chap. XUI.] 
 
 A BREATHING-TIME AFFORDED. 
 
 183 
 
 IV 
 
 »i 
 
 
 word of God. But if it is attempted, by mere force and constraint, 
 to make us change our beliefs, we prefer rather to renounce all 
 that we have, yea, even our lives, rather than the salvation of our 
 souls."^ These noble and courageous words ought to have gamed 
 for the proscribed all the sympathy of generous minds. But they 
 exasperated stiU more the Catholic clergy, and led them to adopt 
 violent measures, by revealing to them their utter inability to 
 convince. When, therefore, a number of these expatriated families 
 showed an incUnation to return to Piedmont, entering it again by 
 the Vaudois valleys, an edict was obtained from Charles Emmanuel, 
 by which all strangers were prohibited from settling in the valleys, 
 and all Vaudois were prohibited from going beyond their limits.'^ 
 But it would seem that these enactments, over the execution of 
 which it was so difficult to watch, did not arrest the movement 
 against which they were directed; for a little while after, new 
 orders— obtained as before, by the solicitation of the Capuchins, the 
 Jesuits, and the nuncio— recalled the attention of the governors of 
 the province, not only to this particular edict, but to all the previous 
 regulations adopted in a spirit of hostility to Protestantism.-^ 
 
 The year following (in 1610) the Duke of Savoy entered into an 
 alliance with Henry IV. against the Spaniards, and in 1612 the 
 wars of Montferrat began, which endured for four years; so that 
 the attention of the monarch, and the influences which impelled 
 him to action, were for a brief period abstracted from religious 
 questions. This time of general agitation was therefore a season 
 of tranquillity for the churches of Saluces. No doubt it was 
 tranquillity only in a relative sense — not peace, but respite; not 
 a regular and enduring state of rest, but temporary exemption from 
 persecution. Yet, ad in a stormy day, if the clouds but clear up a 
 little, the darkest sky will immediately re-assume the colours of 
 life, so an aspect of sudden prosperity, like a precarious sunbeam, 
 re-appeared for a few years in these tormented churches. 
 
 Among the Papers connected toith the country of Provence, under 
 date 17th April, 1612, occurs a petition to the king, in the fol- 
 lowing terms : — "May it please your majesty to provide that persons 
 belonging to the marquisate of Saluces, reftigees in this country, 
 may have power finely to pass and traffic in the territories of the 
 Dvike of Savoy, without being pursued after upon account of 
 religion;"* and among the papers of Dauphiny of the same period 
 
 * This declaration is published entire by Perrin, pp. 185-189; and by L6ger, 
 
 P. I. ch. xvii. pp. 111-113. 
 
 2 Edict of 2d July, 1609. ' Orders of 21 st November, 1609.^ 
 
 *MS. of Peyresk, Library of Carpentras, Register XXXI. vol. I. fol. 361, 
 
 art. xvii. 
 
 I 
 
 is a similar request, that " his majesty (the King of France) would 
 exert his influence with the Duke of Savoy to obtain liberty of 
 trading in his dominions in favour of the refugees of Saluces."^ 
 Both these points were conceded. 
 
 At the same time, the still existing churches of Saluces caused 
 earnest solicitations to be addressed to the duke, through the 
 mediation of Switzerland, that liberty of conscience might be 
 granted to them. And in 1613, the Vaudois valleys having been 
 required to ftimish a contingent of troops for the war of Mont- 
 ferrat, it so happened that these troops were sent as a garrison into 
 the province of Saluces. They had the privilege of meeting for 
 the exercise of their worship, and their brethren in religion some- 
 times joined them in these little meetings, so as to increase their 
 number, thus taking steps, as it were, to reclaim for themselves the 
 enjoyment of religious liberty. 
 
 But meanwhile the Jesuits and the Capuchins, on the other hand, 
 only became more active in watching and in prosecutions. To 
 give some satisfaction to these worthy coadjutors, who found so 
 little in the results of their preaching, the magistrates from time 
 to time made new prisoners. 
 
 Those against whom the clergy were most active in directing 
 severe proceedings were the relapsed, or those who had become 
 Catholics invUd consdmtid, to whom the superstitions of the 
 Catholic paganism rendered dearer still the simplicity of evangelical 
 Christianity, and who made haste to return to it upon the first 
 favourable opportunity, with firmer attachment than ever. But 
 when they were discovered, they were denounced to the Holy 
 Office, and often disappeared, noiselessly, in the mysterious chambers 
 of the Inquisition. 2 However, the war continued, and the Vaudois 
 came to be more and more needed ; the secular power, less cruel 
 than the church, gradually relaxed its severity ; the Protestants of 
 Saluces began to look around them and breathe freely. But for 
 them to breathe at all was to worship God and serve him according 
 to the gospel. " Those of Dronier," says a work of that period,^ 
 were the first to set the good example, and from the year 1616, 
 they began to hold their meetings." These meetings were held 
 in secret ; but every day the number of faithful attendants was 
 increased by new admissions. " The news soon travelled to Rome, 
 
 » MS. of Peyresk, Library of Carpentras, Register XXXI. vol. I. fol. 371, art. 
 
 xxvii. 
 
 2 Si denunciava cU Santo-OffiztOy e cosi le cose passavano con rmlto quiete, con 
 occiUtissima vigUanza. Rorengo, p. 183. 
 
 • Brief discours des pers4ciUions advenues en ce temps aux fidMes dei Eglises dt 
 Saluces. Geneva, 1620. 
 
184 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part First. 
 
 the pope was very angry about it ; his highness was apprised of it, 
 and the clergy omitted no means of opposition."^ 
 
 The Protestants would not have been able to have avoided some 
 new catastrophe, but for a providential circumstance, which, on the 
 contrary, gave them unexpected support. The events which led to 
 it, and those which followed from it, will form the subject of next 
 chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES OF SA- 
 LUCES; PARTICULARLY OF THOSE OF ACEIL, VERZOL, ST. 
 MICHAEL, AND PRAVIGLELM.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1616 TO A.D. 1633.) 
 
 Lesdignidres intercedes for the Vaudois of Saluces — Increase of Protestantism in 
 the valleys of the Stura and of Mayra — The Pishop of Saluces at Dronier — Pro- 
 testant worship interrupted— Proscriptions — Vexations — Renewed intercessions 
 of Lesdiguieres — Disorders — Plot for a general massacre of the reformed in the 
 province of Saluces — Outrages and cruelties — Martyrdom of Peter Marquisy 
 and Maurice Mongie — The pope grants to the Duke of Savoy a tithe of ecclesi- 
 astical revenues for six years — Further persecutions — Sentence of banishment 
 against the inhabitants of Praviglelm and Paesane — Intercession of Lesdiguidres 
 — The churches of Saluces gradually weakened by continued persecutions — 
 Victor Amadeus — Extinction of the churches of Saluces. 
 
 It has been already stated that at this time Charles Emmanuel 
 was at war with Spain about the matter of Montferrat. He asked 
 aid from Fi-ance, and Lesdiguieres was sent to him. This illustri- 
 ous general, who was then regarded as the head of the Protestant 
 party in France, entered the province of Saluces in 1617. 
 
 Indignant at the manifold annoyances to which those of his own 
 church were subjected, he interceded for them with their sovereign. 
 The court of Savoy readily understood that the leader of the 
 reformed could not fight its battles with very much zeal if it per- 
 secuted his party. On the ground of prudence, therefore, some 
 repose was granted to the Vaudois of Saluces; and on the 28th of 
 September, 1617, the duke, being at Asti, issued a decree to this 
 effect. He said — " Out of particular regard for a great personage, 
 we grant permission to the Protestant refugees, and persons ban- 
 
 ^ Brief discours des persecutions advenues en ce temps aux fiddles des Eglise» de 
 Saluces, Geneva, 1620. 
 « AUTHOBiTLKS.— The same as in Chapter IX. 
 
 CHAP. XIV.] INTERCESSION OF LESDIGUIERES. 185 
 
 ished from the marquisate of Saluces, to return and enter into free 
 possession of their properties and their abodes, for a period of three 
 full years ji to make arrangements about them, and sell them at 
 their own pleasure during that time, they being prohibited, how- 
 ever, from spreading their heretical opinions or asserting their doc- 
 trines, upon pain of death. The prisoners detained upon account 
 of reUgion shall be set at liberty, and enjoy the same privileges ; 
 and as to properties confiscated or sold, they shall be returned to 
 their former owners upon a just indemnity, which we will grant 
 to those who have acquired them." 
 
 These provisions would have been of great value if they had been 
 permanent ; but to assign them beforehand a limit so confined, was 
 to grant nothing; it was only to sow the seed for fresh troubles 
 and more ruin at a future time. The Protestants, nevertheless, 
 showed themselves very grateful. Their conscientious sensitiveness 
 was awakened only upon one point, and they wrote to the pastors 
 of Geneva to know if they ought to accept this decree, seeing that 
 it treated them as heretics.^ Why did they not insist that these 
 advantages should repose upon a less precarious foundation? The 
 intercession of Lesdiguieres obtained for them the omission of the 
 reference to heresy, and in their honest simplicity these unsophisti- 
 cated mountaineers, confiding in the justice of their prince, never 
 imagined that he could make any revocation of this edict. With 
 them what was just and true over night must needs be still just 
 and true in the morning. The variations of the Catholic Church, 
 in point of honesty, would be found still more numerous than those 
 of the Protestant Church in point of doctrine. Sad changes were 
 already in preparation for the Vaudois, notwithstanding these 
 thmgs at present favourable to them, to which the Papal Church 
 was obliged, in the meantime, to submit, but to which it hoped soon 
 
 to put an end. 
 
 Nevertheless, the happy effect which they in the first instance 
 produced surpassed all expectation. In a few days the aspect of 
 the country was altered. " The night before," say the Capuchins, 
 " we would have thought it almost purged of heretics, and next day 
 they make their appearance from all quarters, like the soldiers of 
 Cadmus, who rose in full armour from the sand of the earth." In 
 the valley of the Stura, which is deeper and more extensive than 
 the others. Protestantism, which had never been eradicated, flou- 
 rished again with more vigour than ever. It was in the town of 
 Aceil (distinguished in our days as the birthplace of the famous 
 
 * Borelli says three months. 
 
 i Archives of the pastors of Geneva, voL F, p. 174. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 24 
 
186 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ATJ>S. 
 
 [Pabt Fibst. 
 
 Chap Xiv] 
 
 WORSHIP INTERRUPTED. 
 
 187 
 
 
 Cibrario, author of tlie history of European Jaw during the middlo 
 ages), that the Reformation had the greatest number of adherents. 
 The village of Pagliero joined in this open profession of the gospel. 
 The town of Verzol boldly declared for the same cause, but after- 
 wards drew back. That of St. Michael, which appeared at first 
 more cautious in its proceedings than the others, very soon acquired 
 resolution, and followed Aceil with steadfastness. 
 
 The Protestants were, indeed, prohibited from having public 
 assemblies, but the number of private meetings supplied the place 
 of public worship; and, moreover, it was not long till they began 
 to hold general congregations during the night, that climate being 
 as mild as the climate of Nice. The secret of these con£rre2ations 
 was not unfrequently betrayed by the joy which the people could 
 not contain, either before they went to them or after they returned. 
 
 In the valley of Mayra, at Dronier, and other places,^ so many 
 made profession of Protestantism that the Catholics seemed to dis- 
 appear. Many, instead of selling their lands, bought more ; indus- 
 trial activity, commerce, and agriculture, speedily made unusual 
 advancement. It seemed as if they thought they had nothing to 
 fear for the future ; and this prosperity itself ought to have induced 
 the Duke of Savoy to maintain the causes which had produced it, 
 instead of destroying it, by allowing them to be removed. 
 
 It is well worthy of attention, that in all countries of the world 
 in which Protestant doctrines have taken firm root, the people 
 have prospered, as if an unseen benediction had been pronounced 
 over them; and wherever Catholicism has maintained itself in 
 greatest power, life has been extinguished, prosperity and morality 
 have disappeared, as if under the influence of some mysterious 
 curse. 
 
 The churches of Saluces recovered in one year all the lustre 
 which belonged to them half a century before. * ' These heretics," 
 says Eorengo (whom we cite in preference to other authorities, 
 not as the source of our information, but in confirmation of it), 
 " commenced to play the lords amongst the poor and disconsolate 
 Papists, who with terror found themselves on the point of being 
 annihilated in that country." ^ They no longer ventured to make 
 processions, but cried out against the tyranny of the reformed. 
 
 The festival of Easter, in 1618, had been celebrated at Dronier 
 by so great a concourse of Protestants, that the Bishop of Saluces 
 repaired thither the same week, to restore in some degree the 
 honours of his deserted church. Notwithstanding his presence at 
 Dronier, on the Sabbath after Easter, there was still so numerous 
 » Memorie Iftorichi, pp. 184, 185. 2 Ibid. p. 185. 
 
 % 
 
 an assemblage of the reformed, that all the apartments of the 
 private house in which they met were occupied. The hall, the 
 landing-place before the door, the steps, and even upon the street— 
 eveiy place was overflowing, eye-witnesses say, with members of the 
 church who could not find admission.^ The pastor had commenced 
 his opening pmyer; all the people were on their knees around him, 
 even to the outer steps of the domestic sanctuary. At that 
 moment the bishop arrived in great pomp, escorted by soldiers and 
 officers of justice. " In the name of his royal highness," said he, 
 « dissolve your congregation." But the voice which prayed to God, 
 ceased not at the bidding of that which spoke to men. The pastor 
 continued his prayer and thanksgiving; the officers of law drew up 
 their minute of proceedings ; the bishop waited until the end of the 
 prayer, and then renewed his summons. " In the name of our apos- 
 toUcal authority," said he, "we forbid you all from assembUng again 
 henceforth, contrary to the edicts of his royal highness." "In 
 the name of Jesus," the pastor then replied, " we do not recognize 
 any apostolical authority except in the gospel which he has given 
 to us by the apostles, and which we faithfully preach. As for the 
 edicts, we do not violate them, since we are assembled in a private 
 house." This reply was taken down in the minute of proceedings, 
 and the bishop retired. But he consulted lawyers to ascertain the 
 legal import of the edict, and learned with victorious satisfaction 
 that the setting forth of doctrines was forbidden. In consequence, 
 he came back three days after, with the grand referendary, Milliot, 
 to summon the Protestants to appear before the authorities as 
 having been guilty of proclaiming their doctrines, contrary to the 
 terms of the edict under which they sheltered themselves. 
 
 The Christians perceived that there was in this a plausible pre- 
 text for condemning them ; and for people who had so often been 
 condemned without reason, there was ground enough of alarm 
 in the presence of a specious reason. However, the prohibition 
 of asserting their doctrines could only, in fairness, be considered as 
 a prohibition of Protestants endeavouring to convert Catholics, 
 because, surely, they could not be prevented from speaking amongst 
 themselves of theii- own beliefs; and as the number of persons 
 authorized to meet in a private house was not limited, it could not 
 well be made a crime in them to hold meetings more or less numer- 
 ous. But these simple and honest people did not dream of having 
 recourse to such arguments of defence; their convictions were too 
 strong to admit of their not seeking their propagation. This was 
 to have declared their doctrines. And after justice had already 
 
 * Brief discourSj ch. iii. 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 ^"3= 
 
188 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Vam First. 
 
 I 
 
 i| 
 
 been denied them in so many instances more flagrant than this. 
 a favourable interpretation of the law was what they would cer- 
 tainly not have obtained. They deemed it, therefore, more prudent 
 to escape out of the way, and took refuge in the woods situated 
 above Dromer. There they remained for forty days, like Jesus in 
 the wilderness, fasting and pi-aying to God, animated by an increas- 
 ing ardour, an inextinguishable and delightful thirst for prayers, 
 hymns, and pious meditations, for which their souls longed more 
 eagerly, and m which they found increased satisfaction, in presence 
 ot danger and in the calm of these solitudes. 
 
 It was not, however, for want of courage that they took to flight; 
 tor the referendary MiUiot having proceeded against them by in- 
 dividual citations, a number of Protestants, who had been omitted, 
 spontaneously went and declared themselves partakers in the same 
 transgressions, that is to say, in the same faith, and complained to 
 the judges that they had not been included among the proscribed. 
 Was not this devotedness of a sincere faith as noble and as coura- 
 geous as a heroic resistance would have been? 
 
 The Catholics, seeing the town of Dronier almost deserted, and 
 the fugitives self-condemned by their own apprehensions, fancied 
 that they already saw their goods confiscated, and might divide 
 them m anticipation of the event as already sure. But so great a 
 number of Protestants had caused their names to be inscribed in 
 the lists drawn up, that the magistrates shrunk from the necessity 
 of adopting severe measures against such a miUtitude, and wrote to 
 the Duke of Savoy, to remit the matter to his decision. On their 
 side the Vaudois entreated Lesdiguieres again to intercede for 
 them, and Charles Emmanuel put an end to these uncertainties by 
 covering aU that was past with a general amnesty, after which 
 he simply re-established the provisions of the edict of 28th Sen- 
 tember, 1617. ^ 
 
 The fugitives thereupon returned to their abodes, more united 
 and more fervent than ever; the Catholic clergy redoubled their 
 efibrts to give to their worship the sovereign pomp to which it was 
 legally entitled, and for which it lacked only the attendance of a 
 suflicient number of people. Processions, noven*, and pilgrimages 
 were multipHed. The parochial clergy received orders to preach 
 sermons m their churches; proof sufficient of the negligence which 
 had prevailed in this respect. The missionaries laboured to unite 
 the force of argument with the magnificence of ceremonies; but 
 power in reasoning depends upon truth, and truth is not to be 
 determmed by decrees, like the arrangements of a festival These 
 foreign merchants of crosses and amulets saw the pubUc indifierence 
 
 Chap. XIV.] 
 
 COUNT MILLIOT. 
 
 189 
 
 k' 
 
 increasing around them; they accused the Protestants of being the 
 cause of that impious desertion, and accordingly their most earnest 
 wishes were for the removal of Protestantism from the country. 
 The reformed, upon their part, redoubled their zeal and ardour; 
 and in consequence of this emulation between the two rival reli- 
 gions, many elements, by no means akin to piety, were mingled 
 with their proceedings. 
 
 One day when the Bishop of Saluces,' accompanied by a mission- 
 ary''^ and the superior of Coni,^ was about to enter the parish church 
 of Dronier, a voice amongst the crowd pronounced these words, 
 " Ere long there will be no priests, nor monks, nor prelates 1" The 
 words certainly ought not to have been uttered ; but perhaps it was 
 nothing more than a remark made in a conversation betwixt two 
 persons. Nay, it is possible that these words, even if uttered 
 in an ofiensive manner, did not proceed from the mouth of a Yau- 
 dois, but from the perfidious lips of an enemy seeking their destruc- 
 tion. Be this as it might, this occurrence, which in our times it 
 would be deemed puerile to notice, greatly excited the wrath of the 
 bishop and the indignation of the clergy. It was reported to the 
 sovereign; and as wounded pride exaggerates everything with 
 which it comes in contact, these words were represented as mani- 
 festing intentions, and possessing a signification, perilous to the 
 safety of the state, and it was necessaiy, at the very least, that 
 the reprobation for which they called should extend to all the 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 Count MiUiot, to whom the histories now give the title of vice- 
 chancellor, now made another visit to Dronier, and commenced by 
 requiring* that all who desired to enjoy the benefit of the late edict ^ 
 should come and have their names inscribed in a register to be kept 
 for that purpose. The number of names inscribed accordingly was 
 very considerable, for the number of the Protestants was increasing, 
 and not diminishing. Many even of the Catholics i*anked them- 
 selves along with them. Rorengo mentions a doctor of laws, a 
 captain, and a physician.^ This register of names was afterwards 
 transmitted to the Senate of Turin. 
 
 Meanwhile the Catholics constantly sought to sm-prise the Pro- 
 testants in the ciiminal act of public worship; and the Protestants, 
 mistrusting the Catholics, kept upon their guard, went about armed, 
 and were not sparing of disdain and recrimination against their 
 adversaries. Thus the pai-ties became more imbittered by their 
 
 » Ottavio Viale. 
 
 * Padre Giovani di Moncalieri. 
 
 « That of 28th Sept., 1617. 
 
 > Fra Marcello di Torino (Capuchin). 
 * On 2d June, 1018. 
 « P. 186. 
 
190 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fust. 
 
 very hostility. In such circumstances it is very difficult to avoid 
 excesses, and the smallest spark will suffice to kindle a flame. 
 
 The Protestants were apprised that a noble personage, belonging 
 to the family of Cardinal Almandi, had taken some steps against 
 them. Indignation, fanaticism, and the savage excitement awak- 
 ened by the wild solitudes to which they had so often been driven, 
 armed the hand of an assassin. 
 
 The crime of the individual became a cause of offence against all. 
 It was immediately reported to the sovereign, who, without delay, 
 renewed the severe enactments of the ancient edicts; amongst 
 others, those of the 25th of February, 1602, according to which 
 the Protestant worship, mixed marriages, and the acquirement of 
 property, were absolutely prohibited beyond the narrow limits of 
 the Vaudois valleys. The leases and contracts by which they had 
 taken or purchased lands from the Catholics were therefore an- 
 nulled. At Aceil they had taken possession of the edifices of the 
 Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit, and there they celebrated their 
 worship. They were expelled from them, and prohibited from 
 returning, under pain of death. Finally, an edict of Chanles Em- 
 manuel, of date the 2d of July, 1618, ordained all Protestant heads 
 of families to bring, every man, a list of the names of Jiis household 
 to the magistrates of his canton, under penalty of a fine of 300 
 golden crowns, and of divers corporal punishments, even to imprison- 
 ment and the gibbet; whilst the Bishop of Saluces and the Capuchin 
 missionaries watched, with an inexorable solicitude, to see that no 
 one should enjoy his property beyond the exj^iry of the three years 
 allowed by the edict of 28th September, 1617. 
 
 The fatal term drew near; conflicts became more numerous, 
 especially upon occasion of funerals, at which the edict of 1618 had 
 prohibited the Protestants from assembling in greater number than 
 six persons, as well as from burying their dead in the Catholic ceme- 
 teries, or in ground inclosed with walls. 
 
 But in most of the communes at that time there was only one 
 common cemetery; and in the towns where the Protestants had 
 made one for themselves they had surrounded it with walls. It 
 was now required that they should deposit the corpses of their 
 brethren on the sides of the great roads, or in iminclosed grounds, 
 open to every comer, and exposed to all profanations. 
 
 Besides, theii- dead were taken from them, to be transported to 
 the cemetery of the Catholics, if it were known that the deceased 
 had received baptism in the Church of Rome. At St. Michael even 
 this was exceeded. A Vaudois woman had been buried for three 
 months in the Protestant burying-place, which was inclosed with 
 
 Chap, XIY ] 
 
 POPISH OXJTRAGES. 
 
 191 
 
 "walls. The priest of the parish ordered the body to be exhumed, 
 and caused the half-broken coffin to be canied and deposited before 
 the abode of her friends ; one of whom, meeting the sacrilegious 
 priest one evening on a lonely road, gave him some blows with a 
 stick, to revenge this outrage. 
 
 Immediately fifty Protestants of St. Michael were cited to Sa- 
 luces, and many of them were detained prisoners. They were set 
 at liberty by the intercession of Lesdiguieres, 
 
 At Demont, in the valley of the Stura, a few fanatical Papists, 
 after a supper party, excited by wine, swore death to heretics, and 
 resolved to pui-sue the first who made his appearance. Having 
 recognized a young man who walked before them as a Vaudois. 
 they di*ew their swords and attacked him. The young man carried 
 a little axe; and not being able to escape from their attack by 
 flight, he wheeled round and killed the foremost of his assailants. 
 The rest then took to flight ; but, some days after, they returned, 
 better armed and in greater numbers, furiously took possession of 
 the village, violated the women, injured or killed the men, flung 
 the children upon the street, and plundered the houses like bri- 
 gands; then, loaded with booty, they derisively summoned tho 
 whole population to appear at Turin. 
 
 Here a fact falls to be mentioned, equally honourable to the Pro- 
 testants and to the Catholics of Demont, that the latter offered to 
 bear a share of the expenses and losses occasioned by these disordei*s, 
 and by those of the criminal process which followed. This shows 
 how readily the two parties would have lived on good terms with 
 one another, if the breath of Rome had not constantly excited the 
 hatred of her adherents, whom she accused of allowing themselves to 
 be corrupted whenever they displayed any charity. At Dronier, 
 likewise, it was to a Catholic gentleman that the Protestants of the 
 district owed their deliverance from a snai*e which was laid for 
 them, and from the prosecutions which would have been the conse- 
 quence of their having been left unwarned. Thus, wherever they 
 were known, the Vaudois found protectoi's, even amongst their 
 adversaries ; the latter also became more Christian by their inter- 
 course with them ; for wherever Protestantism has prevailed, man- 
 ners have always been softened. The missionary monks, who had 
 not come under this influence, sometimes exhibited themselves in 
 the pulpit, bearing a naked sword in one hand and a torch in the 
 other, to exhort the people to destroy the heretics, declaring that 
 it was of no use to make any attempt upon them but by fire and 
 sviord.^ This was a surer method for Popery than to make attempts 
 
 ^ Brief ducourtf cL. iii. 
 
if 
 
 192 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Fibst. 
 
 Chap. HV.] 
 
 A WOMAN TORTURED. 
 
 193 
 
 
 ! 
 
 by argument. But behold those who call themselves the ministers 
 of God! men who pretend to grant absolution for the greatest 
 crimes, but who have no pardon for the reading of the Bible, or for 
 prayer ! 
 
 To form a notion of these outrages, we must recollect that the 
 episcopal palace of Saluces was the centre from which proceeded 
 perpetual vexations to the Vaudois. But by and by their enemies 
 went farther, and regretted that they had been spared at St. Bar- 
 tholomew's-day ; it was an en-or, they said, and must be remedied. 
 Accordingly it was deemed a duty to arrange a scheme for a gene- 
 ral massacre of all the reformed in the province of Saluces. Here, 
 also, the members of the Catholic Church showed themselves to be 
 less cruel than their spiritual guides, for the greater part of the 
 inhabitants of the country refused to enter into that conspii-acy. 
 However, the design was not given up; but God permitted it to be 
 discovered, and we shall now see how the Protestants came by the 
 knowledge of it. 
 
 One of those who had the management of it, Fabricius De P^tris, 
 picked a quarrel with a young Protestant, and attacked him, but 
 was killed himself; and amongst his papers were found wiitten 
 evidences of this conspiracy. 
 
 The report of this discovery spread with the rapidity of light- 
 ning. The ferment which existed betwixt the two parties still 
 increased. On both sides new excesses were committed every day, 
 of which, however, the Protestants were more frequently the vic- 
 tims. Those of St. Pierre, for example, in the valley of the Vrayta, 
 were expelled from their abodes by the parish priest and the pro- 
 vost of the town. A few days before, five inhabitants of Dronier 
 had also been banished, and had retired to the valley of Lucema. 
 
 It was now the year 1619, and the fermentation increased con- 
 tinually. The vexations to which the adherents of the Reformed 
 Church were subjected, were multiplied upon all sorts of pretexts. 
 At Demont two Protestant families were cruelly afflicted. And 
 what was laid to their charge 1 That they had contracted manuao-e 
 within the degrees of relationship prohibited by the canons of some 
 old council. The spouses were separated; the husbands sent to the 
 galleys, and the wives condemned to be scourged in the public 
 square. 
 
 But these judges, so cruelly exact in maintaining the arbitraiy 
 prohibitions as to the degrees of consanguinity, to which, moreover, 
 the Catholics alone ought to have been subjected — these very Papists, 
 who so promptly dissolved the family ties sanctioned by a union 
 upon which the blessing of Heaven had been invoked — what respect 
 
 had they for virtue? It may be learned from what follows. An 
 apothecary at Dronier, named Marin, had two daughters of rare 
 beauty. Towards the end of July one of the Capuchins of the town 
 sent for this man; the other monks entered his house during his 
 absence, and seized his daughters with violence. A coach waited 
 at the door — it was that of the Bishop of Saluces — the victims of 
 this odious abduction were flung into it and conveyed to Turin, 
 without regard to their tears and supplications, without pity for 
 the distress of their family.^ 
 
 A month after ^ the same bishop caused a poor woman to be 
 apprehended, against whom were brought most singular accusations. 
 " She received at Geneva," her accusers said, " a great black robe ; 
 and, clothed in this hearse curtain, she mounted the pulpit amongst 
 the reformed, took a cow's horn, and blew the Holy Spirit through 
 that horn upon those who were present." The book from which we 
 derive these particulars adds, with an air of simplicity, " It must be 
 confessed that this was an invention sufficiently ridiculous 1"^ Yet 
 for this was this unhappy woman subjected five times to the rack, 
 and tortured in presence of clerical dignitaries and the adminis- 
 trators of justice in the district. The prefect, the bishop, and the 
 inquisitor, were there; and this in the 17th century! Yes, in the 
 17th century, but under the dominion of Catholicism. And in the 
 19th century itself, in 1845, where Popery still reigns, have we not 
 seen a woman condemned to death for the crime of heresy?* 
 
 Thus passed these dark and troublous days, the storm ever 
 threatening to break. Towards the end of the year 1619, an exti-a- 
 ordinary meeting of priests, monks, and popish bigots of every con- 
 fraternity, was convoked at Saluces, to consult as to the means of 
 dealing effectively and conclusively with the heretics. After a 
 repast, at which all these worthy guests were assembled, they had 
 the leading Protestants burned in effigy, as they could not just yet 
 do the same thing for their persons. These pastimes of the Catholic 
 clergy sufficiently show by what spirit they were animated. They 
 were men of no seriousness and no humanity. Cruelty and bufibon- 
 ery, baseness and barbai-ism, were the characteristics of these pre- 
 
 * All these particulars are taken from the Brief discours 8ur les 'perUcuXiora 
 advenues en ce temps aux Eylises du MarquiscU de ScUiLces, ch. iv, 
 
 2 On 22d August, 1619. 
 
 * The point is lost in the translation, depending upon the verbal expression, 
 which cannot be preserved. Bien comtte, \oeU-horned, is the phrase for ridi- 
 culous. — Tb. 
 
 < This condemnation took place in the Isle of Madeira, in August, 1845. See 
 the journals for the month of September of that year; amongst others the Dcbats, 
 SUclCt Esp^rance, &c. 
 
 Vol. I. 25 
 
 i 
 
194 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fibst. 
 
 tended ministers of the God of perfection and of love. On the side 
 of the Reformers the discontent went on increasiDg. A conflict wa» 
 inevitable, in which the weaker party must perish. 
 
 The inhabitants of Aceil, who were nearly all of the same com- 
 munion, and who had never ceased to hold their evangelical assem- 
 blies, still took advantage of their numbers to continue them. The 
 governor of Dronier, Andrea della Negra, was sent against them ; 
 he apprehended and lodged in the prisons of Saluces the two dis- 
 tinguished members of the church who habitually conducted these 
 meetings for prayer. The name of the one was Peter Marquisy, 
 of the other, Maurice Monge. The apprehension of the former 
 took place in June, that of the latter in September, 1619. Both 
 of them were shortly condemned to death by the Inquisition. 
 
 From this judgment they appealed to the Senate of Turin. It 
 was hoped that some influence might be used with the Duke of Savoy 
 to save them; but that prince was then absent; he had gone to 
 Savoy to receive Christina of France, who was on her way to Pied- 
 mont. The senate was thus left to itself, or rather to the susrsres- 
 tions of the dignified clergy, all powerful at court. Most unfor- 
 tunately for the interests of the prisoners of Aceil, a new tumult 
 had taken place in that town. The governor of the province, the 
 Coimt of Sommariva, was killed by a shot of an arquebuse, on the 
 hills of Mongardino, to which he had pursued the insurgents. And 
 in unconscious prosecution of those pagan notions so familiar to the 
 Catholics, it was thought necessary to ofi'er up Maurice and Mar- 
 quisy as expiatory victims to the manes of the governor. These 
 courageous leaders of the church of Aceil w^re forthwith executed 
 at Saluces^ about four o'clock in the morning. But notwith- 
 standing the hour, the bishop of the diocese was present at their 
 execution, being conveyed to the spot in his coach. All the parti- 
 culars of their courageous and edifying death have been preserved 
 in a letter written from Saluces on the morning after their execu- 
 tion, and published at Geneva some days after. Part of them shall 
 be given in the chapter devoted to the history of the martyrs. 
 
 In return for so many concessions to the demands of Rome, the 
 new pope, Gregory XV., granted to the Duke of Savoy, by his 
 brief of 27th May, 1621, the privilege of retaining the tithe of 
 ecclesiastical revenues for six years, upon condition of his devoting 
 the money to the extirpation of heresy. The duke grasped the 
 money, and the clergy pressed him to act. In February, 1622, he 
 began to employ these resources, or at least to show that he was 
 husbanding them for the stipulated work, by resuming the prose- 
 
 ^ TLis execution took place on the 21st of October, 1619. 
 
 Chak XIV.] 
 
 LESDIGUIERES APOSTATIZES. 
 
 195 
 
 cutions so often instituted asra,inst the Vaudois and the reformed 
 of Piedmont, who did not abide within the narrow limits to which 
 the territory of the Vaudois valleys had been circumscribed. 
 
 In the month of March following, the members of the church in 
 Praviglelm and the surrounding communes were summoned to 
 appear before the prefect of Saluces, under i)ain of death and con« 
 fiscation. They might have repaired thither in so great numbers 
 that the very display of firmness on their part would have awed 
 their enemies. No penalty was yet denounced against those who 
 might have obeyed. What made them hesitate 1 Perhaps the 
 example of those who had been imprisoned when they made their 
 appearance upon such a summons, with that kind of vis inertuB 
 which keeps the peasant from moving from his cottage, and a vague 
 unreflecting fear of the tribunal of Saluces, which had proved so 
 fatal to Protestants. Be this as it may, they did not attend. In 
 place of acting vigorously, of showing themselves united and resolved, 
 and firmly maintaining their rights, they exhibited in their con- 
 duct weakness and indecision — a severe censor might even say 
 cowardice, for it is cowardly to abandon the defence of a right, as 
 it is to shrink from the defence of one's native country. Not 
 having appeared within the time prescribed, the inhabitants of 
 Praviglelm and Paesane were all condemned to be banished from 
 the dominions of his royal highness, and to be hanged if they fell 
 into the hands of the authorities. As for their goods, it needs not 
 to be said that they were confiscated. For the exchequer and for 
 Rome, this was the clearest part of the business. 
 
 This sentence was passed at Saluces on the 1 5th of March, 1 622y 
 confirmed by the Senate of Turin on the 7th of June, and published 
 at Paesane on the 29th of the same month. 
 
 The poor people had recourse to the intervention of Lesdi- 
 guieres. But what had occurred] Being one day in company 
 with the Cardinal Ludovisio of Bologna, Lesdiguieres said to him, 
 "When your eminence shall wear the tiara, I will renounce 
 Protestantism." But eighteen months had now elapsed since Lu- 
 dovisio had been elected pope, and Lesdiguieres had changed his 
 religion at the time he named. As one demits an office — as one 
 delivers over goods upon an appointed day — the great general had 
 laid down his religious beliefs when the almanac informed him that 
 the time was come. However, he had not yet imbibed the inhuman 
 spirit of his new church, and he wrote to Charles Emmanuel in 
 favour of his former brethren in religion in the higher valleys.^ 
 " They have Hved," said he, " without having given offence to any; 
 
 * This letter is preserved by Gilles, p. 421. 
 
196 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 Chap. XIV.] 
 
 COUNT DE LA MENTE. 
 
 197 
 
 and they have always been countenanced in the exercise of their 
 religion. Whatsoever decree your highness may have issued with 
 regard to others, may it please your highness to permit them to 
 enjoy in peace the benefit of your kindness, which will thus augment, 
 in the persons of these poor people, the obligations which make me, 
 Monseigneur, your very humble," <fec. The letter is dated from 
 Grenoble, 29th July, 1622. Lesdigui^res wrote with the same 
 object to the French ambassador at the court of Turin ; and, in 
 consequence, the Vaudois, without obtaining a formal revocation of 
 the atrocious sentence, received nevertheless a promise that no 
 steps would be taken upon it, and that they might live in peace on 
 the little heritages that had been transmitted to them from their 
 Others. Some of them, however, who had already left the country, 
 were apprehended on their return. 
 
 The same pope, who had received the abjuration of the French 
 general, founded at that time (in 1622) the sanguinary congrega- 
 tion de propaganda fide et extirpandis hcereticis, and canonized 
 Ignatius de Loyola. This congregation was, for nearly a century, 
 the most formidable engine which fanaticism and error ever em- 
 ployed to prevent the triumph of the doctrines of the Bible. But 
 it was in Piedmont especially that the Propaganda, that dis- 
 graceful offspring of Jesuitism and the Inquisition, perpetrated its 
 terrible ravages. We shall shortly see it at work in the Vaudois 
 valleys. Meanwhile let us attend to its operations in the marqui- 
 sate of Saluces, where it lost no time in establishing itself, and 
 where it thenceforth became a permanent source of trouble and 
 persecution. 
 
 In 1627, the valley of Stura was cruelly tormented by pro- 
 selytizers. The last vestiges of Protestantism which remained at 
 Carail, were rooted out, according to the heart's wish of the monks 
 by fire and sword. It was now no longer necessary to have been 
 present at the meetings of the reformed in order to be thrown into 
 prison; it was enough not to go to mass. At St. Michael, at 
 Pagliero, and at Demont, the incessant prosecutions to which the 
 Vaudois were subjected, deprived these once flourishing little towns 
 of the peaceful citizens to whom they owed their prosperity, to fill 
 the prisons with victims, and to people the mountains with out- 
 lawed men. The greater part retired to France, but, ere long, 
 France also became utterly inhospitable to them. The history of 
 a family has been discovered at Berlin, which left Demont at this 
 period, settled in Provence, and was afterwards expelled from the 
 latter country at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
 What miseries religious wars and antipathies have occasioned! 
 
 And how far must the general feeling have become alienated from 
 the doctrine of Christ, ere that impious combination of words, i?e- 
 ligious wars and antipathies, could be introduced into language ! 
 
 Some of the many prisoners made by the Propaganda at this 
 period, bought their lives by the payment of a heavy ransom. The 
 fortime gathered by the father for his children, went to enrich 
 convents, jailers, and executioners. 
 
 Thus impoverished, decimated, proscribed, and persecuted every- 
 where, these unfortunate churches of Saluces became weaker daily. 
 For many years, every manifestation of evangelical life, except 
 patience and resignation, was forbidden to them ; and if the sacred 
 fire survived in their pai'alyzed members, it was like the last pulsa- 
 tions of a heart slowly dying in the breast of a motionless sufferer, 
 against whom the tortures of the Inquisition are still ferociously 
 employed. O ! why should religious congregations have acted like 
 wild beasts, destroying human beings in this way ? 
 
 In the higher valleys of the Po, at Oncino, Praviglelm, and 
 Bietonet, the proscribed worship still survived for a time in the re- 
 tirements of poor cottages and Alpine shepherds' huts. But it was 
 not long that these first and last branches of the great Vaudois 
 family, in the province of Saluces, were exempted from persecution. 
 When the fire has devoured the outer parts, it spares not the heart 
 of the tree. 
 
 In 1629, the Count De La Mente, who was lieutenant-general 
 of the duke's armies in the marquisate, imposed a fine of 400 
 ducats on the Protestants of Praviglelm. They did not make 
 haste to pay it. This, probably, was Avhat had been expected; 
 it was the triumph of the persecuting skill of the Propaganda and 
 the clergy. Without loss of time, the Count De La Mente sent 
 four hundred soldiers to Praviglelm to lay waste the fields, cany 
 off the cattle, and plunder the dwellings of the unfortunate Vaudois. 
 The booty was transported to Paesane, and 1000 ducats had to be 
 paid before it was restored. 
 
 Another seigneur, envious of the success of this expedition, came 
 some days after at the head of twenty-five men, in order to seize 
 the pastor of Praviglelm, and to carry off some hostages, whom he 
 would not have released afterwards without a heavy ransom. These 
 poor mountaineers were abandoned to all incursions, as a country 
 without a master is abandoned to the first who chooses to take pos- 
 session. This time, however, they repelled the aggressor, with his 
 twenty-five men; but he came back very soon, accompanied no 
 longer by soldiei*s, but by monks. A few words will explain the 
 meaning of this new expedition. 
 
«k 
 
 198 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part "FlB'T. 
 
 Chap. XIV.j 
 
 THE BISHOPS TRIUMPH. 
 
 199 
 
 k 
 
 Tlie captain of this cowled legion began by ordering all the in- 
 habitants of the district to attend the preaching of the missionaries, 
 under pain of a fine of a crown of gold for each instance of disobe- 
 dience. The instances were numerous, and, under pretence of 
 making the Vaudois pay the fines incurred, their crops and their 
 goods were again seized. Hereupon the inhabitants of the valley 
 of Lucerna decided upon taking arms, to go to the assistance of 
 their brethren in the valley of the Po. At the same time, their 
 first plunderer, the Count De La Mente, afraid that things might 
 be carried too far, and that he himself might be brought to a 
 reckoning, put an end to these scandalous extortions. 
 
 The plague which ravaged Piedmont in 1630, did not spare the 
 inhabitants of these mountains; but this scourge, at all events, did 
 not produce irritation and division amongst men. A new out- 
 breaking of popish zeal soon succeeded it, attended by all these sad 
 efi*ects. 
 
 Victor Amadeus had ascended the throne ; the nuncio, the 
 prelates, the monkish congregations, and all the representatives of 
 Popery thronged in haste around him. " What a glory it would 
 be for your highness to carry into full efiect at last the designs 
 transmitted from generation to generation of your predecessors, and 
 completely to extirpate heresy from your dominions! Not only 
 would it be a glory; it is a duty. It would be the consecration of 
 your accession ! — the best security for the blessings of God upon 
 your crown." Such was the language addressed on every side to 
 the new sovereign. He was then forty-three years of age. Not- 
 withstanding the natural firmness of his character, his prudence, 
 and the capacity which he displayed of thinking and scheming for 
 himself, by which he had already obtained the treaty of Ratisbon,' 
 and that of Quierasque,'^ restoring to him the possession of a gi'eat 
 part of his dominions, he yielded at last to these suggestions. 
 
 Happily the Vaudois valleys of Lucerna, Perouse, St. Martin, 
 and Pragela, belonged at that time to France; but, next to that 
 great centre of Protestantism in Piedmont, the marquisate of Sa- 
 luces contained the greatest number of its professors. 
 
 The duke issued, therefore, on the 23d of September, 1623, an 
 edict, in the following terms : — 
 
 "The princes of the earth being appointed by God, ought to 
 have nothing more at heart than the defence of his religion. 
 Therefore, in order to restore peace to the church, and to give proof 
 of our indulgence to the heretics of Saluces, who have rendered 
 themselves liable to the penalty of death by their continued obsti- 
 » 13th October, 1630. 2 6th April, 1633. 
 
 r 
 
 nacy, we ordain that they abjure their errors within the space of 
 two months after the publication of the present edict, and that 
 according to the forms which shall be prescribed to them by the 
 Bishop of Saluces. In this case we will remit to them all the 
 penalties to which they have become liable; but if they allow 
 that term to pass without abjuring, they will be required to quit 
 our dominions, under pain of death." 
 
 This was the way in which a sovereign gave proof of his kind- 
 ness towards his subjects; this was the way in which he pretended 
 to do service to the Christian religion ! In this edict, here much 
 abridged, the churches of Biolet, Bietonet, Cro^sio, and Praviglelm 
 are mentioned by name. It was the death-stroke for these unfor 
 tunate communities, and our chapter must now be closed with 
 their last sigh. 
 
 Upon the publication of this edict, many Vaudois families, per- 
 ceiving that the final agony of the evangelical churches of their 
 dear valleys was nigh at hand, silently withdrew into exile, to 
 Dauphiny. At the same time the Bishop of Saluces, exulting in 
 his now approaching triumph, and inflated with the importance 
 which the edict had given him, arrived in these poor villages, 
 escorted by monks and soldiers. The ultima ratio regum is also the 
 ultima ratio Romoe, Shall I relate how the prelate could make his 
 boast of having converted numbers of those indigent families, who 
 would not have had even a trifle to support them on their journey, 
 if they had left their native land? No; but I will relate how 
 others, abandoning their possessions, retired to the mountains, 
 where, in the persons of these wandering outlaws, amidst the 
 misery and distresses of exile, were extinguished the last relics 
 of that Vaudois Church which floimshed so long about the sources 
 of the Po. Their houses were burned and demolished, their goods 
 confiscated, their flocks seized and sold for behoof of the bishop, 
 the monks, and the exchequer. 
 
 Let any one compare at the present day the moral and the gen- 
 eral condition of the Vaudois valleys in which the gospel has been 
 maintained, with the obscurity and decay into which those of the 
 Stura and of the Po have fallen, from which it was banished at 
 the expense of so much time and so many eflbrts, and he will see 
 if Catholicism be favourable to the prosperity of nations. If the 
 sphere within which this comparison is made be regarded as too 
 limited, in being confined to these humble valleys, let him pursue 
 in all quarters of the world the same parallel betwixt Catholic and 
 Protestant countries, and he will arrive at the same result. 
 
 Thus were these interesting Vaudois commimities extinguished, 
 
 w 
 
200 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Fikst. 
 
 Chap. XV] 
 
 PAXTALfiON BERSOUR. 
 
 201 
 
 fl 
 
 whose history no one has hitherto written. But the spirit wHch 
 animated them has not disappeared. May it ever continue to ani- 
 mate what remains of the Israel of the Alps amongst the moun- 
 tains so long moistened with the blood of martyrs ! 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MORE M A R T Y R S. 1 
 (A.D. 1535 TO A.D. 1635.) 
 
 Inquisitorial proceedings instituted both by the Court of Aix and the Senate of 
 Turin— Martyrdom of Catalan Girardet— The pastor of Pral treacherously 
 murdered— Intercessions of the Elector Palatine on behalf of the Vaudois— 
 The Secretary of the Palatine Legation arrested on account of his being a Pro- 
 testant minister— Conspiracy against the state, a deceitful pretext for severities 
 against the Vaudoi»— Sufferings of the French Vaudois— Martyrdom of Ro- 
 meyer, a merchant of ViUar d'Arenes, at Draguignan— Many persons put to 
 death on account of religion— Caspar Orsel delivered from the inquisitors- 
 Capture and escape of the pastor of Praviglehn— Brief notices of sufferers— M. 
 Jean of Marseilles- Secret murders in prison— Martyrdom of Peter Marquisy 
 and Maurice Monga of Aceil— Sufferings and release of Paul Roeri deLanfranco 
 • —The case of Sebastian Bazan— Imprisonment and trials of Bartholomew Coupin 
 —His attempted escape— His death— The brothers Malherbe— Daniel Peillon. 
 
 As from each sheaf of a great harvest a gmin used to be taken to 
 make up the heap which was intended for the altar, so from each 
 epoch we select a memorial, from each persecution a precious gem of 
 courage and piety, destined to a place in the group of Vaudois mar- 
 tyrs, the offering of their churches on the altars of the true God. 
 
 That there may be no blank in this sketch, which is intended to 
 refer to all the events of the history in connection with all the mar- 
 tyrdoms, let us first direct our thoughts to the circumstances which 
 occasioned them. 
 
 At the period of the Reformation, the Christians of Provence 
 and of the valleys made common cause with the Reformers. The 
 attention of the Church of Rome was fatally drawn to them in the 
 first instance in Provence, at the gates of Avignon. This Rome 
 of the West could not be expected to do otherwise than contend 
 against the religious awakening which menaced its predominance. 
 The inquisitor, John de Roma, raised the first piles upon the slopes 
 of L^beron. The proceedings against these victims led to the dis- 
 covery, amongst the heretics of Provence, of many persons from 
 the valleys of Piedmont. The court of Aix wrote concerning this 
 * AuTHOBmss. — The same as in Chapter VIII. 
 
 to the senate of Turin, and the senate named a commissioner (Pan- 
 taloon Bersour) to go to the places mentioned and take information. 
 
 Bersour returned from Provence with numerous particulars of 
 precise information concerning the principal families of the Vaudois 
 of Piedmont, and concerning the high antiquity and the extent of 
 the ministiy of the Barbas, which they canied on in silence, that 
 it might bear the more fruit, and of which the distant ramifications 
 were not suspected, even in the very places where they existed. 
 
 Like those marine plants which make their appearance on the 
 surface of the waters only by a few green and almost imnoticed 
 summits, but which pass through all the depths of the ocean to fix 
 their roots in the primitive soil, the Vaudois, maintaining always 
 their relation to the primitive church, had passed through centuries, 
 and surmounted the increasing tide of superstition. Possessing no 
 worldly eminence or personal distinction, they were not inapt to 
 be confounded, by an indifferent observer, with the immense mass 
 which surrounded them, and to this lowliness they owed their 
 greatness. Their extension was carried on more successfully in the 
 shade than it could have been in the blaze of day ; they avoided 
 the storm which might have broken on their heads ; but so soon as 
 attention and inquiry were directed to them, a discoveiy was made 
 of the whole extent which their association, seemingly of so little 
 importance, had secretly attained. 
 
 Bersour, furnished with the informations which he had received 
 in Provence, repaired to the valleys, and continued the inquisito- 
 rial proceedings commenced by the court of Aix. Many witnesses 
 were then brought to give evidence concerning this evangelical 
 religion. One of them, Bernardin F6a of St. Segont, being interro- 
 gated by the judge who presided in the investigation concerning 
 the intercourse which he had had with the heretics, replied in this 
 manner : — * 
 
 "Being at BriquOras in 1529, I met Louis Turin of St. John, 
 who took me into his house on business. Our business being ended, 
 another inhabitant of St. John, named Catalan Girardet, came to 
 see us, and invited us to accompany him as far as La Tour, where 
 he said we would hear things that were good; Louis Turin himself 
 pressed me to accept the invitation, and we set out. When we 
 had arrived at La Tour, Catalan conducted us behind the house of 
 Chabert TJghet." (This was probably a descendant of the person 
 who, in 1310, purchased from one of the last dauphins of the Vien- 
 nois a house in Val Louise, that it might be used for the religioiis 
 meetings of the Vaudois.) " We entered into a great apartment, 
 where many persons were assembled. There a Barba, named Philip, 
 
 Vol. I. 26 
 
 ^ 
 
'V at mi - t' 
 
 202 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past First. 
 
 ^1 
 
 .1 
 
 preached, and after his duties were over, he asked me some ques- 
 tions, and instructed me in certain points of their religion.'* 
 
 " What did he say to youl" 
 
 "That there is no salvation but in Jesus Christ, and that we 
 ought to do good works, not in order to be saved, but because we 
 are saved." 
 
 However, as this witness had not ceased to attend mass, he was 
 not disturbed, but a prosecution was commenced against Catalan 
 Girardet, who had drawn him to that meeting. 
 
 Compelled to quit the valleys, Catalan was arrested at Revel, 
 about the end of the year 1535, in course of which the evidence 
 of Bemardin Fea had been given against him. He did not for an 
 instant attempt to disguise his opinions; and being strongly urged 
 to abjure them, he replied to the monks who came into his dungeon 
 to tempt him to apostasy, " You will sooner persuade these walls 
 to go on pilgrimage, than a Christian to deny the truth." 
 
 The fear of death had no greater effect in shaking his constancy. 
 He was condemned to be burned alive. On the way to the stake, 
 the monks who attended him still tried to persuade him to abjure. 
 "Why should you be obstinate in your heresy 1" said they; "your 
 rude and barbarous sect will soon be, like your own flesh, consumed 
 in a moment." Taking up two stones from the road, and rubbing 
 them one against another, Catalan Girardet exclaimed in reply, " It 
 would be easier for me to rub these stones to powder, than for 
 you to destroy our churches ! " 
 
 This assurance of the mai*tyr was not mistaken. He died firm 
 and serene, his countenance radiant, even as seen through the 
 flames which devoured him, with the blessed certainty of that 
 salvation which he had received, and of that eternal happiness 
 which he was going to receive. 
 
 But is death endured for a profession of religion the only mar- 
 tyrdom? And has the Christian, visited with it for Christian 
 works, no right to be also held in pious remembrance? A short 
 time after the Count of La Trinite had laid waste the Vaudois valleys 
 by fire and sword,^ the pastor of Pral, named Martin, received a 
 visit from two men who had been in the service of the seigneurs 
 of Le Perrier, the cruel and perfidious Truchets, those relentless 
 enemies of the Yaudois, who had already dragged to martyrdom 
 Bartholomew Hector, the seller of Bibles. The pastor of Pral was 
 a native of France; the two strangers called themselves French- 
 men; Martin received them as fellow-countrymen. They then 
 expressed a desire to enter the Reformed Church, and the good 
 
 * See Part Second, ch. ii., of this History. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 A PASTOR ASSASSINATED. 
 
 203 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 pastor continued to entertain them as his guests, whilst he sought 
 to instruct them in the way of salvation. 
 
 His parishioners, however, warned him to be upon his guard; for 
 there is in the common people an instinctive sagacity, which some- 
 times gives a presentiment of danger with an accuracy of judg- 
 ment, independent of evidence; moreover, as these intruders had 
 recently carried arms against the Yaudois, it was natural enough 
 that they should regard them with distinist. Nevertheless, the 
 simple good pastor believed in the sincerity of their conversion, and 
 appealed on their behalf to the charity of his flock against the insi- 
 nuations which were made respecting them. His benevolent re- 
 presentations did not re-assui-e the people of Pral, who saw, with 
 so much the more displeasure, these ill-reputed strangers dwelling 
 under the roof of their pastor, that the latter had no family and 
 lived by himself; but the worthy man, considering them almost as 
 his adopted children, continued to treat them with the most gene- 
 rous hospitality. 
 
 One morning, however, he did not appear at church at the ordi- 
 nary hour of public worship. The people gathered anxiously 
 around his dwelling. The door was bolted ; they knocked ; no one 
 answered. Some neighbours then mounted upon the roof, and 
 penetrated into the interior by a skylight, and presently their cries 
 of grief announced to those without some bloody catastrophe. In 
 fact, the pastor Martin was lying lifeless, and bathed in his blood. 
 The monsters, whom he had received with kindness, had cut his 
 throat and taken flight, after having plundered the house of their 
 benefactor. The Yaudois pursued after the culprits, but in vain; 
 no trace of them could be discovered ; but some time after they 
 boldly re-appeared in the valley, being again in the service of the 
 seigneurs of Le Perrier, who thus made themselves their accom- 
 plices, and who, perhaps, had been the instigators of this odious 
 assassination. No doubt there was imprudence on the part of the 
 pastor, in the too generous reception which he gave to these cut- 
 throats ; but ought not he also to be reckoned a mai*tyr, who died 
 confessing the gospel by the works of a charity carried the length 
 of self-sacrifice, as much as if that self-sacrifice had been made by 
 a profession of religion ? 
 
 In consequence of the persecutions of which this execrable crime 
 was one of the last fruits, the Elector Palatiue sent an embassy to 
 the Duke of Savoy, to intercede with him on behalf of the Yaudois. 
 They were at that time ill used, in a multitude of ways, by the 
 councillor Barberi, whom Emmanuel Philibert had appointed his 
 commissioner to treat with them. The secretary of the palatine's 
 
204 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 
 legation was a Protestant pastor. Barberi, thinking he might do 
 what he pleased, caused him to be arretted by his minions at the 
 very hotel of the ambassador; and without any other cause or pre- 
 text than simply that of his religion, he had the audacity to put 
 him in prison. This fact, of itself, may give an idea of the fierce- 
 ness which then characterized the proceedings against the Protes- 
 tants ; and by this we may understand how much the Vaudois must 
 have displayed of prudence, of irreprehensible probity, of patient 
 endurance, and of active virtues, to avoid giving any occasion to 
 their adversaries, whereby these proceedings might appear anything 
 else than barbarous cruelties, and flagrant acts of injustice. This 
 secretary of legation, who himself was very soon released, wrote 
 them an affecting letter on, this subject, of which the commence- 
 ment is as follows : — 
 
 " Dear brethren in the work of the Lord ! All things work 
 together for good to them that love Grod, and the violence to which 
 I have been subjected will give occasion of reflection to his high- 
 ness, who will from this time, I trust, show himself less prejudiced 
 against you. If it should prove, however, that instead of becom- 
 ing more mild, and moderating the severity at present exercised, 
 the duke becomes more imbittered, be assured that it will be a 
 plain token that God is about to interpose. But I trust that God 
 will have pity on his highness, and hear the prayers, cries, and tears 
 of those who groan under the burden of this horrible persecution, 
 to turn the heart of their prince, and to inspire him with compas- 
 sion for his people. As to the answers which the Chancellor Stro- 
 piano has made to our intercession for you, he accuses you of being 
 disturbers of the public peace." (Such is the exact expression ; so 
 that it will be seen not to be of recent invention.) " He pretends 
 that the Vaudois conspire against the state, and in support of that 
 accusation, he quotes the case of nine religionaries who recently 
 assembled in a frontier town" (at Bourg in Bresse, for that pro- 
 vince was then a part of Savoy), *' and whom he has caused to be 
 imprisoned as conspirators." 
 
 We shall now examine into some particulars of these pretended 
 conspiracies. A few Christians had met in a private house to 
 meditate together on the word of God; after this exercise they 
 prayed for the triumph of the gospel, when the officers of justice, 
 guided by a pious, that is, a Catholic information, arrived upon the 
 spot, surrounded the place of meeting, and seized all who were 
 present. As the captives protested against this violation of a 
 private abode, and as no cause of complaint could be found against 
 them, they were accused of an imaginary conspiracy. Now, the 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 EOMEYER OF VILLAB D'AR£:NES. 
 
 205 
 
 men could not prove that they had not conspired, and so they were 
 condemned to the galleys, as persons suspected of having conspired. 
 "There is nothing new under the sun," says Solomon, and the 
 same parodies on a court and on justice were repeated in 1793, 
 against other doctrines, and in name of another fanaticism. 
 
 The Vaudois of Dauphiny and of Provence also paid, at this 
 time, their tribute of Edartyrs to maintain the constant testimony 
 of the Christian Church against the constant assaults of Antichrist. 
 
 The valley of the Grave, which descends from Le Pelvoux in a 
 direction opposite to that of the Val Louise, had, in former times, 
 been enlightened by some straggling rays of that evangelical light, 
 whose centre of radiance was in the midst of the Vaudois valleys. 
 A mercer of Villar d'Ardnes, one of the most secluded villages of 
 this valley, after having conducted his family to Geneva, that they 
 might there be educated, and taught to walk in the ways of the 
 Lord, was himself brought back to France by the necessity of atten- 
 ding to his business. Being particularly skilful as a worker of 
 coral, Romeyer repaired to Marseilles in order to buy corals ; and 
 on the way he endeavoured to dispose of the goods which he carried 
 with him. Passing by Draguignan, he showed them to a gold- 
 smith of that town, named Lanteaume, who thought them very 
 beautiful, and would have bought them, but the artist and he not 
 being able to agree about the price, they parted without conclud- 
 ing a bargain. The Baron de Lauris was then at Draguignan, the 
 son-in-law of Menier D'Oppede, whose name is written in letters 
 of blood in the history of the Vaudois. Lanteaume, unwilling to 
 allow the treasures which he had seen on the previous evening to 
 pass out of his hands, advised Romeyer to exhibit them to a wealthy 
 seigneur, who would probably purchase them, and named to him 
 the Baron of Lauris. When the covetousness of the baron had 
 been awakened by the sight of so good a prey, Lanteaume went 
 and informed him that Romeyer was a Lutheran. Confiscation of 
 goods followed, of course, upon a sentence of death. The two par- 
 ticipators in this meditated spoliation understood one another pre- 
 cisely. 
 
 Romeyer was apprehended, at command of Lauris, by the viguier 
 of Draguignan, in April, 1558. After he had undergone several 
 examinations, in which he made a frank confession of his faith, the 
 court of Draguignan met for his trial. An Observantine monk, who 
 preached in that to^vn during Lent, said, "I shall sing a mass to 
 the Holy Spirit, that he may suggest to the judges to condemn 
 that cursed Lutheran to death." But his mass did not produce all 
 the effect which he expected from it; for a young advocate having 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
206 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt First. 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 AN ATROCIOUS SENTENCE. 
 
 I 
 
 ■I 
 
 H 
 
 i; 
 
 risen at the bar of the court, pointed out that Romeyer had not 
 been guilty of any offence, that he had neither preached nor taught 
 his doctrine in France, that he was a foreigner, and did nothing in 
 Provence but attend to his trade, and that therefore justice ought 
 to protect him and not to condemn him. 
 
 All the bar supported this doctrine. The votes of the court 
 were divided, one half for acquittal, and one half for condemnation. 
 And of what sort of magistrates was this court composed] The 
 following fact mil show. One of them, named Barbesi, having 
 heard the firmness spoken of, which Romeyer had shown in his 
 examinations, came to see him in his prison. He was, as Crespin 
 tells us, an illitei*ate, fat, ill-formed man, with a flat large nose, a 
 hideous aspect, a sluggish disposition, and addicted to gluttony 
 and lasciviousness. On his entrance, he coarsely addressed the 
 prisoner: "What place do you belong to? What are you] What 
 do you believe inl" " I am a native of Dauphiny," was the reply; 
 "I dwell in Geneva; I trade in coral; I believe in God and in Christ 
 my Saviour." " Do the people of Geneva believe in God ? Do 
 they pray to him 1 Do they serve him?" said the judge. "Better 
 than you!" was the quick reply of the poor captive, whose feel- 
 ings were wounded by such suspicions and language. Accordingly 
 Judge Barbesi voted for his condemnation ; but in consequence of 
 the equal division of votes, the condemnation could not be pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 The Observantine monk, who made this, so to speak, his pei-sonal 
 affair, and who already saw the credit of his prayers and his masses 
 singularly compromised in public opinion by the uncertainty of the 
 court, caused the bells to be violently rung, got the populace to run 
 together, and exclaimed that good Catholics ought not to suffer an 
 infamous heretic, a Lutheran, a man already damned, to come and 
 defile with impunity by his presence the devout town of Draguignan. 
 He then went with his passionate advices to the official and the 
 consuls of the town, representing to them that it concerned their 
 honour to maintain intact the excellent reputation of their beloved 
 city; and all together, supported by the ragged populace and a 
 raging rabble of priests, proceeded to the dooi*s of the magistrates, 
 exclaiming that if they did not condemn the heretic to be burned, 
 they would themselves be denounced to the parliament, the king, 
 the pope, and all the powers of the world and of hell, in order that 
 they might be punished. 
 
 This is what Popery calls religious fervour. This worthy monk 
 had perhaps a little too much zeal ! it might be hesitatingly ad- 
 mitted by the hypocrites of our days, whom Rome still makes 
 
 207 
 
 1 
 
 much of as her most faithful adherents, but who give small evi- 
 dence of Christianitv. 
 
 The king's lieutenant, who at that period represented the go- 
 vernment, reminded them of the respect due to judicial forms, 
 which must not be violated, even in the case of this heretic. " Let 
 him be put to death! Let him be put to death!" replied the 
 people. " To the fire with him I To the fire with him I Let 
 him be burned ! " exclaimed the clergy. The magistrate above- 
 named, not being able to appease the tumult, promised to go to 
 Aix to refer the matter to the parliament, analogous to the Cour 
 Roycde of the present time. The populace wovdd have dispersed, 
 but the monk prevented them ; and the consuls of the city sanc- 
 tioned this sort of municipal comitise with their presence. It was 
 resolved that four persons should go to Aix at the expense of the 
 commune, to accompany the Procureur du Roi, and urge the con- 
 demnation of Romeyer. These four deputies were the first consul, 
 by name Cavalien, Judge Barbesi, the advocate-general, and a 
 registrar. But on the way they met one of the presidents of the 
 court of Aix, named Ambrois, who said to them — "You surely 
 need not make so much ceremony about the burning of a heretic.'* 
 The deputation made haste to return, that they might hurry on 
 the sentence of death, and the king's lieutenant pursued his way 
 alone. Having arrived at Aix, he laid the whole matter before 
 the court, which called up the case before itself, and interdicted the 
 court of Draguignan from pronouncing sentence. 
 
 But fanaticism does not so readily let go its hold. Barbesi set 
 out again for Aix, and obtained a decree that sentence should be 
 pronounced in the court of fii-st resort. This was, in fact, to ob- 
 tain the condemnation, or rather the judicial assassination and 
 legal tortures of poor Romeyer. He was accordingly condemned 
 to undergo, first the rack, then the wheel, then to be burned alive, 
 and that by a slow fire, — O justice ! O charity ! But did Popery 
 ever know you 1 
 
 Romeyer might still have escaped the infliction of this atro- 
 cious sentence at the expense of an abjuration; but the monk who 
 was sent to make this proposal to him declared, as he came out 
 from the prison, that he found him pertinax, and that he was a 
 man already damned. The language of these men was as barbarous 
 as their manners, as cruel as their doctrines. 
 
 The priests were immediately requested to announce, in all the 
 surrounding parishes, that on the 16th of the month of May would 
 take place, in public, the execution of a frightful Lutheran ; and 
 in the town of Draguignan proclamation was made, by sound of 
 
 / 
 
 i 
 
208 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part First. 
 
 Chap. XvJ 
 
 CASPAR ORSEL OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 209 
 
 trumpet, that every good Catholic should bring wood for the 
 
 pile. 
 
 The king's lieutenant, who had endeavoured to save Komeyer 
 from this unjust execution, withdrew from the town, that he might 
 not be a witness of it. But his substitute, accompanied by a num- 
 ber of judges, both civil and ecclesiastical, as well as by the consuls 
 of the town, repaired in the morning to the prison of the con- 
 demned man, in order to apply the torture. They displayed before 
 him the rack, the cords, the wedges, the bars of iron, and, in one 
 word, all the instruments of torture invented by the successors of 
 the martyred apostle. They said, "Denounce your axjcomplices 
 and abjure your errors, instead of exposing yourself to these tor- 
 ments." "I have no accomplices," replied Romeyer; "I have 
 nothing to abjure, for I profess nothing but the law of Christ. 
 You now call it perverse and erroneous ; but at the day of judgment 
 God will proclaim it just and holy, to the confusion of its trans- 
 gressors." 
 
 "Whereupon," says Crespin, "being placed upon the gehenna, 
 and fearfully pulled by the cords, he cried without ceasing to God, 
 that he would have pity upon him for the love of Jesus." " Im- 
 plore the Virgin now !" said these idolaters. " We have only one 
 Mediator," he replied. "O Jesus! O my God!— grace! grace!" 
 and he fainted. " For upon his refusal the torture had been re- 
 commenced," says the chronicler, "and that in so violent a manner, 
 that he was left for dead." Then the monks and the priests un- 
 loosed him from the wheel, fearing lest he should expire without 
 being burned. The bones of his arms and legs were broken, and 
 the points of the displaced ports of bone stuck out through the 
 flesh. They gave him some cordials to recal him to life. He was 
 then removed to the place of execution, and fastened by an iron 
 chain to the stake, which rose from the centre of the pile. Even 
 now a monk addressed him, saying, " CaQ upon the Vii-gin and the 
 saints !" The poor mercer of Villar d' Arenes made a sign with his 
 head in the negative. Thereupon the executioners set fire to the 
 pile. As it was composed, in great part, of branches and bushes, 
 the flame at first rose with rapidity, then the half-burned fuel sank 
 together, so that the martyr remained suspended to the stake 
 above the devouring fire. His inferior members were shrivelled, 
 his entrails running out, and his poor body already half burned 
 below, when his lips were still seen to move, without any sound 
 proceeding from them, but attesting the martyr's last invocation 
 of the Divine Being — his last appeal to that Christ who died 
 for him. 
 
 1 
 
 And doubtless that appeal was heard. And doubtless that 
 vengeful prophecy shall be fulfilled, which for eighteen centuries 
 has been suspended over the head of the Apocalyptic monster, whose 
 sins have reached up unto heaven, and whose mouth has drunk, 
 imto intoxication, the blood of saints and of martyrs. Yet we are 
 told that we ought to employ, with regard to the papacy, that re- 
 ► serve in expression which is proper enough in the case of a wicked 
 man for whose conversion we may hope, but not as to the inve- 
 terate wickedness of ages ! The tree is to be judged by its fruits; 
 and if the old trunk, which has served as a gibbet for so many vic- 
 tims, bears fruits less fatal in our day, it is because of its decrepi- 
 tude : but restore its strength or trace it to the source of its bloody 
 sap, and you will find it the same as ever. Let it be known, and 
 it must be condemned ! 
 
 There were also three unfoiijunate persons who, in 1563, were 
 left to die of hunger at Cabrieres, in a deep pit ; and forty persons 
 put to death by the sword, the rope, or the fire in the valley of 
 Apt ; forty-six at Lourmarin, seventeen at Merindol, and twenty- 
 two in the valley of Aigues. All these crimes were perpetrated 
 fifteen years after the fearful massacres of which notice has been 
 already taken. 
 
 But, to give an example of the arrogant opposition which 
 the Inquisition sometimes made to the will of the sovereign, 
 and even to the edicts which he had signed, disputing with him 
 for its victims. After the articles agreed upon at Cavour in 1561, 
 between Emmanuel Philibert and the Vaudois, they ought not to 
 have been proceeded against in any way, for anything that had 
 taken place during the war of 1560. However, a man belongino" 
 to St. John, Caspar Orsel by name, had been made prisoner at 
 that time, and to save his life he promised to become a Catholic; 
 but after the peace had been concluded, he returned to the sincere 
 profession of his faith and religion. The inquisitors caused him 
 to be watched by spies, and in 1570 he was seized, tied with cords, 
 and conveyed to the prisons of the Holy Office at Turin. Against 
 this the Vaudois reclaimed, on the ground of the amnesty which 
 had been granted. The duke ordained the inquisitors to release 
 their prisoner, but they refused to obey. The Edict of Cavour was 
 laid before them, which this detention contravened. "Our order 
 is not subject to the secular power," replied the worthy Domini- 
 cans. They were very willing to take advantage of that power, 
 but not to bow to it. Upon this, Philibert, irritated, informed 
 them in reply, that all the frocked legions upon earth would not 
 make him break his word, and that they must forthwith set the 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 27 
 
210 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part F 
 
 IRST. 
 
 Chap. XV j 
 
 ANTHONY BONJOUR. 
 
 211 
 
 captive free, if they did not wish cannon to be sent to bury them 
 under the ruins of their den. 
 
 On this unexpected language, the Holy Office found it necessary 
 to yield. Orsel was set free, and the Duke of Savoy wrote to the 
 Vaudois on the 20th of November, 1570, through the governor 
 of the province, to re-assure them that they need no longer enter- 
 tain 'any fear regarding further proceedings based upon similar 
 promises of abjumtion. The firmness which he showed in this 
 instance in compelling respect for the edict which he had issued, is 
 honourable to the character of the prince; but that edict itself had 
 been obtained by the firmness which the Vaudois displayed in 
 legitimate self-defence. The obstinacy of the Holy Office alone 
 cannot be praised, for it was obstinacy in evil. 
 
 Although it thus appears that the attempts of the papal party 
 were not always successful, but that those escaped against whom 
 they were directed, I think it right to quote some other examples 
 of their evil-doings, to give an idea of the dangers with which the 
 Vaudois were perpetually siui-ounded. 
 
 The reader will remember that when they were menaced in one 
 valley by the princes and seigneurs who ruled in it, they often 
 retired to another beyond the bounds of their authority, or more 
 powerful to resist them. 
 
 The pastor of Praviglelm, himself a native of Bobi, had already 
 found such a refuge in the valley of Lucerna in 1592. It was at 
 the time when the Duke of Savoy had just seized upon the mar- 
 quisate of Saluces, and found his possession of it disputed by 
 France. Some time after, beginning to think that he might be 
 able to keep hold of his conquest, he began also to manifest a dis- 
 position to repress the reformed. The people of Praviglelm now 
 received information that a project was on foot for seizing theii- 
 pastor. They resolved to save him, and assembled for tlie purpose 
 of opening a path for him through the snows towards St. Frour. 
 But they were surprised by a company of soldiers belonging to the 
 ganison of Revel, which seized the minister, and bore him off a 
 prisoner. This took place during the night of the 27th of 
 February, 1597. 
 
 The Vaudois immediately made the utmost exertions to have 
 him restored to liberty. The governor of Kevel gave them to 
 understand that they might attain their object by the offer of a 
 considerable mnsom. The sum was speedily procured, for mis- 
 fortime had given the Vaudois a spirit of devotedness; and the 
 incessant perils which menaced them all, had created amongst them 
 a feeling of unity and mutual sympathy, which realized that bay- 
 
 ing of St. Paul, " If one member suffer, all the members suffer 
 with it." 
 
 But the Inquisition had no desire to hear of ransom and enlarge- 
 ment; it preferred blood to money; and the garrison of Revel 
 having been obliged to remove to a distance for some military 
 OT>erations, the report went that the inquisitors were coming to 
 carry off the prisoner. His name was Anthony Bonjour. His 
 brother-in-law obtained leave to pay him a visit, under pretext 
 of shaving him. Whilst performing this operation, he contrived 
 to whisper into his ear with what danger he was menaced, and to 
 slip a parcel of ropes under the apron which he had put upon 
 him, saying in a low voice, " Put this in your pocket, and as soon 
 as I am out of the way, lose no time, but let yourself down over 
 the walls, at the rocks behind the castle, into the wood." And 
 when he had taken leave, and before the minister had apparently 
 recovered from his perplexity, he turned back, and said, "Save 
 yourself. Master Anthony, save yourself; flee quickly, or you are 
 lost!" The minister thereupon ventured to attempt his escape in 
 this way, and reached without accident the base of the rocks upon 
 which the castle was built. Meeting no one, he set out in the 
 direction of the mountain ; but he had not gone far when he met 
 face to face a male and a female servant of the governor, who were 
 returning to the castle. "Ah ! you are making your escape," said 
 they to the minister. " In God's name, let me flee," said he, " for 
 they want to take my life." The persons to whom he spoke were 
 of the common people ; the sentiments of humanity had access to 
 their simple souls ; and so these servants held their peace, and the 
 fugitive succeeded in reaching the steep and wooded slopes which 
 overhang the town. 
 
 Scarcely had he fled, when there were heard in the castle and 
 neighbourhood much noise of arms and of horses, military cries, 
 barking of dogs, and, in short, all the agitation which ensues upon 
 the discovery of an important escape. 
 
 As for the poor pastor, after having waited till evening in the 
 impenetrable thickets in which he had hid himself, seeing the 
 tumult succeeded by a calm, he bent his steps for Praviglelm, and 
 arrived there in the middle of the night. His family were at 
 prayer, his friends in distress, his congregation in dejection ; but on 
 the unexpected news of his deliverance (for he had been more than 
 six months a prisoner), on the arrival of the father of the family, 
 there were, says a contemporary, "around the good pastor restored 
 to his flock, tears and rejoicings more than can be described." 
 
 In connection with this occurrence a strange coincidence must be 
 
 t 
 
212 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part First. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 DUNGEONS OF THE INQUISITION. 
 
 213 
 
 noticed. It was to the absence of the governor and garrison ot 
 Revel that Bonjour owed his success in making his escape. The 
 troops of that place had been sent against the Vaudois of the valley 
 of Pragela; but the Yaudois were victorious, and made the governor 
 of the castle of Revel himself a prisoner. -'Ah, Sir!" said the 
 leader of the Vaudois, " it is you who keep the minister of Pravig- 
 lelm a prisoner." " I received orders to do so," he replied, " but 
 that prisoner has always been well treated in my castle." "We 
 will treat you in the same way here," said the Vaudois; "but you 
 shall remain in our hands, as an hostage, till he be set free." 
 
 The men of Praviglelm, however, having assembled in arms, to 
 the number of more than a hundred, conducted Anthony Bonjour 
 to the place of his birth, in the village of Bobi, situated at the 
 bottom of the valley of Lucerna. " He is now in safety," said his 
 former jailer, on learning this news; "you asked me for his liberty; 
 now he has it — grant me mine." Messengei*s were sent to Bobi 
 to make sure of the fact. The aged pastor acknowledged the 
 humanity which the governor of Revel had shown him, and the 
 Vaudois of Pragela set the governor at liberty. This was being 
 more generous than he had been, for they spared him the perilous 
 chances of an escape, in which, ]r>erhap3, he would not have succeeded 
 so well as his former captive. 
 
 Thus God in his goodness so ordered it, that this noble personage 
 received the recompense of his humanity, and the humble minister 
 of the valleys would have had, in this unexpected hostage, the 
 means of deliverance secured to him, if his attempt at escape had 
 not been successful. Anthony Bonjour continued to perform his 
 pastoral functions in the valley of Lucerna for more than thirty 
 years after this time, and died at Bobi, on the last day of October, 
 1631, after having escaped the ravages of the pestilence in the 
 preceding year, and exercised the ministry of the gospel for more 
 than half a century. 
 
 But the prisoners in general, and especially those of the Inquisi- 
 tion, by no means obtained so favourable an issue of their captivity. 
 
 That same year (1597) an attempt was made to carry oft" the 
 pastor of Pinache, Felix Huguet; his house was plundered, and his 
 papers carried to Pignerol, but he escaped the ravagers. Instead 
 of this prey, which they had missed, the inquisitors caused his 
 father and his brother to be seized, and they were thrown into the 
 prisons of the Holy Office. The latter came out of prison at the 
 end of three years, but after a promise of abjuration, which altered 
 and saddened him, as if he had lost his soul. As for the aged 
 father, nothing could shake his constancy. Threats and tortures 
 
 assailed him in vain ; disease weakened him without overcoming 
 hun; the desire of seeing his famUy again, and of being warmed in 
 his last days by the sun of his native spot, had no greater effect in 
 bending him to submission. He died slowly, put to death by being 
 thus buried alive; and in the depth and darkness of his dungeon, re- 
 signed his soul into the hands of Him who is the light and the Ufe, 
 not only for a few days of sorrow here below, but also to all eternity. 
 Nevertheless, amidst his sufferings, without earthly consolation, 
 in these deep and gloomy subterranean cells, where his groans died 
 away without an echo, he must have spent many hours of great 
 distress. He had also hours of deUght. One night, at the time 
 when the universal silence of the sleeping earth rendered more 
 perceptible the distant noises which communicated their vibrations 
 to the sides of their dungeon, the two captives of Pragela (for his son 
 was still with him) heard, through the walls of the prison. Christian 
 hymns and psalms sung by unknown voices in the neighbouring cell. 
 After some days of labour, the wall was pierced; and the 
 Hu<niets, father and son, entered into communication with then- 
 brethren in captivity. " For these nine years," said one of them, 
 "I have lain buried before my time in this tomb; but I rejoice 
 that God gives me strength to suffer so long for his gospel. The 
 truth is so glorious ! Salvation is so precious 1 My blessedness 
 daily increases, and I confidently hope to continue thus, singing 
 psalms and confessing the truth, to the very end of my life." The 
 name of this martyr is not known. 
 
 There were in that prison Vaudois, Piedmontese, and foreigners. 
 One class were destined to die in public, another to have life slowly 
 extinguished in the bowels of the earth. There were dungeons 
 above^'dungeons; in the deepest the captives were left to die of 
 hunger. There were others in which they were crushed under a 
 stone table, which was moved by chains; sometimes also they were 
 poisoned, or died of sickness. The most privileged died by the 
 hand of the executioner. 
 
 The brother of another Vaudois pastor was amongst the number 
 of the prisoners. His name was John Baptist Gros. The inquisi- 
 tors, oftener than once, offered him his liberty, on condition that his 
 brother Augustine should come and take his place. What a justice 
 is that of Popery ! The son of this unfortunate prisoner was also 
 apprehended some yeai-s after. He endured a long captivity, with the 
 same courage which his father had displayed. Fii-mly resisting all 
 soHcitationsto apostasy, he at last obtained his deUverance; but he 
 wasted away and died some time after, having contracted his mortal 
 disease in the dungeons, whether it was properly disease or the 
 
2U 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt r 
 
 IBST. 
 
 effect of poison. Another minister of the valleys, named Gi'and- 
 bois, died also, it was never known in what manner. 
 
 That same year (still 1597), travellers returning from Turin 
 said in the valleys, "We saw brought out of the dungeons of 
 the Inquisition a venerable old man; tall, emaciated, sickly, but 
 resigned, with white hair and a gray beard, whom they conducted 
 to the square before the castle, to burn him alive. Enfeebled 
 as he was, his look was full of spirit ; and his courageous bearing 
 and pious behaviour sufficiently told the cause of his death, for he 
 could not speak ; they had put a gag on his mouth ; but he retained 
 his firmness to the last. Although we inquired amongst the crowd, 
 we were not able to find out his name, nor whence he was." 
 " Alas !" said a young surgeon of Coni, who heard this, being then, 
 at La Tour, where the story was told, " these marks lead me to 
 believe that this martyr was M. Jean, of Marseilles, with whom I 
 became acquainted at Coni, in the following way. One evening I was 
 in the Place de Notre Dame, where the governor of the town then 
 was with some monks, when I saw a man pass by, such as you have 
 just described. The governor interrogated him : — * Whence come 
 you, Sir?" *From Marseilles. Sir.' * Whither are you going?' 
 'To Geneva.' *What to do?' * To live according to the law of 
 God.' * Can you not do that at Marseilles?' ' No, for they want to 
 compel me to join in the mass, and in idolatry.' * And are we, then, 
 idolaters here at Coni?' * Yes, Sir.' Thereupon the governor, much 
 enraged, caused liim to be imprisoned. I was often employed to 
 convey to him alms and offerings on the part of the members of 
 the church in our own town. He was incessantly singing psalms 
 in his prison. The governor threatened him with the gallows if he 
 continued it. * As long as I live,' said he, * I will sing the praises 
 of my God, and as for death, I fear it not.' We were very urgent 
 with the governor to have him restored to liberty. At last we 
 obtained his liberation. He went to Turin, where I have learned 
 that he had some discussions with the monks, and since that time I 
 have heard nothing more of him; but, after your story, I must 
 believe that his soul now reposes in peace in the bosom of his God." 
 
 The means employed against the evangelical Christians of the 
 valleys were sometimes much more expeditious. During that same 
 year (1597), Sebastian Gaudin, of Rocheplate, was taken and hanged 
 at St. Segont. At a later date (in 1603), Frache, of Angrogna, 
 who had been one of the Vaudois deputies assembled on the 19th 
 of November, 1602, in the palace of the counts of Lucerna, to con- 
 fer with these seigneurs concerning the sufferings to which the 
 valleys had been subjected, was allured into a lonely house near 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 MORE MARTYRS. 
 
 215 
 
 Lucerna, and never came out of it. The particulars of his death 
 are not known, but it is probable that he was secretly assassinated. 
 Two men of Le Villar perished in the same manner, in a house 
 apart from all others in La Tour, where the troops of the Bai^n ot 
 La Roche had been placed in garrison. This was in 1611. ihese 
 men disappeared without any one knowing what had become 
 of them; but after the departure of the troops, their bodies were 
 discovered under a dimghill. They stiU bore traces of the torments 
 to which they had been subjected before they were slaughtered 
 
 Mention ha. already been made, in the history of the Vaudois 
 churches of the former marquisate of Saluces, of two faithful ser- 
 vants of God, who sealed with their blood the living faith of their 
 
 'Teter Marquisy was one of the elders of the evangelical church 
 of Aceil: he held also a situation as a notary, and, according to the 
 terms of the contemporary narrative from which we derive these 
 particulars, " he acquitted himself very worthily, both m the one 
 office and the other, always employing himself with great^eal m 
 the advancement of the truth." ^ But the zeal on which God looked 
 with approbation was to work him injury among men. Compelled to 
 flee from his native country in order to escape the hands of his per- 
 secutors, he retired to Grenoble, where he suffered both from sick- 
 ness and poverty. - The Reformed church of this place, adds our 
 narrator, -can testify that he lived free of reproach, enduring, with 
 aU patience, the trial of his affliction." But he was unwilling that 
 his family should suffer by his absence, and, with a view to put his 
 affairs in order, he returned to Aceil in July, 1619. His intention 
 was not to remain there long; but so soon as the murderous slaves 
 of Popery were apprised of his an-ival, they commenced to watch 
 his movements, and by and by he fell into their hands. He was 
 first cast into the prisons of the castle of Dronier; but ere long he 
 was tmnsferred to the dungeons of the Inquisition at Saluces. 
 
 A companion in affliction was given to him. With the lawyer 
 was ioined the soldier; but although their occupations had been 
 so different, their lives were really the same; they were brethren 
 in the faith, and they were brethren in martyrdom. The name ot 
 the new prisoner was Maurice Monge, or Mongie. He, as weU as 
 Marquisy, was a native of Aceil. Belonging thus to one place, they 
 had no doubt, oftener than once, partaken of the same commumon, 
 and could support one another in their common misfortune. Havmg 
 shared together in the delights of Christ's table, they could encou- 
 rage one another to bear testimony for him by their death. " We 
 » Brief discours des vcrsec. advenues du Marq. de Saluces, chap. iu. 
 
216 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Fikst. 
 
 Cbap. XV] 
 
 THE PHYSICIAN OF LANFRANCO. 
 
 217 
 
 liave had fellowship in his grace," said these Christians to one an- 
 other, "let us go on to the fellowship of his sacrifice!" 
 
 Mam-ice Monge, it would appear, was a distinguished soldier; he 
 had won honourable rank by his valour. He came to Saluces to 
 ask pardon for his countryman, on the ground of an edict of tolera- 
 tion, recently obtained from the Duke of Savoy by the solicitations 
 of Lesdiguieres. But far from obtaining his request, he himself 
 was deprived of liberty ; the Inquisition claimed him as a prey of 
 which it had got hold, and he was compelled to share the chains of 
 him whom he had hoped to deliver. 
 
 The charges against Marquisy did not, however, seem to be so 
 serious as to involve his death. He was accused of having failed 
 to show proper respect to a Capuchin ; of having read in public a 
 Protestant book; prevented a Protestant woman from becoming a 
 Catholic, and led a Catholic woman to embrace Protestantism. 
 The two latter charges rested on no positive evidence. As for 
 Maurice Monge, he was accused of being a relapsed person; and ho 
 frankly avowed that, having been at mass by consti-aint, he had 
 hastened to return, as soon as he could, to the evangelical worship. 
 " Do you believe," he was asked, *• that our Lord Jesus Christ is 
 corporally present in the hostf' "0! as for that," said he, "I 
 never believed it." "To the fire! to the fire!" exclaimed the 
 judges. And from that time it was thought that this saying would 
 cost him his life. Nor was the anticipation erroneous. 
 
 The two Yaudois were condemned to death, by a sentence pro^ 
 nounced on the 1st of October, 1619. They appealed to Turin. 
 " But," says the narrative already quoted, " they could find no 
 advocate nor procurator who would defend them; every one, indeed, 
 saying that the cause was just and the sentence iniquitous, but no 
 one daring to take up the case, for fear of being ruined." The papal 
 nuncio, the Archbishop of Turin, and other ecclesiastics, actively 
 exerted themselves to obtain a confirmation of the sentence of 
 death, and easily succeeded, where, in fact, there was no opposition. 
 Nothing now remained but to carry it into effect by a double 
 murder. 
 
 On a dark autumn morning, before even the sun was up, on 
 Monday, the 21st of October, 1619, the Bishop of Saluces left his 
 palace in his carriage. Does he go to administer consolation m 
 some case of great distress? What a zeal prompts him to go out 
 so early in the morning ! Let us follow the episcopal chariot. It 
 stops before a scaffold. At the same moment a troop of soldiei-s 
 and of monks approach the same spot. They come from the palace 
 of the Inquisition, and bring with them the two captives of Aceil, 
 
 
 who perceive that the hour of their death is come, and ask time to 
 pray, but it is refused them, and the executioner immediately seizes 
 upon Mai-quisy, in order to terminate his life. Some field-labourers, 
 who have risen early for their work, and some of the humbler class of 
 inhabitants of the town, who have got notice of the execution, hasten 
 to the scene of death. Marquisy attempts to address them, but the 
 executioner seizes him by the throat, and the soldiers strike him 
 with their weapons. These words, however, escape from the lips 
 of the martyr : " I see the heavens opened, and the angels wait for 
 me '" " They are devils that wait for thee ! damned wretch ! ex- 
 claims a monk. The bishop looks on from the window of his coa<;h. 
 The victim is dead, and the bishop stiU looks on. Another is 
 brou-ht ; it is Mauiice Monge. " Behold the corpse of your aco- 
 lyte in heresy, misbeliever that you are !" says the fanatical monk. 
 But Maurice, at that solemn moment, was above the reach ol 
 insults; they could not discompose his serenity. He deigned no 
 reply to the unfeeling coarseness of the monk, but turning his eyes 
 upon his friend, he said, with a mild voice, "Courage! we have 
 chained the victory !" And thus he died, without ostentation and 
 without weakness. He had braved death in the service of his 
 prince, and how could he fear it in the service of his God! 
 
 Other prosecutions and other executions followed these. But 
 nothing equalled in horrors the massacres of 1655, the terrible 
 scenes of which would, of themselves, fiu-nish a complete martyro- 
 logy. Let us dwell, in preference, upon those rarer instances, more 
 pleasant to contemplate, in which we find the persecuted obtaining 
 
 their deliverance. 
 
 A skilful physician, Paul Roeri of Lanfmnco, had come and 
 settled in La Tour, in order to Hve there, without restraint, accord- 
 ing to the gospel. Originally belonging to the neighbourhood, 
 he'was followed to his new residence by the reputation which he 
 had acquired in Piedmont, and the Papists saw, with a jealous eye, 
 the consideration and scientific enlightenment of the valleys thus 
 
 augmented. 
 
 This physician, occupying himself in preparation of the medi- 
 cines which he used, and in compounding which he almost exclu- 
 sively employed vegetable substances (which, in these mountains, 
 possess a remarkable energy), was accused, upon account of his cru- 
 cibles and alembics, of spending his time in the fabrication of base 
 money. One Sabbath, in the month of October, 1620, Roeri, hav- 
 ing gone to the place of worship in St. John, was surrounded as he 
 came out after service, by a troop of constables and officers of jus- 
 tice, under the directions of one of the principal seigneurs of the 
 Vol. I. 28 
 
II 
 
 ) ; 
 
 218 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Fibst, 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 SEBASTIAN BAZAN. 
 
 219 
 
 I 
 
 valley. The congregation, irritated at this procedure, surrounded 
 the officers of justice in their turn, and might have made an end 
 of them, by closing in upon them in anger, as easily as a spoi-tsmau 
 chokes a bird in his hand ; but the gentleman sbire, perceiving the 
 danger, went into the church, and protested with an oath that 
 religion had nothing to do with the cause of this arrest, and that 
 if the innocence of Koeri were established, he would immediately 
 be set at liberty. "No ! no !" cried some of the Vaudois, " he is 
 not guilty, we will answer for him." « If he is not, I swear by 
 my honour," replied the gentleman, "that I will bring him back 
 among you safe and sound." 
 
 After some fui-ther protestations, he was allowed to go away 
 with his prisoner. The latter wrote from his dungeon, a few days 
 after: "Dear brethren of the Vai Lucerna, remember me in your 
 prayers. The Lord grants me the means of writing to you, though 
 I am bound to the strictest secrecy regarding it ; I bless him for 
 it, and acknowledge that this affliction is a rod in his hand, for the 
 just correction of my faults. However, dear brethren, as to the 
 crime of which I am accused, I swear before God that I am inno- 
 cent of it. Were my soul naked before you, as it is before him, 
 you would not see in it one thought which had the least connection 
 with anything of the sort. Be so good, then, as to bestir your- 
 selves without fear, to get me out of this place, with the help of 
 God; whose will, however, and not mine, must be done." 
 
 A deputation was sent to the seigneur who kept him prisoner, 
 to obtain his deUverance ; but he refused to release him before his 
 case had been tried. Roeri was then transferred to the prisons of 
 the senate of Turin. A great number of letters were exchanged 
 betwixt him and his brethren in the faith. The accusation fell to 
 the ground of itself; but fanaticism stood firm. The prisoner was 
 told that he would be deHvered over to the Inquisition if he did 
 not abjure without loss of time. The question was then no longer 
 one relative to the fabrication of base coin. 
 
 The gentleman who committed him to prison had given his pro- 
 mise as a guarantee for his enlargement ; but of what worth are the 
 promises of oppressors 1 The curiosity of worldly people was of 
 more advantage to the poor captive. His skiU in distUling had 
 been spoken about ; the proceedings with regard to him had attracted 
 much attention to his laboratory ; the seigneurs of the court repre- 
 sented to Charles Emmanuel that science was interested in the 
 preservation of such a practitioner, and that his highness himself 
 might find a pleasure in seeing his experiments. And, in fact, the 
 duke caused Roeri to be brought to his palace, placed a laboratory 
 
 at his disposal, was present at the preparation of some medicines 
 and essences, tried them, approved them, retained the skilful pre- 
 parer of them in his service, and finally authorized him to return 
 to the valleys. But he made him revisit Turin from time to time, 
 to resume Ids operations in the laboratory of the palace, and renew 
 the phai-maceutical stores of the royal household. " Boeri," says 
 Gilles, "was carried ofi* by the plague of 1630, after having ren- 
 dered great assistance to those who were sick of the plague in 
 St. Germain and the Val P^rouse, whither he had retired, as well 
 as to aU those of the neighbourhood." 
 
 Whilst the French possessed Piedmont (from 1536 to 1559), we 
 have seen that a great number of towns, as Turin, Chivas, and 
 Carignan, had pastors and places of worship belonging to the re- 
 formed religion. The town of Pancalier was also of this number. 
 "Its inhabitants," says an old author, "used mostly to belong to 
 the religion^ and had the public exercise of it." Amongst the prin- 
 cipal families of this city, figured that of Bazana or Bazan, of 
 which we have now to speak, and that of Rives, which was allied 
 to it. When liberty of conscience was extinguished in Piedmont, 
 these noble families retired into the valley of Lucema, where the 
 evangelical worship was still permitted. But whilst his family still 
 dwelt in Pancalier, Sebastian Bazan had already spent some years 
 at La Tour, there to receive religious instruction ; and at that time 
 had formed a very intimate friendship with a young man of that 
 country, Gilles, who was the companion of his studies, and who 
 became afterwards the narrator of his martyrdom. In consequence, 
 no doubt, of the recollection of this former friendship, and of the 
 wants of the religious life, of which his sojourn in the valleys had 
 made him sensible, Sebastian Bazan afterwards formed the desire, 
 and adopted the resolution, of transferring his abode thither. After 
 the death of his father, he and his two brothers and their families, 
 accompanied by their aged mother, came and fixed their residence 
 at La Tour. "He was," says Gilles, "a veiy zealous defender of the 
 Protestant religion, a man of sincerity, and an enemy of all vice, 
 so that the enemies of virtue and of truth could not easily endure 
 him ; but for the rest, he was a man held in great and universal 
 esteem, and of good reputation." 
 
 He went to Carmagnole on the 26th of April, 1622, and the 
 Papists sought to seize him. He was known for his courage as 
 well as for his probity, and his adversaries therefore took precau- 
 tions against the resistance which they thought he might attempt, 
 and in which his valour might have made him successful, and sur- 
 rounded him on all sides, leaving him no means of defence. He 
 
 lil 
 
 
) > 
 
 a 
 
 220 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Fibst. 
 
 remained a prisoner for four months in the dungeons of that town, 
 after which he was conveyed, on the 22d of August, 1622, to those 
 of the senate of Turin. 
 
 The courageous captive did not want intercessors for his libera- 
 tion, and Christian friends to console him. But the latter alone 
 were successful. "What favours God has granted me in your let- 
 ters and your prayers!" he wrote to Gilles on the Uth of July; 
 "for every good thing comes to us from God, even the blessing of 
 friendship, and it is he who endows his own with strength and 
 hopefiilness in their trials, such as our adversaries cannot credit, 
 who accordingly seek to make us yield by long imprisonments, and 
 by perpetually urging us to abjure; but I am assured that the Lord 
 will never foimke me, and will sustain me to the end." In fact, 
 as the Bible tells us, it is not a vain thing to trust in him; and 
 SebastLan Bazan proved for himself the truth of the declaration. 
 " My case," he continues, " has been remitted into the hands of his 
 highness, from which I presume that if any great man who was in 
 favour with him could be employed in it, my deliverance could 
 easily be obtained." It was, indeed, already in itself a boon to be 
 removed out of the hands of the inferior magistracy, always goaded 
 on by the clergy; above all, it was a great matter to escape from 
 those of the Inquisition. " Be so good," continues Bazan, " as to 
 visit my family, and exhort my wife to remain constant in the fear 
 of God. She has need to be aflfectionately admonished, and gently 
 remonstrated with, which you know better how to do than I to 
 write about it." Finally, commending himself to the prayers of 
 his friend, he concludes with this most touching prayer, expressincr 
 the sentiments of a Christian in the language of a soldier : " May 
 God work with his own hand to bring us to perfection, that, rest- 
 ing on his holy promises, we may triumph gloriously with our 
 captain, Jesus Christ, in his glorious heavenly kingdom ! From 
 the prisons of Tui-in, this Uth of July, 1622." 
 
 His hopes, certainly, were not disappointed as to the life to come; 
 but as to his ten-estrial deliverance, they were. Instead of his 
 case being remitted to the humanity of the sovereign, he passed 
 from the prisons of the senate to those of the Inquisition. 
 
 Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'intratel says Dante, speaking of 
 the gates of hell. Yes ! princes have been harsh, cruel, pitiless; 
 but with them there was at least room for hope; in the horrors of 
 Popery heaven and earth disappear, and nothing remains but heU ! 
 Yet never was reception more signalized by a sHmy affectation of 
 kindness and tenderness, than that which Bazan met at the Holy 
 Office. Mild and flattering words, expressions of interest and even 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 THE "HOLY OFFICE. 
 
 it 
 
 221 
 
 of affection, fervent and pious soUcitations were in the first instance 
 employed to get Mm to abjure. But the adopted son of the Vau- 
 dois valleys knew well enough that the most sanguinary monsters 
 can give to their voices the gentlest tones, as the savage lynx 
 attracts the sheep by imitating the bleating of lambs; and the 
 calmness with which he remained steadfast in his convictions, in 
 place of augmenting the esteem of his adversaries for him, had only 
 the effect of dmwing out their wrath. The most ten'ible threaten- 
 ings succeeded the tenderest appeals. After threatenings came 
 tortures ; the lynx showed his teeth. But the victim did not yield; 
 and the monster .that held him captive did not grow weary of 
 sporting with his torments. 
 
 Then, indeed, was the time to make intercession for the unfortu- 
 nate prisoner; but the Inquisition, when it has got the scent of 
 blood, does not let its victims escape. Yet powerful intercessions 
 in favour of poor Bazan continued to be made in great number. 
 Lesdiguieres himself wrote to the Duke of Savoy. " I have been 
 accustomed," he said, " to address my supplications to your high- 
 ness, certain beforehand of not being refused." Alas ! CathoUc 
 although he had become, he was still unacquainted with Popery. 
 " I request of your liigliness the life and liberty of one called Sebas- 
 tian Bazan, detained in the prisons of your city of Turin. He is a 
 man with whom no fault can be found, except as to his reUgious 
 opinions ; and if those who profess the same reUgion with him ought 
 to be punished with death, then great Christian princes, and even 
 your highness yourself, will have difficulty in re-peopling your 
 dominions. The King of France has granted pea<;e throughout all 
 his kingdom to those of that religion, and I boldly counsel your 
 highness, as your very humble servant, to take the same way. It 
 is the sui-est means of firmly establishing tranquillity in your do- 
 minions." ^ 
 
 Lesdiguieres did not confine himself to this single letter ; he wrote 
 also two'' others, stHl with the same object. The Duke of Savoy 
 insisted upon the Inquisition s acceding to these requests of hiima- 
 nity. But the inquisitors replied, with much mildness, humiHty, 
 and apparent regret, that this case was no longer in their hands, 
 but had been submitted to the decision of Rome. After this, some 
 months more passed. For a year and a half, by a resignation which 
 indicated both strength of conviction and energy of character, Se- 
 bastian Bazan protested against the violence which was done in his 
 person to the Christian religion. And this constant firmness of a 
 noble spirit, always serene and resolute, notwithstanding the de- 
 
 » Dated from Paris, 15th February, 1623. 
 
 IL 
 
222 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part First. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW COUPIN. 
 
 223 
 
 pressing effect of the treatment received in the dungeons, encircles 
 the head of the martyr with a halo of glory not less pure than that 
 of the courage, more briefly tried, which bi-aves the punishment of 
 death. 
 
 But for Sebastian Bazan this glory also was reserv^ed. On the 
 22d of November, 1623, sentence of death was notified to him. 
 He was condemned to be burned alive. " I am contented to die," 
 he mildly and courageously replied, " since it is the will of God, and 
 will be, I trust, for his glory. But as for men, they have pro- 
 nounced an unjust sentence, and they will soon have to give an 
 account of it." "Was it a mere fortuitous coincidence, or was it in 
 truth an actual judgment of Godi I know not; but he who had 
 pronounced this unjust sentence, received the stroke of death that 
 very evening in his own house. He died, therefore, even before 
 the condemned man. Next day, however, (the 23d of November, 
 1623,) was the day fixed for the execution. 
 
 Before leading Sebastian Bazan out of his prison, they put a gag 
 in his mouth, to prevent him from uttering gospel truth at the 
 stake. But whilst the executioner was fastening him to it, the gag 
 fell out, and the martyr proclaimed with a loud voice the cause of 
 his death. " People," said he, " it is not for a crime that I am 
 brought hither to die ; it is for having chosen to conform myself to 
 the word of God, and for maintaining his truth in opposition to 
 The inquisitors made haste to put an end to this sort of 
 
 error. 
 
 language by causing the pUe to be kindled. Then Sebastian Bazan 
 began to sing the hymn of Simeon, in the metrical version of Theo- 
 dore Beza, that touching hymn of the churches of his native coun- 
 try, which the faithful sing after having refreshed their souls in 
 the communion of their Saviour: — 
 
 ** Laisse-moi desormais 
 Seigneur, aller en paix, 
 
 Car selon ta promesse, 
 Tu fais voir ^ mes yeux 
 Le salut glorieux 
 
 Que j'attendais sans cesse ! ** 
 
 But his voice was veiy soon stifled by the flames, and according 
 to eye-witnesses, many persons, even of high mnk, wept on seeing 
 him die. 
 
 Several other arrests, followed by cruel treatment, took place at 
 this period ; amongst others, that of Captain Garnier, of Dronier, 
 who was apprehended for having conversed on religious subjects 
 
 * A simple and beautiful versification of the words of the aged Simeon, Luke 
 ii. 29, 30.— Tr. 
 
 with one of his relatives. He was tied upon a horse, his hands 
 being bound behind his back, and his feet under the belly of the 
 animal. When those who had him in charge stopped at any hos- 
 telry, they left him in this condition before the house, after having 
 attached the chain to the iron bar of some window, or to a ring in 
 the wall. Being conducted in this manner to Turin, he was put 
 in a prison of the castle, which was named the purgatory^ and 
 aftei-wards removed to another, called the heU. But after long time 
 spent in investigation and prosecution of the case, he was released 
 on a bail of 200 crowns of gold, and his promise not again to con- 
 verse on religious subjects. He then retired to the valley of 
 Lucerna, where he married; but having occasion to make a journey 
 into Dauphiny, and desiring to revisit the place of his bii-th, he 
 attempted to return by the valley of Dronier, and was assassinated 
 on the Col de Tende, at the age of fifty-five years. 
 
 More particulars have been preserved to us of the last moments 
 of Bartholomew Coupin, who was also settled in the valley of 
 Lucerna, but who was bom at Asti, about the year 1545. Having 
 married a young woman of Bubiano, he settled at La Tour, where 
 he carried on the trade of a woollen di'aper, and exercised the office 
 of an elder in the consistory of that church. The affairs of his 
 business, as well as the associations of his youth, having led him in 
 1601 to Asti, his birthplace, at the time of a fair, held in the 
 month of April, he found himself in the evening at a hostelry, 
 supping with strangers. Conversation having commenced among 
 them, the person next him inquired where he resided. Coupin 
 named La Tour. " I have been in your quarter," replied the ques- 
 tioner, " and lodged with a townsman, whose wife is from Mont- 
 callier." "No doubt it was Monsieur Bastie," said Coupin. "Yes, 
 Sir," said the other; "he is oftlie religion, I have been told." "And 
 so am I, at your service," said the woollen ' draper. " Do you not 
 believe that Christ is in the host 1 " inquired the other. " No," 
 replied Coupin. "What a false religion yours is!" exclaimed a 
 person who till then had been silent. "False, Sir," replied the 
 old man — for Coupin was then some sixty years of age — "it is as 
 true that our religion is true, as it is true that God is God, and 
 that I must die." He did not then think how soon these last words 
 were to be realized! Nobody spoke again to answer him; but 
 next day, the 8th of April, 1601, Bartholemew Coupin was appre- 
 hended by order of the bishop of that place. The officers of cus- 
 toms in the town had respected his religious opinions ; the prelate 
 had less charity, and caused him to be cast into the prisons of his 
 palace. 
 
224 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt First. 
 
 Does SLHJ one imagine that St. John or St. Peter ever had prisons 
 in their houses? But, indeed, their pretended successors are not 
 bound in anything to resemble them ! 
 
 Bartholomew remained two days in irons, far from his family, 
 afflicted, but calling upon his God, in the unwholesome garrets of 
 that palace, in which one of the dignitaries of the Papal Church 
 complacently enjoyed the light of the sun in his gilded halls, and 
 the sensual delights of the earth at his richly-served table. This 
 was still very unlike the lives of the apostles, nor was it of such a 
 mode of existence that Paul spoke to Timothy, as proper for a 
 Christian bishop. But on the part of Popery, nothing in the way 
 of interpretation or unfaithfulness ought to excite any surprise. 
 
 On the day after his apprehension, they brought Coupin a book, 
 intended to overthrow the Institutions of Calvin. It had been 
 composed by the previous bishop of Asti, whose name was De 
 Punigarole. " Not knowing how to pass my time," says he in a 
 letter, " I have read the whole of this horrid book, and even from 
 it I have derived some benefit, having learned from it a number of 
 sentences of Calvin, which are quoted in it." Thus the very means 
 which were thought best for shaking his faith, served to confirm 
 him. It was not for want of arguments of every sort, employed to 
 overcome him ; for poor Bartholomew was subjected to sixteen 
 examinations of five hours each, before the grand vicar, the advocate 
 fiscal, and a secretary named Annibal. The following are his own 
 words to his family, in a letter which Gilles has preserved : " They 
 asked me, besides what is in the Holy Scriptui*e, about things of 
 heaven, of earth, and of hell, and other things of wliich I never 
 heard before ; and I marvel at the grace which God gave me to 
 enable me to answer, it seems to me, seven times more than I 
 knew. O immortal God! thy word is indeed true, which tells 
 thine own that they need not concern themselves about what they 
 should say when they are brought before men for thy sake; bo- 
 cause it shall be given them what they shall answer ! " We may 
 form some notion of the extent of these examinations, from the 
 circumstance that frequently a quire of paper was not sufficient to 
 hold all the questions and answers of a single sitting. 
 
 "On the 16th of April," says the prisoner, "when I was very 
 much indisposed (for his advanced age, his detention, and his feeble 
 health, had made him quite valetudinarian), they came to seek me 
 in my prison, to conduct me to the tribunal. I passed through 
 three grand apaitments, and in the last I saw six prelates and 
 lords gi-avely seated in arm-chairs.^ *Ah! my God!* thought I, 
 
 ' " Sur les chaises," Coupin's letter says. 
 
 Chap. XV] 
 
 COUPIN'S EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 225 
 
 *this is my death!'" But the bishop saluted him, and, after 
 having named to him the persons present, mildly said to him, 
 " Bartholomew, we have prayed to God for you, that you may 
 acknowledge your errors, and return to the bosom of the chiu*ch. 
 What say you?" " I say that I am in the true church, and that, 
 by the grace of God, I hope to live and die in it." " If you would 
 renounce that heresy," replied the bishop, "your valley would be 
 all festivity and rejoicing upon your account." " It would rather 
 deplore the news of my apostasy." " Have they no regard, then, 
 for your life 1 " " Jesus says, * He who will save his life shall lose 
 it j* and it is eternal life which those who love me desire for me." 
 " Have you nothing, then, which binds you to the earth 1" " I have 
 a wife and children j I have also some property ; but God has taken 
 away all this from my heart, to put there love for his service, to 
 which, through his holy will, I shall remain faithful imtil death." 
 
 "There were upon the table," adds the martyr, "two Bibles, 
 and a large paper book, on which were written, beforehand, the 
 questions of the examination; and this with so many diabolical 
 inventions, that the most learned man in the world could not have 
 extricated himself from amongst them; and as for me, poor worm 
 that I am, I answered as much as it pleased God; and if in any- 
 thing I had difficulty as to reasons, I said to them — * I believe 
 what the Holy Scripture teaches, and that is sufficient to prove 
 the truth of my doctrine.' " 
 
 On the 29 th of April they returned to the charge, to make him 
 abjure. But he said to them — " You lose your time in seekiug to 
 overcome me, for I will never esteem myself overcome, knowing 
 that you could not do it if there were a thousand of you against 
 me." They said, " Do you then think yourself so learned 1 " " No, 
 my lords," he replied, " I am a poor merchant, and very unlettered ; 
 but I wish to learn nothing from you in the matter of religion, 
 and, therefore, I pray you to leave me in peace." " O what a 
 peace ! " cried the inquisitor who presided at these examinations. 
 " Cursed heretic ! obstinate Lutheran ! thou wilt go to the abode 
 of all the devils of hell ; and thou Hkest this better than to be 
 reconciled to the holy mother church !" "It is long," replied the 
 prisoner, " since I was reconciled to the holy church, and that is 
 the reason why I am so imwiUing to leave it." 
 
 In the following month (from the 1st to the 15th of May) he 
 was again frequently examined respecting the worship of images, 
 the invocation of saints, the merit of works, justification, <fec. ; but 
 in the end he said to them — " My lords, if an unarmed man were 
 attacked by four or five men well armed, how could he protect 
 
 Vol. I. 29 
 
226 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Ftmt. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 AN AFFECTING INTERVIEW. 
 
 227 
 
 I 
 
 •: 
 
 himself 1 You are here opposed to me—so many learned folks, 
 with books and writings prepared ; how am I, a poor ignorant man, 
 and without books, able to defend myself r' " You know too well 
 how to do that, you wretch!" replied the inquisitor; "it would be 
 better for you that your skull were not so well furnished." God, 
 who puts the truth into the mouths of his children, puts wisdom 
 and knowledge also into simple and upright hearts. It is not from 
 the head, but from the heart, that the living convictions come by 
 which men are enabled to brave death. 
 
 The bishop endeavoured to shake Coupin's determination by the 
 means so well known to the Church of Rome, and which so often 
 succeed with weak minds — the charm which is in prodigies, the 
 power of the marvellous, and all this aided by cruel threaten- 
 ings, and a long perspective of the torments from which a mira- 
 culous conversion seemed the only way of escape. *' See you that 
 building that stands there by itself f' said the bishop's secretary 
 one day to the poor prisoner, whom he had brought down to a ter- 
 race. "Yes." "It is a prison." "Well!" "It is thirty-two 
 years since I came to this palace." "What has that to do with 
 yonder prison ]" "Listen: one day there fell into our hands a 
 singular heretic; nobody knew what he was. He was neither a 
 Jew, nor a Lutheran, nor a Mahometan; nobody could tell his 
 religious creed." "And, therefore, not being able to convict him 
 of error, as they did not know his opinions, they must have released 
 him!" "No : he was walled up over there, and a little nourish- 
 ment was passed to him through a hole guarded with iron bars." 
 "What became of himi" "He remained there for five years; 
 many priests and monks came to instruct him and exhort him. All 
 at once he was converted ; and ever since that time he has done mai*- 
 vellous things." " As for me," replied Coupin, with the simplicity 
 of a Christian, and the affecting good-nature of an old man, " I 
 have but two or three steps to take in order to arrive at the good 
 place of rest, and, by God's help, I wiU not turn back." 
 
 " However," says he himself, " many i)riests and preachers came 
 also to console me and to disconsole me. The sieur John Paul 
 Laro, a person of great rank, having come to see me, began to 
 assail me about change of religion. * A nephew of Calvin,' said he 
 to me, * being on a long journey, passed through Home, where he 
 fell sick. Being without money, he went to the hospital. Next 
 day they wanted to confess him and to bring him the host, but he 
 refused the sacraments. Having questioned him as to whence he 
 - came, they knew what he was, and the pope had him brought into 
 his own presence. There he became a convert, and since that time 
 
 he has done marvellous things.' " It was always the same conclusion. 
 *• Other persons also," says Coupin, "came to tell me similar fables." 
 
 Meanwhile, his fellow-countrymen, his friends, and his family, 
 made very urgent efforts to obtain his liberty. All the notables 
 of the valley of Lucerna, including even some Catholic seigneurs, 
 who knew Coupin as an honourable and respected man, addressed 
 a petition in his favour to the Duke of Savoy, from whom there 
 was some hope of obtaining his liberation. The edicts in force 
 authorized the Vaudois to profess their religion ; the duke seemed 
 disposed to apply them to the prisoner at Asti, but the Romish 
 Church and the Inquisition always prevented it. " They blew to 
 kindle the pile," says an author of that time. 
 
 However, they did not cease to employ, in order to overcome 
 the firmness of the martyr, all the solicitations and all the means 
 which could operate upon the heart of man. He had espoused, as 
 his second wife, the daughter of a worthy notary of Bubiano, John 
 Reinier by name, who had been, in 1560, one of three delegates 
 of the valley of Lucerna, appointed to repair for conference, in 
 name of the Vaudois, to the castle of Cavour.^ Coupin obtained 
 leave to receive a visit from his wife and his eldest son. They 
 supped together: it was on the 15th of September, 1601. At the 
 close of the repast, the bishop and the inquisitor arrived. " Well, 
 Coupin, have you come to repentance ? You see your wife and 
 child : abjure your errors, and we shall immediately set you at 
 liberty." But they made nothing of it, says Gilles ; and his pious 
 wife herself durst not ask him to renounce his religion for the love 
 of this world. She could not but weep as she looked with ad- 
 miration on this invincible firmness of a soul victorious over life. 
 " My dearest," he said to her, " take heed to give good instruction 
 to our children. Be a mother to them all ! " (for he had two by 
 his former marriage ; theu* names were Martha and Samuel. The 
 names of the others were Matthew, David, Bartholomew, and 
 Mary). Then, when he had commended them all to the grace of 
 the Lord, they took their last farewell* with many tears. Now, 
 after the lapse of three centuries, it is pleasant to think that they 
 are re-united in heaven. 
 
 After their departure, Coupin found himself again alone in a 
 lofty prison, for his cell was situated in the uppermost story of the 
 episcopal palace. The friends whom he had at Asti, seeing the 
 hour of his condemnation to approach, excited by the example of 
 his courage, and vexed at the fruitlessness of all the efforts which 
 they made in his favour, resolved, in despair of his case, to de- 
 
 * See Part II., ch. i. 
 
 i 
 
l. 
 
 V- 
 
 228 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Fiest. 
 
 Chip. XV •] 
 
 FAMILY OF MALHERBE. 
 
 229 
 
 It 
 
 \ i 
 
 liver liim themselves, and to come and carry liim off during the 
 night. 
 
 All their precautions were taken with success. They made their 
 way, without any one suspecting it, to the top of the palace, pierced 
 the roof, descended into the garrets, removed a plank of the ceiling, 
 and reached Coupin's prison. The poor man knew not, on hearing 
 this noise, whether he ought to fear or to rejoice. Putting his 
 trust in God, he remained calm. He waited till the ceiUng of his 
 cell was pierced, and a dark lantern made its appearance over the 
 opening, when well-known figures presented themselves in the light 
 of that liberty-bringing lamp, amidst the profound darkness of the 
 night. "Silence!" said they to him, "we are fidends. Fasten 
 this rope around your body." " And why so much ado ? If God 
 think proper to deliver me from this place, he will deliver me 
 without any need of my going out like a robber." " But what if 
 it please God to make use of us for your deliverance ? You see to 
 how much danger we have exposed ourselves to come here ! God 
 protects us; would you disappoint his goodness and our labour?" 
 
 The aged captive suffered himself to be persuaded. Liberty had 
 become more precious to him since he had been deprived of it. 
 They drew him out of his chamber, and then from the roof of 
 the palace they let him down to the street. His libei-ators followed 
 with all haste, but the jailer and domestics had heard the noise; 
 they rose and gave chase ; the gates were opened amidst great din ; 
 the friends of Coupin became confused, and took to flight ; he alone 
 preserviug his composure, but too feeble and too aged to follow 
 them, waited tranquilly in the street till the jailer came to seek 
 for him. He was seized, carried back to the bishop's palace, and 
 shut up in a place of confinement stUl closer than before. His 
 soul alone was free ; his soul was happy, and felt no solitude, for 
 Jesus Christ says to his people — " I am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world." 
 
 This occurrence, however, had the effect of quickening the pro- 
 cedure against Coupia, ajid hastening on the termination of his 
 bodily sufferings. The papers in his case having been sent to 
 Rome, he was condemned to be burned alive. But on the day of 
 execution he was brought forth dead from the prison in which 
 he had been detained. Had he died by a natural or by a violent 
 death? This question has not yet been resolved. Be that as it 
 might, his corpse was cast upon the pile ; and whilst Rome raised 
 her chant of victory around the execution fii'e, the church of the 
 apostles and martyrs, the Yaudois Church, and the living gospel, 
 reckoned one triumph more. 
 
 Of these poor victims of persecution, it will be seen that a num- 
 ber had, by their birth, no connection with the Yaudois Church ; 
 but they belonged to it by their faith, and, in many instances, had 
 fixed their residence in the valleys. Of this number was also 
 Louis Malherbe, bom at Busque, near Saluces, in 1558. After 
 having passed through all the vicissitudes attendant upon the 
 numerous persecutions which the Protestants of his native district 
 were compelled to endure — by turns a prisoner and a fugitive — now 
 enjoying his possessions, and now seeing them subjected to confis- 
 cation — wandering hither and thither, but always steadfast in the 
 midst of his eventful life — in misery and in povei-ty, he only be- 
 came ever the more attached to the doctrines for which he had so 
 much to suffer. And if we love those things most which have 
 cost us the greatest sacrifices, what must be God's love to those 
 believins: souls whose salvation has cost the sacrifice of the Sa- 
 viour ! 
 
 Louis Malherbe had taken a wife at Yerzol ; and, after many 
 changes of residence, he settled at last at La Tour, like Roeri, 
 Bazan, and Coupin. 
 
 His family had already paid its tribute of martyrdom. When 
 Castrocaro was governor of the valleys, Captain Malherbe, the 
 brother of Louis, paid with his life for the spirit of independence 
 which animated him. This captain had been noticed by the Duke 
 of Savoy for his valour; and being a person of great consideration 
 in the valleys, he conducted himself as one who shoiild rather be 
 the associate of the counts of Lucerna, than of the governor of 
 La Tour. The governor, upon this account, conceived an envious 
 animosity against him; and on the evening of the 1st of Novem- 
 ber, 1575, he gratified it by an assassination. Malherbe had 
 gone to sup with a relative ; Castrocaro placed one of his officers, 
 named Bastian, with a company of the garrison, in ambush 
 on the way by which he must pass. The darkness of the night 
 favoured their designs: the streets of La Tour were silent and 
 solitary. Scarcely had Malherbe made his appearance when these 
 assassins attacked him at unawares: he drew his sword against 
 them, put himself in a posture of defence, repulsed them at first, 
 and although thereafter more closely pressed, continued to fight, 
 successfully defending himself, and always keeping his face towards 
 his assailants, tiU he arrived at the door of his own house. It was 
 situated opposite to where the present town's-house stands. The 
 assassins, feaiing lest he might escape, augmented their fury. 
 Malherbe struck redoubled blows, with the hilt of his sword, upon 
 the door, against which he had set his back ; at the same time, he 
 
230 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PkKT FlEST. 
 
 repulsed upon all sides the attacks of his adversaries. At the 
 noise of the combat his relatives and friends ran hastily and opened 
 the door, but it was too late. The mortal blow had been given ; 
 an instant had sufficed ; his wearied arm had left his breast unde- 
 fended, and he had just fallen, breathing his last. The murderers 
 immediately took flight, and when the door of the house was 
 opened, the corpse of their victim lay alone upon the threshold. 
 
 Another brother still, named Hercules Malherbe, was arrested 
 on the 11th of April, 1612, by order of the prefect of Pignerol. 
 But the Vaudois of St. John obtained his release, in virtue of the 
 article of their privileges, according to which no inhabitant of the 
 valleys could be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of his natural 
 judge (in this case the podestat of Lucerna), let the charge be what 
 it might, except for the crime of high treason. 
 
 His brother Louis was not so fortunate. Having ventured, 
 notwithstanding advice to the contrary, to go to Busque in the 
 spring of 1626, to receive payment of some money which was due 
 to him, he passed by Verzol, where his wife's family resided. 
 There he had a discussion with a missionary monk, who had been 
 preaching in the church called the church of Les Battus. The 
 monk, who probably had not the advantage in this controversy, 
 assisted by some followers, all ready to use violence in his behalf, 
 caused the old man (for Louis Malherbe had then seen nearly 
 seventy years) to enter into the church, close to where he had his 
 assassin band. They watched the gates; and he sent a messenger 
 in aU haste to the inquisitor of Saluces, who, without losing an in- 
 stant, came to Verzol to bear off the prisoner. No sooner were the 
 Vaudois apprised of this outrage, than they addressed a petition to 
 Charles Emmanuel for the liberation of the prisoner. They 
 grounded their petition on the edicts which authorized them freely 
 to pass through the dominions of his highness, without any one 
 having a right to arrest them, unless in the very act of crime. 
 
 Possibly a request enforced by such strong reasons might have 
 engaged the honour of the sovereign to a just compliance with it, 
 for the very maintenance of his own edicts; but the Inquisition, 
 more prompt to slay than the prince to pardon, anticipated the 
 solution of this question by an imexampled catastrophe. 
 
 At the very moment when hope began to be entertained of a 
 present happy termination of the old man's captivity, the monks 
 were seen to bear his corpse out of the prisons of the Holy Office, 
 and to cast it contemptuously into a pit digged in the open field, 
 beyond the walls of the city. The dishonour which marked his 
 burial may be held as an attestation of the firmness which he had 
 
 CuAP. XV.] 
 
 DANIEL PEILLON. 
 
 231 
 
 displayed, to his last breath, in not abandoning his religion; but 
 the cause of his death was not discovered. We know not whether 
 his body was entire or mutilated; whether he ha^ been deprived of 
 life by torture or by poison; nor, in short, whether his death had 
 been violent or natural. 
 
 When, about the close of the year 1633, the Vaudois of Pravig- 
 lelm and Paesane were obliged to quit their abodes for the last 
 time, and to retire into the valleys of Lucerna, the monks of the 
 convent of Paesane set fire to the deserted houses, in order to de- 
 prive their fugitive inhabitants of all hope of ever returning to 
 them again. Some of them came back to save from the flames 
 their furniture or linen, which they had not been able to carry 
 with them at first; but as they returned to their new refuge, 
 they were arrested by the soldiers of the garrison of Revel. These 
 imprisonments had no object but spoliation; and by abandoning 
 the relics of their property, which they had with peril rescued 
 from the fire, or by paying a heavy ransom, most of them obtained 
 their liberation. 
 
 But in this they were not all successful. Daniel Peillon, a man 
 already advanced in years, was apprehended at Barges, and con- 
 veyed from Revel to the prisons of the senate of Turin. There he 
 had to contend against the solicitations of the regular clergy, who 
 promised not only to restore him to liberty, but also to reinstate 
 him in full possession of all his property, if he would abjure Pro- 
 testantism. " God has given me the grace to know his truth," 
 replied he firmly ; " I have been happily enabled to persevere in it 
 to my old age, and I am too near death to sacrifice my soul for 
 the sake of living a few days more." In vain did they attempt to 
 make him say anything else. All who knew him, even Catholics 
 themselves, acknowledged his worth; many efforts were made to 
 obtain his liberation, but in vain ; he was condemned to the galleys 
 for ten years. One of his judges, a member of the senate, being 
 solicited in his favour by compassionate persons, who represented 
 how cruel it was to condemn an old man to so long a punishment 
 for no other cause than his doctrines, coldly replied, " Ten years of 
 the galleys ! what is that for a heretic ?" He was, therefore, com- 
 pelled to undergo this punishment. He was transported to the 
 pontoons of Villefranche, near Nice, and his fellow-countrymen of 
 the valley of Lucerna sent every year one of their number to con- 
 vey to him some relief and consolation. Every year, also, these 
 charitable messengers returned to announce to the Vaudois that 
 the evangelical galley-slave remained constant in his piety, endur- 
 ing his punishment, but without regret for its cause. 
 
2322 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt FiasT. 
 
 Peillon became weak in body, but his soul did not bend; he 
 grew old in the galleys, but renewed his youth for heaven. 
 
 The wars which ensued a few years after interrupted the frater- 
 nal communications betwixt the mountaineers and the prisoner. 
 When they sought to resume them, and new messengers came to 
 Villefranche to convey to him the accustomed tribute of the pious 
 sympathies of his distant friends, upon their inquiring after the 
 aged galley-slave of the valley of the Po, they learned that he was 
 dead. 
 
 Thus the Vaudois left martyrs everywhere — ^amongst the moun- 
 tains and in the prisons, on the piles, and on the seas. Such are 
 the great examples left us by that age of heroism, faith, and suf- 
 fering. 
 
 But how many other victims breathed their last with the same 
 faith, and amidst equal agonies, of whom no account has come down 
 to us ! Unnoticed soldiers, they contributed to the triumph with- 
 out having part in the glory. Obscurity attended them through- 
 out their painful pilgrimage, and received them in the tomb; vic- 
 tims forgotten upon earth, but not in heaven, they seem greater still 
 enwrapped in their own self-denial. And what matters it though 
 our names may be unknown to men, if only they be inscribed 
 in the book of life ! Martyrdom has no need of circumstances 
 which attract human attention, in order to enjoy the blessing of 
 heaven. To devote one's self to Christ, without regard to glory or 
 display, is the sacrifice which is most pleasing to him ; and it may 
 be made in the ordinary life of every day, as well as at the last 
 moment of a world-noticed death. Yea, the Christian may con- 
 tend for his faith in prosperity as well as in suflfering, and die for 
 his God in the bosom of his family, as well as on a burning pile. 
 
 PAllT SECOND. 
 
 FROM THE TIME WHEN THE VAUDOIS WERE RESTRICTED 
 WITHIN THE LIMITS OP THEIR VALLEYS, TO THE DATE 
 OF THEIR TOTAL BANISHMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MATTERS PRELIMINARY TO THE SECOND GENERAL PERSECU- 
 TION OF THE VAUDOIS OF THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1520 TOA.D. 1560.) 
 
 Increasing number of attendants at the public worship of the Vaudois — Building 
 of places of worship — Friendly disposition of the Dukes of Savoy in the earlier 
 part of the 16th century — ^Pope Paul IV. — Commissioners of the Parlia- 
 ment of Turin sent to the valleys in 1556 — Fanaticism — ^Firmness of the 
 Vaudois — Profession of faith — ^Threatenings of persecution — Charles and Boni* 
 face Trouchet, seigneurs of Le Perrier — Their attempt to seize the minister of 
 Rioclaret — Flight of the people of Rioclaret — An aged pastor and another 
 prisoner burned alive at Pignerol — The people of Rioclaret saved by the other 
 Vaudois, who take up arms for their assistance — Remarkable fate of the 
 seigneurs of Le Perrier — Philip of Savoy, Count of Racconis, at Angrogna — 
 Many instances of violence — ^Poussevin, commandant of Fossano — His argu- 
 ment in favour of the mass — The syndics of the valleys refuse to send away 
 the pastors — An army coUected against the Vaudois in 1560 — Vain attempts to 
 bring them even to apparent concessions— Friendly interposition of Count 
 Charles of Lucema. 
 
 \ ' 
 
 After having published the Bible, and confirmed their unity in 
 faith with the Reformed Church, the Vaudois entered upon the 
 public preaching of the glad tidings of salvation. 
 
 It will be remembered that the houses of their Barbas had 
 hitherto served them for places of meeting. Thus the primitive 
 church, exposed for centuries to assaults from without, long shel- 
 tered its testimony in the retirement of private dwellings. But 
 
 » AUTHOBITIES.— CiY/e*, Perrin, Be TJiou. — ** Memorabilis historia persecuti- 
 onum, bellorumqiLe in populum vul{/d Valdensem appdlatum, Angrunicanif Lu- 
 serneam^ Sanmartineam, Perusinam, aliusque regionis Pedemontance voiles 
 
 Vol. I. 3Q 
 
n 
 
 234 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Second. 
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCHES BUILT. 
 
 235 
 
 !^ 
 
 
 withal, this unobtrusive ministry was not the less active, and the 
 church all at once manifested an increased strength at the expiiy 
 of that first age of concentration. The Vaudois valleys adopted 
 the same method, which must be considered as the method adopted 
 by our Lord. At the date to which onr history now refers, all 
 their places of worship were constructed in a single year.^ 
 
 The number of hearers who at that time crowded into the resid- 
 ences of the Barbas became too great to be accommodated there, for 
 they came not only from the valleys, but from the plain of Pied- 
 mont ; and as the parish of Angrogna was most easily accessible to 
 them, they repaired thither in greatest numbers. 
 
 One day the throng, assembled in the square of the village, 
 waited till they should be able to enter the pastor s residence, which 
 was already fiill of people. It was in the month of August, 1555. 
 The pastor taught within ; a schoolmaster preached without. "Yes, 
 the times are come," exclaimed he, " when the gospel must be pro- 
 claimed to every nation, when the Lord will pour out his Spirit 
 upon every creature ! Come and drink at these living fountains 
 of the grace by which Christ refreshes our souls! Blessed are 
 they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be 
 
 incolentem, ab anno 1555 ad 1561, reliffumia ergo gestorum Anno MDLXII., 
 Gcdlici primum in luce ediia; nunc vero a Christophero Richardo LUurige, 
 Latine danata.'* A small 8vo volume of 151 pages, in italics.— The same work, 
 in French, '* Histoire des persecutions et guerres faites depuis Van 1555, jusques 
 en Van 1561, contre le peuple appeU Vaudois,^' &c., printed in the same year 
 (1562), a small quarto of 173 pages.— The same work in Crespin, ** Histoire mimo- 
 rable des persecutions . . . ." &c. Folio edition of 1619, from fol. 532 to fol. 547. 
 — *• Hist. mem. de la guerre faite par le Due de Savoy e Emmanuel Philibert, contra 
 ses svjets d^Angrogne, Perouse .... &c., traduit de Vltalien." Printed in 1561. 
 —The same work, published in Italian, in the same year.—" Hist, des persic. 
 contre les Vaudois, de 1555 a 1561," &c. The two preceding works combined 
 into one. Geneva, l^l.—*'Historia ecclesice Waldensium," &c. 4to. Strasburg, 
 IQ6S.—" Histoire des Chretiens communement nomm4s Vaudois, pendant Us douze 
 premiers sieclesf printed at Haarlem in 1765. This work had been previously 
 published in Dutch, at Amsterdam, in 1732 {"Historic der ChiHstenen, die men 
 gemeenlyk Waldensen noemt.")—** Chronique des Vaudois, depuis 1160 a 1655," 
 published in German, at Zurich, in 1655; republished at Schaffhausen the same 
 year (by Souter; it was the first work of that celebrated printer); translated into 
 Dutch, and published at Amsterdam in 1656, and in French, the same year, at 
 Geneva. See also the general sources of information indicated at the commence- 
 ment of Parti.— The manuscript authorities are almost none.— '' Belazione dei 
 successi mile valli di Lusema e Piemonte, Vanno 1559-1634 [without date or 
 place of publication).— -ffwtoJre mem. de la guerre faite par le Due de Savoje, 
 Emmanuel Philibert, contre ses subjects des vallees d^Angrogne, Pirosse . . , . et 
 autres circtmvoisines, pour compte de la religion. Ensemble les articles et capitu. 
 IcUicms de Vaccord propose audit seigneur par lesdits subjects, au mois de juing, 
 15G1. Nouvellement traduit de Vltalien en Fran^ais. MDLXII. A small 8vo. 
 of thirty pages. 
 
 » From 1555 to 1550. 
 
 filled !" And the people, with increased eagerness, called for the 
 pastor. The pastor was Stephen Noel, whom Gilles, in returning 
 from Calabria, had brought with him from Lausanne. He was 
 obliged to leave his house and preach in the open air. Privacy 
 was no longer possible. A place of worship was constructed upon 
 that spot, and before the end of the year another was built, at the 
 distance of half-a-league. These two places of worship remain to 
 the present day.^ The pastors read the Bible there, and explained 
 it to the people every day; the people could not be satisfied. 
 
 In the other communes the same demand arose for places of 
 worship. Within eighteen months they were all built. What a 
 power there is in evangelical life and activity ! " Show me thy 
 faith by thy works," said St. James to the primitive church ; and 
 that church pursuing her course of unobtrusive ministration in 
 private dwellings, laboured for centuries to win souls and elevate 
 them heavenwards, as so many temples dedicated to the Lord ; and 
 afterwards her places of worship arose everywhere. In the same 
 manner the Vaudois Church, after centuries of hidden life, set open 
 the sanctuary of its teachings, and all the places of worship in its 
 valleys were erected at once. It was not long till they were 
 cemented with the blood of mai-tyrs. Behold the works of our faith ! 
 might these worthy inheritors of the primitive Christians have said 
 to the apostle. 
 
 But they had been favoured by the kindness of their sovereigns. 
 There is extant a brief of Julius II., of date 8th May, 1506, 
 addressed to the Duke of Savoy, who had interceded for them with 
 the court of Rome;^ and for twenty years after the great synod 
 of 1532, the Vaudois still lived undisturbed. "The pastors and 
 other leaders of the churches," says Gilles, " had resolved to conduct 
 their religious services with as little display and noise as possible, 
 in order not unnecessarily to irritate those who only desired an 
 occasion to do them harm." 
 
 When prudence does not interfere with devotedness, it increases 
 our estimate of its value ; and when, at a later period — after hav- 
 ing been brought by Providence to enjoy a publicity of ministra- 
 tions beyond what they had sought — these intrepid propagators of 
 the gospel had notice given them that they must submit to some 
 restrictions, " Why," said they, " should we diminish the work of 
 Grod and the field of labour which he has assigned usl" " Armed 
 
 ' The first is that of St. Laurent; the second, that of Serres; they have merely 
 been repaired from time to time. 
 
 2 ^^obis humUiter supplicari fecisti ut subditis prcedictis ne vexentur — 
 
 Archives of the Court of Turin, T. 620. Cat. Valdesi; No. (of the series) 620. 
 
If 
 
 236 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaKT SlCOND, 
 
 Chap. I ] 
 
 THE TRUE " CONFESSOR." 
 
 237 
 
 I' I 
 
 bands," it was replied, " will come from Turin and annihilate you." ^ 
 " God will defend what he has set up," said they. And they pur- 
 sued, with the calmness of courage, the work commenced in the 
 calmness of prudence. It is the character of strong minds ; it was 
 that of these evangelical mountaineers. 
 
 But when seven places of worship were erected at once in the 
 valleys — when, notwithstanding the execution of Laborie, Vemoux, 
 Varailles, and Hector, who suffered martyrdom at that period, it 
 was perceived that the number of Vaudois students in foreign 
 parts, and that of the foreign pastors in Piedmont increased at the 
 
 same time with the flocks hungering for the pastures of the Bible 
 
 the court of Rome took the alarm, and armed itself with its utmost 
 severity. 
 
 The Vaudois valleys and the city of Turin belonged at that time 
 to France. The unfortunate Duke of Savoy, Charles III., so justly 
 sumamed the Good, had sought the assistance of Charles V., and 
 from his retreat at Verceil he beheld with sorrow his hereditary 
 dominions alternately made the prey of his allies and of his enemies. 
 Marcel II., a well-meaning and upright pope, who had manifested 
 some dispositions favourable to reformation, and evinced a desire 
 to introduce it into the Church, having been elected on the 9th of 
 April, 1555, died unexpectedly twenty-one days after his exaltation 
 to the papal chair, being struck, it was said, with apoplexy. His 
 successor, Paul IV.,'- more faithful to the spirit of Catholicism, 
 instead of favouring improvement, endeavoured to put a stop to it. 
 Events, at first, seemed to fall in with his designs. The cardinals 
 of Lorraine and of Toumon, the latter of whom had already 
 proved so dreadful an enemy to the Vaudois of Provence, came to 
 Rome on the 15th of December, 1555, to conclude, in name of the 
 King of France, a league against the Spaniards. At the same 
 time the nuncio wrote from Turin to report the progress made by 
 the Vaudois, and Paul IV. took advantage of the return of the 
 diplomatist cardinals to apply to Henry II., with whom he had 
 just been negotiating an alliance, requiring that he should employ 
 rigorous measures against these heretics. 
 
 The French monarch accordingly transmitted orders to the par- 
 liament of Turin, and that body named two commissioners, St. 
 Julian and Delia Chiesa (in Latin called De Ecclesia), who were 
 appointed to proceed to the spot, to collect information, to prepare 
 a report, to endeavour to bring over the Vaudois to Catholicism, 
 and to take all steps which they might judge necessary for that 
 
 ^ This report was current in the valleys in the month of December, 1555. 
 2 Elected on the 27th of May, 1555. 
 
 purpose. These delegates, escorted by a numerous smte, arrived in 
 the valleys in the month of March, 1556. They commenced by 
 issuing a proclamation, in which, reminding the people of the 
 respect due to the authority of the king and of the church, they 
 threatened with the severest penalties those who should resist. 
 The Vaudois replied that they were, and would continue to be, 
 feithful subjects and Christians. 
 
 But the irritation of the Catholics against the reformed was 
 great. A man of St. John, who had got his child baptized by the 
 pastor of Angrogna, was denounced to the commissioners, and cited 
 before them at Pignerol. There he received orders to have his 
 child re-baptized by a priest, with certification that if he did not 
 he would be burned alive. The disconcerted villager stood silent. 
 Being urged to reply, he asked time for reflection. " You shall 
 not leave that si)ot till you decide." " Permit me, at least, to take 
 counsel." " Of your confessor, perchance 1 " said the vice-president, 
 with a sarcastic air.^ " Yes, my lord," gravely repUed the Chris- 
 tian. His request was granted. "What is he going to do?" said 
 those who were present, one to another. The countryman retired 
 to the most distant part of the room, and fearlessly kneeling in 
 presence of these great ones, humbly addressed himself to God in 
 
 prayer. 
 
 And was not this, indeed, to go to the best counsellor— the friend 
 to whom all distresses may be confided — the only confessor who is 
 able both to absolve and to direct? "What have you resolved 
 upon?" said the magistrates. "Will you take upon your souls," 
 replied the peasant, " the evil which there may be in doing what 
 you require of me?" The commissioners, disconcerted in their 
 turn, sent him away, without insisting upon his compliance. 
 
 But all around them fanaticism was breaking out into deeds of 
 violence, and the basest passions were expressed in the most offen- 
 sive language. " I will cut off the nose of that cursed pastor of 
 Angrogna, if he continues his audacious preachings," cried a man, 
 named Trombaud, in the public square of Briqueras. 
 
 The smallest incidents were significant at that time ; they ap- 
 peared, to the lively and simple imagination of the people, to take 
 place under the guiding hand of God. And why should it not 
 always be so? This same Trombaud, travelUng by night towards 
 the mountains of Angrogna, was attacked by a wolf, which sprang 
 at his face, and disfigured it ; so that he underwent the same 
 mutilation by the teeth of a ferocious beast, with which his hand 
 
 » The commissioner, St. Julian, waa third president of the parUament of Turin, 
 and Delia Chiesa third counsellor. 
 
238 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Secohd. 
 
 had threatened the pastor. Common-place as this circumstance 
 may seem to us, it was taken at that time for a providential chas- 
 tisement, and perhaps retarded the bursting of the storm which 
 gathered over the Vaudois. 
 
 The commissioners visited the vaUey of Perouse; they then went 
 to Lucema, and afterwards to Angrogna, where they entered both 
 the places of worship, and were present during sermon. When the 
 minister had descended fix)m the pulpit, they commanded a monk 
 to get up into it, requesting the congregation to listen to him also. 
 The monk preached on the unity of the Catholic Church, and 
 asserted that separation from it was a crime. "It is that church 
 herself that has separated from the gospel," said the minister, when 
 the monk had finished his discourse; " and, if the honourable com- 
 missioners will permit us, we will prove it from the Bible." " We 
 are not come here to hold discussions," they replied, " but to enforce 
 the observance of the king's orders. Kecollect what happened ten 
 years ago to your brethren of Merindol and of Cabridres, for 
 having resisted the laws of the church."i The Vaudois, without 
 taking any notice of the confusion which these words made of civil 
 and ecclesiastical laws, or of the threat with which they were 
 accompanied, answered with the utmost simplicity, but firmly, 
 that they were resolved to live according to the word of God, and 
 that if the falsehood of their doctrines could be proved to them 
 from the word of God, they were ready to forsake them. The 
 same answer was given to the commissioners in the other communes 
 of the valleys, which they visited in the same manner. 
 
 Hereupon they retired to Lucema, and caused an edict to be 
 published on the 23d of March, 1556, by which they ordained the 
 Vaudois to abjure, and to receive no more preachers coming from 
 other parts, except such as might be sent to them by the Archbishop 
 of Turin. The third part of the goods of ofienders was promised 
 to those who should inform against them. 
 
 The Vaudois repHed by a profession of faith, founded upon the 
 Bible, in the spirit of which they resolved to persevere, like their 
 forefathers, until it should be proved to them that they were in 
 error. "And as for human traditions," they added, "we willingly 
 receive those which serve to promote order, decency, and the 
 dignity of the holy ministry; but as for those which are recom- 
 mended in order to the acquiring of merit, and to bind and oblige 
 consciences, contrary to the word of God, we absolutely reject them, 
 and would not accept them even from the hand of an angel." 
 
 > This was an aUusion to the frightful massacres which deluged the banks of the 
 Durance with blood in 1545.— &c chap. v. of Part I. 
 
 CHAf . I.] 
 
 THE POPISH COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 239 
 
 The commissioners could not hope to prevail more than an 
 angel, and upon this demanded that the pastors and schoolmasters 
 should be delivered up to them. " If they teach the truth," said 
 the Vaudois, "why take them from usi and if they do not teach 
 the truth, let it be proved to us by the word of truth." All the 
 threatenings and solicitations of the parliamentary envoys failed 
 against that impregnable rampart of the Vaudois church — ^the 
 Bible— the eternal stumbling-block of the Church of Rome. "Very 
 well," said St. Julian, "keep your schoolmasters and your preachers, 
 but you will have to give an account of your keeping them, when 
 they shall be demanded from you again." 
 
 After this the commissioners returned to Turin, and made their 
 report to the parliament, which appointed them to proceed to 
 France, to inform Henry II. of what had taken place, and to re- 
 ceive his instructions for the future. It was not until next year 
 that they returned, and revisiting the valleys, said to the Vaudois 
 that the king commanded them immediately to embrace Catholi- 
 cism. Three days were allowed them for deliberation. But they 
 did not need long time. " Let them prove to us," said they, " that 
 our doctrines are not agreeable to the word of God, and we are 
 ready to abandon them; otherwise, let them not ask us for any 
 abjuration." "We are not here to enter into any discussion," 
 replied the commissioners, " but to know if you are ready to be- 
 come Catholics; yes or no " " No !" said the Vaudois. 
 
 Thereupon, by an edict of the 22d of March, 1557, forty-six of 
 the principal of them were summoned to appear at Turin on the 
 29th of the same month, under pain of a fine of 500 crowns of gold 
 for each who should disregard the citation. All disregarded it. A 
 month after, new summonses were sent to some of those who had 
 been cited before, and to all the pastors and schoolmasters without ex- 
 ception. This time, also, they refused to attend. The syndics were 
 ordered to apprehend them, but no one durst lay a hand upon them. 
 
 About this time Spain and England declared war against France, 
 and the Swiss cantons interposed their influence with Henry II., 
 in favour of the Vaudois. These events suspended the proceed- 
 ings against them; and they hastened to profit by the intermission, 
 to prepare a code of ecclesiastical discipline, which was formally 
 adopted on the 13th of July, 1558. 
 
 In the following year Emmanuel Philibert was restored to the 
 enjoyment of his dominions.^ On the 9th of July, 1559, he 
 
 * With the exception of Turin, Pignerol, and some other towns, which were 
 given up to him from 1562 to 1574. In 1564, the Bernese restored to him the Pays 
 de Gex, which they had seized in 1536, but retained the Pays de Vaud. 
 
^ 
 
 'ill 
 
 I 
 
 240 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Sicowo. 
 
 espoused the sister of Henry II., who was favourable to Protes- 
 tantism; and in the commencement of his reign he showed a friendly 
 disposition towards the inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys, whose 
 valour and loyalty were both well known to him. 
 
 But the prelates, the nuncio, the King of Spain, and some of the 
 princes of Italy, at the instigation, as Gilles says, of certain gentle- 
 men of the valleys,^ so plied the good prince on all hands with their 
 sob'citations, that he began by forbidding aU who did not belong 
 to the Vaudois valleys from going to hear sermon there.2 And 
 thereupon commissioners were named, to see that the reformed 
 worship was not celebrated beyond the prescribed limits of these 
 mountains. At their head was no less a personage than Philip of 
 Savoy, the cousin of the reigning duke, who assumed the appeUation 
 of Coimt of Pacconis; with him was the Count of La Trinite, 
 whose proper name was George Coste, and the grand inquisitor of 
 Turin, by name Thomas Jacomel. Gilles, who is usually so reserved 
 in his expressions, says of him, that he had the reputation of being 
 an apostate, and a shameless and insatiable plunderer of what be- 
 longed to othei-s. • 
 
 The most really noble of these three personages soon withdrew 
 from the bloody course which they thought fit to open up for the 
 triumph of Catholicism ; for it was by their hands that so many 
 stakes were at that time erected, and that the flame of so many 
 piles illustrated the devotedness of our martyr fathers. It was at 
 that time, also, that the valleys of Mathias, Larche, and Meane 
 were so cruelly assailed, of which notice will fall to be taken in 
 the history of Pragela, as well as those of Saluces and Barcelonnette, 
 of which we have already spoken. Amidst such a series of perse- 
 cutions, it could not fail, ere long, to come to the turn of the 
 Vaudois valleys also. But, forgetful of their own dangers, they 
 were forward in endeavouring to avert those of their brethren. 
 The representations, petitions, and supplications which the Vaudois 
 at that time addressed to the sovereign,^ in favour of their perse- 
 cuted brethren, had no efiect but to attract attention to their own 
 church, which till then had been spared. 
 
 The year 1560 commenced in the valleys with violent earth- 
 quakes.* At this date, also, the monks of the abbey of Pignerol had 
 
 » There are letters extant of Count William of Lncema, showing his participa- 
 tion in this hostility. There are also others of Count Charles, which exhibit him, 
 on the contrary, as the zealous protector of the Vaudois. 
 
 » Edict dated at Nice, 15th February, 1560. 
 
 3 See on this point the twelfth chapter of Gilles. 
 
 * The first of these took place on the 8th of February, at four o'clock in the 
 morning, the second on the 13tli of April, in the afternoon. 
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 RIOCLARET PILLAGED. 
 
 241 
 
 in their pay a troop of plunderers; and, in the words of Crespin, 
 '' they sent them out to pillage, beat, and kill the poor people, and to 
 bring prisoners to the abbey, both men and women, of whom some 
 were most cruelly burned alive, and others sent to the galleys, 
 and some few released for a ransom. Those who escaped from their 
 prisons were so sick that they seemed to have been poisoned."* 
 
 The valley of St. Martin was laid waste by the seigneurs of 
 Le Perrier, named Charles and Boniface Truchet.^ In the preced- 
 ing year they had already attempted to seize the minister of Rio- 
 claret (the valley of tlie clear stream). Whilst he was preaching, they 
 had sent to the place of worship traitors, who, under the guise of 
 simple hearers, were to gather around the minister, and lay hold of 
 him. These hireling villains were at their post. Charles Truchet 
 arrived at the gates of the place of worship with his proud and 
 well-armed troop. He sounded the clarion; his secret emissaries 
 rushed upon the pastor, and endeavoured to drag him away. All 
 the people flew to defend him. The troop attempted to carry the 
 church by assault, but was repulsed; its leader, although of great 
 stature, vigorous, and armed with mail, was in danger of losing his 
 life, for one of these robust mountaineers having got into combat 
 with him, and squeezed him up against a tree, could easily have 
 choked him; but because of his rank, says Gilles, and from motives 
 of humanity, he let him go. 
 
 Instead of being thankful, his hostility only grew. Thus it is 
 with base natures. On the 2d of April, 1560, before daylight, he 
 returned to Rioclaret with a troop more numerous than the former, 
 broke open the dooi-s, killed the inhabitants, and ravaged the 
 whole hamlet. But the cries of his first victims wakened their 
 neighbours, who fled without clothes, without provisions, and with- 
 out arms, to the peaks of the mountains, still covered with snow. 
 ''The enemy," says Richard,^ "pursued these j^oor people far up 
 into the woods, firing many shots at them with theii' arquebuses: 
 afterwards they came back to the deserted houses, took up their 
 lodgings there, and made themselves comfortable, whilst those to 
 whom the houses and provisions belonged were suffering from 
 hunger and cold: they even asserted loudly that they would not 
 permit them to return, at least until they should promise to go to 
 mass." 
 
 Next day an aged pastor, recently come from Calabria, made an 
 ' Crespin, fol. 535, second page. 
 
 2 They are designated, in some docuineuts, as seigneurs of Rioclaret, a commune 
 quite cJose by Le Perrier. 
 
 x^.^^' ^^^^' ^ ^^' ^^^' ^ ^^^ 1^ ^«w« <^ 1561.— Translation of 
 MDLXIJ., pp. 47-52. 
 
 Vol. I. gj 
 
242 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Secowd. 
 
 Chap, l] 
 
 THE TWO COUNTS. 
 
 243 
 
 !!l 
 
 :j» 
 
 
 • 
 
 I 
 
 attempt to visit and encourage these poor fugitives. The troop of 
 Truchet perceived him at daybreak, pursued him, seized him, and 
 delivered him over to the monks of Pignerol, who caused him to be 
 burned alive, with another prisoner from the valley of St. Martin. 
 It is as needless to say that they might have saved their lives by 
 apostasy, as it was needless to propose it to them. 
 
 Three days afterwards, however, the Vaudois of Pmgela having 
 learned the unhappy condition of their brethren of Rioclaret, 
 assembled, to the number of 400, and resolved upon going to their 
 rescue. Their pastor, named Martin, marched at the head of 
 this troop. From time to time as they advanced, he flung himself 
 upon his knees, with all liis men, and prayed to God to give them 
 the victory. Their prayer was heard. The weather was very gloomy, 
 and it was towards evening when they arrived at Rioclaret. The 
 enemy, being apprised of their approach, had made preparations for 
 defence ; but a terrible storm, such that the Alps themselves 
 seemed to be shaken when it burst upon their peaks, poured its 
 fury upon the mountain at the moment when the action commenced. 
 After an obstinate combat, the band of Truchet was driven from 
 its positions, and pursued into the ravines, where the soldiers 
 wandered in the midst of the night, and for the second time the 
 \injust aggressor had difficulty in making his escape. 
 
 Hereupon Truchet repaired to Nice, where Philibert then held 
 his court, for the city of Turin liad not yet been given up to him. 
 " The Vaudois," he said to him, " are rebels; they bring foreign 
 troops into your dominions," (alluding to that band which came 
 from Pragela, in the kingdom of Fi-ance,) "and they are construct- 
 ing places of security on the mountains." 
 
 A miserable stronghold, indeed, was that to which they had been 
 
 obliged to retire amidst the snow, half-naked, and without arms or 
 
 provisions! But the duke could not know these particulars: he 
 
 was in bad health, and very irritable; and the Truchets counted on 
 
 his wrath. Yielding, therefore, to their perfidious suggestions, he 
 
 authorized them to rebuild the fortifications of Le Perrier, which 
 
 had been destroyed by the French before the restitution of that 
 
 place,^ and to burden the Vaudois with compulsory labour. The 
 
 Vaudois addressed respectful remonstrances to their sovereign; the 
 
 seigneurs of Le Perrier returned to Nice to counteract the effect 
 
 of them; and during a pleasure excursion which they made upon 
 
 the sea, they were carried off by corsairs, and are no more mentioned 
 
 in history.''^ 
 
 * These fortifications were demolished in 1534, or thereabout. 
 - They -were believed for a long time to be dead ; but they made their appeaTance 
 again, after having been obliged to pay 400 crowns of gold for their ransom. 
 
 Whilst these things were taking place in the valley of St. 
 Martin, the duke's cousin, the Count of Racconis, had proceeded 
 to that of Lucerna. One day, in the month of April, he ascended 
 to Angrogna, and listened in silence to the sermon of the minister. 
 After the conclusion of the service, he expressed a desire to see 
 the proceedings against the Vaudois terminated. To take advan- 
 tage of these friendly feelings, the Vaudois sent to him a particu- 
 lar exposition of their doctrines, with three petitions, one addressed 
 to the Duchess of Savoy, another to the duke, and the third to 
 his council. 
 
 Six weeks after, towards the end of the month of June, the 
 Covmt of Racconis returned to Angrogna with the Count of La 
 Trinitl. The syndics and pastors being assembled, these commis- 
 sioners demanded of them whether they would make any opposi- 
 tion to the duke's causing mass to be sung in their parish. They 
 said, " No, if we are not obliged to go to it." ** If the duke send 
 you ministers who shall preach to you the word of God in purity, 
 will you hear them?" "Yes; if that word itself be not taken 
 from us." "In that case, will you consent to send away your 
 present pastors, under reservation of a right to recal them, if those 
 who shall be given you shall not appear to you to be evangelical?" 
 The Vaudois having asked time to reflect upon this question until 
 the morrow, replied that they could not resolve to send away their 
 present pastors, whom they already knew to be evangelical, in 
 order to receive others who might not be so. This was too reason- 
 able to admit of being answered ; accordingly the commissioners, 
 without attempting to answer it, harshly ordered the Vaudois to 
 send away their ministers without further remarks. In vain the 
 syndics mildly set forth that they had always found tliem of sound 
 doctrine and holy life, and that they could not expel them without 
 a cause. " They are enemies of the prince," replied the Count of 
 La Trinite, " and you will expose yourselves to great dangers in 
 keeping them among you." 
 
 The two noble lords then retired without any act of violence; 
 but all the adversaries of the Vaudois redoubled their insolence 
 towards them. The mercenaries of the abbey of Pignerol, in 
 pai*ticular, carried on a lawless course of infuriate violence, and 
 it was at this time that they seized the pastor of St. Germain, 
 whose martyrdom has been already related. 
 
 " In the month of June," says Crespin, " at the time when the 
 harvest is reaped in Piedmont, a number of the Vaudois people 
 having gone, according to their custom, to work in the plain as 
 reapers for hire, to earn a little, they were all made prisoners at 
 
244 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Sic on n. 
 
 different places and times, without their knowing anytliing one 
 of another; >)ut by the goodness of God they all escaped from their 
 prisons, as if by miracle. Then came the harvest time in the 
 mountains in the month of July, and the people of Angrogna, 
 being one morning in their muandas or summer huts [c/ta/e<*], in 
 the neighbourhood of St. Germain, heard some arquebuse shots in 
 the direction of that place; and a little after they perceived a 
 troop of plunderers, to the number of 120, who were advancing 
 towards them. Hereupon they immediately shouted, to give notice 
 to their brethren, and being all assembled, they formed themselves 
 into two troops of fifty men each, the one of which went higher 
 up, and the other lower down upon the mountain. The latter 
 were the first to rush upon the rascally company, who were all 
 loaded and encumbered with booty, and they put them to flight, 
 and pursued them to the banks of the Clusone, where the half of 
 them were drowned." If the men of Angrogna had chosen then 
 to pursue the fugitives, they might have seized upon the abbey 
 buildings, and delivered all their brethren who were prisoners, for 
 the monks had fled to Pignerol ; but they could not venture to do it 
 without consulting their pastors, and thus the opportunity was lost. 
 
 A few days after, the commandant of Fossano retired into this 
 abbey, after a polemical conference with the Vaudois pastors ; and 
 from thence he sent and seized a number of poor people of Cam- 
 pillon and Fenil, with their families and their cattle. Their 
 brethren, alarmed, took to flight. Upon this one of the seigneurs 
 of Campillon offered them his protection, and assured them that 
 they would be left in quiet, if they would pay him thirty crowns. 
 They gave the money, and remained in their abodes. And who 
 was it that then betrayed them? The same gentleman who had 
 caused them to pay him to be their protector, and who now pro- 
 moted their apprehension. But being warned in time, they took 
 to flight again, and so escaped ft-om that treachery.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Duke of Savoy had transmitted to Rome the 
 statement of their doctrines which the Vaudois had sent him. As 
 they offered to abandon their doctrines if they were proved to be 
 erroneous, and as they had never ceased to invoke discussion for 
 this intent, it appeared only fair to commence thereby. But as 
 this involved a question strictly ecclesiastical, it was necessary to 
 consult the head of the church, and the pontifical decision did not 
 arrive at Nice till near the end of June. " I will never permit," 
 said Pius IV., " that points which have been canonically decided 
 should be opened to discussion. The dignity of the church requires 
 
 ^ All these particulars are taken from Crespin, fol. 536, 537. 
 
 Chaf. ij 
 
 POXJSSEVIN OF FOSSANO. 
 
 245 
 
 that every one submit himself to her constitutions, disputing 
 nothing; and the duty of my office is to proceed with all rigour 
 against those who do not choose to be in subjection thereto." 
 The pope would consent only to send to the valleys a legate, who 
 might absolve Irom all their past crimes those who should become 
 Catholics, and instruct them in their new duties udthout controversy, 
 that is to say, without their examining for themselves. 
 
 Accordingly, the governor of Fossano, by name Poussevin, was 
 commissioned by Emmanuel Philibert, on the 7th of July, 1560, 
 to establish in the Vaudois chtirches certain of the Brethren of 
 Christian doctrine, under whose influence intellectual servility 
 would soon have brought about that precious submission so neces- 
 sary to the Church of Rome. 
 
 Poussevin repaired in the first place to the castle of Cavour, 
 situated upon a solitary eminence, like a verdant pyi^amid in the 
 midst of the plain, opposite to the valley of Lucerna. The castle 
 belonged at that time to the Count of Eacconis, who happened 
 also to be there. The Vaudois were invited to send representatives 
 thither. They named three, and one of them was chosen from 
 Bubiano, a town situated close by the gates of Cavour. This one 
 was the notary Reinier, father-in-law of Bartholomew Coupin, one 
 of the martyrs whose story has been already told. On their 
 arrival at Cavour, the governor acquainted them with his commis- 
 sion, and demanded if they would consent to hear the sermons 
 which he proposed to preach in the valleys. " Yes," they replied, 
 "if you preach the word of God ; but if you preach the human 
 traditions, which bring it to nought, No." Poussevin did not 
 seem to be offended at this frankness and energy, and replied that 
 he would preach only the pure gospel. 
 
 But during this conference, a Vaudois of St. Germain had com- 
 plained to the Count of Racconis, that the people of Miradol 
 had carried away his cattle, and had promised to return them 
 to him upon payment of 100 crowns, which he had scraped 
 together with great difliculty. "And have you sent them to 
 themT' "Yes; but they have kept both the cattle and the 
 money." " I commend you to Poussevin, said the count;" "he will 
 give you full and prompt justice." " You are an ill-bred feUow," 
 said Poussevin, in reply to the poor man's request, "and if you had 
 gone to mass, this would never have happened to you. And I can 
 tell you," he added, "that this is only the commencement of what 
 is in store for heretics." Such were the first proofs of justice and 
 of pure evangelical doctrine, given by the representative of the 
 throne and of the church. 
 
246 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Secowd. 
 
 Chap. I ] 
 
 POUSSEVIN DEFEATED. 
 
 247 
 
 This governor, however, had a great reputation for eloquence, 
 and doubtless supposed that his power of oratory, together with 
 the assistance of the secular arm, would procure him the honour of 
 a ready triumph over the consciences of these poor, good-natured 
 Vaudois, who suffered themselves to be so easily duped. Having 
 therefore announced that he would preach at Cavour next day, to 
 set foi-th in public the object of his mission, he ascended the pulpit 
 of the largest church in the town, and said, in substance, that he 
 was about to convict all the Vaudois pastors of heresy, to expel 
 them, and to re-establish the mass in the vaUeys. Two days after 
 he went to Bubiano, where he added terrible threats against the 
 obstinate, and splendid promises for those who should abjure — new 
 auxiliary means, of which he began to feel the need. The Protes- 
 tants of Bubiano, who formed one-half of the population, were not 
 moved; but the Catholics, their neighbours and friends, Avith whom 
 they had always lived upon good understanding, actuated both by 
 religious zeal and by natural affection, strongly urged them at once 
 to become Catholics, in order to avoid the calamities with which 
 they were threatened. 
 
 This, however, was only the prelude to scenes still more remark- 
 able. Poussevin, having come to St. John, invited the leading 
 members of the Vaudois churches to have a conference with him. 
 The conference took place in the Protestant church of Les Stalliats. 
 "Here," he said, "is the commission which has been given to me;" 
 and he caused the ducal letters patent to be read, from which he 
 derived his authority. " Here now," he said, " is the statement of 
 doctrines presented as on your part; do you acknowledge it?" On 
 their replying that they did, he asked them if they adhered to the 
 sentiments which it contained. "We have seen no reason," said 
 they, "to change them." "Well, then," said he, "you are bound 
 by this paper to repudiate your errors so soon as they shall be 
 proved to you." " And we promise it again," said they. "If that 
 be the case," said he, " I will prove to you that the mass is to be 
 found in the Holy Scripture. Does not the word massah signify 
 smtr "Not exactly." "Was not the primitive expression, /^e, 
 inissa est, employed to send away the audience?" " That is true." 
 " You see, then, gentlemen, that the mass is to be found in the Holy 
 
 Scripture." 
 
 Kever did a novjce of an advocate, thinking to catch his adver- 
 sary by arguments from which there was no escape, make a more 
 ridiculous conclusion. But, alas ! it had been well if such sophis- 
 tical quirks had not led to frightful massacres ! 
 
 The Vaudois, however, respectfully replied that he had made a 
 
 mistake as to the term massahy which was not to be found in the 
 Hebrew text with the sense which he had assigned to it ;^ and that, 
 moreover, if it were, it would not prove the Divine institution of 
 the mass ; also that private masses, transubstantiation, the denial 
 of the cup to the laity, and many other things which were in dis- 
 pute between them, would by no means be justified by such a line 
 of argument. "You are heretics, atheists, and damned," cried 
 Poussevin in a sort of frenzy; " I have not come to hold discussions 
 with you, but to drive you out of the country as you deserve." 
 This contemptible and coarse reply confounded the hearers, who 
 had accompanied the governor because of the renown of his learn- 
 ing and eloquence, and caused the blood to rush into their cheeks. 
 The governor, however, immediately caused notification to be made 
 to the syndics of the several communes of the valley, that they 
 must expel the pastors, and provide for the maintenance of the 
 priests who should be sent to them. The syndics replied that they 
 would not send away their pastors unless they were convicted of 
 errors in behaviour or doctrine, and that they would make no pro- 
 vision for the maintenance of those of whom he spoke as coming, 
 unless they were equally irreproachable in doctrine and morals. 
 
 It was upon this that Poussevin retired into the abbey of Pig- 
 nerol, as has been stated in the commencement of this chapter. 
 There he passed the month of August, and composed a polemical 
 work, which was refuted by the celebrated and learned Scipio 
 Lentulus, then pastor at St. John, and afterwards one of the pillars 
 of the Evangelical Church of the Orisons. 
 
 In the beginning of September, 1560, Poussevin quitted Pig- 
 nerol to go to Emmanuel Philibert, who was always in bad health 
 and irritable; and before. him brought the most odious and calum- 
 nious accusations against the Vaudois. They, being informed of 
 this, addressed new protestations to the duke, through the inter- 
 vention of the good Duchess Margaret, the daughter of Francis I., 
 and that of Ren6e of France, who had just arrived in Piedmont 
 on her way home to her own country. She was the daughter of 
 Louis XII., and had now for a year been the widow of Hercules II., 
 Duke of Ferrara, in which city she had at a former period attended 
 the preaching of Lentulus, who was of Neapolitan origin. He 
 wrote to her to say that he had found in the Vaudois valleys " a 
 people strongly attached to the true religion, faithful to God and 
 to their superiors, and of exemplary life, but cruelly persecuted in 
 these difficult times; wherefore he prayed her to recal to mind the 
 favour which she used to have for him, and to intercede with their 
 » The Hebrew word massah signifies a burden, appointed or actual. 
 
t V 
 
 Vi 
 
 2i8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [VxVt SlCOKD. 
 
 CaiLP l] 
 
 THE CONFERENCK 
 
 249 
 
 I 
 
 liighnesses of Savoy on behalf of this poor people." But all these 
 eflforts- remained fruitless. 
 
 The beginning of the month of October, 1560, had now come. 
 The nuncio and the prelates strongly insisted upon the duke's 
 complying with the instructions of the holy father. Why consult 
 him if his decision was not to be respected? It was to aggravate 
 the wrong which the church had already endured by the increase 
 of heretics. The argument was correct. Rome is logical : the 
 deference which had been shown was an acknowledgment of her 
 power, and power requires obedience. The Duke of Savoy, there- 
 fore, must needs obey. 
 
 He levied troops in Piedmont, promised a full pardon to all con- 
 demned persons, fugitives from justice, vagabonds and outlaws, who 
 should enrol themselves as combatants against the Vaudois, m 
 whose sight persecuting fanaticism already permitted its triumphant 
 joy to break out. Their friends at a distance repaired to the val- 
 leys, to persuade those who were dear to them to leave the scene 
 of danger. The inhabitants of the plain took away the infants 
 which they had sent thither to be nursed. Catholics of kind and 
 humane disposition, who had relatives in the mountains, entreated 
 those whom they loved to abjure rather than suffer themselves to 
 be destroyed. It seemed that all was on the point of being con- 
 sumed in a total and inevitable destruction. The consternation 
 
 was general. 
 
 Count Charles of Lucema, at that time governor of Mondovi, 
 repaired in person to Angrogna, and wrote several times to the 
 Vaudois, to whom he was strongly attached, to persuade them 
 to bend to circumstances, and to submit to the commands of their 
 sovereign, were it only for love of him and of their own families. 
 "Worthy Sir," they replied, " we must, above all, do that which the 
 love of God and of truth directs us." However, a deputation was 
 sent to him by the Vaudois, to thank him for the interest which 
 he took in their fate. " If you will consent," said he, " to send 
 away your pastors, at least whilst this storm shall last, I will go 
 and cast myself at the feet of his highness, to try if I can save 
 you." "We are deeply impressed with your great kindness," they 
 replied, "but we are not empowered to make any such engage- 
 ment in name of our people." "Ah, well !" he said, "go and con- 
 sult them, and we will try to reconcile your preservation and your 
 
 faith." 
 
 It was agreed that the reply of the people should be conveyed 
 to him by Peter Boulles of Bubiano, the brother of him of whom 
 mention has already been made in the history of the Protestants 
 
 of that town. But without waiting for the return of that emis- 
 sary. Count Charles wrote immediately to his mother, that she 
 should do everything in her power to incline the Vaudois to some 
 apparent concessions. The countess, in her turn, wrote to them, 
 and they replied, that having stated to the Duke of Savoy all 
 that their consciences permitted them to do according to the 
 word of God, they were resolved not to change what they had 
 said. " If the circumstances in which we are placed are serious," 
 said they, "our duties are still more serious. The times may 
 change, but the Bible never changes, and our consciences cannot 
 be altered." 
 
 The countess transmitted this reply to her son, who left Mon- 
 dovi, and came himself to Lucema, on the 22d of October. He 
 immediately caused the principal inhabitants of Angrogna to be 
 called before him — Rivoire, Odin, Frache, Monastier, Malan, 
 Appia, Buffa, Bertin, and some others. He found fault with them, 
 reprimanded them, exhorted, menaced, showed them that an army 
 was already mustered, and quite prepared to proceed to the gi-eatest 
 severities against them; he conjured them not to be obstinate and 
 to incur certain death; to pay some respect to the attachment 
 which he felt for them, to the compassion with which he was filled, 
 to the urgency which he employed; he even entreated them to send 
 away their pastors. " Is your fate inseparable from that of these 
 men 1 " he added, in conclusion. " No, certainly, we are not slaves 
 to any man, but to the word of God ; our pastors are dear to us, 
 but the word of God alone is necessary to us; let them allow us 
 ministers who preach it, and we will send away those who at pre- 
 sent teach it to us." " And if the duke cause mass to be cele- 
 brated in your parts, what will you do?" "We will not attend 
 it." After urging them, in vain, to obtain some further concession, 
 the count caused these conditions to be written down. 
 
 The deputies retired. Some hours after, the report spread 
 rapidly that they had consented to the expulsion of their pastors 
 and the establishment of the mass. The people of Angrogna were 
 furious. "Rather let us die!" they exclaimed; and pressing like 
 a swelling sea around the astonished deputies, they demanded an 
 explanation. It was given, but was not at all in accordance with 
 the minute of conference already mentioned, which, upon examina- 
 tion, was found to be falsified. 
 
 It was the secretary's fault, the count said; but his church had 
 accustomed him to 2nous frauds, another invention of Catholicism, 
 like religious wars: the impious combinations of words are charac- 
 teristic of Catholicism itself as a whole ! And the good seigneur 
 
 Vol. I. 33 
 
250 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part SjccoNn. 
 
 Chap, ll] 
 
 THE PERSECUTION BEGINS. 
 
 251 
 
 had thought he might allow himself to employ one of these pious 
 frauds in order to save the Vaudois. 
 
 But they had no thought of saving themselves at such a price. 
 The papers were torn in pieces, and the martyr people declared 
 that they could not make any change in their resolutions. 
 
 " Let your pastors at least go and hide themselves for a few 
 days," said the count again; "they will come and celebrate mass at 
 Angrogna; you will not attend it; the duke will be satisfied, and 
 the armies will be withdrawn." "But why this hypocrisy 1" 
 rejoined these poor people; "must we do good as men do evil, 
 concealing it] No! may God protect us! we will not be ashamed 
 of his ministers, for then he would be ashamed of us." 
 
 The count, Gilles says, manifested much grief at the prospect of 
 the miseries which he foresaw. The Vaudois thanked him with 
 great feeling for all that he had done, and assured him of their 
 attachment and respect, but they retired without yielding any- 
 thing. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SECOND GENERAL PERSECUTION WHICH 
 TOOK PLACE IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.' 
 
 (a.d. 1560 TO A.D. 1561.) 
 
 Tlie anny tinder the command of the Count De La Trinite marches against the 
 Vaudois — Its excesses even against adherents of the Church of Rome — Re- 
 markable proof of the estimation in which the morality of the Vaudois was 
 held— First skirmishes— Successive defeats of the Count De La Trinite — At- 
 tempted negotiation— The Count De La Trinite visits the Pra-du-Tour— His 
 perfidy— C^ombats— Cruelties— A large sum extorted from the Vaudois to secure 
 the withdrawal of the invading army — Further treachery — The Vaudois send 
 their pastors to Pragela — Outrages and horrible atrocities — Unsuccessful depu- 
 tation to the Duke of Savoy— The Vaudois swear a covenant in the Val Cluson 
 — They adopt measures for more effective resistance — Partial contests, in which 
 the Vaudois are successful— They take Le Villai>-Their Flying Company— 
 Further defeats of the assailants— Treacherous attempt to engage the Vaudois 
 in negotiations, and to attack them by surprise— Final defeat of the Count De 
 La Trinite, and terms of peace granted to the Vaudois. 
 
 Waii was therefore declared. The Vaudois families made haste 
 to gather together the things most indispensable for subsistence, 
 and to retire with their flocks to the fastnesses of the high moun- 
 tains. The pastors everywhere redoubled their zeal and fervour. 
 The religious assemblies were never more largely attended. The 
 * AUTHOBITIES. — The same as in the chapter preceding. 
 
 army approached. It was about the end of October. The Vau- 
 dois valleys set apart a time for fasting and prayer. After these 
 solemnities, an extraordinary celebration of the Lord's Supper took 
 place, which united all the persecuted in one act of holy fellowship. 
 Thus, without fear or weakness, but encouraging one another, did 
 "these poor people," as Gilles says, "prepare, with incredible 
 resolution and cheerfulness, to receive from the hand of God all 
 the afflictions to which it might seem good to him to subject them. 
 Nothing was to be heard from vale to mountain but the psalms and 
 hymns of those who transported the sick, the infirm, the aged, the 
 women and children, to the securest retreats of their rocks." " So 
 that for eight days," adds Richard, "you could see nothing but 
 people passing and repassing on these rugged paths, diligently bear- 
 ing luggage and little articles of furniture ; as in the summer time 
 the ants incessantly run and travel hither and thither, storing away 
 provisions against the evil days; and amongst these worthy people 
 none regretted his property, so resolute were they to await patiently 
 all the good pleasure of God." The advice of their pastors had 
 even been not to defend themselves by weapons of war, but merely 
 to retire to a place where they might be safe from attack. 
 
 The Count of Racconis, Philip of Savoy, who came at this time 
 to the valleys, wrote to his uncle, Philibert, saying, " These un- 
 happy people persist in their opinions, but they are not willing to 
 take up arms against their sovereign; some of them are going away 
 from the place, others courageously await martyrdom in the midst 
 of their families — a marvellous sight, and very piteous to be- 
 hold." ^ 
 
 Three days after, a proclamation was published and put up in all 
 the villages of Angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed 
 by fire and sword if the Vaudois did not return to the Church of 
 Rome. Next day, being the 1st of November, 1560, the army 
 commenced its march, under the orders of George Coste, Coimt 
 of La Trinite, and encamped at Bubiano. Hastily recruited, and 
 its ranks filled up with adventurers, it wanted discipline; the sol- 
 diers gave themselves up to all sorts of excesses, and began to pil- 
 lage before they had fought. Believing themselves already in the 
 country of the Vaudois, they made Catholics and Protestants in- 
 discriminately the subjects of their outrages. The former, there- 
 
 ^ This letter is dated 23th October, 1560. The following are its words -.—Per- 
 sistono neUa loro opinionCf ma non vogliono pigliar Varmi corUra di lui. Alcuni 
 se nandarono; altri aspettando U martirio con moglia, robba, e gran compa^sione. 
 Turin, . . . &c. Archives of State. Correspondence of Em. Philibert. (Com- 
 municated by M. Oibrario.) 
 
252 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paki Second. 
 
 fore, desiring to secure the maidenly chastity of their daughters 
 from the brutal grossness of that lawless soldiery, did a thing worthy 
 of the most admired times. Knowing the rigid purity of the morals 
 of the Vaudois, the strength of their fastnesses, and the devoted- 
 ness of those who were to defend them, they saw no refuge for their 
 childi-en more safe than these very retreats, and did not hesitate to 
 confide the honour of their families to the virtuous fidelity of the 
 Vaudois cottages. Accordingly, many of them took their trem- 
 bling wives and children, and left them amongst these heroic 
 mountaineei's. 
 
 It was surely wonderful to see these young Catholic women com- 
 mitted with confidence to the care of the Protestants, at the moment 
 when Catholicism was marching in arms against them. But this con- 
 fidence was not misplaced. The Vaudois defended the sacred charge 
 which had been intrusted to them with as much courage and respect 
 as their own families. Without for a moment entertaining the 
 thought of making precious hostages of these young people who 
 were in their hands, and of taking advantage of the circumstance 
 against their adversaries, they generously exposed themselves in 
 their defence, concealing them instead of exposing them to danger ; 
 and after having preserved them from outrage, they restored them 
 to their friends, without dreaming of any recompense. Incredible 
 as this fact may appear, all the historians of the times, Gilles, 
 Richard, De Thou, and Crespin make mention of it ; and it afibrds 
 the most beautiful testimony which their adversaries could have 
 rendered to the virtue and generosity of the Vaudois. 
 
 On the 2d of November the whole army crossed the Pelis, and 
 encamped in the meadows of St. John. Thereafter it advanced 
 towards Angrogna, extending its wings over all the hills of the 
 Costieres. Many skirmishes took place along this great line. The 
 advantage was nearly equal upon both sides ; but the little parties 
 left by the Vaudois for defence, found themselves too far sepa- 
 rate from each other to act with vigour. They retired, therefore, 
 still defending themselves, to the more and more confined plateaux 
 of the mountain. Many of them had only slings and cross-bows. 
 
 But the enemy still ascended. This succession of partial en- 
 gagements had only retarded them, and made them spend the whole 
 day upon the march. On both sides fatigue began to be felt. 
 Evening was come. The Vaudois were now united on the summit 
 of the Costieres, towards Rochemanant. There they halted and 
 ceased to retreat. The enemy coming forward, paused when near 
 them, a little way below, and kindled their bivouac fires, to pass 
 the night there. The mountaineers, on the contrary, fell on their 
 
 CaAP. IT.j 
 
 THE PERSECUTORS REPUI^ED. 
 
 253 
 
 knees, to give thanks to God and to renew their prayers. This act 
 t^ave occasion to a multitude of railleries and sarcasms in the ranks 
 of their persecutors. Just at this time a Vaudois child, who 
 had f^ot hold of a drum, suddenly began to make a noise with it in 
 a ravine close by. Supposing that a hostile troop had arrived, the 
 Catholic soldiers sprung up in disorder, and seized their arms. The 
 Vaudois, witnessing this movement, imagined that an attack was 
 to be made, and rushed forward to repel it. Hereupon the troops, 
 fatigued and surprised, gave way; they were pursued; they dis- 
 banded; and the night preventing them from recognizing one 
 another, or discerning the way, the soldiers took to flight at hazard; 
 the foremost were frightened at the soimd of the feet of those who 
 followed them ; they flung away their arms, and never halted till 
 they reached the plain, abandoning in one hour all the ground that 
 they had gained by the day's march. But upon their arrival at 
 the base of the mountain, they set fire to a number of houses. In 
 this afiair the Vaudois had only three killed and one wounded 
 Having re-ascended to the field of battle, they rendered thanks to 
 the Lord for this deliverance, and bore to Pra-du-Tour the arms 
 of their enemies. 
 
 Next day the Count of La Trinit6, having rallied his forces, en- 
 camped at La Tour, repaired the fortifications which had been demo- 
 lished, and placed a garrison there; but his troops conducted them- 
 selves so outrageously in that town, that there also the Catholics 
 of the place sent their wives and daughters amongst the Vaudois. 
 The little fortresses of Le Villar, in the valley of Lucerna, and 
 of Perouse and Le Perrier, in the valley of St. Martin, were also 
 garrisoned with soldiers. 
 
 On Monday, the 4th of November, a detachment issued from 
 La Tour, and having been joined on the way by the garrison of 
 Le Villar, which had just been driven back from the Combe, pro- 
 ceeded to attack Le Taillaret. The Vaudois seeing these troops of 
 the enemy coming upon them, fell upon their knees, accordiog to 
 the custom of their fathers upon all great occasions; and according 
 to the promise of God, that he will not forsake any who wait 
 upon him, they received a spirit of strength and courage which 
 made them victors. Voluntarily allowing themselves to be first 
 attacked by their adversaries, that they might not, even in a 
 single instance, be the aggressors, they firmly awaited them on 
 the rocks, from which a hail-storm of stones and balls soon repel- 
 led the assailants. But the latter returned to the charge; the 
 Vaudois resisted them ; the combatants became furious ; the more 
 disciplined troop regained the advantage; when suddenly there 
 
254 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE AIxPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 Chap. 11 ] 
 
 THE PHA-DU-TOUR. 
 
 255 
 
 arrived from the heights of La Fontanelle fresh combatants, by 
 whom a portion of that troop had already been repulsed. They 
 joined their brethren, who soon again had the best of the combat; 
 the enemy gave way and disbanded ; and the Vaudois pursued the 
 fugitives, who uttered many cries and blasphemies on the subject 
 of'^their rout ; but on the noise of the firing, a reinforcement of 
 fresh troops came up from La Tour, who took the Vaudois in the 
 rear. These brave mountaineers faced to both sides, forming them- 
 selves into two bodies, of which the one engaged the new-comers, 
 whilst the other completed the rout of the first assailants; this 
 done, the two bodies reunited, and rushing at once upon their adver- 
 saries, passed through the midst of them, without leaving one of 
 their number in their hands. In this combat they had only four 
 killed and two wounded; their enemies, according to Richard, bore 
 away whole cart-loads of their killed and wounded. 
 
 On the evening before, however,^ the Count of La Trinity had 
 sent a young lad to Angrogna, with a letter, in which he pretended 
 that he had learned, with great regret, of the collisions of the pre- 
 ceding day. " My troops," he said, " had no object but to go to 
 Angrogna, in order to ascertain if it were a place favourable for 
 the construction of a fortress for the service of his highness and the 
 defence of the country; but having encountered military posts and 
 armed men, they thought themselves defied, and I am gi'eatly 
 grieved at the conflicts which ensued, as well as at the burning of 
 the houses by my soldiers." The treacherous villain concluded by 
 proposing an arrangement. 
 
 « It is matter of gi'eat regret to us also," replied the people of 
 Angrogna, "to find ourselves assailed without cause by the troops 
 of our lawful prince, to whom we have always been faithful and 
 obedient. As to an arrangement, if it has for its object to convince 
 us of error, by discussion and not by arms, we willingly agree to 
 it ; but if it be meant that we should sacrifice in it the honour of 
 God and the salvation of our souls, it is better for us to die all 
 together rather than consent to it." At the same time that they 
 sent this reply, the Vaudois, readily foreseeing what reception it 
 would meet with, despatched a messenger to their brethren of 
 Pragela, to entreat them to come to their aid. 
 
 Their letter, however, having been presented to the Count of 
 La Trinity, he did not seem to take the least ofience at it, and de- 
 manded that the inhabitants of Angix)gna should send deputies to 
 confer with him. He received them very graciously, told them 
 that the Duchess of Savoy was favourable to their brethren, and 
 
 * Sunday, 3d November, 1560. 
 
 that the duke himself had uttered in his hearing the following 
 words : " It is in vain that the pope, the Italian princes, and even 
 my council, urge me to exterminate that people; I have taken coun- 
 sel with Grod in my heart, and he urges me still more strongly not 
 to destroy them." 
 
 Heal or fictitious, these words were to be made good. But it 
 does not appear that this was the intention of the Count of 
 La Trinity ; for whilst these negotiations were going on, not only 
 did his troops attack Le Villar and Le Taillaret, but scaling the 
 heif^hts of Champ-la-Kama, they endeavoured to cross the moun- 
 tain which separates the valley of Lucema from that of Angrogna, 
 in order to gain the bottom of the latter, and to seize upon the Pra- 
 du-Tour, to which a great part of the Vaudois families had retired. 
 These troops, having set fire to some bams, were observed, and 
 were repulsed, as GHles says, by a valiant combat. A few days 
 after,! their general caused word to be carried to Angrogna, that if 
 the Vaudois would lay down their arms he would go with a few 
 attendants to have a mass celebrated at St. Laurence,^ and would 
 thereafter employ himself in endeavours to obtain peace for them. 
 
 The Vaudois spent a whole night in deliberating whether or not 
 they ought to consent to this. But the desire of showing a pa- 
 cific disposition — of giving no pretext for the violence of their 
 enemies, and perhaps of not suffering a favourable opportunity to 
 escape for putting an end to this war — induced them to accept the 
 proposal. The Count of La Trinity came, caused mass to be cele- 
 brated without compelling anybody to be present, and then ex- 
 pressed a desire to visit that famous place, the Pra-du-Tour. It was 
 difficult to refuse this privilege to the general of an army; but he 
 was requested to leave his soldiers at St. Laurence, to which he con- 
 sented. Pra-du-Tour is the place where the ancient Vaudois had 
 the school of their Barbas, the secret source of those vivifying 
 missions which they sent to both extremities of Italy. It is not 
 situated on a height, but in a deep recess amongst the mountains. 
 It is the bottom of a valley, savage and austere as the peaks of the 
 Alps, remote from observation, and free from bustle as a nook of 
 the forest. The steep mountain-slopes bring down into this deep 
 dell the head-waters of the torrent of Angrogna, which escapes 
 amongst the rocks. This verdant basin, surrounded with frightful 
 precipices, seems a dark crater yawning at the feet of the traveUer 
 
 * On Saturday, 9th November. 
 
 2 The name of the principal village of that vaUey. At the present day it is 
 commonly known by the simple name of Angrogna ; but the Catholic church there 
 ia still called by the name of St. Laurence. 
 
256 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paut Skcojid. 
 
 Chap. II.] 
 
 A FEROCIOUS WISH. 
 
 257 
 
 who viewa it from the lofty peaks, and looks Uke an oasis m the 
 desert when he has descended into it. A difficult path, which 
 winds among and around the rocks, is the only outlet by which 
 visitors can enter or depart from it. 
 
 By this path the Count of La Trinity did not hesitate to pro- 
 ceed thither. The more and more savage aspect of the mountains 
 filled him with a sort of dread as he advanced. During the whole 
 journey he showed much kindness, consideration, and aflfabmty to 
 the Vaudois, who surrounded him with demonstrations of honour. 
 On arriving at the spot he manifested much emotion. 
 
 But during his absence his soldiers plundered the Vaudois cot- 
 tages. The people became irritated ; the general hastily returned 
 by the way by which he had gone. At Serres he encountered a 
 soldier who had just stolen a hen, and caused him to be hanged 
 upon the spot. But at St. Laurence, when he was again in the 
 midst of his troops, he inflicted no punishment on those who had 
 pillaged the houses. He immediately led them ba<;k to La Tour, 
 and left his secretary at Angrogna to receive the petition, which 
 he himself had imdertaken to present to the sovereign. In this 
 petition the Vaudois assured him of their loyalty, and suppUcated 
 him to leave them Uberty of conscience, that his own might not 
 be chai-ged with their death, before the judgment -seat of God. 
 VaudoiT deputies were sent to Verceil to present it to Emmanuel 
 Philibert, who at that time resided there. 
 
 After their departure, the Count of La Ti-inite summoned the 
 Vaudois of Le Taillaret to lay down their arms, no doubt in order 
 that— their mountains being no longer defended— he might a<Jcom- 
 plish the design which he had formed of getting past the bulwark 
 of the Pra-du-Tour. 
 
 The inhabitants of Le Taillaret met at Les Bonnets to deliberate 
 upon this proposition. Meanwhile the enemy, in too great haste 
 to take advantage of it, seized upon their houses, ravaged, plun- 
 dered, and burned them, and carried off women and children pri- 
 soners. The meeting at Les Bonnets, being apprised of what had 
 taken place, rushed to arms, pursued the ravishers, delivered the 
 captives, and then resumed their deliberations. What singular 
 meetings must those have been which were interrupted by such 
 incidents ! Scarcely had this meeting been recommenced in that 
 remote hamlet, when the soldiers surrounded it in silence, ap- 
 proached the place in which it was held, suddenly broke into it, 
 and fell upon the members of the little parliament. But they still 
 had their arms, and defended themselves with great energy ; the 
 enemy fell back, the Vaudois gained upon them ; the conflict ex- 
 
 tended into a multitude of partial engagements. An aged man 
 was fleeing away; a soldier ran at him brandishing his sword. 
 The old man, kneeling down, seized the soldier by the legs, flung 
 him down, and then rushing into a ravine, dragged the soldier 
 after him, and flung him over a precipice. 
 
 Another patriarch of these mountains, a man of 103 years of 
 age, had retired into a cavern with his grand-daughter. A she- 
 goat, concealed along with them, nourished them with its milk. 
 The young woman was singing a hymn one evening; the soldiers 
 heard her, and, guided by the voice, surprised the cavern, and killed 
 the old man ; they would then have seized the girl, but she rushed 
 of her own accord over the rocks, to save her honour at the expense 
 of her life. 
 
 All the Vaudois from the lower parts of the valley had retired 
 to the mountains. The troops of the Count of La Trinity plun- 
 dered and wasted the valley without resistance and without mercy. 
 They soon ascended to Le Villar, where some inhabitants still 
 remained, amongst whom they made a number of prisoners. It was 
 here that a soldier of Mondovi uttered that ferocious saying: "I 
 wish to carry home to my own country some of the flesh of the 
 heretics !" and, rushing like a wild beast upon the first whom he 
 encountered, he bit his face, and tore ofi" a morsel of flesh. 
 
 The Vaudois, indignant at such acts of violence, went to com- 
 plain of them to the Count of La Trinity, to whom, however, they 
 still expressed themselves with much moderation. " Is it not cus- 
 tomary," said they, "to suspend hostilities during the time of a 
 capitulation? We have laid down our arms in order to show respect 
 to your word, and to our own deputation, by a calm and reserved 
 attitude ; but how is your authority respected by the troops ? For 
 we have no doubt that it is entirely contraiy to your intentions 
 that such excesses are committed against us." The count excused 
 himself, as usual, by hypocritical protestations. "Ah! if I had 
 been there," said he, "these things would not have happened." 
 And he caused the prisoners to be given up, but he retained the 
 booty. 
 
 However, partial vexations still continued everywhere. A band 
 of depredators having commenced to pillage some isolated houses 
 of Rocheplate, seventeen men of that commune successfully repelled 
 them. 
 
 A traitor, named Vernon, had promised to seize the pastor of La 
 
 Tour.^ He followed him from one place of retreat to another, in 
 
 order to lay hold of him. One day he got sight of him. ^^ Here! 
 
 * By name Claud Berge. 
 Vol. I. 33 
 
 
258 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Skcohd. 
 
 Chap. II.] 
 
 PASTORS SENT TO PRAGELA. 
 
 259 
 
 ./-■■I 
 
 
 herer he cried to his companions, "w?e have caught the chicJcm! 
 But a Yaudois, named Cabriol, who accompanied the pastor, flung 
 80 heavy a stone at the breast of Vernon, that the scoundrel was 
 knocked down. He was then kiUed, and cast over a precipice. 
 
 The irritation of the Vaudois stUl increasing, the Count of La 
 Trinite invited them to meet with him again, that they might ex- 
 amine together the conditions of a soUd agreement; and he pro- 
 mised to withdraw his troops, if they would engage to pay a sum 
 of 20,000 crowns. " I wiU get this sum reduced to 1 6,000," said the 
 worthy secretary of such a master, « if you wiU give me now a part 
 of that reduction, in testimony of your gratitude." The amount of 
 this testimony of gratitude was fixed at 100 crowns. The Vaudoi^ 
 therefore, consented to pay 16,000 crowns (about ^0,000 fi^ncs). 
 The Duke of Savoy remitted the half of it; there remained 24,000 
 francs which these poor people must raise. But how was this to 
 be done? Their property wasted, their houses burned, their crops 
 destroyed; unable to borrow, because no one would lend to them; 
 uncertain of what might await them in the future, they were re- 
 duced to circumstances of overwhelming trial. They had nothing 
 left but their flocks, which they had succeeded in saving from the 
 plunderei-s. They resolved to sell them. George Coste insisted 
 that these sales should not take place without his consent; and 
 following the example of his secretary, he sold that consent for a 
 price, to certain rich purchasers, who paid him for the monopoly, 
 and finding themselves masters of the market, bought at a low rate 
 these numerous flocks, the last riches of the unhappy Vaudois. 
 And thus the 8000 crowns were paid. 
 
 The army ought to have been withdrawn, but it did not move. 
 A petition was addressed to the general. " You must send me all 
 your arms," repUed he. Some arms were sent to him. " Now 
 remove your troops," said the Yaudois. " Give me first," said the 
 count, " a bond for other 8000 crowns ; for you agreed to pay 
 16,000, and you have only paid the half" " But the duke," said 
 they, " has exempted us from the rest." '* I do not care for that," 
 he replied; " I know only your agreement." The bond for other 
 24,000 francs was accordingly signed. " Now send away your 
 ti-(^ops," they said. " Send away your pastors in the first place," 
 said he, " for that is the essential object of my coming." 
 
 The Vaudois, driven to despair, perceiving, but too late, the errors 
 into which they had fallen, fearing lest they might injure the 
 success of their deputation, finding themselves disanned and 
 enfeebled, and hoping that this privation would be only of bnef 
 
 » About £2000 sterling. 
 
 continuance, consented at last to send away their pastors, resolving 
 to convey them to Pragela, which then belonged to France. 
 
 But the mountains were covered with snow; the road by the 
 plain was infested by vagabonds, assassins, and robbere, especially 
 by the armed recruits of the abbey of Pignerol. They resolved 
 to cross the Col Julian. The enemy, being apprised of this deci- 
 sion, appointed an ambuscade to be placed in the neighbourhood of 
 Bobi, where the pastors were to assemble, in order to seize them 
 all at once. But the soldiers arrived too late ; the travellers had 
 set out two hours before. Hereupon they plundered and ravaged 
 everything; entering all the houses of the village, causing their 
 doors, and even those of apartments and closets to be opened to 
 them, under pretext of seeing that the pastors were not hidden 
 within, and seizing upon whatever could be an object either of 
 cupidity or of lust. 
 
 The pastors, however, had succeeded in crossing the Col Julian. 
 They stopped at Pral, and descending from thence to Macel, and 
 again ascending the Col du Pis, they arrived safe and sound in 
 Pragela. 
 
 Only one of their number did not accompany the rest — Stephen 
 Noel, the pastor of Angrogna. Having been called, a few days 
 before, to a conference with the Count of La Trinite, he had been 
 strongly pressed by him to repair to the court of the duke, to 
 defend the cause of his church. " It is to my parish that I belong," 
 replied the pastor, "and I cannot dispose of myself without its 
 consent." And it was well for him that he did not quit it ; for a 
 few days after, the perfidious Coste sent a party of soldiers to 
 make him prisoner. Noel perceived them, and retired to the 
 mountain ; but his house was plundered, his books and papers were 
 carried to the general, who committed them to the flames; forty 
 other houses were rummaged, and everything valuable which was 
 found in them was carried away. On the same evening the sol- 
 diers, provided with flaming torches, searched about on the moun- 
 tain, in order to find the fugitive pastor. Not having found him, 
 the count next day ordered the syndics of Angrogna to deliver him 
 up under pain of death. The syndics replied that they knew not 
 where he was. 
 
 The Yaudois deputation, nevertheless, having reached Yerceil, 
 the Count of La Trinity withdrew his army to the plain which 
 extends from Briquieras to Cavour, but left strong garrisons at 
 La Tour, Le Yillar, Le Perrier, and Perouse. The Yaudois were 
 required to provide for the sustenance of the garrisons. "We 
 are," said they, "sheep compelled to nourish the wolves which 
 
260 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Skcond. 
 
 Cdap. II] 
 
 THE PASTORS RESTORED. 
 
 261 
 
 
 II 
 
 il 
 
 devour tliem." However, they resigned themselves to their fate; 
 and the syndics of Angrogna having gone to carry victuals and 
 money to the garrison of La Tour, were maltreated and beaten in 
 the most atrocious manner. 
 
 A party of this same garrison having, on the next day but one, 
 taken the road to Angrogna, demanded to be supplied with meat 
 and drink at a hamlet composed of a few isolated houses. The 
 inhabitants of this hamlet clubbed together, and despoiling them- 
 selves, brought all the best that they had, and themselves served 
 the soldiers in a close court-yard. This inclosure was bounded on 
 one side by the dwelling-house, and on the opposite side by a shed, 
 whilst on the two other sides were walls, in which the entrance 
 gates opened one over against the other. Having well eaten and 
 drunken, the soldiers closed the gates, seized upon the men, bound 
 them one to another, and prepared to carry them away as prisoners. 
 But the women set fire to the shed, and threatened the authors 
 of all the violence, that they would bum them alive, with their 
 victims, if they refused to let them go. They hesitated; a combat 
 ensued; the gates were opened, and the invaders escaped with 
 their prey, the chUdren pursuing them, and throwing stones at 
 them. Ten of the captives succeeded in making their escape, but 
 four were carried to the castle of La Tour. They were afterwards 
 given up, upon payment of a large ransom ; but they had been so 
 crueUy maltreated, that one of them died the day after he was set 
 at liberty ; and another, half-killed, only survived the torments to 
 which he had been subjected, to endure an incredible prolongation 
 of martyrdom. The flesh had been torn away from his feet and 
 hands by the torturers ; it fell off in pieces ; the bones of his fingers 
 and his toes then came away one after another, and he remained a 
 cripple all his life. Their executioner was the captain of that 
 garrison, a man named Bauster, the same who, having attempted to 
 surprise the hamlet of Les Bonnets, bore off John and Udolph 
 Geymet, whom he brought to so cruel a death. 
 
 I say nothing of the young girls who were detained in these 
 infernal dens; the reader may imagine for himself to what fright- 
 ful treatment they must have been subjected. The other garri- 
 sons left by George Coste, conducted themselves in the same 
 manner, " and did no better;' says Gilles, without adding a word 
 of reproach to that expression, so pungent by its laconic simpUcity. 
 Thus passed the year 15G0; a bloody autumn, a fatal winter, 
 misery everywhere, bereavement even in the smaUest families ; but 
 everywhere, also, the invincible energy of a supreme confidence 
 in the Lord ; in every dwelling the reading of the Bible and its 
 
 consolations; the word of life everywhere rising above these cries 
 of death! Such was the picture which the Vaudois valleys then 
 
 presented. 
 
 The deputation which they had sent to Verceil did not return 
 till the commencement of January, 1561. How many hopes had 
 been founded upon it ! and how were they deceived ! " Scarcely 
 were we arrived at Verceil," said the afflicted deputies, " when the 
 secretary, Gastaud, who accompanied us, and to whom we had 
 already given 100 crowns for the part which he had taken as to 
 the prayer of our petition, snatched that petition out of our hands, 
 and would have us to sign another. Then, instead of giving us a pa- 
 ternal reception, the duke ordered us to prostrate ourselves before 
 him as suppliants— to ask pardon of him for what he called the 
 rebellion of our people. We were compelled, also, to make a like 
 submission to the legate of the Holy See. After we had done all 
 this, we supposed that we might be permitted to return home; 
 but we were still detained for a month and a half, incessantly 
 tormented every day by swarms of monks and priests, who sought 
 to make us go to mass. Finally it was decided that nothing more 
 should be conceded to us than hitherto, and that we should even 
 be deprived of what still remained to us. For all this priestly 
 tribe, this vermin of abbes, and prelates, and monks, left our 
 sovereign no repose, till he would promise to exterminate us all, 
 without sparing so much as one. Accordingly, they are about to 
 send us a multitude of preachers of idolatry, so that we shall no 
 longer have means of subsistence for them ; and, in fact, we have 
 seen such troops of monks, and regiments of priests, and crowds 
 of abb6s, that there will very soon be no room but for themselves." 
 Such overloading of society with idle priests, indicates the down- 
 fall either of the nations which endure it, or of the institutions 
 which produce it. 
 
 How overwhelmed, how desolate, in what a posture of disr- 
 couragement may we now expect to see the whole Yaudois Church! 
 The very opposite was the case. No longer afraid of bringing any 
 evil upon their deputies, who were now returned amongst them — 
 no longer fearing the loss of goods, of which they had akeady been 
 plundered, nor that they might cause the failure of negotiations 
 for an impossible peace— no longer occupied by any thought of con- 
 senting to proposals whose perfidy had been so often demonstrated 
 to them— the Yaudois, feeling more happy in circumstances more 
 unembarrassed, courageously re-installed in each parish the pastor 
 who had been removed from it, rebuilt their places of worship, 
 unanimously agreed upon defensive measures, and everywhere re- 
 
 It 
 
l1 
 
 262 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 f Pa«T SlCOND. 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 A SOLEMN COVENANT. 
 
 263 
 
 • 1 
 
 t' I 
 
 sumed their hymns, their labours, and the accustomed joys and 
 exercises of their Christian life. At the same time, letters came 
 to them from Switzerland and from Dauphiny, by which their 
 brethren in other countries exhorted them not to give way to 
 despondency, but to persevere in courage and prayer, to put all 
 their confidence in God, and not to foimd their expectations upon 
 men; the brethren in Dauphiny adducing themselves as an example, 
 for the Reformed Church in France was then violently persecuted 
 by the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine. The feeble 
 Francis II., scarcely sixteen years of age, had placed the former at 
 the head of his armies, the latter at the head of his council ; and 
 never had religious fanaticism been so powerful; but toleration and 
 the Bible had also illustrious defenders. The Prince of Cond6 
 became the leader of the refonned ; the Chancellor De L'Hopital 
 preserved them from the Inquisition by the institution of the Red 
 Chamber [chambre ardente], a tribunal erected in connection with 
 the parliaments, and appointed to take cognizance of the crime of 
 heresy. In spite of this, Protestants multiplied in France; why, 
 then, should they be annihilated in Piedmont? 
 
 The hearts of men are drawn together by a common danger. 
 The valley of Pragela, which then belonged to Francis II., was 
 threatened with the same calamities as the valley of Lucema. 
 Then took place one of those solemn and impressive scenes which 
 sometimes elevate modem times to the level of the ages of anti- 
 quity, and which seem to be suited rather to poetry than to history, 
 a scene at once heroic and religious, and, above all, grand in its 
 simplicity. A few lines will suffice to describe it. 
 
 Deputies from the Val Pelis went to the Val Cluson,' in order 
 to renew before God the covenant which had always subsisted 
 among the primitive churches of the Alps. This covenant was 
 sworn by all the people assembled on a platform of snow, ov6r 
 against the mountains of Sestrieres and of the chain of Gunivert; 
 where the Cluson takes its rise from the glaciers. Thereaftfer, the 
 people of Pragela sent delegates and pastors in their turn to the 
 valley of Lucema. Not being able to follow the ordinary route, 
 by reason of the troops which would have seized them, they 
 traversed mountains rendered almost impassable by the snow which 
 covered them, climbed that of Le Pis, by which they got to Macel, 
 and thence again ascending to Pral, they crossed the Col Julian, 
 in order to proceed to Bobi. 
 
 They arrived there on the 21st of January, 1561. The evening 
 
 ' The valley of the Cluson or of Pragela is separated from that of Lucema or of 
 the Pelis by that of St. Martin or of the Germanasque. 
 
 before, proclamation had been made throughout the whole valley 
 that the inhabitants must, within twenty-four hours, make up 
 their minds to go to mass, or to endure all the penalties reserved 
 for heretics — the stake, the galleys, the rack, the gibbet, and all 
 the other corollaries of Catholicism. The expiry of this fatal term 
 coincided precisely with the arrival of the pastors of Pragela. 
 They had just descended to Le Puy, a hamlet of the commune of 
 Bobi, situated on a verdant hill, covered with gigantic chestnuts, 
 at a little distance from the latter village. "Without loss of time, 
 the pastor, the elders, the deacons, and the members of the church 
 in Bobi and in the surrounding hamlets, mounted the hill to Le 
 Puy, in order to make known to their newly arrived friends the 
 sad extremities to which they were reduced ; and there, says Gilles, 
 after fervent prayers made to God for his counsel and assistance, 
 considering that none of the Vaudois could think of abjuring, and 
 that they had it not in their power to seek refuge elsewhere, and 
 that the purpose of their enemies was absolutely to destroy them, 
 " a thing to which the meanest worm," adds the chronicler, with 
 inimitable artlessness, "will not submit without resistance," an 
 enthusiastic resolution was adopted that they should defend them- 
 selves imto death. From that moment dates the commencement 
 of the most glorious campaign which the heroic persecuted ever 
 maintained against fanatical persecutors. 
 
 The delegates of Pragela and of the valley of Lucema, standing 
 up amidst the crowd, whilst emotion and seriousness at once pre- 
 vailed, pronounced these solemn words : — 
 
 " In the name of the Yaudois churches of the Alps, of Dauphiny, 
 and of Piedmont, which are all here united, and whose rei)resenta- 
 tives we are, we here promise, with our hands upon the Bible and 
 in the presence of God, that all our valleys wiU courageously stand 
 by one another in what relates to religion, without prejudice to 
 the obedience due to their lawful superiors. We promise to main- 
 tain the Bible, entire and without admixture, according to the 
 usage of the true Apostolic Church, steadfastly continuing in this 
 holy religion, although it should be at peril of our lives, in order 
 that we may be able to leave it to our children intact and pure^ 
 as we have received it from our Withers. We promise aid and suc- 
 cour to our persecuted brethren, and not to regard individual 
 interests, but the conmion cause, and not to wait upon men, but 
 upon God." 
 
 And 130 years later, these same Yaudois, on their return to their 
 valleys, from which they had been expelled by the united arms of 
 Louis XIY. and Yictor Amadeus IL, renewed, almost in the same 
 
\A^ 
 
 '1 
 
 il 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 it 
 
 264 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. [?*" Sxcoro. 
 
 place, on the lull of Sibaoud, the oath of the covenant which we 
 
 have now i-ecorded. 
 
 Scarcely had these worda been pronounced, when many ot tnose 
 present exclaimed, "We are required to make an ignomuuous 
 abjuration of our faith to-morrow: come, then, and let us make a 
 striking protestation to-morrow against the persecutmg idoMry 
 wWch comes upon us with such a demand!" The Vaudois had 
 exhausted all methods of patience and forbearance. It was now 
 the time for them to show some energy. Before dawn of the tol- 
 lowing day, instead of flocking to the mass, they proceeded ma 
 crowd but with arms in their hands, to the Protestant church, 
 which the Catholics had ah-eady crammed with the trumpery per- 
 taining to their worship. Images, candles, and rosa«^ were pre- 
 sently flung into the street and trodden under foot. The mmister, 
 Hunfbert Artus, gave out a text from Isaiah xlv. 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 ^ot save The 
 resolution of the hearers was wrought up to a higher pitch by his 
 powerful and encouraging discourse. They then ^^ ""J ^^^^ 
 Villar, in order to purge the place of worship there of the gross 
 fetishes of the Komish idolatry. The Christians of the Alps 
 marched that day, singing that hymn of Theodore Beza- 
 
 Loin de nous desormais 
 
 Tons ces dieux contrefaits, . . • &c. 
 And tlus iconoclastic zeal was not at that time a puerile act, but 
 an act of true courage, because it was their response, o-\V^^'^ f 
 their Uves,to the capital summons, by which it had been attempted 
 to exact the base abandonment of their religion. ^ _, 
 
 The term allowed by this summons was akeady past; and the 
 carrison of Le Villar had already marched out to make prisoners, 
 n^ Vaudois of Bobi met it on the way; it attacked them; they 
 defended themselves, repulsed the garrison, and pursued it even 
 under the walls of Le Villar. The monks, the judges the seigneurs 
 ^d the podestat, who had come thither in order to receive the 
 "juration of the heretics, had scarcely time to shu "v- up 
 with the fugitive soldiers in the menaced fortr^ ! The Vaudois 
 ^^L. S it. placed sentinels and posts of observation and 
 Sfen^ fortifiei Lmselves also in their turn, and awaited the 
 
 ^^^;^Zti La Tour, arrived next day to deliver the be- 
 
 I Far from ns henceforth be 
 These gods which are no gods, &c. 
 
 Chat. II.J 
 
 THE "FLYING COMPANY. 
 
 >» 
 
 265 
 
 sieged ; the Yaudois routed it in the plain of Teynau. It returned 
 in greater force on the following day, but they repulsed it again. 
 Three bodies of troops advanced upon the fourth day and under- 
 went the same fate. The siege lasted for ten days. The Yaudois 
 made powder for themselves, also mines, casemates, engines for 
 throwing stones, and loopholes in the neighbouring houses, in 
 order to shoot over the bastions of the citadel. 
 
 The army of the Count of La Trinity was put in motion for the 
 deliverance of this place; but the besieged were ignorant of the 
 attempts made to rescue them ; and the besiegers pressed on the 
 attack with increased vigour. The garrison was speedily reduced 
 to the last extremities. It was in want of provisions and of am- 
 munition, and was obliged to knead bread with wine, for want of 
 water. At last it surrendered, upon condition that the lives of the 
 soldiers should be saved, and that they should be accompanied by 
 two pastors, thus showing, says Gilles, that they put more con- 
 fidence in these so much-hated ministers, than in any other parties; 
 and the ministers who were granted to them justified this confi- 
 dence, for the officers of the garrison thanked them, he adds, for 
 their conducting of them safely, with assurance of all possible cour- 
 tesy, according to opportunity. The fortifications of Le Yillar 
 were immediately demolished by the conquerors. 
 
 This advantage of the Yaudois caused the Count of La Trinity 
 to pause, and to resolve upon disuniting them, in order to destroy 
 them. For this purpose he made his army to halt betwixt Lu- 
 cema arid St. John, and began by giving the people of Angrogna 
 to understand that they had nothing to apprehend from him, if 
 they would not mix themselves up with the afiairs of the other 
 valleys. But that people, already so often deceived, allowed this 
 message to remain this time unanswered; or rather, gave their 
 answer to it only by increased activity in their preparations for 
 the common defence. 
 
 They got ready entrenchments, posts, and signals; they were 
 eveiywhere busy in the fabrication of pikes or the casting of balls ; 
 the best marksmen were imited under the name of the Flying 
 Company, in order that they might the more promptly repair to 
 any spot to which the approach of danger should call them. Two 
 pastors were appointed to accompany them, in order to prevent 
 excesses, needless bloodshed, and relaxation in attention to reli- 
 gious duties; and before battle, as well as at the dawn and close 
 of each day, they conducted prayers in the midst of the camp. 
 By their strict equity the Yaudois desired to exhibit the righteous- 
 ness of their cause. 
 
 Vol. I. 84 
 
266 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 |_Pabt Secosd. 
 
 Chap. 11 ] 
 
 THE VAXTDOIS VICTORIOUS. 
 
 267 
 
 Their most advanced post was that of Lea Sonnmllettes. It was 
 attacked on the 4th of February, 1561, and the combat continued 
 until night. 
 
 Three days after, the army marched upon Angrogna, in many 
 separate columns, which united on a steep and rocky mountain- 
 slope called Les Costes. But they were driven back in confusion 
 by the Vaudois, who occupied the height above, and rolled down 
 rocks among the ranks of the enemy. 
 
 Seven days after, on the 24th of February, took place the 
 terrible attack which had already been threatened. The count 
 brought up all his forces, and availed himself of all the resources 
 of strategy. His endeavour was to surprise the Pra-du-Toiu*, 
 where all the population of Angrogna were assembled, and where 
 they had constructed mills, ovens, houses, and all that was requi- 
 site for subsistence, as in a fort. This citadel of the Alps was 
 defended not only by its rocks, but also by heroic combatants. 
 An attempt was made to enter it by Le Taillaret, but the company 
 of Le Villar maintained that passage. Two bodies of troops then 
 advanced, the one by the valley of St. Martin, the other by that 
 of Pragela. Charles Tronchet put himself at the head of the for- 
 mer, along with Louis de Monteil ; George Coste coriimanded the 
 latter. These two troops were intended to fall upon the Pra- 
 du-Tour — the one by the Col du Laouzoun, the other by the Col 
 de la Vachere. On the day appointed for this purpose, a thirtl 
 corps appeared in the lower part of the valley of Angrogna, 
 burning and ravaging everything, in order to draw away the de- 
 fenders from the principal post, but the stratagem did not suc- 
 ceed. The troop which came by La Yachere making its appear- 
 ance first, the Yaudois assailed it and put it to flight. They then 
 perceived that of Le Ijaouzoim, which was descending the moun- 
 tain with difficulty. They allowed it to get involved amongst the 
 ravines. The guides who went before it, arriving at an opening from 
 which they had a view of the lower part of the valley, exclaimed, 
 *' Come down ! come down ! all Angrogna is in our power ! " 
 
 "Say, rather, that you are in our power!" replied the Yaudois 
 immediately, and rushed forward from the covering of the rocks. 
 *• And they did their duty marvellously well," says Gilles, in re- 
 lating this occurrence. Nevertheless the enemy, observing their 
 small numbers, made head against them, and endeavoured to sur- 
 round them. But just then the Yaudois troop, already victorious 
 at La Yachere, arrived with drums beating, and caused a diversion 
 in this conflict by assailing the enemy on the left flank. The sol- 
 diers of Tronchet still resisted. "Courage! courage!" exclaimed 
 
 the Flying Company, coming to the help of their Yaudois brethren, 
 and now making their appearance on the right. Thus assailed 
 upon three sides, the enemy thought proper to fall back. But the 
 ascent of the mountain was more difficult than the descent. Three 
 times they wheeled about and attempted to make a resistance; 
 three times they were repulsed and put to flight. At last they 
 were completely thrown into confusion and defeated. Charles 
 Tronchet was knocked down by a stone, and his head was cut off 
 with his own sword. Louis de Monteil, who had made his way 
 back to the northern shoulder of the mountain, in order to descend 
 again into the valley of St. Martin, was also overtaken and killed 
 among the snow. 
 
 All the soldiers would have been put to death but for the pastor 
 of the Flying Company, who rushed to the field of battle in order 
 to defend those who no longer defended themselves. " Kill them ! 
 kill them ! " cried the Yaudois, still excited with the ai^dour of vic- 
 tory. "To your knees! to your knees!" exclaimed the pastor.^ 
 " Let us give thanks to the God of armies for the success which he 
 has just granted us." 
 
 And like Moses at Meriba, who, during the whole battle of 
 Israel against Amalek, ceased not to keep his arms raised towards 
 heaven to obtain the triumph of his people, the Yaudois families 
 left behind in the Pra-du-Tour had not ceased, all day long, to lift 
 up their prayers to the Lord for his blessing on the arms of their 
 defenders. Their prayer was answered; and that evening the 
 whole place resounded with the praises of God, and with songs of 
 joy and of triumph; whilst from all sides were brought in the 
 arms and the booty taken from their enemies — arquebuses, mo- 
 rions, cuirasses, pikes, swords, poignards, and halberts. Never had 
 these wild rocks been covered with such magnificent trophies. 
 
 To avenge this defeat the Count of La Trinity caused the houses 
 of Rora to be burned, the families of which place did not retire till 
 after a long and vigorous resistance. To attain a place of refuge 
 in the valley of Lucema, these poor fugitives had to go by the 
 mountain of Brouard, which was at that time covered with snow. 
 Night overtook them. They were opposite to Le Yillar, but still 
 at a distance from it, though they saw its lights shining on the 
 other side of the valley. Their cries, however, were heard there, 
 and lights were seen in motion ; torches were kindled, and their 
 brethren came to meet them; friendly voices responded to theirs. 
 The cries of distress were soon changed into accents of joy and 
 deliverance; sufierers had met with one another, and the outlawed 
 
 > The pastor was Gilles of Les Gilles. 
 
268 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Secohd. 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 BOUDRINA ATTACKED. 
 
 I 
 
 269 
 
 \ \ 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 had found brethren. Before the day dawned the people of Rora 
 were all lodged in the houses of Le Villar. 
 
 And now the Flying Company proceeded to drive from their 
 mountain valley the ravagers who still occupied it. But, presum- 
 ing that the enemy would not lose much time in attacking Le 
 Villar and Bobi, the Vaudois proceeded immediately to erect bar- 
 ricades in the narrowest parts of the valley. These ramparts, raised 
 especially in order to present an obstacle to cavalry, were hastily 
 formed of trees cut down and laid one upon another, between 
 a double row of stakes, which represented the faces of a wall. 
 Amongst the branches of these trees great stones were heaped 
 together, cemented to one another by snow beaten hard and 
 moistened with lukewarm water, so that, being softened for a 
 moment, it again congealed into a solid mass around the stones 
 and branches, the whole forming a wall of one single solid block. 
 
 The Count of La Trinit6 divided his army into three columns ; 
 two bodies of infantry were to ascend by the two sides, and the 
 cavalry by the bottom of the valley. A company of pioneers pre- 
 ceded, to level the barricades. 
 
 As soon as this movement commenced, the Yaudois advanced by 
 the left bank of the Pelis till they were opposite Les Chiabriols, 
 and fired upon the cavalry as soon as they made their appearance ; 
 then, retreating from tree to tree and from rock to rock, they con- 
 tinued to annoy them until they reached the barricades situated 
 beneath Le Villar. There they halted, and united themselves to 
 the ranks of the Flying Company, which defended that post. The 
 day was spent in perpetual combat, now on one point, now on an- 
 other, of this barricade, without the enemy being able to make a 
 breach in it anywhere. All this while the bodies of infantry had 
 pursued their way along the heights, and towards nightfall they 
 passed the line so heroically defended. 
 
 The Vaudois were then obliged to separate into parties in order 
 to repulse these new assailants. The first who appeared had 
 already crossed the torrent of Bespart, and commenced to ascend 
 the vine-covered hills which look down upon Le Villar. The 
 Vaudois, by running along the other slope, gained the summit and 
 partly repulsed the enemy in a hand-to-hand conflict. They were 
 still thus engaged when the infantry on the right side, descend- 
 ing above the barricade, attacked in rear the Flying Company, 
 which still defended it. Some inhabitants of the Val Cluson, 
 who belonged to this company, seeing themselves caught betwixt 
 two fires, judged their destruction inevitable, and retired by the 
 only way of escape which was still open to them — the heights of 
 
 Les Cassarots, by which they gained the Col Julian and made 
 their way home. But the greater number of the Vaudois kept 
 their ground until evening, and then only fell back upon Le Villar. 
 
 The cavalry followed them upon the one side and the infantry 
 upon the other. When they reached the village they were joined 
 by those who had just succeeded in driving the enemy from the 
 upper vineyards, and their combined forces made both horse and 
 foot give way before them. But the enemy, as they retired, burned 
 the houses of Le Villar, and fell back upon La Tour after having 
 Bufiered considerable loss. 
 
 Next week (upon the 18th of February), the count returned to 
 the charge and repeated the same manoeuvre, but wdth an increased 
 number of assailants. He commenced a vigorous demonstration in 
 the direction of Le Taillaret, in order to draw off the Vaudois, and to 
 enfeeble them by that diversion. Having now carried away all that 
 they reckoned most valuable to the most elevated of their moun- 
 tain villages (if that name may be given to some scattered groups 
 of poor dwellings suspended on the flanks of the precipices like the 
 eyries of the eagle), the Vaudois renounced the defence of the 
 lower part of the valley and confined themselves to the heights. 
 The army of the count was, therefore, by and by concentrated 
 in the verdant basin which extends uninterrupted from Bobi to 
 Le Villar. They first attacked the hamlet of Boudrina, or Les 
 Huchoires, situated upon the ledges of projecting rocks, at the 
 summit of a very steep slope covered with vineyards. The Vau- 
 dois repulsed two successive assaults without the loss of a man, 
 whilst their assailants left many dead upon the ground. This suc- 
 cess of the Vaudois was not only owing to the valour of the men, 
 and to the protection of God, but to the circumstance, that they 
 were able to fire from above upon the enemy, and to shelter them- 
 selves from their bullets behind the numerous pai-apet-formed walls. 
 
 A detachment of 1500 men came to support the assailants, and 
 to bring them back to the charge. But the sound of the firing 
 had brought the Flying Company to the scene of combat, who, 
 from the vineyards of Le Villar, really flew to the succour of their 
 brethren. After aU, however, it was only a reinforcement of 100 
 men, and it may easily be conceived that they could not hold 
 their ground against the efforts of 2000. Abandoning, therefore, 
 that perilous post, they retired higher. The remainder of the 
 army, which was stationed in the plain, seeing these 2000 men take 
 possession of the paltry buildings which had been so long disputed, 
 raised shouts of joy, and made flourishes of trumpets to celebrate 
 their victory. 
 
270 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 THE VAUDOIS AGAIN VICTORIOUS. 
 
 271 
 
 
 »■ 
 
 I 
 
 
 Here let iis allow Gilles to speak for a moment. " The Vau- 
 dois," says he, "having retired about a stone's cast, cried with one 
 voice to the Lord, and resolutely united for further combat. Those 
 who had not arquebuses made use of their slings, from which they 
 cast a shower of stones upon the enemy. Three times the enemy 
 rested, and three times returned to the assault. When the enemy 
 took breath the people above prayed to God with loud voice, and 
 when the assault was renewed, all of them, crying to God, did their 
 duty marvellously. The women and children supplied stones to 
 the slingers; those who, by reason of infirmity or old age, could do 
 nothing, kept farther up the hill, crying to the Lord with tears 
 and groans that he would succour them." 
 
 The succour was not long in coming, for at the third assault a 
 messenger arrived crying, "Courage! courage! God has sent us 
 the men of Angrogna." And the old men on the hill, and the 
 combatants on the field of battle, eagerly took up the cry, " Cou- 
 rage ! help is at hand ! " 
 
 However, the men of Angrogna were not yet there. They were 
 fighting at Le Taillaret, from which they drove the assailants; but 
 the assailants of Les Huchoires, hearing it announced that assist- 
 ance was coming to the Vaudois troop, which had already harassed 
 them by six consecutive attacks, now beat a retreat to rejoin the 
 cavalry which remained posted in the basin of Bobi. The Flying 
 Company went in pursuit of them, overthrew the walls of dry 
 stones behind which they had taken shelter, fairly routed them, 
 and annoyed them all the way to the confines of La Tour. There 
 it endured some loss by the unexpected attack of a body of fresh 
 troops which came to the protection of the fugitives. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the alarm was so great in the camp of the 
 persecutors that the Count of La Trinite took flight and retired to 
 Lucema. Thereafter his army re-appeared no more at Le Villar 
 or Bobi, for in these places, it is said, his loss had been very great. 
 But Angrogna still remained the central position of the valleys, 
 approachable on all sides but the west, and of this he conceived 
 hopes. Having gathered new troops under his dishonoured ban- 
 ners, he soon found himself at the head of 7000 combatants. On 
 the 17th of March, 1561, being Sabbath, the Yaudois families that 
 were assembled at Pra-du-Tour, with their defenders, had just been 
 addressing their prayers to the Lord, when they saw, as they came 
 out from sermon, three long files of soldiers, who advanced parallel 
 to each other, one by the heights of La Vachere, another by the 
 way of Les Fourests, and the third by that of Serres. The captain 
 of the first battalion was named Sebastian De Yirgile. " We shall 
 
 sweep these heretics off the earth to-day!" he had exclaimed in 
 the morning as he lefl Lucerna. " Sir," replied his hostess, " if 
 our religion is better than theirs you will have the victory, but if 
 not, you yourselves will be swept away." 
 
 The approaches of the Pra-du-Tour, against which the two first 
 attacking columns were directed, were defended by a bastion of 
 earth and stones which the Vaudois had thrown up; but the lower 
 path had not been guarded and barred, although it would have been 
 more easily shut up than any other passage, by reason of the nar- 
 row space within which it was inclosed. The natural difficulties 
 of traversing it had been thought sufficient to guard it, and the 
 enemy's column which advanced by it was, in fact, the last to 
 appear in view of the Pra-du-Tour. The Vaudois were already 
 occupied in defending their bastion against the columns which came 
 by the higher paths, when this last battalion imexpectedly pene- 
 trated into the lower basin. Immediately they descended to repel 
 it, leaving very few men at the bastion which was attacked; but 
 these men had long pikes, and every enemy who showed himself 
 upon the scai*p was quickly hurled down. 
 
 After a great succession of exploits, which cost the lives of two 
 of their number, they were on the point of giving way, when the 
 Flying Company, which had just routed their assailants on the lower 
 ground, arrived in a mass upon the higher bastion; whereupon, no 
 longer contented with defending themselves, the Vaudois assumed 
 the offensive. The enemy drew back; it was the signal for pursuit. 
 The Vaudois rushed upon them, broke their ranks, dispersed them, 
 and, by the ardour of their courage, really swept them away. Se- 
 bastian De Virgile was carried in a dying state to Lucema, and 
 the Count of La Trinite wept as he sat upon a rock, and looked 
 upon so many dead. " God fights for them, and we do tliem wrong/" 
 exclaimed the soldiers themselves. 
 
 On this decisive day the Vaudois were completely victorious. 
 At the summit of the mountain, where they had another bastion, 
 they had awaited the approach of the Catholics, without moving 
 until they were close at hand, when, by a discharge within a short 
 range, they brought them to a sudden pause. The battalion being 
 taken by surprise, hesitated ; the Vaudois, encouraged by this, re- 
 doubled their efforts; the enemy yielded; they rushed out upon 
 them, overthrew them, pursued them, decimated, and almost de- 
 stroyed them. « Kever," said their captain afterwards, " did I see 
 soldiers so affrighted, so timid as ours were before these mountain- 
 eers." They were half vanquished by the very idea of having to 
 contend with them. Discouragement, therefore, was visible in the 
 
272 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sicond. 
 
 hostile army. They began to murmiir, and their losses were con- 
 siderable ; whilst in the plains of St. John, of Briqu^ras, and of La 
 Tour — ^where, from morning to evening, nothing was to be seen but 
 dead or wounded men carried down from the summits of those 
 dreadful mountains, upon which battalions melted away like snow 
 — a sort of panic seized upon the minds of persons already moved 
 by a war so unjust; and, in speaking of the Vaudois, it began to 
 be said, " Surely God is on their side !" 
 
 Many persons at that time were surprised that the inhabitants 
 of these mountains, familiar with every locality, and triumphant 
 on all hands, did not pursue their adversaries to destroy them 
 completely; "but the principal leaders," observes Gilles, "and espe- 
 cially the ministers, would not consent to that pursuit, for they 
 had resolved from the beginning, that when in the last extremity 
 they were forced to defend tJiemselves by arms, they would keep always 
 within the limits of legitimate defence, both out of respect for their 
 superiors, and in order to spare human blood, and that in every vic- 
 tory granted to them by the God of armies, they would use their vic- 
 tory as moderately as possible.*^ ^ It is one of the most remarkable 
 characteristics of greatness, always to combine moderation with 
 courage, and piety also owns the duty of continuing humble and 
 himiane in the triumph of strength. 
 
 One of the Catholic leaders, by name Gratian De Castrocaro, a 
 Tuscan by birth, and at that time a colonel of the ducal army, was 
 made prisoner upon this occasion. He called himself a gentleman 
 of the Duchess of Savoy, and the Vaudois generously released him; 
 but if an act of kindness excites gratitude in noble minds, it is bur- 
 densome to bad hearts, and this Castrocaro showed. 
 
 The Catholic leaders ascribed the reiterated defeats of their troops 
 to their being unaccustomed to mountain warfare ; whereas, they 
 said they would have beaten the enemy a thousand times on level 
 ground^ But a few days after, a combat took place on level ground, 
 and the Vaudois were still victorious. " Thus," says Gilles, " it 
 appeal's that victory does not depend upon great or small numbers, 
 nor upon fighting in open field, or in narrow glens, nor on the 
 plain, nor amongst the mountains, but only on the compassionate 
 assistance of the Lord, who gives to the supporters of a just cause, 
 the power to will and to do according to his own good pleasure." 
 In this last conflict, however, the Vaudois were so closely engaged 
 with the enemy, that they were actually hand to hand, fighting 
 in this way in the open expanse of the valley, like those Homeric 
 warriors, whose combats have given renown to the plains of Mysia. 
 
 » GiUes, p. IM. 
 
 Chap. IL] 
 
 A BRAVE DEFEXCE. 
 
 273 
 
 After these numerous combats, in which the Vaudois lost only 
 fourteen men,i the Count of La Triniti sent commissioners to 
 enter into an accommodation with them. But amidst their nego- 
 tiations, he made a new attack upon the Vaudois without notice, 
 marching all his army on the night between the 16th and 17th of 
 April, against the two strongest pomts in the whole country — ^the 
 Pra-du-Tour and Le Taillaret. 
 
 The last-named place was fii*st assailed at daybreak, by a great 
 number of little attacking parties, who advanced at the same time 
 against all the scattered hamlets that there occupy the different 
 heights.2 The inhabitants, surprised in their sleep, became in part 
 the victims of that sudden assault — many fled in their shirts, and 
 owed their safety only to their agility amongst the rocks with which 
 they were so familiar. The invaders made a number of prisoners, 
 and laid everything waste; then they descended by Coste Roussme 
 to the mountain-slopes which overlook the Pra-du-Tour, in order 
 to unite with the rest of the army in the projected destruction of 
 the Vaudois there. 
 
 But the first act of the latter, at the commencement of every 
 day, was to unite in public prayer. They had terminated this reli- 
 gious exercise before sunrise. The fii-st rays of the morning light 
 were reflected by the gleaming arms and helmets of the ravagers 
 of Le Taillaret, as they descended the mountain upon them. Six 
 determined men immediately went forth to meet them, and posted 
 themselves in a defile, where only two persons could pass abreast. 
 There they held in check that long file of the enemy, who soon 
 accumulated, and were crowded together before this obstacle. Of 
 these six Vaudois, the two foremost had their pieces always charged, 
 and being within easy range, killed each couple of soldiers who pre- 
 sented themselves at the turning of the rock. The two Vaudois 
 
 placed in the second rank fired over the shoulders of the first ^their 
 
 comrades behind them reloading their pieces. 
 
 Thus, for a whole quarter of an hour, the passage was interrupted. 
 The other Vaudois had time to gather. They mounted upon the 
 higher ledges of the defile, in the depths of which the ranks of the 
 ^emy's line were involved. Suddenly from the higher parts of 
 these steep peaks, rough rocks were loosened, which broke through 
 the line from both sides, destroying the men, making gaps in the 
 ranks, bui-sting like the thunderbolt, spreading in multiplied frag- 
 
 » To wit, nine of Angrogna, two of St. John, one of Le Taillaret, one of Le 
 Villar, and one of Fenestrelles. ' 
 
 • The name of Taillaret was given at that time to the whole space included 
 within the Chiabriols on the west, Champ-la-Rama on the east, Les Copiers on 
 the south, and Castolus and Coste Roussine on the north. 
 
 Vol. I. 35 
 
274 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaBT SlCOND. 
 
 Cbap. II.] 
 
 THE VAUDOIS OF PROVENCE. 
 
 275 
 
 "I 
 
 I 
 
 iii 
 
 ments like grape-shot, and rebounding like splinters of bomb-shells, 
 between the contracted walls of that path of death. The rout was 
 soon complete. Unable either to advance or to spread itself out, 
 unable even to fight, this unfortunate troop retreated in disorder, 
 and was torn to pieces ere it retired. The other party, which ad- 
 vanced on the same expedition by La Vachere, to the attack also 
 of the Pra-du-Tour, seeing that those with whom they were to 
 have co-operated were already defeated, retired likewise, of their 
 own accord, renoimcing an assault which could now have no object. 
 
 A greater number of the Vaudois then proceeded to drive off 
 the fii*st assressors. It was a horrible situation to have to re-ascend 
 a ravine, into which huge stones were rolling down with fearful 
 noise and power of rapid destruction. But such was the situation 
 of the enemy. And without having been able to touch one of their 
 courageous antagonists, the assailing party withdrew from that nar- 
 row and bloody ravine, as a traitor should always withdraw from 
 his own snares — shattered, mangled, defeated, and powerless. 
 
 By reason of their number, however, some companies succeeded 
 in still showing front against the Vaudois, who ceased not to pur- 
 sue them. They re-ascended with difficulty these mountain-slopes, 
 so fatal to treachery, and succeeded in passing again over the Col of 
 Coste Roussine, by which they counted upon regaining La Tour. 
 
 The Vaudois, so basely attacked in midst of the armistice 
 which had been offered to them by the commissioners, and which 
 they had accepted, eagerly pursued these fugitive troops; and, in 
 spite of some partial attempts at resistance, by which the enemy 
 sought at intervals to cover their retreat, they annoyed them with 
 balls and stones all the way to the little plain of Champ-la-Rama, 
 situated at a short distance from La Tour. There the Catholics 
 made a stand, hoping to surround the insignificant number of their 
 pursuers ; more especially, as the Count of La Trinity had contrived 
 to acquaint them that he would presently send fresh troops. But 
 the Vaudois gave their enemies no time to await this reinforce- 
 ment, impetuously rushing upon the centre of the troop, whose 
 commander fell. 
 
 His name was Comelio; he was a young man of noble birth, 
 married a short time before. He had a certain military reputation ; 
 and the Count of La Trinity had employed the greatest urgency to 
 get him to take a command in his army. His young wife burst 
 into tears when he parted from her. " I swear by the holy Virgin, 
 and I give you my knightly word," said the count to her, " that I 
 will bring him back to you sound and safe." She consented to his 
 going, but she only received back his corpse. 
 
 The troops retreated in confusion, and the Vaudois pursued them 
 to the very gates of La Tour; for, after the death of their commander, 
 the soldiers ceased to make any serious resistance; and the Count 
 of La Trinity, seeing them arrive in so gi'eat disorder, broke up his 
 camp that very evening and retired to Cavour. It was, he said, 
 to return with cannon. " Let him bring them," repUed the moun- 
 taineers, "and he shall not take them back." And immediately 
 setting to work they covered the Pra-du-Tour, on the side towards 
 La Vachere, with a bastion so considemble that it could be seen 
 from Lucema, three leagues off. 
 
 At the same time there arrived in the valleys a new legion of 
 defenders. The Vaudois of Provence — who had escaped from the 
 massacres of 1545, prepared for war both by their misfortunes and 
 by the rude life which they had led during their dispersion on the 
 wild slopes of the Leberon— issued from their fastnesses, upon the 
 news that their brethren of the valleys were persecuted ; and 
 whether the climate of Provence had inspired them with more 
 violent passions, or the unexampled cruelties of Menier D'Oppede 
 had excited in them a more profound indignation against the 
 Catholics, certain it is that these new combatants were far from 
 imitating the moderation of the Vaudois in respect of the Papists. 
 Their phalanx— animated by a spirit of revenge, which may be 
 accounted for, but not justified, by the frightful wrongs which they 
 had endured—scoured the outskirts of the valleys, ravaging the 
 possessions of the Catholics, returning carnage for carnage, and 
 rapidly spreading on every side that unsurmountable terror which 
 is inspired by those who combat in despair. The inhabitants of 
 the surrounding districts — victims at once of the spoliations of the 
 hostile army, and the devastating incursions of these implacable 
 avengers, who had come from afar to protect the birthplace of 
 their fathers — loudly demanded the termination of this war, so dis- 
 astrous for all parties. 
 
 On the other hand, •desertion had commenced in the Popish 
 anny; the soldiers would no longer fight against such adver- 
 saries ; they refiised to march in the direction of these dreadful 
 mountains, "where, it was maintained," says Gilles,^ "that the 
 death of a single Vaudois cost the lives of more than a hundred of 
 their enemies." At last the Count of La Trinity fell sick, whilst the 
 valleys, far from being enfeebled, had defenders more resolute, 
 more powerful, and more numerous than ever. 
 
 Serious thoughts then began to be entertained of treating with 
 them. The first overtures consisted merely of offers of peace, upon 
 
 » P. 172. 
 
276 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Sxcono. 
 
 condition that the Vaudois should send away their pastors again, 
 and pay the ransom of their prisoners. But these conditions were 
 rejected. 
 
 The Count of Racconis wrote to the Yaudois from Cavour, on 
 the 5th of May, asking them to name deputies who should come 
 and treat with him concerning the terms of a definitive arrange- 
 ment. These deputies went, and after a number of difficulties, the 
 following articles were signed at Cavour, on the 5th of June, 1561 : — 
 
 1. An amnesty for the past. 
 
 2. Liberty of conscience granted to the Yaudois. 
 
 3. Permission to the banished and fugitives to return to their 
 native country. 
 
 4. Restitution of confiscated property. 
 
 5. The Protestants of Bubiano, Fenil, and other towns of Pied- 
 mont, to be authorized to attend public worship in the valleys. 
 
 6. Those who had abjured to be authorized to return to their 
 own church. 
 
 7. A promise that aU the ancient privileges of the Yaudois 
 should be confirmed. 
 
 8. The prisoners to be given up. 
 
 These articles were signed in name of the Duke of Savoy, by his 
 cousin Philip of Savoy, Count of Racconis ; and in name of the 
 Yaudois, by Francis Yals, pastor of Le Yillar, and Claud Berge, 
 pastor of La Tour, and also by two laymen, George Monastier of 
 Angrogna, and Michel Raymonet of Le Taillaret. 
 
 But the Catholic clergy raised a howl of vexation; the nuncio 
 wrote to the Pope; the Pope complained to the consistory; and 
 the Duchess of Savoy said some days after to Stephen Noel, pastor 
 of Angrogna, who had been summoned to her presence, "You 
 could not believe all the evil reports which are brought to us every 
 day agaiQst you ! But do not concern yourselves — do that which is 
 right — be obedient to God and your prince, and peaceable towards 
 your neighbours, and all that has been promised you shall be faith- 
 fully performed." "But in spite of this," says Noel,^ "the Pope's 
 legate did all that was in his power to have me put in prison." He 
 would have wished all the Yaudois of the valleys to be destroyed, 
 as all their brethren of Calabria had been. He could not conceive 
 how a princess could receive a minister ; he was very near raising 
 a disturbance upon that account. Noel was obliged to take his 
 departure next day; but he efiected his return to the valleys, re- 
 sumed his ministry, and long enjoyed the fruits of his labours. 
 
 Thus courage and faith prevailed. The articles of the 5th of 
 
 » Letter of Stephen No€l, Gilles, p. 174. 
 
 Chap. Ill] 
 
 DISTRESS IN THE VALLEYS. 
 
 277 
 
 June supplied the Yaudois with a solid basis for the future defence 
 of their liberty of conscience. It was yet to sufier very violent as- 
 saults, but it has always triumphed over them ; for their protector 
 was always the same. " Call upon me in the day of trouble, I 
 will deliver thee," saith the Lord. 
 
 These words may aptly serve as a concluding motto for the pre- 
 sent chapter ; which is nothing else than an illusti-ation of them, 
 in the whole of its contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CASTKOCARO, GOVERNOR OF THE VALLEYS.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1561 TO A.D. 1581.) 
 
 Distress prevailing in the Valleys — ^Refugees from Calabria — Castrocaro appointed 
 Governor of the Valleys — His scheme for the gradual destruction of the Vaudois 
 Church — He proceeds to impose new restrictions — His arbitrary proceedings — 
 His duplicity — He misrepresents the Vaudois at court — Kind intentions of the 
 Duchess of Savoy — Gilles Des Gilles, pastor of La Tour, seized and committed 
 to prison — Castrocaro frustrated in some of his attempts — ^New dangers — ^A 
 solemn fast — ^Deliverance from fear — Fui-ther arbitrary measures of the Gover- 
 nor — ^A new covenant sworn by the Vaudois — Charles IX. of France writes to 
 the Duke of Savoy in favour of the persecuted Protestants of the plains of 
 Piedmont — Massacre of St. Bartholomew — Threats of Castrocaro — Consterna- 
 tion of the Vaudois — ^They are re-assured by the Duke of Savoy — Francis 
 Guerin, pastor of St. Germain, boldly challenges a popish priest to public con- 
 troversy — Death of the Duchess of Savoy — Controversial discussions — ^A son of 
 the pastor of La Tour carried oflF by night — Castrocaro's tyranny and mis- 
 government become known to the Duke of Savoy — He refuses to appear at 
 Turin, and is carried thither a prisoner — The reward of a traitor and per- 
 secutor. 
 
 There had been so long an interruption of the labours of husbandry, 
 and the Yaudois had been subjected to so much of pillage and con- 
 flagration, and so many losses of every kind, that great distress began 
 to be felt in their valleys. The confiscated properties had been 
 spoUed to the utmost before being restored, and some of them were 
 very incompletely restored. The monks of Pignerol continued to 
 
 * Authorities. — QUles, who is very full in this part, sufficing to make up for 
 deficiencies of documents. His work is the principal source of the information 
 contained in this chapter. — Rorengo, ** Memork istoriche" ought, lest he mislead, to 
 be compared with Gilles, who was his contemporary. His first work was entitled, 
 " Breve narratione ddV introdvitione degU heretici ndle vcUli de Piemonte" &c., 
 published at Turin in 1632, a small 4to of 114 pages ; it has become rare. The 
 " Memorie istoriche delV introdvitione delV heresie ndlevaUi di Lucema" &c., were 
 published in 1649, in a 4to of xx and 350 pages. — Cappel, ** Vallium Alpinarum 
 
I 
 
 278 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 (^Pakt Sxcovo. 
 
 have a troop of malefactors in their pay, to inflict incessant injury 
 on the inoffensive Protestants of their vicinity. Besides all this, 
 there frequently arrived in the valleys a few unfortunate persons 
 escaped from the massacres of Calabria, naked as those who have 
 suffered shipwreck, issuing from the Apennines, where they had 
 crept along from cavern to cavern, destitute alike of clothing, shel- 
 ter, food, and the means of procuring it. The impoverished in- 
 habitants of our hospitable Alps, nevertheless, welcomed these 
 brethren and sisters with the warmest sympathy for the misfor- 
 tunes which they had endured. 
 
 Compassion is easily excited in those who are themselves worthy 
 of it. The Vaudois shared with these new-comers the little which 
 remained to them. They were descended from the same ancestors. 
 But the feeble resources of our desolated lands would have been 
 insujQSlcient for necessities so great. Collections were made for them 
 in Switzerland, in Germany, and even in France. 
 
 Scarcely had they begun to recover when Castrocaro — ^the same 
 who had been their prisoner, and whom they had so generously re- 
 leased — expressing, in the presence of the Duchess of Savoy, the best 
 intentions with regard to them, succeeded in getting himself named 
 Governor of the Valleys. His kind disposition towards them was 
 believed, upon account of the gratitude which he owed them. But 
 perfidious both upon the one hand and upon the other, he deceived 
 his benefactress and his benefactors. The Archbishop of Tui'in had 
 received from him the only promise which he did not fail to keep. 
 He promised to him that he would gi-adually withdraw from the 
 Vaudois all the liberties which had been conceded to them, and 
 that he would thus labour for the complete destruction of their 
 church. 
 
 Instead of seeking to accomplish this object by a sudden stroke, 
 he proceeded by means of successive restrictions, and commenced 
 by demanding, in 1565, a revision of the Treaty of Cavour, con- 
 cluded in 1561. The Vaudois refused to consent. He then pre- 
 tended that they had transgressed it. Recourse was had to the 
 duke for the maintenance of its provisions. Castrocaro repaired to 
 Turin, and returned from thence with new articles, which he pre- 
 
 trajecta portenta,** &c. Sedan, 1621. (He published also "Doctrine des Vaudois 
 reprisentie par Claude Seyaady' a small 8vo of 111 pages.) See also the general 
 histories concerning the province of Pignerol, and the historical memorials con- 
 cerning Piedmont and the house of Savoy, by Costa de Beauregard, Chiesa, 
 Cibrario, Muletti, &c.; and with these, the ** Art de verifier les dates," for the 
 arrangement of political facts. The manuscript sources of information are not 
 numerous — ^a few mouldeiing docmnents in the Archiyes of the Court at Turin 
 and in the Koyal Library. 
 
 Chap. IIIJ 
 
 CASTROCARO'S PERFIDY. 
 
 279 
 
 sented on behalf of the prince for the signature of the Vaudow. 
 But these papers did not bear the signature of the duke, and the 
 leaders of the Vaudois again met him with a refusal. 
 
 He thereupon threatened that he would declare against them a 
 war more cruel than the former. Long negotiations were entered 
 upon; commissioners were named upon both sides; some conces- 
 sions were wrung from those of the vaUeys, and the Vaudois people 
 disavowed their deputies. Things then began to get embroiled ; 
 which was what Castrocaro wished. He got the command of a body 
 of troops assigned to him to maintain order, and established hmi- 
 self with this garrison in the Castle of La Tour. He then ordered 
 the inhabitants of Bobi to send away their pastor,^ and those of St. 
 John no longer to admit the Protestants of the plain to their 
 
 worship. 
 
 The Vaudois, by the intervention of the Duchess of Savoy, ob- 
 tained at first a cessation of these hostiUties. But as a suspension 
 of twenty days had been proposed to them by Castrocaro, that they 
 might appeal to the duke against his decisions, he took advantage 
 of *the concluding term of that suspension to give his decisions the 
 legal force requisite for their being carried into execution, although 
 the duke might have disallowed them; and on the 10th of Septem- 
 ber, 1565, he caused proclamation to be made in the valley of 
 Lucema, that he would put to the sword any who did not conform 
 to them. What anarchy amongst rulers, what arbitrary magis- 
 tracies, what ignorance of social rights prevailed in these unhappy 
 
 times ! 
 
 Castrocaro, writing to the court, represented the resistance of the 
 Vaudois to his orders as a rebellion on their part against the duke's 
 authority, and he obtained from that prince an intimation to the 
 people that they must obey their governor. They, in their turn, 
 sent deputies to court ; namely, Domenic Vignaux, pastor of Le 
 Villar,2 Giiies, the pastor of La Tour, and three laymen. The good 
 Duchess of Savoy procured for them a safe-conduct, and received 
 them at Turin with much kindness; but she could not make up 
 her mind to the recall of the governor whom she had given them, 
 so completely had he succeeded in persuading her of the uprightness 
 of his intentions. On the contrary, she urged the Vaudois to sub- 
 mit to him aU their difficulties. " Dear and well-beloved," said she 
 to them in a letter dated 6th of December, 1565, "we shall always 
 commend the good desire which you show towards the service of 
 
 > Humbert Artus, who had made offer to the polemical monks to hold discussions 
 with them in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, as they might choose. 
 ^ He had succeeded the old pastor, whose name was Peter Val, two years before. 
 
Il 
 
 280 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Chip. III.] 
 
 GILLES DES GILLES. 
 
 281 
 
 II 
 
 God, as also of your prince, and we are far from thinking tliat you 
 speak feignedly; but we have two things to ask of you — ^the first 
 of which is, that whilst you reserve to yourselves the things which 
 can only belong to the judgment of your own conscience, you would 
 proceed in respect of them with sound discretion as well as with 
 true zeal, for the one without the other is worth very little; the 
 other is, that you would submit your deliberations to those who, 
 being upon the spot, can judge accurately of what is expedient 
 both for the one party and for the other ; and if you allow your- 
 selves to be guided by those who understand public affairs, and 
 desire your repose, you will never find yourselves deceived nor have 
 cause of dissatisfaction." 
 
 "Worthy lady ! it was she who was deceived. Noble minds have 
 difficulty in believing evil, whilst the worthless suspect it even 
 where it does not exist. Margaret of France believed in the good 
 intentions of Castrocaro ; and, accordingly, she adds in the letter 
 above quoted, that she hopes that time and experience will per- 
 mit the Vaudois to do him justice. Time only justified their 
 apprehensions. His animosity was redoubled by the complaints 
 made against him; he put to ransom, imprisoned, or persecuted 
 these poor people upon all sorts of pretexts: accusing some of 
 opposing his schemes, and others of finding fault with them; some 
 of not looking upon him with a good eye, others of not showing 
 him enough of deference. He succeeded in this way in expelling 
 from the valleys the learned Scipio Lentulus, on the pretext that 
 he was of foreign bii*th.i He caused the pastor of La Tour, Gilles 
 Des Gilles, to be arrested, on the pretext that he had been at 
 Grenoble and at Geneva with the view of bringing troops from 
 other countries against his sovereign. 
 
 This pastor, however, had saved the lives of Castrocaro and of 
 a multitude of Catholics, by many times aiTesting that terrible 
 legion of sharp-shooters, whom he accompanied in 1561, like an 
 angel of peace, whose mission was only to put an end to carnage. 
 Castrocaro had been one of the prisoners; the laws of war author- 
 ized his death. His life was spared ; his liberty was given to him; 
 but these natural causes of gratitude tormented him as a thirst for 
 vengeance. He set a troop of soldiers to watch his liberator; and 
 in the beginning of February, 1566, they seized the pastor and 
 cast him into prison, where " he was not less rigidly and rudely 
 treated," his grandson tells us, "than if he had been some noted 
 robber." AU the other pastors of the valleys offered to be security 
 
 > He was born at Naples ; he was at this time pastor of St. John, and he retired 
 to Cm&venna. 
 
 for their colleague, asking that he might be released until the 
 charges brought against him should be submitted to the Duke of 
 Savoy; but the merciless governor refused to allow any mitigation 
 of the hardships of the captive. 
 
 When he was transferred to Turin, the family of the duke felt 
 the greatest regard for him ; but the clergy eagerly laboured for 
 his destruction by aggravating, as much as possible, the charges 
 under which he lay. One day the advocate-fiscal, Barb^ri, said 
 to him, " Your case looks iU ; a sentence of death is sure to be 
 prono\mced ; you cannot escape it but by changing your religion." 
 " Will that change my guilt or my innocence, in respect of the 
 things imputed to meV^ said the pastor, "No; but they will 
 cease to be regarded, and you will receive as much favour as you 
 have otherwise to apprehend punishment." "It is not justice, 
 then, that is cared for." " It is your salvation, which is of far 
 more importance. Hold ! subscribe you only the things which are 
 contained in this book and your life will be saved." " I would 
 rather save my soul. But, however, let us see this book." " Ah ! 
 liis highness has required that your case should be proceeded in 
 without delay; you must therefore decide presently." "I cannot 
 sign what I do not know." " Well ! I will leave the book with 
 you, and I will come back to hear your answer in three days." 
 
 Barberi having returned at the time fixed, the pastor exclaimed, 
 " It is a tissue of errors and blasphemies ; I would rather die than 
 sign such a thing." " What ! errors ! blasphemies ! It is you who 
 blaspheme ; and you will be burned alive were it only for these 
 words," " If such be God's will, I am in his hands." 
 
 But at that time violent persecutions were carried on against 
 the reformed at once of Saluces, Barcelonnette, and Suza; the Elec- 
 tor Palatine had deputed one of his councillors of state to the Duke 
 of Savoy, in order to get them stopped, and this ambassador did 
 not quit Turin till he had succeeded in having Gilles declared in- 
 nocent and set at liberty. 
 
 Castrocaro then caused proclamation to be made in his govern- 
 ment, that all Protestants who were not bom within it, must 
 remove from it under pain of death and confiscation of all their 
 goods. ^ But by the intervention of the Duchess of Savoy, the 
 rescinding of this barbarous order was obtained. 
 
 On the instigation of the Archbishop of Timn, the perfidious 
 governor made an attempt to have the Yaudois interdicted from 
 assembling in synod. In this he did not succeed. Thereupon he 
 demanded to be present at it, on pretext of securing against plots 
 
 >Orderof April 20, 1566. 
 Vol. I. j^g 
 
282 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t Sxconj). 
 
 which might there be hatched against the safety of the state. "The 
 people protested," says Gilles, " against this innovation, not for fear 
 of his knowing all that was transacted in these assemblies, but out 
 of regard to the future." 
 
 In the year following, the religious wars broke out again in 
 France; and the Duke of Cleves, leading a Spanish army into Flan- 
 ders, had occasion to pass through Piedmont. His first exploits, 
 it was said, would be the extermination of the Vaudois. Fanatics 
 rejoiced, and Christ's followers were depressed; trouble and dis- 
 quietude again prevailed in the valleys. A solemn fast was observed 
 there in the end of May, to avert the judgments of God in the 
 dreaded future. Was it, then, because of the unanimous supplica- 
 tions of this whole people, humbled in penitence and prayer, that 
 this storm passed by without doing them any harmi Their faith 
 was assured of it; the fact belongs to history. That vast extermi- 
 nation, the danger of which was thought to be so imminent — ^these 
 prospects of bloodshed, these menaces and fears of death passed 
 away like a cloud, whose presence is only marked upon the earth 
 by the shadow which it casts. And whilst Europe was in combus- 
 tion, the Vaudois people enjoyed at this time some years of peace. 
 Castrocaro employed this interval of respite in building, or rather 
 completing, the fort of Mirabouc. The people of Bobi, in parti- 
 cular, saw with displeasure the erection of this fortress, because of 
 the obstacle which it formed on the road to Le Queyras, the free 
 passage of which was of some consequence to their colayers^ for the 
 exchange or sale of their produce in Upper Dauphiny. Castrocaro, 
 upon his part, vowed a pai*ticular enmity against the Bvhmrels^^ 
 and in name of the priest of La Tour, he demanded that the place 
 of worship at Bobi, and the grounds attached to the residence of 
 the pastor, should be given up to him. The Vaudois refused; and 
 by a sentence passed upon the 26th of October, 1571, he condemned 
 them to a fine of 100 crowns of gold, payable within twenty-four 
 hours, under penalty of twenty-five crowns of gold of additional 
 fine for every day's delay in the payment of the original sum. All 
 the Vaudois made common cause upon this occasion. They sent 
 deputies to Emmanuel Philibert, and again succeeded in getting a 
 stop put to these proceedings. 
 
 But seeing, nevertheless, that those persecuting courses were 
 
 * The name of colayers is given to labourers, or small merchants, whose employ- 
 ment is to traverse the cols of the mountains, bearing on their shoulders the mer- 
 chandise of one vaUey to another. One of them said one day, to describe the 
 hardships of such a life, *' The bread which we eat has seven crusts, and the best 
 of them is burned !'* 
 
 » A Vaudois designation for the inhabitants of the commune of Bobi. 
 
 Chap. III.] 
 
 A ROYAL LETTER. 
 
 283 
 
 renewed against them, by which their destruction had formerly 
 been attempted, they renewed upon their part by oath, their cove- 
 nant and bond of mutual responsibility as Christians, the source of 
 their previous triumphs, and subscribed in addition the following 
 
 articles : — 
 
 "When one of our churches shall be assailed in any of its pecu- 
 liar interests, all shall jointly reply as with one mouth to maintain 
 their common rights. None of us shall act, in any such matter, 
 without consulting his brethren. 
 
 " And we all bind ourselves to one another, amder an oath, un- 
 swervingly to abide in this ancient union, transmitted to us by our 
 fathers, never to forsake our holy religion, and always to remain 
 faithful to our rightful sovereigns." 
 
 In these terms was their covenant made and ratified at Bobi on 
 the 11th of November, 1571. 
 
 Nevertheless, the system of annoyance was still kept up, especi- 
 ally against the Protestants of Lower Piedmont, and a very curious 
 particular connected with this fact is, that Charles IX. wrote to 
 the Duke of Savoy a very pressing letter in favour of the perse- 
 cuted. " I have one request to make to you," says he, " which I 
 would make, not in an ordinary way, but with all the earnestness 
 which is possible for me. . . . for during the troubles of war, pas- 
 sion no more permits us to judge aright of what is expedient, than 
 disease permits a patient to judge in his own case .... and as 
 you have treated your subjects in an unusual manner upon this 
 accoimt .... for my sake also, let it please you now, in kindness 
 to me, upon my prayer and special recommendation, to receive 
 them to your benign favour, to restore them and reinstate them in 
 their possessions, which have been confiscated .... This matter 
 is so just in itself, and is so earnestly regarded by me, that I assure 
 myself you will readily comply with my wishes." 
 
 This letter is dated from Blois on the 28th of September, 1571. 
 Charles IX. was then twenty-one years of age. " He had received 
 from nature," say the Benedictines,^ " an excellent disposition and 
 rare abilities; he was brave, intrepid, possessed of extraordinary 
 penetration, of lively imagination, and of sound judgment; he ex- 
 pressed himself with dignity and readiness. But the seductions 
 with which he was surrounded perverted this happy natural charac- 
 ter; the queen-mother herself trained him in the art of deceit and 
 dissimulation; the Marshal De Rez taught him to make light of 
 oaths; and the Guises, by their sanguinary counsels, turned the 
 uatural impetuosity of his character into cruelty." Placed in other* 
 
 ^ Art de verifier les dates. 
 
284j 
 
 TE£ ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt SkC050. 
 
 Chap. UL] 
 
 A PRIEST SILENCED. 
 
 285 
 
 circumstances, he would, perhaps, have been one of the most accom- 
 plished princes, of whom the records of royalty have preserved the 
 memory. It is impossible to tell what crimes bad example and 
 bad instructions have produced. If Charles IX. had been brought 
 up under the teaching of the Bible, France would have escaped 
 many calamities. But a year after this letter, came the news of the 
 massacres of St. Bartholomew, i The most dreadful consternation 
 succeeded in all the Reformed churches, to the hopes which they 
 had conceived with regard to the future. 
 
 Castrocaro took advantage of the occasion to terrify the Vaudois 
 valleys with his threats of extermination. "If 60,000 Huguenots 
 have fallen in France," exclaimed he in a transport, " it is not to 
 be supposed that this handful of heretics can expect to survive." 
 And the Papists, the enthusiastic Papists, Gilles says, in his style 
 of grave impartiality, already exulted in the approacliing destruc- 
 tion of the Vaudois. And they, alarmed by that distant echo of 
 so great a massacre, and by the infuriate rage which was displayed 
 in their own immediate vicinity, began to convey their children 
 and households to the most inaccessible places among the moun- 
 tains; the men got ready their weapons, and waiting till they should 
 be compelled to make use of them, they continued to watch and to 
 pray. 
 
 But the ciy of horror which resounded throughout the whole of 
 civilized Europe, on that vast assassination, startled the Duke of 
 Savoy himself. At the spectacle of such a conflagration, his heart 
 was moved to indignation, and his wisdom dictated caution. He 
 energetically protested against the cruelties of Charles IX., swore 
 that he would never sully his reputation by such crimes, re-assured 
 the Vaudois as to their prospects, and persuaded them to return 
 peaceably to their homes, where they would have nothing to fear. 
 
 Some troubles, however, took place at this time in the valley of 
 Perouse, which belonged to France, and the history of which is too 
 intimately connected with that of Pragela to be detached from it. 
 I shall therefore take notice of the events which then agitated the 
 Val Perouse, in relating the history of Pragela, of which the 
 political destinies have been very distinct from those of the other 
 Vaudois valleys. 
 
 One fact, however, deserves to be inserted here, because it belongs 
 to the general movement of the countries with which we are now 
 engaged. In the midst of this almost universal fury against the 
 Protestants, the pastor of St. Germain, Francis Guerin, had the 
 courage to undertake, alone and unaided, to combat Catholicism by 
 
 » From 23d to 2Sth August, 1572. 
 
 arms more terrible and less bloody — those of argument. One day, in 
 1573, he ascended to Pramol, where Popeiy reigned in full strength. 
 It was a Sabbath, the people were assembled in the church, the 
 priest celebrated mass. Francis Guerin took his place amongst 
 the hearers, and waited in silence till the services were terminated. 
 No one suspected that in that crowd of obscure persons was a 
 soldier of Christ, who, armed according to the scriptural expressions^ 
 with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is 
 the word of God,^ was speedily, with all the power of love and 
 courage, to make that word triumphant over the servile forces of 
 superstition. 
 
 The priest of Pramol having concluded his service, the pastor 
 rose and inquired if he had finished.^ " Yes," replied the priest. 
 "What then is it which you have been doing?" "I have been 
 saying mass." "And what is the mass?" The question was put 
 in Latin. The priest knew not what reply to make. Francis 
 Gu6rin repeated it in Italian, and said to him, " Be so good as to 
 explain to me what the mass is?" The priest was as silent as 
 before. Then the pastor, inflamed with zeal for his God, and with 
 ardent and devout compassion for so many enslaved souls, ascended 
 the pulpit in the midst of an audience dumb with astonishment, 
 and exclaimed, " Poor people ! you see by whom you allow your- 
 selves to be guided ! By a man who does not know what he does; 
 he says mass every day, and he does not know what the mass is. 
 He feeds you with a thing which neither you nor he know any- 
 thing about. Oh come! leave behind you your ignorance, and 
 these vain superstitions ! Souls are too precious to be thus trifled 
 with. Behold the Bible," he proceeded, laying one down before 
 him, "listen to the word of God and you shall be saved I" 
 
 The people, excited and motionless, ventured not to take any 
 
 * Epistle to the Ephesians, vi. 16, 17. 
 
 * These details are taken from ^manuscript of that period, Circa la religioner e 
 dominio spirituale. , . . dal Fra Agostino di CastellaTnonte, Cappudno : e mis- 
 fatti dei protestanti in queste vcdli. FoL, 32 pages. — Archives of the Bishopric of 
 Pignerol. 
 
 The following are a few extracts : — " Finita la messa il ministro dice al curato : 
 Monsignor haveto detto messa ? — Kispose il curato: Messer, si. — Replico il Ministro: 
 Quid est missa ? — II curato non seppe rispondere parola. — II ministro tomo ha dire 
 in vulgare, j)erche forse il povero curato non intendeva il latino ! — O monsignor, 
 che cosa e messa? — Ne meno seppe rispondere. All'hora il ministro monto in 
 pulpito, o comincio da predicare contra la messa e contra il papa, e fra le altre 
 cose, dice : — O povera gente ! vedete che havete qua, un uomo che non sa quelle 
 che si faccia ? Ogni giorno dice messa, e non sa che cosa sia messa, Fa una cosa 
 che ne voi, ne lui intende ! Vedete qua la Bibla, sentite la parola di Dio. . , . 
 E seppe dire tante chiachierie, che perverti tutta quella terra, e al presente non vi 
 d pi^ ne curato ne messa." — Gilles also mentions this occurrence^ with fewer parti* 
 culars, in his 37th chapter. 
 
286 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Second. 
 
 Coir. IIL] 
 
 A JESUIT OUTWITTED. 
 
 287 
 
 I 
 
 decided course. "Well," added the pastor, "I do not wish to take 
 anybody by surprise; and to give yoiir priest time to prepare his 
 answers, I will return next Sabbath, to prove to him, both by the 
 Bible and by his own missal, that the mass is full of falsehoods; 
 meanwhile, pray to God that he may enlighten you, and incline 
 you to receive the truth without weakness and without prejudice.'* 
 Hereupon Guerin left the church and re-descended to St. Germain. 
 In course of the week many of the people of Pramol came to him, 
 opened their hearts to him, and asked his advice ; and to each he 
 gave a Bible, saying, "There is your best counsellor, consult it 
 often, and you will have no need of other directions." 
 
 Next Sabbath he went up again to Pramol. The concourse of 
 people was considerable ; curiosity, surprise, and a multitude of dif- 
 ferent emotions agitated their hearts. The new apostle made his 
 way into the church ; the crowd pressed around him ; he seemed to 
 be already their pastor. But the priest did not make his appear- 
 ance; no one presented himself to celebrate or to defend the mass. 
 "Reverend pastor," said a voice, "speak to us again of the word of 
 God." " Yes, I will speak to you," was the reply, "and I will be 
 your pastor, or rather you shall have only one shepherd, who is 
 Christ ! you shall be his sheep ; but his sheep must know him." 
 And without delay he proceeded to expound to them the great doc- 
 trines of salvation. It may easily be imagined that they triumphed 
 amongst these simple and awakened souls, for whom Popery at first 
 did not think it worth while to contend with the gospel. 
 
 This event passed unobserved amidst the great troubles of the 
 times. The Church of Rome was too much intoxicated with the 
 bloody triumphs of St. Bartholomew, to alarm herself about so 
 petty a triumph of faith. But nothing is insignificant which con- 
 cerns the infinite and immortality; and the salvation of a soul is 
 of more importance in the sight of God than the conquest of a 
 kingdom. 
 
 Francis Guerin was decidedly of this judgment; for five years 
 after, he set to work again to win souls in another district of the 
 country. At the head of the Vaudois regiments he made his way 
 into the marquisate of Saluces, for which Savoy and France then 
 contended; and when the armies had retired, the pastor still re- 
 mained to consolidate the evangelical churches there. The adven- 
 turous life of the knights-errant is regarded as full of heroism; but 
 with what heroic emotions, perhaps still more elevated and still 
 more generous, must not apostles, missionaries, and the ancient 
 Vaudois Barbas have been animated, amidst the dangers which they 
 often encountered ! 
 
 During the various agitations of this period, and especially after 
 the troubles to which the valley of Perouse was subjected many of 
 h Ule of that valley had taken refuge in the vaUey of Lucern. 
 Castrolo, on the 28th of July, 1573, ox-darned all those who were 
 not bom withm his government, to leave it within five day^ under 
 pain of three applications of the strapado aad confiscation of goods. 
 Inew appeal to the Duchess of Savoy put an end to the^ P'**- 
 ceedings. But this kind protectress was removed on the 19th ot 
 October, 1574, and her husband was not long behind her, for he 
 died on the 30th of August, 1580. 
 
 During this interval, LesdiguiSres wrote to the Vaudois, to r^ 
 quest them to allow to the church of Gap, where he then resided, 
 the ministry of Stephen Noel, pastor of Angrogna, who had already, 
 in 1574, been called by the church of Grenoble. His ministry 
 was therefore granted to one or other of these churches. 
 
 In February, 1581, polemical conferences were held m the 
 vaUeys The occasion was the following:— A Jesuit missionary, 
 named Vanin, frequently made the Vaudois, and especially theu- 
 pastors, the theme of his preax^hing. "Let them show their faees, 
 he would say, "these heretics, these false prophets, these instru- 
 ments of Satan, these workers of iniquity ! But they will not come, 
 for I would confound them." "There is nothing rational m abuse 
 wrote Francis Truchi, the pastor of St. John, in a letter addressed 
 to ^ "but if by word or writing you are willmg to hold senous 
 discussion with me, according to the usual manner of theologians, 
 you wUl not find me to shrink from your attacks." 
 
 The day fixed for the first conference was a Sabbath. Vanin, 
 presuming that all the Vaudois ministers would assemble to take 
 part in it, and that he would find their churches abandoned at that 
 time, repaired to Le Villar to address the people, instead of gomg 
 to St. John to hold a discussion with the pastors. But Domenic 
 Vi-naux, minister of Le Villar, did not leave the field free to the 
 JeTuit as he expected. "I am astonished," he said, "to meet with 
 you here, at the very hour which you yourself had named for the 
 conference at St. John; but since you are here you can have no 
 objection that I take the place of my coUeague Truchi m this duty, 
 and that we proceed forthwith to pubUc discussion. This was pre- 
 cisely what the Jesuit dreaded. He turned a suppUcatmg look 
 towards the governor's lieutenant who accompanied him, and who 
 compi-ehended his embarrassment. "I forbid all discussion, saad 
 
 that magistrate. , „ , . ^. » xt. 
 
 But poor Vaain was not yet at the end of his vexations, for the 
 pastor of St. John, with whom the discussion had been authorized. 
 
288 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 ^Part Second. 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 DEATH OF CASTROCARO. 
 
 289 
 
 Laving learned that his antagonist had gone to Le Yillar, had fol- 
 lowed pretty closely after him, and soon arrived to call upon him 
 to enter the lists which he had himself demanded. After many 
 difficulties the conference was opened. It may be conceived which 
 Bide had the advantage. 
 
 But Vanin, to avenge himself for his defeat, caused the son of the 
 pastor of La Tour, Gilles Des Gilles, to be carried off by night. 
 This young man was transported to Turin to the Jesuit convent, 
 and thence he was despatched to the Indies, whence no word of 
 him ever came. The grief of his family may be imagined. It 
 endured as long as they lived, says his grand-nephew. 
 
 Soon after this, Castrocaro caused it to be reported that a new army 
 was coming to destroy the Vaudois. The Vaudois withdrew their 
 families to the mountains, and the governor wrote to the duke that 
 they were fortifying themselves in order to resist his authority. A 
 commissioner, sent to the spot, acknowledged at once the innocence 
 of the Vaudois, and the hateful annoyances to which they were 
 subjected by their calumniators. "For the cruel Castrocaro cared 
 for nothing," says Gilles, "but to live in luxury in his castle 
 of La Tour, where he became fat and rich, leaviag his garrison to 
 commit all sorts of excesses, and sometimes himself causing them to 
 do so. He kept in his palace a troop of dogs, of which some were 
 of prodigious size. His son Andrew was so debauched a fellow 
 that the women of the neighbourhood, who regarded their t)wn 
 honour, durst not go out without being well attended. His three 
 daughters went indiscriminately to mass or to the preaching of the 
 reformed ministers, caring nothing either for the one religion or 
 for the other, but only to be extravagantly and gaudily dressed, 
 whilst his great object was to plimder all that he could." 
 
 The Duke of Savoy, being informed of such conduct, resolved to 
 put an end to these excesses. He summoned Castrocaro to present 
 himself at Turin; but, upon various pretexts, the unworthy go- 
 vernor always refused to obey, giving proof of his unfaithfulness by 
 his resistance. The duke then seeing well enough that if there 
 were rebels at La Tour, it was not among the Vaudois, but rather 
 among those who denounced them, ordered the Count of Lucerna, 
 Emmanuel PhiHbert, to seize Castrocaro and make him prisoner. 
 This was no easy matter upon account of the fortifications, soldiers, 
 and ferocious dogs by wliich he was surrounded. 
 
 Treachery came to the aid of tactics. Traitors are always 
 deceived. A captain, named Simon, upon a private agreement 
 with the Count of Lucerna, sent away, on the 13th of June, 1582, 
 a part of the soldiers of the garrison. The count had posted his 
 
 troop within a short distance of the castle. He came on impetu- 
 ously, and surprised it almost without defence ; the porter was killed 
 at the moment when he was going to raise the draw-bridge before 
 the assailants; they seized upon all the entrances. Castrocaro and 
 his son were still in bed, and only the huge dogs which watched 
 them attempted to defend them. The governor's three daughters 
 mounted to the belfry of the castle, and sounded the alarm. The 
 people came with all haste from Angrogna and St. John to the 
 assistance of the castle. But the Count of Lucerna exhibited the 
 ducal order upon which he had acted, and it may be supposed that 
 the Vaudois were not very eager to oppose the arrest of their perae- 
 cutor. He was conducted to Turin, and died in prison. His son 
 expiated his misconduct in the dungeons of the senate. All their 
 goods were confiscated, with reservation of a small allowance which 
 was secured to the daughters and their mother. 
 
 Thus ended the disgraceful and mischievous rule of Castrocaro, 
 illustrating the declarations of Scripture, concerning the wicked, 
 whose strength and hope are suddenly destroyed, and who are not 
 permitted to prosper in their iniquities. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 STATE OF THE VAUDOIS DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES 
 
 EMMANUEL. 
 
 (A.D. 1580 TO A.D. 1630.) 
 
 GLI BANDITTI.^ 
 
 Troubles in the vaUey of Perouse — The Jesuits in the valley of Lucerna — ^A solemn 
 fast of four days — Deaths of two aged Vaudois pastors — War between France 
 and Savoy — Sufferings of the Vaudois — Proceedings of the Romish clergy — 
 Apostasy of a Vaudois minister, Andrew Laurent — His consequent miseries — 
 The Jesuits in the valleys — Discussions between them and Vaudois pastors — 
 Ubertin Braida, priest of La Tour — The Banditti — The Digiunati — Irritation 
 and excesses — A fast — Governor Ponte — Count Charles of Lucerna — Captain 
 Galline attacks Bobi, but is defeated and spared by the Vaudois — Count 
 Charles of Lucerna obtains favourable terms for the Vaudois, and tranquillity 
 is in some measure restored — Deaths of Vaudois pastors — New alarms — ^A 
 fast — Earthquake — The regiment of the Baron De La Roche in the valley of 
 Lucerna — ^The Vaudois compelled to pay a large sum of money — Disunion 
 among them — Further injustice and exactions — ^Destruction of a number of 
 places of worship — Continued vexations — Rorengo, Prior of Lucerna — Resist- 
 ance to the establishment of monks in the valleys. 
 
 Emmanuel Philibert having died in 1580, his son, Charles Em- 
 manuel, then eighteen years of age, succeeded him. He espoused, 
 
 * Authorities. — ^The same as in the preceding chapter. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 87 
 
290 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 Chip. IV ] WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND SAVOY. 
 
 291 
 
 
 r 
 
 il 
 
 in 1585, Catharine of Spain, daughter of Philip II., after having 
 been upon the jK)int, two years before, of marrying Catharine of 
 France, sister of Henry IV. But this latter princess being a 
 Protestant, the projected marriage met with so much opposition in 
 Italy, that he could not accomplish it. 
 
 In 1583 serious troubles arose in the valley of Perouse, and led 
 to the interposition of the people of the valley of Lucema ; for the 
 Vaudois had bound themselves by oath never to abandon one 
 another; and the prudence and energy are above all praise which 
 they displayed under the diversity of their circumstances, which 
 was attended with the greater difficulty, that they were the subjects 
 of two different powers. But extricating always from all others 
 the religious question, on which nothing ever could make them 
 yield, they sustained the cause of their church without interfering 
 in the affairs of the state. As the valley of Perouse is merely a 
 prolongation of that of Pragela, which then formed a part of 
 Dauphiny, it is in the history of the latter valley that these events 
 will naturally find their place. 
 
 In 1584 a new Jesuit invasion took place in the valley of Lu- 
 cema. The Duke of Savoy having, in the following year, espoused 
 the daughter of Philip II., who was a member of the league against 
 the reformed, it was supposed that Charles Emmanuel would ere 
 long follow his example; "and the monks," says GiQes, "imme- 
 diately sounded the horn with extravagant vauntings against our 
 people, reckoning them aU to be already exterminated. However, 
 they caused them to be exhorted in all quarters, to prevent this 
 misfortune by prompt conversion. The alarm was great, not so 
 much upon account of these monkish lies and boastings, as of the 
 certain accounts received of the league which was formed in Fi-ance 
 and elsewhere. Accordingly the Vaudois considered, in good 
 earnest, that they had need, by true repentance, and extraordinary 
 waiting upon God, with fasting and prayer, to endeavour to avert 
 the calamities which they dreaded." 
 
 Four days were therefore set apart for solemn fasting in the 
 Vaudois valleys, namely, the 15th and 16th, and the 22d and 
 23d of May, 1585, according to the usage of the primitive church 
 in similar difficulties ; and as if the blessing or the might of God 
 always attended the fervent prayers of men, they very soon heard 
 that, throughout the whole of Dauphiny, the reformed were vic- 
 torious over the soldiers of the league. A third part of the 
 Vaudois valleys then belonged to that province; and the advantage 
 which they derived from these successes, contributed much to 
 confirm and encourage the rest. 
 
 A touching but melancholy circumstance occurred in 1588. 
 
 The two oldest pastors of the vaUeys, Gilles Des Gilles and Francis 
 
 Laurens, the last disciples of the ancient Barbas, anterior to the 
 
 Reformation, and whose whole lives had been spent in the same 
 
 labours, and in unbroken friendship, expired within a short time 
 
 of each other, in their ripe but vigorous old age. GiUes died first ; 
 
 and Francis Laurens, being informed of the decease of him who 
 
 had been the companion of his studies and of liis journeys— his 
 
 coUeague for half a century, and his friend throughout the whole 
 
 of his life— was so strongly affected that he took to bed that same 
 
 hour, and died a few days after. Such sensibility is rare amongst 
 
 old men ; but the faith which gives immortality does not permit 
 
 the souls which have obtained it to grow old. 
 
 In course of the same year, Charles Emmanuel seized the 
 marquisate of Saluces. There was war betwixt him and France. 
 This war still continued in 1592, for the Duke of Savoy was sup- 
 ported by Spain and Austria. The theatre of hostilities being on 
 the frontiers of Provence and Piedmont, two diversions were at- 
 tempted by the French forces in the Vaudois valleys. The com- 
 mandant of Queyras Castle attempted to surprise the fort of Mira- 
 bouc, but was repulsed; and Lesdiguieres, an abler commander, 
 seized that of Perouse, and afterwards those of Lucema and La 
 Tour, from which he re-ascended the valley, and assailing the fort 
 of Mirabouc from the lower side, compelled it to capitulate. He 
 fixed his headquarters at Briqu^ras, where he caused a fortress to 
 be erected; and from thence he levied contributions upon aU the 
 surrounding district. The town of Vigon, having refused to pay, 
 was given up to pillage. The castle of Cavour, defended by Count 
 Emmanuel of Lucerna, made some resistance, but after a siege of 
 twenty days, and 500 volleys of cannon— munitions and provisions 
 being exhausted— it also fell into the hands of the French on the 
 8th of December, 1592. 
 
 During the time of this siege, a skirmish took place at Garsiliano 
 betwixt the troops of the Duke of Savoy and those of Lesdiguieres, 
 in which the latter had the advantage. At this time Lesdiguieres' 
 had not yet abjured Protestantism, and the Vaudois were not sub- 
 jected to great hardships under his domination. Finding himself 
 master of the country, he caused the castle of La Tour to be 
 demolished in 1593, as well as that of La Perouse, which were 
 untenable against cannon. It was proposed to have demolished 
 also those of Lucema and Mirandol, but the project was not exe- 
 cuted. The French general soon found reason to regret this, for 
 the Duke of Savoy seized these two places towards the end of' the 
 
 ! 
 
292 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sicomd. 
 
 montli of June. The French garrison of the cattle of Mirandol 
 aUowed themselves to be cut in pieces rather than sun^ender. Ihe 
 fort of Exnes did not surrender till it had received 3000 cannon 
 shot; and that of Briqu6ras endured more than 7000 before it 
 
 ^' The Duke of Savoy had with him Neapolitan, Milanese, and 
 Spanish troops. A detachment of these la^t surprised La Tour 
 one Sabbath morning. The soldiers entered it by the street of 
 Les Bruns, opposite to the town's house, for the principal entry 
 wa^ barricaded. They massacred, without distinction, both Pro- 
 testants and CathoHcs whom they met in the streets. Afterwards 
 forcing their way into the houses, they committed cruel axjts ot 
 violence, "and went the length," says Gilles, "of cutting off the 
 fin-ers of noble damsels, who were not able themselves quic^y 
 enough to puU off the gold rings which these plunderers wanted 
 But they did not long continue these barbarous spoliations, for the 
 Vaudois having run to arms on all sides, the Spaniards took flight 
 
 without waiting for them. , . , , ,1 
 
 However, Lesdiguieres having lost all the places which he had 
 taken in Piedmont, except Cavour ajid Mirabouc, retired before 
 the victorious army of the confederates, and regained Dauphmy. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy then re-entered into possession of his domi- 
 nions] but as, under the French rule, an oath of fideUty to the King 
 of Franco had been exacted from the Vaudois, the Church of Rome 
 endeavoured to pei-suade Charles Emmanuel to seize upon this pre- 
 text for exterminating them. That prince was too skilful a poll- 
 tician not to wish to avaH himself of the repose granted him from 
 foreign wars, in order to other purposes than the ravaging of his 
 own "territories j but he consented to make some show of persecu- 
 tion, in order to satisfy the fanatics, who, perhaps, themselves hoped 
 to win from the Vaudois by terror some concessions fatal to their 
 
 churches. 
 
 The army which had taken Briqueras continued to occupy it. 
 The commander-in-chief wrote to the Vaudois to send deputies to 
 him. "My orders are," said he to them, "to enter your vaUeys, 
 and to exterminate aQ their inhabitants, in order to chastise them 
 for having taken an oath to the King of France, contrary to the 
 duty which they owed to their sovereign." " WiU you massacre 
 also the CathoHcs," said they, " who took it as well as we?" "That 
 is not your aflair," he repUed, " but as I am very unwHUng to shed 
 so much blood, I would recommend you to go and cast yourselves 
 at the feet of his highness, to ask pardon of him, and submit your- 
 selves absolutely to his wilL" 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 APOSTASY OF ANDREW LAURENT. 
 
 293 
 
 A petition was presented to the duke,^ who allowed him- 
 self to be persuaded, and granted its prayer, on condition that 
 Catholicism should be established in all the valleys, and that the 
 Protestant places of worship, which had formerly belonged to the 
 Church of Rome, shoidd be restored to it. This last condition 
 alone was accepted, and with its acceptance the sovereign was 
 satisfied. 
 
 In 1595 Charles Emmanuel retook the castle of Cavour, which 
 had still remained in possession of the French, and afterwards, about 
 the end of June, he seized upon their last stronghold, the fort of 
 Mirabouc. On his return from this expedition, he stopped in the 
 public square of Le Villar, and said to the Vaudois who came to 
 congratulate him upon his victory, " Be faithful to me, and I will 
 be a good prince, nay, a father to you. As to your liberty of con- 
 science, and the exercise of your religion, I have no wish to make 
 any innovation contrary to the liberties which you have enjoyed 
 \mtil now, and if any one attempt to trouble you, come to me and 
 I will see to it." 
 
 The Catholic clergy were irritated at these kind words, and not 
 being able to obtain the employment of any violence against the 
 Vaudois Church, they attacked them by insidious methods. Their 
 first care was to obtain authority to establish Catholic missions in 
 all the valleys, with right to enter the Protestant places of wor- 
 ship, to which the Protestants should not be entitled to offer any 
 opposition. The Archbishop of Turin came in person to instal the 
 Jesuits in the valley of Lucerna, and the Capuchins in that of 
 St. Martin. Scenes very distressing to the Vaudois occurred at 
 this time. 
 
 Their former pastor, Andrew liaurent, who had succeeded Gilles 
 Des Gilles in the parish of La Tour, had been made prisoner during 
 the preceding war, and cast into the dungeons, one after another, 
 of Saluces, of Coni, and of Turin. At first he resisted with great 
 firmness the solicitations to apostasy, which usually followed the 
 torments inflicted by Catholicism upon its victims j but at last, 
 whether it was that his mind was weakened by his sufferings, or 
 whether he had lost the strength of his former convictions, the 
 unhappy Laui-ent consented to put an end to his tortures by an 
 abjuration. Immediately he was transferred from noisome prisons 
 to a sumptuous palace, whUst his soul was declared to have also 
 passed from darkness to light. A richly-fiirnished house was pre- 
 pared for him at Lucerna ; the Jesuits, under pretext of boarding 
 with him, never quitted him, watched him continually, and led him 
 
 * The answer to this petition is dated 2l8t November, 1574. 
 
294> 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALP& 
 
 [pakt Second. 
 
 about as a trophy in the midst of them, in the excursions which 
 they made among the Protestants. 
 
 Escorted by these children of darkness, a jealous and suspicious 
 • guard, who marked his slightest movements, whilst they professed 
 to do him honour by their attendance, he was dragged about to 
 make polemical addresses in the religious assemblies of the Yaudois, 
 in the very churches where he had preached to them the word of 
 God, in presence of his former colleagues, amidst his former pai-ish- 
 ioners; and after the sermon he was caused to declare before them 
 that their religion was a heresy, that he himself had taught them 
 nothing but error, and that, being himself converted, he would 
 recommend them to follow his example. What a grief to the 
 Vaudois, and what a humiliation to himself! 
 
 His repentant and submissive voice, his air of subjection and 
 distress, made it obvious enough to what tyrannical injunctions he 
 was compelled to render obedience. His appearance and his words 
 excited in his afflicted hearers only a silent pity, more grievous to 
 him than reproaches. Eyes were cast down as he passed, or accus- 
 ing looks penetrated his soul like heart-rending weapons. O! 
 there is no trifling with remorse ! But Laui*ent died of it, after 
 having been subjected to affronts perhaps more cruel, and humilia- 
 tions more j>ainful still. The Jesuits took charge of his family; 
 and scarcely had it been confided to them, when his daughter lost 
 her honour. The monk who debauched her fled, as if it were 
 possible for a man to flee from his sin; but the unhappy father 
 remained heart-stricken, afflicted in his soul, and through his 
 dearest affections, till it ended in his losing his life. Distrusted by 
 the one party, and despised by the other, he died, says Gilles, with- 
 out esteem and without consolation; he died in his apostasy, by a 
 slower and more cruel death than that of which, if he had perse- 
 vered, his faithfulness would have been in danger. If a man's 
 fiiults could be expiated by his sufferings, Andrew Laiu-ent would 
 have dearly won his pardon. But it is more pleasant to think that 
 his pardon may have been freely given to him in Christ. 
 
 Public conferences betwixt the Jesuits and the pastors succeeded 
 to these fruitless demonstrations. The first conference took place 
 at Les Appias, on the marches of the three communes of Angrogna, 
 La Tour, and St. John; the Count of Lucema presided. The 
 pastor, after having replied to the Jesuit, begged the president to 
 declare which side had the advantage. " Gentlemen," replied he, 
 " if you were disputing about the qualities of a good horse or a good 
 sword, I could give you my opinion, because I imderstand something 
 about it, but in your controversies I am not able to meddle." And 
 
 Chap. IV,] 
 
 UBERTIN BRAIDA. 
 
 295 
 
 upon this he dismissed the meeting. Other discussions, however, 
 took place, but without any advantage to the Papists. 
 
 Then came sudden injuries and iniquitous acts of violence, unex- 
 pected arrests, and executions by sleight of hand (if that term may 
 be used to characterize the secrecy and expedition with which they 
 were conducted), the victims of which were Protestants living by 
 themselves in remote places, whom the monks or their satellites 
 contrived to seize by surprise; in a word, all the ill that wicked- 
 ness, possessed of power, could inflict upon inoffensive weakness. 
 
 In 1597 an attempt was made to rob the inhabitants of Prarus- 
 ting of the heritages of their fathers, but they resisted by force of 
 ai-ms, and God gave the victory in these conflicts to them and their 
 righteous cause. 
 
 In 1598, on the 2d of August, a conference, long announced, 
 took place betwixt the pastor of St. Germain and the Capuchin 
 Bemo, who had been specially authorized by the Duke of Savoy 
 to enter into that polemical discussion. Their theses were printed, 
 but the Inquisition prohibited the sale of these books, which would 
 seem to prove that the victory did not remain with Catholicism. 
 After this conference, as after those which had taken place at 
 Les Appias, the monks sought to compensate themselves by deeds 
 of violence for the arguments of their adversaries. 
 
 In this way they obtained some venal conversions, not more 
 honourable for the Catholics than for the Protestants; "but the 
 greater part of those who had allowed themselves to be turned 
 aside, afterwards returned to the right way." Such is the testi- 
 mony of Gilles. " In 1599," he continues, " a priest was sent to La 
 Tour, who strutted about, looking as bold as a lion, and seemed 
 more fit to occasion trouble than to guide the church." His name 
 was XJbertin Braida. His first act was to exact tithes, which the 
 Protestants had never payed. His demand was refused. But 
 "still desiring to work mischief," says our author, "he treated the 
 Vaudois with contempt in a multitude of ways; and, like another 
 Goliath, he even went so far as to challenge them to personal 
 combat with himself, each man in his shiii;, in an inclosure marked 
 by four stakes." What a method of promoting the truth ! " He 
 always bore about, under his cassock, a coat of mail, and showed 
 himself cowardly whilst he boasted that he was afraid of no man!" 
 " One evening, after supper, some young men, making themselves 
 merry in the clear moonlight, went to make a racket near the 
 abode of this priest, to try if he were as brave as he appeared. 
 Braida, dreading some act of vengeance, took to flight, without being 
 pursued." The podestat of La Tour, at the instigation of the most 
 
296 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pam Skcond. 
 
 Chap. IV.J 
 
 IRRITATION AND EXCESSES. 
 
 297 
 
 •■ 
 
 
 ,1 
 
 i 
 
 respectable parishioners of the fugitive prior, caused the yoimg men 
 to be summoned before him, and condemned them to remam under 
 arrest in the house of a gentleman whom he named. The Vaudois 
 proceeded thither ; but ere long they were apprised that a band of 
 constables was to be sent to seize them, in order to convey them to 
 Turin, and cast them into the dungeons of the Inquisition. They 
 fled during the night, were again summoned to appear before the 
 podestat, did not comply with the summons, and found themselves 
 under sentence of banishment from the territories of Savoy, under 
 penalty of the gaUeys in case of their being apprehended. 
 
 These young men retired to places of most difficult access, keep- 
 ing themselves upon their guaid, armed and in one body, but not 
 remaining long in the same place. Their Hfe was very soon that ot 
 vagabonds, under the necessity of living upon the voluntary or 
 extorted contributions of others. As they were under sentence 
 of banishment, or, as the Italian term is. Banditti, they were called 
 tJie troop of Banditti; and for some yeai-s their numbers contmually 
 increased. A rigorous prohibition was published, by sound ot 
 trumpet, of giving them any relief, shelter, or assistance; but, 
 pressed by hunger, they became only the more formidable. 
 
 The podestat of La Tour, who might, by more moderation, have 
 prevented these troubles at the beginning, thought good to march 
 against the outlaws with anned men ; but he was defeated, and m 
 danger of losing his life. Hereupon he retired to Lucema, and did 
 not "Venture any more to make his appearance at La Tour, even to 
 discharge the duties of his office. 
 
 Independent of these acts of resistance and of vigour, there were 
 individual acts of vengeance performed by unknown hands, which 
 were placed, by gratuitous inference, to the account of the outlaws. 
 The outlaws, not being able to settle anywhere, nor to gain theii- 
 Hving in a constant and regular manner, were compelled to levy 
 contributions from the surrounding districts, and sometimes made 
 whole townships compound with them. As they had nothing to 
 lose and nothing to hope for, there was no rein to restrain them. 
 
 The Vaudois deplored these disorders; they looked for some 
 judgment from heaven, and all the phenomena of nature appeared 
 to them to be its forerunners. " In 1601," says Gilles, " from the 
 month of April to the month of June, although the weather was 
 fine, the sun and moon did not display their ordinary brightness; 
 every morning the sun appeared red and blackish, and in the day- 
 time he looked pale and dull," all which they regarded as the signs 
 of some approaching affliction. 
 
 In the beginning of February, 1602, there arrived in the valleys 
 
 the Archbishop of Turin/ the governor of Piguerol,'-^ and Count 
 Charles of Lucerna, with a great train of Jesuits and Capuchins. 
 They caused much disquietude to the Protestants of Lucema and of 
 the plain of Piedmont, as we have already seen in the twelfth chapter. 
 
 At this period, also, the Protestant churches of the marquisate 
 of Saluces were cruelly persecuted, and the company of the Digiu- 
 nati was there formed, analogous to that of the Banditti in the val- 
 leys. The Vaudois of Perouse, and those of the neighbourhood of 
 Pignerol, were alike subjected to prolonged annoyance. From day 
 to day it was expected that the central part of the Vaudois valleys 
 would be the scene of some catastrophe. The troop of the outlaws 
 became greater than ever. The Catholics charged the whole Pro- 
 testant population with the excesses which they committed, whilst 
 their irritation continually increased; and trusting nobody, and 
 fearing nobody, they made themselves dreaded by all. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy was earnestly implored to destroy, once for 
 all, this focus of heresy and nest of robbers. The Vaudois were 
 apprised, fix)m time to time, of the progress of these instigations. 
 They named pastors for the special duty of seeking out, exhorting, 
 reproving, and resti-aining the outlaws; thereafter a solemn fast 
 was held in the valleys, in the middle of the month of August,^ 
 to implore the pardon and compassion of Heaven. Affrighted 
 families began akeady to retire to the mountains, whilst their de- 
 fenders watched and prayed, knowing that the only good protection 
 is that of the Lord. 
 
 Meanwhile, Governor Ponte proceeded to La Tour, where he 
 convoked the syndics of all the Vaudois communes, and required 
 them to deHver up the outlaws. They replied by protesting, in 
 the first place, their loyalty to their sovereign, and then deploring 
 
 the disorders which had been occasioned by unjust proscriptions: 
 
 "It is our persecutors," said they, "who have thrown all this 
 people into this confusion; for your lordship is not ignorant how 
 fatal are the effects of distrust and despair; and if some of these 
 unhappy men have acted a desperate part, they are not the only 
 guilty parties, and as it would be difficult to punish them all, and 
 calamities enough have been endured already, it seems to us that 
 it would be more expedient to cast water upon the fire, by procur- 
 ing peace for aU." Governor Ponte rejected this method, and 
 commanded them to deliver up to him the outlaws, either dead or 
 alive. There was not time for the execution of this order; for, a 
 few days after, the governor himself was arrested, and deprived of 
 all his dignities, on the presumption of his having been guilty of 
 ' Broglia. 2 Ponte. » On the 11th and 12th. 
 
 38 
 

 298 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [Pabt Sxcord. 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 THE JESUITS IN THE VALLEYa 
 
 299 
 
 V I 
 
 \ 
 
 f: I 
 
 !l 
 
 betraying the interests of his sovereign in secret transaxstions with 
 
 the French generals. 
 
 Count Charles of Lucerna, who enjoyed a great influence at 
 court, then came to the valleys to see about an arrangement. He 
 had previously been at Prague, and afterwards at the court of the 
 Emperor Rudolph, in the capacity of ambassador of Savoy. The 
 Elector of Saxony gave him a splendid reception at Dresden; and 
 the count having asked him how he could show his grateful recol- 
 lection of it, the elector replied that nothing could be more agree- 
 able to him than to learn that on his return he protected the Vau- 
 dois. The count promised it, and kept his word. The Vaudois 
 deputies were now invited to assemble at his palace of Lucerna, on 
 the 19th of November, 1602. Vignaux and Gilles were at that 
 meeting— the one for the valley of Lucerna, the other for that of 
 St. Martin. Everybody desired an agreement ; for the troop of 
 outlaws stiU increased by the addition of a great number of Protes- 
 tants, expelled from the marquisate of Saluces and from the plain 
 of Piedmont. With this the count at first reproached the Vaudois, 
 treating them as guilty of a crime in having given these banished 
 persons the means of subsistence. They replied that the Catholic 
 townships had done so, much more than they, by paying them 
 tribute. On both sides the excesses which had resulted from the 
 proscription were deplored, and a deputation was sent to Turin, 
 where the count promised to promote their endeavours to obtain a 
 
 general pardon. 
 
 But the Duke of Savoy refused the amnesty requested by the 
 Vaudois; and they in their turn refused the other favours which 
 he was disposed to have granted them. The outlaws stiU pursued 
 their wandering and warlike course of life, making several expedi- 
 tions to places in the neighbourhood. After new endeavours to 
 put an end to these disorders, the duke, on the 9th of April, 1603, 
 passed an edict at Coni, by which those of the fugitives who be- 
 longed to the valleys were permitted to return to their abodes 
 without being proceeded against. But there remained those 
 banished from Saluces, Fenil, Bubiano, Villefranche, and some 
 other parts of Piedmont. The duke wished to destroy them, and 
 for this purpose he formed a special body of troops, to be main- 
 tained at the expense of the valleys, the command of whom was 
 intrusted to Captain Galline; but, under pretext of proceeding 
 against the outlaws, this petty general committed numerous crimes, 
 both against persons and property. 
 
 One day in the month of July, having arrived at Bobi vrith his 
 troop, whilst the people were occupied with their field labours, he 
 
 fell upon the village sword in hand, killed a young man who came 
 in his way, forcibly entered the dwelling of the pastor, who saved 
 himself in the vineyards of Pausettes — and would have gone 
 further with his ravages, if the villagers, hearing the cries of alarm, 
 which were suddenly echoed from rock to rock, had not run from 
 the higher parts of the mountains, and surrounded him in the heart 
 of the valley. Galline, seeing his case to be desperate, and the 
 superior forces of the Vaudois closing around him in a threatening 
 manner, flung himself all at once into the arms of the most influ- 
 ential of his adversaries. Captain Pellenc, and entreated him to save 
 his life. "It is very evident that it is not the outlaws whom you 
 come to seek," said the irritated Vaudois, "since you kill peace- 
 able people, and fall upon our pastors!" Galline humbly excused 
 himself! He was allowed to escape, being first shown that they had 
 it in their power to exterminate his band or to retain him a prisoner. 
 " But those whom you treat so ill," added the leaders of the Vaudois 
 troop, "know how to render good for evil, and, far from destroying 
 you, we shall escort you to see that no harm happen to you." 
 
 The precaution was not unnecessary, for from all sides bold com- 
 batants descended before them. The soldiers of Galline thought 
 fit still to brave them; a sergeant, named La Morre, meeting at 
 La Pianta a group of mountaineers, commenced to treat them with 
 contempt, and paid for his insolence with his life. The lesson 
 might have served for his comrades; but as they passed through 
 Le Villar, an indignant and armed crowd could not restrain the 
 expression of their anger; some one repHed by stabbing with a pike 
 one of those who spoke; and upon this act of violence, the peasants, 
 losing command of themselves, rushed upon the soldiers, and cut 
 them in pieces. A small nimiber escaped in great disarray. Gal- 
 line arrived at Lucerna, bareheaded, without arms, and without 
 men. Those who had cried to the Vaudois to spare them had 
 readily obtained their request, and were conducted back to Bobi, 
 to the number of forty, to remain there as hostages, until this aflair 
 should be settled. 
 
 The duke being apprised of it, sent to Lucerna the provost- 
 general of justice, who disciplined Galline's troop; for, since his 
 misadventure, the captain had formed it anew by many enrohnents. 
 It was arranged that it should remain on the right bank of the 
 PeUs, and the Vaudois on the left. The provost then caused the 
 inhabitants of the other communes to be informed that they woidd 
 have nothing to feai^ provided that they would not meddle with 
 the affair of Bobi and Le Villar; but all, Avithout hesitation, made 
 themselves mutually responsible for one another, and reftised 
 
300 
 
 THE ISRA.EL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Sxcokd. 
 
 Chaf. IV.] 
 
 DEATHS OF VAUDOIS PASTORS. 
 
 301 
 
 
 I 
 
 thenceforth to contribute anything at all for the maintenance of 
 Galline's troop. The provost, therefore, returned, without having 
 concluded anything; but a few days after, Count Charles of Lu- 
 cema announced himself to the valleys as a mediator plenipoten- 
 tiary for the proposed arrangement ; and after some negotiations, 
 it was decided that the valleys should pay 1500 ducatoons, and 
 that the banished should be pardoned, a general amnesty covering 
 all past excesses. 
 
 The Vaudois were even authorized to retain the properties 
 which they possessed beyond the limits of their valleys, ^ and to 
 make profession of their religion in presence of Catholics when it 
 should be asked of them; for hitherto they were not allowed even 
 to avow it; and they were no longer forbidden to do anything 
 except to defend it by polemical discussions. This was to recognise 
 it as possessing a great power. 
 
 These concessions were especially favourable to a large number 
 of the inhabitants of Saluces, who had taken refuge in the valleys, 
 and who were permitted thenceforth to remain there. The liberal 
 collections which came to them from France and Switzerland, now 
 also enabled them to recover a little from the confiscations with 
 which they had been visited. 
 
 Vignaux died in 1605, after half-a-century spent in the gospel 
 ministry in the Vaudois valleys. He translated into French cer- 
 tain Italian memoirs concerning the Vaudois, drawn up by one of 
 his predecessors, Jerome Miol, pastor of Angrogna. New docu- 
 ments were added by himself. It was on this work of Vignaux 
 that the first history of the Vaudois was based, which was pub- 
 lished by Perrin, in 1618, by order of a synod of Dauphiny.^ Vig- 
 naux was nearly 100 years of age ; his son assisted him as suffragan 
 during the latter years of his life. For half-a-century he never 
 revisited the place of his birth,-' and was a pastor in the Vaudois 
 Church. His first pai-ish was that of Praviglelm, from which he 
 went to Le Villar, and he died pastor of Bobi. 
 
 » The edict is dated 29th September, 1603. 
 
 2 The Synod of Grenoble, in 1603, had first required M. Chaumier, pastor at 
 Montelimart, to write this history. He devolved it upon M. Crisson, who, in his 
 turn, committed it to Perrin, with consent of the Synod of Dauphiny, in 1605. 
 The work of Perrin was not deemed satisfactory; and the synod held at Pramol on 
 the 15th of September, 1620, charged Peter Gilles, the colleague of Vignaux, to 
 compose a new history of the Vaudois. Gilles was seventy years of age when he 
 commenced it. Notwithstanding his old age, he preached six times a-week. His 
 work was first written in Italian, and he did not shrink from recommencing it in 
 French, at the age of eighty years, when, the plague of 1630 having deprived the 
 valleys of almost all their pastors, the use of the French language was introduced 
 by the foreign pastors. 
 
 * Panassac, in Gascony. 
 
 " Three days before his death, all the ministers of the valley 
 assembled in a company aroimd him," says Gilles, "for he was as 
 noble in heart as in birth and talent : and there," he adds, " this 
 zealous patriarch addressed us in a discourse worthy of himself and 
 suitable to our duties; these were his last advices, for he felt that 
 the hour of his departure was come. I remained with him to the 
 last, more and more comforted by his words replete with piety and 
 wisdom, which he ceased not to speak to us as much as his extreme 
 weakness would permit, and thus he expired without apparent 
 pain.** What a grave and calm pictm-e ! how pleasant does death 
 seem in that aged Christian! His soul removes in peace and 
 serenity from its dwelling; it parts from it without violence, as a 
 ripe fruit parts from the branch on which it hung. 
 
 Two years after died the learned pastor of Angrogna, Augustin 
 Gros, a former Augustine monk, as Luther was; converted to the 
 gospel as the great Reformer was converted ; zealous in defending 
 and teaching it as erewhile the famous doctor of Wittemberg de- 
 fended and taught it. He left three sons and a son-in-law, all four 
 pastors in the valleys. A year before his death, in 1607, he was 
 relieved from the active duties of the ministry — ^the first instance 
 of emeritation which is connected with any particvdar name in the 
 annals of our valleys. 
 
 The Yaudois having enjoyed at this period some years of tran- 
 quillity, their numbers increased daily, and the place of worship at 
 Les Copiers received additions in 1608, which brought it to the 
 size which it still retains. 
 
 Intelligence was received, however, that the reformed churches 
 of France were exposed to new persecutions. A regiment was 
 sent into the valley of Barcelonnette, to promote the conversion 
 of the Yaudois of that locality. The Church of Rome is the only 
 church which has set the example of employing such agents in 
 the work of conversion. In Piedmont, also, she exerted herself to 
 obtain the employment of similar means against the Yaudois valleys. 
 A pubHc fest was appointed for Thursday, the 20th of January, 
 1611. On all great occasions the Yaudois ceased not to have 
 recourse, above all things, to fasting and prayer, penitence and 
 supplications. 
 
 On the morning of that day a violent earthquake shook all our 
 mountains. "It was," says Gilles, "one of the most terrible that 
 ever was witnessed." Eight days after the regiment of the Baron 
 of La Roche passed from Barcelonnette into the valley of Lucema. 
 *'They were," says the same annalist, "men well armed, making a 
 fine appearance, and carrying themselves proudly, ravaging and 
 
302 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 f Pabt Sxcond. 
 
 Wtp. IV.] 
 
 DISUNION AMONG THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 803 
 
 
 putting to ransom wherever thej were able, notwithstanding all 
 that could be done to satisfy their insolence." 
 
 Quarters were found for them in the communes of the plain, in 
 order that it might be possible to retire into those of the mountain 
 in case of need. They thought fit to assail these, but were repulsed 
 with loss; and if the wish of the more fieiy spirits had been acted 
 upon, they would have been driven out of the valleys ; but th^ 
 pastors, desiring that' everything might be marked by the utmost 
 moderation, appeased the people, and exhorted them to confine 
 themselves patiently within the strict limits of legitimate defence. 
 
 A gentleman of the valley offered his mediation, to obtain from 
 Charles Emmanuel the peaceable removal of these troops; but the 
 treacherous fellow, on the contrary, urged the Duke of Savoy to 
 keep that regiment of plunderers in the valleys, and to take advan- 
 tage of its presence to obtain from the Vaudois concessions of 
 servility and apostasy. " Yield nothing," said Captain Farel to the 
 Vaudois, " for at the end of a month these troops must receive an- 
 other destination, and be sent elsewhere, without any steps taken 
 by you." His expectations were realized ; and these troops having 
 thought fit to continue, in their new cantonments, the same ex- 
 cesses which they had committed in the valley of Lucema, were 
 massacred by the peasants. 
 
 In 1613 a great part of the Yaudois were summoned out in 
 arms, and required to leave home for the war of Montferrat. They 
 were commanded by the Counts of Lucema,^ and reserved to them- 
 selves the privilege of assembling, morning and evening, for their 
 own worship, in every place to which they should be led. They 
 conducted themselves bravely in that campaign, and received 
 the commendations of their sovereign. 
 
 The year following, Charles Emmanuel having got into a war 
 with Spain, in consequence of his pretensions to Montferrat, new 
 levies were demanded of the gallant mountaineers of our Alps, who 
 then marched towards Verceil, still accompanied by their pastors. 
 They thus had opportunity of removing many prejudices current 
 concerning them, and of meeting now and then secret friends of 
 
 * Count Charles, the son of him who had so often proved himself the protector 
 of the Vaudois, had the general command of the Vaudois troops. Count Achates 
 was named captain of the companies of Rora, Lucema, Campillon, Fenil, and 
 Briqueras. The Chevalier Philip of Lucema led those of La Tour and Angrogna. 
 Captain Joseph Pellenc of Bobi had under his orders those of Bobi and Le Villar. 
 *' The other valleys and their neighbourhoods," says Gilles, "had also their captains 
 and officers, taken from amongst the men of their places." The major-general of 
 all these troops was Ulysses Paravicin, of the Valteline, for some time resident in 
 the valley of Lucema. 
 
 their doctrines — minds familiarized with the Bible, whose warm 
 reception of them afibrded them the more pleasure, as the darkness 
 of superstition reigned so fearfully over these countries. 
 
 Troubles, of which we have already given an account, befell the 
 churches of Saluces, and of the neighbom-hood of the Vaudois val- 
 leys, in 1 620. The people of the valleys having interposed, with the 
 view of bringing them to a termination, their deputies were im- 
 prisoned either at Turin or Pignerol. They were compelled to pay 
 the sum of 6000 ducatoons, in order to obtain their deliverance and 
 a termination of the annoyances which the Protestants endured. 
 
 It was in 1620, also, that the massacre took place of the Protes- 
 tants of the Valteline, of which the narrative was published as an 
 appendix to the Brief Account of the Persec/uiions of the People of 
 Seduces. 
 
 The valley of Lucema, which had come forward most promi- 
 nently and resolutely in the common cause of the Vaudois churches, 
 had paid the 6000 ducatoons which were exacted as the price of 
 their tranquillity; and this sum had been well-nigh trebled by the 
 numerous expenses of law and registration which it had involved. 
 The valley of Lucerna then demanded from two other valleys (P6- 
 rouse and St. Martin) to be reimbursed for its advances, by the 
 repayment of a part of the sum furnished for the common interest. 
 This repayment appeared hard ; peace had been granted. " It is a 
 business concluded," whispered perfidious counsellors in the ears of 
 the Vaudois of Perouse ; " besides you were no parties to the colli- 
 sions of Le Villar and Bobi ; not having shared in their fault, why 
 should you share in their fine?" Advices favourable to personal 
 interest always appear the best; the Vaudois did not recollect that 
 they ought to distrust those of an enemy. 
 
 It was an endeavour to produce disunion amongst them. 
 When peril is over, selfishness resumes its power; selfishness is blind, 
 and peril returns. This was what happened to the two refractory 
 valleys. They refused to pay. " But we became bound for you !" 
 said the people of Lucema. "What matters it?" resimied the mali- 
 cious advisers secretly; *' disavow the negotiations." They were 
 disavowed accordingly. " Then," said the magistrates, "you cannot 
 take advantage of the edict of pacification, which was founded upon 
 them, nor of the amnesty, which extends to all things past." The 
 Vaudois had nothing to reply. "Let justice take its course," 
 exclaimed their enemies. It would have been well, indeed, that 
 justice should have had its course, if it had been justice. But 
 hatred is imreasoning. The Catholics were in exultation. Their 
 object was attained; they had divided the valleys, and opened up a 
 
S01< 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Skcord. 
 
 way for the recommencemeDt of persecution against two of them. 
 And they took advantage of it accordingly. 
 
 The wealthiest inhabitants of Pinache, Les Clots, and Pral, were 
 forthwith arrested, on pretext of their having taken part in the 
 preceding troubles; and were obliged to pay more for their deliver- 
 ance than both the valleys together should have furnished, in order 
 to put themselves under the covert of the protecting edict, which 
 they had so imprudently disavowed. Prosecutions were multipUed; 
 and in order to get a stop put to them, the people of the two val- 
 leys, after having akeady left rich spoil in the hands of their ene- 
 mies, by the numerous confiscations which had taken place amongst 
 them, agreed to pay to the duke 3000 ducatoons. 
 
 It was demanded that they should, moreover, demoUsh six of 
 their places of worship. They resisted this last condition. Here- 
 upon seven regiments of infantry were sent against them, to treat 
 them as a conquered country. The passes which led to the Yal 
 Lucerna were guarded; their brethren could come but slowly to 
 their aid; their churches were demolished, and the villages ravaged, 
 as the reader may see more at length in the history of Pragela and 
 Perouse, under the year 1623. "This," says Gilles, "has been set 
 down, not so much to recal the faults of the past, as to afford in- 
 struction for the future." 
 
 Imprisonments and individual instances of annoyance were, how- 
 ever, continued in the valley of Lucerna from 1620 to 1624. But 
 this valley had much better claims to urge for their discontinuance; 
 and accordingly these proceedings had consequences less fatal. 
 Moreover, Lesdiguieres interceded for the persecuted, and fre- 
 quently obtained concessions in their favour. In 1625 this general 
 Avas called to Piedmont, to support the Duke of Savoy in the war 
 which he had commenced against the republic of Genoa; and his 
 presence in the valleys was of advantage to their inhabitants. But 
 after his departure, the severities of magistrates and the attacks of 
 monks were renewed, and more afflictively than ever. 
 
 Theological discussions were instituted with the pastors. The 
 pastors did not fear discussion, but they feared treacherous arrests, 
 and the bravi lying in wait in the pay of these good monks, who 
 supplemented by daggers the weakness of their arguments. Some 
 circumstances characteristic of this period are related in the last 
 chapter of martyrs. 
 
 "About this time," says Gilles, (that is, from 1G26 to 1627,) "a 
 certain monk began to be seen making circuits in Piedmont, and 
 particularly in the valley of Lucerna — a man of gi'eat reputation 
 among those of his own religion, by name Father Bonaventure. 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 CONTINUED VEXATIONS. 
 
 305 
 
 When he prayed, he was sometimes seen, they said, to be lifted 
 up from the earth by a mysterious power. Some took him for a 
 saint, others for a sorcerer." A number of children, between the 
 ages of ten and twelve years, disappeared as he passed through. It 
 was discovered that they had been borne off and placed in the con- 
 vent of Pignerol. On the lu-gent petitions of the Yaudois, an end 
 was put to this carrying off of children. 
 
 But on the 9th of June, 1627, a number of Protestant heads of 
 families were arrested at the same hour in the towns of Lucerna, 
 Bubiano, Campillon, and Fenil; they were afterwards carried as 
 prisoners to Cavour, and kept there. We have already seen the 
 sequel of these events in the twelfth chapter of this work. 
 
 Shortly afterwards took place the confiscation of the goods of 
 Anna Sobrera, whose husband had become a Catholic, and had con- 
 sented that his wife should withdraw to the vaUey of Lucerna, 
 where she married her three daughters to leading men of religion, 
 according to the expression then habitually used. But a son of one 
 of them, in his tui-n, promised to abjure, seduced by the hope that 
 he would be put into possession of the whole property of his grand- 
 mother. She had previously dwelt at Villefalet in Piedmont. The 
 Bishop of Fossano, after many fruitless endeavours to obtain her 
 abjuration, had caused her to be imprisoned. This violence suc- 
 ceeded no better than the fair words previously employed, and her 
 husband, Sobrera, obtained her liberation on bail. But after the 
 death of the bishop, it so happened that the monks of Pignerol 
 pretended to have found amongst his papers, proofs that his former 
 captive had promised to abjure; hence the pretext brought for- 
 ward for the confiscation of her goods. She was accused of havin^ 
 relapsed. 
 
 It was at this time (in 1628) that the Dutch ambassador to 
 Constantinople, CorneHus Haga, asked from Geneva, and then from 
 the Vaudois vaUeys, a Protestant minister for the service of his 
 legation. There was sent to him the uncle of the historian John 
 Leger, who was afterwards to shed such a lustre over oiu- afflicted 
 valleys. The uncle's name was Anthony Leger; he was then pas- 
 tor of the parish of St. John, in which he resumed his functions in 
 1637, on his return from Constantinople. But the incessant malice 
 of the monks compelled him to flee from it in 1643, and he was 
 then nominated a professor in the academy at Geneva, where he 
 remained till his death. During his sojourn in the East, he had 
 had some communications witb the patriarch Cyril Lucar, whose 
 life of trouble is so curious, and so little known. ^ 
 » See Aymar, Monuments AutJientiques de la Religion des Grcc9,—JA Haye, 1708. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 89 
 
V 
 
 806 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 f Pabt Sbcokd. 
 
 In 1628, a French army, commanded by the Marquis of Uxel, 
 appeared at the gates of the Alps, in order to go to the assistance of 
 Montferrat against the troops of Charles Emmanuel. The Vaudois 
 were charged to defend the mountains, and acquitted themselves 
 valiantly. The duke himself came twice to visit them upon this 
 occasion,^ and acknowledged in a becoming manner their patriotism, 
 for they received no pay, but bread only. This, however, was a 
 supply of no small importance, for all the crops had failed in Pied- 
 mont in the autumn of 1627; and from the very beginning of 
 1628 the poor people were under the necessity of selling their 
 cattle, their furniture, and even their clothes, in order to obtain at 
 Queyras the food which they needed. 
 
 The presence of Uxel's army on the French frontiers made their 
 condition worse, by interfering with this exchange of commodities; 
 besides that the people of Queyi*as, alarmed at the great quantity 
 of articles of food which were taken out of their district, prohibited 
 the exportation of them, and went the length of imprisoning the 
 unhappy victims of famine who came to procure them. The 
 monks of Pignerol and their followers took advantage of this state 
 of things to attempt to purchase abjurations amongst the Yaudois, 
 at the price of a morsel of bread— the abjurations of wretches 
 wasted by hunger and at the point of death. 
 
 It was at this time that Mark Aurelio Rorengo began to signal- 
 ize himself. He was the son of a seigneiu- of La Tour, and was 
 originally intended for the magistracy, but afterwards admitted 
 into orders, and named Prior of Lucerna, upon his promise to do 
 his utmost for the destruction of heresy. He caused his father's 
 house to be purchased by a religious corporation, and it was imme- 
 diately transformed into a convent of Grey friars,2 or, according 
 to the expression of Gilles, into a nest of monkery; for, adds the 
 historian, " a brood of monks multiplied there, to the great detri- 
 ment of the valleys." 
 
 These monastics were settled there on the 23d of Jime, 1628. 
 Their first care was to distribute provisions amongst the poor of 
 their own communion, holding out brilliant promises to Protestants 
 who should become Catholics. But doubly faithful to the example 
 of the primitive church, the Vaudois from that time forth made 
 all that they had, as it were, common property, and distributed 
 amongst themselves, day by day, daily bread to those who stood in 
 need. The monks, seeing this, directed their attempts at con- 
 version by famine to other commimes of the valleys, but with the 
 game want of success. 
 
 » On the ISth of July and 14th of August, 1628. 
 
 * Minima — Reformed Franciscans, an order founded by St. Francis de Paule. 
 
 Chap, iv] RESISTANCE TO SETTLEMENT OF MONKS. 
 
 S07 
 
 At Bobi in particular, notwithstanding the presence of the Count 
 of Lucerna, who made two visits to the spot, the people would not 
 even consent that the Grey friars should celebrate a single mass. 
 The friars at that time took up their abode at Le Villar, in an 
 ancient palace, completely in ruins, which was gradually repaired, 
 and which is now in our days both the Catholic Church and the 
 i-esidence of the parish priest. At Rora they seized upon a de- 
 serted house, where two monks made their residence ; and at Bobi 
 the governor of Mirabouc lodged two of them likewise in a little 
 chamber which he had hired. 
 
 The language of these ecclesiastics was at first fiill of gentleness 
 and benignity; but "on the 29th of September," says Gilles, "they 
 discovered the 8corpio7i's tail;" the Count Bighim then causing an 
 edict to be published, by which " it was forbidden to any one to 
 trouble or incommode, in any manner, the very reverend Obser- 
 vantine fiithers, in anything whatsoever which they might think 
 it proper to do, under pain of death to the delinquent, and of a 
 fine of 10,000 crowns of gold, to be imposed upon the commune 
 in which the crime might be committed. Every informer, the 
 edict added, shall receive two hundred cro\vns of gold, and his 
 name shall be kept secret." What fit attendants Popery finds ! 
 
 The Vaudois, far from murmuring, regarded this measure with 
 a feeling of satisfaction, as it at once disclosed to them the evil 
 designs of their adversaries, and enabled the Christians to take 
 steps from the first to oppose the danger with which they were 
 threatened. The people of Bobi assembled around the house in 
 which the governor of Mirabouc had given the two monks a 
 lodging, and begged them to depart before their presence should 
 occasion troubles of which they might themselves be the first 
 victims. The monks comprehended that this request might become 
 an injunction, and returned to Lucerna. But Count Charles, the 
 protector of the Vaudois in former times, had recently departed 
 from this world, and his successor, Philip, was far from being 
 equally favourable to them. He uttered terrible menaces against 
 the people of Bobi, and against the commune of Angrogna, which 
 would not consent to the establishment of the Observantines, upon 
 any pretext, within its limits. 
 
 Count Capris, the governor of Pignerol, then came to the valleys, 
 assembled all the syndics, as well as the pastors, and told them 
 that the pope did not cease to insist with the Duke of Savoy that 
 these monastics should be introduced amongst the mountains — 
 that his highness had the right to command, and that if they would 
 not conform with a good grace to his desires, he would employ 
 
 I 
 
II 
 
 . 
 
 
 I 
 
 h^ 
 
 308 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt S«co»d. 
 
 force. " To-morrow," added he, " I will come and cause mass to 
 be celebrated in Bobi." He came accordingly, but all the doors 
 and all the windows were closed — ^not a human face was to be 
 seen. He required the syndic to cause at least a stable to be 
 opened to him, that he might have the cover of its roof. " My 
 authority terminates at the threshold of private houses," replied 
 the syndic. "Well, then," said the governor, "I will open your 
 own house by force." " Let your highness consider well," said the 
 syndic, " before you take such a step." The governor felt that it 
 would be imprudent to insist, and that the defenders of the village 
 were not the less near because they did not show themselves ; he 
 contented himself with causing a mass to be sung on the highway, 
 and went away home. Two days after he appeared at Angrogna, 
 on the same errand, and met with a similar reception. 
 
 Towards the end of January, 1629, he returned to La Tour, 
 with a French seigneur, named De Serres, convoked anew the 
 Vaudois delegates, and endeavoured to persuade them, by repre- 
 senting to them that in France the Catholic religious orders had 
 it LQ their power to establish themselves everywhere in the midst 
 of the Protestants. " Yes," replied the Vaudois, " but in France, 
 the Protestants also have it in their power to establish themselves 
 everywhere in midst of the Catholics, whilst here we are restrained 
 within narrow limits, beyond which we cannot pass; let us have 
 permission to extend ourselves over the whole of Piedmont, and 
 if not, let the integrity of our own territory at least be re- 
 spected." 
 
 These endeavours proving unsuccessful, the governor retired, 
 and the Observantines, then settled at Le Villar and Rora, sud- 
 denly changed their tactics. With the view of inciting the 
 Vaudois to some acts of violence, which might serve as a pretext 
 for cruel reprisals, they laid aside the mildness and humility which 
 had marked their demeanour hitherto, and became all at once 
 intolerably insolent and provoking. " You will bring some mis- 
 chief upon yourselves!" said friendly advisers. "So much the 
 better," said they; "let them pursue us, let them strike us, let 
 them kill us, it is just what we desire !" 
 
 Then the Vaudois did what they had done at Bobi; they 
 assembled in arms around the abodes of the monks, but the monks 
 refused to go away ; and as all men were prohibited from laying 
 hands upon them, the women assailed them; and some of these 
 robust female mountaineers, accustomed to carry heavy burdens, 
 took the poor churchmen upon their shoulders, like loads of wood, 
 and bore them away without resistance. Their furniture, theii* 
 
 Chap. IV] 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLES EMMANUEL. 
 
 309 
 
 copes, their relics, and all their baggage, were then carted off, aud 
 conveyed beyond the limits of the commime. 
 
 The clergy made theii- complaint at Turin. The Vaudois sent 
 thither deputies to defend their cause; and an edict of the 22d of 
 February, 1629, restored all things to the condition guaranteed 
 in the preceding concessions. Thus were these long vexations 
 [facheries] terminated, as the most ancient annalist of our valleys 
 expressively but temperately calls them. The troubles which took 
 place at the same time at Praviglelm and at Campillon, have been 
 already related. 
 
 Here terminates the long period of Charles Emmanuel's reign. 
 He occupied the throne of Savoy for half-a-century. Crowned on 
 the 2d of September, 1580, he died on the 16th of July, 1630, at 
 the age of sixty-eight years and a half. 
 
 The surname of the Great, which he received from his con- 
 temporaries, has not been ratified by history. He was a man of 
 benevolence and of ability, but irresolute and changeable. His 
 political course was characterized by restlessness, ambition, and 
 uncertainty, and did not admit of his having faithful allies, for he 
 was not a faithful ally himself He added to his dominions the 
 marquisate of Saluces, in exchange for Le Bugey and the Pays de 
 Gex; but on his death, France seized upon Savoy and part of 
 Piedmont. 
 
 The events briefly sketched in this chapter form two-thirds of 
 the work of Gilles, from which om- narrative of them is almost 
 exclusively derived. They are certainly of considerable number; 
 but they did not exercise a sufficient influence over the destinies 
 of the Vaudois to merit so much space in a general work like the 
 present. Nothing of importance has, however, been intentionally 
 omitted. 
 
 The period which next follows opens with the calamities of the 
 pestilence, and is closed by imparalleled massacres. To this 
 several chapters will be devoted; but the two principal things 
 which will there be seen continually to increase in importance, as 
 the most active means employed at that time against the Vaudois 
 Church, to wit, the introduction of monks and the cantonment of 
 troops in the valleys, have already been witnessed in their com- 
 mencement amongst the events just narrated. 
 
 But ever3rwhere the protection of God will be seen unceasingly 
 extended to his children; as also the courage of their faith rising 
 to the level of their afflictions. 
 
' 
 
 SIO 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Sbcowd. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PLAGUE AND THE MONKS.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1629 TO A.D. 1643.) 
 
 Famine— The Vaudois prevented from obtaining employment— Extraordinary 
 storms— Convent erected at La Tour— War between France and Savoy— Suf- 
 ferings of the Vaudois— The plague— Meeting of the pastors at Pramol— Deaths 
 of pMtors— Terrible ravages of the disease— Three pastors alone left in the 
 valleyfr— New pastors obtained from Geneva— Victor Amadeus I.— Korengo 
 and the pastor Gilles— Government commissioners in the valleys— Polemical 
 works— Public discussions— Anthony Lc^'er. 
 
 Ought science to reject all notion of a connection subsisting be- 
 twixt the extraordinary phenomena of nature and the great events 
 which take place in the world? Such is the opinion prevalent in 
 our day; but the people of other times thought otherwise, and theii- 
 imagination, attentive to external signs, delighted to bring the tes- 
 timony of these remarkable facts to the confirmation of their fears 
 
 or their hopes. 
 
 In 1628 there was a famine in Piedmont. Next year the poor 
 inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys— who, having no harvests of 
 their own, were accustomed to go to the rich domains of Piedmont, 
 to ofi*er their services at the rate of so many emines of com for so 
 much work — ^were deprived of this resource by an express prohibi- 
 tion under which the priests laid their flocks, not to receive a single 
 Protestant labourer. The Vaudois complained, and the duke set 
 aside the prohibition; but in some places, says Gilles, "there were 
 found ecclesiastics who, being as it were infuriated, loudly declared 
 that they would kill with their own hands those of tJie religion 
 who should venture to come to the harvests." Odium theologicum! 
 It is a term of the middle ages, when nothing was yet known but 
 
 Popery. 
 
 In 1629, on the 23d of August, about eight o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, a dreadful storm, or rather one of those extraordinary water- 
 spouts, which are like a cataclysm, a local deluge suspended in the 
 atmosphere, broke suddenly upon the peaks of the Col Julian, and 
 produced, in a few hours, a fearful inundation on both sides of the 
 mountain. The village of Pral, in the valley of St. Martin, and 
 that of Bobi, in the valley of Lucema, were invaded by the watei^ 
 at the same moment, and with such force, that the inhabitants had 
 » AuTHORrriES. — The same as in Chapter III, 
 
 Cbaf. v.] 
 
 WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND SAVOY. 
 
 311 
 
 scarcely time to abandon the houses which were most exposed to 
 the danger. The flood filled these two villages with masses of rock 
 which it carried along with itj many houses were swept away; 
 some persons lost their lives; but the scourge disappeared as rapidly 
 
 as it had come. 
 
 This was not to be the case with the pestilence whicli, in 1630, 
 broke out in all the valleys. It was preceded, in September, 1629, 
 by an extraordinarily cold wind, which, as Gilles says, " marched 
 in company with a very dry haze," and destroyed the last hope of 
 a crop from the magnificent chestnut trees with which our hills 
 are covered; and afterwards unusual rains caused the crop of grapes 
 to perish. There was no expectation but of a famine more severe 
 than the preceding. The Vaudois ministers assembled in synod on 
 the 12th of September, and in that assembly, says the same histo- 
 rian, they had extraordinary religious services in testimony of their 
 fraternal union, not knowing that they were never to meet together 
 again in this world, and that of these fifteen pastors, only two 
 would survive their brethren at the end of a few months. 
 
 Towards the close of the year, the convent and church of the 
 Grey friars at La Tour were built, on the site on which the pater- 
 nal abode of Rorengo had stood. Almost on the same spot, at the 
 present day, stands a house for the education of Protestant girls, 
 and farther off is Trinity College, erected in 1830, precisely two 
 centuries after the erection of this convent, which has long since 
 disappeared. 
 
 In 1630 a French army which the Cardinal De Richelieu had 
 placed under the command of three marshals of France, the Mar- 
 shals De Schomberg, De La Force, and De Crequi, was sent to 
 oppose the Duke of Savoy's projects on the Montferrat. It de- 
 scended into Piedmont by the valley of Suza, and then drew back 
 towards the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 The vaUey of Perouse surrendered on being summoned, on the 
 21st of March, Pignerol on the 23d, and its citadel on the 29th. 
 But the valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin had not yet surrendered. 
 They pressed the duke to send them assistance, and demanded from 
 the generals of the enemy that they should have time to capitu- 
 late. 
 
 The monk Bonaventure, already mentioned, went to the two 
 parties alternately, saying to the Duke of Savoy, "The Vaudois ' 
 occupy strong positions in the mountains, and cannot surrender 
 without disloyalty, but the Catholics, dwelling in an open country, 
 cannot resist an armed enemy, and must be excused in the event 
 of their capitulating." To the French, again, he said, " The Catho- 
 
Hi 
 
 li 
 
 312 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 I 
 
 lies will make haste to surrender, but the Vaudois are a rebellious 
 race, who will resist you, and merit all severity." 
 
 Meanwhile, the army was allowed to plunder; and conflicts arose 
 between the soldiers and the inhabitants, the former endeavouring 
 to carry off property, and the latter to defend it. The Vaudois 
 hereupon sent deputies to the Marshal De La Force, who com- 
 manded a detachment encamped at Briqu6ras. " Submit to the 
 king," replied he, "and we will protect you; otherwise, we will 
 have you ravaged, killed, burned, and exterminated." The Sardi- 
 nian troops had already retired beyond the Po; no succour could 
 be expected from them, and the valleys submitted on the 5th of 
 April, upon assurance given them that their privileges would be 
 respected, and that they would never be required to carry arms 
 against their sovereign. " But they were subjected to continual 
 hardships," says Gilles, " by the passage of great bands of armed 
 men going and coming between France and Piedmont; and the 
 roads were covered with a swarm of people, who transported great 
 stores of wheat, which the king (Louis XIII.) had caused to be 
 collected in Fi-ance for the army of Piedmont." 
 
 In the latter part of April, the King of France being at Lyons 
 with all his court, set out for Savoy. The Cardinal De Richelieu 
 went to meet him; and the Vaudois sent to him a deputation, con- 
 sisting of Joseph Chanforan, John Berton, Joseph Gros, and James 
 Ardoin, who presented to him, at the little village of Montiers, a 
 petition asking the confirmation of their privileges, which was 
 granted to them. 
 
 On the 10th of June the troops of the Marshal De La Force 
 took the town of Cavour by assault, and burned it. On the 22d of 
 July the whole army proceeded against Saluces, of which it took 
 possession in the beginning of August. After having remained 
 there for some time, these troops were again put in motion, and on 
 the 26th of October appeared before Casal. This town was at that 
 time defended by the Austrians, and besieged by the Spaniards — 
 allies of the Duke of Savoy. At last, on the 13th of November, 
 the treaty of Ratisbon was signed, which put an end to that war; 
 the vaUeys of Lucerna and St. Martin were restored to Piedmont, 
 but those of Perouse and Pragela, as well as Pignerol, remained 
 to France. It was not until September, 1631, that the fortifications 
 of Briqu^ras were demolished. 
 
 But a scourge more terrible than war took away from the 
 Vaudois almost two-thirds of their population in that deplorable 
 year, 1630. The weather was excessively hot; a contagious ma- 
 lady, the plague, which prevailed in France, had augmented the 
 
 Chap. vJ 
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 313 
 
 army of Richelieu by a great number of volunteer recruits, who 
 fled from the danger. They brought it with them. With the 
 first days of the month of May, this terrible malady began to 
 appear in the village of Les Fortes, situated near Perouse. It next 
 broke out in St. Germain, whither it was carried, as was said, by 
 a grave-digger ; and then also at Pral, to which it was brought 
 with goods that came from Pignerol. And it had very soon spi*ead 
 over all the valleys. 
 
 As soon as the pastors were aware of its appearance, they met, 
 according to the usage of their church, to inquire concerning the 
 mind of the Lord, and to seek, by prayer, meditation, and confer- 
 ence, a correct view of the duties which these difficult circum- 
 stances required at their hands. They were unanimous in propos- 
 ing the celebration of an extraordinary fe-st. *' But not seeing," 
 says Gilles, " how it was possible to observe that solemnity in a 
 suitable manner, in the midst of such a bustle of armed men and 
 of people conveying provisions, they agreed that each minister 
 should do all that he could in his own congregation, to produce in 
 the members of the congregation a serious repentance and an 
 efiectual conversion. They took counsel, also, to provide them- 
 selves with the antidotes proper for the calamity, and to aid the 
 poor by public alms." 
 
 This meeting of pastors was held at Pramol. A few days after, 
 the plague made its appearance there, commencing in the quarter 
 of Les Pellencs. Public worship began then to be held in the 
 open fields at Pramol and at St. Germain. This was towards the 
 end of May. A month after, the commune of Angrogna was in- 
 vaded by the scourge; and on the 10th of July there died, at one 
 time, the pastor of St. John, in the valley of Lucerna, and the 
 pastor of Meane, near Perouse. 
 
 However, the plague had not yet appeared at La Tour. A 
 celebrated physician dwelt there ;^ and there were also there two 
 surgeons 2 and three apothecaries.^ The presence of these men of 
 skill attracted many persons thither; but they were the first vic- 
 tims of the scourge which then ravaged Pignerol. The persons 
 who were spared made haste to flee from that city. A great 
 number of them retired to La Tour, as well as some of the French 
 generals.* Provisions, the rents of apartments, and mercenary 
 
 ' Vincent Goss. 
 
 * iJaniel Gilles, son of the historian, and John Bressour, great-grandson of Pan- 
 taleon Bressour, one of the former persecutors of the Vaudois, whose family had 
 embraced Protestantism. * Thomas Dassez, Daniel Cupin, and John Cot. 
 
 * Amongst others, the son of the Marshal De La Force, the Count of Servient, 
 
 and the Baron of Bonne. 
 Vol. I. 
 
 40 
 
y\ 
 
 ■i 
 
 314* 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaBT SlCONO. 
 
 services rose to an excessive piice. A mule's load of wine was 
 sold for fourteen or fifteen crowns. 
 
 The surgeon Gilles being dead, and his coUeague ill, a French 
 surgeon demanded fifty pistoles of gold ere he would let blood for 
 him. Next day he exacted a golden crown, for telling him fi'om 
 th^ street and in at the window, without entering the house, how 
 he was to place the cupping-glasses. Some persons promi5ed before- 
 hand one of their properties in absolute right, to obtain the assur- 
 ance that they would be buried; for the dead encumbered the 
 houses, and some were burned with the corpses which they con- 
 tained. 
 
 On the 12th of July the pastor of Pral died,i and on the 24th 
 the pastor of Angrogna.^ Seven other Vaudois pastors died during 
 the foUowing month.^ Those who survived them, assembled on a 
 mountain which rises by itself in the centre of the three valleys, 
 on the Saumette, near the Vachere, within an easy distance at 
 once of Angi'ogna, Pramol, and Pi-arusting. This meeting took 
 place on the 2d of August.* After tears and prayers, the six 
 ministei-s who were still spared divided amongst themselves the 
 necessary care of the churches which had become vacant. Daniel 
 Rozel, the pastor of Bobi, was appointed to conduct the second son 
 of Gilles to Geneva, that he might complete his studies; but they 
 died within a short time of each other, both being cut down before 
 they could accomplish this design.^ 
 
 There now remained in the Vaudois valleys only three pastors 
 engaged in actual duty, and an aged emeritus pastor. The latter 
 died °oon after. The last three witnesses of the priesthood of the 
 Vaudois Church held a new synodal meeting on the heights of 
 Angrogna, with the deputies of all the parishes of the valleys, to 
 consider the means of providing for the exercise of their religion. 
 They wrote to Constantinople to recal Anthony Leger, also to 
 Geneva requesting the aid of some new ministers, and to Grenoble, 
 entreating those of Dauphiny likewise to come over to console 
 and confirm again this Vaudois Church, thus so severely tried. 
 There remained only one pastor in each of the three valleys; to 
 
 » James Bernardin, aged forty yeai-s. 
 
 2 Bartholemew Appia, forty-five years. 
 
 3 James Gay, at Rocheplate, sixty years; Barnabas, hia son, twenty-eight; 
 Brunerol, at Rora, forty-three; Laurence JoU, at ManeiUe, forty-five; Joseph 
 Chanf oran, at St. Germain, fifty-six; John Vignaux (son of Domenic), at Le Villar, 
 fifty-eight; David Javel, at Pinache, fifty. The last-named left by his wiU all his 
 property to the vaUeys, for the maintenance of students for the holy ministry. 
 
 ♦September?— Tb. ^ -, ,. 
 
 » Bozel died on the 28th of September, and Samuel Gilles on the 23d— the lat.er 
 
 being nineteen years of age. 
 
 Caxi. v.] 
 
 TERRIBLE RAVAGES OF THE PLAGUE. 
 
 315 
 
 wit, Peter Gilles in that of Lucerna, Valerius Gros in that of St. 
 Martin, and John Barthelemy in that of Perouse. But the latter 
 having been called to the parish of St. John in 1631, and having 
 gone from thence to La Tour on the 2 2d of April, to confer with 
 the pastor of that place on the afiairs of the church, prolonged that 
 conversation till pretty late in the evening, and then retired to 
 his own home, for he was a native of La Tour, and his father's 
 house was still his home. But he could not say to his soul, "Abide 
 for many years ! " for that very night it was required of liim. The 
 pestilence seized him at the close of that conference, and he died 
 three days after. 
 
 This mysterious and terrible scourge, whose severity had been 
 abated during the winter, became again more violent in the spring 
 of 1631. It then passed through the more elevated districts of 
 Angrogna and Bobi, which it had spared hitherto. More than 
 12,000 persons died in the valleys;^ at La Tour alone fifty families 
 were swept entirely away. The harvests rotted on the fields un- 
 reaped, the fruits fell ungathered from the trees. 
 
 During the great heats of summer, horsemen might be seen 
 to drop from their horses on the middle of the road, and remain 
 dead on the spot. " The great roads," says Gilles, " were strewed 
 with so many bodies of men and beasts, that it was impossible to 
 pass along them without danger. A number of properties were 
 abandoned from want of owners or cultivators. The towns 
 and villages, which recently had abounded with persons of the 
 learned professions, merchants, artisans of every description, and 
 workers of every kind of work, were now without life — the solitude 
 of the desert had come upon them ; the grapes hung from the 
 vines, and the corn covered the fields, because labourers were every- 
 where awanting. The wages of servants increased to four times 
 their ordinary amount. Nurses in particular had become so scarce, 
 that no one could tell where to look in order to find one for the 
 poor babes that were born during these calamities. Theii- ordinary 
 wages, which had not exceeded twelve or fourteen Piedmontese 
 florins before the plague, soon rose to sixty or eighty, without its 
 being even certain that one could be procured at that rate. Every 
 family lost some of its members, and many families entirely dis- 
 appeared." 
 
 The minister Gilles, whose words we have just quoted, lost the 
 four eldest of his sons; and the aged father himself, alone left of all 
 
 » The victims, amongst the Vaudois alone, were distributed as follows :— In the 
 valley of Lucerna, 6000; in that of St. Martin, 1500; in that of Perouse, 2200; 
 in the districts of Prarusting and Rocheplate, 55Q.— Total, 10,250. 
 
\ 
 
 i 
 
 316 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sjccokd. 
 
 Chap, v] 
 
 VICTOR AMADEUS L 
 
 317 
 
 the pastors of the valley, found his duties increase along with his 
 sorrows; but God gave him strength to sustain the heavy weight 
 of so many accumulated distresses, and of the service of so many 
 churches. He went into all the parishes, preaching twice every 
 Sabbath, and once at least on every day of the week; visiting the 
 sick and consoling the afflicted, without fear of that death which all 
 his colleagues^ had met in the fulfilment of the same distressmg and 
 dangerous duty. He resolutely prosecuted his ministerial labours ; 
 calm and serene in the midst of the dying, he imparted to them 
 his unshaken confidence in him who casts down and who raises up, 
 who wounds and who heals. " I parsed," says he, " amidst persons 
 infected with the plague, and through terror-stricken viUages, wMch 
 everywhere presented only spectacles of death and of family afflic- 
 tion;" and, according to the only Latin quotation in which he 
 indulges in his whole work, at a period when it was common 
 to use them very abundantly-" Ubique luctus, ubique pavor, 
 et plurima mortis imago." His indefatigable devotedness seems 
 really more extraordinary than even the danger: and he wbb pre- 
 served to the Vaudois Church throughout all the ravages of that 
 epidemic; and with him the completest monument of the ancient 
 history of the Vaudois, which he has transmitted to us in his 
 chronicles, rich in the details of a period of history but httle 
 
 ""The* pastor Brunet was the first who hastened from Geneva to 
 the help of the valleys: he came in December, 1630, six months 
 before the pestilence ceased. Other ministers of the gospel followed 
 him at later dates; and although the ItaUan language had until 
 then been used amongst the Vaudois in sermons and teaching, it 
 became necessary at that time to substitute for it the use of the 
 French language, into which GiUes subsequently translated his 
 work, which he had commenced in ItaUan. From this time, also, 
 date the systematic relations since continued between the Vaudois 
 Church and the Church of Geneva. 
 
 The most pressing duties which these new pastors had at first to 
 perform in the valleys, related to the reorganization of their tern- 
 bly decimated congregations. " It was a marveUous thing," says 
 Gilles, "and such as had never before been seen or heard of in these 
 parts, what a great multitude of maniages took place at that time. 
 .... In most places the plague had bereaved famUies of their 
 
 children, deprived chHdren of their parents, husbands of their wives, 
 and wives of their husbands; so that desolation extending every- 
 » With the exception only of Valerius Gros. the pastor of St. Martin, who was 
 afterwards removed to Le Villar. 
 
 where, each one sought to be united with a sister or a brother to 
 build up again their failing or ruined houses." But these mairiages 
 were merely the conclusions of funeral solemnities; and were char- 
 acterized by the invocation of the Divine blessing, instead of the 
 noise of sport and worldly pleasures. 
 
 Thus had three disastrous scourges been endured almost simul- 
 taneously — ^famine, pestilence, and war; but the two former having 
 passed away, the latter also was removed at last, during the reign 
 of Victor Amadeus I., who had retired to Queyras in order to 
 avoid the contagion. He signed at that town, on the 6th of April, 
 1631, a treaty of peace, by which he was restored to possession of 
 all his dominions, and acquired some towns in the Montferrat, in 
 compensation for Pignerol and the valley of Perouse, which 
 remained to France. Scarcely was he in peaceable possession of 
 his thi'one, when he set to work to render his reign illustrious by 
 things of lasting benefit to the country, more than by victories. 
 He restored the university of Turin, for which he erected the 
 splendid building which it now occupies, and attracted thither 
 learned strangers, to promote literature and science. 
 
 But before going to Turin he made his abode for some time at 
 Montcallier, where the Catholic clergy sought to inspire him with 
 sentiments hostile to the Vaudois. The latter, being apprised of 
 this, sent a deputation^ to coiivey to him the dutiful expression 
 of their loyalty, and their prayers for his welfare. The Count of 
 Verrue undertook to communicate their message to the sovereign; 
 but the Vaudois deputies having afterwards obtained an oppor- 
 tunity of an interview with the Duke of Savoy, in the town of 
 Carignan, and having laid before him the object of their mission, he 
 received them graciously, and said to them, as he dismissed them, 
 " Be faithful subjects to me, and I will be to you a good prince." 
 
 But the prior of Lucerna (Rorengo), and the superior of the 
 convent of La Tour (Fra Paolo), having been informed of this 
 favourable reception, sought to nip in the bud the hopes which 
 might thence be derived of repose for the valleys, and accused 
 their inhabitants of a multitude of crimes and acts of disobedience. 
 The prefect of the province, named Bezan, proceeded to La Tour 
 to make investigation. A meeting was held for this purpose on 
 the 4th of August, 1630, and the falsehood of the accusations was 
 acknowledged. 
 
 What did the worthy prior then do? He sought an interview 
 
 ' It was composed of MM. John Geymet for the valley of Lucerna, Francis 
 Laurens for that of St. Martin, and John Mejnier for those of Perouse, M&tne, 
 and Pragela. 
 
318 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Second. 
 
 with the pastor of La Tour, Gilles, whose interesting chronicles 
 have preserved us an account of their conference: — "An excellent 
 thought has occurred to me," he said. The pastor must have 
 thought that it was a thing as fortunate as it was rare. " Why 
 should the Protestants and Catholics persist so obstinately in their 
 respective pretensions 1" added the Jesuit. "If we were to yield 
 something on each side all would go on better, and I could reckon 
 confidently on the approbation of the Chui'ch of Rome." " I am 
 far from disputing the authority with which you may have been 
 intrusted to that effect," replied the pastor, " but I have much less 
 authority on the part of our churches ; and I declare to you before- 
 hand, that I cannot make in their name any engagement which 
 concerns them, without their having been previously consulted. 
 However, let me know what you have to propose." " It is this, 
 replied Rorengo ; " If the Vaudois will consent that the monks 
 shall freely dwell among them, I guarantee that we will leave you 
 in peace." "That is to say," answered Gilles, "that in order to 
 your consenting not to do us any harm, you demand that we put 
 you in a condition to do it." It need hardly be said that the prior 
 met with a refusal. 
 
 The Vaudois, however, had applied to Victor Amadeus I. for 
 a ratification of their privileges, and at this period they sent 
 deputies to Turin to hasten forward that matter. These deputies 
 were received by the prince on the 8th of September, 1632, and 
 learned from his own mouth that a minister of state would be 
 sent to the valleys, to satisfy himself by exact information as to 
 the acts of disobedience which were laid to their charge, as well 
 as to take cognizance of the grievances which they themselves 
 complained of. Accordingly, a short time after, the collateral 
 Sillan arrived, who, accompanied by Rorengo, went over all the 
 valleys, collecting the remarks of the Vaudois, and the informations 
 which were lodged against them. It is not known what report 
 he made to the sovereign ; but next year a new commissioner was 
 sent by him to the same places — a master of requests, named 
 Christopher Fauzon. He arrived at La Tour on the 5th of May, 
 1633, and convoked a meeting of the Vaudois delegates for the 
 9th of the same month. When they were assembled, he told them 
 that they were accused of having recently established themselves 
 at Lucema and Bubiano. The Vaudois proved that they had 
 existed there from time immemorial. Then he pretended that a 
 number of them had promised to abjure, and had not kept their 
 word. "Because the promise had been wrung from them by 
 violence," replied they. "What proof have you of thatT* he 
 
 Coat. V.] 
 
 COMMISSIONERS IN THE VALLEYS. 
 
 319 
 
 demanded. "If it had been voluntary," said they, "what hin- 
 dered them to fulfil it?" 
 
 "But you have schoolmasters who teach heresy," said he. 
 " Prove to us," said the Vaudois, " that oui- religion is a heresy, 
 and we renounce it ; but if they only teach our religion, then do 
 you respect the liberty of conscience, which was guaranteed to us 
 by the edict of 1561." "Do not insist upon that," said the com- 
 missioner, " for his highness is going to send you better teachers.'* 
 "And who are they." "Learned and respectable fathers." 
 "What!" exclaimed the deputy of Bobi,^ "would they make us 
 send our children to school to the monks? I would rather that 
 mine perished on one pile, than give up their souls to perdition." 
 
 The referendary Fauzon afterwards disputed the right of the 
 Vaudois of St. John to make use of a bell for assembling the con- 
 gregation to worship. " The practice is of immemorial antiquity," 
 replied the delegate of St. John, " and the successive confirmations 
 of our liberties have, by implication, sanctioned it." 
 
 After this Fauzon set aside the other accusations, of which 
 nothins: was found to remain but an echo, which could be traced to 
 no origin and no authority. Then it was that, with one consent, 
 the people broke out in complaints too long suppressed. " What ! 
 you leave undisturbed the impostors who work upon the credulity 
 of the public ! You leave undisturbed the Jews, who blaspheme 
 the name of the Redeemer, and the vagabonds who infest the high- 
 ways; but you cease not to prosecute and vex us, peaceful and 
 laborious evangelical Christians, whose only endeavour is to live in 
 the fear of God and in brotherly kindness with all men ; you cease 
 not to set at our heels packs of monks bent upon mischief; for 
 these fanatics think nothing more delightful and praiseworthy than 
 to make us the victims of treachery, deceit, imprisonment, and rob- 
 bery." In support of these complaints, unfortunately too well 
 founded, a multitude of particulars were cited, of which no one 
 could deny the correctness. Hereupon the commissioner assumed 
 a milder tone, and promised to put an end to such abuses ; after 
 which he hastily closed the meeting, and left the valleys without 
 coming to any conclusion. But the hidden influences under which 
 he had, in the first instance, acted, were set in operation again to 
 impose upon him. 
 
 Accordingly Fauzon returned to La Tour a few days after, in 
 order to oblige the Vaudois to furnish written proofs establishing 
 their legal right to celebrate Protestant worsliip in each of the 
 parishes in particular. They dreaded some trap set for them 
 
 * Peter Paravin, 
 
 iiiii II tit^i'ji 
 
y 
 
 If 
 
 320 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. tP*" S"""- 
 
 amongst these perpetual delays. However, - t^« 29th ofj^e 
 1633, they furnished the document required. This PfP*'' 'f^" 
 u^wered, and the state of things continued unchanged. But 
 
 errs only became the more active '^-^^^^ ^^''^^ ^llZ 
 testantism, and it was at this time that the f'^^^^^^ ^^S^'^ 
 Korengo and of Belvedere appeared, in order to refute which GJles 
 suspended for a time his historic labours. He 'eph^ *° *^ 
 writings in a work entitled, Considerations on tlu> Apostolus Letters 
 of tUSimrs, Marcus Aurelius Rorengo iW oj L^^^. ^ 
 More Belvedere, Prefect oftIu> Monks} publ^hed ^^^ J^SS ^s 
 work, of which a refutation was attempted at Tunn, wa« followed 
 bv another still larger, which the indefatigable pastor of La Tour 
 pSl^Tthe yefr f;nowing, under the title of ^- J"^- 
 These two volumes owed their origin to polemical pubUcations, 
 and caUed forth others which this is not the phice *» enumerate 
 These were succeeded by conferences between the °«>Bks aad the 
 pastors, in which Anthony L6ger, the pastor of St. Jo^^^' -1^° ^^f 
 return^ in 1637 from Constantinople, displayed so much telent, 
 that one of his adversaries, finding himself unable to vanquish him 
 by discussion, resolved to seize him by main force. For this pur- 
 pose he put himself at the head of a troop of armed men, to whom 
 Z said, " I must have the minister dead or alive ! The Vaudois 
 came promptly to the defence of their pastor. They prevented the 
 monk Simond from executing his design ; but, in consequence of the 
 continual conflicts and vexations which arose on ^is account An- 
 thony Lgger quitted the valleys in 1643, and went to Geneva, 
 where he spent the remainder of his days. 
 
 At this period, also, close the interesting chromcles of GUles, 
 which we have so often quoted in this and preceding chapters. As 
 a historian he has the merit of abounding and being exact m fects, 
 and of being calm and grave in his judgments, fluent and simple in 
 his style. His only fault is that of being sometimes diffuse and 
 careless. The fulness and circumstantiality with which he relates 
 events, derive an additional value from the caution and exactness 
 which characterize his narratives. As a controversial writer he 
 has the defects of his time, but he exhibits also its good quahties, 
 and unites with a solid erudition the advantages of a very sound 
 judgment, and of a raillery that is sometimes sufficiently sharp. 
 His mode of conducting an argument appears at first sight lax, in 
 consequence of the length to which he carries out the statement ot 
 his views, but his reasoning is close enough in respect of the con- 
 nection of his views and deductions themselves. Gilles was, 
 
 • Cmtideratumt tar lea Icttres, to. 
 
 Cha?. VI.] 
 
 CHABLGS EMMANUEL IL 
 
 321 
 
 moreover, during more than ten years, secretary of the Table, or 
 moderator of the Vaudois churches, and he completed, in 1601, the 
 scheme of ecclesiastical discipline which had been prepared in 1564. 
 These numerous labours, carried on amidst the multiplied duties of 
 his ministry, attest at once his zeal and activity. It is not with- 
 out regret that we here quit this valued guide, whose memory 
 becomes dear to all students of the history of the Vaudois. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PROPAGANDA.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1637 10 A.D. 1655.) 
 
 Charles Emmanuel II. of Savoy — ^The Duchess Christina of France — Disputes as 
 to the regency — ^Thv, Propaganda instituted — Rorengo— PUcido Corso — ^Public 
 discussions — Crimes and cruelties — Terrible conflagrations — Civil war — The 
 Vaudois support the Duchess Christina — Protestant worship prohibited at St. 
 John — Other severe edicts — Women in the Propaganda — The Marchioness of 
 Pianesse — Her dying charge to her husband — ^The residences of the monks 
 burned at various places in the valleys — ^False charge brought against a Vaudois 
 pastor, of having instigated the assassination of a priest. 
 
 Victor Amadeus T., who ascended tlie throne in 1630, died on 
 the 7th of October, 1637. His eldest son, Francis Hyacinth, aged 
 scarcely five years, survived him only one year; and his second 
 son, then aged only four years and some months, became, on the 
 4:th of October, 1638, the successor to the ducal crown. The title 
 of Charles Emmanuel II. was given to him ; and it was under his 
 
 * AUTHOBITIES. — The last two chapters of Gilles, and chapters v., vi., vii., and x., 
 of the second pgjt of Legei'. — " Relatione alV eminerUissima CongregcUione de Pro- 
 paganda fide de i luoghi de aleune valli di Piemonte, all' A. Ji. di Savoy a soggeiie 
 . . . daZ V. F. Teodoro Belvedere.'' — Torino. (No date.) A small volume of 
 323 pages. (The real name of this monk was Anthony LazzaH. Gilles refutes his 
 works in his sixty-first chapter. A reply was made to him in a little work, entitled 
 ** Risposta al libro del Sig, Gillio, titolato Torre Evangelica." This publication was 
 also dedicated to the Propaganda.) — " Journal of the Conversions which have been 
 made, and of the instances of grace with which God has favoured the Convpany for 
 the Propagation . . .," &c. Without date. In 4to, 20 pages. — ^' Summary qf the 
 Reasons and Grounds upon which his Royal Highness has gone in forbidding tlie 
 Heretics of the Valley of Lucerna from residing beyond the tolei-ated bounds." 
 Without date, but printed at Turin about the close of 1656, and published both 
 in Italian and Latin. — Van Breen, ** Apologetic Memoir concerning the Vaudois 
 wiih an Appendix from 1642 to 1655," printed in Dutch, at Amsterdam, 1663. — 
 See also the introductory part of most of the works noted at the commencement 
 of the following chapter. 
 
 Vol. I. 41 
 
/' 
 
 822 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Skcosd. 
 
 reiim that one of the most terrible persecutions took place which 
 ever drenched the Vaudois valleys with blood. But it would be 
 wrong to hold him alone accountable, as until his majority it was 
 his mother who held the reins of government in the canity ot 
 rec^ent. She was Christina of France, daughter of Henry lY. and 
 mW De Medicis. She inherited the haughty and stem disposi- 
 tion of her grandmother, so that the spirit of the Medicis, rather 
 than that of the princes of Savoy, presided over the carnage ot 
 
 From 1637 to 1642, Thomas and Maurice of Savoy, brothers of 
 Charles Emmanuel, disputed with his widow the regency of his 
 dominions. This contest of five years was the cause of most 
 fatal troubles and divisions in Piedmont; then, from 1642 to 1659 
 (the date when the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded), the war 
 was continued against the Spaniards, who had, in the first place, 
 been brought into the country by the Cardinal Maurice and Prmce 
 Thomas, when they were claimants of the regency. These foreign- 
 ers having seized upon the best places of Piedmont, refused to- 
 give them up; so that Christina, in order to reconquer them, was 
 obHged, in her turn, to call into her dominions the troops of France. 
 In the valleys, where we have seen that the reformed Franciscan 
 monks, or Grey friars, had been introduced by Rorengo, and mam- 
 t^ined most pertinaciously by the governors of the country, the 
 regular clergy continued their underground work, destined to burst 
 forth at an after period in prodigious disasters. A powerful coadju- 
 tor was at this time also given them by the court of Rome, to wit, 
 the Propaganda. This name was given to a society composed of 
 clergy and laymen, founded at Rome, in 1622, by Gregory XV., 
 under the title of Congregatio de Propaganda fde. 
 
 Its institution had, from the first, no other object than to pro- 
 mote the spread of the Catholic doctrines. It was not long of 
 acquiring a predominant influence over the secular clergy, who had 
 imprudently admitted it as an ally; and afterwards it went the 
 length of savagely pursuing— with an incendiary torch in one hand, 
 a sword in the other, and the feet in blood— the extermination of 
 aU doctrines which were not its own. Nothing was forgotten in 
 its work except the gospel. And what did it gain? What perse- 
 cution always gains— the burden of the crimes committed, the 
 responsibility of the blood shed, and the execration of humanity. 
 
 It was the prior of Lucerna, Mark Aurelio Rorengo, who in- 
 troduced into the Vaudois valleys the first seed of this powerful 
 tree, whose branches were very soon to extend over all Piedmont, 
 and to cover it with the bloody fruits of the most odious fanaticism. 
 
 'X, 
 
 CHilF.Vl] 
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 323 
 
 A member of the Roman Propaganda, already celebrated by his 
 talent for discussion, was sent from Rome to the valleys, expressly 
 to labour for the conversion of the Vaudois. He was a preaching 
 monk, named Placido Corso. Rorengo, who had already had many 
 fruitless conferences with the pastors, hastened to go and meet this 
 protector champion, whom fame announced to him as a polemical 
 Boanerges. 
 
 It was on the 10th of November, 1637, that Placido Corso 
 arrived at La Tour. His first care was to provoke the pastor of 
 the place, GiUes the historian, to a conference. " I have come a 
 very long way," he wrote to him, "to defend the holy Catholic, 
 Apostolic, and Roman Church ; and having inquired at several per- 
 sons of your parish as to the reasons for which the Vaudois had 
 separated from it, they directed me to their pastor, as to one who 
 was better able to instruct me on that point." '* What an admir- 
 able zeal it is," replied the pastor, " which comes from so great a 
 distance to attack that of which it knows nothing ! But, never- 
 theless, we are very far from recognizing the Church of Rome as 
 being what you designate it ; it is for you, therefore, to prove, in 
 the fii'st place, that it is apostolic and holy ; and the result of this 
 inquiry will render it much more easy for us to tell you why it is 
 that we have separated from it." 
 
 The monk did not shrink from the thesis which he was invited 
 to sustain, and he wrote to the minister all the reasons commonly 
 adduced in favour of the Romish Church. Gilles refuted him. 
 Letters in considerable number were thus exchanged, till in the 
 end Placido Corso left the last unanswered. 
 
 Hoping to be more fortunate in a viva voce conference, where 
 his adversary would not have time to choose and weigh his argu- 
 ments, he sought to gain, by such means, the ground which he had 
 lost. Anthony Lgger, recently arrived from Constantinople, where 
 he had filled the post of chaplain to an embassy, had resumed the 
 humble duties of a village pastor, in his old parish of St. John. 
 It was to him that the propagandist addressed himself; and after 
 various negotiations, it was arranged that a public conference 
 should take place at La Tour, on the 4th of December, 1637, in 
 the court-yard of an elder of the church, named Thomas Marghet. 
 Rorengo demanded that he should preside in this meeting; and 
 it was thought proper to defer to his wish. The youthftd Scipio 
 Bastil, on the side of the Protestants, and a Capuchin named 
 Laurent, on the side of the Catholics, were chosen for secretaries. 
 One of the most difficult questions of canonical theology, that of 
 the Apoci'yphal books, occupied the whole of that meeting. 
 
824 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAtT SxCOVOk 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 CRIMES AND CRUELTIES. 
 
 325 
 
 n 
 
 I " 
 
 The second was fixed for the 1st of January, 1638, and took place 
 at St. John, in the court-yard of Daniel Blanc, for no apartment 
 was capacious enough to receive the crowd of hearers ; but the sky 
 of Italy sometimes, even in winter, permits meetings to be held in 
 the open air, on ground scarcely hardened by frost, at the base of 
 snow-covered Alps, The monks were very late in making their 
 appearance at this meeting. They excused themselves on the 
 ground of their having been detained by theii* private devotions j 
 but some of those present smiled, and said to one another in a low 
 voice, that they showed themselves more eager to put an end to 
 the conference than to prolong it. The discussion, however, was 
 not terminated when night came on; but it was the last, for the 
 propagandist would not again enter the lists ^^vnth these wranglers^* 
 as he said, " who mude a pope of the Bible.'^ Yes ! the Bible was 
 to the Vaudois even more than a pope. But the crouching slave 
 of the Holy See could go no farther in his comparison. 
 
 The next to foUow and emulate him in the arena of discussion 
 was a Grey friar of La Tour, named Brother Hilarion. He under- 
 took a polemical correspondence with the pastor of Bobi, Francis 
 Guerin, whose last letters he also left unanswered.^ In the valley 
 of St. Martin, the monks of Le Perrier attempted similar contests^ 
 and met with similar checks. 
 
 The spirit of hatred, or at least of intolerance, so natural to 
 monks, became exasperation in these. It was no longer by the 
 weapons of logic that they sought to combat the Vaudois ; assassina- 
 tions and abductions were employed. A young man, named Mor- 
 ton, the servant of an Englishman, was assassinated at La Tour. 
 A young girl of Bubiano was carried off by the monks who dwelt 
 there, and placed under the cai-e of a popish woman. The brother 
 of this girl came to claim his sister again, and she eagerly followed 
 him. The guard saw them, and raised the alarm ; the Catholics 
 ran and overwhelmed the young man with blows. Then came a 
 priest on horseback, who took the girl behind him, and bore her 
 off to Turin. From that time forth, aU attempts made to obtain 
 restitution of her remained ineffective. 
 
 But these were not the only wicked proceedings by which the 
 clergy laboured to vex the poor Protestants. At their instigation, 
 an attempt was made to compel the Vaudois settled upon the right 
 bank of the Pelis, in the district of Lucema, to remove and confine 
 themselves to the left bank only ; an attempt was also made to 
 restrict all of them from residing for more than three days conse- 
 
 ' Gnerin was cited to appear at Turin in 1650, prosecuted in 1651 for not having 
 appeared, condemned for contumacy, and obliged to go into exile. 
 
 cutively in any of the other towns of Piedmont, whither business 
 might call them. But through the interposition of persons in high 
 place, these vexatious measures were unsuccessful. At the same 
 time there occurred also certain movements of troops, which the 
 enemies of the Vaudois always sought to turn to their disadvan- 
 
 tage. 
 
 On the 22d of March, 1639, there arrived at Lucema, St. John, 
 and La Tour, a great number of people from Bubiano and its neigh- 
 bourhood, all in disorder and alarm, bringing carts loaded with 
 their furniture, and horses with their stores of linen and their chil- 
 dren, whilst they themselves conducted their fiocks, as if going 
 into exile. Then came message upon message, rapidly succeeding 
 each other, all to announce that a regiment of Italian cavalry, in 
 search of quarters, was advancing at a quick rate. The regiment 
 arrived that evening at Lucerna, and from thence was sent to 
 Bubiano; next day it attempted to enter the territory of St. John, 
 but the Vaudois had placed strong guards at all the passes, and 
 drove it back into the plain. Upon that occasion the excesses con- 
 sequent upon the want of military discipline, the trouble and con- 
 fusion which arise in the proximity of camps, prevailed for some 
 days in Piedmont, without penetrating into the Vaudois valleys. 
 These disastrous agitations expired at the confines of that home of 
 the gospel, where courage maintained peace. And they were well 
 entitled to defend themselves — that people, whose number was so 
 small, and whose rulers w^e then disputing for the throne of a 
 child. 
 
 But terrible conflagrations occurring at this period, contributed 
 also to increase the misfortunes of these districts. On the 6th of 
 March, and on the 21st of November, 1634, fire caught hold of the 
 woods of Briqueras, and despoiled the hills around that place of all 
 their lofty trees. These hills are now covered with vineyards. 
 On the 11th of December, 1639, two fires, also at the openings of 
 the valleys, broke out simultaneously — the one between Briqu6ras 
 and St. Segont, the other between Lucema and Lucemette. The 
 north-east wind blew strongly; the first of the fires extended to 
 the heights of Pramsting, devouring everything in its course. 
 That of Lucemette quickly seized upon the woods of Bubiano upon 
 the one side, and upon those of Famolasc and Bagnols upon the 
 other ; and its ocean of flame swept over the country as far as the 
 hills of Barges, thus occupying a space of several square leagues. 
 The affrighted inhabitants, not being able to contend against this 
 devouring invasion, took to flight, or endeavoured to isolate their 
 dwellings, by cutting down beforehand the trees by which they 
 
326 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Second. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 SEVERE EDICTS. 
 
 327 
 
 were surrounded. Numbers were compelled to defend themselves 
 against the danger, by extinguishing the flames with the wine from 
 their cellars, for want of sufficient water at hand. 
 
 This fearful conflagration lasted for several days. The front of 
 the fire might be seen climbing from the plain up the mountains, 
 like a sea of flame, leaving behind its glowing waves the naked and 
 blackened earth, presenting at intervals, over great tracts of coun- 
 try, what looked like immense cauterizations, or frightful blotches 
 of gangrene. 
 
 Besides all this, Piedmont was desolated by civil war. Three 
 political parties had formed themselves in the country. Robbery 
 and plunder extended everywhere like another fire. The outlaws, 
 still scattered among the mountains, confidently acted upon their 
 own unhappy pretensions; frequent murders signalized their ven- 
 geance. They exhibited, upon a smaller scale, the same conduct 
 which the princes of Savoy then displayed at the head of their 
 armies. One man kills another, and is an assassin; a prince kills 
 a thousand men, and is a hero. When will murderers be weighed 
 in the same balance ? When will the nations become weary of 
 shedding their blood like water for dynastic pretensions, which have 
 nothing to do with their welfare 1 The union of kings is a per- 
 petual conspiracy against liberty; what, then, must their divisions 
 be for the nations of men 1 
 
 The Marquises of Lucema and of Angrogna, having embraced 
 the party of the pretenders to the regency, maltreated the Yaudois, 
 who had reftised to take part in these intestine divisions, which 
 brought so much suffering upon the kingdom. Another member 
 of the same family. Count Christopher, upon the contrary, espoused 
 the cause of the duchess and her son. 
 
 It was dreaded that the usurpers, supported by the Spanish 
 army, might devastate the Vaudois valleys with fire and sword. 
 A genei-al meeting was held at St. John, to consider what was to 
 be done. The count was there. The pastor, Anthony L6ger, in- 
 sisted that the Vaudois should maintain their independence on 
 behalf of the legitimate prince, Charles Emmanuel II., then a 
 minor, and the tutelage of whom his uncles were disputing with his 
 mother. The Vaudois prepared their own militia for service; made 
 provision for the maintenance of the government, already much 
 disorganized ; opened the passage of the Alps to the French army, 
 which Turenne and D'Harcourt led to the succour of Christina; 
 and finally restored to that victorious princess one of the best 
 defended provinces of her dominions. 
 
 The recollection of all this, which she afterwards showed them 
 
 that she retained, was far from being that of gratitude ; and this 
 princess, when she became powerful, was like the serpent warmed 
 again to life. But at the present time she was in misfortune, and 
 perhaps even afterwards, she was more weak than cruel. 
 
 Be this as it may, the enemies of the Vaudois availed them- 
 selves of their position around her to irritate her against them; 
 and as L^ger had exercised a great influence in the council of his 
 countrymen, they had him condemned to death for contumacy, on 
 the pretext that he had been in the service of foreign powers, 
 without authority from his lawful sovereign. This service had 
 been limited to the discharge of his pastoral ftmctions whilst he 
 was with the ambassador of the United Provinces. But any pre- 
 text is good enough for hatred, and hatred was satisfied. L6ger 
 was compelled to retire to Geneva, where the academy of that 
 town had long the honour to number him amongst its professors. 
 He was a man of extremely mild character, and of remarkable 
 talent. 
 
 Encouraged by this first success, the enemies of the Vaudois 
 went farther in their demands. Agents of the Roman Propaganda 
 had established themselves at Turin, and their influence extended, 
 like an invisible net-work, over the court of Savoy. The father 
 of the duchess, Henry IV., had been a Protestant; fanaticism 
 presented this circumstance to the mistaken eyes, or rather to the 
 servile conscience of Christina, as casting upon her origin a deplor- 
 able stain, which the most fervent zeal alone could efface ; and we 
 have seen already wherein zeal for Catholicism consists. Every- 
 thing injurious to the Protestants was fervour in her estimation; 
 the Propaganda encouraged these sentiments, and their triumph 
 was completed through the influence of political views. 
 
 This took place in the following manner : — From the vacancy 
 of the ducal throne, and from the moment that Christina's regency 
 was disputed, the clergy gave all their support toher competitor, 
 Maurice, of Savoy, who was a cardinal. Christina, therefore, in 
 order to win back the clergy to her side, thought it necessary to 
 rival her brother-in-law in zeal, that is to say, in concessions, 
 honour, and power, accorded to the clergy; restrictions, rigour, and 
 intolerance, in regard to the Vaudois. One of the first acts of her 
 government was to enjoin the Vaudois settled without their limits 
 to return to them within the space of three days.i A month before, 
 she had given instructions to the magistrates in favour of the Ca- 
 puchin missionaries, ordaining that, upon information lodged, the 
 podestats should act according to their office against those whom 
 
 > Dated 3d November, 1637. 
 
S28 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Sxcond. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 A PASTOR APOSTATIZES. 
 
 329 
 
 they denounced.^ Next year she renewed her orders against the 
 Vaudois extending themselves beyond their own territory.^ 
 
 At this time an accident happened to the castle of Cavour, which 
 was in part destroyed by lightning, but was restored by the French. 
 A year afterwards, at the synod of St. Germain,' the younger L^ger 
 was ordained to the holy ministry, who at a later period became, 
 by his courage, as well as by his writings, one of the most powerful 
 defenders of the valleys. The congregation which he was then 
 appointed to supply was that of Pral and Rodoret. Some months 
 after, the duchess, still upon solicitation of the Propagandists, gave 
 many injunctions to the prefect of the province, whose name was 
 Rossano, to have the Protestant worship interdicted at St. John, 
 and the church shut up which the Vaudois possessed there.* Again 
 she renewed the prohibition against their passing beyond their 
 limits, not only to acquire lands, but even to farm them, and that 
 under pain of death and confiscation of goods. 
 
 A special commissioner was sent from Turin to watch over the 
 observance of this edict — a doctor of laws from Montcallier, master 
 of requests to the council of state, and very zealous in the sense in 
 which that term was undei*stood by his sovereign. His name was 
 Gastaldo, and he took up his abode at Lucema. His first care was 
 to cite all the Vaudois to appear before him who possessed lands 
 or establishments of any kind beyond the limits to which it was 
 thought fit to restrain them — limits which became narrower con- 
 tinually ; for, according to a more recent order, even the right bank 
 of the Pelis had been interdicted to them.^ The persons cited 
 having refused to appear, their properties and establishments were 
 declared to be confiscated and to have fellen to the exchequer.^ 
 
 But it was not enough to oppress the Vaudois; favour must 
 also be shown to their adversaries, and in a very long edict^ of the 
 Duchess of Savoy, in which she treats at once of duels, of the chase, 
 and of taxes, all the governors of castles in the Vaudois valleys 
 were ordained to accede freely to the requests of the Capuchin 
 missionaries, to attend at the meetings held by the Vaudois, to 
 watch over them and to interdict them if necessary. The Vaudois 
 were at the same time prohibited from assembling without the pre- 
 sence of chaplains, under a penalty of fifty crowns of gold for every 
 
 » Dated 19th October, 1637. 
 
 2 9th November, 1638. • 27th September, 1639. 
 
 * These orders are of date the 4th and 17fch of April, 1640. The church of the 
 Vaudois was then situated in the quarter of Les Malanots. 
 
 * This order was of date 23d December, 1640. Gastaldo's citation was of date 
 14th January, 1641. « By decree of Gastaldo, 29th January, 1641. 
 
 » Of 15th and 16th January, 1642. 
 
 i ( 
 
 one who should contravene the edict; and this singular edict, which 
 contains so many other things, promises, moreover, an immunity 
 from public burdens for ii\e years together, to all Protestants who 
 should consent to become Catholics. 
 
 This promise having seduced no one, it was renewed by a special 
 edict still more urgent than the first.* A few abjured; but the 
 public contempt, and the affronts which they received from their 
 fellow-coimtrymeu, very soon compelled them to quit the valleys, 
 and to seek a residence elsewhere.^ 
 
 Shortly after succeeded, one after another, measures still more 
 rigorous against the Vaudois. They were prohibited from passing 
 beyond their limits, even for a few hours, except on market-days.^ 
 The magistrates of the neighbouring towns were enjoined, in case 
 of their so doing, to arrest them without any legal formality.* At 
 the same time proceedings were instituted against their pastors^ — 
 the official celebration of the Catholic worship was appointed to take 
 place in all the Protestant parishes ^ — the Capuchins were encour- 
 aged,7 and new rewards were promised to apostasy.^ 
 
 In 1645, an institution was founded at Lucerna, expressly to 
 receive and provide with marriage portions such young Vaudois 
 girls as might abjure; but this institution could not maintain 
 itself. The same year a Sovereign Coimcil, established in Pied- 
 mont by the king of France, adopted still more vexatious measures 
 against the Vaudois of Perouse and Pragela.^ The Catholics, and 
 those who had become Catholics, were loaded with the fevours of 
 the court.*" A young minister, named Louis Gaston D'Albret, who 
 was born at Paris, and had studied at Geneva, arrived in the valleys, 
 where he filled the office of pastor for two months, when he was 
 unable to resist the pressing solicitations to apostasy which were 
 addressed to the Vaudois. He abjured on the 26th of July, 1647 
 — received great honours at Turin — resided with the nuncio, and 
 afterwards disappeared from the country, bearing with him a 
 gratuity of 800 livres which the Duchess of Savoy had sent him, 
 
 » This second edict is of 6th April, 1642. I mark these dates precisely, because 
 these events have been related by no previous historian. 
 
 2 As the family of Durands of Rora, which removed to Bagnol. 
 
 » 17th February, 1644. * 18th September, 1645. 
 
 * The judiciary citations relative to Anthony L6ger are of date 20th December, 
 1642, and 10th April, 1643. A petition of the Vaudois, on this subject, bears date 
 12th June. The order relative to the ministers Guerin and L^preux, is of 3d 
 April, 1647. * This order is of 13th December, 1646. 
 
 ' Orders of 10th January, 28th April; 8th October, 1646; 22d July, 1648, &c. 
 
 « 8th May, 1645; 8th Maich, 1648, &c. » Edict of 17th July, 1645. 
 
 *" For general favours, exemption from burdens, from taxes, &c., 10th Septem- 
 ber, 1645; 9th and 12th October 1647; 4th November, 1648. 
 
 YoL. I. 43 
 
330 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pAVt SeCOKD. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 GASTALDOS MODERATION. 
 
 331 
 
 III 
 
 eager perhaps to get him removed from her dominions, as well as 
 withdrawn from Protestantism; for she also was a D'Albret, that 
 name being a patronymic of the progenitors of Henry IV. 
 
 The ancient privileges of the Vaudois were, however, ratified 
 at this period more frequently than ever;^ for the Vaudois thought 
 to make them more secure by confirmations. In this the court 
 granted nothing, and they gained nothing ; on the contrary, they 
 robbed themselves; for the fees of sealing, copying, and registra- 
 tion required costly sacrifices at their hand on each new confirma- 
 tion. But Rome grudged them even this impotent safeguard; 
 and Innocent X. annulled, by a pontifical decree, dated on the 19tli 
 of August, 1649, the last favours which these poor people had 
 obtained from their sovereigns. The influence of the Propagand- 
 ists went on increasing, and ere long all the privileges, guaranteed 
 in such mockery, were arbitrarily suspended by the edict of the 
 20th of February, 1650.- This suspension was to continue until 
 the Vaudois should have demolished the eleven places of worship 
 which they possessed beyond the prescribed limits; dismissed 
 those pastors who were natives of other countries;^ shut up the 
 numerous schools maintained by them elsewhere than in their own 
 territory ; and consented to the universal celebration of the Ca- 
 tholic worship in all the valleys. These severities were all owing 
 to the increasing intrigues of the Capuchins and the Propaganda. 
 
 The Vaudois sent up petition after petition, and, by these dila- 
 tory means, only succeeded in keeping all their difficulties unre- 
 solved. The monks, meanwhile, erected chapels in the valleys, 
 notwithstanding the visible displeasure, and sometimes the formal 
 opposition of the inhabitants : it required an edict of the sovereign 
 to compel the people of Macel to permit the building of the church 
 of La Salsa.* 
 
 But the claims and representations of the clergy became every 
 day more urgent ; and the petitions of the Vaudois having been 
 rejected, instructions were given to Gastaldo, on the 15th of May, 
 1650, to restrict them within a boundary-line drawn above St. 
 John and La Tour; ordaining all those who were settled in these 
 
 » An edict of 26th February, 1635, approved on 19th September, confirmed the 
 privileges of 1585; it cost the Vaudois 15,198 livres. Other confirmations were 
 dated 8th May, 1643 ; 17th July, 1648 ; 30th June, 1649, &c. 
 
 2 This edict was grounded upon a Report or Parere of the Minister of Justice, 
 Gambarana, of which the reasoning is curious enough—" PercU" it sa.jB, ** detti 
 heretici .... sono desobedieniissimi, e continuamente intravengono alii ordini di 
 V, A. B.te cUle loroproprie coricessioni , . ." &c., &c. 
 
 » The pastor, Daniel Roche, had already been recalled from the valleys to Geneva, 
 where he had entered the academy of that town in the capacity of a professor. The 
 letter recalling him is dated 23d March, 1648. * Edict of 28th January, 1649. 
 
 communes, as well as those of Lucemette, Bubiano, Fenil, and St. 
 Segont, to retire from thence within the space of three days, under 
 pain of death, with obligation to sell their possessions within the 
 space of fifteen days, under pain of having them confiscated. The 
 entii-ely Protestant communes of Bobi, Villar, Angrogna, and Bora, 
 were enjoined to maintain, at their own expense, a station of 
 Capuchin missionaries in each; and, at the same time that all 
 possible means were thus employed to augment the number of 
 Catholics, foreign Protestants were absolutely prohibited from 
 settling in the valleys under pain of death, and of a fine of 1000 
 crowns of gold, to be imposed on the commune which should 
 admit them. 
 
 Charged to put in execution enactments so Draconic, or rather, 
 to designate more perfectly their cruel injustice and savage atro- 
 city, enactments so profoundly Catholic — Gastaldo, however little 
 sympathy he had hitherto shown for the Vaudois, acted with great 
 moderation, it must be said, in the apjjlication of this ordinance, 
 which, in his hands, became rather comminatory than repressive. 
 The times fixed by the ordinance had long passed over without the 
 parties, who were so unfortunate as to come under its sweep, having 
 yet complied with it, and Gastaldo kept his eyes closed. He 
 himself supported, by his representations to the sovereign, the 
 petitions which were sent up by the persons interested, against 
 whom, in the meantime, he took no steps; and ere long new con- 
 firmations of their ancient privileges were granted to them, on the 
 12th of January and the 4th of June, 1653. Thus the barbarous 
 ordinance of the 15th of May, 1650, was never carried into efiect. 
 
 But during this interval the Propaganda had attained unex- 
 pected greatness in consequence of the jubilee, which, in 1650, 
 brought to Bome the rich tribute of the superstitions of all Europe. 
 A sort of popular enthusiasm was created for that work, in which 
 it was open to all Catholics, of whatever condition, to take a part. 
 To be engaged in it, was all that was necessary to obtain a plenary 
 indulgence; persons of great note enlisted themselves; princes and 
 artizans took their places together in these ranks; there was no 
 one who did not need indulgences, or, at least, there was no one 
 who had not some need of pardon; this institution of the Propa- 
 ganda, therefore, rapidly extended, not only in Italy, but also in 
 France. It had special councils in almost all the towns of these 
 countries; and now to its title of " Congregation /or the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith," it added, in Piedmont at least, these supplemen- 
 tary words, " and for the extirpation of heretics" ^ These councils, 
 
 * Congregatio de propaganda fide et extirpandis hereticis. 
 
832 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaIt Skcoicv. 
 
 II 
 
 as we tave already said, were indifferently, or rather, with per- 
 fidious ingenuity, composed of persons of civU life and persons of 
 religious life, if that name of rdigioua life may be given to the 
 gross fanaticism which labours, hand in hand, with corruption and 
 ' cruelty. Yet this is what Rome <?alls zeal ! If such be not the 
 language of Antichrist, where shall we expect to find it? 
 
 As there was a plenary indulgence for the Propagandists, the 
 women also desired to have their share. They formed a special 
 council; and thenceforth the Propaganda was composed of two 
 councils — one of men and another of women. This institution 
 was founded at Turin, under the high favour of a royal ordinance. ^ 
 The archbishop of that city, and the Marquis of St. Thomas, a 
 mimster of the crown, were the presidents of the former of these 
 councils. The Marchioness of Pianesse was president of the latter. 
 She had spent her youth in dissipatioUj and sought to expiate her 
 past faults by the extremeness of her new zeal. Being a woman 
 of strong passions, and easily led away, but perhaps also of a noble 
 and generous disposition, it was no difficult matter for her spiritual 
 directors to impel her into a wrong course, which they could teach 
 her to regard as that of duty. Mankind, in general, are more 
 easily swayed by a command issued in name of truth than by 
 proof of the truth. Here lies the secret of the power of Popery. 
 
 All means were set in operation by the Propagandists to attain 
 the object of their association ; and as we now enter on the historic 
 chapter of Leger, we shall borrow firom that historian some par- 
 ticulars concerning the proceedings of the council, which owned 
 for its president the Marchioness of Pianesse.2 
 
 " These ladies," says he, " divide the towns into districts, and 
 each visits her district twice a-week, suborning simple girls, female 
 servants, and children, by their cajoleries and fair promises; and 
 causing trouble and annoyance to those who do not choose to listen 
 to them. They have their spies everywhere, who inform them of 
 all Protestant families in which there is any domestic disagree- 
 ment; and then they profit by the occasion to blow the fire of divi- 
 sion as much as possible, to separate the husband irom his wife, 
 and the wife from her husband, the child from his father and 
 mother, &c., promising them, and in fact bestowing upon them, 
 great advantages, if they engage to attend mass. Frequently they 
 impel them to institute law-suits against one another, and if once 
 they have a hold of them by this handle, they never let them go 
 until they have either recanted, or are ruined. They know the 
 
 *■ This ordinance is cited in the edict of 31st May, 1650. 
 • Leger, Part II., chap, vi. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 MACHINERY OF THE PKOPAGANDA. 
 
 333 
 
 merchant who is improsperous in business, the gentleman who has 
 gambled away or squandered all that he had, and in general all 
 families which fall into necessitous circumstances. And to seduce 
 them with their daho tibi, these ladies never fail to propose apos- ^ 
 tasy to these persons when they are almost desperate. They make 
 their way into the very prisons, and accomplish the release of cri- 
 minals who give themselves up to them. And as they employ great 
 sums of money in keeping all this machinery in motion, and paying 
 those who sell their souls to them for bread, they make regular 
 collections, and do not fail to visit all families in good circum- 
 stances, shops, taverns, gambling-houses, &c., demanding alms for 
 the extirpation of heresy. And if any person of condition arrives 
 at an inn, they lose no time in paying their respects to him with 
 an empty purse in their hands. To conclude, they meet in most 
 of the towns twice a-week, to compare accounts of what they have 
 done, and to concert plans for what they are to do. If it so hap- 
 pens that they have need of the secular arm, or of an order of Par- 
 liament, it is rarely that they do not succeed in obtaining it. The 
 councils of the lesser towns give in reports to those of the metro- 
 politan towns, the latter to the coimcil of the capital, and those of 
 the capitals to that of Rome, where is the great spider that holds 
 the threads of all this web." ^ 
 
 Such was the secret of the power so rapidly and immensely or- 
 ganized and extended by the activity, everywhere multiplied and 
 propagated, of the innumeiuble agents who served it, and were its 
 devoted instruments. The Marchioness of Pianesse herself, Leger 
 adds, great lady as she was, and unquestionably the first at court, 
 took the pains, as long as she lived, of going in person several times 
 a-week, to make the above-mentioned collections through the town, 
 even in the public-houses.^ Could we desire greater devotedness 
 or self-denial in a work of Christian charity ] Let us do justice to 
 our persecutors ! they thought to serve the cause of charity : but 
 let us execrate the detestable Popery which so perverted the idea 
 of charity, and which changed into infernal poisons the most celes- 
 tial perfumes of the noblest souls ! 
 
 And these were not the only works of this kind to which these 
 generous-hearted persons were guided by their church of perdi- 
 tion, and to which they might sometimes be seen to flock with a 
 disinterestedness well worthy of a better cause. All the Vaudois 
 children that could be withdrawn fi:om under their paternal roof, 
 and carried off from their parents, were considered as innocent 
 victims saved from heresy, that is to say, snatched from the claws 
 
 » Leger, Part II., page 74. . * Il>id. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
» 
 
 834. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa«t Second. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 A DYING REQUEST. 
 
 335 
 
 i! 
 
 I 
 
 of Satan, and rescued from eternal perdition. Zealous Papists did 
 not shrink from making the greatest sacrifices, braving even the 
 terrors of the laws and the vengeance of men, in order to seize upon 
 them. These children were then placed with rich Catholic families, 
 who undertook their maintenance, or in convents, which undertook 
 to make them slowly die to the world, to their native country, to 
 the pure affections of the heart, and to the faith of the Bible. But 
 what anguish and disorder were thus brought into families ! And 
 in this way did the abominable power of corruption, deposited in 
 the bosom of Catholicism, transform the natural generosity of the 
 hearts of its adherents into odious deception and barbarous trea- 
 chery, as it had transformed Christian doctrine into miserable 
 superstitions. The law of Nature was not more respected than the 
 law of Revelation: for indeed both are from the same Divine source, 
 and it is in the nature of Antichrist to oppose everything which 
 comes from God. 
 
 It was, however, under the guise, and perhaps in all the sincerity 
 of the greatest benevolence, that the instruments of apostasy were 
 sometimes made to act, whose inflexible and cruel servility was 
 perhaps also nothing else than the Catholic transformation of a 
 genuine devotedness. Thus, by the concurrence of a number of 
 rich persons and diverse legacies, there were opened in all the val- 
 leys (at Lucema, at Pignerol, and at L6 Perrier), establishments 
 for lending money upon pledges, which were then called Lombards, 
 and are now known as Monta de Piete. 
 
 The valleys were exhausted by the successive cantoning of dif- 
 ferent bodies of troops since 1653.* The famine augmented the 
 price of wares, and poverty made them scarce. The establishments 
 of which we speak had stores of corn, linen, various kinds of stuffs, 
 and cash, all which resources they placed at the disposal of the 
 Vaudois. When one of them had pawned his last articles of furni- 
 ture, in order to prolong his life, they offered to restore them to 
 him without any repayment on his part, on condition that he 
 should give his soul in pawn to Popery; or they threatened him 
 with the prison, if he did not reimburse them for the advances 
 which he had received, and aftjrwards offered to release him from 
 it, to annul his debt, and even to furnish him with fresh assistance, 
 if he would abjure. These means were successful in drawing over 
 numbers of persons, but still they did not accomplish so much as 
 was desired. 
 
 • Piedmont was then in alliance "with France, and opened a passage through its 
 territory to the troops of Louis XIV. to go to the assistance of the Duke of Modeaa. 
 They were led by Prince Thomas, uncle of the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 The death of the Marchioness of Pianesse drew near. Not 
 hoping anything more from this world, she bethought herself of 
 her husband, whom she had not seen for a long time : she sent for 
 him and said to him, "'I believe I have much to expiate, and 
 perhaps in my conduct towards you. My soul is in danger, help 
 me and labour for the conversion of the Vaudois.' The husband 
 promised; he was a brave soldier, and he laboured accordingly in 
 soldierly style, putting all to fire and sword.'" He had still 
 another motive for obeying, namely, that his wife left him consider- 
 able sums, of which he was to have the disposal only upon that 
 condition. The Jesuits presided at this compact of agony and 
 extermination suggested by the Propaganda. From this time 
 forth their only business was to find an occasion, or pretext, or 
 reason for violent measures. The monks became more arrogant 
 than ever, and the Jesuits dispersed agents amongst the Yaudois, 
 whose employment was to provoke and excite the people to some 
 sudden out-breakins:. 
 
 Leger relates that the wife of Pastor Monget, at Le Yillar, took 
 an active part in the burning of the abode of the monks in that 
 place, but the fact is not proved. The habitations of the monks 
 were certainly destroyed by fire, or by the hands of the Yaudois, 
 not only at Le Yillar, but at Bobi, Angrogna and Kora; but the 
 punishment of these crimes, in the persons of those who were guilty 
 of them, could not be alleged as a motive for the violent measures 
 of 1655, far less in justification of them; for the last of these acts, 
 the burning of the convent of Le Yillar, took place in 1653, and 
 next year, as well as in that same year, the Yaudois again obtained 
 the confirmation of their ancient privileges, after having rebuilt 
 for the monks, the house which had been burned down.^ This fact, 
 
 * Extract from M. Michelet's Course of History, published in the supplement of 
 the journal Le SiMe, of 8th May, 1843. 
 
 ^ These confirmations were of date the 12th of January, 1653 (before the fire at Le 
 Villar), and the 4th of June, 1653 (after that event), as well as on the 8th of De- 
 cember, 1654. (This last document relates only to civil privileges). In the greater 
 number of papers relative to the events of 1655, which have come under my eyes, 
 I have nowhere found, amongst the complaints brought against the Vaudois, the 
 fact of that fire, which was then an affair terminated and set right. Monget him- 
 self was banished from the country. In the reports addressed to the government 
 on the subject of the Vaudois, about the end of 1654, these two complaints are set 
 forth : — 
 
 1. That certain young people of Prarusting, in returning from a wedding, had 
 cast down, in sjwrt, a piloun already ruined. (This name is given to a kind of 
 isolated pillars which support nothing, but in which is formed a little niche where 
 is pla«ed either a statue or a picture of the Virgin, holding in her arms the infant 
 Jesus. This figure is named the Madone). 
 
 2. The Vaudois of La Tour are accused of having excited an ass, and then let 
 
r 
 I 
 
 886 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paat Second. 
 
 Chaf. vn j 
 
 OBJECT OF THE PROPAGANDA. 
 
 887 
 
 ii 
 
 to which L6ger ascribes too much importance, because of the part 
 ■which he acted as moderator in connection with it, had nothing 
 whatever to do with the proceedings of 1655. Pretexts more 
 serious, but having as little foimdation, were then brought forward. 
 The priest of Fenil had been assassinated. The assassin was seized 
 after another crime. Pardon was promised him upon condition 
 that he should confess plainly that he had killed the priest solely 
 at the instigation of the Vaudois, and in particular of Leger, then 
 pastor at St. John. Berru (such was the assassin's name), not having 
 shrunk from the commission of a crime which entailed upon him 
 capital punishment, could not be expected to shrink from a false- 
 hood which was to save his life. 
 
 And it was on the denunciation of this man, guilty of three 
 avowed murders, that the pastor of St. John, imknown to him- 
 self, without examination, and without being confronted with his 
 accuser, without any judicial process, and without having even 
 been cited, was condemned to death, as the instigator of one of 
 these assassinations, whilst the assassin was set at liberty. We 
 may easily understand the sentiments of indignation which are 
 expressed in the writings of L6ger, and cannot be surprised if the 
 heart of the persecuted man sometimes caused the pen of the 
 
 historian to tremble. 
 
 When hatred was reduced to such accusations as these — ^when 
 the magistracy could listen to them, there must assuredly have 
 been a world of prejudices on the one side, and a very irreprehen- 
 sible life upon the other. But the worthlessness of the pretext 
 shows the blindness of the hatred : other machinations show its 
 
 ingenuity. 
 
 Louis XIV. had sent troops to the succour of the Duke of 
 Modena in 1654, and it was resolved to take advantage of their 
 return and their passage through Piedmont, towards the end of 
 that year, to canton them in the Vaudois valleys, and to make 
 them serve for the work in hand. A dreadful success crowned the 
 clerical intrigues in this instance, and there would therefore rest an 
 inefiaceable stigma on the front of Catholicism, like the mark on 
 Cain, the first fratricide, even if bloody pages were not so abundant 
 in the history of that religion. 
 
 him loose to cross the ranks of a Catholic procession. Their justification bears 
 that this ass, which had been fastened before a shop, was frightened by the singing, 
 the noise, the appearance, and banners of the procession itself, and that it broke 
 its halter and escaped without anybody having to do with it. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PIEDMONTESE EASTER, OR THE MASSACRES OF 1655.^ 
 
 (Saturday, the 24th op April, being Easter Eve.) 
 
 Proceedings of the Society de Propaganda fide — Gastaldo, the duke's lieutenant 
 in the valleys — Severe measures — Prolonged and fruitless negotiations — The 
 Marquis of Pianesse — His deceitfulness — He puts himself at the head of troops 
 for the extermination of the Vaudois — Indecision of the Vaudois, who are in 
 part deceived by false pretences — Janavel — The Vaudois resist the Marquis of 
 Pianesse at La Tour, but are defeated — Further combats — Further treachery 
 of Pianesse — Massacre on the day before Easter — Fearful atrocities — M. Du 
 Petitbourg refuses to conduct his troops upon occasion of this massacre — His 
 subsequent exposure of its enormities. 
 
 All the means hitherto employed to destroy the Vaudois having 
 proved insufficient, others were devised ; for the avowed object of 
 the Propaganda, officially established at Turin, and extended over 
 the whole of Piedmont, was the extirpation of Iieretics, Whatever 
 
 ^ Authorities. — The works which follow being very numerous, I think it may 
 be advantageous to arrange them in two sections : — 
 
 I. Works written with a design favourable to the Vaudois. — Leger. The most im- 
 portant. His whole work relates to this epoch of the history of the Vaudois. 
 Leger is rich in documents ; but being himself a witness of the events which he 
 relates, and a sufferer, he sometimes writes in a style which displays much pas- 
 sionate feeling. His work was reprinted at Lyons in 1699, in one vol., folio, and 
 translated into German, Breslau, 1750, 4to. — Leger embodies in this work the greater 
 part of JHorlancTs *' Histoi'y of tlie Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, 
 . . . ." &c. Folio, which was printed at London in 1658, whilst Leger's work was 
 not printed (at Leyden) till 1669. Two vols., folio, ordinarily bound in one. — 
 '* Relation veritaJble de ce qui s'est passe dans les persecutions et massacres fails, cette 
 annee, avx Eglises Beform4es de Piemont" &c. . . . Place of printing not given. 
 M.DC.LV. 4to of 84 pages. — At page 55 commences a second little work, entitled 
 ** Suite de la relation contenant une succincte refutation de V invective du Marqu*A 
 de Pianesse. ..." &c. The same work was also printed at Geneva, with this 
 note, Jovaie la copie impnm4e a Turin, M.lJC.LV. — Tt has been republished, with 
 some modifications, under different titles : — ** B4cit veritable de ce qui est arrive 
 depuispeu, aux vaJlees de Piemont." (No date nor place of printing.) 8vo of 47 
 pages. — " Discours sur les calamites des fideies de Piemont." 8vo, 20 pages. — 
 *' Lettre des fideies des vallees de Piemont, a MM. les Etajts-giniraux,*^ &c. 8vo, 
 15 pages. (Dated from Pinache in the Val Perouse, at that period belonging to 
 France, 27th July, 1655.) — ** Lettre des Protestants des valines de P4rouse a Mylord 
 Protecteur d!A ngleteri'c, avec un cantique sur les actes funestes de leur ma^saci'e et 
 de leur paix." 8vo. Two little works, each of 8 pages. — ** Illation vSritdble 
 de Piedmont, de ce qui s'est passe dans les persecutions et massacres, cette 1655 
 ann4e, des Eglises reformees," &c. ViUefranche, MDCLV, 8vo. Not paged, 32 
 leaves. — " Histoire d^une ambassade des cantons evangeliques de la Suisse, au Due 
 de Savoie, en 1655." (Revue Suisse, t. iii. p. 260.) — ** Voix de pleurs et de lamen- 
 tations." Printedat ViUefranche, MDCLX., small 4to, 402 pages. The second part 
 
 Vol. I. 43 
 
838 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Secoso: 
 
 CUAP. VII.J 
 
 CHARLES EMMANUEL IL 
 
 339 
 
 Ml 
 
 i 
 
 might be the reasons to which recourse was had for the institution 
 or justification of the violent proceedings now to be considered, 
 this avowed object was their real cause. 
 
 alone relates to our subject. Its title is " Emmen de la procidure et des cruaviis 
 que les massacreurs ont exeirS contre les pauvres Chritiens des valUes de Piedmont, 
 avec les pleura et lamentatiom de leurs frires,'' from p. 89 to p. 242. (Not at aU 
 historic.) See also most of the works which treat generally of the Vaudois. 
 
 II. Works written in a spirit unfavourable to the Vaudois.—'' Belation des H^enc- 
 merits qui se sont passes entre les Vaudois ct le Due de Savoie, faite par ordre de 
 S. M. (Ch. Emmanuel II.,) pour r^pondre ct une autre relation des Vaudois, parttale 
 et inexacte." It is to this work that the second part of the " Eilation Veritable," 
 cited in the preceding section, is a reply, derived from the work of Morland.— 
 "Somma delle ragioni e fcmdamenti, con quali 8. A, R. s' e mossa a prohibirt allt 
 heretici della valle di Lusei-na, V habitatiane fuori de limUi toleraii, Torino, 1655." 
 Folio, 10 pages. It is the French translation of this manifesto, which has been cited 
 amongst the authorities for the preceding chapter.-" Summa rationum quibus 
 Regia Celsitudo Seren. Sabaudiae Duds adducta est vt prohiberet ha^reticis Lu- 
 cemae vaUis ne extra limites toleratos domicUium haberent. Augusta Taur." FoUo, 
 eight pages. The same manifesto in Latin. It commences with an apology for 
 the order of January 25, 1655, and contains some interesting documents.—" Rela- 
 tion des succ^s arHves en la vallee de Lucerne, V an. 1655." Not paged, and with 
 no intimation where it was printed. (Leger has given the whole of this pamphlet 
 in the tenth chapter of his second part, refuting it point by point.)—** Relatione de 
 succesH seguUi nella valle di Lusema, nel anno 1655." Folio, eight pages, without 
 intimation where printed. (This is the same pamphlet in Italian. Its great object 
 is the justification of the Marquis of Pianesse.)— " Relation trh veritable, de ce qui 
 8'est passi aux vallees de Luseme, Saint-Martin et Angrogne, cette annee de 1655," 
 &c. 4to, 38 pages. No indication where printed. (This pamphlet is a reply to the 
 *' R^lationVeritable '' of the Vaudois, which is itself a reply to the ** Relation'' of the 
 Marquis of Pianesse.) — ** Oesta in valle Lucemensi, anno 1655." 4to, eight pages. 
 (No date nor place of printing.) A translation of it in French. Folio, 10 pages. 
 
 To these works relative to the circumstances of this period, and called forth by 
 them, may be added the following :— **//a conversione di quaranta eretici, con due 
 loro principali ministri, d' alia setta di Calvino, alia santa fede catolica; nelV 
 augusta celta di Toi-ino, alia 18 di maggio 1655." (Not paged, and without date or 
 place of printing.)— The pastors here referred to returned afterwards to the evan- 
 gelical faith, and published ** Saincte palinodie, ou repentance des pi-isonniers des 
 Eglises Reformees de Piimont, Icsquels par infii-mite, avaientfait abjuration de la 
 verite, avec une brieve refoiination des aHicles de ladite abjuration, dressis par 
 ordonnance de V archeviqu£ de Turin et du general des Inquisiteurs de ladite cit^." 
 MDCLVI. 8vo, 87 pages. (No place of printing.) See concerning the facts of 
 this case, Liger, part II. p. 65. 
 
 To all these may be added the diplomatic papers exchanged between the dif- 
 ferent Protestant powers of Europe and the Court of Turin, on occasion of these 
 events, which may be found partially embodied in several collections, Leti, Life of 
 Cromwell ; Morland, Leger, Florent, Martinet, &c. These papers are preserved in 
 the State archives at Turin, where also several manuscripts are to be found : 
 ** Origine de la guerre des Barbels en 1655 :"—" Relation de ce qui s'est passi ct V 
 aii-ivSe et au depart des ambassadeurs Suisses," &c. — ** MSmoire rcmis par les 
 ambassadeurs Suisses a IS. A. R. enfaveur des Vaudois:"—** Notta delle transgres- 
 sione attuali che commettono gli eretici," &c., all relating to the latter part of the 
 year 1655; and a multitude of other notes, documents of various kinds, and 
 in particular, letters, of which the greater part (but not all) have been pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Charles Emmanuel II. was a prince of much clemency and good- 
 ness, and with much that was noble in his character. The Vaudois 
 allowed themselves to be drawn into imaccustomed murmurings, 
 and even reprehensible doings, under the excitement of a system 
 of incessant provocations and wrongs to which they were subjected, 
 unknown to their sovereign, by the Jesuits, the Capuchins, and 
 the Propaganda. But again it must be said, that neither the 
 intentions of the duke, nor the doings of the Vaudois, were the 
 cause of the massacres of 1655. The spirit of Popery alone ex- 
 cited that storm. But how was the duke induced to favour it? 
 
 It has already been said, that the council De Propaganda fide 
 et extirjyandis hcereticis was composed of the highest personages of 
 the court. 1 Its meetings were held in the palace of the Arch- 
 bishop of Turin. Other councils established in the provinces sent 
 in their reports to it. These reports were invariably hostile to the 
 Vaudois. Their immemorial residence at Saint John, at Briqul- 
 ras, at Bubiano, and at Campillon, was represented as if they had 
 made new encroachments ; their appeals to their ancient privileges 
 as acts of resistance to the recent decrees of Gastaldo, himself a 
 member of this council. Other reports, founded upon these, were 
 presented to the sovereign by ministers who also formed part of 
 this council of extirpation and of death (de extirpandis hcereticis). 
 
 It is a fact honourable to the Duke of Savoy, that he did not 
 consent at that time to adopt any new measure more severe than 
 preceding ones, but confined himself solely to giving Grastaldo orders 
 that the edict of 15tb May, 1650, should be put into execution — 
 an edict which indeed had, since that time, been suspended and 
 legally abrogated by late ratifications of the ancient privileges, but 
 which was still valid as to certain reserved articles, and was fe,r 
 exceeded by the pressing and almost universal demands of the 
 public fanaticism, then clamouring for the complete annihilation of 
 the Vaudois. As to the military operations which followed, the 
 duke had the responsibility of them without directing them, and 
 we shall soon also see by what combinations of insidious and per- 
 fidious intrigues both the inhabitants of the valleys and the Duke 
 of Savoy were deceived. The former fell by thousands in a fright- 
 ful carnage; the latter was rejected by indignant Europe from 
 amongst the number of civilized princes; and the cause of all this 
 
 * It included the Minister of State, the Marquis of St. Thomas; Fen'aH, the 
 President of the Senate; Philippa, President of the Court of Accounts; the 
 Grand Chancellor; the Archbishop of Turin ; the King's Confessor; the Marquis de 
 Pianesse; the Count Christoforo ; the Abbe de la Mena ; Gastaldo, lAevLten&nt of the 
 Crown, and, from the year 1650, Supreme Governor of the Valleys ; as also Roi'engo, 
 the founder of the Grey Friars of La Tour, Grand Prior of Lucerna, &c. 
 
 II. 
 
34:0 
 
 THE ISIUEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Chap. VII. J 
 
 pianesse's perfidy. 
 
 Ul 
 
 ii 
 
 was Rome-alone remaining barbarous, pei-secuting, and savage, in 
 
 the midst of civilization. ,^ , . n 
 
 Gastaldo, the duke's si^ecial lieutenant in the Vaudois valleys, 
 havin- been ordered to see that the people complied ^ith the re- 
 quirements of the edict of 15th May, 1650,^ issued, on the 2oth of 
 January, 1 655, an edict, bearing that all Protestant heads of famihes 
 settled in the communes of Lucema and Lucernette, Fenil and 
 CampiUon, Bubiano and Briqueras, St. Segont, St. John, and La 
 Tour should remove to the communes of Bobi, Villar, Angrogna, 
 and Roni— the only communes of the vaUey in which his royal 
 hi-hness was disposed to tolerate their reUgion— and that withm 
 the space of three days, under pain of death and confiscation ot 
 -oods. Moreover, they were bound to sell their lands within the 
 twenty days next following, at least unless they would consent 
 to become Catholics. Finally, it was ordained that the Catholic 
 worship should be celebrated in all the Protestant communes, 
 whilst the Vaudois were prohibited from offering any molestation; 
 and the penalty of death was denounced against any one who 
 should dissuade a Protestant from becoming a Catholic. All these 
 provisions show plainly enough in what spirit and under what in- 
 fluence this edict was conceived. 
 
 Gastaldo, however, who was authorized by his instructions to 
 banish all the Vaudois families resident within the proHbited 
 communes, confined himself to demanding, in the first instance, 
 the removal of their heads. The Vaudois obeyed. All the heads 
 of families against whom these requirements were directed retired 
 into the higher parts of the valley. A petition was addressed to 
 the sovereign. He seemed disposed to clemency. The Count 
 Christopher of Lucema interceded for the oppressed people. " I 
 woidd willingly aUow them to reside at St. John and at La Tour," 
 said the duke, "if they, on their part, would consent to retire from 
 the other localities nearer to the plain, for their adversaries will 
 not leave me in peace without having obtained some satisfaction." 
 Meanwhile, tlie Propaganda bestirred itself. In place of the 
 duke's being told that the Vaudois were perfectly ready to obey, 
 he was told that they were in a state of rebellion, and had already 
 assassinated the priest of Fenil. Their deputies arrived at Turin, 
 and were not received. The court remitted them to the council 
 of the Propaganda, saying that they would have to deal with it. 
 This council likewise refused to receive them on account of theii' 
 
 » These orders were given on the 13th of January, 1655. The ratifications of their 
 privileges, subsequent to 15th May, 1650, were not yet legally approved. Of this, 
 advantage was taken to consider them as not granted. 
 
 being Protestants, and oi-dained them to have their petition pre- 
 sented by a Popish procurator. They chose one named Gibelino, 
 who was introduced into the hall of deliberation. The council 
 was sitting, the Archbishop presiding ; and the humble procurator 
 of the Vaudois was obliged to present their petition on his knees. 
 The reply of the Council was, that they must send other deputies, 
 autliorized to make suitable engagements in name of all the people. 
 
 These new representatives arrived at Turin on the 12th of Feb- 
 ruaiy, but their mandate bore that they should subscribe nothing 
 contrary to the concessions or privileges of their constituents. 
 They were told that this would not suffice, and that they must be 
 furnished with unlimited powers. They returned to the valleys ; 
 and the following month was spent in exchanging protocols, and 
 sending memorials and supplications, sometimes to the court, some- 
 times to the Marquis of Pianesse, who at all events replied very 
 temperately to those which were addressed to him. 
 
 Moderation of language sometimes proceeds from hardness of 
 heart. Perverse sentiments permit a man to be more master of 
 himself than generous sentiments do. It will soon appear that 
 these observations are not incon-ect in reference to the Marquis of 
 Pianesse, whose conduct has suggested them. He had, moreover, 
 studied in the school of Jesuitism, and its atrocities sanctioned the 
 course which he pursued — perfidious but polished — cruel but de- 
 vout — shrinking from no means of attaining an object. The 
 fruits of this doctrine are like those of which an old Vaudois poem 
 
 speaks — 
 
 Lical son vernis e lendenas e poelh abimol.* 
 
 At last, in the beginning of April, 1655, a third Vaudois depu- 
 tation, composed of two deputies only,^ repaired to Turin, furnished 
 with a general mandate by which they were authorized to accept 
 all the conditions which it might please his royal highness to 
 impose, provided always that their liberty of conscience was un- 
 touched; and, in the event of its being menaced, they were to 
 demand, in name of aU their brethren, permission to retire from 
 the dominions of his royal highness. 
 
 This was to state the question courageously and unambiguously. 
 It was not to shrink from its difficulties. The answer must needs 
 be decisive. 
 
 The Mai-quis of Pianesse was commissioned to make it. After 
 
 * Which are outwardly splendid {vernis), and of which the interior is abominable 
 dust. — La Bai'ca, stanza xvii. 
 
 2 David Bianchi, of St. John, for the valley of Lucema, and Francis Manchon 
 for that of St. Martin. 
 
342 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t Second. 
 
 Chap. VII.] XJNPREPAREDNESS OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 343 
 
 II 
 
 M 
 
 l« 
 
 some delays lie fixed a day for an audience. It was the 17tli of 
 April, 1655. The deputies proceeded to the palace; they were 
 told to come back at a later hour. They came back; his excel- 
 lency was not yet visible. They presented themselves a third 
 time, and were put off for a day or two. "What can be the 
 meaning of this?" said the deputies, full of impatience and anxiety. 
 They were but too soon informed. 
 
 On the evening previous to the day which had been assigned to 
 them for an audience, namely, on the 16th of April, at nightfall, 
 the Marquis of Pianesse had quitted Turin to join the armed force 
 which awaited him on the road to the Vaudois valleys ; and next 
 day, whilst the commissioners, men of candour and integrity, were 
 confidently waiting to see him at his mansion, Pianesse, in whom 
 Jesuitism had extinguished at once nobiUty of blood and the 
 honour of the soldier, was already on the verge of their country, 
 at the head of troops intended for the extermination of their 
 
 people. 
 
 These troops were numerous. Besides those which were already 
 quartered in the district, there was the regiment of Grancey, com- 
 manded by the first captain, Du Petitbourg, quartered at Pignerol. 
 There were also the regunent of the city, commanded by CfaUazzo; 
 that of Chablais, commanded by the Prince de Montafon, and that 
 of St. Bamian, commanded by an officer of that name. The Mar- 
 quis of Pianesse had the general command of all the assembled 
 
 forces. 
 
 On the 17 th of April, he sent a messenger to La Tour to require 
 the Vaudois to provide lodging and entertainment for 800 infantry, 
 and 300 cavalry, whose cantonment in their commune had been 
 appointed by his royal highness. " How can his royal highness 
 command us to find lodging for his soldiers, in a place where, by 
 his last edict, we ourselves are prohibited from dwelling?" replied 
 the Vaudois. " Then why are you here?" retorted the messenger. 
 "We are here on our business," said they, "but we have removed 
 our residence to within the appointed limits." The messenger 
 therefore returned without having accomplished anything. To- 
 wards evening, the Marquis of Pianesse, after having passed, with- 
 out resistance, the line of Briqueras, Fenil, Campillon, Bubiano, 
 and St. John, from which the Vaudois had retired, arrived under 
 the walls of La Tour with the regiments of the city and of St. 
 Damian.* 
 
 » I shall sometimes desert, in the recital of these events, the narrative of Leger, 
 to which, however, I shall always refer for the facts of which he was an eye-witness, 
 or of which he gives satisfactory proofs. The details following are also from the 
 
 I ••A.' 
 
 It may readily be supposed that this concentration of troops 
 upon the valleys, the avowed designs of the Propaganda, the high 
 position of those who were engaged in its cause, the general excite- 
 ment of popular fcinaticism, the warnings of their friends, and the 
 threats of their adversaries, must have revealed to the Vaudois, 
 clearly enough, the hostile intentions entertained against them. 
 They knew not, however, how far it was necessaiy for them to be 
 upon their guard, or how far they might trust to the good faith of 
 their sovereign. No official prosecution had been directed against 
 them ; they had obeyed the edict of the 25th of January, whilst 
 they protested against it, and had sent deputies for the purpose of 
 obtaining its revocation; and these commissioners were still at 
 Turin. On the one hand the Vaudois could not overlook the 
 violent projects of the Propaganda, but on the other there was 
 room for doubt if the Duke of Savoy would become the instrument 
 or accomplice of that body. 
 
 What were they to do? They betook themselves to prayer; 
 they consulted their pastors ; they wi-ote to Geneva ; the general 
 voice recommended them to take measures of self-defence; but 
 uncertainty as to the future prevented the concerting of any plan. 
 They perceived that a storm was coming; but could they foresee 
 the extent of the calamities with which they were to be over- 
 whelmed? If they had foreseen them, all hesitation would have 
 disappeared, and the vigour of an unanimous resistance would have 
 
 pen of an eye-witness (an officer of the regiment of St. Damian), who appears to 
 have written down, day by day, the things which he saw in that expedition. His 
 notes are unpublished, and are contained in the archives of state at Turin. These 
 archives have also furnished me with a great number of official reports and narra- 
 tives, written when all was over, to abate the horror of the massacres which had been 
 perpetrated in the valleys. One of these documents declares, for example, that in 
 all the valleys not more than fifty Vaudois perished ; another affirms that at most 
 some ten or twelve of them were killed. We learn, on the contrary, from the official 
 reports, that in the commune of Bobi alone, there were (according to a statistical 
 report drawn up on the 11th of May) 160 Vaudois killed, 160 who became Catholics, 
 32 who fled to France, 10 made prisoners, and 40 who were scattered over Piedmont ; 
 in that of Le Villar, on the 10th of May, 150 dead (of whom 36 were buried under 
 an avalanche), 289 who became Catholics (all of whose names are given), 20 dis- 
 persed among the mountains, 25 in Piedmont, and 4 retained as hostages. This 
 report gives therefore a total of 310 persons put to death in these two communes 
 alone, and raises to more than 2000 the number who perished in all the valleys 
 together. And we may judge of the horrors enacted by those which are avowed; 
 the officer of the Marquis of St. Damian, in the journal of which we have spoken, 
 says, under date the 9th of July, " AUe ore 20, furono uccisi e scoiati due eretici; 
 e ad uno doppo gavato il cuore fu legato un gatto, per mangiarU lintemo." 
 
 This officer was far from being favourable to the Vaudois, for with regard to an 
 arrangement which they proposed to the Marquis of Pianesse on the 2l8t of April, 
 he says, " Their pretensions were so impertinent, that it would have seemed as if 
 they had been in the right and the prince in the wrong." 
 
S44 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Chap. VIiJ 
 
 PIANESSE OCCUPIES LA TOUR. 
 
 345 
 
 proved itself equal to the mainteDance of their despised rights. 
 But in indecision and ignorance-desirous of obeying the commands 
 of their sovereign, which enjoined them to provide quarters for 
 troops— made anxious, and with good reason, by seemg at the head 
 of these troops, one of the leaders of the Propaganda, who had 
 vowed theii- destruction-neither daring to comply with confidence 
 nor to resist with vigour, they took only half measures, insufficient 
 on either view of the case. Janavel alone had, in the month of 
 February, raised a small company of resolute defenders, m the 
 anticipation, which events too well justified, that the anterior 
 measures already adopted were only the prelude to a terrible per- 
 secution. But he was then regarded by his compatriots as too 
 exclusive and too violent. 
 
 It has just been stated that the Marquis of Pianesse had appeared, 
 on the 17th of April, at evening, under the walls of La Toui'.» It 
 was a Saturday, there was fine moonlight— the whole army of the 
 Duke of Savoy halted in the plain, which extends from Les 
 4ppiots to Pra-la-Fera and Les Eyrals. The commander-in-chief 
 caused the Vaudois to be summoned to provide quarters. They 
 beinc. only some 300 or 400 in the town, replied that it was im- 
 possible for them to fui-nish quarters, that no preparation had been 
 made, and that they requested time to reflect and to consider the 
 
 matter. 
 
 Delay was absolutely refused— they were told that they must 
 immediately receive the troops; and, in case of refusal, the troops 
 would seize by force the posts demanded. Hereupon the Yaudois 
 entrenched themselves behind bastions erected in haste. The 
 entrance of La Tour, opposite to the bridge of Angrogna, was closed 
 with barricades. This barrier arrested the enemy, and was thickly 
 covered with defenders. It was near ten o'clock at night. The 
 Marquis of Pianesse caused the attack to be commenced the 
 Yaudois made a valiant resistance. After three hours fighting 
 the assailants had still obtained no advantage. But towards 
 one o'clock in the morning. Count Amadeus of Lucema, who knew 
 the locality, put himself at the head of the regiment de villa, com- 
 manded by Galeazzo; and whilst the rest of the troops continued 
 to give employment to the besieged, this regiment turned the town 
 on the side of the P6Us, ascended by the meadows and gardens 
 which extend upon that side, and foUowing the steps of its guide, 
 peneti-ated to the centre of La Tour, in the street of Les Bruns, 
 and assailed the defenders of the barricade in the rear. ihe 
 Vaudois now abandoned the barricade, wheeled about, forced their 
 » '♦ Circa le 22 h&re,'* says the narrative above quoted. 
 
 way through the ranks of these new comers, who vainly pursued 
 after them, and retired to the heights. 
 
 About two o'clock in the morning, the Catholics being victorious 
 and masters of the place, repaired in a body to the church of the 
 mission, sung the Te Deum laudamus,^ and exclaimed on all hands, 
 " Viva la santa Chiesa Bomana ! - E viva la saniafede? e guai agli 
 BarbettiT'* In this afiair the Vaudois had only three killed and a 
 few woimded. About 5 o'clock in the morning the Marquis of 
 Pianesse arrived, con tutta la sua nohilla,^ and took his quarters in 
 the mission buildings. 
 
 It was then Sunday morning — Palm-Sunday, the beginning of 
 Holy Week. The spirit of Antichrist burned to signalize these 
 Christian festivals by a gi-and massacre of Christians. On that 
 same Sunday, therefore, immediately after mass, the Catholic 
 soldiers, conducted by Mario, the commandant of Bagnola, set out 
 by way of worldly diversion, or by way of preparation for the 
 approaching Easter, to give chase to the heretics; that is to say, 
 to kill, by shooting with their muskets, all the Vaudois whom 
 they met, hiding themselves in order to take them by surprise, 
 and burning the houses whose owners they hud put to flight or 
 killed.^ 
 
 In the evening additional troops still arrived. On Monday, the 
 19th, the army, according to Leger's account, already consisted of 
 nearly 15,000 men.'^ It was no longer possible to doubt that the 
 old project of the extermination of the Vaudois, so long cherished, 
 matured, and loudly avowed by the more zealous representatives 
 of the Bomish Church, was at last to be put in execution. It was 
 thus that Popery prepared to celebrate the Easter of 1655. 
 
 The Vaudois, beholding from the heights of Angrogna and Le 
 Taillaret, the devastation and conflagration which were already 
 spread over the plain, took measures of defence. They placed 
 sentinels at the advanced points, and defensive parties at the most 
 
 » " We praise tliee, O Lord !'* - ** Hurrah for the holy Eoman Church !" 
 
 » " And hurrah for the holy faith !" 
 
 • ** And woe to the Barbets !" This name of Barbets, given in derision to the 
 Vaudois, is probably derived from that of their pastors, anciently called Barbas. 
 
 • " With all his nobility." An expression of the contemporary writings. 
 
 • *' Andarono scaramucciando per quelle montagnuole, rentrezzando gli ei'etici 
 anamazandone molti ed aJ)ruciando qui sue case o cassine che possono prendere." 
 The writing from which we have taken these particulars cannot be suspected of 
 any partiality for the Vaudois. It is entitled ** Mernorie delU iiTutione e barbaric 
 fatte dagli eretici Valdesi contro i caiholici della TorrCy Lusei-na, San Segondo," &c. 
 (Archives of Court at Turin.) To justify this title, the author enlarges much upon 
 the irruptions of Janavel, of which we shall afterwards speak. 
 
 ' Second part, chap. ix. p. 108. 
 
 Vol. 1. 4^ 
 
346 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sicond. 
 
 Chap 
 
 .VII.] 
 
 BASE DECEPTION. 
 
 347 
 
 I '1 
 
 important passes. But they were ill armed and iU organized; be- 
 sides they could not believe in the perfidies of which they became 
 
 the victims. , -. r^ i ^ a -i 
 
 On the morniDg after Palm-Sunday (Monday, the 19th of April, 
 
 1655) the troops of the Marquis of Pianesse attacked these poor 
 moimtaineers, at once by the heights of La Tour, Saint John, An- 
 gro^^na, and Briqu6ras. The Vaudois contented themselves with 
 defending their positions. They w^re one against a hundred; but 
 a powerful aid sustained them— their confidence in God. All these 
 attacks were repulsed; the enemy could not drive them from one 
 of their entrenchments. The campaign began, therefore, with a 
 victory on their side. Could they foresee that it was to terminate 
 in such great calamities] 
 
 On Tuesday, the 20th of April, only two attacks were made— 
 the one directed against the Vaudois of St. John, entrenched at 
 Ca^tellus, the other against those of TaiUaret. Both resulted, a 
 second time, in the success of the Vaudois. The first was repulsed, 
 with great success, by Captain Jayer. The second was not less 
 fatal to the assailants ; for the Vaudois lost only two men, in an 
 action in which they kUled fifty of their enemies. L6ger, who 
 relates these particulars, was himself in that engagement. 
 
 The Marquis of Pianesse— seeing the considerable forces at his 
 disposal give way as before a superior force in attacking these ad- 
 vantageous and weU-guarded posts— thought it necessary to have 
 recourse to means which but too often proved successful against 
 the Vaudois, because they were ignorant of the way of using 
 them; but which have never been more skilfully employed than 
 in the Church of Rome, and have contributed to it a part of its 
 power. He had recoui-se to perfidy. On the morning of the fol- 
 lowing day (Wednesday, the 21st of April), two hours before sun- 
 rise, he sent to all the entrenchments of the Vaudois, clarions and 
 heralds, to inform them that he was ready to receive deputies, in 
 order to treat of an accommodation, in name of his royal high- 
 ness the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 The deputies of all the communes of the valley repaired to his 
 presence ; he welcomed them graciously, conversed with them till 
 mid-day, gave them an excellent dinner, testified the best disposi 
 tion towards the Vaudois, and assured them that it had never been 
 his intention to disquiet them in any way. Gastaldo's edict, he 
 added (that of the 25th of January), had reference only to those 
 dwelling in the low countiy, who must, indeed, be contented to 
 return to the mountains; but as to the communes of the upper 
 valleys they had positively nothing to fear. He seemed much 
 
 vexed at the excesses which liis soldiers had already committed ; 
 laid the blame upon the difficulty of causing discipline to be 
 observed by so ^eat a number of troops ; expressed his fear of not 
 bein» able to restrain them, and his desire to send them away; and 
 spoke of the embarrassment which their number caused him, and 
 of the advantage which there would be in scattering them. "You 
 may render a service to your country and to me," he added in con- 
 clusion, "by engaging your respective communes, each to receive 
 and to lodge only one of the regiments which have been sent 
 hither. By thus receiving them without resistance, not only will 
 the localities which shall receive them be secure from all violence, 
 but it may be also that the prince, touched with this proof of con- 
 fidence, will display less rigour in the exclusion pronounced against 
 the towns of the plain." 
 
 The deputies promised to exert themselves, as much as they 
 could, in favour of so good a design. L^ger and Janavel opposed 
 to it a vain but inflexible resistance. The communes consented 
 to receive the soldiers of the Marquis of Pianesse; and that very 
 evening they took possession of all the passes, installed themselves 
 in all the hamlets; and, in spite of the formal order to conduct 
 themselves with prudence, did not even wait until next day with- 
 out massacring a few heretics. 
 
 It was this which betrayed them. In their eagerness to obtain 
 possession of the strongest positions of our mountains, whilst two 
 regiments pui-sued the ordinary route of Villar and Bobiy and a 
 third that of Angrognay a special detachment began to ascend the 
 hills of Champ-la-Rama and of Coste Roussine, in order to arrive 
 sooner at Pra du Tour. This detachment, on its way, set fire to 
 the scattered houses of Le Taillaret; the smoke was seen, and the 
 cries of the fugitives and shouts of the persecutors were heard from 
 the coktte of Rora, on which a fire was immediately kindled as a 
 signal of distress. It was immediately perceived from all the 
 heights of Angrogna, whither the greater part of the refugees from 
 the plain had retired, who had been compelled to quit Bubiano, 
 Campillon, &c., in consequence of the edict of Gastaldo of 25th 
 February. The people of Angrogna- themselves, also, soon saw the 
 rapid march of the invading detachment, which, directing its course 
 towards the Pra du Tour, triumphantly descended by the slope of 
 the mountain. There soon appeared, besides, near the Gates of 
 Angrogna and the Fama dei Morts, the regiment of Grancey, which 
 alone had been expected. Then, perceiving the treachery, they 
 kindled in their turn their signal of distress, and the cries — " To 
 Perouse ! to Perouse ! to the Vachere I Every one save himself! 
 
348 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 \?kvt SkconD* 
 
 CnAP. VII] 
 
 FEARFUL ATROCITIES. 
 
 349 
 
 There axe the tmitors! God help us! Let us fly I -were raided 
 and ran along, spreading like an electric flame over the vast flank ot 
 these mountains, from which the men, in a conditio,! to carry aims, 
 retired in haste to the heights of the Vachere, and thence by the 
 valley of Pramol, to those of Perouse and Pragela, which then 
 appertained to France. 
 
 On the side of Bobi the alarm was less prompt, for the regiments 
 of Bagnola and Petitbourg (of which the former was to be quartered 
 at Bobi and the latter at Le Villar) arrived peaceably by the 
 ordinary road. Apprehension was excited when the soldiers, instead 
 of remaining at Bobi, were seen to ascend to Sarcena and YiUe 
 Neuve; victims had abeady been slaughtered as they came, but the 
 knowledge of these isolated murders could not spread, and the 
 officers Everywhere manifested an intention to maintain a severe 
 discipline amongst their troops. 
 
 Even at Angrogna, where they found only some women, old men 
 and children— feeble guardians of their deserted houses— they at 
 first abstained from any excess. De Pianesse contented himself with 
 taking up his position there, and giving rest to his troops, without 
 seeming to think of remaining in the place more than two or three 
 days, according to the terms of his agreement with the deputies. 
 Thus seeking to gain the confidence of the Vaudois women ajid 
 children, these new comers persuaded them to recal their husbands 
 and brothers who had taken flight, protestmg that no harm would 
 be done to them. Some of them came back, to their cost. " JVon 
 servanda fides JuBreticisr said the Council of Constance. " Ad ex- 
 tirpandos hcereticosl'' cried the Propaganda. 
 
 From the head of the valley downwards, in villages and hamlets, 
 on the highways and rocks, the Propaganda, by the help of the 
 bad faith which its church authorizes, had now introduced its 
 soldiers, or posted its as.sassins. Accordingly the veil was raised. 
 On Saturday, Easter Eve (24th April, 1655), at four o'clock m the 
 morning, the signal for a general massacre of the Vaudois was given 
 to these perfidious troops, from the summit of the castle of La Tour. 
 The soldiers, apprized beforehand, had risen early; they were 
 fresh and active; they had slept under the roofs of those whose 
 throats they were to cut. Those whom the Yaudois had received 
 lodged and fed with such confidence, who ought to have protected 
 them, were now at the same moment throughout the whole valley, 
 and with the same fanaticism, transformed into base assassins. 
 Bome carries oflf the palm for conversions of this kind. 
 
 And now, how can we give an idea of the horrors which ensuedl 
 It would be necessary to be able, with one glance, to include at once 
 
 the whole country, to penetrate into all apartments, to be present 
 at all executions, to distinguish in this vast voice of anguish and 
 desolation, each particular cry of a heart or of a living being torn 
 in pieces. Little children, Leger says,^ were torn from the arms of 
 their mothers, dashed against the rocks, and cast carelessly away. 
 The sick or the aged, both men and women, were either burned in 
 their houses, or hacked in pieces: or mutilated, half-murdered, and 
 flayed alive, they were exposed in a dying state to the heat of the 
 sun or to flames, or to ferocious beasts; others were tied, in a state 
 of nakedness, into the form of balls, the head between the legs, and 
 in this state were rolled down the precipices. Some of them, torn 
 and biniised by the rocks from which they had rebounded, remained 
 suspended from some projecting rock or the branch of some tree, 
 and still groaned forty-eight hours afterwards. Women and young 
 girls were violated, empaled, set up naked upon pikes at the comers 
 of the roads, buried alive, roasted upon lances, and cut in pieces by 
 these soldiers of the faith as by cannibals: then, after the massacre, 
 the children which had sui-vived it, and were found wandering in 
 the woods, were carried away; or children were forcibly taken from 
 what remained of their afflicted family, to be conveyed into the dwell- 
 ings of these butchers, and into the monasteries, like lambs taken to 
 the slaughter-house; and finally, the massacre and the removal of 
 children were succeeded by conflagration — the monks, the propagan- 
 dists, and the zealous Catholics running from house to house with 
 resinous torches or incendiary projectiles, and ravaging, in the midst 
 of the fires, these villages now filled with corpses. 
 
 " Two of the most infuriated of these fire-raisers," says a work 
 of the period,^ " were a priest and a monk of the order of St. Fran- 
 cis, who marched about, escorted by troops ; and if there was any 
 hidden cottage^ which had not fallen into their hands on the first 
 occasion, they might be seen repassing on the morrow; and to finish 
 their work the priest had only to discharge his carabine, loaded 
 with an artificial fire, which stuck to the walls." Let the reader 
 imagine these mad wretches running about amongst the burning 
 houses, urgLQg on the carnage and destruction, and these mountains 
 resounding with the fall of ruins, of avalanches, of rocks, and of 
 living bodies cast down the precipices 1 
 
 Such was the frightful, unparalleled, unprecedented scene which 
 
 * Part II. chap. ix. 
 
 ■ **Ilicit v4HtaJble de ce qui est arriv^f depuis peu, aux valUea de Piimont (8vo, 
 47 pages), p. 2.3. 
 
 ■ [Recoin de couvert."] Convert, a cottage, a roof, but implyiug the support of 
 walls. — A shed, a little building. — Lou cUbert, the phrase is borrowed from the, 
 j^tois of the country. 
 
b I 
 
 .350 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Chap. VII ] 
 
 MICHELIN OF BOBI. 
 
 Sol 
 
 was then presented in these regions of despau*. " And let it not 
 be said," adds the historian Leger, " that I exaggerate things upon 
 account of the persecutions which I myself personally have endured; 
 I have travelled from one neighbourhood to another to collect the 
 authentic testimonies of the survivors, who deponed what things 
 they had seen before two notaries who accompanied me. In some 
 places fathers had seen their children torn through the midst by 
 strength of men's arms, or cut through with swords; in other 
 places mothers had seen their daughters forced or murdered in 
 their presence. Daughters had witnessed the mutilation of the 
 living bodies of their fathers; brothers had seen the mouths of 
 their brothers filled with powder, to which the persecutors set fire, 
 making the head fly in pieces; pregnant women had been ripped 
 up, and the fruit of their womb had been seen taken living from 
 their bowels. What shall I say? O my God! the pen falls from 
 my hands. Dead bodies lay scattered about or were planted upon 
 stakes; portions of children, torn in quarters, had been flung into 
 the middle of the road; brains were plastered against the rocks; 
 trunks of human bodies w^ere to be seen destitute of arms and 
 limbs, or bodies half-flkyed, or with the eyes torn out of the head, 
 or the nails torn off the toes; others were fastened to trees with 
 the chest opened, and without heart or lungs ; here might be seen 
 bodies of women still more horribly mutilated ; there graves scarcely 
 filled up, where the earth still seemed to give forth the groans 
 of the unhappy victims who had been buried alive; everywhere 
 misery, terror, desolation, and death ! These are the things which 
 
 I can tell!" 
 
 The universal destruction of the Yaudois houses by fire followed 
 the massacre of their inhabitants. In many hamlets, the witness 
 of the martyrs proceeds, not one single cottage remained standing, 
 so that the beautiful valley of Lucema then presented only the 
 aspect of a burning furnace, where cries, which became more and 
 more unfirequent, attested that a people had lived ! 
 
 L6ger adds after this a long series of notarial depositions, 
 giving the particulars of martyrdoms of which there had been eye- 
 witnesses, the horrors which were committed in the face of the 
 sun, the names of the victims, and the vauntings of their butchers. 
 I shall not copy the representation of these frightful scenes. Why 
 should we stay to contemplate individual martyrdoms when we see 
 an entire people suffer martyrdom at once? 
 
 All these noble and courageous persons, thus put to death, might 
 have saved their lives by abjuring their religion; and the torments 
 inflicted upon many of them were still prolonged in prison without 
 
 making them yield. Ten years, twenty years afterwards, there 
 were still in the galleys of the sovereign, galley-slaves who were 
 martyrs. In the dungeons of Villefranche and of Turin there were 
 forgotten victims whose tortures, firmness, and joyful death, Heaven 
 alone could know. 
 
 However, there were also numerous abjurations in the Vaudois 
 valleys. Originating, as they did, imder the impression of terror 
 and despair, every one can appreciate their value. A deed obtained 
 by violence is considered as null in law. Will it be so before the 
 Supreme Tribunal ? It is not for us to resolve that question, but 
 rather to render homage to those who have persevered with un- 
 shaken fidelity in the manifestation of their faith. 
 
 Poor Michelin of Bobi (whose son was then pastor at Angrogna), 
 after being treated in a way the most ignominious and paiifful that 
 can be imagined, having survived these sufferings, was cast into the 
 prisons of Turin. All means possible were employed to make him 
 abjure, but all without success. One day there descended into his 
 dungeon two ministers of his own church, the one named Peter Gros, 
 and the other Francis Aghit. Did they come to encourage him, or to 
 partake his sufferings? But how could they have been permitted 
 to get access to him? They were accompanied by Jesuits. Ah! 
 perhaps they might be brought to be buried in this dungeon with 
 their faithful parishioner. God be praised 1 they would at least be 
 able to comfort, to confirm one another, and to pray together. No ; 
 these pastors were of the number of the feeble souls whose convic- 
 tions had been given up in exchange for a miserable life; they 
 came, driven on by the hideous hand of Popery, to persuade the 
 prisoner also to follow their example, and to abjure his religion. 
 The surprise which poor Michelin felt was so cruel, the shock so 
 great, and the wound so deep, that it caused his death.^ These 
 two pastors afterwards returned to the Protestant church, but the 
 old man of Bobi had not made his religion a garment, which he 
 could change according to circumstances — he had made it his life ; 
 and beholding those who had instructed him disown their own 
 instructions, it might be said that he died for them. 
 
 Other prisoners also died, rather than abjure. James and David 
 Prins of Le Villar, of the hamlet of La Baudena, were committed 
 to the prisons of Lucema; and there, says L6ger, they having re- 
 sisted all solicitations to apostasy, with which they were plied by 
 the monks, "their arms were flayed from the shoulder to the elbow, 
 the skin being cut into stripes, which were left attached by the 
 upper end, and which thus rested loosely on the quick flesh ; the rest 
 
 * Leger, p. l25, Part II. 
 
352 
 
 THE ISRA^ OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [^Pakt SECoitn, 
 
 Chap. VII.j 
 
 HUMANITY OF DU PETITBOURG. 
 
 853 
 
 of the arm was flayed in the same manner, from the elbow to the 
 hands, and their thighs down to the knee, as also their legs, from 
 where the garter is tied to the ancle \ and in this state they were 
 left to die."^ These stripes of skin, to remain hanging in this way, 
 must have been torn off and raised from the flesh from their lower 
 extremity upwards. What an atrocious refinement of barbarity ! 
 " I cannot refrain from remarking here," adds the historian, 
 " that there were six brothers of these Prinses, and that they had 
 married six sisters, and all of them had numbers of children, and 
 that they lived together without having ever made any division of 
 their property, and without the slightest discord having ever been 
 observed in that family. It was composed of more than forty per- 
 sons, each of whom had his own department of labour; some in the 
 work of the vineyards and cultivation of the fields — othei-s in the 
 care of the meadows, or in that of the flocks. The eldest of the 
 brothers and his wife, who was also the eldest of the sisters, were 
 like the father and mother of the whole family."^ Yet these patri- 
 archal scenes, so worthy of respect, so beautiful, so simple, and so 
 Christian, furnished prey to the demon of Popery, ti-ained to cruelty 
 by superstition, and descending beneath the level of the savage ! 
 
 Sometimes, in these barbarous mutilations, haemorrhage occurred, 
 which was arrested by fire, in order to prolong the agonies, and 
 multiply the torments of the victim. A man of Freyssinieres, a 
 farm-servant at Bobi, after having had the soles of his feet and the 
 palms of his hands pierced with a poignard, was deprived of the 
 sexual organs, and suspended over a burning torch, that the flame 
 might arrest the effusion of blood. After this, his nails were torn 
 away by pincers, to compel him to abandon his religion ; but as he 
 continued resolute, he was fastened by the feet to the harness of a 
 mule, and in this way dragged through the streets of Lucerna. 
 Seeing him well nigh dead, his executioners encircled his head with 
 a cord, and drew it so tight, that the eyes and the brain were forced 
 out, after which they threw the corpse into the river.^ 
 
 It had not been so bad if these accumulated horrors had been 
 the result of a transport of vengeance, of a fit of madness, of one 
 of those outbursts of rage, those feverish excitements, those sudden 
 frenzies, those irresistible impulses of blind, imperious, and brutal 
 fury, of which men are sometimes the victims ! But no : it was 
 the issue of the great work of Popery, coolly prepared, patiently 
 expected, accomplished with premeditation. All crimes and vices 
 seem then to have combined for the service of Popery : Popery 
 
 ill 
 
 > L6ger, p. 122. — Notarial Depositions. 
 * Leger, p. 118. — Notarial Depositions,' 
 
 2 Leger, Part II. p. 122. 
 
 alone, like the monarch of the infernal regions, could have thought 
 of disciplining them, that they might do the more harm. 
 
 It was from the steeple of a Catholic church that the signal of 
 St. Bartholomew's Day was given ;^ it was from the minsters of 
 Palermo that the Sicilian Vespers sounded; it was from an edifice 
 which bore the name of the Virgin Mary'-^ that the signal was 
 given for the Piedmontese Easter, the frightful celebration of which 
 filled the Vaudois valleys with tears and blood. O holy mother of 
 Christ ! the highly-favoured Mary ! if a sword was to pierce thy soul, 
 was it not in the church which pretends to honour thee most, which 
 calls thee queen of angels, and has made thee queen of demons? 
 
 In a pious song, printed about this period, we read the following 
 
 lines : — 
 
 " Seigneur, ici le sang d'Abel 
 Crie encore sur les supplices ; 
 Vols Zacbarie encor parmi ces sacrifices, 
 
 Mort entre le temple et I'autel. 
 Gloire de I'Eternel, justice des justices, 
 As-tu les yeux fermes et ta puissante main 
 Endormie en ton sein ? " * 
 
 They are not equal to the sonnet of Milton, but they are an echo 
 of the feeling which was excited throughout all Europe in favour 
 of the Vaudois. 
 
 Many persons, even amongst those who had been chosen to sei'\'e 
 as the instruments of this work of extermination, reprobated it 
 with horror, and refused to have any pai-t in it. Of this number 
 was the first captain of the regiment of Grancey, M. Du Petitbourg, 
 of whom we have already spoken. When he knew to what em- 
 ployment his troops were destined, he refused to conduct them to 
 that disgraceful massacre, and resigned his command. The court 
 of Savoy having caused a sort of apology to be afterwards written, 
 in which all the odium of these events was cast upon the leaders 
 of the French anny, the commandant, Du Petitbourg, published a 
 declaration, by which he disclaimed all participation in the barba- 
 rities committed, and at the same time attested the reality of them 
 in a manner which puts it beyond all doubt,* and with extracts made 
 without alteration from this document, I shall conclude this chapter. 
 
 * The steeple of Saint Germain V Auxerrois. 
 
 2 The fort of La Tour was named the fort of Saint Mary. 
 
 3 "O Lord, the blood of Abel still cries here of violent deaths; thou still be- 
 holdest Zachariah amongst these sacrifices lying dead betwixt the temple and tho 
 altar. Glory of the Lord ! Judge of judges ! are thine eyes closed, and does thy 
 mighty hand sleep in thy bosom ?" 
 
 * In the Apology, or Faithful Relation of tJie War of 1G55, are set down, to 
 excuse the deeds of violence which are acknowledged, many calumnies against the 
 
 Vol. t, 45 
 
 li^ 
 
354 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 M.\ZARIN S HUMANITY. 
 
 335 
 
 " I, the seigneur Du Petitbourg, first captain of the regiment 
 of Grancey, in command of the regiment, having been ordered by 
 the Prince Thomas to go to join the Marquis of Pianesse, and to 
 
 receive orders from him at La Tour, I have 
 
 been, witness of many deeds of great violence and extreme cruelty, 
 committed by the outlaws of Piedmont ^ and by the soldiers, on 
 persons of every age, sex, and condition, whom I saw massacred, 
 dismembered, hanged, burned, and violated ; and of many frightful 
 
 conflagrations I saw the order that every one must 
 
 be killed. As for his [the Marquis of Pianesse's] protesting that 
 no one was ever touched except in battle, nor the least outrage 
 committed against persons unable to bear aims, I maintain that 
 this is not the case, and that / with my own eyes saw men mur- 
 dered in cold blood, and women, aged men, and little children 
 miserably put to death. 
 
 So that I positively affirm and protest before God that none of 
 the cruelties above-mentioned were executed by my orders; on the 
 contrary, seeing that I could do nothing to prevent them, I was 
 constrained to retire, and to renounce the command of the regi- 
 ment, that I might not be present at such wicked actions. — Done 
 at Pignerol, this 27th of November, 1G55. 
 
 " (Signed), *' Du Petitbourg." 
 
 This declaration was made and signed before witnesses ; the wit- 
 nesses are M. St. Hilaire, captain of the infantiy regiment of 
 Auvergne, and M. Du Favre, captain of the infantry regiment of 
 Sault. Leger gives this document entire, in his second part, at 
 the end of Chapter IX. 
 
 I must now proceed to relate how the Vaudois were enabled 
 to recover from such an extermination. Ezekiel saw the dry bones 
 restored to life by the breath of the Lord and becoming a people ; 
 and if we see a people die who are animated by the Spirit of God, it 
 can only be to obtain a life more perfect and more happy than this 
 earthly life. But the Vaudois were to recover possession of their 
 countiy. It is time that we should pass to these glorious events. 
 
 Vaudois. I have not thought it necessary to take notice of them. To render in- 
 famous, to kill and to calumniate, was the rule followed by the Marquis of Pianesse. 
 * Outlaws and volunteers of every condition had been invited to the standard. 
 The Irish assassins, driven from their native country by Cromwell, and received 
 in Piedmont, distinguished themselves by their savage ferocity in these cruel 
 massacres. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 JANAVEL AND JAHIER.^ 
 (April to June, 1655.) 
 
 The fugitive Vaudois find an asylum in the French dominions — Janavel, with a 
 small band, obtains wonderful victories over the troops of Pianesse — Pianesse 
 has recourse again to the arts of treachery — He ravages Eora, but is attacked 
 and defeated by Janavel as he retires with his booty — Pianesse marches against 
 Rora with abnost ten thousand men — Janavel's wife and daughters made 
 prisoners — His constant resolution — The Duchess of Savoy and the French 
 court — Mazarin refuses to take part against the Vaudois as she desires — Crom- 
 weU offers them a refuge in Ireland — Intercessions of foreign powers — Collec- 
 tions made for the Vaudois in Protestant countries — The Vaudois continue in 
 arms— Another Vaudois troop takes the field under Jahier — Janavel makes 
 an attempt to seize Lucernette, but fails — Jahier and he effect a junction — 
 They seize St. Segont — Further successes — Janavel is severely wounded — 
 Jahier is killed. 
 
 It has been already stated that the Vaudois of Angrogna, and the 
 refugees of the plain of Piedmont, had, in great part, retired into 
 the valley of Perouse; those of St. Martin, forewarned by a man 
 who, although a Catholic, was compassionate,^ of the arrival of the 
 troops of Galeazzo, with commission to put all to fire and sword, 
 made haste to gain the valley of Pragela; and such of the inhabi- 
 tants of Bobi as contrived to escape the massacre sought an asylum 
 in that of Queyras, across frightful snows, precipices, and rocks. 
 All these places of refuge were then within the dominions of the 
 King of France. 
 
 With the view of shutting that hospitable country against the 
 Vaudois, the Duchess of Savoy ,\who appears to have taken a much 
 greater part in these disastrous events than her son, wrote to the 
 court of France.* She mshed to pi^event her subjects from leaving 
 the valleys, and to have them massacred there. Mazarin did not 
 enter into her views; he replied that humanity imposed upon him 
 the duty of opening an asylum to the fugitive Vaudois. 
 
 This gave them facilities for rallying, arming, and organizin<y 
 themselves. They were even able to re-enter their countiy in 
 
 ' Authorities. — The same as in the preceding chapter. 
 
 * His name was Emmanuel Bochiardo. He warned the Vaudois " Che il Signor 
 Marches Galeazzo a ordine di abbruciare e d'estirpar ogni cosa," &c. His letter 
 is of date May 5, IG55. 
 
 " Called Madame Royale in the documents of the time. 
 
 * Anne of Austria was then regent; Louis XIV., a minor; Mazarin, prime 
 minister. 
 
 ff 
 
356 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Sr.coxD. 
 
 Chap. VIII ] 
 
 janavel's IIEROIS^L 
 
 .^57 
 
 
 lill 
 
 uiucli greater numbers than tliey had left it, for a multitude of 
 their brethren from Queyras and Pragela joined them. Mean- 
 wliile, a man of energy and ability, Captain Joshua Janavel, who 
 alone had foreseen the treachery, supported, doubtless, by the hand 
 of God (in which no one ever put more absolute confidence than 
 this intrepid warrior), kept in check the enemy's army, and, by 
 slow degrees, drove it from the valleys. 
 
 This came to pass as follows : — It will be recollected that the 
 24th of April was the day fixed for the geneml massacre of the 
 Yaudois. Troops had been cantoned in the principal place of each 
 commvme, except Eora ; not, however, that that place was to have ' 
 been spared. Accordingly, on the morning of that day of exter- 
 mination, the Marquis of St. Damian had sent a battalion of 500 
 or GOO soldiers from Le Villar, in order to surprise Eora, under the 
 command of Count Christopher of Lucerna, who was designated 
 the Count of Rora, because his apanage had been given him in that 
 seigneurie. These soldiers climbed the steep slopes of the mountain 
 of Brouard, which lay between them and Rora. Janavel, whose 
 residence was at the base of a long ridge which that mountain 
 sends out in the direction of Lucerna,* saw the soldiers ascending 
 on the way towards the menaced village ; and he, ascending also 
 by a difierent way, gathered together as he went, six determined 
 men like himself, with whom he posted himself in a favourable 
 position on the path by which the troops must pass, who advanced 
 in expectation of taking the village by surprise. There he awaited 
 them with his little party, behind some rocks that left a narrow 
 passage only, through which they must of necessity pass. 
 
 So soon as they were engaged in this defile, Janavel and his 
 companions united in one loud cry, and discharged their pieces, of 
 vrhich every one took effect ; six soldiers fell, the rest drew back ; 
 those who followed, believing the ambuscade to be formed by a 
 much larger body than it really was, wheeled about, and the ad- 
 vanced guard was then separated from the main body of the squad- 
 ron. The Vaudois, concealed amongst rocks, where the enemy could 
 form no estimate of their numbers, poured in their fire, and cleared 
 the ground of the advanced guard, causing it to disband and take 
 to flight. The rearguard, which liad yet scarcely arrived at the 
 summit of the mountain ridge, seeing that the foremost ranks were 
 endeavouring to re-ascend it, made all haste to get down again 
 
 * He resided in a quarter called The Vineyards of Lucerna. In the reports and 
 despatches of the time, which make mention of his first exploits, he is designatetl 
 in this way, " The Captain of the Vineyards of Lucerna." But his name was not 
 long of being sufficiently well known. 
 
 by the side on which it was advancing, without having even seen 
 those by whom it had been attacked; the fugitives likewise, turn- 
 ing their backs upon the Yaudois, saw them as little ; and thus 
 a whole battalion retired before a corporal's party, or rather before 
 the exaggerated image of a perilous ambuscade. Such incidents 
 are rare, but they can be conceived. It was thus that the entire 
 army of Brennus took to flight before the temple of Delphi, at the 
 noise made by the priests of Apollo, transformed, by the afirighted 
 imagination of the soldiers, into supernatural combatants. 
 
 Janavel, returning by Rora, apprised the inhabitants of that 
 village of the danger which they had nm. Ignorant of the mas- 
 sacres which had been perpetrated on that same day in the valley 
 of Lucerna, the people of Rora immediately went to complain to 
 the Marquis of Pianesse, of the invasion attempted against them 
 in tlie morning. " If they meant to attack you, it was not by my 
 ordei-s," he replied ; " the troops which I command never made any 
 such wicked attempt. It can only have been a horde of Piedmon- 
 tese robbers and vagabonds. You would have done me a pleasui-e 
 if you had cut them in pieces. However," added he, with an air 
 of kindness, *• I shall take care that such alarms do not take place 
 again." It was not an alarm, in good sooth, which he intended, 
 but a surprise which should crush them all. Proof of this was soon 
 afforded. 
 
 On the following day a new battalion was sent against Rora, by 
 the mountain of Cassulet. This time Janavel had seventeen men 
 with him , the number seems very small, but under his guidance 
 they were worth an army. Of these eighteen men, twelve were 
 armed from head to foot, six had only slings. He disposed them 
 in three bands of six men each, to wit, four musketeers and two 
 slingers. His position was chosen beforehand ; it was again a defile, 
 in which ten men had scarcely room to manoeuvre : he had almost 
 twice the number, and occupied the most advantageous position. 
 
 As soon as the battalion of the Marquis of Pianesse had advanced 
 into the depths of the scene of ambuscade, the Yaudois made their 
 appeai-ance. An officer and ten foot-soldiers fell at their first dis- 
 charge. Stones flew like hail, whistling amongst the ranks of the 
 enemy, who fell into disorder. " Every man save himself !" cried 
 a coward. The troops began to disband. Janavel and his men 
 rushed upon them from the rocks above, a pistol in one hand, and 
 a sword in the other. Their agility, viirour, and intrepidity mul- 
 tiplied their numbers ; it seemed as if jaguars or lynxes flew from 
 crest to crest of the rocks, as lightly as winged insects from flower 
 to flower. The battalion, already surprised, thrown into confusion, 
 
358 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Sjccond. 
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 RORA PILLAGED. 
 
 359 
 
 and half routed, saw its discharges of musketry wasted amongst 
 empty bushes, or upon impenetrable rocks, and yet men resolute 
 and completely armed, springing up, falling down, and leaping about 
 before their eyes from these bushes and these rocks, and scattermg 
 death around their steps. The battalion, or rather the companies 
 which were first surprised and most engaged, recoiled involuntarily 
 before them. The retrograde movement extended, the contagion 
 of terror spread, one was carried along by the example of another— 
 and presently these 600 men, who had been led to a field of battle 
 with which they were not acquainted, fled towards Lucerna, igno- 
 rant alike of the number of their adversaries, and of the number of 
 the dead whom they left behind them. 
 
 Men who flee do not defend themselves— they do not see the dan- 
 ger, they aggravate it by their flight, giving arms to the enemy by 
 their own weakness, and doubling the energy of his assaults. It 
 was thus with the battalion on the mountain of Cassulet. It had 
 lost only twelve men in the defile, it lost forty in the flight. The 
 following are the words in which Janavel, thirty years after, when 
 banished from his country, recalled in his exile that glorious event : 
 " We were but very few in number; a few fusileers, and six or seven 
 slingers, who were not yet able to use the musket, and we defeated 
 the enemy; if we had not, we would have been all destroyed. When 
 they fought down hill, the stones of the slings and the ten fusileers 
 did more execution than you could have believed."* 
 
 From these few words it appears that amongst that little hand- 
 ful of combatants who saved Rora, and who ere long became the 
 salvation of the valleys, there were some young men who were not 
 yet able to use the musket. It is impossible not to be all the more 
 struck with the success of this heroic phalanx ; we know not which 
 most to admire, their courage, or the Divine protection which gave 
 them the victoiy. But valour is not to be measured by age, nor tha 
 strength of an army by the number of its soldiers. Janavel's troop 
 had already given proof of this, and was to give further proof of it. 
 The Marquis of Pianesse, a second time frustrated in his projects, 
 sent to Kora, Count Christopher, the seigneur of the place, to re- 
 store confidence amongst the Vaudois, and to repudiate, as a mis- 
 take, the sending of troops into their valley. " Reports have been 
 made against you," said he, "whose falsehood has been discovered; 
 you have only to keep yourselves quiet, and you shall live in peace." 
 At the same time he caused a battalion, more numerous than the 
 
 » Letter written from Geneva to the valleys by Joshua Janavel, in 1685, to fore- 
 warn the Vaudois of the terrible persecution which broke out in 16S6. (Archives 
 of the Court at Turin.) 
 
 I 
 
 
 former, to be collected, for the purpose of annihilating them. It 
 seems marvellous that the Vaudois could allow themselves to be 
 caught by such promises; and such impudence of falsehood seems 
 sm'prising in a man of noble birth; but we must not forget that 
 they considered lying to be a sin, and that he regarded it as a vir- 
 tue. Has not the highest organ of Catholicism, an ecumenical 
 council, declared that it is lawful to break faith with heretics? 
 And did not the Propaganda, Jesuitism, and all that constituted 
 the life and power of the Romish Church at that period, make it a 
 duty? What a Protestant would reckon disgi-aceful, is matter 
 of pride to a Papist. To accomplish the shedding of blood by 
 treachery was a legitimate triumph for Rome. Yet we may sup- 
 pose that confidence was not completely restored to the minds of 
 the Vaudois. 
 
 Next day, being the 27th of April, an entire regiment moved 
 into the valley, pressed on towards Rora, took possession of all the 
 paths, occupied all the positions, burned a number of houses which 
 lay in its way, and carried off" a load of plunder and the flocks of 
 the inhabitants, who had retired to the heights of Friouland. Jana- 
 vel, with his men, beheld from a distance the ravaging of the valley, 
 but durst not approach because of the great numbers of the enemy. 
 However, when he saw them encumbered with booty, and embar- 
 rassed by the flocks which they took away with them, he encour- 
 aged his seventeen men, fell upon his knees, ofiered a fervent prayer 
 to the God of armies, and with undaunted boldness conducted his 
 little troop to an advantageous position named Damasser. The 
 regiment was arrested in its passage — did not know the number of 
 the enemy — did not choose to abandon the booty — lost its foremost 
 men, and thought it best to turn back and retire upon Le Villar. 
 
 But the Vaudois knew their own mountains better than these 
 stranger troops; they took a short path, got before them, posted 
 themselves on their line of passage, and again cut ofi" their retreat. 
 This was near the summit of the mountain which separates Rora 
 from Le Villar, on a little grassy plain, named the Fian pra, which 
 means the smooth meadow. The ai'my of Pianesse advanced, bear- 
 ing along with it an immense booty. It marched in disorder and 
 carelessly, for the foes over whom it had been unable to gain any 
 advantage had disappeared from its path, and as no trace of them 
 was to be perceived, it seemed that they had thought it best to 
 make no further demonstration. All at once a destructive fire was 
 opened at a short distance fi-om amongst the trees. The soldiers, 
 instead of defending themselves, hurried forward in their coursa 
 They were already on the descent of the mountain. Janavel's 
 
S60 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Sscond 
 
 Chap. VIII.] THE INVADERS AGAIN REPULSED. 
 
 861 
 
 party rolled down upon tliem an avalanche of stones. They dis- 
 persed themselves in order to avoid them. Hereupon the Vaudois 
 rushed in amongst these disbanded soldiers. In vain they attempted 
 to rally; the ground did not any longer permit it; many of them 
 lost their footing and were helplessly killed, or fell over the preci- 
 pices. However, the greater part of the army arrived at Le Villar, 
 but they had left their booty by the way j the Vaudois lost none 
 of their men, and recovered possession of all their property which 
 had been carried off. 
 
 Having re-ascended to the Plan pray Janavel caused his men to 
 halt. " Let us give thanks," said he. His men fell on their knees. 
 *' O God !" exclaimed their intrepid leader, " we bless thee for hav- 
 m<r preserved us. Protect our people in these calamities, and in- 
 crease our faith 1" This short prayer was followed by the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Apostles' Creed. Meanwhile the fugitives arrived 
 at Lucema. The Marquis of Pianesse, furious, humiliated, burning 
 with raf'e, yet desirous to restrain himself, perceiving that it would 
 be vain to have recourse to new acts of deceit or perfidious protesta- 
 tions, convoked the whole forces under his command, from Bubiano, 
 from Barges, and from Cavour. They were all to assemble at Lu- 
 cerna in order to march upon Rora ; the day and the hour were 
 appointed; but the zealot who conducted the massacre at Bobi, 
 Mario De Bagnol, wished to have the gloiy all to himself of destroy- 
 in^ this miserable liandful of adventurers, for so they designated 
 these heroic mountaineers who defended, with so much courage, their 
 unhappy families. 
 
 Captain Mario accordingly set out with his musketeers two hom'S 
 before the other troops. He had three companies of regular troops, 
 one of volunteers, and one of Piedmontese outlaws, a fifth of Irish, 
 expelled from their country by Cromwell, in punishment for the 
 massacres of which they had been guilty of the Protestants of that 
 island. It was a good reason for their being received amongst the 
 slaughterers of the Vaudois. They had even received a promise 
 beforehand, that a free gi-ant would be made to them of the dis- 
 peopled lands of the valleys. They fought, therefore, for their own 
 interest. Fanaticism and self-interest ! by what more powerful mo- 
 tives for carnage could they have been inspired ? 
 
 Captain Mario divided his troops into two parties, of which one 
 took the right, and the other the left side of the vale of Eora. 
 They advanced without resistance to the rocks of Rummer, already 
 si<malized four days before as the scene of Janavel's first victory. 
 Janavel was again intrenched there, his little troop augmented by 
 a number of new combatants, and thus raised to the number of from 
 
 i 
 
 thirty to forty men. But the right of the Count of Bagnol, having 
 deployed upon the heights, had got above Rummer, and threatened 
 to attack the Vaudois in the rear, whilst the rest of the assailants 
 would have attacked them in front. 
 
 Janavel saw the trap in which he was on the point of being 
 taken ; and with the promptitude of decision and energy of action, 
 which mark military genius, he exclaimed, " Forward ! to the 
 hroua!^ the victory is up there !" and wheeling about, he left the 
 position which he had occupied opposite to the front of Captain 
 Mario, whose movement in pursuit was retarded by the necessity • 
 of scaling rocks, and turned against the upper detachment which 
 was already deploying upon the smooth brow of the hill ; all the 
 Vaudois had their pieces loaded; Janavel turned them directly upon 
 the riffht wing of that detachment which was manoeuvring in order 
 to suiTOund them. " Fire !" cried he. A terrible discharge was 
 poured in upon the enemy ; the bulk of the troops inclined in that 
 direction to resist the Vaudois; but Janavel had flung himself upon 
 his belly on the earth, and the bullets passed over his head ; and 
 immediately taking advantage of the clouds of smoke which still 
 covered him, instead of pressing on in his original direction, he 
 made a sudden bend, and proceeded, sword in hand, to cut his way 
 through the left wing, where the enemy was already weakened by 
 the movement of concentration which had taken place to the oppo- 
 site side. Breaking in this way the line of the invaders, he passed 
 through them, and attained the summit or hroua which he had 
 pointed out to his soldiers. Here he had the advantage of the 
 ground ; and all the Vaudois ranging themselves in order of battle, 
 with their backs against the rocks, with the triple energy which is 
 given by a good cause, trust in God, and success, they faced their 
 foes with an intrepidity that daunted them. In vain did the two 
 divisions of the Count of Bagnol's troops re-unite, in order to assail 
 them ; they could make no impression upon the Vaudois. 
 
 The enemy formed a circle embracing aU the base of the hill, 
 and as the level of the water rises around a promontory, the 
 circle closed as the enemy ascended towards them ; but it did not 
 pass a certain limit, for the soldiers who formed it fell dead as 
 they came within the range of the bullets of the Vaudois. As the 
 snow melts on the side of a mountain, this army became gradually 
 less ; and here its course of invasion was stayed. " The Vaudois," 
 says L6ger, '* made so long and courageous a resistance, that at last 
 confusion and a sense of dismay manifestly seized on that great 
 multitude of assailants, and they took flight, leaving sixty-five of 
 
 * A patois word, signifying the summit. 
 
 Vol. r. 
 
 46 
 
\ 
 
 S62 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 f Pakt Skcond. 
 
 Chap. VIIL] 
 
 TWO LETTERS. 
 
 S63 
 
 ll 
 
 f.. 
 
 their number dead on the ground, v/ithout reckoning the wounded 
 and the corpses which were carried away." 
 
 Seeinc^ that the enemy retired by the opening of the valley, the 
 Vaudois" would have pursued them. Janavel stayed them. *' Bet- 
 ter than that !" said he; " they must be utterly destroyed." And 
 passin- along the heights till ho had got before the fugitives, he 
 ran to^'post himself again, with his invincible fusileers, at a narrow 
 pass caUed Pierro Capello. 
 
 The enemy's troop came up, now beginning to recover breath. 
 At the moment when they least expected it, the Vaudois fired 
 upon them again, hurled down masses of rock, rushed upon them, 
 and redoubled their affright, their disorder, and their loss; there 
 was not a shadow of resistance— a panic, or mther the fear of the 
 God of Jacob seized upon these disbanded soldiers, so that not bemg 
 able easily to flee, because of the difficulty of the paths, they flung 
 themselves headlong over rocks, and into ravines and torrents, and 
 were drowned or lay dead beneath precipices, if they did not fall 
 by the swords or the bullets of their terrible assailants. Captain 
 Mario himself was with great difficulty di-awn out of a hole fuU of 
 water, in which he must otherwise have been drowned; and was 
 carried back without his accoutrements, and without hat or shoes, 
 to Lucema, where he died a few days after. 
 
 We come now to the record of a fact which one could not venture 
 to introduce into a work of pure imagination, so improbable it 
 would appear. But history must not shrink before prodigies sufli- 
 ciently authenticated; and it is well known that truth is often that 
 
 which is least truth-like. 
 
 Astonishing as were already the repeated victories of Janavel over 
 enemies fifty times more numerous, it is not without surprise that 
 we observe that the Marquis of Pianesse now called to ai-ms all the 
 disposable troops under his command, and caused nearly 10,000 
 men to march against the little commune of Bora, so persevermgly 
 defended by a simple company of brave mountaineers. It was m 
 the beginning of May, 1655: 3000 men set out from Bagnol, 
 3000 from Le ViUar, and 4000 from Lucerna, to make a simul- 
 taneous assault upon a village of fifty houses. 
 
 The division from Le Villar was the first to make its appear- 
 ance. Janavel repulsed its attack; but whilst he was engaged m 
 battle, the two other divisions entered the lower i^rt of the valley, 
 plundered the vHlage, burned the houses, massacred the mhabitants, 
 committed monstrous outrages, and carried off as prisoners the un- 
 fortunates who had not been kiUed. The position was no longer 
 tenable; Janavel had no longer anything to defend; Bora was 
 
 destroyed; its inhabitants were slain or taken captive; and he 
 withdrew with liis heroic cohort into the valley of Lucerna. 
 
 Next day he received from the Marquis of Pianesse a note in 
 these terms : — " To Captain Janavel. Your wife and your daughters 
 ai*e in my hands — they were made prisoners at Bora; I exhort 
 you for the last time to abjure your heresy, which will be the only 
 means to obtain pardon for your rebellion against the authority of 
 ills royal highness, and to save the lives of your wife and your 
 daughters, who shall be burned alive if you do not submit. And 
 if you persist in your obstinacy, without putting myself to the 
 trouble of sending troops against you, I will set such a price upon 
 your head, that were you the devil incarnate, you must certainly 
 be brought to me dead or alive; and if you fall into my hands alive, 
 you may lay your account with it that there are no torments so 
 cruel that they shall not be inflicted upon you. This warning is 
 for your guidance — consider how you may turn it to your advantage." 
 
 The following is Janavel's reply : " There is no torment so cruel 
 that I do not prefer it to the abjuring of my religion; and your 
 threats, instead of turning me from it, confirm me in it all the more. 
 As for my wife and my daughters, they know if they are dear to 
 me ! But God alone is Lord of their lives; and if you destroy theii- 
 bodies, God will save their souls. May he graciously receive these 
 beloved souls, and likewise mine, if it so happen that I fall into 
 jrour hands." Such was the answer of the heroic mountaineer. A 
 price was immediately set upon his head. 
 
 He had still one son, a young boy, who had been committed to 
 the charge of a relative belonging to Le Villar. Fearing lest he 
 also might be made prisoner, the intrepid and afflicted father took 
 with him this child, bore him across the snows to the other side of 
 the Alps, descended into Dauphiny, and there deposited his son — 
 re-victualled his little escort, and took some days' repose, of which 
 he availed himself to recruit his band — and then, still putting his 
 trust in God, he crossed the Alps once more, re-entered the valleys, 
 and took the field again, more powerful, formidable, and intrepid 
 than ever. 
 
 Meanwhile, Leger, the moderator of the Yaudois churches, had 
 proceeded to Paris, where he published a statement, addressed to 
 all the Protestant powers of Europe. Many proofe of the liveliest 
 sympathy and most active interest reached the Vaudois churches 
 from all parts. On the other hand, the court of Savoy, or rather 
 the duchess,^ urged by the Propaganda and by the pontifical (I 
 dare not say the apostolic) nuncio, pursued with vigour amidst the 
 » Most of the papers of which we shall have to speak bear her signature. 
 
364 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaRT SlCOHD. 
 
 Chap. Vlll.] 
 
 CAPTAIN JAHIER. 
 
 365 
 
 applauses of the dignified clergy, the real object of so much agita- 
 tion namely, the expulsion or complete extermmatiou of the Israel 
 of the Alps, these evangelical children of the valleys. 
 
 After having requested of Mazarin that an asylum should be 
 refused them in France, and having failed to obtain her request, 
 she next requested that he would have them removed from the 
 frontiers of Piedmont, at least three days journey. The execution 
 of this scheme having been also refused, she requested and obtamed 
 a prohibition against French subjects coming to the help of the 
 Vaudois who still remained in the valleys. 
 
 She was so active in her proceedings— her designs were so loudly 
 proclaimed, that even in the valleys themselves, many persons 
 doubted if the Vaudois would ever be able to recover their posi- 
 tion. Francis Gu6rin, minister of Roure, in Pragela, confidently 
 prophesied to the refugees that they ought to renounce the hope 
 of returning to their native country, the time being come when 
 the candlestick must be removed out of its place.^ 
 
 The captain of the Duke of Savoy's Swiss guards being from the 
 canton of Glaris, where there were a few CathoUc families ill-con- 
 tented to dweU in a Protestant country, proposed to Charles Em- 
 manuel II. that he should receive these families into the vaUeys, 
 and send the Vaudois in exchange, into the canton of Glaris.^ 
 
 CromweU, on his part, made offer to the Vaudois to receive them 
 into Ireland, in place of the natives whom he had expelled from 
 that island. But the reply of the moderator was more in accord- 
 ance with the interests of his native land ; he entreated the Protec- 
 tor to send a plenipotentiary to Turin, to exert himself for the 
 re-establishment of the Vaudois in the valleys, instead of their 
 removal from thence. The plenipotentiary sent was Morland, who 
 rendered such important service in the pacification of that unfor- 
 tunate country, and who afterwards wrote a remarkable history 
 of the events which had there taken place. 
 
 Most of the foreign powers, from the King of Sweden to the 
 Helvetic Cantons, wrote to Charles Emmanuel in favour of the 
 Vaudois. " This business makes a great noise in Switzerland, as 
 well as in France and Germany," wrote the Sardinian ambassador, 
 De La Borde, to the Duchess Christina. =^ "Your highness will 
 give it such consideration as you deem fit at a time when the com- 
 
 1 These facts are mentioned in a letter of the Duchess of Savoy to Lesdiguieres, 
 Governor of Dauphiny, asking him to adopt measures in conformity with these 
 arrangements. The letter is dated 2d June, 1655, and is in the Archives of State 
 at Turin. Lesdiguieres received orders to the same effect from Louis XIV., 4th 
 and 18th June, 1655. (In the same archives.) ,m • x 
 
 2 Leger, 11. 365. ' Letter of 18th June, 1655. (Archives of Tunn.) 
 
 mon arms might be more profitably employed elsewhere." In 
 another letter,^ the same ambassador expresses himself still more 
 clearly. " This war," he says, " can only have been recommended 
 by the friends of Spain, to turn away the arms of his royal high- 
 ness from the Milanese." 
 
 Thus every one judged of this matter according to his own way 
 of thinking. Diplomatists ascribed it all to political causes, and 
 ecclesiastics to religious causes; but all were unanimous in their 
 condemnations. And let us ask in passing, would the whole of 
 Europe have been so moved, would so many sovereigns have ad- 
 dressed such strong representations to the court of Savoy, on the 
 subject of the massacres perpetrated in the Vaudois valleys in 1655, 
 if these massacres had never taken place? The court of Savoy, 
 however, presently adopted the course of contradicting the news. 
 But the feeling of the sad reality was so deep amongst the sufferers, 
 that twenty-five years afterwards, the year 1655 is still designated 
 in their correspondence by these simple words, Tlie Year of the 
 Massacres; and authentic documents do not permit a doubt to 
 remain as to the veritable character of these events, in which the 
 hideous consequences of Popery are exhibited in all their magnitude. 
 
 In Switzerland, in England, in Holland, and in almost all Pro- 
 testant countries, collections were made, and public fasts were held 
 upon account of the Vaudois. Many Catholics also testified the 
 deepest sympathy. 1 love always to distinguish the principle of 
 Catholicism from the virtues which may be concealed in generous 
 souls beneath the external forms in which it has clothed them. 
 Louis XIV. himself commanded Lesdiguieres to receive the Vau- 
 dois fugitives kindly, and to assure them of his royal protection.^ 
 In the valleys of Le Queyras and Pragela, which belonged to France, 
 the people took up arms for the help of the persecuted.^ The re- 
 gulai' troops deserted with the same view.* A formal order was 
 placarded at Grenoble prohibiting these desertions.^ Captain Jan- 
 avel had already returned to the valleys with his valiant party, 
 augmented by numerous recruits from Le Queyras. 
 
 Captain Jahier, a native of Pramol, had retired into the Val 
 Perouse, in the French territory, with the refugees of Bubiano and 
 the people of Angrogna, who, on the 2 2d of April, had fled before 
 
 » Of 25th June. (Archives of Turin.) 
 
 2 These were the terms which he employed in stating the matter to Cromwell. 
 (Leger, 11. 226.) 
 
 ' Letter of Christina to Lesdiguieres, 2d June. — ^Letter of Louis XIV. to the 
 same, 18th June. (Turin. Archives of State.) 
 
 * Letter of Louis XIV. to Lesdiguieres, dated 4th June. (Archives as above.) 
 
 * 14th June. This order is printed as a placard. 
 
366 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Skcond. 
 
 Chap. 
 
 . nil.] 
 
 VAUDOIS CAPTURE ST. SEGONT. 
 
 367 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 the army of Pianesse. He returned a month after at the head of 
 these exiles, supported by their brethren of Pragela, and settled 
 them again in the valleys of Angrogna and Pramol. Then he 
 wrote to Janavel to come and join him. 
 
 Janavel had at first taken up his position on a high mountain, 
 called the Alp of the Pelaya di Geymet, Thence, descending by 
 the valley of Rora, which he knew so well, he attempted to take 
 possession of Lucernette, a Catholic village situated half a league 
 from Lucerna, But, at the sound of the tocsin, the troops from 
 Lucema and from Bubiano gathered to the spot in such numbers, 
 that Janavel was compelled to relinquish his project. He was 
 already surrounded by the enemy when he beat a retreat ; and this 
 retreat was so skilfully executed that his enemies themselves could 
 not speak of it without admiration. In this affair the gallant cap- 
 tain received a bullet in his leg, which remained lodged in the flesh 
 as long as he lived. But this wound did not prevent him from 
 proceeding in his expeditions. His attempt upon Lucernette, 
 though it had failed as to its object, was not without important 
 consequences, for it gave a new aspect to this war of extermina- 
 tion. The Vaudois now, for the first time, took the aggressive part. 
 An inexpressible terror began to trouble the towns of Piedmont 
 which lay nearest to the mountains. Each wished fortifications 
 and a garrison. Irish troops were quartered at Bubiano, but they 
 committed such excesses that the inhabitants themselves were 
 very soon obliged to take arms and expel them. Thus the perse- 
 cutors began to destroy one another. 
 
 It was just at this time that Janavel efiected his junction with 
 Captain Jahier (on the 27th of May), on the banks of the An- 
 grogna. These two warriors, uniting their forces, became more 
 formidable and more powerful in their expeditions. The first 
 enterprise which they attempted in common was against the little 
 town of Garsiliano, which they endeavoured to seize that very 
 evening. But it happened, as at Lucernette, that, numerous troops 
 coming at the sound of the tocsin from all the neighbouring town- 
 ships, they were compelled to retire, carrying off with them only 
 some cattle and six paii-s of oxen, which they had seized. 
 
 Kext day, at daybreak, having sought encouragement in prayer, 
 and feeling the necessity of some energetic demonstration to save 
 their country, they assailed the town of St. Segont, and made them- 
 selves masters of it. To preserve themselves from the enemy's fire, 
 the Vaudois rolled before them great casks filled with hay; and in 
 this manner they approached the walls of the town, from which a 
 shower of balls fell upon them, but the balls were lost in the casks, 
 
 without striking the men, who were sheltered behind these rolHng 
 screens. Arrived at the bottom of the fortifications, they set fire 
 to bundles of faggots and vine twigs, the smoke of which concealed 
 them from the eyes of the besieged. Having then broken through 
 a gate, they penetrated into the town and loaded themselves with 
 booty. An Irish regiment was surprised in its barrack and cut 
 to pieces. The number slain by the Vaudois amounted to 700 or 
 800 Irish, and 650 Piedmontese. The unarmed inhabitants were 
 spared,^ and in part retained prisoners; afterwards the viUage was 
 
 destroyed by fire. 
 
 It was a terrible execution, and which, perhaps, it might not 
 have been requisite to carry so far, but for the necessity imposed 
 upon the Vaudois of making such a display of their force as should 
 produce an impression amongst the enemy, who had not shrunk 
 from butchering them when defenceless. Moreover, in time of 
 war men do not reason with the coolness of a calm judgment. And 
 the Vaudois valleys had been so cruelly destroyed, the blood which 
 had been shed cried so loudly, the irritation had become so profound, 
 that without attributing such reprisals to the spirit of vengeance 
 alone, we may regard them as a necessary consequence. They had, 
 indeed, the efiect of leading the persecutors to see that they must 
 treat tliis sacrificed people with more consideration. And if it be 
 true that men have no respect for any but those whom they love or 
 those whom they fear, the Vaudois, certain of not being loved, had 
 no alternative but in making themselves feared. They succeeded 
 
 in a few days. 
 
 The capture of St. Segont was already equivalent to a battle won. 
 They had made 1400 of the enemy bite the dust; on their side the 
 loss was only seven men;'^ and these almost incredible facts were 
 well kno^vn. The terror inspired by Janavel and Jahier seized all 
 the neighbouring towns. They concerted schemes of mutual de- 
 fence, and arranged a telegraphic signal, which was to appear on the 
 tops of the steeples, giving notice of the coming of the Vaudois, and 
 indicating their position. 
 
 The people, who sufiered from the interruption of trade, the 
 cantoning of troops, and the incursions of the Vaudois, began to ex- 
 press a very strong indignation against the cause, or at least against 
 the effects of these troubles; and the public voice became still 
 more urgent as the exploits of Jahier and Janavel, with their in- 
 trepid partizans, became more numerous. The Marquis of Pianesse 
 
 » One girl only, Mademoiselle Alix Marsaille, was killed by a stray shot. 
 ^ To wit, one of La Tour, two of the Val St. Martin, one of Rocheplate, two of 
 Angrogna, and one of St. John. They had also six wounded. 
 
368 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sbcowt>. 
 
 endeavoured to cut them off by setting a price upon the heads of 
 those amongst them who were of most note;' but their troop, in- 
 stead of being reduced, was augmented every day by new recruits 
 or new refugees, who came to them from Queyras and Pi-agela. On 
 the 2d of June it consisted of four companies, commanded by the 
 captains with whom we are already acquainted, and by captams 
 Laurens and Benet. In their little council of war they resolved to 
 make an attack upon Briqulras. To execute this design the four 
 companies marched by different directions, so as not only to be able 
 to surprise the town, but also to oppose the approach of the troops, 
 whose assistance it might demand. 
 
 In consequence, Janavel kept upon the borders of St. John 
 and La Tayaiea, in order to arrest the progress of the troops which 
 mi-ht come from La Tour and Lucerna; Captain Laurens took 
 the direction of the last spurs of Rocheplate, ready to intercept 
 those which might be sent from St. Segont ; for notwithstanding the 
 recent burning of that village, it had been rendered habitable 
 a-ain by prompt repairs. Jahier descended into the plain of Bri- 
 queras, and began to ravage the surrounding fields; but on a signal 
 given the garrisons of the neighbourhood hastened to the assist- 
 ance of Briqueras with such rapidity, that no assault could be made 
 
 upon that place. j. c.x t v 
 
 Jahier then retraced his steps towards the hills of St. John, 
 where Janavel had kept in check the troops whose progress he had 
 
 . In this way we may learn tlie names of the »»«' d'^«°f '^J'f.f *''° '*'* 
 defenders of their country. They are thus given in the edict "^ f d M^' ^f f. 
 The figures which follow the name indicate the sum promised for the head of each 
 of them:-Joshua Janavel, 300 ducats; Bartholemew and James J^'^'". "OO- 
 Paul Vachdre, of Lucerna, 300; Francis Laurent, of Les Ch.ots (Vale of St 
 M^in) 200; John Malanot, of the same place, 200; Daniel GnU, of Pral, 200 
 ^i'oC Anthony, Philip, and Gioanino Peirotti, of Pral (a whole family) 
 iST Charles Fautrier, 150; Paul Fautrier, 150; Stephen Grass of Bobi, 150 
 200, Cbaries la • ' brothers John, Peter, and James Tron 
 
 ^iTGi^u^Mof the'vlof St. Martin). 150; Peter Chanforan and Bartho 
 called ^'»rr'7/™ 150 each; Bartholemew Bonous and James Perronel 
 
 lomew I"*^-^; "f^^^°=^'.^f„rfi„iiy, Daniel Arbareu, of Angrogna; Bartho 
 of Kioclaret (tog^**^''' ^'^^ ^^i^ ^^alanot, of the same place; Gianone de 
 
 V^Avln^ft £e Villar; Paul Goante, of La Tour; Paul Bernard, of Kodoret; 
 JaTi Wmiam. and Michael Bastie (without other designation) ; prioe set upon 
 ihrir heads 100 ducats for each. For the brothers John and Francis Meruson, of 
 'iVavpr«;ps in Praeela, 100 ducats for both. ^^ j • 
 
 Tpr"; waruL.4se set by this edict .pen the heads of the three Vaudois 
 piors; to .it. John Leger, the historian, 200 ducats; John Michelin, of Bobi, 
 
 and Isaac Lepreux, 300 ducats each. ^ - a tu^^^^^o. Tlie 
 
 The edict is signed by Charles Emmanuel, and counter-signed Morozza. The 
 names of all the staff of the Vaudois troop are given by Leger, p. lyv*. 
 
 Cakv. Vlil ] 
 
 CRUSSOL ATTACKED. 
 
 369 
 
 been appointed to arrest. Thus mutually reinforced by one 
 another, the two captains attacked the enemy with such impetu- 
 osity, that one hundred and fifty of their number were left dead 
 upon the field of battle. The Vaudois had only one man killed. 
 
 A few days after, a convoy of three hundred soldiers was sent 
 fix)m Lucerna to the fort of Mirabouc. Janavel was at Bobi ; he 
 was aware of this movement, and awaited the enemy at the defile 
 of Marbec, where he kept them in check for five hours, but was at 
 last obliged to let them pass, after having killed many of them. 
 The valiant captain had on this occasion only eight men with him, 
 and although they retreated, yet it must be granted that they 
 showed great intrepidity in daring to attack three hundred. It is 
 time that they were favoured by the admirable position which 
 their leader had chosen. None of them was killed. 
 
 After this, Janavel fell back upon the Alp from which he had 
 made his first expedition against Lucernette, namely, the Palea di 
 Geymet, situated opposite to Le Villar. This village was the only 
 one which had not been burned, upon account of the great number 
 of its inhabitants who had become Catholics, and whom it was 
 thought proper to leave at peace in their dwellings. Janavel sent 
 word to them that they must join him, to augment the number of 
 the defenders of the country, in default of which they would be 
 treated as apostates, traitors, and enemies. On this energetic lan- 
 guage, the i)eopl8 of Le Villar, whether from fear or from patriot- 
 ism, joined the standard of the rude warrior who so addressed 
 them. 
 
 Janavel then united his efforts once more with those of Jahier, 
 and they formed the project of jointly retaking the Protestant 
 capital of their valleys, the town of La Tour. In this they failed, 
 but they slew more than three hundred soldiers. 
 
 The combined troops of these two captains, at this time, 
 amounted to more than six hundred men. They established their 
 headquarters on one of the heights of Angi'ogna, named Le 
 Verne. But it was necessary to provide for the maintenance of 
 these soldiers ; and this could only be done by putting the enemy 
 to ransom. 
 
 The inhabitants of Crussol, a village situated in the valley of 
 
 the Po, having done much harm to the Vaudois at the time of the 
 
 last massacres, Jahier resolved to lay them under contribution. 
 
 He set out during the night with one hundred and fifty men j and 
 
 next morning, at break of day, before the people of Crussol could 
 
 take any steps for their defence, their village was attacked. The 
 
 inhabitants retired in consternation to a deep cavern; and the 
 Vol. I. 47 
 
370 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Secokd. 
 
 Vaudois carried off, without resistance, more than four hundred 
 cows or oxen, and six hundred sheep. This booty was conveyed 
 for division to the Alp of Liouza, which, by a very ancient char- 
 ter, was granted to the abbey of Staffarde. 
 
 Whilst this expedition was accomplished on the banks ot the 
 Po the Catholics of St. Segont, aaid the neighbouring villages, 
 attacked the one hundred and fifty Vaudois who remained at 
 Anca-o-na. Captains Laurens and Benet, with the brothei-s Jahier, 
 reposed these assailants, who, in their retreat, surprised a defence- 
 less man, and satiated their cruelty upon him.^ 
 
 However, Captain Jahier had gone to Pragela to sell, or placo 
 in safe custody, a part of the booty which he had made at Crussol. 
 Janavel having in vain expected him for eight days, resolved to 
 attack the town of Lucema himself This delay caused the failure 
 of the expedition; for a new regiment, which had arrived m that 
 to^vn on the previous evening, repelled the attack. 
 
 Two days after, the Marquis of Pianesse, having called to active 
 service all the troops of the district, supported by the new regi- 
 ment under the command of M. De Marolles, made an attack m 
 his tm-n upon Janavel's troop, in the very centre of Angrogna 
 This was on Friday the 15th of June, 1655. The troops advanced 
 up the valleys, at the same time upon La Tour, St. John, Roche- 
 plate, and Pramol. It was intended to attack them all at once^; 
 but this simultaneousness of operations could not be attained, 
 because of the different routes which the ai-my of Pianesse pur- 
 sued, and the distant points which it occupied. The detachment 
 which came by Eocheplate gave the signal of attack some minutes 
 too soon. Janavel had with him only three hundred men. He 
 went against these first assailants, and repulsed them before the 
 troops from Pramol could come up in their rear. In order to 
 divide them he inclined towards the heights of Rochemanant, 
 when suddenly he found himself opposed to the detachment which 
 had come up by the cotieres of St. John, and at the same time 
 he saw the detachment advancing which came from La Toui\ 
 
 In this critical position— assaUed on all sides, and lacking half 
 his men, who were still in Pragela— the hero of Rora, with that 
 quick confidence of judgment and energetic promptitude of execu- 
 tion which characterize gTcat captains on the field of battle, fell 
 back ere the battalion of Rocheplate could rally on his flank- 
 dashed into the midst of that which came from Pramol— cut it 
 
 1 They passed a cord ronnd his head, and twisted it with a stick tiU it penetrated 
 into the flesh. The man's name was Peter Reggio; he belonged to Pinache, and 
 died a few days after, in consequence of this treatment. 
 
 Chap. VIIl.] 
 
 JANAVEL AGAIN VICTORIOUS. 
 
 371 
 
 in two — passed through it — and, as he had formerly done with so 
 much success at Rora, posted himself with his men on the summit 
 of a hill. The hill, thus crowned with this band of heroes, is 
 formed by a bending up again of the mountain-slopes, of gentle 
 inclination on the side which they ascended, but suddenly cut off 
 and broken into precipitous ridges on the opposite side. 
 
 The four battalions of the enemy drew together at the base of 
 this slope. Janavel was now shut in betwixt a precipice and an 
 army ten times more numerous than his own. It was nine o'clock 
 in the morning. He resisted in this position till two o'clock in the 
 afternoon; then, judging that his men had been sufficiently exjxjsed 
 in maintaining the conflict, without flinching, for five whole hours, 
 and perceiving already some marks of weariness, impatience, and 
 hesitation amongst the ranks of the enemy, Janavel raised his arms 
 towards heaven and cried, " It is in thy name, O God ! support and 
 preserve us!" Then to his men he said, "Forward, my friends!" 
 And, like an avalanche of pikes, swords, and balls, these courage- 
 ous men rushed to the bottom of the hill with all the impetuosity 
 of a valour too long restrained. Without awaiting their shock, 
 the enemy attempted to spread themselves out in the plain, and 
 recoiled before them. By this manoeuvre, in extending, they 
 weakened their line. The Yaudois succeeded in breaking it, and 
 disorder ensued. Confusion readily arises amongst bodies under 
 different commanders. It was habitual with these troops of differ- 
 ent origin whenever they were worsted, and followed immediately 
 upon this bold movement of the Yaudois. The 3000 men dis- 
 banded. The Yaudois pursued them, killed more than 500, and 
 themselves had only one killed and two wounded. 
 
 But all was not ended. Having purged the vale of Angrogna 
 from its invaders, Janavel retired to his entrenchments. At the 
 same moment Captain Jahier arrived from Pragela; their troops 
 were fatigued — the one party by the combat, the other by the march, 
 and those of Janavel had had no food since morning. Whilst they 
 took a hasty refreshment he went to reconnoitre the position of 
 the enemy. He saw them rallying their bodies of dispei-sed troops 
 in the plain of St. John, and far from thinking of any attack. 
 
 This indefatigable warrior called again upon his men; caused 
 them to descend by the borders of the valley, and fell like a thun- 
 derbolt unexpectedly upon the army, which was a second time put 
 to the route before him. The Yaudois killed more than 100 men; 
 but the death of Janavel had well-nigh proved at that juncture a 
 greater calamity to his compatriots than a defeat, for that leader, 
 to whom they could not have found a successor, was struck by a 
 
 ^'-1 
 III 
 
372 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Secojtd. 
 
 bullet which passed quite through his body, entering by the chest 
 and coming out by the back. His mouth filled with blood j he 
 lost consciousness, and was thought to be on the jioint of expiring. 
 The grief of those around him was extreme. He gave over tlie 
 command to Jahier, to whom he also gave his instructions, amidst 
 tears, prayers, and liveliest 'testimonies of affection on the part of 
 his soldiers. 
 
 However, Providence was pleased not permanently to deprive 
 the valleys of their intrepid defender, and after six weeks' suffering 
 the cure of Janavel was completed. He had caused himself to be 
 carried to Pinache, in the French territory, to recover or die there. 
 His last advice to Captain Jahier had been, not to attempt any- 
 thing for that day by reason of the fatigue of their troops ; but an 
 emissary having come to apprize Jahier that he might take posses- 
 sion of the town of Ossac, that too impetuous captain, as Leger 
 (Jails him, whose intrepidity always got the better of his prudence, 
 burning to signalize himself by some grand exploit, took with him 
 150 soldiers and set out under the guidance of the emissary. 
 
 The emissary was a traitor. He led Jahier into an ambuscade, 
 where a squadron of cavalry surrounded and defied him. In this 
 moment of extremity Jahier rose above himself by his extraordi- 
 nary valour; seeing himself betrayed he killed the traitor, invoked 
 God, caused his soldiers to take to their swords and pikes, rushed 
 upon the cavalry of Savoy with an intrepidity worthy of a better 
 fate ; and there, thrusting and striking, diseml)Owelling hoi-ses, kill- 
 ing their riders, and breaking through the ranks of his adversaries, 
 he made terrible ravages all around him — killed with his own hand 
 three officers of the enemy, and at last, overcome by the number of 
 liis wounds, fell dead upon the spot. His son, who fought by his 
 side, died with him. All his soldiers, with the exception only of 
 one, were cut in pieces. The survivor hid himself in a marsh, and 
 passed the Cluson at night by swimming, to bear this deplorable 
 intelligence to liis compatriots. 
 
 That 15th of June was a fatal day] The Vaudois were de- 
 prived at once of Janavel and Jahier. " The latter," says Leger, 
 " had always shown a great zeal for the service of God and the 
 cause of his country ; having the courage of a lion, and, moreover, 
 meek as a lamb, always giving to God alone all the praise of his 
 victories; extremely well versed in the Holy Scriptures; perfectly 
 familiar with controversy and a man of high ability, who might 
 have seemed to possess every estimable quality if only he had been 
 capable of moderating his courage." ^ 
 
 » L6ger, Part II. p. 104. 
 
 Cbap IX ] 
 
 DESCOMBIES AND ANDRION. 
 
 373 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 END OF THE CONFLICT, NEGOTIATIONS, AND PATENTS 
 
 OF GRACE. ^ 
 
 (June to September, 1655.) 
 
 Forei^Tiers come to tlie assistance of the Vaudois— Further successes of their arms 
 —They fail in an attempt, conducted by the French General Descombies, to 
 take the Fort of La Tour— Intervention of Cromwell— His ambassador, Morland, 
 at Turin — Treaty of Pignerol. 
 
 The adversaries of the Vaudois exulted over the death of Jahier 
 and the loss of Janavel, whose wound they regarded as mortal. 
 The hopes which had been formed of an accommodation vanished 
 once more. The army of the persecutors, which had for a moment 
 been held in restraint, assumed the offensive with new vif^our. 
 But dui'ing this time also, public opinion had declared itself with 
 greater energy in favour of the Vaudois. The fame of the exploits 
 of Jahier and Janavel advanced their cause in a military point of 
 view, as the sufferings of their martyrs had already exalted it in 
 its religious aspect. 
 
 Men of arms, from different countries,- came to offer their services 
 to tliis heroic people, whom their enemies had thought to destroy. 
 The French Lieutenant- General Descombies and the Swiss Colonel 
 Andrion were of the number. The latter had already distinguished 
 himself in Sweden, in France, and in Germany. There remained 
 also amongst the Vaudois certain captains of merit; amongst 
 others, Bertin and Podio of Bobi, Albarea of Le Villar, Laurens'of 
 Val St. Martin, and Kevel and Costabelle, the lieutenants of 
 Janavel and Jahier. 
 
 The moderator, L6ger, had also returned to the valleys. On the 
 first day after his arrival he thought it proper to pass to Angro^na, 
 where his compatriots were assembled. He repaired thither with 
 Colonel Andrion, who had likewise just arrived. The Vaudois were 
 encamped on the Vachere. During the night they sent soldiers in 
 the direction of La Tour to reconnoitre the positions of the enemy. 
 These soldiers, having come to the hamlet of St. Laurent, there 
 discovered a detachment of Piedmontese troops, who awaited the 
 dawning of the day to ascend higher and attack the Vaudois. 
 These troops were scattered as in a halt j the darkness of night 
 
 • AuTHOBrriES.— The same as in Chapter VII. 
 
 2 " There arrived every day a good number of them," says Leger (II. 197), 
 
374i 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Second. 
 
 CUAP IX.] 
 
 CAPTAIN BELLIN S EXPLOIT. 
 
 875 
 
 11 
 
 wa. still thick; and the two Yaudois soldiers mingled with th ^ 
 and conversed with them in their own language^ They thus 
 learned the designs of M. De Marolles, their commander; and, quit- 
 XurtieLts a^t break of day, hastened to infoi^ their comrades 
 
 of what they had learned. ^ 
 
 Some musket shots were fired after them m vam to arrest he.r 
 flight: and the enemy, finding themselves discovered, seized their 
 ai^s Ld foUowed on their track. The Vaudois got m advance so 
 far as to forewarn their companions. Wger then took refuge with 
 all haste behind the barricades which had been erected. Ihe 
 enemy divided themselves into four battalions; and from five 
 o'clock in the morning tUl three o'clock in the afternoon ceased 
 not to attack the barricades of the Vachire upon three different 
 sides. They were defended only by a few hundred Vaudois. 
 
 After this long and unequal combat, the lower barricades, called 
 the Cases [Les Casses] were carried, and the Vaudois retired to a 
 more elevated spot called the Keep [Le Donjon]. The Piedmontese 
 ,vrmy raised a shout of victory, and came forward to the assault 
 exclaiming, "Come on! come on! ye remains of Jahier! But 
 from the summit of this keep, down steeper and higher slopes than 
 those of their first fortifications, the Vaudois rolled stones, or rather 
 rocks, which came with thundering rapidity, and made chasms m 
 the lunks of the enemy, dashing them to pieces or crushmg them 
 into the earth. The army paused, "Come on! ye remams of St. 
 Se<'ont!" cried the Vaudois then in their turn. 
 
 Many of the Piedmontese soldiers had talismans, such as relics 
 and medals dedicated to the Virgin Mary_so many amulets to 
 which they ascribed the power of turning the balls of the heretics 
 Those who still survived attributed their preservation to these 
 precious safeguards. They had not seen at what distance from 
 them the baUs passed ; and danger unseen sometimes seems to have 
 no existence. But in view of these rocks bounding so ftiriou J 
 down, and seeing their companions in the at a^k felling on their 
 right hand and on their left, the soldiers recoiled for fear of death. 
 They came in contact with each other, jostled upon each other 
 and impeded each other's movements; disorder got into their 
 ranks, and the Vaudois took advantage of it to rush upon them 
 cutlass in hand. The rout was now coniplete; the army w^ d(. 
 feated and fled, leaving a hundred dead on the field of battle, and 
 Wng off almost as many corpses, with twice that number of 
 
 "^"The^yndic of Lucerna seeing these deplorable remains of the 
 ax-my enter the town, it drew from him a saying, whose point 
 
 cannot easily be perceived except in Italian,^ "The wolves used to 
 eat the harhetSj but now it seems that the barbets^ have devoured 
 the wolves." 
 
 A few days after, the ganison of La Tour again revisited the 
 valley of Angrogna, to waste the little that remained of crops in 
 the fields, and to burn the miserable cottages which had escaped 
 the previous burnings ; but they were repulsed by Captain Bellin, 
 who pursued them to the very entry of the town. The disorder 
 with which they rushed in caused so great a panic, that the Vaudois 
 captain might have made himself master of the place, if he had 
 known how to make the most of his advantage. 
 
 An attempt was made a few days afterwards to accomplish this 
 object; but the opportunity was past, and the attempt was not 
 crowned with success. The enterprise was, however, conducted by 
 an experienced officer, M. Descombies, a native of Languedoc, who 
 had arrived in the valleys on the 17th of July, and had almost 
 immediately been najned commander-in-chief of the Vaudois. 
 The Vaudois at the same time equipped a little squadi'on of 
 cavalry, of which the command was intrusted to another French 
 refugee, named Charles Feautrier. Whilst the adversaries of the 
 Vaudois were gradually weakened, the defenders of the valleys 
 became more and more numerous ; they had at this time almost 
 1800 men in active service. Moreover, Janavel had recovered of 
 his wound and returned to join his brethren. 
 
 The whole of these forces being assembled together, advanced by 
 night to the hill of Le Chiabas, distant scarcely ten minutes' walk 
 from La Tour. There the Vaudois halted until the day broke. 
 " Certainly," says Leger,^ " if, according to the advice of those who 
 belonged to the valleys, the attack had been immediately com- 
 menced, it would have been all over both with the town and the 
 fortress ; but the fatal prudence of M. Descombies was the cause of 
 the fort not being taken." This general not having yet seen the 
 Vaudois engaged in action, not knowing the localities, and not 
 daring to rely upon what was told him, sent Frenchmen, who had 
 come with him, to reconnoitre the approaches of the Chatelard; for 
 so the fort of St. Mary or citadel of La Tour was called. These 
 emissaries described it to him as impregnable; and Descombies 
 then ga^e orders for a retreat, that he might not throw away, in 
 this first affair, the lives of the men who had intrusted themselves 
 
 * AUre volte li lujpi mangiavono li barbetti, ma lo tempo I venuto che li barbelti 
 mangiano i lupi. 
 
 ^ A contemptuous epithet given to the Vaudois, derived from the ancient name 
 of their pastors, Barbas. » Page 197. 
 
S76 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Second. 
 
 Cni^p.IX.j FOREIGN SYMPATHY FOR THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Oil 
 
 to his command. However, the presence of the Vaudois had by 
 this time been telegi-aphed, and M. De MaroUes issued from Lucerna 
 at the head of his regiment. Descombies was going to conduct 
 his troops and his cavalry to the Vachere, when two Vaudois 
 captains, Bellin and Peironnel, exclaimed, "Those who love me, 
 follow me!" The troops hesitated; the officers rushed forward; 
 100 men followed — the rest fell back. "I will remain here to sound 
 a retreat," exclaimed Janavel, who was still too ill to fight. The 
 half of the Vaudois army then abandoned its commander-in-chief; 
 and even a few Frenchmen joining them, they made an assault 
 upon La Tour. Upon this occasion Captain Fonjuliane performed 
 prodigies of valour. The Vaudois, who knew the weak places in 
 the foi-tifications of La Tour, made their assault near the convent 
 of the Capuchins. A shower of balls was poured down upon them 
 from the fort and convent. Nevertheless they demolished the 
 wall, penetmted into the interior, seized the cloister, set it on fire, 
 rushed into the town, occupied all the outlets, and made themselves 
 masters of it in a few moments. The slaughter was great ; but the 
 conquerors spared all who sought mercy. The Capuchins were of 
 this number, and remained prisoners. The intrepid assailants then 
 mounted to attack the citadel, sheltering themselves, as they had 
 already done at St. Segont, behind casks either empty or stuffed 
 with hay, which they rolled before them, and in which the balls 
 safely spent their strength. 
 
 The garrison, seeing the convent lost, the town on fire, and the 
 bastions of the fort scaled on all sides, began to capitulate, and 
 asked only to retire with their lives. But just then the regiment 
 of M. De Marolles arrived from Lucerna. The garrison seeing it 
 approach, persisted in resistance. Presently the cavalry of Savoy 
 sun-ounded the place, to cut off the escape of the attacking party. 
 If the Vaudois had only had a small body of cavalry on their 
 side to guard the approaches of the town, they would have been 
 able to have completed their conquest ; but M. Descombies had 
 led his cavalry back to the Vachere. Janavel, seeing his brave 
 compatriots almost surrounded, sounded a retreat from the top of 
 the hill of Chiabas. He was a man so intrepid and so experienced 
 that they could not but regard his orders with confidence. The 
 Vaudois therefore retired. It was full time : the pursuit was hot; 
 but Janavel had calculated so justly that they were all saved. 
 "What a loss it was," said they to Descombies, "that your troops 
 were not there to support us !" "I regret it more than you do," 
 he replied, "for my honour is compromised. Ah! if I had seen 
 you fight before! I knew very well that the Vaudois were brave 
 
 soldiers ; but I did not think that they were lions, and more than 
 lions." It was his desire then to find an opportunity, as soon as 
 possible, of showing that his bravery was not unworthy of theirs; 
 but again the opportunity once lost never returned. 
 
 The report of the Easter massacres spread over indignant Europe. 
 The representations made by European sovereigns to the court of 
 Savoy became stronger and stronger. Cromwell, in particular, 
 manifested extraordinary zeal and activity in favour of the Vau- 
 dois; not contented with addressing Charles Emmanuel himself, he 
 solicited the other powers to follow his example. Louis XIV. re- 
 plied to him as follows:^ — "Most Serene Protector, ... To 
 show that I nowise approved their turning aside my troops for this 
 business, although under pretext of quartering them in the valley of 
 Lucerna, I immediately sent several of my officers to the Duke of 
 Savoy to put a stop to the proceedings [against the Vaudois] which 
 were still being carried on under his authority. . » . And I 
 even gave orders to the Duke De Lesdiguieres, governor of Dau- 
 phiny, to receive them, treat them humanely, and assure them of 
 my protection. And as I am informed by your letters of the 25th 
 ult.,'-^ that you are touched with the calamity of this misei-able 
 people, I am very happy to have anticipated you in your desu-e ; 
 and I will continue to address myself to that prince for their con- 
 solation and re-establishment. I have gone so far as to make my- 
 self answerable for their obedience and loyalty, so that I have good 
 hopes that my mediation will not be ineffectual."^ 
 
 The French ambassador in Piedmont, M. De Servient, received 
 orders to act according to the spirit of this letter. Holland and 
 Switzerland also sent to Turin mediators for the Vaudois. Mor- 
 land, the youthful plenipotentiary of Cromwell, arrived on the 21st 
 of June at Rivoli, where the court was. On the 24th he was ad- 
 mitted to a public audience ; and after the customary compliments 
 he added, " The Most Serene Protector himself adjures you to have 
 compassion on your own subjects in the valleys, so cruelly maltreated. 
 Misery has followed the massacres; they wander ui)on the moun- 
 tains; they suffer from hunger and from cold; their wives and chil- 
 dren drag out their lives in destitution and consuming affliction. 
 And of what barbarities have they been the victims ! Their houses 
 burned, theii' members torn, scattered about, mutilated, sometimes 
 even devoured by the murderers ! Heaven and Earth shudder at 
 it with horror ! Were all the Neros of past and future times to 
 view these fields of carnage, infamy, and inexpressible atrocities (let 
 it not wound your royal highness), they would conclude that they 
 
 » 12th June, 1655. 2 May, 1655. 3 Leger, Tart II. p. 226. 
 
 Vol. I. ^3 
 
878 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 f Paht Skcowo 
 
 CUAP. IX] 
 
 THE TREATY OF PIGNEROL. 
 
 879 
 
 had never seen anything but what was good and humane in com- 
 parison with these things ! I say it without oflfence to your majesty. 
 O God ! Sovereign ruler of Heaven and Earth, avert from the heads 
 of the guilty the just vengeance which so much bloodshed calls 
 for!" Such was the harangue of Morland. 
 
 This speech, characterized by Puritan energy and unction, pro- 
 nounced with the manly assurance of youth and courage, more like 
 the severe accents of the prophets than the complaisance of diplo- 
 macy, produced a profound sensation. Never had prince been so 
 boldly found fault with to his face. Charles Emmanuel made no 
 reply: but the Duchess spoke. The Jesuits had moulded her mind. 
 " T am very sensible," she said, "of the interest which your master 
 testifies in my subjects. Only I am astonished that he should have 
 lent an ear to the inaccurate reports of which your address gives 
 evidence. The distance at which he resides can alone excuse them; 
 for it is impossible to represent as barbarities, chastisements so 
 mild and paternal, inflicted upon rebellious subjects, whose revolt 
 no sovereign could excuse. Nevertheless, I am well contented to 
 pardon them, in order to show to the Most Serene Protector the 
 desire which I feel to please him." 
 
 Morland left Turin on the 19th of July, promising to return in 
 order to assist the Vaudois in the negotiations which were to be 
 opened with regard to them. But the government made haste to 
 have them concluded in his absence, in order that they might be 
 more free to grant less. On the 18th of August, 1655, in presence 
 of the Swiss ambassadors^ who had arrived at Turin after Morland's 
 departure, and under the influence of Servient, the ambassador of 
 France, was concluded at Pignerol the treaty named the Patents of 
 Grace, which re-estal)lished the Vaudois in part of their privileges, 
 and by its perfidious reservations became the occasion of incessant 
 vexations to them. It cannot be doubted that if the return of 
 Morland had been awaited, this treaty would have been much more 
 advantageous; for about the end of July Cromwell had sent a new 
 ambassador, Mr. Downing, with orders to take with him from 
 Geneva the Chevalier Pelh, his resident ambassador to the Hel- 
 vetic body. They were then both to join Morland, and all together 
 
 > These ambassadors came in name of the Protestant cantons ; but there exists a 
 letter from the deputies of the Catholic cantons in the Diet, in which they say to 
 the Duke of Savoy, that they had intended to unite delegates of their o>vn com- 
 munion to that embassy, to intercede likewise in favour of the Vaudois; but that 
 their offer not having been accepted, they expressed their sentiments on this pomt 
 to him by writing. The letter is dated 21st July, 1 655. (Archives of Turin. ) The 
 court of Turin wrote on the 3d of August to the Pope's nuncio in Switzerland, to 
 entreat him to remove from these Catholic cantons their too favourable preposses- 
 ftious respecting the valleys. (Same Archives.) 
 
 to repair to Turin, to act in concert with the ambassador of the 
 United Provinces (Holland). But the treaty of Pignerol was un- 
 fortunately signed before the arrival of these influential personages, 
 and was thenceforth to afibrd too evident proofs of their absence. 
 The following were its principal provisions : — 
 
 "The Vaudois, having taken up arms against their sovereign, 
 deserved to be punished; however, through clemency they will be 
 pardoned ; and the Duke of Savoy wishing to make known to the 
 world with how much tenderness he loves his people,^ consents to 
 accord to them : — 
 
 *'I. — The confirmation of their privileges. (Liberty of con- 
 science, of trade, and of transit.) 
 
 " II. — An amnesty for the excesses committed during the 
 troubles. 
 
 " III. — The annulling of the prosecutions commenced, and of the 
 decrees of outlawry issued against Leger, Janavel, Michelin, Le- 
 preux, and other outlawed persons" (on whose heads a price had 
 been set). 
 
 " IV. — The Protestants are prohibited from dwelling henceforth 
 on the right bank of the Pelis, below Lucerna, and at Lucernette, 
 Bubiano, Campillon, Feuil, Garsiliano, Briqueras, and St. Segont." 
 (This clause would assuredly not have been admitted by the repre- 
 sentatives of Great Britain and the United Provinces, since it was 
 expressly conti^ry to the treaty of Cavour, 1561.) 
 
 ".V. — The possessions of the Vaudois, lying within the districts 
 where they are prohibited from dwelling, shall be sold within three 
 months, in default of Avhich they shall be paid for by the exchequer 
 to their proprietors, according to the price which they cost. 
 
 " VI. — The Vaudois may inhabit the commune of St. John, but 
 they are prohibited from practising any public religious service 
 there. 
 
 "VII. — They shall be exempted from divers taxes for the space 
 of five years (because," adds the patent, " they are not in a condi- 
 tion to pay them, by reason of the losses which they have sufiered). 
 
 "VIII. — Mass shall be celebrated in all the valleys; but the 
 Vaudois shall not be required to attend. 
 
 * Volcndo far nolo al mondo, con quanta tenerezza d^affetto amiamo i nostri 
 popoli. . . . These expressions need to be read in their exact form in order to 
 be believed genuine. There is at the end of this preamble an expression which 
 shows that Charles Enunanuel had only acted under the directions of his mother, 
 Madame Reale, mia Signora e Madre quale hahhiamo sempre tanto deferito. And 
 she had only acted according to the suggestions of the clergy who were under the 
 influence of Jesuitism, the language of which may be recognized at the slightest 
 glance in the very first words which we have cited. 
 
S80 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 THE TREATY UNSATISFACTORY. 
 
 S81 
 
 ',! 
 
 "iX- — Those who, haviug abjured their religion during the late 
 troubles, shall think that they have been constrained thereto by 
 violence, and wish to return to Protestantism, shall not be punished 
 as relapsed.' 
 
 " X. — The prisoners on both sides, including women and chil- 
 di-en, shall be restored as soon as they shall be demanded." (In 
 vii-tue of this article, the wife and daughters of Janavel were deli- 
 vered up. But these words, apparently so precise. The prisoners 
 shall be restored as soon as they shall he demanded, were the cloak 
 for bitter deceptions; for the greater part of the children carried 
 off during the war had been dispersed in Piedmont, had been passed 
 fi-om hand to hand, from castle to castle, from monastery to monas- 
 tery, so that their parents knew not whither to go to seek them; 
 and the authorities responded to their complaints, " Tell us where 
 your child is and we will secure your obtaining it." Thus Jesuit- 
 ism triumphed still by its crooked policy, even under the protec- 
 tive provisions of an oflScial edict.) 
 
 Some clauses of a mere temporary interest terminate this treaty, 
 consisting in all of twenty articles.^ 
 
 The plenipotentiaries had, it is true, demanded more solid guar- 
 antees for the repose of the Yaudois; amongst others, the demoli- 
 tion of the fort of La Tour, but they were refused or eluded; and, 
 as we shall very soon see, the want of them became the source of 
 new difficulties and misfortunes. * 
 
 • 
 
 » But, on the Gth of August, the greater part of those who had become Catholics 
 had been removed from the valleys and conducted to a great distance. The prin- 
 cipal stages they were to pass through are marked as follows -.—Pae^ane, Moretta, 
 riomhes, Lei/ni, Vische, Borgo cPAlea, ScUuzzola, &c. 
 
 2 The negotiators of this treaty were, in name of the Vaudois, the four am- 
 bassadors sent by the evangelical cantons of Switzerland, viz., Solomon Hirzel of 
 Zurich, Charles de Bonstetten of Berne, Benedict Sossin of Basle, and James 
 Stockart of Appenzel. On the part of France, the Ambassador Servient; and on 
 the part of Piedmont, MM. Truchi, Gastaldo, and De Greai. 
 
 CIIAPTEK X. 
 
 INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY OF PIGNEROL — L£GER'S 
 
 VICISSITUDES.^ 
 
 (A.D. lfi5r> TO A.D. 1600.) 
 
 Grievances not redressed by the Treaty of Pignerol — The Fort of La Tour — Con- 
 tinued operations of the Propaganda — Gastaldo, governor of the valleys — New 
 vexations — Violations of the treaty — Question of the right to meet for public 
 worship at St. John — Leger, pastor of St. John, the object of the particular 
 hostility of the Romish party — He is condemned to death, and flees from the 
 country — His labours and trials in his exile — Odious conduct of Charles II. of 
 England, with regard to money collected in that country during the time of 
 Cromwell, for the Vaudois. 
 
 The treaty of Pignerol could not all at once diiBTuse the tranquillity 
 of a regular and peaceful government, over a country so torn by 
 extraordinary troubles. The conditions of the treaty were far 
 from being satisfactory to the parties concerned. Hastily con- 
 cluded by the plenipotentiaries of France and Piedmont, to escape 
 the influence of the ambassadors of Holland and England, ^ whose 
 arrival was not waited for,^ they left modifications to be desired, 
 which all subsequent efforts* were ineffectual to obtain. On the 
 one hand, however, the Propaganda found the concessions too 
 great; on the other, the Yaudois judged them insufficient, and ere 
 long were forced to complain that they were not carried into effect. 
 The fort of La Tour, which Charles Emmanuel I. had caused 
 to be demolished in 1G03, and whose walls had begun to be rebuilt 
 during the late war, became one of the first subjects of discontent- 
 ment. A recollection of the base conduct of Castrocaro, Gallina, 
 and other persecutors of the Vaudois, was sufficient to excite dis- 
 trust in the bosoms of the persecuted. In the conferences pre- 
 paratory to the treaty of Pignerol, it had been agreed that that 
 citadel should be demolished. The Swiss negotiators even wished 
 that this demolition should be guaranteed by a special article. 
 The Sardinian delegates replied, that the Duke of Savoy could not 
 consent in this way to seem to disarm himself before his own sub- 
 jects, but that he wanted no other fortress than grateful hearts, and 
 
 * Authorities.— The same as in Chapter VII. Principally L^ger and Morland, 
 2 Letter of M. D*Ommeren to the Swiss cantons, 19th October, 1655. (L6ger, 
 
 p. 238.) 
 
 » Attestation of the Secretary of the Embassy at Turin, 17th Sept., 1655. (Id. 
 p. 223.) 
 
 * Acts of an Assembly held at Pajeme, on the 13th of Oct., 1655. (Id. p. 223.) 
 
382 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 CSAP. X.] 
 
 THE VAUDOIS STILL HARASSED. 
 
 383 
 
 (If 
 
 
 that the fortifications of La Tour would be razed immediately after 
 the signature of the treaty.^ " What would be the use," they said 
 also, " of introducing into the treaty a clause which would be hu- 
 miliating to the sovereign, and which would be without an object 
 after the lapse of a few days]" 
 
 The patents of Pignerol were therefore silent on this point, and 
 the enemies of the Vaudois congratulated themselves upon it ; but 
 Jesuitism aimed at still more, and sought to introduce into this 
 charter provisions altogether opposed to these positive promises. 
 The charter was signed; but in the space between the text and the 
 signatures was inserted a new paragraph, bearing that '' His royal 
 highness accorded to the Vaudois the right of addressing petitions 
 to him for the demolition of the citadel of La Tom*, or its recon- 
 struction in another place."- This implied the right of refusal ; it 
 was to bring again into question all that had already been agreed ; 
 it was to commit a forgery ; and when it was complained of* the 
 reply made was that this interpolation was owing to the negligence 
 of a clerk. 3 
 
 The Vaudois, however, sent up the petitions, the vain right 
 of sending which had, with so deceitful an intention, been thus 
 granted them. The duke replied, with much apparent kindness, 
 that he was happy to have it in his power to give them a new 
 proof of his good- will, and that he would destroy as much of the 
 fort of La Tour as was not necessary for the defence of his do- 
 minions. He did, indeed, cause a little useless fort to be demolished 
 which stood in the plain of La Tour, but at the same time he 
 redoubled his activity in the construction of the citadel situated on 
 the height. The works were so vigorously carried on that the 
 building was terminated in the course of the same year, and a gar- 
 rison was placed in it in the year following. Thus the honeyed 
 duplicity of a cruel political expediency trifled with the good faith 
 of the people, and laboured to oppress them whilst affecting to 
 establish a claim to their gratitude. 
 
 However, the French authorities saw with dislike a fortress of 
 such strength constructed so near their frontiers. The governor of 
 Dauphiny* and the commandant of PigneroP expressed their dis- 
 
 Letter of the Swiss ambassadors to those of France and Piedmont, 30th Nov., 
 1657. (Leger, p. 283, al. 3.) 
 
 * Some editions of the Patenli di grazia do not contain this article (Guiche- 
 non, Hist. p. 1017). In others it is preceded by a special declaration on the part 
 of Servient, the ambassador of France. (Raccolta degli Editti, p. 103.) Leger 
 discasses this point at length, Part II. pp. 263, 264, 265. 
 
 ' See I^ger, pp. 250, 283, &c. 
 
 * Lesdiguicres. » La Ere'.onniere. 
 
 approbation of it ;^ and Louis XIV. then offered to the Vaudois to 
 become guarantee for the full execution of the treaty of Pignerol 
 concluded under his auspices.^ A synod was held at La Tour to 
 deliberate upon this offei'.'^ The Vaudois thanked the monarch for 
 his protection, which they entreated him to continue,* and put into 
 the hands of his envoy a memorial,-^ setting forth all the grievances 
 of which they thought they had cause to complain, since the sign- 
 ing of the Patents of Grace. These patents, said they, have not 
 been carried into effect f the release of our prisoners is refused,^ our 
 children are still carried off,^ and the soldiers who garrison the 
 fort of La Tour commit with impunity the gravest crimes against 
 our persons and properties.^ 
 
 Thus pillage and assassination, rape and violence, continued the 
 Catholic work of faith. The Propaganda had not renounced their 
 design — the extirpation of heresy. Did they not proclaim the law- 
 fulness of all treachery against heretics? Did they not brand all 
 those as heretics who rested on the authority of the Bible? Was 
 it not therefore their duty, at all hazards, to destroy the Vaudois ?i" 
 Thus the report spread far that new conflicts were about to arise 
 in these afflicted valleys. ^^ And meanwhile an attempt was made 
 to create division amongst their inhabitants by the vilest insinua- 
 tions. Some Jesuits, who had introduced themselves by pretend- 
 ing to be Protestant refugees from Languedoc, excited the poor 
 people to distrust of their pastors, propagating, with perfidious in- 
 genuity, reports of malversation against those of them who had 
 been intrusted with the distribution of the considerable sums col- 
 
 ' Guichenon, p. 1077. 
 
 * Letter of Louis XIV. to Lesdiguieres, 22d February, 1656. (Leger, p. 2-1:6.) 
 Lesdiguieres himself wrote to the Vaudois on the 4th of March, 1656, sending 
 them Louis XlV.'s letter by a lieutenant-colonel named M. Du Buis, (Id. p. 247.) 
 
 3 On the 28th and 29th of March, 1656. 
 
 * See the letters of the Vaudois in Leger, pp. 248 and 249. 
 
 * This memorial is given by Leger, p. 250, et seq. It contains fifteen articles. 
 « See Art. v., vii., viii. and ix., xi. and xii. of the memorial. 
 
 ' Art. X. L6ger, p. 251. 
 
 ' Art. xiii. The Patents of Grace still authorized this carrying off of children 
 within certain limits, whilst seeming to prohibit it — *' Ifigluoli nonpotranno esse 
 tolti a loro parenti, mentre che sono in eta minore cive li maschi di dodeci, e lefemine 
 di died anni. (Art. xv. of the Patents.) 
 
 * Those of the assassin soldiers who had been apprehended by the peasants, and 
 delivered over to the authorities for justice, promptly obtained their liberty, 
 through the interposition of the Castilian Cordeliers, with whom the valleys were 
 then infested. Their presence also occasioned serious grievances. Leger reports 
 numerous instances of deeds of violence committed by them (pp. 250-266), of which 
 the Swiss ambassadors speak as eye-witnesses. — (Letter of 30th Nov., 1657. Leger, 
 p. 233.) 
 
 *" The designation of the Propaganda assumed it as a duty : ** Congregatio de 
 extirpandis hwreticis." " Leger, p. 247. 
 
584 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 tPART Second. 
 
 CBkV. X.] 
 
 FRLTTLESS BEMONSTRANCES. 
 
 S85 
 
 !t 
 
 lecied in foreign countries.* The calumnies most ready to be 
 credited ai-e those which concern the meanest interests; the unfor- 
 tunate, moreover, are more easily moved to suspicion, and ignorance 
 favoui-s such an attempt. The Vaudois, accordingly, soon presented 
 the melancholy spectacle of intestine divisions and recriminations 
 about pecuniary affaira, whilst yet they had scarcely well escaped 
 from their greatest calamities.^ 
 
 New trials very soon came upon them to re-unite them again 
 against a common danger. The a,uditor Gastaldo, who had been 
 made governor of the valleys, without ceasing to be a member of 
 that body so hostile to the Vaudois— the Propaganda, issued, on the 
 15th of June, 1657, a decree, by which he prohibited them from 
 setting up any kind of worship at St. John, under pain of a fine of 
 1000 crowns of gold for the minister conducting it, and of 200 for 
 every one of his hearers. At the same time new Popish missions 
 were founded in the valleys; the Jesuits got a footing in them 
 everywhere; exemptions from taxation, and other indulgences, 
 were granted to the Catholics and those who had become Catholics, 
 whilst an extreme rigour was shown in the execution of all measures 
 burdensome to the Protestants. The latter were not left, however, 
 without the comfort of receiving lively proofs of the interest with 
 which they were regarded by others. The synod of Dauphiny gave 
 the Vaudois churches marks of its fraternal sympathy by sending 
 them several pastors, but the Piedmontese government took advan^ 
 tage of their foreign origin to expel them from the country. ^ 
 
 In a letter addressed to the Swiss ambassadors who had ne- 
 gotiated the treaty of Pignerol, the Vaudois complained of the 
 increasing annoyances to which they were subjected; and the am- 
 bassadors wrote in their turn to Piedmont to complain of the in- 
 fractions of the treaty.* After mention of the promises relative 
 
 / * i^il';^^''^? estimates the collections in England at two millions of Uvres 
 (p. 1014). Those of Holland amounted, on the 5th of September, 1655, to 640,687 
 florins. These sums were not entirely remitted to the Vaudois pastors ; but a great 
 part remamed m the hands of divers committees charged with their management 
 in London and Geneva. 
 
 2 The complaints of this kind, which, in 1656 alone, were addressed by the Vau- 
 dois to the pastors of Geneva, are more numerous than could have been credited, 
 (bee the Registers of the Venerable Company, vol. K, p. 40, 95, 190, 192, 194, 195 
 198, &c.) The probity of Leger was often called in question ; but he was honour- 
 ably acquitted after an investigation subsequently made into this business. 
 
 Some of them, however, received permission to reside in it on condition of 
 their taking an oath of allegiance to Charles Emmanuel IL, viz., Michael Bourset, 
 of Ussau, in Val Cluson, pastor also of Pragela (which belonged to France), and 
 Armaud of Vagnes, in the Gapen9ois. They took the oath on the 9th of Novem- 
 ber, 16o7, in the palace of the counts of Lucerna. 
 
 * The letter is dated from Zurich, 30th November, 1657. Ifc is signed by the 
 four ambassadors, and is given by Leger, pp. 283 235. 
 
 to the demolition of the fort of La Tour, and the excesses of 
 which the soldiers of that fort were then daily guilty, they said 
 concerning the Vaudois, "What liberty of conscience, then, have 
 they obtained, if the pastors of their churches, for the simple reason 
 of their being foreigners by birth, are compelled to leave them— 
 if all religious service is prohibited where only the right of private 
 worship is demanded— if the Protestants are forbidden to make 
 proselytes, and at the same time are exposed to all the proselytizing 
 endeavours of their adversaries] Finally," they add, "whilst the 
 Vaudois are forbidden to acquire, or even to rent, any property 
 without the limits which are fixed for them, the Catholics are 
 forbidden to sell them those which they possess within these same 
 limits. Now all these things," say they, reminding the Pied- 
 montese government of the treaty of Pignerol, " touch our hearts 
 so much the more sensibly, because we took part, in the name of 
 our lords and superiors, in the framing of that treaty, and are 
 parties interested therein." 
 
 The President Tmchis replied with much ability, to show that 
 the stipulations granted to the Vaudois had not been violated, but 
 that, on the contrary, they themselves had been guilty of not ob- 
 serving them. 
 
 The synod of the Vaudois valleys then drew up a statement of 
 the violations of the treaty which they had to complain of, adding 
 evidence in support of them. This memorial was printed at Haar- 
 lem in 1662, and reprinted in the same town, with new particulars, 
 in 1663. B\it the Piedmontese government was deaf to all these 
 complaints, and seemed only, on the contrary, desirous of giving 
 every day new cause for complaints yet louder. 
 
 In virtue of the sixth article of the Patents of 18th August, 1655, 
 the people of the valleys were to be exempted from paying the out- 
 standing public burdens of that sad year, in which all the crops and 
 every fortune and every family had suffered so deplorably through- 
 out that afflicted country ; yet, in spite of their profound misery, 
 which the product of foreign collections could but very incompletely 
 relieve, these public burdens were rigorously exacted from the 
 Vaudois. Moreover, as if on purpose to render this exaction more 
 flagrantly offensive, an exemption from these very charges was at 
 the same time granted to the Catholics of the valley of St. 
 Martin, " in order," says the decree, " that they may be able to 
 repair the loss which the Protestants have caused them."^ 
 
 It was not, however, with a view of clearing themselves from 
 
 * Accio si possino riTnettere dcUli danni patiti da Religionarii. — Edict of 16th 
 December, 1657. 
 Vol. I. 49 
 
 K 
 

 S86 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Second. 
 
 Chap, x] 
 
 THE COUNT OF SALUCES. 
 
 387 
 
 ^ 
 
 Nil 
 
 these heavy taxes, that the Vaudois at this time made the most 
 urgent applications to the government. A money wound is not a 
 mortal one, said the popular good sense: that only is deadly of 
 which there is no healing; and the prohibition of religious exercises 
 in the parish of St. John was, in their estimation, that mortal 
 wound, from which, therefore, they wished to secure themselves. 
 By this arbitrary prohibition all their churches were menaced at 
 once. The edict of Cavour (1561) guaranteed the free exercise of 
 their worship in all places in which it was then established; St. 
 John was of the number — the patents of Piguerol had neither re- 
 stricted nor enlarged these limits. (Art. vii.) If one of their 
 parishes could be attacked, what security could remain for the 
 rest 1 It is true that public preaching had been forl^idden at St. 
 John since the year 1620, in which the church of Les Malanots 
 was shut up ; but private meetings, the instiniction of catechumens, 
 and the discharge of the other pastoral functions had been always 
 continued there. 
 
 A general synod was held in the month of March, 1658, with 
 reference to this grave question. It decided upon making applica- 
 tion to the sovereign, and that, in the meantime, the pastor of St. 
 John (Leger the historian) should continue to exercise his function 
 until the question submitted to the judgment of the duke should 
 be decided. 
 
 This decision of the synod caused great irritation at the court 
 of Turin. " The fii-st duty of subjects," it was said, "is to obey their 
 prince : in resisting his orders the Yaudois make themselves guilty 
 of rebellion — they must be treated as rebels and guilty of high 
 treason." The Protestant powers,^ to which the synod had written 
 to obtain their intercession in this matter, having addressed the 
 court of Turin with this view, received only a rei)ly expressing still 
 greater inflexibility. " You do not know the people on whose behalf 
 you interest yourself, they are rebels, unworthy of any regard." 
 
 It may readily be supposed that the Propaganda, and the Catho- 
 lic clergy would seek to irritate men's minds rather than to tran- 
 quillize them. The particular object of this iiTitation was Leger, 
 that powerful supporter of the valleys, and courageous pastor, who 
 remained at his post in spite of menaces and dangei-s. Already 
 twice condemned to death,- he braved it still, and his enemies no 
 
 » To wit, the Elector-Palatine, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Landgrave of 
 Hesse, the States-General of the United Provinces (Holland), and the evangeUcal 
 cantons of Switzerland. Their letters were carried by Colonel Holzhalb, in July, 
 1662. (Leger, B. ii. pp. 295, 325-357, and 278-281.) 
 
 2 The first condemnation was on the 23d of May, 1655. It was pronounced 
 
 doubt hoped that this time would be the last. They sent him a 
 citation to appear at Turin; the citation bore no cause assigned, and 
 Leger paid no attention to it. A second summons was not more 
 effectual. The Count of Saluces, who seemed to take a real interest 
 in the Yaudois/ then sought out the minister, and said to him, 
 " You have entered on a wrong course ; why do you not obey this 
 summons? This is to make men believe that you are guilty. A 
 legal order has forbidden public worship in your parish ; why do you 
 not comply with it until it be revoked V "I cannot suspend my 
 pastoral functions in expectation of that revocation," replied the 
 pastor. " The way to obtain it soonest," said his adviser, " would 
 be to plead your cause at Turin." But L6ger refused to go. "At 
 least," said the count, "suspend the public services of your religion 
 tiU a new order be issued." Leger still refused. "Will you," added 
 the count, "contend with a high hand against your sovereign, and 
 do you think he will permit you to prevail against him?" "I con- 
 tend only in the way of right and duty," said Leger. " It is my 
 duty to minister in our congregations ; and it is a right which they 
 exercise when they maintain their worship." Thus war was de- 
 clared; Leger was to be defeated. 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1658, he received a third citation, requiring 
 him to appear under pain of banishment and confiscation of goods. 
 The pastor of St. John thought it proper to consult his brethren 
 
 against twenty-nine inhabitants of the valleys, of whom Leger was one. The edict 
 charged them with having assembled illegally, and with conspiracy in that meeting. 
 (They had only sought, in concert, the means of defending their country.) This 
 condemnation was annulled by the first article of the Patents of Pignerol. 
 
 The second condemnation was pronounced against Leger personally, on the in- 
 formation of an assassin, of whom we have already spoken, and who, to obtain his 
 own pardon, declared that Leger had engaged him to execute the murder which he 
 had committed. The assassin was set at liberty, and Leger was cited to appear 
 before the podestat of Lucerna, in July, 1655. It was at the hottest time of the 
 war ; the citation never came to his hands, and he was condemned for contumacy. 
 A month after, having come to Pignerol during the negotiations which put an end 
 to the war, he was informed of this condemnation. He immediately demanded to 
 be confronted with his accuser; but it was replied that the accuser had been 
 released, and that it was not known where he was to be found. The Vaudois 
 pastor was, however, hastily freed from the sentence under which he lay, and that 
 with as little formality as had attended the pronouncing of it. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Vaudois themselves seized the murderer with whom the accusa- 
 tion had originated, and conducted him to Pignerol ; but the authorities still refused 
 to confront him with Leger, saying to the latter that it was enough for him to be 
 relieved from his condemnation. From this example we may judge what sort ot 
 protection, or even of equity, the Vaudois had to expect from the pretended justice 
 of their adversaries. 
 
 * Generous sentiments seem to be hereditary in this noble family, whose present 
 representatives have recently expressed to an author belonging to the Vaudois 
 valleys the liveliest interest in Lis compatriots. 
 
 / 
 
388 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Skcond. 
 
 as to the course which he should pui-sue. A meeting was held for 
 this purpose in Pinache, a town at that time belonging to France 
 where it was decided that a petition should be presented to Charles 
 Emmanuel to preserve Leger in his congregation. This should 
 have been done at the fii*st ; but it was too late to hope that this 
 petition would be granted now. It was not. Three years were 
 spent in fruitless negotiations; and on the 12th of January, 1661, a 
 decree of the senate of Turin condemned Leger to death, and those 
 who were accused along with him to ten years of the galleys.^ 
 
 No longer able to remain in his native country, Leger withdrew 
 from it to continue his labours in its service; but new trials were 
 reserved for him in foreign lands. In 1659, he had been sent to 
 England to receive the collections made on behalf of the Vaudois. 
 During his absence, the Jesuits, who had made their way into the 
 valleys, under the guise of Protestant refugees, spread the report 
 that the Vaudois pastoi-s in general, and L6ger in particular, had 
 appropriated a great part of this money. The synod of the valleys 
 exposed these impostures ; but the calumniators, not owning them- 
 selves defeated, carried their accusations before the synod of 
 Dauphiny,2 which named a commission to investigate them. This 
 commission proceeded to the valleys in name of the churches of 
 France, which, having contributed to the collections, were entitled 
 to be informed as to the use made of them. A detailed report was 
 presented next year to the synod of Veynes, and by this report the 
 proceedings of the Vaudois pastors were fully justified. 
 
 The complaints were then carried to Geneva, where they were 
 no better received. But the dissatisfaction to which they had 
 given rise in the valleys, amongst the worst-informed persons, 
 having been carefully fomented by the enemies of the Vaudois, 
 some of the latter thought fit to address a petition upon the subject 
 to their sovereign. Thirty-seven persons, drawn from the least 
 enlightened ranks of the population (for more than one-thii-d of 
 them could not write), signed ^ an accusation of peculation, which 
 was thus brought by the Vaudois against their own pastors. They 
 requested that a government officer might be named to inquire 
 into the real amoimt of the collections, and to take charge of their 
 distribution. 
 
 > These were the deacons and elders of the congregation of St. John, named 
 Bianquis, Bastie, Danna, Magnot, Fervout, and Curts. 
 
 2 Held at Die in 1660. There existed at that time a Protestant Faculty of 
 Theology in that town, which was suppressed in 1672. 
 
 * Those who could not write signed by making a simple marJc, generally in the 
 form of a cross ; and the name of the person signing was inscribed by those who 
 prepared the paper opposite the mark which each had made. 
 
 Chap X] 
 
 KlXGLY DISHONESTY. 
 
 S89 
 
 The government afiected to regard this paper as the expression 
 of the general sentiment of the valleys, and Charles Emmanuel im- 
 mediately napied the Count of Lucema to attend to the complaint. 
 The senator Perrachino, intendant-geneml of the court of justice, 
 summoned the Vaudois pastors to give in their accounts to him. 
 It cannot be denied that the distributions were not wholly such as 
 might have been desired ; ^ but certainly it was not for the perse- 
 cuted thus to submit to the control of their persecutors, and the 
 pastoi^s being assembled in synod, replied with dignity that the 
 employment of all the money wliich had passed through their 
 hands would be found to be justified by exact accounts, and that 
 they were ready to produce regular receipts, when and where they 
 might be required. 
 
 Meanwhile Leger, accompanied by two other delegates of the 
 valleys, pursued his labours in England. The period was one of 
 great agitation in Great Britain, where the sceptre had just passed 
 into the feeble and inexperienced hands of Cromwell's son. The 
 Vaudois deputies were witnesses of his fall, and of the return of 
 Charles IL, recalled after twelve years of exile, by the voice of a 
 new parliament, the com-ocation of which was owing to the devoted 
 exertions of the famous General Monk. 
 
 It was to this young sovereign that the Vaudois had to arfdress 
 themselves, to obtain the first annual payment from the consider- 
 able sums which Cromwell had collected on their behalf, and con- 
 verted into an annuity on national security.^ These sums amounted 
 to more than £16,000 sterling; but the new prince refused to 
 account for them, declaring that he would not pay the debts of an 
 usurper. This, however, was not a debt, but a trust ; this money 
 had not been furnished by Cromwell, but by the English Church, 
 and Charles II., in seizing these offerings, was guilty of an usurpa- 
 tion less glorious than that with which he reproached his predeces- 
 sor, but as real. The commissioners of the valleys could, therefore, 
 only recover certain small sums which had been deposited in the 
 hands of private parties.^ 
 
 The bad success of this negotiation was shortly followed, in 
 
 ^ Leger died without having completed a statement of accounts as to the sums 
 which he had received. 
 
 2 By an act signed at Whitehall, 18th May, 1658, Cromwell had assigned to the 
 Vaudois churches a perpetual annuity of £614 sterling, the interest accruing from 
 a capital of £16,333, 10s. 3c?., the balance which remained of collections amounting 
 to £38,241, 10s. 6d., of which the other portion had already been sent to the valleys. 
 
 ' The generous voice of an illustrious protector of the Vaudois, who owes his 
 power to his talents alone, has recently made a successful appeal to tli© British 
 Parliament for the restitution of these funds. 
 
S90 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ATLPS. 
 
 [PaET SEC0H3. 
 
 Leger s case, by a blow still more severe. Libels were published 
 against him.^ He was cited to appear at Turin -^ and on the pre- 
 text that he had travelled to foreign countries to foment bad feel- 
 ing against the Duke of Savoy, he was again condemned to death 
 for the crime of high-treason. Hereupon he retired to Geneva, 
 and thence to Leyden, where he wrote his General History of the 
 Vaudois Churches, which is simply a collection of papers relative to 
 the events of the year 1655. The church of Leyden received him 
 as one of its pastors ; he lived there for a number of years, con- 
 tracted a second marriage in 1665, and ended his days there. ^ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE WAR OF THE OUTLAWS.* 
 
 (A.D. 16G0 TO A.D. 1C64.) 
 
 De Bagnol, commandant of the fort of La Tour— G?t Bandltii— This troop of 
 proscribed and desperate men makes reprisals on the persecutors of the Vaudois 
 — Edict of 25th June, 1663— Treachery and violence— The Vaudois assailed by- 
 troops under the Marquis De Fleury— Defeat of the assailants— Edict of 10th 
 August, 1663— The Vaudois, under Janavel, continue the defensive war— An 
 attempt to divide the Vaudois by getting a few of their number to consent to 
 the conditions of the edict of 10th August —Intervention of foreign Protestant 
 powers. 
 
 Leger and Janavel had been condemned to death. ^ Twenty per- 
 sons had been sent to the galleys, and others had been prosecuted 
 for resisting the orders of the sovereign in the exercise of Protes- 
 tant worship at St. John, where it had been interdicted.^ 
 
 The condemned persons had fled; a price had been set upon their 
 
 * They were taken up and refuted in a special Apology. See sect. I. § ii. No. 3, 
 of the Bibliography at the end of this work. 
 
 - On the 7th of December, 1661, although already condemned to death. 
 
 ' I do not know the precise date of his death, but he no longer survived in 1684; 
 for under date 27th August of that year, there occurs a royal edict which makes 
 mention of the confiscated property of the late John Leger. {Records of the Cowi 
 of Accounts at Turin. Eegio controrolo, Finanze, 1684. No. 179, fol. 55.) 
 
 ♦ AUTHOBITIES.— The same as in Chapter VII., and the introductory parts of 
 most of the works cited as authorities for next chapter. 
 
 * The edict coademning Janavel is dated 25th January, 1661. Fifty persons were 
 condemned to death along with him. A price of 300 ducats was set upon their 
 heads- A fine of 3000 ducats was decreed against the communes which tolerated 
 the outlaws within their bounds. 
 
 • On the 31st of May, 1661, but the interdict was not published in the valleys 
 till the 10th of August. (Leger says the 12th— p. 272.) 
 
 Chap. XI ] COUNT OF BAGNOL'S EXCESSES. 891 
 
 heads, but no one dared to give them up, and force was employed 
 in order to apprehend them ; the officer of justice, Perrachino, put 
 himself at the head of a troop of soldiers, who commenced their 
 exploits by ravaging and plundering. They proceeded to raze 
 Leger's house at St. John, and that of Joshua Janavel at the vine- 
 yards of Lucerna.* 
 
 The command of the fort of La Tour was, moreover, intrusted 
 to the Count of Bagnol, one of those who had been concerned in 
 the massacre of 1655, and who continued a zealous servant of the 
 Propaganda. His soldiers committed all sorts of excesses; they 
 arrested travellers and robbed them, plundered the houses of the 
 Vaudois, carried off their daughters, and killed those who resisted 
 their violence. Many of the poor villagers abandoned their dwell- 
 ings, to seek a safer asylum in the deeper recesses of their moun- 
 tains. The outlaws who had fled thither descended from their 
 iiistnesses to defend their brethren. De Bagnol threatened the 
 severest penalties against all who should receive them. The house 
 of any one who should even give an outlaw anything to eat was 
 to be razed to the ground. Everything possible seemed to be done 
 at that time to irritate the Yaudois. 
 
 The commandant of the fort of Mirabouc followed tlie example 
 of the commandant of La Tour. The governor of Lucema, L^ger 
 tells us,2 was famous for more than sixty mm-ders, committed before 
 the marriage of the Duke of Savoy, on which occasion he had 
 received pardon;^ and as to the Sire De Bagnol, who reigned in 
 his fort over all the valley, we may mention by anticipation, that 
 he died upon the scaffold convicted of 120 odious murders. What 
 could the valleys become in such hands? What opinion can we 
 form of the government which set over them such rulers? 
 
 Janavel, at the head of his troop of outlaws, was their sole de- 
 fender. This troop was rapidly augmented by the addition of all 
 the Vaudois who were driven from their dwellings. They were 
 enjoined to return to them under pain of death and confiscation of 
 goods. Then, under pretext of seizing the confiscated goods, the 
 soldiers extended their ravages and pillage on all sides. The troop 
 of outlaws, called, as at a former time, gli banditti, opposed these 
 expeditions by force. 
 
 It may be imagined what this troop must have become under 
 the conduct of Janavel. Every day was signalized by new exploits, 
 
 » In March, 1662. * Leger, p. 267. 
 
 3 Charles Emmanuel II. had espoused, on the 4th of March, 1663, Frances of 
 Orleans, who died ten months after. He married again, on the 11th of April, 1665, 
 Joan of Savoy, who died on the 15th of March, 1724, forty-nine years after her 
 husbaxxd. 
 
^ — .V .... 
 
 892 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 and all attempts to apprehend liim were fruitless. In vain were 
 the Yaudois ordered to resign their amis into the hands of the 
 magistrates,^ and the former penalties denounced anew against the 
 outlaws; 2 in vain did the Vaudois, on their part, betake them- 
 selves to the intendant of the province ^ and to the sovereign,* to 
 obtain the protection of the law against the robberies of the Count 
 of Baf^nol. It was difficult for those not on the spot to estimate 
 the justice of their complaints ; the authorities could not believe 
 that such crimes were committed, and regarded their complaints as 
 exa'^^-erated. The intendant of the province replied that they must 
 return to their dwellings within the space of three days,^ and 
 Charles Emmanuel promised an investigation concerning the dis- 
 order of which they alleged that they were the victims.^ Mean- 
 while, De Bagnol continued his extortions and violence. 
 
 The troop degli banditti defended the poor mountaineers ; but they 
 could not subsist without levying contributions on their part also, 
 which they did most frequently on the Catholic villages. Janavel 
 seized on several of these, laid siege to others,^ and took ransoms 
 for Catholics of the plain to sustain the persecuted people of the 
 mountains. He sometimes pursued his adversaries to the walls of 
 Lucerna and Briqueras. There was no day, says Leger, on which 
 some action did not take place » between these warlike troops and 
 those of the Marquis De Fleury or Captain Pool, who commanded 
 the forces of the province; the latter, notwithstanding their num- 
 bers, being always worsted in their conflicts with Janavel. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1CG3, however, the Vaudois were driven 
 back from the quarter of Les Malanots, wliich they occupied at 
 St. John, as far as the hills of Angrogna; but there, assuming the 
 offensive in their turn, they charged their pursuers so impetuously, 
 that they drove them back again over all the ground which they 
 had gained, and even into the fort itself In none of the encoun- 
 ters which took place in 1655, says a letter of that period, did the 
 Vaudois kill a greater number of the enemy than in that affair. 
 
 Another skirmish took place on the 17th of June, in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of La Tour. The combat, says a letter of the 21st, 
 lasted the whole day ; and the Vaudois from the upper part of the 
 
 * Order of 10th December, 1660, cited in the Conferences tenues a Turin en 
 1664, p. 24. - 25th January, 1661. (Leger, p. 290.) 
 
 3 13th and 22d May, 16G3. * 26th and 30th May, 1663. 
 
 5 19th and 24th May, 1663. • 31st May, 1663. 
 
 ' We only know these facts from the preamble of the edict of 25th June, 1C63. 
 
 * Part II. p. 302. Leger, so prolix in other things, is laconic to the utmost as 
 to historic facts. " I omU," he says, ** a multitude of notable encounters,'^ &c. (p. 
 303). " / shall not spend time in relating the remarkable victories,''^ &c. (p. 299). 
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 DUCAL CLEMENCY. 
 
 valley^ having arrived upon the ground without being aware that 
 a fight was going on, flung themselves into the midst of the enemy, 
 and killed a number of them without sustaining any loss. 
 
 But, as the bringing of military forces against the valleys had no 
 other ostensible object than to aj^prehend men who had been out- 
 lawed by a judicial sentence, it was held a crime in the Vaudois to 
 support their defenders, as if they had been guilty of favouring the 
 escape of criminals. More than once the syndics of the communes 
 were obliged to repudiate all connection with the troop degli banditti. 
 On the 25th of June (1663), the Duke of Savoy, wishing to 
 inspire the Vaudois with admiration of his unexpected goodness,- 
 issued a long edict, which, under pretext of pacifying the valleys, 
 ordained them all to take up arms and make war vipon the out- 
 laws. Two hundred and sixty men, drawn from different com- 
 munes,^ were appointed to assemble at Le Chiabas, opposite to La 
 Tour, and to await the orders of the commandant of Briqueras. 
 Each commune was, besides, to give an hostage as security for its 
 loyalty. An investigation was to be commenced at Turin, under 
 the direction of the Count De Bagnol ; and to crown all these bene- 
 factions, his highness pardoned all the Protestants, on condition of 
 their returning to their dwellings within the space of fifteen days. 
 By the same edict, the preamble of which expressed so much 
 benignity, Joshua Janavel was condemned to have his flesh torn 
 with red-hot pincers, to be quartered, and to have his head cut ofi* 
 and planted on the top of a pike in an elevated place. The sen- 
 tence of death against Leger was reiterated ; a person named Ai*tus, 
 one named Bastie, one named Rivoire, two named Muston, one 
 named Revel, and a number of others, amounting to thirty-five 
 persons in all, were condemned to death and confiscation of goods. 
 These were the most intrepid leaders of the little Vaudois army. 
 Six persons also were condemned to the galleys for life, and four to 
 be put in irons for ten years. And it was actually proposed that 
 the Vaudois themselves should take the lives of their own leaders 
 and pastors ! And this was called a clemency worthy of admii-a- 
 tion ! We may judge what must have been the severity of those 
 who deemed it so. 
 
 The governor of La Tom^ and the treasurer-ojeneral of his hijxh- 
 ness urged the Vaudois, in the most pressing manner, to accept these 
 
 ' From Le Villar and from Bohi. 
 Volendo .... dar occasione agli religionarj di restar ammirativi d^una 
 henignita,tantodaessiinaspettata. . . . Preamble of the edict of 25th June 16G3. 
 
 ^ Bobi and Bora were to furnish fifty of them, Le Villar fifty, La Tour siity, 
 and Angrogna one hundred. 
 
 Vol. I. 5Q 
 
394 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [i'aet Second. 
 
 terms. They had eight days to make up their minds. But if ever 
 there was dignity in silence, it was on this occasion. The Vau- 
 dois allowed the duke's ultimatum to remain unanswered. The 
 commune of Prarusting alone declined all responsibility for the 
 proceedings of the valley of Lucerna.^ The seigneurs of the neigh- 
 bourhood did their utmost to augment this division, to obtain the 
 acceptance of the conditions of the edict by at least a part of the 
 Vaudois. Not being able to obtain this, they particularly insisted 
 that the inhabitants of the vaUey of Lucerna should give a proof 
 of their peaceful and loyal disposition by escorting a convoy, which 
 it was proposed to send, for the revictualling of the fort of Mira- 
 bouc. This fort commands the narrowest part of the valley of 
 Luceraa, and shuts up the pass by which Dauphiny may be reached, 
 whither, it will be remembered, that the Vaudois had oftener than 
 once retired in time of persecution. 
 
 It was not without some hesitation that, by conveying warlike 
 stores to this foii;, they contributed to close this retreat against 
 themselves in the event of their utmost need of it. But the pro- 
 testations of the governor of La Tour and the treasm^er-general 
 were irresistible. " In return for this act of submission," said they 
 to the Vaudois, " the most complete peace will be granted you. 
 Brines back vour families to their dwellings, and entertain no 
 anxiety as to the future." 
 
 The Vaudois were already conforming to these advices, when all 
 at once they received information that troops were being secretly 
 sent out fi'om Turin. And they very soon learned that these 
 troops were marching against them. In fact, six regiments of 
 Eoyal Guards had left the capital on the 29th of June, under the 
 command of the Marquis De Fleury. This anny had therefore set 
 out eleven days before the expiration of the time allowed to the 
 Vaudois for returning to their dwellings, and four days before the 
 time when they were to make their reply as to the conditions of 
 the edict. It came to be afterwards known that reinforcements of 
 troops had been secretly directed to Lucerna and La Tour ^ even 
 before this edict was published. It is a vain attempt, there- 
 fore, wliich is made to justify the aggression upon the Vaudois by 
 saying, that the duke meant to punish the inhabitants of the val- 
 leys for not having conformed to the edict of the 25th of June, 
 since the assailants were already on the march, not only before the 
 Vaudois could make known their intentions in this respect, but 
 even before they had heard of the edict. 
 
 » Resolution adopted at the General Council of St. Segont, sitting of 1st July, 1663. 
 2 Investigations. Conferences tenues a VHdtel de VUle, a Turin, en 1664, p. 57. 
 
 Chap. XL] 
 
 THE VALLEYS AGAIN INVADED. 
 
 895 
 
 The Marquis De Fleury marched direct upon Angrogna, taking 
 the road by St. John. The Marquis of Angrogna,^ commandmg 
 the cavalry of St. Segont, bent his course towards the same pomt 
 by the heights of Rocheplate, whilst the infantry ascended to it by 
 the liills of Briqueras. These bodies of troops united at daybreak 
 on the higher plain to which these different roads conduct. This 
 was on the 6th of July, 1663. Their object was to seize on the 
 Vachere, which rises above the plain, and commands, from its cen- 
 tral position, the openings of the three Vaudois valleys.^ But 
 a corps of observation, placed by the Vaudois, defended this im- 
 portant post. 
 
 The bulk of the Vaudois army, commanded by Janavel, occupied 
 a position farther down, on the borders of St. John. It was there- 
 fore threatened with the danger of being attacked in the rear by 
 the troops of the Marquis De Fleury. At the same time those of 
 the Count De Bagnol would have assailed it in front, ascending the 
 valley at once on the side of La Tour and on the side of St. John. 
 They accomplished this movement, and effected their junction in 
 
 Janavel's sight. 
 
 The Vaudois patriot recoiled before forces superior to his own. 
 Arriving at the summit of the slope, he found it already occupied 
 by the enemy, who cut off all his communication with his rear- 
 gliard, which had just been moving in the direction of the Va- 
 chere. Never had Janavel been in a situation of greater danger; 
 his destruction might have been deemed inevitable; it appeared as 
 if nothing but a miracle could save him. But Janavel's trust in 
 God was unshaken, and in him the confidence of the Christian was 
 as eminently displayed as the intrepidity of the warrior. 
 
 With that perfect knowledge of the locality which he possessed 
 above every other man, and that coolness which never forsook him 
 in presence of danger, he sent sixty men into a defile caUed the 
 Gates of Angrogna, opening upon the Uttle plain then occupied by 
 the Marquis De Fleury. " There," said he, " you may arrest an 
 army, and you wiU cover at once the Vachere and Rochemanant. 
 Go and pray, and be resolute." Then, continuing to fall back before 
 the lines of the Count De Bagnol, he arrived at those impregnable 
 precipices called Rochemanant, having with him only about 600 
 men. ^'Here is our Tabor," said he to his men; "to your knees 
 and take courage 1" The bible-reading warrior recollected the 
 victories of Barak and Deborah. His men had got ahead of the 
 
 » Of the family of the Counts of Lucerna. 
 
 2 Those of Angrogna and Lucerna on one side, those of Pramol and Perouse on 
 another, those of Fact and St. Martin on a third. 
 
S96 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Second. 
 
 CSAP. XlJ 
 
 THE VAUDOIS VICTORIOUS. 
 
 S97 
 
 enemy; they fell upon their knees. "O God!" exclaimed their 
 leader, " shield us by thy mighty hand ! " 
 
 But the enemy approached. The Vaudois spread themselves 
 amon» the rocks; they barred every entrance; and from every 
 aperture issued their death-dealing bullets. De Bagnol paused, 
 and examined the ground. After having given his troops some 
 repose, he attempted to carry the post, but was repulsed. The 
 troops drew breath and returned to the assault ; they were repulsed 
 a second time. The count had already lost more than 300 men, 
 and his army could do nothing against a rock. He attempted to 
 scale it, but his soldiers were flung down one above another. Then 
 a supei'stitious terror seized them. Could it be true that these 
 heretics had made a compact with the devil to be made invulner- 
 able] It was even said that the Vaudois collected in the folds 
 of their shirts all the bullets which pierced their garments, with- 
 out their bodies being injured. Janavel, indeed, had been pierced 
 through and through in 1 G55 ; but that wound, which would have 
 been mortal in any one else, had left him valiant and vigorous. 
 These thoughts, more or less strongly entertained, and more or 
 less general, were indicated by the increasing hesitation of the 
 Catholic troops. The Vaudois perceived it, and made a vigorous 
 sortie. "Let us sweep away these hordes of cowards at once," 
 said Janavel. And his experienced warriors rushed from all the 
 places in which they were intrenched. The enemy gave way and 
 disbanded. The Vaudois, sword in hand, pursued with vigour. 
 The Count of Bagnol in vain sought to oppose the rout, in which 
 he himself was carried along; his soldiei*s rushed in a disorderly 
 manner to the lateral slopes of the mountain; ten Vaudois put 
 a hundred of theii* enemies to flight. The latter did not halt till 
 they had reached the plain ; many of them perished as th^y fled ; 
 the whole mountain was swept clean of its invaders. 
 
 Janavel now rallied his heroic army, mounted to the higher 
 ground, gave thanks to God for the victory which he had just 
 gained ; and then all exhausted with fatigue, went to rejoin the 
 sixty men whom he had sent to the Gate.'f of Angrogna to protect 
 his rear-guard. 
 
 As he had anticipated, these sixty men had sufficed to keep in 
 check, since morning, all the forces of the Marquis De Fleury. 
 They had intrenched themselves behind an earthen bank five feet 
 high ; this barrier crossing the defile, sheltered them, and permitted 
 them to make continual discharges against the front of the enemy. 
 But the enemy had also natural bastions which served them for 
 bulwarks; and jfrom rock to rock, they had come almost, it might 
 
 hG said, to surround this little post of the Vaudois. One eflbiii 
 more and the post would be earned, the defile passed, the Vachere 
 occupied, and the valley lost. The Vaudois perceived this, and 
 sent an emissary to Janavel to obtain some reinforcement. But 
 Janavel had already cleared the ground of the Count De Bagnol, 
 and arrived in person with all his troop. 
 
 Thenceforth the advantage was no longer doubtful. Whilst 
 Janavel attacked the flank of the enemy's army, the Vaudois, who 
 had so long remained without moving in their defile, now issued 
 from it with great ardour. Nothing so raises the spirits of troops 
 as the certainty of success. With Janavel's help and their con- 
 fidence in God they had no doubt of the result. The enemy, on 
 the other hand, seeing this redoubted captain arrive with his 600 
 men, imderstood that the Count De Bagnol was already vanquished. 
 Nothing deprives men of courage like the contagion of a defeat. 
 The Marquis De Fleury, likewise, now saw his army yield and dis- 
 band before these new assailants. The intrepidity of the Vaudois 
 increased; victory declared for them; the Catholics everywhere 
 took to flight, and poured their confused legions over all the 
 hills of Angrogna, St. Segont, and Briqueras. They left as many 
 dead upon the field of battle as the Vaudois had of combatants 
 altogether. More than 600 men were killed, more than 400 were 
 wounded, and the greater part of these died of their wounds, whilst 
 the evangelical party lost only five or six men, and had only 
 twelve wounded, of whom none died. 
 
 Having pursued his adversaries half-way do^vn the hill, Janavel 
 paused, and his 600 warriors knelt around him, to give united 
 thanks to God for the victory, and for having so completely de- 
 livered them. 
 
 They were only at a very short distance from the communes of 
 Prai-usting and Bocheplate, which a few days before had detached 
 themselves from the common cause of the Vaudois. But seeinjr 
 the victory gained by their brethren, the people of these communes 
 now went in purruit of the enemy's troops ; so that after prayer, 
 Janavel led his little army into these villages thus brought back 
 to their alliance, in order to fraternize with the auxiliaries who 
 had issued from them. 
 
 Less considerable encoimters and skirmishes, in which he had 
 almost always the advantage, still signalized his operations on the 
 following days; so that ho not only diminished the forces of the 
 enemy, but every day he augmented his own; for besides the 
 Vaudois, who ranged themselves in greater and greater numbers 
 under his command, many French Protestants hastened to the 
 
398 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Second. 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 OVERTURES OF PEiCE. 
 
 899 
 
 I 
 
 support of their brethren.^ Tlie reverses of the Marquis De Fleury 
 became numerous in proportion; and, as it seemed to the court of 
 Savoy impossible that, with the considerable forces which had been 
 placed under liis command, this general ought not to have suc- 
 ceeded in bringing into subjection a handful of rebels (for so our 
 heroic mountaineers are always called), the command of the troops 
 directed against the Vaudois was taken from him, and the Count 
 of St. Damian was sent in his stead. 
 
 The Count of St. Damian augmented his army by some new 
 recruits, and commenced his operations by setting out from Lucerna 
 at the head of 1500 men, to take possession of the little commune 
 oi Eora. It was at that time defended only by fifteen Vaudois 
 and eight French, in all twenty-three men ! They were posted in 
 an advantageous position, but what could they do against 1500 
 assailants? They did much : they did more than the victors ! They 
 fought for six hours, and were cut in pieces with the exception of 
 only one man, who was taken prisoner. 
 
 Inflated with his success, St. Damian, on the following day, 
 made a sortie into the valley of Lucerna. But scarcely had he 
 arrived at the village of St. Margaret, to which his soldiei-s set 
 fire, when the Vaudois, to the number of 200, descended from the 
 heights of Le Taillaret, so often assailed, and never assailed with sue- 
 ces^. They came upon his troop by the ravine which descends 
 from Les Copiers, put it to flight, killed many of the incendiaries, 
 and on their own side had neither killed nor wounded. 
 
 Charles Emmanuel, seeing that this intestine war wa^ taking a 
 turn so disastrous for him, and beginning to understand that the 
 unskilfidness of his generals was not the only cause, thought that 
 he might succeed better by intimidating these valleys, so devoted 
 to their religion and so valiant in its defence. With this view he 
 published, on the 10th of August, 1663, an edict, in which he began 
 by declaring all the inhabitants of the valleys rebels, and guilty of 
 high-treason, and accordingly condemned them to death, with con- 
 fiscation of goods. There is nothing very formidable in a sentence 
 of death pronounced upon those whom it has been found impossible 
 to vanquish, and who slay more of their enemies than there are 
 living men of themselves. These declai-ations, however, were merely 
 a preface to numerous exceptions, by which the duke hoped to 
 disunite this warlike and faithful people in order to bring them to 
 
 » An edict, printed and placarded at Grenoble, 21st July, 1663, by M. De La 
 Berchere, First President of the ParUament of Dauphiny, interdicted aU subjects 
 of the King of France from going to take paH with those of the pretended re/omcd 
 religion in the valley of Angrogna, and from giving them any assistance. 
 
 a readier submission. But the Vaudois did not accept this edict, 
 which kept in force the condemnation of their most valiant com- 
 patriots and most devoted defenders. 
 
 The war continued. After having weakened his adversaiies, 
 Janavel assumed the oflensive against them. He pui'sued the 
 Count of St. Damian to his very head-quarters, and afterwards 
 renewed his incursions into the plain. The town of Lucerna 
 demanded the protection of walls ^ to shield it from this terrible 
 invader. The works were commenced, but a new attack of the 
 mountaineers interrupted them. 
 
 We can here only make hasty mention of the principal of those 
 little expeditions which took place during the rest of the year. 
 The Vaudois made an incui'sion on Bubiano and were repulsed : 
 the enemy made one towards Le Villar and was repulsed. St. 
 Damian prepared an ambuscade in the district of the vineyai-ds of 
 Lucerna; but he allowed himself to be surprised there, and his 
 troops were cut in pieces. 
 
 The army of the Propaganda was disheartened, the duke's 
 finances were exhausted, and new overtures were made to the 
 heroic mountaineers. Peace was ofiered them upon condition that 
 they should lay down their arms, that there should be no question 
 about religion, and that each community of the valleys should, in 
 all time coming, send up its petitions by itself. This would have 
 been, on their part, to cease to be a people, a church, or a body, 
 whose parts are all mutually responsible amongst themselves ; it 
 would have been to break up their unity. The Vaudois understood 
 this, and these conditions were still rejected. 
 
 However, they wrote from the valleys, "Our poor people are 
 very miserable ; our men have been long constrained to live under 
 arms, feeding on bread and water, and worn out by continual 
 fatigue. God have pity upon us ! But we will resolutely resist. 
 The very children in the streets may be heard saying that they 
 would rather die in the caverns than abandon their religion.'*^ 
 The melancholy facts becoming known in foreign countries, the 
 Protestant powers were moved by them, and collections began to 
 be made for the unfortunate Vaudois.^ 
 
 The Piedmontese rulers, unable to reduce them by arms, at- 
 
 * This demand is dated 11th September, 1663. 
 
 ■ Letter of 2d September, 1663, addressed to Leger, who was then at Leyden. 
 
 ' These collections were stopped by the report (of which this circumstance proves 
 the great prevalence) of the peculations committed at the time of the previous dis- 
 tributions. But these charges referred to 1655 : they had then been found false ; 
 collections had been again made in 1662 ; how could these charges arise anew be- 
 tween 1662 and 1663 ? This is now very difficult to clear up. 
 
 
■^ ■*' 
 
 II 
 
 400 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Second. 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 PROTESTANT POWERS INTERCEDE. 
 
 401 
 
 tempted to gain tiieir piiq^ose by creating division amongst them. 
 Six Vaudois, live of whom could not sign their own names (but 
 the reality of whose assent is attested by a captain of the guards of 
 his royal highness, a Capuchin missionary, and the prefect of Pig- 
 nerol), in their ignorant simplicity, and perhaps through the use 
 of undue means, permitted themselves to be drawn into an incon- 
 siderate procedure which favoured these designs. They agreed to 
 a declaration by which, making a full and entire submission to the 
 will of his royal highness, they implored his clemency, disavowed 
 the conduct of their brethren in taking up arms, and accepted the 
 conditions of the edict of the 10th of August.^ 
 
 History would take no notice of incidents in themselves so 
 unworthy to occupy it, if the most insignificant occurrences, and 
 the meanest tricks, had not sometimes been the grand resort of the 
 goveniment in pursuance of that cowardly, cruel, and deceitful 
 papal policy which often prevailed over the natural nobility and 
 goodness of the princes of Savoy. 
 
 Some historians tell us, that the persons who signed this paper 
 had no other object than to obtain for themselves a few days' truce, 
 to enable them to gather the grapes, then hanging ripe, without 
 being disquieted at their work.^ But the ducal coimcil treated the 
 declaration of these five people of Prarusting as a consequence, a 
 ratification, and a development of that resolution to which the 
 whole commune had agreed at St. Segont on the 1st of July, after- 
 wards annulled on the 6th of August, when the troops of Janavel 
 fiaternized with the inhabitants of Rocheplate and Prarusting. 
 
 The people of these communes protested against such an inter- 
 pretation; and the five persons themselves who had signed retracted 
 the declaration which they had made, saying that it had been ob- 
 tained from them by surprise.^ It might have been thought that 
 tlie matter would now have been at an end ; if so, it would never 
 have been mentioned here. 
 
 The notary who drew up the paper, and the witnesses for the 
 adherents who could not sign their names, maintained the validity 
 of that deed,^ notwithstanding the protestation of the reputed sub- 
 scribers, who withdrew their names from it. 
 
 During the time of these pitiful debates, these abortive attempts 
 at division and dishonourable negotiations, which could be brought 
 to no issue, disorder spread in the valleys; acts of private revenge 
 
 • » This declaration bears date 27th September, 1G63. 
 
 * Leger, Part II. p. 301, paragraph 3. 
 
 3 This retractation is dated 3d October, 1G63. 
 
 * This new document is dated 8th October, 1663. 
 
 I 
 
 were mingled with those of public defence ; the Count De Bagnol 
 and his robber troops conducted themselves at La Tour as if they 
 had been in a conquered country; discontentment extended every- 
 where; the wretchedness of the people increased rather than 
 diminished; and, to crown their hardshij)s, the severity of winter 
 began to come upon the mountains, aggravating still more the ter- 
 rible afflictions with which they were visited. 
 
 Fortunately, the Protestant powers of Germany, Holland, and 
 Switzerland had already addressed urgent representations to Charles 
 Emmanuel in favour of the Vaudois. The Propaganda, on the 
 other hand, exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent them from 
 being considered otherwise than as rebels and malefactors; but, 
 notwithstanding all their activity in exciting imtatiori, and assist- 
 ing to provide for the expense of this war, the Duke of Savoy, 
 whose intelligence was too great, and his disposition too noble, not 
 to regard many things in it with dislike, showed an inclination to 
 receive the ambassadors of the powers that had undertaken the 
 part of mediators; and they arrived at Turin in November, 1663.^ 
 
 A safe-conduct was immediately despatched to the Vaudois, that 
 they might be able to send commissioners to Turin. But the pre- 
 amble of this document was not of a nature to re-assure them. 
 *• Being desirous," said the duke, "that it should be manifest to 
 people of other countries that our subjects are rebels, and that we 
 have all cause for chastising them, we authorize those of them to 
 come to Turin who may be designated by the secretary of legation, 
 attached to the extraordinary embassy of the six Protestant can- 
 tons of Switzerland."^ Such was the substance of this document. 
 For the Vaudois to have taken advantage of it would have been 
 to have owned themselves really rebels; they feared, moreover, 
 that it might have been to expose themselves to some surprise like 
 those of which they had so frequently been the victims. They 
 refused, therefore, to send any commissioner to Turin. *• You see," 
 
 * Leger says, on the 15th of December. Part II. chapter xxiii. p. 304, para- 
 graph 2.) But this date is proved inaccurate by what follows in the next page of 
 the same author ; and that which I give rests upon the authority of the safe-con- 
 duct granted to the Vaudois, that they might he able securely to present themselves 
 hefore the ambassadors already arrived at Turin; and this safe-conduct is dated the 
 14th of November. These ambassadors must, therefore, have arrived in the month 
 of November : to wit, those from Switzerland ; * the ambassador from Holland 
 arrived later ; and as Leger was at Leyden, it may be supposed that this circum- 
 stance led him into his mistake. Boyer, and almost all subsequent writers, have 
 copied his inaccuracies. 
 
 2 Raccolta dagV Editti, p. 136. 14th November, 1663. 
 
 * MM. Caspar d Hirzel, grand councillor of the canton of Zurich, and former prefect of Thur- 
 pau, and Gabriel Weiss, grand councillor of Berne, and former colonel of a Swiss regiment iu the 
 service of the republic of Venice. 
 
 Vol. I. fil 
 
402 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sbcoitt), 
 
 Caxv. XIl] 
 
 CONFERENCES AT TURIN. 
 
 403 
 
 the Piedmontese rulers then said to the ambassadors, "they dare 
 not come, they have nothing to say in their own defence ; they are 
 avowed rebels ! Is not their refusal to appear before ns a proof of 
 their contempt for their sovereign? Is it not an insult to Swit- 
 zerland itself?*'^ The secretary of legation set out in person for 
 the valleys, re-assured the Vaudois, and returned to the capital 
 accompanied by their eight deputies.* 
 
 And now the conferences, of which we must proceed to speak, 
 were opened at the town's-house of Turin. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 MEDIATION OF SWITZERLAND; TREACHERY OF ST. DAZHIAN; 
 CONFERENCES AT THE TOWN'S-HOUSE OF TURIN; ARBITRA- 
 TION OF LOUIS XIV.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1664 TO A.D. 1680.) 
 
 Conferences between the ambassadors of the Protestant cantons of Switzerland and 
 delegates of the Duke of Savoy — Complaints against the Count De Bagnol — His 
 defence — Charges brought against the Vaudois — The question of public worship 
 at St. John — Treacherous invasion of the valleys during the conferences — 
 Further negotiations — Terms agreed upon — Difficulties still renewed— Death 
 of Charles Enmianuel II. 
 
 The six Protestant cantons of Switzerland having sent MM. Weiss 
 and Hirzel to the Duke of Savoy, to mediate in favour of the 
 
 * These imputations are not set down on presumption ; they are a faithful sum- 
 mary of the official speech made by the Baron De Greysi, on the part of his royal 
 highness, to the Swiss ambassadors. This speech is reported in the Histoire des 
 Conferences de 1664, p. 217. 
 
 2 These were David Legei', pastor at Le Clos (Val St. Martin), the brother of 
 the exiled John Leger; James Bastiey pastor at St. John ; Peter Baile, pastor at 
 St. Germain; Andrew Micfielin, syndic of La Tour; David Martinat, delegate 
 from Bobi ; James Jahier, of Pramol, and the Lawents, father and son, of Les Clots 
 or Chiots, in the parish of ViUe Sdche. 
 
 » Authorities. — ** Conferences f aides a TuHn, dans V Hostel de Ville, en pre- 
 sence de MM. les Ambassadeurs Suisses, entre les ministres de S. A, B., et les 
 deputes des valUes de Luserne, a la fin de VannSe, 1663, et au commencement de 
 la courante, 1664. A Turin, MDCLXIV." (A small folio of 232 pages.)— *'Becit 
 de ce qu'il y a de plus considerable aux affaires des Eglises riform^es des valUes de 
 
 Piedmonty depuis les massacres de 1655, jouTde la copi^ imprimee 
 
 "a Eaerleniy 1663." (A small 4to of iv. and 60 pages. The title is very long, and 
 contains a complete analysis of the work.) — " Tr^s-humble remontrance, touchant le 
 pitoydble estat oit se trouvent a present riduittes les pauvres Eglises Evangiliques 
 des vallees de Piemond, a cause de VaZteration et violaiion de leurs concessions, et 
 
 Vaudois, and Cliarles Emmanuel having authorized^ conferences 
 between these ambassadors and his own deputies, to examine 
 into the complaints made by the valleys against the governor 
 of La Tour,^ these conferences took place in the town*s-house of 
 
 Turin. 
 
 They were opened on the 17th of December, 1663,^ in presence 
 of the Swiss ambassadors, eight Vaudois deputies, and the deputies 
 of Charles Emmanuel commissioned to justify the measures adopted 
 by their sovereign. These last commenced by stating, according to 
 their own view of them, the events which led to the war, which, 
 according to them, had no other cause than the repeated rebellions 
 of the Vaudois. The Vaudois deputies replied that the real cause 
 of the conflicts, which they deplored, was to be found in successive 
 aggressions, and in the continual acts of violence of the governor 
 of La Tour. It was necessary, therefore, to enter into the inves- 
 tigation of the complaints brought against the Count De Bagnol. 
 
 A great number of documents were produced on both sides. 
 The Vaudois instanced murders,* robberies,^ tortures,* and acts of 
 violence of every sort committed by the count.^ The count replied 
 on these various heads, ^ that the murders of which he was accused 
 had been committed either by accident, or through the private 
 revenge of those under his command; and that if any other persons 
 had been killed, it could only be such as had been outlawed, and 
 whom no one was bound to regard. And in conclusion, he added, 
 that if the murders had not been committed upon the persons of 
 
 paiiic. de la patente de 1655, faite en Novemhre, 1661, a Haarlem . , . Van 
 1662" (4to, 12 leaves, not paged). — **Apologie des Eglises 4vangeliques des vallees de 
 Piemont, faite en defense de Jean LigerJ* This Apology was drawn up by the 
 "Vaudois Synod, held at Les Malans, in the valley of Angrogna, on the 13th of 
 September, 1661. L6ger speaks of it in Part II. chap. xix. It was he who got it 
 printed at Greneva: see p. 371, near the bottom. — A similar pamphlet, which I 
 have not been able to procure, is entitled, " Les Assemblies sur les affaires des Pro- 
 testants des vallees de Piedmont." — See also, on the same subject, " Belation d'une 
 ambassade des cantons ivangiliques de la Suisse, au Due de Savoi^, dans le xvii. e 
 sUcle, au svjet des Vaudois." (Bew£ Suisse, t. iii. p. 260.)— The general histories 
 of the Vaudois and contemporaneous works. — The manuscript sources of informa* 
 tion are few in number, and are to be found at Turin, in the Archives of the Court, 
 
 * By edict of 10th August, 1663. « The Count De Bagnol. 
 
 3 They were held on the 17th, 21st, 30th, and 3l8t of December, 1663, the 6th, 
 16th, and 20th of January, 1664. The minutes have been printed. 
 
 * Hist, des Conferences, p. 6, No. i.; p. 12, No. xvi.; p. 24, &c. 
 ^ Id. pp. 10-13, Nos. vi., vii., viii., ix., xvi., xvii., and xx, 
 
 * Id. p. 12, No. XV. and p. 23, Nos. xviii. and xix. 
 
 ^ Against women. Hist, des Conferences, p. 30; against property, pp. 8, 10, and 
 13; against inoffensive persons, abused out of religious hatred, pp. 16 and 17; 
 without known motives, p. 22; by threats, p. 11, No. xii.; p. 12, Nos. xiv., xv., 
 xvi.; by injurious words, p. 9, No. ii.; p. 10, No. iv., &c. 
 
 * By a memorial in justification, not by speech. 
 
 II 
 
404 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second, 
 
 Chap. XII ] 
 
 CHARGES AGAINST THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 405 
 
 Ifl 
 
 It 
 
 '!i 
 
 the outlaws themselves, they must have been committed upon 
 some of their friends or near relatives.^ This singular defence could 
 scarcely have the eflfect of placing his scinipulosity in such matters 
 above suspicion. 
 
 As to the other points, he continued, if there have been houses 
 broken open, and homes violated, as is alleged, these were only 
 domiciliaiy visits made for the purpose of seeing that none of the 
 outlaws were concealed there.- "Moreover," adds his defence, 
 " there arrived other soldiers in the valleys after the 25th of June, 
 so that the accused cannot answer for the outrages which may have 
 been committed there. "^ He positively denied the injurious lan- 
 guage and threats* which were ascribed to him; but he acknow- 
 ledged that he had in his service a band of ravagers, intended to 
 oppose those of the valleys.^ "In short," concluded the memorial 
 which was presented in- his name, "the Sieur De Bagnol has 
 laboured with all mildness, and with particular care to keep tlie 
 valleys in peace, and to preserve them from intercourse with the 
 outlaws who have rushed into such an inexcusable rebellion." These 
 last words were an insinuation intended to make the position of 
 the Vaudois in the conference more unfavourable; but we may 
 judge of the very particular care which he had taken of their repose 
 by the troop of hired ravagers, whom he acknowledged that he 
 had in his pay, for the purpose of plundering and robbing them. 
 
 The Vaudois were thereafter formally accused of a multitude of 
 offences ; and it is with pain that we see how questions of form and 
 etiquette were put in the balance — in the case of these poor moun- 
 taineers, against crimes alleged to have been committed in the most 
 revolting manner — by the very magistrates whose duty it was to 
 have prevented them. 
 
 The following is a summary of these accusations: — "You ought 
 to have sought legal redress for the acts of violence of which you 
 complain ; not having done so, you have failed in compliance with 
 every rule of law." "We would have sought legal redress," it was 
 replied,^ "but they refused to attend to our complaints." "You 
 ought to have done so sooner, for then the crimes alleged could not 
 have been longer persevered in." "We informed concerning thera 
 previously, but no reply was made to us." " You should have 
 applied to the council of the sovereign." "We did so, begging that 
 it would ascertain for itself, and repress the violence to which we 
 were subjected." "That was not the right way; this does not 
 
 > Confirences, pp. 4£^52, and p. 54. * See Conferences, pp. 49-52, and p. 54. 
 3 Id. p. 57. ♦ Id. p. 56. * Id. p. 58. 
 
 • They Lad done so on tlio 2Glh of May, 1663. 
 
 belong to the council; you have failed to comply with all legal 
 forms and rules of procedure." Such was the substance of the 
 discussion on this point. 
 
 As to the celebration of public worship at St. John, contrary to 
 the ordei-s of the sovereign, the Vaudois maintained that these 
 ordei-s themselves were contrary to their privileges. They proved 
 by former edicts that they were authorized to celebrate that 
 worship; and this subject brought on a new discussion on the 
 value of these edicts, the extent of these privileges, and the limits 
 of the places in which religious exercises were authorized, according 
 to the usages (il solito) which regulated that matter ; and all these 
 questions were debated at great length. 
 
 It is worth while, however, to observe to what quirks the adver- 
 saries of the Vaudois were reduced, to confound, by chicanery, the 
 simple and honest good sense of these poor persecuted people. 
 Certainly, if it had been possible to have reproached them with 
 a crime, with any serious offence or delinquency, the accusation 
 would not have been awanting. A strong effort was made to do 
 so ; but their replies, in this respect, were too peremptory to leave 
 any ground for the accusation. 
 
 They were reproached, for example, with having formed a camp 
 at the Pi-a, and attacked the citadel of La Tour; but, after inves- 
 tigation, it was discovered (1) that this pretended camp was only a 
 sheepfold, and (2) that some children having rolled stones down the 
 hill of La Tour, these stones had struck the ramparts of the citadel, 
 and that the attack of which they were accused consisted of nothing 
 more than this ! Is it possible that puerilities like these can have 
 been the subject of such grave conferences, and that they can have 
 served as a pretext for such great cruelties? But the great com- 
 plaint brought against the Vaudois was that of having given assist- 
 ance to the outlaws. " Can any one be astonished," they replied, 
 "that so great a number of persons condemned to death should 
 have combined together to defend their lives? And, if they 
 obtained some assistance from their families, or found shelter in 
 the houses of their relatives or friends, can the responsibility be 
 made to fall upon the whole body of the valleys?" 
 
 Such was the real substance of these long and wearisome confer- 
 ences. The commissioners of the government, however, concluded 
 by saying, that the Vaudois had had no cause of discontentment ; 
 and that if they took up arms, it was " to cause themselves to be 
 molested, that they might complain thereof to foreign powers and 
 have abundant collections sent them."^ But if such an accusation 
 
 * Conferences, p. 82. 
 
406 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part SlCOIfD. 
 
 is only lidiculous, it cannot be denied that what it now remains 
 for us to speak of is truly odious. 
 
 Whilst the ducal commissioners thus insulted at Turin the good 
 sense and loyalty of the Vaudois during these conferences — which 
 most unquestionably ought to have been accompanied by a com- 
 plete suspension of hostilities, and whilst our poor mountaineers 
 were hoping for a favourable result — the Propaganda were contriv- 
 ing their destruction, and perfidiously proceeding to a bloody ex- 
 termination. The second sitting of the Turin conferences had not 
 yet taken place when the plan of this treachery was already 
 entirely arranged.^ 
 
 On the morning of the 21st of December, the Count of St. 
 Damian marched upon Prarusting, by the borders of St. Segont, at 
 the head of 1655 infantry and 50 cavalry. The Marquis of Parel- 
 les ascended in the direction of Angrogna, by the Garsinera, with 
 1576 infantry and 50 cavalry. Count Genele, skirting the hills 
 of the Portes and St. Germain, advanced upon the same point, by 
 the opposite side, with a battalion of 786 men. Captain Cagnolo 
 occupied the plain of St. John, at the head of 100 cavalry, ready 
 to move in any direction that circimistances might demand ; and, 
 moreover, the Count of Bagnol, the governor of La Tour (the same 
 who protested so much solicitude for the repose of the Vaudois, 
 and who perished on the scafibld a few years after), was to make 
 an attack by Les Copiers and St. Margaret, conducting against the 
 Protestants 1118 men. 
 
 It was in this quarter that the attack commenced. The Vaudois 
 were successively driven back from St. Margaret to Les Copiers, 
 and from Les Copiers to the heights of Le Taillaret. But there 
 they stood and contrived to keep their ground for some time, 
 intrenched behind the rocks. Supposing that they alone were 
 assailed, they sent to demand assistance from their brethren of 
 Angrogna ; they imagined that this attack was only a new villainy 
 of the Count of Bagnol, but they were soon undeceived. They saw, 
 
 » The second sitting was held on the 21st of December, 1663 ; and there exists 
 an order, dated on the 20th, which is entitled, " Distribuzione delle trupe per li 
 4 cUtachi che si devono fare dimani, 21 Decembre, alii ribelli delle valle di Lusema 
 e San Martino." (Turin, Archives of State.) That it was not intended only to 
 attack, nnder the name of rebels, the little troop of outlaws, is proved by the simple 
 consideration, that the forces directed against the valleys at this date amounted 
 to 5135 infantry, and 200 cavalry.— Leger and Beyer say 18,000 men. (Leger, p. 
 305; Boyer, p. 188. They also place this attack upon the 25th of December. But 
 as the reports which they give coincide with the way in which the troops were dis- 
 posed, according to the written scheme which I have before my eyes, and this 
 document points out the 21st for the attack, I think this latter date is to be pre- 
 ferred. Le^er, moreover, was not upon the spot, and Boyer has merely copied him.) 
 
 Chap. XII J 
 
 VICTORY AND DEFEAT 
 
 407 
 
 in the hostile army, a troop more numerous than the governor 
 of La Tour ordinarily had under his command. Their fortifica- 
 tions were already outflanked, and they thought of retiring. They 
 seemed about to perish under the assault of forces ten times stronger 
 than their own, when a voice was heard to cry, " Courage ! stand 
 fast! we are here! God for your help!" These last words are a 
 common form of speech in the Vaudois language.^ Those who now 
 spoke them were the people of Angrogna come to the help of their 
 assailed brethren, whose valour was redoubled by the hope of 
 success. 
 
 The enemy, supposing them already vanquished, were astonished 
 at this resistance. The courage of the Vaudois rose on the arrival 
 of these new forces, and their ardour increased as the attack was 
 slackened. The Count of Bagnol, more vigorously pressed, lost 
 courage, and became weaker rather than stronger. Victor but 
 recently, he now only fought, and was soon to yield. 
 
 The Vaudois now assumed the offensive in their turn. They 
 rushed out impetuously on the front of the assailing army; and, 
 the detachment from Angrogna arriving, fell upon it in flank. 
 That superstitious terror, which the presence of the Vaudois had 
 so often awakened in the breasts of their adversaries, was now 
 manifested again. The minds of the Catholics were seized with a 
 perturbation which passed along the ranks — ^they disbanded, the 
 bravery of the mountaineers completed their rout ; and, like a tor- 
 rent breaking its banks, which carries all before it, the triumphant 
 Vaudois pursued their enemies to the very plain of La Tour. 
 
 On the side of Angrogna, where Captain Prionel defended at 
 once the Vachere, Kochemanant, and Le Chiabas (three points dis- 
 tant several kilometres ^ from each other), the Marquis of Parelles 
 gained no advantage. On the side of St. Germain, on the con- 
 trary, where the Coimt of Genele had advanced with only one 
 battalion, the Vaudois were completely beaten. The enemy laid 
 waste their fields, vineyards, and crops, and set fire to the houses 
 which lay along the hills from St. Germain to Rocheplate. In 
 the latter hamlet, a poor impotent woman, almost 100 years of age, 
 was burned alive in her dwelling. At St. Germain, a younger 
 woman had her flesh torn in shreds without being put to death. 
 Many old men were likewise mutilated. Such was the use which 
 Popery made of its victory I 
 
 » Dio ajviacil Diou v' «' agiutoul (God help you !) These are the words most 
 frequently to be heard to this day amongst the Vaudois mountains, in reference to 
 any one going away, or to any journey, any malady, any project or undertaking what- 
 ever— Ooci Mp you I What better wish can there be, or what words more Christian ? 
 
 2 [The French kilometre is equal to 1093f yards, the British mile to 1760 yards.] 
 

 408 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaUT S£CO>0. 
 
 Chap. XII ] 
 
 cc 
 
 THE "PATENTS OF GRACE. 
 
 409 
 
 8 
 
 But although defeated, the Vaudois yet caused their enemies, on 
 the field of battle, losses much more numerous than their own, 
 having themselves lost only six men, whilst they killed 100 of the 
 enemy, and amongst that number the Count of La Trinite, a lineal 
 descendant of him who had so cruelly persecuted their fathers a 
 century before; also the young Count of St. Frons, a descendant 
 of the ancient persecutors of the Yaudois church of Praviglelm. 
 This young man was the inheritor of a great fortune, and had been 
 married a few days before to a lady to whom he was very strongly 
 attached. But neither wealth nor love protected him in this com- 
 bat ; and with much confidence we may say, that the iniquities of 
 the fathers were visited upon the children. Amongst the com- 
 batants killed by the Vaudois were reckoned, likewise, other great 
 personages, such as Captain Biala and M. De Grand-Maison. 
 
 No sooner were the Swiss ambassadors at Turin informed (»f 
 these disastrous events, than they complained bitterly to the 
 ministers of the ducal court of this incessant and outrageous viola- 
 tion of the armistice agreed upon at the opening of the conferences. 
 The reply made to them was, that the troops of his royal high- 
 ness wanted provisions, and had merely taken some steps for the 
 purpose of obtaining them in the valleys.^ How, then, were the 
 burning-s and massacres to be accounted for] " The Vaudois having 
 opposed the movement of our troops," it was said, " some collisions 
 took place, and a few houses were burned by inadvertency." Many 
 other outrages were then represented which had been perpetrated 
 against the Vaudois; and the count replied, that the fault lay with 
 the Vaudois themselves, who had so oppressed, vexed, and molested 
 their Catholic neighbours, that these latter had seized this oppor- 
 tunity to be in a slight degree revenged. Let us leave the false- 
 hood of this statement unexposed, and attend to the conclusion of 
 the negotiations. 
 
 It was agreed that the bases of an arrangement should be pre- 
 sented to the Vaudois under the title of Patents of Grace; for the 
 Duke of Savoy could by no means consent, in his exalted sovereign 
 dionity, to treat on equal terms with these miserable heretics. He 
 was resolved to grant them nothing whatsoever, except as of his 
 grace; and this grace granted to the Vaudois, and accepted by them, 
 must of necessity involve an acknowledgment on their part that 
 they had been guilty of rebellion, which, according to the report of 
 the ambassadors, was very far from being the case.'-^ The Vaudois 
 
 * The order of 20th December, hitherto unknown, shows what value is to be at- 
 tached to such professions, and what steps had really been taken by the troops of 
 Charles EmniairaeL ^ Report of 2d July, 1G64. 
 
 made some difficulty about accepting such propositions ; but their 
 protectors themselves entreated them not to insist upon matters 
 of expression which were of no importance except for vanity ; and 
 accordingly the following heads of agreement were concluded at the 
 hotel of the embassy :— ^ 
 
 "A general amnesty shall be granted to the Vaudois, with the 
 exception of those previously condemned." (The latter were the 
 outlaws mentioned in the edict of the 25th of June, 1663. At 
 their head were L^ger and Janavel. The former was already in 
 safety in Holland, where he occupied himself in writing the history 
 of the Vaudois ; the second retired to Geneva, where he afterwards 
 rendered the greatest services to his countrymen, by tracing out for 
 them, in 1689, the course which they should follow to return to 
 their country, from which they had been totally expelled in 1687.) 
 
 By the second article of these stipulations Charles Emmanuel 
 ratified the Patents of Grace, granted at Pignerol on the 1 8th of 
 Au^ist, 1655; but he reserved the right of demanding from the 
 Vaudois securities for the future, and suitable amends for the 
 present, referring this point to the arbitration of France. 
 
 This arbitration, the judgments of which were pronounced in the 
 name of Louis XIV.,'-^ became the source of innumerable difficulties. 
 The Most Christian king decided that our unfortunate valleys, 
 already ruined by war, exhausted by the depredations of the Count 
 of Bagnol, devastated by fire, and by robbery and outrage of every 
 sort, to which they had been subjected, should pay to the Duke 
 of Savoy, for the expenses of war, an indemnity of fifty thousand 
 francs, and cede to him their richest lands (the district of the vine- 
 yards of Lucerna), in compensation for the losses which had been 
 caused to him by the pretended rebellion of the Vaudois. And the 
 Vaudois could not complain, for they had implicitly acknowledged 
 the reality of this rebellion in accepting the amnesty as of grace. 
 Such was the consequence, in artful and greedy hands, of the dis- 
 interested counsel which the Swiss ambassadors in their sincerity 
 had given to the Vaudois, causing them to accept these humiliating 
 terms as a simple sacrifice of conventional dignity designed to satisfy 
 courtly pride. 
 
 The third part of the Patents of Grace of 1664 relates to reli- 
 gious exercises at St. John. Public worship there was inter- 
 dicted. A pastor of the valley might come twice a-year to visit 
 
 * Concluded on the 3d of February, 1664; ratified on the 13th by the Vaudois 
 deputies ; signed on the 14th by the Duke of Savoy ; and registered at the Court of 
 Accounts on the 17th. (Raccolta dagV EdUti, pp. 137-141.) 
 
 * On the 18th of January, 1667. They are printed in one vol. folio. 
 Vol. I, 53 
 
.M^ 
 
 410 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Secohd. 
 
 Chap. XIL] 
 
 ARBITRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 411 
 
 « 
 
 the members of the Protestant Church there, but he was not to 
 reside in that parish, nor even to pass the night there, except in 
 case of absolute necessity. He was to be permitted to visit the 
 sick, but not to hold any religious meeting, nor even to instruct his 
 catechumens within the limits of this commune. — (This article 
 became the source of the most frequent and prolonged disagree- 
 ments, and of accusations most easily got up, and disproved with 
 the greatest difficulty, even when they were unfoimded. The nar- 
 ration of what the Vaudois suffered on this score would occupy a 
 whole volume of itself.) 
 
 The last conditions contained in the edict of Uth February, 
 1664, were — 
 
 (Art. VI.) That the pastors of the Vaudois churches should 
 henceforth be natives of the country. (This condition did thenj 
 no harm; but, on the contrary, confirmed their evangelical in- 
 dividuality, which ran great risk of being lost under the too pro- 
 longed guidance of foreign pastors.) 
 
 (Art. VII.) The Catholic chapels and churches destroyed in this 
 last war shall be built again at the expense of the Vaudois. (More 
 demands still against the oppressed ! ) 
 
 (Art. VIII.) The prisoners on both sides shall be released. 
 
 A convention of disarmament of the respective combatants 
 followed immediately 1 upon the publication of this paper; and the 
 Duke of Savoy wrote to Switzerland by the ambassadors on their 
 return, that he would conform entirely to its provisions. ^ 
 
 After so many cruel agitations, the Vaudois valleys began to 
 enjoy a little repose, when, imexpectedly, they received orders to 
 send delegates to Turin, with a mandate authorizing them to treat 
 in name of all the people.^ Each commune was obliged to send 
 a representative; and all these delegates must be assembled at Turin 
 on the 17th of May, 1664. The object was, to take into considera- 
 tion the securities and indemnities demanded by Charles Emmanuel 
 in virtue of the second article of the late edict. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy wished the Vaudois to pay more than half 
 a mOlion of francs (531,000) for the expenses of the war, and 
 330,367 francs besides, to indemnify the Catholic villages which had 
 suffered in the recent events. Alas! which had suffered most? 
 Was it the Catholics who had been obliged to forsake their pro- 
 perties and dwellings, to flee to the mountains, and to sacrifice 
 their flocks, in order to maintain in misery a persecuted life? Was 
 
 ' It took place on the 18th of February, 1664. 
 
 2 The letter is dated 28th February. 
 
 3 The letter making this demand is dated 18th April, 1664. 
 
 it the Catholics whose crojDs had been wasted, and their houses 
 burned, and who had not been able to save themselves from sword, 
 and fire, and famine? No; but it was thought proper to take 
 from the persecuted the last relics of their fortune, to pay for the 
 barbarities of their persecutors.^ As to the securities demanded 
 for the futiure, Charles Emmanuel requii-ed the erection at the 
 entry of each valley, and at the expense of the Vaudois, of a for- 
 tified post, of which the garrison should be maintained at their 
 expense. He also required that they should no longer be entitled 
 to hold their synod save in presence of one of his officers, that the 
 communes of the valleys should not be connected together any 
 longer in one body, but that each should henceforth treat separately 
 of its own private affairs without consulting the rest. This was 
 to reserve to himself the right of destroying the Vaudois in detail, 
 by depriving them of all corporate life. Other conditions were also 
 demanded, but they were all rejected. 
 
 A minute was drawn up of the refusal of the Vaudois; and 
 this document was sent to Louis XIV., as the judge in the last 
 resort. We have already stated his decision; and it must be 
 acknowledged that, when it is compared with the exorbitant pre- 
 tensions of the Duke of Savoy, he showed great moderation in 
 this business. Many foreign powers wrote to him, moreover, in 
 favour of the Vaudois. His arbitration was not terminated till 
 1667; and, meanwhile, abundant and numerous collections had been 
 made in the Protestant churches of other countries, to give some re- 
 lief to their oppressed sister of the Alps of Piedmont. The strictest 
 precautions were taken by the distributors of these collections, to 
 preserve themselves from the slightest suspicion of malversation. 
 
 From 1667 to 1672 numerous obstacles still retarded the ful- 
 filment of the conditions fixed by Louis XIV.; for the decision of 
 that monarch bore, not only that the Vaudois should pay 50,000 
 fi-ancs and surrender the vineyards of Lucerna, to be added to the 
 private domains of Charles Emmanuel II., but also that they should 
 make a declaration to him, binding themselves and their successors 
 beforehand, to submit to the loss of all their propei-ty and the aboli- 
 tion of all their privileges, if they ever again took up arms against 
 their sovereign. The people of the valleys very reasonably refused 
 to engage for their successors. They said also that it was impossible 
 
 * Besides these enormous sums, there were demanded of the Vaudois 50,000 francs 
 for the walls of Lucerna, 40,000 for the customs, 25,000 for the salt tax ; also the 
 sum necessary to repair the fortifications of La Tour and of Mirabouc ; the price of 
 the provisions and ammunition consumed by the soldiers during the war ; the pay 
 of the troops for the same time, and many other expenses of which an exact account 
 has not been preserved. (See Leger, p. 313.) 
 
412 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sicond. 
 
 Chap. Xll] DEATH OF CHARLES EMMANUEL IL 
 
 413 
 
 ! 
 
 for them to know precisely what were the domains designed by 
 that vague expression, the Vineyards of Lucerna; and finally they 
 demanded time to pay. These things were not soon settled. 
 
 In 1670,^ the duke enjoined the intendant of the Court of Jus- 
 tice, Louis Beccaria, to compel the Vaudois to fulfil the conditions 
 which had been imposed upon them. The intendant wrote to the 
 valleys accordingly, but with much moderation )^ and at last the 
 Vaudois submitted with a good grace. ^ The bearing of the court of 
 Savoy towards them became milder, and new favours were granted 
 them.* The soldiers of the valleys distinguished themselves at 
 the siege of Genoa, and their sovereign wrote them a flattering 
 letter in testimony of his satisfaction.^ These sentiments of good- 
 will and tardy justice towards the Vaudois cannot be suspected of 
 insincerity, for at this period the Duke of Savoy wrote to the apes- 
 
 » On the 10th of Fehruary. 
 
 2 The letter is dated the 15th of February, 1670, and is to be found in BoreUi. 
 
 ^ The deed by which they bound themselves to pay 50,000 francs in ten years, 
 and never again to take arms against the service of his royal highness, forms a folio 
 volume. The deed by which he entered on possession of the Vineyards of Lucerna 
 forms another ; and the partial deeds of purchase, discharges, transactions, abate- 
 ments, procedures, procurations, &c., relative to the different domains situated 
 therein, form a considerable bundle of papers. All these documents are to be 
 found in the Archives of the Court of Turin, and belong to the year 1670. But it 
 does not appear that the payment of 50,000 francs was ever completely effected ; 
 for there are only to be found three discharges in deduction from this account — one 
 of 4079 francs, 45 cents, of date 18th December, 1679 — a second of 750 francs, dated 
 the 23d of the same month — and a third of 2250 francs, of date 23d November, 
 1680. — Archives of the Court of Accounts at Turin, Regio ControrolOf Finanze, No. 
 168, fol. 24 and 33, and No. 171, fol. 120, on the back. (Communicated by M. 
 Cibrario.) 
 
 * Exemptions from charges, 24th May, 1670. Liberty of commerce and industry, 
 22d May, 1672. Authorization to carry arms, 9th July of same year. New ex- 
 emptions, 30th November, 1674. 
 
 * This letter is given in the Histoire de la dissijpation des Eglises Vaudoises, en 
 1686, p. 36. It is there given under date 5th November, 1678, and with the sig- 
 nature of Charles Emmanuel; but there must be some error either in the date or 
 in the signature. The words of the letter are these : — 
 
 *• As we have been much pleased with the zeal and promptitude with which you 
 have provided men, who have served to our entire satisfaction in the contests 
 which we have recently had with the Genoese, we have thought good to testify to 
 you, by these presents, our satisfaction, and to assure you that we shall keep it in 
 very particular recollection, to make you feel, upon every occasion, the effects of 
 our royal protection, as the Count Beccaria will signify to you more particularly, 
 to whom we have given charge, more fully to express to you our sentiments, and 
 also to take note of the officers and soldiers, both dead and remaining prisouersi 
 that he may make a report concerning them to us, so that we may be able to 
 act with regard to them in a suitable manner. However, the present letter will 
 serve for an assured testimony to you of our satisfaction and contentment ) and 
 we shall pray God that he may preserve you from evil." 
 
 This letter was accompanied with conformable instructions, addressed to Bec- 
 caria, intendant of the Court of Justice. 
 
 tolic nuncio, " If I only consulted the counsels of sound policy, I 
 ought to desire that the Vaudois should multiply rather than 
 diminish in number ; for they are loyal, laborious, well-disposed, 
 useful to the country," &c.^ 
 
 Charles Emmanuel died in 1675;^ and although he was not sur- 
 named tJie Great, like his predecessor of the same name, he had a 
 noble and lofty spirit. He encouraged arts and sciences; and it 
 was he who constructed the palace which the kings now occupy at 
 Turin. The modern part of that capital was also his work. In 
 opening the magnificent road of Les Echelles, which connects 
 France and Savoy, he accomplished an enterprise which the Ro- 
 mans appear to have attempted in vain ; and, moreover, important 
 reforms were introduced by him into most of the departments of 
 public administration. 
 
 His son, Victor Amadeus II., succeeded him under the regency 
 of his mother ; for he was only nine years of age when the ducal 
 crown was placed upon his head, upon which it was to become a 
 royal crown. 
 
 The regent wrote, in 1679,^ to the Swiss cantons, to assure them 
 of the care which she would take to cause all the privileges of the 
 Vaudois to be respected ; who, at that period, gave new proof of 
 their valour and generous loyalty, by defending the cause of the 
 crown in a rebellion which took place in Mondovi. The uncle of the 
 young king, Don Gabriel of Savoy, mentioned this fact in a very 
 honourable way, in an order of the day in 1680, and wrote himself 
 to the Vaudois to thank them.* They in their turn asked the 
 ratification of their ancient privileges, and obtained it from Victor 
 Amadeus II., the son of Charles Emmanuel 11.^ 
 
 * "Oopia di littera scritta a Monsignor Nuncio Mosti rimessagli dal conte di 
 Buttigliera d'ordine di S. A. R.," January, 1677. There is reference here to mea- 
 sures adopted for the conversion of the Vaudois; and it is said, "S'havesse ris- 
 guardo alia sola politica, e all' interesse temporale, non sarrebbero necessarie taute 
 fatiche e spese e tomerebbe a canto a queste Altezze Keale; il lasciare diffundere e 
 multiplicare gli huomini delle Valli che sono fedeli, ben affetti, laboriosi, utili al 
 paese," &c. (Archives of the Court. Turin, No. of Series 437.) 
 
 2 On the 12th of June, in consequence of the shock which he received by seeing 
 
 his son fall from his horse. Boyer, p. 192, places his death in 1678. 1 prefer to 
 
 rest upon the authority of VAri de verifier les dates; with reference to which, 
 
 moreover, I have carefully examined all the dates which that learned work gave 
 
 me the means of verifying whilst engaged with this history. 
 
 » On 28th January. This letter is given in the Histoire des negociations de 
 1686. 
 
 * This letter is dated 29th September, 1681, and is given in the Histoire de la 
 dissipation des Eglises Vaudoises en 1686, p. 36. 
 
 » The petition of the Vaudois bears date, 16th October, 1680. It prays for the 
 confirmation of the Patents of 24tb November, 1582; of 3d January, 1584; of 
 26th February, 1635; of 8th May, 1643; and of 11th September, 1663. The 
 
414 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Secohd. 
 
 It seemed as if this event should have placed upon a solid foun- 
 dation, for all time coming, the independence and repose of the 
 Vaudois churches ; but God's ways are not our ways, and these 
 poor churches, already so much tried, were then nearer than ever 
 to being destroyed by an exti-aordinary catastrophe, which in its 
 mysterious counsels heaven reserved for them. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EXILE OF JANAVEL, REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, 
 PRELIMINARIES OF A FOURTH PERSECUTION.^ 
 
 (a.d. 1680 TO A.D. 1685.) 
 
 Janavel retires to Geneva — ^Louis XIV. — Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 
 Janavel becomes apprehensive of danger impending over the Vaudois — The 
 Duke of Savoy in a condition almost of vassalage to France — Demands of the 
 French monarch with regard to the Vaudois— He urges the duke to extreme 
 measures — The Propaganda and the Papal nuncio second his eflForts— Janavel's 
 letter to his brethren in the valleys, and directions for their conduct in tlie 
 approaching struggle. 
 
 Janavel, having been excepted from the amnestj which ter- 
 minated the War of the Outlaws, was under the necessity of seeking 
 an asylum in a foreign country. He retired to Geneva. There 
 living apart, he ceased not to occupy himself with the afiairs of 
 the valleys. The heroic old man, notwithstanding so many adverse 
 occurrences, had retained all the energy of his patriotism and of 
 his faith. In solitary glory, proscribed but not forgotten, he devoted 
 his last days to prayer for the country which he had so valiantly 
 defended; and with the foresight of his great experience, he 
 watched with anxiety the increasing indications of a new storm, 
 which he saw preparing to biu^t on his beloved native land. 
 
 intendant of the Court of Justice, Beraudo, supported this petition by a letter of 
 28th November, 168^; and Victor Amadeus II. ratified these Patents and privi- 
 leges on the 4th of December, 1681. This ratification was registered on the 
 Slst of January, 1682; and the whole was published in a little volume of six- 
 teen pages — Confirmazione de privilegii, &c. — at Sinibaldo's, Turin, 1682. 
 
 * AUTHOBITIES. — Historians previously cited. — Benoist, "Mist, de VEdU de 
 Nantes" sol. \i. — " R^ponse pour les Eglises des vallies du Piemont.*^ . . .Geneva, 
 1679, a 4to of more than 600 pages. — ^Diplomatic Archives of France. Despatches 
 exchanged betwixt Louis XIV. and his ambassador at Turin. (Conmiunicated 
 by M. Guizot.)— Archives of State at Turin.— Archives of Berne and Geneva. 
 Archives of the Venerable Company of Pastors of the last-named city. — ^Private 
 communications, &c. 
 
 Chap. XUL] 
 
 CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 415 
 
 France was then, of all the states of Europe, that of greatest 
 weight in the balance of their respective destinies ; but in propor- 
 tion to his greatness, Louis XIV. had also great weaknesses. Noble 
 and resolute before earthly powers, he submitted to the yoke of 
 superstition, and bowed with the credulous terror of ignorance 
 before those mysterious powers which his church showed him in 
 the gloomy and dreadful twilight of her spiritual domain. His 
 dissolute life, interrupted by fits of devotion, his proud spirit and 
 selfish disposition, could have been ruled only by the accommodating 
 and ambitious power of Popery. The latter, again, was disposed to 
 take advantage of this influence only to crush liberty; and as the 
 great enemy of superstition is the Bible, whoever appealed to the 
 authority of that Divine book was pursued with all the hatred of 
 Catholicism. 
 
 The confessors of Louis XIV., therefore, persuaded that monarch 
 that he might promote at once his fame and his salvation by the 
 extermination of the Protestants ; the glory of his reign, by raising 
 up again, in its imperious and majestic unity, the tottering but in- 
 flexible frame of the Romish Church; his own salvation, by ofiering, 
 as a sort of expiation for his personal faults, the conversion of 
 heretics — a holocaust before the appeased altars of that church, in 
 which everything is bought, everything is sold, everything becomes 
 matter of merchandise. 
 
 As it was only to procure a sort of ransom for himself, he at 
 first employed money to obtain conversions. This cause of apos- 
 tasies had only the eflfect of purging the Protestant Church of all 
 whose souls were venal and their consciences worthless. A current 
 account of expenses and receipts — ^the former in money, the latter 
 in conversions — ^was carefully prepared, and regularly submitted to 
 the re-assured conscience of the Most Christian King, for such was 
 the title which, from the days of Louis XI., who deserved it so 
 well — the kings of Fmnce had assumed on ascending the throne. 
 Bands of beggars, calling themselves Protestants, might then be 
 seen abjuring in mass in one to^m, from which, after having been 
 paid, they went on to another to abjure again, to receive more 
 wages, and to pursue this scandalous trade from one end of France 
 to the other. 
 
 The resource of venal apostasies was therefore soon abandoned. 
 But the royal consort of Maria Theresa could not so readily 
 abandon also his vices. He committed a new adultery,* and 
 thenceforth was always more afiected with anxiety for his salvation. 
 This the Protestant Church was soon made painfully to feeL 
 
 ' About 1670, Madame De Montespan; in 1679, Madame De Fontanges. 
 
416 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAET SlCOTfD. 
 
 Twenty-one places of worship were demolished in the Vivarais in 
 1680. Proscriptions were multiplied; and the Reformed were 
 declared incapable of holding public offices, and even of exercis- 
 ing ordinary professions. ^ . The persecutions to which they were 
 subjected went on increasing, along with the criminal pleasures of 
 the monarch. 
 
 Then came the Dragonnades. Louvois, already odious for the 
 disasters and conflagrations with which the Palatinate had been 
 visited imder his command, wrote to Louis XIV. concerning the 
 Vivarais, "It is necessary to make such a desolation in this country 
 that the example shall be always remembered." 
 
 Even this was not enough ! To strike all Protestantism with 
 one blow, the Edict of Nantes was revoked on the 18th of October, 
 1685. The effect of this revocation was sudden and terrible. A 
 great number of French Protestants carried their intelligence and 
 their virtues to foreign countries, as well as their fortunes acquired 
 or to be acquired. This one act weakened France more than all 
 the victories of Louis XIV. ever strengthened her. 
 
 But, in interdicting the Reformed worship, he had not yet inter- 
 dicted opinions. To this length also he now went. All Protestants 
 were pronounced dead in law. Consequently all their acts — their 
 very marriages — ^were declared null ; and the children born, or to be 
 bom of these unions, were reputed illegitimate. And any one who, 
 having abjured or appeared to abjure Protestantism, refused on 
 his death-bed the sacraments of the Catholic Church, was dragged 
 through the mire, and cast on the dunghill in case of his decease, or 
 condemned to the galleys in case of his recovery ; but whether he 
 recovered or died, his goods were escheat to the king. 
 
 The king, growing old in pride and lasciviousness, had lost even 
 the dignity of his former glory. Puerile terrors flung him in help- 
 less servility at the feet of his confessor. Letellier at last succeeded 
 in getting him to sign an edict, impregnated throughout with the 
 rancour and dishonesty of Jesuitism. By this monstrous edict all 
 the Protestants were declared converted to Catholicism; and those 
 of them who refused to conform to the rites of that religion were 
 to be treated as relapsed; that is to say, to be dragged in the mire 
 after their death, or flung into the galleys whilst alive. 
 
 Never had the history of the Dukes of Savoy been stained with 
 such revolting crimes. Victor Amadeus himself expressed disappro- 
 bation. All generous hearts were moved with indignation. Many 
 
 * The ordinance of 2d December, 1681, interdicted notaries, physicians, printers, 
 &c., belonging to the Keformed Church, from exercising their professions from 
 that time forth. 
 
 Chap. XIII.J THE VALLEYS AGAIN THREATENED. 
 
 417 
 
 distmguished Catholics, as the Cardinal De Noailles, Fiddlier, and 
 Fendlon, protested against the wrong thus done to France. Vauban, 
 the celebrated architect, who fortified so many towns for war, drew 
 up a memorial, in which he represented this voluntary exile of 
 100,000 Frenchmen as a political and social calamity. He ex- 
 hibited the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the subsequent 
 measiu-es as entailing the ruin of commerce and industry, bringing 
 disorder into families, strengthening the fleets of hostile nations 
 with 9000 seamen, and foreign armies with 600 officei-s and 12,000 
 of the best soldiers. 
 
 And what did the king then do? He ordained that every one 
 who left his countiy should be condemned to death and confiscation 
 of goods. It was in efiect to say to his Protestant subjects, "You 
 shall be massacred in my kingdom, and exterminated if you attempt 
 to leave it!" Is it possible that the title of Great shall still be 
 attached to the name of the immoral and cruel despot who, in his 
 factitious dignity as a potentate, manifested so total a disregard for 
 the dignity of human nature ! 
 
 I have thought "it necessary to make brief mention of these 
 tyrannic measures, because they all applied to the valleys of P^rouse 
 and Pragela, which then belonged to France; and also because of 
 the eflfects which they occasioned to the other Vaudois valleys, for 
 the news of this proceeding so operated in Piedmont, as to bring 
 upon the Israel of the Alps the most terrible storm that ever 
 threatened its existence. Janavel perceived it with a sad but 
 com-ageous foresight, living as he did in exile, but full of patriotic 
 solicitude. Aware of the relations which subsisted betwixt 
 Louis XIV. and Victor Amadeus, he saw too clearly that the Duke 
 of Savoy could only be the vassal of the King of France. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 12th of October, 1685, the King of France 
 wrote to the Marquis D'Arcy, his ambassador at Turin—" I have 
 given orders to the Sieur D'Harleville,i to attempt the conversion 
 of the valleys 2 which are within my dominions, by quartering my 
 troops in them;^ and as these valleys are adjacent to those of 
 Piedmont, which are subject to the Duke of Savoy, and in which 
 his predecessors have always shown how unwillingly they suffered 
 the exercise of the Protestant religion, I desire that you communi- 
 cate to that prince what I write to you, and exhort him in my 
 
 * King's Lieutenant at Pignerol. 
 
 2 Perouse, Pragela, Cazaue, Usseaux, Meane, Exiles, Traverses, Salabertrans, 
 and Bardonneche. 
 
 * By means of dragonnades, Protestants unconverted and obstinate in their 
 heresy were obliged to lodge, feed, and maintain soldiers, whose business it was to 
 torment as much as possible those with whom they were placed. 
 
 Vol. I. 53 
 
418 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF TUE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Skcoad, 
 
 name to employ the same measures in his dominions, not douhting 
 that they will have the same success."^ 
 
 Fifteen days after, the Marquis D'Arcy replied to his sovereign, 
 "I have discharged the duty which your majesty was pleased to 
 impose upon me, by your despatch of the 12th of this month. I 
 have taken occasion to exhort the Duke of Savoy to profit by the 
 happy opportunity which the neighbourhood of your majesty's 
 troops presents to him, for compelling the conversion of the people 
 of the pretended Reformed religion, and for so bringing back all his 
 people to one and the same faith— an object earnestly desired by his 
 predecessors, without their ever enjoying so favourable an occasion 
 for succeeding in it as the present moment affords. The Duke of 
 Savoy assured me that he receives with all possible sentiments of 
 respect and gratitude, the counsels of your majesty, . . . but that he 
 must examine into the matter more thoroughly ; for several of his 
 predecessors have in vain attempted to do it, and have even brought 
 great disorders into this district by such attempts. I replied that 
 his predecessors had never enjoyed the facilities for this object 
 which your majesty offers to him, and that it might be long before 
 he found so favourable an opportunity again. And with this I 
 seemed to leave him to think of it, as of a thing in which his own 
 advantage alone was concerned. The Marquis of St. Thomas and 
 the President Truchi are the persons who most relish the counsels 
 of your majesty; and the latter in particular thinks, that at the pre- 
 sent moment it would be as easy as glorious to follow them," . . . &c.- 
 This despatch is dated 27th October, 1685 j it was the com- 
 mencement of a negotiation, which was to have the. most serious 
 consequences for the Vaudois and even for the house of Savoy. 1 
 shall continue to borrow from this correspondence the very lan- 
 guage employed in it, in order to throw light upon the mysterious 
 preludes to the persecution, which took place in 1686. The exact 
 woi-ds will reveal, better than any analysis, that imperious influence 
 of Louis XIV., of which so many events in our history bore the 
 
 impress. 
 
 The King of France replied to his ambassador^ in the terms fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " It seems that the Duke of Savoy has not yet adopted a firm 
 resolution to labour efficaciously in this great business, which will 
 
 » This and the foUowing documents, to the 26th of January, 1686, are extracted 
 from the Diplcmatic Archives of France, and were obligingly communicated to me, 
 in 1844, by M. Guizot, at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 2 The despatch is much longer; but I have made these extracts as faithfully and 
 exactly as possible. 
 
 * From Versailles, 10th November, 1085. 
 
 Chap. Xlll] CHARACTER OF VICTOR AMADEUS II. 
 
 419 
 
 never be successfully accomplished by slight efforts, such as I 
 clearly see that he proposes j^ but he must be given to understand 
 that his glory is concerned in bringing back his subjects, at whatever 
 cost, to submission to the Church." "And if the Duke of Savoy 
 lias not sufficient troops in that quarter " (added Louis XIV., in a 
 despatch of the 16th of November), "you can assure him that he 
 will be assisted by mine, and that I will give him all the help which 
 may be needed for the execution of so pious a design." 
 
 In his reply of 24th November, 1685, the Marquis D'Arcy 
 begins by saying, that he had reminded the Duke of Savoy, in a 
 very urgent manner, of the offers of his Most Christian Majesty 
 for the conversion of the Vaudois. "I have particularly called him 
 to consider," says he, " what powerful assistance he would receive 
 from the alarm which would be created amongst them by the 
 approach of your troops. The Duke of Savoy, who is a very 
 reserved prince, confined himself to the reiteration of his expressions 
 of gratitude for the interest which your majesty takes in his affairs. 
 The Marquis of St. Thomas has assured me that his master is 
 inclined to profit by your majesty's example and assistance. He 
 told me that a number of the Calvinistic subjects of Victor 
 Amadeus are in a very hopeful condition ; but I replied that the 
 object would never be attained without the emi)loyment of force, 
 as has been done by your majesty ; and that it would never do for 
 the duke to delay the employment of it until your troops were at 
 a distance from his dominions. The President De Truchi again 
 signified to me that it was difficult to know what were the duke's 
 intentions in this respect, for he is of a very independent and 
 reserved character; and it may be doubted if he will really labour 
 for the conversion of the Vaudois as your majesty advises him, 
 because wtien his ministers have ventured to speak of it to him, he 
 has scarcely chosen to listen to what they had to say." 
 
 The original of this despatch is of much greater length. Abridge- 
 ment was indispensable ; but the sense and the most notable ex- 
 pressions have been exactly preserved. The same remark equally 
 applies to the following reply of Louis XIV. : — ^ 
 
 " I see that your representations to the duke have been fruitless; 
 and although his ministers acknowledge that nothing could be 
 more agreeable to God, or useful for the dominions of Savoy, than 
 
 » Another despatch of the Marquis D'Arcy, dated 2d November, 1685, had ap- 
 prised Louis XIV. that the Duke of Savoy, *'not thinking that it is for him" 
 (such is the expression) **to do in his dominions what your majesty has not been 
 able to do in yours, has sent the iutendant Marousse into the valleys, to see what 
 course he ought to adopt." 
 
 ' Dated at Versailles, 7th December, 1685. 
 
420 
 
 JIIE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sjscokd. 
 
 the entii'e bai .^hment of heresy, they think that their prince will 
 refuse to take adyantage of the present conjuncture, that he may 
 be under obligation to no one either as to the design or the execu- 
 tion. You must, nevertheless, explain to him that, so long as 
 Huguenots exist on the frontiers of my dominions, his authority 
 will never be sufficient to prevent the desertion of my Calvin ist 
 subjects; and as he may well judge that I will not suffer this, and 
 that the insolence of these heretics will be a cause of displeasure to 
 me, it may likely enough come to pass that I will not any longer 
 be able.to entertain for him the same sentiments of friendship which 
 I have expressed for him up to this time. I feel assured," he says 
 in conclusion, "that he will reflect very seriously upon this subject." 
 
 This language announced, upon the pai-t of Louis XIV., views 
 too decided to yield to the hesitation of the Duke of Savoy; and 
 when he speaks of the insolence of the poor victims of persecution, 
 it cannot but be felt that such a designation is more fitly to be 
 applied to his own language, which, by haughty insinuations, signi- 
 fied to Victor Amadeus that he must lay his account with being 
 threatened into compliance with the wishes of his ally. 
 
 The Marquis D'Arcy replied, on the 1st of December, 1685, 
 that he had renewed his efforts with the Duke of Savoy and his 
 ministers. "I have represented to them," he says, "how easy it 
 would be to compel the Vaudois to change their religion, by the 
 aid of the troops of France ; that it would be an honourable thing 
 for the sovereign, and would much conduce to the tranquillity and 
 profit of his dominions, and that it might even be held so meri- 
 torious by the pope as to obtain for him the investiture of the 
 principality of Masseray,* which his Holiness has hitherto refused. 
 To these offers, advices, and representations, I receive for answer, 
 Sire, plenty of polite speeches, thanks, and acknowledgments of 
 obligation; but I do not see any symptoms of anything effectual 
 likely to be done." At the end of this despatch he adds, that the 
 ministers always seem disposed to exact the conversion of the Vau- 
 dois by all means possible. In his reply, dated 14th December, 
 Louis XIV. said, "There is no time to be lost in order that success 
 may be easy, and I shall be very glad that the Marquis of St. 
 Thomas^ fix the time when he is to act, and that you let me know 
 as soon as possible." 
 
 " Sire," replied the ambassador,^ " I sought an audience of the 
 Duke of Savoy, the day before yesterday, to know if his ministers 
 
 * Recently purchased by Victor Amadeus for a pension of 87,000 livres. 
 ^ Prime minister of Victor Amadeus. 
 » Under date 5th January, 1686. 
 
 CiAP. xni] LOUIS XIV. URGES PERSECUTION 
 
 421 
 
 had faithfully communicated to him what . I laid berore them on 
 the part of your majesty." His account of the interview is rather 
 long; but it appears from it that Victor Amadeus had made a 
 commencement, by promising to revoke the ancient edicts favour- 
 able to the Vaudois, and that he hoped to gain over their ministers 
 to the Catholic religion, by offering them the double of what they 
 received as pastors in their own church. "The prince added," says 
 the ambassador, " that if he was rather Ions in doins it he must 
 be excused, upon account of the desire which he had to know and 
 do things himself, in order that he might become the more capable 
 at a future time to serve his friends and allies." 
 
 " I observe with pleasure," replied Louis XIV., ^ "that the Duke 
 of Savoy is disposed to employ, without fui-ther delay, all hi3 
 authority, and even his forces for the conversion of his Calvinist 
 subjects; but I fear he may content himself with imparting his 
 projects to you without executing them. For this reason you 
 must strongly represent to him, that all gentle treatment of such a 
 set of people will only serve to render them more obstinate. The 
 only course for him is, by one stroke, to take from them all favours 
 and privileges which have been granted to them by his pre- 
 decessors — to ordain the demolition of their places of worship to 
 
 prohibit them from any exercise of their religion— and at the same 
 time to lodge his troops with the most obstinate of them; . . . 
 and by this firmness of conduct he will succeed so much the more 
 easily, that these wretches will hope for no assistance; and that 
 even if they should be able to resist the forces of the duke, they 
 will reflect that he will always be supported by mine in the execu- 
 tion of this desiofn." 
 
 On the 25th of January Louis XIV. wrote again to the Mar- 
 quis D'Arcy to the same purpose ;*'^ but one part of his wish was 
 already realized, for in a despatch dated on the 26th that ambassador 
 sent him the following statement : — 
 
 " I wa^ apprehensive that he wished to save himself by protract- 
 ing time, and I insisted that he should indicate to me the precise 
 day for carrying this matter into execution. So that a promise was 
 given me. Sire, that on Wednesday next^ the Duke of Savoy 
 would make public the resolution which he had adopted, not to 
 
 * By a despatch, dated from Versailles 17tli January, 1686. During the interval a 
 new despatch had been sent to him from Turin, by the Marquis D'Arcy, dated on the 
 uj \ ]^ ^* *^® ambassador said, "/ am not a little sm-prised and vexed to see him 
 (*he Duke of Savoy) always defer tJie execution of this design, which I continue, how- 
 ei-^,to urge to the utmost of my power.'' 2 jn reply to his despatch of the 12th. 
 This must have been the 30th of Januaiy, The edict of Victor Amadeus, pro- 
 scribing the Protestantism of the valleys, was issued on the 31 st. 
 
422 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 Chap 
 
 XIIlJ 
 
 janavel's counsel. 
 
 423 
 
 suffer the Huguenots of the valleys of Lucema any longer in tlieir 
 religion, for it is to these valleys that they have almost all retired. 
 The prince has not yet opened his mind distinctly to any of his 
 ministei*s, following in this his usual manner of dealing with them ; 
 but I continue to proclaim so loudly here your fixed resolution not 
 to suffer such a retreat so near your dominions — that notwith- 
 standing all the bad grace ^ and slackness with which this enter- 
 prise is gone about, I cannot think that it will terminate otherwise 
 than to the satisfaction of your majesty." 
 
 The Propaganda and the nuncio, on their part also, urged the 
 execution of this design. The Duke of Savoy had, perhaps, hoped 
 to succeed in it by means less cruel — ^by bribes, which would have 
 left to apostasies the appearance of voluntary acts ; and with this 
 view he had multiplied for some years all his means of operating 
 upon the Vaudois,'^ and all his allurements of recompense;^ but, as 
 his royal suzerain took for granted, who was already of long expe- 
 rience in persecution, tJie Reformed Church could not he destroyed 
 except by force. * Force, therefore, must needs be employed. 
 
 Janavel, in his exile, had foreseen this catastrophe. Before it 
 took place he intimated it to his compatriots, telling them in what 
 way they would be attacked, and in what way they ought to 
 defend themselves. The accuracy of his opinions, which the events 
 justified with so melancholy an exactness, gives a high value to 
 the letter which contains them.^ 
 
 " These few words," * says he to his brethren, " are to salute you 
 
 * This diplomatic correspondence places beyond a doubt the repugnance witli 
 which the Duke of Savoy consented to the expulsion of the Vaudois, on the exi- 
 gencies of a policy whose grandeur we cannot unreservedly admit. 
 
 2 In 1679 was founded at Pignerol, the Opera del rifugio ed ospizio p^ catholisati 
 e catholizandi — an establishment intended to receive, maintain, and provide with 
 portions, those Protestants who had become, or wished to become. Catholics. Hither 
 it was that — in the first instance, from this time forth — all the children were con- 
 veyed who were carried oflf from the Vaudois valleys. These children were some- 
 times purchased or given. 
 
 A few years before a similar establishment had been founded at Le Perrier, in 
 the valley of St. Martin, under the name of the Monte Dominicale, but it con- 
 tinued only for a short time. That of Pignerol, on the contrary, subsists to this 
 day. In 1634, a new Catholic mission was established at St. Barthelemy. 
 
 ' Exemption from taxes, and other favours, were granted to those Vaudois who 
 became Catholics, 8th October, 1677; 28th January, 1678; 15th March, 1682, &c. 
 
 ♦ Louis XIV. to the Marquis D'Arcy. Despatches of 10th November, 1685, and 
 17th January, 1686. 
 
 * It is not dated, but evidently belongs to 1685. It is to be found in the 
 Archives of Turin, whither it found its way in consequence of the same incident 
 which brought thither the journal of the return of the Vaudois in 1689. {See 
 Arnaud, first edition, p. 175.) 
 
 • I quote exactly. All that is between inverted commas is in the words of 
 Janavel. 
 
 with my whole heart, and to testify to you the love which I bear 
 you. You will not be unwilling to be informed what ai-e my 
 sentiments about a number of things which concern you. If God 
 sliould be j^^eased to put your faith to a trials as is said and believed, 
 I pray you to take in good part the contents of this letter. 
 Although I doubt not your prudence and conduct, the first thing 
 which you have to do is to be well united. It is necessary that the 
 pastors be required to follow their people day and nigid, that they 
 may be honoured and respected by them, as the servants of God 
 ou^-ht to be. They will not intermeddle with anything but the 
 duties of their office — to console the dying, to provide for the safety 
 of poor families, and to encourage the combatants by their prayei-s. 
 Those who have sufficient zeal and capacity to enter the council of 
 war may be received into it, provided that they do not dread the 
 effusion of blood. Their first duty" (he adds) "will be to assemble 
 all the people, great and small ; and after having exhorted them 
 from the word of God, to make chenij with hand lifted up to heaven, 
 swear to be faithful to their church and country, even wnto death. 
 And so doing you will see that the sword of the Lord will be on 
 your side. In the event of war, the first thing which I have to 
 say to you is, to address very huml)le supplications to your 
 sovereign ; but, in the meantime, already, do not omit to have two 
 men in the level country — one to go, and the other to come, that 
 you be not taken by surprise. 
 
 "In case they should proceed to quarter troops in the valleys," 
 he goes on to say, " the syndics of the communes should represent 
 to his royal highness that the people take umbrage at it ; and a^ 
 apprehensive lest anything unpleasant should happen to the soldiers 
 or officers, they should pray that it may be dispensed with, offering, 
 however, to pay their share in money. You are entreated in the 
 name of God to admit none, upon any pretext whatever, nor for 
 any possible show of reason assigned — otherwise it is your certain 
 destruction. Kemember the massacres of 1655, and all the perfidi- 
 ousness used even at the present time — all which ought to serve 
 you as sufficient example. If, unfortunately, you are attacked, you 
 must defend yourselves the first day without officers, and after that, 
 you must labour day and night to establish amongst yourselves 
 the military arrangements requisite." 
 
 He then gives them instructions at great length on this last 
 point. The companies are not to consist of more than eighteen or 
 twenty men. There are to be no lieutenants, "in order not to 
 copy the fashion of the great ones of the world." They are to have 
 a secret council, composed of one man of each YoUl&jf faithful and 
 
424. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Second. 
 
 i( 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 /earing God, with one or two of the most resolute pastors, and a 
 commandant-general over all the people of the valleys. "All these 
 are to l^e nominated by tlie voice of tJie people, and with good order; 
 and, if God give you time," he proceeds, "you will take care to pur- 
 chase a little wheat, and to convey it to a retired place amongst 
 the mountains, that it may serve for the relief of the most dis- 
 tressed, and to maintain the flying companies." 
 
 Then follow a number of details concerning the most important 
 positions of the valleys — those which ought to be strengthened as 
 points of defence — those which ought to be fortified as places of 
 refuge — and concerning the intrenchments which ought to be 
 made, and the posts which ought to be destroyed. "For An- 
 grogna," says he, "Revengier must be strongly bamcaded, because 
 it is a place of gi-eat importance, which, if well guarded, secures 
 Rocheplate, St. Germain, and Pi-amol, as well as Kioclaret and 
 St. Martin." He gives up the idea of defending the commune 
 of Koi-a, the people of which are recommended to retire to Bobi. 
 
 You will all be men of strength and of kbour," he continues; 
 
 spare neither care nor pains to make barricades wherever you 
 think them proper, cutting up the roads and felling trees, in order 
 to impede the passage of the enemy." 
 
 After this he points out to the Vaudois the manner of fighting 
 to the greatest advantage, the arms which they ought to use, and 
 the order in which it is best for them to draw themselves up. He 
 recommends them never to be the fii-st to beat a retreat. " Because," 
 says he, "this makes your own people to lose courage, and increases 
 the courage of your enemies. When you pursue them, do it in two 
 bands — the one by the flank, and the other pressing right on, to 
 preserve you from ambuscades. All the captains must be warned 
 that they do not expose their soldiers, for in preserving them they 
 provide for the safety of the church of God. As for ammunition, 
 give yourselves no concern about the want of it ; I will tell you 
 something on that subject on the first secure opportunity." It is 
 probable that this great captain had placed some ammunition in 
 reserve in some of the deep caverns which had been wont to serve 
 him for places of refuge, magazines, and strongholds; and this, in 
 anticipation of new calamities which the future might still be to 
 bring upon his afflicted country. 
 
 Agreeably to his advice, the Vaudois began by sending a deputa- 
 tion to Turin ; but it was not received. ^ The intendant, Marousse, 
 had returned from a visit made to the valleys, in order to study 
 their weak points, their means of resistance, and the dispositions 
 > The Marquis D'Arcy speaks of it in his despatch of 26th January, 1686. 
 
 Chap, xni] PREPARATIONS FOR PERSECUTION. 
 
 425 
 
 of their inhabitants. His report was entirely in favour of the 
 attempts of proselytism by anns, which were so urgently recom- 
 mended by Louis XIV., and seconded by the Church. M. De La 
 Roche had then been named governor of the province, and had 
 gone to Lucema to cause several posts in its neighbourhood to be 
 fortified ; amongst others. La Tour and Mirabouc. All the officers 
 of the regiment of guards had also been recalled to their colours. 
 All those of the regiment of the White Cross — ^who were, without 
 exception. Knights of Malta — had received orders to provide them- 
 selves with horses. Both these and the officers of the guards were 
 required to hold themselves in readiness for marching; so that 
 everywhere the precursory signs of a new persecution began to 
 appear. 
 
 To realize it, the Propaganda made more exertion than ever. It 
 had councils organized in Turin, Pignerol, Grenoble, and Briancon. 
 These councils combined their effi)rts ; and it must be admitted that 
 the intentions and the zeal of a real charity did, in many instances, 
 animate the persons who composed them. The sacrifices which 
 they made for the conversion of the heretics attest theii- generosity, 
 but the means employed prove their ignorance. 
 
 The first pretext employed for disturbing the repose of the 
 Vaudois was derived from the great number of French refugees 
 who had retired into the valleys after the revocation of the edict 
 of Nantes. Louis XIV., blinded by the pride which gave the 
 ambitious and extravagant flatteries of the Catholic party such a 
 hold over him that he became an instrument in their hands with- 
 out a will of his own, made use of his power for the service of their 
 low intrigues, and engaged more and more in a political course un- 
 worthy of the age to which his name has been given. Wishing 
 at once to oppress the people in his own dominions, and to pre- 
 vent them from leaving them, he had obtained from Victor Ama- 
 deus the barring of his frontiers against French fugitives. In the 
 end of the year 1685, the Duke of Savoy had, therefore, at the 
 urgency of his formidable ally, promulgated an edict by which the 
 Vaudois were forbidden to receive any of their refugee brethren; 
 and the latter were ordained to leave Piedmont, or to abjure within 
 the space of eight days, under pain of incarceration.^ 
 
 In the meantime, the Propagandists proceeded with a persever- 
 ance and a fertility of invention as to means, which were worthy 
 of a better cause, in the application of all the old measures of re- 
 pression applicable to the Protestant religion. These measures 
 affected the valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin, which belonged to 
 
 » This edict is of date 4th November, 1685. It is to be found in Dubois, II. 239. 
 Vol. I. 54 
 
426 
 
 t 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Sitcoxn. 
 
 Piedmont, whilst the royal cotmcil of Pignerol and the Parliament 
 of Grenoble prosecuted the same work in the valleys of the Cluson 
 and the Doire, which belonged to France. Such were the cir- 
 cumstances in which the year 1686 began; and the ambassador of 
 France was able to write to his master on the 26th of January: 
 '' The Duke of Savoy has promised me that he will make known, 
 on Wednesday next, the measures which he is about to adopt in 
 order to enter into the views of your majesty." 
 
 We are now come to a decisive epoch in the history of the 
 Yaudois; the catastrophe is imminent; the conflict will be terrible; 
 but the most extraordinary wonders in the history of the Israel 
 of the Alps were destined to arise out of the most disastrous 
 calamities. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE FOURTH GENERAL PERSECUTION IN 
 
 THE VALLEYS.^ 
 
 (January to the end of April, 1686.) 
 
 Edict of 31st January, 1686— Consternation in the valleys— Delegates meet at 
 Angrogna— Petition to the duke— Attempted intervention of the Protestant 
 cantons of Switzerland— The valleys invaded by French troops— Organizcii 
 resistance— Endeavours of the Swiss ambassadors— Proposal that the Vau(»x}is 
 should leave their native country— Division of opinion among them— They 
 finaDy resolve to abide by and defend their valleys— Celebration of the Lord'rt 
 Supper at Easter, 1686. 
 
 On Thursday, the 31st of January, 1C86, appeared the fatal edict 
 which caused so much woe in the valleys, and was attended by 
 such consequences, that for some years it was supposed that tlie 
 
 » AUTHOBITTES.— "ZTw^. de la persic. des valltes de Piemont; contenant ce qui s'est 
 passi dans la dissipation des Egliscs et dcs habitants de ces vallees, arrive en fan 
 1686. Rotterdam, MDCLXXXIX." 4to, pp. 36. There exists a German trans- 
 lation of this work, published in 1690— an 18mo volume of 155 pages, with the title, 
 ^'History of the Vaudois Persecution in Piedmont." (Library of Berne.)— Another 
 work in German, on the same subject, is entitled, *'The Palm-tree of Christian Truth; 
 or. The Persecutions of the Protestants and Vaudois*' (Nuremberg, 1690).— "iTisf. 
 de la negociation des ambassadeurs envoyes au due de Savaie paries cantons evangi- 
 liques (of Switzerland) Vannie, ] 686." Published in 1690. One vol. 32mo, pp 172.— 
 *'Le feu de la reconnaissance et de la Joie, pour la gloricuse victoire remportee sur les 
 heretiques vaudois, dans les rallies de Luseme, par S. A, R. Victor AmS II., due 
 de Savoye, pHnce de Piemont, roy de Chypre, donni dans la ville de Rumilly 
 
 par le comte de Saint-Joyre, &c le 14 mai 1686, jour de la naissance de 
 
 sadite A, E." (Chambery, 1686.) Not jpsised.—" Relation de la guerre contre 
 les rdtgionnaires n&mmis Barbets." (Quoted in the first of the works here 
 named, at the fifteenth page.) A little work upon which I have not been able to 
 
 Cbap. XIV.] 
 
 FATAL EDICT. 
 
 427 
 
 Vaudois church had entirely disappeared. This document is so 
 important, that its contents must be fully exhibited. ^ 
 
 *• The heresy," it is here said, " has found its way from the midst 
 of the valley of Lucerna to the very heart of Piedmont. . « . Our 
 ancestors have often attempted to extirpate it ; but in consequence 
 of the aid which the sectaries received from foreign countries, the 
 sacred work of their restoration to the Church of Kome could not be 
 accomplished ; and as the principal reason which existed for tolerat- 
 iu"" them has recently disappeared — through the zeal and piety of 
 the glorious monarch of France, who has brought back to the true 
 faith the heretics bordering upon the Yaudois valleys — we think 
 he would have cause to accuse us of ingratitude for his distinguished 
 favours, which we still enjoy, if we were to allow the opportunity to 
 escape of executing this important design, accoixling to the inten- 
 tion which our glorious predecessors have always entertained." Sacli 
 is a succinct but faithful abridgment of the preamble of the edict. 
 
 These words might be skilfully selected in a political point of 
 view; but when we recal the haughty language which Louis XIV. 
 had addressed to Victor Amadeus, to compel him to destroy his 
 most faithful subjects, we cannot help noting in the latter a great 
 want of dignity, in thus giving the name of diatinguisJied favours 
 to the shameful vassalage to which he was subjected by France. 
 The following, however, is the enactive part of the edict which 
 has so strange an introduction. 
 
 " For the preceding causes, and for otlter urgent reasons,- we 
 
 lay my hands ; perhaps the title only refers to the following— " -BfZo^ion de la guerre 
 de 1686, contre ceux des vallees," &c. 4to, pp. 8. No place of publication given. At 
 the end appears, ** Suite de la relation de la defaite des sujets rebelles deS.A. R.," &c. 
 — Amongst recent works there is one which specially relates to this subject — '* T/ie 
 Exiles of Lucerna; or, Tlie Sufferings of the Waldenses during tJie Persecution of 
 1686." Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo, pp. 195, with wood engravings, of two tints, repre- 
 senting various places in the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 The Archives of the CouH of Turin are very rich in documents connected with 
 this period, as well as the Archives of the Court of Accounts. There exist, also, 
 manuscripts and memoirs of individuals, amongst which notice ought to be taken 
 of the "Menwriedi me, Bartolomeo Salvajot, di 1686 al 1688."— Also the Diplomatic 
 Archives of France contain the correspondence of Jjouis XIV. with the Marquis 
 D'Arcy, his ambassador at Turin. (Communicated by M. Guizot.) Sec the docu- 
 ments quoted in the preceding chapter. 
 
 * The substance of this edict has been published in the "Hist, dela nigociation de 
 1686" (32mo, Geneva, 1690). It is to be found entire in the Archives of the Court 
 of Accounts of Turin, Regio controrollo, Finanze da 1678 in 1687, No. 165, fol. 
 224, second page. I believe it is awanting in the great collections of Borelli and 
 Duboin. 
 
 2 The duke felt that those which he had just set forth were not sufficient ; but 
 how could he base measures so cruel on reasons which he does not state? Such, 
 however, is the fatal dilemma of tyranny, always suspended betwixt the two terms — 
 servility and oppression. 
 
428 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Skco51>. 
 
 have, of our perfect authority, certain knowledge, good pleasure, 
 and absolute power, decreed as follows : — 
 
 " I. The Vaudois shall cease immediately and for ever from all 
 the exercises of their religion. 
 
 "II. They are prohibited from holding religious meetings, under 
 pain of death and confiscation of goods. 
 
 " III. All their ancient privileges are abolished.^ 
 
 " IV. All their places of worship, places of prayer, and edifices 
 set apart for their worship shall be razed. 
 
 " V. All the pastors and schoolmasters of the valleys shall be 
 obliged to embrace Catholicism, or to quit the country within the 
 space of fifteen days, under pain of death and confiscation of goods. 
 
 "VI. All the children born, and to be bom of Protestant parents, 
 shall be compulsorily educated as Catholics. 
 
 "Consequently, the parents to whom a child shall be born are 
 required, within eight days from its birth, to present it to the 
 priest of their parish, under pain, for the mother, of being publicly 
 beaten with rods, and for the father, of five years of the galleys. 
 
 "VII. The Vaudois pastors who shall abjure the doctrine which 
 they have hitherto preached, shall receive a pension one-third 
 gi'eater than they have previously enjoyed, with a reversion of one- 
 half of this annuity to their widows. 
 
 "VIII. All foreign Protestants settled in Piedmont are ordained 
 to become Catholics, or to leave the country within the space of 
 fifteen days. 
 
 "IX. By a special act of his high and paternal clemency, the 
 sovereign will permit them to sell, within that interval, the pro- 
 perties which they have acquii'ed in Piedmont, on condition that the 
 purchasers shall be Catholics only." 
 
 We would need to go back to that period, so widely different 
 from our own, not to see in these pretences of clemency the lan- 
 guage of insolent pride and cruelty, by which tyranny aggravated 
 the revolting injustice of its acts. " The state ! I am the state ! " 
 said sovereigns in those days. " The state ! we are the state ! " say 
 the people now. May the hand of God aid them to the full attain- 
 ment of their freedom ! But the Bible tells us, that it is only if 
 Chnst make us free that we are fi'ee indeed ; and so long as the 
 spirit of Popery, striving against the Bible, shall cause its enervat- 
 ing yoke of superstition to press upon the degraded nations — so 
 long as they consent to its tyranny over conscience and oppression of 
 
 * It OTight to be recollected that Victor Amadeus bad solemnly ratified these 
 very privileges on the 4th of December, 1681; and Popery called it a holy piety to 
 trifle in this way with the rights and the blood of human beings. 
 
 Cbaf. 
 
 xiv] 
 
 PETITIONS UNANSWERED. 
 
 429 
 
 the mind, every pretence of liberty on their part will be a mockery. 
 How can a man be free when his mind is enslaved ? The Vaudois, 
 who preserved the integrity of their religion at the expense of 
 leaving their country, when it was trodden down by tyranny, 
 carried with them more of independence than belongs to a people 
 exempt from oppression, but destitute of moral energy and true 
 
 liberty. 
 
 It is impossible to paint the profound consternation, the scenes 
 
 of baseness and carnage, the tears of grief and anguish which filled 
 the Vaudois valleys at this time. All the parishes were requested 
 immediately to name delegates, who should meet at Angrogna, to 
 consult for the defence of their common interests. 
 
 " Your first care," Janavel had said to his fellow-countrymen, 
 « must be to address supplications to your sovereign." They recol- 
 lected this advice. A petition was drawn up; but it remained 
 unanswered. Three times they renewed their petition, which was 
 lost in a silence as of death. With difficulty did they obtain a little 
 delay in the execution of the edict of which they asked the revoca- 
 tion. At the same time, they wrote to Switzerland to solicit the 
 advice, interposition, and sympathy of that generous nation, whose 
 government had always been amongst the most active protectors of 
 
 their people. 
 
 The first letter which the Helvetic government addressed to the 
 court of Turin, in favour of the Vaudois, remained likewise unan- 
 swered. All the deputies of the Protestant cantons of that noble 
 country then met in an extraordinary meeting at Eaden.^ They 
 resolved to send commissioners to Piedmont without delay, with 
 instructions actively to employ all means possible to save from com- 
 plete iniin, the Israel of the Alps so cruelly menaced. These am- 
 bassadors extraordinary were Gaspard and Bernard De Murat, 
 both of them councillors of state. They arrived in Turin in the 
 beginning of the month of March, and immediately soHcited an 
 audience of Victor Amadeus, which was refused them. 
 
 But there was no time to be lost; the urgency of the French 
 ambassador, the nuncio, and the Propaganda, allowed the duke no 
 repose; the longer period which he had granted to the Vaudois 
 was nearly expired. The persecuting zeal, which seemed at that 
 time to have seized upon the public mind like some disease of the 
 brain, had already hurried on some small bodies-of Catholic volun- 
 teers to commence hostilities against the people of the vaUeys. The 
 French troops, cantoned at Pignerol, waited with impatience for 
 the signal. " There is nothing spoken of here but extermmatmg 
 » This meeting took place on the 26th of February, 1C36. 
 
4S0 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part SecoKD. 
 
 Chap 
 
 xiv] 
 
 A RELIGIOUS SOLDIERY. 
 
 431 
 
 i. 
 
 and destroying everything, and hanging great and small," wrote a 
 French officer from Pignerol a few days before that date.^ 
 
 In these partial encounters the mountaineers had had the advan- 
 tage. But there were ti-aitors among them; a French refuf^ee, 
 named Desmouliii, made known daily to the commandant of La 
 Tour" the plans and arrangements of those who had sheltered him. 
 *They are very impatient for battle," he wrote on the 4th of 
 March. *' The prisoners of Le Villar have been brought, part to 
 Bobi and part to Angrogna.^ They reckon upon 3000 combatants, 
 and expect many foreigners." 
 
 To increase their strength by a powerful military organization, 
 the Vaudois emljodied the instructions which Janavel had sent 
 them, in a sort of code of discii^line, of which the following were 
 the principal articles* : — 
 
 Ai-ticle IV. Every one is prohibited, under severe penalties, from 
 using offensive language to another, from blaspheming the holy 
 name of God, and from insulting the enemy by abusive words or 
 useless cries. 
 
 Art. V. Debauchery, robbery, and other similar actions contrary 
 to the law of God are severely prohibited. (The council of war 
 was to judge of the penalties incun-ed and of their infliction.) 
 
 Art. IX. Care shall be taken to keep watch over those who 
 shall behave as cowards in battle, or who do not choose to obey 
 their officers, that they may be punished according to their dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 Art. XIII, No one shall fire a musket unnecessarily, in order to 
 spare the ammunition. 
 
 Art XIV. Soldiers amongst whom any subject of dispute shall 
 arise, must present themselves before their officers and report it for 
 their decision. 
 
 Art. XV. Each officer shall be held answerable to the council of 
 war for his soldiers 
 
 Art. XX. The women and girls shall attend at the places of 
 
 » The letter is dated on the 26th of January. (Archives of Berne, compart- 
 ment D.) 
 
 » The commandant was Major VercellL The letters of the spy are in the Archives 
 of Turin. 
 
 » The fact that there were prisoners proves that there had already been fighting. 
 
 ♦ The exact title of this document is the following— '* Hegulations to be obsei-ved 
 ly the watching paiiy, and generally in all the exercises and services of tJie war 
 waged against the people of the valleys of Piedmont on account of their religion." 
 This expression, the people of the valleys [ceux des vallees], suggests the supposition 
 that these regulations, which embody all the instructions of Janavel, were prepared 
 oat of the valleys, and probably by Janavel himself. The precise date cannot be 
 elated. 
 
 battle to bear off the sick and wounded, as well as to roll down 
 stones when there is need. 
 
 It is appointed, moreover, that signals shall be established, by 
 which they are to give notice to one another of the approach of an 
 enemy. Slings and scythes are numbered amongst the weapons 
 recommended. All the soldiers are required to assemble an hour 
 before daylight, to be present under arms at morning prayer. 
 
 The singular simplicity of these articles brings prominently into 
 view the manly and religious character of this people of the Alps ; 
 the courageous fervour of the sentiments which they breathe 
 accords well with that of the hero of Roi*a, Janavel, who knew how 
 to combine the calm intrepidity of the warrior with the humility 
 and sobriety of the Christian ; a strict regard to duty in the first 
 place, and a deep sense of the wants of man appear, especially in 
 these few lines, placed at the head of the regidations : — 
 
 *•' As the war which is commenced against us arises from hatred 
 a<»'ainst our religion, and our sins are its cause, it is necessary that 
 each one amend his ways ; and that the officers be careful to cause 
 (rood books to be read in the watching parties by those who are 
 Qot actively employed, and to cause prayer to be made evening 
 and morning, as is set down at the end of these articles." 
 
 Is it not remarkable to see the reading of good books, prayer, 
 reserve, and moderation, put in the order of the day for an army 
 on the point of battle? The daily prayer appointed to be said 
 mominf^ and evening in the Vaudois camp is also full of a humble 
 and courageous faith, suitable to persons whose surest reliance is 
 on the arm of God. We shall lay it before our readei-s when the 
 course of events shall have brought us into the heroic camps of the 
 
 Israel of the Alps. 
 
 But, before entering into conflict, the Vaudois were anxious to 
 exhaust all means of conciliation. Already surrounded by the 
 ducal and French troops, they knew not that Switzerland had 
 sent ambassadors to defend their cause. These ambassadors them- 
 selves, not having been able to gain an audience of Victor Amadeus, 
 drew up a memorial in strong language, reminding that young 
 prince of the edicts which guaranteed liberty of conscience to the 
 Vaudois, and representing to him that the faithful observance of 
 treaties is the strength of states, and can alone secure their repose — 
 that if the word of kings were no longer to be counted on, Protes- 
 tant princes might treat their Catholic subjects as he himself, 
 treated his Protestant subjects— and that his own glory, humanity, 
 justice, and the prosperity of Piedmont, were interested in his not 
 making himself the destroyer and executioner of his own people, 
 
-r 
 
 432 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paot SecoTfo. 
 
 CSAf. XIV] 
 
 EXPATRIATION RECOMilENDED. 
 
 433 
 
 \\ 
 
 o£ whom he ought to be the protector, and to whom he had pro- 
 mised that he would be a father. 
 
 The Marquis of St. Thomas, one of the ministers of the Duko 
 of Savoy, was charged with the duty of replying to this memorial. 
 *' The inhabitants of the valleys," he said to the ambassadors, " are 
 guilty of having taken up arms against their sovereign, and can no 
 longer be protected by the edicts to which you refer." " The Vau- 
 dois did not take up arms until they were attacked," replied the 
 ambassadors, "and in this particular it is his highness himself who 
 has been the first to break his engagements." " Other engage- 
 ments by which we were strongly bound to the King of France 
 have dictated our conduct," the minister went on to say. " Say 
 not, then," replied the ambassadors, " that the Vaudois are guilty • 
 and cease to persecute them." ** Things are now too far advanced 
 to leave any possibility of drawing back," said the Marquis of St. 
 Thomas; "however," he added, "if the Vaudois choose to save 
 appearances by conforming outwardly to the provisions of the 
 edict of the 31st of January, things may perhaps be arranged." 
 
 These terms were too vague ; and in accepting them the Vaudois 
 would have placed themselves in a position as uncertain as their 
 former one, and much less honourable. So thought the ambassa- 
 dors, and rejected with dignity this proposal of temporizing and 
 false appearances. Moreover, what assurance could have been 
 entertained that this half promise, this hope held out without 
 guarantee, would not have proved deceitful, when solemn edicts 
 had been violated? 
 
 The ambassadors resolved to proceed in person to the valleys. 
 A safe-conduct was granted them for this purpose. The Elector 
 of Brandenburg, as well as Holland and England, addressed fresh 
 representations to Victor Amadeus on the subject of the Vaudois. 
 It might have been hoped that these things combined would have 
 exercised a happy influence in their favour. 
 
 The Swiss commissioners arrived in the valleys on the 2 2d of 
 March, and immediately asked the representatives of all the Vau- 
 dois communes to do them the favour of meeting with them on 
 the morrow. This meeting took place at Le Chiabas. It was 
 opened with a fervent prayer from the lips of Pastor Arnaud. 
 Messrs. De Morat then stated all that they had done since their 
 arrival at Turin, and inquired of the Vaudois what was their 
 resolution. " Be so good as to give us your own advice," replied 
 they. " "Would you consent to quit your country," said the Swiss, 
 " if we should obtain from Victor Amadeus permission for you to 
 dispose of your properties and to leave his dominions with your 
 
 families r It is impossible to describe the stupor which seized 
 the meeting upon this proposal. The Vaudois sought assistance, 
 expected a conflict, hoped for victory ; and now, before they had 
 fought at all, it was proposed that they should submit to all the 
 con'sequences of defeat. Even a defeat could be repaired; but 
 exile involved the loss of their country, the ruin of their church, 
 and a complete termination of their existence as a people. 
 
 The ambassadors strongly represented the impossibility of their 
 rendering assistance in any way but by negotiations. " Your 
 valleys," said they, " are inclosed by the dominions of your ene- 
 mies; all the passes are guarded; no nation is in circumstances to 
 make war with France upon your single account; no army could 
 even penetrate hither; and as for yourselves, you have scarcely 
 3000 combatants; nevertheless you have more than 12,000 mouths, 
 which you must feed; all your doings are watched; the regular 
 troops wait only for the signal of massacre; how can you resist?" 
 
 But the love of their native country still struggled in the 
 breasts of the Vaudois against the sad conviction which these 
 woixis brought to their minds. "It would be cowardly," they 
 exclaimed, "to lose courage in the presence of God, who has so 
 often delivered our fathers, and who saved the people of Israel from 
 so many dangers."—" It would be folly," replied the prudent diplo- 
 matists, " to count upon miraculous events now. It is iinpossible 
 for you to contend against the greater force of your enemies; it is 
 impossible for you to receive any assistance. Consider your situa- 
 tion. One way of escape from it remains for you. Would it not 
 be better to transport to another place the lamp of the gospel, 
 which has been intrusted to you, than to let it remain here to 
 be extinguished in blood?" On these words the meeting was 
 divided in opinion, and replied that it could not conclude any 
 engagement on so grave a subject, without having consulted the 
 
 whole people. ^ 
 
 The ambassadors could not wait for this decision, and returned 
 to Turin. They requested a safe-conduct for Vaudois deputies to 
 bring them the reply of the people, but this was refused. Their 
 secretary therefore went for it to the valleys. He arrived there 
 
 » Moser {Geschichte der Waldenser .... § 25) pretends that at this conjuncture. 
 Victor Amadeus sent to the valleys the Chancellor VercelU, and that the Vaudois 
 seized him and kept him as an hostage. Perhaps they would have done very pro- 
 perly. But I have found no proof of this fact anywhere ; and I have met with only 
 one bearing the name of VercelU, the major of the fort of La Tour, and not a chan- 
 cellor. Moser does not say on what authority he founds. The rest of his history 
 is often incorrect, and always incomplete. I have not, therefore, thought it proper 
 to regard his testimony in this instance. • 
 
 Vol. I. ^5 
 
434 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut Sjccond. 
 
 CiiAP.XlV.J DIVISION AMONGST THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 435 
 
 n 
 r 
 
 on the 28th of March. The assembly of the communes was hold' 
 ing constant sittings at Angrogna, where he found a great agita- 
 tion prevailing. "Your case," said he to them, "grows worse 
 every day. Louis XIV., through his ambassadors, expresses ai 
 burning rage at the procrastinations of the Duke of Savoy. The 
 nuncio promises the duke the investiture of Masseran so soon as 
 he shall act in this business; the Propaganda labour amongst the 
 army and the people : make you haste to quit this country whilst 
 you still have it in your power." " Who shall assure us," replied 
 the Vaudois, "that they will not seek to destroy us whilst in 
 separate groups we are passing out of the country? They have 
 not respected the edicts which guaranteed our residence in these 
 valleys; will they show more respect for the engagement by which 
 they permit us to leave them ? " 
 
 A memorial setting forth all these objections was addressed by 
 the assembly to the ambassadors. The Vaudois added, in a private 
 letter, that they left the matter to their decision. Tliis letter was 
 signed by nine ministers and eight laymen. The ambassadors now 
 reported to the Marquis of St. Thomas, minister of foreign affairs, 
 that they hoped to bring the Vaudois to the decision of quitting 
 their native country, provided that they received a guarantee of 
 perfect safety on their journey of emigration. To this proposal 
 Victor Amadeus replied, through the Count of Marsenas, that the 
 Vaudois having already taken up arras against him, had merited 
 the most rigorous treatment ; but that if they chose to send depu- 
 ties to ask pardon, in name of the whole people, he would see what 
 could be done. 
 
 The Messrs. De Morat expressed their surprise, that after having 
 hitherto so obstinately refused to receive the Vaudois at Turin, he 
 should now require their presence in that capital. Was it not 
 intended, by forcing them to come and ask pardon, to bring them 
 to own themselves guilty, in order that they might therefore be 
 treated accordingly? But there was no time for hesitation; and 
 they advised the Vaudois to show deference to their sovereign by 
 conforming to his desires, rather than to irritate him still more by 
 a refusal. 
 
 A safe-conduct was thereupon granted for the deputies from the 
 valleys. The secretary of the embassy himself carried it to them. 
 But tlie assembly of the communes, which still continued its sit- 
 tings, was not yet prepared to resolve upon such a course. The 
 greater part of the pastors were in favour of submission ; the people 
 preferred to defend themselves. The debates were prolonged with- 
 out any result for a whole day. Next day a part of the Vaudois 
 
 communes resolved to submit ^ and to send deputies to Turin; 
 the rest persisted in their refusal. ^ These, however, also sent a 
 deputy, but with instinictions only to thank the Swiss embassy 
 for their kind endeavours, declaring at the same time their resolu- 
 tion to defend themselves to their last breath. 
 
 The enemies of the Vaudois triumphed in this division ; and to 
 derive from it all possible advantage, they induced Victor Amadeus 
 to sign an edict on the 9 th of April, which treated the emigration 
 of tli^e Vaudois as a settled point.^^ It was published in the valleys 
 on the nth of April, and at first had only the effect of increasing 
 the agitation which already prevailed there. 
 
 Three days after, the delegates of the communes assembled at 
 Rocheplate to deliberate upon it, and agreed that the conditions 
 imposed by this edict were such as could not be consented to. 
 Accordingly, they unanimously agreed to resist to the utmost, to 
 commit themselves to the care of Providence, and valiantly to de- 
 
 » These were tlie communes of La Perouse and St. Martin, Pranisting and 
 Rocheplate, Rora, Le ViUar and La Tour ; the latter not adhering unanimously. 
 2 Namely, the communes of Bobi, St. John, and Angrogna, with the dissentients 
 
 of the commune of La Tour. ^^ j x ^* t>^i.; 
 
 » Meanwhile, the Swiss ambassadors had sent to the valleys the deputy of Bobi 
 with a letter, in which they exhorted the party who were for resistance to unite in 
 the submission of their brethren, rather than to create a division in what concerned 
 their churches. Each of the three communes, resolved upon maintaming their 
 rights by arms, appointed deputies commissioned to reply in their name 
 
 This reply was drawn up on the 4th of April. It was signed by John Mmton and 
 Michael Farise, deputies of St. John; Negnn Danne and BeHm, deputies of 
 Bobi ; and John Bvffa, deputy of Angrogna. They expressed their regret at being 
 compelled to resist the mind of the ambassadors, and declared again their resolu- 
 tion of defending themselves to the utmost. During this time, the Marquis of St. 
 Thomas strongly urged the five deputies from the submitting communes, who had 
 remained at Turin, to make their submission. But they always put it off to wait 
 for the deputy of Bobi. These delays excited the impatience of the court, and 
 especiaUy of the ambassador of France, who urged Victor Amadeus with his oxv^ 
 edict in his hand, and almost with threats in his mouth, to proceed to put into 
 ^ecution the me;«ures required by Louis XIV. In these circumstances news 
 came that two Frenchmen had been killed; and th s ^^^'^J J.^ '^^^''^'l^' 
 Vaudois. The Maxquis De Grancy exhibited a violent imtation. It was upon 
 this that in order to avoid the massacre of the Vaudois, and with humane designs. 
 vSor W^^^ the decree of the 9th of April, which h.id <^o^J^^^^^ 
 
 for their departure from the country, a. if it had been a thing -^-^^y^f^^^^^^^^^^ 
 According !o this decree, the people of the vaUey of L-erna were ^o a^embl a 
 La Tour on the 21st of April; those of Angrogna, ^^^^f ^^f ' ^^^^ 
 were to assemble at St. Segont on the 22d and '^^'\^' '^^f^^^J^,^^^^ 
 at Mirandol on the 23d. that they might thus remove m ^^ ^^ f^^^^^^^^^^^^ J^^ 
 days were allowed them to sell their properties ; they were ^^ J.^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
 immediately, and to demolish their places of worship with heir ^^ ^^^^^^^^^ 
 thev went away. This edict, signed on the 9th, was registered on the 10th, and 
 pulUed rthe vaUeys on the 11th. It contains also other provisions It may 
 be seen in Buboin, IL 243, and in the Histoire dcs n^goaatwns de 1686, p. 42. 
 
436 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaKT SlCOND. 
 
 Ill 
 
 fend their homes and their altars as their fathers had done. And 
 so this measure, which had been adojited in order to disunite them, 
 produced a contrary effect. The pastors, however, did not approve 
 of this decision ; and they wrote to the Messrs. De Morat to de- 
 j)lore the infatuation of their people, who were goiug to engage in 
 a resistance that was desperate ; but at the same time to say, that 
 they were resolved not to abandon them. 
 
 The ambassadors, afflicted to see all that they had accomplished 
 with such difficulty undone in a moment, made a last effort, and 
 addressed a last appeal to the Israel of the Alps by a letter, in the 
 most urgent terms, which was read from the pulpit in all the 
 Vaudois parishes. 
 
 "Undoubtedly," said they, "one's native country has great 
 attractions ; but the heavenly inheritance is preferable to those of 
 earth. You still have it in your power to leave your country, 
 which is at once so dear and so fatal to you ; you have in your 
 ix)wer to carry away your families, to retain your religion, to avoid 
 bloodshed; in the name of Heaven, then, do not obstinately set 
 yourselves upon a useless resistance ! Do not close against your- 
 selves the last remaining path of escape from a total destruction!'* 
 
 We may imagine what sort of effect these words must have pro- 
 duced on an audience partly composed of timid persons, old men, 
 women, and children ! All the churches of our valleys were full of 
 weeping and sobs. But presently the grave voice of prayer rose 
 alone above these lamentations. They implored the assistance and 
 direction of God. Their breasts were calmed, their souls were 
 strengthened; and jconfidence was re-established in theii- agitated 
 minds. 
 
 A solemn assembly of all the delegates of the valleys was held 
 at Rocheplate on the 19th of April. It renewed the declaration of 
 the Uth, by whiqh, on the ground of the righteousness of their 
 cause, the Vaudois bound themselves to defend their country and 
 their religion unto death. The meeting was held on Good Friday. 
 "0 Lord Jesus," said the pastor Amaud, "who hast suffered so 
 much and died for us, grant us grace that we may be able also to 
 suffer and to sacrifice our lives for thee ! Those who persevere to 
 the end shall be saved. Let each of us exclaim with the apostle, 
 * I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!'" 
 It was resolved that the people of the valleys should be univer- 
 sally exhorted to repentance and amendment, so that they might 
 humbly submit to the trials to which they were to be subjected, 
 and that the Divine hand might be pleased to moderate their 
 severity. Moreover, it was appointed that on the following Sab- 
 
 CiJAP. XV.] 
 
 THE LAST COMMUNIOX. 
 
 437 
 
 bath, being Easter-day, there should be celebrated in each paiish, a 
 solemn communion of all the children of these mountains — heroic 
 disciples of the gospel, resolved to defend themselves against their 
 base oppressors ! 
 
 In some communes the concourse of people to this solemnity 
 was so great, that the Lord's Supper was celebrated in the open 
 j^ir — an august and affecting ceremony, a sublime arid mournful 
 communion! Thus feeding upon their Saviour's sacrifice, the 
 Vaudois bound themselves to brave torture, and to shed their 
 blood in defence of his religion. They united at the fotitstool of the 
 Lord in the same devotedness, the same love, and the same prayers. 
 Alas ! to the most of them it was the sacrament of the dying which 
 they received on that occasion. To all of them it was the last 
 communion at which they were to have it in their power to be 
 present before the terrible catastrophe which we are now to relate, 
 and which brought on the total dispersion of this heroic people, 
 whose existence then seemed entirely at an end. But — like the 
 two witnesses of the Apocalypse, who are called the " candlesticks 
 standing before the God of the earth," and of whom we are told, 
 that after having been overthrown for three days and a half they 
 ai-e re-animated by the spirit of life ^ — the Vaudois, these ancient de- 
 positaries of the Old and of the New Testament, these two heavenly 
 witnesses, after three years of exile and apparent death, were to 
 reconquer their native country, to re-appear on their moimtains, 
 and to set up again, no more to be removed, the symbolical candle- 
 stick of eternal truth on the bloody but blessed theatre of so many 
 atrocious persecutions. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WAR AND MASSACRE IN THE VALLEYS.^ 
 (April to May, 1686.) 
 
 The Swiss ambassadors endeavour to secure a place of refuge for the Vaudois in 
 Brandenburg— The valle5^8 invaded by the combined troops of France and 
 Piedmont— Catinat, the French commander-in-chief —His treachery— Successes 
 of the invaders— Cruelties and outrages— Gabriel of Savoy— His treachery 
 towards the Vaudois— Fearful cruelties— Conflicts— Massacres— Prolonged suf- 
 ferings and martyrdom of Leydet, pastor of Pral. 
 
 The generous ambassadors of Switzerland — grieved to see that their 
 most disinterested mediation could satisfy neither of the two parties, 
 
 » Rev. xi. 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, &c. 
 
 2 Authorities.— The same as in the preceding chapter. 
 
438 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Seco.vd. 
 
 If i 
 
 but was rejected at once by the Vaudois and by the Duke of 
 Savoy, and that there was no hope of any benefit from any new 
 attempt at accommodation — resolved, with hearts full of afilictiou 
 and sorrow, to depart Irom Piedmont. But foreseeing the inevit- 
 able and approaching destruction of that Vaudois chui'ch, which 
 they loved so much, they wrote to the Elector of Brandenburg, 
 Frederic William the Great, to learn from him if there were in his 
 dominions any lands which could be set apart for the reception of 
 a colony of Vaudois in the event of their expatriation. The 
 elector replied with the most generous warmth that nothing could 
 be more agreeable to him than to give them an asylum. All these 
 documents show the universal apprehension which the precarious 
 state of the Israel of the Alps then inspired. These mournful and 
 increasing fears were but too well justified by the result. 
 
 The united forces of France and Piedmont already approached 
 in good order to the Vaudois valleys. Victor Amadeus II. re- 
 viewed his troops in the plain of St. Segont. His army consisted 
 of 2586 men, di-awn from the various regiments^ of the militia 
 of Mondovi, Barges, and Bagnol, one corps of Piedmontese infantry, 
 and one corps of cavalry. It was followed by fifty mules laden 
 with wai'like stores, and eighty-five carrying provisions;^ besides 
 which there were sixteen mules carrying shovels, and hatchets, and 
 empty sacks, intended to be filled with earth upon the spot, to 
 secure the soldiers from the bullets of the enemy; and others 
 which carried various engines fit to be used in fortifications and 
 intrenchments. These precautions had been dictated by the 
 ancient reputation of bravery of the Vaudois mountaineers. The 
 French troops were composed of a number of regiments of cavalry 
 and dragoons, seven or eight battalions of infantry which had been 
 brought from Dauphiny, and part of the garrisons of Pignerol and 
 CasaL Volunteers and plunderers thronged together for booty, 
 like birds of prey, in the train of the two armies. 
 
 A new Piedmontese Easter was in preparation. The Vaudois 
 came from the communion, the Catholics gathered for carnage. 
 The signal was to be given on Easter Monday, the 2 2d of April, by 
 three cannon shots, ^rec^ at the first break of day j'^ from the summit 
 
 *Tlie regiments of Nice and Montferrat were quartered at Bubianp; those of 
 Savoy and of La Croix Blanche at La I'our; those of Aosta and of Saluces at 
 Lucerna; that of the sea-coast at Fenil; that of the gendaifnerie at Garsiliano; 
 and the body-guards, the regiment of guards, and the cavalry were at Briqueraa. 
 
 '■^ Seventy mules were laden with wine; fifteen carried 150 rups of provisions 
 daily. 
 
 * These are the terms of the order, written according to a plan agreed upon in 
 a council of war. 
 
 I 
 
 Chap. XVJ THE FRENCH ATTACK ST. GERMAIN. 439 
 
 of the hill of Briqu6ras. A general attack on the two valleys was 
 immediately to follow, the Duke of Savoy assailing that of Luceraa, 
 and Catinat, commander-in-chief of the French troops, mvadmg 
 that of St. Martin. This general set out from Pignerol at mid- 
 night between Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, 1686. He 
 m^ched for two hours by the light of torches and flambeaux, 
 bJfore which the dark and gigantic masses of our mountains 
 seemed to recede. By and by a more pleasant Ught fell from 
 heaven on their loftiest peaks; the snow of the glaciers blushed m 
 the first i-ay of the morning. The murderers extinguished their 
 torches ; they had now arrived opposite to the village of St. Germain. 
 Thither Catinat sent a detachment of infantry,* commanded by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Villevieille, who took possession of the village, 
 and drove the Vaudois from their fii^t intrenchments; but they, 
 having retired to higher ground, and finding themselves still pur- 
 sued, wheeled about, and in turn repulsed their assailants. Catinat 
 then sent a detachment of cavalry and dragoons to support his 
 infantry. Battle was joined along the whole line, and the firing 
 continued for six consecutive hours. 
 
 The French infantry began to be exhausted, the cavaliy could not 
 manoeuvre on the slopes covered with brushwood, where our brave 
 mountaineers made so vigorous a resistance; and they, seeing the fire 
 of the assailing army slacken, suddenly made a rush so impetuous, 
 that the French, surprised and overthrown, were cast into confusion, 
 and driven from the territory of St. Germain, even to the left bank 
 of the Cluson. In this affair more than 500 of the French were 
 killed or wounded, whilst only two of the Vaudois lost their lives.'-* 
 The viUage of St. Germain was then cleared, except, however, of a 
 small body of troops which, along with the gallant Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Villevieille, had thrown themselves into the Vaudois place 
 of worship, where they maintained their position until evening.^ 
 
 » Relatione del succeduto at primo attaco fatto dai Francesi nella valle di San 
 Martino. (Turin, Archives of the CouH, Valdesi, No. of the series, 300.) This 
 paper is written in French, although the inscription on the back is in Italian. It 
 begins thus, " Yesterday morning, the 22d, M. De Catinat detached the regiment 
 
 LirrwsinandDuPlessis This regiment drove the Barbets a little too far, and 
 
 came to a stand almost at the base of the fort of these Huguenots. The dragoons of 
 La Lande advanced on the right, and got entangled amongst the rocks, where they 
 lost a number of men. The captain who commanded was wounded in the arm," &c. 
 Farther on we read, "The Major De Provence was mortally wounded; M. De 
 Brieune was wounded in the head, M. De Gontaudau in the arm," kc. 
 
 2 Dissipation des Eglises Vaudoises en 1686, p. 15. 
 
 3 The following is the account given of this affair in the bulletin above quoted : 
 ''The Chevalier De VillevieiUe was attacked by a numerous troop, which was con- 
 cealed in a ravine on his left, and by those in the fort, who at the same time riished 
 out to charge him. He lost a number of men as he retired, .... and all thau 
 
440 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Second. 
 
 Henry Amaud, a native of the ncighbourliood of Die in 
 Dauphiny, had quitted that province with the Protestant refugees 
 who fled to the valleys of Piedmont, to escape from the iniquitous 
 persecutions of Louis XIV. From being a French pastor he 
 became a Vaudois pastor, and from a pastor he became a captain, 
 by reason of the horrid assaults to which the valleys were now 
 subjected. Learning that Lieutenant- Colonel Villevieille had 
 made a redoubt of the church of St. Germain, he hastened thither 
 with a small detachment of men, determined to make themselve.s 
 masters of it. But a formidable fire of musketry, directed on all 
 points from the door of the church, along the esplanade which 
 stretched in front of it, swept the approaches to that extempomry 
 fortress, with a power too murderous for those who attacked, and 
 too advantageous for those who defended it. It was necessary to 
 give up the attack on this side. Amaud commanded his men to 
 come upon the church behind,* to scale the walls, to cut the timber 
 of the roof, and to crush the enemy under the weight of the heavy 
 slates with which it was covered, whilst another party of his men 
 digged canals around the walls, to fill the church with water, and 
 to drown Villevieille in it if he refused to surrender. But riffht 
 came on to interrupt these opei-ations; the governor of Pignerol 
 sent fresh troops, and Villevieille was freed from the dangerous 
 position into which his bravery had brought him. 
 
 Without turning back upon St. Germain, Catinat pursued his 
 way towards La Perouse. There he parted his forces into two 
 divisions; the first, commanded by Melac, tm-ned the heights of 
 Le Pomaret, penetrating into the valley of Pragela by Salvage; 
 the second, led by Catinat himself, was moved in the direction of 
 Les Clots; and next day, the 23d of April, that general at- 
 tacked Rioclaret, situated opposite to the position which he had 
 taken up. 
 
 The inhabitants of the whole valley of St. Martin had declared 
 their desire, four days before, to avail themselves of the provisions 
 of the edict of the 9 th of April, and not to take up arms. But 
 their resolution was not known to Victor Amadeus till the eveniu^ 
 before the attack ; and he refused to accept it, declaring that it 
 was too late. His troops already occupied the approaches to the 
 valleys; the commissioner sent by that of St. Martin could not 
 get back to it again; the inhabitants of that region were ignorant 
 
 he could do was to gain a house, with only thirty men, in which he was attacked 
 for more than four hours by 500 men, who proposed to give him good terms to cause 
 
 him to surrender, but to whom he only replied by discharges of musketry " 
 
 * Amaud, in his Glorieuse EentrSe, records this fact in p. 49 of the preface. Tho 
 bulletins make no mention of it. 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 HOKRID OUTRAGES. 
 
 Ul 
 
 of the response of the duke ; they trusted to the provisions of the 
 edict, and not counting upon being attacked, they had made no 
 preparation for defence. The army of Catinat, therefore, took them 
 by surprise, and cut them in pieces. They had broken the union 
 sworn by all the Vaudois; and this cowardly baseness cost them 
 more dear than all the most desperate efforts of a generous courage 
 would have done. 
 
 The enemy's troops spread themselves without resistance over 
 the valley, plundering, killing, and ravaging to the utmost. Six 
 families, taken prisoners and sent to La Perouse, were there mas- 
 sacred in cold blood. Two young girls of Ville Seche were killed 
 for resisting the outrages of the soldiers, who satiated on their 
 corpses the savage brutality of which they had not been able to 
 make them victims whilst they lived. John Ribet, of Macel, 
 had all his members burned one after another, upon the succes- 
 sive refusals with which he met the thi-eats and representations 
 addressed to him during the intervals of his tortures, to bring him 
 to an abjuration. At the hamlet of Les Fontaines, near Rodoret, 
 four women were seized as they fled, carrying along with them 
 their children. These innocents were butchered before the eyes of 
 their mothers, and the mothers were then slaughtered over the 
 bodies of their babes. 
 
 The horrors of 1655 were renewed everywhere over this unfor- 
 tunate country; and as if the sword and the burning pile had not 
 been enough for the martyrdom of the Vaudois, the most cruel 
 punishments were also employed. Some were fastened to their 
 ploughs and buried piecemeal in the earth, which was laid open as 
 if to receive the grain for supply of food. Others were flung down 
 rocks, or torn by horses. The trees on the wayside served as 
 gibbets for other victims, and these new martyrs were subjected to 
 abominable mutilations. 
 
 After having thus ravaged the valley of St. Martin, Catinat left 
 a few troops there, and marched upon Pramol, where he was ere 
 long joined by Melac, who had perpetrated the same atrocities at 
 Le Pomaret. He had even gone farther in barbarity and indecency. 
 Not knowing the paths which he must follow on the moimtain, he 
 caused some Vaudois women and girls, whom he had seized, to act 
 for some time as his guides, compelling them by the sword to walk 
 entirely naked at the head of his columns. 
 
 The united troops of Melac and Catinat encamped in the vale of 
 
 Pramol, at the hamlet of La Rua, situated opposite to that of 
 
 Poemian. The Vaudois had retii-ed into the latter village to the 
 
 number of more than 1500. They were joined by their brethren 
 
 Vol. I. 56 
 
44)2 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Second. 
 
 Chap. XV] POPISH TREACHERY AND CRUELTY. 
 
 443 
 
 of St. Germain, who had repulsed with so much success the first 
 attack of the enemy; they were therefore still in a condition to 
 resist, and probably might have done it with similar advantage. 
 But their enemies formed a plan to vanquish them by treachery. 
 These inheritors of the primitive church were always vulnerable 
 on this side, for they trusted in the good faith of their enemies. 
 
 Catinat caused them to be told that the inhabitants of the valley 
 of Lucema had laid down their arms, and surrendered to Victor 
 Amadous, who had pardoned them. He exhorted them to follow 
 this example, that they might enjoy the same benefits. The Vaudois 
 sent two deputies to the French general, to receive from his own 
 mouth the confirmation of this news, and of his promises. In the 
 breast of this warrior soldierly honour did not revolt against the 
 course which he pursued, and he certified the lie, giving his word 
 for its truth. "Lay down your arms," he added, "and all is par- 
 doned." "But, general," said the deputies, "whilst we by no means 
 doubt your word, we dread the excesses of these same soldiers 
 who have just shed so much blood in the valley of St. Martin." 
 Catinat replied with an oath, that all his army should pass through 
 their houses without touching so much as a fowl. Was it possible 
 to suspect, in the hero of so many battles, the low perfidy so familiar 
 to the genius of the Papal system? No: the Vaudois entei-tained 
 no doubts; and they left one of their deputies with him as an 
 hostage, whilst the others went to get their brethren to lay down 
 their arms, and to re-assemble their dispersed families. 
 
 Catinat already triumphed in the success of his ai-tifice. These 
 mountaiaeers were, in his eyes, only heretics, people devoted to 
 hell and to carnage, the killing of whom, without resistance, spared 
 the blood of his brave and loyal companions in arms, who might 
 have perished in the combat. Such is the genius of Popery ; pride 
 and tyranny for itself, disdain and cruelty for others. 
 
 On the evening of the same day, Catinat sent a courier to Gabriel 
 of Savoy, the uncle of Victor Amadous, who had invaded the valley 
 of Lucerna, and was encamped at La Vachere. This courier passed 
 by Poemian, and told the Vaudois that he went to apprise the 
 prince of the proposed peace. Next day he came back, and said 
 that the peace was concluded. The Vaudois, therefore, believed 
 themselves assured of peace for the future. It was their destruction 
 which had been resolved upon. 
 
 The French troops entered Poemian. They were received with- 
 out arms and without distrust. The officer who commanded them ^ 
 renewed to the Vaudois the assurances of his general, caused the 
 
 ' Captain St. Pierre. 
 
 heads of families to be brought before him, separated the men from 
 the women, and told the former that he was going to cause them 
 to be conducted to the Duke of Savoy, that they might make their 
 submission to himself. 
 
 Having thus deprived these unfortunate families of all their de- 
 fenders — having none before them but women, children, and aged 
 
 men the soldiers of Catinat mshed like savage beasts on that 
 
 inofiensive multitude, so basely deceived; massacred some, tortured 
 others, stripped them of everything valuable; seized the women 
 and girls, to subject them to the most brutal treatment; satiated 
 upon them the most infamous passions, and subjected them to all 
 the hon-ors of rape and assassination. There were some of them 
 who resisted with so much courage that their destroyers could not 
 succeed in their vile endeavours till they mutilated them in all 
 their four members, nothing but a bloody torso being thus left for 
 the prey of these demons. Others were only vanquished when 
 they were pinned to the ground by a sword through the chest. 
 There were some who could not be forced, and who were buried 
 alive; others, more fortunate, were killed fleeing into the woods, 
 and brought down like timid deer by the bullets of their perse- 
 cutors. As for the children, they were carried off and dispersed 
 in Piedmont, either in convents or in various Catholic families. 
 What a Christian education they must have received there ! Their 
 fathers, who had been sent to the camp of Victor Amadous, to make 
 their submission to that monarch, were cast into the prisons of 
 Lucema, Cavour, and Villefranche, where a number of them died 
 of disease and of sorrow. 
 
 But Popery triumphed; treachery had served its cause ; a half of 
 the people of the valleys were massacred or captive; carnage had 
 done its work ; and what remained of the Israel of the Alps could 
 not subsist long. The Te Deums of St. Bartholomew's Day were 
 
 again to be heard ! 
 
 Victor Amadous had remained encamped on the plain which 
 forms the opening of the vaUey of Lucema on the side of La Tour 
 and Bora. It was here that, at a later period, after the marveUous 
 retum of the Vaudois to their native land, this very prince, himself 
 vanquished and a fugitive, sought an asylum from these same 
 mountaineers whom he now endeavoured to destroy or to disperse. 
 
 His uncle, Gabriel of Savoy, commander-in-chief of the ducal 
 troops, had bent his course towards the heights of Angrogna. His 
 line of operations extended from Briqueras to Saint John. The 
 Vaudois occupied, on the summit of the hills of La Costi^re, a 
 series of Httle posts situated in an upper zone, parallel, however, 
 
» # t 
 
 4M 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Secokp. 
 
 to his front of battle. On the 22d of April, Don Gabriel caused 
 these posts to be attacked upon all points at once. The Vaudois 
 fouf'ht all day; and, faithful to the tactics of Janavel, concentrated 
 their forces as they drew up their front of resistance to the higher 
 retreats of the mountain, thus drawing themselves together in a 
 line between points less numerous, and nearer and nearer to each 
 other. 
 
 Night having come, bivouac fires were kindled on both sides. 
 This luminous girdle crossed the mountain at about a third of its 
 elevation. Les Serres and Castelluz belonged to the enemy ; Koche- 
 manant and the Gates of Angrogna were in the hands of the Vau- 
 dois. In the Piedmontese camp the preposterous worship of relics 
 was mingled with the gross jokes of the soldiers, and the invocation 
 of the Virgin with indecent tales of the atrocities already perpe- 
 trated in the valleys. In the camp of the persecuted evening 
 prayer was offered with fervour and humility, amidst religious 
 quiet, grief, and resignation. It will be recollected that this prayer 
 had been placed on the order of the day for all the Vaudois com- 
 panies, and that it was set down at the end of their military regu- 
 lations, which have been preserved to our times. It was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 "O Lord! our great God, and the Father of mercy, we humble 
 ourselves before thy face, to implore of thee the pardon of all our 
 sins, in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour, that by his merits 
 thine ire^ may be appeased against us, who have offended thee so 
 much by our perverse and corrupt life. We render unto thee also 
 our most humble thanksgivings, that it hath pleased thee to pre- 
 serve us until now from all sorts of dangers and calamities : and 
 we humbly entreat thee to continue to us in future thy holy pro- 
 tection and good safeguard against all our enemies, from whose 
 hand we pray thee also to deliver and preserve us. And seeing 
 that they attack the truth and fight against it, bless thou our arms 
 to maintain and defend it ! Be thou thyself our strength and our 
 skill in all our combats, that we may come out of them victorious. 
 And if any of us shall die in this cause, i-eceive him, O Lord, in 
 thy grace, pardoning all his sins, and let his soul find admission 
 into thine eternal paradise ! O Loi-d, hear ! O Lord, forgive ! for 
 the sake of thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, in 
 whose name we pray imto thee, saying, Oii^r Fatlier which art in 
 
 heaven (to the end of the Lord's Prayer). O Lord, 
 
 increase our faith, and grant us grace to make with heart and 
 
 » I** Ton ire." Explained by Dr. Muston in a foot note, *'Ta colore.'*] 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 GABRIEL OF SAVOY. 
 
 445 
 
 mouth a sincere confession unto thee, to the end of our lives. / 
 
 believe in God (and so on to the end of the Apostles' 
 
 Creed.) May the holy peace and blessing of God our Father, the 
 love and gi-ace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the guidance, consolation, 
 and help of the Holy Spirit, be given and multiplied to us, from 
 henceforth and for evermore ! So let it be !" 
 
 These last words were pronounced in name of all who were pre- 
 sent, by the pastor or officer who had presided at this simple ser- 
 vice. Such is the pi-ayer, which we have not thought it proper to 
 exclude even from a historic abridgment, and which was offered 
 evening and morning in the camp of the Vaudois. 
 
 On the 23d of April, the attack upon them was recommenced. 
 They still fell back towards the higher parts of the mountain, but in 
 good order, and without ceasing to fight throughout the whole day. 
 Towards evening they assembled in a single camp at the foot of the 
 Vachere, and fortified that advantageous position by intrenchments 
 of earth and large stones, promptly raised by their intrepid vigour 
 and hands long accustomed to work. 
 
 Next morning, Gabriel of Savoy had information of the surrender 
 of the Vaudois of Pramol, who had trusted their enemies and 
 delivered themselves into their hands, and whose families had been 
 thereafter massacred without resistance. He resolved to employ 
 the same means against his own opponents, and caused them like- 
 wise to be told that their brethren of the Val St. Martin having 
 laid down their arms and obtained pardon, he would advise them to 
 follow that example, in order to avoid great calamities; for, if they 
 did not surrender, the French troops, which occupied the valley of 
 St. Martin and the little vale of Pramol, would come upon their 
 rear, and then they would infallibly be destroyed. 
 
 The Vaudois of the Val Lucema, intrenched at the foot of 
 the Vachere, could not believe this news. Janavel, in the advices 
 which he had addressed to them, had given the first prominence to 
 the necessity of all the people of the valleys remaining constantly 
 united; how, then, could one-half of them have treated with the 
 enemy, without having communicated their intention to theii^ 
 brethren? However, they likewise adopted the course of sending 
 commissioners to Gabriel of Savoy, who confirmed this news, and 
 sent them a note, signed with his own hand, in which he said to 
 them, "Do not hesitate to lay down your arms; and be assured that 
 if you cast yourselves upon the clemency of his royal highness, he 
 will pardon you, and that neither your persons nor those of your 
 wives or children shall be touched." 
 
 After a promise so express, signed by a royal hand, there could 
 
446 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Secoud. 
 
 he no hesitation. But that august hand was a Catholic hand, 
 taught to sign the most wicked treacheries without shaking. I 
 would fain, indeed, think that the uncle of the sovereign was sincere 
 in his promises; but he was aware of the perfidy of Catinat; he 
 himself had taken part the day before in faithlessly making the 
 Vaudois of Pramol captives, and yet he could venture to say that 
 pardon would be granted. His bad faith appears evident ; and if 
 the judgment of history ought to be severe against all that is 
 degrading to the dignity of human nature, it cannot pronounce too 
 stem a reprobation of actions so base on the part of one so exalted. 
 Moreover, we may judge of the character of this engagement 
 by the fruits which it so speedily produced. The Vaudois of the 
 Vachere opened their intrenchments to Gabriel of Savoy, and 
 came forth themselves without arms and without distrust before 
 his troops. These mingled with them under the most pacific 
 guise, surrounded them, and then seizing them and binding them 
 like felons, carried them prisoners to Lucema, where they were 
 cast into the dungeons, already in part filled with their brethren, 
 who had also been betrayed. How forcibly must the advices of 
 Janavel have then presented themselves to their minds ! But it 
 was too late. The enemy had possessed themselves, almost without 
 striking a blow, of those formidable valleys, where the Vaudois 
 ''had posts so advantageous" says a contemporary, ''and intrench- 
 ments so strong, that they might have kept their ground in them for 
 ten years."" ^ 
 
 The defenders of this ancient sanctuary of the church were loaded 
 with irons ; their children were carried off and scattered through 
 the Catholic districts; their wives and daughters were violated, 
 massacred, or made captives. As for those that still remained, all 
 whom the enemy could seize became a prey devoted to carnage, 
 spoliation, fire, excesses which cannot be told, and outrages which 
 it would be impossible to describe. Joseph David, being wounded, 
 was carried by the soldiers into a neighbouring house, where they 
 burned him alive. The mother of Daniel Foumeron, a woman 
 eighty years of age, was rolled down a precipice because she did 
 not walk quickly enough. Susanna Olviette and Margaret Baline, 
 having endeavoured to defend their honour, lost their lives in the 
 struggle, and yielded only their corpses to the unbridled lust of the 
 soldiery. Mary Bomain, who had been betrothed only a few days 
 before, allowed herself to be slaughtered rather than submit to 
 their desire. 
 
 Whilst these things were taking place in Angrogna, Victor 
 
 » Letter written from Pignerol, 26th April, 1686. Archives of Berne, C. II., 2^ 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 CHAMP-LA-RAMA CAPTURED. 
 
 447 
 
 Amadeus had continued to advance in the valley of Lucema. There 
 the Vaudois still occupied two important posts; the one at the 
 hamlet of Les Geymets, and the other at Champ-la-Rama. Thus 
 they covered the entrance to the Pra-du-Tour on the one side, and 
 the road to Le Villar on the other. These two posts, being 
 attacked at once, were firmly held during a whole day. The 
 enemy could not gain an inch of ground, and lost many men, 
 amongst others the commander of the militia of Mondovi. The 
 Vaudois had only six killed, and as many wounded. Towards 
 evening, the assailants, whose ammunition was exliausted, seemed 
 to think of retreating; but in the fear of being pursued, they 
 resolved at all hazards to deceive their adversaries by some illusory 
 promise, and, under the name of a stratagem of war, to make them 
 the victims of some such perfidy as had already proved so success- 
 ful at the Vachere and at Poemian. 
 
 A number of Piedmont ese officers, having laid their arms and 
 their hats upon the gi-ound, approached the fortifications which the 
 Vaudois had erected at Champ-la-Bama, waving a white handker- 
 chief on the end of a stick, and saying that they were the bringers 
 of peace. They were allowed to advance. They exhibited a paper, 
 saying that it was a letter of Victor Amadeus, who had granted 
 pardon to all his subjects, and that he ordained his troops to 
 retire, and requested the Vaudois to do the same. The podestat 
 of Lucema, whose name was Prat, a magistrate well known to the 
 Vaudois, accompanied these officers, and attested the truth of their 
 declaration, assuring the poor mountaineers that they would have 
 life and liberty, on condition of their immediately ceasing from 
 hostilities. 
 
 The Vaudois might, by a vigorous sortie, have routed these 
 exhausted troops, or at least have seized their officers. But trust- 
 ing in their word, they fired no more, allowing the enemy to draw 
 back in peace, and themselves going to seek some repose. Scarcely 
 had they retired, when the Catholic soldiers retraced their steps 
 with new reinforcements, and took possession of the abandoned 
 post. Those who still defended themselves at the hamlet of Les 
 Geymets, less elevated than the Champ-la-Rama, finding their 
 position commanded by the enemy, abandoned it likewise, and 
 retired to Le Villar. 
 
 It might seem that so many reiterated acts of perfidy must have 
 exhausted the amount of Catholic dishonesty, and of the too easy 
 confidence of the Vaudois; but such was not the case. The troops 
 of the enemy, after having pursued the mountaineers, who fell back 
 on the comhe of Le Villar, halted at the hamlet of Les Bonnets, 
 
us 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt SkC05D. 
 
 and remained there for two days without venturing to give "battle. 
 But during this time they sent to the Vaudois several successive 
 emissaries, to assure them, in the name of all that was sacred, that 
 those who would surrender would obtain pardon, whilst the sever- 
 est chastisements would await those who stood out. Many sur- 
 rendered themselves, and were cast into prison. Thus the number 
 of the Vaudois diminished daily. They might still be about 500 
 or 600 men. This troop would have sufficed Janavel to perform 
 prodigies; but that illustrious outlaw, having been banished for 
 thirty years from his native country, could no longer serve it 
 except by his advice, and his advice had not been followed. The 
 intrepid captain had lost nothing of his courage; but the infirmities 
 of age had deprived him of his strength, without bending his noble 
 
 spirit. 
 
 After some time, the Vaudois of Le Villai', finding themselves 
 decimated by perfidy or by treachery, and weakened by the intrigues 
 of an enemy destitute alike of honesty and of courage, abandoned 
 also the post which they occupied, and fell back upon Bobi, the 
 last important village of the valley. 
 
 Thus passed the month of April. On the 4th of May, Gabriel 
 of Savoy marched all his troops against them. This attack was 
 repulsed. The Vaudois, intrenched on the heights of Subiasc, 
 killed some of his officers and many of his soldiers. 
 
 On the 12th of May, the French army, having united itself with 
 that of Victor Amadeus, renewed the attack, which was again re- 
 pulsed by the Vaudois with great success. But next day the 
 Marquis de Parelles, who had ascended the valley of St. Martin 
 with a detachment of Catinat's troops, passed over the Col Julian, 
 and attacked the gallant defenders of Bobi in the rear. Finding 
 themselves thus placed between two fires, the Vaudois abandoned 
 a position which it was impossible to maintain, and dispersed 
 themselves on the lateral mountains of La Sarcena and Garin. 
 
 New emissaries were presently sent after them, to promise them 
 liberty if they would surrender themselves to their sovereign. A 
 number did surrender themselves, and, like the former, were cast 
 into prison. The mind revolts at the thought of a continued 
 rascality always successful and always disastrous ! The triumph of 
 what is shameful is a dishonour to human nature. 
 
 However, the bloodiest horrors did not cease to be enacted eveiy- 
 where over this desolated land. Two sisters, Anne and Madeleine 
 Vittoria, were burned aUve in the straw of the shed where they 
 had been ravished. Daniel Pellenc was flayed alive, and as the 
 soldiers could not succeed in making the skin of his body pass up 
 
 Chip 
 
 . xv] 
 
 AWFUL ATROCITIES. 
 
 44)9 
 
 over his shoulders, they laid him on the ground, threw a large stone 
 on his mangled but still breathing body, and left him to expire m 
 that condition. Twenty-two persons were flung into the ravines 
 of Le Cmel, from the heights of Bariound and Garneyreugna. A 
 number of them, suspended on ledges of the rocks, with their bones 
 broken and their flesh torn, still remained aUve for some days. A 
 youn- mother, who fled carrying her child in her arms, and who 
 carried another also within her, was overtaken by the murderers. 
 They took her babe from her, seized it by the feet, and dashed its 
 head against the rocks; then falling, sword in hand, upon the 
 fainting mother, they committed two murders more by a single 
 stroke. Another woman was placed naked, with her infant in her 
 arms, amongst the soldiers, and they amused themselves by standing 
 at a distance and throwing their daggers, some at the mother and 
 some at the child. The name of this ill-fated woman was Margaret 
 Salvajot. Another woman had retired into a cavern with her 
 child and a she-goat. The goat, browsing on the herbage amongst 
 the brushwood, noui'ished the poor mother with its milk, and she 
 gave suck to her child. The soldiers came upon them by surprise. 
 The infant was flung into a hole, as the redundant progeny of beasts 
 are flung upon the dunghill when we want to be quit of them. The 
 mother was conducted into the presence of the Marquis of B6nil, 
 colonel of the regiment of Savoy. They wished to learn from her the 
 hiding-place of her Protestant brethren who had disappeared. She 
 knew nothing of the matter. To make her speak, they crushed her 
 fingers between bars of iron; but it was in vain. Then these de- 
 fenders, heroes, and pillars of the Catholic faith, broke her legs, and 
 having tied her head to her feet, they rolled her down into the same 
 chasm into which they had cast her child. 
 
 " Why relate such atrocities?" more than one voice will exclaim 
 with emotion. To inspire a horror of the odious principles which 
 have produced them. Do you suppose that an account of the 
 blood which was shed will never be called for] Nay; these vile 
 oppressors of mankind, tyrannizing by the sword, tyrannizing by 
 deceit, tyrannizing by cupidity— these heroes of superstition and 
 intolerance, who would have put an end to Christianity a thousand 
 times over, if it could have beeR destroyed— these authors of so 
 many wounds still bleeding in the world— must endure history to 
 the last ; their works are their condemnation. 
 
 The Marquis De Parelles himself was moved with indignation 
 on meeting bands of his soldiers bearing on their hats the hideous 
 trophies of the various mutilations to wHch they had subjected the 
 unfortunate Vaudois. 
 
 Vol. I. "^ 
 
J^t-.^ 
 
 450 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Skcond, 
 
 Daniel Mondon, one of the elders of the parish of Rora, was the 
 agonized and helpless witness of the murder of his two sons, who 
 were beheaded with the sabre, and then of his daughter-in-law, 
 whose body was ripped open the whole length of the belly. The 
 four little children of this ill-fated woman were also butchered 
 before the eyes of their mother. The old man was reserved, that 
 he might be compelled to bear upon his shoulders the heads of his 
 two sons, and the bloody relics of his slaughtered family. In this 
 manner he was obliged to march from Rora to Lucerna. On his 
 arrival in the latter town, he was hanged on a gallows. 
 
 " All the valleys are exteiminated, the people killed, hanged, oi* 
 massacred," wrote a French officer, announcing to foreign parts the 
 result of this fratricidal contest, by a letter of date the 26th of May, 
 1686. On the same day Victor Amadeus issued a decree, liy which 
 all the Yaudois, without exception, were declared guilty of the 
 crime of high treason,^ because they had not laid down their arms 
 on the first summons, and all their property was confiscated, to the 
 increase of the royal domains.*"^ The few Vaudois who escaped 
 carnage and the prisons, wandered miserably on the mountains. 
 Those who still remained in their lonely dwellings, received orders 
 not to leave them.*^ 
 
 Thus the destruction of these Vaudois churches, so long exposed 
 to trial, appeared now inevitable; their overthrow seemed to be 
 complete. A number of their sons still maintained the struggle even 
 in this extremity, some by their courage, others by their martyr- 
 dom. The pastor of Pral, named Leydet, had retired to a cavern to 
 escape the murderers. After the lapse of two days, he supposed that 
 the trooj^s had retired, and rendered thanks to God, by singing in 
 a low voice a song of deliverance. But these pious accents, issuing 
 through the clefts of the rock, betrayed his retreat. The soldiers 
 heard him, rushed into the cavern, seized the pastor, and conducted 
 him to Lucema, where he was brought before Victor Amadeus as 
 a prisoner of importance. He was promised his liberty and a pen- 
 sion of 2000 livres, if he would consent to change his religion. He 
 refused. He was then imprisoned in a tower, his legs being made 
 fast betwixt two beams united by a screw. Here he remained for 
 a long time, receiving only bread and water, and unable to lie do^v'n, 
 because of the stocks in which his legs were painfully held. In 
 
 ' [Fr. Lhe-majcste.] What majesty is there in an unjust power ? 
 
 2 Turin, Archives of the Court of Accounts. Ordini, 1685-1686, No. 103, fol. 33, 
 and 104, fol. 6. It is to be found also in the Archives of tlie Cowi, portfolio of the 
 Edicts of His lloyal Highness from 1686 to 1698. 
 
 3 On the 23th of April. (Dubois, II. 243.) 
 
 Chap. 
 
 XV.] 
 
 MARTYKDOM OF LEYDET. 
 
 451 
 
 this afflictive situation he had to sustain long theological discus- 
 sions every day, with the priests and monks who were sent to con- 
 vert him. 
 
 Like some kind of vermin always engendered around torture, 
 this brood of death is everywhere to be found, from the dungeons 
 of the Spanish Inquisition, to those of the Holy Office of Rome 
 and of Turin. Their holy office is well enough known ; but what 
 had it ever to do with the gospel? 
 
 At last, not being able to convince the prisoner, the priests told 
 him that he must presently die. "The will of God be done!" he 
 tranquilly replied. "You may save your life by becoming a Ca- 
 tholic," said they. " That would not be the will of God," was his 
 answer. New discussions were then again commenced, and as a 
 last argument, they were concluded once more by a new announce- 
 ment of death. But nothing shook tlie constancy of the prisoner. 
 Thereupon he was condemned to death, and as a pretext for his 
 condemnation, the sentence bore that he had been taken with arms 
 
 in his hands. 
 
 The day before his execution, and that day itself, the monks 
 assailed him again, to make him abjure; they hoped that the 
 emotion always inseparable from these last moments would have 
 broken his resolution, or discomposed his muad. But he remained 
 calm, serene, firm in his faith, and resigned. As he left the 
 prison to go to execution, he said to the executioners, " This is 
 for me a double deliverance, in which both my soul and my body 
 ought to rejoice." Then having mounted the scaffold, he uttered, 
 without ostentation, only these words, "0 my God! T commit my 
 soul into thy hands." 
 
452 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Fart Second. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TERMINATION OF THE CONTEST; MOIOIRS OF A PRISONER; 
 CAPTIVITY AND DISPERSION OF THE VAUDOIS IN VARIOUS 
 
 TOWNS/ 
 
 (a.d. 1686— Mat to September.) 
 
 The laat body of defenders of the valleys — Further treachery practised against 
 them — The valleys, after great massacres and devastations, seem entirely re- 
 duced — The invaders depart — New bands of Vaudois appear in arms in the 
 valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin — It is at last stipulated that all the surviv- 
 ing Vaudois shall be permitted to go into exile — Journal of a prisoner — Suffer- 
 ings of the prisoners. 
 
 Op the whole number of their courasceous but too credulous defen- 
 ders, there now remained in the Vaudois valleys only a little troop 
 of combatants, who still continued the contest on the mountain of 
 Vandalin. The last hope of their prostrated country, the last ray 
 of expiring liberty depended on their noble efforts. But a spirit of 
 destruction seemed to have breathed over all these countries. A 
 fatal vertigo threw men of the most undaunted courage into the 
 gross snare of those deceitful promises of which such base use had 
 already been made. 
 
 The governor of the province, M. De La Roche, after having 
 caused some unsuccessful attacks to be made upon this small but 
 heroic band, had recourse to treachery, in order to take from their 
 valiant hands that glorious banner of liberty which they still made 
 to float over the valleys. He wrote to them to promise, as a magi- 
 strate, as a citizen, and as a man of honour, pardon for their families, 
 and their own liberty, if, according to the terms of the edict of the 
 28th of May, they would consent to retire to their respective dwell- 
 ings. The Vaudois had too much forgotten that to the simplicity 
 of the dove they ought to have joined the prudence of the serpent. 
 They believed these perfidious promises, and retired to their dwell- 
 ings ; whereupon the faithful governor immediately took possession 
 of the intrenched post which they had just abandoned, tore from 
 their hands the note which he had written to them, and flung them 
 into the prisons already filled with their brethren. 
 
 "In the valley of St. Martin," says Brez,'-^ "a few men, having 
 
 * AUTHOBITIES. — The same as in Chapter XIV. To which add the introductory 
 part and the preface of the Glorious Return of the Vaudois, by Henry Arnaud. 
 
 2 The published portion of the History of the Vaudois^ by Brez (although it does 
 &ot bear his name), comes down only to the events of 1655. The remainder of this 
 
 Chap. XVI] 
 
 FURTHER TREACHERY. 
 
 453 
 
 still rallied, had resohed to defend their natal soil to the last ex- 
 tremity. The persecutors could not be indifferent to these feeble 
 relics, whom it was less easy to subdue by force than by stratagem ; 
 and, as there were amongst the prisoners many Vaudois who en- 
 joyed the confidence of their compatriots, the Marquis De Parelles 
 caused them to march at the head of his army, that he might make 
 some progress against their brethren, and then forced them, with a 
 pistol at their breast, to write a number of notes, exhorting their 
 compatriots to lay down their arms, and cast themselves upon the 
 clemency of the sovereign, who had offered pardon, they said, to 
 all who chose to profit by it. On seeing these well-known persons, 
 the Vaudois, wasted by fatigue, hunger, and hardships, almost all 
 surrendered; and, instead of obtaining their pardon, were added 
 to the number of the captives." 
 
 Thus, after more than 1000 persons had been massacred, more 
 than 6000 prisoners taken by fraud, and 2000 Protestant children 
 dispersed in all directions — after all the Vaudois who still re- 
 mained in the valleys had been declared guilty of high treason, 
 and an universal confiscation of their property had been pro- 
 nounced — it seemed as if there was nothing more to be done with 
 this unfortunate country but to abandon to its own silence the 
 tomb of the Vaudois churches, and to leave solitude and desolation 
 to spread over them for ever. 
 
 But, on the contrary — strange as it may seem — it was just then 
 that the Vaudois took fresh courage, and found a new source of 
 energy in the excess of their despair. The spirit of might blows 
 where it will : they had neither places of worship, nor homes, nor 
 country; no vision of clemency could deceive them again; they 
 could have no hope of safety, but in themselves and in God; and 
 now it was that they appeared again, animated with a confidence 
 more invincible than before. 
 
 The French troops had retired. The militia of Mondovi had 
 returned to their homes. Thus the principal adversaries of the 
 ^ Vaudois had disappeared— the former being so reckoned on account 
 of their number, the latter on account of their ferocity; for, in 
 1681, the rebels of Mondovi had been vanquished by the Vaudois 
 militia, and the spirit of revenge was combined in them with the 
 
 work is unpublished. My venerable friend, M. Appia, a native of the Vaudois 
 valleys, and pastor at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, had the goodness to procure me a 
 copy. It is from the eighth chapter of this second part of the work of Brez that 
 the sentences are extracted which I here quote, not as an authority, but as a nar- 
 ration; for, in a scientific point of view, this work contains no new fact and no 
 profound research. A few bombastic or incorrect expressions have been modified, 
 even in this quotation. 
 
454 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sbcond. 
 
 Chap. XVI ] 
 
 VAUDOIS ALLOWED TO RETIRE. 
 
 455 
 
 excitements of fanaticism and of war, to augment, in 1G8G, the 
 cruelty of the reprisals which they took upon us. The Pied- 
 montese army began also to abandon this impoverished, blood- 
 stained, and depopulated land. Wealthy Savoyards already came 
 to examine the properties which they proposed to purchase in 
 these devastated regions. The Duke of Savoy wished to repeople 
 them, as if to prevent even a desert from preserving there the re- 
 collection of a people who had disappeared. 
 
 Then, from the depths of the woods, from the recesses of the 
 I'aviues, irom the clefts of the rocks, from the summits of steep 
 peaks, came forth emaciated men, half-naked patriots, outlaws 
 battered by the storm, inured to danger, familiar with fatigue and 
 hunger, who, to escape persecution, had maintained their lives for 
 whole months on the herbs of the mountains and the flesh of the 
 chamois, or even on the savage brood of wolves that wandered 
 about to devour the corpses left unburied. By degi'ees these rude 
 mountaineers drew together, united, organized themselves, and, 
 having taken an account of their numbers in the valley of Lucerna, 
 on the umbrageous heights of Le Beces, they found themselves in 
 all forty-two men, with a few women and a few childi^en. An 
 almost equal number made their appearance from the valley of St. 
 Martin. 
 
 What were their names? Who was their leader] What acts 
 of extraordinary heroism and valour did they thereafter perform to 
 set free, unaided, their oppressed country, to release from prison 
 their compatriots who had been betrayed, to regain all their con- 
 fiscated properties, and to obtain, for themselves and their people, 
 a glorious retreat with arms and baggage to a foreign country? 
 All this is unknown. No one has written the annals of these, the 
 forlorn hope, but victorious, of the Yaudois mountains. Their 
 expeditions must be judged of by their results. Ah ! what might 
 these have been if all the force of such a people had been found, 
 from the first, well united and well directed — if Javanel had been 
 listened to, — if he had been there 1 
 
 But his spirit, at least, appears to have animated these last 
 defenders of the valleys. Urged on by the hand of God, they 
 fell like a thunderbolt on the persecutors, who supposed them 
 destroyed — defeated in succession the garrisons of Le Villar, La 
 Tour, Lucerna, and St. Segont — intercepted convoys proceeding 
 to revictual Pignerol, and thus refitted their own equipment, and 
 provided themselves with ammunition and provisions. Then 
 retiring again to those unconquered mountains, of which they alone 
 knew the paths, they multiplied their number by their activity. 
 
 their strength by their valour, their power by the fear which they 
 inspired, and their chances of safety by the repeated losses which 
 they made their enemies to experience. Unexpected in attack, 
 and not to be overtaken in flight, they fell suddenly upon some 
 uedected post, or on soldiers sleeping in their quarters, gave all to 
 fire and sword, and retired as quickly as they came. At other 
 tiines, in the middle of the night, they surprised some one of the 
 villages of the plain, setting it on fire at both ends, and threaten- 
 ixL^ to burn it entirely if it refused to pay a hea^/y contribution. 
 
 The Marquis De Parelles pul himself in motion again on the 
 side of Eocheplate and the Vachere; Gabriel of Savoy ascended 
 again towards Lucerna and Pvora ; for it was never by the bottom 
 of the valleys, but by the projecting lateral ridges of the inter- 
 jacent mountains, that these bold freebooters made their incur- 
 sions. Like pirates of the Alps, treated as enemies by all their 
 neighbours, these desperate mountaineers caused a terror which 
 increased with their victories. The troops which marched against 
 them were twice repulsed. The Marquis De Parelles occupied 
 the heights of St. Germain and Angrog-na, which sepai-ate the valley 
 of Lucerna from that of St. Martin, in order to prevent the junc- 
 tion of the two small bodies of flying troops which occupied these 
 
 vallevs. • r i. t 
 
 Offers were made to both of safe-conducts, that they might be 
 enabled to retire freely to a foreign country; but they insisted that 
 the same liberty should be granted to all their compatriots who 
 were in prison. There seemed to be a disposition to enter into 
 negotiations with them upon this basis; but they would not 
 capitulate unless hostages were given them. The negotiation went 
 on favourably for themselves; but reservations were made regard- 
 in- the prisoners. Thev broke it off sharply, saying that they 
 would all die in the valleys, which they would not leave unless 
 accompanied by their compatriots. At last the retreat of all the 
 surviving Vaudois was granted. The mountaineers stipulated that 
 an officer of the royal guard should accompany each division of the 
 exiles in the capacity of an hostage. They demanded moreover, 
 and with success, that their journey to the frontiers of the domi- 
 nions of Savoy should be made at the expense of Victor Amadeus. 
 They were to set out in two brigades, after which all the other 
 prisoners were to depart in succession in the same manner. Each 
 of them was free to dispose as he pleased of his property. But alas 
 all had been the prey of pillage or of fire; and from those frightful 
 prisons into which their brethren had been crowded, how many of 
 them never came out ! A greater number died at that time withm 
 
456 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Secowd. 
 
 a few days, through the long sufferings of captivity, than had fallen 
 in battle, during three centuries, in all the persecutions.^ Courage 
 is always attended with less danger than weakness. 
 
 A journal, written in Italian by one of these afflicted people, 
 enables us to acquaint the reader with a part of their sufferings. 
 "On the 23d of April," says he,*^ "commenced the desolation of 
 our valleys. On the 26th I retired to the mountains of Rora, for 
 nowhere else could one sleep, and all appeared so ravaged that 
 nothing could be found to eat. Ere long I knew not what way to 
 turn ; but I thought that God would not forsake me if T remained 
 faithful to him;' and accordingly he sent a man to me on whom I 
 coidd depend.* He resided at Lucernette, and said to me, that if 
 I would go with him I should have nothing to fear. We descended 
 the mountain, and as night approached, we having arrived at the 
 hamlet of Les Bonnets, where my house was, he asked me if there 
 was any wine in it, that we might refresh ourselves. I showed 
 him some of an inferior quality, but told him that I had also some 
 of another quality, which was the best which was produced in the 
 Giovanera of St. John."^ On their arrival at Lucernette, Salvajot 
 
 * "There died," says Araaud, "as many as eleven thousand.'* (Return, first 
 edition, fol. 25). We read also in a letter written from Geneva to the Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs at Turin (the Marquis of St. Thomas), " The Vaudois are arrived 
 in Switzerland to the number of 2G0O, a miserable remnant of the 15,000 icho existed 
 a year ago." Dated 19th March, 1687. A rchives of Berne, compartment C. (Com- 
 municated by M. Monastier.) 
 
 2 The following is the title of this manuscript : — " Memoric di me Bartolomeo 
 Salvajot, nelli anni 1686, 1687, e 1688." The author was one of those Vaudois of 
 whom Erman and Keclam speak (t. vi.), who went to Brandenburg in 1688 and 
 returned in 1690; for in these Memoirs we find his itinerary as far as Stendal, and 
 we meet with him again present at the Synod of La Tour, as the lay deputy of 
 ilora, on the 15th of September, 1693. 
 
 His manuscript, which has long remained unnoticed, begins with the 23d of 
 April, 1686, and ends with the month of August, 16S8. It contains 6i pages. 
 M. Torn, a tutor belonging to the Vaudois valleys, was so kind as to transmit me 
 a copy. Salvajot was an old captain of the Vaudois troops; he was born at Les 
 Bonnets, resided at Eora, and married a woman from La Baudeina, near Bobi, 
 in 1678. 
 
 3 The following are the words of the manuscript : — ... "Dt modo che non sapeva 
 is che divenire; e diceva, con il profeta, che megli mi sarebbe la raorte che la vita. Ma 
 Iddio, per la sua grande misericordia, non lascia cadere un solo capello della nostra 
 testa, senza la sua volonta : poi'cM se li siano veramente jidele, mi salvera miraco- 
 losamente." 
 
 * And this man — this friend — was a Catholic. His name was Martina. It is 
 refreshing to see, amidst so many crimes committed in name of religion, one poor 
 man remaining faithful to sacred humanity. The Protestant confided in the 
 Catholic, as at a former time the Catholics had confided in the Protestants, com- 
 mitting their daughters to their charge. The people are always better than their 
 directors. 
 
 » The reader will pardon the quotation of these particulars. Tliey show life as 
 
 Chat. XVI.] 
 
 SALVAJOT S XARRATIVE. 
 
 457 
 
 gave up his arms to his friend, who hid thera, and who then made 
 the fugitive lie down in a loft, that the neighboui's might not 
 remark his presence; for it was forbidden, under very severe 
 penalties, to give asylum to any Vaudois. He remained in this 
 garret tliree days and three nights, after which he asked Martina 
 to go and seek the seigneur of Rora, whose vassal he was, and who 
 dwelt at Campillon, to entreat him to give him some employment. 
 
 " I wrote a note to him with my own hand," says he ; "but when 
 he saw it he commenced swearing, and tore it, saying that he covild 
 do nothing for me. I knew not what to do, and hesitated about 
 returning to the mountains, when Martina went, without saying 
 anything to me, to Lucerna, to speak to the prefect of La Tour, 
 who immediately went to his royal highness, to obtain my pardon. 
 I spent all that day in great uneasiness. My friend did not 
 arrive till 10 o'clock in the evening, and greatly rejoiced my heart, 
 by telling me that I might return home without danger of my life. 
 I gave thanks to God, and next day, the 4th of May, I went to 
 Lucerna in company with the priest of Lucernette and with 
 Martina. They escorted me as far as the convent of Le Pin, 
 where they bade me farewell with much affection {grande carezze), 
 thinking that I would change my religion. But I told the monks 
 that, for the present, my mind was occupied with very different 
 matters — that my wife and my little daughter were still in the 
 mountains, and that I entreated them to aid me in getting them 
 out, lest the soldiers should kill them. They immediately went to 
 speak to the President Palavicino, who kindly {della sua grazzia) 
 went to his royal highness, and caused me to be informed that 
 as many of our people as chose to surrender themselves to the 
 prince, might have opportunity of doing so." 
 
 Salvajot was still ignorant of the fate of those who had already 
 surrendered themselves ; for the defenders of Poemian, betrayed 
 by Catinat, were already in prison. He himself was ere long im- 
 prisoned also, in the cellars of that very convent, as soon as the 
 impossibility had been discovered of getting him to apostatize. He 
 thus continues his narrative : — 
 
 " I therefore sent two children to bring my wife ; for I did not 
 choose to write a note, which might make our people think that I 
 had forsaken them. These children were accompanied as far as 
 Le Villar by their own fathei'S, who carried to the Count De 
 Massel the note of Palavicino, requiring that they should be allowed 
 
 it ia, with its vulgar wants and cares (without which, however, there is no subsist- 
 ing); and the abstract character of historic events cannot always supply their 
 place. ** Epoi," says Salvajot, "tiremofuori ^m di qvci bottali e bevemo bene." 
 
 Vol. I. 58 
 
458 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 LPabt Skconu. 
 
 to pass and to return with my family. Thereafter, these children 
 went on alone to seek my wife, as far as La Bavdeina^ where they 
 found her making bread. Before descending, she wished to go to 
 seek her daughter, who was in the forest ; but the enemy came up, 
 and they were all obliged to conceal themselves for ten days.^ .... 
 At last my wife arrived at Lucema with our child ; they urged her 
 to become a Catholic, but she said that she could do nothing without 
 speaking with her husband. The Either president- conducted her 
 to my prison, and told me to make her believe that I had already 
 become a Catholic;^ but that was what I could not. She was 
 going to enter the prison with my daughter, whom she held by the 
 hand, but the father said to them, *Take care, poor women, for if 
 you go in there you will never come out.' But I was so glad to 
 see them again, and they were so happy to be near me, that we 
 could not make up oiu* minds to part. They came in, and passed 
 that night by my side amongst the other prisoners. They slept 
 upon the ground, without straw, or covering, or supper; for happy 
 was he who could get a stone to lay his head upon — the ministers 
 as well as the rest.* Every one snatched for himself as much food 
 as he was able, and some who had been friends became enemies." 
 Such a cruel demon is hunger ! " Next day my wife wished to go 
 out, to go to seek something at Lucerna, at the house of our friend 
 Martina; but it was necessary to apply to the major, and to pay 
 two crosasi to the captain of the guards, in order to get out. I 
 then directed my wife to a place where I had dropped a large 
 copper vessel into the torrent of Laigha, and told her to cai-ry it to 
 Martina's house ; for it had cost me an Italian doppia,^ and it was 
 almost new. She was also to put into his hands a sum of 100 
 fi-ancs, which I had in crowns and small money ; as well as twenty 
 pounds of salt and eighteen pounds of bacon, which still remained 
 
 * Si riscrarono in Barnia d'Hant, e cosi scamparono la loro vita. Ma molti altri, 
 eke il nemico ricontrava, f/li amazzavano, e gliimpicavano agliaXheri; violovano le 
 donne; saccheggiarono tutto, e brucciavano in molti luoghi, talmente eke . . , . da 
 tutte le parte, non si scutiva altro eke grida, spavento .... che faeeva ojrore f I 
 do not quote these words to increase the horror of the scenes which I have de- 
 scribed, but to show that they have not been exaggerated ; and if I had chosen to 
 multiply frightful particulars, the documents were not exhausted. 
 
 2 The superior of the mission established at the convent of Le Pin. 
 
 ' Which proves that they had affirmed to his wife that he had become a Catholic. 
 "What can we think of a system which pretends to conduct to the truth, and which 
 employs lying as an instrument ? 
 
 * £ beato era colui chepoteva aver una pietra sotto il capo; gli ministri, come gli 
 altri. 
 
 * The doppia or double ducal livre was worth, before 1755, 41 francs 7 cents; 
 after that time, in accordance with an edict on the subject, the dop^pia was worth 
 only 30 francs 2 cents. 
 
 Chap XVIJ 
 
 THE NARRATIVE CONTINUED. 
 
 459 
 
 to us. Martina promised to her that he would take good care of 
 all these things, and restore them to me when I came to reclaim 
 
 them." 
 
 These details may seem too minute; but the ordinary cares of life 
 can never cease to force themselves upon attention, even amidst the 
 gravest events. They are not without their value, moreover, as 
 making known the spirit of order, economy, and equity which 
 animated our poor mountaineers. Many other details of the same 
 kind are to be found in the memoir from which these are copied. 
 
 « During the first days of my captivity I saw 400 persons aiTive 
 from Pral — ^women, children, and aged men — and all in a state so 
 deplorable and wretched, that the prisoners themselves were afflicted 
 to behold it. These poor people had brought with them a few 
 asses and mules; but the soldiers caught hold of the beasts, and 
 flung down the poor women and children with such violence, that 
 it was really pitiful to see it. Two of them, being pregnant, gave 
 birth to children on the spot, and they took them to anoiiher 
 
 dungeon. 
 
 " One day the President Palavicino called me into the garden of 
 the convent, and asked me if I knew the road by the Col Julian 
 and Barma d'Hant; but I told him that I had never been in these 
 quarters. Then the Signor Glaudi Brianza, taking me apart, said 
 to me, * Now, Salvajot, you must manage so that the rest of the 
 people of the valleys surrender themselves, and thereupon you shall 
 be set at Uberty.' *Ah, Sir!' said I, *I positively can do nothing 
 of the kind.' ' Take heed,' said he ; * if you ai'e obstinate, you will 
 find cause to repent of it.' 
 
 " Two days after, the president came to ask me if I would like to 
 see our ministers. ' Very much,' said I. ' Well !' said he, ' come 
 with me.'— He took me from the convent of the missionaries; we 
 passed before the marquis's palace, where I saw the Duke of Savoy 
 at a window, and presently we arrived at the prison of the minis- 
 ters. On entering, I saluted them; and seeing their miserable 
 condition, I asked if they had nothing to sleep on, for there was 
 nothing but the paved floor. They replied that they had not. 
 Then the major of Lucerna, who had come in, said to me jeeringly, 
 ' Well, Mr. Captain Salvajot, what think you of this ? But we are 
 not at the end, and you shall see, you shall see how we shall do 
 with all these !' He even spoke of hanging me if I would not 
 abjure, and vomited out^ this sort of stuff for a good while. I 
 wished to return with him, but he told me to remain there till 
 evening, and I was left there for two weeks. Every day new- 
 
 * Fece grandissima goula. 
 
460 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt SrcoND. 
 
 bands of prisoners were brought in. Sometimes entire families 
 were brought; but the soldiers tore the little children with such 
 violence from the arms of their mothers, that numbers of these 
 feeble creatures were strangled in the act, and remained dead in 
 their hands. There is no humanity in these folks !" observes Sal- 
 vajot, with laconic simplicity. " We remained so long without 
 straw,'* he adds, "that the vermin covered the walls; and no one 
 could go out of the apartment, because a watch was at the door. 
 Nor could we get water to wash with, or even to drink; and we 
 had likewise very little to eat. At last we were conveyed to a new 
 dungeon, under the vaults of a house which anciently belonged to 
 Signor Bastero. But there we were still worse ! Fortunately 
 we were not allowed to remain there for more than two or three 
 days. 
 
 " One evening the Chevalier Morosa came to see us, and said to 
 tlie ministers, * It is you that have caused this rebellion ! you would 
 have done better to have obeyed.' * You knov/,' they replied, 
 ' that we have done all in our power to prevent it ; for it was our 
 desii-e that our people should take advantage of the orders of his 
 highness, and leave the country ; but we could never make them 
 libten to reason.' ' You say that to excuse yourselves,' rejoined 
 he; *but I know well what took place in your meetings.' How- 
 ever, he did not insist upon this, and as he went away, he said to 
 them, * Good evening, gentlemen;' and the ministers replied, * Good 
 evening to your lordship.' 
 
 " It was on the 16th of May that the order arrived for our re- 
 moval. I took my daughter by the hand; my wife went to deposit 
 with various persons the things which we could not carry with us.^ 
 We were about 160 persons. The men were bound together two 
 and two; there were twenty-seven couples, bound also to one 
 another by a long cord. As we went out of Lucema, there were a 
 great number of people assembled, and they addressed to us many 
 bad words — ' Satanical heretics, your end will soon be seen,' <fec. 
 And when we took the road to Turin, they cried, ' Take another 
 look of your mountains, for you will never see them more ! ' There 
 were some amongst us who wept. Our chained line was flanked by 
 soldiers on the right and left, and in this way we went as far as 
 Briqueras. There we paused for a little under the roof of the mar- 
 ket-place, and those who had money purchased some bread. Then 
 we resumed our journey, and that night we slept at Osasco. Those 
 who had their hands tied, and who were besides fastened to one 
 another, were much incommoded, for when it was necessary to 
 * Here I suppress some unnecessary particulars. 
 
 Chap. XVI.] 
 
 THE PRISONERS AT TURIN. 
 
 461 
 
 cross streams on narrow planks, if one of them made a false step, 
 they were all in danger of falling; and when they were thirsty, 
 they could not drink unless some one gave them water. 
 
 " At an early hour next day we arrived in Turin. At the entry 
 of the town we halted, to wait for the carts, which were still be- 
 hind, laden with the sick, and with women and children. Scai'cely 
 had we entered Turin when we found it necessaiy to keep a sharp 
 watch, lest our children should be taken from us. They had already 
 seized my little daughter, and were bearing her off in haste, when 
 the wife of Bartholomew Ruetto, perceiving it, ran after the ravisher, 
 and brought her back to me. But the crowd was so dense, and the 
 dust so thick, that it was scarcely possible to see. We reached the 
 citadel about ten o'clock in the evening. The prisoners were called 
 over, and the ministers sent into a place by themselves; then those 
 who were bound together were thrust into a chamber so narrow 
 that they could not move about in it, and were choked with the 
 heat. I remained with those of Rora.^ They put us in a tower 
 where there were mattresses, and we were much better treated 
 than at Lucerna. From time to time we received some alms; soup 
 and linen were given us, and a little wine, which did much good 
 to all, but especially to the sick and those who had no money. 
 There were also persons belonging to the city who showed us great 
 kindness.2 At intervals we were allowed to go out and walk on 
 the bastions. But this did not take place till after the return of 
 the Royal Guards;^ for, until then, the citadel was intrusted to the 
 keeping of the citizens of Turin, and we were not so well treated 
 by them as by the soldiers. With the latter we could at least go 
 to seek water to wash our linen, and enjoy some degree of liberty. 
 This state of things continued to the 26th of July, when there ar- 
 rived an order from his royal highness for our removal to Vei'ceil, 
 for it was necessary that we should make room for others. 
 
 " Si^^nor Blaygna, who kept watch over us when the Count San- 
 tus was compelled to be absent, appointed Bastie and me to watch 
 
 over the rest.* 
 
 " I entreated him to allow me a little private apartment for my 
 
 » Here again I suppress details. Salvajot gives the names of all his fellow-pri- 
 soners, fifteen in number. The prisoners detained in Turin at this time amounted 
 to 222. But there were prisoners also in many other towns; and the multiplied 
 suflferings to which they were subjected, are attested by the enormous mortality 
 among them. Seven-tenths of the Vaudois died in prison. 
 
 - . . . . Evi erano ancora molte persone che facevano cm^a grande. I dwell 
 with pleasure upon these particulars, omitting no fact which can soften the pic- 
 ture of the cruelties which I am compelled to relate. 
 
 » A regiment which had been sent against the valley.?. 
 
 * n signor Bastia ne aveva 60 da tencr conta, ed io 43. 
 
462 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pait Second. 
 
 wife, who was on tlie point of her confinement. ' Do you not 
 know/ said he, 'that you are to leave this place to-morrow f 
 And accordingly, next morning, all who were in the tower were 
 brought out of it, except the ministei-s.* Many were sick, and 
 groaned with pain, but it was necessary to have patience, since such 
 was the command of his highness.- Scarcely were we out of doors, 
 when M. Blaygna said to me, ' Salvajot, come hither.' And taking 
 me aside, he added, * Take your wife and your little girl, and go 
 back.' We did so, and he sent back also M. Paul Gonin and his 
 son.^ 
 
 " Then those were placed together who would not change their 
 religion, and those who had abjured. The latter were treated a 
 little better ; they were conducted to mass, and the priests came 
 every day to instruct them in their new doctrines. At first they 
 received much more alms than we j but afterwards, whatever was 
 given us was equally divided amongst all. Those who had abjured 
 were ofiended at this, and alleged that we were the cause of their 
 being still detained in prison, because we would not abjure. 
 
 " Eight days after my wife gave birth to a daughter, and the 
 Count Santus came and said to me, * She must be baptized.' I was 
 very much astonished at this, because I supposed that he had not 
 yet known of her birth. ' The child is healthy,' said I, ' and can 
 be baptized after a while.' * Any way,' replied he, * this must be 
 done without loss of time. Here are M. De Rocheneuve and the 
 Baroness of Palavicino, who will act as her godfather and godmother, 
 and who will make your fortune.' Then I durst not say anything 
 more, and they carried the newly-born child into the chapel of the 
 fort, whither I followed in the train with Mademoiselle Jahier of 
 Rocheplate, who had almost fallen down in a swoon when she saw 
 all the ceremonies which they performed.* They gave my child 
 the^ names of Louisa Caroline, which were those of the godfather 
 
 » They were nine in number, each with his family. Four other families were 
 joined to theirs, namely, those of Messrs. Moudon, Malanot, Goante, and Gauthier- 
 
 * E vi era gran pianto e lamento : ma hisogno aver pazzienza, pei'chi cosi era 
 Vordine di S.A.R. 
 
 * The rest set out, and were sent to .... (the name is illegible in the manu- 
 script), where they all died, with the exception of one only, named Daniel Rivoire. 
 
 * I would not have copied these details, nor many others, if I had had to extract 
 them from a variety of documents placed at the disposal of the historian, to draw 
 from them, on his own responsibility and at his own discretion, the equally assorted 
 materials of a portion of his work ; but as we have here to do with an original 
 work, I have thought it right to preserve, as much as possible, its traits and char- 
 acteristics, even when these were not of general interest, because the particular 
 character of this narrative brings out in strong relief the general features of the- 
 whole scene of which it is an episode, and, so to speak, a sample the more valuable 
 the less it is interfered with. 
 
 Chap. XVl] KINDNESS TO VAUDOIS PRISONERS. 
 
 463 
 
 and godmother. Next day there were brought to tho mother a 
 shift and two white woollen sheets, which Father Valfredo, the 
 confessor of his royal highness, had sent, and an ofier was made 
 us that we should go to dwell in a separate room ; but my wife re- 
 fused, fearing lest it might be for the purpose of drawing us into 
 
 apostasy. 
 
 " The governor of the fort said to me an hour after, * Why would 
 you not leave this tower?' I replied that my wife was still too 
 feeble for that. * You are a genuine rascal ! ' he exclaimed ; ' but 
 you shall pay for it.' And addressing himself to the ministers, he 
 said, * It is you who are the cause of their not becoming Catholics, 
 but take care of yourselves!'" 
 
 The author of the impublished memoirs which we have quoted, 
 relates further that his mfe died after a few days, and that he made 
 use of one of those sheets which had been given them to bury her 
 in. A month after, the infant which she had brought forth in the 
 prison expii-ed likewise. Salvajot was left alone with his little 
 Mary, then aged five years and a half 
 
 Many other pregnant women, who were delivered in the prisons, 
 lost their children, and almost aU of them died themselves. " At 
 last," adds the captive, " there was perhaps not one of us who did 
 not suffer from some malady. By the grace of God I was spared 
 amidst these trials; but we were also better treated than the other 
 prisoners. The sick being attended by physicians, the necessary 
 medicines were furnished them, and Father Valfredo, and also 
 Father Morand, visited them diligently. If there was any of them 
 who had no money, they gave him a little, distributed soups amongst 
 the weakest, and generally furnished us with everything that we 
 
 required." ., t ^^ 
 
 It is with satisfaction that I copy these details. In proportion 
 to the indignation caused by bad faith and inhumanity, is the 
 Chi'istian approbation merited by these considerate attentions. 
 
 "And what is rather remarkable," adds Salvajot, in speaking of 
 his benefactors, "is that they made no difference between those who 
 had become Catholics and those who remained faithful to their 
 religion. They even seemed to have more regard and respect for 
 
 the latter." 
 
 I would willingly have concluded this chapter with the circum- 
 stance just mentioned, in which we see homage paid to the dignity 
 of conviction. But a few words are stiU necessary to remind the 
 reader that the Vaudois prisoners had not all been transported to 
 Turin and that they perished in great numbers by the famme, 
 diseases, and distress which they endured in the ditches, prisons, 
 
4G4i 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 FPaet Second. 
 
 Chap. XVII.] 
 
 SYMPATHY FOR THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 465 
 
 !■! 
 
 citadels, and dungeons of Queyrasque, Mondovi, E^vel, Asti, Car- 
 magnole, Fossan, Villefranche, and Saluces/ 
 
 "At last," says our narrator, "they began to speak of our speedy 
 departure from the country. Already some of our wives had been 
 allowed to pass through the gates of the citadel, and to go into the 
 town to market; then some of the men were also permitted to go 
 out, provided that they were accompanied by two sergeants; after- 
 wards they were allowed to go alone ; a7id thus,'' he observes, "things 
 made progress towards our liberty;'' that is to say, towards their 
 exile 1 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 TOTAL EXPULSION OF THE VAUDOIS, WHO ARE CARRIED 
 AWAY TO VERCEIL, OR CONDUCTED INTO EXILE.- 
 
 (September, 168G, to September, 1687.) 
 
 Sjrmpathy manifested by Swiss and other Protestants— Vaudois refugees begin to 
 arrive at Geneva— Vaudois children detained as proselytes — Sufferings of 
 Vaudois who, to escape persecution, had apostatized— Sufferings of those who 
 went into exile — Arrival of successive bands of exiles at Geneva — Their kind 
 reception there— Continued detention of most of the Vaudois pastors by the 
 Duke of Savoy. 
 
 During the course of the events which have jiist been nan-ated, a 
 great number of letters had been written to Switzerland, Holland, 
 and Pinissia (then Brandenburg), as well as to Wurtember^^, in 
 
 ' There were some of them in other prisons also. I have seen a letter written 
 by the pastors Jahier and Malanot, from the castle of NicCy on the 1st of May, 1CS6, 
 and another written by the pastors Giraud, Chauvie, and Jahier (cousin of the for- 
 mer), from the castle of Miolens (near Montmellian, in Savoy), on the 20th of June 
 in the same year. Both these letters attest the profound distress of their authors, 
 and have for their object to ask some assistance. The Ilistory of the Persecution 
 of 16S6, published at Rotterdam in 1639, says that the Vaudois prisoners were 
 divided amongst fourteen prisons or fortified residences in Piedmont. 
 
 2 Authorities.— The latter part of the authorities given in Chapter XIV.— 
 Also, Moser, ^'History of the Vaudois, and of their Admission into the Duchy of Wur- 
 temberg, derived from the most authentic documents:' Zurich, 1798, one vol. small 
 Svo, pp. 558. (In German.)— Z>iefenci, ''History of the Introduction of the Vaudois 
 into Brandenburg." BerUn, 1831, one vol., Svo, of xx. and 414 pages. (In German.) 
 —Various Memoirs, by Erman and Reclam (vol. vi.), Lamberty, Keller, &c. (all Ger- 
 man authors).—" Extracts from the Begisters of the Council of State of Geneva, from 
 February, 16S7, to December, 1690, concerning all which relates to the Vaudois during 
 that pei-iod." A 4to MS. transmitted by M. Le Fort.— Various extracts from the Ar- 
 
 order to awaken an interest in favour of the Vaudois in Protestant 
 powers who might be able to assist them by their intercession, 
 their contributions, or their hospitality. In answer to this appeal 
 the most generous sympathy was expressed. At the commence- 
 ment of the persecution, the avoyer of Berne had addressed to all 
 the parishes of that canton, and probably also of the other Protes- 
 tant cantons of Switzerland,^ a pressing circular, to recommend the 
 celebration of a public fast, accompanied with a general collection 
 on behalf of the Vaudois. This circular commenced in these words: 
 " As in these sad times our brethren of Piedmont, pursued with fire 
 and sword, killed, made prisoners, and banished from their country, 
 are fugitives, and in the most deplorable condition," &c.,2 . . . from 
 which it appears that at this time a number of the Vaudois had 
 been already hanislted from their country, and ^exQ fugitives. Even 
 at the beginning of the year, it would seem that the idea of an 
 inevitable and sj)eedy exile had been prevalent in the valleys, since 
 means were already adopted to secure beforehand an asylum for 
 their people in foreign countries.^ 
 
 We have seen how they were decimated by the massacres and 
 the prisons. The heroic resistance of the last defenders of these 
 depopulated mountains was the means of procuring the deliverance 
 of the captives who had surrendered themselves. These combatants 
 did not consent to terminate their warfare, except on condition of 
 their being permitted to retire freely, and along with them their 
 brethren who were prisoners j and they hastened to give intimation 
 of this to the evangelical cantons. Victor Amadeus, without seem- 
 ing to come to any terms with his rebellious subjects, as they were 
 styled, ratified this condition by implication, saying of his prisoners, 
 in a letter to the evangelical cantons of Switzerland, " I hope that 
 the resolution which I shall adopt with regard to them will prove 
 
 chives of Berne, communicated by M. Monastier. — ^Extracts from the Archives of 
 Stutgard, Zurich, and Darmstadt. — Also, the journals of the time; Gazettes of 
 France, Leyden, England, &c. — And for what relates to the condition of the Vau- 
 dois in Piedmont, the Archives of State and of the CouH of Accounts at Turin. 
 
 * This would seem to be a fair inference, from the following terms of this cir- 
 cular — ^* All the confederate and allied countries are invited," &c. 
 
 2 This circular is dated May 14, 1686, and the fast which it recommends was to 
 be held on the 24th of the same month. Archives of Bei'ne. Communicated by 
 M. Monastier. 
 
 3 Letters written with this object, in January, 1636, by the Vaudois deputies: 
 1. To the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederic William the Great. 2. To the Duke of 
 Wurtemberg. 3. To the Elector of the Palatinate. 4. To the Count of Waldeck. 
 Favourable reply of the Elector of Brandenburg, January 31 ; and a letter by him 
 to the Swiss Cantons, on March 12, to recommend the Vaudois to their care ; and 
 on the 3d of June, to request information as to their number, their circumstances, 
 their trades, &c. (Cited by Dieterici). 
 
 Vol. I, 
 
466 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Skcoxo. 
 
 agreeable to you."^ Eight days after the reception of this letter, 
 the Protestant cantons named deputies, who met at Arau,^ to confer 
 regai'ding the projected emigation of the Vaudois, and the asylum 
 which could be offered them. Raving taken into consideration all 
 the documents bearing on this subject, this meeting nominated two 
 commissioners, to whom it was intrusted to communicate concern- 
 ing it with the Count Gavon, the Piedmontese representative to 
 the Swiss government. They repaired to Lucerne, where he 
 resided, and their negotiations simply gave an official character to 
 the terms of agreement on which the last combatants of the valleys 
 had laid down their arms. 
 
 As to the route by which the Vaudois were to pass out of the 
 dominions of Savoy, Victor Amadeus had at first intended that 
 they should go by way of St. Bernard and the Valais, but as they 
 could not pass through the latter country without the previous 
 consent of the Bishop of Sion, the delegates of the Protestant can- 
 tons, who remained beside the Piedmontese ambassador at Lucerne, 
 demanded that the banished Vaudois should be sent into Switzer- 
 land by the pass of Mount Cenis. Count Gavon wrote to Turin 
 accordingly, and this route was agreed upon. 
 
 Now, likewise, the two detachments of Vaudois began to arrive 
 in Geneva, who had combated with so much courage in the valleys 
 of Lucema and St. Martin, and whose glorious capitulation had 
 brought about the deliverance of their brethren. They were the 
 first to enjoy the benefit of it, as they had been the last to sur- 
 render; and not having passed thi'ough the prisons, they had also 
 suffered least, for the diseases of jails are more destructive than the 
 wounds of battle. The magistrates of Geneva had not yet even 
 been made acquainted with their departure from the valleys, when 
 they entered that city with their arms and baggage, on the 25th of 
 November, 1686. They were eighty persons in all, men, women, 
 and children. The council of state decided that their arms should 
 be deposited under the market-sheds, to be restored to them on 
 their departure from the city.^ 
 
 Intelligence was soon received that the Duke of Savoy had set 
 at liberty a party of prisoners.* They were those of Turin. Salva- 
 jot, known to us by his memoirs, was one of this first party; but 
 the liberation of the prisonei-s had not yet become general. The 
 
 » Letter to the evangelical cantons, August 17, 16S6. (ArcLiveg of the Court. 
 Turin.) 
 =< In September, 1686. Introduction to the Return^ by Arnaud. 
 ' Registers of the Council of State of Geneva, sitting of November 26, 1686. 
 * Id. Sitting of December 3. 
 
 CiiAP. XVIl] 
 
 EDICT OF EXPATRIATION. 
 
 467 
 
 Swiss commissioners again renewed their application, and on the 3d 
 of January, 1687, there appeared at last an edict, by which it was 
 granted to the Vaudois who had not become Catholics, that they 
 should be set at liberty, whatever might have been the ground of 
 their detention, on condition that they should immediately leave 
 the territories of Savoy, without deviating, under pain of death, 
 from the route which should be pointed out to them. 
 
 But they did not get away without new sufferings. The Pro- 
 paganda saw with regret so great a number of heretics escape, even 
 by°exile, from their endeavours of conversion. It will be borne in 
 mind how many eminent persons and great families were engaged 
 in their work, with a fervour very imenlightened, no doubt, but 
 perhaps sincere. Their proselytizing had at fii-st proceeded from 
 zeal, afterwards it came to be instigated by ambition. The favour 
 of the court and of the clergy had recompensed the devotion of the 
 first persons who had generously charged themselves with the main- 
 tenance and education of a few Vaudois children. It was found to 
 be a way of obtaining such favour; everybody, therefore, wished to 
 have his convert. This zeal became quite the fashion in the fashion- 
 able world, and a letter written from Turin says, " You will seldom 
 see a coach pass which has not its harhet ^ behind it, and sometimes 
 there are two of them, distinguished by the dragoon's cap which 
 they wrear."2 But like everything else which is a mere fashion, 
 this fancy quickly passed away, and these poor children were for- 
 gotten, and often sunk into wretchedness, sometimes into degrada- 
 tix)n. On the departure of their families attempts were still made 
 to seize upon some of them. " The prisoners of my division," writes 
 the conductor of one of them, " have informed me that as they left 
 the citadel of Turin the major took from them a number of children 
 
 by force." ^ 
 
 The Vaudois who had abjured in the valleys, or in the prisons, 
 were also very numerous.* It may be imagined what effect an 
 excitement, amounting almost to madness, must have produced 
 upon weak minds, and how very readily such persons might forget 
 themselves amidst the terrors of persecution. Moreover, many of 
 the converted had abandoned their church only in the hoi)e of 
 remaining in their native land; but for this they were severely 
 
 » A term of contempt by which the Vaudois were designated, from the name of 
 Barbas, which they anciently gave to their pastors. 
 
 2 Letter of the Swiss commissioners to their lords of Berne, March 24, ]687. 
 (Archives of Berne, compartment C.) 
 
 3 Letter to M. Panchaud, March 12. (Archives of Berne, C.) 
 
 * The enumeration of them gives the number 2226. (Archives of State, Turin, 
 various documents.) 
 
4G8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paei Second. 
 
 punished. To prevent them from joining those who went into 
 Switzerland, they were not allowed to leave the prisons until the 
 departure of the last of their brethren. The fashionable rage for 
 converts was then over; the faithful Vaudois had won for them- 
 selves respect and admiration, even from their enemies; the apos- 
 tates continued suspected, even by their new brethren in religion • 
 and, to crown aJl, instead of being permitted to i-eturn to their 
 native Alps, they were sent to the swampy plains of Yerceil,^ and 
 prohibited from leaving them under penalty of ten years of the 
 galleys. Their life there was very miserable, and many of them 
 died of the typhoid fevers which they contracted in these climates, 
 so different from their own. 
 
 Their compatriots, who liad prefeiTed exile to apostasy, were 
 free to choose an asylum for themselves in a foreign land, whilst, 
 like the descendants of Jacob in Egypt, these unhappy people were 
 detained in slavery in the mephitic rice-grounds of Verceil, to 
 which they had been carried. A penalty of ten years of the galleys 
 was denounced against any inhabitant of any part of the country, 
 out of that province, who should receive into his house one of the 
 catholicized Vaudois. They were not permitted to leave the pro- 
 vince, even for the briefest time, without formal leave obtained 
 from the government; being bound, moreover, to produce, on their 
 return, attestations of their regular attendance on the rites of the 
 Church of Rome, signed by the priests of all the parishes in which 
 they had sojourned. May it not well be said, that in place of the 
 dignity of exile they had chosen the degradation of servitude? 
 
 Finally, they were prohibited, in the strictest manner, from ever 
 setting foot again in the Vaudois valleys, upon any account what- 
 ever,2 or in virtue of any permission. Any one who should be 
 taken there was to be punished with death; and a reward of 
 2000 francs^ was promised to the person who should apprehend 
 any one transgressing this order. 
 
 » The order for sending them thither arrived on the 3d of March, 1687. A first 
 departure of 650 persons, aU from the valley of St. Martin, took place on the 8th. 
 They were embarked on the Po. A second convoy set out on the 15th. Accord- 
 ing to an enumeration made at Cigliano on the 17th, it consisted of 792 men, 260 
 women, 501 infirm persons, and 23 children. The smaU number of children is ex- 
 plained by the consideration of the numbers who had been carried off. The pre- 
 ceding numbers are taken from a paper entitled Distribuzione delle caitolizati 
 delle valli di Luzema, nella citta e terre delta pravincia di VercellL (Archives of 
 the Court). Another table, in which the Vaudois people are grouped in families 
 gives 1973 as the number of families existing in the valleys before 1686 and 424 
 as the number that became Catholic. (Archives of the Court ; Ristrctto 'degli obi- 
 tantx delle Valli, kc.) ^ Soito qual^vofflio prefesto imaginabiU. 
 
 £ prcmesso, e sara reatmento sborzato (language of assurance, which was then 
 added to promises, and which shows how Uttle reliance was placed in them even 
 
 Cdap. XVII.] UNHAPPY FATE OF THE APOSTATES. 
 
 469 
 
 It is evident that the unhappy persons thus can'ied to Yerceil, 
 who had hoped for some mitigation of their sufferings by their 
 apostasy, were, on the contrary, less favourably treated than their 
 faithful and proscribed fellow-countrymen. The latter, after having 
 left the dominions of Savoy without degradation, were received 
 with esteem, affection, and universal sympathy in foreign countries, 
 and at last effected a return to their own land, which they quitted 
 no more; whilst the miserable converts to Catholicism, distrusted 
 and despised by all, and having lost their self-respect, and pined in 
 a region remote from their mountains, and, without a prospect of 
 ever returning to them, dragged out the miserable remainder of 
 their days, forgotten, afflicted, and scorned. What important les- 
 sons may be learned from their profound degradation ! 
 
 Before the arrival of this unhappy colony, Verceil had already 
 a number of Vaudois within its walls ; but as they were prisoners, 
 and not converts to Catholicism, they were summoned to go out 
 of the country with their faithful brethren, and commenced theii* 
 journey at the same time with the prisoners of Turin. 
 
 This was in the winter of 1686-7. These mountaineers, once 
 so vigorous, were now pallid, feeble, ill-clothed, without shoes, and 
 afflicted with fevers and dysenteries.^ Death had thinned their 
 ranks during their long confinement ; ^- the severity of winter now 
 threatened to put an end to the enfeebled lives which had scarcely 
 escaped from the hardships of the dungeon.^ 
 
 They arrived at Turin; and there still sadder scenes awaited 
 them. On account of the bad weather, of course, orders had been 
 given that no children under twelve years of age should be allowed 
 to go away ; but their parents were promised that they would be 
 sent to them on the return of a better season.* These poor people, 
 alread}'^ so often deceived, saw in this only a stratagem intended to 
 deprive them of their children, that they might be kept away from 
 their parents, made Catholics, and taken from them for ever. All 
 
 when most authentic — a characteristic which appears wherever Catholicism has 
 been triumphant) ; il premio di doppie cinquanta, &c. The exact sum is 2053 
 francs 57 cents [£81, 5a. Sic?.] 
 
 * Eeports as to the approaching arrival of the first bands of Vaudois outlaws, 
 drawn up by the commissioners who had been sent to meet them. (Registers of 
 the Council of State of Geneva, sittings of the 14th, 15th, 24th, and Slst of Janu- 
 ary, 1687.) 
 
 * . . . Quei di Torino e di Vercelli erano pochi; il motivo e, eke erano qua^i tutli 
 morti. (Memoirs of Salvajot.) 
 
 » A number died on the road. (Letters and Reports of the Commissioners.) 
 
 * ** Si era ordine di non lasciar andare nessun figliiuoli minori di dodeci anni; 
 e dicevano cTie gli manderebbero nel bet tempo; e che i signori che ne vorebbe ne pig* 
 Hansen." (Memoirs of Salvajot.) % 
 
470 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [rABT SkCOND. 
 
 Chap XVIl] 
 
 VAUDOIS ARRIVE IN GENEVA. 
 
 471 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
 i 
 
 II 
 
 the prisons were filled with cries, tears, and groans;^ the mothers 
 especially were in the utmost distress; many of them would rather 
 have seen their children dead than given up to their persecutors. '- 
 On the first attempt to carry off a child in consequence of this 
 order, blood began to flow;^ the resistance was so energetic that 
 the execution of the order was relinquished.* It was one, the 
 execution of which humanity would have approved, if the recollec- 
 tion of former perfidies had not given too good reason for suspect- 
 ing its design. Not only were the children which these emigrating 
 families retained then left to them, but likewise a number of those 
 who had been previously taken away, learning that their parents 
 were about to leave the country, quitted the gi^eat houses in which 
 they had been placed, and fled to join the company of exiles.^ How- 
 ever, the greater part of these .poor children were pursued, seized, 
 and again dragged from the arms of their proscribed families to the 
 palaces which were their prisons. On the way through Savoy, 
 some of those who had actually set out on the journey were still 
 carried off— some by the monks,*' some by the gentry,^ and some 
 by the soldiers.8 It must, however, be added, that the greater 
 part of these children were afterwards restored.'-^ 
 
 But thus distress of every kind was added to the sufferings of 
 their imrents. " These poor people," says Arnaud,^^ " were worn 
 out with infirmity and languor ; some were devoured by vermin, 
 and others exhausted by their wounds; covered with sores and rags, 
 they resembled ghosts rather than human beings." Such was the 
 condition in which the first detachments of this expatriated people 
 appeared under the walls of Geneva. 
 
 " At last these brave people arrive — these generous confessors of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ!" exclaims an eye-witness of their entry 
 into that city. " We have, as yet, only the first division, composed 
 
 » **Era un gran pianto in quel giorno, fra i padn e U madre. (Memoirs of 
 Salvajot.) 
 
 » Molte madre erano risolte, se venivano per pigliar i lorofanciuoli, di tirarliun 
 cotello nel ventre. (Id.) 
 
 « "Comminciarono a pigliar una JigliadiDavideOoninodi San Giovanni e la 
 batevano, e gli fece molto sangue. II padre volendo defenderla lo misse in prigione 
 per qttalche giomi." (Id.) ' 
 
 * " Ma, per la volonta di Dio, quel ordine ne durd che quel giomo." (Id ) 
 
 « Dissipation des Eglises Vaudoises, p. 29. • At Aiguebelle. 
 
 ' At Suza, at St. Jean de Maurienne, and at An nee j. 
 
 • At Frangy and at St. Julien. 
 
 uV*^? ^^"^^ ^^"^ ^^^^ ''*"^®'^ off after passing Mount Cenis have been restored, 
 although after much difficulty, except one young girl, whom a gentleman of St. 
 Jean de Maurienne, named M. Galaffre, refused to give up, notwithstanding my 
 applications, and those of the commissioner of his royal highness." (Let+*r of 
 March 1; Archives of Berne, C. D.) lo ^^,.^^ p. 4. 
 
 of seventy persons, of eveiy sex and age, who have arrived amidst 
 a cold which has frozen the Rhone to its bottom. They are all 
 that remain of more than a thousand, who were imprisoned in two 
 different places, and they have left twenty of their number on the 
 roads, where they have died of cold, famine, and wretchedness. 
 These their conductors would not permit them to succour. Perhaps 
 it was a father who left his child, a mother who left her daughter, 
 or children who left their parents."*^ 
 
 They arrived at different times, and in several divisions, to the 
 number of about 3000 persons.^ But they were almost all in such 
 a state of destitution, that the greater part of them could not have 
 reached the frontiers of Savoy without frequently receiving assist- 
 ance. Some, bent down with age and sickness, had nothing with 
 which to clothe themselves; others, pierced with wounds, which 
 had become more serious and malignant in the neglect of the jails, 
 had scarcely linen to dress them; numbers of them had lost the 
 use of their limbs, which had been frostbitten on the way, and 
 could not employ their hands even to receive or to convey to their 
 mouths the food which was offered them ; there were some whose 
 stomachs were so disordered that they could not digest the least 
 nourishment without severe pain. Those whose illness was greatest 
 had been flung into carts or set upon beasts; there were some 
 
 ' Jurieu, Leftres pastorales ; Rotterdam, edition of 1688, I. 287. 
 - The following are the data from which this number is calculated : — 
 There arrived, on the 25th of November, 1686, 80 persons. (On the 10th of 
 December in the same year, the Council of State of Geneva was apprised that there 
 would presently arrive four divisions more, of one thousand persons each.) More 
 of the proscribed arrived on the 14th of January, 1687, to the number of 70. On 
 the 24th of the same month, 208 ; on the 26th, item, 340. After this date I find no 
 precise enumeration, till the 31st of August, 1687, when there arrived at Geneva 
 new troops of exiles, to the number of 800 persons, the most of them from the val- 
 ley of Pragela. All these numbers together amount to 1498. But the bands to 
 which they relate were certainly not the only ones ; there must also have been 
 larger and more numerous companies. We learn from the Memoirs of Salvajoty 
 that he was one of a company which arrived in Geneva on the 10th of February, 
 1687, and he adds that they were among the first. From February to the month 
 of August, a number of other caravans of exiles must have come to Geneva after 
 them. A great number of documents prove this. In the Registers of the Council 
 of State of tliat city, under date the 13th of August (and consequently before the 
 arrival of the greatest division mentioned in this list), we find the following distri- 
 bution of the Vaudois already expatriated :— In Brandenburg, 700; in Wurtem- 
 berg, 700; in the Palatinate, 800; in the cantons of Zurich and Berne, 150; at 
 Geneva (according to a note mentioned in the minutes of the sitting of the 1st of 
 June, 1687), 150: total, 2500; and adding the number of the division of August 31, 
 we have the number 3300. The memoir presented in June, 1687, to the Elector 
 of Brandenburg by the Swiss delegate, David Holzhalb of Zurich, also gives the 
 number of the Vaudois received at that time in the Helvetic Confederation, 1001 
 men, 891 women, and 764 children under fifteen years; total, 2656 persons. 
 
472 
 
 THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Skcond. 
 
 Chap. X\II.] 
 
 JA^AVEL S GRIEF. 
 
 473 
 
 II 
 
 who staggered fi'om the burden of extreme debility ; others were 
 so far gone that they had not strength left to speak ; others were 
 so overwhelmed with mental distresses that they would have pre- 
 ferred death. Some breathed their last on the frontier, as if they 
 could not survive the loss of their unnatural country ; others died 
 as they arrived at Geneva, between the two gates of the city, find- 
 ing thus the termination of their woes at the moment when they 
 might have found some solace of them. All these particulars are 
 derived from the relations of the time : there is not one of them 
 which does not depend upon contemporary testimony. 
 
 The people of Geneva displayed an admirable devotedness of 
 generosity, and the most delicate and ardent sympathy in relievinf^ 
 these great sufferings. They welcomed the proscribed Vaudois 
 with a sort of enthusiasm. One-half of the population went out 
 to meet them as far as the banks of the Arve, which formed the 
 boundary of their noble country, so small upon the map, but so 
 great in the world. " The Genevese contended with one another," 
 says a contemporary, "as to the reception of the most miserable of 
 these poor Vaudois, which of them should first conduct them to 
 his dwelling. Some there were who bore them in their arms from 
 the frontiers to the city." This eagerness to give them a kind 
 reception was so great, that in order to prevent the roads from 
 being inconveniently crowded, and houses from being over-filled, 
 the council of state of Geneva was under the necessity of passing 
 a decree, by which it was enjoined that each citizen should wait, 
 before receiving any of the newly arrived exiles into his house, the 
 distribution of their billets of lodging. ^ 
 
 But what a distress it was for them all when, on seeking for one 
 another in the crowd, the members of the same family could not 
 find one another! The Vaudois who had arrived first, and to 
 whom the generous hospitality of that Christian city had restored 
 some measure of strength, ran in their turn to meet the new 
 divisions, whose arrival was announced, to inquire after relatives 
 and friends whom they missed. "A father sought his son, and a 
 son his father; a husband sought his wife, and a wife her husband."^ 
 These searches were often followed only by the saddest disappoint- 
 ments. " This produced a spectacle so melancholy and distressful, 
 that all the beholders wept, whilst these poor sufferers, oppressed 
 and overwhelmed with the excess of their woe, had no strength 
 either to weep or to lament."^ 
 
 Janavel was one of the first to go out from Geneva to meet his 
 countrymen. His sad anticipations were realized; his counsels 
 > Sitting of 2d February, 1687. » Boyer, p. 281. » Dussipatian, &c., p. 34. 
 
 had failed to prevent this great catastrophe; and he — who having 
 for thirty-two years eaten the bread of exile, would so much the 
 more have sought to save the children of the Vaudois moimtains 
 from its bitterness — may sometimes have felt the pleasure of seeing 
 again those from whom it had been so painful to be separated — 
 those families whose recollection he had cherished, and the people 
 whom he had defended — contending against the grief which this 
 new proscription caused to his patriotic heart. But at the dis- 
 tressful spectacle of so many miserable beings, wanderers without a 
 country — as each portion of this great wreck was cast beneath the 
 walls of Geneva, the sad remains of an entire people expatriated — 
 this generous city, as great in charity as Janavel had been in 
 battle, showed itself ready to give new assistance to the exiles. 
 
 Moreover, there were still among these exiles courageous bands, 
 who had comparatively escaped, and privileged families, who ex- 
 cited admiration as well as pity. The Vaudois speak of one of 
 their Barbas, ninety years of age, who brought with him a tribe of 
 seventy-two children and grandchildren.^ These worthy portions 
 of the wreck of the Vaudois Church seemed to revive amongst the 
 people of modem times the imposing images of the patriarchal 
 emigrations, of which the Bible has made the memory familiar to 
 all Protestants. 
 
 The exiles arrived in Geneva, singing, with a grave and sad 
 voice, that psalm of fugitive Israel which Theodore Beza had 
 translated into the language of Calvin — 
 
 ** Faut-U, Grand Dieu, que nous soyons epars !'^2 
 
 and in which, speaking of the enemies of the people of God, the 
 psalmist has introduced particulars which so exactly accord with 
 the excesses committed in the valleys by the persecutors of the 
 
 Israel of iJis Alps :— 
 
 " They fired have thy sanctuary, 
 And have defiled the same, 
 By casting down unto the ground 
 
 The place where dwelt thy name. 
 Thus said they in their hearts, Let ua 
 
 Destroy them out of hand ; 
 They humt up all the synagogues 
 Of God within the land." 
 
 * This family formed part of the third band of exiles. There is mention of them 
 in a manuscript of the time, which has been communicated to me by M. Lombard 
 Odier of Geneva. This MS. says that the Vaudois were already under th^ leader- 
 ship of A maud, a pastor of their nation. But these latter words are not sufficient 
 to establish that Arnaud was a Vaudois by birth, especially when opposed to the 
 proofs which exhibit him as a French refugee to the valleys. 
 
 2 The 74th Psalm, from the collection in use in the Reformed Churches. ["O 
 God, why hast thou cast us off?"] 
 
 Vol. I. 60 
 
474 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Sxcomd. 
 
 Chap. XVII.] 
 
 KINDNESS TO THE EXILES. 
 
 475 
 
 But the miseries of war had been merely the prelude to the longer 
 and more grievous sufferings which the Vaudois had undergone in 
 the prisons. They had entered them in number about 1 2,000, and 
 there came out only 3500^ In some of these places of captivity 
 they got only foul water to drink ; in others they had nothing to 
 eat but insufficient and bad food. At Queyrasque and Asti they 
 were crowded into the ditches of the town, exposed to all the 
 inclemencies of the seasons ; elsewhere, lying on the pavement or on 
 the naked earth ; and sometimes so closely packed in a small place, 
 that they had difficulty in moving. The heat of the summer in 
 1686, say the accounts of the time, engendered such a quantity of 
 lice, that the captives were not able to sleep; there were even 
 great maggots, which bit through the skin;^ and numbers of these 
 poor people who were sick, were so devoured that their flesh was 
 falling in pieces. As many as seventy-five sick have been num- 
 bered in a single chamber, and when they left it in the middle of 
 winter, passing by a sudden transition from their captivity to their 
 journey, without strength, and without clothing,^ many of them 
 marched only to their death. 
 
 At Mondovi, the order to allow the Vaudois to depart was not 
 communicated to them until the day before Christmas, at five 
 o'clock in the evening;* and the prisoners were at the same time 
 told, that if they did not profit by it forthwith, they would not 
 have it in their power to go next day. The prisons were immedi- 
 ately empty; all these unfortunate people rushed, notwithstanding 
 the night and the snow, to the middle of the frozen highroads; 
 they went on five leagues without halting ; but one hundred and 
 fifty of them died on the way. What barbarity on the part of 
 those who had deceived them, and who celebrated, next day, the 
 festival of Christmas without annoyance in their church ! 
 
 At Fossan they were caused to set out for Mount Cenis in the 
 midst of a violent storm. Eighty-six of these unfortunate outlaws 
 perished in the snows, and many others had their feet or their 
 hands frostbitten.*^ 
 
 * This number is an approximation, but I think I can give it as exact almost to 
 a few units. It had been said in the sitting of 10th December, 1686, in the council 
 of Geneva, ** Thert must come first a thousand of them, and then three otiier bands, 
 each as numerous." There was a greater number of bands, but each of them was 
 composed of a smaller number of emigrants. 
 
 2 Probably the larvae of various insects. 
 
 ' ** Most of these poor people of the valleys are very ill-clad or naked." (Regis- 
 ters of the Council of State of Geneva, sitting of 2d January, 1687). 
 
 * At Lucema the order was at first posted up in the streets, without being com- 
 municated to the prisoners, whom it exclusively concerned. 
 
 * Notice of a Great Misfortune which has befallen the Vaudois on Mount Cenis. 
 
 The next division, who passed over Mount Cenis about the 
 end of February,^ were still able to recognize, lying upon the 
 snow, the corpses of those who had perished in January. But the 
 complaints addressed by the Swiss government to the court of 
 Turin, on the little attention shown to the Vaudois, and the desti- 
 tution in which they were left, notwithstanding the article of the 
 stipulations by which Victor Amadeus imdertook to provide for 
 their wants until they reached the frontiers of Savoy — the indig- 
 nation which arose on the spectacle of so many woes, and the 
 voice of humanity itself, led the Duke of Savoy to adopt more effi- 
 cacious measures for the preservation of their lives. He caused 
 fifteen bales of thick black woollen greatcoats to be carried to 
 Novaleze, at the foot of Mount Cenis, intended for the succeeding 
 convoys. That which passed over this mountain a month after 
 the catastrophe which had covered it with mourning, was composed 
 of two bands of prisoners— the one brought from Lucerna, and the 
 other from Turin, but united at St. Ambroise, and amounting to 
 202 pei-sons. Forty of these woollen cloaks, sent by Victor Ama- 
 deus, were distributed to them. The Chevalier De Parelles had 
 accompanied them as far as the bridge of Frelerive, and his brother. 
 Captain Carrel, conducted them from thence to the frontiers of 
 Geneva. They were greatly satisfied with the care with which 
 they were treated on the journey, and gave an attestation to this 
 efiect to the captain, who demanded it of them. This last circum- 
 stance shows that the Duke of Savoy had at last begun to be in 
 earnest, and was sincerely desirous that the unhappy outlaws should 
 be cared for.^ 
 
 A note addressed to the Council of State of Geneva, by the Swiss commissioners 
 sent to meet the exiles. It is dated the 3d of February.— A letter of M. Truchet, 
 written from Annecy to Colonel Perdriol at Geneva, and dated on the 14th, gives 
 the particulars of this catastrophe. (Archives of Berne, C and D.)— The Vaudois 
 troop consisted of 320 persons; it was reduced to 230, not only by this accident, 
 but also by a number of children being carried off as they passed through Savoy- 
 Thus, Mary Sarrette of Prarusting, Mary Cardon of Angrogna, John Pasquet, 
 James Pascal, Paul and John Cardon, were carried off at St. Jean de Maurienne. 
 The three daughters of John Pasquet had previously been carried off at Rivoli, &c. 
 If the limits of this work would have permitted it, I could have given, on this 
 point and on many others, far more particulars. 
 
 » They arrived in Geneva on the Ist of March. (Letter of M. Paschaud, Coun- 
 cillor of State, to their Excellencies of Berne). 
 
 8 In all which took place most afflictive to the Vaudois, it is not so much the 
 intentions of their sovereign that are to be blamed, as the intrigues of their ene- 
 mies. There are even things which prove that the latter were jealous of the good 
 dispositions of Victor Amadeus in regard to the Vaudois. Salvajot relates in his 
 Memoirs, that this prince came often to hold reviews in the citadel of Turin; but 
 that the Vaudois prisoners were then prohibited from leaving the buildings in 
 which they were shut up, and even from showing themselves at the windows; and 
 
 » » 
 
476 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paht Sxcond. 
 
 w 
 
 V] 
 
 They did not yet, however, cease to have great privations to 
 endure. " They are in a pitiable state," wrote one of the Swiss 
 commissioners sent to meet them.^ "Almost all of them are sick, 
 and without our assistance half of them would have been dead on 
 the road. I have succeeded in recovering the girl who was carried 
 off at Lanslebourg, and a fine boy whom the Master of La Kamassa 
 had detained at Mount Cenis. I wrote to the commissioner of his 
 royal highness to cause the children to be given up who were 
 detained at St. John and Aiguebelles ; four of them have been sent, 
 there still remain five, whom it is promised that I shall receive 
 along with the thirteen sick persons who were left on the way." 
 " These people have suffered much. Yet they are patient and con- 
 tented, and thank God with tears, blessing you continually as they 
 behold the care which is taken to succour them." These last 
 words are quoted exactly from the letter of the commissioner. 
 
 Let us now look at some of the particulars which Salvajot gives 
 of the march of the convoy to which he belonged. 
 
 *' After having made many promises to us to get us to embrace 
 Catholicism, they allowed us to depart on the 27th of February, 
 1687.2 We set out in good order. The children and persons who 
 could not walk were put in carts. When the road was too bad 
 for veliicles, they gave us mules, asses, and horses. We passed 
 through nearly the whole of Savoy on horseback ; and when the 
 Savoyards did not do their duty, the sergeant gav« them blows 
 with his stick." It appears that the manners of the time -were 
 scarcely more mild in regard to Catholic subjects than in regard 
 to proscribed Protestants. Both the one and the other, in the 
 estimation of the attendants of sovereigns, were clowns, to be taxed 
 and made to work for them at their pleasure. 
 
 " Our sergeants were very good," adds Salvajot. " They were 
 careful that no harm should be done to us.** (For fear, no doubt, 
 of the corporal chastisements which would have awaited themselves, 
 in consequence of the new feelings towards the proscribed Vaudois, 
 which had been called forth by the accidents arising from the 
 harshness of the first conductors.) 
 
 At Geneva, says the relation of 1689, "the Yaudois were received, 
 
 that any one who made the least attempt to ask grace from his royal highness was 
 imprisoned m un crottone. 
 
 * Letter of Commissioner ComfHet, dated from Annecy, Marcli, 1687. 
 
 (Archives of Berne, compartment D.) I abridge it by leaving out some expressions. 
 
 - The following were their stages from Turin to Geneva:—!, St. Ambroise; 
 2, Bussolino ; 3, La Novaldze, where they arrived on the 1st of March ; 4, Lansle- 
 bourg; 5, Modane; 6, St. Jean de Maurienne; 7, Aiguebelles; 8, Grisy; 9, Fa- 
 vergie; 10, Annecy; 11, Crnsiglia; and after marching for twelve days, they 
 arrived on the 10th of March at Geneva, where they remained till the 24th. 
 
 Chap. XVII ] 
 
 GENEROSITY OF THE SWISS. 
 
 477 
 
 not only as brethren, but as persons who brought with them peace, 
 and a blessing to families.''^ Eeserved places were prepared for 
 them in the church of St. Peter, behind those of the syndics of the 
 town.2 The hospital of Plain-Palais had been put in order for 
 them ;3 but almost all of them, even those who were sick, were 
 lod<yed and provided for by the inhabitants of Geneva. 
 
 The other Protestant towns of Switzerland hastened to concur in 
 this generous welcome. That of Berne offered to the magistrates 
 of Geneva, to clothe the Vaudois at its own expense,* but this had 
 been already dona^ 
 
 However, all these successive bands of emigrants could not be 
 accumulated in a single town. Frequent couriers passed and re- 
 passed among all the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, to accom- 
 plish the division amongst them in the most advantageous manner 
 possible, of so great a number of exiles. Part of them were sent on 
 to Wui-temberg and Brandenburg in the course of the year 1687; 
 but the gi-eater part spent the winter in Switzerland, waiting till 
 a station should be definitively assigned them. Some went to 
 Holland, and thence to America; the greater number, however, 
 were totally unwilling to remove far from the Vaudois valleys. 
 The poor exiles hoped to be able to return to them again in a short 
 time, and deferred as much as possible the fixing of an establish- 
 ment which would have bound them to a foreign land. 
 
 Janavel cherished these sentiments of patriotism in their hearts. 
 They had, moreover, left part of their brethren in Piedmont ; for 
 independently of those who were at Verceil, all the Vaudois who, 
 during the war of 1686, had been taken with arms in tlieir hands, 
 far from being released with the other prisoners, were condemned 
 to the galleys, and subsequently were employed on the works of 
 fortifications.^ Moreover, all the Vaudois pastors, with the excep- 
 tion of Arnaud and Montoux, were retained, n(.tyith£*;?ji^n^'^4,he 
 frequent and pressing representations of Switzerlani, ttf whrch* it 
 was replied that Victor Amadejis.veservM to. decision, ©»• their 
 fate till his return from a journey 5?rlripH jhe tad Just ifia<J^-tC» Venlcfe.^ 
 
 "Two days before our departure from Turin," Salvajot says, *'all 
 
 » 
 
 » Dissipation , p. 34. ' ; > ; ' , ' \ ,* \ ' 
 
 2 Conncil of State of Geneva, sitting of February 5. 16Sr. '»; >' ' 
 
 » Registers of the Council of State, sitting of Jamiaiy 15. 
 
 ♦Ibid., sitting of February 2. _ , «« 
 
 8 For this purpose the supply was drawn from many sources:— 1, The govern- 
 ment (sitting of the Council of State of February 2) ; 2, The Italian Fund (Bittrng 
 of February 8) ; 3, Private persons (sittings of February 19 and of March 12). 
 
 • Letter of the Count De Gavon to M. De Murat, read to the Council of State 
 of Geneva, sitting of February 7, 1687. (See the Registers of the CouncU.) 
 
 7 The same Registers. 
 
478 
 
 THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Second. 
 
 our ministers, with their families, were put in a separate chamber ; 
 guards were placed at the door that no one might go out of it; and 
 thus our poor ministers remained in prison, who thought they 
 should have been the first to have left it.^ But Victor Amadeus 
 was in no haste to resolve upon their fate ; for we read in a work 
 published in 1690 — "The Vaudois pastors are still prisoners; 
 promises and threats have been tried, time about, to make them 
 abjure; and at this very time they still pine, dispersed and confined, 
 in three castles, where they are exposed to much discomfort and 
 misery, without any apparent prospect of their deliverance." ^ They 
 were not set at liberty till June, 1690, when the victorious Vaudois 
 had regained possession of their valleys, and when Victor Amadeus 
 found it his interest to attach them once more to himself, in con- 
 sequence of the political rupture which had taken place between 
 Piedmont and France.* 
 
 The secret of the power of kings is in knowing how to make 
 men oppress one another; their armies are formed of the people, 
 and directed against the people. The wars which arise amongst 
 nations are never for the interests of nations ; it is the ambition of 
 dynasties which produces them and profits by them. Thus every 
 oppressed people is the accomplice of the tyrant whose oppression 
 it endures; for if he were left alone no tyrant could prevail against 
 an entire people. But God has permitted this severe tutelage of 
 communities of men, in order that they may know the value of 
 emancipation ; and, in order to have liberty, it is necessary to be 
 worthy of it. An independent mind is more free, even in oppres- 
 sion, even in mart3rrdom, than a servile one when its masters are 
 taken away. 
 
 Let me conclude with these words of the gospel, "If Chi'ist 
 make you free, you shall be free indeed." 
 
 ' I 
 
 r Gli facei^D, iiwttcre tijlti con jejorofsuniglie in una camera. . , . E gli dissero 
 che prima era per il saluto dell' anima sua ; e poi che S. A. R. gli darebbe qualche 
 intret^riej.ma.che'pe'- ie valla, nan pensagsero pid ad andargli ! E i nostri poveri 
 mirdstri restaJono in pri^one, e Graiietan,o d'essere i primi a partire. 
 
 2 Hint, de la disHp: des Egl, Vaud., pr 35. These pastors were nine in number. 
 —{Meinoir of David Holzhalb to the great Elector of Brandenburg, on the con- 
 dition of the Vaudoia^ Jant.,'1687. Archives of Berlin.) Six others, to wit, MM. 
 Amavd, Montoujc^ Ba^le (fat;her and .son), Dumas, and Javel, had succeeded in 
 getting out of the country. * Only one had abjured, J. P. Danne. A pun was made 
 upon his name, by saying that it wanted only an acute accent on the last letter to 
 indicate what he had become. This man, whom it is easier to suppose misled 
 than convinced, wrote some works in favour of the Church of Borne. 
 
 ' Mercure Mittorique, vii. 667. 
 
 fiMSGOW: W. 0. BLACWB kVJ) CO., PEINTKBS, VILLAYIKU). 
 
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THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
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 HlSTOBJi;: pf i;:lSS*r¥ALDENSES 
 
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 dFi":P-iE.]DMO:NT, 
 
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 AND THEIR COLONIES; 
 
 PREPARED IN GREAT PART FROM UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 
 
 By ALEXIS MUSTON, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT BOURDKAUX, DROME, FRANCE. 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 By the rev. JOHN MONTGOMERY, A.M. 
 
 •WITH IsTTJl^EI^.OTJS ElSra-I2;J^.VIlTa-S- 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON: 
 BLACKIE AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 
 AND GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH. 
 
 MDCCCLXVI. 
 

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 1. 
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 V. 
 
 GLASGOW. 
 W O BLACKIE AND CO . PBINTKRSi, 
 
 VILLAHF.T.U 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. 11. 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 FROM THE RETURN OF THE VAUDOIS INTO THEIR OWN COUNTRY, TO THEIR 
 CIVIL AND POLITICAL EMANCIPATION IN PIEDMONT. 
 
 Pagt 
 
 Chapter I. — Condition op the exiled Vaudois in Switzerland, Bran- 
 denburg, WURTEMBERO, AND THE PALATINATE. (A.D. 1687 tO A.D. 
 1688.)— Frederic William the Great, Elector of Brandenburg, gives an 
 asylum to Vaudois exiles— His generosity towards them — Their arrival in 
 Brandenburg— Refugees of Pragela — Negotiations: the Swiss Cantons and 
 the Elector — Refugees of the Piedmontese valleys — Their progress to 
 Brandenburg— Hardships and difficulties— Settlement of a portion of the 
 Vaudois at Stendal — Settlements at Burg and Spandau — Difficulties created 
 by the people of Stendal and Burg— Uncharitableness of bigoted Lutheran 
 ministers in Wiirtemberg towards the Vaudois — Greater liberality of the 
 laity and of the duke— Further difficulties and trials— A number of the 
 Vaudois compelled to return from Wiirtemberg to Switzerland 1 
 
 Chapter II. — The state of the Valleys in the absence of their Inha- 
 bitants; AND first attempts OF THE EXILED VaUDOIS TO RETURN TO 
 
 THEIR OWN Country, (a.d. 1686 to 1689.)— The Vaudois who had be- 
 come Catholics— The faithful witnesses in the prisons of Piedmont — 
 Sale of the forfeited lands— Tabular view— The new purchasers— Neglect 
 and desolation — The exiled Vaudois conceive the project of returning to 
 their valleys — The first attempt of a small number frastrated by the Ber- 
 nese government — Three persons sent by the Vaudois to explore the route 
 to. the valleys — Secret consultations in Janavel's house — Plan of a new 
 expedition agreed upon — The secret having transpired, the expedition is 
 relinquished — The situation of the Vaudois in Switzerland becomes more 
 nncomfortable in consequence of this abortive project— Stete of feeling 
 amongst them — They receive encouragement from the Prince of Orange 
 and others— Janavel, foreseeing a rupture between France and Savoy, 
 recommends the time as a favourable one for their enterprise — Captain 
 Bourgeois — Janavel's Lastructions to his compatriots 17 
 
 Chapter III. — The glorious Return of the Vaudois, under the con- 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 DUCT OP Arnaud, and accobdtno to the directions op Janaveu 
 (August to September, 1689.) — The Vaudois assemble on the shore of 
 the Lake of Geneva, and embark by night— The precautions employed 
 to divert attention from their proceedings — Numbers, however, arrested 
 by the Swiss governments— The embarkation— Arnaud and Turrel, leaders 
 of the expedition— The march begun— The pastor Chyon taken prisoner — 
 The Vaudois seize hostages— They pass without impediment by Yvoire, 
 Viu, and St Joire — A show of opposition at Cluse is soon overcome — 
 They carry the bridge at Salanches by force— They pass over the moun- 
 tains of Le Praz and Haute Luce — Sufferings from incessant rain — The 
 Col Bonhomme— Scez— St. Foi— Mount Iseran— They capture a cardi- 
 nal's equipages — Sufferings in crossing Mount Cenis — Combat with the 
 garrison of Exilles— Some fall behind through fatigue and exhaustion, 
 and are taken prisoners — Combat and victory at Salabertrans — The exiles 
 obtain the first view of their native mountains — They arrive at the Balsille 
 — A half company of Piedmontese soldiers taken prisoners and put to the 
 sword — Public worship at Pral— Victory at the Col Julian — Public wor- 
 ship and solemn covenant on the bill of Sibaoud 33 
 
 Chapter IV. — Struggle op the Vaudois, in their own Valleys, against 
 
 THE UNITED FORCES OP ViCTOR AmADEUS II. AND LOUIS XIV. (SlEQB OP 
 
 THE Balsille.) (September, 1689, to June, 1690.)— Expedition of the 
 Vaudois against Le Villar— Destruction of Bobi by the enemy— The Vau- 
 dois take Rora — Their generous conduct — Hardships and privations — 
 Their cause seems to become more desperate than ever — They are de- 
 serted by many of the French refugees — Turrel, their commander, with- 
 draws from tbem in despair — Firmness and courage of Arnaud— Council 
 of war at Rodoret— The Vaudois retire to the Balsille— Unfavourable 
 reports of their expedition in the journals of the time— Description of the 
 Balsille— Efforts of the Vaudois to secure provisions for winter — Com, 
 which has been covered with snow all winter, is reaped by the Vaudois in 
 spring— Peter Philip Odin chosen a leader— Piety of the Vaudois— The 
 Marquis D'Ombrailles approaches the Balsille and retires — Courageous 
 refusal of all terms of capitulation — Death of three Vaudois captives — The 
 Balsille assailed by Catinat and the Marquis De Parelles— Sufferings of 
 the assailants from severity of weather — Complete failure of the attack on 
 the fort — Renewed attack by the Marquis De Feuqui^res — The Vaudois 
 retire from intrenchment to intrenchment, and at last make a wonderful 
 retreat by night to the higher parts of the mountains — They overcome a 
 datachment of troops at Pramol — Political events favourable to the Vau- 
 dois — Separation of Piedmont from the alliance of France — War declared 
 against France — The Vaudois are received into favour by the Duke of 
 Savoy — Continued struggles with the French troops 54 
 
 Chapter V. — Rupture between France and Savoy, War which fol- 
 lowed IT, AND NEW SITUATION OP THE VaUDOIS, NOW BECOME DePENDERS 
 
 op Victor Amadeus II. (June, 1690, to September, 1694.)— Exorbitant 
 demands of France upon Piedmont — Victor Amadeus concludes an alli- 
 ance with Austria, and goes to war with France — He favours the Vaudois, 
 in order to enjoy the support of their arms— He encourages French Pro- 
 testant refugees in Piedmont — Return of Vaudois from Brandenburg with 
 their families — Generosity of the Elector of Brandenburg — the Vaudois 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VU 
 
 Page 
 regiment in Piedmont — Successful incursion into the valley of the Guill 
 in Dauphiny — Expeditions and combats — The Vaudois leaders in the pre- 
 sence of Victor Amadeus — Gallantry of the Vaudois at the capture of the 
 fort of St. Michael, near Lucema — Victory over the French at Briqu^ras — 
 — The French abandon the valley of St. Martin^Defeat of Victor Ama- 
 deus at Staffarde — Savoy subjected to France — The French again make 
 themselves masters of the valley of St. Martin— They are repulsed from 
 that of Lucema — Faithful adherence of the Vaudois to Victor Amadeus — 
 Their incursions into Dauphiny — M. De Feuquiferes, the French general, 
 suffers severe loss at Lucema— Various conflicts and events of war 76 
 
 Chapter VI. — Continuation and Conclusion op the War between Louis 
 XIV. AND Victor Amadeus; Participation op the Vaudois in these 
 events, and their Formal Re-establishment in the Valleys. — Re- 
 verses sustained by the Duke of Savoy in the war — Prince Eugene and 
 the Duke of Schonberg come to his assistance — Decree of rehabilitation in 
 favour of the Vaudois in 1692 — Invasion of Dauphiny by the forces of the 
 Piedmontese and their allies — Siege and capture of Embrun — Surrender 
 of Gap — Illness of the Duke of Savoy, and close of the campaign of 1692 
 — Catinat, the French commander, assumes the offensive in the beginning 
 of 1693— The Duke of Savoy defeated in the plains of Marsaille— Catinat 
 desolates Piedmont — The Vaudois harass the French army— Victor Ama- 
 deus publishes a new edict in favour of the Vaudois, in May, 1694 — Suc- 
 cessful enterprises of the Vaudois against the French — Victor Amadeus is 
 detached from the league against the King of France, and enters into a 
 new alliance with France 89 
 
 Chapter VII. — Protest op the Court op Rome against the Re-estab- 
 lishment OP THE Vaudois ; Firmness op Victor Amadeus II.; Re-organi- 
 zation op the Vaudois Church; New Edict op Expulsion in 1698. — 
 Analysis of the edict of May 23, 1694— Artful reservations of tyranny- 
 Irritation of the court of Rome — Papal condemnation, and pretended abro- 
 gation of the edict — The Duke of Savoy resists this usurpation of Rome, 
 and the senate of Turin annuls the papal decree — Efforts of the Vaudois 
 for the re-organization of their church — Pensions granted to the Vaudois 
 pastors and schoolmasters by Queen Mary II. of England — Assistance 
 obtained also from Holland — Acts of the Vaudois Synod concerning the 
 observance of the Sabbath — Other acts and proceedings of the Synod — 
 Church government and discipline — The Duke of Savoy refuses to permit 
 the incorporation of the Vaudois of P^rouse with the church of the valleys 
 — Fresh acts of injustice and severity against the Vaudois — Secret article 
 in the treaty of peace between France and Piedmont — Edict requiring all 
 French Protestants to leave the dominions of the Duke of Savoy — Emi- 
 gration of more than 3000 persons 100 
 
 Chapter VIII. — History op the Vaudois Colonies pounded in Wurtem- 
 berg after the Expulsion op 1698. — Part First, (a.d. 1698 to a.d. 
 1699.) — Expulsion of ministers and people not natives of the valleys — 
 Emigration from the valley of Pragela — Proposal for the establishment of 
 a Vaudois colony near Gochsheim, in Wurtemberg — Generous conduct 
 and enlightened views of the Count of Neustadt — He resists attempted 
 intolerance — Three thousand Protestants leave the valleys — Their recep- 
 tion in Switzerland — Their negotiations with the government of Wurtem- 
 
• • < 
 
 VUl 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 IZ 
 
 I 
 
 
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 i 
 
 Page 
 berg— Difficulties— Energy and activity of Amaud— Walkenier negotiates 
 for the exiles with the government of Wiirtemberg, as plenipotentiary of 
 Holland and other Protestant powers — Terms agreed upon — Pensions for 
 pastors and schoolmasters obtained from England HI 
 
 Chapter IX. History op the Vaudois Colonies founded in Wurtem- 
 
 BERO after the EXPULSION OF 1698. — Part Second, (a.d. 1689 to a.d. 
 1824.) The Vaudois settlers in the bailiwick of Maulbronn — The settle- 
 ment at Perouse, in the bailiwick of Leonberg — Pinache, in the bailiwick 
 of Wiermsheim — Lucema or Wurniberg— Serrea — Chorrea and Sengach^ 
 in the bailiwick of DtLrmentz—ifuZacre—;S'cAon6€rsr— Reminiscences of 
 Amaud— (?ranJ Villar, near Knittlingen— Disinclination of some of the 
 exiles to settle in any place away from their own valleys — Remonstrances 
 of Walkenier — New Engstedt, in the bailiwick of Calw — Another emigra- 
 tion from the valley of Pragela— Settlement at NordJiausen—H&hita of 
 the people — Endeavours made to induce the Vaudois churches to unite 
 themselves with the National Lutheran Church — Introduction of the Ger- 
 man language in their public services — The union with the National Church 
 is finally accomplished 
 
 Chapter X. History of the Vaudois Colonies founded in Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt and other parts of Germany, in consequence of the Expul- 
 sion OF 1698, AND SUBSEQUENT EMIGRATIONS. (A.D. 1698 tO A.D. 1818.) 
 
 Application to the Landgrave of Hesse- Darmstadt in 1 686— Letters- 
 patent authorizing the settlement of Vaudois in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1699 
 —Description of the Vaudois valleys— Painful consequences of the French 
 Revolution— Emigrations to America— Vaudois settlements in the grand 
 duchy of Baden— Vaudois settlement of Waldensberg, in Hanau— Vaudois 
 colony of D&mliolzhausen, near Homburg — Minor settlements 138 
 
 Chapter XL— History of the Vaudois op Pragela and the adjacent 
 Valleys,— First Period.— The Valleys of BARDONfecHE and of the 
 Cluson under the reign of Charles IX. (Introduction; commencing 
 with the Middle Ages. History down to 1574.)— Description of the valley 
 of Pragela— Flourishing state of the church there before the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes— The church in Pragela in earlier times— The Synod 
 of Le Laus before 1332— Vaudois missionaries in France— Temporal condi- 
 tion of the inhabitants of Pragela— Pragela under the Dauphins— Inquisi- 
 tors and persecution in the fourteenth century— Persecutions in the six- 
 teenth century— The Vaudois of France and Piedmont mutually support 
 one another— The religious wars in France—The Baron Des Adrets dis- 
 graces the Protestant cause by his proceedings in Pragela— Unhappy con- 
 sequences to the Protestants of the valley— Combats and massacres— Ex- 
 ploits of the Vaudois at Exilles— The Edict of Amboise— New dangers- 
 Fast— St. Bartholomew's Day— Conversion of the people of Pramol to 
 Protestantism— The Vaudois defend themselves against Birague, the 
 French governor of Pignerol— The "War of La Rade."— Accession of 
 Henry III. to the throne of France ^^"^ 
 
 Chapter XII.— History of the Vaudois of Pragela and the adjacent 
 Valleys.— Second Period.— Lesdigui^res in Pragela. (a.d. 1574 to 
 A.D. 1601.)— Reign of Henry III. in France— The League— Agitations 
 in the French Vaudois valleys— Assassms— Jesuits— Rumours of impend- 
 ing danger— Settlement of Popish priests in the parishes of the Plebanie of 
 
 r 
 
 Poffe 
 
 Oulx— Progress of the Protestant cause— Death of La Cazette— Lesdi- 
 guibres invades Piedmont — Various events of the war — Unjust attempt to 
 deprive the Vaudois of Pinache of their place of worship — Attempt to 
 massacre them — Polemical discussions — Letter of Lesdiguiferes to the 
 Piedmontese Vaudois, promising them protection — Apostasy of Captain 
 Jaliier of Pramol — His miserable death — Peace of 1601 between France 
 and Savoy 174 
 
 Chapter XIII. — History of the Vaudois of Pragela and the adjacent 
 Valleys. — Third Period. — The Valley of Pf rouse under the domi- 
 nion OF Charles Emmanuel, (a.d. 1601 to a.d. 1628.)— the privilege of 
 public worship denied to the inhabitants of Pragela — United declaration of 
 the Vaudois — Efforts of the Romish clergy to make proselytes — The Duke 
 of Savoy himself endeavours to induce some of the principal inhabitants of 
 Pinache to join the Church of Rome — Decree of the parliament of Gre- 
 noble — Inoperative edict of the Duke of Savoy — The Vaudois of P^rouse 
 are induced, by crafty counsel, to separate themselves from the common 
 union of the Vaudois, and to refuse payment of their sliare of a sum which 
 the valleys were to pay for confirmation of privileges — They soon find 
 that they have fallen into a dangerous snare — Orders given for the demo- 
 lition of six of their places of worship — The Vaudois attacked by French 
 troops at St. Germain — They assemble in such formidable numbers that 
 the troops retire— An amnesty — Political relations of France and Savoy.... 185 
 
 Chapter XIV. — History of the Vaudois of Pragela and of the adja- 
 cent Valleys. — Fourth Period. — From the Conquest of Piedmont by 
 Louis XIII. to the Piedmontese Easter, (a.d. 1629 to a.d. 1655.) — The 
 last religious war in France — Fall of Rochelle — Invasion of Piedmont by 
 Louis XIII. — His edict in 1629 for the establishment of Romish worship 
 in the valleys of Exilles, Bardon^che, Sezane, and Pragela — Great triumphs 
 of the French arms — Charles Emmanuel dies of grief, and Victor Ama- 
 deus becomes Duke of Savoy — Peace — Prosperity of the Vaudois Church 
 in Pragela after these events — New restrictions imposed— The Vaudois 
 obtain the extension of their privileges in terms of the Edict of Nantes — 
 They still increase in numbers and prosperity — Accession of Louis XIV. 
 — The Piedmontese Vaudois take refuge in the French valleys after the 
 
 , Piedmontese Easter — The Vaudois in the French dominions are subjected 
 to new hardships 193 
 
 Chapter XV. — History op the Vaudois op Pragela and the adjacent 
 Valleys. — Fifth Period. — From the Introduction op the Jesuits to 
 the Demolition of the Protestant Places op Worship in Pragela. 
 (a.d. 1656 to A.D. 1685.)— Jesuit missionaries in Pragela — Controversies 
 
 — Odious means employed to secure the success of the Jesuit missions 
 
 Apostasy and subsequent melancholy history of Captain Guyot — Bribes and 
 every kind of influence used to procure abjurations — Dragonnades — New 
 restrictions imposed upon the Vaudois — Increasing hardships — Strange 
 quotations from documents of the time, illustrative of the character of its 
 events and parties — Settlement of six priests in the parishes of Pragela in 
 1678 — The utmost fervour of proselytism — The exercise of the Protestant 
 religion prohibited in Pragela five months before the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes — Demolition of places of worship — Extensive Emi- 
 gration 203 
 
 Vol. II. 5 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Pagt 
 Chapteb XVI.-Histort of the Vaudois op Pragela and of the adjacent 
 
 ^L^EyI-IsiXTH PERIOD.-FKOM THE REVOCATION OF THE EOICT OP 
 
 it:::.o L ^^^ of uteecht. ^-----^/neX^f : 
 
 STOKATION OF THE PkOTESTANT ChUKCH IN PrAGELA. (A.D ^^^^J^^^ 
 
 l7nWLeTellier-Bo3Suet—Tlie Vaudois who remain in Pragela tre- 
 ZnK^^™^^^^ within the Piedmontese territory-Persecution m 
 Cla-The perse Jing church enriched hy the spoHs of the persecu^^^ 
 people and the properties of the exiles-Part of Pragela devastated by t^e 
 Cps Tf the Duke of Savoy-Successive emigrations-Protestantism re- 
 vTves a little in Pragela in the beginning of the 18th century-The valley 
 of St. Martin, and part of that of P^rouse. are induced to constitute them- 
 selves into a republic, under the illusory protection of Louis XIV., ^hich 
 subsists for four years-The Vaudois of Pragela enjoy better prospects for 
 a time after the valley has become part of the Piedmontese dominions- 
 Deputies from Pragela at the Vaudois synod of 17 09-The government 
 refLes to recognize their incorporation with the rest of the Jaudo^ 
 church-The Vaudois of all the valleys partake of the Lord's Supper a 
 Usseaux-Severe measures adopted by the Piedmontese government 
 against the Vaudois of Pragela-Political arrangements unfavourable to 
 them between the governments of Piedmont and France 
 
 rHAPTER XVIL-HlSTORY OF THE VaDDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE ADJA- 
 CENT VaIlEYS.-SeVENTH Period: from the Treaty of Utrecht, in 
 1713 to the First Emigrations caused by the Edicts which pre- 
 ceded THAT OF I730.-Obligations incurred by Victor Amadeus m his 
 treaties, in favour of the Vaudois-How he got quit of these obligations 
 -Measures adopted against the Vaudois of Pragela during his absence in 
 Sicily-Exertions of the King of Prussia on their behalf-Beneficial 
 interference of the English amba.ssador at Turin-The pastors of the 
 other parishes prevented from entering Pragela to minister-Seventies 
 employed against the elders of Pragela, to prevent their conductmg reli- 
 gious meetings-Famine-Advantage taken of it for proselytism-Pro- 
 hibition of all religious meetings-The case of Peter Ronchail and his 
 famUy-The people of Pragela forbidden to attend public worship in the 
 other valleys-Other tyrannical measures-All the inhabitants of the 
 valleys acquired by the treaty of Utrecht are ordamed to have their 
 children baptized in the Church of Eome-Iniquitous law regardmg mheri- 
 tance-Compulsory observance of festivals-Illustrative instances ot 
 persecution— Victor Amadeus shows the most ungrateful forgetfulness of 
 the former services of the Vaudois-Friendship shown to them by Mr. 
 Edges, the British ambassador— Gradual increase of intolerance; emigra- 
 tions, and wearing out of the Vaudois church in Pragela 236 
 
 Chapter XVIIL— History op the Vaudois op Pragela and the adja- 
 cent Valleys. Eighth Period : Extinction op the Vaudois Church 
 IN Pragela. (a.d. 1729 to a.d. 1733.) -Famine of 1729-Base advan- 
 tage taken of it for the advancement of the work of proselytism— Con- 
 versation between a Vaudois and a Jesuit-Edict of 20th June, 1730— 
 Immorality of the persecuting king— Instances illustrative of the perse- 
 cution—The case of Jacob Perron— Many go into exile— Attempts to 
 prevent emigration-Victor Amadeus resists the remonstrances of the 
 King of Prussia— Continued annoyances to which the Vaudois are sub- 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XI 
 
 Page 
 jected, and especially those who had been baptized in the Church of Rome 
 — Trials and difficulties of the Vaudois pastors — Traces of lingering 
 Protestantism in Pragela — Burning of Bibles there in 1838 251 
 
 Chapter XIX.— History of the Vaudois prom the Expulsion of 1698 
 TO that of 1730. The Duke of Savoy in the Valley op Lucerna — 
 The Republic in that of St. Martin.— Results of the edicts of expul- 
 sion — Good brought out of evil — Pastors obtained from Switzerland — 
 Zeal of the ministers — Loyalty of the people— Political events — Disputes 
 concerning the succession to the throne of Spain — Political perfidy of 
 Victor Amadeus — War between France and Savoy — Victor Amadeus seeks 
 again to win the support of the Vaudois — Services rendered to him by 
 their militia — New French refugees arrive in the valleys — Events of the 
 war — Successes of the French — Exploits of the Vaudois — The valley of 
 St. Martin becomes a republic under French protection — Brief and unfor- 
 tunate existence of the republic of St. Martin— Continued triumphs of the 
 French — The Duke of Savoy finds refuge amongst the Vaudois — He 
 makes further efforts to conciliate them— Final defeat of the French at 
 Turin — The Duke of Savoy regains possession of his lost territories- 
 Further progress of the war — Treaty of Utrecht— Afflicted condition of 
 the Vaudois, after the termination of the war — The Vaudois subjected to 
 many vexations, through the influence of the Propaganda — Expulsion of 
 Protestants of foreign birth, in 1730 — Religious and moral condition of 
 the Vaudois at this period 266 
 
 Chapter XX. — Influence of the Philosophy of the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury ON THE Vaudois Church, and Progress of Events down to the 
 French Revolution, (a.d. 1730 to a.d. 1792.)— Persecution continued 
 in many forms of vexation — Growth and effects of new ideas — Children 
 seized and retained by Papists — Popish missions in the valleys — Insin- 
 cerity in replies to remonstrances of the British Government — Vexatious 
 prohibitions and restrictions — Poverty and distress of the Vaudois — Their 
 services to the King of Sardinia in his wars — Battle of Assiette — Con- 
 tinued vexations on the part of the Popish clergy — The Befuge of Virtue 
 —The Vaudois Table instituted — Origin of the Vaudois congregation at 
 Turin — The Vaudois churches of the French Alps begin to display signs 
 of life — Unhappy effects of the infidel philosophy of the period on the 
 spiritual character of the Vaudois pastors and church 291 
 
 Chapter XXI. — The Vaudois Valleys during the Wars which the 
 French Revolution caused in Italy, (a.d. 1789 to a.d. 1801.) — 
 Prudent reserve of the Vaudois at the outbreaking of the French Revolu- 
 tion — Piedmont, allied with Austria, at war with France — The Vaudois 
 troops on the frontier under General Gaudin — Popish conspiracy for a 
 massacre of the defenceless Vaudois families — It is discovered and defeated 
 by General Gaudin — Odious conduct of the Piedmontese government upon 
 this occasion — Fidelity of the Vaudois to their sovereign — Jealous tyranny 
 of the government — General Zimmerman intercedes for the Vaudois — 
 Pretended favours granted by the government — Continued friendship of 
 Zimmerman — Accession of Charles Emmanuel IV. — Petition of the 
 Vaudois and reply of the king — Attempts to conciliate the Vaudois when 
 their support became very important — Some ameliorations of their con- 
 dition—Their treatment varies with political circumstances — Abdication 
 
V 
 
 ./* 
 
 Xll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 ■I 
 
 I 
 
 Fagt 
 
 .308 
 
 .331 
 
 of Charles Emmanuel IV.-Suwarrow and the Russian army in Piedmont 
 -Great kindness of M. Rostan, pastor of Bobi, to wounded French 
 soldiers-Suchet's public acknowledgment of it-Characteristic proclama- 
 tion of Suwarrow-The valleys threatened with pillage and devastation 
 by Russian troops-Successful appeal of M. Appia to the Russian com- 
 manders-Illustrative anecdotes of Suwarrow, Prince Bagrat.on, and 
 other Russian officers-The manners and habits of the Russian troops- 
 Hatred of the Popish priests against the Vaudois exhibited in malicious 
 falsehoods assidiously told to the Russian generals-Napoleon s victories 
 -The battle of Marengo-Tlie Cisalpine Republic-The \ audois become 
 
 possessed of equal rights with other citizens 
 
 Chapter XXII.-State of the Vaudois under the Dominion of France. 
 (A.D. 1799 to A.D. I814.)-The two periods of French dominion m Pied- 
 mont-Ridiculous proclamation of the provisional government of 1 79»- 
 The new organization and political arrangements-Changes favourable to 
 the Vaudois and to liberty-Addresses of Paul Appia to his Vaudois bre- 
 thren-The English subsidies withdrawn from the Vaudois-Distress of 
 the pastors-Peyrani chosen moderator-Napoleon at Milan-Interview of 
 Peyrani with the emperor— New ecclesiastical arrangements— Congratula- 
 tory address of the Vaudois to Napoleon-Official installation of pastors 
 under the new French law-Earthquake of 1808-Downfall of Napoleon, 
 
 and of the French Empire 
 
 Chapter XXIIL— State of the Vaudois since the Restoration, (a.d. 
 1814 to a.d 1842.)— The restoration of the house of Savoy in 1 814— Victor 
 Emmanuel IV. lands at Genoa— Deputation of the Vaudois— Their petition 
 —Revival of old edicts unfavourable to the Vaudois- Servile subjection 
 of the king to the priesthood— His benevolent dispositions counteracted by 
 their influence— Deputations— Restrictions and mitigations of them— 
 Friendly interposition of the British ambassador-The Congress of Vienna 
 —Enforcement of observance of festivals of the Church of Rome-Napo- 
 leon leaves Elba-The loyalty of the Vaudois suspected-Friendship 
 shown by Count Crotti-Conduct of the Piedmontese government, with 
 regard to persons who had held office under the French government— Case 
 of'^M. Geymet— The ecclesiastical domains restored to the Church of 
 Rome-Question as to the rents for the time during which the Vaudois had 
 enjoyed them— Poverty of the Vaudois pastors-Edict of 1806, aflfording 
 some relief to the Vaudois-Social progress, increasing liberality of the 
 government, and improvement of the condition of the Vaudois 349 
 
 Chafter XXIV.— Religious Revival and Foundation op various Insti- 
 tutions in the Vaudois Valleys. {A.D. 1824toA.D. 18i7.) Felix Nefp 
 —The Hospital— The College— The Discipline— The Schools— 
 Beckwith.— Circumstances providentially conspiring to preserve the unity 
 of the Vaudois body— Felix Neflf— Temporary separation of some zealous 
 Christians from the general body of the Vaudois church— Revival of reli- 
 gion throughout the whole of that church— New and valuable institutions 
 —Kindness of Christian friends— Vaudois hospital— Count de Waldburg 
 Truclisess— General Beckwith— Schools founded by his exertions— Dr. 
 GiUy— Code of Discipline— Confession of Faith— The Protestant con- 
 gregation at Turin formally admitted as a Vaudois parish— Establish- 
 ment of two new parishes, Macel and Rodoret— Other ecclesiastical ar- 
 
 rangements — Collections for religious and charitable purposes — Bianqui's 
 legacy • 
 
 Pag€ 
 
 .365 
 
 Chapter XXV.— Civil and Political Emancipation of the Vaudois dur- 
 ing the reign of Charles Albert, (a.d. 1847 to a.d. 1850.) — The politi- 
 cal changes in the kingdom of Sardinia were begun before the revolutionary 
 explosion of 1848 — Change of tactics on the part of the Popish clergy, upon 
 the change of policy by the government — Polemical pastorals and other 
 controversialpublications— Charles Albert visits the valleys in 1844 — His 
 generous confidence in the Vaudois, and enthusiastic reception by them— 
 Demonstrations of the gratitude of the Vaudois to General Beckwith — 
 Amelioration of their political condition — The Marquis d'Azeglio — The 
 Statute^ or Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Sardinia, 8th Febru- 
 ary, 1848 — Admission of the Vaudois to all the civil privileges of their 
 countrymen, 17th February, 1848— Great rejoicings — French Revolution 
 of 1848 — Consequent revolutions and wars in Italy — Defeat, abdication, 
 and death of Charles Albert — Charles Emmanuel V. succeeds to the crown 
 Present state of the Vaudois 383 
 
 APPENDIX No. I., BIBLIOGEAPHY. 
 
 Part I. — Published Works. 
 
 Section I. Original authors who have treated specially of the history 
 of the Vaudois.— § 1. Vaudois authors. — § 2. Anonymous Vaudois 
 Authors. — § 3. Original authors, not natives of the valleys, who have 
 written in a spirit favourable to the Vaudois. — § 4. Original authors, not 
 natives of the valleys, who have written in a spirit unfavourable to the 
 Vaudois 398 
 
 Section II. Authors who have occupied themselves with inquiries on 
 particular points connected with the history of the Vaudois. — § 1. Latin 
 Treatises (mostly contra ValdenseSy and generally relating to the disci- 
 ples of Valdo, rather than to the Vaudois of Piedmont).— g 2. Academic 
 Theses. — § 3. Various authors 412 
 
 Section III. Historic works on the Vaudois, derived from original 
 sources, and contributing to the more complete elucidation of the subject... 42 2 
 
 Section IV. Polemical Works,— § 1. Against the Vaudois. — § 2. In 
 defence of the Vaudois ^24 
 
 Section V. Periodical, artistic, descriptive, scientific, and literary 
 works, relative to the Vaudois. — § 1. Books of Travels. — § 2. Descrip- 
 tive works. — g 3. Illustrated works.— § 4. Tales and Poems. — § 5. 
 Journals ^^7 
 
 Section VI. Historical works, in which the Vaudois are only inciden- 
 tally treated of, but which embody particular views or documents. Chap- 
 ter I. Works on special subjects. — § 1. Local History. — § 2. Memoirs 
 and Biographies. Chapter II. Works of a general character. — § 1. 
 Ecclesiastical Histories. — §2. Profane Histories 432 
 
 Section VII. Detached Documents. — § 1. Collections of Official 
 Papers. — § 2. Collections of Various Documents 438 
 
 Part II. — Manuscript Works. 
 
 Section I. Ancient Vaudois MSS, in the Romance language.— § 1. 
 Origin of these MSS.— § 2. Biblical MSS.— § 3. MSS. of Geneva.— 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 § 4. MSS. of Dablin.-§ 5. MSS. of Cambridge.— § 6. A note of what 
 
 has been published of these MSS 
 
 Section II. MSS. deposited in different archives,— § 1. Public— § 2. 
 
 Private..... 
 
 Pabt III.— Detached Pieces, Published and Manuscript. 
 
 Chapter I. Confessions of faith, published by the Vaudois or in their ^^^ 
 
 name, in different languages *'";;■*""' ["^A'lj" 
 
 Chapter II. Historic pieces, anterior to the Bull of Innocent VIII. ^^^ 
 
 against the Vaudois (1487) 
 
 APPENDIX No. II. 
 
 Note on these passages op Part I., Chap IV. (Vol. i. p. 60), *' The 
 victorious Protestants incurred the guilt of bloody reprisals," and (Vol. i. 
 p. 61) " Cruelties and spoliations, unworthy of their name, were perpe- 
 trated by the Protestants" 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 f>' 
 
 490 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 APPENDIX No. III. 
 
 Journal op a Vaudois Officer, concerning the Milttaet Operations 
 which followed the return of the Vaudois to their own country 
 IN 1689, and particularly the siege of the Balsille in 1690 491 
 
 APPENDIX No. IV. 
 
 Note, bt the Translator, on the present state op thb Controversy 
 respecting the origin op the Vaudois 
 
 ,506 
 
 THE RETTJKN OF THE VAUDOIS, .... Frontispiece, 
 
 This scene represents the embaxkation of the Vaudois, at Nyon, north-west shore 
 of the Lake of Geneva, on 17th August, 1689, to return to their native land, 
 under the guidance of their pastor, Henri Amaud. 
 
 LA BALSILLE, the Citadel op the Vaudois, . Engraved Title, 
 
 Viewed from Mont Gunivert. This conical mass of rocks is seen in the centre of 
 the picture, with the village of Balsille at its foot. Here the Vaudois success- 
 fully maintained their position, in 1689 and 1691, against an opposing army 
 infinitely their superior in numbers, commanded by Catinat and Feuqui^res, 
 
 MAP OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT, OB Country 
 op the "Waldenses, 
 
 Compiled &om the best Sardinian maps, together with original materials sup- 
 plied by Dr. Huston. 
 
 21 
 
 VIEW FROM MOUNT MOUIASSA, 09 
 
 In the centre is Mount Placier and the valley of Rodoret ; on the left is the valley 
 ' of Pral, and to the right the valley of Balsille. These localities formed the 
 
 theatre of the gallant exploits of the Vaudois in 1689-90. 
 
 THE COL LA CROIX, and Source op the Pelis, .... 92 
 
 From the pass of the Cochia. To the right is the Col La Croix, one of the longest 
 and most difficult passes of the Alps. In the background, to the left, is the 
 vaUey of the Pra, with the Lake of Marconseil, the source of the P61is ; and 
 in the distance is Mont Viso, one of the highest of the Alps, so called from 
 the magnificent view which it commands. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF PEROUSE, looking up the Valley op the CLtsoN, 187 
 
 To the right is seen the town of P6rouse, at the entrance of the valley of the 
 ClAson or Pragela, which was formerly defended here by a strong castle, the 
 ruins of which still remain. On the left is the town of Pomaret, picturesquely 
 situated in the midst of precipices and vineyards, at the entrance of the Val 
 St. Martin. It is noted as the residence of the celebrated John Bodolph 
 Peyrani, moderator of the Waldensian Church, who died here in 1823. 
 
XVI 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 THE TILLAGE OF ST. JOHN, Vallkt OP LUOEBNA, . . 
 
 To the left on an eminence overlooking the -rillag", « *« Proteetant chni,=h 
 ^T™^ by two towen^the hantomert of the Walden«an pl«ee of 
 :Z^™^L riBing ground, to the right. iB the Ron>.n CthoUc ehnrch. 
 with one tower. 
 OPENING OF THE VALLEY OF LUCERNA, fbom above the Vau- 
 
 DOis Hospital, 
 
 In the foregronnd, to the left, is the hospital of the Vaudois valleys erected by 
 suSon; and on the rising ground behind it. the viUage of Copiers m 
 :^l the' ancient Protestant church of La Tour. In the -t- ^ *^^ 
 villages of St. Marguerite and I^ Dagots ; and beyond ^^^'^"^^ ^^^'^^ 
 ZtownofLaTour,theWaldensiancapitaL The pyramidal tock of Cavour 
 
 is seen in the extreme distance. 
 
 PAQC 
 
 . 346 
 
 371 
 
T( Hiulhr.y l.'luhm 
 
 ■ -'.y jrvi^^V 
 
 . f '"• '\TT '^ 'T 
 
.1 
 
THE 
 
 ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 FROM THE RETURN OF THE VAUDOIS INTO THEIR OWN 
 COUNTRY. TO THEIR CIVIL AND POLITICAL EMANCIPA- 
 TION IN PIEDMONT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE EXILED VAUDOIS IN SWITZERLAND, BRAN. 
 DENBURG, WURTEMBERG, AND THE PALATINATE 
 
 (A.D. 1687 TO A.D. 1688.) 
 Switzerland. 
 
 The Vaudois had been completely expelled from f f^'^'J^^ 
 Lyl The Umits of this work do not permit us to follow out m 
 aU their detaUs, the protracted and numerous negotiations which at 
 i iriod took p Je amongst the different European powers, to 
 . A»THOMT.ES.-Io genera, th. work. wMohW^ the J.udoU colo^»i» 
 
 DieUrUi, "Die WalimKr md Are ^'''^"""ft^'J.p^iaUy devoted to the 
 «c*« Stoat.." Berlin, 1831 ; . work <■'.« "f^/^SU Tstend.!) ;-iJ«., the 
 subject of . part of thi. chapter (the arrival of »^« * »"*™*,"^, '^ Branden- 
 aixth volume of the " C<mlrilmtion, to <*« B«f>'y^F<"^'^ ^^^Zi 8vo). and 
 ^r,." b, £«».» and R.U.M i^^^^^^^^^li V^^IZt the uu Jberof 
 the • • Memorie di me Bartolomeo ScUvajot, the auinor oi ^ ^^ 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
2 
 
 I 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t Third. 
 
 pi-ovide either aid or an asylum for the proscribed people. Frederic 
 William of Brandenburg granted them both. 
 
 This excellent old man^ possessed all the qualities which make 
 men great— magnanimous, persevering, simple and kind; he was the 
 true founder of the power of Brandenburg, which was so rapidly to 
 increase under the tutelary shade of his glorious memory. He was 
 at once his own minister and his own general, and succeeded in 
 rendering the state a flourishing one, though he had found it buried 
 in ruins."^ His virtues made him an arbiter among his equals : the 
 talents of his son exchanged the electoral scarf for a royal crown. 
 But the greatness of the son^ and the virtues of the father did more 
 than found a state, they created a nation. 
 
 Ali-eady, since the year 1685, twenty thousand French, driven 
 from their native country by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 had repaired, at the invitation of Frederic WilUam, to districts of 
 Brandenburg, which had been depopulated by previous wars; and 
 they soon restored to new bfe these languishing and impoverished 
 provinces. The numerous sacrifices which the illustrious elector 
 imposed upon himself, in order to favour their settlement, were 
 amply compensated in the course of a few years by the rapid 
 advance of leai-ning, commerce, and industry in that country. 
 
 It was not so, however, in the case of the Vaudois. When all 
 the expenses of their settlement had been paid, and all difficulties 
 overcome— even before these new colonists had gathered the first 
 crops which they had sown, the news came that the Vaudois val- 
 leys were opened again to their banished children. Then it was 
 that the elector gave evidence of a rare generosity. Far from 
 seeking forcibly to retain the Vaudois, or demanding from them the 
 repayment of the advances which he had made for them, he still 
 
 the exiles who took part in that exploring visit of two years made by the Vaudois 
 to the banks of the Elhe.-Hahn, '^GeschicfUe der Ketzer im MUtelalter/' vol. ii. 
 
 History cfthe Vaudois : " the notes are intereating.—Mayerhoff, ^'Inquiry into the 
 Origin of the Vaudois in th^ Church of Mecklenburg ;» Berlin, 1834 (a small volume). 
 —Particulars given in the Introduction of A maud's ' ' Qlorieuse rentree " (reprinted 
 at Neuch&telinl^S); and in A eland, "The Glorious Recovery^' &c. (London, 
 1827, 8vo, with engravings).— Besides documents derived from the Archives of 
 Geneva, Berne, Zurich, Darmstadt, and Stuttgart, and various memoranda col- 
 lected in the places to which the narrative relates. 
 
 » The Elector Frederic William U., sumaraed the Great, the grandfather of 
 Frederic the Great, was then 67 years of age. He died in the following year 
 April 22, 1688. * "* * 
 
 2 Memoires de Brandenbourg. Art de verifier les dates, &c. 
 
 » Frederic III., at first elector, afterwards king (crowned 18th January, 1701), 
 had not the true greatness of a statesman, Hke his father. He made his court a 
 very splendid one, lived in magnificence, and adorned Berlin, but impoverished his 
 people. i^TomL'Artde verifier les dates.) 
 
 > 
 
 i 
 
 N 
 
 Cukv. l] 
 
 EXILES ARRIVE IN BRANDENBURG. 
 
 imposed upon himself additional peruonal sacrifices, to enable these 
 unproductive colonists, the poor emigrants of the valleys, the more 
 easily to abandon his lands, of which they had scarcely broken the 
 soil, and to return from so far to the country which their daring 
 brethren had re-conquered. 
 
 They arrived in Brandenburg, to the number of 700 persons, 
 divided into three small caravans. The first, to which Salvajot 
 belonged, after having sojourned at Geneva fourteen days, left that 
 city again on the 24th of March, 1687, and on the same day 
 proceeded as far as Nyon,— the place where, three years afterwards, 
 the Vaudois were to assemble in secret, to commence their mar- 
 vellous expedition for the conquest of their native valleys. " The 
 next day," says the exile above named, in his memoirs, "we came 
 to Morges, where they kept us two days. On the 27th of March 
 we slept at Lausanne, on the 28th at Moudon, and on the 29th at 
 Payerne. This was a Saturday, and we remained there next day, 
 and there we had the privilege of being present at the distribution 
 of the Lord's Supper, which was a great consolation for our souls. 
 On Monday we went to Morat, where they had the courtesy to 
 accommodate all of us in lodging-houses." From the 1st to the 
 5th of April they journeyed on to Alberfeld, and next day, which 
 also was a Sabbath, they rested ; but on the Wednesday following 
 they arrived at St. Gall.^ "The inhabitants of this town," a,dds 
 the exile, "always most generously supplied us with food, clothing, 
 and shoes; they took great care of our sick, and bestowed upon 
 each of us three crowns on our departure."* 
 
 But the Vaudois did not all depart ; it being proposed that they 
 should go to Brandenburg, many of them refused to undertake so long 
 a journey, preferring to remain in Switzerland, in order that they 
 might be ready to return to their own country if an opportunity 
 should present itself. Of 200 persons who arrived at St. Gall with 
 Salvajot, there were not more than fifty who consented to this new 
 emigration. Embarking on the Lake of Constance, on the second 
 of August, 1688, they arrived at Basle nine days after,^ and united 
 
 » For greater exactness, I subjoin the names and precise dates of these diflferent 
 stages :-^lst March, Morat ; Ist and 2d April, at Arberg ; 3d,Wanighe; 4th, BrugU; 
 5th and 6th, at Alberfeld; 7th, Wintherthour ; 8th, Reichbach; 9th, St. ^al- 
 
 2 " I Signori Singalesi hanno sempre noi nutriti, vestiti, calzatti ; e hanno datti 
 O'-ni cosa agli anunalatti, per la buona assistenza. . . . E quando partiremo . . . 
 hanno datti a noi per limosina la somma di tre scudi caduno." The author of these 
 lines was not aware that the collections which had come from England, Holland, 
 and Hesse, had enabled the Swiss to supply more liberally the wants of the Vaudois. 
 
 » The foUowing is the order of their stages -.-From St. Gall to the Lake of Con- 
 stance, 2d August. 1688. Traversed the lake, and arrived at Stein on the 3d. Were 
 at Schaff hausen from the 4th to the 9th, and entered Basle on the 11th. 
 
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PartThiso. 
 
 themselves to other Vaudois wlio were already assembled in that 
 city, with the intention of proceeding to the electorate of Branden- 
 burg. 
 
 The total number of these various bands of emigrants did not 
 amount to more than 365. It might have been expected, certainly, 
 that these poor emigi-ants would have shown more eagerness to profit 
 by the favoumble dispositions of the elector towards them ; for many 
 of their compatriots were already settled in his dominions, and they 
 themselves had made application to him to secure an asylum in 
 case of proscription. So long before as the year 1 685, the Vaudois 
 of Pragela, affected by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had 
 sent three deputies to Germany for this purpose, i In January, 
 1686, there were already nearly 600 refugees in Switzerland, and 
 an almost equal number shortly afterwards to arrive. Their com- 
 missionei-s, fully empowered to treat concerning their settlement, 
 and bearing a certificate from the magistrates of Zurich, presented 
 themselves before Mr. Mendelshobe, the representative of Branden- 
 burg in the Palatinate. Their request was transmitted to Berlin 
 by that diplomatic agent, in the following terms :^ — "These worthy 
 people desire above all things that a district should be given them 
 in which they might remain united, and that they should be the 
 immediate vassals of the sovereign, and not, as in France, of the 
 nobles. There are few artisans or manufacturing operatives among 
 them; they therefore need nothing but lands to cultivate, and espe^ 
 cially pastures. They would particularly like a territory proper for 
 the culture of the mulberry, because they have long been accus- 
 tomed to the rearing of silk-worms, and by this means could more 
 easily provide for their own subsistence. His electoral highness 
 may be assured of finding them obedient subjects, and of infl^'exible 
 fidelity. They are a simple and laborious people; but they have 
 ways of their own, and their manners and habits have much resem- 
 blance to those of the Swiss; for which reason they would not like 
 to be intermixed with the other French refugees, whose lively and 
 brisk humour would not perhaps accord with their tranquil dis- 
 position and their quite patriarchal mode of life."^ The elector 
 
 » The pastor Jaques Papon, and two laymen, Jaques Pastre and Jean Pastre- 
 court, country merchants. 
 
 2 From 15th to 25th January, 1686. {Archives of Berlin.) 
 
 » Erman and Reclam, tom. vi. These authors have ascribed to the Vaudois of 
 the Piedmontese vaDeys, who were expeUed towards the end of 16S6. the steps 
 which are here mentioned as having been taken by the Vaudois of Pragela, and of 
 the other vaUeys under the dominion of France, who, in 1685, had already taken 
 refuge m Smtzerland, to the number of 600 persons, whilst those of the Pieda.on- 
 tese valleys did not leave their native country tiU a year after. Moser and Diete^ 
 rici have fallen into the same error. 
 
 Chap. I J 
 
 HUMANITY OF THE SWISS. 
 
 immediately replied that they would be made very welcome in his 
 dominions ;' and they repaired thither, whUst the other Vaudois 
 valleys were still hotly engaged in the contest by which they were 
 to be depopulated in their turn. _ 
 
 The Protestant cantons of Switzeriand soon addressed to Frederic 
 William a new request, in favour of new refugees desiring to settle 
 in his dominions;'^ and the elector expressed himself as willing to 
 receive another colony of 300 or 400 honest and industrious per- 
 sons, on condition that their other friends should bear the expense 
 of bringing them to his frontiers, and provide for tlieir subsistence 
 until their settlement on the lands assigned to them.^ The abun- 
 dant collections which Switzerland then received from foreign coun- 
 tries* for the reUef of the persecuted, enabled it to undertake this 
 on theii' behalf; and an ambassador^ was accordingly sent to Beriin 
 to bring this affair to a conclusion; but the negotiations being pro- 
 tracted, the Vaudois meanwhile became more confirmed in the idea 
 of soon returning to their native land. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1688, the Swiss cantons wrote to 
 the elector: 6 '• Our projects have been in some measure interfered 
 with by the difficulty of obtaining passports from the Duke of Savoy, 
 and by the more and more decided repugnance of the Vaudois to 
 remove so far from their own country.^ However, we hope to be 
 able to overcome these difficulties, and shortly to embark on the 
 Rhine a certain number of Vaudois families, in order to conduct 
 them to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and to Gernesheim in the elec- 
 torate of Mayence." At the same time, they requested Frederic 
 William to send commissioners to meet them. That prince sent 
 M De Bondely, one of his privy councillors, who wrote from 
 Zurich «In place of 1500 VaudoLs we will not have more than 
 700 or'sOO of them, the rest are Liberiins'' (patriots jealous of their 
 
 « Eescript of 3l8t January, 1686. {Archives of Berlin.) 
 
 « September 18, 1686. The elector replied on29th October, 1686. 
 
 » The patent which authorizes the settlement of this colony, is dated 12th March. 
 
 ^^4 Switzerland itself had already furnished more than 4000 crowns to the Vaudois ; 
 and having made an appeal for assistance to the other Protestant nations, met with 
 arefusi fmnnone. Holland furnished 17,000 crowns. The free city of Bremen 
 noblyTeplied, on the 9th of July, 1687. that it knew its duties; that it was not 
 enS to contemplate and deplore the misfortunes of our oppressed brethren but 
 that they must be relieved, and that a general collection wou d accordingly be 
 made wHhJ^ its walls on the 14th of July, 16S7. This collection produced 407 
 
 crowns. •2lst February. 1688. 
 
 i David Holzhalb, of Zmich. x_,m«. "ThPsetKJor 
 
 T The electoral resident at Frankfort {Rem^gius Merian) wrote :- These poor 
 
 people a^e very undecided; sometimes they would go. and sometimes they would 
 
 remain; and, meanwhile, time is passing away," &c. 
 
THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tbibs. 
 
 liberty), "who aUow themselves to be blinded by an incredible love 
 for their native country, and who are determined at all hazards to 
 return to it."' The elector was not the less disposed to receive 
 generously those who came to him : but that excellent prince was 
 not to enjoy the fruits of his own good deeds. He died a few days 
 after the departure of his envoy. 
 
 His successor-' prosecuted the work which he had commenced 
 Frederic HI. furnished the arms, money, and passports necessary 
 for the transport of the Vaudois, who set out from Basle on the 
 1st of August, 1688, accoi-ding to the Old Style, the 11th, accord- 
 ing to the New.' They were embarked in eight merchant boats, 
 contauung ea^h fifty passengers M. De Bondely had been careful 
 to exhibit the safe-conducts beforehand to the governors of pro- 
 vinces and commandants of fortresses by which the exiles must 
 pass; but the commandant of the French garrison of Brissac 
 animated probably by a blind zeal for religion," say the Memoirs 
 concermng tU Introduction oftheRefngees into Brandenburg, "caused 
 thirty cannon shots to be fired at the boats when they were about 
 half-a-league from the town." This last circumstance proves that 
 he cannot have intended any act of serious hostility. No baU 
 struck the boats, but the ten-or of the unfortunate Vaudois was so 
 great, that a number of pregnant women were taken with the 
 pams of chUdbirth, and were deUver^d in the boats. M. Charles 
 afterwards pastor at Berlin, baptized their children not far from' 
 tne town. The commandant of Brissac being reproached aa 
 he deserved for his cruelty, made a i>oor enough'excuse for him 
 
 At Stmsburg the Vaudois received another alarm. The kind's 
 heutenant having been apprised of their arrival, took them for 
 French refugees from Dauphiny, who had fled contrary to the 
 rigorous edicts of Louis XIV., and resolved to an-est thi. ^I 
 
 ' Letters of 11th and 15th May, 1688 
 
 'fred.rk WKa„ suraamed the Oreat, who died Eleetor of Brandenbur. ,„ 
 
 p~ the .0. :^e JdT/r;;::^.h^th!^- - ^^ 
 e^:»pfo::9t:^-r:sr;St^^ 
 
 tl 
 
 C«»r. l] THE PBIKCESS OF TARENTUM. ^ 
 
 passengers had abeady been compeUed to disembark upon French 
 Lund, and little respect had been shown to the authority of the 
 Elector of Brandenburg, or the reclamations of his officer, when, 
 recourse having been had to the commandant of the place, he came 
 and inquired into the business, and did not hesitate to take a decided 
 part, by saying to the Vaudois, "Go, poor people! return to your 
 Ks, and mTy God be your guide!" Nay, having remarked 
 among them many sick and feeble persons, he sent them woollen 
 cloaks, which were distributed among those who suffered most. 
 Such traits of humanity, amidst the many cruelties to which the 
 Reformed Church was then subjected, are pleasant to the mind, as 
 
 flowers which bloom among ruins. , . ,. r, i j 
 
 From the 7th to the 17th of August, the Vaudois disembarked 
 at Gemesheim, in the electorate of Mayence. Waggons were 
 hired to convey them to Frankfort, where they were waated for by 
 the Brandenburg commissioners appointed to receive them. Ihe 
 hospitable inhabitants of the banks of the Maine received the 
 exiles with the most affectionate welcome. They were lodged for 
 some days in the village of Bockenheim, situated half a league from 
 Frankfort. The magistrates of that city sent them supplies of 
 bread, wine, and meat. The Princess of Tarentum,' who had 
 quitted Fi-ance in order to remain faithful to the reformed religion, 
 then resided at Fiunkfort. She sent additional as.sistance m Unen 
 and eatables, and invited the Vaudois to come to a la^e garden, 
 where a numerous meeting was assembled, when her chaplain, M. 
 Roy, delivered so pathetic a discourse with reference to the exile^ 
 t J a collection which was made for them upon the spot produced 
 the sum of fifty crowns. To this the German and French re- 
 formed churches of the place added twice as much ""^e^" *»;^' 
 through this assistance, the Vaudois were enab ed to e°t«rtam *he 
 hTpe ^f reaching their destination, with a little m hand to aid them 
 in establisHng themselves. 
 
 They travelled in waggons to the frontiers of Hesse,- where the 
 commLoner of the landgrave waited for them, who V^jff^^ 
 with all that was necessary for the prosecution ot their journey. 
 From thence they proceeded to Marbourg, Ca^l, and Sondershau- 
 
 . Daughter of WilUam IV.. Count of Hes«-Ca=sel, born If J«l'™2''^«f ^1 
 
 n^^iB 1648 to aarl. Uela ^-^^ ^^X Wn^Hmre t^" d^t 
 father's sister had married the Pnnce of Conde.) ThePrinceoiia 
 16K hi?widow, EmiUa, then retired to Frankfort, where she died, '"1693. 
 'TlL "gth'rough tie electorate of Mayence, they were d^a.n d ™^^. 
 
 the sheriff of that place refusing to Pf'""' '""^''ff "^^^ Ue conunis- 
 that the waBBoners belonged to Frankfort, and had no passpoiW. 
 riotr St'was under the necessity of returning to procure them. 
 
8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabi Third. 
 
 sen, and so to Alberstadt, where they rested for a day; after which 
 they set out again, passed through Vauzleben and Mardebourg, and 
 on the 31st of August, 1688, arrived at Stendal. This town was 
 almost entirely depopulated. A terrible fire had ravaged it in 
 1687; It had several times been subjected to the disasters of war; 
 and having been previously the scene of a great conflagration in 
 1680, It had not been able to recover from this rapid succession of 
 calamities, which had driven away from it its wealthy inhabitants, 
 imbittered the spirit of the poor, and rendered the whole popula- 
 tion miserable.! The Vaudois were ushered into a large forsaken 
 house, where bread and beer were distributed to them. Some of 
 them were afterwards lodged with private families; the rest were 
 left in this great edifice, where they continued to receive the same 
 nourishment. "But," says one of them, "the brewers made such 
 bad beer for us, that many of us could not bear to use it."^ 
 
 The winter now approached, and the exiles still had no fixed 
 abodes; the establishment of the colony was obstructed by a mul- 
 titude of difficulties, caused chiefly by the inhabitants of the 
 country. The local authorities were unwilling to permit the new- 
 comere to take wood for building purposes from the public forests. 
 Upon this the Vaudois sent a deputation to Berlin,^ to entreat the 
 elector to interpose on their behalf, and not to restrict the terms 
 of their settlement in the temtory of Stendal. 
 Their petition asked, in substance* — 
 
 I. Full and entire liberty of conscience, places of worship with 
 bells, a college and schools, and the maintenance of theii- imstors 
 and schoolmasters by the state. 
 
 II. Authority to have their councils and magistrates elected 
 by universal sufirage among the members of the colony. 
 
 III. A gi-ant of lands proper for the cultivation of the vine; 
 an^ that flocks and instiniments of husbandry, to be afterwards 
 repaid, should be provided for them to begin with. 
 
 IV. Habitations, with gardens, exempt from taxes for a number of 
 years, to be granted to them in absolute propei-ty, and separate 
 from the German houses. 
 
 » The population at that time amounted to no more than 1600 souls. [Diderici, 
 % vii. G.) In 1819, Stendal reckoned 90G houses, and 5252 inhabitants. 
 
 2 Tliese details are still taken from the Memoirs of Salvajot. 
 
 » The deputies were Jacques Baile, pastor; Paul Blachon, Jean Turin, Daniel 
 Fasquet, Jean Tron, and Jean Havibaud. Their mandate is dated 4th September 
 1088, and was drawn up as a public deed by Daniel Fornebon, PUdmmite^ 
 "^^^V' ^ presence of twenty-nine witnesses, among whom appears Barth4lemy 
 
 * This document never having been published, I think it right to give a complete 
 analysis of it. 
 
 Graf, l] 
 
 PETITION OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 9 
 
 V. Beds, bed-clothes, garments, and stoves; because, the petition 
 says, the poor suppliants, coming from a soutJcern country, are more 
 sensible of the cold and storms. 
 
 VI. "May it also please your electoral highness to give ns some 
 other food besides bread and beer, which are oui- sole nourishment, 
 or some money in proportion to our famUies, and Ukewise some 
 furniture, of which we are absolutely devoid." They ask also for 
 medicines, and the attendance of a physician upon the sick 
 
 VII. That the Vaudois might be permitted to exercise freely all 
 sorts of trades or professions, without being obUged to pay for any 
 
 authorization. ^ ^ , . j i. . • 
 
 VIII. That they should have the rights of fishing and hunting. 
 
 IX That his electoral highness would be pleased to found 
 .ome bursaries for the education of the young Vaudois who should 
 devote themselves to the holy ministry. 
 
 X That he would be pleased to solicit a statement of the collec- 
 tions made in Holland, that they might be able to avail themselves 
 of them in their first settlement. 
 
 XI That the elector would be pleased to employ his powerful 
 mediation to obtain from the Duke of Savoy the liberation of all 
 their pastors who were still detained prisoners, and the restitution 
 of all their children who had been taken from them. 
 
 This petition remained some time unanswered, after which the 
 elector sent commissioners to the spot, to do what was requisite m 
 the most pressing matters to which it referred. These commis- 
 sioners informed the Vaudois that the sum of six^^>atzen a-day 
 would be allowed to each of them for their support. But, ob- 
 serves Salvajot, "two weeks passed, during winch we received no 
 more beer, and as yet no money had come. The six batzen did 
 not begin to be paid us till the commencement of December. On 
 this we could live, and those who ate Uttle could even save some- 
 
 ^^Tsecond division of Vaudois emigrants had arrived at Stendal 
 on the 5th of September, under the conduct of Messieurs ^e Gremma 
 and Charles Ancillon.'^ It was in much worse condition than the 
 first, not having received the same assistance by the way, whether 
 it was that charity had cooled, or that the means were exhausted 
 The Vaudois at Stendal now amounted to 1300 persons.^ The 
 
 . Kot^ite 19 ^s ^^^^^J^^^^ 
 
 3 Viz., 52 who came from St. GaU, 616 wno were jui 
 Vol. II. 
 
10 
 
 THE ISIUEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tuiko. 
 
 commissioners ^ sent by the elector to settle tliem on the same foot- 
 ing with the French colonies, represented that it would be im- 
 possible to place at Stendal alone so great a number of colonists. 
 The elector consented that some of them should be sent also to 
 Burg, to Spandau, and to Magdeburg.^ Four hundred and six of 
 them remained at Stendal, where the church of St. Catherine was 
 given them for their religious services, to be used by them alter- 
 nately with the Germans. They had Mr. Peter Bayle for their 
 pastor, Jacob Sandon was their governor, and their justice of the 
 peace was Blanchon, all of whom were exiles like themselves.^ All 
 these civil and ecclesiastical functionaries were paid by the state, 
 which likewise provided for the maintenance of their schoolmasters; 
 and the elector even caused houses to be built for the new settlers, 
 and g^nted them the advances necessary to procure for them the 
 implements of labour. At the same time, he opened the ranks of 
 his army to young Vaudois capable of bearing arms ; and a small 
 Vaudois legion was soon admitted into it,* which distinguished 
 itself at the siege of Bonn, in 1689.* 
 
 The colonization movement began to assume a more reirular 
 character. Only 205 Vaudois had at fii*st been sent to Burg ; the 
 commissioner Willmann proposed to augment the number, and 
 having obtained authority for so doing, he proceeded to the town, 
 to have accommodations prepared for the new-comers.^ "It is 
 my opinion," he wrote to Berlin, "that more resources will be 
 found here than at Stendal ; the markets are better supplied, the 
 lauds permit the culture of the vine, and many branches of manu- 
 facture are in a flourishing state. The Vaudois will be able to 
 employ themselves in the manufacture of woollen cloths and of 
 pottery." 
 
 They found means also of turning their industry to good account 
 in a silk thread manufactory established at Spandau.^ Not more 
 
 Basle, 335 who arrived on 5th September, 16S8, and 600 who had left Pragela in 
 1685, remained in Switzerland in 1686, and came to Brandenburg in 1687. 
 
 * These were Messieiirs Merian and WUlmann. 
 
 2 Some of them were also planted at Templin and at Angainunde. The numbers 
 of the colonists having undergone frequent changes in the earlier periods of these 
 settlements, I will no longer give precise numbers. 
 
 ' At Burg, they had for pastors Messieurs Dumas and Javel, and for director 
 Moses Cornuel. — Peter Baple, the son of the pastor at Stendal, was pastor at 
 Spandau. 
 
 * It was composed of 150 men. 
 
 ' In the mouth of September there returned from the siege 143 men. ♦ 
 
 * They were to the number of 303, viz., 80 families, comprising 232 persons, be- 
 sides 49 unmarried operatives, and 22 old men. 
 
 ' According to a report of the commissioners, dated 23th January, 1689, the Vau- 
 
 Chap, i] UNPLEASANT POSITION OF THE EXILES. H 
 
 than fifty-two families remained at Stendal. Of all these different 
 groups of settlers, those who were occupied in the dressing of silk 
 seem to have enjoyed the greatest share of prosperity.i At 
 Stendal, where the exiles had no other abode than an old c^tle, 
 and the houses of the town's-people, their condition became daily 
 more and more painful. They were sent from one to another as 
 persons who were felt to be troublesome. In many cases they 
 were not permitted to enter the family apartment, which alone 
 wa^ warmed; and when it was proposed that houses should be 
 built for them, the sheriff of the village opposed their takmg the 
 necessary timber from the forests belonging to the community as 
 the elector had hoped that they might. After protracted negotia- 
 tions, the elector ordered the timber to be delivered to them free 
 of expense. The commissioner Willmann put the country people 
 under requisition to transpoit it; but the nobles and farmers 
 refused • and it was found necessary to float it on the Elbe to the 
 point nearest to Stendal, and to go thither for it with carts. 
 
 At Burg the state of matters was still worse; the inhabitants 
 refused to admit any of the strangers into their houses There 
 was in this town a street of which the houses were almost all fall- 
 incr into ruin: the elector offered, on the recommendation of the 
 commissioners, to purchase this street, and to have it rebuilt for 
 dwellings for the Vaudois. It was a proposal in every point ot 
 view favourable to the town; but the proprietors of these un- 
 tenantable shops put a multitude of difficulties in the way; and 
 when these were removed, the same opposition arose as at fetendal, 
 on the subject of timber for building. 
 
 To complete this picture, it remains only to be stated that the 
 Vaudois who had remained in the electorate of Kurpfalz*^ and in 
 Wurtemberg, in the hope of being able to devote themselves to the 
 cultivation of the vine, were obliged to leave these countries again 
 on account of similar obstacles. They returned to Switzerland; 
 and Switzerland, unable to accommodate them, wrote to the elector, 
 asking him to receive them ^ho into his territories.^ The elector 
 
 doiswere thus distributed: -At Burg. 303; at Spandau (or Spandou). 155; at 
 Srnrri36 to this must be added 100 persons settled at Magdeburg, and the 
 I.tO men who had put on the Prussian uniform. ^ ^, r . 
 
 r ?he gTeat manufactory for spinning and working sUks, winch -J- Jhe fort^^^^ 
 of Spandau, was established in that town, about 1570. by Count Leynau H a 
 heirs abandoned it to Frederic WUliam in 1687. The workers received eight great 
 soi^ weekly (but they were also lodged and fed). The Vaudoxs were -BtaUed here 
 o?27Th October, 1688, and upon this occasion the elector caused a gratuity of 200 
 :rown^o be dislribut'ed among them. At Burg, the sum of 2170 crowns was paid 
 in 1689 for the regular wages of the Vaudois workers. 
 
 2 [The Palatinate.] ' Despatch of 22d October. 1088. 
 
\i 
 
 12 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 WURTEMBURG ADMITS THE EXILES. 
 
 13 
 
 replied* that his dominions were akeady encumbered with refugees 
 of every description, the greater part of them destitute of resources ; 
 but that, nevertheless, he would do all that was in his power to 
 receive these unfortunate exiles. He only requested the evangeli- 
 cal cantons to keep them for a short time, till he should be able to 
 provide a suitable place for their abode. Swiss hospitality consented 
 to maintain them till the spring of 1689, the very time when the 
 heroic expedition took place by which they recovered possession of 
 their own valleys. A small number of them had remained in the 
 Palatinate, where the Elector Philip William of Neuburg had 
 offered them an asylum, which they were compelled to abandon in 
 1089, on the invasion of that country by the devastating troops 
 of Louvois. Some of them retired to the Grisons, and some to the 
 country of Hesse-Darmstadt, where they found themselves in cir- 
 cumstances equally remote from tranquillity. 
 
 Finally, in Wurtemberg they were cruelly repulsed by the very 
 parties who ought to have been the first to welcome them. The 
 ministers of the gospel belonging to the confession of Augsburg 
 treated the Vaudois as heterodox, because ever since the Reforma- 
 tion they had been followers of rigid Calvinistic doctrine; and 
 instead of exercising charity, plunged into theological discussions. 
 On the 25th of April, 1687, the protectors of the Vaudois in Swit- 
 zerland had requested an asylum for them from the Duke of Wur- 
 temberg,''' who nominated a commission to examine into this 
 application;^ but the commission, grievously embarrassed with a 
 multitude of questions, of which, at the present day, we would 
 think the grave discussion puerile, could not venture to decide 
 anything without taking the advice of the faculties of theology. 
 Two days after, a new meeting took place, no longer composed of 
 theological doctors, but of laymen, and they did not hesitate to say 
 that the Vaudois ought to be received. The Swiss envoy departed 
 from Stuttgart the bearer of this good news ; but during his absence, 
 a theologian of Tubingen, named Osiander, wrote to the duke a 
 letter full of intolei*ance against the Vaudois,* whom he called 
 Crypto-Calvinists, resolving in the negative the questions an and 
 qaomodo^ which had been raised on the subject of their admission. 
 It seems as if in this case the language of theology was as barba- 
 
 • On nth November, 1688. 
 
 * Fvtderic Charles, He was not reigning duke, but administrator of the duchy, 
 being uncle and tutor of Eberhard Louis, who received the Vaudois in 1699. The 
 conditions on which their admission was proposed in 1687 are mentioned by Moser, 
 §29. 
 
 ' The commission met on 4th May, 1637. Afoter has published the minute of 
 this meeting, § 30. * This letter is dated 3d Jane, 1687. 
 
 rous as its sentiments, and we are the more sui-prised to find such 
 expressions in the mouth of Osiander, as his family belonged to the 
 Jewish race, so long oppressed, and his father, although a Lutheran, 
 was, however, merely a Jew who had adopted the religion of the 
 state. 
 
 The Duke of Wurtemberg would not decide without consulting 
 the faculty of law of Tubingen. Like the laymen, it concluded 
 in favour of the admission of the Vaudois, adding, in order to satisfy 
 the theologians, that it would be proper to ask these refugees them- 
 selves for a statement of their doctrines. Meanwhile the Swiss 
 delegate, Wertmiiller, wrote ^ that 100 of the Vaudois were ready 
 to set out, and wished to arrive in Wurtemberg before the approach- 
 ing harvest, in order to be able to get employment as reapei-s. To 
 this it was replied ^ that they might come, and the bailiwick of Kir- 
 cheim-under-Teck was assigned them for their residence. It was 
 even proposed to purchase for them the old castle of Salzburg, but 
 the proposal was not carried into effect.^ In the beginning of July, 
 1687, fifty Piedmontese exiles set out for Wurtemberg, taking with 
 them religious books in which the doctrine of their church was 
 exhibited. 
 
 Particular reports were required from the bailiffs of the different 
 villages* situat^ in the country to which the immigi'ants were to 
 proceed, concerning the means which existed for receiving them. 
 It appeared from these reports that the Vaudois might easily pro- 
 cure uncultivated lands at a cheap rate, or even gratis, but that it 
 would be necessary for them to have the means of building houses. 
 As the exiles were destitute of means for this, the duke proposed 
 to receive them on his own private domain of Freudenthal, but 
 this project remained unexecuted. The principle of their admission 
 was, however, recognized by the decree of 29th August, 1687,^ the 
 basis upon which they were subsequently established.^ A decree 
 of the 31st referred to the synod of Wurtemberg the question re- 
 lative to the Vaudois doctrines.^ The synod concluded that they 
 ought to be admitted under certain reservations, tending to restrain 
 their religious influence, and provisionally recommended the con- 
 
 » On the 24th of May. 
 
 * On the 10th of June. The reply is signed by M. De Rule. 
 
 ' Because of the high price which was demanded. To this castle there apper- 
 tained a great extent of very ill-cultivated lands. Six thousand florins were of- 
 fered for it. 
 
 * Kircbeim, TJrach, Guglingen, Maulbronn, Derdingen, Brackenheim, Boeblin- 
 gen, Pfaffenhofen, Gingdelfingen, &c. 
 
 * Moser, § 36. • In 1700. 
 
 ' The long and wearisome deliberation of this synod is to be seen in Moser, § 38. 
 
14 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pam TniRP. 
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 EXILES SEEK A NEW ASYLUM. 
 
 15 
 
 i ( 
 
 M 
 
 t 
 
 sultation of the faculty of theology of Tuhingen. The opinion of 
 this faculty was known beforehand ; as intolerant at that period 
 as Catholicism in its palmy days had ever been, but with less ad- 
 vantage of logic ; for the intolerance of the Holy See is based upon 
 the denial of individual liberty, whilst the intolerance of Protes- 
 tantism exhibits this monstrous anomaly, that it starts from the 
 ground of free examination. The faculty, therefore, was not con- 
 sulted, which, like every body interested in the maintenance of a 
 legal belief, had become a focus of resistance to the very progress 
 of Christianity. The superior council, united with the consistory, 
 supplied the want of the faculty's deliberation, by resolutions set 
 forth with the reasons for them, and decided absolutely in favour 
 of the immediate admission of the exiles.^ 
 
 But it was desired that Switzerland should guarantee to the 
 new-comei's the means of providing themselves with dwellings, and 
 with the necessaries of life in the country into which they should 
 be received, under reservations v,^hich will shortly appear. On the 
 part of Switzerland, it was replied^ that no such engagements could 
 be entered into, the more especially as the amount of the collec- 
 tions promised from foreign countries was not yet known. The 
 Vaudois likewise refused to accept the conditions which were pro- 
 posed to them, and of which a statement is contained in the ori- 
 ginal manuscript of the Return^ by Amaud, but on a jmge deleted 
 by two strokes of a pen, and suppressed in the printed work.'^ The 
 following is this unpublished page : — " God, who knew for what he 
 had reserved them, permitted the clergy of Vitemberg,* who are 
 entirely Lutheran, .... to make use of an artifice which eluded 
 the good-will of the prince towards them. They* gave him to un- 
 derstand that they were delighted to have the opportunity of wel- 
 coming among them the remains of that poor people ; and in order 
 80 much the more to testify the care which they were disposed to 
 take of them, they added that each pastor of their body should 
 take a certain number of them, proportionate to the extent of his 
 
 parish, and this throughout the whole duchy The Vaudois 
 
 whose object was to remain always united, were at no loss to un- 
 derstand that in this way they were really refused ; and the duke 
 
 * Moser gives a long statement of the reasons upon which this decision is 
 rested, § 39. 
 
 2 On 22d November, 1687. Tliis reply was made by M. Wertmiiller. 
 
 ' The original is now at Berlin. This manuscript was found in 1782, in the 
 pastor's house of Gros Villar, a Vaudois colony, of which the son of Amaud was 
 pastor till 1750, at a short distance from Schoenberg, where his father died. It 
 was put into my hands in 1833. 
 
 * According to the orthography of the manuscript. • The clergy. 
 
 administrator, who had only the authority of a regent, liable to be 
 one day called to account, did not choose to do violence to the 
 wishes of these ecclesiastics. Thus the Vaudois, not well knowing 
 whither to go, and seeing their projects in this direction frustrated, 
 entreated the authorities of Zurich and of Schaffhausen to permit 
 them to spend the winter in their country."^ 
 
 This request was granted. But after the abortive exi^edition 
 shortly to be mentioned, and which took place in June, 1G88, the 
 Swiss cantons themselves, on political grounds, felt a necessity for 
 the removal of these unfortunate refugees from their country, which 
 they might involve in danger by their presence ; and it was upon 
 this that a part of them consented to retire to Brandenburg. The 
 Swiss authorities urged them the more at that time to adopt this 
 resolution, because, ever since the beginning of the year, complaints 
 had begun to arise concerning the heavy charges which this mul- 
 titude, destitute of resources, entailed upon the state.*'^ Ere long 
 they went so far as to signify to the Vaudois, that if they per- 
 sisted in rejecting all the proposals which were made to them of 
 settlement in other countries, they would be under the necessity 
 of removing them by force. "^ 
 
 Hereupon some of the exiles consented to make yet another 
 effoi-t towards settling in Wurtemberg, where they would be less 
 remote from their native country than on the banks of the Spree. 
 M. Wertmiiller undertook to obtain for them the requisite permis- 
 sion.* In the month of May the Vaudois sent delegates,'^ com- 
 missioned to visit the bailiwicks of Maulbronn and Freudenthal, 
 which were assigned them. Afterwards they arrived there to the 
 number of 100. Shortly after, the produce of the collections made 
 for them was sent from Holland.^ A few small troops of exiles 
 
 > " MM. de Zurich et de ChaflFouse." 
 
 * As long as Switzerland took the charge of them, it did not suffer them to want 
 for anything. ** At Arnberg," says a traveller, ** there are 250 of them. They 
 give them very good ammunition bread. Wine is drawn for them from the cellars 
 of the town's house ; it is carried to them in pails. They have each a half pot, and 
 this is filled with soup, and half a pound of beef or mutton given to each on a little 
 plate, and half a pound of cheese. Such is their daily allowance." Relation de 
 Voyage (Archives of Turin). 
 
 ' I would hesitate to admit the mention of this severe measure on the authority 
 oi Moser; but in the original manuscript of ^rnawd occurs this sentence, which 
 has been suppressed in the published work : — " Tliey caused those who were in 
 their canton to be informed that they must leave it by a fixed time, and that if 
 they did not, they would he under the necessity of compelling them." The words 
 which T have put iu italics are craped in the manuscript (p. 17). 
 
 * In March, 1638. >^ee the details in Moser. 
 
 ' They \yere three in number; the pastor, Audihei't Daud I/Olympies (such is 
 the name as given by Moser), and two laymen. • In July, 1688. 
 
16 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past Thikd. 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 TRIALS OF THE EXILES. 
 
 17 
 
 h 
 
 subsequently arrived ; but now the difficulties began. A number 
 of bailiwicks absolutely refused to receive them within their bor- 
 ders. "Why should we receive these wretched creatures?" said 
 they. " They will be a burden upon the community. They will 
 embarrass the hospitals and pious foundations. They will cause 
 provisions to become dear, by purchasing them in great quantities 
 in the markets. They will prove a mere multitude of marauders." 
 Such were the reasons for which they were repelled. However, 
 the bailiff of Maulbronn, who had distributed in different villages 
 the seventy-eight Vaudois whom he was required to provide with 
 lodgings, said in his report : " They are laborious and decent people, 
 working diligently, and doing their utmost honourably to maintain 
 themselves. Nobody has any complaint of them. They receive, 
 through the pastor D'Olympies,! four kreutzers and a half a-day 
 for every man above the age of fifteen years, three kreutzers for 
 every woman, and two kreutzers for the children."^ This money 
 was paid every ten days, and was taken from the collections sent 
 from Holland. 
 
 In the month of September, 1688, the bailiwick of Stuttgai'd, 
 which had manifested the greatest hostility to the introduction of 
 the Vaudois, made new complaints, on the ground that these pre- 
 tended French people had been a burden upon it for eight weeks, 
 and declared an absolute resolution to be quit of them before winter. 
 These complaints were communicated to the pastor, who requested 
 a delay of two weeks, to conclude a definite treaty of colonization, 
 or to renounce the idea of that settlement, and proceed elsewhere. 
 This period having passed without any change in the position of 
 the Vaudois, they received orders to quit the country within the 
 space of eight days.^ 
 
 It is necessaiy, in order to explain the harshness of this measure, 
 to call to mind that the Vaudois were confounded in Germany with 
 the other victims of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and 
 were therefore considered as French. But the diet of Ratisbon 
 had just declared France and the Cardinal of Furstemberg to be 
 enemies of the empire, as they were contending for the archbishop- 
 ric of Cologne with the Prince of Bavaria, whom the emperor 
 supported. To this provocation France replied by a declaration of 
 war, the consequence of which was the savage devastation of the 
 Palatinate by Louvois.* The duchy of Wurtemberg was afraid 
 
 • Arnaud calls him M. Daude, refugee pastor of Languedoc, better known by 
 the name of Olympe. (First edition, p. 31.) 
 
 > Moser, § 44. The kreutzer is worth about four centimes [about 1^ farthing]. 
 
 » This order was addressed, on 28th September, 1688, to the bailiff of Stuttgard, 
 who intimated it to the refugees. « In February and March, 1689. 
 
 of di-awing on itself the like wrath of the French king, by giving 
 refuge to those whom he had proscribed. Hence the new exile of 
 the Vaudois, who returned to Switzerland, that land of inexhaus- 
 tible and generous hospitality. They returned to it more wretched 
 than they had been before, but more resolute than ever to brave 
 everything in order to regain possession of their native valleys, out 
 of which there was no country for them upon earth. 
 
 In permitting them thus to be driven out of Wui'temberg, where 
 at a later period they were to find a permanent asylum. Providence 
 was preparing, in its mysterious designs, to bring about that heroic 
 expedition in which they were to engage, in order to return vic- 
 torious to the Vaudois Alps. Let us now see what had taken 
 place in these mountains after their departure, and what was now 
 the condition of that land of martyrs, which was soon to become 
 the prize of heroes. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE VALLEYS IN THE ABSENCE OF THEIR 
 inhabitants; and first attempts of the EXILED VAU- 
 DOIS TO RETURN TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1686 TO 1689.) 
 
 The Vaudois who had become Catholics-The faithful witnesses in the prisons of 
 Piedmont-Sale of the forfeited lands-Tabular view-The new purchasers- 
 Neglect and desolation-The exiled Vaudois conceive the project of/eturnmg 
 fo their valleys-The first attempt of a small number frustrated by the Ber.ese 
 government-Three persons sent by the Vaudois to explore the route to the 
 vXys-Secret consultations in Janavel's hous^Plan of a new expedition 
 a<^eed upon-The secret having transpired, the expedition is 'eliB<lu^hed-- 
 The situation of the Vaudois in Switzerland becomes more ^-^^-^^^^^Jf ^^ 
 consequence of this abortive projeci-State of feeling ^^^^^^'\^^^^-^}'^^ 
 receive encouragement from the Prince of Orange and others-Janavel, fore- 
 LeTg a rup're between France and Savoy, recommends the time as a favour- 
 able one ^or their enterprise-Captain Bourgeois-Janavel's instructions to hi. 
 compatriots. 
 The docnmenta wWcli exist on the subject of this chapter, » 
 particularly on the state of the Vaudois valleys during the absence 
 
 ■ ADTH0SITIIS.-The first pages of Abnaud: La glorkuse r«n<ri«; and, more 
 eiWdaUvTe" rdkimo/ Jcourt of AcwunU at Turin, which eontam matter 
 foTa nnrnto of voiunes on this subject; also the Archive, of the Sla^, ca^led^r- 
 !r« T«^ CcuH. which contain thirty documents. Something has also been 
 founi to iie ArcUves of the VaUeys; amongst others, in those of Lucema and 
 
 ^4fe"greater part of these AKuments are at Turin, in the AECHITBS OF THS 
 Vol. n. ^^ 
 
18 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Third. 
 
 of their exiled inhabitants, would of themselves afford materials 
 for a considerable volume; but according to the proportion of other 
 parts of the present work, this subject can have only a very limited 
 space assigned to it here. It must suffice to treat of it by general 
 statements, cursory, though exact, and by noticing a few of the 
 principal facts. 
 
 Whilst the Vaudois still pined in the prisons of the Duke of 
 Savoy, new inhabitants were already invited to settle in their 
 valleys. It had been at first proposed to establish upon these 
 deserted lands the exiled Irish, who led a wandering life in the 
 district of Montferrat; but two reasons prevailed against this pro- 
 posal; 1st, the unlaborious habits of these islanders, through whose 
 carelessness the regions, recently so flourishing, would soon have 
 become waste and sterile; 2d, the greater advantage which there 
 would be in selling the lands than in giving them away. It was 
 therefore resolved that they should be offered for sale, and that 
 those which were not sold should be let. The richest domains were . 
 united to the private domain of Victor Amadeus, and some others 
 given to his officers or to pious foundations. The Vaudois who 
 had become Catholics were permitted to remain for a few months 
 longer on their lands, in order to dispose of them as they best 
 could, after which they were to be transferred to the province 
 of Verceil. This period was prolonged, in the case of most of 
 them, to almost a year; and when the difficulty of repeopling the 
 Vaudois territory was discovered, the few families still there were 
 permitted to remain. 
 
 Court op Accounts : (h-dini, Jfo. 103, foL 33, and 104, fol. 6. Mazzo, No. 668. 
 -Inventarit, from No. 566 to No. 573 inclusive. -Also, the Registri di sottamis- 
 ^riipasme da diverse communita particolaH delle valli di Lmema. Ordini 
 
 fm ^T. xr' *f ^ ^'*- ^^^' ^^^- ^' Contracts of sale and inventories. No! 
 053, 1st Reg. Nos. 660, 661, 562.-Stati diparticolari compratoH, &c. . . . No 564 
 OtJier documents, Nos. 567, 563, &c. In the Archives op the State called 
 ARCHIVES OP THE CouRT, are, amongst others-" Jlfmorie concementi'li reli- 
 gionariiran, e heni loro.'^-" Parere degli deUgat% sovra gVoccormti ddle Valli " 
 - Ord<.ne delh ddegati daS.A. R. per la consegna de beni, rcdditi, vestiaHL etc 
 ildl% rdtgumam, devoluti a S. A. R. per la rebdlime d'mt." -Memoir entitled 
 
 ^^f'lTTfr^^^r ^^'*";- Another, ** Progrdto per Valienatione d beni che 
 90710 nelle Vallt di LusemaJ' Statistical, &c. 
 
 ^ho^t^^ST*" ^n T^^- *''^'' ""^ ^^*^ ^''''^' ^^^^' ^^^^^ «^J°i°«d all the Vaudois 
 under ti^nfT ^^*^«1^<^V'."°^'"' *" " ^^^*"°^^ «^ ''^ ^^'^ ^-^^ '^^ --^eys. 
 
 Z'^r ^\^\^^-^ ^ol- 64. right-hand page.) The reason assigned for this 
 
 monthirf. T^'^. °' *I^' '"^^^ ^"^^'^^' ^^« '^ ^^' ^^o- Swi^erland two 
 
 at least siospected beforehand. Other documents concur to establish this f;ct 
 
 Chap. 11 ] 
 
 THE LANDS SOLD. 
 
 19 
 
 But their faithful compatriots were martyrs in the prisons, and 
 scarcely had they passed beyond the confines of their valleys when 
 the following proclamation was published throughout all the do- 
 minions of the Duke of Savoy :i— ^ 
 
 "Be it known to all men, that by the notorious rebellion- ot the 
 reli-ionaries of the valleys,^ all the properties which they possessed 
 havl absolutely fallen to the royal domain. Accordingly, those 
 who desire possession of them are apprised that the foresaid pro- 
 perties, with the fruits hanging on the trees, and the crops which 
 happen to be in the fields, will be exposed to sale at Lucerna, from 
 the 15th to the 24th of the ciurrent month, in presence of the pro- 
 curator of his royal highness,* who will receive all proposals for 
 the purchase of them, in large or smaH lots, collectively or indi- 
 vidually, in order to repeople the said valleys as soon as possible, 
 and all to the greatest advantage of his royal highness. 
 
 At the bottom of this placard, which was widely circulated, and 
 was pasted up on all the public pillars of the towns of l^iedmont 
 was annexed a list of the properties offered for sale in the different 
 Vaudois communcs-if the name can be applied to a vast solitude 
 in which there were now only a few dwellings to be seen, inhabited 
 by Catholics, recently unobserved amidst the more numerous Vau- 
 dois and now themselves forming the whole population. 
 
 In this state of things the municipal councils had to be eveiy- 
 where formed anew. In more than one commune the whole of 
 the families remaining could scarcely furnish materials for a council. 
 The commune of St. Jean, not being able to make out an inde- 
 pendent organization, was incorporated with that of Lucerna, and 
 ceased to exist until the return of the Vaudois. 
 
 The Catholics of the district were the first to seek after the 
 confiscated lands; but as they could not of themselves supply in 
 any measure the pla.e of the population which had di^ppeared, 
 the condition was imposed upon the highest bidders of bringmg a 
 certain number of families from other districts to be occupied in 
 the cultivation of the soil, and to be settled upon he properties so 
 irchased, otherwise the sale to be held null. The- -- ^P^^^^^ 
 lators of every description, seeking to turn to account for their own 
 gain that vast forfeiture of the properties of a whole people. Some 
 of these were themselves possessed of wealth ; others, actmg on W 
 half of anonymous societies, owed to the associations which they 
 ■ represented the means of becoming bidders. They mostly belonged 
 t It is dated 1st July, 168G. « Per la notoria ribdlione. The document is printed. 
 
 » Here follow their names. , r. • ^,- r»«.»«y/> 
 
 * Signer Conte, auditore e patrimoniale gencrale Fecva dv Cossaio, 
 
1:1 
 
 I 
 
 
 20 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PakT TlllBD. 
 
 to Suza, Chamb^iy, and Saluces, and the largest lots were pur- 
 chased by them. All the lands of Angrogna, for example, were sold 
 m a smgle lot. Those of Bobi were adjudged to bidders from Suza, 
 for the sum total of 44,000 livres. Those of Le Villar fell into the 
 hands of ten individuals belonging to Saluces. But in this sale 
 the preference was generally given to Savoyards, because, as they 
 were accustomed to mountains, and came from a veiy populous 
 country, there seemed to be the greatest security for a speedy and 
 advantageous colonization. 
 
 But this hope was far from being realized, for the purchasers 
 were not able to introduce a suffiicent number of farmers into their 
 new domains. In vain were numerous injunctions addressed to 
 them to this effect : the greater part of the families who were to 
 come to cultivate the soil had not yet arrived; and when the 
 exiled Vaudois returned to their native country, it still seemed, in 
 Its neglected condition, to moui-n for the children whom it had 
 lost. 
 
 Notwithstanding the dryness which is generally experienced in 
 statistics, I think it necessary, in order to abridge this statement, 
 to present here a table of the entire population of the valleys 
 before and after the expulsion of their inhabitants, showing also 
 the lands sold or to be occupied, and the number of families from 
 other quarters whom the new proprietors were bound to introduce. 
 This table is prepared from a great number of documents derived 
 from the archives of the Court of Accounts and of the senate at 
 Turin, and also from the royal Ubrary and the archives of the 
 state in the same city.^ 
 
 The Vaudois valleys, therefore, were not yet repeopled, and 
 everywhere presented the saddest possible aspect— lands uncidti- 
 
 » The materials of the following table are derived from a great number of dif- 
 ferent documents, of which some contain only approximate indications. The 
 
 figures in the first and third groups of columns are derived from two papers in the 
 Archives of the St^te at T j^ ^^ ^^.^^ ^^^ .^ ^^^.^^^^^ ,^ ^^^^^ i^^^^ ^^ 
 
 valh, Che (Pordine diV.A. R. « transmette hogi sei settembre, 1686. The other 
 paper, annexed to the former, has the following title :-' ^ Jiistretto delle famiglie 
 rehyionane, cKerano nelle valli; di quelle da introdursi; della gia vaiute • delle 
 mancanti, e delle eaiholuate." There seems to be reason for beUeving these figures 
 to be exact and official. 
 
 The last column of this table, entitled " Extent in journals of the lands sold or to 
 be occupied," presents information obtained from the same source, viz., from a 
 paper belonging to the Archives of State of Piedmont, and bearing this title: 
 
 Staio delle valh e beni compressi nella riduttione, secondo le notitie che sin al pre- 
 tmU St non potute havere.'* This document is without date, and is inscribed with 
 the number 607 of the series. The two above mentioned bear the numbers 267 
 and 268. 
 
 Only the figures in the intermediate group of columns are for the most part ap- 
 
 CUAP. 
 
 11] 
 
 DESOLATION OF THE VALLEYS. 
 
 21 
 
 vated— hamlets ravaged— cottages standing ojien and half fallen to 
 ruins— walls still blackened by fire— rural inclosures falling or 
 thrown down— fruit-trees in some places torn up by the roots— the 
 vines, uMressed, trailing their shoots along the ground— the mul- 
 berry-trees not stripped, the leaves of which covered every bough with 
 dense and wild luxuriance— the limits of properties partially effaced 
 by brambles, or by the hands of the new purchasers— and these 
 coming as strangers into districts unknown to them, and display- 
 ing a°negligence and inattention,^ which neither promises'- nor 
 threats^ could overcome— all spoke of past violence, present in- 
 justice, and uncertainty concerning the future. 
 
 proximations, but based upon careful investigations, and rules of proportion most 
 scrupulously carried out. 
 
 Vaudois 
 Families. 
 
 Individuals. 
 
 Families of 
 Strangers. 
 
 Names or tub 
 
 CoUMUNKS. 
 
 St. Jean 
 
 Angrogna 
 
 La Tour 
 
 Villar 
 
 Bobi 
 
 Rora 
 
 St. Germain 
 
 Pramol 
 
 Pinache 
 
 Villar-Pinache.... 
 
 Portes 
 
 Perouse, Pomaret. 
 
 Pral 
 
 Fact 
 
 Rioclaret 
 
 Traverse 
 
 Bouille 
 
 Maneille 
 
 Macel 
 
 Salze 
 
 Rodoret 
 
 St. Martin 
 
 Prarusting 
 
 Rocheplate 
 
 CS.P 
 
 «D 
 OO 
 
 «o 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 "o 
 
 es 
 U 
 u 
 
 B 
 
 s 
 
 PQ 
 
 217 
 327 
 200 
 163 
 118 
 30 
 66 
 75 
 35 
 13 
 32 
 56 
 100 
 80 
 100 
 30 
 15 
 40 
 80 
 30 
 35 
 20 
 80 
 81 
 
 49 
 
 12 
 
 60 
 
 66 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 23 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 32 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 .a 
 OO 5 
 
 u 
 
 -g! 
 
 •^^ < 
 
 00 
 
 to 
 
 •a C 
 
 = 2 
 
 o b 
 
 « 5 
 « "i 
 5«* 
 
 V 
 
 9> 
 
 ^-. 
 ii 
 
 OB 
 
 s 
 
 « so 
 %'B 
 
 m W 
 
 U 
 01 
 
 o 
 
 E " 
 
 22 
 
 u ^ 
 
 O o 
 
 ge m 
 ti o 
 
 1485 
 2237 
 1369 
 1115 
 907 
 205 
 451 
 513 
 239 
 89 
 219 
 1 383 
 684 
 547 
 692 
 211 
 102 
 273 
 547 
 198 
 239 
 137 
 542 
 212 
 
 671 287 
 
 1250 539 
 
 598 356 
 
 389 
 432 
 112 
 159 
 283 
 58 
 35 
 69 
 207 
 347 
 186 
 349 
 76 
 34 
 100 
 287 
 68 
 91 
 22 
 284 
 96 
 
 164 
 
 185 
 84 
 68 
 
 122 
 23 
 18 
 31 
 98 
 
 154 
 82 
 
 166 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 149 
 24 
 38 
 
 i32 
 48 
 
 143 
 
 269 
 
 128 
 
 83 
 
 92 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 44 
 75 
 41 
 74 
 12 
 2 
 18 
 62 
 14 
 20 
 
 "64 
 23 
 
 47 
 65 
 50 
 33 
 28 
 5 
 11 
 20 
 o 
 2 
 4 
 12 
 18 
 13 
 21 
 4 
 1 
 5 
 11 
 3 
 6 
 
 25 
 9 
 
 
 
 •3 
 
 u 
 u 
 
 3 
 r3 . 
 
 ioo 
 
 >< 
 "a 
 
 u 
 
 Extent in 
 journals 
 
 of the 
 lands sold 
 
 or to be 
 occupied. 
 
 80 
 
 200 
 
 85 
 
 130 
 
 110 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 80 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 80 
 
 58 
 
 105 
 
 57 
 
 95 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 "58 
 
 21 
 
 37 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 "41 
 9 
 8 
 4 
 
 1029 
 1750 
 
 925'i 
 15591 
 1103 
 
 624 
 
 ► 5225 
 1200 
 250O 
 
 23,000 
 
 } 
 
 8100 
 
 » Vedendo not qumto sii grande la transunagine e negltgenza . . . . de novi ac- 
 
 quisUoHdebenidiquestevalli,&o Order of the IntendantFnchignono, dated 
 
 Lucerna, 1st Marcb, 1688. (Turin. Archives of the Court of Accounts No. 574.) 
 
 8 Exemptions from burdens, promised to the new proprietors and depopulated 
 communes. Edict of 26th January, 1688. (From the same.) 
 
 . Ingiunziane . . . a^H acquisUoH de beni ddle valh . alV afrnP^m^^ ^ 
 loro contralti. (From the same. Ordini, No. 91. foL 91. and No. 105, fol. 3.) 
 
1 
 
 90 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Tuiro 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 23 
 
 ill 
 
 II- 
 
 On the other hand, the people who had been exiled from Pied- 
 mont had not been able to establish themselves in a permanent 
 and satisfactory manner anywhere. Driven from the Palatinate 
 by war, and from Wurtemberg by the politic desire of maintain- 
 ing peace — wandering about the banks of the Rhine or among the 
 mountains of Switzerland — their regretful longings, their distress, 
 a sense of the burden which they entailed upon their foreign 
 brethren, and the very uncertainty of their own circumstances — 
 all combined to give form and consistency to the patriotic design, 
 which many of them had conceived, of returning, at whatever cost, 
 to their own country. In the eyes of Janavel this heroic attempt 
 was more than the mere satisfaction of a patriotic feeling — it was 
 a duty binding on the conscience — and it was not difficult for him, by 
 his exhortations, to render the Vaudois unanimous on this point. 
 
 A certain number of the more impatient and determined among 
 them, amounting to about 300, had already assembled in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lausanne, and attempted to embark at Ouchi, in order to 
 pass into Savoy ; but the Bernese authorities, whose jurisdiction then 
 extended over the Pays de Vaud, opposed this design, and, without 
 doubt, prevented the inevitable destruction which would have 
 overtaken these unfortunate people in the territories of the Duke 
 of Savoy, if they had entered them with so little consideration. 
 "This first attempt." says Arnaud,^ was without due preparation, 
 without a leader, without arms, and without even the concurrence 
 of those who took the direction of their affairs ; so that having been 
 made on a mere sudden impulse, and without the adoption of the 
 measures necessary for such an entei'prise, it can be no wonder that 
 their design failed." Moreover, the Helvetic cantons were under 
 obligation to the Duke of Savoy to prevent any attempt on the 
 part of the Vaudois contrary to the tranquillity of liis dominions. 
 Perceiving how they were situated, the exiles returned to their 
 places of abode, without, however, renounciug the project of recover- 
 ing possession of their own couutry, which from that time forth 
 became the sole earthly object of their lives. 
 
 That they might be able the better to mature and the more con- 
 fidently to execute this design, they secretly sent prudent emissaries 
 to investigate beforehand, to sound the disi)Ositions of their former 
 fellow-countrymen, to examine the whole country, and particularly 
 the by-ways by which they might arrive at the valleys ; for they 
 deemed it of great importance to avoid the centres of population, 
 where they might have been opposed by consideral^le forces. The 
 devoted men who undertook this dangerous mission were three in 
 
 • Pages 6 and 7. First edition. 
 
 number — one belonging to Pragela, another to the valley of St. 
 Martin, and the third to Queyras. 
 
 "These three travellers," says Arnaud, "were sufficiently fortunate 
 in going, but they were not equally so in returning ; for, not being 
 able to keep the great roads, and making their way across the 
 mountains, two of them were apprehended as robbers, in a narrow 
 and savage valley of the Tarentaise.^ Being questioned why they 
 did not keep the ordinary roads, they replied that, being traders in 
 lace, and knowing that it was manufactured in that country, they 
 went from one place to another to purchase it. This reply seeming 
 plausible enough, various pieces of lace were presented to them, to 
 see if they were well acquainted with the kind of goods in which 
 they said that they dealt — a trial which had almost been their 
 destruction, for the envoy from Pragela having offered six crowns 
 for a piece which was not worth three, the lord of the manor and 
 people of the place stripped them and imprisoned them as spies. 
 After eight days they underwent another examination ; and the 
 envoy who belonged to Queyras having formerly carried on the 
 trade of a foreign merchant in the south of France, gave so many 
 particulars concerning the localities in which he had done business, 
 that his declaration obtained credit ; and in order to explain the 
 mistake which had cost them so much, he added that his companion, 
 who knew little about lace, was only his servant, and not his partner. 
 There was in the neighbourhood a man belonging to Lunel ; he was 
 brought, and recognized the correctness of the topographical details 
 given by the prisoner, and the two travellers were at last released, 
 but in a state of complete destitution, for their captors refused to 
 give them back the money which they had taken from them, so 
 that they left the place robbed, after having been apprehended as 
 robbers." 
 
 They found means, however, of making their way to Geneva. 
 There a secret council was held in the house of Janavel, who seems 
 to have been the soul of all the schemes attempted by the Vaudois 
 for returning to their native country. For this, indeed, he was ex- 
 pelled from Geneva.2 His endeavours were seconded in the most 
 active manner by Henry Arnaud. Janavel directed their plans; 
 Arnaud conducted the execution of them;^ the Vaudois obeyed, and 
 
 > It was in the village of Tignes, at the base of Mount Iseran, where are the 
 sources of the Isere. 
 
 2 See the Records of the Council of State of Geneva, sittings of Slst May, 11th 
 and 28th June, 11th July, 1687, &c. 
 
 3 I shall have occasion, by and by, to make some reservations regarding the too 
 exclusive part which has been assigned to the activity and genius of this celebrated 
 man iu the return of the Vaudois j but in respect of the steps taken in preparing 
 
24 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tnifto. 
 
 Chap. II.] 
 
 FREDERIC THURMANN. 
 
 25 
 
 by the blessing of God their country was regained. But persever- 
 ance was required as well as courage, for they succeeded no better 
 in their second attempt than in the first. 
 
 The council held in Janavel's house resolved that those who took 
 
 pai-t in this new expedition should assemble from their different 
 
 i-etreats on the utmost confines of Switzerland, at the entrance of 
 
 the Valais. Thence they were to proceed, by the territory of St. 
 
 Maurice, on the outskirts of Savoy, following the valley of the 
 
 Great St. Bernard as far as Orsieres, re-ascending the Val Ferret, 
 
 passing over the Col Letreyre, descending to Courmayeur, thence 
 
 •passing to the Little St. Bernard ; and so getting round Mount 
 
 Blanc, they were to enter Savoy again, between the Col Bon 
 
 Homme and Mount Iseran, on the side of Scez, according to the 
 
 route which their first exploring envoys had marked out. This 
 
 bold project led them from summit to summit amongst the most 
 
 inaccessible mountains of Europe, and sheltered them from the 
 
 attacks of their enemies, under the protection of storms and glaciers, 
 
 to the very bosom of their own fair valleys. Their ardour was great. 
 
 Janavel gave them instructions. " Seeing," said he, "that, by the 
 
 grace of God, you are filled with zeal and courage to kindle the 
 
 lamp of the gospel again in the place of your birth, where the 
 
 church of the Lord has never been reduced to so great an extremity 
 
 as now, I pray you to take in good part what follows, as it all 
 
 comes from one of your servants, who is faithful to you, and will be 
 
 faithful until his last breath.''^ Then follow the counsels of military 
 
 skill and experience, which will be given in a subsequent page, and 
 
 which were afterwards applied; for in 1688 the secret was not so 
 
 well kept by the 3000 persons, or thereby,^ who were necessarily 
 
 fur this expedition, he must certainly be placed in the first rank. The following 
 words occur in the Records of the Council of State of Geneva, sitting of 9tli June, 
 3688:—" The Sieiir Ai-naud shall be called upon to explain this fact" (the arma- 
 ment of the Vaudois). 
 
 • Archives of the CouH. Turin. At the bottom of this paper are these words— 
 "Oiven in Switzerland, this month of June, 1688." 
 
 » It is said, in a letter written from Samoen, 12th July, 1688, at eight o'clock in 
 the evening (Turin, Archives of the CouH), that the persons entering into this ex- 
 pedition amounted to 3000 in number. The number is stated at 2000 only in the 
 manuscript of the Royal Library, entitled " Here follows a faUhful relation of 
 the presumptuous and violent passage proposed and attempted by the refugee and 
 eacpelled people of Lucema, along with Frenchmen, by the lower valley, chiefly in the 
 district of St. Maurice, and in the government of Monthey." These words, '* along 
 with Frenchmen" (for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes had driven many 
 Frenchmen into exile), explain to us how it is possible that the Vaudois may have 
 been more numerous when they returned to their own country than they were 
 when they left it. However, the number here stated must have been exaggerated, 
 for Arnaud gives that of 600 or 700 men only. 
 
 acquainted with it, that they could find protection in the inat- 
 tention of their enemies. 
 
 Enough transpired of this project to excite the watchfulness of 
 the Swiss government, and to put the military posts of Savoy upon 
 their guard. Accordingly, when the Vaudois began to assemble at 
 Bex, to the number of 600 or 700 men,^ the alarm was promptly 
 given in the Valais and in Savoy, where the Catholic authorities 
 called the people to arms, and caused signal-fires to be lighted, in 
 order to dispute with the exiles their passage at St. Maurice, the 
 bridge of which was immediately guarded and defended. The en- 
 terprise, being divulged at its commencement, was not prosecuted. 
 " The haiUi of Aigle,"says Arnaud, "having repaired to Bex, 
 which is within his jurisdiction, caused the Vaudois to be assembled 
 in the place of worship, where he addressed them in a very affecting 
 speech, exhorting them to patience, and assuring them that it would 
 be temerity to persist in their design. * Poor Vaudois,' added he, 
 with tears in his eyes, 'the Lord will remember you and your dis- 
 tresses, for he cannot but approve the zeal which you manifest to 
 re-establish the true religion in the sanctuary of your ancestors, 
 where it never was extinguished, and he will infallibly one day 
 bring you back to your native land.' " After this Arnaud ascended 
 the piJpit, and took for his text these words of the gospel, "Fear 
 7iot, little Jlochr'^ "Yes! fear not," said he to the Israel of the 
 Alps, "for God has his time for casting down and his time for 
 raising up; it is his pleasure that we still wait; let us suffer with 
 patience, and in his own time he will raise us up." The worthy 
 bailli, whose name was Frederic Thurmann, then himself conducted 
 the Vaudois troop back to the interior of the canton, caused provi- 
 sions to be distributed among them, and lodgings to be found for 
 them at Aigle, took their officers to his own house, and moreover 
 lent them 200 crowns, to assist those of them who had come from 
 the opposite extremity of Switzerland in returning to their places of 
 asylum. It seems hard to believe that this generous beneficence 
 was made a cause of complaint against Thurmann, and that he was 
 obliged to write to Berne to justify himself to his superiors.^ 
 
 This attempt caused a great sensation both in Switzerland and 
 in Savoy.* Victor Amadeus renewed his proclamation, prohibiting 
 
 » On 23d June, 1688. 
 
 3 His letter is dated 9th July. 
 
 2 Luke xu. 32. 
 
 ^^„ .„ ^ . (Archives of Berne.) 
 
 * The Archives of Turin contain a great number of letters on this subject, written 
 from TJionon, Evian, and Les Allinges; from Chahlais, Sion, St. Gingolf, and St. 
 Maurice; from the Sardinian government to the Swiss government, and vice versd; 
 as also the reports of several agents, from which I shall hereafter borrow a few 
 particulars. 
 
 Vol. II. 64 
 
2G 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TniBD. 
 
 Chaf. 11.] 
 
 THE EmSSARY BOULOZ. 
 
 27 
 
 ''I 
 
 the Yaudois from returning to their country under pam of death,^ 
 and enjoined all those who might be in it, in any capacity what- 
 ever,^ to have their names registered by the magistrates of the 
 place of their residence, within the space of ten days, under pain of 
 being publicly whipped.^ The Helvetic government was asked in a 
 threatening manner, by the representatives of France and Pied- 
 mont, to watch more strictly than hitherto over the attempts of 
 these audacious exiles; but with this surveillance, dictated by po- 
 litical necessity, it united all that tenderness for misfortune which 
 Christian charity ought to inspire. It even seemed that their 
 heroic determination to retuin to their native country amidst so 
 many dangers, served only to augment the interest with which the 
 Vaudois exiles were already regarded ; and the troop which had 
 assembled for the expedition, although obliged to disperse itself 
 throughout the different cantons of Switzerland, everywhere met 
 with more proofs of sympathy than marks of suspicion.* Yet there 
 waS; at the first, a sort of indignation felt against these refugees 
 who involved the country in danger, and could not be brought to 
 submit to an inactive exile ; and a meeting held at Aran, by the 
 delegates of the different cantons, distinctly informed them that 
 they must withdraw from Switzerland.^ It was then that a part 
 of them resolved to go to Brandenburg, and to form the colony of 
 Stendal, already spoken of. These, who were considered as the 
 more reasonable, received a thousand attentions, whilst loud com- 
 plaints were made of the obstinacy and stubbornness of those who 
 persisted in the design of returning to their own country. 
 
 "At that time," says Arnaud, " they were treated as if nothing 
 were too bad for them, insomuch that there were few sermons in 
 which their subject was not fallen upon, and in which they were not 
 
 ^ This edict is dated 12th July, 168S ; it was registered by the senate on the 14th, 
 and published on the 16th. 
 
 ' As domestics, proprietors, or farmers, but having become Catholics. 
 
 ' Thia edict is in the Archives of the CouH of Accounts at Turin. Ordini: 1686 
 to 1688, No. 104, fol. 46, and No. 106, fol. 37. It is also in the Archives of the 
 State. 
 
 * It appears, from a letter of the Vaudois to the magistrates of Berne y dated 16th 
 July, that they received much kindness in that city. *' Although we can find no 
 language strong enough to express our gratitude," say they, " we would be un- 
 worthy of this kindness if, before leaving your territories, we did not offer you our 
 most humble thanks." At Vevey, on the contrary, where the people still felt an- 
 noyed, through the apprehension of danger arising from their abortive attempts 
 they were very ill, even harshly received. (See Amavd, first edition, p. 13.) 
 
 • On the contrary, a few days before, it was sought to retain them there. The 
 government of Berne had offered them, as a place of settlement, the little isle of 
 St. Pierre, in the Lake of Cieune or Bieler, which is now well known as associated 
 with the name of Kosseau. 
 
 «i 
 
 very rudely treated." But they were aware that political consi- 
 derations had more to do with these severities than the personal 
 sentiments of the Helvetic body, which served for their protection. 
 Victor Amadeus had sent to Switzerland a number of emissaries, 
 charged to transmit to him circumstantial reports concerning the 
 Vaudois and their affairs. The first of these, named Bouloz, 
 arrived at Aigle when the disconcerted troop were stHl there, who 
 had assembled for the expedition. He passed himself off as a 
 French refugee, and expressed a desire to unite himself to them. 
 The Vaudois received him as a brother, kept him amongst them, 
 told him the whole history of the wars of 1686, and gave him a 
 description of their country, "where there were," said they, "four- 
 teen places of worship, and as many ministers, of whom M. Arnoz 
 was the most able and learned." ^ It is easy to perceive that the 
 person here intended is the pastor Arnaud, the leader of the expe- 
 dition. Another agent says in his report that the Vaudois, irri- 
 tated at not having succeeded under the direction of this leader, 
 « had put him to death, by cutting off his fingers, his feet, and then 
 his head." 2 I insert this story, as false as it is horrible, only to 
 show how readily the most ridiculous reports concerning the Vau- 
 dois were received, and how little credit is due to information from 
 such sources. The case is different when the narrator recounts 
 only what is personal to himself. 
 
 "As we left Morat," says the same emissary, "we saw two 
 captains from Lucerna, of very good appearance, with gray, close- 
 fitting coats, laced hats, sabres, and bayonets. Very few women or 
 children were to be seen among these people. Some of them are 
 at Arnberg, others at Aran, Serli, Bienne, and Nidau. Their ex- 
 cellencies of Friburg have written to the baillies of the canton, to 
 arrest all whom they find in it. At Lucerne^ I saw some of them, 
 who were leaving that place for the Palatinate; for they did not 
 choose to go to Brandenburg, as it is too distant. I asked the 
 reason, presenting one of them some snuff. *Here we shaU be the 
 vanguard of Switzerland,' said he, *for we will never die but in 
 our own country.' ' * Then, as they complained that his 
 
 royal highness had not yet set their ministers at liberty, and re- 
 
 » These are the terms and the orthography of the document, which is deposited in 
 the Archives of Turin, under this title, *' Abridgement of the narrative of the jour, 
 ney of M. Bouloz, advocate, into the Pays de Vaud, by order of M. the commandarU 
 
 of Le Chablais." ,, . . »t t i. i* 
 
 « Paper simply entitled Account of Journey, and beginning, I set out on 1st 
 
 August, 1688 .... ('£xmii, Archives of the State.) , ^ , 
 
 » Erom this sentence onwards the quotation is composed merely of sentences 
 
 borrowed from the most interesting parts of this document. 
 
 Vs 
 
 I 
 
2S 
 
 THE ISR.\JEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TaiBD. 
 
 Chap. II ] 
 
 CAPTAIN BOURGEOIS EXECUTED. 
 
 29 
 
 l\ 
 
 If! 
 
 il 
 
 ,' 
 
 stored their children, I signified displeasure thereat, by saying that 
 the Duke of Savoy was a bad prince. 'No,' he replied, 'the duke 
 is a good prince, but he is ill advised ; it is that which does him 
 wrong.' " 
 
 This emissary had represented himself to the Vaudois as an in- 
 habitant of the Pays de Vaud ; and he adds that they appeared to 
 him to be determined to return sooner or later to their native land; 
 "for," says he, "they would rather be cut into four quarters in their 
 own country, than live well anywhere else." Is it not remarkable 
 to see so ardent a love for their native country associated with so 
 much loyalty towards their persecutor ! Such a people were worthy 
 of the interest with which they inspired even their enemies. 
 
 The powers which protected the Vaudois Church — Holland in 
 particular — adhered, like the Vaudois themselves, to the idea that 
 the ancient lamp of their faith should be rekindled in the valleys. 
 A maud' presented himself before the Prince of Orange,^ "wlio re- 
 proached him very severely j' he says, "for his impatient proceedings, 
 and for having hitlierto chosen his time so ill"^ encouraging him not 
 to lose heart, and supplying him with means to facilitate the accom- 
 plishment of his design.* Even private persons took a most active 
 interest in promoting it.^ 
 
 Janavel foresaw an approaching rupture between Piedmont and 
 
 * He was accompanied by a Vandois captain of St. Jean, named Baptiste Besson. 
 ' William Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange, posthumous son of William IX., 
 
 who had married the daughter of Charles I., King of England, was, in virtue of 
 Lis descent by the mother's side, called to the throne of Great Britain in February, 
 1G89, under the name of William TIL, at the age of thirty-nine j^ears. When the 
 Vaudois leaders presented themselves before him, he was Stadtholder of Holland, 
 and had been so since 1672. 
 
 ' This clause in italics is another extract from the manuscript of the Return, 
 from which it has been struck out. 
 
 * He supplied them with assistance in money, and with letters of introduction 
 to several officers, who took part in the expedition. 
 
 * Arnaud (p. 54 of the preface) mentions in particular M. Clignet, postmaster- 
 general at Leyden, who, in the following year, lent 100,000 florins to the emperor 
 of Germany to carry on the war against France. " Without the assistance which 
 he gave us," says Arnaud, ** the return of the Vaudois to their own country would 
 have been impossible." (Fol. 27, left hand page.) 
 
 One of the emissaries of the Duke of Savoy, sent into Switzerland to inquire 
 what the Vaudois were doing, says that " they have bought a great quantity of 
 anns at Berne," smd that "theBailli of Nidenz (probably Nidau) has seized a cask, 
 in which were found 39,000 French silver crowns. " (Turin, Archives of the Court, 
 Account of a Jowney, Series, No. 298.) Another emissary sent in 1689, after 
 the excitement occasioned by the rash enterprise of Bourgeois, says, " After reach- 
 ing Lausanne I met numbers of these people of Lucerna, in scattered parties, some, 
 but few of them, still having their muskets ; almost all of them had sabres and 
 bayonets, and some had orange-coloured ribbons on their ha's." (From the same 
 Archives, No. 258.) These last words prove that they had placed themselves, as 
 it were, under the special protection of the Prince of Orange, now William III. 
 
 France. The hostility of William III. ag-ainst Louis XIV. was 
 well known; war was on the point of being declared between 
 France and Germany ; and it was evident enough that the pretended 
 alliance between the French monarch and the Duke of Savoy was 
 for the latter merely an oppressive vassalage. The Vaudois, with 
 good reason, judged that now was the moment to act. Janavel 
 repeated his instructions to them, and they set forth. 
 
 Before relating the history of this heroic expedition, and in order 
 not to interrupt the narrative, I must here mention tliat the officer 
 who was to have taken the military direction of it— Captain Bour- 
 geois, a native of Neuchatel^not having been able to get in time 
 to the rendezvous, gathered together some others, who were also 
 too late, who, being joined by a troop of French refugees, they all 
 proceeded to follow the first expedition, but mistook their way in 
 Savoy, and betaking themselves to pillage, disbanded and returned 
 to Geneva, where the gates of the city were closed against them; 
 and at last the leader of this unlucky expedition was not only cast 
 off by all, but expiated on the scaffold the almost ridiculous reverses 
 of his unfortunate ambition.^ 
 
 As to the first troop, whose marvellous exploits exalt its history to 
 the rank of an epic poem, it had many difficulties to overcome ere 
 it could render that a matter of admiration which had appeared to 
 most persons to be folly. The faith of its members had to triumph 
 before their arms; and the protection of God, whose hand lifts up 
 or casts down at pleasure, after they had been rendered great by 
 trials, established them again in the humble heritages of their 
 fathers. But before commencing this narrative of heroic deeds. I 
 shall here lay before the reader the instructions of Janavel ' :— 
 
 "My veiy dear brethren in Jesus Christ,— The Lord not permit- 
 tin- me to accompany you, because of my infirmity, which I very 
 much regret, I think it my duty to neglect nothing which can be 
 
 I There are a very great number of documents in existence concerning this affair. 
 I cannot quote them in any other way than merely by pointing out where they 
 may be found. Archives of the Council of State of Geneva, minutes of sittings of 
 ulnl 3d 6ti and 7th, 10th and 11th, 16th and 17th 18th -d 2 th S^t^m^^^^^ 
 1689. Archives of Be>^, compartment ^'-^^fl'''^^^'^' Omc; at G^ne^^^^ 
 Valdesi and Beligionarii.-Private Archives ^^^ ^^; /^^^^^^^^^.^ '//t^'^^^^^ 
 M. MONASTIEB, at Lausanne, &c.-See also the Mercure mstonquc, t. vii. p. 
 
 ^^t1 'nLr is in the ArcUves of State at Turin, inscribed upon the back as fol- 
 
> I 
 
 so 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pa»t Third. 
 
 Chap. II J 
 
 JANAVEL'S ADVICE. 
 
 31 
 
 i![| 
 
 El fl I 
 
 W 
 
 for the good of my poor country ; and therefore I have caused my 
 opinions to be put in writing,^ concerning the course which you 
 must pursue, both as to your routes, and your method of proceeding 
 in attacks and combats, if the Lord favours you so far as to carry 
 you to your own mountains, as my hope is that he will. I pray 
 God, with all my heai-t, that he may make all succeed to his own 
 glory, and for the restoration of his church. If our church has 
 been reduced to so great an extremity, it is our sins that have been 
 the cause. It behoves us, then, every day to humble ourselves 
 more and more before the Lord, . . . and when any mishap 
 occurs to you, be patient, and redouble your courage, so that there 
 shall be nothing firmer than your faith." 
 
 Such is the beginning of a military proclamation, which looks 
 like a religious discourse ; such is the language of this aged warrior, 
 famous for unequalled intrepidity; such were the sentiments of 
 faith, humility and prayer, imder the influence of which was com- 
 menced the most adventurous career of heroism and peril upon 
 which patriotic courage had ever entered. 
 
 But human prudence regarded all hope of success as chimerical. 
 " What probability is there," said the journals of the time,^ " that 
 the Vaudois will be able to get back to their own country, without 
 their passage being opposed, and their being utterly destroyed? 
 How are they to contend against the forces of France and Pied- 
 mont, which press upon them on both sides 1 No, it is impossible 
 for them to return thither without perishing, let them take what 
 precautions they may, and on this point the court of Savoy may 
 rest secure." They did return, however; and the precautions which 
 Janavel pointed out to them to take, were these: — 
 
 "When you are come into the country of the enemy, seize two 
 or three men of the place where you happen to be." These were 
 to serve as hostages, and to open for them a way into the places 
 into which they were afterwards to pass. "You will treat them," 
 said he, "with all the tenderness possible." He then recommends 
 the Vaudois to abstain from all disorder, to pay for all that they 
 demand, and to make prayer morning and evening.* "When you 
 
 ' It is evident that this paper was written by an amanuensis, for the writing is 
 in a bold and current hand, whilst the writing of Janavel (if we may judge by 
 eleven lines written by his own hand at the end of the letter which he addressed to 
 the Vaudois in 1685), was large, like that of a child, slow, hesitating, tremulous, 
 and difficult to read. 
 
 » Mercure historique, t. vii. pp. 739, 806, 807.— Gazette of LeyJen, &c. 
 
 ' I omit, for want of space, very particular directions concerning the formation 
 of companies, the order to be followed during the march, the arrangements to be 
 made in halts and encampments, the manner of making or repelling an attack with 
 advantage, &c. 
 
 shall have arrived in the valleys, ... if you should be no 
 more than 600 or 700 men, you must attack at once the val- 
 ley of Lucema and that of St. Martin. . . . You will always 
 keep sentinels posted at the summits of the mountains, that you 
 may not be surprised from the side of Pragela, and in order to keep 
 the passes free from one valley to another." He recommends that, 
 amongst others, they should carefully guard the Col Julian ; and 
 also that they should have in each valley a place fixed beforehand, 
 "a place of sure retreat, which," says he, "shall be in the valley of 
 Lucema, Balmadant, L' Aiguille, and the Cofube of Giaiisaraiid, 
 where was the most ancient retreat of our fathers — in that of St. 
 Martin, La Balciglia''^ "Spare no labour nor pains," says he, 
 " in fortifying this post, which will be your most secure fortress. 
 Do not quit it unless in the utmost extremity. . . . You will, 
 of course, be told that you cannot hold it always, and that rather 
 than not succeed in their object, all France and Italy will gather 
 together against you. . . . But were it the whole world, and only 
 yourselves against all, fear ye the Almighty alone, who is your 
 protection." 
 
 "The severest penalties," he adds, must be inflicted upon any 
 one who abandons liis post." " Have scouts in the level coimtiy, to 
 keep you informed of the movements of your adversaries." " On 
 the field of battle give quai'ter to no one ; for how will you keep 
 prisoners? You can neither employ your men to guard them, nor 
 your provisions to feed them; and upon leaving you, they will 
 make known your position to the enemy." But on all occasions, 
 he earnestly goes on, take care above all things "to spare innocent 
 blood, or blood which there is no need to shed, that you may not 
 have it to answer for before God ; and in particular, see that you 
 never allow yourselves to be seized with fear or with anger ; for if 
 you put your trust in the Lord, be assured that he will never 
 forget you, and that his sword will be around you as a wall of fii-e 
 against your enemies."^ 
 
 The combined moderation and energy of this language, which 
 seemed to breathe at once the solemn calmness of the patriarchs 
 and the animating confidence of the prophets, was well calculated 
 to sustain the Vaudois in their patriotic efforts. With the noble 
 simplicity of the mountaineer was united a character of greatness 
 and affecting self-renunciation, which is sought for in vain in men 
 
 ' It is now written Balsille, more anciently it was written Balseigla, and in the 
 orders of the day of the French army which came to attack the Vaudois there, 
 this post is named the Fort of the Three Teeth, or the Rock of tJie Three Beaks. 
 
 * These expressions are exactly copied from the manuscript of Janavel, but are 
 taken from passages of greater length. 
 
 I 
 
\l 
 
 < i 
 
 ^9 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Thibd. 
 
 Chip. HI.] 
 
 THE EXILES ASSEMBLE. 
 
 33 
 
 of the highest fame. It is also a very i-are thing for a people 
 tossed amidst the vicissitudes of a peculiar fate, and especially when 
 these are the result of some great religious crisis, or when the 
 immediate irritation of an unjust war is experienced, not to abandon 
 themselves to extravagance and ci-uelty. The Camisards had their 
 ecstatic persons — the Anabaptists their visionary prophets — all 
 parties have made reprisals when they became victorious. Amongst 
 the Vaudois there was nothing of the kind ; liveliness of faith was 
 associated with the soundest views; they were directed by a sort 
 of calm temerity; and if there is anything in which they can be 
 blamed, it is upon account of what, according to human estimate, 
 might be called their excess of good faith, for almost all theii* errors 
 arose from their too easily believing the word of their enemies. 
 But if this respect for truth did them some harm in the world, it 
 appears to their honour in history. The events now to be recorded 
 form one of the most brilliant phases of their history. Reasonable 
 even in passion, they accomplished the greatest things, their enthu- 
 siasm never making them forego prudence, nor misfortune shaking 
 theii- firmness. In theii- difficult course, as they mai'ched on amidst 
 tempest after tempest, with a countenance always calm and re- 
 solute, courage and moderation attended all their steps. This 
 character merits for them a place by themselves in history, and it 
 may be said that Janavel made it for them. The severe stamp of 
 exile renders nobler still the aspect of this noble old man, who, like 
 Moses, led the tribes of his people to the boundaries of the promised 
 land, the land of their forefathers, without being permitted to enter 
 it himself. We are now to see how his compatriots made their way 
 thither. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF THE VAUDOIS, UNDER THE CON- 
 DUCT OF ARNAUD/ AND ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTIONS 
 OF JANAVEL.* 
 
 (August to September, 1689.) 
 
 The Vaudois assemble on the shore of the Lake of Geneva, and embark by night— 
 The precautions employed to divert attention from their proceedings— Num- 
 bers, however, arrested by the Swiss governments— The embarkation— Arnaud 
 andTurrel, leaders of the expedition— The march begun— The pastor Chyon 
 taken prisoner— The Vaudois seize hostages— They pass without impediment by 
 Yvoire, Viu, and St. Joire— A show of opposition at Cluse is soon overcome— 
 They carry the bridge at Salanches by force— They pass over the mountains of 
 Le Praz and Haute Luce— Sufferings from incessant rain— The Col Bonhomme 
 — Scez— St. Foi— Mount Iseran— They capture a cardinal's equipages- Suffer- 
 ings in crossing Mount Cenis- Combat with the garrison of Exilles— Some fall 
 behind through fatigue and exhaustion, and are taken prisoners— Combat and 
 victory at Salabertrans— The exiles obtain the first view of their native moun- 
 tains—They arrive at the Balsille— A half company of Piedmontese soldiers 
 taken prisoners and put to the sword— Public worship at Pral— Victory at the 
 Col Julian- Public >.orship and solemn covenant on the hill of Sibaoud. 
 
 It was during the night between the 16th and 17th of August, 
 1689, that the Vaudois embarked on the Lake of Geneva, in order 
 to pass from Switzerland into Savoy, and so to proceed to theii' own 
 
 » I have retained in the title of this chapter the name of Arnaud, which is con- 
 nected in BO particular a manner with the return of the Vaudois, that I could not 
 but think myself bound to respect a reputation so long established m this matter. 
 
 But I am compelled as a historian to reduce the magnitude of the part taken by 
 him in this expedition, of which the plan was due to Janavel, and the active direc- 
 tion to General Turret (at least until it had reached the valleys), and of which the 
 account was written by the youthful Beynaudin. Arnaud, who was the editor of 
 this narration, modified it a little. „ r ,- ^ • r^ 
 
 2 Authorities.— Almost exclusively " The Glorious Return" [La Oloneuse Ben- 
 trde] of Arnaud, and the various readings of the original MS. of that work, de- 
 posited in the Royal Library at Berlin.-Also, " Belation en ahr6g4 de ce qm s'est 
 passe de plus remarquaUe dans le retour des Vaudois au Piemont, depuis le 16 aoU 
 1689 jusqu' au 15 juillet 1690; ce qui a 616 Jideleinent rapporte par des personnes 
 qui ont 6(e eux-mSmes dans diverses actions, qui sont id rapport4es, de nouveau A 
 la Have chez Ollivier Le Franc." 1690. (It would seem from this title, that this 
 Uttle work had already reached its second edition.)-" Nouvelle relation en ahregi 
 au Imtoire de ce qui s'est passe de plus remarquable aux vallees de Pt^mont depms 
 Ic 15 juilkt imjusqu' au mois defevrier 1691." Published as a sequel to the pre- 
 ceding pamphlet.—" Relation veritable de ce qui s'est passe entre Varmee francaise 
 el les Piemontais et Vaudois, dans les vallees de Luserne, depuis le 15 <iomju^(f au 
 22 du mime mois im." La Haye; a small 4to pamphlet of eight pages. (All these 
 pamphlets show how great an interest was taken in distant places in the extra- 
 ordinary expedition of the Vaudois.)-See also the journals of the period; the 
 Gazettes of Leyden, of France, and of England; Mercure historique, &c. 
 Vol. u. ^^ 
 
t 
 
 s^ 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaBT TlIIBD. 
 
 CnAP. Ill] 
 
 THE EXILES EMBARK. 
 
 85 
 
 It 
 
 native valleys. There is near the town of Nyon a forest of oaks, 
 called the wood of Pi-angins, which covers with its venerable trees 
 a number of little hills, includes a number of shady hollows, and 
 descends with a steep declivity to the waves of the Leman. Here 
 it was that the Vaudois, faithful to their patriotic design, had 
 agreed not to await one another, but rather to meet at once; for 
 it was necessary that the forest should seem to be unoccupied^ and 
 by no means to be their mustering place, that so all the members 
 of the expedition might assemble in it without impediment, from 
 all places in the neighbourhood, between nine and ten o'clock in 
 the evening. A great number of Vaudois were therefore already 
 prepared to set out, and were concealed in the vicinity, whilst no 
 one was to be seen in the wood of Prangins, where they took care 
 not to show themselves, that attention might not be dra\sTi to that 
 important spot. 
 
 For two months the refugees had made their preparations for 
 departure. Those who were scattered in the most distant parts of 
 Switzerland, and even as far as the utmost boundaries of Bavaria, 
 Wurtemberg, and the Palatinate, were apprised that a new attempt 
 to regain possession of their country was about to be undertaken 
 from the shores of Lake Leman. They therefore made every 
 arrangement beforehand, in order to be there. Domestics, hired 
 labourers, and artisans disengaged themselves in the quietest pos- 
 sible way from their employments; the workers in manufactories 
 provided themselves with arms; every one did the best he could 
 to secure a supply for the wants of his poor family, which he was 
 to leave in exile, whilst he went to win back for them the land of 
 their fathers.^ But the dangers were very great; each might 
 perish in tliis great enterprise; the necessary silence concealed 
 many a painful farewell. 
 
 More than eight days before the time appointed, the Yaudois 
 began their journeys. They required to use many precautions, in 
 order to traverse the confederate states without exciting suspicion. 
 Marching by niglit, and sleeping by day, seeking by-paths and the 
 shadow of woods, they carefully avoided appearing in numerous 
 
 ' Suspicions were entertained of the project of the Vaudois. The federal patrols 
 passetl and repassed several times through the forest of Prangins ; a descent was 
 made upon it on the 13th of August, with the view of apprehending the Vaudois 
 who might be surprised there, but nobody was found. 
 
 {RepoH of the hailli of Nyon on the departure of the Vaudois. Archives of Berne, 
 compartment D.) In another report, it is said that the forest was empty on the 
 16th at sunset, but in the course of three or four hours it was filled ticUh IHedmon,' 
 tese. (Same source. ) 
 
 • These brief notices express the general import of a multitude of detoJls con- 
 tained in private letters and contemporary reports, loo numerous to be all cited here. 
 
 groups. They met one another without speaking; a significant 
 look sufficed to make them understand one another. They were, 
 moreover, unacquainted with the plan of the expedition ; no order 
 had been given tliem, nothing precise was known ; one single idea 
 guided them, that of returning to their own native land. 
 
 However, their successive disappearance from the places where 
 they had been cantoned, awakened attention. Reports passed from 
 one quarter to another, and multiplied. Friday, the 15th of 
 August, was a fast-day for the whole of Switzerland. In the after- 
 noon, just as the people were assembling for worship, the bailli of 
 Morges was apprised that 400 Vaudois had been seen hidden 
 amongst the bushes below the bridge of AUamand.^ He caused 
 notice to be given to the militia of the neighbouring districts, and 
 next day he arrested 100 of these fugitives, but eighty-three 
 succeeded in making their escape. Others were reported to the 
 authorities at Rolle, Ursine, and Peroi. 
 
 On the same day the boatmen of Ouchy presented themselves 
 before the bailli of Lausanne.'-* "Some of the Lucernese," said 
 they, " have asked us to transport them to Savoy in our boats, but 
 we did not think proper to do it without acquainting you." " You 
 have done very well," said the magistrate, "for T can by no means 
 authorize you. But are these people numerousr' "Neai'ly 180." 
 "' Where do they wait for youf* " They are concealed in two barus 
 near Vidy." The magistrate sent a major to persuade the Vaudois 
 to retire. This envoy took possession of three boats which they 
 had already brought together, and in one of which were found 
 fifty muskets. "Next day," says the bailli in his report, " I learned 
 that, about midnight, 500 men, marching very quickly and in 
 sUence, had passed Romanel, proceeding towards the lake." These 
 500 men, along with the 180 who were at Vidy, were to have em- 
 barked at St. Sulpice, in order to go to Nyon; but only 450 were 
 able to embark, and 230 remained, for want of the three boats 
 which the bailU of Lausanne had caused to be taken from them.* 
 » AU these and the following particulars are taken from the Report of the hailli 
 of Nyon, and from another report, entitled *' Information v^j-Uable de ce qui est 
 arrivS dans le baillage d-e Nyon pour le trajet des Fiemontais, de la conduUe qtC xls 
 onttenue,"kc. . . . (Archives of Berne.) This report commences thus :-" On the 
 9th of July, 1639, their excellencies of. Berne informed me that the Piedmontese,^ 
 following out their obstinate design of returning to their own country, &c. . . . ' 
 Other letters, some of which are dated even as far back as the 10th of May, attest 
 the movement already taking place among the Vaudois. and the attention which 
 they had excited. (See the Arcliives of the Council of State of Geneva, sittings of 
 
 10th and 28th May, 1689.) , ■ . , a ir.v, ^..^..^ if^ct 
 
 2 The name of this baiUi was Sturler. His report is dated 16th August, 16o9. 
 
 (Archives of Berne.) / , . ^, . i • * ■R«^o^ 
 
 » Same document, compared with other reports (also in the Archives of Berne). 
 
 '''*<:5».' 
 
36 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabtThikd. 
 
 Chap III.] 
 
 THE EXILES LAND IN SAVOY. 
 
 37 
 
 "To-day," continues he, under date the 16th, "my colleague of 
 Morges has sent his son to tell me that he has discovered other 
 Vaudois in the neighbourhood of Aubonue, that the bailli of 
 Nyon has already put the j.'eople of his district under arms, and 
 that it is necessary to prevent these unfortunate people from pass- 
 ing into Savoy, where certain destruction awaits them." ^ In the 
 canton of Uri, 122 Piedmontese, coming from the Orisons, had 
 already been arrested.^ Of those who succeeded in reaching the 
 common rendezvous, 200 were still unable to cross the lake, because 
 out of fourteen boats in which their brethren had crossed, only 
 three consented to renew the voyage.-^ 
 
 The federal militia of the canton had been convoked for the 
 14th, to oppose the project of the Vaudois; but the previous even- 
 ing was that of a religious solemnity* always most devoutly 
 observed in Switzerland. All military measures were put off to 
 the 16th and 17th. Then it was too late. In the intervening 
 night, as the first stars arose, the forest of Prangins, where all had 
 been stillness until sunset, was suddenly peopled with 1000 or 1200 
 men, who descended from the heights, ascended from the ravines, 
 arose out of the coppices, and, as if in obedience to some silent 
 signal, concentrated themselves, with admirable unity of purpose, 
 on the solitary bank of the Leman. 
 
 Fifteen boats had been gathered together there. The pastor 
 Amaud^ made a fervent prayer, to implore the Divine protection 
 for these banished men. " The young seigneur of Prangins, who, 
 as well as many others, happened to be there from curiosity, after 
 having listened on his knees to the prayer of the pastor, imme- 
 diately mounted his horse, and rode all night to Oeneva, to give 
 information to the French resident of the enterprise of the Vaudois." 
 In consequence of this information, orders were forwarded to Lyons 
 to cause the cavalry to march towards Savoy, to destroy this auda- 
 cious troop. But the Vaudois took care to keep out of the reach of 
 their attacks. Ascending the rivers to their sources, in order to 
 avoid the populous towns, and following the crest of the mountains 
 
 *\?*' V ®-f v'^?^^ ^"""^ *^® despatch of the bailli of Lausanne. See also the report 
 of the baiUi of Nyon, and a despatch of the governor of the castle of RoUe, dated 
 16th August, 1689. (Archives of Berne.) 
 
 » Arnaud, p. 37. Beattie, Vaudois Valleys, Pict. p. 121 
 
 » ARNADD, p 141. In the original MS. it is also said that it was not deemed 
 prudent to wait for a third voyage, as the dawn of day began to appear 
 
 Feuille dujour de Van, offerte a la Suisse ramande, par la reunion lausannoise 
 de Vunicn federate. No. III. p. 5. To this sheet is annexed a lithograph, re- 
 markable as a composition, which represents the departure of the Vaudois at the 
 moment when. a^niWed on the bank, they listen to the prayer of their pastor. 
 
 from glacier to glacier and from precipice to precipice, in deep 
 chasms or on lofty peaks, they kept themselves out of the way of 
 the combined forces of France and Piedmont, which vainly endea- 
 voured to intercept their passage. 
 
 " The sheriff Devigne," adds a despatch dated on that same day, 
 "arrived at the forest of Prangins at the moment when 300 Vau- 
 dois had already crossed the lake. There still remained about 700 
 of them. He addressed them with exhortations and threats, to keep 
 them from going ; but they replied to him by good reasons, by en- 
 treaties, and even by letting him see that they intended to make 
 resistance,^ so that, in these circumstances, not being sufficiently 
 strong for them, he allowed them to do as they chose, and saw them 
 depart in thirteen boats." ^ All the members of the expedition had 
 crossed the lake by two o'clock in the morning.^ The sky was 
 covered with clouds, and a drizzling rain fell. During their passage, 
 a gust of wind separated the boats, but those which were carried out 
 of their way were compensated by meeting with a small bark from 
 Geneva, with eighteen of their brethren, who also had come in com- 
 pliance with the call to return and take possession of their native 
 land. As soon as the first who disembarked set foot upon the 
 shores of Savoy, Arnaud posted sentinels in all directions; and, 
 with the exception of those who were thus occupied, the Vaudois, 
 waiting until they should all be united again, gathered together 
 ' beneath a tree on the bank of the lake, longing and praying for the 
 prompt arrival of their brethren who were still on the other side.* 
 One of the boats, however, which had been dispersed by the wind, 
 was driven so far out of its course, that it did not reach the land 
 until daybreak. The men whom it conveyed rejoined the troop 
 when already on the march and in military organization. 
 
 Janavel had said, "First of all, it is most requisite that you 
 should, every one of you, kneel down upon the ground, and lifting 
 up your eyes and yom- hands to heaven, your heart and soul to the 
 Lord, earnestly pray that he would give you his Holy Spirit, . . . 
 and cause you to name those who are best qualified among you to 
 be leaders of the rest."^ The whole body composing the expedition 
 
 * Here we have the first proof of the calm intrepidity which marked the conduct 
 of the Vaudois in this expedition. 
 
 2 Letter of the governor of the castle of Eolle to the bailli of Nyon, 16th Aug. 
 (Archivca of Berne.) 
 
 » This, and the following particulars, are extracted from the original manuscript 
 of the Return of the Vaudois, many passages of which have been left out of the 
 published work. 
 
 * Original MS. of the Return, p. 42. Eoyal Library of Berlin. 
 
 » Instruttione data alii Hbelli, &c (Archives of Turin), a document 
 
 already (quoted. 
 
 -V ^^^ 
 
38 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 was divided into nineteen companies, each having a captain and a 
 sergeant.' The commander-in-chief was to have been that leader of 
 the later expedition, who has been already mentioned ; ^ but as he 
 had not succeeded in making his appearance at the rendezvous, a 
 compatriot of M. Arnaud, Captain Turrel,'^ a native of Die, was 
 
 * In the original manuscj'ipt of the Rettwn, the following sentence occurs: "As 
 of these captains some were killed, and some were taken prisoners during the 
 inarch, and others deserted, new ones were substituted for them, or their com- 
 panies were incorporated, as circumstances required." 
 
 * Bourgeois of Xeuchdtel. (Arnaud, Eetui-n, p. 45.) 
 
 ' This being brought forward as a fact entirely new, I think it requisite to state 
 the proofs upon which it rests. The following is an extract from the original 
 manuscript of the Return, deposited at Berlin (Royal Library, No. — ), p. 42:— 
 " When all had arrived, they proceeded to form a body, of which one Bour^'eois of 
 Neuchdtel uas to have been commander. He did not make his appearance at the 
 rendezvous ; we shall not here say upon what account, having in the further course 
 of this history to speak at suflBcient length concerning him. I shall satisfy myself 
 with mentioning that the post of honour which had been designed for him was given 
 to the Sieur Turrel, a refugee of Die, in whose courage and military experience 
 the people had sufficient confidence to declare him commander-in-chief; yet so that 
 Le should not be able to determine anything without the concurrence of a council 
 of war, composed of the captains, and especially without conferring with M. 
 Arnaud, who had his eye upon all, and who was to him as a colleague associated 
 in the command." This passage, which itself assigns to Arnaud's influence a very- 
 honourable part, was suppressed by him in the publicatiou. It cannot be restored 
 to its place in the history without producing some modification of the generally 
 received ideas concerning the military arrangements of this expedition. Let us 
 see whether facts and analogies are in favour of its retention or of its suppression. 
 
 Arnaud allows us to think that he was himself the general-in-chief of the Vaudois 
 army, without, however, anywhere saying that this rank had been conferred upon 
 him; whilst it is probable that he would not have left us to mere inference if he 
 had been formally invested with it. 
 
 But can we suppose that he has passed over in silence a fact so important, if, 
 indeed, true? And have we, without the testimony of Arnaud, proofs sufficient to 
 establish it? These two questions merit separate examination. 
 
 ■^' — I would have hesitated to believe that, upon any account, Arnaud would 
 have kept unfair silence concerning the general, Turrel, of whom my readers pro- 
 bably have never met with any notice until now, if I had not found in this author 
 other instances of the same kind of suppression. There can be no doubt of the 
 very important part taken by Janavel in this expedition, yet Arnaud never speaks 
 of him, except in page 175, where he does so as if this illustrious exile had remained 
 a complete stranger to the enterprise of the Vaudois. He was, however, a party 
 to it, as may be certainly learned from the records of the Council of State of 
 Geneva; nay, he directed it, for his instructions have been discovered, and they 
 V, ere followed in every particular. Arnaud could not be ignorant of them, for ho 
 was himself called to execute them, and a copy of them was appended to the 
 journal of the expedition, of which he afterwards became the editor. Hence I 
 conclude that Arnaud's silence is not enough to cause the rejection of the passage 
 quoted at the beginning of this note. 
 
 B-— But is that passage sufficient to establish the fact omitted by this writer? 
 In the first place, let us observe that the Vaudois required to have a leader: I 
 think it needless to stop to prove it. Moreover, they could not confide their des- 
 tinies to any leader but one whose military capacity was already recognized; and 
 it would have been at least extraordinary if for that office they had chosen a 
 
 Chap. Ill J 
 
 ARNAUD AND TURREL. 
 
 S9 
 
 chosen in his stead. The Vaudois, before commencing their march, 
 offered up a short but fervent prayer to the Lord, to implore his 
 
 pastor.* Arnaud himself does not say that he was this leader ; but as he plain!y 
 names himself whenever he mentions a fact which concerns himself, even when it 
 is of small historic value, we are compelled to seek for the reason of the vague 
 expressions which he employs when he speaks of an important resolution, a 
 decisive order, a great military movement, or ths like; for then he makes use 
 only of indeterminate forms of expression, as, there WAS made, it was resolved, 
 IT WAS decided, &c.; from which I think it may be reasonably concluded, that in 
 the latter case the indefinite expression refers to the commander-in-chief or the 
 council of war, whilst the personal mention of Arnaud must have been reserved 
 for those things which he could reasonably ascribe in a positive manner to himself. 
 
 Besides, he was separated from the Vaudois army at different times durin'g the 
 expedition (xviii<^ day; Return, Second Part, from p. 166 to p. 200), which could 
 not have taken place without a delegation of the command, or without disorders, 
 of which there is no indication. 
 
 C. — What motives could Arnaud have had for suppressing in his narrative the 
 name of General Turrel? It seems probable that it was from prudential consi- 
 derations, and in order to draw a veil over the desertion and dishonourable death 
 of that leader, whom Arnaud mentions only as a simple captain, that he has kept 
 silence concerning the high position which the Vaudois had accorded to him ; for 
 after having conducted them into their native country, Turrel abandoned them, in 
 the belief that their cause was desperate (pp. 154-156). He was then succeeded by 
 P. Odin, with the title of major-general. (Id. pp. 265-392.) 
 
 It appears to me, therefore, that we may regard as proved— Ist, That Arnaud 
 was not from the first the military leader of the Vaudois (and he nowhere speaks 
 of himself as having been so). 2d,' That they had for some time another leader, 
 named Turrel. 3d, That Arnaud was at first merely one of three pastors, destined 
 to perform the fuuctions of the gospel ministry during this expedition. (The two 
 others were Montoux and Chyon ; but from the seventh day both of them were 
 prisoners.) 4th, That being left alone, Arnaud supplied their places, with a courage 
 and devotedness v/orthy of the highest praise, going from one valley to another to 
 conduct religious services, to dispense the Lord's Supper, and to take part in 
 councils {Return, pp. 126, 138, 161, 200, 204, &c.), and always replying with the 
 noblest energy to those who urged him to abandon the cause of the Vaudois. {Re- 
 turn, pp. 233, 237, 250.) He had a right, surely, notwithstanding his foreign 
 origin, to say, as he did say in speaking of the valleys, '* We have re-conquered 
 the land of our fathers." (Id., Preface, and p. 238.) Arnaud being obliged to 
 withdraw from the country in 1693, returned to it in 1703 [Mercure histor. t. xxvi. 
 p. 141); he was provisional pastor of St. Jean in 1706 {Memoir on the present 
 state of the Vaudois Churches, of date 27th December, 1706, in my possession), 
 withdrew from it in 1707 (Acts of Synod of 14th February, 1708, towards the 
 end), and was in London in 1708 (the date of his portrait by Van Somer). In 
 1709 he returned to Germany {Old Consistorial Records of the parish of Durmentz), 
 
 ♦ The only act in which the strategctic capacity of Arnaud had found opportunity of displaying 
 itself before this period — at Irast, the only one wl.ich he has mentioned (Preface, p. 4y) — was not 
 of a nature to raise expectations of what he was afterwards to become. Having 400 men at his 
 
 command {Relatione del succeduto, &c Arciiives of Turin, No. of the series 300), lie 
 
 found no better means of making .prisoners seventy soldiers of the enemy, wl;o were shut up in 
 the place of worship at St. Germain, than to cause canals to be digged around the building, in 
 order to pour in upon them a flood of water. {Return, fol. 24.) It is needless to say that they all 
 ( scaped. But, in justice, it must also be stated that Arnaud afterwards gave frequent proofs of 
 a remarkable military genius. Decision, a clear perception of tlie whole state of matters, Courage, 
 and resolution, were the qualities which experience rapidly developed iu him, and which n\ark him 
 a& a distingut>hed warrior. 
 
 ^ Jf 
 
( 
 
 ; 
 
 40 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Thiru. 
 
 blessing upon their enterprise ; ^ then, as the coasts of Savoy had 
 been furnished with troops, and they could no longer, without 
 danger, remain in a position so exposed as that which they occupied, 
 they set out an hour before sunrise, without awaiting the arrival of 
 the last of their own party.'-* 
 
 Let us now follow them in this march, keeping before us the 
 daily record which was written by Hugues and Reynaudin,'^ and to 
 which Arnaud has attached his name. " This history," says he, 
 *• pursuing its course from mountain to mountain, sweeping over 
 precipices, and from one valley to another, . . . must needs be 
 rude and impolished, but it will not therefore be the less veracious; 
 and if it has not that refinement of language which is sought after 
 in the present age, it will be found to contain at least the truth in 
 its purity." * 
 
 At the very commencement of their march, however, the Vau- 
 dois experienced a misfoi'tune ; for one of the three pastors who 
 accompanied them, Cyrus Chyon, having gone to seek a guide in a 
 village to which they were near, was there seized, and conveyed to 
 Chambery, where he remained a prisoner until the official re-estab- 
 lishment of the Yaudois in their own country. Seeing that they were 
 treated as enemies, the Vaudois immediately took measures as for 
 war, and Turrel, their general, sent on a party to summon the little 
 town of Yvoire to open its gates without resistance, unless it chose 
 to be given to fire and sword. It obeyed; and, according to the par- 
 ticular recommendation of Janavel, the Yaudois took two hostages 
 there, the lord of the manor, and the receiver of taxes, who were 
 afterwards replaced by the lord of the manor of Wernier, and two 
 other gentlemen of that part of the country.^ The kindness Avith 
 which these hostages were treated, and the severe discipline of the 
 Yaudois troop, very soon won for the latter the general sympathies 
 of the people; for the common people comprehend what is noble and 
 great with an intuition more sure than that of cultivated minds, 
 which are often prepossessed by factitious ideas on these subjects. 
 '• May God be with you ! " said many a poor peasant, taking off his 
 
 and in 1710 he published the Glorious Return, twenty years after the manuscript 
 cf that work had left the hands of those by whom it was originally prepared. 
 (See the article Abnaud, in the Bibliography appended to the Israel of the Alps.) 
 
 ' Various reading of the original manuscript of the Eetum, p. 47, in the Royal 
 Library of Berlin. 
 
 3 TLese particulars are taken from a Relation, printed at the Hague in 1600, an 
 l6mo of 92 pages. 
 
 ' See the Return, first edition, pp. 216, 217 (Hue or Hugues), and p. 175 (Paul 
 lieynaudin). 
 
 * Arnaud, Dedication; Return, fol. 12 and 13. (Not paged. — First Edition.) 
 
 * MM. De Coudrees and De Fora. 
 
 Chap. Ill] 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 41 
 
 hat before the band of exiles. " The parish priest of Filly opened 
 his cellar to them, and caused them to refresh themselves, for which 
 he would accept of no money." ^ 
 
 In passing the Col de Yoimns, they obtained a last view of those 
 peaceful banks of the Lake of Geneva, not to be contemplated by 
 them without gi-atitude, where their wives and children were left 
 imder the protection of Swiss hospitality. They now drew near to 
 the town of Yiu, situated at the base of the pyramidal mountain 
 called the Mole, and which lies in a straight line between Geneva 
 and Chamouni. A quarter-master and the chS.telain of Boege, who 
 had been added to the number of their hostages, facilitated the 
 entrance of the Yaudois into this town, by sending on before them 
 the following letter: — "These people have arrived here to the 
 numbar of 2000; they have asked us to accompany them, that 
 we may be able to report concerning their conduct; and we can 
 assure you that they conduct themselves with great moderation. 
 They pay for everything which they take, and demand only to be 
 allowed to pass; therefore we beg of you that you will neither 
 sound the tocsin nor beat the drum, and that in case your people 
 should be under arms, you will cause them to keep out of the way."^ 
 This testimony was so well confirmed by the good behaviour of the 
 Yaudois, that there arose, says Arnaud, a sort of emulation along 
 the line of their march, who should most promptly give them what 
 they wanted. The country people consented to prepare beforehand 
 provisions, horses, and waggons, in the villages through which they 
 were to pass; and the progress of the Yaudois was not delayed by 
 the failure of these arrangements. 
 
 They entered Yiu at the close of the day; and after reposing 
 there for two hours, they set out again by moonlight. In the little 
 town of St. Joire, where they next arrived, the whole inhabitants 
 came to their doors to see them pass. The magistrates placed a 
 great cask of wine in the middle of the street, for the refreshment of 
 the travellers. But the Yaudois did not remain there : proceeding 
 onward, they encamped half a league from the town, on a bare and 
 arid hill, named Carman. It was now near midnight ; the day 
 (Saturday, the 17th of August) had thus prospeix)usly closed; they 
 made prayer, then they posted sentinels; and the whole band, 
 fatigued by so long a march, sought on the naked ground that re- 
 pose which, in such circumstances, comes so readily to mountaineers. 
 
 Next day, about ten o'clock, they reached the banks of the 
 Arve, opposite to the town of Cluse, then suiTounded with walls. 
 This little town seems caught in the gorge of a nan-ow valley — rocks 
 * Amaud, p. 49. ^ id. p 51. 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 66 
 
42 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt TniBD. 
 
 sharply peaked, but clothed with shrubs, rising above the highest 
 roofs of the houses — and resembles a vessel stranded in the hollow 
 of the mountains. The weather was rainy; the gates of the town 
 were closed; the peasants of the neighbourhood reviled the Vaudois, 
 shouting from a distance. Affairs wore a threatening aspect, as if 
 their passage was to be disputed. " Gentlemen," said they to the 
 hostages, " this concerns you; if they fire upon us, you shall be the 
 first killed." This menace was not fruitless, for M. De Fora im- 
 mediately wrote to M. De La Rochette, a nobleman who dwelt 
 in Cluse, to ask the free passage of the mountaineers. He came to 
 their camp, along with other gentlemen, and they were detained as 
 hostages. A Vaudois officer was sent into the town, instead of the 
 inhabitants who were detained. "Where is your warrant?" he 
 was asked. " At the point of our swords," was his reply. These 
 bold words announcing a determined resolution, it was thought 
 best to come to terms. The Israel of the Alps passed through this 
 Ijlace in the midst of its inhabitants, they standing under arms, and 
 ranged along both sides of the street. Those who took charge of 
 the commissariat for the troop then caused five quintals of bread 
 and five loads of wine to be brought out to the open country, for 
 which they paid five louis d'or, and those from whom the articles 
 were bought expressed themselves quite satisfied with the price. 
 
 From Cluse to Salanches, the valley is very narrow, and the 
 Arve, which flows through it, was swollen by the melting of the 
 snows. At the castle of Maglan, which is situated in this part of 
 the valley, the Vaudois took new hostages, and received infor- 
 mation that their passage would be disputed at Salanches. The dark 
 apprehensions which arise from the hostility of men, began to assail 
 them in the midst of majestic scenes of nature ; such, for example, 
 as the two remarkable cascades of Nant d'Urli and Nant d'Arpenas, 
 by which they passed. The road was toilsome; the i*ain continued 
 to fall; the hostages complained of their hardships; but the exiles 
 inarched on without intermission. 
 
 A bridge of wood, roofed over, is thrown across the Arve be- 
 tween the village of St. Martin and the city of Salanches. The 
 Vaudois tried the effect of negotiation before attempting to cross 
 it ; but perceiving that their adversaries protracted these negotia- 
 tions, in order the better to make their arrangements for resistance, 
 they earned the bridge by force, lined it with forty soldiers, and 
 when they had crossed it, proceeded to range themselves in order of 
 battle over against the town, the approach to which was defended 
 by 600 armed men. They threatened to burn it, and to kill the 
 hostages, upon the slightest hostile movement that might be directed 
 
 Chap. IIIJ 
 
 PROPERTY RESPECTED. 
 
 43 
 
 against them. This threat produced its effect; for the Vaudois 
 were permitted to pass without opposition, and proceeded to en- 
 camp a league farther on, at the village of Cablan, or Oolombier, 
 where they could obtain no supplies, but which they blessed God 
 that they had reached in safety. Thus closed theii- second day, 
 the 18th of August, 1689. 
 
 Monday, the 19th, was one of the most fatiguing days of their 
 "march. Early in the morning the trumpets sounded, and a council 
 was held as to the precautions necessary to be taken for passing 
 over the mountain of Les Praz, and that of Haute Luce, which rise 
 to the height of 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The village of 
 Migeve was the last place of any consequence which the Vaudois 
 had to pass through. The inhabitants were under arms, but made 
 no resistance. On the mountain they found some deserted hamlets, 
 where they reposed a while, on account of the incessant rain. Here 
 and there, in chalets which stood open, were provisions remaining, 
 and small quantities of butter and cheese, which the troops ab- 
 stained from touching. The hostages, surprised at this reserve, and 
 not satisfied with the enforced frugality of their meals, expressed 
 their astonishment at it, saying that, in respect of victuals, it was 
 the custom of soldiers to take them where they found them, with- 
 out any one's having a right to be offended.^ These words, taken 
 in connection with the neglected condition in which the shepheixls 
 had left their chalets, and, above all, the hunger which the Vaudois 
 experienced, led them to make use of the provisions which were 
 thus left behind, although they would have been most anxious to 
 have paid for them, if any of the owners had been there to have 
 received the price. 
 
 Their strength and courage being thus revived, the Vaudois de- 
 scended the slope of Les Praz, and proceeded to climb the mountain 
 of Haute Luce, one of the steepest and most desolate over which 
 they had to pass. This mountain, then flooded by the rains, en- 
 veloped in clouds, covered with snow, or deeply cleft by impassable 
 precipices, presented many difficulties.* The guide lost his way. 
 Persons were sent out on all sides to find some peasants who might 
 act in his stead; but it was soon perceived that these Savoyards 
 were leading the Vaudois troop by the longest and most dangerous 
 routes. Arnaud threatened them with the gibbet if they deviated 
 from the proper way ; and by his exhortations re-animated the 
 courage of the exhausted troops. " If it is difficult to ascend a" 
 steep mountain " adds he in his own narrative, " everybody knows 
 
 * Arnaud, p. 67. 
 
 a BeaUie, p. 136. (See the Bibliography, Part I. sect. 5, § III. Ko. IV.) 
 
M 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS.. 
 
 [Pabi Thibd. 
 
 Chap. Ill] 
 
 CARDINAL ANGELO BANUZZL 
 
 45 
 
 that it is equally difficult to descend ; and in this case the descent 
 could not be accomplished in any other way than by every man 
 either sitting down or lying on his back, and so letting himself 
 slide, as it were, to the bottom of a precipice, and this with no other 
 light thnn that which was caused by the whiteness of the snow." 
 
 It was not without great exertion that these intrepid travellers 
 arrived, in the middle of the night, at a miserable hamlet, called 
 St. Nicholas De Verose, where they found no better shelter than 
 that of some empty stables. Situated in a ftinnel, formed by 
 frightful mountains, this place, deep as an aljyss, and desert and 
 cold as a tomb, is the resort only of a few shepherds, who spend 
 two months of the summer in these occasional abodes. The Vau- 
 dois were obliged to take wood from the roofs of the ruinous 
 huts to warm themselves a little. But thia was only a feeble 
 resource, for the rain, which continued to fall, reached them all 
 the more easily, and made their stay there the more disagreeable. 
 
 Next day, being Tuesday, the 20th of August, their impatience 
 to leave a place so unpleasant, and apprehension of some perfidy • 
 meditated by the Savoyards, made the Vaudois set out earlier than 
 usual. They now bravely addressed themselves to the climbing 
 of the Col Bonhomme, one of the highest ridges of Mont Blanc, 
 " having," say they, " the rain on our backs, and the snow to our 
 knees."' At the summit of this mountain is a long and almost 
 level vale, named the Ladies' Plain [Plan des Dames]. Here the 
 Vaudois would have arrived in the preceding year, entering upon 
 it by the Col de la Seigne, if they had succeeded in carrying into 
 effect their project, which failed at Bex, of returning to their own 
 countiy. Since that time this pass had been fortified, in anti- 
 cipation of a new attempt to be made by the exiles to return. Of 
 this they had been apprised, and they expected a keen resistance. 
 But the Piedmontese government, weary of keeping troops at 
 so disadvantageous a post, had withdrawn them csome time before, 
 and the exile pilgrims, marching towards their native land, re- 
 turned thanks to God for having smoothed for them a route 
 already so fatiguing, by removing this formidable obstacle out of 
 their way. 
 
 They then descended to the banks of the Isere, near its source, 
 and were compelled to cross it several times, by stepping from rock 
 to rock in its channel. Near St. Maurice they found a bridge 
 ban-icaded, the passage of which seemed likely to be disputed with 
 them by peasants armed with forks: this was not a serious 
 obstacle ; but the Count of Val Isere, having held a colloquy with 
 * Narrative of the Return, Arnaud, p. 71. 
 
 the Vaudois, caused the bridge to be cleared, and they then crossed 
 it without resistance. Towards evening they encamped near the 
 little town of Scez, the inhabitants of which at first, by a violent 
 sounding of the tocsin, manifested a disposition to oppose them, 
 but afterwards brought them provisions in abundance. 
 
 On the following day, being the fifth day of their march, they 
 made prayer, and removed their camp before the dawn ; but they 
 found on the route nothing except deserted hamlets. The Vaudois 
 were obliged to go as far as the town of St. Foi before they could 
 halt and obtain some refreshment. There they were received with 
 .«o much politeness, and endeavour to oblige, that this welcome even 
 appeared suspicious. The principal people of the town earnestly 
 urged them to stay there and recruit their strength— a deceitful 
 proposal, to which those amongst them who were most fatigued 
 listened with satisfaction. Arnaud, who was then in the rear, 
 perceiving that the troop did not advance, proceeded to the fore- 
 most ranks, caused them to resume their march, and even retained 
 in the number of the hostages some of those dangerous pretended 
 friends, who would at least have made them lose time, which was 
 precious to them, if they did not also seek to catch them in some 
 fatal snare. On that day they encamped at Laval, where, for the 
 first time for eight days, Arnaud and Montoux had at last the 
 enjoyment of a sleep of some hours, on a bed in the village. 
 
 On Thursday, the 22d of August, they passed through the little 
 town of Tignes, and climbed Mount Iseran, where the shepherds 
 supplied them with a repast of milk and other produce of the dairy, 
 warning them, however, that there were troops in waiting for them 
 at the base of Mount Cenis. This news, far from intimidating the 
 exiles, augmented their ardour. They reorganized their companies, 
 appointed a few officers, and again set out on their march. Passing 
 over the summits of a chain situated between Le Faucigny, La 
 Tarentaise, and La Maurienne, they descended to Bonneval, a 
 pleasant town in the valley of the Arc, where they met with a 
 friendly reception. This was not the case, however, at the next 
 village, named Bessas, where they took some hostages, and near to 
 which they encamped, in a vast basin of the mountains, where they 
 were exposed to an incessant rain all night. 
 
 The seventh day of their march was signalized by an unexpected 
 capture which they made on Mount Cenis. The equipages of Car- 
 dinal Angelo Banuzzi, who was proceeding to Rome to attend the 
 conclave which resulted in the election of Pope Alexander VIII., 
 fell into the hands of the Vaudois, who took possession only of the 
 horses and mules of the convoy 3 but the cardinal, disquieted by 
 
46 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Third. 
 
 the delay of his baggage, believed it to be lost; and as it contained 
 important papers, the Papists pretend that he died of grief upon 
 that account. 
 
 " What the Vaudois suffered in passing the Great and the Little 
 Mount Cenis," says Amaud/ "surpasses imagination. The ground 
 was covered with snow; they had to descend the mountain of 
 Tourliers rather by a precipice than by a road ; and, to complete 
 their misery, night having surprised them, numbers of them re- 
 mained scattered on the mountain, overcome with fatigue and 
 sleep." However, they re-assembled on the following day, the 24th 
 of August, in the little and sterile valley of the Gaillon, which is 
 closed in like an amphitheatre by encircling mountains, which meet 
 towards the bottom, and seem to leave the traveller no wav of 
 egress. Nevertheless, the Vaudois troop ascended the mountains; 
 but the soldiei-s of the garrison of Exilles were there in ambuscade, 
 and overthrew the advanced guard, by rolling down rocks, flinging 
 grenades, and taking off by their musketry every one who pressed 
 forward. It was here that Captain Pellenc was made prisoner. 
 
 The Vaudois having therefore been compelled to descend again 
 into the amphitheatre of the Gaillon, where they might all have been 
 shut in and destroyed without possibility of escape, now resolved 
 to retrace their steps. For this purpose it was necessary for them 
 to ascend agam the steep slope of the mountain of Tourliers, in 
 order to turn by the heights the corps which obstructed their pro- 
 gress. But this ascent soon became so painful, that the hostages, 
 tailing upon the ground in weaiiness, exhaustion, and despair, "en- 
 treated as a favour that they would take their lives, rather than 
 drag them any farther. Numbers of the mountaineers themselves 
 stopped on the way, overcome by fatigue and the insurmountable 
 difficulties which they encountered in their progress. Amongst 
 these were two surgeons, of whose presence and services the Vau- 
 dois troop was thus deprived. One of them, named Malanot, re- 
 mained for four days in a hole of the rock, living only on the water 
 which flowed close by. Being then no longer able to rejoin the 
 expedition, he was made prisoner, and conducted to Suza, and after- 
 wards to Turin, and did not recover his liberty till after a detention 
 of nine months. The other surgeon, whose name was Muston, was 
 seized within the French confines, and conducted to Grenoble^ and 
 thence to the galleys, where he remained till his death. "By his 
 constancy and firmness in so long a martyrdom," says Arnaud,^ "he 
 merits a place in this history." 
 
 The Vaudois having at last reached the summit of the moun- 
 ' P. 87. » p. 92. 
 
 Chap. III.J 
 
 THE COMMANDANT OF EXILLES. 
 
 47 
 
 tain of Tourliers, sounded their clarions, to gather together those 
 who had fallen behind, and those who had wandered. The main 
 body waited there for two hours ; many were still awanting ; but 
 at last, says Arnaud, as they foimd that they could not wait 
 longer without danger, "they consoled themselves with the thought 
 that it is not by might, nor by skill, nor by number of men that 
 God executes his marvellous designs; and so, calling upon his name, 
 they resumed their march." 
 
 In a very short time they perceived through the mist a body of 
 men, who marched, with drums beating, upon a ridge of the moun- 
 tain towards which they were directing their steps. The leader of 
 this troop was the commandant of Exilles. " Hold to the right," 
 said he to the Vaudois by a note, " and you will be pei-mitted to 
 pass; but if not, and if you are determined to force the position 
 which I occupy, I demand eight hours for deliberation." These 
 eight hours would only have afforded him the means of putting 
 himself in a condition of defence; but as he offered them a pass- 
 age, the Vaudois accepted it, tnisting to his word. However, they 
 soon observed that he was following them at a distance at the head 
 of his troops; and presuming that the passage conceded to them 
 had no other object than to lead them into a new ambuscade, where 
 they would have been between two fir^,' they wheeled about, and 
 summoned these troops to retire. The troops obeyed the summons; 
 but farther on, near Salabertrans, the Vaudois asking a peasant if 
 they would be able to obtain provisions in that place, received the 
 i*eply, "Go on ! go on ! they are preparing you a good supper there !" 
 
 These words increased their suspicions, and made them expect a 
 combat. They were already within sight of the mountains whose 
 vast slopes line the long valley of the Doire, so deep, and yet of 
 such majestic extent. When they came in sight of this river, half 
 a league from the bridge of Salabertrans, they saw thirty-six 
 bivouac fires burning in the plain. Supposing that a company of 
 soldiers might be gathered around each of these fires, they concluded 
 from these indications that they were in presence of a camp of more 
 than 2000 men. However, they kept on their course; but the 
 advanced guard very soon fell in with the outposts of the enemy, 
 and lost five men. No longer doubting that they must fight, they 
 made prayer to God, asking not life but victory. The action com- 
 menced by an engagement of sharpshooters. After an hour and a 
 half s firing, there was a sort of tacit armistice — a moment's respite 
 — during which the Vaudois held a coimcil as to what they should 
 do.^ Night had now come on; the weather was cloudy, and it be- 
 
 ' These and the following particulars are taken, not from the work of Arnaud, 
 
48 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third 
 
 Chap. Ill] 
 
 THE FATAL WATCHWORD. 
 
 49 
 
 came very dark. The council of war decided that they should form 
 themselves into three attacking parties, one at the end of the bridge, 
 a second up the river, and the third farther down. 
 
 The troops defending the passage were French; their commander 
 was M. De Larrey, and he occupied the end of the bridge with his 
 best soldiers. "I was one of the advanced guard," says one of 
 the Vaudois combatants. " We approached from the river, on the 
 
 left of the bridge: at the same instant arrived 200 
 
 men, 
 
 who 
 
 fired on us in the darkness of the night. Three of our men were 
 killed. "We mounted again by the right, and sustained a new 
 discharge. Then our brigade rushed towards the bridge, where, 
 after having fired some shots, as we saw the enemy approaching, we 
 flung ourselves on our bellies upon the ground, and a terrible dis- 
 charge passed over us, without doing us any harm. We then rose 
 up, sabre in hand, exclaiming to the rear-guard, 'Forward! the 
 bridge is won !'" ^ The Vaudois of the centre instantly rushed on 
 after these brave combatants. The bridge was still covered with 
 the enemy's troops; but the two wings of the Vaudois army con- 
 centrated their fire on the decisive point. M. De Lan*ey was 
 wounded in the arm. He retired from the field of battle, where it 
 was impossible to have a proper examination as to the seriousness 
 of the wound. His troops hesitated, and felt themselves to be 
 without a feader. "Forward! forward!" exclaimed the Vaudois 
 again. An electric impulse passed like lightning through their 
 ranks, and hurried them all towards the bridge. The wings then 
 bent in upon the centre ; all rushed eagerly forward ; nothing could 
 resist that impetuous mass, and they crossed the bridge. 
 
 "But on the other side there was a wall, and rather than aban- 
 don it, the French suffered themselves to be cut down with the 
 sabre, and their dead bodies heaped above one another. Their 
 cavalry continually fired on us. Other soldiers, coming from Sala- 
 bertrans, surprised us, attacking us at the same time in the rear."^ 
 Arnaud and Mondon repulsed them, whilst the rest of their little 
 army pressed eagerly on to the camp of the French. Driven on by 
 those who came last across the bridge, those who were in front 
 could not stop, and burst, ere they were aware, through the ranks 
 of the enemy. Courageous and excited, they pierced from one side 
 
 but from an unpublished letter, written by a Vaudois of the expedition, and pre- 
 served at Berne. {State Archives, file D.) 
 
 * These particulars are taken from a very rare little work, with a very long title: 
 Relation de ce qui s^est passi de plus remarquable dans le retour des Vaudois .... 
 Par un soldat de Vcxpedition, &c. ... La Uaye, 1690, an ISmo of 92 pages. 
 The present quotation is from p. 10. 
 
 * Extract from the same Relation, p. 11. 
 
 to the other of the hostile army, cutting it in two ; and coming 
 upon its intrenchments, carried them at the point of the bayonet, 
 routing all, and pursuing the fugitives until they remained masters 
 of the plain, still smoking with discharges of artillery, bivouac fires, 
 and bloodshed. "Never was there so violent an onset," says Ar- 
 naud;* "the sabres of the Vaudois broke in pieces the swords of 
 the French, and struck multitudes of sparks from the fusils and 
 muskets, which they used to parry the blows aimed at them." " Is 
 it possible," exclaimed the Marquis De Larrey, " that I have lost 
 both the battle and my honour!" 
 
 Scarcely had the Vaudois crossed the bridge, when they destroyed 
 it. "All along the bank of the river," says an eye-witness, the 
 gravel was strewn with dead bodies, as well of the cavalry as of the 
 peasants and the king's soldiers."^ The combat had lasted more 
 than two hours. The French were so completely routed, that a 
 great number of them, not knowing to what side to flee, mingled 
 amongst the Vaudois, in the hope of being mistaken for some of 
 them, and so saving themselves. But a circumstance, which would 
 seem grotesque if it had been less fatal for them, caused them to 
 be recognized, notwithstanding the darkness of the night. The 
 Vaudois, after having taken possession of the intrenchments of their 
 adversaries, had posted sentinels at all the avenues from it. The 
 watchword was Angrogne [Angrogna]; and when the sentinels 
 cried. Who goes there ? these strangers, thinking to give the proper 
 reply, mutilated the watchword in attempting to pronounce it, and 
 only said Grogne,^ which betrayed them, and led to their death.* 
 
 The rising moon displayed the ground strewed with the dea^l 
 Some of the Marquis De Larrey's companies had been reduced to 
 seven or eight men ; others had lost their ofiicers; and all were in 
 flight towards Suza, Exilles, or Brian9on. " We had only twenty- 
 two killed, and eight wounded," says the Vaudois soldier akeady 
 quoted; "of the enemy there remained 700, all killed upon the 
 spot, and well counted, to say nothing of the wounded."^ The 
 basin of the Doire was again deserted and still. 
 
 The Vaudois assembled together, and prayed. Then they took 
 the enemy's munitions of war, all that they could bring to one 
 place, and putting into the heap some barrels of powder, for which 
 they had no use, they affixed to it a lighted match, and withdrew 
 from the valley. A terrible explosion soon shook the mountains, 
 aad scattered to great distances the remains of the French camp. 
 The exiles, re-invigorated by this peal of victory, flung their caps in 
 
 ' P. 97. - Relation d'un soldat, p. 11. U** Grumbling"— an old word. ] 
 
 ♦ Return, p. 98.— This recals Judges xii. 6. * Relation, p. 12. 
 
 Vol. ir. o7 
 
50 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PABT TillBO. 
 
 the air, exclaiming, " Glory be to the God of armies, who has deli- 
 vered us from the hands of our enemies ! " ^ 
 
 Ordinary courage would now have demanded some repose, for the 
 Vaudois had marched on unintermittingly for three days and three 
 nights, without proper sleep, and almost without food, sleeping only 
 for a few hours at a time, and having for nourishment nothing but 
 bread and water. But in the apprehension that new troops might 
 come upon them, and take them in the rear, they resolved to set 
 out again at once. The mountain which remained to be crossed 
 separates the valley of the Doire from that of Pragela. The moon 
 was up; the way was free from danger ; but human strength is 
 not unlimited, and some soldier was continually falling at the foot 
 of a tree, overcome with fatigue and sleep. The rear-guard had 
 much difficulty in awakening them again; and, after all, there 
 remained some of them who were forgotten, and who were never 
 seen more.'-* 
 
 UntU daybreak the exiles were still occupied in climbing these 
 wooded, steep, regular, and interminable slopes of the mountain of 
 Sci. When the sun rose, all of them, having several times waited 
 for and encouraged one another, were at last assembled at the 
 summit of the mountain. It was a Sabbath morning (25th August, 
 1689), and from this point they beheld other mountains as high as 
 those over which they had passed; but above their sombre crests 
 gleamed in the far distance the glaciers of their native Alps, the 
 radiant peaks of their own country. In the first beams of morning, 
 the snows of these great elevations appear of a bright rose colour, 
 and afterwards become white in the more equal light of day, whilst 
 the silent depths of the valleys are still filled with darkness and 
 with fogs. After so many fatigues, and so much perseverance and 
 pain, the valiant pilgrims saw before them at last the goal of their 
 destination. The highest parts of the valley of Pragela were spread 
 out at their feet. Here afready was one of the lands of their fore- 
 fathei-s. They fell upon their knees, returning thanks to Heaven 
 for having brought them within view of their native place. " O 
 Lord, my God," exclaimed the pastor, "thou who didst bring back 
 the sons of Jacob from the land of bondage to that of their ancestors, 
 O God of Israel, God of our fathers ! be pleased to accomplish and 
 to bless thy work in us, thy feeble servants ! May the light of the 
 gospel never be extinguished in these mountains, where it has so 
 long shined ; and grant that oui- hands may rekindle it, and main- 
 ' Return, p. 100. 
 
 2 Their number amounted to no fewer than eighty. They were taken by the 
 French troops, and carried to Grenoble, and thence to the gaUeys. {Amaud, 
 p. 103.) 
 
 Chap. Ill ] 
 
 THE PATRIOTS REACH PRAL. 
 
 51 
 
 tain it there. Bless our absent famiUesl . . . And to thee 
 alone, O heavenly Father, with Jesus thine only Son, our Saviour, 
 and the Holy Ghost our Comforter, be honour, praise, and glory, 
 now and for ever. Amen." . 
 
 Whilst the Vaudois gave thanks to God on the mountain tops, 
 beneath the vault of heaven, in that glorious temple, the work of 
 nature and not of human hands, all the Catholic priests of the valley 
 of Pragela abandoned their parishes and took to flight, on the report 
 of the victorious return of the exiles whom they had so grievously 
 persecuted. On the evening of that day the Vaudois encamped in 
 the village of Jossand, at the base of the Col du Pis, which sepa- 
 rated them from the valley of St. Martin. During the night the 
 rain a-ain began to fall, and next morning the troop set out at a 
 rather later hour than usual. The Col du Pis was guarded by 
 Piedmontese troops, who fled on the approach of the Vaudois. ihe 
 latter halted at the Alpage^ of Le Pis, and descended the moun- 
 tain by night, by the light of torches, of which they found an 
 abundant supply in the resinous branches of the pine trees and 
 larches which grow upon these mountains. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 27th, they arrived at the Balsille, that post ot 
 defence which Janavel had most particularly pointed out to them 
 and which was to serve them for winter-quarters at the end ot 
 the year. A half company of the enemy was taken in this place. 
 The Vaudois, having put to the sword the forty-six men of whom 
 it was composed, hid their arms amongst the rocks. Next day 
 they went to Pral, where, for the first time since their exUe, they 
 celebrated Divine service in one of the places of worship of their 
 
 """"on "^Thursday, the 29th, they received information that the 
 enemy awaited them at the Col Julian, and, comformably to the 
 instructions of Janavel, which had already served them so weU at 
 Salabertrans, they divided their little army into three parts re- 
 presenting the centre and two wings. Arriving at the forest of 
 laxches which clothes the mountain for two-thirds of its height 
 they perceived some sentinels, and soon afterwards the advanced 
 posts of the enemy, who insultingly cried to ^hem " Come on! 
 come on, ye devil's Barbets! there are more than 3000 of us, and 
 we occupy all the posts." The Vaudois mounted to the assault, 
 and all these posts were carried. The soldiers, lately so insolent 
 fled with such precipitancy and in such disorder that they earned 
 with them none of the warlike stores which had been provided m 
 their intrenchments. These stores were of great value to the 
 
 » See note in vol. i. 
 
52 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Tuibd. 
 
 Chap. IIL] 
 
 A SOLEMN ENGAGEMENT. 
 
 53 
 
 IM 
 
 Vaudois. But in this affair they had the misfortune to lose one 
 of their captains, Joshua Mondon, who died of his wounds, and 
 was buried next day at the hamlet of Les Paousettes, under a rock 
 covered with clematis. They descended the mountain on the same 
 day, and then proceeding to L' Aiguille and Sibaoud, on the 31st of 
 August they drove out the new inhabitants of Bobi. 
 
 Next day, the 1st of September, the valley being now again 
 their own, by the retreat of the strangers and of the enemy, who 
 had halted at Le Villar, they judged it proper to embrace the 
 opportunity for solemn exercises of worship. It was a Sabbath. 
 Assembled on the hill of Sibaoud, whence there is a view of the 
 whole basin of Bobi, they piled their ai-ms, and beneath the shade 
 of the great chestnut trees which crown the summit of the hill, on 
 a carpet of alpine verdure, beside the ruins of an old castle, they 
 enjoyed for the first time, in tranquillity, their re-conquest of their 
 native land. 
 
 The pastor Montoux having placed the door of a house upon 
 two rocks, ascended upon it, and from this pulpit addressed them 
 from these words of Luke : i « The law and the prophets were until 
 John : since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every 
 man presseth into it." After this sermon some arrangements were 
 made, and then these pious and valiant patriots entered into a 
 solemn covenant, renewing the ancient oath of union of the valleys, 
 and embodying in it the substance of the instructions of Janavcl.' 
 The following are the most important passages : — 
 
 "God, by his grace, having brought us happily back to the heri- 
 tages of our fathers, to re-establish there the pure service of our 
 holy religion— in continuance and for the accomplishment of the 
 great enterprise which this great God of armies hath hitherto 
 carried on in our favour — 
 
 "We, pastors, captains, and other officers, swear and promise 
 before the Uving God, and on the life of our souls, to keep union 
 and order among ourselves; and not to separate or disunite our- 
 selves from one another, whilst God shall preserve us in life, if we 
 should be reduced even to three or four in number; and never to 
 treat with the enemy without participation of our council of 
 war, <fec 
 
 " And we, soldiers, promise and swear this day before God to be 
 obedient to the orders of our officers, and to continue faithful to 
 them, even to the last drop of our blood 
 
 "And we, officers, promise to take heed that all the soldiers 
 preserve weU their arms and ammunition; and especially to chas- 
 
 » xvi. 16. 
 
 tise very severely any of them who swear and blaspheme the holy 
 
 name of God. 
 
 "And in order that union, which is the soul of all our affairs, 
 may remain always imbroken among us, the officers swear fidelity 
 to the soldiers, and the soldiers to the officers; 
 
 " All together promising to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 to rescue, as far as it is possible for us, the dispersed remnants of 
 our brethren from the yoke which oppresses them, that along Avith 
 them we may re-establish and maintain in these valleys the king- 
 dom of the gospel, even unto death. 
 
 "In witness whereof, we swear to observe this present engage- 
 ment so long as we shall live." 
 
 All the Vaudois, lifting up their hands to heaven, ratified by an 
 oath this solemn covenant, when Arnaud had read it; and soon 
 after they divided themselves into two bodies, to occupy smiul- 
 taneously the valley of Lucerna and that of St. Martin. It will be 
 recollected that Janavel, the patriarch of their armies, had recom- 
 mended the occupation of both these valleys at once as indispens- 
 able to the success of their enterprise. " It will be most necessary 
 for you to do this," he said, "even if your number should be but 
 small " Their number was small, but they accomplished this ob- 
 ject, though not without efforts, struggles, privations, and sufferings 
 of every kind, the recital of which would fill a volume. The la..t 
 of these trials alone I shall now proceed to narrate. 
 
54 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Tuikd. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STRUGGLE OF THE VAUDOIS, IN THEIR OWN VALLEYS 
 AGAINST THE UNITED FORCES OF VICTOR AMADEUS IL AND 
 LOUIS XIV. ^ 
 
 (SIEGE OF THE BALSILLE.) 
 
 (Septembeb, 1689, to June. 1690.) 
 
 Expedit^n of the Vaudois against Le ViUar-Deatruction of Bobi by the enemy- 
 The Vaudois take Rora-Their generous conduct-Hardships and privations- 
 ^nvn?T ^^"°^%*° ^«°^« «^°^« desperate than ever-They are deserted by 
 many of the French refugees -Turrel, their commander, withdraws from them 
 m despair-Firmness and courage of Arnaud-Council of war at Rodoret-The 
 Vandois retire to the Balsille-Unfavourable reports of their expedition in 
 the journals of the time-Description of the BalsiUe-Efforts of the Vaudois 
 to secure provisions for winter-Corn, which has been covered with snow aU 
 winter, is reaped by the Vaudois in spring-Peter Philip Odin chosen a leader 
 -Piety of the Vaudois-The Marquis D'Ombrailles approaches the Balsille and 
 retires-Courageous refusal of all terms of capitulation-Death of three Van- 
 dois captives-The Balsille assailed by Catinat and the Marquis De Parelles- 
 Sufferings of the assailants from severity of weather-Complete failure of the 
 attack on the fort-Renewed attack by the Marquis De Feuquieres-The Vau- 
 iTllf r Z "^*',^«^"^«^* t« intrenchment, and at last make a wonderful 
 retreat by night to the higher parts of the mountains-They overcome a de- 
 tac^ent of troops at Pramol-Political events favourable to the Vaudois- 
 
 lrno!^'T. V '1"'"* """^ *'" '^"^^^ ^^ France-War declared against 
 France-The Vaudois are received into favour by the Duke of Savoy-Con- 
 tinued struggles with the French troops. ^ 
 
 The Vaudois, after they had divided themselves into separate bodies 
 in order to occupy their principal valleys, and established a flying 
 camp, for the pui-pose of maintaining freedom of communication 
 between them, experienced many vicissitudes and trials. They 
 signalized themselves, however, by remarkable feats of arms. 
 
 Their first expedition was against Le Villar. They seized the 
 town; the garrison retired behind the soUd waUs of the convent 
 They approached this stronghold, rolling before them great casks 
 and tubs, as screens to preserve them from the bullets of the 
 enemy; but not being able to make themselves masters of it in 
 this way, they laid siege to it, when a corps of cavah-y coming from 
 
 «n J^'^'^^^'f "^^•"'^^ '^""^ ^' ^° *^^ preceding chapter, with the addition of 
 numerous documents contained in the Archives of the CouH of Turin -A sneciaf 
 account of the attack on the BalsiUe was published at the HagueTnTe'gO tfth the 
 
 tenant g^mral des armies de France, le 2 mai 1690."-See also the journals of th« 
 tune, from which some particulars have been derived. 
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 GENEROSITY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 55 
 
 the plain compelled them to retire in disorder; Amaud remained, 
 with only six men, on the mountain of Vandalin, and Montoux was 
 made piisoner.^ The Vaudois subsequently took the convent of 
 Le Villar, and blew it up with gunpowder.- 
 
 The enemy seized Bobi, and demolished all its houses; there 
 did not remain, says the journal of the Return, one stone upon 
 another.-^ The Vaudois, on the other hand, burned Le Perrier,* 
 the inhabitants of which had taken flight, and laid waste the valley 
 of Rora. The two parties thus sought mutually to deprive one 
 another of shelter and of the means of existence ; but in submit- 
 ting to the hard necessity of these extreme measures, the Vaudois, 
 faithful to the counsels of Janavel, carefully avoided the useless 
 shedding of blood. When they took Rora, where a number of 
 their brethren were, who had remained there under the protection 
 of an illusive profession of the Catholic religion, they burned, 
 indeed, the church and minister's house, where a mission of Capu- 
 chins had established themselves; but far from maltreating the 
 missionaries, they permitted the emancipated members of their 
 flock to re-conduct them as far as Lucema, and to assist them in 
 transporting thither the articles employed in their worship, and 
 their own movables.^ By an honourable reciprocation of gene- 
 rosity, the valley of Pragela furnished the exiles with provisions.^ 
 Victor Amadeus had given orders that flocks, crops, and provisions 
 of every kind, which could afibrd them any resoui-ce, should be 
 removed from the mountains.'^ 
 
 But they procured provisions by the capture of niilitaiy con- 
 voys,8 by contributions levied from the plains,^ and by incursions 
 into Dauphiny.^o The poor exiles, thus re-occupying their native 
 country, gathered in also, in the intervals of their combats, the 
 fruits, grains, and roots which had grown in their valleys in conse- 
 quence of former cultivation.^^ The enemy then endeavoured to 
 lay waste the country, cutting down the fruit trees, trampling the 
 crops under foot, and flinging the walnuts and chestnuts into the 
 streams.^^ It was well for the Vaudois that they had the foresight, 
 ere this was done, to lay up stores of provisions,i=^ which they hid 
 amongst the rocks, and even in the ground. The utensils and 
 
 » iJefum, pp. 122-126. 2 Id. p. 162. ' Id. p. 175. * Id. p. 142. 
 
 * This incident is derived from a manuscript, entitled *' Bdaiione fedelusima del 
 staUo e fatti occoHi ndU missione delle valli di Lnserna:' (Episcopal Archives of 
 Pignerol.) ** Amaud, pp. 130, 192. 
 
 » This order is dated 9th October, 1689, and signed by Binayra, the intendant 
 of the province. It is in the Archives of Le Villar; Mazzo, Beligionarii, fol. 96. 
 
 8 Arnacd, Meturn, pp. 123, 128, 154, 201. 
 
 » Id. 107, 149, 150, 221. '" ^^' '^^^' ^^' 
 
 » Id. 138, 153, 182. » Id. 167, 170, 174. " Id. 173, 184, 209, 215. 
 
56 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [tAXt Thud. 
 
 Cb«. iv] 
 
 TUEUEL FORSAKES THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 67 
 
 >^uaUes which they had thus buried before their expulsion, became 
 ako now of great service to them. It was aJways matter of ast<^ 
 mshment regarding them, that they never wanted the munitions 
 of war^ In this fact, inexplicable to their enemies, we have a 
 proof how well all had been arranged beforehand by Janavel, who 
 had said to them, with a mysterious confidence, "Give yourselves 
 no concern on this point." ' 
 
 They had to fight many battles^ and to endure many severe 
 pnvations;' but notwithstanding aU these hard trials, they never 
 ceased, amongst the rocks or in the forests,' regularly to celebrate 
 the sacrament of the Supper, and in camp, or on the march, to 
 make p..yer to God.» And certainly it was God who supposed 
 them; for to aU appearance nothing but destruction awaited them. 
 With nothing sometimes but a few roots to eat, they endured 
 fatigues which would have required the strength of giants. The 
 TW '"''"''"' ;f,^'^--' were armed to fi'ght a^inst them.t 
 
 cJtLrn-n f ,f ''^ i?°" ^'■^""''' ^-^ 12,000 Saaxlinians- 
 Catmat, D OmbniUles, and Feuquieres were baffled by this handfiJ 
 of hero^, clothed in rags, and subsisting on the fare of anchorites. 
 Victor Amadeus seems at last to have intended to march a-ramst 
 them m person ; but ere long he was happy to have them forles 
 However, at the time to which our narrative now refei^, tl,e 
 ^ue of their enterprise seemed to become increasingly doubtful 
 It was now the 16th of October,- and hitherto they h^d only be^n 
 
 ments, which exhausted theii- forces, without conaoUdating theii- 
 
 ^d r;, r-'"* ''*'^"' *"""'' P^^^«"* P-*--- -Edition, 
 and the threatemng uncertainties of the future, weighed sore upon 
 
 iZ/^^f . D'-couragement at least might have arisen, and 
 already, indeed, it began to be felt.» The number of their men. 
 reduced by combats, was stiU further diminished by desertions.'^ 
 
 * Instructions given in June, 1688. 
 
 c- ' ^^wT' ^fJ^"''' ^^* ^^' 2^^—^* ^^^^' 169, 170. It was upon this occa 
 «on that the soldiers of the Marquis of PareUes, thiiing to p«le"auZ 
 among the rocks rushed over precipices. -At Paoz«.«e., 16C AtT«ri73 
 » Return, pp. 126, 133, 134, 159, 168, 181. 211. 212 ^^ffuUl€, 173. 
 
 * At Les Serves de Cruel, pp. 161. 166 5 a* r » . ^ 
 
 « Pp. 126, 2U4, 138. •'AtXe£.ce>.p.200. 
 
 pCf""' !^^T'^^^* ^^' '"°^^^"^^ movements of the armies of Fr^ce^L 
 Piedmont had been arranged at Pignerol, on the 8th of September, 1689 (DoTu 
 ment m the Archives of Turin, No. of Series, 259.) ^ ^' 
 
 .luZml^n"^ "^ ''*' ''""^ ^'f'^"^'^ ContadoregeruTole vev U nostra viaggi^ 
 Zill^^X^^^T^V'' 'ITn "^^^^^ ^^^^ ^-i^i>^ (- <3ocument dated S 
 
 '-^ S:T.*r. ^p^^'ot 184, 202, .0. 
 
 Not a few of the French refugees who had accompanied them, con- 
 sidering their cause to be desperate, and unable to endure the pro- 
 spect of an unequal and seemingly endless struggle, left the Vaudois 
 mountains, where death and triumph would have been equally 
 glorious; most of them, however, only to terminate their course 
 misei-ably ; for being seized one by one, sometimes in the dominions 
 of France, sometimes in those of Piedmont, they were conveyed 
 prisonei-s to Turin, to Pignerol, or to Grenoble, or consigned to 
 the galleys.^ Towards the end of the year there remained but few 
 strangers in the Vaudois troop.^ 
 
 Turrel himself, the commander, who had directed their military 
 operations from their leaving Switzerland to their reaching the val- 
 leys, despaired of the success of the cause for which he had hitherto 
 contended, and seeing no chance of any prosperous issue, and no pro- 
 spect of the Vaudois again acquiring possession of their country, he 
 furtively withdrew from among them, unable to endure to the end 
 the fatigues of such a war. His foreign origin, without marring 
 the display of his military talents amongst the inhabitants of the 
 valleys, no doubt rendered it impossible for him to rise to the ele- 
 vation of their patriotism, or long to maintain such a sentiment.* 
 With all his military talents, he was not like one contending for 
 his native land. But Ai-naud never appeared greater than on this 
 occasion. Far from forsaking a people thus genei-ally forsaken, he 
 only attached himself to them more closely; when the cause of the 
 eidles presented the greatest dangers, he embraced it with greatest 
 ardour; and at the moment when this expedition, worthy of 
 ancient times, discouraged the best soldiers— at the moment when it 
 was abandoned even by those who had promised it most— this last 
 pastor of the exiles became in reality its leader, and, for the sake 
 of religion, sustained the patriotic courage of the Israel of the Alps. 
 
 t Return, pp. 103, 104, 126, 140, 202, &c. 71^T(^^^^ 
 
 3 In the circumstances of his desertion {Return, p. 154) and of his death (p. 156 , 
 we see a reason why Amaud may have kept silence on the particular office with 
 which this leader had been invested in the Vaudois army; whilst the precautions 
 which he found it necessary to adopt, in order to get away (p. 155), show that he 
 must have occupied a more conspicuous position, and one attractmg more general 
 attention than that of a simple captain. Moreover, it is said that after his depar- 
 ture the Vaudois had no more good leaders (p. 178). Even foreigners seem to have 
 considered him as the soul of the expedition (p. 202, concluding Unes . Besides 
 all which, the formal testimony of the original manuscript, already quoted, attests 
 that he was the leader (MS. p. 42). But if Amaud has only mentioned him as a 
 captain (46, 47, 154), it must be because the indifference of t^J^J^^f ^^^ ^^^ ^^*« 
 equal to the deserted condition in which he left them.-It must be added that there 
 is a difficulty in determining with precision what relates to him in Arnaud s work, 
 for there were among the Vaudois a number of persons of the name of Turrel. 
 (Compare pp. 47, 154, and 155 of the JKc^Di.) cq 
 
 Vol. n. ^^ 
 
58 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Tuiao. 
 
 Ji 
 
 It was now the sixty-seventh day of the expedition, the 22d of 
 October, 1689.* Six days before, Arnaud, being still in the valley 
 of LuceiTia,- had celebrated the Lord's Supper in the meadows of 
 Beces, under the shade of some aged chestnut trees, which screened 
 from observation the holy solemnities of the proscribed church. 
 "O, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places 
 of the stairs," says the Song of Solomon, '-'let me see thy counte- 
 nance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy coun- 
 tenance is comely." 3 On that same day the Marquis De Parelles 
 burned all the hill of Prarusting, from Ville S^che to Le Perier. This 
 was on a Sabbath. On the Saturday following,* the Vaudois hav- 
 ing assembled at Rodoret, after placing sentinels on the pass whicli 
 conducts to Pral, and on that which descends to Macel, as well as 
 at the hamlet of Les Fontaines, and at the entrance of the wild 
 valley which they occupied, consulted what they should do. 
 
 Deprived of the positions which they had at first won, and of 
 the leaders whose services they had enjoyed, they found themselves 
 more than ever isolated and unsupported, whilst the circle of the 
 enemy's forces hemmed them more and more closely round. The 
 winter was approaching; their means of procuring provisions were 
 continuaUy diminishing. It was impossible any longer to think 
 of occupying both the valleys. It would be well if they could only 
 find a position which they could maintain with their re-united 
 bands. 
 
 Arnaud, faithful to the instructions of Janavel, represented to 
 them that the rocks of the Balsille alone were capable of afibrding 
 them shelter— that these were their last fortress— that it was time 
 to retire thither, and that God would not forsake them, like those 
 allies of a day, who had proved so ready to flee from their bad for- 
 tune. Then kneeHng down, with all his soldiers, he prayed long 
 for a spirit of union and of courage to restore that confidence with"^ 
 out which they could have no success. Their prayer was heard, 
 and the faith of their fathers reviving in their souls with the as- 
 surance that they would be protected by the God of Jacob, gave 
 this little troop the might of an army. 
 
 A part of the night was spent in prayer. Two hours before day, 
 the Vaudois commenced their march amongst frightful precipices' 
 by which they were, however, imder the necessity of passing, in 
 oi-der to reach the Balsille without being exposed to the assaults 
 of their enemies. "It was so very dark," says Arnaud," that it was 
 found necessary to stretch white cloths upon the shoulders of the 
 
 • Return, pp. 201, 203. 205. 2 Id. p. 200. » Sod- ii 14 
 
 * 22d October, New Style. ood„, n. 14. 
 
 CaAP. IV.] THE FORT OF THE FOUR TEETH. 69 
 
 guides, that they might be seen." One of them, -«;-/i-^^^ 
 manuscript note, fastened on his back some wood which slwne, by 
 which is meant, I presume, not a lighted torch or glowmg brand, 
 but a piece of that ligneous and phosphorescent substance which is 
 found in the decaying trunks of old trees-a^ongst othei;s of th 
 maple and the beech. « Besides all this," adds the narrative, the 
 path which we were compelled to take was such that we were of^en 
 under the necessity of walking on our hands and feet. But what 
 surpasses imagination, and makes us clearly to recognize the assist- 
 Tce of Divide Providence in the most trying -umstan^^^^^^^^^^ 
 that two wounded men passed in safety on ^-rseb-k J^^^^ the 
 same road" Yet these places are so precipitous, that when the 
 yrudrbeheld them by layUg^, tl^ej^air stood upon^^^^^^^^ 
 "One who has not seen them," adds the author, ' <^- ^"^^^"^ 
 of the danger, and one who ha. seen them, would doubtless take 
 
 ^^t^;^^^^^ the summit of the rocks of 
 
 the Ssi^t wLout descending to the bottom of ^^^^ 
 
 theywouldhaveencounteredtheen^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 transit the hostages whom they still retainea, wuci-u 
 
 Zotlbmty of advoBcing, or merely from the very na W de..re^ 
 Z;rng froL their perilous position bribed t^e^ ^-rds ^^^^^^^ 
 
 1 -4-1. +i.«n^ Tt is not known, however, if they succeeaea m 
 
 Snr he rTay 1 a^d^sound fron. amidst the. tremendo^ 
 ^clJrJr-for sLe that time," says Arnaud, "we have heard no- 
 
 ^'^CnefsthiSl-e been received of the Vaudois are not 
 ravoiilv the journals of the time then ^^'^J^^^^^ 
 driven from one of their valleys, and lost the fort of Bobi, atter 
 ^"g a long resistance, and killing a number of Savoy^s. 
 Sncf they retired to La Sarcena, then to L-AxguJle, a^d 
 S tLy'have assembled in the wildest of the. v^ey. a^th 
 HV,rt of the Four Teeth [Les Quatre Dents]. ' It will be.'^f'^ 
 
 » Arnaud, pp. 205, 206. ^ ^ October to I>tcem- 
 
 ^ Gazettes of France, England, and Leaden year lObiJ, 
 ber. --Mercure histwique, t. in. PP- 1057, 11^7, &^c. 
 
60 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS, 
 
 [Pa«t TiiiiD. 
 
 CaKT. IV.] 
 
 CORN REAPED IN WINTER. 
 
 61 
 
 precipice."! " Here," says a recent author, "nature has built with her 
 own hands an asylum for men destined to flee from the persecution 
 of their fellow-men; and here thousands of citizens, persecuted by 
 soldiers and priests, defended their lives against the oppressors."^ 
 
 At this place three small cascades fall on the superior platform, 
 "which is situated," says Arnaud, "on a very precipitous rock, hav- 
 ing, as it were, three stories, or three different inclosures, which ren- 
 der the approach to it very difficult, except on the side of the stream- 
 let which forms these cascades, and which the Vaudois had fortified 
 by strong paHsades, supported by parapets.^ They prosecuted these 
 works of intrenchment over the whole extent of the mountain, 
 connecting the points of rock by bastions of earth or of dry stones' 
 intermixed with trees, whose branches being turned outwards, 
 added to the inextricable difficulties of these walls. Finally, they 
 constructed on the summit of this wild and threatening pyi-amid, 
 a fort, which those who saw it at that time declared to be almost 
 inaccessible, and, indeed, impregnable* This little fort itself was 
 separated from the rock by three great walls.* There were, more- 
 over, deep cuttings in the slope of the mountain, presenting suc- 
 cessively a ditch and a wall, which extended around and inclosed 
 this salient angle, and rose like benches to the base of the higher 
 intrenchments. These trenches, bastioned and covered by each 
 other, amoimted to seventeen in number.^ To these works of for- 
 tification the Vaudois added covered ways, ditches and walls around 
 their casemates, which were digged in the earth, and surrounded 
 with conduits or drains, to prevent the water from entering. These 
 subteiTanean habitations soon amounted to more than eighty in 
 number.7 Thereafter these valiant mountaineers repaired the mill 
 of the village, which stood upon the banks of the Germanasque. 
 The millstone had been hidden in the gravel in 1686. The 
 brothers Poulat, of Les Frons, natives of La Balsille, made known 
 the place in which it had been deposited. It was Hfted up by 
 strength of arms from the sand in which it lay buried, and a 
 strong beam having been passed through the hole in its centre, 
 twelve strong men transported it to the mill, where it was set up 
 again in its place for use.® 
 
 ,Ar^T P'^^'*'"^^''^ "® ^^^^^ ^'om a Mcmoire ftur les passages du vol St. Martin 
 (MS. of the Royal Library at Turin), and from the Relation de Vattaque de la Bah 
 sille (La Haye, 1090). 
 
 -Page 144 of the work entitled " A'oms, situation et detail dcs rallies de la 
 France le long dcs grandes Alpes , , . et de celles qui descendent des Alpcs en Italic " 
 &c. . . . Turin, 1793. 3 jj^^^^^ 268 ' 
 
 * Ration de 1690, par un soldat, p. 39. » Same Itelatioi, p. 43' 
 
 Return, p. 207. » Same authorities. • Return p 208 
 
 The mountaineers now made haste to lay in provisions for the 
 winter "They had come to the Balsille without havmg what 
 would 'support them for the next day. They lived there at fii.t 
 on greens, turnips, and corn, which they boiled and ate wi hout 
 meat or fat, without salt or other seasoning, imtil the re-establish- 
 ment of the mill enabled them to make bread.''^ They then pre- 
 pared great quantities for winter, making use also of the miU of 
 Macel, situated half a league farther down the valley, so long a« 
 the enemy permitted them to have access to it.^ ^^^^\''^\ ^^^ 
 remarkable that the com of Pral and Rodoret, which had not been 
 reaped in 1689, remained uninjured beneath the snows durmg the 
 winter,"' and was reaped by the Vaudois from February to Apr J, 
 1690. "Can any one," says Arnaud, "refuse to recognize the 
 hand of Providence in this extraordinary cii'cumstance, that tlie 
 Vaudois were permitted to make their harvest, not in the midst 
 of summer, but in the midst of winter? Or could any but God 
 have inspired such a small handful of people, destitute of gold 
 and sUver, and of all other earthly succour, with the coui^ge to go 
 and make war against a king who at that time made all Europe to 
 tremble? Is it possible to imagine that, without a protection ab- 
 solutely Divine, these poor people, lodged in the earth almost like 
 the dead, and sleeping upon stmw, after having been blockaded for 
 eight months, could at last have triumphed ? Does it not seem as 
 if God said, in preserving that grain upon the earth durmg eight 
 months, to feed these persecuted people during the hardships of 
 winter and of the siege, ^These are my true children, my chosen 
 and beloved, whom it is my pleasure to feed by my providence; 
 let their land of Canaan, to which I have brought them back, re- 
 joice to see them again, and make them unusual and almost super- 
 
 natui'al gifts.'"* . . ., , 
 
 Isolated on the summit of their rocks, as m an inaccessible eyry 
 the last representatives of the Israel of the Alps saw the waves of 
 their enemies break at the base of that battlemented promontory 
 which sei-ved them for a fortress, like the powerless billows around 
 a gigantic ci-ag, which they are unable to shake. They chose one 
 of themselves, Peter Philip Odln,^ to direct their conduct in con- 
 cert with Arnaud; the foi-mer being to direct them m then- mih- 
 tary operations, the latter in their duties as Christians. Amaud 
 prLhed two sermons every Sabbath, and conducted two religious 
 
 Id. pp. 209, 217. 
 
 » Id. p. 220. 
 
 ' Return^ p. 218. 
 
 : Snf^arl*"— ttat,.e. of tUe letter, ie^un.. pp. 202, 265, and the 
 letter of Arnaud, p. 392. 
 
62 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pam TniEu. 
 
 services daily, one iu the morning and one in the evening. Thus 
 from the summit of these lofty mountain-crests, amidst dangers 
 and privations of every kind, endured for their country's sake, the 
 Vaudois confidently raised to heaven the voice of their prayers, the 
 utterances of their fervour, and the hynuis which proclaimed their 
 ho])e in God. 
 
 In foreign countries the most lively interest began to be felt for 
 them. Some private letters mention that even the Spanish troops 
 quartered in the Milanese, had at that time the intention of giving 
 them aid.i Supplies were sent to them from Holland, but were 
 intercepted by the French troops. « I am informed," eays a writer 
 of the time, " that an offer was made to these mountaineers to send 
 them experienced commanders, but that they rejected it, saying 
 that they could do nothing worth while if they were led by stran*^ 
 
 gers 
 
 Thus passed the winter. The first attempts which were made 
 to drive them out of the Balsille were completely unsuccessful. 
 *•' Although reduced to great extremities," say the contemporar>' 
 journals, "they disputed the ground with their enemies with ad- 
 mirable intrepidity and courage."^ The troops of the Marquis 
 D'Ombrailles succeeded only in seizing the Col du Clapier and the 
 Col du Passet, where they had posts of observation. They made 
 their way even to the village of Balsille, and were about to lay 
 Kiege to the fortified peak on which the Vaudois were located, but 
 a great fall of snow took place, and many of the soldiers of the ])e- 
 siegers had their feet and their hands frost-bitten. For three days 
 D'Ombrailles continued to make various proposals of capitulation 
 to the besieged, which were all rejected; and seeing at last that he 
 could neither succeed by artifice nor by violence, he adopted the 
 resolution of letirinsr. 
 
 Then came the solicitations of relatives, of friends, of pretended 
 protectors of the Vaudois, perhaps of more than one traitor, who, 
 to induce them to surrender, promised them repose in that case 
 ])ut assured them of inevitable extermination if they persisted in 
 their warlike isolation. Some of the lettei-s written with this ob- 
 ject were evidently dictated to their authors.* Take, for an ex- 
 ample, that which one of them wrote to his brother, a soldier in 
 the Balsille : — " You know that God does not command us to take 
 
 arms against our king Do not wrong your children by 
 
 leaving them in this way. I am assured that it rests entirely 
 
 » Id. p. 1270. 
 
 « Slercure histoj-ique, t. vii. p. 1275 ; t. viii. p. 22. 
 
 * Id. t. viii. No. ix. 
 
 * See tlie letters and the replies of the Vaudois, in A maud, p. 225 265. 
 
 CuAP. IV.] 
 
 A RESOLUTE MARTYR. 
 
 6S 
 
 with yourselves whether or not you shall enjoy your liberty. Per- 
 haps you may not again have the advantages which would be 
 granted you now."» " You tell me," replied his brother, "that his 
 royal highness will grant us passports if we ask them from him, and 
 that we ought not to abandon our children, who are still in Swit- 
 zerland. . . . But you must know very well that we did not 
 return to our country in order to leave it again. Here are the 
 heritages of our fathei-s, . . .• and if we attempt to repone our 
 families in the places of their birth, we are not therefore rebels 
 against our sovereign."^ 
 
 " Certainly," replied Amaud and Odin also to the Marquis De 
 Parelles, "your excellence ought not to think it strange if our 
 
 people are bent upon returning to their own homes The 
 
 very birds, which are creatures destitute of reason, return at their 
 proper times, to seek their nest and habitation imforbidden; and 
 yet this is to be forbidden to men created in the image of God." ^ 
 The rustic simplicity of this language imparts still more of mas- 
 cidine energy to the sentiments of these countrymen, thus expressed 
 amidst rude rocks, resounding with the din of arms and battle. 
 •* Our storms are still louder than your cannon," said Amaud at 
 another time, "and yet our rocks are not shaken."* Nor were 
 their hearts. Traits of resolution and unostentatious courage com- 
 plete the admirable character of this Christian Israel. 
 
 Three soldiers, engaged in baking bread, were taken at La Salse, 
 near Macel. Two of them, who were sick, were put to death, after 
 suflTering horrid mutilations. Their heads were then severed from 
 their bodies, and these bloody heads were borne to the third captive. 
 In this way he was marched to La Perouse. This good man, says 
 Amaud, prayed to God so fervently, that the judge of that place, 
 although a Catholic, besought M. D'Ombrailles, for pity's sake, to 
 leave him in his hands; but the general, who never spoke but of 
 utter extermination, threatened the judge that he would hang him 
 along with the prisoner. However, as the governor of Pignerol 
 would not permit the unfortunate man to be executed within the 
 bounds of his government, they hanged him at the castle of Le 
 Bois, in Pragela. But the prayer which he made before his death 
 drew tears from all who were present, of whom the greater part 
 were Protestants that had become Catholics. "I die," said he, 
 " for a just cause ; God will protect those whom you persecute : and 
 for one man whom you kill of the Vaudois, he will raise them up 
 five hundred!" 5 He might have saved his life by an abjuration; 
 
 Mmawdf, pp. 241, 242. 
 * Id. p. 315. 
 
 Id. pp. 243-246. 
 
 » Id. p. 260. 
 » Return, pp. 213, 215, 
 
I Si 
 
 61 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut Third. 
 
 Cha». IV J 
 
 THE BALSILLE ATTACKED. 
 
 65 
 
 R' 
 
 but he preferred to end it gloriously by martyrdom. His head was 
 exposed on the summit of a pole, on the road which conducts from 
 France to the valleys, and passers-by wagged their heads, and said, 
 "Behold the end of the Barbets!"! 
 
 But such was not their end. The daring garrison of La Balsille, 
 familiar with snows and rocks, availed themselves of the winter to 
 make frequent sorties, for the purpose of re- victualling, not only 
 into their own valleys, but also into that of Pragela, and even of 
 Le Queyras.2 
 
 Although reduced in number by desertions, yet they were 
 stronger, because they were more united. The French refugees, 
 who had at first formed part of their troop, had almost all with- 
 drawn.3 They had not been able to bend their natural impatience 
 into compliance with the painful delays and obscure privations of 
 this patriotic struggle. They were ready to devote themselves, 
 without reserve, for a great and rapid sacrifice ; but their energy, 
 their courage, and their love of glory could not hold out against 
 the continued hardships and patient inaction imposed on the re- 
 stored exiles of the valleys, by a prudence which, in their case, was 
 necessary, in the precarious expectation of better days to come. 
 Unexpected circumstances hastened the happy result; but ere it 
 was attained, the persevering mountaineers had still to pass thix>ugh 
 new trials. 
 
 On the 30th of April, 1600, whilst Amaud was preaching, for 
 it was a Sabbath, the Vaudois sentinels saw the troops of Catinat 
 and of the Marquis De Parelles defiling in the bottom of the val- 
 ley. They debouched aroimd the Balsille by the Col du Pis and by 
 the Col du Clapier. The soldiers who came by the Col du Pis had 
 been made to await, for two whole days, amidst the snows of the 
 mountain, the signal for marching ; and many of them suffered as 
 much from this inaction as if they had exposed their lives in a 
 battle. Fourteen hundred peasants of the valleys of Pragela, C6- 
 sane, and Queyi'as, were then put in requisition to carry provisions 
 to them, and to open a way for them through the snow. At last 
 they arrived at the base of the Balsille, and encamped on Monday 
 morning, the 1st of May, in a wood situated to the left of the fort, 
 and some hours afterwards placed themselves in ambuscade on the 
 right bank of the torrent which descends from Le Pis. They were 
 then subsequently replaced on the left bank by a battalion of Sar- 
 dinian troops.* 
 
 Meanwhile the regiments of Le Vexin and Le Plessis kept along 
 the heights of Le Pis, to come upon the Balsille on one of its sides 
 
 » Return, p. 214. « Id. p. 220. » Id. p. 216. ♦ Amaud p. 209. 
 
 behind; the Savoyard militia, with the regiment of C«ub^^ 
 oUmhei Mount Gunivert, in order to •'^^^^ °%*V " K 
 Catinat reserved the rest of his troops ^ -'^]^ ^l^'^^^^^, .J* 
 ^ not without difficulty," ^ys an actor m this drama,^ that the 
 troops reached Mount Gunivert. It had been prop^d ^at^tiiev 
 should proceed thither on Tuesday morning, to ^l^^^f ™ ^" 
 
 togethe'r; but for fear of the ^-^^^Zr^^e !:^ i^rfJ^ 
 ni<'ht, an effort was made to reach it that same aay. 
 ^ore than three leagues there of an ascent so steep tl-t no on. 
 could look behind him without becoming giddy _ The jo^ 
 blocked up by snow, were only opened by the J' ^P f .^^^^f^ 
 who w^t before On the arrival of the troops, at three o clock lu 
 :t ZXat the heights which had been P-^-dy jn- 
 .red. a ^ard --/^VSifwrS^X^Svtd a^ 
 Ss!:mr:nhet:in. -hap^itwa^in^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 did so; for they were no so-- *\»« ^''^^^ ^/t had been neces- 
 began, and there arose a »-* - ^J^J'^^f ^^ i^Ubly have 
 «.ry to have marched in -* -^^^^-^^^^^ ,^ ...^oled them- 
 TrjutUeTbl-n tIfd:^IfS fountain! without water. 
 iZt tXit tent, without coveHn._e.^st to^.u^ 
 by cold, wind, snow, and even haJ, which never ceasca y 
 
 our people durmg the -fole mght. ^^^^^^ ^^ 
 
 On Tuesday morning (2d May, ltjyu},uie ° appeared 
 
 Le Plessis, which ha^ also suffered -* -jJ^rd^heSves 
 upon the heights of the ^"-^^^ ;\^^ ^^I of the Vaudois 
 into two Unes of attack, and opened »P^ *«f ^^^^ „f ,^, droops 
 an iU-directed fire of musketi-y. M-nwhJ • a ^rt o ^^ ^^ 
 posted on Movmt Gunivert^ TTf dl of t^ bIuIc, in antici- 
 von, in order to cut off from the df ^^ei^^*^^ -jie ,emain- 
 pation of their defeat, the f-* *•> *f,^> ^^e Germanasque, 
 
 der of these troops^ '^n.^ort^fthe^ur Teeth [Les Quatre 
 in order also to attack the Fort ot the rour 
 
 Dents]. , . , _„ Tir'hSr'b had commenced 
 
 Holever, ^^^'''YT^VifZ^n:^^ ^ ^''^^ *^^«'^ ^^- 
 their fire from the side of Le l-is, were n ^ 
 
 vanUge. " The left column," says *^-":*;^; J,t,^iobUged 
 keep the roads, which were found quite impracticaD , 
 
 'T'Dri^-Ko— .withtheSavoyara..^ . TU»e^en* of C».V^ 
 ♦ motion, printed at the Hague in 1690, p. 4,1. ^ 
 
 Vol. n. 
 
66 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tnixo. 
 
 H 
 
 to ascend again to join the right, which, after all the difficulties 
 caused by a mountain covered with ten feet of snow, without roads, 
 and working its way amidst inaccessible rocks, arrived at last 
 within musket shot, above the foi-t of the Vaudois. But the 
 mountain where they were was so steep that the men could not 
 descead it without falling down it as a precipice. Moreover, it 
 was now seen that the interval from its base to the fort was 
 still traversed by three great intrenchments. The pioneers were 
 sent for to facilitate the approaches; this occupied more than 
 three hours." 
 
 Meanwhile Catinat, with the regiments of Bourbon, Artois, and 
 Lassarre, supported by a squadi'on of dragoons of Languedoc, had 
 made the attack in front. A steep acclivity at the base of the hill 
 conducted to tlie bottom of the fortified precipices, the rocks and 
 parapets of which, rising one above another, formed the pyramid, 
 of steep ascent, on whose summit stood the little fort of the Vaudois, 
 properly called the Fort of the Four Teeth [Les Quatre Dents].* 
 " An engineer- having examined the place with a telescope, thought 
 it best that the attack in front should be made on the right of this 
 acclivity. A battalion of men, selected from amongst the bravest, 
 nished forward to the charge against this i-apid talus, made one 
 simultaneous discharge against the Vaudois, and intrepidly advanced 
 as far as the base of their first bastion. These bastions were cased 
 with blocks of stone and trunks of trees, disposed in alternate 
 coui-scs, one above the other, the branches of the trees being turned 
 outwards. The soldiera thought they had nothing to do but to 
 seize these trees, throw them down, and so ascend above them. 
 But they foimd themselves much mistaken ; for when they attempted 
 this, they found that the trees were immovable, and securely fas-, 
 tened in the bastion. The Vaudois then opened such a fire, that 
 these bi-ave and unfortunate soldiers fell in great numbers. It was 
 surprizing what a hail-storm of bullets filled the air. It seemed as 
 if the arms of the Vaudois were always charged ; and, in fact, the 
 younger of them, stationed in the second rank, were employed only 
 in charging, whilst the others did nothing but fire from the summit 
 of the bastion ; so that their enemies were destroyed by a continual 
 lire, notwithstanding an incessant fall of snow." 
 
 Catinat, perceiving this, gave orders to the Savoyards to re-de- 
 scend from Mount Pelvon.=* '' Just when they thought that they 
 were about to make themselves masters of the Vaudois, there arose 
 
 • Sec Catiuat's order, quoted by Arnaud, p. 275. 
 
 ■ I here resmne Arnaud'8 narrative, p. 270. 
 
 » I here iatroUuce new particulars derived from iLe Rclaiion of the Ha^ue. 
 
 CHAF.IV.] LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DE PAKAT. 67 
 
 all at once a fog and storm so extraordinary that, ^ J^ -^ ^^^ 
 of the officers can testify, a part of the ^^^ ^f ft ^^^^ 
 visibly interposed for the presei^ation of that handful of people, 
 foTt^ ev n^ caused the Attack upon the fort to be --d-tely 
 Idld, and the French, as well a. the f avoyar ;, d^^^^^^ 
 be engulfed in the ravines and avalanches. It was only by a mi^^^^^^^^ 
 that they succeeded in retiring, for three hours leaping fi om rock 
 to rock amidst terrible precipices, the snow and had sometime, 
 eacht t'heir armpits'so that they would have remamedbuned 
 there if they had not found shelter amongst some larches. 
 
 Tft tle'sustained fire of the bastion had decimated the^^^^^^^ 
 without causing them to give way, a shower of ™' ^ "^^^^^^^^ 
 it was impossible for them to stand, at last ^^-f ^^^^^^^^^^ 
 and theyUreated with a ^^^^^^^ rm.t 
 
 jto ^f^^r^^^^^:^^ 
 
 they were to attack But *^« J 3' ' ^^ the whole detach- 
 
 in disorder, made a vigorous f '^'^''^"^^^'^^i^t.ded and without 
 ment except fifteen men, who «^'='^P°S -^^^^^^ ^^^^^ , 
 
 arms, carried to the camp of the enemy «>« ^^^^ ?^^ ^,^,t 
 
 M. De Parat was made prisoner, and conveyed to the ^e^ ^^ 
 which he hoped to have entered that same evenmg as ''■J^'^^^^^ 
 He was permitted to obtain the attendance of a surgeon to dress 
 S Tun'ds wbose professional services were also very useM to 
 the Vaudois. , g ^j^g eorpses of their 
 
 of a second defeat, by the ^^^^P^'" .. ^^ ^^^ successor; and 
 
 taineei-s. He left the Marquis De leuquieres as nib ^ , 
 
 "Ling are the orde. which the new genex^ issued for the 
 
 conduct of the war ^^ Jf J^^. J^,f ^V^ from Jousseau on the 
 "The regiment of Le ^ ^^i^^'"' pj ^^ encamp the 
 
 1 2th (of May), and proceeding by the Col du ris, w 
 
 . „ U the author of tho Mcl^ion who .peak. p. U. He places this eve„t on tho 
 l..t of May, at ten o'clock A.M. 
 
 •^ Arnaud, VV-fn,272. ^.^^ ^^,^3 himself, and addressed to Victor 
 
 » They are written by the band ot re i . 260.) 
 
 AmadeuB H. (Turin, Archives of State, Ho. ot »er e , 
 
68 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 |,PAkT TiURD. 
 
 same day at Les Bergeries, or by the cascade.* It will be attended 
 by 200 peasants, who will carry wood to warm the soldiers. 
 
 " The second regiment of the dragoons of Languedoc will movt- 
 from Le Saut (read Usseaux or Ussaud), and proceeding by the 
 Albergan, will encamp the same day at the Clos Damian. 
 
 " The regiment of Cambresis will move from Bourset, and pro- 
 ceeding by the Col du Clapier, will encamp on the back of the 
 mountain which looks to Balsille, at the place called La Verge, but 
 out of reach of the fire of the rebels. 
 
 " The regiment of Vexin will move from Maneille, and proceed- 
 ing by IMacel, will encamp between Le Passet and Balsille. 
 
 " Eight hundred men of the 1500 whom his royal highness is 
 pleased to give, will proceed by Salses, and encamp the same day 
 on the mountain of Gunivert, and for this purpose it will be neces- 
 sary that these be presently at Rodoret and at Fontaine, in order 
 that they may easily repair to their post. 
 
 " When all these troops are encamped at the places above named, 
 I will cause a battery of two pieces to be erected during the night, 
 to play upon the castle,* with the view of making a breach in it, 
 the whole of the following day. 
 
 *• The night after, the regiment of Le Plessis will leave 100 men 
 at the Pas de Sarras ; the remainder of the regiment will set out 
 at the hour which shall be appointed, in order to gain the ridge ol 
 the mountain where the rebels are intrenched. 
 
 " The 800 men of his royal highness will leave 300 opposite to 
 the castle, and the other 500 will go on to join the regiment of 
 Le Plessis on the aforesaid ridge.^ 
 
 " If this junction can be eflfected, they will make signals, which 
 I will give them before they set out ; and I will immediately cause 
 cannons to be fired, as the signal to all the posts that they may 
 proceed at once, and by .this general attack exterminate all the 
 rebels.* 
 
 " If there is anything in this plan which his royal highness 
 wishes to be changed, he will do me the honour to send me his 
 orders." 
 
 No change was made. It seemed impossible that this plan should 
 
 * This cascade is two leagues from La Balsille. It is one of the most remarkable 
 in the valleys, and the only one in the valley of Macel. In the valley of Lucema 
 there is a water-fall worthy of notice, near Mirabouc. 
 
 2 This name was given to the part of the Balsille inhabited by the Vaudois, and 
 surrounded by their principal fortifications. 
 ' I here suppress some unimportant details. 
 
 * Here, also, unimportant details are suppressed. Tlie arrangements indicated 
 in this paper correspond with what is recorded by Arnaud, p. 308. 
 
 
 «..,. ivj nOBOURABLE TEMIS OFFBEED. 69 
 
 80 much as the hat ot a vauaois u j ., ^^_„i^eg for they 
 
 were covered by sacks full of woo^^w ^^^ ^^^ks 
 
 It took them twelve days, however to l^ 
 
 and operations. More than one great city has been 
 
 *'T: V 1 1. intreraditv of the defenders of the Balsille 
 
 The remarkab e ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^„,„ie, who treated 
 
 , ired with an ^^^^^^^^TZIylr the attack they hoisted 
 
 i^it^rid ^ -:::^-^:^.:^^. 
 
 louis, and good j-assi^rts for y""'^*"^^^^ , , ^„d " " We have 
 
 ^"' '' T '" rr " r^Lr^fe vLdLtSer. "Ho doubt 
 arms and ammnmtion, repl^ ^^^^^ ^^^_ ^^^ ^„ y„„ 
 
 you may be able to 1"" "^yj ^ ^^ ^ ^^^ Lord will," said 
 hope todestroy - ^^j] l^^^, ^, mountaineers dare to make 
 
 ^"- T Lrl^ of France, who has vanquished so many great 
 
 war agamst the kmg o* * f" ' destruction if you ai-e so 
 
 nations! And can y^-^J^r^^^Feuquieres himself wrote to 
 
 desperate as .^ P^^^uld Jelvour'to avoid bringing things 
 the Vaudois "that they shoui ^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 to the kst f ^--'^y' ."hi itobSt but that he woiUd now grant 
 prise until he accomplished ite object out ^^^^^ 
 
 Lm things which it would beout^J-to^k ^^^^ ^^ 
 
 .hould o- ^-« J:-;i whi^ we,:, accustomed to the noise 
 r;X w 1 ulbetaken by that of cannon,^ thus signily- 
 
 » Return, p. 307. 
 « Id. p. 311. 
 
 « Id. p. 330. 
 
 » Id. pp. 308, 309. 
 » Id. pp. 342, 404. 
 
70 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [i'abt TniBD. 
 
 iog that their minds, which had stood so many trials of advei-sity, 
 would not be overwhelmed by this new evil. That same night 
 their troops made a vigorous sortie, and killed many of the French. 
 They had already made many similar sorties since the commence- 
 ment of the siege, sometimes to destroy the enemy's works and 
 sometimes to seize their convoys, or to drive them from some 
 position. 
 
 At last, according to the plan which he had fi-amed, Feuquieres 
 had his cannon brought to that part of Mount Gunivert which 
 commanded the Balsille. Having unmasked his battery, he again 
 hoisted a white flag, and then a red flag, to signify to the besieged 
 that if they did not surrender they were no longer to look for any 
 quarter. It had, indeed, already been publicly announced in Pig- 
 nerol that all the Yaudois who were not killed amongst their rocks, 
 would be hanged in that city.^ 
 
 The besieged made no reply to these summonses nor to these 
 proposals (for every day they received new ones),- being determined 
 upon a vigorous resistance; and next day (the 14th of May, 1G90) 
 the enemy's cannon began to play upon their fortifications. Before 
 mid-day 114 balls, of 12 or 13 lbs., had already been shot. The 
 bastions of the Vaudois, which were of no very great solidity, being 
 only constructed of dry stones, were soon dismantled. 
 
 The French then mounted to the assault upon three sides, 
 "some," says Arnaud, "by the Clos Damian, some by the ordinary 
 entrance to the castle, and a third detachment by the brook, heed- 
 less of the fire of the besieged, and of the stones which were rolled 
 down upon them. The French musketry kept up a perpetual storm 
 of bullets, and the Vaudois had already been exposed to a vast 
 number of them before they abandoned their lower intrenchments, 
 which, however, they did without having one killed, and only a very 
 few being wounded.^ They then retired to the more elevated fortifi- 
 cations, called the Horse of La Bruoce [ChevcU de la Bruxe\. But to 
 accomplish this retreat they had to pass under the fire of a French 
 redoubt, which they did with success, under covert of a thick fog. 
 The enemy immediately seized the position which they had aban- 
 doned, and redoubled their activity in the attack upon the higher 
 intrenchments. 
 
 The Vaudois, seeing themselves so closely beset, considered that 
 the hand of God alone could save them from that of their adver- 
 saries. They invoked his aid, continued their resistance till night ; 
 and then profiting by the mists, which on rainy days arise towards 
 evening from the deep glens, when these protective veils began 
 « Return, pp. 342, 404. 2 id. p. 316. » Arnaud, p. 319. 
 
 CUAP. IV.] 
 
 RETREAT FROM THE BALSILLE. 
 
 n 
 
 to enfold the heights, they issued from their retreat, and, under the 
 guidance of Captain Poulat, who was a native of these mountains-- 
 under the invisible but real protection of the Almighty--enveloped 
 in these dark and humid clouds, by the confused and distant light 
 of the enemy's fires, on icy or moist slopes of almost perpendicular 
 rocks, over which they were compelled to pass, they held their way, 
 one after another, in single file across the gaping crevasses above 
 the deep chasms of the Germanasque, dragging themselves along 
 on their bellies, clinging to the asperities of the mountain, or to 
 bushes or roots hanging from the rocks, restmg from time to time, 
 continually praying to God, and never yielding to despain Afte^ 
 all this they digged steps in the hardened snow to climb by, and 
 gained the northern slope of Mount Gunivert, -^--J^^^^^^ 
 
 L posts of the enemy, some of whom ^^^f ^f ^^ .TicTe S 
 i^ed, and then panting, exhausted, half-dead with f-tiguej^ut 
 IZsing the Lord for so mii^culous a deliverance, they arrived at 
 the base of the glaciers of Le Pelvoux. 
 
 At sunrise, next day. they appeared to the astomshed eyes of the 
 enemy, like eagles that had flown from their eyry, on °">«»tam-top3 
 much kigher than the Balsille, and than all the posts oecupif by 
 Te assafling army. The Marquis De FeuqxuSres made haste to 
 !end a det^hment after them, but it was too h.te; when th^ 
 d^hment moved, the fugitives - V*/f ^^f ^ ^.t; 
 when it wa^ at La Salse they were at Bodoret; -l'^" ^^^^ 
 was at Rodoret the indefatigable Vaudois were on the mountan 
 of Galmon which commands the whole valley of Pral; and thu.s 
 fleeSZ; peak to peak, keeping always at ad stance from the 
 "nemP.and stUl increasing the distance by their -I--»ty - 
 ~ h coura.'e, and perfect knowledge of the localities, the glo- 
 Su'it^r^ ived above Servins, where they paused for praye. 
 rmildtronounced, with aloud voice, the words of supplication aad 
 ulSiving. but his troop was dying of fatigue and hunger Then 
 
 arrived towards evening at the summn, oi u mountains 
 
 the spurs of the Cor««o««-the culminating point of J~^ 
 
 whic^ separate the vaUey °^^^~2rn tl -wtTh 
 
 iitrrc^^bttftt^t^^^ 
 
 f-rdr.I.Vh- -XoSvet. a.er midnight. 
 
72 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaetTuikd. 
 
 Laving made their way down dangerous precipices, clinging to small 
 shrubs and aiding one another by joined hands. 
 
 Kotwithstanding the extraordinary fatigues of this day of super- 
 human marches, the Vaudois set out again before dawn, on Saturday, 
 the 17th of May, to pass over the mountain which now separated 
 them from Rioclaret. Their object was to pass by the heights of 
 Angrogna to the celebrated retreat of their ancestors, the Pra-du- 
 Tour, which is as deeply sunk among the mountains as the Balsille, 
 which they had quitted, is elevated above the valley. But they 
 soon perceived that the enemy followed in their track ; therefore, 
 changing the direction of their route, they proceeded towards Pra- 
 mol, in order to get some provisions. This commune continued to 
 be peopled by the new inhabitants whom Victor Amadeus had 
 introduced into it. They possessed numerous flocks, and were 
 protected by a post which was commanded by Captain Vignaux. 
 The Vaudois attacked him so vigorously that they killed fifty-seven 
 of his men, dispersed the rest, and seized the commander himself, 
 along with three of his inferior officers. 
 
 These events took place at a time most critical for the enterprise 
 hitherto so resolutely prosecuted by the Vaudois, whom Victor 
 Amadeus had exiled, and who had returned to take possession of 
 their own country. For that prince himself it was also a decisive 
 moment in the determination of his policy. It was at the instiga- 
 tion of the king of France that he had driven out the Vaudois: 
 with the arms of the king of France he had just been contending 
 against them at the Balsille, and the demands made upon him by 
 that haughty monarch becoming continually more and more imperi- 
 ous, were on the point of throwing him into the party of the allies 
 (Spain, Austria, and England), in their war with Louis XIV. 
 The fight at Pramol took place on the 17 th of May, and the vic- 
 tors were informed by their captive, M. De Vignaux, that Victor 
 Amadeus had only to the Tuesday following (the 20th of May) to 
 decide between Germany and France. If he should decide for 
 France the Vaudois could expect nothing else, according to all 
 human judgment, than to be destroyed or again expelled from the 
 valleys. I^ on the contrary, the court of Savoy were to pronounce 
 in favour of the enemies of France, the Vaudois would be received 
 again into favour by the sovereign, and might even hope for some 
 grateful acknowledgment of their valiant resistance to Louis XIV. 
 They would acquire, moreover, a real importance, from their posi- 
 tion on the frontiers of the two states, and from the assistance 
 which their troops, habituated to war, femiliar with the Alps, and 
 full of ardour against the king of France, might be able to afford to 
 
 jCua». IV ] 
 
 HAPPY TURN OF FORTUNK 
 
 n 
 
 the cause of Savoy, by this political revolution again identified with 
 
 their own. i j i-i. 
 
 Here the reflecting mind pauses to inquire, « On what do the 
 destinies of men and nations sometimes depend?" "On God," 
 repUes the Christian. In truth it was God who, for the safety of 
 the Vaudois, had now caused a general commotion throughout 
 Europe, or at least who, by means of these far-extending commo- 
 tions, reinstated a people, small in point of number, in the abodes 
 of their ancestors. Thus those mighty forces, which sometimes 
 shake both earth and heaven, and which, during the storm, send 
 forth thunder and fierce blasts of wind, are commissioned to effect 
 the object of bestowing a few drops of rain upon some unheeded 
 
 flower of the valley. 
 
 Next day the Vaudois received information at Angrogna tiiat 
 Victor Amadeus II. had decided in favour of Austria, that he had 
 <leclared war against France, restored peace to theii' exhausted 
 tribes, gladly accepted the assistance of their arms, and opened to 
 them again the gates of their native land. Afterwards they 
 received overtures from France, the French monarch (through the 
 Marquis De La FeuiUade) offering them his protection if they 
 would turn their arms against Victor Amadeus, the direct, or at 
 least the responsible author of the persecution which they had 
 endured. But the Vaudois nobly repelled that hypocritical pro- 
 
 ^"^ Whilst they were at Angrogua a messenger came to them from 
 the ChevaUer De VercelUs, commandant of the fort of La Tour, 
 who on the part of the Duke of Savoy, offered them provisions 
 and arms, inviting them to range themselves under the bannei^of 
 their own legitimate sovereign.^ They did not hesitate ; and Vic 
 tor Amadeus, who had pei^secuted them, was now threatened in his 
 turn, and soon became a wanderer and a fugitive, as they themselves 
 had been; their country was again restored to them and now it 
 became their duty to defend him. The governor of the fort of 
 Mirabouc also had orders to allow these glorious exiles, who had 
 recovered possession of their country, to ^t and move about with 
 all freedom.-^ But they had still some days of severe struggles, and 
 during which they were hai-d pressed by enemies, before they found 
 themselves peacefully settled; for the French were furious agams 
 them for having foiled them at the Balsille, and moitified above al 
 that theii' skilful manoeuvres, theii' imposing an-ay of forces, and 
 their regular siege of the fort of Les Quatre Dents liad issued in 
 nothing but their getting possession of the place, without the be- 
 t Arnaud, p. 329. ^ Id- P- ^^^' ^^ 
 
 Vol. u. 
 
74. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet TaiBil 
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 FRANCE AND PIEDMONT. 
 
 75 
 
 sieged— that they had succeeded only in seizing these pointed rocks, 
 like an empty eyry from which the eaglets have departed. They 
 therefore pursued the Vaudois from valley to valley, with an 
 ardent thirst for their extermination. One of these pursuing corps^ 
 commanded by M. De Clerambaud, was arrested and disarmed at 
 La Tour by the garrison of that place,i which had received intelli- 
 gence of the rupture between France and Piedmont before the 
 detachment had been informed of it. 
 
 As for the Vaudois, they kept to their heights, still living a 
 life of many privations; now feeding on milk and roots,' now on 
 some partridge which had been shot, and which was cooked on a 
 flat stone, without any seasoning ;« now on bread, obtained with 
 crreat difficulty,* or on a soup made of sorrel and violets gathered 
 on the mountains.5 Some of them becoming frenzied, fed m the 
 most savage manner, even devouring the raw flesh of wolves which 
 they killed.^' Yet in these circumstances, still so full of danger, 
 these brave mountaineers succeeded in obtaining some signal ad- 
 vantages over the enemies who were anxious to destroy them. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 21st of May, the French having sent two 
 detachments into the moimtains of Angrogna, the one above the Pra- 
 du-Tour, and the other on the south slope of Vendalin, in oixier to 
 surprise the Vaudois there, they were, on the contrary, surprised 
 by the Vaudois, who by this victory obtained complete equipments 
 for sixty nien.^ Next day, also, the Vaudois fought all day; and 
 a few days after they were strengthened by a new company of their 
 brethren, who, having left the BalsiUe before that place was given 
 up had remained till now in Pragela.« New skirmishes still took 
 place from the 4th to the 10th of June; but the French troops 
 gradually withdrew from these valleys to other destinations. The 
 Vaudois then estabUshed their headquarters at Bobi, where Victor 
 Amadeus caused his commissaries to distribute provisions to them.» 
 Numbers of their brethren, who had been detained prisoners at 
 Turin, now began to arrive, amongst others Captain Pelenc and 
 Captain Mondon of Bobi, to whom the Duke of Savoy had said, 
 when he set them at liberty, '-Return to your brave compatriots! 
 TeU them that they wiU henceforth be as free as they were in for- 
 mer times. Let them be as faithful to me as they have been to 
 their religion, and their ministers may preach even in Turin.'"* 
 This promise was not to be fulfilled until long after, and not 
 
 « ^maud, p. 348. ^ Id. p. 350. » Id. p. 344. *]f'V^^' '^t^'^^' 
 • Id. p. 354. ' Id. pp. 346, 347. » W. P- 349. 'Id. PP- 356, 357. 
 
 »• Id. pp. 357, 353. Bnpplemented by an unpublished letter of Ecynaudin, the prin- 
 cipal author of the Glorious Return. 
 
 
 until after he who made it had proved unfaithful to it But he 
 then had need of the Vaudois, and their valour did not disap- 
 point him. Let us inquire Into the sudden turns of fortune, which 
 had led to these unexpected resolutions in the high regions of power. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RUPTURE BETWEEN FRANCE AND SAVOY, WAR WHICH FOL- 
 LOWED IT, AND NEW SITUATION OF THE VAUDOIS, NOW 
 BECOME DEFENDERS OF VICTOR AMADEUS 11.^ 
 
 (J ONE, 1690, TO Septembee, 1604.) 
 
 Exorbitant demands of France upon Piedmont-Victor Amadeus concludes mi 
 ™e with Austria, and goes to war with France-He favours t^ie Vaudo. 
 tn order to enjoy the support of their arm^He enco^ages French Protestaut 
 refugees in Piedmont-Return of Vaudois from Brandenburg with their 
 aS-Generosity of the Elector of Brandenburg-The Vaudois regiment 
 in piedmont-Successful incursion into the valley of the GuiU m Dauphiny-- 
 Expeditlons and combats-The Vaudois leaders in the P---y^j^7^-^^^^ 
 AmadeuB-Gallantry of the Vaudois at the capture of the fort of bt Michael, 
 ^r L^cerna-VicTory over the French at Briqu6ras-The French abandon 
 the v^LyTst. MartL-Defeat of Victor Amadeus at Staffar de-Savoy sub- 
 .TtnVrance-The French again make themselves masters of the valley of 
 if Ma^i!-?^ are r!^^^^^^^ f-- that of Lucerna-Faithful adherence o 
 LeV^dois to Victor Amadeus-Their incursions into Dauphiny-M. De 
 FeuqIS" French general, suffers severe loss at Luccrna-Various con- 
 flicts and events of war. 
 FOK a long time the demands made by France upon Piedmont had 
 far exceeded aU that one poUtical power is entitled to expect 
 from another in alliance with it. The zeal of Victor Amadeus for 
 the interests of France diminished every day;^ and the French 
 
 I AnTnOBITIES -The same as in tlie two pre«ding chapters, except Arnaud 
 and fteworrwhich terminate at the same point with his. Likewise the general 
 ^'orii^ting to this period, -nthly pubUcations, «.c.-^ee also^e. ^.^r. 
 <fe ta France e^lave qui <m>ire apri> la iOerti Amsterdam, 1«^. **»• ^P„^*^ 
 
 ^L«o lAOchi Vicmtirw, without date or place of puWication.-iM^o^um dun 
 fj^ &c^tL l^icull. authorities are indicated at the bottom of each page 
 ^omihe commencement of the year he had given expression to h.s dissat.sfao- 
 «.„ "wL^t hTve I ever done to the king but serve him in all possible c.rcnm- 
 ? ^ ■> H^e iZ eacrihced to his pleasure the valley of Lucema, contrary to all 
 stoncM? Have I "»' •«™^'' '° ^ , y^^^ Amadeus to the Duke of Orleans, 
 
 S: tXr.^"Stri^I ^tk S^^;, 1«K..-/>«*«^, p. ^*. M.»er plac^ 
 ^ UttTm the month of June, but without assigning to it any precis, date.) In 
 STi^Sstoof 6"h July, 1690. Louis XTV. also said: " Ever sum, the month of 
 
75 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pait Thi»d. 
 
 Chap, v] 
 
 EXILES ALLOWED TO RETURN. 
 
 77 
 
 monaxcli, regarding Lis alliance with a corresponding diminution of 
 confidence, exacted from tlie Duke of Savoy fresh guarantees of his 
 fidelity, and demanded that the citadels of Verceil and Turin 
 should be delivered to him. This was to demand the keys of Pied- 
 mont, the vassalage of Victor Amadeus, and the renunciation of all 
 liberty upon his part ; for him the question was no longer of an alli- 
 ance, but a subjugation. 
 
 His high and proud spirit revolted at this idea, but prudence 
 caused him to dissemble. Not feeling himself strong enough to 
 contend alone and immediately against the King of France, he 
 negotiated with Austria, fortified his towns, made new levies, and 
 sought, by diplomatic representations and delays, to gain time with 
 Louis XIV. He wrote him a respectful letter, in which he an- 
 nounced to him the mission of the Count de Provana, charged to 
 proceed to Versailles to give the answer to his proposals. 
 
 Louis XIV. did not await the arrival of this ambassador, but 
 immediately addressed to the Duke of Savoy an imperious letter,* 
 requiring him to decide without delay; and at the same time he 
 ordered Catinat, who commanded his troops, to enforce this demand. 
 Victor Amadeus replied so as not to commit himself Longer time 
 was allowed him. He profited by it to conclude an alliance, offen- 
 sive and defensive, with the Emperor Leopold, who recognized his 
 titles of King of Cyprus and Royal Highness; and adopted the 
 policy of favouring the return of the Vaudois to their own country, 
 that their arms might be turned against France.* Victor Ama- 
 deus concluded on the same day a similar treaty with Spain, and 
 ordered Catinat immediately to leave his dominions, with the 
 troops under his command. 
 
 Notwithstanding the representations of the Catholic clergy,^ h© 
 proceeded to set at liberty all the Vaudois still detained in the- 
 prisons and in the galleys. He even caused those who pined in the 
 
 January, I have been informed that the Duke of Savoy, seconded by Holland and 
 England, intended to recal the Barbets, and with their aid to make an invasion 
 of Dauphiny." (Moser, § 53.) 
 
 » Dated 24th May, 1690. 
 
 » This treaty was concluded on the 4th of June, 1690. The paragraph relative 
 to the Vaudois is § VL It is in these terms :— " His majesty the emperor promises 
 to see to it that the Vaudois and the French refugees .... shall act conformably 
 to the orders of his royal highness." {Dieterici, p. 276.) 
 
 ' The Duke de Chaulnes and the Cardinal De Bouillon persuaded the pope to 
 protest against the return of the Vaudois, and to withdraw from Victor Amadeus 
 the tenth part of the ecclesiastical revenues, which he received by special autho- 
 riation of Innocent XI. Alexander VIII., the then reigning pope, said that 
 the conduct of the Duke of Savoy merited excommunication. The Sardinian 
 envoy prevented the result of these intrigues. (Mercure hist. t. viii. pp. 123, 125, 
 and t. ix. p. I&j 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 prisons of Turin to be brought into his presence. Amongst them 
 were the 122 men of Amaud's troop who had not been able to reach 
 the rendezvous in time, and had been taken prisoners as they left 
 the GrLsons in 1689 ; who had also been subjected to much cniel 
 treatment in their captivity.' The duke expressed '^^Srfiovt}^^ 
 and threw the blame upon the ty.-anny and fanaticism of the King 
 of France. He gave orders, in their hearing, that they should be 
 provided with clothes, and with everything of which they jtood in 
 need.' He caused 500 loaves to be sent every day to those who 
 were already assembled in the valleys;' and in order to bring back 
 those who were still in foreign countries, he signed an edict, gvmg 
 them full permission to return to Piedmont. The ^^-^^^^"^ 
 wTacoorded to the Protestant refugees of F«nce.; The duke Uke- 
 Xttimated all these steps to the di" Reform^ na^.^ of 
 Europe-amongst others to Switzerland, to Holland ^ and to Eng^ 
 land,^ which fpeedily entered into the gr«at league formed agamst 
 France, and gave effective support to the Vaudois. 
 
 No sooner did this news reach foreign countries, than the scat- 
 tered vTudois the French exiles, and all the victims of the great 
 M:', iT^nS towards the valley. But above a«. the enthus^m 
 and 'acclamations of those who were thus Pemitted U. return ^o 
 ■ the homes of their chUdhood, were indescribable. The poor out 
 aws who had vowed not to leave their bones in stninge ands, and 
 Xse famiUes, stiU in exile, wept day after day for their djs^nt 
 Luntry now hed tears of joy at the thought of soon he"'g^tle to 
 I-teTi whom they loved in that country, for which they had 
 
 X'yaXl'ri^ taken refuge in Wui-tembei^ set out in 
 
 trooj: If Irty or fifty men, under the direction of the commis- 
 
 . Arnuud, pp. 37. 38. ' ^™""' and iSerfam. t. vi. JHetcnci, p. 280. 
 
 . matio,. of the Hague, »»«<>»« J^*°\P;f„ ._,. gy these letters, signed «th 
 « I subjoin this paper, -which is little known . i>j councUlore, 
 
 our hand, we ordain all our officers "'{"f*;"' 'j^^^J^J^'^i:^! ^Hh ku others to 
 and inhabitants of the towns and vilUges of »" 'Jo^'^^V^ , , t,,at they 
 whom it may pertain, to aU.w the ^^-''^^•X:^':mSZ^ni^<^orra^ 
 may return to the vaUeys of Lucema, as aUo »"/^f!? """^^.tter in companies 
 reUgion who shall be with them, "^^^^ "^f^^^VanTCga^. not permiUing 
 or individnaUy, into our dominions with '^eir a.nn» "M gg^ ^ ^^ ^^^^ 
 them to receive any molestation or •''"^eran^'; bu ^on the c^ J. ^^ ^ 
 
 to be furnished with provisions, paying for t^« "»™ J/this under pain of our 
 bestow upon them aU other assistance and ^™'" • *°y!^i„„ at Turin, this 
 indignation ; for so our service requires, and our wdl u so. 
 
 4th of June, 1690." , ^ i,,. a..t«. of Holland— » somewhat perplexed 
 
 ' The letter which he addressed to the S^t^of^^^* ^ ^^ ^^,^ Hague in 
 
 and laborious composition-^ S;::'"'" '"""ftotr wUh additions, in 1691. 
 169D, and of which the second edition was publishea, 
 
 « See Moier, § LV^. 
 
78 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paii Tbi«b. 
 
 cbap. y ] 
 
 WAR DECLAEED AGAINST FEANCE. 
 
 79 
 
 Bioner La Gnu.ge. A circular of the gmnd duke 7»^Jf^«-^*^° 
 all the baillages through which they were to pass. Ihe exiles ol 
 Brandenburg: whose rising colony had happily overcome the diffi- 
 ^TtkB of its fo-st estabUshment, and now had the prospect of fuh^e 
 iwr^ty did not hesitate to sacrifice all in order to rejom their 
 ^ f mL They entreated the elector to allow them to depart, 
 
 in thPir first harvest, before commencing their march. 
 '"fi- dertwillian. -as far from taking offence at these incon- 
 sUntltlers, who had caused him so much fruitless expense ; his 
 noUeh art was touched by their love for their native land; for 
 thepoorVaudois had been thrown into absolute ecstasies by the 
 IrosC of returning to their own country, and abandoned every- 
 IZ^t d"- to do'so. They set out with such precipitation and 
 Sof pi^^paration, that if they had been left to themselves, halt 
 rnll' mL have perished on the way, for want of r^^ 
 But Frederic William showed as much generosity at their depar 
 fui I he had done on their ai-rival. He gave them new clothing, 
 mly for their journey, passports, and letters of recommendation 
 rZ princes through whose dominions they were to p^ He 
 ^ !t the Tme time to Victor Amadeus, to congratulate him 
 Th vLg recaTd -h faithful subjects; and - the -ason was 
 "rX^vanced, the Duke of Savoy, supposing that these di.t^t 
 eSs would not quit their new colony at the begmmng of winter, 
 re^M to the elector, entreating him to continue his kindness to 
 
 them till the following spring. ^ * t« 
 
 Rit ere his letter arrived, the Vaudois had already set out. In 
 rlZL any attempt made to detain them; the love of country 
 oZ^e every othir consideration; and, in his internal sohcitude 
 the^hy elTctor, whose regard for them seemed to incre^ with 
 
 hei^rgeLss to leave him, permitted them to take with them, 
 for ^r^ journey, the horses and waggons which had been given 
 
 lem for the cikvation of his lands; he placed at thenr disposal 
 eve^ the supplies of wheat intended for seed. He also caused arms 
 Jbe distributed to them from the aisenal f Magdeburg; he even 
 Srmitted the Vaudois company which had foUowed his army to 
 the siege of Bonn, to set out with arms and baggage, under the 
 
 ™idance of Captain Sarrazin, and of the chapWavd. 
 
 Frederic William, moreover, commissioned M. Maillette De 
 
 Buy to accompany them to Switzerland. In order to reax,h that 
 
 Zitry the s^ner, they followed a route different from the route 
 . U is dated 12th A.gnst, 1690. and may be seen in Mo«r, § LV., with the itino- 
 
 rary of this march of the Vaudoia. 
 
 f 
 
 by which they had come.^ On their arrival at Zurich they ex- 
 pressed their ardent gratitude to the illustrious elector, in a letter 
 which was sent back by his deputy.^ Having here united with 
 themselves all their compatriots who were still in the evangelical 
 cantons, they resumed their journey, to the number almost of 1000, 
 and received in the dominions of Victor Amadeus all the assist- 
 ance necessary to enable them to reach the place of their desti- 
 nation.* 
 
 Immediately on their aiTival in the valleys, they were incorpo- 
 rated with the Vaudois regiment which the Prince of Orange, now 
 become King of England, and the ally of Victor Amadeus, had 
 taken into his pay, and placed at the service of the latter, for the 
 common interest of the powers confederate against France. This 
 regiment had a white banner, sprinkled with blue stars, with this 
 motto, Fatkntia laesa Jit furor. The Duke of Savoy himself had 
 chosen it, to indicate the source of his hostiUty against Louis XIV., 
 jis well as to signify that a peaceful and religious people, like the 
 people of the valleys, may by their bmvery become formidable 
 against oppressors. This regiment distinguished itself from the 
 commencement of the war, by numerous successful exploits. 
 
 The declai-ation of war took place in the following manner :— 
 Victor Amadeus having ordered Catinat, on the 4th of June, 1690, 
 to leave his dominions, that general assembled all his troops at 
 Pignerol. Next day (5th June), the Duke of Savoy made his 
 appearance, clothed in scarlet, and caused proclamation to be made, 
 with sound of trumpets, that war w^as declared between Piedmont 
 and Fi-ance. He then caused the holy winding-sheet to be ex- 
 posed to view under the dome of the church of St. John, and com- 
 municated before that venerated relic, which the inhabitants of 
 Turin then considered as the palladium of their city. The Vaudois, 
 whose places of worship were not yet rebuilt, invoked the Ahnighty 
 under the canopy of heaven, within the inclosure of those sublime 
 mountains which had been assigned them for then- sanctuary— a 
 vast temple, manifesting, in a way which no other can, the pre- 
 sence and glory of the Creator. " The French," says an unpub- 
 lished account, « were estabUshed at Lucema, which was then sur- 
 
 1 The route which they nov7 pursued was by the foUowing places : -Mersehurg. 
 Naitmburg, Jeua, Coburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg. Ulm, Scliaffhauseu, and Zurich. 
 
 2 This letter is given by Erman and Reclam. Memoires, &c., t. vi. p. — . 
 
 » The Vaudois had already begun to return with their wives and children, as is 
 proved by a letter written on the part of Victor Amadeus to the ^yj^J^^^^ J^^" 
 franche, that they should prepare rations and lodgings for a troop of ^Va-<lo^s. 
 con moglic efanciuoli. Dated 6th November, 1690. (Archives of Le Villar, vo 
 lume marked Religionarii, fol. 98.) 
 
80 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Thibd. 
 
 round«l with waUs, and flanked with towex-s, t^P* 2- tf lut 
 the PeUa They had also taken possession of La Tom, aaid snut 
 tne reus. ±uy .. . at Mnrv from which they made sor- 
 themselves up m the fort of St. Mary, trom wmc j 
 ties upon the Vaudois. But they maght advance as far as Lc 
 VmJ^rBobi- they met nobody; on their return they were assaded 
 Lt aU s^s 'andLrwhelmed.". The Vaudois made themsdves 
 masters of the fort of Mirabouc.^ Some new combat took place 
 "tyl^ between them and the French, a^d although the fort^e 
 Twar is changeful, says a contempomry, the Vaudois had almost 
 
 always the advantage." , 
 
 Even before they were organized in regular troops, they made a 
 nuX- of little expeditions, in support of the movements of the 
 Kedmontese army.' The Baron Palavicino, who -"d^d - 
 detachment of it, resolved to make an incursion -*» D-P^^^J- 
 He proposed to invade the valley of Le Queyras, and the Vaudois 
 
 ^JlZi battalion of 300 men to aid I'-^-S"' tbbl ami 
 Pm on the evenin.- of the 18th of June. It was a Sabbath, and 
 Imaud who n brcoming a warrior, had not ceased to be a n^u 
 ffTd,^ond;cted a rehgioussei.ice amidst te^^^^^^ 
 where the soldiers were assembled. He thus eie\aieu 
 Ty P- i withdmwing from the agitations of the ^oM^^^^^ 
 ZL li a holy day and of the ^Jlf^^^^t^^i^^^^fjfZ 
 ^ Tltumt^Tl^bl ciS off a"^great number of 
 :2 : bt .en and <.^le fi-o«i La Monta and Eistola. over^me 
 ^tsilce which was made to «-! at Abri5s, and returned the 
 same evening to Le Pra, where they divided the spoil. 
 
 On the Thursday following (22d June) all the ^"habitants o^^^La 
 Tour who had changed their -Ugion, jomed their fonnerbrethe^^^ 
 and augmented their forces. On the next Sabbath (25* June 
 ^ese i;pid squadrons, issiung from f - --^"^^^^^t ,^* 
 the enemy in the plain of Piedmont, relieved the fort of bt. Michael, 
 *iX7same evening .celeb«.ted their u.ial -^'S--;™-"; 
 ^m-house near Mondovi. It was conducted by a young minister, 
 I'med Ztie. Next day they took La Tour, but the French aft^-- 
 Tds burned that little town, in order to ^^Vrn!^^^^-^;^^^ 
 it. In this affair Major Odin received a wound in the arm. Ihiee 
 
 ,^f trfui,. <fe VmUn. (MS of the ^^^^^^^^J^^ °^^^-^'' 2*-- 
 J mctUm de ce qui M t<>^( le 15:i«m au 16 ;mlW, IbJU. 
 
 PP- 58. ^ ... ,„» 
 
 ' Mercure historique, t. vui. p. i*>o. broiidit back 200 mvies, all 
 
 Cukv v.] 
 
 • VAUDOIS RECEIVED AT TURIS, 
 
 81 
 
 days after (Wednesday, the 28th), Captain Friquet returned from 
 Pragela, where he had seized some important despatches. Palla- 
 vicino, the general to whom they were conveyed, delegated the 
 officer who had made this capture, along with Odin and Arnaud, 
 to proceed themselves with these despatches to Victor Amadeus. 
 They were received in the camp of that jn-ince with sound of tiiim- 
 pets and of drums,' and were addressed by him in these remarkable 
 words : " You have but one God and one king to serve : serve God 
 and your king faithfully ; hitherto we have been enemies, hence- 
 forth we must be friends. Other parties have been the cause of 
 your misfortunes; but if you now expose your lives in my service, 
 I will also expose mine for you ; and as long as I have a morsel of 
 bread, you shall have a share of it."^ 
 
 "From that time," Arnaud writes,^ "we have enjoyed perfect 
 liberty. I go to meet our troops, who are to come by the 
 Milanese.* The troops of the valleys are all at Bobi and Le 
 Villar. , . . They have a flying camp of 400 men, who scour the 
 country as far as BrianQon. God alone knows all the sufferings 
 which we have endured, and the horrible combats in which wo 
 have been engaged; and he alone could have given us the victory. 
 We have not lost thirty men, and our enemies have lost not less 
 than 10,000. I write you at midnight, not having time even to 
 Avrite to my wife, who should be at Neuchatel," <fec. 
 
 " We have intelligence from Tiuin," says one, writing on the 3d 
 of July, " that the Vaudois have within the last month been many 
 times attacked by the French, but that they have bravely repulsed 
 them, and have earned off much booty; and, moreover, that tho 
 Vaudois and M. Arnaud have arrived at Turin, where they have 
 received many marks of favour from his royal highness, who has 
 furnished them with clothes and money, and, in pai-ticular, has 
 given M. Arnaud a ricli dress and the baton of a commander."* 
 The body of troops which Arnaud was to go to meet, in order to 
 quicken their march, arrived opposite to the valley of Lucema on 
 the morning of the 8th of August.^ 
 
 * lielafion du IQJuin au 15 juillet, p. 69. 
 
 " These words are related by Amaud, p. 3G4. 
 ' Letter dated 5th July, 1690. Return, p. o'.)2. 
 
 * These were some of the Vaudois refugees from the Grisons and the Valteline. 
 ' Relation d'un soldat, .... 24mo, p. 62. 
 
 * Mercure hist. t. ix. p. 1027. Relation veritable, &c., . . . {4to), p. 3. — Accord- 
 ifxg to the Relation already quoted (the Hague, 24mo), p. 58, these Vaudois from 
 che Grisons, who came by the Milanese, amounted to about two thousand in num- 
 ber. It has been supposed that there must have been with them French refugees ; 
 but it is said, under date 17th June, p. 59, ** Tico tJutusand Vaudois have arrived 
 from Milan, and gone to join those of the valleys." These could not be the same 
 
 Vol. n. 71 
 
82 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pABT ThIBI). 
 
 The Marquis De Parelles, the lieutenant-general of Victor 
 Amadeus, was at Bubiano with 3000 men. There was also there 
 a regiment of the miUtia of Mondovi, celebrated for their want oi 
 discfpline; it was found necessary to distribute amongst them four 
 days' pay in advance, in order to retain them around their bannei-s. 
 
 The entrance of the valley was closed by the French, who occu- 
 pied the town of Lucerna, their wings resting upon the fort of 
 La Tour and upon that of St. Michael. They had throxvTi down 
 the walls of the city, so that they remained only breast high, in 
 order to make use of them for parapets. M. De FeucLuicres was 
 in command of 3000 infantry there, with six squadrons of cavalry 
 and dragoons. The Vaudois who arrived from the Grisons with 
 Arnaud, proceeded to the Piedmontese camp, between Bubiano and 
 Fenil and agreed with the Maxquis De Parelles that they would 
 attack Lucerna immediately ; but, almost as soon as this was 
 ai-ran^ed, the Marquis De Parelles was summoned to the camp o. 
 Victor Amadeus, and he left M. De Loches to command in his 
 
 c+- oof 1 
 
 It was deemed proper first of all to cany the fort of St. Michael, 
 which protected Lucerna. For this purpose 200 Vaudois, com- 
 manded by Captains Imbert, Peyrot, and Malanot,i i^^ving with 
 them thirty grenadiei-s, issued from Bubiano, passed to Lucemetta, 
 and made a circuit round the town of Lucerna; then, ascending to 
 llora, they sent word to the troops which had issued from the 
 Balsille, and were now cantoned at Bobi, to come and join them. 
 The latter were, of all the Vaudois troops, tho most inured to war, 
 HS they had now kept the field for almost a year. They had for 
 tlieir leader the fonner commandant of tho fort of La Tour, the 
 Chevalier VercelU, who had been sent to them by Victor Amadeus. 
 He promptly came with 300 men, and joined upon the heights of 
 Bora those who had newly arrived fr-om the Grisons. 
 
 These two troops of former exiles, of which the one had recon- 
 quered their native land, and the other came to defend it, now met 
 in presence of the common enemy. " They attacked together ; and, 
 after half an hour's fighting, the fort of St. Michael was taken. 
 But the French returned to the charge, and again drove the Vau- 
 
 whoin Amaud was to go to meet on 5th July. Farther on it is said, '^Twelve 
 hundred French refugees are erpected, who arc at Coma, in the Milanese They are 
 commanded by the Sieur Michel Michelin. (Id. p. 66, under date lat July. ^^ And 
 »tm farther on-.— ''The Vaudois have received two thousand rehgwnanes ; and 
 ^.;,mr* one thousand rcfurfces, . . . and twelve hundred more follow them, com- 
 manded hj Michel Michelin:^ In general this narrative is not to be consulted 
 without caution. The news which it gives are often the mere reports which had 
 become current, and the dates are not always exactly indicated. 
 > Relation, in 4to, p. 5. 
 
 Chap. V.;] 
 
 MILITARY OPERATIONS. 
 
 83 
 
 dois from it. The Vaudois, irritated at losing what they had with 
 so much difficulty won, without giving the enemy any time to 
 rest, attacked them a second time, with more vigour than at first, 
 and drove them from the fort, in which the Chevalier Vercelli 
 then established himself, with 100 men to guard it. Not con- 
 tented with this advantage, the Vaudois pursued the French to 
 within musket-shot of Lucerna, the fugitives halting from time 
 to time, making resistance at one bushy place after another, and 
 sheltering themselves behind the hedges and rocks which lay in 
 their way ; but the Vaudois drove them out at the point of the 
 bayonet, and by rolling stones into their places of shelter. ^ 
 
 "During this combat, which lasted more than two hours, a 
 party of thirty-six men, commanded by M. Arnaud, showed them- 
 selves, from time to time, upon a height within view of Lucerna, 
 and then retired into the woods, which disconcerted the enemy, 
 who did not dare to attack that small corps, fearing that there 
 might be some ambuscade." ^ One of the officers of this small corps 
 liimself gives us the following explanation of its position: — "After 
 having given orders to attack the fort of St. Michael, M. De 
 Loches, awaiting the issue of that enterprise, withdrew, leaving 
 me, with M. Arnaud and a picket of thii*ty-six men, to observe 
 what might take place, and to inform him of the proceedings of 
 our people."^ "When the fort was taken," he also says, "M. 
 Arnaud's opinion was that the rest of our regiment should be 
 brought forward, and Lucerna immediately attacked ; but the day 
 was declining, and so it was thought best to go by the road which 
 leads to Briqueras to meet our people, in order to support them, 
 in case the enemy should attempt to take them in the rear. See- 
 ing that they did not come forth, I sent a courier to M. De 
 Parelles, who arrived in the morning,* with his 800 men."^ Leav- 
 ing seventy as a gan-ison at Bubiano, he marched upon Lucerna, 
 which the French had just abandoned. He encountered their 
 rear-guard at the junction of the two roads which cross one another 
 in front of the farm called Les Eyrals. There he was joined by a 
 \mt of the troops who came from Bobi. Of these he detached 100 
 men to occupy Lucerna, and with the rest, divided into three com- 
 panies, he marched upon the enemy. The first two companies, keep- 
 ing to the left, advanced through the vineyards, doubly concealed 
 from the eyes of the enemy by the foliage and by the volumes of 
 
 * This fra:,'menii of narrative is extracted from the Mercure historique. 
 ' Mercure histoi-ique, p. 1632. 
 
 ' Relation veritable de ce qui s'cst passS . . . dans les Vallees , . . dtpuis le 
 15 aoGtJusqu* au 22 du meme mois, 169 J. Ihe Hague, 4to, p. 5. 
 
 * Wednesday, Uth August, 1690. * Il^lationf ... in 4to, p. 6. 
 
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt TiiiBn. 
 
 Chap. V. j 
 
 VICTOR AMADEUS DEFEATED. 
 
 85 
 
 !| 
 
 84 
 
 smoke which rolled orer the plain from a numher of ba^s to 
 which the French had set fire as they passed. The third company 
 kept to the right, and marched directly upon them ; ^'' -»'tj *I^; 
 and pursued them with such eagerness, that many of the J^^^^ 
 flun/away their knapsacks, in order to be the more agile in the 
 jr^t. The French halted from time to time, covered by then 
 L"L and di-agoons; but they were soon beset upon all sides, and 
 ZpZued to re^ime'their flight. In this way they -- J--^ 
 as fl^as Briciueras, where their cavalry drew up m order o ^ttle 
 before the town, whUst the infantry took shelter within the .^tle 
 The Vaudois attacked both at the same time; the town on three 
 points, and the castle on five. The town was S^^ *^^t"^ ''^^ 
 cavalrV retired by Osasc, and the infantry then thought fit to 
 awl the ca^tl , but they were pursued with such ardour that 
 
 their retreat became a rout. i ^„ 
 
 « G^d, in his grace." says a Taudois, " had put it into o^ he^ 
 to take for our battle-cry, 'God for our help,' and in truth he du 
 «> manifestly help us, that although the enemy were four times 
 IXSthey couid not resist us. AH our officers distinguished 
 ImSv:. but God guided them. The enemy fo^gl^^ -f = - 
 took twenty-one prisoners, of whom fomteen were «°»ducted Jo 
 his royal highness. We lost forty-eight men, Vaudo^ and 
 French' We cannot precisely ascertain f^/l^^J'^r' ^^l 
 the town of Briqueras was so filled with dead bodies that, two 
 days after, we could no longer remain there for the stench__ Ac- 
 cording to the accounts which reach us from Pignerol, the French 
 have 1^ three colonels, two lieutenant-colonels, a major and forty 
 captains. There are more than 1400 of their men awantmg ; they 
 have received seventeen waggons filled with the wounded: of the 
 re<nment of the dragoons of Sails there remain no more than eighty 
 men If we had had cavalry, their destruction would have been 
 complete."'' The result of this expedition was to compel the enemy 
 to abandon aU the posts which they still occupied in the vaUey of 
 
 St. Martin. . , „ 1, ti„ 
 
 A few days before this, Catinat had seize<l on Cavour, the castle 
 of which place, strengthened by several intrenchments, was de- 
 fended by the Vaudois and the mUitia of Mondovi. This garrison, 
 after having suffered much, succeeded in retiring, and m so doing 
 
 « The French here meant are French refugees, who made common canBe with 
 
 *^' S^^^"above qnoted, at the end. It is merely a long letter, "Wch som, one 
 haspuShed. It concludes thns :-" AU the vaUeys are at present m the hands 
 of the Vaudois. God be praised ! This 15th (21st) August, 1690. 
 
 f 
 
 r 
 
 killed 100 of the enemy. The French general now directed his 
 array towards Saluces. The Duke of Savoy passed the Po with 
 his. The encounter took place on the 18th of August, near Staf- 
 farde, where Victor Amadeus — for one who had never been in any 
 battle before — performed prodigies of valour. However, Catinat 
 routed him completely, and seized upon Saluces next day. The 
 capture of several other places followed this battle. Meanwhile, 
 General De St. Ruth entered Savoy, and completely subjected it 
 to France. 
 
 " The French, who boast of their victory at Staffarde," said the 
 Mercuri/ of the month following, " have not made so much noise 
 about their defeat in the valleys. . . . But it is to be feared that 
 they may profit by the defeat of the Duke of Savoy to attack the 
 Vaudois, and to drive them a second time from their mountains." ^ 
 And this they certainly attempted to do, with so much success that 
 they made themselves masters of the valley of St. Martin, but they 
 were repulsed from that of Lucerna. Accordingly, the following 
 announcement appeared : "The Vaudois continue to signalize them- 
 selves, and if the other troops of his royal highness were to do their 
 part as well. Piedmont would soon be delivered from its enemies."- 
 
 These indefatigable soldiers oveii-hrew, in the valley of Suza, a 
 detachment of 700 men, whom the French generals had sent to re- 
 victual Pignerol.* More than 300 of the French were killed, and 
 the Vaudois took 300 mules, laden with all sorts of provisions. But 
 ei-e long Suza itself fell into the hands of Oatinat; the Vaudois 
 then turned their arms in the opposite direction, and proceeded to 
 seize upon Chateau Dauphin,* a place situated on the frontiers of 
 France and Piedmont, on the confines of the marquisate of Saluces. 
 Meanwhile the French had burned the town of Lucerna,* with the 
 surrounding villages, to prevent the Vaudois from retiring thither; 
 but the latter returning, reposed themselves there, and put Lucerna 
 in a state of defence, in order to pass the winter in it. 
 
 Having promised fidelity to Victor Amadeus, the Vaudois re- 
 mained courageously devoted to him. It was not so with the 
 Italian potentates, who had attached themselves to his fortunes in 
 the time of his prosperity, and who now abandoned him, charging 
 him with all the evils which the war had brought upon Italy. 
 Division began to appear in the court of Savoy itself. But the 
 foreign narrators already quoted, say: "The Vaudois, and those 
 who command them, understand much better what they ai'e 
 
 ' Mei'cure histonque, September, 1690, p. 1043. 
 * Id. October number, p. 1142. 
 < In November, 1690. 
 
 » In September, 1690. 
 » End of October, 1690. 
 
 \ 
 
 1 1 
 
86 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Thied. 
 
 about; aud, therefore, better success attends their arms. Weycon- 
 tmue to make incursions, from time to tirm, hrto Upper Dauphmy. 
 and have several times seized convoys which wore destined ior 
 places in the possession of the French. Nevertheless they have 
 been driven by the Marquis De Feuquicres from some of the posts 
 which they occupied. Some of the forts to which they were ac- 
 customed to retire have been demolished, and some of the woods 
 cut down in which they frequently placed themselves in ambuscade. 
 But this does not prevent them from making frequent incui-sions, 
 in almost all of which they gain some new advantage. 
 
 The following is a specimen of the way in which the GaMe de 
 France speaks of the advantages obtained by the Marquis de Feu- 
 q^£res:i"They write from Piguerol:^ 'The Barbets have been 
 <^pletely driven from the valleys of La Pcrouse, St. Martin, and 
 ZL During the night between the 5th and 6th of this month 
 fhe Marquis De Feuqtilres proceeded, with 500 horse and 200 
 grenadieit, to the castle of Benasque, where there was a company 
 of the Duke of Savoy s regiment of guards. He arrived there be- 
 fore dav, and made himself master of the castle, ''fter an^ult o^ 
 one hoiir. The Marquis of Angrogna, who commanded theie, and 
 all the other officers, were taken prisoners.' ' » 
 
 The same iournal relates also the capture of SaviUan, or bavig 
 Jo ,rh tick place a few days after. But in the be^unmg J 
 this year 1C91, Prince Eugene, having arrived to the aid of Pied- 
 *^;jtianl'rally the troops of Victor Amadous -n^er the walh, 
 of Casal The Vaudois continued their incu.^ions into Dauphiny 
 lere says a na^ator, the people feared them -«- ^-^'l™;^ 
 The ake^ on their part, resolved to make every effort to support 
 the Duke of Savoy, a^d even to enter France through his domi- 
 Sl. The King of England gave him reason to hope that he 
 would send the Duke of Schonberg to command his roop. WhU 
 awaiting his arrival, the Piedmontese generals, ^y^^^^i^^^^" 
 historiaue proposing to retake Pignerol,' ordered the Vaudois, 
 r wH'then unde^ the command of a Genevese nam^ ^M^.^ 
 make a diversion into the vaUey of Perouse in order *« jl -w Je 
 French troops thither. Their plan succeeded, but resulted in little 
 advantage to the Piedmontese. ^^^ 
 
 ATpan while a conclave was held at Kome, lo apimiu 
 to ilexldt YIIL The presence of that assembly wa. s^gnahzed 
 
 1 Mercure hist, t. x. pp. 18 and 19; t, ix. p. 1388. 
 
 2 Under date 15th January, 169L -.rm « -^0 
 
 3 La Gazette (de France), number for February, 1691, p. 6X ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ 
 * Id. number for February, 1091, p. lb. 
 
 Chap, v] 
 
 SUCCESSES OF CATINAT. 
 
 87 
 
 every day by the most serious disorders in the city.i Innocent XIT., 
 who was at last elected; found occasion afterwards to protest against 
 the re-establishment of the Vaudois in their country; but at that 
 time it was thought that they would soon be destroyed by arms. 
 
 M. De Feuquieres certainly hoped so. On the 18th of April he 
 set out from Pignerol, with 1200 infantry and 400 cavalry. He 
 commenced his march at eleven o'clock at night, and next morninff 
 arrived over against Lucema, which was at that time the most im- 
 portant post of the Vaudois. They, not thinking themselves in a 
 condition to defend it, retired to the heights. Feuquieres set fire 
 to the town, but during the conflagration the mountaineers rushed 
 down upon his army, killing 100 and wounding 200, among whom 
 were forty ofiicers. " It must be confessed," observes a journalist 
 of the time, " that M. De Feuquieres is not happy in his undertak- 
 ings. However, these Vaudois are of remarkable bravery. They 
 have never yet been overcome but by superiority of numbers, and 
 when their inferiority has not been too considerable, they have 
 always had the advantage over their enemies. Accordingly, it is 
 reported that the Duke of Savoy has placed a good number of them 
 as a garrison in the citadel of Turin, not thinking it possible to 
 intrust it to better hands." ^ 
 
 The duke had also placed 700 Vaudois or Fi-ench refugees in the 
 citadel of Coni, which Feuquieres endeavoured to take, but of which 
 he was soon obliged to raise the siege. Being accused of havin'^ 
 raised the siege too precii)itately, he was imprisoned in the citadel 
 of Pignerol. However, Catinat made himself master of Nice.^ of 
 Villefranche,* of Carmagnole,^ and of Veillane.^ Upon the capture 
 of Carmagnole, the Vaudois who were found in it were spoiled of 
 their arms and baggage by the French. Eager to avenge them- 
 selves, they marked the moment when the new garrison issued 
 from the place, lay in wait for it upon the road, and attacked it 
 with such vigour, that they despoiled it in turn. 
 
 The day after this afiair Catinat sent 3000 men into the valleys 
 to exterminate these terrible troops of the Israel of the Alps. The 
 Vaudois permitted this detachment to penetrate a good way into 
 their mountains, and then dividing themselves into two corps, they 
 assailed it at once in front and rear. The combat lasted for five 
 or six hours. There were nearly 500 of the French killed upon 
 
 » A letter from Eome, 16th June, 1691, says :— " The affairs of the conclave are 
 no farther advanced than they were at the beginning, although it has lasted for 
 five months already. The greatest disorders occur every day. More than 150 
 assassinations are already reckoned, &c." La Gazette (de France), number for 
 August, 1691, p. 232. « Mercure hist., number for May, 1691, pp. 52, 60. 
 
 » 2d April. * 21st March. * 9th June. « 30th May.* 
 

 88 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thib". 
 
 the .pot. and about 300 t^ken prisoners, who wore conveyed to 
 Conl «TViP Vaudois" says a contcm- 
 
 beaten them hitherto, and the Uufee oi oa y 
 
 ..tisfied with ^^<'^^^-^^^?\^^^^'jX:TlLie^i^^rn, 
 their regiments, and a captain^ both Geneve^. ^ 
 
 into consternation by tl.is, *^^^ P^^P J^^^ ^^t succeed better 
 
 . VI, 1,^ moflifated of an invasion ot Uaupnmy. jj^c 
 enterprise which he meditatea 01 a Piedmont, in order 
 
 1 Mercure hist., muuber for April, 1692, P- 2*^- ^ ^^^^ ^^Ueys, but partly 
 „ T T iftcw Tl.eae 4000 men were not all native^ vi iii« v^^ j , * 
 
 2 In June, 16^^. Tlie^e 4UOU e ^.nounted in number only to 1480, 
 refugees from different countries. The ^*;^^*!'' \ ^^^^d of M. De Loches=780; 
 viz.:thirteen companies of -;^ --' ^/.^^^^^^^^^^ of M. St. Julien=700. 
 and fourteen companies of fifty men, nna.i 
 
 CiSAP. VI,] 
 
 SURRENDER OF MONTMELLIAN. 
 
 89 
 
 1 ■•I 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONTINUATION AND CONCLUSION OF THE WAR BETWEEN 
 LOUIS XIV. AND VICTOR AMADEUS; PARTICIPATION OF 
 THE VAUDOIS IN THESE EVENTS, AND THEIR FORMAL RE- 
 ESTABLISHMENT IN THE VALLEYS.^ 
 
 Reverses sustained by the Duke of Savoy in the war— Prince Eugene and the Duke 
 of Schonberg come to his assistance — Decree of rehabiiitatioo in favour of the 
 Vaudois in 1692— Invasion of Dauphiny by the forces of the Piedmontese and 
 their allies— Siege and capture of Embrun— Surrender of Gap— Illuess of the 
 Duke of Savoy, and close of the campaign of 1692— Catinat, the French com- 
 mander, assumes the offensive in the beginning of 1693 — The Duke of Savoy 
 defeated in the plains of Marsaille— Catinat desolates Piedmont — The Vaudois 
 harass the French army — ^Victor Amadeus publishes a ne.v edict in favour of 
 the Vaudois, in May, 1694 — Successful enterprises of the Vaudois against the 
 French — Victor Amadeus is detached from the league against the King of 
 France, and enters into a new alliance with France. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1G91, Arnaud retimied to Switzer- 
 land, to visit his family; it was his office also to make arrantye- 
 ments for the return home of tlie exiles who still remained in 
 foreign countries, and, at the same time, to promote the union of 
 foreign refugees with the people of the valleys. Little could he 
 suspect that in a few years more he would l)e proscribed anew, and 
 that he was himself to re-conduct to a distant exile all those 
 refugees to whom he now thought to give a country and a home. 
 But at this period his prospects seemed bright; and it was over 
 other heads that the heavens weie darkened. 
 
 The year 1602 began very ominously for Victor Amadeus. 
 Montmellian, the last of his places of strength in Savoy, had sui-- 
 rendered^ after thii'ty days' bombardment, and more than a year 
 of blockade. Italy, long torn in pieces by the rivalries of courts, 
 imd already fatigued by its wars with France, murmured grievously 
 against the Duke of Savoy for engaging in a new contest, which 
 had so rapidly resulted in misfortune. The youth of the duke 
 ripened amidst these trials, and his firmness now made him appear 
 greater than before. But he could not put confidence in his troops, 
 whose leaders were men of no great abilities. It is not in soldiei*s 
 that Italy has most frequently been found deficient, but in gene- 
 
 * Authorities. — The same as in the preceding chapters, especially the Mercure 
 historique and the Ai'chives of Turin. 
 2 On 21st Dassmber, 1G92. Tho sarrisou did not leave it till the 22d. 
 Vol. IX. 72 
 
90 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thi»d. 
 
 rals. England and Austria undertook to furnish them. The 
 former sent the Duke of Schouberg, the latter the Prince Eugene. 
 Their arrival was worth an army. A council of war was held at 
 Turin, to decide upon a plan of operations. 
 
 The Italians thought that they should attack Catinat at Pig- 
 nerol;^ Eugene was of opinion that the war should be cairied into 
 Provence and Dauphiny. " It is better," said he, "that the enemy's 
 country should suffer, than ours. Catinat will be obliged to eva- 
 cuate Piedmont, in order to defend his own territory, and we will 
 not turn the fertile lilains of Piedmont into a field of battle." 
 " But," it was objected, " the passage of the Alps is full of diffi- 
 culties; the principal passes are guarded; Sestieres, S6zane, and the 
 Col De Tende are in the possession of the enemy." "We have 
 still," it was replied, "the Vaudois valleys. Their inhabitants 
 know all the intricacies of the mountains better than the French 
 do. They will be able to guide us by routes which, as they are 
 less frequented, will be so much the more secure." "Is it prudent," 
 said the Italians, "to confide in a people with whom we were 
 fighting but yesterday, and to put the destinies of a kingdom, so 
 to speak, into the hands of those who were lately proscribed, and 
 are still irritated?" "The force with which we will march," it 
 was replied, " Avill be sufficiently imposing to retain them to their 
 duty; moreover, it is of France that the Vaudois have most of all to 
 complain: re-assure them as to their future prospects, and they will 
 serve with increased ardour, and so become more foi-midable to the 
 common enemy." "But what," it was asked, "if Fmnce, in her turn, 
 should offer to protect themf "She cannot do so," it was replied, 
 "without deserting her own policy, and sooner or later they would 
 be sacrificed. Their lawful sovereign alone has a claim on their 
 loyalty; and in their duty to him they will not be deficient, if 
 their country be given to them, for then they will have an interest 
 in defending it, and will thus be attached to our cause by considera- 
 tions of interest and of gratitude." 
 
 This opinion having been adopted, Victor Amadeus, who had 
 already been urged thereto by Great Britain, issued, towards the end 
 
 * These and the following particulars are taken in part from VHist. du Prince 
 Francx}is Eugene de Savoye, gSneralissime des armees de VEmpereur ct de V Empire, 
 Amsterdam, 1740. (It is beHeved to have been written by a person named MabiUon, 
 and is reputed the most complete work which has been published respecting this 
 prince), t. i., L ii., p. 151, et seq. I have also consulted the Mimoires de Few 
 quiires- those of M. D. F. L., touchant ce qui s'est passe en Italie, entve Victor- 
 Am^dee II., et le roi T. 0. . . . (Aix-la-Chapelle, 1697), the journals and pam- 
 phlets of th^ time, &c. But what I here present under the form of a dialogue, is 
 merely the substance of the opinions expressed in dififerent conferences respecting 
 the Vaudois. 
 
 CnAP. VI J 
 
 THE VAUDOIS RESTORED. 
 
 91 
 
 II 
 
 of June, 1692, a first decree of rehabilitation, of which the follow- 
 ing are the principal provisions : — 
 
 " The clear proofe of fidelity, and evident marks of zeal for our 
 service, which our religionary subjects of the valleys of Lucerna 
 have given, and daily continue to give us, &c., . . . having already 
 induced us to receive them anew under our protection, we, for good 
 reasons, think it right no longer to defer making manifest their 
 complete re-establishment in our favour, in order the more to excite 
 them to merit it. Therefore, by these presents, to which it is our 
 pleasure to give the force of an edict, .... and by the advice of 
 our council, we grant to the aforesaid religionaries a full pardon 
 and complete remission of all the crimes with which they have been 
 charged,^ ... in general and in particular, .... not excepting 
 lese-majesty. Divine and human, .... and of all the penalties 
 declared or incurred upon account of the same, . . . revoking and 
 annulling to this effect the following edicts ^ and their enterination, 
 ... so that for the future they shall remain without force or effect, 
 as if they had never been made, ordaining that all those of the said 
 religionaries who are still in prison shall be forthwith set at liberty, 
 and that the sons and children of the said religionaries, of whatso- 
 ever age, and in whatsoever place of our dominions they may be, 
 shall be allowed perfect freedom to return to their friends in the 
 said valleys, and there to make profession of their religion; and that 
 for this purpose they shall be given up without payment of any 
 expenses, restoring the said religionaries to the possession of all and 
 every one of their ancient rights, edicts, customs, usages, and privi- 
 leges, and willing that they, their children and posterity, be main- 
 tained in the same."^ 
 
 He then enjoins all holders of any of the property of the Vau- 
 dois, fixed or movable, to render it up, without retaining any part, 
 upon any pretext whatever. He decrees that the Vaudois shall no 
 longer be prosecuted nor disturbed upon account of their rsligion, 
 leaving them free to return to Protestantism, even if they should 
 have abjured it. Finally, he authorizes all foreign religionaries to 
 settle in the Vaudois valleys, upon condition of their taking the 
 oath of fidelity to him. 
 
 Notwithstanding his favourable intentions towai'ds the Vaudois, 
 Victor Amadeus still showed in this decree a desii-e to cover, by 
 
 * But not convicted. Nor does the decree, in fact, relate to anything save the 
 contraventions of the edicts afterwards cited. 
 
 - Those of 31st January and of 9th April, 1686. 
 
 ' Tliis edict is little known; that of 23d May, 1694, having caused it to be forgotten. 
 It is to be found recorded in the Lettres historiqucs, contenant tout ce qui se pause 
 de plus important en Europe, kc, . . . ii. 32. 
 
92 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF TUE ALPS. 
 
 [HartTiiibo. 
 
 I 
 
 some pretext, Lis recent severities, making reference for this pur- 
 pose to the charges which had previously been brought against the 
 Vaudois, as if justice ought not always to be regarded before gi-ace 
 is mentioned. By this, however, he did not escape the reprehen- 
 sions of the Holy See.i But, in the meantime, feeling confident of 
 havincr re-attached to himself the intrepid mountaineers of the 
 Vaudois Alps, he thought only how to profit by their valour. All 
 these steps were taken, on his part, in order to accomplish by their 
 aid an invasion of Dauphiny. 
 
 In order to di^aw away Catinat from Bignerol, where he would 
 have been able to have closed the entrance to the Vaudois valleys 
 a<rainst the troops of the Duke of Savoy, that prince directed a 
 ihe attack on the side of Suza, as if it had been his intention to 
 have forced the valley of the Doire. The French general fell into 
 the snare which had been laid for him, and immediately abandomng 
 Pi-nerol, he led his troops towards the part which was apparently 
 me^'naced. The allies immediately profited by this to force P6rouse 
 and Briqueras. Prince Eugene led the advanced guard; Victor 
 Amadeus, having General Caprara under him, commanded the mam 
 body of the army, in which the Count De La Torres, general of the 
 Spanish forces, and the Marquis De Leganez, commanded the Milan- 
 ese troops. The Prince De Commercy and the Marquis De Parelles 
 led the rear-guard, composed of Savoyard, Imperial, and Italian 
 regiments. These three invading corps marched at a certain dis- 
 tance from one another, under the direction of experienced guides, 
 furnished by the valleys. The advanced guard penetrated into the 
 valley of Pragela, Avhither a part of the main body followed it, under 
 the ordei-s of Victor Amadeus; the other part., commanded by the 
 Duke of Schonbcrg, entered the valley of Lucerna. The Marquis 
 De Parelles made his way into that of Barcelonnette, and that of 
 St. Martin was invaded by the Marquis De Leganez. On amving 
 at Bobi the troops under the command of Schonberg separated into 
 two divisions, of which one ascended the valley of the Pelis, and 
 the other passed over the Col Julian, to join the troops of the Mar- 
 quis De PareUes, coming by the lateral valley of St. Martin. These 
 two detachments having efiected a junction at Pral, wei-e destined 
 to traverse the Col d'Abries, whilst the first division tmversed the 
 
 Col Lacroix. 
 
 But Prince Eugene had already passed over Mont Gene\Te, and 
 seized Brian9on. He burned that place, and descended by the 
 valley of the Durance towards Mont Dauphin, which was not then 
 fortified. The town of Guillestre alone detained him for a few 
 
 » See the preamble of tlie edict of the Holy Office, dated 19th August, 1694. 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 EMBRQN BESIEGED. 
 
 93 
 
 days. It was suri'ounded with walls flanked with towers, but 
 destitute of ditches. It had a garrison of 600 of the militia of 
 Dauphiny, and 200 Irish, commanded by Colonel De Chalandren, 
 who refused to surrender; and, accordingly, the place was besieged. 
 It resisted, successfully at first; but Prince Eugene caused cannon 
 to be brought, and in three days it was carried. His troops then 
 joined those of Victor Amadeus and of the Prince De Commercy, 
 to cross the Durance at St. Clement, in order to be able to proceed 
 in a united body against Embrun. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Duke of Schonberg, who had ascended the valley 
 of Lucerna, and passed over the Col Lacroix, took all the villages 
 of the valley of the Guill, as far as Chateau Queyras; but that 
 place resisted him. It is built upon an isolated rock, which rises 
 in the form of a sugar-loaf, in one of the narrowest parts of the 
 valley, and completely commands the pass. The Duke of Schon- 
 berg was not able to take it without aiiillery; he sent to ask some 
 cannon from Victor Amadeus, who was already under the walls of 
 Embrun, and who ordered him to rejoin him by the valley of the 
 Dumnce. Chateau Queyras, therefore, was not taken. Schonberg 
 rejoined the Duke of Savoy before the ancient capital of Caturigia,^ 
 where the greater part of the invading army had already been for 
 four days. 
 
 The city of Embrun, fortified with ramparts and ditches, occu- 
 pies a rocky platform, very precipitous towards the valley, where is 
 a magnificent expanse of meadows watered by the Durance ; but 
 it is commanded by the mountain against which its platform leans, 
 and it was upon this mountain that Prince Eugene at first took 
 up his position. The Marquis De Larrey commanded in the city, 
 the same who had already been defeated by the Vaudois in the 
 conflict at Salabertrans. Victor Amadeus summoned him to sur- 
 render. " I value the good opinion of your royal highness too 
 much to do so!" was his noble, courageous, and polite reply, 
 worthy ot the times of chivalry; and, notwithstanding the inferio- 
 rity of his forces, - he commenced firing. 
 
 It became necessary to besiege Embrun with all the tediousness 
 oi a blockade. The trenches were opened on the Cth of August. 
 
 * Caturigia extended from Brian^on to Nice. Embrun was its moat important 
 city. Nero accorded to the inhabitants of this city tlie rigJct of LatinUy; Galba 
 also granted them some privileges. There exists a little known mock heroic poem, 
 entitled L'Embrunade, on the disputes between the Jesuits and the Jansenists— 
 disputes in which the bishop of this city had taken part. In 1692, before the 
 arrival of the troops of Victor Amadeus, the bishop of Embrun conducted his 
 chapter to Grenoble, as a place of safety, and then returned to his besieged metro- 
 polis, to watch over his flock. 
 
 * He had 25,000 infantry, 200 dragoons, and some militia. 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 94 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAtT THISIN 
 
 The Marquis De Lairey made a number of very vigorous sorties, 
 and killed many of the enemy;' but at last the heavy artillery 
 made a breach in his walls ;'-^ he then proposed to capitalate,^ and 
 was allowed to leave the place with the honours of war.^ Tho 
 Duke of Savoy won in this affair eighteen or twenty pieces of 
 cannon, 60,000 livres in gold, and a great quantity of provisions. 
 He levied a great contribution, moreover, from the inhabitants of 
 the town and neighbourhood. 
 
 His army then marched towards Gap. Prince Eugene, who 
 commanded the advanced guard, no sooner presented himself before . 
 that town, which was destitute of all means of resistance, than the 
 magistrates sent him the keys. Some authors say that the whole 
 of the Gapen9ois was laid under contribution, from Sisteron to Die; 
 others that it was ravaged and pillaged as far as Sisteron. It is 
 certain that great disorders took place; convents, churches, public 
 institutions, and perhaps even private houses were plundered of aU 
 that was valuable. Soldiers might be seen, in their hours of 
 leisure in the camp, to stake twenty louis on a card, with robber 
 carelessness. These devastations were reprisals for those which 
 the French army had committed in the Palatinate. 
 
 Catinat, who had for a moment been confounded by the bold 
 manoeuvre of the assailants, and the shame of being outwitted, now 
 sent the Marquis De liancourt with ten battalions to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Grenoble, to secure that city against the allies. Pro- 
 vence and Dauphiny were in perpetual agonies of fear. These 
 alarms' increased, and spread with a rapidity proportionate to the 
 success of the enemy. The panic extended as far as Lyons and 
 Valence. At Grenoble consternation reigned; and the whole 
 militia of the province were raised in the utmost haste. 
 
 But at the moment when the invading army was preparing to 
 march upon Grenoble, the Duke of Savoy was seized with small- 
 pox at Gap. He caused himself to be conveyed in a litter to 
 Embrun. His wife came to him there. He made his will. His 
 plans were all disconcerted. The report of his death was several 
 times circulated. The Vaudois ministers, who at that time preached 
 
 » On the night between the 8th and 9th, he kiUed fifty men of the army of 
 V'-tor Amadeus; on the night between the 10th and 11th, the Count De Lugi- 
 asTo a nephew of the Marquis De Parelles, was killed, and General De Torres 
 was wounded ; on the night between the 13th and 14th he made three other sor- 
 ties, and killed or wounded more than 150 men. 
 
 « From the 13th to the 15th. ' ^n the 16lh. 
 
 ♦ The garrison was to be conducted to Grenoble, and not to recommence service 
 for three weeks. Prisoners were to be exchanged. Ecclesiastical property was to 
 be respected by the conqueror, but all which belonged to the King of trance was 
 to be delivered up to the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 \ 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 MILITARY MOVEMENTS. 
 
 95 
 
 publicly at Gap and Embrun, prayed for his preservation. His 
 health was slowly re-established. Between the 15th and the 18th 
 of September, 1692, all the allied troops recrossed the Alps, leaving 
 only a garrison at Barcelonnette. But all warlike enterprises were 
 postponed to the following year. The Vaudois alone distinguished 
 themselves during the month of December, by a victory over a 
 French detachment in the plains of St. Segont. 
 
 The Duke of Schonberg had returned to England, the Prince of 
 Commercy and the Count De Montecuculi set out for Vienna. 
 Eugene followed them ; everything seemed quiet. Catinat himself 
 liad left Piedmont to go to Paris. He returned to Piedmont in 
 the beginning of the year 1G93. He longed to revenge himself for 
 the check which he had met with in the preceding year, but he 
 named as the cause of his irritation, only the ravages committed in 
 Dauphiny. He promised to the volunteers of that province who 
 should join his ranks, the pillage of all the towns of Piedmont 
 which they should succeed in taking, and in particular that of the 
 Vaudois valleys. Unfortunate vaPeys ! he could find no very ricli 
 booty there. 
 
 About the end of January, the Count De Tesse, governor of 
 Pignerol, led a foraging expedition in tlie direction of Saluces, and 
 Victor Amadeus moved with his troops towards the city of Aosta. 
 During the following month two traitors were executed in Turin, 
 convicted of high treason, for having attempted to admit the Frencli 
 into the town of Coni. It is even alleged that they had contri- 
 huted to the capture of Carmagnole. 
 
 But ere long the report of a private truce between Victor Ama- 
 deus and Louis XTV. became current in the political world. How- 
 ever, the troops of these two sovereigns always approached nearer 
 and nearer to each other. The Marquis De Parelles occupied the 
 passes leading to the valleys of Lucerna and Pi-agela. Being re- 
 pulsed from the latter, he fell back upon Angrogna, and the French 
 troops appeared at Pignerol. 
 
 The Duke of Schonberg was recalled. He assumed a position 
 on the side of Giavenna. Prince Eugene also returned, and, in 
 concert with the Marquis De Leganez, he drove Catinat back as 
 far as Fenestrelle, mating himself master of the fort of La Perouse. 
 But Pignerol still held out. A letter from Brian9on, of date 15th 
 of July, 1693, says: "Our army suffers much from the attacks 
 which the Vaudois make upon our convoys. Within these two 
 days they have taken from us twenty mules, laden with provisions 
 and ammunition."^ 
 
 • Mei'cure histonque, ruiuber for August, 1603, p. 132. 
 
96 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 The city of Piguerol was at last assailed. Being threatened 
 with bombardment, it offered Victor Amadeus the sum of 40,000 
 pistoles for exemption from that calamity; but he rejected these 
 proposals, and only granted to the ladies and the monks safe-con- 
 ducts for their retirement elsewhere. He then caused the roads 
 to be broken up, and the country to be laid waste all around the 
 place, which was bombarded from the 25th of September to the 
 1st of October. But Catinat came in time to save it. An-iving 
 in the plains of Marsaille on the 3d of October, he immediately 
 offered battle to the Duke of Savoy. The duke fought and was 
 defeated. His army was cut in pieces. He lost nearly 8000 men, 
 34 cannon, and 110 standards. Catinat, then spreading his troops 
 over the whole plain of Piedmont, pillaged and burned everything 
 to the very walls of Tm-in. Indescribable desolation reigned over 
 that unhappy region. Victor Amadous, vanquished, fugitive, 
 driven from his own dominions, found his situation become more 
 and more ciitical. Fortunately, Louis XIV. had need of his troops 
 to maintain his wai-s against Holland, Spain, and England. He 
 recalled them from Piedmont in the beginning of 1694, and they 
 had much to suffer in crossing the Alps in the midst of winter. 
 The Vaudois, accustomed to snows, then did them considerable 
 injury. They surprised, and in part destroyed, the French cavalry 
 in the mountains of the Malanage. Of thirty-six companies, there 
 remained only 150 men. " The Mai-shal De Catinat," says a letter 
 of that period, " had so great a fear of the ambuscades of the Vau- 
 dois, that he sent a hemld with a tmmpet to them, to say that if 
 they woidd agi*ee not to incommode him on his march, he, upon 
 his part, would do them no harm. The Vaudois replied that they 
 had no intention of opposing the French army, but that its passage 
 would cost it at least the half of its baggage, and they have kept 
 their word." ^ 
 
 Catinat, however, returned to Piguerol in the beginning of spring, 
 for Victor Amadeus had obtained considerable subsidies from the 
 British parliament, to enable him to carry on the war with France, 
 had caused Coni to be fortified, gone to Milan,'- and afterwards, 
 returning to Turin,-^ renewed his armaments with the aid of Spain 
 and Austria. At this time also, in order, no doubt, to recompense 
 the Vaudois for the zeal which they had displayed in his service, 
 and to encoumge their fidelity, he reiterated, by a new edict,* the 
 j>romises which he liad made them, and the assumnce of their i*e- 
 
 • Lettres historiiucs, v., 135. - January— March, 1C91. 
 
 ' He arrived thero on the 2ith of ITebruary, and was in dnii^er of losing his life 
 there in a firs. * 8th Maroh. 
 
 Chap. Vl] 
 
 EXPLOITS OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 97 
 
 storation to their old rights in their own valleys.^ Accordingly, 
 they continued to give him the most signal proofs of their valour 
 and attachment. In the month of June they made prize of a con- 
 voy of fifty mules, which was proceeding to Pignerol ; and being 
 pursued by M. De Larrey, had very nearly succeeded in taking 
 him prisoner. 
 
 Amongst the Vaudois captains, Imbert, Gudin, Peyrot, Chatil- 
 lon, Bemardin, Jahier, Odier, Combe, and Caffarel particularly dis- 
 tinguished themselves in these sudden and gallant exploits. The 
 Vaudois alone, it is said in a letter of that time, make themselves 
 to be spoken of in these parts. After hostilities had recommenced, 
 they every day gained some new advantage. In July they again 
 seized 150 mules, which were proceeding from Suza to Pignerol, 
 and on this occasion they presented to the Duke of Savoy the four 
 finest beasts of the convoy.- 
 
 However, a decisive battle seemed likely soon to take place. In 
 the month of August the Spanish troops left Villefranche, and 
 fixed their headquarters at St. Segont. The troops of Victor 
 Amadeus encamped at Bubiano, having their right towards Mcnt- 
 brun, and their left towards Briqueras. Meanwhile, a new army, 
 commanded by the Duke De Vendome, advanced from France 
 against Piedmont, by the valley of Barcelonnette, and by Nice and 
 
 Antibes. 
 
 The Vaudois continued, without ceasing, their victorious in- 
 cursions. On the night between the 11th and 12th of August, 
 they assembled to the number of 1200, and attacked three French 
 battalions, in the neighbourhood of Pignerol. Not being able to 
 break through their intrenchments, they feigned flight, retii-ed to 
 the heights, and drew the French from the camp in pursuit of 
 them. Then suddenly turning uj)on them, they attacked them 
 with such impetuosity, that they killed entire companies before 
 they could recover from their surprise, and the rest took to flight, 
 flinging away their arms and baggage. " These the Vaudois 
 seized, and the booty was considerable. They obtained by this 
 affair more than 20,000 livres of money, which had been destined 
 for the payment of the troops; they took 300 horses and mules; 
 the new clothes of a whole regiment; the equipage of all the officers, 
 amongst which they found some complete services of silver plate, 
 and a number of very rich dresses and jewelled arms. Their booty 
 was valued altogether at more than 100,000 livres."^ 
 
 ' Of 23d May, 1694, enterinated on the 25th. For the terms of this edict, and 
 the disputes to which it gave rise, see next chapter. 
 * Lettres historiques, number lor August, p. 138. ' Id. number for Sept., p. 262. 
 Vol. II. 73 
 
98 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 CUAP. VI ] 
 
 TREATY WITH FRANCK 
 
 99 
 
 
 Encouraged by this success, tliey carried their arms iuto the 
 dominions of the King of France, and attacked a number of villages 
 in Dauphiny. For this the garrison of Pignerol resolved to take 
 revenc^e. Their flying camp had been established near St. Germam. 
 Four detachments advanced by different routes, in order to surprise 
 it The first of these detachments attacked the Vaudois in front, 
 whilst another crossed the Cluson to Pomaret, in order to take 
 them in flank; meanwhile, a third detachment ascended the right 
 bank of the river, to attack them on the opposite flank ; and the 
 800 men who composed the fourth climbed the mountain of Les 
 Cerisiers, in order to fall upon them from behind. These move- 
 ments seemed to be so skilfully combined, that none of the moun- 
 taineers could escape. But their advanced guard sustained alone 
 the shock of the first assailants; and their main body, facing to 
 the three other sides, repulsed the enemy on all hands, compeUing 
 them to retire with gi'eat loss. Next day the Vaudois, returmng 
 to the French territories, seized Abries, in the valley of Le Quey- 
 ras and then Aiguilles and the surrounding hamlets; after which 
 they turned from the castle of Queyras, not being able to make 
 themselves masters of it, for want of artillery, and crossing the 
 mountains which separated them from the valley of Arvieu^, 
 carried by assault intrenchments which had been formed at the 
 base of Mount Isoard or Isoire, where they took thirty-six prisonei-s 
 and much booty. When they offered his life to the officer who 
 commanded this post, he bravely replied, "What would I make of 
 it 1 without honour it is nothing to me !" And he prefen-ed to die 
 rather than to surrender. 
 
 Other detachments were mastered in succession; and then the 
 Vaudois, crossing the mountain, descended to Servieres and pene- 
 trated as for as Le Villar, situated near BrianQon. They seized 
 this post likewise, it being guarded only by sixty dragoons and 
 burned 25,000 quintals of fodder, which had been amassed there. 
 The whole country was thrown into consternation as far as Embrun; 
 but the conquerors, who did not choose to compromise their success 
 by any rash daring, retired with their booty, and carried with them 
 
 100 prisoners. , ^ i i 
 
 Many other expeditions of the same sort afterwards took place, 
 with like advantage,^ sometimes into the valley of La P^rouse, some- 
 times into that of Pragela, and sometimes into that of Le Queyi-as. 
 But without prolonging the narrative of these details, which have 
 little to do with the essential character of the Vaudois, let us 
 » See Mercure historiqv^ et polUique, xviii. 132, 254, 365, and xix. 146. Lcttres 
 histot-iques, from vol. v. to vol. x., &c. 
 
 rapidly glance at the termination of the Qpntest, in which they 
 bore so glorious a part. Victor Amadeus being solicited to make 
 peace by the pope and the princes of Italy, as well as by the Duke 
 of Orleans and the Count De Tesse, who were sent to assure him of 
 favoumble inclinations on the part of France, was at last detached 
 from the league which had been formed against that power. On 
 the 4th of July, 1G96,^ he concluded a private treaty of peace with 
 France, by which all his cities and towns were restored to him. 
 One of the articles of the treatv concerned the marriage of Marie 
 Adelaide, his eldest daughter, with the Dul^e De Bourgogne. This 
 was the fifth direct alliance which the house of Savoy had con- 
 tracted with that of France. The Piedmontese princess was re- 
 ceived by Louis XIV., who came as far as Montargis to meet her;- 
 and Victor Amadeus was received by Catinat, in the capacity of 
 generalissimo of the French armies. A few weeks before he had 
 been the generalissimo of the armies of the coalition opposed to 
 France. Never before had any prince been, in the same campaign^ 
 at the head of two hostile armies, as their commander-in-chief. The 
 circumstance reflects more honour on his astuteness than on his 
 integrity. 
 
 TJie city of Pignerol, and the valley of Perouse, which had for 
 sixty-eight years belonged to France, now again became part of 
 the dominions of Piedmont. The fortresses of Pignerol were razed, 
 but its inhabitants were authorized to inclose it with a wall. 
 
 We shall now proceed to take up the series of events which fol- 
 lowed the promulgation of the edict by which the Vaudois were 
 formally re-established in their valleys ; and we shall then see in 
 what manner their church was reorganized, after having been so 
 long persecuted, and recently, to all appearance, destroyed. 
 
 • Vai't de verifier les dates, in the article on Victor Amadeus IT., places the signa- 
 tiire of this treaty on the 30th of August, but it was not published till the 10th of 
 September. 
 
 2 5th November, 1096. As she was very young, her marriage did not take placo 
 till 7th December, 1097- 
 
100 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tuibi>. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROTEST OF THE COURT OF ROME AGAINST THE RE-ESTAB- 
 LISHMENT OF THE VAUDOIS; FIRMNESS OF VICTOR AMA- 
 DEUS IL; RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH; 
 NEW EDICT OF EXPULSION IN 1698.^ 
 
 Analysis of the edict of May 23, 1694— Artful reseTrations of tyranny— Irritation 
 of the court of Rome— Papal condemnation, and pretended abrogation of the 
 edict— The Duke of Savoy resists this usurpation of Rome, and the Senate of 
 Turin annuls the papal decree— Efforts of the Vaudois for the reorganization 
 of their churcli- Pensions granted to the Vaudois pastors and schoolmasters by 
 Queen Mary II. of England— Assistance obtained also from Holland— Acts of 
 the Vaudois Synod concerning the observance of the Sabbath— Other acts and 
 proceedings of the Synod— Church government and discipline— The Duke of 
 Savoy refuses to permit the incorporation of the Vaudois of Perouse with the 
 church of the valleys— Fresh acts of injustice and severity against the Vaudoia 
 —Secret article in the treaty of peace between France and Piedmont— Edict 
 requiring all French Protestants to leave the dominions of the Duke of Savoy 
 — Emigration of more than 3000 persons. 
 
 TuE decree of 23d May, 1694, deckred as follows:'— 
 
 1. It was upon the urgent instigations of a foreign power that 
 the edicts of 168G were issued by the Duke of Savoy, against his 
 faithful subjects of the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 2. These edicts are revoked. 
 
 3. The duke receives his faithful subjects into favour, upon account 
 of their zeal for his service, as well as the pressing solicitations of 
 his Britannic majesty, and of the States-General of HoUand. A 
 full and entire amnesty is granted to the Vaudois for all which 
 has taken place since 1686. 
 
 4. They are re-established in their valleys, in the same manner as 
 before. The children that have been taken away shall be restored 
 
 » AUTHOKITIES.— Part.of the preceding authorities.— "il/crcu re historique."-^ 
 **Lettrc3 historirjues et politiqucs."— Archives of the Court of TnTiJi.—'* Jtaconto 
 histwico delV ultima guerra, tra Francesi e collegati inPiemonte, Delphinato e stato 
 di Milano, per Guiscppe R€iina:'—Monasti€r, chap. Jixvi.— Jones, '* History of the 
 Christian Church'' . . . vol. \'n\.—Baird, *' History of Protestantism in Italy''' 
 . . . vol. iii.— " Memoires de 3I.D.F.L. touchant ce qui s'est passe en Italic, entre 
 Victor- Amedee II., Due de Savoie, et le roi T.C.* avcc le d/dail," &c. . . . Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, IQ^l.—Botta, *• History of Italy," and Cantu, " Univasal History" 
 (both in Italian).— Archives of the Vaudois Table.— Synodal Acts of the valleys. 
 —Records of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva. 
 
 2 It is too long to be here given entire. I quote only the principal paragraphs. 
 It has been published by Duboiu, and by M. Hahn, p. 723. 
 
 • Tria Chretien; Louis XIV. 
 
 Chap. VII ] 
 
 IRRITATION OF THE POPE. 
 
 101 
 
 to them,* the prisoners shall be released, relapsed persons shall 
 not be prosecuted, and foreign Protestants shall be permitted to 
 settle in the valleys. 
 
 5. The French refugees upon account of religion, shall not be 
 entitled to enjoy these privileges any longer than during the con- 
 tinuance of the present war, except those who shall not have been 
 restored to their own country. The inhabitants of the valleys of 
 Perouse and Pragela shall continue to enjoy them for ten years 
 after the termination of the war. 
 
 A pompous parade of fine words about privileges, liberty, and 
 prerogatives, lavished upon the Vaudois in this edict, was the 
 artful covering of these cruel reservations of a tyranny which had 
 really yielded nothing. Yet surely these poor Vaudois, who had 
 sufiered so much, and who had just displayed so much courage, 
 might well have demanded more secm-ities for their future tran- 
 quillity than tliey had possessed before. However, they received 
 with thankfulness what was granted to them. Of the 424 families 
 who had embraced Catholicism in 1G86, 421 returned to the evan- 
 gelical religion. 
 
 " At all this," says a letter from Kome,^ " the pope has been very 
 much ii'ritated. It is reported that he has ordered his nuncio at 
 Turin to protest against that edict, and retire. The Duke of 
 Savoy's envoy at Home has also been requested to return to Turin." 
 
 France, which neglected no means of exciting new enemies 
 against Victor Amadeus, augmented as much as possible the irri- 
 tation of the Holy See against him. The French government had 
 laboured for this end from the time when the first edict of resto- 
 ration to their country was issued in favour of the Vaudois in 1692. 
 The Duke De Chaulnes and the Cardinal De Bouillon, and after- 
 Avards also the Cardinal Cafianalta, represented this re-establish- 
 ment of the Vaudois as a fatal blow to the chiu'ch, and an outrage 
 against her authority. However, Innocent XII. was far from 
 being distinguished for intolerance. He had even granted absolute 
 liberty of conscience to the inhabitants of Civita Vecchia, a town 
 situated at the very gates of Rome, in order to attract more com- 
 merce to that seaport. It seemed, therefore, that he had no reason 
 to be ofiended because the same liberty had been restored to those 
 
 » This clause was often eluded ; for the child- stealers passed the children from 
 one to another, until all trace of them was lost. In other instances, after having 
 restored them, they carried them off anew. Sometimes they even plainly refused 
 to give them up, or replied that they were no longer in life. 
 
 2 This was merely to postpone new severities, already giving cause of apprehen- 
 sion regarding them. 
 
 ^ Lettres historiques, No. for September, 1694, p. 246. 
 
102 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaBT TillED. 
 
 who had always enjoyed it. But men are often governed, not so 
 much by their convictions as by their interest. Innocent XII. 
 denounced the edict of 23d May, 1694, to the chamber of the Holy 
 Oillce, charging the chamber to examine it. This was, in fact, to 
 demand a condemnation of it. The tribunal of the Inquisition 
 assembled on the 19 th of August, in the presence of the pope him- 
 self. The following are extracts from the decree which it passed 
 upon this occasion : — 
 
 "Our most holy father, Innocent XII., having been apprised, 
 by certain pious pei-sons, that there was reason to fear that the 
 most serene lord, Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy, moved by 
 the continual and importunate suggestions of heretical states and 
 princes, might be induced at last to abrogate those most laudable 
 laws which he had made in favour of the Catholic religion, and 
 against his heretical subjects of the valleys of Lucema . . . <fec. 
 .... His holiness, in so evident a peril of the orthodox fiiith, 
 immediately addressed his paternal admonitions to the most serene 
 duke, after having frequently spoken of the matter to the resident of 
 S-ivoy, and subsequently, by letters-apostolical, to the nuncio and the 
 inquisitor at Turin. These paternal warnings were not without effect 
 for a time. But a few months after, advice having come that the 
 firmness of the duke was shaken, . . . his holiness made every 
 effort to lead him to reject all accommodation with the heretics, 
 because such an agreement would be an offence to God, scandalous 
 to all the faithful, dangerous to neighbouring nations, &c. . . . 
 However, by an edict of 23d May, 1694, the said duke has not 
 only abrogated the above-cited laws, but (which cannot be men- 
 tioned without tears) he has expressly permitted that the children 
 of the heretics which had been taken from them should be restored 
 to their parents, to the evident damnation of their souls, &c. 
 . . . Wherefore his holiness, in his zeal for the house of God, and 
 according to the duty of the pastoral charge which has been 
 intrusted to him from on high, ... has cassed, annulled, invali- 
 dated, and condemned the above-cited edict, and all that it con- 
 tains, as being monstrous, impious, detestable, &c., . . . ordaining 
 that this edict . . . shall be reputed as never having been framed 
 nor issued, . . . and enjoining all archbishops, bishops, inquisitors, 
 tfec, to act as hitherto against the heretics, without regard to this 
 deed, . . , which is declared to be abrogated in virtue of the pre- 
 sent decree." * 
 
 A number of secondary disputes had preceded this decision,2 
 
 * Tins decree may be seen in Borelli. I cannot give it entire. 
 
 2 The Archives of Turin contain many papers relative to this subject. The fol- 
 
 Chap. Vll] 
 
 FIRMNESS OF VICTOll AMADEUS. 
 
 103 
 
 and new disputes followed it.^ All Europe watched the strife, 
 impatient to know which of these powers would prove victorious. 
 The Duke of Savoy, disconcerted at first by the decree of the In- 
 quisition, aroused himself to display a proper sense of his dig- 
 nity as a sovereign. "He considered," says a contemporary, "that 
 upon such occasions firmness alone could command success, and 
 that the court of Rome would not fail to crush him if he mani- 
 fested even the least fear."'- He therefore ordered the senate of 
 Turin to examine the decree of the Holy Office. The procura- 
 tor-geneml, Eocca, demanded that this deed should be declared ill- 
 grounded, and that the edict for the re-establishment of the Vau- 
 dois should be maintained in force, rather as an act of justice than 
 of grace. '^ The advocate-general, Frechignone, supported these 
 views, and the senate, on the 2d of September, 1694, passed a 
 decree, by which it cassed and annulled that of the Inquisition, 
 prohibiting, under pain of death, its publication in the dominions of 
 Savoy, and confirmed, in all its provisions, the edict of the 23d of 
 May in favour of the Vaudois. 
 
 The Abbot of Pignerol alone, according to the journals of that 
 time, ventured to publish and support the decree of the Inquisition. 
 I am not aware that that ecclesiastic was prosecuted. But Victor 
 Amadeus acted with equal firmness and prudence, for he gave 
 orders to his resident at the court of Rome to communicate to 
 the pope what he had done, and to assure him that no sovereign 
 in Europe would any longer suffer such abuse of power on the j)art 
 
 loNving are the titles of some of those anterior to the decree of the Inquisition : — 
 Scrittura del Archivesc. e del Padre Inquisitore di Torino concernente la famigli- 
 arild e il commcrcio de catholici con quelli delta reliyione, &c. . . . — Scrittura del 
 S. Conte Pcyrani, contro quella di Monsignor Arcivcscovo e dH Padre Inquisitore, 
 &c. . . . — Parere d'un Teologo di Roma, circa Vcditto de S.A.B. a favore de 
 Valdesi. — Scrittura de mandar a Roma toccante le valli di Lucema, &c. 
 
 * Tlie documents connected with the disputes which followed the papal decree 
 are too numerous to be quoted. They consist chiefly of despatclies of Marcello Di 
 Gubernatis, the resident of Savoy at Rome, in which he gives an account to Victor 
 Amadeus of his negotiations with the pope and cardinals. — There are also extant 
 dissertations, by Piedmontese jurists and theologians, on the force of the pontifical 
 decree, some of these dissertations forming thick folio manuscripts.— There are, 
 moreover, detached documents, Progetto di lettera aW Inquisitione ; and, amongst 
 others, a letter which is entirely in the handwriting of Victor Amadeus, and is 
 addressed to the archbishop of Turin. The envelope which contains it bears this 
 superscription: — Minuta di lettera di S.A.R. all' Arcivesco di Torino, in occasione 
 d'una scrittura publicata in Torino, contro gV eretici, &c. (Archives of State, 
 Turin.) 
 
 2 Leltres historiqucs, No. for October, 1694, p. 367. 
 
 ' Com' un effetto piu di giustizia die de grazia. {Copia di rainostranza del Proc. 
 Gen. Rocca, sulla giustizia deW arresto a sua istanza dato del senate contro U 
 decrcio della sagra congregaiione, &c. Archives of Turin.) 
 
iOA 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tmiin. 
 
 of the Holy Sec. Spain and Austria having made similar protest- 
 ations, the pope seemed to discover that he had gone wrong, and 
 ordered his nuncio at Turin not to publish the decree against which 
 so many voices were raised. 
 
 This affair seemed, therefore, to have terminated; but as the 
 court of Home drew back, the Duke of Savoy became more jealous 
 of his prerogatives, and proceeded further to require that the tri- 
 bunal of the Inquisition should be abolished altogether, for having 
 arrogated an authority which amounted, as he said, to an usurpation 
 of his own. " You may well believe," says a contemporary, " that 
 that tribunal, the haughtiest and most imperious in the w^orld, is 
 exceedingly enraged." ^ But Victor Amadeus had assumed the 
 offensive only the better to secure his victory; and, after some ne- 
 gotiations, the matter was arranged. 
 
 The Vaudois, meanwhile, laboured to restore their ancient or- 
 ganization. Almost all the exiled families, and almost all that 
 had joined the Church of Rome, had returned to the coimtry and 
 to the church in which they had been born. The Vaudois troops 
 had taken their place among the regular forces of Victor Amadeus. 
 The peasants were occupied with the cultivation of their lands, and 
 the rebuildincr of their houses and their sanctuaries;^ and the 
 spiritual guides of this small people laboured to increase their own 
 numbers, or to make amends for the want of numbers by activity. 
 In 1692, ere yet the edict had been published which restored 
 them to theii- foi-mer position, having received, by an order of the 
 day, a promise of their speedy re-establishment in the heritages and 
 rights of then- fathei-s, they held a synod, " to begin," its acts say, 
 " the restoration of good order among them, notwithstanding the 
 troubles which always continue to disquiet them."-^ Their first act 
 was to appoint a religious festival, to be observed in all the val- 
 leys,* to render thanks to God for having brought them back to 
 that ancient sanctuary of the gospel, and a solemn fast, to obtain 
 relief from the trials to which they were exposed. 
 
 " In the year 1G92," says a memoir of that period,'^ "there were 
 already twelve churches in the valleys, but they were unable to 
 
 * Lettres historiques, p. 595. 
 
 2 In the year 1G8G, all the Protestant places of worship in the valleys were 
 thrown down to their foundations. Mcmoire sur Vetat present des Eglises Vau- 
 doLses (1705), communicated by the late M. Appia, of Frankfort. 
 
 » Synodal acts of the Vaudois valleys. Archives of the Table. Synod of Lea 
 Copiers, 18th April, 1692. 
 
 * It took place on the 4th of May. 
 
 5 Communicated by M. Appia. The substance of it is contained in the Pvccords 
 of the Venerable Company of Pastors at Geneva. 
 
 Chaf, 
 
 '. vri.] 
 
 QUEEN MARYS PENSIONS. 
 
 105 
 
 maintain their pastors. Queen Maiy,^ of eternal and blessed 
 memory, having been informed of this distress, extended' to them 
 her charity, by establishing twelve pensions, of 100 crowns each, 
 one for every pastor, and a like number, of fifty English crowns 
 each, for every schoolmaster." This assistance was afterwards in- 
 creased with the number of the parishes, and soon amounted to the 
 sum of £150 sterling, which was annually sent by bills of exchange, 
 payable at Turin. This sum not having appeared in the civil list 
 during the reign of William III.,^ the payment of it was suspended 
 for some years after his death. A special deputation of the Vau- 
 dois was sent to London, to obtain the renewal of the benefaction.^ 
 In 1692 there were only nine pastors in the valleys,^ of whom 
 one alone supplied the valley of St, Martin. Their number in- 
 creased after the first edict of re-establishment was issued.^ During 
 
 • Daughter of James II., and wife of "William III., born Prince of Orange. 
 Queen Mary died on 7th January, 1695 — her husband on 19th March, 1702. Both 
 the one and the other always manifested the liveliest interest in the Vaudois, and 
 a constant jealousy of Louis XIV. 
 
 - These particulars are derived from the preface to the Records of the Church of 
 Durmcntz, a Vaudois colony in "Wurteinberg. 
 
 3 From the same source. It was the pastor Montoux who was sent to London 
 for this object. 
 
 * These were David Lt^er, pastor at Bobi ; James Jayer, at Pramol ; Henry Ar- 
 naud, at Ilora, and at the Vineyards of Lucorna ; William Malanot, at Angrogna ; 
 Dumas, at St. John; Giraud, at La Tour; Javel, at Eocheplate (the same who was 
 fonnerly at Stendal); and Montoux (who had been a prisoner from August, 1G89, 
 to July, 1G90), in the valley of St. Martin. 
 
 ^ In the month of June, 1692, the former pastor of Eocheplate, named Bernard 
 Jaj^er, having returned to the valleys, v*ra3 settled again in his old parish ; and 
 Javel was then conjoined with Montoux to preach in the valley of St. Martin. A 
 few days after, another minister, Papon, also cirrived, recommended by the Duke 
 of Schonberg, who took a great interest in the Vaudois, and by Van-der-Meer, the 
 resident of Holland. The parishes of St. Germain and Pomaret were assigned 
 him as a sphere for his ministry; but in the month of November, the pastor having 
 represented that he found it impossible properly to supply two places so distant 
 from one another, his field of labour was restricted to St. Germain and L'Anvers 
 Piaache. In the course of the same year, the parish of Ville Seche, to which the 
 Leger family belonged, demanded for their minister David Leger, who was then 
 pastor at Bobi, but who had formerly been settled among them ; and received the 
 promise of him as soon as he could go to reside at Ville Seche. At the same time 
 the parish of Macel received a young minister, named Laurence Bertin, who had 
 just terminated his studies; and next year, M. Cyrus Chyou presented himself, the 
 old colleague of Amaud and Montoux, who was to have accompanied the Vaudois 
 in their return, but was taken prisoner on the first day. Having been detained at 
 Chambery till 1691, he then entered the service of the Duke of Schonberg, as chap, 
 lain to one of his regiments. He received the promise of the first place that should 
 become vacant in the valleys. He occupied the parish of Pomaret for some weeks, 
 after which we lose all trace of him. Perhaps he returned to the Grisons, where 
 he had left liis family in 1690. He was a native of Crest, in Dauphiny, and his 
 first charge had been that of Pont-en-Royans, on the banks of the Isere. How 
 adventurous was then the career of the ministers of the persecuted church ! 
 
 Vol. II. 74 
 
106 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Third 
 
 the course of this year five synods were held.^ The council for 
 mana^insr the affairs of the church, called the Vaudois Table, was 
 then formed, as follows : — David Leger, Moderator ; Henry Ar- 
 NAUD, Moderator Adjoint; and William Malanot, Secretary. 
 These ecclesiastical officers were charged with the duty of writing 
 to the different Protestant states of Europe which took an interest 
 in the Israel of the Alps, to inform them of their new situation, to 
 thank them for benefits conferred, and to ask the continuance of 
 theii* kind support, by the help of which alone it now seemed possible 
 that the Vaudois Church could rise from the ruins accumulated in 
 its valleys during six yeai-s of calamity. 
 
 Holland, in particular, responded to this appeal, sending contri- 
 butions for the maintenance of a superior school, and for the relief 
 of the more urgent cases of distress. One of the richest citizens 
 of that country, M. Clignct, to whose generosity the Vaudois had 
 been indebted for the pecuniary means necessary to the accomplish- 
 ment of their expedition of return, completed his work by assisting 
 them to carry out their schemes of consolidation. The univemties 
 of Lausanne, Basle, and Utrecht founded bursaries for the main- 
 tenance of young students from the valleys, who should devote 
 themselves to the ministry of the gospel in their native land.*-* 
 
 One of the first decisions of the fifth synod of 1692 was (in the 
 words of the synod), "that for the future it means and wishes that 
 all Vaudois candidates for the ministry [ijrojwsants] refrain from 
 offering themselves for examination, and from receiving imposition 
 of hands out of the valleys, without the consent and advice of the 
 pastors of the Vaudois Church."'^ The synod following was occupied 
 with the disciplme of tlie Church. " The meeting, seeing with re- 
 gret the excesses which are committed on the Sabbath day, in 
 games and in public-houses, exhorts the fjxithful to employ that day 
 in the ser\4ce of God, and charges the consistory of each parish to 
 attend to this matter."* Military habits, a wandering life, and the 
 interruption of regular public worship — all of which causes had exer- 
 cised their influence on the Vaudois during the immediately pre- 
 ceding years — explain in part the abuses here complained of. But 
 
 » Viz., on 18th April, 20th June, 28th June, 1st September, and SOth November. 
 The place of meeting was always at Les Copiers, the place of worship there being 
 the only one, it is said, which remained undemolished in 1686. 
 
 - That of Utrecht lasted only for twelve years. The first bursary founded in 
 Geneva for Vaudois students was not till 1725. (Succour of different kinds had, 
 however, been regularly enough given them since 1655.) The Queen of England 
 also offered, in 1694, to maintain at her own expense, in the universities of her 
 kingdom, ten students of the Vaudois valleys. (See Synod of 6th October, 1691.) 
 
 ' Acts of Synod of November, 1692. {Archives of the Table.) 
 
 * Same source.— Synod of 15th and 16th September, 1693. 
 
 Chap. VII.] CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE CHURCHES. 107 
 
 the synodal meeting did not confine its solicitude to measures of 
 repression; it felt that it was necessary also to prevent and correct; 
 '•'and concerning the representation which has been made, that 
 great ignorance prevails amongst the people concerning the mys- 
 teries of the gospel, it has been resolved that catechetical examina- 
 tions shall be held upon week days and upon Sabbath evenings 
 in which adults shall be catechized as well as children."^ This 
 synod was occupied also with the organization of 2^ariicular con- 
 sistories, intended to watch over the interests of morality, and the 
 exercise of discipline in each of the Vaudois parishes. 
 
 Next year the act relative to the sanctification of the Sabbath 
 was renewed,'^ and parishes were exhorted to contribute /or the 
 maintenance of their pastors.^ At the same time, the deputies of 
 
 ' Acts of Synod of loth and 16th September, 1693. {Archives of the Talle.)-^ 
 The catechism of Drelincourt was adopted as a manual for these catechizings. • 
 
 ■^ Synod of 3d June, 1694. 
 
 3 Synod of 6th October, 1694. These voluntary contributions, which afterwards 
 became obligatory, were long the occasion of many difficulties. I have passed over 
 in silence the greater part of these painful contentions between the pastor and his 
 parish, or a certain number of his parishioners.— I subjoin, as a memorandum of 
 them, the rates of the spontaneous contributions which were afterwards fixed for 
 each church of the valleys.* These churches were divided into great and small, 
 according to their resources. 
 
 The great churches of the valley of Lucerna were to furnish— Bobi, 650 francs 
 for the pastor (it had formerly given 700), and 150 francs for the schoolmaster ; f 
 ViLLAR (with four annexed churches), 650 and 180 francs; J La Toub, 600 for the 
 pastor, and 170 for the schoolmaster. At St. John there was no pastor, but a 
 master, who received 200 francs. Angeogna gave 600 francs to the pastor (it had 
 formerly given 700), and 160 for the schoolmaster; Rora, the only small church 
 of the valley of Lucerna, gave only 100 francs to the pastor. The parish of Pra- 
 rusting and Rocheplate, situated between the two valleys, and considered as a great 
 church, gave to the pastor 580 francs, and 150 to the schoolmaster. St. Germain 
 and PPAMOL, ranked among the small churches, gave, the former 500 francs, and 
 the latter 400 francs to the pastor, and 50 francs each to the schoolmaster. 
 
 Churches of the valley of St. Martin. — Ville Seche, the only great church, 
 which gave formerly 600 francs to the pastor, was now to give 550, but was in so 
 exhausted a condition, that even this contribution was impossible. It continued 
 to pay 48 francs to the schoohnaster. Pomaret, although numbered among the 
 small churches, gave 500 francs and 62 francs. Maneille and Macel, Pral and 
 Rodoret, two other small churches, gave 500 francs each to their respective pastors, 
 and 48 francs to the schoolmaster. But the number of teachers was too small, for 
 one for each parish was not sufficient, and yet there were many difficulties to over- 
 come, in order to obtain payment of these contributions, and many delays before 
 they were paid. The pastors who were least urgent in their demands allowed 
 arrears to run up till payment became impossible ; and when, pressed by imperious 
 necessities, any of them demanded payment of what was due to him, deplorable 
 
 * When the supplies from England were reduced to £268 sterling, in consequence of the neces- 
 sity of dividing these resources with the Vaudois colonies founded in Germany after 1698. 
 
 t There were in tills commune four other schoolmasters besides, who taught only in winter, and 
 received 20 francs. 
 
 X There were here also four district regents, who received 16 francs. 
 
lOS 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt TniRO. 
 
 this Vaudois cliurcL, so long tossed with tempests, and scarcely yet 
 restored to a position of security, manifested a truly Christian 
 solicitude regarding their suffering brethren; and among the acts 
 of the first synod of 1G93 we read as follows :~" The company, 
 sensibly touched with the pitiful state of our poor brethren who are 
 unjustly detained in the galleys of Fmnce, resolved to write to the 
 evangelical cantons of Switzerland, to entreat them to use their 
 influence with the king in their favour." The synod then consi- 
 dered the case of those of the Vaudois who were in the same 
 situation.^ The assistance of a i»hysician,- and the services of a 
 gemral regent^ were secured. The latter subsequently became 
 rector of the Latin school. CoUoques'' and conferences were then 
 established, in wliich the consistories should meet together "for 
 censure of pastoi-s and elders, according to the ancient custom. 
 Even private persons were invited to submit their differences to the 
 arbitration of these bodies, in order to avoid the scandal and 
 expense of lawsuits.^ Finally, as there flowed to the vaUeys a great 
 number of vagabond foreigners, it was resolved that no one should 
 be admitted to participation of the sacraments, in any congregation 
 but his own, without a certificate from his pastor.^ The synod 
 aimed also at forming a collection of documents, which might be of 
 importance for the history of the recent events; but the pei-sons 
 wlio undertook this ta.^k never accomplished it.^ 
 
 In the midst of these arrangements a new event once more 
 changed the aspect of things in the Yaudois valleys. Victor Ama- 
 deus having regained possession of Perouse,^ the synod sent a de- 
 putation to him, to reciuest that its inhabitants might be permitted 
 thenceforth to form one ecclesiastical body with their brethren of 
 the other vaUeys.^^ The duke replied in an evasive manner; and 
 
 dilutes arose between the parish and its pastor. Facts of this kmd abound in the 
 Arcliives. (The contributions marked in this note aU relate to the period extend- 
 ing from the end of the 17th to the end of the 18th century.) 
 " Synod of Cth October, 1604. , , ,, ^ -u *• m.^ 
 
 « At a cost of 400 francs, taken from the sum total of the contributions. The 
 frst who filled this situation was named Balcet. 
 " 3 A sum of 300 francs was assigned for his salary, and was to be paid propor- 
 
 lionally by all the parishes. 
 
 ♦ Synod of 6th October, 1G94. x. r. t 
 
 * Synod of 17th June, 1G95. These conferences took place oefore the Easier 
 
 ^October, 1604. ^ Synod of 25th April 1607 
 
 « At first, M. Dubourdieu voluntarily offered to undei-take it (Synod of 27th 
 October, 1003); afterwards, John Pastre was charged with this duty by the bynod 
 of 25th October, 1695. 
 
 9 By the treaty of Turin of 20th August, 1686. , , , no ^ 1/.1 
 
 10 Archives of Le VUlar.-MS. vol. marked Religionarii, fcl. 102 and 103. 
 
 CnAP. VII.] 
 
 VAUDOIS AGAIN HARASSED. 
 
 109 
 
 shortly after he expressly prohibited all sorts of religious connection 
 between the one and the other. Signs began also to appear of an 
 increasing severity against the people of the valleys. The carrying 
 off of children had re-commenced without being punished. Extra^ 
 ordinary contributions were demanded of the Vaudois for the can- 
 toning of troops. The demand was even made that they should 
 pay the public burdens for their lands for the whole time dui'ing 
 which they had been exiled and their lands unculti\^ted.i The 
 people, already so impoverished, thus found themselves oppressed 
 with a debt of 300,000 francs, of which they had to pay the inte- 
 rest every year.2 "It is impossible to imagine," said Walkenier, 
 *■ liow they can maintain their position in that country. By the 
 burdens imposed upon them they are so laden with debt, that they 
 are already all but compelled to go and seek the means of subsist- 
 ence elsewhere. They will be obliged to sell their properties at a 
 •price far below their value, and for this many Eoman Catholics are 
 waiting in expectation." ^ 
 
 The peace which Victor Amadeus concluded with France in 
 1C9G, far from bringing to his subjects of the valleys the repose 
 which seemed likely to flow from it, became more onerous to them 
 than the war. The malignant jealousy and wrath of their popish 
 neighbours began to be accompanied with some hope even of a new 
 pei'secution. 
 
 In the spring of 1G98, a Jesuit, attended by a number of monks, 
 having visited all the valleys in succession, addressed a report to 
 the pope; and in consequence of this report, the Marquis De Spada 
 immediately set out from Ptome for Turin, wliere he had a confer- 
 ence with the apostolic nuncio.* Louis XIV. at this time was 
 persecuting to the uttermost the Protestants of Dauphiny; and as 
 the Duke of Savoy had just concluded a family alliance with that 
 monarch, it was supposed that the conference above mentioned most 
 probably had for its object a scheme for the total extirjmtion of the 
 Vaudois. The Vaudois themselves say in a memorial,^ " Our con- 
 dition is so lamentable that it is truly worthy of compassion. We 
 
 ' Dieterici, G. VII. 
 
 2 Memoir on tlie State of the Valleys. MS. in the library of the late M. Appia. 
 
 ' Letters of Walkenier, the resident of Holland in Switzeriand, and reports 
 cited by Dieterici, G. VII. (Year 1698.) Other letters on the same subject; 
 Archives of Beme, compartment E; Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. O 
 pp. 391, 421, &c. 
 
 * These particulars are derived from the letters of Walkenier, quoted by Dieterici, 
 and from others still unpublished. 
 
 * Brieve description de I'estat pUoyahle des Eglises des vallecs sons la domination 
 du due de Savoie. (Quoted by Dieterici.) See also Lettres historiques, t. xiii 
 p. 168. 
 
I 
 
 110 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Third. 
 
 are every clay alarmed by beiug told that we will not be long liere, 
 and that it has been resolved to make us leave the country." 
 
 These alarms were not without foundation. In the treaty of 
 peace, concluded on the 18th of August, 1G96, between France and 
 Piedmont, was a secret article, ^ which was not published even after 
 the treaty of Ryswick,- but of which the piu'port was gradually 
 made manifest. This article was in the following terms:—" His 
 royal highness (Victor Amadeus) will cause an edict to be pub- 
 lished, forbidding, under pain of corporal punishment, the inhabi- 
 tants of the valleys of Lucerna, known by the name of Vaudois, 
 from having any religious communication with the subjects of liis 
 most Christian majesty (Louis XIV.), and from this day forth his 
 royal highness will not permit the subjects of the King of France 
 to settle in any manner in the said valleys. . . . He will, moreover^ 
 prohibit all preachers from setting foot on the French territory, 
 . . . and, finally, he engages not to permit the pretended Reformed 
 religion in the territories which have been ceded to him." These 
 territories were neither more nor less than the valleys of Perouse 
 and Pragela. 
 
 Accordingly the Duke of Savoy issued, on the 1st of July, 1698, 
 an edict,^ by which he ordained that all French Protestants settled 
 in his dominions, even ministers, notwithstanding any permission 
 previously obtained, should leave his dominions within the space of 
 two months, under pain of death. " Those," he says, " who have 
 become proprietors of lands in the country, and who shall not have 
 sold their properties at that date, will then receive the estimated 
 value of them from the hands of the intendant of Pignerol." All 
 Vaudois pastors are, moreover, forbidden to penetrate into the 
 dominions of the King of France, under pain of ten years of the 
 galleys. 
 
 The preamble of this edict bears that it was issued in virtue of 
 the seventh article of the treaties of Turin and Ryswick; "and 
 wishing, therefore," it is then said, " to comply with what has been 
 signified to us on the part of his majesty (Louis XIV.), we ordain 
 all the inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys to have no intercourse 
 with the subjects of his most Christian majesty in regard to mat- 
 ters of religion, under pain of three lashes with a rope (public fla- 
 gellation) for each offence." It is easy to perceive that great trouble 
 and painful separations must have ensued in the families affected by 
 this edict. The greater part of the foreign refugees were connected 
 with the Vaudois, either by blood or by common sympathies and 
 
 1 It is § VII. * 20th September, and 30th October, 1697. 
 
 2 It is printed in the Lettres historiques, t. xiv. pp. 136-139. 
 
 # 'I 
 
 Chap. VIII ] VAUDOIS AGAIN EXPATKIATED. m 
 
 interests. But now they were driven to seek refuge elsewhere 
 In the year preceding, the inhabitants of Pragela had already taken 
 steps with this view, for the character of the negotiations of Rys- 
 wick and the last orders of Louis XIV. had made them apprehen- 
 sive of some new calamity. « They treat of peace," wrote Arnaud 
 to Walkemer, "but, according to my poor judgment, it is not yet 
 a time of peace." ^ 
 
 Never in fact, unless in 1686, had these fair regions been more 
 distressfully agitated. More than 3000 emigrants left their home 
 for foreign lands, to which we shall now follow them in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS COLONIES FOUNDED IN WURTEM- 
 BERG AFTER THE EXPULSION OF 1698.— PART FIRST.-' 
 
 (A.D. 1698 to A.D. 1699.) 
 
 Expulsion of ministers and people not natives of the valleys -Emigration from the 
 GoZh ^'^^'^^-^'^^r^ f- t^e establishment of a Vaudois colony near 
 Conn nfT' ^^^^^^^^^^^^S "Generous conduct and enlightened views of the 
 Count of Neustadt-He resists attempted intolerance-Three thousand Protes- 
 tants leave the valleys-Their reception in Switzerland-Their negotiation, 
 with the government of Wurtemberg-Difficultie^Energy and activity of 
 Arnaud-Walkenier negotiates for the exiles with the govermnent of Wur- 
 temberg, as plenipotentiary of Holland and other Protestant powers-Terms 
 agreed upon-Pensions for pastors and schoohnasters obtained from England. 
 
 Of the thirteen pastors who ministered in the Vaudois Church in 
 1C98, seven were foreigners by bii-th, and were obliged to leave 
 
 .hLYf^?^^'^^*^ ^^"^'* of Arnaud, dated from La Tour, 25th March, 1G97. (Ar- 
 chives of Berne, compartment E.) > < i^r 
 
 bclJ^^lzurTlT^^^T' ''^^l':r^'^^ ""^^^'ion oftU Vaudois info WuHart- 
 thh wort 1 ' ' ^"^^^^°^^°;) Tt« ^^thor was a very aged man when he wrote 
 ThTsZnV^ ^' P"°°^^.«^^ * continuation of it, but was not able to accomplish it. 
 ims book contains tn extenso, a large number of lengthy documents, but they are 
 
 befot I ?r . *^^ ''*"'" °^ *^^ ^^^^^^^ *« *^^i^ °^^ <'°«^t^> «even years 
 
 ;s confounded with the abortive and ill-managed attempt of Bourgeois. )~Dieterici 
 umory of the Introduction of the Vaudois into (lie Dominions of Prussian Bran. 
 
 htt;^ JT^; '•'''' ^^ ^;T^"'^ ^'^^ ^"*^°^ ^^'^ ^ ^--^ ep^omeffThe 
 mstory of the Vaudois, and of their return under the conduct of Arnaud Tho 
 
 SrT r/-*' ""[ *^f ^''''^ '" contained particularly in a collection or analysis of 
 ^Sr^r'VV^' ""'''Tt "' *^' ^-led Vaudois at Stendal.-^maLnd 
 ^^cclam, Contnbuttons to the History of the French Refugees in the Dominions of 
 
112 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thtbd. 
 
 Chap. VIII] 
 
 THE COUNT OF NEUSTADT. 
 
 113 
 
 P 
 
 the country in consequence of the edict of the 1st of July.^ Two 
 of them - immediately set out for Switzerland and Germany, to 
 seek an asylum for their fugitive flocks. A number of families 
 had already quitted Pragela, to escape the vexations to wliich they 
 were subjected by Louis XIV.;" and about the end of the year 1697, 
 a part of the inhabitants of the Val Perouse joined these first exiles, 
 in consequence of the refusal of Victor Amadeus to allow to the 
 religionaries of the territory ceded by France the same rights with 
 those of the other Vaudois valleys. 
 
 These families having i)assed through Switzerland without being 
 able to settle there, addi-essed themselves, in the beginning of 1698, 
 
 the King of Prussia.'" (Berlin, 1786, in German.) In voL vi. of this collection, 
 most of the historic part of the preceding work will be found already published.— 
 Lamherty, "MateHalsfortlie History of thelSth Century." {Id.)— Keller, " The Pre- 
 sent State of tlie Vaudois'' (a work of no great value).— ^a/in, " History of the Vau- 
 dois and of CoUateral Sects " (in German. Stuttgard, 1847, 8vo, pp. 822). It is the 
 second volume of a History of the Sects of the Middle Ages, published by this author. 
 He gives, amongst his proof documents, the complete text of the Vaudois poems in tJte 
 Romance tongue, of which Eaynouard and Monastier had previously published 
 only fragments.— Various Academic Theses (for example, Mayerhoff, ''Die Wal- 
 denscr in unsercn Tagen." (Berlin, 1831.)— Some narratives of travels may also 
 be consulted.— A learned native of the valleys of Piedmont, the late M. P. Appia, 
 pastor of the French church at Frankfort-on-the-Maiue, bad made a collection of 
 many documents, which he conamunicated to me. — Some other documents I have 
 obtained by my own researches in the State Archives of Darmstadt and Stuttgard, 
 as well as in most of the localities where the Vaudois were settled in Germany.- 
 The last of the national pastors in that country, the late venerable and aged M. 
 Mondon, by his recollections and private memoranda, more than once supplied 
 deficiencies in other sources of information. —Various journals may also with 
 great propriety be cited— as the Archives of the Country of BarJen, t. I. No. 5, 
 (where are to be seen twelve Vaudois letters, with observations by Mono, who after- 
 wards published his work in a separate form)— the Echo of the ( Vaudois) Valleys, 
 containing some letters by M. Geymonat on the same subject— the Historic Annals 
 
 of Halle, &c. 
 
 1 Viz. :— Arnaud, pastor at St. John; GiRAUD at La Tour; Jordan at Le VUlar; 
 Dumas at Pora; Papon at Pochcplate and Prarusting; Montoux at Ville Scche; 
 and Javel at Le Pomaret. 
 
 The edict was not published in the valleys till the 13th of July; and on the 
 very day on which it was signed, viz., the 1st of July, the pastors Dumas, Jordan, 
 M&n'.oux, and Javel took the oath of fidelity to Victor Amadeus, before the go- 
 vernor of Pignerol. Other inhabitants of the valleys, to the number of 218, were 
 in like manner permitted to take the oath ; yet by the edict which was signed at 
 the same moment, they were all proscribed. — See, for the taking of this oath, the 
 Civil Archives of Pignerol, Categoria I., Mazzo 31, No. 27. 
 
 2 Papon and Henri Arnaud. 
 
 » Letters from Berne, 28th January, 1 698, and from Zurich , 30th January, have for 
 their object the preparation of supplies of food and raiment for these expatriated 
 Vaudois. (Archives of Berne, compartment E.) Many summonses and prosecutions 
 before the magistrates still took place in the name of Louis XIV., between April 
 and June, 1698, in order to the erection of five Catholic charges in the valley of 
 Pragela, instead of five Protestant charges. (The documents are in the Archives 
 of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) 
 
 to the Duke of Wurtemberg, to obtain lands in his dominions. This 
 prince was himself very favourably inclined towards them, but found 
 obstacles to his benevolence in the Faculty of Theology of Tubin- 
 gen, who considered the Vaudois as tainted with Calvinism, and 
 whose opposition was strongly supported in the ducal council. But 
 a prmce of the second rank, the Count of Neustadt,i a man of good 
 heaxi and good heart, would not allow himself to be stayed by these 
 prejudices. He considered that the industry of the Vaudois would 
 be useful in his province; and there is a letter extant, in which he 
 says :— " The day after my arrival at Gochsheim, thirty-five of these 
 poor people came to me, asking permission to settle in my domains 
 Not being able to grant this without the consent of the duke I 
 requested them to wait a few days; and, in the meantime, I made 
 them look through the country for a suitable situation. We agreed 
 upon a plan of settlement and colonization, which will be imme- 
 diately carried into effect if I can obtain a favourable answer from 
 my dear cousin.^ Three delegates have just come from them, ask- 
 mg permission to build huts for themselves before winter, and also 
 the means of so doing, that they may be ready in spring to set 
 about the erection of durable buildings and the cultivation of the 
 gi'ound. I warmly recommend to Councillor Justine^ the petition 
 of these poor people; and I am firmly persuaded that this colony 
 wiU promote the prosperity of my little town, because they propose 
 to establish a considerable manufactory, and to bring toc^ether to 
 the spot as many as 200 families."* "^ 
 
 The privy council appointed a commission to examine this pro- 
 posal.5 The commission made a favourable report; the council 
 adopted its recommendations ;« and, a few days after, ^ the first 
 patent was issued, in virtue of which lands were granted to the 
 Vaudois in Wurtemberg. This deed, drawn up both in French 
 and German, was not yet signed by the grand duke, but only sealed 
 with the ducal seal. » It was immediately forwarded to the Count 
 of Neustadt, who thanked his sovereign for it, as for a boon con- 
 feiTed upon himself; ^ and, without delay, he assigned to the Vau- 
 dois a territory for colonization at a small distance from Gochsheim. 
 
 'Frederic Augustus, lord of the bailiwicks of Neustadt and Gochsheun, a prince 
 ot Wurtemberg.— il/osgr gives him the title of Duke. 
 ' Whose vassal he was. 
 ' Of Mentzingen, to whom the letter is addressed. 
 
 * This number indicates the importance of this emigration as a historic event. 
 Tlie letter is dated 3d August, im%.— Archives of Stuttgard.— Moaer, § Ixii. 
 
 * By decree of 5th August. « On 6th August. » On 9th August. 
 
 * It may be seen amongst £lie proof documents in MosER. 
 ' By letter of 20th September. 
 
 Vol. u. yg 
 
lU 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Third. 
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 VAUDOIS ABRIVE AT GENEVA. 
 
 115 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 An extent of fifteen arpents of arable laud, two arpents of meadow, 
 and as mucli of vineyard, was reserved for their future pastor. 
 Finally, tliis kind nobleman desired that the colony should bear 
 the name of Aiigustistad (Augustus-town), in memory of the inte- 
 rest which he took in its founders. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, however, that the patent of coloniza- 
 tion was not yet final; and the confession of faith of the Vaudois 
 having been presented to the privy council, a commission was 
 again named to examine it. The judgment of the commission dis- 
 appointed the expectations of the lord of Goehsheim. It set forth 
 that this confession was neither conformable to the doctrines of the 
 ancient Vaudois Church, nor to those of the Moravian brethren; 
 but that it was the confession of the Reformed Church of France, 
 pervaded thi'oughout with Calvinism, and that, in consequence, 
 the petitioners must be refused admission into Wurtemberg, at 
 least, imless they adopted the Confession of Augsburg.^ Neverthe- 
 less, the Count of Neustadt persisted in his scheme of colonization, 
 generous towards the exiles, and profitable for his own estates; 
 and if the Vaudois were afterwards made welcome in Wurtemberff, 
 we cannot but recognize in his independence of mind, and in the 
 noble example which he then set, causes which must have power- 
 fully contributed to bring about this result. 
 
 Meanwhile the edict had been published in Piedmont ordainini' 
 foreign Protestants to quit the dominions of Savoy. It is alleged 
 that Victor Amadous hoped to see them submit to the Church of 
 Rome, i-ather than to all the hardships of expatriation; but 2000 
 exiles arose, and made the sacrifice of their country for the sake of 
 the gospel; for these beautiful valleys had indeed become their 
 country; they had dwelt in them for ten or twelve years; they had 
 aided the Vaudois in re-establishing themselves there; they had, 
 in a sense, acquired them by conquest, in combating along with 
 the Vaudois — praying, suffering, and hoping along with them — until 
 the right of residing in that land was guaranteed to them by 
 formal edict.*'.- Alliances of every kind had been formed among 
 the different elements of the population; and, whether to follow 
 their adopted families, or from fear that the arbitrary will of the 
 sovereign might soon subject them to a similar measure, ^ many 
 
 » This singular monument of intolerance is dated 18th October, 1698, and will be 
 found amongst the proof documents in MosER (No. xii.) 
 
 « Those of June, 1692, and May, 1694, by which Victor Amadeus himself invited 
 to the valleys the refugees whom he now banished. 
 
 ^ There exist deeds of sale, purchases, and transmissions of immovable property, 
 which afford evidence of these departures, and the motives of them. A Vaudois 
 woman, for example, who had married a Frenchman, sold her property, says the 
 
 Vaudois resolved to leave their country along with the exiles of 
 foreign birth. ^ Moreover, all the Protestants who remained in 
 the valley of Perouse were obliged to join them ; for Louis XIV., 
 in ceding that territory to Piedmont, had stipulated, by a special 
 clause, that the Reformed religion should not be tolerated in any 
 part of the ceded territory. 
 
 The total number of the emigrants thus amounted to more than 
 3000. They set out about the end of 1698, in seven bands, each 
 conducted by a pastor. The Duke of Savoy had given orders that 
 their travellmg expenses should be paid by the state ; but, from 
 the third day of their march, Gropello, the minister of finance, re- 
 fused to furnish the requisite money, on the pretext that the exiles 
 abused it, and gave themselves up to intemperanoe. The real 
 motive, however, was no consideration of morals, nor even of eco- 
 nomy, but simply one of prosely tism. It was hoped that, the exiles 
 being forced to travel at their own expense, the poorer of them 
 would be prevented from accomplishing their journey, and would 
 thus be obliged to rem^^in in the country, where they would then 
 be under the necessity of embracing Catholicism. But such was 
 the spirit of Christian union and Christian love which animated 
 them all, that not one of them was forced to leave the rest; the 
 rich paid for the poor; and all, iipheld by confidence in God, ar- 
 rived at Geneva, that hospitable stage of all our great emigi^ations, 
 where they were welcomed by then- brethren, and relieved by the 
 contributions which Holland and Britain had made haste to send. 
 The evangelical cantons of Switzerland consented to receive them 
 for the winter, on condition that they should quit the country in 
 the spring of 1G99, because of the too great population of Switzer- 
 land, and the bad harvest of 1698. 
 
 During this time Vaudois deputies ^ went to Wurtemberg, and 
 took steps to obtain a fixed residence there. They arrived at 
 Stuttgard in the month of October, 1698. Three councilloi-s of 
 
 deed, per non voler ne poter soffnre la separatione del suo marito .... olligaio 
 ahsentar da queste valliper Vordine di S. A. R. del principio diLuglio. (Archives 
 of Le Villar, MS. vol. marked ReligionaHi, fol. 109.) 
 
 * These fears appear in many letters of the Vaudois .... " Although this edict 
 relates to the refugees alone, it has tlie effect of shaking the whole body of the valleys, as 
 the greater part of us are allied to the refugees, and apprehend that his royal high- 
 ness may go farther yet in order to please France. (Letter of Blanchon to Wal- 
 kenier.— In areport by Walkenier, dated 4th October, 1698, he says, "In the valley 
 of Perouse they have been deprived of all their properties; almost all their do- 
 mestics, as refugees, are compelled to quit the country.) 
 
 2 These were Henry Arnaud, for the refugees and Vaudois of the valley of Lu- 
 cerna, James Pastre for those of Pragela, and Stephen Muret for those of Perouse 
 «nd St. Martin. Papon remained in Switzerland. 
 
116 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thud 
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 HENRY ARNAUD. 
 
 117 
 
 f 
 
 ( '' 
 
 the government, acquainted with the Frencli language, were ap- 
 pointed to confer with them, and conferences took place on the 
 19th and 24th of that month. Arnaud, Moser says/ was the 
 speaker in these conferences. He showed, with true prudence and 
 wisdom, that the doctrine of the Vaudois had not been modified to 
 assimilate it to Calvinism; and when the confession of faith of the 
 Bohemian brethren was laid before him, he said that he received 
 it as well as that of St. Cyril; he added that, in the spirit of Chris- 
 tian charity, the Vaudois had never refused to take part in the 
 worship of the Keformed churches, wherever it was tolei-ated, but 
 their church was anterior to all those which sprung from the Re- 
 formation; that they acknowledged the Bible only as the foundation 
 of their faith, and that if they were received into Wurtemberg, they 
 would be faithful to the government of the country, both in peace 
 and in war. Upon these explanations, the council of state unani- 
 mously adopted a report favourable to the admission of the exiles 
 into Wurtemberg;'-^ and, a few days after, » the bailifi" of Maul- 
 bronn* received orders from the privy council to go through the 
 country with their delegates, that they might look out the places 
 most favourable for the establishment of the projected colonies. 
 According to liis report, nearly 300 famHies might have been dis- 
 tributed in a great number of different localities; but the Vaudois 
 opposed this aiTangement, because they desired to remain united, 
 and to found villages of their own. 
 
 The question of their admission, however, was as yet only pro- 
 visionally decided; to render the decision final, it required the 
 approbation of the sovereign. The privy council convoked"^ a 
 general meeting of the superior councils, and of the former dele- 
 gates of both chambers, that they might give their opinion as to 
 the decision wliich the government should adopt in this matter. 
 The report was still favourable ;« but the theological antipathy 
 which was felt by the Lutheran bodies of Wurtemberg to the 
 admission of a foreign religion into that country, found organs in 
 the council of state, which ordered a new general meeting of the 
 superior councils, and a more thorough examination of the ques- 
 tions of doctrine.^ The minute of the proceedings of this meeting 
 was drawn up with care,8 and the conclusion of the report was still 
 as favourable as before. 
 
 • § Ixv. 2 It is dated 24th October, 1C98. » On 31st October. 
 
 • Named Oerbei-t; he displayed much activity and much good-wiU to the Vaudois. 
 5 By decree of 11th November, 1698. 
 
 « It was agreed upon on 15th November, 1698. 
 ' This meeting took place on the 22d of November. 
 
 • See MosEii, Proof Documents, No. xiii. 
 
 In the council of state ^ opinions were divided, some pronouncino- 
 for admission, others for rejection. The latter party argued (1), 
 that the petitioners were for the most part refugees, and not 
 Vaudois; (2), that they were too poor to be able to effect an 
 advantageous settlement, without assistance in the first place, which 
 would impo^'erish the country rather than enrich it; and (3), that 
 there would })e a danger of Louis XIV. demanding their expul- 
 sion from Wurtemberg, as he had demanded their expulsion from 
 Piedmont. The council decided to reject the petition of the Vau- 
 dois delegates, until they should have furnished sufficient security 
 against these contingencies. 
 
 The design of thus putting them off was to get quit of them al- 
 together. The young Duke Eberhard Louis displayed more gene- 
 rosity than his council; the example of the Count of Neustadt had 
 confirmed him in his good inclinations. He wished to converse 
 with the framer of the report, and with the delegates; but the 
 latter had already departed, not that they had lost courage, nor 
 that a sort of puerile vexation had precipitated their departure ; 
 but, on the contrary, they went to labour with that calm and reso- 
 lute perseverance which gets to the end of everything, to procure 
 the securities which had been demanded from them. 
 
 Henry Arnaud now displayed again all the activity which he 
 had formerly exliibited in battle-fields; he repaired to Holland,^ 
 and thence to England,^ obtained considerable collections, stimu- 
 lated the zeal and activity of the Protestant powers, and was in the 
 highest degree successful. Urgent solicitations in favour of the 
 Vaudois were addressed by these powers to the Duke of Wurtem- 
 berg ; * and, at the same time, advantageous proposals were made to 
 them by other princes.^ The Elector of Brandenburg in particular, 
 with inexhaustible charity, came forward to their relief. He offered 
 to take upon himself the burden of providing for the French refu- 
 gees, as well as for the other inhabitants of the valleys, who might 
 choose to retm-n to his dominions.^ But they were not under the 
 
 * Or the privy council. 
 
 2 A letter of the States-Generalto the Duke of Wurtemberg, dated 26th January 
 1699, shows that Arnaud was there at that time. — Archives of Stuttgard. — Moser) 
 § Ixviii. 
 
 ^ A letter of Arnaud to Duke Eberhard is dated from London, 22d February, 1699. 
 — Id. It was at this time that the best portrait which we have of him was taken, 
 at the bottom of which are the words, Drmon and Engraved by Van Somer, London. 
 
 * By Holland, on 26th January, 1699; by Brandenburg, on 28th January; and 
 by England, on 9th February. 
 
 * The Landgraves of Hesse-Cassel, Hesse- Darmstadt, and Hombourg; the Counts 
 of Hanau and Yssemburg, &c. 
 
 * Ordinance of 13th March, l&9d.—Th€atrum Europceumf t. xv. p. 549. In his 
 
118 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaktThicd. 
 
 necessity of going so far to find an asylum. The collections made 
 on their behalf enabled them to bring to Wurtemberg. resources 
 sufficient for the establishment of the projected colonies. The 
 duke then hesitated no longer; and notwithstanding the opposition 
 which he still encountered from Lutheran intolemnce, the Vaudois 
 were at last permitted to settle in his dominions. 
 
 A man of great activity, and at once a great diplomatist and a de- 
 voted Christian, Walkenier, was sent by Holland, and recognized by 
 other Protestant states,^ as a special plenipotentiary, commissioned 
 to treat for the settlement of the exiles on the most advantageous 
 terms. His duty was admirably discharged. Serious conferences 
 were opened at Stuttgard on the 1st of March, 1699; and after a 
 long succession of reports, discussions, protests and explanations, 
 protocols and consultations,- Walkenier obtained at last letters- 
 patent, to the following effect :^ — 
 
 1. The Vaudois received in Wurtemberg shall be subjects of 
 that state. {Preface.) 
 
 2. They shall enjoy perfect religious liberty. (§ i., v., vi., and xx.) 
 
 3. They shall have in each church a consistory, composed of the 
 pastor, the deacons, and the elders. (§ iii.) 
 
 4. They shall have the power of convoking colloques (synods), 
 and of receiving in them the representatives of the Vaudois colo- 
 nies founded in the provinces of the neighbourhood ; but a com- 
 missioner of the government shall be present at these assemblies. 
 The election or the dismissal of a pastor shall be submitted to the 
 approbation of the duke. (§ ii. and iv.) 
 
 5. They shall be bound to observe the festivals and fast-days 
 observed in the Lutheran Church. (§ v.) 
 
 6. Their pastors and deacons shall never be bound to answer in 
 
 letter of 21st January, lie had said: '^We will welcome and entertain all the French, 
 whoamonnt, it is said, to sia;</joMsand in number, and the Vaudois, &c., . . . having 
 this confidence in God, that he will be pleased to crown our good intention with 
 his blessing." (Moser, § Ixviii., at the end.) 
 
 ' Switzerland, England, and Brandenburg. 
 
 2 See Moser, from § Ixix. to § Ixxvi. These preliminary proceedings were so 
 long protracted, that in the interval between their commencement and their con- 
 clusion, "Walkenier repaired to Darmstadt and Yssemburg, where he obtained (on 
 2d May and 11th August, 1609), favourable terms for the settlement of the Vaudois, 
 whom he then began to introduce into these countries. This taking place on the 
 frontiers of Wurtemberg, led to the ultimate decision of the latter country to re. 
 ceive the exiles likewise. Moser even speaks of a sum of 1000 florins, destined for 
 their relief, and which had served to procure for them some venal friends. (Id. 
 §lxxii.) 
 
 » They were published in 1700, and republished in 1769, at the expense of the 
 Vaudois colonies (Synod of Heimheims, May, 1764), in virtue of the 17th article 
 of the Synod of Knittlingen (May, 1759). I give here only the principal provisions. 
 
 Chap. VIII ] CONDITIONS OF LETTERS-PATENT. 
 
 119 
 
 judicial proceedings as witnesses, concerning those things which 
 have been committed to them under the seal of confession, except 
 in regard to the crime of high treason. (§ vii.) 
 
 7. One-half of the property of those who shall die without heirs, 
 during the first twenty years of their residence in Wui-temberg, 
 shall be distributed among the poor of the parish in which they 
 shall have died. (§ viii.) 
 
 8. Certain exemptions from taxes shall be granted them for 
 some years, which shall be specified when they shall be settled. 
 (§ ix. and xii.) 
 
 9. Not being able to point out precisely the localities which 
 they are to occupy, we assign them as their place of settlement the 
 bailiwicks of Maulbronn and Leonberg ; bestowing upon them, as a 
 free gift, all the lands which, since the great war of Germany,^ have 
 lain uncultivated and unoccupied in these districts. (§ ix. and x.) 
 
 10. They shall choose in these lands the jilaces most agi-eeable 
 to themselves for the construction of villaares ; and these villacres 
 shall enjoy the same privileges with the other villages of the 
 country. (§ xiii., xiv., and xv.) 
 
 11. They shall be exempt from taxes and compulsory services 
 for ten years. (§ xiii., xiv., and xv.) 
 
 12. For the administration of justice and of municipal affairs, 
 they are authorized to establish, in each community, a secular 
 council, to be chosen by the majority of votes, and to consist of a 
 mayor, a sheriff, and such other persons as shall be deemed most 
 capable. The council shall pronounce judgment in regard to the 
 sum or value of twenty florins; but the parties shall have it in 
 their power to appeal to the council of the bailiwick, to which 
 cases of gTeater importance shall be carried at once. In other 
 respects, the judicial usages of the country shall be followed. (§ 
 xvi. and xvii.) 
 
 13. They and their descendants shall have power to remove 
 themselves and their families whithersoever they will, without 
 being subjected to the right of recal^^ nor to any other kind of 
 bondage. (§ xviii.) 
 
 14. No foreigner shall have the power of settling in the colonies 
 which they have founded, without their consent and ours. (§ xix.) 
 
 15. They are permitted to trade throughout the whole of the 
 
 ' Tlie Tliirty Years' War, which lasted from 1618 to 1648, and was terminated by 
 the Peace of Westphalia, concluded on 24th October of the latter year, and subse- 
 quently ratified in 1654 by the Diet of Ratisbon, 
 
 2 This right of recal, a species of serfdom, or adstriction to the soil, still exists in 
 Swabia, under the name of leibeigenschafft. 
 
120 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet TniBO- 
 
 aU sorts of merchandise, upon paymeut 
 
 (§ xxi, xxii.) ^ ^^^g out a ticket of 
 
 16. Their artisans shall not be omi, ^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 votes. (§ xxii. art. 1 and 4.) .,tablish sxich markets and 
 
 17. They shall be empowered to establ^n s 
 
 fairs as they shall have need for. (§ ^^^■^'^^ .^ ^^j^ ^y^^ ,iall 
 
 The same privUeges */l ^« ^<^°'^'*.t f,; ^ 7 
 ^ttle in the lordship of Go**"- (§ ^"'^'^^^^^ ^^^^ ,,Hch, at 
 These conditions were - ^^^^^^f/^ Iparmstadt had just 
 Walkenier's mstauce the ^f^^^^l ^^ ,^, ^^, or model for 
 granted to the Vaudois. TLey served ^^^^ .^ 
 
 almost all the other concessions of this kina 
 the neighbouring states. , j ^^ to 
 
 The eighth article of these l«"er.-patent W, «>at 
 
 aid the colonies in the maintenance "^ ^^^ J^'' J^^^ed to them 
 and physicians, a certain exten "ff^^^^^t^^etually exempt 
 sho^Udbelongto the co»m«me, and B^^^^^^ VJ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
 from P»Wie burden. It IS ea y en P^ ^^^ 
 
 that this assistance must have ^^e ^.^^ ^^ ^^^ 
 
 everything to create, and who^^mselvesh^^ ._^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 bounty of fo'«'g°<''^- ,^"*.i;rv He h>ul obtained the consent 
 
 .ad provided ^f^J'^ZX^^^^'^^'''''' ^'^ ^'^ "'""'^^ 
 of the g°^'«f -"f /° *^'^^2; ^nted from the civil list to the 
 .ow being founded, of ^^^^^^^^.^^^^ ^^,^ counted at fii.t 
 
 rr^altcdlnjtere interrupt under the reign of George I. 
 
 1 Mm'frise a diploma of ability. 
 
 . ?h» tpression of 1700 oonsUU of 28 M'" PJS^»^^„„, ^^^ ,,p^;^the origin 
 , The foUowing document ^-j» -^')^^;;: ;'.!!?h:i?^^^^ King WiUiam 
 
 of tins sopply. " To "-.I-o'trit" "obtained from the Duke of Savoy, 
 and Queen Mary, of glorious memo^. ™™= ° ;„„ »„ a^ Vaudois of the tree 
 when he joined the party of the -^=/;, ^f/^^'^^lesties having found that the 
 exercise of their rehgion, . . • •°„7"''^„,iie for the maintenance of their min- 
 ehurches of the vaUeys ,vere too I^^^^P^""'^ ;° j^t^d for their maintenance a„ 
 ralt^"°"Srsie;iing,whrp:nsiLrasregu.rlypaid .... until the 
 
 aeath of .ue^n^Anne^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^-^:^^Z^ 
 
 proportion of the said pension of £5o5 9teri«.g. ^ ^^ .^^e footing, by 
 
 ^. .... It is proposed to put them "^^.^^ ^^ p„„ „„ ,,„, a„2«,.. 17U. 
 » [A translation of a translation]. 
 
 Chap. VUl.] 
 
 PENSION FPvOM BRITAIN. 
 
 121 
 
 The Yaudois sought them again from him, sending a deputy for 
 this pm-pose to London in 1716, who spent almost a year there in 
 the prosecution of this aftair. This deputy was Montoux,^ pastor 
 at Rohrbach, in the country of Hesse- Darmstadt. At his instance, 
 the landgrave of that country himself wrote to the King of Eng- 
 land, and received the following reply: — "I have for a long time 
 intended to re-establish the pensions of the said churches ; but 
 various difficulties which have arisen with regard to the fund on 
 which it was proposed to place them, have hitherto prevented this 
 afiair from being brought to a conclusion. I hope that next session 
 of parliament will not pass without terminating it," &c.''* 
 
 The king then caused a report to be made to him concerning 
 this matter. In that repoi-t it is said, " Agreeably to your majesty's 
 orders, notilied to lue by your secretary, Lord Stanhope, I have 
 examined, &c. . . . ** and the conclusion is as follows : " The 
 funds of the Savoy hospital, which has been suppressed, are now 
 at your majesty's disposal, and your majesty can lawfully give 
 therefrom the payment desired, or dispose of them otherwise, as 
 may please your majesty.-^ George I. chai-ged Lord Stanhoj^e to 
 speak of this subject in parliament, which that minister did in the 
 following terms : — " My Lords, — The king has been most humbly 
 petitioned, for some time past, to continue to the poor Vaudois the 
 pensions which they had during the preceding reigns, for the sup- 
 port of their ministers and schoolmasters; and that the pensions 
 should be paid to them from the rents of the Savoy hospital. This 
 matter having been laid before the attorney-general, and his report 
 having been taken into consideration by his majesty, he commands 
 me to state to you on his part, that it is his gracious pleasure that 
 
 placing them upon a fund destined for pious uses ; and there is uone more proper for 
 this purpose than that of the Hospital of tlic Savoy, which was abolished and united 
 to the exchequer under the last reign. On which point the attorney -general, , . . 
 having been consulted on the part of the king, gave the most favourable reply 
 possible, on 30th May, 1716, of which a translation is here subjoined ;• where- 
 upon liis majesty sent the annexed order* to the treasury for the establishment 
 of the pensions in question upon the said fund. This order not having been exe- 
 cuted, because of the king's departure for Germany, it is now humbly prayed that 
 it may be carried into execution 
 
 " Signed, for the Vaudois colonies of Germany, by Montoux, their deputy at 
 London for the promotion of their suit." 
 
 (This dociuuent is in the old consistorial record of Diirmentz, now forming part 
 of the MSS. of the late M. Appia of Frankfort.) 
 
 ' It is his petition which the preceding note contains. 
 
 3 Letter of George I. to the Prince Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-DarmatAdt. 
 (State Archives of Darmstadt.) 
 
 3 Signed, Edward Northey, Wliilchall, 2i0lh May, and afterwards 9th June, 1726 
 (this ought to be 1716). — Paper copied into the Kecord of Darmstadt. 
 
 * All these papers are joined together at the back. 
 Vol. II. 76 
 
122 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pam Thi»o. 
 
 you present him ydtli tlie necessary warrants for making over the 
 sum of £5o5 sterling per annum, from the rents of the Savoy 
 hospital to be at the disposal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
 Bishop of London, the Bishop of Carlisle, Lord High Almoner to 
 his majesty, and Messrs. Wil and Chetynd,i to be distributed by 
 them as they deem best for the support of the before-mentioned 
 Vaudois ministers and schoolmasters." 
 
 It would seem that parliament was favourable to this proposal; 
 for, in the beginning of the following year, the banker Schetynd 
 wrote to the Vaudois colonies and to the valleys, to announce that 
 the supplies would speedily be sent, according to the plan which 
 the Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, &c.. had 
 adopted for their distribution.^' There remained some arrears, 
 which were afterwards obtained. 
 
 I have thought it proper to give these details even before record- 
 in- the establishment of the colonies to which they relate, m order 
 no^t to interrupt their history by falling back upon facts so remote 
 from the present state of things. 
 
 1 The exact orthography of these proper names ought, I ^f ^7' ^^ J^^^^^^ 
 Milm, and Schetuynd or Chetwynd. So at least they seemed to me to be written 
 in the autograph signatures of these persons. of^rlin"' 
 
 1^ These subsidies, under the reign of George IL, amounted only toJoOO sterlin.. 
 Their distribution took place half-yearly, in the manner following : ^^^ ^ ^ 
 £500 sterling per annum, for six months . . * «% k' q 
 
 Deduct, Tax on the Civil List, 6d. per pound . . * g 5 q 
 
 „ Payer's Fee 37 10 
 
 Land Tax "' 
 
 Total Deduction 
 
 Kemaining to be divided 
 
 To each of the fifteen ministers of the valleys,* £6 1 1 
 
 50 
 
 200 
 
 = 90 13 9 
 
 3 
 6 13 
 3 6 
 
 ^^,|129 19 8.3 
 
 = 4G 13 4 
 6 8 
 
 5^=39 5 
 
 8 =23 
 
 }. 
 
 70 
 
 £200 Oil: 
 
 To each of the thirteen schoolmasters. 
 
 To each of the seven ministers in Germany,t 
 
 To each of the seven schoolmasters . 
 
 Balanced 
 
 'x^r s";tf a^r^^^pendod from 1765 to 1707. ^^ aUo i. 180*; but, 
 upon new petitions, payment was again resumed. 
 
 • The number remaining was bIx in 1C99; it wa, Ihirteca in 1700; fourteen in 1710. and fifteen 
 on 25tU March. 1728 the date of this paper ^^^^^^.,j,^'^^,^,^, 8. Pinxchb. 4, 
 
 t These seven ministers were ^^'"f^,^^-;;, ^^^^u tembe^ the minister of Rohkbach, 
 
 which wUl be noticed in the foUowing chapters. ^,oq ^ci, Md 
 
 X The sum total amounts, in strict accuracy, only to &m, iw- oia. 
 
 CUAP. IX.] 
 
 THE BAILIE OF MAULBRONN. 
 
 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS COLONIES FOUNDED IN WURTEIVI- 
 BERG AFTER THE EXPULSION OF 1698.— -PART SECOND.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1G89 TO A.D. 1824.) 
 
 Tlie Vaudois settlers in the bailiwick of Maulbronn-The settlement at Pirouse 
 m the bailiwick of Leonherg- Pinache, in the bailiwick of Wiermsheim-Zu* 
 cerna or Ww-mberg-Serrcs-Chorrcs and Senaach, in the bailiwick of Diir- 
 mentz—J/w/acre—&7ion6erfif— Reminiscences of Arnaud— G-mnd Villar, near 
 Knittlingen— Disinclinatiou of some of the exiles to settle in any place away 
 from their own valleys— Remonstrances of Walkenier— ^Vew; Engstedt, in the 
 bailiwick of Calw— Another emigration from the valley of Pragela— Settlement 
 at Nordhausen—HahiU of the people— Endeavours made to induce the Vaudois 
 churches to unite themselves with the National Lutheran Church— Introduction 
 of the German language in their public services— The union with the National 
 Church is finally accomplished. 
 
 Six months before the letters-patent were signed which authorized 
 the Vaudois to settle in Wurtemberg,'-' the greater part of them 
 had already arrived in the bailiwick of Maulbronn.^ They had 
 been lodged for the meantime in the redoubts and blockhouses^ 
 erected at the time of the last French invasion.^ The States-f^ene- 
 ral of Holland had furnished money to assist in their settlement.^ 
 In the month of July, 1699, Walkenier had begun to distribute a 
 part of it amongst the settlers.^ The worthy bailie of Maulbronn 
 says, in a report dated in the month of August, that in the com- 
 munity of Pinache men, women, and children had made a very 
 good beginning; that they had grubbed up the fields which had 
 lain uncultivated for half a century, and which might now, there- 
 fore, receive the seed before the end of the year. He praises their 
 way of proceeding in agriculture, and their industrious and orderly 
 
 * Authorities.— The same as in the preceding chapter. 
 
 2 These letters-patent are dated in September, 1699; and on the 18th of April 
 eighty Vaudois had already arrived. Seventeen hundred arrived on the 12th of May. 
 
 3 The list of the Vaudois families which had arrived in that bailiwick on the 
 1st of April, 1G99, is printed by Hahn {Proof Documents, No. iv.), p. 774. 
 
 < An isolated fortification, built of wood. « The invasion by Louvois, in 1688. 
 
 " Errnan and Reclam say 10,000 crowns. 
 
 ^ To every man above sixteen years, three florins; to every woman, and to boys 
 and girls between ten and sixteen years, two florins; and to every child under ten 
 years, one florin. The Grand Duke of Wurtemberg afterwards granted, for the 
 support of the Vaudois pastors, two tirner of wine, fifteen sacks of spelt, and thirty- 
 five florins per annum; and to every schoolmaster, two simri of silk and two sacks 
 of spelt. (Note of the Dean, or Perpetual Moderator, as he designates himself, of 
 the Vaudois and French Churches of Germany, dated from Canstadt, 12th Oc- 
 tober, 1816.) 
 
r^t^-^t^tr^-c^ 
 
 I 
 
 124 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pat.t Tbibd. 
 
 behaviour, and signifies his expectation of liappy results for the 
 country from their settlement there. 
 
 Tlie autumn and winter of the fii'st year were, however, very 
 trying for these poor settlers. The greater part of them had no 
 proper dwelling ; their huts could not protect them from the cold ; 
 and besides, they had no seed, and no cattle, and wanted many 
 things of the first necessity. Through the attentive kindness of 
 the Dutch ambassador and of the government of Wurtemberg, these 
 wants were gradually supplied ; and in this way the following vil- 
 lages were erected, all of which bear names borrowed from places 
 in the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 In the bailimck of Leonbero,^ there were more than 1000 ar- 
 pents of uncultivated land in the neighbourhood of Heimsheim, and 
 here it was that the colony of Perouse was founded. 2 It is a vil- 
 lage of no great size, the houses of which are almost all separated 
 from one another by little gardens, and sun'ounded by orchards. 
 The place of worship is built upon the rising ground of the Hal- 
 berg, and the view is bounded upon one side by hills covered with 
 forests, and upon the other by an undulating and verdant plain, 
 which extends as far as Eltingen, where also a few Vaudois fiimilies 
 subsequently settled. 
 
 In the bailiwick of Wiermsheim is Finache, a settlement con- 
 sisting originally of seventeen families, which divided themselves 
 into three groups, in order to settle in three difierent spots,^ deter- 
 mined by the extent of the lands of which they had the disposal. 
 Some of the surrounding communes also ceded to them some waste 
 lands, in order to augment their lot, This colony was one of the 
 most active and flouiisliing. The lower part of the houses is built 
 of stones, the middle part of bricks or of clay, all striped with raf- 
 ters which are visible from the outside. The upper part is some- 
 times of wood, and the roof often of thatch. Here also the horizon 
 is bounded by forests. The use of the patois was long retained 
 here after the French language had disappeared. 
 
 At a small distance to the south is the colony of Lucerna, of 
 which the German name is Wurmberg.* It is only of late years 
 
 ' The village of this name is celebrated as the birthplace of the philosopher 
 Schelling. 
 
 - A list of names of the families which settled in this locality, and in the other 
 coloniea of Wmtemberg, is given by Hahn, p. 233, note iii. This note terminates 
 as follows: — "A number of these families must have removed to other places soon 
 after their settlement; for there are, at the present time, scarcely seventy or 
 eighty Vaudois families at Perouse," 
 
 ^ On the one side towards Diirmentz; on the other, towards Orossfn-Olappach and 
 Ijitingcn, 
 
 * This viUage is situated, I believe, in t!)e bailiwick of Dietlingen. The want of 
 
 Chap. TX.] 
 
 VAUDOIS SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 125 
 
 that it has enjoyed a place of worship. The houses are of wood; 
 the supporting beams project upon the outside, and are sometimes 
 painted black, and present to the spectator coloured lines, lozenges, 
 and crossings, not without some analogy to the fantastic ornaments 
 of savages. In a great number of German villages, however, we 
 meet with this peculiarity of houses seemingly tattooed. The in- 
 habitants of this colony possess flocks of sheep and of, geese, and 
 cultivate fruits and grain. 
 
 Between Lucerna and Pinache is the hamlet of Sevres. The 
 miserable cottages of which it is composed are scattered without 
 order on the side of a gently sloping hill. Here also the use of the 
 patois was preserved longer than the French. Some thorny shrubs 
 bound its paths, but the great roads are shaded by fruit-trees. 
 
 Beyond Pinache, towards the valley of the Eintz, but separated 
 from it by a table-land covered with magnificent forests, we enter 
 the bailiwick of Durmentz. Here 115 Yaudois families were to be 
 settled; but, besides these, ninety-six other persons still presented 
 themselves. These difierent settlers were divided on the two banks 
 of the Eintz; on the one side under the imposing ruins of the castle 
 of LoeflTelstelz,^ which forms the principal feature in the landscape; 
 and on the other towards Lommersheim and Ortisheim. The villages 
 which they erected received the names of CJtorres and Sengach, 
 This colony had a pastor of its o\m, resident at Sengach. The 
 artisans were authorized to settle in Durmentz itself, where they 
 built a street, which still bears the name of the Welchstrass.'-* 
 They formed part of the church of Schonberff, This station was 
 called Queyras. On the opposite bank of the Emtz is Miilacre, 
 where a few of the Vaudois also fixed their residence. Here is to 
 be seen the house wliicli Arnaud built, and in which he lived.^ 
 This is the only place, of all that were founded by the Vaudois, 
 which presents anything of the regularity and elegance of a little 
 town. Its situation is also extremely beautiful. On one side ex- 
 tends a plain, sprinkled with villages, and on the other side a chain 
 of hills, beyond which appear the blue and picturesque summits of 
 the mountains of Maulbronn. 
 
 Crossing over these hills, we arrive at Schonberg,'* formerly 
 
 maps on a large scale prevents me from giving these particulars with entire cer- 
 tainty. Annexed to Lucerna was ^ew Barenthal. (Manuscript cited by Hahn, 
 p. 233.) 
 ' lu the patois of the countrj' it is called Mugensturn. 2 French Street. 
 
 •"■ It is the last but one, ou the left, in leaving the village by the road to Durlach, 
 * Or Schoenenberg, i.e., beautiful mountain. The Manuscript of the Alterthve- 
 rcins, fol. v., quoted by Hahn, p. 233, gives as annexed to Schoen berg— Corr^s, 
 Sengach, and Lommersheim. 
 
126 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thi»d. 
 
 culled Les MurierSj where, also, some of the companions of Arnaud 
 found a resting-place. He himself resided there for twenty years,^ 
 during which he was subjected to many annoyances, and even to 
 o<Uous accu&xtions;- but he was always sustained by his serenity 
 of chai-acter, and his confidence in God. Not knowing the German 
 laugiiage, he found himself much embarrassed at first in his new 
 countiy; but he went every day to visit his companions in exile, 
 and to encouraire them in their labours. "God hears all lan2:uaffes," 
 said he to them, " when prayer comes from the heart. Work on, 
 take courage, have confidence in him." Such were the words which 
 were often on his lii)s — the only words of his which the aged men 
 of that village were able to tell me, with even the measure of cer- 
 tainty which tradition can give. His remains re2)0se in the humble 
 place of worship at Schonberg, in which he so often jjreached the 
 gospel. His tomb is maiked only by a flat stone, placed in front 
 
 ' He died in 1721, aged eighty years. The inventory of his goods was taken on 
 29th January, 1722. He left five children ; three sons, of whom Scipio succeeded 
 him at Schonberg, and was afterwards pastor at Gros Villar. (He had two sons, of 
 ■whom the one died at Campe, in Holland, and the other in America.) John Vin- 
 cent was a pastor in the Vaudois valleys. William was, at the time of his father's 
 death, studying law in London. Arnaud had also two daughters, of whom Mar- 
 f/arct was married to Joseph Rostan, at La Tour, in the valley of Lucema; and 
 FAizahcth became the wife of Philip Kolb, receiver of taxes at Bretten (or Bretheim, 
 the birthplace of Melancthon). All these were the children of Arnaud by his first 
 wife, Marr/arct Bastie, of La Tour. By Rcnce Itchondii, his second wife, he had 
 no children. He had also a sister, married at St. John to a M. Gauthier. Queen 
 Anne gave liim a pension of £22G sterling, and William III. gave him a colonel's 
 commission, as appears from the terms of the following commission, granted to one 
 of his grandsons :—" William IIL . . . To Daniel Arnaud, called La Loziere, 
 greeting. We, confiding in your fidelity, courage, and good conduct, appoint you, 
 by these presents, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of infantry in our service, of 
 nhich Hexry Arnaud, Vaudois pastor, is Colonel. We appoint you, also, cap- 
 tain of a company in the same regiment, &c. . . . Given at the Hague, the 14th 
 day of March, IGIX), and of our reign the third year. By the king.— Nottingham.'* 
 
 Tliis document (derived from the memoirs of Paul Appia, representative of the 
 canton of Lucema in the general council of the Po, under the French empire) is 
 cited by Uahn, p. 225. The title of colonel afforded a delicate method, by wliich 
 the King of England could prevail upon Arnaud to accept the pension which he 
 gave him. (See the Return, dedication, fol. 12, right hand page.) I find, more- 
 over, in the old consistorial records of Diirmentz (p. 31), that a Demoiselle Arnaud, 
 Bottled in Germany, received a pension from the crown of England in 1727. It 
 may be supposed that this pension was allowed to the widow of the celebrated pas- 
 tor; for at that period the title of demoiselle was applied to married women, as well 
 as to those who had never been so. 
 
 Messrs. Bracebridge and Acland have published interesting particulars conceiving 
 tl.e life and family of Arnaud. I have given some, hitherto unpublished, in a note 
 to the chapter which treats of the return of the Vaudois, and in a subsequent 
 place, in the years 1704 and 1707. 
 
 '- With regard to these, see the Archives of the Venerable Company of Pastors 
 of Geneva, vol. S., pp. 823, 826, 837, and vol. T., p. 15, where the accusations are 
 Bet aside as disproved. 
 
 Chap. IX.J 
 
 TOMB OF ARNAUD. 
 
 127 
 
 of the pulpit, under a table which is used for the dispensation of 
 the Lord's Suj)per. Two inscriptions are engraved upon it, but 
 they are already almost illegible. ^ 
 
 The environs of Schonberg present an open and smiling land- 
 scape, but the summit of the hill is covered wdth forests of beech 
 and pine. Passing through these, we arrive at the bailiwick of 
 Knittliugen, adjacent to that of Maulbronn. " Here it was," says 
 M. Monastier,'-^ "that, only a few leagues from the place of their 
 destination, the Vaudois exiles took possession of the land, by de- 
 positing in it the remains of one of their faithful pastors, named 
 Dumas, to w^hom death scarcely allowed time to reach a place of 
 refuge, there to die." 
 
 These sad and tedious emigrations were indeed attended with 
 many circumstances of affliction. Bands of ragged^ strangers 
 wearily making their way through a country of Avhose language 
 they were ignorant, were regarded with more suspicion than sym- 
 pathy by the people among whom they came to settle.* In many 
 a village the poor Vaudois were made the subjects of coai'se jcsta,^ 
 or were enviously repulsed from the inhospitable neighbourhood. 
 We shall soon see how they afterwards gradually renounced their 
 2)rimitive character, and became assimilated to the German nation. 
 
 * Around the margin of the stone is this inscription : — Suh hoc tumulo jacct 
 Valdensium Pedemontanorum pastor nee non militum pmfcctus vener. ac. sir. 
 Henr. Arnaud. Above an escutcheon, very coarsely traced, on the upper part of 
 the slab, is the following: — Xescit lahi virtus; and below it, Ad utrumque parcUus. 
 The principal inscription is as follows: — Cernis hie Arnaldi cineres, sed gesta, la- 
 bores, infractumque animum pingere nemo potest. Millia in A ilophilumJessidis milt- 
 tat unus, unus et A ilophilum castra ducemqiie quatit. Obiit ct Set. 1721. Ann. cet. 80. 
 
 2 ii. 163. 
 
 ' The picture, drawn by eye-witnesses in various letters {Moser, Dieterici), the 
 circumstances of their departure, and the fatigues of the journey, make it certain 
 enough how applicable this description must have been. 
 
 * This feeling of suspicion endured for almost a century, and was owing, above 
 all, to the differences of religion and of race. Illustrative facts might be stated 
 in abundance. 
 
 ' An anecdote, selected from amongst those which are least offensive, and per- 
 haps more authentic than many others, may give an idea of this : — An aged Vau- 
 dois woman having bought a bacon bone to season her soup, used it for a number 
 of days in succession ; and the neighbours — so the story went — came and asked it 
 from her, one after another, saying, Coumayre, prestame un poc votrc savodraire 
 (Gossip, lend me your seasoner for a little) ; so that the poor condiment made the 
 round of the village, bearing the common tribute of its meagre savour successively 
 to all the pots of the vicinity. 
 
 * Many of the poorest communes, and of those most disinclined to receive the 
 Vaudois, with a view to oppose their settlement within their bounds, pretended 
 to cultivate, before their arrival, lands which had received no cultivation within 
 the memory of man, in order that the new-comers might not be able to settle upon 
 them, as upon the waste lands which had been granted to them. 
 
128 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tuibd. 
 
 Cbap. IX] 
 
 WALKENIER S CIRCULAR. 
 
 129 
 
 But the foundation of some other colonies still remains to be 
 
 noticed. 
 
 More than 300 families arrived in the district of Maulbronn. 
 They were divided into three groups. One group, towards Der- 
 tin^^en, foimded the villafjes of Petit Villar and Pausselot, on the 
 elevated parts of the uneven, and by no means very fertile tract 
 which was to be brought into cultivation. Another group received 
 300 arpents of land, on the banks of the Lake of Bretheim,^ not 
 far from wliich are Balmbach and Mutschelbach,- belonging to the 
 grand duchy of Baden.^ The third group remained nearer to 
 Knittlingen, and founded the village of Grand Villar,^ which be- 
 came the most considerable of these little colonics.^ 
 
 Two streets, intersecting one another in the form of a cross, 
 form the whole village. The place of worship is built at their 
 point of junction, and its front looks down that street which re- 
 presents the support of the cross. A small steeple rises above the 
 entrance gate ; it has a clock, the vibrations of whose pendulum 
 are heard on the outside — the pulsations of time, which passes 
 slowly and painfully in exile, and often seems too loug to the dis- 
 tressed. The houses of this village, like the greater part of those 
 of the peasantry in Swabia, ha\ e only a ground floor, with small 
 windows and very steep roofs. The gardens, which are not remark- 
 able for their luxuriance, are suirounded with indifferent plum 
 trees, the sour fruit of which the inhabitants boil with toasted 
 bread, and sometimes use this plum soup instead of other soup at 
 their meals. Gmce is always said, both before and after meat, ex- 
 cept in the public-houses and at marriage feasts. In a number of 
 families in which the use of the German language had already pre- 
 vailed, this grace was long said in French, and sometimes without 
 being understood. " The chnrches of these humble villages are in 
 keeping with the poverty of the inhabitants ; but their dooi-s are 
 never closed, and the traveller may enter at all times, either for 
 contemplation or for repose. The Bible is to be found in every 
 liouse; and a work entitled La Nourriture de VAjne^^ was in former 
 days the most popular book of devotion. 
 
 A few cottages detached from Gros Villar form the hamlet of 
 
 » Or Bretten, the birtbplnce of Melancthon. Not far oflF is Gochsheim, wliere 
 also a number of Yaudois were settled. (MS. cited by Hahn, p. 233.) 
 - Balmhrook and Shellhrook. 
 ' Mutschelbach belonged to Wurtemberg till 1805. 
 
 * Or Gros Villar. This name, as well as that of Petit Villar, was given by the 
 Vaudols to these new villages, in remembrance of Villar Pinache and Villar Pe- 
 rouse, from which they had come. 
 
 * Its population amounted to 1000 inhabitants. (Monastier, ii. 164, note i.) 
 •The Food of the Soul. 
 
 Tij^hbach,' where there exists now only one family of Vaudois 
 
 origin. 
 
 Two years after their expulsion, however, and when these expa- 
 triated families had founded the colonies above mentioned, there still 
 remained a considemble number of persons without any fixed place 
 of abode. Many hoped to be able soon to return to the valleys, as 
 had been the case two years and a half after the expulsion of 1686. 
 A few even bent their steps thither again, and were made fast in 
 the bonds of apostasy. The firm and severe language of Walkenier 
 put a stop to these scandals. He published a circular, in which he 
 said, "We certify all the French and Vaudois who are under our 
 direction, that having learned with sensible displeasure .... that 
 numbers run about from place to place, and that others of them 
 
 return, some to France and some to Piedmont, . . . . &c 
 
 that they must renounce all such thoughts in the present state of 
 things. For those who have returned, have been obliged on theii- 
 arrival to abjure their religion, and to promise that they will never 
 embrace it again, declaring that they look upon their ancestors as 
 persons damned to all eternity, . . . publicly asking pardon before 
 the Popish churches, in their shirts, with theii' feet bare, a taper 
 in their hand, a rope about their neck, and other similar indig- 
 nities We therefore command the mayors and sheriflfe of 
 
 each colony to grant no succour to any one whomsoever, .... until 
 they shall first have solemnly taken oath to continue faithful all 
 their lives to God and to our holy religion "^ 
 
 Through these remonstrances, the last of the emigrants, who were 
 still scattered and wandering from place to place, were induced to 
 assemble and settle. The most productive lands were already 
 occupied. "But what matters it," said they, in their obstinate 
 love of their own country, "what lands they give us? Be they 
 great or small, fertile or arid, these temporary possessions will suf- 
 fice us very well for a few days, and sooner or later we will return 
 to our valleys." ^ They were located in the bailiwick of Oalw. In 
 
 » Or rather Diefenbach. This village, as well as Gochsheim, was annexed to 
 Grand ViUar tUl 1795. 
 
 2 This circular is dated from Frankfort, 10th May, 1700, and is to be found in 
 the State Archives of Hesse-Darmstadt, as well as amongst the papers of several 
 Vaudois colonies. 
 
 ' These particulars have been gathered from the lips of a woman almost 100 years 
 of age, who had herself known many of the first emigrants. " How often have I 
 heard our old people tell," said she, "that in their days, in the midst of the first 
 labours of colonization, if they had but heard an air of their own country acciden- 
 tally sung by their children, it would have made them stop short in their work, 
 and shed tears. In the evening we used to assemble in one of our straw huts (for 
 the hoiises were not then built), and tliere we spoke about oiu: own country, whicli 
 Vol. ij^ ^^ 
 
 77 
 
ISO 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PabT TiilED. 
 
 Chap. IX. j 
 
 COLONY IN HEILBRONN. 
 
 131 
 
 
 the midst of the Black Forest, on a table-land entirely covered with 
 pines, an extensive cleared space is to be seen, of treeless meadows, 
 in the centre of which are some humble cottages with little gardens 
 around them. It is the last of the Vaudois colonies that were 
 founded in Wurtemberg after the expulsion of 1G98. The settlers 
 called it Bourset, after a village of that name situated in the valley 
 of Pragelaj it is now known, however, by the name of New Eng- 
 stedt, which it has derived from a neighbouring village. Its 
 inhabitants found their chief resource in the manufactories of Calw, 
 in which they obtained work. They afterwards made upon their 
 OAvn account large quantities of stockings, by means of a knitting 
 frame. This branch of industry is now almost extinct. Pastor 
 Keller, the author of a little German work, which exhibits no very 
 friendly feeling towards the Vaudois, was minister of the parish of 
 New Engstedt for a few years. ^ 
 
 The administmtion of these little communities was confided to 
 a syndic and a deacon, who were usually also elders of the church. 
 Besides these, there were two other elders, and all together bore 
 the name oi justiciers. Either the pastor or the syndic presided in 
 the consistory. At Pinache, a syndic, six councillors, a secretaiy, 
 and a serjeant- were elected. At Gmnd Villar it was the same, 
 except that the number of councillors was reduced to four. 
 
 Four years after the foundation of these colonies, new events 
 forced 1000 persons more to leave the valley of Pragela. These 
 also were received in Wurtemberg, and subsequently located in the 
 district of Heilbronn, near Brackenheim. This situation offered 
 advantages very superior to those of the other colonies. The land 
 was capable of growing vines and mulberries ; and was not so im- 
 mediately in the vicinity of gi-eat forests. Holland furnished the 
 means of building a church and a school. Some of the settlers, 
 being natives of XJsseaux, some of Mentoules, and some of Fenes- 
 trelles,^ they each wished to give to the village which they built 
 
 the uninviting appearance and unproductive soil of the lands we had to break up 
 made us regret the more. Sometimes the supper hour passed in these conversa- 
 tions; for our grief prevented us from feeling hunger; and there, as we called to 
 remembrance the events of our history, some prayed, and others deplored their 
 fate; and some, with their elbows on their knees, held their bead with both hands ; 
 and you might see the tears run from their eyes, whilst they wept without ceas- 
 ing." The worthy old woman from whom I derived this account, nearly twenty 
 years since, had then thirty one grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. 
 
 ' During this time he was always at law with his parish, about a field which he 
 desired to appropriate to himself, and which he could not obtain. (Note commu- 
 nicated by the late M. Mondon, the last of the Vaudois pastors at Grand Villar.) 
 
 2 A public functionary, combining the characters of officer of court, constable 
 and rural policeman. 
 
 ' A part of the inhabitants who forsook these same villages founded the colony 
 
 the name of that in which they were born; but as their lands were 
 situated between Nordheim and Ilausen, they agreed that it should 
 bear the name of Nordhausen. For some time, however, the upper 
 part of the village received amongst its inhabitants the name of 
 Mentoul, and the lower part of Fenestrelle. There are districts in 
 the neighbourhood which bear the names of other localities in the 
 Vaudois valleys, as Lanvers, Les Vignes, La CarUm, Le Saret, La 
 Giourna; and there are some with names derived from the Bible, 
 as Goshen and Uorch. 
 
 This colony is situated in a pleasant little valley, surrounded on 
 one side by vineyards, and by orchards on the other. The bottom 
 of the valley is occupied with meadows, separated by rows of wil- 
 lows. The climate is mild, and there is little snow in winter ; the 
 roofs of the houses are, therefore, less steep in their slope than in 
 other localities. It is richer than any other of the colonies which 
 we have seen, and is the only one which can be considered as en- 
 tirely Vaudois; for it cannot be denied that the majority of the 
 exiles of 1698 were French refugees. The parish of Nordhausen 
 was not erected till 1703.1 Here the tmces of Vaudois ori<jin have 
 been most perfectly retained, in the costume and accent of the 
 people. Here has been preserved, as in the Vaudois valleys, the 
 custom of presenting to the guests at a marriage festival, a small 
 piece of ribbon, known by the name of a livery. The very profiles 
 of the people often bear some resemblance to the Italian type. 
 Keener eyes, darker hair, and features less expanded, generally 
 form the characteristics by which these inheritors of a wai-mcr 
 blood, stiU telling of a southern sun, may, for a long time, be recog- 
 nized in the midst of a German population. 
 
 One thing which must have contributed much to maintain their 
 national peculiarities, was the care which these emigrants long took 
 to contract marriages only amongst themselves, and the difliculty 
 which they even found of being admitted into other families. They 
 were accustomed also to meet often for conversation regarding 
 
 of Waldeiuberff, in Hanau, in the principality of Yssemburg. Some account will 
 be given of it in next chapter. 
 
 * The emigrants arrived there under the guidance of their pastor, John Martin. 
 {Note by M, Schmidt, pastor of Wcddetisberg, 5th June, 1824.) But it would seem that 
 this minister did not long survive his banishment ; for the first pastor of Nord- 
 hausen who is mentioned is M. Geymar. {Records of Nordhausen, consulted in 1833.) 
 Tliis colony, with Perouse and New Engstedt, did not participate in the English 
 subsidies; but its pastors received a pension of 200 francs from Holland. The 
 French colony of Canstadt was indebted to the same quarter for the support of its 
 pastor. {MS. paper by M. Archausser, i^astor of the French churches of Canstadt 
 and Ludicigsburg.) This pension was afterwards withdrawn. Application was 
 then made to the Duke of Wurtemberg, who granted eighty -five florins per annum 
 to the pastor, and forty or fifty florins to the schoohnaster. 
 
132 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Thirh. 
 
 
 former days. The traveller who came from their own land was 
 asked many questions concerning the life which the people led 
 there, the aspect of the country, and the value of land. They in- 
 troduced into Germany the cultui-e of the mulberry and the potato, 
 the latter of which would, no doubt, have become general without 
 them, but which was then little known. ^ Some of their com- 
 munities possess flocks of 100 or 200 sheep. The profit of these 
 flocks is ordinarily farmed at a fixed rent. The peasants still wear 
 little leathern caps, such as may be seen in the portraits of Luther 
 and Calvin on the heads of these Reformei-s. They have no forests, 
 but they have the right to gather dry branches and dead wood in 
 the neighbouring forests. Some of these forests contain stags, roe- 
 bucks, and wild boars. Hence in every village may be seen a 
 hostelry with the sign of the stag. 
 
 During the wars of Napoleon, the inhabitants of these peaceftil 
 colonies were often chosen to serve as interpreters to the French, 
 and when the use of the French language was lost, the patois of the 
 Alps was still spoken in the domestic intercourse of families; but 
 a large number of German words and phrases were soon mingled 
 with it. At the present day the primitive idiom is completely for- 
 gotten, except by the aged; whereas at first there were instances 
 of the German children of the neighbourhood learning and speak- 
 ing it. The device of the Vaudois, a lamp surrounded with stars, 
 is still painted on the pulpits of some of the churches,- but the only 
 language now heard in them is that of the adopted country. 
 
 The Grand Consistory of Stuttgard had always earnestly desired 
 to accomplish a union of the Vaudois with the National Church f 
 indeed, they had been received into Wurtemberg only upon their 
 declaration that they w^ere not Calvinists, and in the expectation 
 
 • In 1710 the German physicians still considered potatoes as injurious to health. 
 A Vaudois, named Signoret, brought 200 of them to Amaud, who cultivated them 
 at Schoenberg (in 1701), and afterwards sent some of them to each Vaudois colony. 
 (Letter of Arnaud, dated from Les Muriers de Schonberg, 24th November, 1710, 
 quoted by Hahx, pp. 231, 232, with many other particulars.) We read in Moser ' 
 (§ Lxxvii.), that the Duke of Wurtemberg having caused 200 mulberry trees to be 
 bought, in order to be sold again to the Vaudois, the Vaudois refused to take them. 
 But this only proves how well they understood the cultivation of that tree, which 
 requires a preparation of the ground beforehand ; and the name of Les Muriers 
 given to a place at Schoenberg, sufficiently attests the interest which they took in 
 it. They extended the cultivation of the vine also to Nordhausen and Gros Villar 
 
 2 Particularly at Grand Villar and Petit Villar, Balinbach, and Waldorf. (But 
 this observation refers to 1833.) 
 
 ' " At first there were Vaudois families in almost all the villages of the bailiwick 
 of Maulbronn. Those in which they were most numerous were Oetiskeim, Schmiehe 
 Oelbronn, Kaisersweiher, &c." (MS. cited by Hahn, p. 233.) These scattered 
 families were the first to join the National Church. 
 
 CHAP. IX.] VAUDOIS AND LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 133 
 
 that they might one day be induced to join the ranl.s of Luther- 
 anism. These two branches of the same stem were destined to 
 approach one another more nearly in their further growth; and 
 now they intermingle their foliage. The union of the two churches 
 is now only a question of ritual uniformity, rather than of doctrmal 
 differences. But at first it was not so. 
 
 Promises and threats ^ere employed in succession, to induce the 
 particular consistories of the Vaudois churches to acknowledge the 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Lutheran consistory. As long as 
 Wurtemberg was governed by Catholic princes-which was till 
 1797-the government of that country had no interest m favour- 
 ing the one more than the other. Under the reign of Frederic,^ 
 the first Lutheran sovereign, some of the French pastors minister- 
 in- in the Vaudois colonies were induced to sign a petition, m 
 which they set forth that the employment of the German language 
 havin- now become most general among their parishioners in the 
 ordinary intercourse of their neighbourhoods, it would be a proper 
 thing to introduce it in pubUc instruction and in preaching. The 
 government replied that his m^ie^ty would permit the introduction 
 of the German language in the colonies, if it were not opposed by 
 any of the Vaudois. But this qualifying clause was not made 
 public The Dean of Stuttgard only announced that the introduc- 
 tion of this language was authorked, and he ordered that religious 
 services should thenceforth be everywhere conducted m German. 
 The king was then at Ludwigsburg; some of the Vaudois com- 
 plained to him, and Frederic ordered that the use of the French lan- 
 guage should be immediately resumed.'-^ He even added an express 
 prohibition of all innovation, and a severe admonition addressed 
 to those who had taken upon them to introduce these changes. 
 
 In 1806, it was merely granted, as a thing pertaining to regii- 
 larity, that the particular administrations of each colony should be 
 pW xmder those of their respective bailiwicks. This was at once 
 io subordinate the Protestant to the Lutheran consistories. In 
 1808, it was ordained that all civil registers, then intrusted by the 
 state to the pastors, should be kept in German. The Vaudois, 
 however, had still their General Dean? who maintained the ap- 
 parent integi% of their ecclesiastical constitution. But after the 
 
 » Frederic I., who obtained the title of King, in virtue of the treaty of Presburg, 
 
 ^«Ti*s prince had passed his youth at MontbeUard (till he was 10 years old), and at 
 This P"»^^e naa pa j acquainted with the French language, 
 
 f„?jr Cmel ChSa^lT. ;^t dUpUaled to see both churches flourishing 
 
 in his dominions. ,,*_!. 
 
 3 Called Moderator in their first Synodal AcU. 
 
ISi 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pak Tdibd. 
 
 Chap. IX.] 
 
 CHANGE OF PASTORS. 
 
 135 
 
 death of Frederic, and the accession of William I. to the throne 
 nej attempts were made to germanize the Vaudois churches.' 
 Xhis was fii-st done by favouring mixed marriages between Vaudois 
 and Lutherans; but the spirit of nationality was still too strong in 
 the Vaudois to be overcome by this means. The schoolmastei^ 
 were next reqmsted to teach the German language along with the 
 French; and finaUy, as their maintenance, along with that of the 
 pastors, was too heavy a burden for these poor colonial parishes, an 
 offer was made of provision for all this, if they would accept Ger- 
 man pastors; but the reply was an unanimous refusal— "We will 
 rather work with oui- hands," said the colonists, "to support our 
 imtors and teachers, than show ourselves so forgetfiU of our ances- 
 tors, and cea^e to be their children." " Is not this in bad feeling ?" 
 It wa^ said on the other hand. " Is not this to despise the kin-'s 
 kindness ? Do not these southerners ^ thus display their haughty and 
 obstmate character ?" Such were the sentiments with which that 
 refusal was Hstened to when it reached the ears of those who stood 
 around the throne.^ At last an assembly of the states, held at 
 S uttgard, in 1821, decided that a sum of 12,000 florins shoiUd be 
 allowed annually to the ecclesiastical administration of the country 
 for the reUef of those Vaudois churches which had given up or 
 should yet give up, to that administration the right of choosing 
 their pastors and schoolmasters. 
 
 Then began a period of annoyance and agitation, resistance and 
 manoeuvre of every kind, the design being to induce each of these 
 little colomes to conclude a separate ai-rangement for itself upon 
 this basis. The pastors and schoolmastei-s, who alone were to profit 
 by the 12,000 florins, almost everywhere, and with very few excep- 
 tions," strongly recommended compliance with the terms proposed, 
 The people alone resisted; but although they had the right of send- 
 ing lay deputies to the synods, the difficulty which a countryman 
 always feels in expressing himself on questions which are not fami- 
 liar to him, and the silence to which he is reduced by the first 
 observations made in opposition to what he says, paralyzed their 
 energies in that sphere. 
 
 The last general synod of the Vaudois churches in Wurtemberg 
 was held at Stuttgard in 1823.* Much was said about effecting a 
 
 2 1 owe the reply of the Vaudois, and the observations which foUow, to a privy 
 
 counciUor, who himself took part in these events. ^ 
 
 3 The schoolmaster of Nordhausen, for example, by name dapier, far from seek- 
 
 of the Vaudois churches had been resolved upon by the Synod of 1823. 
 
 One of the members of that assembly said to me, " The last really free synod 
 
 fusion of the two Protestant churches into one, under the common 
 name of Evangelical, as had already been done m Baden. The 
 Vaudois deputies said tha-t they were very far from being opposed 
 to that union, but that they wished to preserve the use of the 
 French language in their churches. " But," they were asked, "are 
 you not obliged to make use of the German language every day, 
 and will you refuse to allow it to be taught in your schools % — 
 « No," they replied.—" If then," it was urged, « you are not opposed 
 to the union of our churches, there remains no objection to the 
 Lutheran chUdren of the villages which you inhabit gomg to the 
 same schools with yours, and vice versa. You would thus also ob- 
 tain schoolmasters better remunerated and better superintended. 
 This point being gained, they were given to understand that when 
 all their children should know German, and these children, being 
 grown up, should form a new generation, there could then be no 
 reasonable motive for refusing to allow German sermons m their 
 places of worship. They dared not to protest, but they insisted 
 that at least no modification should be made in their worship before 
 the decease of their present pastors. They demanded also the pre- 
 servation of the same discipline, and stipulated for the ti-anslation 
 of their reUgious books into German for the use of the new gene- 
 ration. , . 1 i. 
 
 In consequence of these arrangements, each parish came to un- 
 dergo the change singly on the death of its pastor; but the gi^eater 
 part of them made only a conditional renunciation of their right 
 of election. Pinache had given up the right only for one time; 
 these words were not inserted in the deed of renunciation, and the 
 right was lost. Nordlmusen, having built a place of worship, of 
 which the expense was very considerable, gave up this right on 
 condition that the king should pay the cost of this edifice. He 
 paid only a part of it, but kept the right entirely. New Engstedt 
 demanded that the cro™ should take upon itself the entu-e mam- 
 tenance of the pastor and schoolmaster, in order to be able to sell 
 the lands which had been set apart for this object, and so to pay the 
 debts of the commune. These conditions, also, were but partially 
 fulfilled. Le VUlar required only the erection of a mimster s house 
 at the expense of the government, and an annual aUocation to the 
 minister's use of some loads of wood from the state forests; but the 
 right, wliich was given up, was lost, and nothing was obtained m- 
 stead. In fact, each parish made its arrangements separately and 
 regret was soon felt everywhere that so much had been conceded. 
 
 ^va8 held in 1821; for in 1823 no anxiety was any longer felt as to what we 
 might do." 
 
136 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thied. 
 
 CilAP. IX. ] 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE UNIO^. 
 
 1S7 
 
 Under the pretext of reforming the consistorial boundaries, these 
 little eliurches were dismembered, and the number of their pastors 
 was diminished.^ The revenues of the suppressed parishes proved 
 nearly sufficient to cover the sum of 12,000 florins, which had 
 been granted in order to effect these changes. The Vaudois com- 
 plained ; but it was too late. German preachei-s were sent to them 
 even before their French preachers died, and those of the French 
 preachers who still survived, were caused to retire, and received a 
 pension to spend their latter years in peace,- whilst they beheld the 
 parochial duties discharged by a young German minister, who was 
 designated the vicar. 
 
 "It gi'ieved us beyond expression" said an old man to me, 
 " when we then entered our churches, and heard in them a foreiffu 
 tongue. Numbers refused to go to them ; some absented them- 
 selves from the communion ; almost all kejit silence when other 
 songs than our own good old psalms were simg. There were even 
 some who never set foot again within their accustomed sanctuaries. 
 Others went a number of leagues eveiy Sabbath, to hear a French 
 sermon in some great town. But ere long these pulpits also were 
 closed. =^ There remained to us, then, nothing but our hereditaiy 
 
 * Those of Lucerna, Schonberg and Diii-mentz, Sengach and Chorres, were sup- 
 pressed. All the ecclesiastical lands of the church of Diirmentz were sold for be- 
 hoof of the Lutheran deanery. The seats of the church, and the pastor's house 
 itself, shared the same fate. There remains only a portion of the steeple still rising 
 above ioxa deserted walls, as if to attest that the Vaudois formerly had a church 
 there. 
 
 2 The last two pastors of "Vaudois origin who enjoyed this retiring pension, were 
 those of Grand Villar and New Engstedt. The latter, whose name was Gcymonat, 
 was born at Le Villar, in the valley of Lucerna. After having learned English in 
 the house of M. Paul Appia, then pastor at Bobi, he went to England, where he 
 became for the first time a communicant. Afterwards, coming to Geneva, he 
 learned watchmaking there, which he abandoned at the age of twenty-three years, 
 and competed for a bursary at Lausanne. Having obtained it, he completed his 
 studies there. Being subsequently called to minister in the Vaudois churches, he 
 died unmarried at New Engstedt, at an advanced age. His learning and talents 
 made his company to be desired, but his uncouth manners often repelled visitors. 
 He spent much in charity, but was more forward to do so in tlie case of strangers 
 than of his own compatriots; he even expressed himself concerning his parish- 
 ioners in a manner not very favourable; and his last days were spent in complete 
 isolation. 
 
 The pastor of Grand Villar survived him some years. He was thus the patriarch 
 and the last of the Vaudois ministers in Wurtemberg. He was a native of Bobi, 
 in the valley of Lucerna, and his name was Mondon. He had studied at Basle] 
 and was called to the Vaudois colonies in 1792. He died at the age of ahnost 100 
 years, in his adopted country, leaving there five children, and a memory venerated 
 throughout the whole neighbourhood. I regret that the tribute of gratitude, 
 called forth by the remembrance of his kind hospitality, can now only be paid to 
 his memory. 
 
 3 The French churches of Canstadt, Stuttgard, and Ludwigsburg were supitressed 
 at this period. 
 
 bibles, and I can assure you," he added, "that before we admitted 
 into our houses the German bibles, there were m each village 
 assiduous conferences, which lasted more than a year, during which 
 meetings were held in the evenings, to examine, line by line li a^l 
 that was contained in the new editions was really accordant with 
 our own old text.' But upon being assured that they were 
 accordant, we were a little comforted. Besides, O"'-;''^'^^'^ "° 
 longer understood French. We alone had those "collections am 
 associations, which made the change distressful. When we shall 
 be no more, no one will regret the absence of an unknown language, 
 and of the distinctive character which was left us by our fathei^. 
 
 The whole population, however, looked upon these changes with 
 re"ret ^ There resulted therefore an estrangement between the 
 pastor and Ws flock,» and thence again a religious indifference, of 
 which the traces subsist to the present day. Yet it must be ac- 
 knowledged that in many respects t^e union of the Vaudois 
 colonies at that time to the National Church was opportune- 
 that it put an end to many abuses, was attended with soine happy 
 results, and would sooner or later have become inevitable. The 
 French language was, in fact, falling into disuetude in these little 
 villages, lost in the midst of a German population; the attention 
 of th^eir mother-country was more and more withdrawn from them; 
 in the election of pastors, and more particularly in that of school- 
 masters, there were often intrigues, divisions, and verj' bad -cho ces 
 made. Ecclesiastical discipline had lost its power. In this matter, 
 consistency and regularity, at least in administration, have taken 
 the place of weakness and capriciousness. The schools are more 
 carefaUy conducted. AU the children learn readnig and arith- 
 metic. They attend school for five hours each day, from the age 
 of six to tl^t of fourteen years. Then they are co»>«^<i, and 
 trom fourteen to eighteen yea.-s they only attend the S^bath- 
 
 school, where they are questioned ^V"*'''^'"?' .Son the" 
 the a4 often to fourteen years are also required to attend on the^ 
 reLlous instructions. Formerly they wei-e caused to learn and 
 rfp^at the catechism; now they are only taught *e |ospel J^^ 
 positions, speciaUy intended for the young, were held at first on 
 
 "t^^:^ liffSbe ITr^ Soripture. zealoa.y exerted M«soU W 
 procure bibles for them. (Note "^Dean^ ««««■) ,^ „, goO. 
 
 2 The Vaudois then numbered 3000, in iWo mere ii<*u ^ 
 
 '^fo some of these Vaudois parishes the people oven refused for some days at 
 first toTll to ttTew German pastor the provisions necessary for h. bouse, such 
 as milk, vegetables, and fruit. _g 
 
 Vol, II. 
 
138 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 CUAP. X.] 
 
 PERSECUTIONS OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 139 
 
 Sabbaths, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They are now less frequent. 
 Inspections and jjastoi-al visitations, conferences and colloquies 
 exercise a happy influence on the state of these churches. The 
 service of song is better conducted than in former times. More- 
 over, the separation which existed between the Vaudois and the 
 inliabitants of the country, diminishes every day. When the 
 Vaudois spoke amongst themselves a foreign tongue, they inspired 
 distrust. The independence of their church excited also a certain 
 jealousy on the part of the national church. These causes of 
 division have at last disappeared. 
 
 Under these external fonns — important, certainly, but which are 
 often so remote from life— may they be enabled to preserve in its 
 integrity the faith wliich gave being to their church! for it was 
 because they would yield up nothing of their faith, that their 
 fathers were proscribed. May the memories of the Janavels, the 
 Amauds, and all the other illustrious confessors of the Crucified 
 One be ever preserved among them ! Above all, may their piety 
 endure — that best inheritance which the children of the Israel of 
 the Alps, in days still future, can derive from the former periods of 
 its history I 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS COLONIES FOUNDED IN HESSE- 
 DARMSTADT AND OTHER PARTS OF GERMANY, IN CONSE- 
 QUENCE OF THE EXPULSION OF 1698, AND SUBSEQUENT 
 EMIGRATIONS.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1698 TO A.D. 1818.) 
 
 Application to tbe Landgrave of Hesse-Darmsbadt in 1686— Letters-patent antho- 
 rizing the settlement of Vaudois in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1609— Description of 
 the Vaudois villages— Painful consequences of the French Revolution— Emigra- 
 tions to America — Vaudois settlements in the grand duchy of Baden Vau- 
 dois settlement of Waldensberg, in Hanau— Vaudois colony of Dwnholzhauacn, 
 near Homburg — Minor settlements. 
 
 At the time of their fii-st expulsion, in 1G86, the Vaudois had 
 made application to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, with the 
 view of obtaining an asylum in his dominions. They suffered for 
 their religious opinions, for their attachment to the gospel, and 
 
 ■ » Authorities.— The same as in Part III., Chapter VIII., except Moser, KcUcr, 
 and Z>*c<«nci; with the addition of some documents, which are indicated at the 
 Dot om of the pages. 
 
 because of the regard which they had to their conscientious con- 
 victions; and, in the confidence of their sincere faith, they did not 
 hesitate to say in their petition: — "As the ark of the covenant, 
 when it was received into the house of Obededom, brought great 
 blessings upon him and upon all his house, so every Christian 
 suffering for the truth, that is received by your most serene high- 
 ness, will infallibly bring blessings from heaven upon your sacred 
 person and your most serene family."^ The faculty of theology 
 of Giesen was called to give its judgment concerning their ad- 
 mission. It decided that they should be admitted, on condition 
 that they should avoid all religious controversy, and that they 
 should acknowledge the sovereign as head of the church {Summus 
 Episcopus), without, however, being required to make any modifi- 
 cation of their confession of faith.* 
 
 The reader has already been informed how these poor exiles 
 afterwards returned to their own country in 1689 ; how they were 
 re-established there in 1692; what part they took in the war 
 which Victor Amadeus waged against France; and what welcome 
 the French refugees, proscribed by Louis XIV. in 1685 and sub- 
 sequent years, received in the valleys, with the consent and even 
 the express encouragement of the Duke of Savoy. But after the 
 duke had made peace for himself with the King of France, the 
 whole aspect of things was changed; the influence of Louis XIV. 
 was again in the ascendant, and the persecutions which he directed 
 against his Protestant subjects of the valleys of Pi^gela, La Doire, 
 and Bardoneche, awakened the just fears of their brethren in the 
 neighbouring valleys, under the dominion of the Duke of Savoy. 
 Then one of those Vaudois pastors, who were soon to be proscribed, 
 wrote to the Landgrave of Hesse -Darmstadt a letter, in which he 
 said' — "My lord, things have so changed in this country, that the 
 greater part of those who fear God think only of leaving it, and 
 seeking a retreat elsewhere. Each has his own intention, and mine 
 is simply to take a few good families with me, and to retire into 
 the dominions of your highness.""* 
 
 This design, voluntarily conceived, was soon to be hastened to 
 compulsory execution. The edict of 1st July, 1698, by which 
 
 ' State Archives of Darmstadt. This document bears no date, as is the case 
 generally with all the ancient petitions of the Vaudois, whether in Piedmont or iu 
 their colonies. The date of the petition is often to be discovered only from that 
 of the reply to it. 
 
 2 This report is dated 4th September, 1638, and is quoted by Hahn, p. 241 (from 
 a manuscript notice of it). 
 
 • This letter is dated from the Val Lucerna, the 25th of October, 1696, and is 
 signed by Papon, who was then pastor at Rocheplate and Prarusting. Transcribed 
 from the ^ate Archives of Hesse-Darmstadt, 
 
140 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 ill 
 
 Victor Amadeus banished from his dominions all Protestants of 
 French origin, gave a complete triumph to the persecuting in- 
 fluence of Louis XIV. j and the author of this letter, along' with 
 six other ministers of the Vaudois valleys, were obliged to leave 
 the country. A great number of the inhabitants of the country, 
 who had allied themselves to the French refugees, as well as the 
 refugees themselves, and all foreigners who happened to be in the 
 valleys, found themselves under the necessity of leaving the domi- 
 nions of Savoy in the autumn of 1698. The greater part of these 
 exiles passed the following winter in Switzerland, and in the 
 spring of 1699 resumed their designs of colonization in Germany. 
 We have already seen how a part of these emigrants settled in 
 Wurtemberg ; but the first grants made to them were in Hesse- 
 Darmstadt. These grants, signed ^ by the Landgrave Ernest Louis, 
 served as a model for those which they afterwards obtained from 
 Eberhard Louis, Grand Duke of Wurtemberg. Tlie following 
 were the terms of the letters patent which they obtained from the 
 landgrave:- — 
 
 " His Britannic majesty, and their high mightinesses the States- 
 General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, having in a 
 very particular manner recommended to us the Vaudois who left 
 the valleys of Piedmont in the month of September last (1698), in 
 consequence of an express order of his royal highness the Duke 
 of Savoy, and some electors and Protestant princes of the empire 
 having afterwards written to us very strongly in their favour, and 
 the Sieur Peter Walkenier, in his capacity of envoy exti-aordinary 
 of their high mightinesses, having made application to us on the 
 same subject; 
 
 "And we, being moved with lively compassion in beholding that 
 people wandering about, despoiled of everything, and in quest of a 
 retreat and asylum in Germany, have resolved, in the exercise of 
 our sovereign power, and with the advice of our council, to set 
 apart for them a portion of our dominions, in which they may be 
 settled, and received under our protection. . . . So that no 
 one shall have any title to disquiet or vex them in any way what- 
 ever, whilst they conscientiously observe our orders, and submit 
 themselves to our laws, conformably to the privileges which it is 
 our good pleasure to grant them in the articles following : — 
 
 "I. They, and their descendants for ever, shall enjoy the free 
 exercise of their religion. . . . They shall have the right of 
 
 > On 22d April (2d May), 1699. 
 
 - According to the second edition, printed at Darmstadt in 1734 (a quarto of 
 eight leaves, not paged). 
 
 CHAP.x] THE GERMAN LETTERS-PATENT. HI 
 
 eo.ducti.g «r wship in French, ^^^-^^^Z^ „, ,,, 
 in their churches or houses, . • • preacmn, 
 
 according to the rules of their o^vn D^sciphne. 
 ' "IT TheTshaU have the power of choosing as many pas ors and 
 school— as are requisite for then, and of -"-g *he. h^ 
 their own synod, from whenoesoever they think fit. Ihe pastois 
 ;taU tTe the olth of fidelity to the landgrave, and shall be m- 
 dncted bv a commissioner of the government. 
 
 5ll Each parish shall be entitled to have its consistory {con- 
 Jl ef £L»»), composed of elders, <ieacons,-d^^e pas 
 ■ ."IV. They fall have syno^^ -J-- i:t^^;:,l., 
 ^:£'^^ or of indalL ^K all in -0^^^^^^^ 
 
 -r^.?isrb;^:^^J:oi^^^^^ 
 
 representatives of all the German colonies, in f atsoev- s ate they 
 Jav be founded, and wheresoever the synod may be held, ihe 
 Zd^ve reserves to himself the right of sending a commissioner. 
 "VT 'Neither they, nor their descendants, born, or to be bom, 
 
 shall ever be obliged, under any VretfZ^->i:\l^:r: 
 anv other customs than those which belong to themselves, 
 any other ecclesiastical government than that of their own D^sc^- 
 
 ^%U Their pastors shaU have power to visit with full freedom 
 all sick persons of their own nation, in whatsoever part of our 
 dominions they may be, 'showing the ordmary civilities to he 
 Jllrof the ice.' The same authorisation is granted a. to the 
 
 visitinof of prisoners. , • j . 
 
 "VIII 1 Their pastors and deacons shall never be required to 
 answer in courts of justice, ^ witnesses, coneernitig thinr;s which 
 Ty have been revealed to them in secret, 'or in their ecclesiastical 
 Zmblie^ suh sigUlo confessiorus; except in case of the crime of 
 
 "'^aSXthe administration of justice, they shall have the right 
 to establish amongst themselves a secular council, «°"'P°jed o 
 Mayors and sherififs, with other capable persons, elected by them 
 Td approved by us. This council shaU have P-- o^^^^^^^ 
 without appeal in regard to sums not ^^'^fl^^fifiyfi^^^'Jl'l 
 our pleasure also tlu^ U take cogni^nce oftU.r enrmrud ca.y nd 
 pronounce sentence in our name; but the sentence shall not be 
 carried into execution without our ratification, . . • '■y^- 
 S to ourselves the right of pardon. No seuure shall take 
 » This number is marked thus, IIX. in the original. 
 
142 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'AKT TulBD. 
 
 place of the pei-son or goods of any Vaudois, without the sentence 
 01 the aforesaid council. 
 
 X. Besides this council, which shall also regulate and administer 
 matters of police according to their customs, it is oiu- pleasure that 
 they shall likewise have, of their own number, sergeants, notaries- 
 public, and other persons necessary for the preservation of order in 
 society. 
 
 "XL The right of carrying arms and of exercise in the use of 
 them, IS granted in perpetuity to the inhabitants of these colonies. 
 In case of war, they shall form a corps by themselves, commanded 
 by their own officers; and they shall never be obliged to bear 
 ai-ms beyond the limits of our dominions. 
 
 "XI r. We declare them and their descendants, from this time 
 forward and for ever, to be admissible to all public offices— civil 
 political, or ccclesiastical-for which they shall have the requisite 
 qualifications. Their chHdren shall be admitted into the colle-es 
 and universities. ^ 
 
 "XIII. Their pastors, and persons holding office in connection 
 with the administration of justice, or with matters of police, or as 
 military officers, shall perpetually enjoy the same honours and 
 advantages which are enjoyed at the time by functionaries of the 
 corresponding class in our dominions. 
 
 "XIV. They shall have power to dispose of their properties 
 accorchng to their own pleasure. If any of them shall happen to 
 die intestate, his proi>erty shall fall to his nearest relatives: if he 
 shall have no hcii^, it shall be divided between the state and the 
 poor of his commune. In this latter case, a council of administra- 
 tion, named by the consistory, shaU have the management of the 
 property. 
 
 "XV The Vaudois colonies shall be subjected to no servitude, 
 and shall hold of the sovereign alone. 
 
 "XVI. No stranger shall be entitled to settle among them with- 
 out their consent. 
 
 "XVII. During the fifteen years of exemption from taxes which 
 arc granted them, they shaU be free from all charge for the 
 lodging of soldiers. 
 
 " XVIII. AU their public institutions and pubHc property shall 
 be exempt from public burdens. 
 
 "XIX. They shall be entitled to trade in any part of our 
 domimons, without authorization or patent. 
 
 "XX. They shall be permitted to carry on any kind of manu- 
 facture, under the management and direction of persons appointed 
 by themselves. 
 
 •9V 
 
 X 
 
 Chap. X.J 
 
 GENEROSITY OF ERNEST LOUIS. 
 
 Ii3 
 
 "XXI. *If, by the blessing of God, they shall extend, prosper, 
 and multiply, they shall have power to establish a council of iner- 
 chants, to judge and decide in litigations connected with commerce.' 
 
 "XXII. We grant to them that, when it shall please God to 
 visit them with pestilence, they shall not be farced away from 
 
 their villages. 
 
 "XXIII. Tliey are exempted for fifteen years from excise duties 
 
 (indii-ect taxation). 
 
 *-XXIV. The lands which shall be assigned them^ shall be their 
 
 own property. 
 
 "XXV. With regard to the woods and other undivided properties 
 belonging to the people of the communes in which they shall settle, 
 they shall have the same right to them that the people of these 
 
 communes have. 
 
 "XXVI.— We authorize the Vaudois, and other Protestants 
 who shall settle there, to build a town near Keltersbach, where 
 lands shall be allotted to them without price. 
 
 "XXVII.— They shaU be entitled to divide these lands amongst 
 themselves, and to cultivate them as they think fit. 
 
 "XXVIII.— Facilities shall be accorded them for procuring 
 timber for carpenter-work, and for the transport of materials. 
 
 "XXIX.— They are exempted fi*om compulsory services, taxes, 
 
 and burdens, for fifteen years. , • i ♦ 
 
 « XXX.— These exemptions shall be continued to their heirs, 
 
 if those who now enjoy them shall die within that time. 
 
 " XXXI.— After that period they shall pay taxes like our other 
 
 subjects. . . 
 
 « XXXII.— During these fifteen years they shall pay no tithes ; 
 
 and after that period a part of the tithes shall be given up to them 
 
 for the maintenance of orphans, the poor, or the servants of their 
 
 church. , 
 
 "XXXIII.— They shall, in all respects, be treated as the other 
 inhabitants of the country. Our successors shall sign the present 
 letters-patent, as we sign them ourselves." ^ 
 
 It will be seen that in this deed the Landgrave Ernest Louis 
 expressed himself in the most generous terms. But letters-patent 
 will no more suffice to people and enrich a country, than constitu- 
 tions will to make it moral. There is mention in this grant of 
 cities to be founded, of tribunals of commerce to be instituted, of 
 t In the communes and dependencies of Areilglwn, Merselden, Russclsheim, and 
 
 ^f rut mper bears only two signatures, that of Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse, 
 and th JoiValLcnier, Envoy Extraordinary of the St.tes-General of the Nether- 
 lands. 
 
114. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALP& 
 
 [f ABi Third 
 
 Chaf. X.J 
 
 VAUDOIS VILLAGES IN DARMSTADT. 
 
 1^5 
 
 maiiTifactures to be established upon a great scale; but alas ! there 
 were in reality only a few poor little villages to be constructed iu 
 the midst of the forests, sad hiding-places of misery and adversity 
 less resembling towns than temporary hamlets, reminding the spec- 
 tator of the huts of travellei-s, or the tents of the patriarchs in the 
 desei-t. 
 
 To the north-east of Darmstadt there stretches a monotonous 
 expanse, whose serrated horizon line indicates the vast extent of 
 the forest. The ground is imdulating, and exhibits a confused mass 
 of little hills, presenting sometimes bare and arid summits, and 
 sometimes bushy declivities, where the bushes ai-e closely inter- 
 woven by brambles and hops. These sombre woods are traversed 
 only by bad and tortuous roads, full of mud and stones, and almost 
 everywhere inaccessible to wheeled can-iages. Stagnant waters fill 
 the hollows, on the banks of which stand trees of great age. Here 
 and there picturesque scenes occur, but they are not gladdened by 
 any appearance of life. After some hours' walking, the traveller 
 arrives at the hills of Schlampeberg, beyond which he finds the 
 pleasant little town of Ober Ramstadt, which has the honoui- of 
 having given birth to Lichtemberg, a man of litei-aiy eminence, 
 remarkable at once for erudition and for originality. Hills less 
 wooded then present themselves, and less fertile lands are seen, and 
 having passed through these, we come to the Vaudois settlements. 
 
 Hesse-Darmstadt contains five of these. Rorbach,i Wembach 
 and Heim,'-* are situated in the district we have now supposed our- 
 selves to enter. There were some Vaudois settled also at Rauneu 
 and Aariieilgen,3 villages of the neighbourhood. The other two 
 are Waldorf and Welchneureth, which is pronounced simply Neireth, 
 and is not far from Waldorf, but is situated, I think, in the neigh- 
 bouring territory of Hesse. Rorbach is situated in a little hollow 
 formed of meadow-land, bounded by forests or fields of little ferti- 
 lity.* It was the residence of Montoux,^ and a sort of capital for 
 
 ' Or ratLer JRohrhach. The word signifies The Brook of Reeds. 
 
 ^ Sometimes written ffaani or Uahm. 
 
 ' Pronounced A i-leiguen. The Archives of Darmstadt contain petitions addressed 
 to the landgrave by the Vaudois of these localities. Those of Kaunen demanded 
 leave to quit that country, because of the pernicious fevers engendered by the 
 marshes. (This petition has no date, but it bears the signature of Montoux.) 
 
 * In 1834, the burgomaster of Rorbach was of the name of Geymet, and the 
 schoolmaster's name was Pastre. The latter still knew a little of the patois of the • 
 Vaudois valleys. 
 
 ' The name of the pastor Montoux, who left the Vaudois valleys, was Jacob.— 
 His son Daniel, who, in 1730, was pastor of Diirmentz, in Wurtembcrg, became 
 pastor of the parish of Rorbach after the death of his father.— The son of the 
 latter was John Montoux, who was also a pastor in the Vaudois colonies. 
 
 ■ 
 
 the other colonies founded in the neighbourhood. Wembach is at 
 a short distance. The situation is almost exactly similar, but the 
 country is still poorer; and finally, a small group of houses, like a 
 handful of stones and chips of wood flung down upon the slope of a 
 hill, constitutes the hamlet of Heim} It is on the frontiers of 
 Hesse. In front of the village magnificent forests cover an abruptly 
 terminating table-land. Not far from this is Waldorf, which, like 
 Rorbach, was the residence of a pastor. It is a small village, of 
 which the houses are mingled with orchards and gardens, hidden 
 amidst woods, on the left bank of the Maine, a few leagues from 
 Fi-ankfort. These woods, broken by frequent pieces of open ground, 
 forming wet meadows of considerable extent, contain, in the dis- 
 trict of Waldorf, a number of isolated farms, of which some are 
 occupied by descendants of the Vaudois. 
 
 All these humble parishes, founded by the exiles from Piedmont, 
 remained closely connected with those of Wurtemberg. Associated 
 as members of one body, they lent each other mutual assistance. 
 They held their synods in common; their pastors participated in 
 the same supplies from foreign parts, and were removed from one 
 colony to another, according to the wants of the flocks, without 
 at all changing their ecclesiastical connections, even although their 
 abodes were in difierent states. But in respect of material pro- 
 sperity, the colonies in Wurtemberg enjoyed it most; those of the 
 grand duchy of Darmstadt were poorer, and had much to suffer, 
 especially after the French Revolution. Deprived of foreign aid, 
 they made sacrifices beyond their strength, without being able to 
 supply the want of it. The position of the pastors and schoolmas- 
 ters became more and more painful. They remained, however, at 
 their post, both from motives of duty and of affection. But some 
 of their villages were ravaged by the wars which took place be- 
 tween that period and 1814. They were thus deprived of the 
 resources previously at their disposal. 
 
 ''In Wurtemberg," says a manuscript note,^ "the king made up 
 the loss to them in i^art, by incorporating them as much as possible 
 
 » In 1820 there were at Rorhach 53 families, composed of 243 persons; at Wem- 
 bach, 38 famiUes, or 180 persons; at Heim, 14 famiUes, of 73 persons in aU. (Hahn, 
 
 P-241.) ^ , , 
 
 » This note, which has no signature, was transmitted to me a« a document, by 
 M. Appia, of Frankfort. It is da+ed from Paris, 13th September, 1830, and con- 
 cludes thus :— " The author of this note knows the wants of these unfortunate 
 churches; and without having received from them any commission to act in that 
 matter, he knows, from previous transactions, in which he was engaged on then- 
 behalf, tliat facilities of emigration would be eagerly embraced by them aa a ae- 
 liverauoe." 
 
 Vol. II. 79 
 
UQ 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALrS. 
 
 [Paet Third, 
 
 with his other subjects.i But in the grand duchy of Darmstadt 
 their situation has become intolerable, for they are now crushed 
 under the double weight of the tithes which they owe to the sove- 
 reign as farmers 2 of his domains, and of all the annual imposts 
 which his other subjects pay to him. In this last respect they 
 have been assimilated to the people of the country since the inva- 
 sion,3 without the return of peace having brought them any relief. 
 Theii- poverty has therefore dreadfully increased. Twenty-five or 
 thii-ty families, at least, have already emigrated to America. Al- 
 most all the population of one village had engaged to go to Brazil, 
 but received warning that the founder of that scheme of coloniza- 
 tion was a knave, and this false step has aggravated their misery. 
 In this state of things many families would still be ready to emi- 
 grate, if they were assured of a good settlement, and of facilities 
 for their passage. They would be composed of artisans and hardy 
 labourers, accustomed to a rough life, and acquainted only witli 
 hardships."* 
 
 "About 1801," says another document,^ "a colony of sixty-five 
 or seventy families, among whom were four families of Vaudois,® 
 set out for America, putting into the hands of their leader^ the 
 whole price of what they had possessed. With this a great tract 
 of country was purchased near Philadelphia, which they brought 
 into cultivation. At the end of seven years it was sold again at a 
 considerable profit, and the colonists purchased in its stead another 
 larger and more fertile tract on the banks of the Mississippi. There 
 this little colony, which has now become very populous, resolved 
 that no stranger should ever be permitted to settle within its ter- 
 ritory." Accounts are given of its prosperity, and of the manner 
 
 ' This incorporation took place also in Darmstadt. It was effected there even 
 sooxier (1821) than in Wurtemberg (1824); the latter country having to assimilate 
 to itself a greater number of communes. But the true causes of the distress of 
 the Vaudois in Hesse will bo pointed out afterwards. 
 
 • This word cannot be taken in the sense which we now give to it, for the lands 
 occupied by the Vaudois had been granted to them as their own property. (Let- 
 ters-patent of 22d April, 1C99. Arts, vi., xv., xvii., and from § xxiii. to xxxii.) 
 
 3 This assimilation took place in 1815. 
 
 ♦ In a subsequent part of this paper it is said, " A Vaudois writes me from Brus- 
 sels, that perhaps General Lafayette, the friend of all the oppressed, will consent 
 to recommend these descendants of the martyrs to one of the United States of 
 America, that they may obtain a district to clear. . . . But the government of 
 Darmstadt impedes all emigration, by chancery difficulties . . ." &c. 
 
 * Communicated by M. Mondon, the last of the Vaudois pastors in "NVurtemberg* 
 
 • Viz., one from Gros-Villar, two from Petit- Villar, and one from Tiphbach. 
 
 " The name of this leader was Replet. He was a native of Jiitingen; he was 
 first a weaver, afterwards a Communist preacher. It is said that at his death he 
 left proi>erty worth six millions [of francs, £250,0(X)]. 
 
 Chap, X ] 
 
 VILLAGE OF FREDERICHSTHAL. 
 
 U7 
 
 of life amongst the colonists in these distant regions,^ which are 
 too extraordinary to be admitted into this history without inquiry, 
 or without more precise information. 
 
 Some of the Vaudois also settled, in 1G99, in the grand duchy 
 OF Baden. The privileges granted to them by the Grand Duke 
 Frederic Magnus, were almost the same with those which they 
 enjoyed in other states. The free exercise of their religion, and the 
 use of the French language, were accorded to them by article v.; 
 the maintenance of their ecclesiastical discipline by § vi. to ix.; the 
 privileges of their pastors by § x. and xi.; and concerning the sup- 
 port of their pastors, we read, " His most serene highness aforesaid, 
 also promises to the petitioners to contribute thereto an annual 
 sum of fifty florins. They shall receive, moreover, five coupes of 
 wheat, ten coupes of rye, and a whole cask of wine. Their regent 
 (schoolmaster) shall receive the half of the above; and all shall be 
 furnished by the Economy of Durlach."^ (§ xii.) 
 
 These provisions related especially to the colonies of Balmhach 
 and MutscMhach? situated on the frontiers of Wurtember<y, to 
 which they belonged for some time. The situation which they 
 occupy is verdant and wooded, but cold. The use of the French 
 language has been completely lost there since the commencement 
 of the present century. 
 
 Some interesting details have been published concerning the 
 difficulties of various kinds which the colonists had to encounter.* 
 The colony oi Frederichsthal was founded in 1710, near Carlsrhue, 
 by some French refugees, with whom were associated a few Vaudois 
 of Pragela. This little village is situated in a level country, entirely 
 surrounded by forests, and at a short distance from the Rhine. Its 
 first pastor was not called till 1720.^ His name was Isaiah Aubry. 
 
 • All their labours, U is said, are performed in common. Property belon'^ to 
 the community, &c. ** 
 
 « Derived from the Archives of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, 
 vol. T., p. 176, where we find "Extract of the privileges which his most serene 
 S"^^\"^''®''®'''° ^^Snus, Margrave of Baden and Hochberg, granted in the year 
 lbJ9 to the Vaudois Reformed, his petitioners, in the time of their universal de- 
 solation, by a regular deed." 
 
 3 The second of these was annexed to the first (until 1821, when the fusion of 
 these parishes took place with the German church). Mutschelbach formed part of 
 the baihwick of Neunberg (Wurtemberg) till 1805. 
 
 V 1^? *h«^7^^'^«f of the Country of Baden, vol. i., No. v (a German journal, pub- 
 listed at Carlsrhue).— This number contains twelve letters concerning the Vaudois 
 with observations by F. J. Mone (who wm professor of history at Louvaine be- 
 fore 1831, when that university was suppressed). The Universal Gazette of HalU 
 (No. hx., March, 1821) gives an analysis of this pubUcation. The pubUcation itself 
 I have not had opportunity to examine. 
 
 » About Christmas, wUh thx wpprohation of the grand dvke, and upon the recom- ' 
 
us 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 \ 
 
 It was by his care that the scattered members of the Reformed 
 Church were organized as a parish, elected a consistory, and com- 
 menced public worship; but of this pastor they were soon deprived 
 by the puerile intolerance which then prevailed in the State Church.^ 
 It is impossible to indicate precisely all the places in which, at 
 this period, some of the Vaudois feimilies may have settled, which 
 left the valley of Pragela singly, or in little groups, from 1698 to 
 1730; but a distinct parish was foimded by them in the country of 
 Hanau, in the principality of Yssemburg, and bailiwick of Waech- 
 tersbach. When Amaud and Papon came to Germany, in 1698, 
 they addressed themselves to the greater part of the Protestant 
 princes of that country,'-^ in order to obtain an asylum for theii- 
 compatriots expelled from Piedmont. The Count Charles De 
 Yssemburg was one of the first to reply to them favourably,^ and 
 on the 11th of August, 1699, he signed the letters-patent for their 
 settlement. Drawn up under the influence of Walkenier, who so 
 indefatigably exerted himself to find a resting-place for so many 
 wandering families, these letters-patent contain almost exactly the 
 
 mendation of the Ecclesiastical Senates of Heidelberg.— Extract from an attestation 
 given by the church of FrederichsthaL (Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. T. 
 p. 178.) 
 
 * The circumstances were these :— The daughter of a Protestant woman had been 
 baptized by a Romish priest. She was married at Altenthal, in 1G72, and continued 
 always to live in the Reformed religion; but in her old age, being attacked by 
 hypochondria, she imagined that the baptism which she had received was invalid, 
 and that the priest, instead of having blessed her, had devoted her to Satan. In 
 iier gloomy visions, she professed to see the devil, who pursued her everywhere to 
 claim her soul. For a number of years she had demanded to be re-baptized according 
 to the rites of the Reformed Church, assured that Satan would then have no more 
 hold of her. She went from church to church to ask this favour, but all the pastors 
 refused to do it. These reiterated refusals threw her into a sort of frenzy. At 
 last she found the pastor of Frederichsthal, and flung herself at his knees, weep- 
 ing, and entreating him in the name of Jesus that he would restore peace to her 
 Boul. M. Aubry yielded to her desire; and he himself gives the following account 
 of the scene :—" Having caused her to make a brief confession of her faith, I made 
 her kneel down, and then I invoked the name of Jesus over his poor and wretched 
 servant ; and after my prayer, which she repeated in her heart, I poured water 
 upon her head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 She went away rejoicing, blessing God, and persuaded that she would henceforth 
 be delivered from the persecutions of the evil spirit." Thereupon Aubry was ac- 
 cused of being an Anabaptist. The consistory of Carlsrhue pronounced his dismissal, 
 1st June, 1722. Aubry appealed to the grand duke, who asked the judgment of 
 six faculties of theology, of which three were Protestant, viz., those of Geneva, 
 Basle, and Marburg ; and three Lutheran, Jena, Halle, and Tubingue. But the 
 deprivation of the pastor of Frederichsthal was sustained, contrary to the peti- 
 tions of his congregation. {Registers of the Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. T., 
 pp. 169, 172, 178.) 
 
 ■ From tHe same source. (Cited by Hahn, pp. 238-240.) 
 
 3 By his letter of 19th May, 1699, addressed to his brother (no doubt the Count 
 Maximilian). It is preserved in the Archives of Waechtersbach. 
 
 CaAP. x] 
 
 VILLAGE OF WALDENSBERG. 
 
 U9 
 
 same articles in favour of the exiles which had been already adopted 
 in Darmstadt, and the adoption of which in Wurtemberg he ob- 
 tained a few days after. ^ 
 
 The free exercise of their reUgion was guaranteed to the Vau- 
 dois. (§ i., iii., iv., and V.) 2 Until they should have places of wor- 
 ship of their own, they were authorized to hold their religious as- 
 semblies in the churches of Spilberg or Widgenborn, except only 
 at the hours appropriated to the German services. (§ ii.) Their 
 secular council was not to have power to judge in regard to sums 
 exceeding eighteen florins. (§ vi.) They were exempted for ten 
 years from aU compulsory services, contributions, and military taxes. 
 (§ xvii., xix.) They were required to establish their settlement at 
 their own expense; but the succours received from Holland and 
 England enabled them the more easily to do so. 
 
 Such was the origin of the village of Waldensberg.3 It is situated 
 on an elevated plain, which rests, like an immense bench, against 
 the mountains of Vogelsberg. In order to reach it, it is necessary to 
 pass amidst a succession of little hills and valleys, which are often 
 very picturesque. Upon the summit of a hill at Golenliausen, three 
 towers, apparently threatening to fall, still mai-k the remains of the 
 castle of Barbaroussa. Walnut and other fruit trees are scattered 
 over the landscape; the highways are sometimes lined with them; 
 but as we approach Waldensberg we find the roads in worse repair. 
 It is a melancholy looking, isolated village. The luxuriance of a 
 few little gardens beside the houses, alone redeems its mean and 
 miserable aspect. 
 
 The exiles who founded it came from Mentoules, in Pi-agela ; they 
 had left their country in the autumn of 1698, and had passed the 
 winter in Switzerland, and the spring of 1699 in Darmstadt. They 
 were not all assembled even in 1700. Walkenier made continual 
 elTorts to bring to one spot the members of this dispersed flock,* 
 and to prevent them from being lost by a dissemination, which would 
 have resulted in their being completely forgotten. 
 
 ' At Darmstadt, on 22d April, 1699; at Homburg, on 4th May; at Yssemburg, 
 on 11th August ; and in Wurtemberg on 18th September. 
 
 2 These letters -patent contain twenty-eight articles. They are issued in the 
 name of Ferdinand Maximilian, Count of Yssemburg and Budingen ; and are signed 
 both by the count himself and by "Walkenier. 
 
 3 The Hill of the Vaudois. This name is sometimes written Valdbert or ValsbeH, 
 Waldsberg or Waldenbei-g; but only in old papers, of a period when the Vaudois 
 were not acquainted with German orthography. In a paper contained in the Ar- 
 chives of Waechtersbach (of date 1700), we read that the Vaudois of Waldberg 
 asked for waggons, to go to Hanau for their luggage and their children. 
 
 • Letter of 10th May, 1700, to induce the Vaudois to settle, (Obtained at Wal- 
 densberg.) 
 
 .1 
 
150 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 The first pastor of Waldensberg was settled in that parish on 
 27th July, 1701, by Walkenier himself.^ But this colony had no 
 proper building for public worship till 1739. The following is a 
 fragment of the sermon preached at its dedication, in that year, by 
 the pastor, David Plan : — " See," said he to the Vaudois, " how, in 
 the extremest affliction which men could endure, God has raised up 
 for your deliverance means in which his power and providence are 
 singularly observable. You have seen the greatest powers of Europe 
 interest themselves in that just quarrel in which you sufier for the 
 truth." And then, taking notice of what Holland and England 
 had done, and of the manner in which they had been received by 
 the Count of Budingen, he adds, " From thenceforth you had at 
 once a sovereign, a father, and a country. From thenceforth you 
 were confounded with his natural subjects. What did I say? Con- 
 founded ! You were distinguished by the most important privi- 
 leges, and you have enjoyed them to this day, which is 
 
 itself a new token of the love of God to you."^ 
 
 They had, however, painful trials to encounter. At the com- 
 mencement of their residence at Waldensberg they had no church, 
 no schoolhouse, and no minister's house; but, by the help of collec- 
 tions made for them in foreign countries, and by then* own exer- 
 tions, they had succeeded, at the end of half a century, in obtaining 
 all these. For the stipend of their pastor they were at first obliged 
 to give up fifty arpents of the lands which had been assigned to 
 them, and twenty-five for the salary of the schoohnaster. These 
 were let to farmers of the country, at about one florin per arpent. 
 This yielded seventy-five florins, of which they were obliged to 
 take ten, for ringing the hells and winding up the clock. Such are 
 the terms of the entries in their account-books at that period. But 
 their situation gradually improved; they received assistance from 
 Holland; the colony was increased by additional refugees in the end 
 of 1730, as we shall see in the history of Pragela; and a pastor of 
 Waldensberg (whose name was Barillon) undertook a tour for the 
 purpose of collecting money on behalf of his congregation. The 
 object of the collection was the erection of a place of worship at 
 
 > This pastor's name was Roman. He was -a native of Baden, in Switzerland. 
 The minute of his installation is in the Archives of Waechtersbach, signed by WaL 
 kenier. Nothing less authoritative than this document would have led me to set 
 aside the following words, written by the pastor of Waldensberg in 1824 :— *« This 
 colony was at first without a minister, and the name of its first minister was 
 Mr. John Arch£r." {Note by M. Schmid, transmitted by M. Appia.) 
 
 - La construction de Bethel, ou sermon sur le chap II., 19-22, de VEp. atix EphSs 
 Pour le 14 du mois d^Octobre, 1739, Jour de la dedicace du temple de Waldensberg] 
 coionie Vaudois refugiee. 4to. Frankfort, 1740. 
 
 
 If- 
 
 ClIAP. X] 
 
 CONDITION OF THE COLONISTS. 
 
 151 
 
 Waldensberg. The surplus of the sum received having been placed 
 at interest, afi'orded an annual revenue of 100 francs, which im- 
 proved the circumstances of this poor parish. A sum of thirty-five 
 florins had at first been granted by England for the support of the 
 public school, but this pension ceased in 1740. 
 
 " The inhabitants of the colony," says a pastor of the place,^ " are 
 almost all poor; not one of them is rich; some, however, are in 
 easy circumstances, and there is not a beggar among them,^ although 
 there are a number of indigent families.^ Besides the cultivation 
 of their lands, which are not very good, they have to gain their 
 subsistence by two branches of industry, which almost all of them 
 understand. Some of them make stockings for the manufacturers 
 of Leiblas, a village near Gelnhausen, or for travelling merchants ; 
 and others are flax-dressers. Those who devote themselves to this 
 occupation, disperse themselves in autumn to work in the villages 
 of the neighboiu'hood, from the end of harvest to the middle of 
 winter. Most of them return on Saturday evening, to pass the 
 Sabbath with their families, and attend public worship. They re- 
 tain such a love for their religion, and such pure and simple man- 
 ners, that they are loved and honoured throughout the whole 
 country — * praising God, and having favour with all the people,' 
 as it is said of the first Christians.* These people, however, are too 
 poor to be able to devote much time to education. They spoke at 
 first the patois of their own country, and understood the French 
 language, but now they speak a German patois, and scarcely under 
 stand the language when correctly spoken.^ The schoolmaster is 
 so poorly paid, that no man, however pious, excellent, and devoted, 
 could raise himself above mediocrity, because he must have recoui'se 
 to manual labour to earn his daily bread. The pastors generally 
 remain here only for a few years, when they remove to parishes 
 where they enjoy greater emoluments; and when a minister leaves 
 
 * M. Schmid. In a note of 5th June, 1824, transmitted by M. Appia. 
 
 2 ** But the most of the families give, perhaps, too much to beggars, and maintain 
 themselves in tolerable circumstances only by assiduous industry, and by extreme 
 simplicity in their living; even those who are in more easy circumstances are so 
 only by their industry, and by their §imple mode of life. Their houses, their fur- 
 niture, their dress, and their food, all indicate poverty." (Another note by the 
 pastor, M. Schmid, dated from Ostheim, 9th February, 1827.) 
 
 ' Charles Nagel, burdened with five children, carried on at one time a little mer- 
 chandise, but all he had was taken from him in 1813, by some robbers, in the forest 
 of Budingen. — Pet&r Peleng is a widower with six children, &c. . . . {Note of tlie 
 condition of the poor of Waldensberg, transmitted by the pastor, M, SCHMID.) 
 
 * Acts ii. 47. 
 
 * It was in 1S15 that the use of the German language was substituted for that of 
 French in public worship. 
 
152 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tuiho. 
 
 the colony, it almost always remains for a long time destitute of a 
 pastor. This deserted condition is sometimes prolonged for whole 
 years." But public attention, and the care of the government, 
 having of late been directed to this interesting spot, many improve- 
 ments have already been effected. 
 
 Othei-s of the Vaudois settled also at Offenbach, Yssemburg, and 
 Hanau.^ " I am not aware," says a recent author, "that there ever 
 were any Vaudois colonies in the ancient landgravate of Hesse- 
 Cassel ; '-^ but a few Vaudois families were received into the Walloon 
 community of Hanau, and I think, also, into the communities of 
 French refugees in Marburg and its neighbourhood/ and after- 
 wards into that of Cassel itself"* 
 
 But at a short distance from Homberg is the Vaudois colony of 
 DoRNHOLZHAUSEN. This name, wliich signifies the Tlwmy Wood 
 Houses, or Branihle Houses, indicates the uncultivated and barren 
 state in which the country was when the village was built. The 
 situation is not, however, without its recommendations. With a 
 vast pine forest behind it, on the gentle slope of a hill formed by 
 the last undulations of Mount Taunus, this little town lies plea- 
 santly exposed to the southern sun, and looks upon a rich landscape. 
 The air, however, is very cold ; the fields are by no means fertile, 
 the meadows are poor, and the trees of the orchards gnarled and 
 stunted ; but every house has its little garden, in which are a few 
 fruit trees. 
 
 The deed by which this barren hill was granted to the Vaudois, 
 is dated 4th May,^ 1699, and is signed by the Landgrave Frederic, 
 and by Walkenier. I shall not here exhibit its terms, because they 
 are in accordance with those of other documents of the same nature, 
 already quoted in this chapter. There were at firet only twenty- 
 three Vaudois families at Doruholzhausen ; a few others, indeed, 
 settled at Homburg, of which this town of brambles is a sort of de- 
 pendency and rural suburb. The pastor of the Vaudois colony, who 
 ministered also to the French congi-egation in Homburg, partici- 
 pated annually, to the extent of 400 florins in the English subsidies 
 destined to the support of seven of the parishes founded by the 
 exiles of Piedmont.^ (This stipend, after several interi*uptions in 
 
 * According to a document dated 28th Jan., 1716. {Archives of Waechtershdch.) 
 ■There were, however, a few isolated Vaudois settled at Frankenheim, near 
 
 Cassel. 3 Viz., Louisendorf, Schwdbendorfy and TocUenhausen. 
 
 * Manuscript account, quoted by Hahn, p. 243. * Or 28th April, Old Style. 
 ^ In 1728 they were served by the following pastors : — ^Peter Richier at Ilom,- 
 
 burg and DomMzhaiisen, Resplandin at Waldorf, Jacob Montoux at Bhor. 
 bach, John Faucher at Orand Villar, SciPio Arnaud at Diii-mentz (where he 
 supplied also the church of Schiinberg, from which he went to that of Grand Villar), 
 
 Chap, x] 
 
 CONDITION IN DORNHOLZHAUSEN. 
 
 153 
 
 its payment, ceased altogether in 1805.) It was not till 1755 that 
 the Vaudois of Doruholzhausen, by means of collections made in 
 foreign countries, were enabled to build a place of worship, and to 
 
 call a pastor.^ 
 
 Their manner of Hfe is as simple as that of their brethren of 
 Waldensberg. Poor and laborious, they are obliged to eke out the 
 insufficient produce of their lands by the resources derived from some 
 small branches of manufacture. The principal of these branches of 
 manul'acture is the weaving of woollen stockings, which once af- 
 forded the means of subsistence to almost all the population of 
 Doruholzhausen, but which has considerably dimmished since 1808- 
 The reputation recently acquired by the baths of Homburg, attract- 
 ing to that town a great number of strangers every year, the Vau- 
 dois have found opportunity of engaging in different sorts of 
 manual service, which have to a small extent compensated them 
 for the resources which they have lost. Their lands, although bad, 
 are heavily burdened with taxes. The commune is in debt, and 
 the people very insufficiently educated. Much encouragement has 
 recently, however, been given to elementary education. Bible so- 
 cieties have provided with the Word of God the famiUes previously 
 destitute of it; and assistance has been afforded in various ways to 
 the poor people of Doruholzhausen. The late M. Appia, pastor at 
 Fi-ankfoi-t— an eminent man, derivmg his descent, like themselves, 
 from the valleys of Piedmont, and remarkable alike for his talents 
 and his Christian charity— displayed the most active solicitude in 
 their favour, and was well entitled to be called the benefactor of 
 
 this colony. 
 
 I subjoin some interesting notices, which will exhibit its condi- 
 tion at the commencement of the present century. They have been 
 obtained from the local authorities, and their own words are here 
 
 employed: — r -u e 
 
 *' The accounts of the commune are quite distinct from those ot 
 
 the church. 
 
 "The lands of Doruholzhausen are far from being productive, and 
 
 contain only 194 arpents. 
 
 «In consequence of various arrears of taxes and sums of money 
 borrowed, the commune was in debt in 1810 to the amount of 
 1700 florins. In 1815, in consequence of the war, its debt had 
 increased to 8000 florins. To pay the interest of this sum, a tax 
 
 John Montoux at PinacJu;, S. Woof at Wunnherg or Lucema, (Extracted 
 from the Records of the Central Consistory of Durmentz.) 
 
 » Notice pubUshed by M. Appia in the Echo des VaXUes, first year, ^o. IV., 
 pp. 57-59. 
 
 Vol. II. ®^ 
 
154 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past Tuisd. 
 
 is levied from the inhabitants every year, in proportion to their 
 means ; but many of them arc so poor that they can contribute 
 nothing whatever towards this object. 
 
 " In consequence of the suppression of the English subsidies, and 
 of loans which it has contracted, the churcli, burdened with the 
 support of the school and of the pastor, is in debt to the amount 
 of 1 800 florins. 
 
 "Its revenues amount to 408 florins,^ its expenses to 2G5 florins.- 
 But to the latter must be added a payment of 110 florins allowed 
 to the pastor, which raises the total expenses to 375 florins."^ 
 
 " The pastor of Dornholzhausen still remained in that village," 
 says M. Appia, "for three years after 1806, when the English sub- 
 sidies ceased to be paid, living in poverty, and always hoping that 
 communications with England might be reopened, and that he 
 might be enabled to continue in the discharge of his pastoral duties. 
 But on the 1st of October, 1809, constrained by the inflexible law 
 of necessity, he removed from his parish, which was thus reduced to 
 a state of involuntaiy widowhood. Nor was this church left only 
 without a resident pastor, but completely destitute even of public 
 worship, because the French refugee chui'ch of Homburg had also 
 been suppressed." 
 
 This state of abandonment continued till 1817. "At that period, 
 Frederic Joseph, Landgi-ave of Hesse-Homburg, had asked and 
 obtained the hand of the Princess Elizabeth, the sister of the Kinjx 
 of England. He went to London in 1818, for the celebration of 
 Lis marriage. Having, whilst there, informed his brother-in-law. 
 King George IV., of the truly Christian history and the necessities . 
 of the church of Dornholzhausen, formerly supported by his illus- 
 trious predecessors, that monarch was pleased to send to the land- 
 grave, as one of the marriage presents, the sum of £500 sterling, 
 destined for the formation of a permanent fund, the interest of which 
 should place this interesting community in circumstances always to 
 2)ay a stipend to a pastor, and to resume public worship."* 
 
 Some causes of delay prevented the re-establishment of a gospel 
 
 > Viz., 263 florins from landed property of the church, disposed of as hereditary 
 feus; 60 florins from country tithes ; 80 florins from rent of the minister's hotise, 
 as at that time there was no minister. 
 
 * Viz., 100 florins for schoohnaster's salary; 90 florins for interest of the debt of 
 1800 florins ; 50 florins for maintenance of public buildings, and 2c florins for in- 
 BT.u:ance against fire, seigneurial dues, and various other expenses. 
 
 ' These are extracts from a manuscript report, dated at Dornholzhausen, lOth 
 October, 1816, and signed Abraham BeHalot, elder; Francis Bertalot, elder; Louis 
 AcJiard, mayor. 
 
 * Echo des Vallees, No. IV., notice already quoted. 
 
 . 
 
 jU 
 
 Chap. X J 
 
 FESTIVAL AT DORNHOLZHAUSEN. 
 
 15 
 
 o 
 
 ministry at Dornholzhausen till 1824. A little festival was then 
 held, like one which had been held in 1801, on the centenary of 
 the first settlement of the Vaudois in these countries. At this 
 time the landgrave and his court came to Dornholzhausen. The 
 inhabitants of the couiltiy went to meet them, singing the forty, 
 second psalm, which their ancestors had sung more than a century 
 before, when they came to thank the great-grandfather of that 
 landgrave for the permission which he had granted them to settle 
 in his dominions. Verdant arches were erected at the entrance of 
 the village, and in the public square there was a pyramid, com- 
 posed entirely of significant emblems. At its base were wild herbs, 
 brambles, thistles, great stones, and young pines and thorns, strik- 
 ingly figurative of what the Hill of Brambles was before the ar- 
 rival of the Vaudois. A little higher up were rye, oats, and 
 potatoes, the first-fruits obtained by cultivation after the grouud 
 was cleared. Higher still were wheat, maize, and delicate roots, 
 the produce of a more improved soil. After these appeared in suc- 
 cession all sorts of plants of the kitchen garden, the results of colo- 
 nization ; and finally, vines and fruit-trees, evidence of the progress 
 of the colony. The pyramid was terminated by a fine vase of bloom- 
 ing flowers, an emblem full of the promise of prosperity, of the pro- 
 gress of the arts, and the first sweets of civilization. A choir of little 
 boys decked out with bouquets, and of young girls wearing crowns, 
 then gratified the court by singing to an appropriate air words 
 adapted to the occasion ; after which all repaired to the church, 
 where the landgrave renewed, and signed upon the altar the grant 
 of the privileges of the Vaudois. He was then invited, with his 
 court, to a rustic banquet, where the young people of the village 
 served the guests. A religious service in the evening terminated 
 tliis patriotic festival. 
 
 Sinoe that time public worship has continued to be celebrated 
 in the French language at Dornholzhausen. " Thus," says M. Ap- 
 pia, " the Vaudois of Piedmont may still fraternize in feeling with 
 a small remnant of their brethren in religion, sprung from the same 
 race with themselves, and who, although exiled to the side of a 
 German forest, read the Bible and worship God in the same tongue 
 As to the other thirteen colonies, they are irrevocably Germanized. 
 May the same voice come from their tomb which comes from that 
 of Abel!" 1 
 
 I will add but a few words, to mention that upon some of the 
 difierent emigrations which took place from the Vaudois valleys to 
 .Germany, between 1698 and 1730, there were a few families which 
 * Echo des ValUes, No. IV.; notice already quoted. 
 
156 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TfllED. 
 
 settled at Fredericlisdorjf, not far from Dornholzhausen;^ at Erla- 
 geuy in Franconia; at Nmfville, near Nuremberg; at Dupphausm 
 and at Braunfelz, near Wetzlar, in the county of Salms, at that 
 time forming part of Nassau, and now of Prussia. Some of them 
 also settled at Greiffenthal, a place ecclesiastically annexed to Dupp- 
 hausen ; at Dodenhausen, near Malburg ; and in some small villages 
 of the neighbourhood, as St. lie and Getlisemane. Finally, it re- 
 mains to be added that a few retired to the Valteline, where they 
 settled near Greasoney, and where they have retained the use of the 
 Vaudois idiom, it is said, to the present day. 
 
 The difficulty of procuring exact information is extreme. No 
 complete account has yet been published. I have myself visited 
 these colonies, and have looked through all their archives, but I 
 cannot affect to doubt that their history is still incomplete. To ren- 
 der it otherwise, much greater space would need to be assigned to 
 it, and the accumulation of materials would require resources more 
 abundant than I have been able to command. What I have done, 
 in regard to this part of my subject, is at least in proportion to 
 the rest of the work. May it have the effect of reanimating, in 
 the hearts of these descendants of the martyrs, the faith of their 
 fathers, too easily forgotten! Recalling to mind the distresses 
 which they endured, may it move the Vaudois of the present time 
 to increased zeal and gratitude in the enjoyment of the peaceful 
 lot which Providence has assigned them ! 
 
 » Documents transmitted by tlie mayor of that commune, No. III. In my own 
 possession. 
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA. 
 
 157 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 FIRST PERIOD. — ^THE VALLEYS OF BARDONl^XHE AND OP THE 
 CLUSON UNDER THE REIGN OF CHARLES IX.' 
 
 (INTRODUCTIONJ COMMENCING WITH THE MIDDLE AGES. HiSTORT DOWN TO 1574.) 
 
 Description of the valley of Pragela — Flourishing state of the church there before 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes — The church in Pragela in earlier times 
 — The Synod of Le Laus before 1332 — Vaudois missionaries in France — Tem- 
 poral condition of the inhabitants of Pragela — Pragela under the Dauphins — 
 Inquisitors and persecution in the fourteenth century — Persecutions in the six- 
 teenth century — The Vaudois of France and Piedmont mutually support one 
 another — The religious wars in France — The Baron Des Adrets disgraces the 
 Protestant cause by his proceedings in Pragela — Unhappy consequences to the 
 Protestants of the valley — Combats and massacres — Exploits of the Vaudois at 
 Exilles — The Edict of Amboise — New dangers — Fast— St. Bartholomew's Day 
 — Conversion of the people of Pramol to Protestantism — The Vaudois defend 
 themselves against Birague, the French governor of Pignerol — The " War of 
 La Rade." — Accession of Henry III. to the throne of France. 
 
 The history of the Vaudois of Pragela^ is quite distinct from that 
 of the other Vaudois valleys. They were often persecuted when 
 these enjoyed tranquillity, and they sometimes had seasons of 
 tranquillity when these were persecuted; for Pragela belonged 
 to France, whilst the other valleys belonged to Piedmont. This 
 state of things lasted till 1713. I could not, therefore, mix up the 
 history of the Vaudois of Pragela with that of their brethren. 
 
 * AuTHOEITIES.— Almost nothing is derived from printed works. The manu- 
 script authorities are very numerous, principally in the State Archives at Turin, 
 and in those of the bishopric of Pignerol, those of Fenestrelles, and those of Brian- 
 ?on; also in the Records of the Council of State of Geneva, and in various public 
 and private libraries. I cannot here give a detailed list of all these documents : the 
 reader will find, at the bottom of the pages, notice taken of those of which I have 
 made use. 
 
 - It is often written Pragelas, but erroneously; for the word signifies Cold Mea- 
 dow, and has not the s in old authors (Perrin, Gilles, &c.) It was originally ap- 
 plied only to the upper part of the valley of the Cluson, extending from the Col de 
 Sesti'i^res to La Rua. The lower part bore successively the names of Vol de LauSy 
 Val Cluson, and VaZ P^rouse. The Princess Adelaide of Suza made a donation of 
 the whole of the valley of Pragela, as far as Pieire de Sestritres, to the abbey of 
 Pignerol, by a deed of 29th April, 1078, afterwards confirmed by a bull of Calixtus II. 
 The name is, therefore, employed either in a more restricted or a more general sense. 
 In the latter sense, the districts of Oulx and Exilles may be regarded as forming 
 part of Pragela, although situated in the valley of the Doire. 
 
158 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaetTiiibd. 
 
 Neither could I place it by itself, before or after tlieirs, because 
 their history begins before it, and continues after it. I thought, 
 therefore, that it would best be exhibited at the period when the 
 same events, becoming common to both countries, decimated both, 
 and sent forth, from both of them at once, bands of exiles, to found 
 in Germany the colonies of which an account has just been given. 
 The country with which we have now to do, extends along the 
 banks of two rivers, whose courses are nearly parallel — the Cluson 
 and the Doice. It descends from the highest ridge of the Alps as 
 far as Pignerol on the one side, and on the other to Bussolino, near 
 Suza. The adjacent valleys, which open into or prolong that of the 
 Doire, are those of Mathias and of Meane on the right ; those of 
 Chaumont, Exilles, and Bardoneche on the left ; and those of Thures 
 and Sauzet, towards the bottom of the valley. These latter fork 
 away from one another at Sezane, and the higher parts of them 
 are concealed amongst the peaks of the Alps. The Col de Ses- 
 trieres separates this region from the valley of Pragela, where the 
 Cln son flows; and from this branch off the lateral vales of Tra- 
 verses, Le Puy, PouiTieres, and Le Villaret. The latter, again, 
 communicates by a mountain-pass with the narrow valley of Meane, 
 which returns and opens towards Suza. The history of the Vau- 
 dois who have inhabited these regions has hitherto been entirely 
 unknown ; yet, before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they 
 had eleven parishes there, eighteen churches, and sixty-four places 
 set apart for religious assemblies, where woi-ship was conducted 
 morning and evening in as many hamlets.* 
 
 * The following is a list of the places in each vaUey, The names in capital letters 
 are those of the villages in which there were places of worship; those in italics were 
 places where regular religious meetings were held: — 
 
 On the course of the Doire. VALLEY OF SEZANE : Thures, RemUle, Sau- 
 , tef, Clavierks, Sezane. 
 
 VALLEY OF BARDONECHE : Melezet, Merdavine, Rochmolle, Millauze, 
 Bolard, Savoulx. 
 
 VALLEY OF OTJLX : Deserts, Fenils, Chanal, Chateau Dauphin, Oulx, St. 
 Eusehe. 
 
 VALLEY OF EXILLES : Bonds, Exilles, Chaumont, Rama, Closniers, Sala- 
 BERTRANS, MoUuret, Oravet, Suza. 
 
 VALLEY OF MEANE : Meane, Lageard, Serre, La Buisse, Jalas, Gattoudie, 
 Sauvage, Jartouzieres, Le Passaur, La Chapelle, Larche, M6ronne. (In the 
 adjacent vale of Mathias.) 
 
 On the course of the Cluson. VALLEY OF PRAGELA: Sestrih-es, Le Plan, 
 Jossau, La Dut or Durit, Traverses, Rullih-es, Pragela, La Rua, Zuchieres 
 or SoucfliERES, Le Puy, RuUUres, Great and Little Fayct, Les Praises or Fraissen, 
 Povrilres, Chargin, Lavet, Balbousct or BarbonU, Rivet, Laval, Patemouche, Trori' 
 chee, Kif, Eleus, Alleve, Balhouset d^Usseaux, Fraysses cPUsseaux, Le Laux, AU 
 mcmt, Gamiers, XJsseaux, Fenestrelles, Chambons-Gleisole, Vigneaux, Fayet, Fcc- 
 quer&l. 
 
 L 
 
 <■ 
 
 CnAP. XI.] 
 
 THE SYNOD OF LE LAUS. 
 
 159 
 
 Gilles merely makes incidental mention of the six communes of 
 Pragela, 1 from which the Vaudois, towards the end of the foui-teenth 
 century,^ proceeded to establish themselves in the valley of Meane, 
 and on the banks of the Doire, in the higher parts of its course ; 
 but from the most ancient times they occupied the banks of the 
 Cluson ; for the greater part of their old manuscripts in the Romance 
 tongue have been derived from the valley of Pragela. ^ In these we 
 have evidence, valuable from its antiquity, concerning the gospel 
 in the middle ages, and most precious monuments of those hidden 
 churches, which expanded in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 Whether near to one another or remote, all these Chiistian com- 
 munities formed part of the same ecclesiastical body, confirming 
 their unity of spirit by the bond of peace, and their unity of action 
 by a complete organization. They had general assemblies, in 
 which the most distant were represented. 
 
 It was at Le Laus, in Pragela, that the famous synod was held, 
 in which 140 pastors were assembled,^ and which must have met 
 almost two centuries before the Reformation, if a simple comparison 
 of circumstances can be allowed to establish with certainty a his- 
 toric date.^ As these regions formed part of Dauphiny, or opened 
 into that province, it was, therefore, here that those missionary 
 colporteurs penetrated into France, whose patient and secret work 
 of evangelization is one of the most striking features of the Vaudois 
 
 VALLEY OF LE ROURE (of the oak) : Le Raure, La Raima, Mentoul, 
 Villaret, Bouvet, Petit-Fayct, Ville Close, La Latte, Fon-du-Fan or de Fantina, 
 La Cl4e, Sevres, Bourset, Chabert, Bosco, Lara, Gamiers, Tourons, Chateau du 
 Bois, Charabesiers, Vignals, Nonflitrcs, Sappey, Gazette, Chargeoir, and Chazalct. 
 
 VALLEY OF PEROUSE : AUhone or Arhona, Agrevol (the name of a branch 
 stream), UEyra, Les Granges, Bonisoles, Perouse, Le Rif de la Bricra, Le Sine dcs 
 Arties, La Ghalme, La Branca, La Baisse, and CJiamplan. 
 
 VALLEY OF PINACHE: Rochin, Troufcres, Pinache, Colombicr, Rivoire, 
 Valfrid, La Moretiere, L'Albarea, Rochas, Solcil-Boeuf, VEyral, La Combe, Les 
 Balcets, La Grangette, Rousset, Doullon or Diblon, Le Grand Doublon, Le Puy, 
 Servieres, Talucco, Villar-Pinache, Clicnevriercs, Chambeyroux, Riz de la Grua, 
 after which we come to St. Benoit, and the Abbey of Pignerol.— It must be ob- 
 served, that the churches and places of meeting above noted were not all open for 
 worship at any one time; but in 1675 there existed at once more than seveuty of 
 tliem. > Ch. i. p. 10. ^ (jh. n. p. ig. 
 
 3 See Leger, Part I. p. 23; Perrin, p. 57. Actes Synodaux of the assembly held 
 at Mmt&ules in 1612, &c. * GiUes, p. 17. 
 
 5 In the brief of John XXII., dated 23d July, 1332 {Rorengo, p. 16), it is said 
 that heresy is so widely spread, that the Vaudois had recently held synods of more 
 than 500 deputies, In quihus, quingenti Valdenses fuerunt congregaii. But Gilles 
 speaks of 140 pastors, each of whom being accompanied by two or three lay depu- 
 ties, there results a number approximating to that mentioned in the brief. 'J'he 
 most numerous of these synods has attracted the notice of Gilles, and he places it 
 at Laus: it has attracted the notice of John XXII., and he places it before 1332. 
 Thus it seems that the place and the date may be determined. 
 
 If 
 
160 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tuibd. 
 
 Church in those remote times. They had spread the knowledge of 
 the gospel as far as the Diois and the Valentinois. " Fifteen years 
 ago," says an author of the fifteenth century, i "one Talmon of 
 Beauregard said to me, * There are two men in my house, whoso 
 discourse is full of sweetness and wisdom ; will you come and hear 
 them]' I went; and the most aged of these persons began to 
 read a little book which he carried with him, assuring us that it 
 contained the precepts of the Divine law. And, indeed, he de- 
 livered excellent maxims, such as ' Thou shalt not do to another 
 what thou wouldst not that he should do to thee;' and he said 
 that the Sabbath should be observed with more respect than all 
 the other festivals, which have been established only by the church; 
 that God alone has power to save us, and that good works dono 
 by a man before his death, will profit him more than those which 
 are done for him when he is no more ; and, finally, that the clergy 
 have been corrupted by wealth, whilst the Barhas have always 
 remained in evangelical poverty." 
 
 This language may recal to our thoughts that which Reynerus 
 puts into the mouths of the Vaudois, when he makes one of their 
 colporteurs say, in offering some jewels to a gentleman, " I have 
 stones still rarer, and jewels more precious than these, and I will 
 give you them for nothing if you desire them;" after which he be- 
 gins to speak of the gospel.^ But it is surprising that an eccle- 
 siastic did not recognize the gospel in that little book which was in 
 the hands of the Barbas. In these two persons, the one young and 
 the other old, we cannot but perceive the regidor and coadjutor of 
 our Vaudois missions.^ The author from whom we have boiTOwed 
 this narrative, adds with great simplicity, " This sect has the pecu- 
 liarity of imposing upon men by an appeamnce of holiness, and of 
 always appealing for its doctrine and conduct to the examples of 
 the primitive church."* 
 
 Independence and frugality were also hereditary characteristics 
 of the inhabitants of Pragela. "This country is rugged, of little 
 fei-tility and exceedingly cold," says an anonymous author; "for 
 justice, it depends on the bailiwick of BrianQon and parliament 
 
 » Chkistophe De Saltens, secretary to the Bishop of Valence, in his Meinoirc.% 
 cited by COLOilB De Manosc, De gestis Episc. Diensium et Valentin., 1. iv. 
 
 p. 330. 
 
 • Retnebus, contra Valdenses, ch. viii. Qmmodo se ingerant famUiantaii 
 Magnoi-um. Gretzerus, fc. xii. Quoted entire, Muston, t. i. (published in 
 1834), pp. 200-203.— Pseudo-Reynerus, Gieseler, iii. 16, 17. 
 
 3 See the first chapter of the Is7'ael of the Alps. 
 
 * " Habebat hoc proprium secta, quod specie sanctitatis blandiebatur hominibns, 
 et vitse exempla ac doctrinam ab ipsis ecclesioe Christianoe exordiis repetebat. 
 {Johannis Columli Mannasc. opusc. varia, Lugduni, 1568, lib. iv.) 
 
 Chap. Xl] 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 161 
 
 of Grenoble. There are here four or five communes which have 
 their consuls, about seventy villages or hamlets, and more than 
 15,000 inhabitants. . . . The people have somewhat the same 
 character with the country: they are rude and poor. The richest 
 live only on the produce of the dairy, and on the little which they 
 derive from their fields or from the sale of cattle. Their houses 
 are, for the most part, only built of pines, cut in the neighbouring 
 mountains, and fixed in the soil in the form of a palisade, the inside 
 being rudely plastered with earth and mud. During summer, 
 almost all the men disperse themselves over the plain and through- 
 out the neighbouring districts to earn a little money ; in winter 
 they return home, passing a good part of the year in the stables 
 with their cattle, in order the more easily to secure themselves 
 against the severity of the cold. In the whole valley there is not 
 a single noble family, nor any temporal or ecclesiastical superior 
 except the king. This renders the people proud and haughty, not- 
 withstanding their wretched condition; accordingly, the people of 
 this region esteem themselves all independent, . , . and it is 
 a remarkable thing that, during almost twenty-four years, no 
 person in the whole valley has ventured to make profession of the 
 Catholic religion."^ Some search was necessary to find its ad- 
 herents, even before the Reformation;^ however, "there were an- 
 ciently but five Barbas, or ministers, for the six communes of Pra- 
 gela.^ Subsequently sevei*al annexed churches were erected : one 
 at Les Traverses for La Rua, one at Les C/minhons for Mentoules, 
 and one at Za Balnia for Villaret; but besides these eight ministers, 
 there was in every village an elder, who conducted prayer and in- 
 structed the people in a little place of worship, to which all the 
 hamlet was called by a bell."* 
 
 Such was the rej^resentation of the state of the Vaudois which 
 was made to two kings of France,^ when on their way to Italy, and 
 
 1 Sommaire de Vetat de la religion dans la vallee de Pragela en Dauphini (4to, 
 without date or place of publication), pp. 1 and 2. 
 
 ' Protocol of the notary Orcel, showing that tlie Catholic religion was professed 
 in Pragela prior to 1531, as is evident from pious legacies, &c. ... A very 
 thick 4to manuscript, very ill written. (In the State Archives at Turin, No. of 
 series, 578.) 
 
 ■ *' One at La Bua, for the commune of Pragela; a second at Usseaux, a third 
 at Mentoules, a fourth at Fenestrelles, and a fifth at Villaret, for the community of 
 
 Le Roure. (Relation historique des VaMees, &c MS. of 22 fol. pages, in the 
 
 library of Professor Camille Aillaud, at Pignerol.) 
 
 * Description des vallees du Piemont .... avec une carte dressSe sur les m6' 
 moires de Valerius Grassas et de Jean Leger. A Paris, chez J. B. Nolin; Quai de 
 VHorloge, MDCXC. 
 
 » Charles VIII. at Oulx (named Ours), 2d Sept., \^^.—Oodefroy .... p. 19.5. 
 Louis XIII. at Sezaue and Suza (from 28th April to 4th March, 1629); Sommaire tfe 
 Vol. n. 81 
 
1G2 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet TfllBD. 
 
 as a prelude to a petition for the establishmeut of tlie Catbolio 
 religion by force in a country where prayer and the Christian 
 vii-tues still reigned alone. This was in effect to ask that Bible 
 docti-ines should be put down, as we shall soon see that they 
 accordingly were ; but the Vaudois did not now for the first time 
 suffer pei-secution. 
 
 Before their country had become a part of the dominions of the 
 kings of France, it had been under the sceptre of the dauphins,^ 
 and in the accounts of the Delphinal chatelain, given in on the 
 6th of November, 1315, for the valley of the Cluson, we find 
 enumerated amongst the disbursements the charges due to the 
 inquisitors of that valley for the exercise of their functions;^ and 
 it appears, from the accounts of the year 1345, that proceedings of 
 the inquisitors against the heretics of the valley of Pragela were 
 then carried on with great vigour, because we find amongst the 
 receipts and disbui'sements many items occasioned by these per- 
 secutions.^ After having mentioned those which took place in 
 155G against the evangelical Christians of Piedmont, an old 
 author adds : "A few days after, the Vaudois churches of Larche, 
 Meronne, Meanc, and Suza were very fiercely attacked. The 
 minister of Meane was taken and cruelly put to death. The church 
 of Larche was also much tormented. To give a particular account 
 of all the tricks, intrigues, robberies, outrages, and cruelties which 
 were perpetrated there, would occupy a very long time." * 
 
 Vetat de la religion dans la rallee de Pragda, 4to, p. 3. (Archives of the Court 
 at Turin, Xo. of series, 548.) 
 
 * The upper parts of the valley of the Cluson, where Pragda is, and those of the 
 Poire, where Lard<ya^che, Exillcs, and Salabertrans are, belonged to the ancient 
 domain of the davphins, as appears from various acts (those of the 17th of the 
 Calends of July, 1213; of the Ides of August, 1258, &c.), mentioned in the inven- 
 tory of the Archives of the Court of Accounts at Grenoble (Registers of the Em. 
 Irunois, t. i. fol. 283). The valley of the Cluson was ceded to the King of Sicily 
 by a deed of May 5, 1314 (id. fol. 701), but it continued to pay seigneurial dues to 
 the dauphins (acts of October 14, 1441, fol. 705; of 1st August, 1344, fol. 702, &c.) 
 
 A few communes redeemed these burdens ; but they always depended on the 
 French jurisdiction, on that of the Parliament of Grenoble in civil matters, and 
 en that of the Bishop of Embrun iu matters of religion. These two jurisdictions 
 were often confounded. 
 
 - "Item, pro expensis Inquisitorum, reddit litteras CS, 6, turn, item, pro expen. 
 k's eorumdem 24, 9 {i.e., in all, 93 lures tournois, and 3 deniers, being 92 francs of 
 our money). Extract from the Arddves of FenestrelUf examined by Professor 
 Aillaud of Pignerol. 
 
 ' These receipts resulted from the sale of the confiscated properties of heretics. 
 In the accounts of 1345, there is mention of one Simon de Challicr, burned alive 
 for heresy. The expenses were the inquisitor's charges, purchase of pulleys, rings, 
 and iron hooks, for torturing heretics, &c. Same source. 
 
 * Uistoire dcs persecutions et guerrcs faites conire le peuple Vaudois, kc. 
 
 Nouvdlement imprime, MDLXII, 8vo, p. 43. This work was published in Latin, 
 under the name of Reichardus. It is to be found in Crespin (folio edition), fol. 
 
 CnAP. XL] 
 
 THE MONKS OF PIGNEROL. 
 
 163 
 
 Persecution was not then a mere ecclesiastical measure, but an 
 aifair of party; and the different Vaudois communities reciprocally 
 supported each other as often as they were menaced. The reader 
 will recollect the attack which the seigneurs of Le Perrier made 
 with an armed force upon the inhabitants of Rioclaret in 1560, and 
 how the latter were assisted and delivered by the Vaudois of 
 Pragela. " The fugitives were restored to their homes with great 
 thanksgivings to God, and to the defenders whom he had sent 
 them." A 
 
 "The valley of Perouse," says Gilles, "was not oppressed by the 
 seigneurs, but it had at its gates other enemies not less formidable, 
 and far more inveterate — the monks of the abbey of Pignerol. As 
 they were very wealthy, and the sovereign had given permission to 
 every one, and even ordered his own troops to molest the Vaudois,'-' 
 these monks took into their pay a band of about 300 fonatics, full 
 of hatred against the Reformed, but of affection for their properties, 
 who robbed and ravaged throughout all the neighbouring country, 
 killing men and women, or carrying them prisoners to the abbey. 
 There they awaited the coming of the commissioners,^ who con- 
 demned them without fail to the stake or to the galleys, if they 
 refused to abjure their religion."* The Vaudois of the valley of 
 Lucerna now, in their turn, sent defenders to their compatriots of 
 the banks of the Cluson, and the latter, by reason of the presence 
 of their brethren, were able to apply themselves to their field la- 
 bours, and to terminate their harvest work without being disturbed.* 
 
 In the year following, these children of the same country and 
 the same faith, although belonging to two different states,^ desirous 
 
 532-547. These events are not more particularly related by Gilles, ch. xiii. p. 75, 
 nor by Korengo, p. 40. They took place under the influence of the inquisitor 
 Giacomello, to be afterwards mentioned. 
 
 ' Gilles, ch. xiii. pp. 89, 90. — Israel of the Alps, part ii. ch. i. 
 
 2 In 1560, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, forbade all the inhabitants of 
 his dominions from going to hear the Vaudois ministers, and forbade these minis- 
 ters from celebrating their worship beyond the bounds of the valleys. (Edict of 
 Nice, 15th February, 1560; Rorengo, pp. 39, 40.) But this edict did not precisely 
 specify the extent of the territory of the Vaudois valleys, and special delegates were 
 appointed, under the name of ducal commissioners, to watch over its execution. 
 These officers committed many cruelties. These measures were adopted at the 
 instigation of the court of Rome, and of the court of Spain. (Gilles, p. 72.) 
 
 ' These commissioners were De Corbio (senator) and Giacomello (inquisitor), 
 Rorengo, p. 40. * Gilles, ch. xiv. 
 
 5 Id. p. 93. The inhabitants of Suza, Larche, and Meane, were, however, sub- 
 jected to much annoyance by the chatelain of Suza, because they went to the preach* 
 ing at Pragela. Id. pp. 215, 216. 
 
 * The valley of Perouse was only given back to France in 1562, with Pignerol, 
 Savillan, and Levadis; but Pragela and the higher parts of the Doire already 
 formed part of Dauphiny. 
 
164 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Thibo. 
 
 of confirming the union which had always existed between the 
 Vaudois valleys of Dauphiny and those of Piedmont, renewed 
 amongst themselves the solemn oath mutually to support one 
 another in all circumstances in which their church might be 
 concerned j ^ and they were indebted to their union for the concession 
 of liberty of conscience, which was made in 15GV to all those of 
 them who dwelt within the dominions of the Duke of Savoy. But 
 all the country to which this chapter relates belonged at that time 
 to France, except the small valleys of Mathias and Meane, to which 
 alone, therefore, this concession brought any advantage.^ The 
 religious meetings of the last-named little valley were even held in 
 a hamlet* situated on the boundary of the two states; so that the 
 Protestant place of worship was in the dominions of the Duke 
 of Savoy, and the pastor's house was in France/^ The road from 
 Mcane to Perouse terminated at Le Villaret, the last village to 
 which the cultivation of the vine extends, its cultivation being 
 impossible in all the upper part of Pragela. 
 
 France was at this time troubled by religious wars; and 
 Charles IX. was too feeble to resist, even if he had wished to do 
 so, the influence of the Guises, the Mai*shal Du Retz, and Catherine 
 De Medicis. The Protestants, on the other hand, had the Princes 
 of Conde, Admiral De Coligny, and the King of Navarre for their 
 defenders. Their worship, still prohibited within the precincts of 
 towns, was authorized in the coimtry parts;® but by what precise 
 mark could towns be distinguished from villages 1 Many conflicts 
 took place in consequence of this very measure, which had been 
 adopted to prevent them. The chiefs of the Huguenot party in 
 Dauphiny were the intrepid Montbrun'' and the savage Des 
 Adrets.8 The latter disgraced their cause by needless acts of 
 violence. He invaded Pragela at the commencement of the year 
 1562, laid waste the Catholic institutions, burned the monastery of 
 Oulx, allowed his troops to pillage, interdicted the celebration of 
 mass, and sought to impose the Protestant religion upon every one, 
 
 » Gilles, ch. xxii. p. 136. « Treaty of Cavour, 5th June, 1561. 
 
 ' "Their properties which have been confiscated shall be restored, &c to 
 
 all the fugitives of the said valleys persevering in their religion, and to 
 
 those of Meane." (Gilles, ch. xxviii. p. 170). Larche formed part of it. (Id. 
 p. 173.) 
 
 * La Chapelle. ' Gilles, ch. i. p. 10. 
 
 8 By edict of January 1562. ^The Parliament of Paris refused to register it, 
 and only did so afcer three successive orders.) 
 
 ^ Surnamed the Brave. In 1570 he bade defiance to the Catholic army of the 
 Marquis De Gordes, governor of Dauphiny; he marched against the troops of 
 Henry III. when they were besieging Livron, in 1570, and was arrested at Die, 
 and executed at Grenoble, in 1575. " He died in 1587. 
 
 «.c- 
 
 T 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 THE BARON DES ADRETS. 
 
 165 
 
 under pain of death.^ He did injury only to his own church, 
 which he exposed to the same reproaches of violence so often 
 brought by her against the Church of Rome. 
 
 The responsibility of the lawless deeds which he perpetrated at 
 that time, pressed afterwards, and for many years, very cruelly 
 upon the valley of Pragela, although its inhabitants had nothing to 
 do with these excesses. But, indeed, they were the first to sufier 
 for them. The Baron Des Adrets having been repulsed from the 
 valleys of the Cluson and the Doire, the Catholic party took 
 revenge for their momentary defeat by perpetual aggressions upon 
 the Protestants of these regions. " In some places," says Gilles,^ 
 " the Vaudois durst no longer celebrate their worship, except at 
 night; for if they attempted to hold their meetings in open day, 
 according to the liberty which was then allowed to their brethren 
 of the same religion throughout the rest of France, they were 
 assailed by armed parties seeking their destruction." These 
 audacious attempts were favoured by their isolation. Their party, 
 
 * As his proclamations are rare, I subjoin a few passages of that which, upon 
 this occasion, he addressed to the inhabitants of Pragela: — "On the part of the 
 King Dauphin, our sovereign lord and master; the ordinance of my lord the 
 Baron des Adrets, gentleman in ordinary of the king's chamber, colonel of the 
 legions of Dauphiny, Provence, Lyonnais, and Auvergne, chosen commander-in- 
 chief of the companies assembled for the service of God, the liberty and deliver- 
 ance of the king, and of the queen, his mother, conservator of the greatness and 
 authority of their majesties: 
 
 "It is commanded to all the countrymen and inhabitants of the places [t.c, 
 towns or villages] and parishes of Mentoules, .... that they attend and hear 
 the preaching of the Word of God. . . , . . It is forbidden to celebrate masses 
 and other papal ceremonies from this time forth, .... also public dances, and all 
 confraternities whatsoever; .... and to be present thereat, in any parish what- 
 soever, under pain of banishment .... and of confiscation of goods. 
 
 "Moreover, it is commanded to the above-named consuls, countrymen, and in- 
 habitants of the places and parishes of Mentoules, that they immediately, and with- 
 out delay, produce the images, copes, chasubles, crosses, chalices, cloths, and other 
 things appropriated to the papal mass, in order that they may be disposed of as 
 shall be decided by the commissioners, under pain of death. 
 
 " Finally, it is commanded to all persons capable of bearing arms, that they 
 appear with their arms at Fenestrelle, this day, at twd o'clock afternoon, under 
 pain of hanging and strangulation." 
 
 In this proclamation it is ordained that all shall learn and know the caiechiam 
 within one month, .... under arbitrary penalties. 
 
 (A copy of this document is given at the end of the Somtnaire of the Archives 
 of the PreiOt^ of OuLx.) According to these Archives, the monastery of OuLx. 
 was burned in 1562, ai the instigation of some chiefs of Oulx itself, and of Cesane; 
 the steeple was demolished in 1574, by the malice and wickedness of Oulx, and the 
 helln taken away hj those of the pretended Reformed religion; and the hospice 
 was destroyed in 1574, by those of the pretended Reformed religion in Pragela and 
 Valengrogne.* Numerous judicial investigations ensued upon these devastations. 
 
 » Ch. xl. p. 279. 
 
 * It was destroyed because their enemies sought to intrench themselves in it. 
 
166 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 ["aht TniKD. 
 
 which was powerful in Dauphinj, was not, however, able to defend 
 them upon the extreme frontier of that province. The Vaudois 
 of the Piedmontese valleys alone were able to render them any 
 assistance. This they did not fail to do; and by their devoted 
 friendship secured the repose of their brethren, after having sealed 
 with their blood the act of union which bound together their 
 ancient valleys. 
 
 A great number of petty combats took place at this time 
 between the Vaiidois and their enemies, in the valley of the Doire 
 and in that of the Cluson. The Papists were commanded by a 
 captain belonging to Oulx, named La Gazette,' and by the 
 Seigneur De Mures, who, like him, made war for pleasure, and who 
 sometimes came from Lower Dauphiny with a troop of volunteers, 
 to his assistance ; for, "for one death on the side of the Vaudois," 
 says Gilles,- " there were almost always a number amongst the 
 aggressors ; and what they imagined that they had gained one day, 
 they lost upon the morrow, to their great astonishment, but to the 
 glory of those whom they assailed; who upon that account, were 
 for a long time dreaded by their neighbours, and held in great 
 reputation." 
 
 However, the Vaudois experienced reverses also. At Briancon, 
 for example, of which they obtained possession for a short time, 
 they were surrounded by the French troops, and massacred without 
 mercy. It was in mountain warfare that they triumphed, where 
 combatants seem to multiply their numbers by their activity, and 
 where the advantage of positions, surprises, and ambuscades makes 
 amends for paucity of numbers; but whenever they adopted the 
 course of shutting themselves up in a stronghold, or in a limited 
 place of defence, they almost always exiDcrienced some disaster. 
 Thus it was that half a company of their soldiers was also massacred, 
 which had retired into a iniined chapel between Kouilleres and 
 Pragela. A similar misfortune, says Gilles,^ befell forty men of 
 the Val Lucema, who allowed themselves to be shut up in a 
 paltry village near Bardoneche, where they had neither provisions 
 nor munitions of war. 
 
 This story is related in the following manner, by an elegant 
 writer of that period, whose narrative is composed in Latin;* — 
 
 *'*.... Vul^o dictus, le gros La Gazette; cnjus etiam ductn aggressi sunt 
 Catholici, dictos Hugonotos, Sezania, &c. . . . (MS. relation of 15G3.) 
 
 * Ch. xl. 8 p, 280. 
 
 * I add, in foot-notes, some passages wliich I have not translated. — Propter- re- 
 leUantium hcreticorum rabiem, nulla huic erat fidei nee securiias, inter parcntes ci 
 ticinos, religionis causa, ac prcesertim in Plebania Ulciensi. (In the Plehanie of 
 Oulx.) 
 
 CUAP. XI ] 
 
 MASSACKE BY LA CAZETTK 
 
 167 
 
 "In 1562," says he, 'Hhe snows of winter still lay upon our 
 mountains, till their first melting caused a terrible inundation in 
 the month of May, an evident presage of the approaching ravages 
 of the Calvinists. These came from the valley of the Cluson and 
 the valley of Lucerna. Many bloody rencounters took place at 
 Chalmont, at Les Chenevrieres, and at Salabertrans ; and although 
 victoiy was sometimes equally balanced, the Huguenots always 
 gathered strength. However, the Catholics ranged themselves 
 under the command of the great La Cazette, who surprised the un- 
 believers at Sezane, and cut in pieces as many as 150 of them.^ To 
 recover from this loss they called new reinforcements to their aid,^ 
 and marched upon BrianQon. They passed over Mount Gcnevre, 
 and came within a mile of the place ; but meeting there with a 
 different reception from what they expected, they fell back towards 
 the source of the Durance, into the valley of Les Pres,^ and, pui-sued 
 by those whom they had come to attack, they gained the heights 
 of the mountain of L'Echelle,* from which they fled into the val- 
 ley of Bardoneche, and there remained for some days. There it 
 was that the illustrious De La Cazette surprised them in broad day, 
 with his ordinary guard, ^ augmented by a few courageous soldiers, 
 not without having taken precautions to prevent his being dis- 
 covered ; and being supported by the Catholics of the place, he cut 
 them in pieces. The Vaudois not being able for the contest, on 
 account of the inferiority of their forces, retired in disorder into 
 the castle, as into a fortress. There they defended themselves till 
 night; and all who did not perish in the flames, were destroyed by 
 the sword.^ "Thus," adds our author, "that pest of heresy disap- 
 peared from the valley." 
 
 It does not appear, however, that the defeat of the Vaudois was 
 so complete as his account would lead us to infer; for a few days 
 
 "Ut notat BelloniuB, scriba publicus Ulciensis, de cujus scripto manu propria 
 
 authenticato, hsec omnia translati fideliter " 
 
 2 "Supplementum niilitum a sociis, vallium dictarum Clusoni et Angroninse, 
 acceperunt " » " In vallem pratorum deflectere coacti sunt. 
 
 * " Per montem, Scalse ut dicunt, Bardonescliam ingressi —(I quote the 
 
 passages which contain- proper names, to secure myself against all charge of inac- 
 curacy.) 
 
 * Ibi, jam aliquibus diebus morabantur, cum ecce egregius De La Cazette, 
 sumptis secum aliquibus e suis militibus, quos custodise causa secum semper habe- 
 bat, et adjunctis aliis incolis hujus regionis .... pleno meridie, caute tamen et 
 prudenter adortus, magnum eorum impetu edidit stragem, adjuvantibus prsecipue 
 dicti loci incolis," &c. 
 
 « " Quos enim flamma comburerenon poterat eosdem interficiebat gladius."— The 
 anonymous author of this narrative makes the number who thus perished no less 
 than 140. GiUes reduces it to 40 (p. 280) ; but perhaps the latter number only 
 refers to the Vaudois of the Val Lucema. who were included in this catastrophe. 
 
168 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past Thibu. 
 
 after, they seized the fortress of Exilles, a place to them of far 
 greater importance than all the places hitherto mentioned. But 
 when they entered upon possession of it they found it destitute of 
 munitions, and they were besieged in it by La Gazette, without 
 having it in their power to procure any. This captain kept up a 
 very strict blockade, in order to reduce them by famine. With 
 them were the best chiefs and the best soldiers of the valleys; they 
 made vigorous sorties, but were not able to break up the blockade of 
 the place. All the valleys, says Gilles,^ then made a great effort, and 
 did theii- duty marvellously in order to rescue them. Their people 
 having passed the mountains which separate the Cluson and the 
 Doire, in front of the fortress, approached it so that they could com- 
 municate with the besieged without being seen by the besiegers. The 
 fort of Exilles is situated on a precipitous rock, which rises isolated 
 in the midst of steep mountains pressing closely upon it upon eveiy 
 side, in one of the narrowest parts of the valley. The Vaudois, 
 captives on this rock, saw their brethren come to their assistance. 
 Captain Frache, who commanded at Exilles, taking his sword in 
 both hands, then rushed out with all his band upon the troops of 
 the enemy. He cleared theii- barricades, penetrated into their in- 
 trenchments, and overthrew all that opposed his passage. Whilst 
 he thus attacked the enemy in front, his compatriots rushed from 
 the mountain heights, and fell upon them in the rear. The troops of 
 La Gazette, thus caught, as it were, between two avalanches which 
 met at their ranks, were broken and dispersed. Their chiefs made 
 fruitless efforts to keep them firm, or to rally them. The place was 
 released fi-om siege, the whole gamson escaped by this audacious 
 breach, joined the corps which had come to its assistance, and along 
 with it regained the mountains, ready for new combats. It was at 
 this period also that the affairs of Abries and St. Crespin took 
 place, of which we have abeady spoken in the history of the Vau- 
 dois of Queyras. 
 
 The religious wars in France were calmed for a moment by the 
 edict of pacification which Gharles IX. signed at Amboise, on the 
 19th of March, 1563. The conditions embodied in this edict were 
 more favourable than any which the Reformed had previously 
 obtained ; but it was modified by a royal ordinance, issued from 
 Lyons, on the 9th of August in the following year.- A peace, 
 
 * Page 2S1. 
 
 2 It ^ as at Lyons, also, that Charles IX. issued, five days before (4th August, 1564), 
 tlie edict which fixed the commencement of the year at the first of January. At 
 this time Catherine de Medicis was causing the foundations of the palace of the 
 Tuilenes to be laid at Paris. 
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 THE DUKE OF CLlEVES. 
 
 169 
 
 threatening and precarious like the calm which precedes a storm, 
 deadened for a short time the political passions which religious 
 quarrels had exasperated, and over which they exerted a predomi- 
 nating power. The haughty and artful Gatherine de Medicis, 
 whether from motives of kindness or of duplicity, had sought for 
 a little to reconcile the two parties. In secret, however, she was 
 raising troops to fight against the Huguenots. This was in 1567. 
 The king resided at the park of Monceaux. Gonde and Goligny 
 formed the project of canying off both him and his mother; but 
 this design failed. 
 
 The Duke of Gleves passed through Piedmont at this time with 
 a Spanish army, intending to proceed to Flanders. He arrived at 
 Pignerol. The valleys of the Gluson, the Pragela, and the Upper 
 Doire all belonged to France, as well as the marquisate of Saluces. 
 The Queen of Spain was the sister of Gharles IX. The Duke of 
 Cleves was the king's lieutenant. No sooner had he heard of 
 these events, than he ordered all the Reformed, Vaudois or strangei's, 
 to come and have their names individually taken down by the 
 governor of the province in which they dwelt. ^ The same mea- 
 sure was adopted with regard to those who belonged to France.* 
 The object of it was to know the number and strength of the 
 party. Moreover, Birague, who was then governor of Pignerol, 
 forbade all who were under his authority to lodge Protestants, 
 under pain of death. ^ The steps which the Protestants had taken 
 to obtain more liberty in their religious exercises, became the very 
 heads of accusation against them.* From all sides the Vaudois 
 received disquieting news, or heard ominous rumours. Now it was 
 said that the Spanish army was going to exterminate them ; now, 
 that their worship would be completely prohibited; but it was 
 agreed upon all hands that near and imminent dangers gathered 
 around their church.^ 
 
 The Vaudois churches held a synod in the Val Cluson,^ and 
 
 • "Louis Gonzague of Cleves, Prince of Mantua, Duke of Nancy, and governor 
 and lieutenant-general of his most Christian majesty on this side of the mountains, 
 with the advice of his majesty's council of state, sitting at Pignerol. . . . We or- 
 dain .... that every religionary shall, within twenty-four hours, present him- 
 self before the governor, and have his name taken down." (Pignerol, 10th Octo- 
 ber, 1567.) Mentioned in the Chronique des SoUaro. MS. of the Ptoyal Library 
 at Turin. 2 By edict of October, 1567. 
 
 '**... Quale si colui che alloghera, come quello che sara allogiato ; inconerano, 
 per la prima volta, a chiaschedun d'essi nella pena di cento scudi ; la seconda, di 
 doi batti di corda e ducento scudi ; e la terza, della perdita della vita e beni.** 
 (Pignerol, 19fch October, 1567.) Chronique des SoUaro. 
 
 * Same source, under date 28th November, 1567. 
 
 5 GiUes, p. 238. • End of May, 1567. 
 
 Vol. II, Sa 
 
170 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [?AM ThIBD. 
 
 [ 
 
 api)ointed an universal fast, to turn away, by humiliation and 
 prayer, tJte chastisements of the Lord and tlie fierceness of his wrath} 
 And, like a cloud which, being driven by the wind, carries else- 
 where the thunders with which it was charged, these mournful 
 omens and causes of fear passed over the valleys without any harm. 
 
 But this respite was not of long duration.^ St. Bartholomew's 
 Day drenched France with blood.^ Alarm again extended over 
 Piedmont. The Catholics, says Gilles,* made great rejoicings, and 
 mocked at the religionaries, as if God had been abolished. Pro- 
 testant worship, at least, was interdicted in the French dominions. 
 The inhabitants of St. Germain and of Perouse complained to the 
 governor of Pignerol. " When our valley was ceded to France,"* 
 said they, " it was agreed that the privileges which we enjoyed 
 at that period should be secured to us."^ Birague paid no regard 
 to this; and the pastor of St. Germain, whilst the place of worship 
 in his parish was shut up, ascended to Pramol, and invited the 
 parish priest of that place to a public discussion. The priest fled 
 to avoid it, and the Protestant pastor won the whole of that com- 
 mune to Protestantism, it having previously been Catholic. 
 
 This produced great excitement among the clergy; and the 
 Vaudois continuing their worship in the fields or in private houses, 
 Birague was urged to proceed against them by force of arms; but 
 he dreaded the valour of these mountaineers, of which they had 
 already given proof, and the mutual aid which they afforded to one 
 another. To prevent the valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin, which 
 belonged to the Duke of Savoy, from carrying assistance to their 
 brethren of the Val Perouse, he complained of their intervention, 
 as if it had already taken place. The Duke of Savoy, dreading 
 
 » GiUes, p. 239. 
 
 2 On 28th September, 1571, Charles IX. had even written to the Duke of Savoy a 
 pressing letter in favour of the Vaudois. It will be found in Gilles, pp. 242, 243. 
 
 » From the 23d August to the 2d September, 1572. During the interval the 
 MoHamur crusade was organized against the Reformed (12th March, 1568). Thib 
 association had taken for its device, Eamxis nos, moriamur cum Christo. The 
 peace of Longjumeau was concluded on the 27th of March, which lasted only till 
 September, 1568. In 1569 the battle of Jarnac took place, where the Prince of 
 Conde was killed by a traitor. The King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., put 
 himself at the head of the Reformed. The battle of Montcontour was fought on 
 the 3d of October, 1569, where Admiral De Coligny was defeated by the Duke of 
 Anjou. On the 15th of August, 1570, the peace of St. Germain-en-Laye was con- 
 cluded. Catherine de Medicis attracted to Paris the Queen of Navarre, the mother 
 of Henry IV. (Jeanne D'Albret), who died on 10th June, 1572. Her son married 
 the sister of Charles IX., on the 18th of August. Five days after, the massacre of 
 the Protestants commenced. * P. 250. * In 1562. 
 
 « Petition of 2d August, 1573. Archives of the Court at Turin, No. of series, 
 226. 
 
 Chap. XI] 
 
 CHARLES DE BIRAGUE. 
 
 171 
 
 that political difficulties might arise with France/ prohibited the 
 Vaudois of his dominions from crossing the frontier in arms;^ and 
 Coestrocuzo, who was charged with the transmission of this order, 
 endeavoured to make the syndics and pastors of the communes re- 
 sponsible for its execution. They, being assembled on the 5th of 
 January, 1573, began by protesting their loyalty to their sovereign, 
 and representing to him that they had no executive power in their 
 hands — that their exhortations, always directed to the object of 
 keeping every one within the path of duty, were nevertheless often 
 fruitless — that, therefore, they prayed him not to make the whole 
 of the Vaudois responsible for the faults of a few — that besides, he 
 himself, in ceding the valley of Perouse to Charles IX., had guar- 
 anteed the maintenance of the privileges which it enjoyed, and 
 that the Vaudois could" not see their brethren destroyed without 
 feeling themselves impelled to succour them, by considerations of 
 duty as well as of affection, and that they therefore humbly en- 
 treated his royal highness to be graciously pleased to exert his 
 influence, that the inhabitants of Perouse and St. Germain might 
 be allowed to remain in peace. ^ 
 
 Under the respectful language of this document there is mani- 
 fest evidence of the firm resolution of the Vaudois to stand by one 
 another for mutual defence. This resolution caused a suspension of 
 the proceedings against the Val Perouse. Meanwhile, Charles De 
 Birague succeeded his brother Louis as lieutenant of the King of 
 France in the government of Pignerol. Anxious to signalize his 
 entry upon his office by some striking measure, and ui-ged more- 
 over by the ifoyal council* of that city, which was itself stirred 
 up by the clergy, this governor ordered the Protestants of the 
 country to cease from all religious assemblies. 
 
 They refused. Birague armed his garrison, and marching by 
 night, surprised the town of St. Germain before dawn.^ Five 
 men were seized, who were hanged shortly after on the trees of 
 La Turina; but the rest of the inhabitants defended themselves 
 vigorously; the alarm was given, and Captain Frache, one of the 
 most valiant men of his time, the chronicles say,® hastened from 
 the heights of Angrogna, with the veteran band which had so 
 gloriously broken up the siege of Exilles, rescued St. Germain, and 
 drove the troops of Birague above La Perouse and below Pignerol. 
 
 * . . . . Resigo di tirarmi la guerra cUle spalle Instructions to the sena- 
 tor De Euflaa, delegated to the valleys, 10th August, 1573. (Archives of Turin, 
 No. of series, 226.) 
 
 2 By letters of 30th December, 1572. » Gilles, ch. xxxvi., pp. 251-253. 
 
 * Sometimes also called the Senate of Pignerol, 
 
 » On 22d July, 1573. ' • GOles, p. 255. 
 
172 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [fakt Third. 
 
 These troops, however, returned to tlie charge a few days after, 
 under the command of Colonel De La Kade. All the communes 
 of the Val Lucema sent a contingent for the defence of their 
 brethren, notwithstanding severe measures and special commissions, 
 by which the Duke of Savoy sought to prevent them from so 
 doing. ^ Many engagements took place upon the banks of the 
 Cluson during the whole of the month of August. In one of these 
 skirmishes, Peter Couper of La Tour, a man distinguished for his 
 intrepidity, but too confidently bold, was killed at the head of his 
 troop, near Pinache, where the collision had taken place. 
 
 The numerous losses which the assailants had experienced iu 
 these encounters, and the trouble which resulted from them to the 
 Vaudois in their agricultural labours, made both parties desirous 
 of peace. These conflicts have received the name of the War of 
 La Bade, from the leader of the enemy, who especially signalized 
 himself in it. At last the Yaudois of the manor [chiltellenie] of 
 Perouse, in a spirit of accommodation, offered to Birague to suspend 
 the publicity of their religious services for a month, and to send 
 away their pastor,- on condition that arms should be laid down 
 upon both sides, that prisoners should be restored without ransom, 
 and that no prosecution should be instituted upon account of any- 
 thing that had taken place. ^ Birague himself, before the com- 
 mencement of hostilities, had asked no more of the Vaudois, in order 
 to his leaving them in tranquillity, than that they would interrupt 
 their worship for a month ;* but they had refused, in the fear that 
 this concession would only render their adversaries more difficult to 
 deal with, and encourage them to make greater demands. How- 
 ever, Birague did not demand anything more after this than he had 
 done before the resistance commenced; and these stipulations were 
 
 Chap. XI ] 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLES IX. 
 
 173 
 
 \i 
 
 converted into a treaty.^ The king approved it; but he desired 
 that the Vaudois of the Val Perouse should renounce their public 
 worship entirely. Birague signified to them this resolution. They 
 replied, with dignity, that they set a higher value upon religious 
 life than upon the mere life of the body, and that there was no 
 need for their having laid down their arms if it was intended to 
 compel them so soon to take them up again. This language in- 
 duced Birague to refrain from insisting; and it was even given out 
 that he had been authorized, by a secret permission from the king, 
 to tolerate the exercise of public worship, according to the Re- 
 formed religion, in the valley of Perouse. 
 
 But in the following year Charles IX. died of a tragical malady, ^ 
 and Henry III., his brother, furtively quitted the throne of Poland, 
 to which he had been called two months before, and came to assert 
 his right to the crown of France. Passing through Turin on his 
 way, he was received with great honours, and he testified his gra- 
 titude to the Duke of Savoy by restoring to him, as a royal gift, 
 the towns of Pignerol, Savillan, and Levadis, along with the valley 
 of Perouse. The inhabitants of this locality, therefore, returned 
 for a short time imder the government whose blessings were then 
 enjoyed by the Vaudois of Piedmont, and had some years of repose. 
 They will demand our attention again in the course of this history; 
 meanwhile, let us consider what took place in the high valleys of 
 the Doire and Pragela. 
 
 • Concluded at Pignerol, Ist September, 1573. 
 « At Vincennes, 30th May, 1574. 
 
 ' Very full particulars on this subject are contained in a paper in the Archives 
 of Turin, entitled, Instruttione a voi Messer Cesare Cambrani di signori di Eiiffia^ 
 Messer senatore, di quello che haverete a fare e dire in le valli di Lucema, An' 
 grogna, San Martino, d'C, per servicio nostro. It is dated 10th August, 1573, 
 The following are a few passages from it: "Farete intendere che havano trovato 
 strano, che quei populi, nostri sudditti, aenza proposito, se siano levati et habbino 
 tolto le amie .... per volere diffendere quelli di San Germano, che sono di aliena 
 giurisdittione .... contro un principetantopotenteconi e ilRediFrancia . . , 
 e se vi dicono che essi delle valli sarrano usciti in adiuto di quelli della valle della 
 Perosa e di Pragellato per essere tutti scritti (formati) in Xrispo (Christo) com* 
 essi dicano . . . . li poteti rispondere che qui non si tratta di religione, ma de re- 
 bellione, &c ** 
 
 Mention is made, at the end of this paper, of a letter which the Duchess of 
 Savoy wrote on the same subject, to Stephen Noel, pastor of Angrogna. 
 
 ■ Francis Guerin, who had brought about the renunciation of the Popish Church 
 by all the inhabitants of Pramol. 
 
 ' By petition of Slst August, 1573. Gilles, p. 257-259. * Id. p. 254. 
 
174 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thibd. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD. — luESDIGUI^RES IN PRAGELA. 
 
 (A.D. 1574 TO A.D. 1601.) 
 
 Reign of Henry HI. in France— THE LEAGUE— Agitations in the French Vau- 
 dois valleys— Assassins— Jesuits— Rumours of impending danger- Settlement 
 of Popish priests in the parishes of the Plebanie of Oulx— Progress of the Pro- 
 testant cause— Death of La Gazette— Lesdiguieres invades Piedmont- Various 
 events of the war- Unjust attempt to deprive the Vaudois of Pinache of their 
 place of worship— Attempt to massacre them— Polemical discussions— Letter 
 of Lesdiguieres to the Piedmontese Vaudois, promising them protection— Apos- 
 tasy of Captain Jahier of Pramol- His miserable death— Peace of 1601 between 
 France and Savoy. 
 
 Immediately on his return to Fi-ance, and before he had even 
 reached Paris, Henry III. declared against religions liberty. His 
 mother, Catherine de Medicis, had gone to meet him as far as the 
 bridge of Beauvoisin. There Montbrun, the chief of the Calvinists 
 of Dauphiny, jjlundered the equipages of the new king. For this 
 Henry III. retained a feeling of personal resentment; and no 
 sooner did he arrive at Lyons * than he held a great council, in 
 which, contraiy to the advice of the wiser part, it was decided to con- 
 tinue the cruel intestine war for the destruction of the Huguenots. 
 The Huguenots very soon had at their head three princes of the 
 blood.'-^ Their enemies were then forced to think of peace; and, 
 by an edict of the Uth of May, 1576, the Protestants obtained 
 the free exercise of their religion, admission into the parlia- 
 ments, and a certain number of fortified places, which were to 
 remain in the possession of their troops, as a sort of hostages, 
 under the name of places of security. These concessions excited 
 the liveliest dissatisfaction among the Catholics; the more ardent 
 leagued themselves together; the crowd followed them; ambitious 
 
 > On 6th September, 1574. 
 
 2 The Prince of Conde, who had just returned to France; the Duke of Alen^on 
 (afterwards Duke of Anjou), who made his escape from the court of his mother 
 (Catherine de Medicis) on the 15th of September, 1575, to go to join the confede- 
 rate Protestants; and the King of Navarre (afterwards Henry IV.) who had espoused 
 Margaret of France, the sister of Henry III. and of Charles IX., and who also re- 
 joined his brethren in religion in February, 1576. 
 
 \ 
 
 Chap. XII.J 
 
 <t 
 
 THE LEAGUK 
 
 175 
 
 men put themselves at their head; the indecision of the king 
 allowed them to gain strength ; and thus tlie League arose. 
 
 To repress it, the party whom it threatened demanded a meet- 
 ing of the states-general, which were opened by the king at Blois, 
 on the 6th of December, 1576. But the Calvinists did not derive 
 the advantage from this which they expected. This assembly, of 
 which all the members were Catholics, revoked their privileges, 
 sanctioned the League, and compelled the king himself to sign it. 
 No enemy could have given him worse counsel. The civil war was 
 thus kindled again with more fury than ever ; but ere long, appre- 
 hensive that the Reformed might call in foreign troops to their 
 assistance, Henry III. granted them a new Edict of Pacification} 
 It was the sixth, but it was not more durable than the others. 
 The war continued, sometimes in secret plots and intrigues, some- 
 times in open violence, sometimes general, sometimes confined to 
 particular localities, but always full of hatred and fury. 
 
 These great convulsions, which shook France to its centre, were 
 attended with corresponding local . commotions in the Yaudois val- 
 leys which belonged to it. The archives of the monastery of Oulx,2 
 in the valley of the Doire, have preserved the remembrance of some 
 of these shocks, in so far at least as they afiected that establish- 
 ment ; for it frequently had to sufi*er from them,^ although rather 
 at the hand of Calvinists who came from the interior of the country, 
 than of the Vaudois who were settled in the neighbourhood itself. 
 The latter, indeed, exhibited, even towards the missionaries who 
 were sent to convert them, the mildness and generosity which result 
 from the long-continued influence of the gospel — qualities which 
 were acknowledged by their adversaries. Now we find the Ca- 
 puchins pursued by robbers, and taking refuge in the house of a 
 Vaudois, to whom they are indebted for their lives.* Now a pas- 
 tor accords to these monks an obliging hospitality.^ Again, we 
 
 » According to a treaty signed on the 17th of September, 1577, at Bergerac, and 
 ratified by the kiug, on the 5th of October, at Poitiers. 
 
 2 I have seen only the Sommaire, which is a manuscript of 838 pages, in small 
 folio, deposited in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 
 ' See fol. 25, fol. 37 (right-hand page), 38 (left-hand), and 39, 117, 314 (left-hand), 
 315 (right-hand), &c. 
 
 * Notes on the Mission^ of the Captichins in the Vaudois Valleys, in Italian, with- 
 out any particular title ; in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. In the 
 paragraph beginning with these words : SHntrovano in queste valli, un eretico ban- 
 ditto famuso .... fjuomo perversa, inimico de calholici, di Dio, e massime delli 
 Capucini. 
 
 " 5 ** Audando noi per una terra di Pragela .... andassimo alia casa d'un minis- 
 tro, per provare se h'haverebbe fatto la carita. E lo trovassimo a canto alia porta. 
 Li chiamarsiuo limosina. E il ministro rispose cheravamo troppo scrupulosi d'en- 
 dar per 11 mondo senza denari. — II Padre Giovanni li rispose : che noi imitavano 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 176 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAUT IHIKD. 
 
 Chap. Xll] 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEAGUE. 
 
 177 
 
 I 
 
 are told of some poor villagers who are astonished at seeing them 
 walk barefooted,! a circumstance which of itself proves how little 
 the presence of monks was then familiar to the inhabitants of 
 
 Pragela. 
 
 But whilst displaying this kindness and good nature towards 
 these inoffensive personages, the Vaudois of Pragela evinced no 
 common energy in repelling armed aggressions. They were then, 
 it is true, supported by their brethren of the other valleys,- accord- 
 ing to the covenant of union which both they and their brethren 
 had sworn to observe. Thus, the superior of the abbey of Pignerol 
 having, in 1583 and 1584, arbitrarily caused some of the Protes- 
 tants of the Val Perouse to be arrested when they went into that 
 city on their private business, their compatriots took up arms for 
 their deliverance; and the governor of La Tour, having ordered the 
 inhabitants of the Val Lucerna not to intermeddle with this affair, 
 the Vaudois replied that they would never make any opposition to 
 the regular course of justice, but that if the chiefs of a rival religion 
 attempted to encroach upon their recognized rights, they could 
 never abandon one another.^ 
 
 Shortly afterwards the minister of St. Germain, and the minis- 
 ter of Le Roure, in Pragela, were assailed near La Perou;?e by some 
 soldiers of that garrison, who left the latter covered with wounds. 
 The report of his death having immediately spread, the people ran 
 together in arras, from all the mountains, to avenge their pastor. 
 The principal inhabitants of La Perouse, although Catholics, had 
 caused the wounded man to be transported into the town, and be- 
 stowed uix)n him all the attention which his circimistances required. 
 " But," says Gilles, " they were greatly afraid when they heard with 
 what fury the people were animated ; wherefore the governor of 
 the castle, having come down to the town, requested the pastor of 
 Pinache, Elias Schiop by name, a grave man and much respected, 
 
 Giesu Christo e li Apostoli.— Dice il ministro che la nostra poverta era volontaria. 
 — E poi ne fece entrar in casa, conducendosi perraano. Fece preparar subito la 
 tanla; e mentre mangiamo, stette seinpre in piedi, con il capello in mano : serven- 
 dosi la ministra {t}ie pastofs wife), con grande riverenze, tagliandosi fin al pane. 
 .... Tutte le ragione che il Padre Giovanni diceva al ministro, egli le teueva 
 per buone. N'accompagno poi fuori della casa, facendone essebitione della cosa e 
 di denarii." (Notes on the Missions of the Capuchins in the Vaudois Valleys.) 
 
 * Same Manuscript. 
 
 2 I find, under date 8th June, 1579, a notarial paper, in twelve folio pages, con- 
 taining the testimonies of a great number of people, who give evidence that the 
 Vaudois of the valleys of St. Martin and Lucerna had recently brought assistance, 
 by arms, to those of Pragela. This paper is followed by various letters from the 
 syndics of Le Villar, Bobi, St. John, Rora, and Angrogna, replying that this was 
 done without their participation. (All these documents are in the State Archives 
 »t Turin, No. of series, 317-320.) ' GUles, ch. xli. p. 285. 
 
 to go and meet this torrent of people, in order to calm them, by 
 representing to them that the minister Gamier was not dead, that 
 care would be taken of him, and that the guilty would be.punished. 
 Pastor Schiop succeeded in his mission of conciliation; but the 
 people, although appeased, crowded into the town of Perouse, and 
 around the house where the wounded man lay, whom they took 
 and bore in their aims to his own place of residence. He recovered, 
 but his assailants were never punished. 
 
 After the assassins, the Jesuits* came to trouble the valley. 
 They appeared there in 1584. Although their assaults did not 
 cause blood to flow, yet they were a precm^sory indication of new 
 calamities. 
 
 The League, which had been formed in France for the destruc- 
 tion of the Beformed, emboldened the enemies of the Vaudois in 
 Piedmont. They spoke of nothing less than a coalition between 
 Henry III., Philip 11.,^ and the Duke of Savoy, to annihilate the 
 church of the valleys. To these rumours of extermination, and lof^y 
 threats, the Israel of the Alps responded by a public fast, a time set 
 apart for humiliation and prayer.'^ 
 
 The Vaudois valleys, which were under the dominion of the 
 Duke of Savoy, then enjoyed tranquillity, for that prince, far from 
 joining the League, condemned its excesses. But the valleys of 
 the Doire and the Cluson, whose history we now write, had their 
 share of these commotions. As Henry III. had been declared 
 chief of the League, it was in the name of his government that, in 
 the year 1583, thePlebanie of Oulx began to be visited by persons 
 appointed to settle priests in all the Protestant parishes/^ and upon 
 representations, addressed by the archbishop of the diocese to the 
 court of the Parliament of Grenoble, a formal edict was issued on 
 the Uth of August, 1603, rendering that restoration imperative. 
 All gentlemen holding ecclesiastical property were to be declared 
 plebeians, and to have their own property confiscated, if within 
 the space of one month after the publication of the edict they 
 had not restored to the clergy the patrimony which they kept 
 
 from them. 
 
 These proceedings were continued till 1 6 1 8.* Nevertheless, Pro- 
 
 > King of Spain, father-in-law of Charles Emmanuel. 
 
 2 This public fast took place in all the valleys on the 15th and 16th, and also on 
 the 22d and 23d of May, 158.5. 
 
 - » Visiles gSnSralesde laPlebankd^Oulx, 1583 and 1584. (A thick 4to MS. in the 
 Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) These visits were made in virtue of a 
 special ordinance of the Parliament of Grenoble in 1583. Louis De Birague in- 
 trusted the Grand Vicar of Oulx with the execution of it, by a mandate of 7th 
 October, 1583. 
 
 * In 1605 Jerome De Birague (for first Louis, then Charles, and afterwards 
 
 Vol. II. 83 
 
178 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Thibd. 
 
 Chap. XII ] 
 
 PRIEST ROUGER KILLED. 
 
 179 
 
 testantism still triumplied. Lesdiguieres had, in the meantime 
 acquired a predominant power in Dauphiny. The personal enemies 
 of the Vaudois became more timid. Captain De La Gazette was 
 taken in 1590 by orders from the Protestant headquarters, in spite 
 of a guard of twenty-four men, who watched day and night around 
 his house. A detachment of forty picked men, sent on this inglo- 
 rious expedition, came to Oulx by night, suiTOunded the abode of 
 the persecutor, burst open the doors by means of a petard, and 
 accusing La Gazette of treason, slew him, without giving him op- 
 portunity of making any defence. But, even in order to punish 
 a traitor, is it right to act like traitors? This blow seems to have 
 been struck by order of General the Gount De Gattinara, whose 
 army remained for some time, in 1590, in the valley of La Perouse, 
 which they oppressed by taxes and contributions. This army had 
 been brought thither in consequence of the invasion of the mar- 
 quisate of Saluces, which the Duke of Savoy had seized in 1588, 
 and of the incursion which he afterwards made with an armed force 
 into Provence. 
 
 The clergy of Suza took advantage of this absence of their sove- 
 reign to get the Vaudois of Mathias and of Meane interdicted 
 from the exercise of their religion ; but they, having made a repre- 
 sentation of the case to the Duchess of Savoy, who was always 
 favourable to them, obtained, though not without some consider- 
 able expense,^ the confirmation of all their privileges.^ 
 
 Meanwhile Lesdiguieres, desirous of uniting the interests of the 
 crown of France with the exercise of the power which he had ac- 
 quired in Dauphiny as leader of the Huguenots, prepared to invade 
 Piedmont, in order to punish the Duke of Savoy for his seizure of 
 the province of Saluces, and his invasion of Provence. A similar 
 expedition had already been attempted, in 1591, against the valley 
 of Lucema, by Golonel De Perdeyer, which failed before the fort 
 of Mirabouc. Lesdiguieres was more successftd ; and having oc- 
 cupied Sezane on the 26th of September, 1592, he descended next 
 day by the valley of Pragela, sending an advanced guard to appre- 
 hend all the inhabitants, lest they might precede him, and betray 
 the secret of his march. He thus appeared unexpectedly under the 
 walls of Perouse, and entered it in the evening,^ by the clear light 
 
 Jerome were governors of Pignerol) commanded the prior of Suza to come in per- 
 son, and be present at these inspections. In 1609 he ordained that in all parishes 
 the' Romish worship should be celebrated according to the ritual adopted by the 
 C<mncU of Trent. In 1611 he employed the vicar-general to visit certain priories, 
 and in 1617 to inspect the whole Plebanie. (These documents are in the Archives 
 of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) ' For the sum of 650 golden crowns. 
 
 * Under date, 10th May, 1591. ' Saturday, 27th September, ] 592. 
 
 of the moon. The keeper of the gates was killed; the garrison had 
 only time to retire into the castle, with the governor, Gacheran, 
 who was exceedingly mortified at having allowed himself to be sur- 
 prised. No one was killed in the town, except a man who was 
 found in the street armed with a pike and a cutlass. His name 
 was Roiiger, and " he had," says Gilles,^ " the appearance and man- 
 ners of a proud soldier, rather than of a humble parish minister." 
 He was, however, the ecclesiastical director of a Gatholic parish of 
 the neighbourhood ; but his flock themselves were ashamed of his 
 ministry, not so much for his military air as for his immoral life.^ 
 A few days before, he had di^awn liis sword against a Protestant 
 pastor, who was then defended and protected by the Papists of La 
 Perouse. The Vaudois did not seek to avenge themselves for this 
 assault ; but the French soldiers having taken Priest Rouger for a 
 leader of the enemy, killed him in the public square. His body 
 was left exposed on the ground, without the Gatholics themselves 
 taking the trouble to perform the last rites for a man who had 
 brought much scandal upon their church, by his dissoluteness and 
 his cruelties. 
 
 Lesdiguieres marched upon Pignerol that same evening, in order 
 to surprise it, but was not able to seize that city, and so returned 
 to the siege of the castle of La Perouse, which he compelled to sur- 
 render on the 2d of October, 1592. However, the inhabitants of 
 the valleys of St. Martin and of Lucerna had taken up arms to 
 resist the invasion. They were exempted from it upon payment 
 of a heavy contribution, the amount of which was agreed upon at 
 Grand Doublon, on the 1st of October, between their deputies and 
 Lesdiguieres. That general then turned towards Briqueras, and (in 
 1593) caused the castles of La Tour and Perouse to be demolished. 
 
 To oppose these conquests, Gharles Emmanuel, who had returned 
 from Provence, again ascended the valley of the Doire, accompanied 
 with a powerful force.^ His design was to seize the fortress of 
 Exilles, which guarded the frontiers of Dauphiny. Lesdiguieres 
 retmced his steps to defend this place. He ascended the valley ot 
 Pragela, and stopped at Oulx, not having been able to prevent the 
 capitulation of Exilles, which, however, did not surrender until it 
 had sustained more than 2000 cannon-shot. A murderous combat 
 afterwards took place at Salabertrans, between the armies of France 
 and Savoy. Both parties equally claimed the victory; but Les- 
 
 » P. 293. ^ See the particulars in Gilles, p. 293. 
 
 3 Not wholly derived from his own dominions, but consisting also of troops fur- 
 nished by the King of Naples, the King of Spain, and the Emperor of Germany, 
 Lis allies. 
 
180 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Thihd. 
 
 Chap. XII.J 
 
 THE CHURCH AT PINACHE. 
 
 181 
 
 4 
 
 !^ 
 
 I 7 
 
 ) 4 
 
 li 
 
 1 ' 
 
 . 
 
 diguieres retained the upper part of tlie valley. Charles Emmanuel, 
 Bhortly after, caused the fort of St. Benoit to be erected on the 
 limits of his teiTitory, between P6rouse and Pignerol. 
 
 Towards the end of the year the French troops withdrew from 
 Piedmont, retaining possession, in that country, only of Cavour, 
 Mirabouc, and a few other places. But in abandoning to Charles 
 Emmanuel the valleys which he had conquered, Lesdiguieres stipu- 
 lated that religious liberty should be guaranteed for ever to their 
 inhabitants.! T^g Vaudois, who had enjoyed it most completely 
 during the occupation of theii- countiy by the French, had hastened 
 to multiply their places of meeting in Pragela. The Duke of Savoy, 
 when he became master of these countries, was solicited by the 
 Papists to forbid the Keformed woi-ship altogether. Fearing that 
 he might decide accordingly, the Vaudois addressed a petition to 
 him, i^ consequence of which they obtained the preservation of 
 their privileges, on condition, however, that the newly-erected 
 places of worship should be closed, and that the forsaken chapels, 
 which had been appropriated to Protestant worship, should be 
 restored to the Catholics.-' This last article related particularly to 
 the dependencies of the provostship of Oulx, which had suffered 
 from the presence of Lesdiguieres, as formerly from that of Dea 
 
 A-drets. 
 
 But the probability of such sufferings was not yet over, for the 
 war was still prosecuted between Savoy and France. The upper 
 part of the valleys of the Cluson and the Doire belonged to the lat- 
 ter power, and Charles Emmanuel thought to make himself maste 
 of them. His troops, having surmounted all obstacles as far as Suza 
 and Mentoules, fortified themselves in the narrowest part of the 
 gorge w^hich opens into the valley of Meane, as well as upon the 
 summit of an eminence covered with ruins, which commands the 
 village of Mentoules in Pragela. "This invasion," says Gille3, 
 
 » This treaty is mentioned in a decree of Ins majesty's sovereign council at Pig- 
 nerol, of date 21th April, 1C54. (Civil Archives of Pignerol, class xxv., mazzo i., 
 
 zLetters-patent granted at Turin, by Charles Emmanuel, 21st November, 15(^i. 
 
 * There was a criminal process for the carrying away of stones and buUding 
 materials from the provostship of Oulx, against Anthony Reul, innkeeper in the plain 
 of Oulx, dated 6th June, 1595, and occupying seventeen quarto leaves. Precogni- 
 tions concerning the burning of the monastery, taken at the request of the provost, 
 Jer(m€ De Lirague, before the local lieutenant of the see of Brianqon, under date 
 6th September, 1596, in one foUo MS. of eighteen leaves, ill written;— a Heporfc, 
 {Proch Verbal] on the same subject, drawn up by the officer of justice, on the 
 30th of January, 1597, &c. All in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 There are in these archives also other reports and documents relative to similar 
 untoward occurrences within the provostship of Oulx, in 1562, 1574, 1591, 1592, 
 1593, &<r. 
 
 I' 
 
 *' having caused the inhabitants of the valley to be called out for 
 its defence, all ofivhom were of tlie Reformed religion,^ they made 
 such an effort from both sides that, notwithstanding great resis- 
 tance, they put the ducal troops to flight, and made the governor 
 of Kevel prisoner." ^ 
 
 The Duke of Savoy at this time added to the fortifications 
 which guarded these valleys. The little town of La Chapelle was 
 surrounded with walls, and received a garrison. A new fortress 
 was raised at the entry of the valley of St. Martin, and took the 
 name of Palais Louis. The soldiers who were placed there having 
 committed numerous excesses,^ which evinced their hostility to Pro- 
 testantism, the Capuchin monks, in their vicinity, resumed courage, 
 and became more enterprising than ever in their opposition to 
 evangelical worship. 
 
 At this period the Protestants of Pinache assembled in a large 
 place of worship, w^hich had formerly been a Catholic church, but 
 the Catholics of the country had given it up to them by an agree- 
 ment, of which the origin was as follows. The Papists were more 
 numerous at Diblon than at Pinache, although, in all, less nume- 
 rous than the Protestants. The latter offered to build a church, at 
 their own expense, at Diblon, for the use of the Catholics, and the 
 latter consented to give up the church at Pinache to the Reformed. 
 By this arrangement the interests of both parties were provided 
 for. The people often come to a better agreement among them- 
 selves tlian would ever be brought about by those who direct their 
 affairs. However, the letters-patent of the 21st of November, 
 1594, having declared that the edifices formerly devoted to Catholic 
 worship should be restored to the Catholics, they became an instru- 
 ment of much mischief in the hands of the monks, who prevailed 
 with the governor of Pignerol to prohibit the Vaudois of Pinache 
 from entering their place of worship any more. In vain did the 
 Vaudois point out the title which they had to that edifice; the 
 governor would listen to nothing on the subject. 
 
 Two opinions then arose among the Vaudois as to the course 
 which they should pursue. Some said, " They cannot dispute our 
 right to the place of worship at Diblon, which was constmcted at 
 oiu- expense; let us expel from it the Catholics, to whom we 
 transferred it, and let us celebrate our worship there." Others 
 replied — " Our neighbours of Diblon have had nothing to do with 
 the injury which we have suffered; we have no right to take from 
 them by violence what we gave over to them of our own fieewill; 
 
 (( . 
 
 qui etaient tou^ de la religion.^' 
 2 Gilles, ch. xliv. p. 313. 
 
 See Gilles, p. 314. 
 
182 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 LPakt Third. 
 
 Chap. Xll ] 
 
 jahier's apostasy. 
 
 183 
 
 ti 
 
 but we have a right to meet in the church which they, in like 
 manner, made over to us : let us remain where we are, and carry 
 on our worship." This opinion prevailed. 
 
 Governor Ponte regarded this as an insult to his authority, and 
 having consulted with the military commanders at La Chapelle 
 and Palais Louis, he formed the project of massacring the inhabi- 
 tants of Pinache when they were assembled in their church, and of 
 carrying away the pastor from the midst of his flock. One Sab- 
 bath morning, therefore, troops marched out from both these for- 
 tresses, as well as from Pignerol. The pastor, Felix Ughet, preached 
 on that morning at Le Villar, a village situated half a league from 
 Pinache. The soldiers were preparing to surround the church, 
 when a shepherd boy, who saw their movements, ran to warn the 
 Protestant worsliippers, who came out in haste, and secured the 
 escape of the pastor. The troops of the enemy being almost all on 
 horseback, could not follow the Vaudois, who dispersed themselves 
 amongst the vineyards in their flight; but Ponte's cavalry ravaged 
 the plain, returned to Pinache, plundered the pastor's house, and 
 carried away much booty. The father and brother of the minister 
 Ughet were afterwards imprisoned, as we have akeady seen in the 
 chapter devoted to the history of the martyrs. 
 
 But all these acts of violence had only the effect of causing the 
 Vaudois still more to detest the Jesuits and Capuchins, who were 
 the instigators of them. The monks, therefore, thought proper to 
 seek for some victories in the field of controversy. They challenged 
 the Vaudois pastors to polemical discussions. The weapons of con- 
 troversy seem to have been equally well managed on both sides ;. 
 but reasoning does not produce faith, religious life is not the result 
 of a syllogism : the dialectics of Rome broke down before the au- 
 thority of the Bible. 
 
 Then, addressing themselves to popular fears, these religious . 
 spread the report of an approaching destruction of the Reformed, 
 which no one could possibly escape but by taking refuge in the 
 bosom of the Romish Church, whose arms were always paternally 
 open to embrace the inhabitants of the valleys. "Rumours of this 
 kind," says Gilles,^ " perse veringly circulated, and transmitted from 
 one to another, acquired the more consistency, as direct attacks 
 upon the Protestants became more numerous, and remained un- 
 pimished in Piedmont as well as in France." The pastor of Men- 
 toules- wrote to Lesdiguieres on this subject, and even went to 
 
 • Chap. xlv. p. 322. 
 
 2 Bernard Guerin, brother of Prancia Gu6rin, the former pastor of St. Germain, 
 the apostle of Pramol, and the missionary and reorganizer of the churches of Saluces. 
 
 him in person. The governor of Dauphiny replied in these terms: 
 "Gentlemen, I was very glad to hear from you, by the minister 
 M. Guerin. I would have wished to have heard better news, be- 
 cause my duty requires me to care for your comfort and perfect 
 liberty, which also, above all things, I have at heart. But you 
 know that those who walk in the right path always suffer perse- 
 cution. Doubt not, any longer, I pray you, but that I will par- 
 ticipate with you in what befalls you, and will exert myself to the 
 utmost of my power to ward off" evil from you, by my interposition 
 with your sovereign. Be assured, whatever you may be told, that 
 he will treat you as good subjects, and will maintain you in your 
 liberty of conscience, if you are obedient to him, as I know that 
 you wish to be; and if you keep this course, I will take upon me 
 to protect you, and will support you as much as reason and the com- 
 mon cause require me, as M. Guerin will inform you on my behalf. 
 I now beg the Creator, gentlemen, that he may continue and in- 
 crease his favours to you, and commend myself to your favourable 
 regard. — Lesdiguieres."^ These protestations re-assured the Vau- 
 dois, who were full of confidence in his honour, both as a gentle- 
 man and a Christian. 
 
 However, a few of the Reformed, influenced by motives peculiar 
 to themselves, yielded to the arts of the monks, who sought their 
 conversion. Of this number was Captain Jahier of Pramol, a man 
 of great courage, but very covetous of wealth. He was accused of 
 extortion; the monks gave information against him to the Duke 
 of Savoy, who had him summoned before him. The proofs, cai-e- 
 fully sought out, left no room for denying the charge. Then the 
 Jesuits, who were present at the examination, flung themselves at 
 the feet of the sovereign, entreating him to pardon the culprit if 
 he would change his religion. Totally stunned by the blow, Jtihier 
 promised all that was asked of him. Afterwards, having recovered 
 his composure, he wished to retract that resolution; but he was 
 told that he was bound by his promise, which his sovereign had 
 received from his own mouth. To render the fulfilment of it more 
 pleasant to him, a promise was made to him in return, of exemption 
 from taxes for some years, and of the office of captain-general of 
 the militia of Perouse for life. But it was required that he should 
 immediately make his abjuration, and should bind himself to make 
 proseljrtes afterwards. 
 
 The man of war and of wealth was overcome; and returning to 
 Pramol, he sought to induce his wife to follow his example. She 
 refused. A few days after, the monks having paid a visit to the 
 ' This letter is dated from Piedmore, 13th August, 1598. 
 
184j 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Tui&d. 
 
 Cbav. 
 
 xui.] 
 
 VAUDOIS PETITION. 
 
 1S5 
 
 village, to see what effect Jahier*s solicitations had produced, they 
 set up an altar, and celebrated mass there. None of the inhabitants 
 ■were present at it, except one of the old Catholics of the place. 
 Jahier attempted, by violent means, to compel the attendance of 
 his son Elysee, aged fifteen yeai-s; but the boy escaped during the 
 service; and his father beat him so cruelly afterwards, that he died 
 in the course of a few days. Thus the apostate began to suffer in 
 that which was dearest to him — and this, too, as an immediate 
 consequence of his abjuration. And now his relatives, his friends, 
 and his countrymen shrunk from him with contempt. The monks 
 bore him a grudge for having done so little. The domestic roof, 
 where everything reminded him of the murder of his son, became 
 insupportable to him. A strange disquietude seized him. The 
 agitation of his mind passed to his limbs, formerly full of vigour. 
 He was affected with a perpetual trembling, which was attributed 
 to a premature old age, but to which nothing equal was to be seen 
 in any other old man. He changed his residence, and went to 
 live at Diblon, where the sun has more power. But his health did 
 not return. His soid also was sick, and trembled more than his 
 body. "O how happy you are," said h^e to his wife, "to have pre- 
 served your peace of conscience !" When his last hour drew near, 
 the priests sought to administer extreme unction to him, but he 
 repelled them with disgust; wherefore, when he was dead, they 
 refused to bury him, and his relatives, coming down from Pramol, 
 took away his forsaken body, and discharged the last duties to it 
 in the cemetery of Pinache. Gilles, who was then pastor at Pra- 
 mol, has given a striking account of all these particulars.' Far 
 from promoting the work of proselytism, this despised and despi- 
 cable apostasy inspired the Vaudois with a still more insurmount- 
 able aversion to abjuration than before. 
 
 Meanwhile, Charles Emmanuel had sought to conclude peace 
 with Heniy IV. For this purpose he even repaired in person 
 to France, in 1599. But the treaty was not signed till the 1 7th 
 of January, 1601, at Lyons. By this treaty, the Duke of Savoy 
 ceded Gex, Bugey, and Val Eomei to the King of France, retain- 
 ing the marquisate of Saluces, the original cause of the war. It 
 was said concerning this subject, that the king had made a dvJce'a 
 peace, and the duke had made tluif of a king. 
 
 1 End of chap. xlv. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 THIRD PERIOD.— THE VALLEY OF PfiROUSE UNDER THE 
 DOMINION OF CHARLES EMMANUEL. 
 
 (A.D. 1601 TO A.D. 1628.) 
 
 The privilege of public worship denied to the inhabitants of Pragela-United de- 
 cCt on o? the Vaudois-Efforts of the Romish clergy to make Proselyies- 
 T^e dL of Savoy himself endeavours to induce some of tbe pnncxpal mhaU- 
 t^ts of Phiache to join the Church of Rome-Decree of the Parhament of 
 otrbL^In P^^^^^^^ edict of the Duke of Savoy-The Vaudois of Perouse 
 are Ldu^d, by crafty counsel, to separate themselves from the common union 
 7i^eY:nkol and to refuse payment of their share of a sum which th^^^^^ 
 leys were to pay for confirmation of privileges-They soon find that they have 
 iXn Into a dangerous snare-Orders given for the demolition o six of their 
 tjlaces of worship-The Vaudois attacked by French troops at St. Germam- 
 Sey assemble in such formidable numbers that the troops retire-An amnesty 
 —Political relations of France and Savoy. 
 
 By the edict of 25th February, 1602, Charles Emmanuel, in grant- 
 ing reUgious Uberty to the Vaudois valleys, had restricted the ex- 
 ercise of Protestant worship to the churches included within the 
 limits of these valleys alone. The churches of Saluces and Pragela 
 found themselves excluded from the privilege. All these members 
 of one spiritual body, then joined in a manifestation of brotherly 
 sympathy and resolution to make common cause with each other, 
 the unanimity of which was admirable. 
 
 From the valley of the Sture, on the confines of Nice, to those 
 of Mathias and M6ane, on the confines of Suza, they signed as a 
 protest against the intrigues and violence from which they suffered 
 it this period, the following declaration, which was, at the same 
 time, a petition to their sovereign :— ^ -v -u 
 
 "From time immemorial our progenitors and our families hav- 
 ing been brought up in the doctrine professed at the present day 
 by the Reformed Church, in which we are resolved to live and to 
 die, that it may be known to all men that it is not for any crime 
 or rebellion that we are at the present day spoiled of our lands and 
 houses, we solemnly declare tha£ this doctrine, which we are urged 
 to renounce, is held by us as the only true doctrine ordained aiid 
 approved of God—the only doctrine which can make us pleasmg m 
 his sight, and guide us to the path of salvation. If any one pre^ 
 Vol. II. '** 
 
 
186 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thud. 
 
 tends that we are in error, let him prove it, and we will renounce 
 it. But if it is attempted, by mere force and constraint, to make 
 us follow human superstitions, we prefer rather to submit to the 
 loss of our properties, and even of our lives, than to that of the 
 truth and of the salvation of our souls." ^ 
 
 This courageous declaration, the terms of which we have abridged, 
 was drawn up in Pragela. It had the effect only of exciting still 
 more the ardour of proselytism and feverish rivalry of the jealous 
 missionary zealots, who were no longer contented to employ per- 
 suasion as their only means of bringing back the wandering sheep 
 to their fold. To strengthen the hands of these missionaries, the 
 Archbishop of Turin repaired in person to the valley of Perouse. 
 He arrived there on the 25th of Miy, 1602, and took up his abode 
 in the house of a Protestant innkeeper, whom he hoped to make his 
 first proselyte. The country was suffering very much from dearth; 
 the prelate caused wheat, money, and bread to be distributed to 
 the indigent Catholics, promising the same relief to Protestants 
 who should become Catholics. He then took upon him to forbid 
 all persons from going to the plain of Piedmont to earn wages as 
 reapers, without a special permission signed by his hand; and when 
 this permission was asked, he refused to gi-ant it without a formal 
 engagement taken by the party obtaining it to live in the Romish 
 religion. 
 
 In spite of all these unworthy arts, there were few apostasies, 
 and of the persons who were entrapped into insincere abjurations, 
 the greater part returned to the religion of their fathers after the 
 archbishop's departure. But he returned in a short time, and or- 
 dered the Vaudois of Talucco, in the valley of St. Pierre, near 
 Grand Diblon, to abjure their religion or to leave the coimtry. 
 They did neither the one of these things nor the other; and, after 
 some individual cases of vexation, they were left in peace. 
 
 These means having proved unsuccessful, the principal inhabi- 
 tants of Pinache were summoned to appear at Turin, before the 
 Duke of Savoy. One of them alone refused to go.^ The others 
 having arrived at Turin, presented themselves before the governor 
 of the province, who said to them, "His highness being informed of 
 the esteem in which you are held, has signified to me his desire to 
 see you, that he may obtain your consent to return to the Holy 
 thui'ch, and so to set a good example to others. I have taken upon 
 me to promise to his highness that you will do so; and you may 
 » Perrin, p. 185-189. Leger, part i. p. 3 
 
 Chap. XIII] 
 
 GOVERNOR PONTE DISGRACED. 
 
 187 
 
 be certain that in this way you will obtain whatever you desire, 
 both now and for the future." "My lord," replied the viUagers, 
 "we desire nothing more than what we have. Had you promised 
 to his highness anything depending on our strength or our fortune, 
 we would not have failed to make it good, but as to the proposal 
 of a change of our religion, it is a thing which concerns more than 
 this world, and we pray you therefore not to insist upon that 
 point." The governor replied by abusive language, and sent them 
 away, saying that they would yet be called to appear before their 
 sovereign. After some days, not having heard anything more on 
 the subject, they left the capital, and returned to their hamlet. 
 Scarcely had they arrived there, when Governor Ponte ordered 
 them to appear again, within three days, at Turin, under pain of the 
 confiscation of all their goods. They returned to Turin accordingly, 
 towards the end of July, and were presented to the duke, who very 
 affectionately exhorted them to embrace Popery, assuring them of 
 his munificence if they would consent to do so. The Vaudois re- 
 spectfully replied that they would be happy to devote themselves 
 to his service, and even to die for him, but that theii* religion was 
 dearer to them than life. A Capuchin, who was present at this 
 audience, broke out in exclamations against the ignorance of these 
 clowns, who dared to resist the desire of their sovereign; but the 
 duke ordered him to be silent, saying, "A conversion ought to be 
 voluntary; if these people were w^illing to enter our church, I 
 would be very glad of it, but I have no wish to compel them." 
 
 Sliortly after this, Ponte, who was at once governor of the pro- 
 vince and commandant of the citadel of Turin, was arrested and 
 deprived of all his dignities. " The great know why," says Gilles,^ 
 " but the Reformed knew only that it was not for having shown 
 them too much favour, for he had done the very contrary. ' 
 
 At the same period, the parliament of Grenoble, whose jurisdic- 
 tion extended over the valleys of Oulx and Pragela, ordained the 
 re-establishment of the Catholic worship in all the parishes of these 
 valleys, the restitution of ecclesiastical property, and the reparation 
 of the abandoned chapels, that these edifices might be again em- 
 ployed for the celebration of mass.^ 
 
 In the part of the Val Cluson which belonged to the Duke of 
 Savoy, measures of another kind were adopted, with the same object. 
 It was represented to the duke that the Vaudois settled in that 
 valley offended the religious feelings of the Catholics, by not observ- 
 ing the festivals of their church. The result of this was an edict, 
 requiring the Protestants to cease from inhabiting the right bank 
 
 1 End of chap. xl. ^Decree of 14th August, 1603. 
 
188 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tni«D. 
 
 of the Cliison, and to retire to the left bank; but the Catholics of 
 the country themselves petitioned against this measure, declaring 
 that their Calvinist neighbours, far from offending their relio^ious 
 feelings, set them an example of every virtue, and hindered none 
 of their duties. The chdtelain of La Perouse then recommended 
 the Vaudois to keep their doors shut for a few days, as if they had 
 removed, to testify their respect for the orders of their sovereign; 
 and this edict had no further consequences. 
 
 A short time after this, the inhabitants of Pinache were again 
 prohibited from holding their religious meetings in the old Catholic 
 church, which served them for a place of worship. The subject 
 gave occasion to long-continued disputes; but at last a ducal com- 
 missioner decided that a new place of worship should be built for 
 the Reformed, but that the Catholics of Diblon should contribute 
 to its erection, in return for the outlay which the Vaudois of 
 Pinache had incurred in the building of the Romish chapel of Di- 
 blon. The priest of Diblon endeavoured to prevent this arrange- 
 ment from being earned out, by advancing new pretensions; but 
 they were set aside in 1610. 
 
 In 1617, the parliament of Grenoble prohibited the admission of 
 the Vaudois of Piedmont into Dauphiny.^ The object of this was 
 to break up the union which subsisted among all the evangelical 
 inhabitants of the Vaudois Alps; but this attempt had no more 
 success than previous ones. 
 
 " In 1623," says Gilles,''^ '-'the valley of Perouse was subjected to 
 continual annoyances, occasioned for the most part by the crafty 
 counsels of some wily Papists, instigated by the monks, and too 
 readily listened to." He refers to the payment of the 6000 ducats, 
 which all the Vaudois valleys collectively had engaged to pay to 
 the Duke of Savoy, to obtain the confirmation of their privileges, 
 and a guarantee for their repose. The Vaudois of Perouse had not 
 been concerned in the events by which peace had been disturbed. 
 " Why," it was said to them, " should you be made to bear any 
 part of the price by which it was acquired? Disavow that unjust 
 dependence, and all the inhabitants of the valley, without distinc- 
 tion of religion, will state their wants together to the Duke of 
 Savoy. If anything must then be paid to obtain satisfaction, the 
 Catholics will contribute as well as the Protestants." This advice 
 was adopted by the Vaudois in a mixed meeting, at which none of 
 their pastors were present. The cJuitelain of Perouse drew up a 
 petition accordingly; it contained eight articles, of which the 
 fourth, the only article favourable to the Protestants, mentioned 
 
 » By decree of 9th November, 1617. « Chap. Iv. 
 
 Chap. XIII] 
 
 IMPRISONMENT OF CHANFORAN. 
 
 189 
 
 the maintenance of the privileges which they already enjoyed. 
 The other seven articles related to the civil privileges which might 
 have been common to all the inhabitants of the country, but in 
 which the Catholics enjoyed peculiar preference. 
 
 Whilst they were making every effort to obtain a favourable 
 answer to this petition, the Vaudois of Pinache commenced to 
 build the steeple of their new church, on the situation previously 
 fixed for it by the ducal commissioner. They were not bound to 
 observe all the Catholic festivals, and one festival-day they carried 
 on their work; iipon which the monks of La Perouse sent armed 
 men and officers of justice to apprehend the Protestant workmen 
 who were building the steeple. The people prevented their appre- 
 hension; but this attempt showed the evil disposition which existed, 
 and the mischievous designs which were entertained, of which it 
 was not long till new proofs were given. 
 
 The monks of Le Perier, having entered into public controversy 
 with the minister Chanforan, and perhaps not being very well 
 satisfied with the result, sought to have him apprehended and con- 
 ducted to Pignerol. But this imprisonment, for wliich no reason 
 was alleged, and which seems to have been intended merely to stop 
 the mouth of the minister, was again opposed by the people, on the 
 ground of the Vaudois privileges, according to which no inhabitant 
 of the valleys could be withdrawn from his natural judges. A 
 knowledge of the laws, upon which their political existence depended, 
 was at that time as precious for the Vaudois, and as frequently 
 rendered available, as the defensive armour, which, however, these 
 laws ought to have saved them from the necessity of ever using. 
 
 These different circumstances, however, afforded indications of 
 the desire of the hostile party to maltreat the Reformed. It was 
 ere long more clearly manifested. The petition drawn up by the 
 chdtelain of Perouse was answered on the 6th of October, 1623. 
 By this reply, the duke granted to the Catholics all which they 
 asked, and ordained the Protestants to demolish six of their places 
 of worship, on the pretext that these edifices were situated beyond 
 the limits assigned to the Reformed worship by the edict of 1602. 
 The expenses of the seal, copying, &c., amounted to 3000 ducats, 
 and the Protestants alone were called upon to pay them^ Then, 
 understanding how pernicious an advice they had followed, they 
 addressed a new petition to their sovereign. This petition was 
 intercepted, lost, or seized on the way. It never reached the duke. 
 The order whose revocation it was designed to procure still re- 
 mained in force. The governor of Pignerol came to Pinache to see 
 to the demolition of the church which had been commenced there. 
 
190 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 Chap. XIll ] 
 
 COUNT PHILIP OF LUCERNA. 
 
 191 
 
 The Vaudois entreated him to await the reply of the duke to their 
 recent representations; he waited, but the petition itself had not 
 yet been put into the hands of the duke. The monks represented 
 this delay in applying to him, and in the execution of his orders, 
 as a contempt on the part of the Vaudois for the authority of their 
 sovereign. There were echoes at court, which increased the strength 
 and frequency of these odious insinuations; and on the 15th of Ja- 
 nuary, 1624, the duke gave orders to his troops to march into the 
 valley of the Cluson, and forcibly to demolish the six places of wor- 
 ship which had been named, as being without the tolerated limits. 
 
 A regiment of French infantry, in the pay of Charles Emmanuel, 
 and under the command of Colonel Savine, entered the valley of 
 Perouse by that of Pragela. Officers of justice set out from Turin, 
 Tinder the direction of the collateral Syllano, who was empowered, in 
 case of resistance, to put the militia of the neighbourhood under the 
 command of Count Camillo Taffino. Having arrived at Perouse, 
 the collateral was informed of the petition of the Vaudois, which 
 had not reached the court. Finding it to be reasonable, he adjourned 
 the execution of his orders, and caused it to be forwarded to Turin. 
 
 But, in the meantime, Savine's regiment had arrived at St. Ger- 
 main. It was intended that this regiment should immediately 
 march against the Vaudois, who now implored the assistance of 
 their brethren in the neighbouring valleys. The regiment itself 
 was diminished by the defection of a great number of officers and 
 Boldiers, who demanded their dismissiil, that they might not have 
 to fight against the Protestants, whose religious opinions were the 
 same with their own. Numbers of them even went over to the 
 side of the Vaudois. 
 
 Count Philip of Lucema took great precautions at this time to 
 prevent the inhabitants of his valley from going to the assistance 
 of their brethren of the Val Perouse. However, a certain number 
 of volimteers set out across the snows (it was in the end of Ja- 
 nuary), and hastened to St. Germain. The pastors of the Val Clu- 
 son and of Pragela — countries then under the dominion of Fmnce 
 — repaired also to Pinache, to try the effect of their pacific media- 
 tion, in order to bring the difference to an end. After some whole 
 days of protracted conferences, it was agreed that the Vaudois 
 should demolish their places of worship, on condition of being per- 
 mitted to rebuild them in the same localities, but on other sites. 
 They commenced immediately to demolish that of Pinache, in order 
 to see if the troops would really retire upon this manifestation, or 
 if it would be necessary to adopt more vigorous measures; for it 
 cannot be supposed that 8000 or 10,000 men would have assem- 
 
 -) 
 
 bled, with arms in their hands, for no other object than the demo- 
 lition of a few walls. 
 
 Scarcely was this work of demolition begun, when affrighted 
 couriers arrived from St. Germain, announcing that the Vaudois 
 there were attacked from every side. Those of Pinache and of the 
 Val Perouse ran to arms. Having repulsed the assailing troops 
 from St. Germain, they returned inflamed with fury. A troop of 
 these valiant mountaineers would hav© seized, in their indignation, 
 the collateral Syllano and his men of law, whom they loudly accused 
 of treachery. The pastors of Pragela endeavoured to calm them, 
 and covered the commissioners with the shield of their evangelical 
 protection in the hour of peril, even offering them a refuge at Men- 
 toules, in the territory of France. Thither the lawyers accordingly 
 repaired ; but the war continued in the lower part of the valley ; 
 and the enemy, a second time repulsed, set fire to the barns and 
 isolated houses around St. Germain. The inhabitants of that vil- 
 lage, fearing, after this attack, that they would be still more vio- 
 lently assailed, sent messengers during the night into the valleys of 
 Ansroffna and Lucerna to ask assistance. 
 
 The Count of Lucerna opposed again the levy of armed men 
 which the Vaudois wished to make; but he set out himself, on 
 horseback, and rode quickly to St. Germain, where he arrived in 
 the middle of the night, to see Colonel Savine, and prevent the 
 effusion of blood. His negotiations were at first successful, and 
 Vaudois deputies^ from the valley of Lucerna proceeded at his 
 instance to the camp of the French commander. The negotiations, 
 however, were prolonged, without coming to any issue. New acts 
 of violence took place upon the part of the soldiers. The people of 
 St. Germain, moreover, were all the while deprived of their habi- 
 tations, which were either destroyed by fire or occupied by the 
 troops. "There has been long enough delay!" exclaimed the 
 mountaineers; "come and we ourselves will drive this army out 
 of our country ! " And transporting their families to those points 
 in the mountains where they would be safest from any attack.- they 
 took arms in great numbers, to fall upon the camp of the enemy. 
 
 This was upon the 17th of February, 1624. Count Philip of 
 Lucerna, who appeared at that time to take a lively interest in the 
 Vaudois, inmiediately mounted his horse, and proceeded with all 
 haste to represent to Colonel Savine and Lieutenant Taffino that 
 their troops would be utterly destroyed, if they did not relinquish 
 their offensive pretensions. "Consider," said he, "that you have 
 
 » These were Chanforan, syndic of Angrogna; Francis Gpante, of La Tour; and 
 Moses Eynard, of Lucerna. 
 
192 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Thikd. 
 
 been held in check hitherto by a small portion of this people; and 
 now that they are rising in a mass to defend their territory, which 
 you have unjustly attacked, are you not afraid that his highness 
 will make you responsible for the blood which will be shed, for the 
 miseries which will ensue, and, above all, for having cruelly exceeded 
 the orders which he gave you?" The troops themselves were very 
 impatient of the uncomfortable situation into which they had been 
 brought, amidst the severity of winter. An enormous quantity of 
 snow had recently fallen, provisions were exhausted, firewood could 
 not be had. The murmurs of the soldiers concuri'ed with the 
 representations of the Count of Lucerna to cause a breaking-up of 
 the camp to be resolved upon ; and the troops retired, leaving 
 behind them a country ravaged by fire, and in great distress from 
 the frost and from the effects of their depredations. 
 
 The monks and clergy, the causes of all these alarms, trembled 
 after the departure of the troops, lest the Vaudois people should 
 take vengeance on them for all the evils which they had sufiered. 
 But their fear was all that they had to endure; and deputies 
 having been sent to Turin, the Duke of Savoy published a complete 
 amnesty for all which had taken place during these events. He 
 ordered all the furniture and property of every kind which had 
 been taken from the Vaudois to be restored to them, and upon 
 both sides a liberation of prisoners. 
 
 Charles Emmanuel, who had been at war with Fmnce from 
 1613 to 1617, signed a treaty with Louis XIII., on the 7th of 
 January, 1623, for the expulsion of the Spaniards from the Valte- 
 line; and he resumed hostilities against France in 1628, entering 
 then into an alliance with the house of Austria, in the hope of 
 gaining Montferrat, amidst the rival pretensions which had just 
 arisen with regard to that province, upon the recent succession of 
 the Grand Duke of Mantua. These frequent breaches of faith 
 neither advanced his glory nor his power. He died in 1630, after 
 having been despoiled of most of his dominions by France, towards 
 which he had acted so treacherously. We shall see, in next chap- 
 ter, what were the consequences of these events to the Vaudois 
 valleys of the Cluson and the Upper Doire. 
 
 Chap. Xivj 
 
 ROCHELLE CAPTURED. 
 
 193 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND OF 
 THE ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 FOURTH PERIOD. — FROM THE CONQUEST OF PIEDMONT BY 
 LOUIS XIII. TO THE PIEDMONTESE EASTER. 
 
 (A.D 1629 TO A.D. 1655.) 
 
 The last religious war in France — Fall of Rochelle — Invasion of Piedmont by 
 Louis XIII. — His edict in 1629 for the establishment of Romish worship in 
 the valleys of Exilles, Bardoneche, Sezane, and Pragela — Great triumphs of tho 
 French arms — Charles Emmanuel dies of grief, and Victor Amadeus becomes 
 Duke of Savoy — Peace — Prosperity of the Vaudois Church in Pragela after 
 these events — New restrictions imposed — The Vaudois obtain the extension 
 of their privileges in terms of the Edict of Nantes— They still increase in num- 
 bers and prosperity — Accession of Louis XIV. — The Piedmontese Vaudois tako 
 refuge in the French valleys after the Piedmontese Easter— The Vaudois in 
 the French dominions are subjected to new hardships. 
 
 In 1629 and 1G30, Louis XIII. invaded Piedmont by the passes 
 of Suza and the valley of Pragela. His presence in the midst of 
 the Vaudois had a great influence on their destinies, and the 
 nature of that influence depended in part on events which had pre- 
 viously taken place. 
 
 The last of the religious wars of which France was the theatre 
 was then raging — ^that war in which the Protestant party was 
 vanquished, never again to take up any weapons but those of con- 
 troversy. In 1627, the Dukes of Rohan and Soubise, leaders of 
 the Huguenots, had demanded assistance from England, and a fleet 
 of 150 vessels, sent from that country, appeared ofl" Rochelle. Car- 
 dinal Richelieu caused a celebrated dike to be constructed, to 
 prevent them from throwing any assistance into the city. The 
 siege of Rochelle lasted from the 10th of August, 1627, to the 
 28th of October, 1628. It did not surrender until it was reduced 
 to the last extremity, — not until twelve thousand persons had died 
 in it of famine. The fortifications were thrown down, the local 
 magistracy abolished, and Catholicism re-established upon the ruins. 
 Louis XIIL, who had made his entiy into it upon the 1st of 
 November, received a sort of triumph on his return to Paris, which 
 took place upon the 23d of December. Meanwhile, a number of 
 places of secondary importance had been taken from the Protestants 
 in the Vivarais and in Languedoc ; but others stiU held out.^ 
 
 * Privas, in Ardeche, was invested, on the Uth of May, 1629, and taken on the 
 Vol. ir. 35 
 
-t» , ^ - 
 
 194 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tuiro. 
 
 Chap. XIV.] 
 
 THE PROVOST OF OULX. 
 
 195 
 
 I I 
 
 I 
 
 In the beginning of the year, Charles De Gonzague, Duke of 
 Nevers, had inherited the duchy of Mantua, his title to which, 
 however, was disputed by Spain and Savoy. The King of France 
 supported him, and soon marched in person against Piedmont. 
 The Marquis D'Uxel led the advanced guard which preceded him. 
 In the spring of 1628, he began to make efforts to force a passage 
 of the Alps, in order to penetrate into the valleys of Italy. All 
 the troops of Piedmont were soon in motion. Colonel Purpui*at, 
 the commander of the Vaudois militia, summoned a meeting of the 
 Vaudois pastors and syndics at Rocheplate,^ to induce them to use 
 their influence with the people, in order to bring out as great a 
 number of them in arms as possible. The Vaudois promised to 
 comply with his wishes, on condition that they themselves should be 
 left to guard the passes of their own mountains, which was granted 
 to them.- The guards established by them were inspected by 
 superior officers of the ducal army. Charles Emmanuel himself 
 came to inspect the intrenchments thrown up in the valley of 
 P^rouse.-^ The Count of Verrue, one of his most distinguished 
 generals, again urged upon the pastors of that valley the considera- 
 tions which had been already laid before them by Colonel Pur- 
 purat at Rocheplate, to which he added a promise of effectual 
 protection, upon the part of the sovereign, for religious liberty. 
 
 But the army of the Duke of Savoy was in great part composed 
 of Italians and Spaniards, in whom no confidence could be placed. 
 That of the King of France had just been engaged in fighting 
 against the Protestants. On both sides the Vaudois saw dangers. 
 The duke demanded of the valleys large sacrifices of men and 
 money. An extreme dearth of provisions increased still more the 
 sufferings of the population. The monks of Pignerol and the 
 Jesuit missionaries took advantage of it to draw those into apos- 
 tasy who had been reduced to beggary. 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1626, Louis XIII. set out from Paris, 
 to cross the Alps at the head of his army. When he was at 
 Briangon (in the end of February), the governor of Pignerol ordered 
 
 27th. The town was given up to pillage; 100 of the principal inhabitants were 
 hanged, and 100 condemned to the galleys. Alais was besieged on the 6th of 
 June, and capitulated on the 16th. The Duke De Rohan then held a meeting of 
 the Protestant chiefs at Anduze, and demanded peace, which was concluded on 
 the 27th of June, at Alais. Thereafter all the strongholds of the Protestants 
 were dismantled. Montauban made some resistance ; but Richelieu entered it on 
 the 20th of August. Three mouths after (on the 21st of November), he was ap« 
 pointed prime minister. (From L'Art de verifier les dates.) 
 
 » On 26th June, 1628. 
 
 2 Gilles gives a minute account of the result of this deliberation, chap. Ivi., 
 pp. 469-471. ' He came on the 9th of July and 14th of August, 1628. 
 
 all the inhabitants of the valleys capable of carrying arms to hold 
 themselves in readiness to march. Count Philip of Lucerna placed 
 himself at their head, and conducted them to the Val Perouse. 
 Charles Emmanuel had advanced to the valley of the Doire. On 
 the 4th of March Louis XIII. crossed Mount Genevre, and on the 
 Gth of the same month he forced in person the three barricades of 
 the pass of Suza, defended by the Duke of Savoy, who was com- 
 pelled to yield to superiority of numbers and valour. On the 
 1 1th of March he concluded a treaty of peace. Charles Emmanuel, 
 who was the ally of the Spaniards, engaged to fight against them, 
 and to support France, in order to compel them to raise the siege 
 of Casal in favour of the Duke of Nevers. 
 
 After the victory which he had won, Louis XIII. received con- 
 gratulations and addresses of various kinds, amongst which that of 
 the provost of Oulx^ deserves particular notice. " Sire !" said he, 
 in substance, " Providence has blessed your arms, because you have 
 consecrated them to the service of the faith. The numerous 
 triumphs which your majesty has obtained over heresy in France 
 fill all Catholic hearts with joy. Everywhere they pray to Heaven 
 for the preservation and glory of your majesty. Heaven, which 
 has conducted you into these regions of ours, seeks to complete its 
 work in augmenting your glory and our consolations, by the resto- 
 ration of the Catholic religion, which gathers strength around the 
 footsteps of your majesty, and which has great need of such assist- 
 ance in these afflicted valleys, where it cannot without bitter 
 regret be told that it has been completely abolished." To this 
 document was appended a petition, signed by some Catholics of the 
 place, who asked the king for the restoration of their worship in 
 all the communes of the Upper Doire, where at that time there did 
 not exist a single parish priest.* 
 
 Louis XIII. ordained, by an edict of the 1st of April, 1629,3 
 that the exercise of the Eomish religion should be everywhere 
 re-established in the valleys of Exilles, Bardoneche, Sczane, and 
 Pragela; that the Catholic clergy should immediately be put into 
 possession again of all lands that had formerly belonged to them, 
 into whatsoever hands they might have passed, and whatever pre- 
 scription might be pleaded in favour of the actual possessors. 
 M. De Verthamont, intendant of justice in the army of Italy, was 
 
 ' [An ecclesiastical dignitary; the chief of a collegiate body.] 
 
 2 This petition was presented by Birague, vicar-general of the provostship of 
 Ovlx. 
 
 3 Sommaire dea archives de la prevCte d'Oulx. (Archives of the Bifihopric of 
 Pignerol.) 
 
196 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet TUIBD. 
 
 charged with the execution of these orders.^ On the day after 
 they were issued he. proceeded to the localities, to examine the 
 bounds of the old parishes. M. Henry D'Escoubleau, Archbishop 
 of Bordeaux, accompanied him, provided with all necessary powers 
 for the regulation of everything which belonged to the spiritual 
 jurisdiction. Two or three churches, which were not yet entirely 
 ruined, were put into a condition to be used for the rites of Rome. 
 There still remained some ruins of an ancient priory in the village 
 of Mentoules; the prior was solemnly re-installed there ;^ and in 
 order to secure the continued effect of these measures, Louis XIII., 
 before his departure, appointed a Catholic gentleman of the country 
 as governor of the valley and the king's lieutenant, to watch over 
 the interests of the Church of Rome throughout the whole of 
 Pragela. 
 
 But this church liad still very few adherents in these high 
 valleys ; the royal power, in opening for it an official access into 
 the villages, had opened for it no access into hearts. Its priests 
 had only parishes without parishioners, and their efforts would 
 probably have remained without success, but for an unforeseen cir- 
 cumstance, which gave them a new impulse, and opened for them 
 a wider field. The Duke of Savoy, who had not fulfilled the 
 treaty of Suza,^ was again menaced by France. In the beginning 
 of 1030, Cardinal Richelieu caused a considerable army to march 
 against him. It entered Piedmont by the valley of the Doire, 
 appearing to direct its course towaixls Montferrat ; but very soon 
 changed its route, turned to the south, and ascended towards Pig- 
 nerol. That city was attacked on the 20th of March, 1630, and 
 surrendered two days after. The citadel held out till the 29th. 
 The operations were directed by the Marquis De Crequi. On the 
 21st he made himself master of the valley and castle of La Perouse. 
 From thence he summoned the valleys of St. Martin and Lucerna 
 to surrender at discretion. They thought to resist, and the Vaudois 
 asked the Duke of Savoy for aid, which he could not send them. 
 The French army approached them, and encamped at Briqueras. 
 Charles Emmanuel, on the conti-ary, had retired beyond the Po. 
 
 ' By a decree, also dated Ist April, 1629. Under date 3d April, we find Proce- 
 dure faite par M. de Verthamont, intendant du Dauphini, commissaire dil6gu6 
 par le Roy, pour le retablissement de la religion et la restitution des biens de I'Eglise, 
 en la vallee de Fragela. (A large manuscript volume. Archives of the Bishopric 
 of Pignerol.) 
 
 ' Sommaire de Vitat de la religion dans la valUe de Pragela, 4to, p. 3. — The 
 name of this prior was Orcillet. (See an autograph letter of Verthamont, dated 
 29th April, 1629, to M. Orcillet, prior of Mentoules, giving directions concerning 
 his re- installation. Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) 
 
 2 Of 11th March, 1629. 
 
 Chap. XIV.] 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLES EMMANUEL. 
 
 197 
 
 Longer resistance became impossible. The valleys surrendered, on 
 condition that they should never be required to bear arms against 
 the Duke of Savoy, and that the free exercise of their religion 
 should be guaranteed to them. The Marshal De Schoenberg 
 accepted these conditions. Deputies from each Vaudois commune 
 then repaired to Pignerol,^ to take the oath of fideUty to the King 
 
 of France. 
 
 New detachments of French troops arrived daily. The country 
 was exhausted. It was desolated, at the same time, by pestilence, 
 famine, and war. These evils, instead of being mitigated, went 
 on increasing in intensity. The presence of the tix)ops aggravated 
 the scarcity and high price of provisions. Louis XIIL, who had 
 come to Lyons in the month of May, passed from thence into 
 Savoy, which was subjugated in a short time. In the month of 
 July the Duke De Montmorency seized the marquisate of Saluces. 
 Almost the whole of Piedmont then came imder the dominion of 
 France, and the siege of Casal, the first source of so many troubles, 
 was raised by the Spaniards on the 26th of October, because of the 
 victories which had been won by the French arms.'-' 
 
 Charles Emmanuel died of grief,^ and liis son, Victor Amadeus, 
 entered into a treaty of peace at Ratiabon, on the 13th of October. 
 By this treaty, he recovered possession of his dominions, and ob- 
 tained some places of little importance in Montferrat. The valley 
 of the Cluson, with that of the Upper Doire and the city of Pigne- 
 rol, remained in the hands of France.* The Vaudois in these dis- 
 tricts were then able to take advantage, for the celebration of their 
 worship, of the edicts which governed the Reformed Church of 
 France. They were entitled to do so, in virtue of a treaty of the 
 12th of April, 1630;^ but the city of Pignerol petitioned that 
 Protestant worship should be interdicted throughout its whole 
 territory,^ and this prohibition was granted. 
 
 » On 5th April, 1630. ^ ,0x1. ;i 
 
 2 In virtue of the treaty of Eatisbon, which had been signed on the 13th, and 
 by which France and the German empire maintained the Duke of Nevers in pos- 
 session of the duchy of Mantua. ' On 26th J^^ly* l^^- 
 
 ♦ The principal points of this treaty were fixed on the 31st of March, 1630; it 
 was modified by that of Queyrasque, on the 6th of April, and confirmed at the 
 peace of Munster, in 1648. The valleys of Lucerna, Angrogna, and St. Martin 
 remained under the government of France till the 8th of September, 1631. (Com- 
 pare L'AH de verifier les dales, edition of 1770, p. 841, col. 2, with Gilles, ch. lix., 
 
 5 This treaty is quoted in a decree of the Royal Council of Pignerol, of 24th 
 April, 1654. (Civil Archives of Pignerol, category xxv., fasciculus i.. No. 7.) 
 
 « This petition is dated 5th June, 1630. It includes also a prayer that the abbey of 
 Pignerol should be erected into a bishopric. Louis XIII. promised to employ his in- 
 fluence for this purpose with the pope. (Same source, categ. xxv., fascic. i., No. 5.) 
 
198 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thtbd. 
 
 Chap. XIV ] 
 
 CHAPEL OF LES TRAVERSES. 
 
 199 
 
 However, almost all of the priests who had been settled in the 
 valley of Pi-agela in 1 629, and of the Capuchin missionaries who 
 had gone thither to labour for the conversion of the heretics, died 
 or fled during the plague of 1630. The prior of Mentoules alone 
 remained. New conversions were attempted without success. The 
 number of the Vaudois, instead of diminishing, increased every- 
 day. Louis XIII. granted them a confirmation of their ancient 
 privileges.* By their agricultural labours, their manufticturing 
 industry, and the purchases which they made, they extended con- 
 tinually the bounds of their habitation in the country. They 
 wished to open new places of woi*sliip; but the intendant Destempes 
 opposed it,2 and decided that there should be no innovation in that 
 l^articidar. 
 
 This very circumstance drew public attention to the fact of 
 their having extended so much. Their enemies loudly complained 
 of these encroachments; the clergy stirred up the magistrates to 
 act; and his majesty's procurator-general informed the sovereign 
 council, established at Pignerol, that numbers of the Protestants of 
 the Val Pcrouse had settled beyond the limits within which alone 
 they had permission to celebrate their worship. In consequence, 
 the council, by its decree of 17th July, 1645,^ renewed the arbitrary 
 prohibition against the Vaudois opening schools or places of wor- 
 ship, preaching, or even declaring their doctrines without these 
 ancient limits. It prohibited also all foreign Protestants from 
 settling in the country, under pain of confiscation of all their goods, 
 and of a fine of 1000 livres, to be exacted from the commime which 
 might permit any such person to settle, without giving notice at 
 the ofiice of the registrar of the court of justice at Pignerol. 
 Finally, Protestants were interdicted from exercising the functions 
 of any public office; from buying or renting any land without 
 their limits; from working on Catholic festival-days; from dissuad- 
 ing those of their own number who might have manifested an 
 intention of becoming Catholics; from selling or buying any Pro- 
 testant religious book; and from holding municipal assemblies 
 without the presence of the judge of the place, under a penalty of 
 a fine of 200 livres for every one who should have been present 
 thereat. 
 
 The same- edict contained also a prohibition addressed to the 
 Catholics. It forbade them* to contribute in any way for the 
 
 ' On 6th June, 1630. Leger, part ii., pp. 161, 162. 
 
 » By decree of ICth July, 1645, quoted in the document contained in the Civil 
 Archives of Pignerol, categ. xxv., mazzo i., No. 7. 
 3 Same source, categ. xxv., mazzo ii., No. 1. * By article 10. 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 maintenance of Protestant places of worship or Protestant pastors, 
 under penalty of a fine of fifty livres for each contravention. It 
 may be easily conceived that this last clause was one of those 
 which were most exactly observed; but it proves, nevertheless, that 
 the habits of the country had been imbued with that spirit of 
 fraternity of which we see the manifestations continually appearing 
 around the Vaudois, and the influence of which extended to the 
 adherents of another religion. 
 
 The Vaudois, finding themselves injured by these numerous 
 restrictions, pleaded the rights which they had enjoyed under the 
 dukes of Savoy, all whose edicts were maintained in force by the 
 decree of 17th July;^ and upon their petition, the sovereign councU 
 declared that it had "no design to innovate, nor to alter anything 
 as to the rights, state, and condition in which the petitioners were 
 under the government of the dukes of Savoy." ^ But the Edict of 
 Nantes had granted to the Protestants the free exercise of their 
 worship, and admission into aU offices of law and finance. The 
 Vaudois of Pragela then formed part of the people of France; they 
 demanded that the benefits of that edict should be extended to 
 them, which was granted them by decisions of the council of 
 10th March and 19th August, 1648.^ 
 
 Under this milder legislation the number and prosperity of the 
 Vaudois of Pragela rapidly increased. The attempts of Louis 
 XIII. to re-establish Catholicism in their country had produced 
 only a momentary efiect. The churches which he had founded in 
 1622 remained empty and closed; the priests' houses, in which 
 resided a soUtary priest without a flock, were ere long themselves 
 deserted, the plague of 1630 having slain or banished their useless 
 inhabitants. Successors were not appointed to these ecclesiastics.* 
 In various places the municipal body employed the vacant edifices 
 for other purposes. At Les Traverses the Catholic chapel fell into 
 ruins, and the Vaudois took away the materials of it to construct a 
 place of worship. This was made a crime. They were accused of 
 trespass, robbery, rebellion, and sacrilege. Lesdiguieres interposed, 
 in his capacity of governor of Dauphiny, and decided that they 
 
 » Document above mentioned. Civil Archives of Pignerol, categ. xxv., fascicu- 
 lus ii., No. 1, article xi. 
 
 2 These are the terms of the decree. Same source, fasciculus ii., No. 2. Tho 
 decision of the council is of 23d October, 16i5. 
 
 3 Quoted in the decree of 24th April, 1645. (Civil Archives of Pignerol, categ. 
 XXV., mazzo i., No. 7. ) 
 
 * " From 1629 to 16i6, the prior of Mentoules was the only priest in the valley." 
 {Memoire touchant I'etablissenient, les progr^ et la cessation de la religion protes- 
 tante en Pragela. MS. of the Royal Library at Tarii).) 
 
200 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Til I ED. 
 
 CiiAP. XIV.] 
 
 leger's narrative. 
 
 201 
 
 I 
 
 should pay towards the building of a uew place of worship the 
 price of the materials which they had takeu from the old one.^ 
 
 The Catholics, to whom Lesdiguieres went over in his old 
 age, cannot have regarded with much gratitude his interference in 
 this case; for, a few years after, the city of Pignerol, wishing again 
 to drive away the Vaudois from its territory, to which their in- 
 creasing prosperity still brought them nearer, addressed a petition 
 to Louis XIV., in which the subscribers, after having declared 
 against the religious liberty claimed by the Protestants of Perouse 
 and Pragela, expressed themselves as follows: "The treaty by 
 which it was secured to them was made in January, 1593, by 
 Lesdiguieres, with arms in his hand. It is true that it was after- 
 wards confirmed in general terms. But considering that this treaty 
 does not deserve much consideration, because that gejiei'ol then pro- 
 fessed the reformed religion, and that the king, Henry IV., was 
 obliged to bring back his subjects by all possible means; .... 
 also that this treaty has been tacitly revoked by the Edict of Nantes, 
 which authorizes Protestant worship only in the places where it 
 was celebrated before that period, and that the Vaudois of Perouso 
 cannot prove that they enjoyed the free exercise of their religion 
 under the dakes of Savoy, ... we pray that his majesty may 
 formally prohibit this worship in the whole territory of Pignerol."-* 
 
 This petition was granted. Louis XIV., who was then scarcely 
 seventeen years of age, and had not yet been crowned with the 
 solemnities long usual for the kings of France,^ began to gratify 
 the Church of Kome in regard to its exclusive claims, according to 
 that instinct of despotism which was common to that church and 
 himself The proselytizing ambition of the monks and Jesuits 
 awakened anew beneath the rays of this sun of tyranny, unequalled 
 
 ' Letter of Lesdiguieres to the cMtdains and consuls of Pragela. Dated from 
 Grenoble, 13tli March, 1650. (Archives of the Bishopric of PigneroL) This letter 
 was fiorn the Duke De Lesdigmcres, and not from the constable, for the latter 
 died in 1G2P. The duke is mentioned as governor of Dauphiny in a letter of 
 Louis XIV. to Cromwell, of 26th May, 1655. (Leger, p. 227.) 
 
 2 This document is of date April, 1654. Louis XIV. granted what was petitioned 
 for on the 2-ith of the same month; his reply was recorded by the council royal 
 of Pignerol on 4th August, and on the same day tlie order was published prohibit- 
 ing the Vaudois from the public exercise of their religion in the territory of Pig- 
 nerol. (These documents are in the archives of that city, categ. xxv., fascic. i.. 
 No. 7, and fascic ii., No. 3.) 
 
 ' His coronation took place at Reims, 7th June, 1651. The medal struck upon 
 occasion of this event gives the date as the 3<1; but an unforeseen circumstance 
 compelled the postponement of the ceremony for four days. Louis XIV. was bom 
 on the 5th of September, 1638; he succeeded to the crown on 14th May, 1643; 
 was decLired major by the Parliament of Paris, 7th September, 1651; and on 9th 
 June, 1660, married the infanta Maria Theresa. {UAH de vCHfier les dates.) 
 
 in the world, as the device of the gi-eat king proclaimed.^ These 
 attempts at conversion were at first more vexatious than formi- 
 dable to the Vaudois, and the clergy found them more productive ot 
 trouble than of fruit.' But more active measures were in prepam- 
 tiou. The Frojyaganda was formed, and circumstances ominous 
 of the Piedmontese Easter began to appear. 
 
 After that terrible explosion of a rampant and pitiless fanaticism 
 —that festival of blood and storm of death— the fugitive victims of 
 the massacres of 1655 hastened to seek refuge among their brethren 
 of the valleys of the Cluson and of Pragela. The latter, also, took 
 up arms to defend them.^ "For two or three days," says L6ger,* 
 « I could not find out what had become of my wife and children— 
 whether they were dead or alive, or whether they were prisoners or 
 not. At last I found them in the valley of Perouse, within the 
 king's dominions, and, as may readily be imagined, in a deplorable 
 condition. As moderator of the Vaudois churches, I set myself to 
 gather together their remains." He convoked a synod between 
 the valleys of the Doire and Pragela, at the hamlet of La ChapeUe, 
 where the pastors and elders of all that ravaged country assembled. 
 "There," says he, "after having consoled and encouraged them as 
 much as a mind agitated and excited to the last degree was capable 
 of doing, I entreated them, with all the arguments which I thought 
 likely to produce any effect upon them, no longer to think of dis- 
 pelling themselves in foreign countries, as they were urged to do 
 by Francis Gu6rin, minister of Le Roure, in the Val Cluson, who 
 boldly prophesied to them that in no way whatever could they 
 ever return to their own country, the time being come when its 
 candlestick'^ must be removed. I called them to consider that 
 our conduct towards the Duke of Savoy could be clearly justified, 
 and that the barbarities exercised against us would make heaven 
 and earth our defenders. Whereupon almost all those that had 
 escaped remained in the valley of Pi-agela or of the Cluson, or in 
 that of Queyras, and in the part of the Val Perouse which belonged 
 
 to France." 
 
 There it was that, in two days, this zealous defender of the val- 
 leys composed his first manifesto, to make known to the world the 
 
 ^ K^nn-. moiiOy Nee plaribusimfar. 
 
 2 See Breve rdazione degli eretici, conveititi dai Padri STissionarii .... 
 
 Torwo, 1648. „ . ,.., , _ ,,. „. . 
 
 » Manuscript in the Archives of the Court at Turin, entitled, Fattt, atttoni e 
 
 cose occorsi nelle valledi Lusema, nel 1655 : ouei'o storia della ribdlione degV ere. 
 tici. Near the end. 
 
 * In his autobiography, placed at the end of his work, p. 365. 
 
 » The seal of the Vaudois churches bears a candlestick surrounded with rtars. 
 
 Vol. II. 86 
 
202 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 
 inconceivable cruelties which had been perpetrated against the 
 Vaudois. The world listened to his voice, and Louis XIV. him- 
 self did not venture to refuse to join with almost all the potentates 
 of Europe in urging the Duke of Savoy to obliterate the traces of 
 these atrocious desolations.^ The governor of Dauphiny was in- 
 structed to receive the proscribed fugitives with humanity, and to 
 provide for their most pressing wants. But it was from their 
 brethren of Pragela especially that they received shelter, aid, and 
 protection. 
 
 The latter, however, were themselves subjected to trials. The 
 council of Pignerol, not contented with having obtained the prohi- 
 bition of their worship throughout all its territory, endeavoured to 
 put impediments in the way of their commerce, and succeeded in 
 getting them prohibited from remaining for more than three days 
 in the city.^ It may readily be imagined what vexatious questions 
 must have arisen from this regulation.^ Soon afterwards the 
 notaries of Pignerol, and of all the French possessions beyond the 
 Alps, were forbidden to admit any sale, purchase, or inheritance, 
 from a Catholic in favour of a Protestant.* 
 
 These were not the only vexations of which the Vaudois had to 
 complain.5 The syndics of Pignerol enjoined the religionaries 
 settled in that city to withdraw from it within the space of eight 
 days, and the Catholics, with whom they had relations, to break 
 off all connection with them.^ Moreover, a Jesuit mission was 
 established at Fenestrelle, and Louis XIV. forbade,' under severe 
 penalties, the dissuading of any one whatever from an intended 
 conversion.^ The task of the pastors and zealous Christians of 
 Pragela became more and more difficult. But they proved equal 
 
 *See the letters of Louis XIV. to Cromwell; L^ger, p. 226; Hahn, p. 756; 
 Jones, ii. 345. The same authors have published the greater part of the letters 
 addressed with this view to Charles Emmanuel II. 
 
 » Tiie council's petition is of the 15th November, 1657; the king's edict granting 
 it is of the 22d. These documents are in the Civil Archives of Pignerol, category 
 XXV., fasciculus i., No. 8. 
 
 » There are also in the Civil Archives of Pignerol inhibitions, of date 8th April, 
 1658, made by an officer to the merchants and innkeepers of Pignerol, forbidding 
 them to receive, lodge, or contract society with any of the Protestant Reformed 
 rdigion. * Same source, category xxv., mazzo i.. No. 9. 
 
 * On this subject there is in the Archives of the Court at Turin a testimoniale of 
 23d May, 1658, and a petition of 14th June, 1658, in which the Vaudois complain 
 of the molestations to which they are subjected. (Nos. of Series 306 and 307.) 
 
 * Papers of 3d, 4th, and 11th January, 1659. (Archives of Pignerol, categ. xxv., 
 fasciculus i.. No. 10.) — "Considering," it is there said, "that certain bad citizens 
 support them in this city," &c 'On 18th September, 1659. 
 
 * Reflexions sur Cescrit intitule : Observations sur un manuscrit, etc. . . . com- 
 posS par les ministres du Briangonnais et Pignerol. (A 4to MS. of 31 pages, in 
 the Archives of the Bishoprio of Pignerol.) 
 
 Chap. XVJ 
 
 JESUITS IN PRAGELA. 
 
 203 
 
 to it, and the efforts of their adversaries served only to increase the 
 fervour and the union of these pci*secuted churches. More and 
 still more violent measures proved requisite for their destruction, 
 and it was not till after a long series of severities, and much em- 
 ployment of brute force, that the Church of Rome could congratu- 
 late itself on having annihilated them. It never otherwise prevailed 
 over them. Of these events, combining much that is noble with 
 their mournfulness, an outline must now be given. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 FIFTH PERIOD. — FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF THE JESUITS TO 
 THE DEMOLITION OF THE PROTESTANT PLACES OF WORSHIP 
 IN PRAGELA. 
 
 (A.©. 1656 TO A.D, 1685.) 
 
 Jesuit missionaries in Pragela — Controversies— Odious means employed to secure 
 the success of the Jesuit missions — Apostasy and subsequent melancholy his- 
 tory of Captain Guyot — Bribes and every kind of influence used to procure ab- 
 jurations — Dragonnades — New restrictions imposed upon the Vaudois — In- 
 creasing hardships — Strange quotations from documents of the time, illustrative 
 of the character of its events and parties — Settlement of six priests in the 
 parishes of Pragela in 1678 — The utmost fervour of proselytism — The exercise 
 of the Protestant religion prohibited in Pragela five months before the revoca- 
 tion of the Edict of Nantes — Demolition of places of worship — Extensive emi- 
 gration. 
 
 It was in 1657 that the Jesuit missionaries established themselves 
 for the first time in the valley of Pragela.^ They were sent by the 
 Prince of Conti,^ upon the solicitations of the Propaganda.^ They 
 came from the house of their order established at Grenoble, and 
 
 * Sommaire de Vitat de la religion en Pragela, p. 4. — Memoire sur Vetablissement, 
 les progr^ et la cessation de la religion reformie en Pragela, say 1656. 
 
 » Arnaud de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, second son of Henry II., took his name 
 of Conti from a small town of the Somme; he was the chief of the Fronde. He 
 afterwards married the niece of Mazarin; he was grand-master of the king's 
 household in 1657, was appointed governor of Languedoc in 1662, and died four 
 years after. 
 
 ' For particulars concerning the congregation de propaganda fide el extii^andis 
 hareticis, see Chapter VI. of Part Second of this Work. 
 
204 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thiid. 
 
 t 
 f 
 
 fixed their head-quarters at Fenestrelle,* where a Vaudois pastor 
 resided, named Benjamin De Joux, who entered into controversy 
 with them.2 The result does not seem to have been favourable 
 to them, for in the space of eight months they obtained no more 
 than two converts.^ It is true that the first of these monks who 
 appeared there went to work with more frankness than address— a 
 mode of procedure so alien to the spirit of their order, that their 
 superiors could not be expected to maintain them long at that post. 
 And, indeed, we read that "the Jesuit BHlet, to defend the autho- 
 rity of the Church, thought fit to assert the imperfection of the 
 Scrii)tures, upon which account he was found to be impolitic, and 
 was recalled."* 
 
 These Jesuits, ho;vever, had been preceded in that country by 
 other controversialists,-^ to whom a pastor of Pragela had already 
 replied.6 The dedication of his work contains some affecting sen- 
 tences, which it may not be uninteresting to quote:— "To the 
 members of tJie Reformed Churches of the valley of Pragela, and to aU 
 those wJio love the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, grace and peace be 
 multiplied to you/ " Then, setting forth the motives of his work, 
 and the method which be has pursued, he says— « I have not 
 thought proper to fling back at the Romish Church the sharp darts 
 which my adversary directs against ours, . . . knowing that it is 
 necessary to make the approaches with delicacy, and not to give 
 any shock to the blind, and to instruct with meekness those who 
 
 ' The first who made their appearance "were the Sieurs Golier and BiUet: after- 
 wards the Jesuit Calemart was sent thither, with a novice; and subsequently he had 
 for his companion tho Jesuit Sieur Paisseaud; with whom finaUy the Jesuit Car- 
 bonnet was conjoined, to succeed Sieur Calemart, who was sent to Die." ILe mccis 
 
 dela mission de Pragela Geneva, published by Gamont, 1660, an 8vo of 
 
 I'M, Tp^gQ^.—^Advertisscment au lecteur.) 
 « These controversies took place at FenestreUe, on the 2d of October, 1659, and 
 
 were pubhshed m the work already quoted Veritable recU de la conference 
 
 ^^^^^'.^^'^^f^'^^^^^^o. The Jesuit Calemart publishedatGrenoble(VerdTer! 
 
 publisher), in 1660 two Lttle works on the same subject:-!. EifutatL dela 
 reponsedeMdeJoux 2, Deux marques deVerreur du calvini^ne, ^o. . . . 
 
 ^ 11 n^ ' ""^T^ Jourdan, was appointed Captain Chdtelain of the whole 
 valley The second," says a work of that period, "« Captain Guyot, who J 
 carried arms tn favour of the religionaries in the valley of Luce^^a, and there rZ 
 de^ed himself so redouhtahle, that a price was set upon his head. He now testijies no 
 less zeal for the faith than he once showed for a^or, (Sommai^e de VeZ defardt 
 gton en Pragela, pp. 4 and 5.)-This Claud Guyot, vulgarly called Croyat, finished 
 nis course by suicide. 
 
 ♦ Le succds de la mission en Pragela, ... p. 5 of the preface. 
 ,.l..trr^.'* others, by a former Protestant minister, named John Balcet, who had 
 plunged into Arminiamsm, and thence into Catholicism. He entered into orders 
 became a pnest, and wrote a polemical work, entitled Diurnal de la vraie Eglise. ' 
 
 nnn^iTT ''Z^ chrestien, opposS au Diurnal du Sieur Balcet par 
 
 Darnel PasU^r. . . . Geneva, 1652. One vol. 8vo, of xvi., 915, and xii. pages. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 PASTOR DANIEL'S PRAYER. 
 
 205 
 
 are of a contrary opinion. But I have thought it good, O dearest 
 souls, to address this reply to you . . . because I was bom and 
 brought up amongst you; because I have had the honour to exercise 
 amongst you the ministry of the holy gospel, now almost for thirty 
 years; because my age and strength are declining, and the time of 
 my departure draws nigh. T have therefore thought this my work 
 to be due to you, it being reasonable that I should leave you, after 
 my death, a specimen of that doctrine which I have proclaimed to 
 you during my life." ..." In this faith I have lived, and in this 
 faith I desii-e to die. . . . May God preserve you in it for his 
 glory, and for the salvation of your immortal souls." i His prayer 
 was heard, for very few of his contemporaries yielded to the efforts 
 of popish proselytism. 
 
 The valley of Pragela was then, from the one end to the other, 
 inhabited by zealous Protestants. "These heretics," said their 
 adversaries, " have ten or twelve great places of worship for Sab- 
 bath, and more than sixty small ones, where they meet every day 
 of the week, whilst the Catholics have scarcely a single church,^ and 
 a few chapels, at great distances from one another."^ The Jesuits 
 were also regarded with great dislike there. " The hostility to 
 them is so excessive," says a contemporary, " that nobody ventures 
 to lodge them; and if the prior of Mentoules and Captain Guyot 
 had not given them shelter, they would not have found it in all the 
 valley."* "However," he adds, "they ought to persevere; for 
 experience has shown that missions which are not kept up for any 
 time, serve only to provoke irritation, without dissipating error." * 
 
 Considering that in the eyes of sincere Catholics this work was 
 analogous to that which evangelical missionaries carry on amongst 
 savages, we cannot refuse to recognize, in not a few of those who 
 were concerned in it, the solicitude and the language of genuine 
 charity. We may, no doubt, pronounce it ill-enlightened, but we 
 must not call in question its reality. " Surely," says, for example, 
 the author of the pamphlet just quoted, "it would be a just sub- 
 ject of reproach to us if those who have undertaken to assist the 
 Persians and the Chinese^ were to abandon this poor valley. The 
 people of Pragela are our brethren, Frenchmen like ourselves, and 
 subjects of the same sovereign ; and although en-ing in many points 
 
 * This interesting epistle is dated from La Souchitre (in Pragela), 1st June, 1651« 
 2 That of Mentoules. 
 
 ' Proch-verhaux des conversions opiries en Pragela, de 1676 d 1685. A number 
 of MS. volumes, deposited in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. The pas- 
 sage quoted is under date 13th July, 1676. 
 
 * Sommaire de Vitat de la religion dans la valUe de Pragela, p. 6. * Id. p. ?• 
 " Catholic missionaries had recently been sent to these distant nations. 
 
 i| 
 
206 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Thtbd. 
 
 of religion, yet they have been washed in the waters of baptism. 
 They profess to serve the same God and the same Saviour. Fran- 
 cis De Sales converted the people of Thonon ; why should not we 
 hope for a similar favour for those of Pragela, if we resolve to help 
 them, as we ought? Their conversion would even facilitate that 
 of the valleys of Lucerna and Angrogna."^ In conclusion, he 
 entreats all Christians to unite their alms and prayers in order to 
 the attainment of this pious object. 
 
 But if such were the desires, the language, and the sentiments of 
 the compassionate souls, of whom Popery may reasonably be proud, 
 it must, on the other hand, be borne in mind that they were im- 
 posed upon by their spiritual directors, and that both the leaders 
 and the active agents in these works of intolerance employed the 
 most shameful means in order to secure their success. The follow- 
 ing extract will show in what manner they themselves state these 
 means, in a confidential report addressed to the authorities : — 
 
 " It is urgently necessary to obtain apariatis^ for the apprehen- 
 sion of three ministers of Pragela,^ whom the Parliament of Gre- 
 noble has condemned to imprisonment.* They have taken refuge 
 in the valley of Lucerna, with two other criminals.'^ It will be 
 requisite that the Marquis De Pianesse^ command the governors 
 of Lucerna and St. Martin to seize them, ... in the san\p 
 way as Monseigneur De Mestie, some years since, seized . . . 
 certain robbers, who were punished according to their crimes."^ It 
 will be requisite that the people of Lucerna be forbidden to lodge 
 the merchants of Pmgela who traffic in these regions. There are 
 three heretics who traffic at Turin ;^ it will be requisite to seize 
 their wares, aoicl as tJiey cannot subsist without them, it may he taken 
 for granted that they will then he ready to change their religion.^ 
 
 ' Sommaire de Vetat de la religion dans la vallie de Pragela, en. DauphinS, et des 
 dispositions de la Providence pour la conversion de ses habitants. Concluding 
 passage. ^ ^ /^^^^^ ^^^ cachet, or order of incarceration for life. 
 
 ' James Papon, Benjamin de Joux, and Michael Bourset. 
 
 * For having preached in their annexed churches, contrary to the edicts of 
 20th June, 1636, and 2l8t April, 1637, which prohibited the pastors from preach- 
 ing anywhere but at the place of their residence. It was in consequence of these 
 edicts that there was established, in every village of Pragela, a prayer-meeting, 
 which assembled every day, and was conducted by the elders of the place. 
 
 * These criminals were guilty of having presided in religious meetings. The one 
 was John Joiirdan, consul of Fenestrelle ; the other John Posset, a rich merchant 
 of Mentoules. « Vice-President of the Council of the Propaganda. 
 
 ^ To cause ministers and respectable men to be seized like robbers, for no other 
 offence than that of having prayed to God ! What a deUcate method of conversion, 
 and how accordant with Christian charity ! 
 
 * The report gives their names and address. "They are lodged," it says, "at 
 the Red Horse." ' 
 
 * These are the exact words. What a system of conversion ! and what value 
 
 Chap. XV ] 
 
 CAPTAIN GUYOT'S DEATH. 
 
 207 
 
 It will be requisite that the governor of Suza, Meane, and Jalas, 
 prohibit the heretics of Pragela from remaining in the places within 
 his jurisdictions, because they preach their erroi-s in secret. It will 
 be requisite to expel from the valley of Lucerna a person named 
 Martin, a native of Balboutet, in Pragela. This young minister 
 has succeeded the pastor L6ger, whose house was razed to the 
 groimd; but he is not less seditious^ than Leger, and does still more 
 harm than he. It will be necessary to apprise the King of France 
 that the governor's secretary, and a captain of the citadel of Pig- 
 nerol, conduct religious exercises in their chambers, in which they 
 assemble the Huguenot soldiers, which may be the means of per- 
 verting Catholics."*"^ 
 
 There is also a proposal made in this paper, of prohibiting the 
 Vaudois of Pragela from tmding and sojourning in Piedmont, 
 although that privilege had been formally guaranteed to them.^ 
 The memoir terminates by denunciations of various persons, and 
 even of Catholics, who are pointed out as proper objects of suspi- 
 cion, because of their being too favourable to the Protestants. 
 Such is party spirit ; always extravagant, and frequently hurrying 
 the members of every party into grievous excesses. 
 
 It may be supposed that a blessing did not attend conversions 
 obtained by such means. The first, which we have already men- 
 tioned, that of Captain Guyot, was a melancholy illustration. This 
 unfortunate man, a short time after his abjui-ation, was seized with 
 insanity. He committed a murder without any motive, after which 
 he set fire to his own house, and burned himself to death in it.* 
 
 But promises, rewards, and unworthy ai-ts of every description, 
 the success of which always depends upon the baseness of both the 
 parties concerned, were in the greatest favour in the system of the 
 
 could conversions have which were thus obtained ? How must those sincere and 
 charitable persons who, in their simplicity, interested themselves in this work of 
 proselytism, have felt ashamed to see their religion dishonour itself by the employ- 
 ment of such disgraceful means ! 
 
 • Vague accusations here supply the place of positive facts : in the minds of pre- 
 judiced persons such accusations are sometimes all the more effectual for not being 
 limited by any fact. 
 
 ' The persons to whom this relates are named in the original. Their religious 
 exercises were limited to the reading of the Bible and prayer. (This paper is 
 entitled : Memoire en faveur de la mission en Pragela, and is to be found in the 
 Archives of the Court at Turin. No. of series, 425.) 
 
 » By the edict of 6th June, 1630. (Leger, II. 161.)— Many other rights, pur- 
 chased by them, or secured by law, were, in like manner, denied to them. A peti- 
 tion of the Vaudois of Moulidres, Sauze, and Rolidres, in 1669, sets forth that there 
 are two burying grounds in the commune, and asks for permission to make use of 
 one of them. It was refused. (Civil Archives of Pignerol.) 
 
 ♦ Le succ^ de la mission de Pragela . . . par Benjamin de Joux, ministi-e a 
 JPene»irc?^c«— in the preface. 
 
"r*" 
 
 208 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Third. 
 
 propagandists. These means were employed in a degree proportion- 
 ate, it may be said, to that of sin in human nature. From the 
 chatelain of the valley to the herdsman of the mountains, every 
 one had to contend with the demon of covetousness, and many 
 tell in the contest. Under the pressure of dragonnades, and in the 
 absence of their pastors, who were imprisoned or fugitive, little was 
 requisite to induce these poor people to accept, out of weakness or 
 terror, the rewards of apostasy. "A great number of conversions 
 have been effected in the valleys of Pragela," says Pelisson,^ "through 
 the efforts of the Bishop of Grenoble, of the Propaganda, and of 
 the Jesuits; so that without the distribution of more than about 
 2000 crowns, sent at different times, well certified lists have been 
 received of from 700 to 800 persons who have returned to the 
 church." " I have written," Jie adds, " that no opportunity should 
 be allowed to escape of the conversion of the families of the people. 
 ... I have even signified that they may go as far as 100 
 francs." 2 What a shameful traffic in things the least capable of 
 being appreciated at a price in money! Or rather, convictions, 
 conscience, Divine grace, and all that is incapable of such valuation 
 was venal with Rome; and yet everything of the kind is really 
 awanting in all such transactions. It remains to be added, in 
 order to exonerate the Vaudois from a part, at least, of these 
 venal apostasies, that a great number of vagabonds, strangers to 
 their valleys, passed themselves off for Protestants, in order to 
 obtain the price of a sham abjuration for lucre's sake. The price 
 for such baseness was too high. 
 
 These means, however, very soon proved insufficient, and then it 
 was that a new influence was brought to bear in support of the 
 Catholic religion— the oppression exercised by the dragoons, who 
 were quartered in the houses of the poor people professing the 
 evangelical faith, in order to compel the payment of contributions. 
 "The Protestants," wrote the superior of the Jesuits established at 
 Fenestrelle, " were completely humbled at the sight of so many 
 ti-oops. They then laid aside that spirit of pride and independence^' 
 in which they had hitherto lived ; and instead of despising the 
 missionaries, as they had been accustomed to do, they began to 
 implore their protection against the insolence of the soldiers. This 
 
 » A Report, dated VersaiUes, 12th June, 1677. Pelisson Fontanier had been 
 himself a Protestant, and after having embraced Catholicism, he dispUyed much 
 activity in endeavouring to bring about the conversion of his former brethren to 
 
 the Church of Rome. «. ^ j „ • 
 
 2 Quoted in La politique du clergi de France, avec les dermers effoi-U de I mm- 
 
 emce ajSligee. . . • Amsterdam, 16S2. (One vol. 32mo.) Pp. 152, 153. 
 » Libei-tinage; spirit of liberty, independence. 
 
 Chap. XV.] 
 
 THE JESUIT MISSION. 
 
 209 
 
 humiliation of the heretics has not a little served to promote the 
 conversion of numbers, of whom we v/ill make mention in this list." 
 "As, after Briangon, the town of Sezane had suffered more than 
 any from the passage of the troops, one of the missionary fathers 
 proposed to go thither to perform some duties of the mission. The 
 inhabitants had previously expressed to the abbot of Oulx their 
 wish that he would send them no preacher during Lent, and that 
 they might not be confessed any more; but now they blessed God 
 for having brought to them a confessor who did not close the gates 
 of heaven against them." ^ 
 
 Since it was first founded, indeed, the missionary establishment 
 had been very much strengthened. The office of chatelain of the 
 valley of the Cluson having become vacant, the Prince of Conti 
 caused it to be purchased,* and placed in it a fervent supporter oi 
 the missionaries. "Without this help," says a writer of the time, 
 " they could have done nothing ; and the manner in which this 
 office is now filled is the foundation of almost all the good which 
 can be hoped for in that region."^ To promote this work, by 
 augmenting the number of the propagandists, Alexander VII. 
 accorded* plenary indulgences to both male and female members* 
 who might enter into that congregation.® 
 
 At the same time, the prohibition was renewed, which had been 
 already addressed to the Vaudois pastors, of celebrating any 
 religious service except at the place of their residence.^ But this 
 was not enough : the members of the Vaudois Church had formed 
 daily meetings in the smallest hamlets; and wherever there was an 
 elder, a new place of worship was opened. These meetings were 
 conducted by laymen, who, indeed, themselves became pastors. In- 
 stead of ten or twelve places of worship, there were now sixty. 
 Every morning and evening, the distant bells of these rustic villages, 
 concealed amongst the mountains, might be heard calling the 
 faithful to prayer and thanksgiving. Tiie use of bells was now pro- 
 
 1 Proch-verhaux des conversions opirees en Pragela (in the Archives of the 
 Bishopric of Pignerol); eigUh list, dated 3d August, 1680. Signed Etienne NUh, 
 lui-mime. 
 
 * At the price of 8300 livres. This was an office which, like many others, civil 
 and judicial, could be bought or sold for money. The name of the new ch&telain 
 was M. Bertrand. ' Etat de la religion en Pragela, p. 6. 
 
 ♦ By his brief of 27th July, 1661. * Confreres et Confriresses. 
 
 « Journal des conversions qui ont 6te faites, et des grdces dont Dicu a favorisS la 
 compagnie de la propagande itahlie d Grenoble, durant le cours de Vannie 1661. 
 (A 4to MS. of 60 pages, relating especially to the valley of Pragela. In the 
 Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) 
 
 ' Decree of the Parliament of Dauphiny, of 28th January, 1662. The same pro- 
 hibition had already been renewed on 19th July and 30th September, 1661. The 
 edict now issued adds a threatening of the penalty of 1000 livres of fine. 
 
 Vol. n. 87 
 
210 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut Thiki>. 
 
 CnAK^V] 
 
 MADELEINE JUSTET. 
 
 211 
 
 hibited.i The shepherds' horns, the trumpets which they were 
 accustomed to sound for their flocks, were therefore employed, 
 instead of the bells, to proclaim the hour of these holy assemblies. 
 Severe penalties were foi-thwith denounced against those who con- 
 ducted them. What were the Christians now to do? Assembled 
 in silence, they read the Bible, time about, in a low voice, they 
 prayed one after another, and none of them, in particular, was 
 charged with the duty of conducting these pious and unpretending 
 exercises. The Spirit of God alone directed these meetings. 
 
 "This race is incorrigible!" said the missionaries: "there is no 
 raovinf them. We must direct our eflbrts to the rising generation." 
 And they began by prohibiting Protestants from taking pupils for 
 board and education,- and it was next proposed to prohibit them 
 from bringing up their own children. " We have just gained a 
 victory in the valley of Perouse," exclaims one of the Jesuits; "for 
 in the beginning of the month of October last (1677), we obtained 
 the adoption of the rule that all children, bom of Huguenot 
 mothers and Catholic fathers, should be baptized in the church and 
 brought up Catholics."^ 
 
 The most trifiing pretexts were also seized with eagerness, to 
 cause the Vaudois to enter, freely or by force, within the pale of 
 Catholicism. The documents which I have quoted, exhibit many 
 a painful and affecting scene, and contain many a strange ex- 
 pression, the evidence of truth. In one place, we read of a priest 
 who drives away from the bedside of an old man, the members of 
 his own family, and does not leave him till he lias expired.* In 
 another, we read of a mother who rushes after those that are 
 carrying away her child from her, in order to rescue it from their 
 hands, " heresy makes women so obstinate and furious!"^ In an- 
 other place still, we are told of a man who wished to conceal from 
 his wife the abjuration which he had just made, because she was 
 far advanced in pregnancy, and he was afraid that this news might 
 trouble her so much as to do her injury — " so much fruit do these 
 conversions produce in families," the missionaries observe !^ 
 
 » By decree of 23th January, 1682. ^ Same decree. 
 
 * Proc^-verha-ux des conversions de Pragela, at the date mentioned in the text. 
 The following are a few lines immediately following this passage :— " The wife of 
 a new convert of Diblon was delivered of a daughter, and was urgent that the 
 child should be baptized at the preaching, according to custom. The Huguenot 
 party had obtained the consent of some magistrates to the observance of this uaage. 
 But the Marquis D'Harleville, to whom the priest of the parish represented the 
 disagreeable consequences of this custom, ordained that, according to the intention* 
 of his Majesty, the girl should be baptized in the church, which was done." 
 
 * Same papers. Paper dated 6tli September, 1677. 
 
 * Paper dated 12fch May, 1677. * l*aper dated 1st May, 1679. 
 
 And certainly there did result from them great troubles in 
 famUies. We read as follows, regarding the conversion of a man 
 of very great important, for he has large possessions:^'' He felt 
 strange inward pain; he even wept for an hour; and he was heard 
 to say, in the midst of his sobs, that he would go and dispute the 
 question with his relatives, . . . But, notwithstanding all ^s 
 he has abjured, and presented his children to the church. Had 
 the chHdren been abandoned, the Vaudois would have cared for 
 them. In such a case, however, advantage was taken of their 
 generous solicitude, to institute a prosecution against them. "Ste- 
 phen Pascal," say our reports, « is an old Catholic;^ married to a 
 Huguenot woman. Being obliged to go to the valley of Barcelona^ 
 he remained there for three years. On his return, he was much 
 surprised to learn that the Huguenots luid taken charge of his chil- 
 dren; and he hastened first to Brian9on, in order that he might 
 obtain the assistance of the strong arm of the law to put an end to 
 
 this disorder!"^ j r • v 
 
 This simplicity of expression, which indicates the good faith of 
 the converters, even in acts which seem most repugnant to the 
 spirit of Chi'istianity, is strikingly significant of the character of 
 their work. I must give one other example. There were com- 
 plaints of drought, and, on the very day when the mission was 
 ended, it rained. "From which the fathers took occasion to point 
 out the agreeable arrangements* of Providence with regard to them- 
 selves,'^ 
 
 Severe measures were adopted, in particular, against any who 
 relapsed. Madeleine Justet, say the Jesuits, had promised to at- 
 tend mass, but she returned to the preachmgs. This was a case of 
 relapse. "She could neither be moved by prayers nor by threats, 
 until the Marquis D'Harleville caused her to be apprehended by 
 one of his guards and carried to his house, to condemn her to the 
 punishment decreed against relapsed persons." ^ 
 
 With the object of subduing timorous minds by the example of 
 such severities, the secular arm was often called to execute them. 
 John Allais having left his country to return to the Protestant 
 Church, a decree was issued for his arrest. "This execution of the 
 
 » Paper of 21 st November, 1677. ^ *-c., not a new convert. 
 
 « Paper of 26th March, 1677. The whole of what is within inverted commas 
 is exactly quoted, as well as the part in italics. 
 
 ♦ Preliminary observations, inserted before the papers of the month of June, 
 1679. 
 
 * Paper of 14th September, 1676. This penalty was, according to the case, to 
 have the head shaved, to endure a shameful whipping, which was sometimes 
 mortal; to be marked with a red-hot iron, or to be sent to the galleys, &o.— Made- 
 leine escaped from her persecutors, and retired to the valley of Lucerna. 
 
212 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past Tuibd. 
 
 Chap. XV] 
 
 HISTORY OF A CONVERSION. 
 
 213 
 
 
 > 
 
 J 
 
 law," say the missionaries, "lias succeeded extremely well. The 
 people of this country are greatly afeuid of the law. Their resis- 
 tance ^ will very soon cease, if the law is often executed in the same 
 manner. Nothing can exceed the insolence and fiery passion of the 
 heretics of Pi-agela; but nothing can exceed their pliancy when they 
 dread the costs of law or corporal punishments."- Afterwards, it is 
 said concerning a new convert, " This man has given himself to the 
 church, in consequence of a number of arrests, which frightened 
 him very much."^ 
 
 There were, however, we may believe, a few of these abjurations 
 which resulted from sincere convictions. "It has not been till after 
 many combats," we are told concerning Joseph Guerin, "that this 
 young man has yielded."* Sometimes, indeed, the exaggeration of 
 Protestant doctrines interfered with their truth. "What think 
 you of the worship of the saints?" was a question asked by the 
 pastor of Villaret of one of his flock, at a district examination. 
 "I think," was the reply, "that the saints are no better than those 
 who adore them." The minister was satisfied, say our annalists; 
 but unquestionably this opinion was too extreme; for the worthy 
 and pious confessors of Christ, whose holiness was the glory of the 
 primitive church, were certainly much better than the ignorant 
 and superstitious men who afterwards made them the objects of 
 worship. This reflection occurred to the catechumen; and its in- 
 fluence, according to the report of his abjiu^tion, afterwards decided 
 him to enter the Church of Rome.^ So true it is that justice is 
 requisite, even to the triumph of truth. ^ 
 
 At other times, and more frequently, the converters found oppor- 
 tunity of working upon the ignorance of the persons converted. 
 It is impossible to read without a smile, that a neophyte, named 
 David Bertoch, exhibited, according to the expressions of the re- 
 port, "an extraordinary rage, when he was told that he would not 
 be rebaptized, and that it was not necessary for him to be an 
 idolator." ' 
 
 The Jesuits attached an especial importance to the abjuration 
 of any one belonging to the family of a pastor; 8 and the decision 
 of the persons converted was often influenced by very secondary 
 
 • In the original MS., violance. 
 
 ' I leave the Jesuits responsible for this opinion, expressed by them. 
 
 • Paper of 27th October, 1676. 
 
 • Papers of 28th October to 1st November, 1676. 
 » Paper of 26th April, 1679. 
 
 •[It is surely fair to notice also the authority upon which the story rests.— Te.] 
 ' Paper of 21st August, 1676. 
 
 » See the paper of 23d December, 1677, part of which relates to a woman 
 whose grandfather was minister at Angrogna; that of 13th November, 1679, &c. 
 
 motives. One became a Catholic because he had debts; another, 
 because he had a disagi'eement with his pastor;^ a third because he 
 wa. afraid of being hard pressed by his creditors;^ and the mission- 
 aries do not hesitate to avow, in plain terms, that they would have 
 had incomparably more success if they had had more money at 
 their disposal.* At other times they attribute their success to ex- 
 traordinary influences, the co-operation of which we could not have 
 expected that any reliywus would have accepted. "Daniel Luyx, 
 their reports inform us,^ "was a native of Geneva, and had to make 
 a journey in Piedmont. Being on the bank of a river, the devil 
 came and placed himself before him. Believing that it wa^ a rob- 
 ber M. Luyx fired a pistol at him, but the devil flung him into 
 the river, wounding him with a poignard, widch he had taken to de- 
 fend himself:' The precaution was not unnecessary, for the tra- 
 veller's companions hastened to draw him out of the water, and 
 conveyed him to a hostelry. There the devil still came to torment 
 the sufterer. He appeared to him, induced him to rise conducted 
 him to the window, showed him a vast gallery, and, under pretext 
 of taking him into it, flung him into the street, from the height of 
 the third story. "His royal highness passing by," says the author 
 of this narrative, "and seeing the crowd which came together, 
 learned, by chance, this strange adventure." Finally, as may be 
 foreseen from the commencement of the history, M. Luyx received 
 the attentions of a priest, and became a convert. 
 
 The puerility of such tales seems to render them unworthy of 
 notice in history; but they show the state of men's minds at that 
 period better than it could be shown by any general statements 
 of the historian. Being obliged to keep within narrow bounds, I 
 have thought it proper to quote, as far as possible, exact- passages 
 from the unpublished documents of which I have made use, leavmg 
 it to the reader to form his own estimate of them. This method 
 I propose still to follow in the account of the installation of the 
 six priests who were settled, at this time, in the valley of Pragela. 
 Although the summer of 1678 was now come, the temperature 
 and winds of winter continued for a number of weeks. " It seemed," 
 says the- clerical narrative to which I am indebted for these 
 details,*^ "as if the demons of the air were irritated at our pious 
 
 » Paper of 22d July, 1677. ^ Paper of 24th July, 1677. 
 
 3 Persecute par ses creanciers. The words of the Report. Paper of J»tn 
 October, 1676. 
 * Remarks on the sixth list, placed at the date, 21st June, 1678. 
 
 6 At date, 19th July, 1679. ^ a ft. r. 
 
 8 This narrative has been placed amongst the manuscripts already quoted, alter 
 
 the sixth list, extending from the beginning of January to the end of June, 1678. 
 
 ^ 
 
2U 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thibb. 
 
 enterprise, and wished to prevent the execution of this design. But 
 the vice-bailli, who had fonnerly commanded the king's armies 
 upon occasions more dangerous, encouraged all the company to dis- 
 regard this bad weather, assuring them that it would not continue. 
 And, in fact, after mass had been said at Bourset, fine weather re- 
 turned; as if the holy sacrament had driven away the fogs and 
 demons of the mountains.* Priest Laz was settled at Chateau 
 du Bois. This must have been in former times a place of some 
 note ; but now it is nothing more than a desert and a wild forest. 
 M. Jean Faure was settled at Le Yillaret. The officers of customs 
 and excise,- who are Catholics, honoured this solemnity with their 
 presence. M. Simon Borel was settled at Fenestrelle. There the 
 concourse of old Catholics and new converts was greater than in 
 the other places, but the heretics almost all hid themselves. The 
 vice-bailli afterwards assembled them in front of their place of 
 worship, at the time when their bells called them to prayer, to 
 read to them the king's orders. M. Francis Isnel was settled at 
 Le Villar, which is a very beautifiil parish in the valley of P^rouse, 
 from which the priest was driven by the Huguenots, in the time 
 of the old wars. The other places of which we have spoken, never 
 had priests till now.' The prior of Mentoules was at the head of 
 all the ecclesiastics, and all the establishments in Pragela, all of 
 which are un3er the jurisdiction of his priory. In each place 
 mass was performed, and a solemn procession made, at which the 
 heretics attended with respect and propriety. In all these new 
 parishes, the vice-bailli caused' the lettre de cachet* to be publicly 
 read; in virtue of which he placed the priests of these parishes under 
 the special protection of his Majesty — also letters -patent of safe- 
 guard, which the king had sent to the chatelain, to protect him 
 from insults for the time to come, such as he had been in time 
 past subjected to, in consequence of the great zeal which he dis- 
 played for the Catholic religion. At Le Villar, to which the 
 government of Pignerol and the bishop's grand vicar had come, 
 there was, besides the other ceremonies, a bonfire. The sounding 
 of the trumpets, the discharges of artillery from the fort of Perouse, 
 and the large alms which the Marquis D'Harleville caifeed to be 
 distributed amongst the Catholics 6f the valley, increased the effect 
 of this solemnity. 
 
 " Many persons have contributed to the settlement of these new 
 
 ' A priest was settled at Bourset. — A bregS de Vetat de la vallee de Pragela depuis 
 1673 a 1717. A folio MS. vol. in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 ^ [Gazelles, an excise on salt.] 
 
 » These ceremonies took place from 20th to 23d April, 1678. (Same MS.) 
 * Dated at Versailles, 22d October, 1677. 
 
 CnAP. XV.] 
 
 THE ABBfi DE MUST. 
 
 215 
 
 priests and the building of their churches; amongst others, the 
 Abb6 De Musy, who has long laboured at court for the reduction 
 of these valleys, and who informed the king of the necessity for 
 these new pastors. He has begged and obtained in Paris, a 
 number of sacred vessels and a quantity of plate for these new 
 parishes, and for others, the establishment of which he still hopes 
 to effect. He is also causing magnificent standards and banners to 
 be made, on which will be painted the patron saints of each parish, 
 and which will be carried in the processions. The company of the 
 faith,! established at Grenoble, have provided the other ornaments 
 requisite for these new parishes. The ladies of that town have 
 sent us veils, albs, candle-sticks, crucifixes, altar-cloths, pictures, 
 &c. The company of Lyons have collected images, chaplets, books 
 of devotion; .... and a Catholic doctor, who does not give 
 his name, is about to publish in Paris a controversial work, in 
 praise of our new Catholics.^ Some other persons, and particularly 
 the abbot and canons of Oulx, have helped these valleys by con- 
 siderable alms, which have been wonderfully useful to us . . . ." 
 These poor valleys were, however, more miserable than ever. 
 "The poverty there is extreme," say the same notes; ^ ''which 
 would have brought over to tlie church a great number of heretics 
 who are 'poor, or not in comfortable circumstances, if we had. dnly 
 had the means of relieving them more sufficiently." But the 
 Vaudois supported and relieved each other, ^^n some places," 
 continues the narmtor, "a distribution of alms was made at the 
 doors of their places of worship. Must it ever be, that the chil- 
 di-en of darkness shall thus go beyond the children of light; and 
 that heretics shall be more liberal, more zealous, and more ardent 
 to damn people .... than Catholics to save them?"* Such 
 is the reflection with which the paper concludes, from which the 
 above particulars have been derived. 
 
 However, care was taken to proclaim loudly enough the fresh 
 triumph of Catholicism, and the good deeds done by Louis XIV. 
 in the valley of Pragela. The Gazette de France said:'"^ "Whilst 
 our great monarch is victorious over his enemies on all sides, we 
 see with admiration his triumph over the heresy of the Vaudois, 
 
 » The Propaganda. 
 
 « The title of it is : La verite reconnue, ou quinze motifs de la converston de mes- 
 sieurs de Pragellaz. . . .—The author attempts to pass himself off as a Protestant 
 converted to the Church of Eome. ' After 21st June, 1678. 
 
 * At the end of the same narrative are the words, Certified to be conformable to 
 tJie original, which we have sent to the court, signed Steplien VUh, supo-ior of the 
 G<mpany of Jems, establisJied in the Valley of Pragellat.—{Axchixea of the Bishop- 
 ric of Pignerol.) ^ Oi date 28th May, 1678. 
 
216 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 who have banished the holy church from their mountains for cen- 
 turies, so that it was scarcely possible to maintain three priests 
 there — at Mentoules, at La Rua, and at Usseaux — the first two 
 without flocks, and the third with a very small number of people."* 
 
 But it was not enough to have established Catholic priests in 
 these valleys, it was requisite to overcome the Vaudois Church itself, 
 to trammel its organization, oppose its worship, and proscribe its 
 ministers; and for this purpose, arbitrary measures succeeded one 
 another with frightful rapidity. Hitherto the annual contribu- 
 tions furnished by the people, and destined to the support of tho 
 Protestant clergy and places of worship, had been regulated by 
 the synod, and deposited in the hands of the consistories, under 
 the title of consistorial funds. • The payment of these impositions, 
 at once obligatory and voluntary, took the name of the ecclesiasti- 
 cal tax.'^ The Jesuits represented to the inhabitants of Pragela, 
 that this tax was a heavy burden upon them, of which they might 
 easily free themselves — that their pastors were greedy and self- 
 interested people — ^that the Church of Rome would give them a 
 religion free of charge; and, finally, that the government had re- 
 solved that no tax of this nature should any longer be imposed, 
 without the presence, nor gathered without the consent of a person 
 in rfuthority.3 The people were contented with this arrangement, 
 believing it to be a security for their pecuniary interests. 
 
 But ere long, the Romish party began to act more openly. The 
 prohibition was renewed against pastors preaching anywhere, ex- 
 cept at their place of residence; and at the same time, laymen were 
 prohibited from conducting religious meetings in the annexed 
 churches.* Then it was attempted to reduce the number of 
 authorized meetings^ which had long been unchanged;^ and after- 
 
 * These statements of a semi-official journal devoted to the court, cannot be sus- 
 pected of having exaggerated the preponderance of the Vaudois. 
 
 A narrative of the same events was published in 1678, by a person named 
 Chaillot. This little work I have not been able to procure. In 1684 and 16S6 two 
 new priests were settled. {Abrtge de Vetat de la valUe de Pragela de 1678 d 1717. 
 MS. communicated.) ' Taille ecclesiastique. 
 
 ^ This was a Juge Royal, in the valley of Pragela. — June, 1673. 
 
 * Arrit de la cour du parlement du Dauphin^, portant dd/ense d Claude Pasfre, 
 de VUle-Close de Mentoules, en Pragela, et d tous autres de la religion, de /aire 
 auctme assemblee sous pretexte de piieres, kc. . . . Grenoble, 7th December, 1679. 
 Printed. 
 
 5 The procurator-general of Grenoble demanded that the religious meetings, held 
 simultaneously at La Rua and Les Traverses, should be reduced to one. The 
 Vaudois persisted in holding two. Thence ensued a process, the issue of which 
 admits of no doubt. There is a printed memorial by the inhabitants of these two 
 villages, defendeurs en requite, contre M. le procureur general au parlement de 
 Grenoble, demandcur, &c. 4to, of 20 pages. Grenoble, 1678. 
 
 CflAP. XV.] 
 
 A STRANGE SOLEMNITY. 
 
 217 
 
 wards the Vaudois were ordered to demolish the places of worship 
 in the quarters of their parishes, and to give up their meetings 
 there. ^ At the same time, all sorts of favours were granted to 
 those who had become Catholics — exemption from taxes — suspen- 
 sion of prosecutions — assistance to the poor — hospitals opened for 
 the sick — dowries promised to young girls — the means of worldly 
 advancement placed more within the reach of all. It would have 
 been well if Catholicism had never fought with worse weapons; 
 although, indeed, their triumph could imply no excellence in its 
 doctrines, and truth is independent of the ephemeral considerations 
 which arise out of worldly interests. 
 
 But it was not only in the valleys of Piedmont and of Italian 
 Dauphiny, that such fervour of proselytism was at this time dis- 
 played. In the ancient retreats of Queyras and the Briangon- 
 nais, the same work was prosecuted by the same means,^ with 
 which was also united a peculiar device, to strike terror into 
 weak minds. " At St. V6ran," say the missionaries, " the mission 
 was ended by one of the fathers solemnly making the amende 
 honorable, in order to repair the injiuy which Jesus Christ had re- 
 ceived from a wicked heretic of that place." He had broken a 
 crucifix. " This criminal had been condemned by the parliament 
 
 *' Towards the end of this year," say the Proch-verhaux des conversions en 
 Pragela, under date 19th December, 1679, " M. Simon Roude brought a decree, 
 prohibiting the heretics from meeting at any other places than where their minis- 
 ters resided ; and ordaining the abolition of the fifty or sixty little places of worship 
 which they had in all the little hamlets, where they assembled every day, morning 
 and evening." A new process ensued. *' M. Simon Roude, prior of Mentoules, 
 made himself all-powerful in the valley," says a manuscript of the period. (Rela- 
 tion historique de la demolition des temples . . . en Pragela. — Private repositories 
 of Professor Aillaud, at Piguerol.) The papers in this case were printed : Avertisse- 
 mmt pour messire Simon Roude, Prestre, docteur en theologie, prieur de Mentoules, 
 en la valUe de Pragela, syndic de la prevdte de Saint- Laurent d'Oulx, pour les 
 affaires de la religion, en ladite vallee, demandeur en requete du 19th Septembre 
 1680; contre les sieurs ministres et habitants de la mllme valUe, faisant x>rofcssion 
 de la religion pretendue reformee, defendeurs. Without date, or place of printing ; 
 but printed at Grenoble. A folio of 40 pages. The Reply {Reponse) made in 
 name of the demandeur, is in 4to, and extends to 14 pages. The Reply of the 
 Vaudois, entitled. Factum, pour les habitants des vallces de Cluson ou Prageld, 
 Cesane et Oulx, faisant profession de la religion P. R. P. defendeurs en requite de 
 Septembre 1680, contre messire Simon Roude, &c. ... is a 4to of 41 pages. The 
 provost of Oulx attempted to obtain the demolition of the Vaudois places of wor- 
 ship, upon the ground of the Edict of Nantes, which, whilst it authorized tho 
 Reformed religion in France, did not recognize it in Piedmont. The revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes was afterwards made the ground for the same thing. So 
 true is it, that justice was little considered. 
 
 * In the Proc^s-verbaux de conversions, already mentioned, facts of this nature are 
 noticed under the following dates : At Abries, 4th January and 23d August, 1678 ; 
 &t Aiguille, 4th July, 1675; at Vtlle VieUle, 2ith April, 1677; and at CluUeau 
 Queyras, 14bh July, 1678. 
 
 Vol. II. 88 
 
"irvar 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. [l'«TTH..n. 
 
 *t 
 
 218 
 
 of Grenoble, to have his hands cut off, and to be burned aUve^ 
 The rr^ence could not be executed upon his person, bem>se he 
 111 Ted but H was executed upon his effigy, with much pubUc 
 , ^t wWch has greatly humbled heresy. The executioner 
 solemnity, which ^^ J ^^ .^e ci-iminal, earned it 
 
 Se tht p^Se wfo were assemble, cut off its hands, and 
 ttcd it in'the public square, which was very co-niently fitted 
 1 in the form of an amphitheatre, for this execution. A number 
 f^ "^L were obliged' to be present at tH^^P^^^;;^-^! 
 two officers of the parUament, a tnimpeter, a Catholic consul, 
 two Huguenot consuls, who were all on horseback. 
 
 But notwithstanding all these severe measures, it ^^^l^ ^^"J 
 thShe evangelical religion was not only -*. -"J^^o^:! 
 that it stiU gained tri^umphs ove. Poi>eiy — ;:f ^/^ 
 either base arts or "°'«f ^-^^V^'VlWlfiSO^bv which Catho- 
 
 plXtTf^omVceiving CathoUc i-^^^'IfsSed Z ve^ 
 Besides all this, every pretext was continually ^-f^-i/o^^^ 
 
 the Vaudois in eveiy possible way-if they ^^^^^^^^Zy 
 .rVira on a day consecrated by the Church of Rome— it iney 
 
 worku.g on a ^^^ . ^j4a,,<,u„d their burying-grounds— 
 
 xi ^« ^f c hiirvin'^-fn:oimd, caused it to be lesioreu <xu 
 
 abounded m 1 te ana zea j severities of the courts could 
 
 *:r'":h'S" in a tt of LX. « was found neces- 
 ry^;«i.^.e..^ 
 
 the prohibition was renewed against laymen meetin, y 
 
 . Same Proces-verbaux, date 29th August 1678 ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ 
 
 2 The edict is of the month of June, but it was not pu 
 Jiily. It was printed on the 14th. ^ ^^ ^g^j^ j,^iy^ i682. 
 
 » Same Proces-verbaux, under date 3d July, i^n- 
 
 Chap. XV] 
 
 CHURCHES DEAIOLISHED. 
 
 219 
 
 selves, under any pretext of j^raijer, reading the Bible, or sing- 
 ing of psalms, . . . because these meetings might become tumul- 
 ticous.^ At last, it was resolved to forbid Protestants the means 
 of temporal life, for want of power to reach their spiritual life; and 
 on the 9th of March, 1682, and at subsequent dates, all trades and 
 professions, from those of advocates and physicians, to those of 
 shoemakers and milliners, were successively forbidden to them.^ 
 
 But the Vaudois Church of Pragela, which had preceded the 
 Reformed Church of France in evangeUcal religion, was to precede 
 it also on the Calvary of persecution and death, which Popery had 
 so long laboured to elevate for them both. The Edict of Nantes was 
 not revoked; but already, five months before its revocation, the 
 exercise of the Protestant religion was, by an exceptional act of 
 severity, prohibited in the whole of Pragela, with an injunction to 
 raze all the Protestant places of worship there.^ These orders, so 
 arbitrary and revolting, were carried into effect, by means of particu- 
 lar edicts, in the valleys of Sezane, Oulx, and Exilles.* The Protes- 
 tant churches of Fenil, Chaumont, and Salabertrans, in the valley 
 of the Doire, were demolished at this time.^ Those of La Rua, 
 Les Suchieres, Fenestrelle, and Usseaux, in the valley of the 
 Cluson, shared the same fate.« Others were left standing, to be 
 transformed into Catholic churches ; but they were used for that 
 pui-pose only for four years, after which they were also demolished, 
 to give place to new edifices.' Such was the case at Villaret, and 
 at Les Traverses, where the house and garden of the pastor went to 
 increase the comforts of the priest.^ The materials of the places of 
 worship which were demolished, served for the construction of 
 popish chapels; part of the consistorial properties served to endow 
 
 » Edict of 30th August, 1682; enregistered by the Parliament of Paris, on the 
 1st of December, published on the 4fch, and printed at the ofice of Francu Mag:^, 
 printer to the king, MDCLXXXII. 
 
 2 Le Semeur, journal philosophique et litteraire, tom. xv p. 254. 
 
 3 Arrest du conseil dJ Estat duRoy, poHant interdiction d perpetmtSde la religion 
 
 protestante dans toute la vallee de Pragela, &c Du 7 Mai 168o; rmprimSd 
 
 Pignerol, chez Pierre Guiton. This decree was adopted in consequence of the 
 petition of 19th September, 1680, addressed by Simon Roude, the prior of Men- 
 toules, to M. D'Herbigny, intendant-general of Dauphmy. 
 
 « All of date 14th May, 1685; signed, Par le Roi : Philippeaux. . ^ . ^, 
 » A report concerning the demoUtion of these places of worship exists in the 
 
 Archives of Pignerol. , 
 
 « In June, 1678. Relation historique de la demolition des temples . . , dam 
 la vallee d^ Clmon ou Pragela. (MS. communicated by Professor Aillaud of Pig- 
 nerol ) The church of Usseaux was not demolished till September. The inhabi- 
 tants having attempted to make some resistance, Louis XIV. sent thither a com- 
 
 pany of dragoons. (Other MSS. ) ^ , „, „ ,,;rc. \ 
 
 T Abr4g6 de I'etat de la vallie de Pragela de 1678 d, 1717.-(MS.) 
 • Report to the CouncU of State, 25th July, 1685. 
 
220 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paht Thibi>. 
 
 them- and the produce of the sale of another part of the same pro- 
 perties was devoted to the foundation of two hospitals, the one at 
 Sestieres, and the other at Fenestrelle.^ ^ 
 
 We may judge what desolation then reigned in these ancient 
 churches of Pragela, so long privileged in the maintenance of evan- 
 ffelical reli^non. The Vaudois were cast into inexpressible dejec- 
 tion and grief. The Bible, which had been transmitted from 
 father to son for so many ages, was about to be taken from them; 
 the pastors, whom they delighted to see in the midst of them, were 
 already proscribed, and they wefe forbidden to harbonr them m 
 their houses. These worthy descendants of the Barbas withdrew 
 in great distress from amongst their afflicted flocks. Their tearful 
 eyes still turned, as they proceeded in the path of exile, to seek 
 the more and more distant peaks of their native mountains, where 
 they had preached the word of God. A great part of the inhabi- 
 tants followed them, even of those who had been supposed to be 
 converted to the Church of Rome.^ 
 
 On their arrival in Switzerland, these exiles sent deputies to 
 the elector of Brandenburg, to ask an asylum in his dominions.^ 
 »' There are already six hundred of us who have left our native 
 country," said these deputies, towards the end of 1685, "and in 
 course of next spring, a like number of our people will stiU do the 
 same."* We have already seen, in the history of the Vaudois 
 colonies in Germany, what became of these afflicted emigrants; let 
 us now see what was the state of the Protestants who remained in 
 the valleys. 
 
 > Extracted from the registers of the Council of State. Reasons and provisions 
 of the decree of 29th July, 1665. . 
 
 ^ Ahregc de Vetat de la vallee de Pragela . . . de 1678 a 1717. The ministers 
 it is there said, " who were obliged to leave the kingdom, drew many people with 
 them, even of the converts:^ Of one hundred and fifty Protestant famiUes who 
 were then at Le Villaret, forty-five followed their pastor. 
 
 3 These deputies were a pastor, James Papon, and two laymen, John Pastrecourt 
 and James Pastre. (Erman and Reclam : Contribution to the History of tU French 
 Jitfufjees in tlie dominions of the King. Berlin, 1786, torn, vi.) ^ -j..t. ok*t, 
 
 * Despatch of M. De Mandelslobe, resident at Heidelberg, dated 15th-ii&tn 
 January, 1686. (Archives of Berlin.) 
 
 Chap. XVI.] 
 
 LAST ACT OF LE TELLIER. 
 
 221 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND OF THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 SIXTH PERIOD.— FROM THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF 
 NANTES TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT. SUFFERINGS AND 
 TEMPORARY RESTORATION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN 
 
 PRAGELA, 
 
 (A.D. 1685 TO A.D. 1713.) 
 
 Le Tellier— Bossuet— The Vaudois who remain in Pragela frequent places of 
 worship within the Piedmontese territory— Persecution in Pragela— The per- 
 secutin'' church enriched by the spoils of the persecuted people and the pro- 
 perties of the exiles— Part of Pra-ela devastated by the troops of the Duke of 
 Savoy— Successive emigrations— Protestantism revives a little in Pragela in the 
 beginning of the 18th century— The valley of St. Martin, and part of that of 
 Perouse, are induced to constitute themselves into a republic, under the illusory 
 protection of Louis XIV., which subsists for four years— The Vaudois of 
 Pragela enjoy better prospects for a time after the valley has become part of 
 the°Piedinontese dominions— Deputies from Pragela at the Vaudois synod of 
 1709_The government refuses to recognize their incorporation with the rest 
 of the Vaudois Church— The Vaudois of aU the valleys partake of the Lord's 
 Supper at Usseaux- Severe measures adopted by the Piedmontese government 
 against the Vaudois of Pragela— Political arrangements unfavourable to them 
 between the governments of Piedmont and Franco. 
 
 Le Tellier, who was appointed intendant of Piedmont in 1640, 
 remembered the Vaudois half a century after, to recommend to Louis 
 XIV. the persecuting measures which have just been related; and 
 on his death-bed he sought to extend these same measures to all 
 the Protestants of France. This old man, as he breathed his last, 
 flung pei-turbation into a hundred thousand families, and sore dis- 
 tress into a million of hearts, and sent a multitude of his country- 
 men to end their days in misery and exile. Le Tellier signed the 
 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes with his dying hand, on the 
 22d of October, 1685, profaning the words of Simeon, by a per- 
 sonal application the most unsuitable that could be made. Bossuet 
 pronounced his funeral eulogium. The Eagle of Meaux found 
 pleasure in tearing to pieces, by insinuations and plain attacks, or, 
 as it were, with beak and claws, the church of liberty and love 
 founded upon the Bible. This man of fine genius had a servile 
 heart. An adulator of the great — a despiser of men of humble rank, 
 unless they could serve the purposes of his sacerdotal ambition — he 
 
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Third. 
 
 ^as althoiK^h in secret, the instigator of the cruel and tyrannical 
 r^ures which deprived France of half-a-million of inhabitant., and 
 gave the Reformed Church a rich cro^ of martyrs. Such is the 
 Llesiastical spirit, without the Spirit of God; ^o- essentiaUy^^^^ 
 may be maintained that that which is really human is alone leally 
 divine; but Bossuet and Le TelUcr did not belong to an era in 
 which this truth could be understood.^ 
 
 By the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Protestant woi;ship 
 was prohibited throughout all the dominions of Louis XIV. Pro- 
 testant churches were to be razed to the ground, and schools shut 
 up Ministei-s who refused to embrace CathoUcism were to leave 
 the kingdom within the space of fifteen days; those who abjured 
 were to receive a pension one-third greater than the stipend which 
 they had had as pastors, with a reversion of one-half of this pension 
 to their widows. Every child, born from that time forth, was to 
 be baptized as a Catholic. Protestants who had emigrated were 
 to return under the paternal a.id most Christian government of 
 the French monarch, within the space of four months, under the 
 iv^nalty of having all their property confiscated at the expiry ot 
 that period; and any who might attempt to emigrate, for the future, 
 were to be condemned-the men to the galleys, the women to con- 
 fiscation of person and property. The religionaries, it is added, at 
 the conclusion of the Edict of Revocation, may, however, remam m 
 the kingdom, toithoid performing any exercise of religion, awaiting 
 till it shall please God to enlighten them.'-^ 
 
 But what is mere existence to a Christian, without any act ot 
 life? The Protestants showed that they were Christians, by pre- 
 ferring exile to the want of reUgious life; and at this period count- 
 less multitudes forsook their native land. But the poorest were 
 imder the necessity of remaining. Two thousand inhabitants of 
 Pragela preceded or followed the expulsion of their brethren from 
 
 1 Hcmo mm, et mJcU humani a me alienum pnto, was a saying of Paganism. All 
 leyonTmyvale is hell, says the Romish church. Everythrng zs lawful against a 
 damned person, adds the Inquisition. A Pope ventured to say that tt rs a praxse. 
 ioThuacZ to kill a heretic. (Bull of Urban IL, quoted m GraUanus, cap. ex- 
 communicatorum,causa23,quaestw5.) * xr«„«^v«r ifiAK Tf 
 
 2 This edict was not published in Dauphiny till the end of November, 1685 It 
 was printed at Grenoble, on the 12th of November, in two columns, on a arge 
 Theet intended to serve as a placard, with the following me.-Ed.ctofthek.ng 
 g^l atFontaineUeau, in the month of Octoler, 1G85, conta.nng ih. Revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes, and of all the edicts, declarations, and decrees issued m conse- 
 auence as\cell as of all concessions made to those of the Protestant religion, of 
 IZso^^:: nature they may le; the demolition of a,i the Protest ant p^.^^^^^ 
 ship, &c. . . . This placard was affixed to the door of aU the Protestant places 
 of worship in Pragela. 
 
 Chap. XVi] 
 
 PRAYER A CRIME. 
 
 223 
 
 the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont,^ but in 1686 and 1687, the 
 greater part of them returned to their native region, and were re- 
 established there in virtue of the edict of Victor Amadeus, which 
 opened it to them in 1692. But what became of those who re- 
 mained on the banks of the Cluson? 
 
 Deprived not only of pastors, but of the privilege of holding any 
 religious meeting among themselves, they did not hesitate regularly 
 to cross the lofty mountains and deep valleys, which separated them 
 from their brethren of Piedmont, in order to join them in their 
 Sabbath-day services. From the upper part of Pragela they went 
 to Macel by the Col du Pis, and from the lower part of the Val 
 Cluson, they went to Pomaret, at the entrance of the Val Saint 
 Martin. In order to accomplish these pious pilgrimages, seeking 
 edification and the comfort of brotherly love, they were sometimes 
 obliged to set out on the Saturday evening, and could not return to 
 their own homes till Monday morning. Notwithstanding all the 
 difficulty of travelling to so great a distance, they were glad to 
 adhere to this method of procedure, because of the rigour with which 
 all religious exercises were made the occasion of prosecutions in 
 France, which Popery had now rendered so excessively hostile to 
 
 liberty. 
 
 Even prayer and the religious consolation of the sick were now 
 made matters of accusation. " " Last autumn," says a document of 
 the period, "the vicar-general of the provostship of Oulx gave 
 information of a fact concerning John Challier of Pourrieres, who 
 was surprised in the act of making pi'ayer, after the manner of the 
 Protestants, for one called Peter Pastre, who was afflicted at the 
 time with a very dangerous malady. . . . This case demands 
 an exemplary pimishment."^ And whilst it was thus made a crime 
 for the Vaudois to minister Christian consolations to the dying — 
 whilst an exemplary punishment was demanded for those forbidden 
 prayers, whose fervour was breathed forth in secret and in midst of 
 
 ' Without a precise statement of the numbers, we may determine them approxi- 
 mately. The despatch of M. De Mandelslobe, quoted at the end of last chapter, 
 announces an emigration of 600 Vaudois from Pragela as about to take place in the 
 spring of 1686, whilst 600 had already left it in the autumn of 1685 ; and the Re- 
 cords of the Council of State of Geneva say, under date Slst August, 1687 :— ** The 
 refugees who entered this city yesterday amount to about 800 persons, mostly from 
 Pragela." (Extracts from the Archives of the Council of State, communicated by 
 the Rev. M. Le Eort.) 
 
 2 Memoirepour la religion en la PUhanie d^OuJx. Without date, but certainly 
 belonging to this period, for we read in it : — *' The heretics continue to go to the 
 preaching at Pomaret, or other neighbouring places, whither also they go to get 
 married, and carry their children for baptism." (Archives of the Bishopric of 
 Pignerol.) -^ 
 
224. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PartThikd 
 
 danger, as a flower blossoms upon ruins— would the reader wish to 
 know what morals prevailed in the persecuting church of the 
 Catholics of that region, to whom it was desired to assimilate the 
 Vaudois? "As to the old Catholics" (that is, those who had 
 always belonged to the Church of Kome), says the report just 
 quoted, " there are amongst them persons debauched with wine, 
 who frequent public-houses by night ... and make their 
 families suffer from want of the necessaries of life; there are others 
 who commit adulteries or other crimes, which cause much scandal. 
 It will be requisite to inform the consuls,"^ &c. . . . Thus a 
 simple admonition was deemed sufficient for serious crimes com- 
 mitted by Papists, and punishments without parallel were awarded 
 to the virtues of the Protestants! Such was the justice of Louis 
 XIV. Such was always the spirit of the selfish and fooHsh castes 
 by whose influence he was controlled. 
 
 But the Vaudois of Pragela did not long retain the difficult, yet 
 precious privilege, of crossing the mountains to partake of the Lord's 
 Supper in the congregations of their brethren. The tyrant of Ver- 
 sailles said to his ambassador at the court of the Duke of Savoy, 
 « It is the presence of the Vaudois of Piedmont, on the frontiers of 
 my dominions, which causes the desertion of my subjects, and you 
 must represent to their sovereign that I am resolved to suffer it no 
 longer."-^ We have seen already what was the result of these 
 arrogant demands. The Vaudois of Piedmont were expelled from 
 their country in a body, and these valleys, the last sanctuary in 
 which the word of God was heard amongst the Alps, became as 
 desolate as a tomb. On these terrible and frequent strokes, thus 
 cutting off on eveiy side the ancient boughs of the Israel of the 
 Alps, it seemed as if the trunk which had borne the storms of so 
 many ages must shortly fall, never to spring up any more. Alas! 
 this sad presage was too surely to be realized for the valley of 
 Pragela. The Church there was gradually extinguished, dying out 
 like°a lamp that wants oU— perishing like a victim devoured by 
 
 birds of prey! 
 
 Every day, the executionei-s, appointed on behalf of the throne 
 and the altar, tore again at the living, bleeding spouse of Christ. 
 Poor persecuted Church ! her places of worship and her ministers 
 were taken away— her very Uberty of prayer was taken away. But 
 this was far from satisfying her destroyers: and as they proceeded, 
 they sought to make their spoliations more gainful to themselves. 
 
 » Same Report ; after the passage above quoted. 
 
 « Despatch of Louis XIV. to the Marquis D'Arcy, of 7th December, 16&>. 
 (Diplomatic Archives of France. Communicated by M. Guizot.) 
 
 Chap. XVI] 
 
 PROPAGANDISTS IN PRAGELA. 
 
 225 
 
 The Church of Rome asked the property of the fugitive Vaudois, 
 and Louis XIV. gi-anted the request.^ Robbers are punished, but 
 a king is honoured, although he thus takes the property of his 
 people— the property of the poor— the fields which they have in- 
 herited from their forefathers, and made fruitful by the sweat of 
 their brow; or which they have purchased with the savings of long 
 years of rigid economy and hard labour! But this was not all: 
 the consistorial properties stiU remained. The royal spoliator 
 seized upon these in the following year,'-^ and made farther gifts to 
 various Catholic establishments. 
 
 In 1684 and in 1686, two new priests were settled in Pragela; 
 
 in 1687, five doctors of the Sorbonne were sent from Paris to aid 
 
 the missionaries in effacing, as much as possible, the traces of the 
 
 Reformed Church, and extinguishing the signs of life which still 
 
 appeared everywhere. In 1688, new popish churches were built; 
 
 and, according to a work of the time, "the Catholic religion made 
 
 visible progress, till, in 1690, on war breaking out between the 
 
 Duke of Savoy and the King of France, it was remarked that piety 
 
 was again very much cooled."^ The meaning of this is that the 
 
 Vaudois of Piedmont had now returned to their valleys ; and 
 
 during the terrible winter which they passed in the Balsille, 
 
 1689-90, their brethren of Pragela frequently furnished them with 
 
 provisions, which they much needed; whHst, on the other hand, the 
 
 latter entertained a hope that, by the chances of the war, the Val 
 
 Cluson might remain in the hands of Victor Amadeus, and would 
 
 be incorporated with the other Vaudois valleys. 
 
 Victor Amadeus invaded Dauphiny in 1692. In consequence of 
 an incursion of his troops into Pmgela, all that part of this valley 
 which extends from Fenestrelle to Perouse, was given to the flames, 
 
 « By decree of 24th November, 1G87. The following are its principal articles :- 
 600 golden pistoles, from the price of the lands taken into the king's possession are 
 given to the Religious Ladies of St. Mary of Pigncrol : 1000 to the hospital of St. 
 James; 12(i(i to the venevaUe chapter of the churches of St. Donatusand St. Maurice ; 
 1200 towards the settlement of certain vicars, intended for the mstructxon of tho 
 converts. The surplus of the price is given to the Royal College of the Reverend 
 Jesuit Fathers of Pignerol. Then follows a list and valuation of the confiscated 
 lands. (Archives of La Perouse. Communicated by Professor AiHaud.) 
 
 3 In January, 1688; by an edict enregistered by the parhament in the foLowmg 
 month. Another edict adopted in December, 1038, and published on 9th January, 
 1690, disposes of the lands left unoccupied by the recent emigrations, ^^^^jouioi 
 the heirs, upon condition that they should neither sell nor aUenate them before the 
 lause of five years. The object of this measure was to retain them m the kingdom. 
 
 3 AbregS de Vetat de la vallee de Pragela de 1678 a 1717. MS. already quoted. 
 relation historique de Vetat de la religion en Pragela. (1711.) All these manu. 
 scripts, notwithstanding their titles, are of Uttle importance, and contain almost 
 nothing but insignificant details and vain declamations. 
 
 Vol. II. 8® 
 
226 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Tqibd. 
 
 Chap. XVI ] 
 
 DEMAND OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 227 
 
 'I I 
 
 on 25th July, 1693. Thus were four parishes rendered uninhabit- 
 able. " The inhabitants," says the account above quoted, " all left 
 it. Some went to Savoy, others to the Briangonnais, the greater 
 part to the Vaudois valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin. These last 
 then resumed the exercise of the Reformed rehgion; and, in spite 
 of all that could be done, continued it, favoured by the troubles 
 of war which occui-red, tiU 1696. But in 1698, peace having been 
 concluded, these obstinate relapsed heretics chose rather to forsake 
 all and go to Switzerland, than to remain in possession of their 
 lands and return to the Catholic religion. Of sixty-two families of 
 the parish of Bourset, there remained only seven or eight."^ These 
 fifty-six families who emigrated from Bourset, were the same who 
 founded the last of the Vaudois colonies established in Wurtem- 
 berg, from its foimdation the poorest of them all. The reader will 
 recollect the mean hamlet of New Engstedt, surrounded with 
 forests, on a table land of Swabia, where these poor exiles had so 
 much difficulty in accomplishing their settlement. 
 
 In 1694, the Vaudois had been encouraged to entertain better 
 prospects; for the Duke of Savoy, who had re-established them in 
 their own country in 1692, had likewise held out inducements to 
 the French Protestants to share the lot of their brethren in 
 religion. The inhabitants of Pragela subsequently sent a depu- 
 tation^ to Victor Amadous II., to beg that he would secure to 
 them the same privileges which he had granted to their brethren of 
 the Piedmontese valleys; for the edict of 23d May, 1694, whilst 
 declaring that liberty of conscience is to be recognized as belonging 
 to the Reformed, adds, in express terms:=^ "As to the Vaudois of 
 Pragela and of Perouse, who make profession of the same religion, 
 they shall not enjoy this privilege any longer than for the space of 
 ten years after the present war." It was during these ten years of 
 precarious toleration that Protestantism recovered an unwonted 
 vigour, and shed its last rays in the valley of Pragela. 
 
 At first, the inhabitants of this valley, who had retired into the 
 dominions of the Duke of Savoy, asked and were allowed to take 
 the oath of fidehty to him as their sovereign.* Thereafter they 
 
 ^Ahrege deVitatdela valUede Pragela, kc " Those who went to 
 
 Savoy," adds this manuscript, "returned, on the contrary, better Cathohcs than 
 they had been before." 
 
 2 Composed of one minister, WUliam Malanot, pastor of Angrogna, and two 
 laymen, Messrs. P€yro« and /oAn Fen-ier. , , x i^r»- 
 
 3 See the Sijnodal Acts of June and October, 1694, also those of 17th June, 169o. 
 * The request was made on 2d March, 1694; the oath was administered on the 
 
 1st of July. They presented themselves to the number of 222. See Memoriale 
 dei religicmani delle valli di Pragelato, San MaHino e Perosa; and the documents 
 thereto annexed. (Civil Archives of Pignerol, category i., fasciculus 6\, JSo. J/ J 
 
 resumed their weekly journeys to Macel and LePomaret, to attend 
 public worship celebrated in these localities. It would even appear 
 that family worship was religiously maintained in the sanctuary of 
 the domestic hearth, in the greater part of the houses of Pragela; 
 for the judicial prosecutions upon account of religion, and the new 
 repressive measures incessantly adopted by the French government 
 in these regions, prove, by their very number, the strength and 
 prevalence of the hereditary attachment of the Vaudois to the 
 doctrines of the Bible — a peimanent cause for unwearying severity 
 on the part of the Church of Rome. Such was the state of things 
 till emigrations again commenced. Many Vaudois withdrew from 
 Pragela to Switzerland in the end of 1697.^ 
 
 In virtue of the treaty of Turin (18th August, 1696), article vii., 
 Louis XIV. soon demanded that Victor Amadous should cease to 
 give refuge and protection to Protestants, natives of France. Ac- 
 cordingly, the edict was issued on the 1st of July, 1698, requiring 
 them to leave the dominions of Savoy within the space of two 
 months. The Vaudois pastors were, at the same time, forbidden 
 to extend their ministrations to the French territory, under pain of 
 ten years of the galleys. We have already seen what troubles, 
 what disorders in families, and what extensive emigrations arose 
 from these severe measures. 
 
 In these desolated regions, the number of Catholic churches 
 multiplied, as the population diminished. " Towards the end of 
 1698," says one account,^ " Louis XIV. caused two churches to be 
 built in Pragela; and provided stipend for eight priests,^ by letters- 
 patent of the month of September of the same year."* New houses 
 were immediately built for these priests, and those which already 
 existed were repaired.^ 
 
 After this, the bitter and restless zeal of those who were engaged 
 in bringing about apostasies by all kinds of means, applied itself, 
 with redoubled craft and activity, to give the last blows to evan- 
 gelical faithfulness. " Many parents," says a letter written at that 
 time from the valleys, " are obliged to send into Switzerland their 
 children, whom the Papists had taken from them, and whom they 
 
 ' Letters from Berne, 28th January, 1698, and from Zurich, 30th January, 
 (Archives of Berne, compartment E. Communicated by M. Monastier.) 
 
 - Etat de la valUe de Pragela de 1678 d 1717. 
 
 » In May and June, 1698, five new priests were settled in Pragela, viz., at Fme- 
 strelle, Le Villaret, Le Bouvet, Le Chateau du Bois, and St. Pierre du VUlar. 
 
 * There are several documents, connected with this subject, in the Archives of 
 Pignerol, drawer A, Nos. 17 and 18. 
 
 * Those of Laval, Les Traverses, La Rua, Poui'ri^res, Usseaux, MentouUs, Cha- 
 terant en Bourset, La Chapelle du Janbons, and Meane, 
 
228 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Thtid. 
 
 sought to take from them again. Emissaries of Catholicism travel 
 
 through the country from one place to another The 
 
 debt of the valleys, in consequence of arrears of interest, from 1686 
 to 1694, has increased to more than 300,000 francs. The full 
 amount of taxes and public bui'dens is demanded from them, from 
 the time when they were driven out.^ Nearly twenty-five families 
 have afready been won over to Popery, by promises or by threats. 
 All sorts of means are employed, in order to weaken the Vaudois. 
 After having been gradually reduced in numbers, they will be ex- 
 terminated." ^ 
 
 Emigration continued. A new edict of Louis XIV. forbade the 
 ProtesSmts to sell their lands, without an express permission from 
 the secretary of state.=^ The prior of Mentoules, in his mandatory 
 of the 20th of February, 1700, said that tJie Protestant religion had 
 been planted in that country hy violence, and that zeal and activity 
 must be redoubled, in order to oppose its mischievous power.* The 
 Archbishop of Turin proceeded in person to the valley of Pragela, 
 in 1703.^ He found many Protestants still there, as well as in the 
 valley of the Doire,^^ and bore away with him the authentic deeds 
 of a great number of conversions; as if religion was a thing to be 
 settled by the help of a notary, or the gift of a heart could be made 
 an affair of contract 1 
 
 But at this period, war broke out again between Piedmont and 
 France. Victor Amadeus II. addressed a proclamation to the in- 
 habitants of the valleys, inviting them to take up arms against 
 Louis XIV.7 He endeavoured at the same time to induce their 
 brethren of Pragela to join them. His protection was afforded to 
 the Vaudois, when he stood in need of their assistance. Menaced 
 by a king, he fell back upon the support of the people. What 
 could a tyrant do, if he were only left to himself? The people 
 whom he had persecuted defended him still, and ere long it was 
 his lot to find refuge amongst them. The Vaudois wrested the 
 upper part of Pragela from the dominion of France, and at the 
 same time delivered it from the oppression of the Church of Home. 
 They set up their altars again; under the protection of their vic- 
 
 • Taxes which had not been gathered from 1686 to 1692. 
 
 2 Archives of Berue. Compartment E ; papers of 1697-1698. 
 » Edict or declaration of 5th May, 1699. This prohibition only affected sales 
 exceeding the sum of 3000 francs. 
 
 ♦ This mandatory is in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 
 * Visiles faUes dans la PUhanie d'Oulx, par Monseigneur Vibo, archevSque rfe 
 TuHii. A folio MS. in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 
 « Amongst other places, at Fenil, Salabertrans, Chaumont, and Mollaret. 
 ^ It is dated 5th October, 1703. (Moser, proof documents. No. 18.) 
 
 Chap. XVI.] 
 
 BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS. 
 
 229 
 
 torious arms, Protestant worship was everywhere re-established. 
 " The cause of the evil was this," says one of the relations akeady 
 quoted^ — " the ministers of the Val Lucerna came to preach to 
 them on the Sabbath; and by their coming and going, filled the 
 minds of the inhabitants vnth mischief." But how was it that 
 Catholicism, supported by so many means of repressing what it dis- 
 liked, could not resist an influence so temporary? The Bible alone 
 can give the answer — its words were known to the peoj^le whom 
 the Vaudois ministers called to judge of their doctrines. 
 
 There was even ground at that time to hope that in that dis- 
 trict, this word of life would never again cease to animate the 
 hearts of men, for Victor Amadeus had promised to provide " that 
 all those of the Protestant religion, who had emigrated from the 
 valleys of Pragela, might be enabled to return thither, and be 
 restored to theii- civil rights, and enjoy what property they might 
 thenceforth acquire there, with the free exercise of their religion, 
 as they had exercised it before their departure."- But this pro- 
 mise, as we shall afterwards see, was not kept ; and on the other 
 hand, the Vaudois weakened themselves by division. The valley 
 of St. Martin, and a part of that of Perouse, constituted them- 
 selves into a republic under the illusory protection of Louis XIV., 
 and lived under this government for four years.* Although this 
 event was of no political importance —and yet it was entirely poUti- 
 cal— it had for the time a great influence on the circumstances of 
 the Vaudois. The Duke of Savoy, however, was so just as not to 
 make the other parts of the Vaudois valleys responsible for it. On 
 the contrary, he generously afi'orded them reUef, when, impoverished 
 by the war, they began to suffer from famine— appointing in each 
 commune a person charged with the duty of distributing bread to 
 
 the poor.* 
 
 The duke himself, moreover, was at this time far from bemg 
 prosperous. The armies of France had invaded his dominions. 
 The Duke de la Feuillade had made himself master of Savoy in 
 the spring of 1704; after which he penetrated into Piedmont by 
 Mount Cenis, and took Suza, whilst the Duke de Vendome took 
 
 » Pragela, from 1698-1717. MS. , .^ x * i ^^a 
 
 2 Such are the terms of § III. of the secret articles of the treaty concluded 
 between Victor Amadeus II. and England, 4th August, 1704. . , , .^ ^ - 
 
 3 By a treaty made between the Duke de la Feuillade and the inhabitants of 
 the valleys, 15th July, 1704; and ratified by Louis XIV. at VersaiUes, 25th July. 
 Signed Louis, countersigned Colbert (Archives of the Court). 
 
 * From 25th July, 1704, to 17th August, 1708. 
 
 6 By an order of Bercastel, cmimandant-general of his royal highness in m 
 valley of Lucerna; dated 20th November, 1704. (Archives of Turin, No. 284.) 
 
230 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet TaiaD. 
 
 CuAP. XVI.] 
 
 RE-UNION OF CHURCHES. 
 
 231 
 
 Verceil.^ In 1705, the successes of these generals were still greater, 
 and almost all the towns of Piedmont fell into their hands. 
 Again, Prince Eugene restored the fortunes of the Duke of Savoy, 
 and defeated the French army, on the 7th of September, 1706, 
 under the walls of Turin. The consequences of this victory were 
 considerable. The French, who retired to Pignerol instead of 
 pressing on to Casal, lost successively the Milanese, the Mantuan 
 territory, Piedmont, and finally the kingdom of Naples. The war 
 continued till 1710, but peace was not concluded till 1713. 
 
 In 1708, Victor Amadeus having seized Fenestrelle, brought the 
 whole ol the valley of Pragela under his dominion, of which he had 
 previously possessed only the upper part, defended by the Vaudois, 
 and the lower part since the sun^ender of Pignerol (13th March, 
 1707). This valley was then placed under the administration which 
 already ruled the other parts of the Vaudois territory. The same 
 governor was appointed over it.^ The inhabitants were ordered to 
 lay down their arms, and those who had emigrated were invited to 
 return immediately.^ At this time, says an ofiicial report, " the Bri- 
 tish court, and their high mightinesses of Holland, exerted them- 
 selves to procure for the Protestants of Pragela the same privi- 
 leges which their brethren of the other Vaudois valleys enjoyed. 
 Queen Anne herself wrote upon this subject to Victor Ama- 
 deus. The duke's reply, of which we have a copy in our archives,* 
 and which is of date 3d JMarch, 1709, was in the most favourable 
 terms; but he represented that it seemed to him suitable, for vari- 
 ous reasons, to defer this public step on his part till peace was con- 
 cluded."^ However, to prove the sincerity of his intentions in this 
 respect, he caused the Bomish ecclesiastics in Pragela to be enjoined 
 not to trouble the Vaudois in any way upon account of their doc- 
 trines, and even to leave those who had abjured free to return to 
 Protestantism.® Four months afterwards the Archbishop of Turin 
 
 * Suza was taken on the 12th of June, and Verceil on the 21st of July, 1704. 
 (Art de verifier les dates.) 
 
 ' The advocate Gasca: deputato per escrcire en, la qualita cPTntcndente nelle valli 
 di Lusema, San-Martino, Ferosa e Pragdlato. . , . Instructions of 28th Decem- 
 ber, 1708. (Turin. Archives of the Court.) 
 
 3 Order of Victor Amadeus II., dated from the camp of Mentoulcs, 24th Sep- 
 tember, 1708. (Same Archives.) — Other documents, from the same place, are 
 cliited from the camp of Balbottet. These two localities are very near one another. 
 
 * The original is in the British State Paper OflBce. Letters, Sardinia, V. 24. 
 
 ^ Memo ire concemant la situation presente desvallees PiCmont . . . prcscnte au 
 Synode assemble d La Haye, le 9th Sept.y 1702. (MS. communicated by M. Appia.) 
 
 * All the priests of Pragela were invited, by a circular from the superior of the 
 mission at Fenestrelle, to come to tliat town on the 2d of January, 1709. It was 
 there that the intendant Gasca made known to them, by his own voice, the 
 intentions of their sovereign. 
 
 ordered those who were under his jurisdiction not to make mention 
 of the name or authority of Victor Amadeus when they had to do 
 
 with heretics.^ 
 
 It seemed, therefore, that there was no impediment in the way 
 of the restoration of the Vaudois churches in Pragela. The pastoi-s 
 of the neighbouring valleys repaired thither and performed the mm- 
 isterial functions.-' Schools were established for the instruction of 
 youth, district meetings were re-opened, domestic worship was 
 resumed with regularity, and eveiywhere preceded the arrange- 
 ments for pubUc worship. Numbers, also, who had emigrated, 
 retiu-ned to their own abodes. 
 
 At the Vaudois synod which was held at Angrogna on the 11th 
 of November, 1709, the deputies of Pragela^ presented themselves, 
 "provided with a regular commission, signed by the consuls, the 
 counciUors, and 100 other heads of families, in name of all the Pro- 
 testants of the valley."* They asked to be again incorporated 
 with the one body of the Vaudois churches, which was granted with 
 readiness and delight. The unity of the body was to them merely 
 a visible manifestation of the unity of the faith; and this last had 
 never ceased. It was with much satisfaction that these different 
 representatives of the Vaudois church found themselves able thus 
 to exhibit a testimony of the spiritual union wliich had been main- 
 tained among all the members of that church, through all the 
 political divisions, and all the vicissitudes which had agitated then- 
 countiy. Although separated, for almost a century, by the swords 
 and sceptres of two dynasties, they found one another the same as 
 they had been in former centuries; for the descent of evangelical 
 Christians may be tmced farther back than that of kings. 
 
 But this was to be the last communion of these fraternal val- 
 leys—a final and solemn act of Christian fellowship, against which 
 human poUcy made haste to lodge its protest. " We declare ttat the 
 acts of the synod of Angrogna may be carried into effect," said the 
 intendant of Pignerol, " except the second article concemmg the 
 admission of persons fr'om Pragela, declaring that article inadmis- 
 sible and nuU, and rejectmg it absolutely, because the inhabitants 
 
 ^ «* On the 12th of May (1709) we were assembled at Fenestrelle, by order of 
 the vicar of his lordship, the Archbishop of Turin, who forbade us to make use 
 of the name and authority of his royal highness against the heretics." (lleporta 
 of the missionaries.— (Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) 
 
 2 From the month of February. {M6nwires de Perron. MS.— I wiU speak of 
 
 it further on.) 
 
 3 Messrs Perron, Guyot, and Salleng. 
 
 ♦ Synodal Acts of 11th November, 1709. Preliminaries. {.Archives of the Vau- 
 dois Table.) 
 
232 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thied. 
 
 CiiAP. XVI.] 
 
 A HAPPY COMMUNION. 
 
 233 
 
 of Pragela are not included in the privileges recognized as belong- 
 ing to the other valleys." ^ 
 
 But if an official recognition was refused them, they were never- 
 theless assured that they would not be disturl)ed upon account of 
 their relif^ion.^ England, likewise, continued to interest herself on 
 behalf of the Vaudois. As an ally of Victor Amadeus, she took 
 upon herself the pay of their troops, to whom was confided the 
 guard of the frontiers. Each soldier received a pay of ten philips. 
 The winter of 1708-1709 having destroyed all the fruits of the 
 earth, fui*ther assistance was also distributed to them.^ 
 
 Without having organized congregations, the inhabitants of Pra- 
 gela had then the privilege of meeting for worship ; and, like a 
 stronf' plant whose branches for a short time cease to be cut off, 
 their church at this period made rapid progress. " We see, with 
 the deepest regret," say the priests of Pragela, in a petition of this 
 date, "that the inhabitants of this valley do not profit by the i^rivi- 
 lege which they have in being under the government of a sovereign, 
 who excels equally in valour and in piety.* They were at last con- 
 verted, . . . and now again they have returned with mad eagerness 
 to heresy. On the first Sabbath of Lent a minister came to preach at 
 Usseaux, and many people assembled to hear him; on the second Sab- 
 bath the number was increased, and still more on the third. The piti- 
 ful state to which we see this valley about to be reduced, compels us to 
 have recourse to your lordship, to put an end to this abomination." "^ 
 
 The Royal Council which had been established at Pignerol, 
 and which at this time took the name of the Senate, applied 
 itself to restrain the dangerous liberty, always so fatal to Popery. 
 
 » A translation of the words appended by tlie intendant Gasca at the end of tJxe 
 
 Acts of the Sjmod. 
 
 2 "... . Numbers of persons of the valleys of Pragela have retnmed to their 
 former Protestant religion, and now profess it without being inquired after or 
 
 disturbed, as they were assured that they would not (Reflexions sur I'oppor- 
 
 tunili de rendre public Varticle du traits du 21 Janvier 1705, &c MS.— 
 
 Turin, Archives of the Court.) 
 
 * Relation historique de la demolition des temples, et de Vetahlissement des Eglises 
 paroissiales, en Pragela. (MS. of the library of M. Aillaud, at Pignerol.)— This 
 work pretends that relief was given, in order to bring back the Vaudois who had 
 become Catholics to Protestantism, ** which did," it is added, "cause numbers to 
 
 prore unfaithful^* 
 
 * This flattery, addressed to Victor Amadeus, is expressed in precisely the same 
 words which had been previously addressed by the same men to Louis XIV., then 
 at war with the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 » Supplique du chapitre d^Oulx, March, 1709. Without other date.— RequSte 
 de MM. Us cures de Pragela, of 13th March, 1709. Signed, Blanc, cur6 de la 
 Rua; Poncel, curS (f Usseaux; Merlin, cure des Traverses; Prin, cure de Pour, 
 rieres; Bonne, cure de La Val. — Drawn up by Joseph Samuel, notary. (Turin, 
 Archives of the Court. Nos. of series, 670, 671.) 
 
 For this purpose it endeavoured to put impediments in the way of 
 those fraternal relations which were so promptly renewed amongst 
 the yaudois of the difierent valleys; and the ministers of the val- 
 ley of Lucerna were requested not to go to Pragela, at the same 
 time that those of the people of Pragela, and other French refugees 
 who had taken up their abode in the valley of Lucerna, were 
 ordered to quit it within a short time.^ The pastors, however, 
 being strangers to the political considerations which governed the 
 conduct of Victor Amadeus, and with good reason regai'ding the 
 evangelical Christians of Pragela as one of the most interesting 
 parts of their flock, went to them as often as was requisite, or as 
 the duties of their own charges permitted,'-* 
 
 The senate of Pignerol, without having the right to employ any 
 repressive measure against the exercise of a liberty authorized by 
 the sovei-eign, thought fit, however, to signify its dissatisfaction ; 
 which it did by a sort of mandatory on the 2d of April, 1710, 
 recalling attention to all the prohibitions previously issued agamst 
 the exercise of the Reformed religion in the valleys of Perouse and 
 Pragela. The Protestants, strong in their right, in their convic- 
 tions, and in their sense of the necessity of protesting agamst the 
 tyranny by which they had sufiered, replied to this manifestation 
 on the part of the senate by the most solemn act of their worship; 
 and on the 7th of April, 1710, they proclaimed the closer alli- 
 ance of their beloved churches, and the fellowship of all Vaudois 
 hearts, in a way that had not been attempted before for twenty-six 
 years, by the celebration of the Lord's Supper at Usseaux, m which 
 the inhabitants of all the valleys participated, uniting as members 
 of one family with those of the Cluson and the Doire. 
 
 The Catholic clergy of these latter valleys addressed to the senate 
 of Pignerol a representation,^^ as to the little regard which the Pro- 
 testants paid to the prohibitions of which they had been reminded, 
 and sent with it a report,-^ drawn up by lawyers, intended to prove 
 that the Vaudois of Pragela were not entitled to enjoy liberty of con- 
 
 1 Order of the commandant of Lucerna, addressed to the syndics of that valley, 
 under date 25th May, 1709. (Archives of Le Villar, volume marked Religwnani, 
 
 ^o\. 161.) ^ , 1 ^ A 
 
 2 "On the 27th of February, 1709, a minister came to Pragela who perverted 
 
 all the people. On the 23d of March, M. Bastie baptized three children; almost 
 all the population assembled. On the 15th of April, another minister came for a 
 
 marriaee &c " {Memoires des missionaires de FSnestrelle. MS.)— M. 
 
 Bastie wis pastor of La Tour. ' Dated 28th May. 1710. 
 
 ♦ Mcmoire touchant VetaJbliisement, les progris et la cessation de la religion pre- 
 tenduc reformee dans la vallee de Pragela; et touchant Vengagcment deS. A. /?. 
 d V4gard du retablisscment de ladite religion, ensuUe de son traits d^alliance avec 
 les A nglais et les Hollandais. {Folio MS. in the Royal Library at Turin^) 
 Vol. u. so 
 
!i! 
 
 234 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 Chap. XVlJ 
 
 POLITICAL CHANGES. 
 
 235 
 
 science. " His royal highness," they say, " promised, by the treaty 
 of 21st January, 1704, and by the conditions previously agreed to 
 at Utrecht, that the Protestants who had emigrated from Pragela 
 might return thither, and exercise their religion there as freely as 
 before their departure; granting the same privileges to all others of 
 the same religion who might afterwards settle there, provided that 
 neither the one nor the other should in any way attempt to turn 
 Catholics from their religion, or to do them any injury. But the 
 Protestants who emigrated from Pragela, left that valley for no 
 other reason than because their religion was interdicted there. 
 They had, therefore, no liberty of conscience before their departure, 
 and, according to the terms of the treaty, liberty of conscience 
 ought now to be taken from them." Such was the substance of 
 their argument. 
 
 In consequence of these things the Duke of Savoy, probably that 
 he might form an opinion concerning the importance of the Pro- 
 testants of Pragela, demanded a list of their names and an account 
 of the lands which they possessed.^ It being now indubitably 
 ascertained that there was no pei*suading of them into submission, 
 vexatious measures were resumed against them. The Dutch am- 
 bassador complained, and the Marquis de St. Thomas, the minis- 
 ter of foreign affairs, replied that the Vaudois were turbulent and 
 rebellious subjects, who had been already treated with only too 
 much gentleness.^ Soon afterwards they were enjoined to abstain 
 from work on the Catholic festival days.^ In France the Protes- 
 tants of Dauphiny were forbidden to have arms in their possession;* 
 and the society de propaganda fide et extirpandis hceretids renewed 
 its intrigues and operations everywhere. 
 
 "In 1710, during the war," says Dieterici,^ "some French 
 marauders having committed all kinds of havoc in the valley of 
 PrageLa, the Savoyard governor prohibited any assemblage of more 
 
 * These documents are in the Archives of the Court, at Turin. The letter of 
 Victor Amadeus, demanding them, is addressed al ^larchese di Borgo, and dated 
 14th April, 1710. 
 
 2 The note of the Dutch ambassador, M. van der Meer, and the reply of the 
 Marquis of St. Thomas, dated 23d February, 1711, are in the Archives of Turin. 
 Part of the correspondence relates to the arrest of the Protestant consul, Guyot, 
 who had neglected to cause windows to be made for the Catholic church of Pragela. 
 
 ' Edict of Victor Amadeus II., of 22d May, 1711, commencing thus: " It having 
 been represented to us by our procurator-general substitute in the superior 
 Council of Piguerol, that our subjects of our newly conquered lands and countries 
 of Pragela, do not observe the festivals commanded by our holy mother church, 
 &c " {Turin, Archives of the Court.) 
 
 * Edict of Louis XIV., signed at Versailles, 17th September, 1712. 
 
 * History of the Vaudois in Brandenburg. .... Chap. vii. 
 
 than twelve or fourteen persons. Under pretext of this ordinance 
 all public worship was prevented in Pragela. Captam Fnquet, 
 whom Victor Amadeus had commissioned, in 1709, to write to his 
 brethren who had emigrated, to induce them to return to their 
 homes, where he promised them the fullest liberty of conscience, 
 wa. one of the first victims of this return to arbitrary measiu^es. 
 Peligious meetings were held in his house; he was cited to Pig- 
 nero?, and in order to escape condemnation, was himself compelled 
 
 to leave his native land."^ . x <? 
 
 Meanwhile the English minister, who had been the protector of 
 the Vaudois, had been changed. They were lost sight of amidst 
 political events. At the time of the treaty of Utrecht they were 
 forgotten by the Protestant powers, and nothing was done to secure 
 their rights. England, which had secured the possession of the 
 valley of Pracrela to the Duke of Savoy, on condition that he should 
 maintain religious liberty there, was, by new arrangements, pre- 
 vented from interfering. Victor Amadeus, having made up his 
 quarrel with the King of France, perceived a possibility of adding 
 to his dominions the county of Nice, and yet of keeping the valley 
 of Pragela, upon condition of destroying Protestantism there. And 
 that this double cession might be represented as an exchange of 
 teiTitory between the two powers, he ceded the valley of Barcelon- 
 nette to Louis XIV., who accepted this disadvantageous arrange- 
 ment as an honourable bargain, in order thus to deprive England 
 of her sole right to interfere on the frontiers of Italy. And thus, 
 by these secondary transactions in a council of potentates, the whole 
 religious prospects of a people were sacrificed to the secret ambition 
 of Popery, which was pursuing them to destruction. 
 
 « We possess a report by M. Leger,"^ it is said in a document 
 emanating from Geneva half a century after this event, « concemmg 
 the engagements of Victor Amadeus II. with the court of England, 
 and the facility with which, at the time of the treaty of Utrecht, 
 that court might have secured to the people of Pragela the same 
 rights which the three other valleys enjoyed. But, through negli- 
 gence, they were forgotten, and their vaUey was lost."^ These are 
 the words of men who were amongst the most constant protectors 
 of the Vaudois. It now remains for us to see in what manner the 
 
 » John Gonnet and John Guigas were cited at the same time with him. and 
 found it necessary likewise to go into exile. „ j- j *i,« 
 
 2 Pastor and professor at Geneva-nephew of the historian. He died on tho 
 18th of January, 1719, aged sixty-seven years and four months. 
 
 3 Memoire concernant la situation pr^sente des valUes du P^4mont .... pre. 
 senU an Synode de la Haye, le 9 Septembre 1762. (Synodal .Recorda of the 
 Walloon churches.— Copy communicated by M. Appia.) 
 
2.36 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Third. 
 
 Chap. XYII.] 
 
 ROYAL INGRATITUDE. 
 
 237 
 
 4 1 
 
 loss which they deplore took place, and how the light of the gospel 
 was extinguished on the banks of the Cluson, more than a century 
 ^n^j by the breath of tyranny and intolerance. May a new histo- 
 rian yet have to tell how it has been rekindled by that of liberty ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 SEVENTH PERIOD. — FROM THE TREATY OF UTRECHT, IN 1713, 
 TO THE FIRST EMIGRATIONS CAUSED BY THE EDICTS WHICH 
 PRECEDED THAT OF 1730. 
 
 Obligations incurred by Victor Amadeus in his treaties, in favour of the Vaudols 
 —How he got quit of these obligations— Measures adopted against the Vaudois 
 of I'ragela during his absence in SicUy— Exertions of the King of Prussia on 
 their behalf— Beneficial interference of the English ambassador at Turin— The 
 pastors of the other parishes prevented from entering Pragela to minister- 
 Severities employed against the elders of Pragela, to prevent their conducting 
 religious meetings— Famine— Advantage taken of it for proselytism— Prohibi- 
 tion of all religious meetings— The case of Peter Roiichail and his family— The 
 people of Pragela forbidden to attend public worship in the other valleys- 
 Other tyrannical measures— All the inhabitants of the valleys acquired by the 
 treaty of Utrecht are ordained to have their children baptized in the Church 
 of Rome— Iniquitous law regarding inheritance — Compulsory observance of 
 festivals — Illustrative instances of persecution — Victor Amadeus shows the 
 most ungrateful forgetfulness of the former services of the Vaudois.— Friend- 
 ship shown to them by Mr. Edges, the British ambassador— Gradual increase 
 of intolerance; emigrations, and wearing out of the Vaudois church in Pragela. 
 
 We have seen that by the third of the secret articles of the treaty 
 concluded between Victor Amadeus II. and England, on the 4th 
 of August, 1704, all the fugitive Protestants of the valley of Pra- 
 gela had acquired the right to return and enjoy there the free 
 exercise of their religion as much as they had enjoyed it before tJieir 
 departure. The same condition was inserted in the treaty of the 
 Hague, of 21st January, 1702. But in the archives of the court 
 of Turin may be seen a diplomatic note in these terms : — " By the 
 fifth article of the treaty of alliance between her majesty. Queen 
 Anne, of England, and the King,^ the acquisition of the valleys of 
 
 » Victor Amadeus II. took the title of king, as King of Sicily, on the 21st of 
 December, 1703. 
 
 Pragela. Oulx, . . . <fec., was promised to him in such a way, that 
 they were to become his without his giving anything instead. In 
 the third of the secret articles of the said treaty, the king, on his 
 part, promised the free exercise of theii' religion to the Protestants. 
 But her Britannic majesty, not having been able, at the peace of 
 Utrecht, to cause the King of France to cede this country to the 
 King of Piedmont, it is evident that the promise of England has 
 been of no effect; and conseqnently the king s promise is no longer 
 binding upon him, as he now holds these valleys in virtue of a 
 du-ect exchange made with Louis XIV. for the valley of Bai'ce- 
 
 lonnette."^ -i i^ioa 
 
 The treaty of Utrecht was concluded on the 11th of April, 17 Id. 
 In the end of the previous month, Victor Amadeus had signified to 
 the Vaudois that he entertained kind intentions with regard to 
 them, and was much satisfied with their good conduct during the 
 war just ended; 3 but no sooner was the treaty concluded, than the 
 oblivious monarch did not even deign to reply to their most respect- 
 ful and rightful petitions.* He did not, however, declare against 
 the schemes of ecclesiastical organization which were laid before 
 him, and said nothing which could make the Vaudois believe that 
 he harboured the design of despoiling them of that liberty of con- 
 science which he had promised them; but he refused to come under 
 any obligation in this matter, exacting, however, from his new 
 subjects °the oath of fidelity, which bound them to his service.^ 
 Louis XIV., seeing that the exercise of the Protestant religion was 
 not immediately repressed m the valleys which he had ceded, pro- 
 hibited his own subjects newly converted to Catholicism from hav- 
 ing anything to do with foreign Protestants.^* 
 
 » Turin, Archives of the Court, No. of series, 407. 
 
 2 Five different treaties were concluded on that day between France and other 
 European powers. That between Louis XIV. and Victor Amadeus II. was signed 
 at four o'clock in the afternoon.— The fourth article of it is m these terms:— 
 '* His most Christian majesty transfers to his royal highness of Savoy, irrevocably 
 and for ever, the following vaUeys, to wit, the valley of Pragela, with the forts of 
 ExiUes and Fenestrelle, and the valleys of Oulx, Sezane, Bardoneche, and Chateau 
 Dauphin, and all which is on the Picdmontese side of the water-shed of the Alps. 
 On the other hand, his royal highness cedes the valley of Barcelonnefcte .... 
 BO that the summits of the Alps shall henceforth form the boundary line between 
 Franco and Piedmont." 
 
 3 This testimony from their sovereign was conveyed to the Vaudois by the 
 Marquis D'Antoume, 31st March, 1713. 
 
 ♦ Towards the end of April, 1713, Victor Amadeus paid a visit to Pragela, to 
 Eeo his new possessions, and especially the fortresses of Fenestrelle and Exilles. 
 The Vaudois addressed a petition to him for the free exercise of their religion, 
 but it remained unanswered. * The oath was administered on 29th July, 1713. 
 
 « By edict of 8th November, 1713. 
 
238 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 Chap. XVII.] 
 
 PRAGELA INVADED. 
 
 239 
 
 • 
 
 Intercourse with the Vaiidois, in particular, was regarded as 
 excessively pernicious to their Catholic neighbours. In the ser- 
 mons, the mandatories, and even the rescripts of this period, 
 Catholics were incessantly recommended not to take Vaudois into 
 their service, and not to be present at their meetings; and it was 
 added, that if a Paj^ist had reason, for decency's sake, to accompany 
 the funeral of a Protestant, he ought to retire from the burying- 
 ground before the officiating pastor had commenced to speak. The 
 Bible gave these humble children of the Alps a power of conversion 
 more efficacious, for changing the hearts of men, than all the appeals 
 to violence by which the Church of Home had sought to make ser- 
 vile adepts embrace her cause. 
 
 In 1713, says Dieterici,^ the Duke of Savoy w^ent to Sicily to be 
 crowned, and remained there till near the middle of 1714. The 
 enemies of the Vaudois took advantage of this circumstance to 
 destroy their church in Pragela. In 1713, the Savoyai'd^ intend- 
 ant Pavie, issued orders that no schoolmaster should be settled 
 there without the approbation of the Catholic clergy. Two 
 teachers, who had been previously settled, were compelled to cease 
 their functions in February, 1714. Thereafter, the consuls, syndics, 
 and other Protestant magistrates of the valley, were removed from 
 their offices, and Catholics appointed in their stead. The former 
 had been elected, according to custom, six months before their entry 
 upon their duties. At that time Victor Amadeus was still in Pied- 
 mont, and he offered no opposition to these elections. But in the 
 beginning of 1714 they were annulled in absence of the sovereign. 
 
 The Vaudois addressed themselves to their foreign protectors. 
 Captain Friquet wrote to Papon, a former pastor of Pragela, then 
 minister of the French church at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, to ac- 
 quaint him with the griefs of his compatriots. Papon put the 
 representations of the Vaudois into the hands of the resident of 
 the court of Berlin,'^ who transmitted them to the King of Prussia; 
 and that monarch, by a letter of the 24th of March, 1714, charged 
 his representatives in England, Holland, and at Augsburg, to make 
 known to these courts the increasing dangers which threatened the 
 existence of Protestantism in the valley of Pragela. " You may 
 declare," he said, " that we are ready to concur in all the measures 
 which the States-General, Queen Anne, and the evangelical states 
 of the empire may deem it proper to take, in order to preserve the 
 Reformed religion from imminent ruin in the valleys of Piedmont." 
 
 * History of the Vaudois in Brandenburg, ch. vii. 
 
 - This adjective does not indicate that he was a Savoyard by birth, but merely 
 that he was in the service of the Duke of Savoy. ' M Reinhold Hecht. 
 
 This first communication not having produced the effect which 
 he had expected, Frederick William renewed his endeavours by a 
 letter of 28th AprU, 1714, in which he said— "You will, verbally 
 and by writing, make the most urgent representations to her 
 majesty the queen, and her ministers, .... that they may in- 
 duce the Duke of Savoy to leave our fellow-Protestants in Pragela 
 in the enjoyment of entire liberty of conscience, and faithfiiUy to 
 fulfil the promise which he made in regard to this matter." But 
 Victor Amadeus was then absent, and the proceedings against the 
 people of Pragela were continued. « Who can even tell," says a 
 letter of that period, "but that he may prolong his absence of pur- 
 pose, to be able to say on his return, that all was done without his 
 knowledge? Meanwhile, the great blow will be struck, and his 
 highness°will find an excuse in his conscience, not permitting him 
 to overthrow a work of conversion." ^ 
 
 The violent measures anticipated by the author of the sentences 
 just quoted, soon began to be employed. In the month of May, 
 1714, the commandant of Perouse entered Pragela with troops, 
 made his way into the dwellings of the principal persons amongst 
 the Vaudois in the middle of the night, dragged them from their 
 beds, and conducted them in chains to Fenestrelle.2 The King of 
 Prussia, having heard of this cruel treatment, renewed his solicita- 
 tions in favour of the Vaudois. "We learn from every quarter," 
 he wrote on the 19th of June, 1714, "and you will see by the in- 
 closed, that the persecutions against the Vaudois go on increasing; 
 so that the entire suppression of the religion of the gospel in these 
 countries will be inevitable, if nothing is done to succour these poor 
 people. . . . You will entreat, in our name, her majesty, the 
 Queen of Great Britain, to urge upon the Duke of Savoy, in the 
 strongest manner, the maintenance of liberty of conscience in these 
 
 valleys." • j j x 
 
 The English ambassador at the court of Turin received orders to 
 address himself accordingly to the ministers of Victor Amadeus. 
 His representations produced, at first, some happy effects. The 
 king, having returned from Sicily, modei-ated in some degree the 
 character of the re-actionary proceedings which took place m Pra- 
 gela. However, it was not long till the prohibition was renewed 
 against the pastors of the other Vaudois valleys crossing the 
 Cluson, to conduct the exercises of religion. One of them having 
 braved this prohibition, was imprisoned by order of the intendant 
 
 t Letter written from Vevey, 17th April, 1714, and quoted by Dieterici ch vii. 
 » The particulars are taken from a letter by Captain Friquet, written from 
 Geneva, Slst May, 1714. Quoted by the same author. 
 
» 
 
 240 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thibd. 
 
 CflAP. XVII ] 
 
 A SEVERE FAMINE. 
 
 211 
 
 of Pignerol. The interposition of the Protestant ambassadors at 
 the court of Turin readilj obtained his restoration to liberty; but 
 thenceforth, his colleagues and himself very naturally felt an in- 
 creased and increasing reluctance to go beyond the field of labour 
 assigned to them, within the limits of their own parishes. 
 
 The people of Pragela, however, were not discouraged: the elders 
 of each commune undertook, as in former times, to conduct, in their 
 turns, familiar and edifying prayer-meetings. And what followed? 
 These elders received orders to attend at Turin. They went thither, 
 accordingly, and were seized and carried to difterent towns of Pied- 
 mont, where they were kept prisoners.* However, all the citations 
 to Turin were not obeyed in the same way by those to whom they 
 were addressed. Jacob Perron, a Vaudois, who received one of 
 them, says, in his memoirs, " This was in the month of May, 1714. 
 The king was then in Sicily. Summonses were sent to the princi- 
 pal people of our valley, the object being to banish them to Pied- 
 mont, or to make them change their religion. To save myself from 
 this persecution, I was obliged to quit the country, leaving my 
 father, who was eighty years of age, sick and bed-ridden, and my 
 wife, who was almost in a dying state; and I remained six weeks 
 away fi-om home before I could venture to return." ^ He passed 
 these six weeks in the valley of Lucerna, an evidence of the 
 brotherly feelings with which the people of these poor valleys 
 always regarded each other. " During my absence," continues the 
 narrator, " one of these summonses was brought to my lather, and 
 a few days after, the officer of justice came to say to him, on the 
 part of the chatelain, that he had only to give him thirty livres of 
 Piedmontese money, for the informations which the said chatelain, 
 the registrar, and the procurator-fiscal, had drawn up against him, 
 on account of religion." 
 
 By these particulars we may judge to what odious exactions the 
 magistrates of these districts were accustomed to subject the Vau- 
 dois. Permitted to escape with impunity, and perhaps encouraged 
 in their proceedings, because of the injury which they did to the 
 
 > There were eight of them who were thus treated.— These particulars are derived 
 from a document on stamped paper, entitled Minute de requite pour presenter au 
 roi, laquelle n'a pas ite presence. It is in the Archives of the Bishopric of 
 Pignerol. 
 
 - Memoire des persecutions pour notre sainte religion, qui me sont arriiees depuis 
 le mois d'aoUt en Vannie 1708, que le roi de Sardaigne arec les alliis, ont con- 
 quis notre pays de Pragella.— These memoirs were written by an elder of the 
 church of Suchieres, named Jacob Perron.— For brevity's sake, I shall henceforth 
 quote them as Memoires de rerron.—Thia MS. was communicated to me by 
 M. Lombard-Odier, of Geneva, whose family had in 1730 received into their housa 
 the exiled author, who left them this memorial. 
 
 Protestants, they went about the work with all the more zeal, as 
 they contrived to make it serviceable to their own interests. " The 
 registrar," says Perron, " added, that if this money was not given 
 to him, he would come and take our furniture out of the house. 
 My father replied that he had done no wrong nor harm to any one 
 —that he had no money— that they might come and take away 
 his furniture if they would, but as for his reUgion, he would never 
 
 forsake it." 
 
 At this time, moreover, great distress reigned in these valleys.1 
 The famine was so great, that unhappy people, who had neither 
 home nor food, might be seen wandering about the country, trying 
 to support life on the herbs that grew in the fields.^ Monks, 
 Jesuits, and missionaries of every denomination took advantage of 
 this state of things to obtain from them promises of becoming 
 Catholics, in exchange for a little money or a morsel of bread.^ 
 
 There was even a plan formed for systematically turning the 
 misei-able circumstances of the country to account in this way, by 
 united and concerted measures.* All the parish priests received 
 suppHes of money, which were destined exclusively for the relief 
 of those who had become Catholics, and were refused to the Pro- 
 
 But at the same time that the Vaudois of Pragela were violently 
 dispersed thi-ough Piedmont, their brethren, who desired to settle 
 in Turin, were driven from it.^ The Protestant schools of the 
 valleys of the Cluson and the Doire were now also shut up; and 
 the public services of the Reformed religion were formally pro- 
 hibited.6 The people of Pragela reclaimed against this prohibition. 
 
 ^BappoH du ti-iste Hat des Eglises du Pragela et des anciennes vallSes ; dated 
 1st June, 1714. (Archives of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, 
 
 register S, p. 2oS.) ^«. « 
 
 2 Letter of Reynaudin to the Genevese pastors; 15th June, I714.-Same source, 
 p 260.-This Reynaudin was then pastor at Bobi. In 1689, when still only a 
 student, he left the academy of Basle, to follow the expedition of Arnaud the 
 narrative of which was written by him. ' Same documents. 
 
 « Plan, per conteriere ne limUi, gV eretici; impedire a loro progresst; ajutare le 
 conversioni, e sostenere li conveHiti. It is here proposed, amongst other things, to 
 give to each parish priest, 600 Uvres annually, in order to give marriage portions 
 to fifteen girls who shall have become Catholics, to pay the taxes and debts ot the 
 converts— to obtain divers exemptions in their favour, &c (Archives ot 
 
 Turin. No. of series, 247.) . ... 
 
 * Projetto di reale biglietto, pel vicario di ToHno, nel concernente t rdtgwnartu 
 (Archives of Turin. Series 512.)-This paper contains notice of a multitude of 
 restrictions imposed upon the residence and commerce of Protestant strangers in 
 
 the capital. .... . i i. 
 
 « P^quete des habUant^ du Pragela. (Without date; but it must have been in 
 
 1714 or 1715. ) Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol. 
 
 Vol. II. ^^ 
 
242 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Third. 
 
 Chap. 3tVII.] 
 
 VEXATIOUS PROHIBITIONS. 
 
 243 
 
 M 
 
 The reply to their petition was a prohibition against holding even 
 private meetings. " It having been represented to us," ^ said Victor 
 Amadeus, " that clandestine meetings are frequently held in the 
 valleys of Oulx, Exiles, Cezane, Bardoneche, and Pragela, .... 
 we prohibit the religionaries of these districts from assembling in 
 numbers of more than ten persons, whether of the one or the other 
 sex, in any place or on any pretext whatever, except in the meet- 
 ings of municipal councils. The transgressors of this order shall 
 be punished by a fine of one hundred crowns of gold, for the first 
 ofience, and by ten yeai*s of the galleys for the second. Women 
 guilty of the like infraction, shall incur a fine of twenty crowns of 
 gold, for the fii-st ofi*ence, and a punishment of two hours of the 
 pillory for the second." ^ 
 
 This edict was published in Pragela, on the 7th of February* 
 1716. It is impossible to tell in what a multitude of instances it 
 was made a pretext, by a servile magistracy and a malevolent 
 clergy, for public or secret acts of oppression, underhand vexation, 
 and annoyance of every possible description. " It has been proved," 
 say subsequent instructions for proceedings at law, " that in the 
 stable of Peter Ronchail, there were twelve persons assembled, men 
 and women, without reckoning the little children and three women 
 who were before the door." ^ Thereupon followed report, denuncia- 
 tion, official petition, the officers of justice sent down to the spot, 
 imprisonments, advocates' fees, condemnation, the ruin of the 
 family, the dispersion of its members, who went into exile to avoid 
 the galleys or the pillory, the abandonment of children left to 
 perish of want, and the triumph of the persecutor — Popery. In 
 vain was it urged that amongst the twelve persons denoimced, there 
 were a beggar woman to whom alms had just been given, and three 
 childi-en of a nearly related family, who were playing with their 
 little cousins Ronchail, also a sick woman visited by two of her 
 neighbours : all these representations went for nothing with the 
 judges. Peter Ronchail, a man bowed down with age, was con- 
 demned to two years' imprisonment; his brother Stephen, to three 
 blows of the strapado; and the whole family collectively to the 
 costs of process, and a fine of one hundred crowns of gold for each 
 
 » By the intendant of Pigaerol, under the influence of the council, whose mem- 
 bers were guided by the clergy of the city, who themselves were instigated by the 
 Jesuits of Pragela. 
 
 2 Given at La Venerie, 1st February, 1716. Signed Victor Amedee; counter- 
 
 Bigned Lanfranqui. 
 
 3 Substance dea iclaircissements donnes sur lesdiU articles, par M. le president 
 B&i'da, dans sa lettre H S. M. du ISth JuUlet, 1727. (A paper in the Archives of 
 State at Turin. No. of series, 530 bis.) 
 
 member.* This is an example of the way in which those very 
 Vaudois were now treated, whose fidelity Victor Amadeus II. had 
 so often praised. It shows, also, what fruits the edict of 1st Feb- 
 ruary, 1716, was destined to bear. 
 
 Thus prevented from conducting the exercises of their religion 
 in any way, either in public assemblies or in private houses, the in- 
 vincible Christians of Pragela resumed their Sabbath-day pilgi'im- 
 ages to the churches of Maccl and Le Pomaret. They did not 
 scruple to take long journeys in order to be present at the religious 
 assemblies of their brethren, to whom the ancient edicts of the 
 house of Savoy guaranteed the free exercise of their religion. But 
 they were soon deprived of this resource likewise, through the insti- 
 gation of the clergy, always possessed of great power over the coun- 
 cil of Pignerol.- A few French Protestants, whom the Duke of 
 Savoy had specially retained in his new dominions, obtained, as a 
 favour, notes, authorizing their admission into the place of woi-ship 
 at Le Pomaret. But, upon various pretexts, these notes were 
 afterwards withdrawn from most of them.' The prohibition was 
 then renewed against the Yaudois working on the Catholic festival 
 days.* They petitioned again, and obtained liberty to work on 
 these days with tlieir doors shut, or in their fields, if they should re- 
 ceive permission from the local judge.^ These were but new open- 
 ings for arbitrary tyranny, and new opportunities for vexation on 
 the most frivolous pretences. 
 
 The people of Pragela now sent a deputy to Geneva,*^ to ask 
 counsel and protection. Switzerland, in its turn, had recourse to 
 
 ' This sentence is of date 4th June, 1727; but as the facts correspond with the 
 edict of 1716, I have thought it right to state them here, as an immediate conse- 
 quence of that edict. 
 
 2 The following is the series of papers relative to these facts : — I. (Of date, 
 31st March, 1717) — Petition of the procurator-general, that the Protestants of Le 
 Pomaret may be forbidden to admit Catholics to their exercises of worship. — 
 II. (Of date, 2d April) — Bescript of Victor Amadeus, in accordance with this 
 demand. — III. (Of date, 30th April) — Petition of the refugees who had been per- 
 mitted to reside in the valleys. — IV. Biglietto Regio, by which they were allowed 
 to go to the Vaudois place of worship, upon obtaining a written permission for 
 themselves, individually, from the governor of Pignerol. — V. New order (of date, 
 8th May), prohibiting the reception of the Protestants of Pragela in the place of 
 worship at Le Pomaret. — VI. Proclamation of the council, callling attention to all 
 these measures, and dated 28th May. (Extracted from the records of the old 
 superior Council of Pignerol, and from the Archives of Turin.) 
 
 3 Especially because they had been settled in Pragela before the treaty of 
 Utrecht. 
 
 ♦ Rescript of 14th July, 1718. (Archives of Le Villar, vol. Religionarii, fol. 176.) 
 » Rescript of 9th August, 1718.— This paper is in the form of a biglietto regio in 
 
 the Archives of Turin, and of simple Instructions to the intendant of Pignerol, in 
 
 the Archives of that city. 
 
 « He arrived there in February, 1719, and went thence to Zurich. 
 
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. [pahtThtro. 
 
 244 
 
 the intercession of Holland and of England.' Some insignificant 
 concessions were obtained,^ but the relief was only "'O^^"^^- 
 At last a new order,' more seyere than the precedmg, absolutely 
 interdicted the Reformed religion. But human hearts could not 
 be closed like places of woi-ship, and the proscribed religion, not- 
 withstanding all the impediments with which it was surrounded 
 wa. continually springing up anew in exercises secretly contacted 
 in the woods or in cottage^like those vivacious plants which, if 
 pressed down by a stone, grow afresh in the course of a night 
 throuch any ci-evice which remains; and whose vigorous shoots, con- 
 tinually sprouting up, fill every chink which they can find, and 
 need notlung but a little air to make them gieen and luxuriant. 
 
 The pastors of the other Vaudois valleys were also repeatedly 
 prohibited from admitting any stranger into their places o^^f^'l?' 
 the object of this prohibition being to banish their brethren of 
 Pra^ela from their congregations. The most urgent petitions 
 against this regulation were in vain addressed by the Vaudois to the 
 soverei-n:^ their adversaries met them with arguments to the oppo- 
 site efi-^t;" fanaticism was aroused, severities were contmued and 
 finally, aU the inhabitants of the valleys acquired by the treaty of 
 Utrecht, were ordered to have their children bapt zed m the Church 
 of Rome, twenty-four hours after their birth, under penalty of two 
 huS^ed'livres of fine for each contravention.' The Vaud^s in 
 vain sent up new petitions: they received no relief nor consolation 
 except from forei^ Protestants.' The civU code, promulgated in 
 1723, under the title of the Fiedmontese Cons^tfutons, sanctioned 
 all the iniquitous orders against which they protested," and their 
 new supplications were less regarded than the former. 
 
 But these indefatigable defenders of Uberty of conscience sent to 
 Geneva, at this time, a young man of their valley, that he might 
 
 . Letter of 6th February, 1719. (AroUves ot the Pastors of Geneva, register S, 
 
 "•/SI June, 1720; instructions to the Senate of Pignerol, to be indulgent 
 
 towards the Vaudois. 
 
 » Of date 17th July, 1720. 
 
 (Arf "es of the'court.) A long and wearisome ^'-'^--^'.^.^rthfreiTof 
 ' Decree of the Court of Pignerol, passed on 21st AprU, 1721, on tue report 
 
 ^'^Cmr^is, they received 500 florin, fron, the miloon chu,.h^^ 
 MiddStag, where one of the sons of Henry Amaud was then pastor.- 9th Janu 
 arv 1722.— (Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. T, p. i-u.) 
 ^'S« the tenth chapter ; also pp. 25, 605, J«. of the 4to edition. 
 
 Chap. XVII.] 
 
 AN INIQUITOUS LAW. 
 
 245 
 
 prepare himself for the ministry of the gospel, eventually to come 
 and preach amongst them the word of God. They hoped that, 
 not being of foreign birth, he might be permitted to exercise his 
 peaceful functions in his own country, as was the case in the other 
 Vaudois valleys. ^ They did not foresee that, before the termina- 
 tion of his studies, the church for which he was intended would 
 have terminated her own long course of sufferings and desperate 
 
 conflicts. 
 
 Proselytism redoubled its efforts to overthrow this church, now 
 indeed almost destroyed already, but by no means conquered. A 
 law had been obtained to the effect, that any cliild of Vaudois 
 parents embracing Catholicism should be entitled, although his 
 parents were still alive, to enforce a claim to that portion of inheri- 
 tance which would have fallen to him after their death.2 From 
 this arose a multitude of intrigues in order to draw away children 
 from the religion of their family, that legal proceedings might then 
 be instituted in their name against their own parents, for the 
 division of the property which belonged to these parents, to the 
 impoverishment of the Vaudois families. It is easy to imagine 
 what troubles, disorders, and heartburnings, must have resulted 
 from these iniquities. 
 
 Contemporaneously, however, with all this fierce zeal, there were 
 also remarkable acts of disinterestedness, especially on the part of 
 those simple and warm-hearted persons, who, even amidst the doings 
 of Popery, still fixed their eyes upon the charity of Clirist. In 
 1724, for example, there were already eighty young Vaudois girls, 
 mostly belonging to the valleys of Perouse and Pragela, who, 
 having become Catholics, were provided with marriage portions 
 at the expense of their new church.^ 
 
 But, at the same time, Protestant notaries were forbidden to 
 receive the testamentary deeds of Catholics, and Catholics were for- 
 bidden to sell their lands to Protestants beyond the tolerated 
 limits.* The order, also, to the industrious Vaudois, to do honour 
 
 > The name of the deputy sent from Pragela to Geneva, to obtain the admission 
 of the young Pragelan into the academy of that city, was Borel. (He arrived 
 there on 21st March, 1723. A commission was appointed on the 14th to examine 
 his proposal. The report was favourable. The name of the student thus admitted 
 was Guyot. He arrived at Geneva on the ith of June, and did honour to his 
 benefactors.) Borel obtained also from the Bernese government, the foundation 
 of a bursary, in the academy of Lausanne, for another student from Pragela. (See 
 the Records of the Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. T, pp. 247-250, 258, 307, 
 315, 335, 405, 431, &c.) « Constit., p. 25. 
 
 8 Mandatory of the vicar-general of the archbishopric of Turin, dated 18th 
 January, 1724. (Printed.) — [Perhaps some readers may, like the Translator, be 
 inclined to a view of this fact, not quite so favourable as that of the author.] 
 
 * Biglietto regio, al Senate di Pinerolo, 27Lh Jime, 1724. 
 
246 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thibd. 
 
 Chap. XVII.] 
 
 CONTINUED PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 24t 
 
 to the popish festivals by an unproductive idleness, was seveml times 
 repeated. I It is evident how easily they could thenceforth be an- 
 noyed on many futile pretexts. The following is an example :— " In 
 1726," says Jacob Perron in his memoirs, " on the eve of the day 
 which Catholics call the Ftte-Dim;^ and on which they are accus- 
 tomed to plant little leafy boughs in front of their houses, the parish 
 priest of Suchieres came and said to me, in presence of two wit- 
 nesses, that he had orders from the king (which was not true) to 
 cause me to adorn my house like the Catholics. He added that 
 those of our religion did it, as they ought, in the other villages 
 through which the procession passed, and that if I did not do it 
 he would make the chatelain acquainted with it, that he might 
 inform against me." Perron refused thus to do what implied a 
 consent in ceremonies which his religion condemned, and legal pro- 
 ceedin'^3 were speedily commenced against him. He was cited 
 before°the governor of Fenestrelle, and with difficulty made his 
 escape from the soldiers who were sent to take him prisoner. 
 
 We find Messrs. Friquet and Gonnet also setting forth in a let- 
 ter,3 that, on the 7th of the month of March (1726), they, with 
 others to the number of twelve persons, being assembled to keep a 
 fast, were seen by the parish priest, who wrote to the court, from 
 which, in course of a few days, orders were issued to the senate of 
 Pignerol to inquire into the matter; which having been done, 
 they were apprehended by order of the senate, and conveyed to the 
 prisons of Pignerol, where they were detained for five weeks, and 
 afterwards condemned to pay a fine of 100 crowns of gold each, 
 besides the expense of their detention, which amounted to 900 
 Hvres. They add that they had not transgressed any edict of 
 their sovereign, as there were only a small number of persons 
 assembled, and solely for the purpose of prayer; that they had pre- 
 sented a petition to the King of Sardinia to be acquitted of that 
 exorbitant fine, but that their petition had been remitted to the 
 procurator-fiscal of Pignerol, the same who had already prosecuted 
 the case against them ; and that thus they had no recourse but to 
 the charity of their brethren. "M. L^ger,"* it is added, "states 
 that these persons are truly worthy of consideration, and that there 
 does exist an edict of the King of Sardinia, forbidding the inhabi- 
 tants of Pragela to assemble in any greater number than ten per- 
 
 » 2d July, 1721 ; 12th May, 1724, &c. 
 
 * [When the mass is carried in triumphal procession.] 
 
 » Dated from Les Traverses, in Pragela, 5th June, 172G. What is here said is 
 Terhally extracted from the Records of the Venerable Company of Pastors of 
 Geneva, vol. v. p. 198. Sitting of 21st June, 1726. 
 
 • Pastor at Geneva. 
 
 Bons;^ but that this had been understood to mean heads of fami- 
 lies, because there are in these valleys families whose members 
 exceed this number; and in the meeting in question, although 
 there were twelve persons, there w«re only eight heads of families." 
 But these considerations, however reasonable, were of no weight 
 with the persecutors; and for the least act of prayer which the 
 inhabitants of Pragela were discovered to make together — for read- 
 ing a few pages of the Bible in their families — they were treated 
 
 as criminals. 
 
 A great number of details might be added to the instances 
 already adduced; and although these details are sometimes insig- 
 nificant, they serve to show, more perfectly than official documents, 
 the condition in which the Vaudois of this valley were then placed, 
 and the vexations to which they were exposed. Thus, in course of 
 that same year, 1726, we find a memorial of the senate of Pignerol 
 setting forth to the sovereign, " That the Iieretics, although obliged 
 to have their children baptized by the parish priests in virtue of 
 the decree of 21st April, 1721, nevertheless bring them up in the 
 Protestant faith ; and that the senate therefore proposes, in order 
 to repress these intolerable abuses — 1. To have the children taken 
 from their parents and the charge of their education committed to 
 Catholic congregations.^ 2. To set aside the edict of 12th May, 
 1679 (emanating from Louis XIV.), which pronounces the punish- 
 ment of death against relapsed persons, and which could not be 
 applied to a whole population; and to put in force the decree of 7th 
 May, 1685 (emanating from the council of state), which absolutely 
 prohibits the public or private profession of any religion but the 
 Catholic."- 
 
 About the same time the same senate, of its own authority, 
 extended to all the parishes of the Val Perouse the prohibition 
 previously addressed to that of Le Pomaret,* against admitting any 
 of the inhabitants of the Val Cluson into the Protestant places of 
 worship, under pain of banishment for the pastors, and confiscation 
 of goods for the elders of the church.^ The Vaudois replied by a 
 petition, in which they advanced strong arguments, and set forth 
 that the elders and pastors could not perform the functions of a 
 police force at the place of worship, and could not know every indi- 
 
 » Tlie edict of 1st February, 1716. 
 
 ' [i.e., religious societies or confraternities.] 
 
 3 This memorial fills nine folio pages. It is entitled liemontrance. — It has no 
 date, but it is placed according to the date of its reception at Turin, 8th January, 
 1726. (Archives of the Court. No. of series, 493.) 
 
 ♦ Rescript of 2d April, and manifesto of 28th May, 1717. 
 
 * Rescripts of the Senate of Pignerol, of dates 14th May and 15th June, 172G. 
 
24:8 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pam Third. 
 
 Chap. XVII ] 
 
 PETER RONCHAIL. 
 
 249 
 
 vidual who entered their meetings.^ But the advocate-fiscal of 
 Turin decided in accordance with the rescripts of the council of 
 Pigneroi;- and the arbitrary prohibitions of that body were main- 
 tained in force, with the excessiA^e punishment attached to them.^ 
 
 Next year Cyprian Appia, the pastor of St. John, was prosecuted 
 for having baptized the child of an inhabitant of FenestreUe, named 
 Simon Rochette. This process proved a very tedious one. The 
 pastor was condemned to banishment, with confiscation of goods; 
 but Mr. Edges, the English ambassador at the court of Tui-in, ob- 
 tained his pardon. " I wish it to be particularly understood," said 
 Victor Amadeus upon this occasion, "that it is not at all out of 
 regard for the Yaudois, but from personal respect for the ambassa- 
 dor, that this pardon is gi-anted." Yet these Yaudois, according to 
 the language of the same prince twenty years before, were the most 
 faithfiU friends of his adversity, the props of his throne, the well- 
 beloved and trusty of his gi'ateful heart. But Popery had veiled 
 from his sight these recollections of the past, and put distrust and 
 severity in their place. The more intolerance that its demands 
 produced, the more did it still demand. 
 
 The priests of Pragela complained that the inhabitants of that 
 valley did not attend mass; that they did not observe the Catholic 
 festivals ; that they contracted marriage within the degrees forbid- 
 den by the church;* and that they buried their dead without the 
 assistance of the priests. They therefore demanded the exercise o: 
 further severities against them.^ To understand some of these 
 things, it must be borne in mind that the Protestants were prohi- 
 bited from having inclosed burying-grounds,^ and that the family 
 of a deceased person, in order not to leave his remains in a place 
 exposed to all soi-ts of profanations, often preferred to bury in some 
 private property. The Yaudois were also forbidden to assemble in 
 greater number than six persons for a funeral procession;^ and these 
 prohibitions gave occasion for incessant annoyances. 
 
 » The petitions of the Yaudois were never dated till 1827, with very few 
 exception^ « On 14th September 1726 
 
 3 By royal letters of 28th October and 22d December, 1726. Quoted in the 
 
 Instructions of 20th June, 1730. , . , , « 
 
 ♦ Anche U terzo grado di consanguinUa. [Within the third degree of consan- 
 
 cruinity.] ,, . 
 
 * I do not know the date of their petition, and have only seen the report upon 
 this petition prepared by the Abbe di Barolo. It is dated 12th September, 1726, 
 and is a MS. of 10 foUo page8.-{Turin, Civil Archives, series 494.)-The con- 
 clusions of the report are favourable to the petition, and even rexer to other 
 documents of the same nature previously presented. 
 
 « In virtue of the edicts of 2d July, 1618, and 25th June, 1620. 
 
 ' By the edict of 5th February, 1698, relative to the Vaudois of Saluces. 
 
 In 1727 the prosecutions already mentioned took place against a 
 Pragelan family. " On the 9th of the month of March," says a 
 report by Mr. Edges, the representative of Great Britam, who 
 took a warm interest in these poor suffering people,^ "Father 
 Andr6, the chaplain of Le Laux, in the Yal Cluson, entered the 
 house of Peter Pvonchail, with a scrjeant, to see how many people 
 were there, and what they were doing. ^ You see, Sir,' said that 
 worthy man, ' there are some attending to the cattle, others are 
 doing nothing, and the childi-en are amusing themselves with their 
 sports.' There were eight of the family. There was also a beggar wo- 
 man, to whom had been given a porringer of soup; and there were 
 the sister-in-law of BonchaU, and a female cousin of his. Neverthe- 
 less, proceedings were instituted, a condemnatory sentence was pro- 
 nounced, and this family was ruined." On the other hand, persons 
 guilty of more serious offences were pardoned if they abjured their 
 reUgion,2 as if it had not even increased theii' guilt thus to make 
 their conscience an article of traffic. 
 
 Exposed to so much intolerable injustice, the poor Yaudois of 
 Pragela began to remove from their afflicted country. Those who 
 were owners of lands let them, or transferred them to relatives 
 who might send the rents to them abroad. Thus, at the cost of 
 voluntary exile, they purchased that liberty of conscience which 
 they held so dear. But even of this sad expedient for relief from 
 oppression, their oppressors soon endeavoured to deprive them. " If 
 your majesty," said the enemies of the Yaudois to Yictor Amadeus, 
 " would be pleased to ordain that all the property of those who 
 leave the country without your permission should be confiscated, it 
 would be an excellent means of retaining these people within the 
 happy dominions of your majesty."^ What language, and what 
 
 morality ! 
 
 Particular indignation was manifested against all who did any- 
 thing to favour emigrations, or the return of Catholics to Protes- 
 tantism; and it may well be deemed surprising that any such 
 conversions should have taken pla«e amidst the dangers with which 
 they w^ere surrounded. But those who became converts in such 
 circumstances gave all the greater proof of the strength of their 
 
 « The report is dated 30th June, 1727, and is addressed to the Marquis of 
 St. Thomas, minister of foreign affairs in Piedmont. (Turin, Civil Archives, 
 series 530 bis.) 
 
 2 Memoria escUtamente racoltasi, da registri e relazione esistenti nelV u^zio della 
 
 grande cancellaHa, &c A paper dated from Turin, 26th August, 1727. 
 
 (Civil Archives, series 496.) 
 
 » The document is dated Suza, 8th January, 1728, and signed Perron, surgeon- 
 major of the regiment of Rhehinder, — This surgeon was an apostate, the first 
 cousin of Jacob Perron, the author of the memoirs which I have quoted. 
 Vol. u. 92 
 
250 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALTS. 
 
 [Pjbt Tbi»d. 
 
 CrliP. XVIII.] 
 
 DISTRESS AMONGST VATJDOIS. 
 
 251 
 
 convictions.' A minister of Pragela, named Perron having^- 
 ceived the charge of souls in the parish of O"^'^' '^^*^«7^'^;;T 
 proceeded to do°the wk of an evangelist - ^is neighbo^W^ 
 We are not aware what treatment he received, but in a letter by 
 the parish priest of Pontverre= we find the following words- 1 
 do not think that he wUl have the insolence to come agam to teach 
 his doctrines in my parish."^ The same priest expresses grea in- 
 dignation against the people of Caronge, "who, says he, with a 
 mSce mor^ than mortal, make it their business to supply the 
 dresses of laymen to monks and priests who go to ''P««t^t'^« J" *f^ 
 city of Geneva, that unhappy Samaria,' . • •,-.,. 
 gates of Switzerland were besieged at once by those who wished 
 to change and by those who wished to retain their religion. For 
 this bXSese classes sacrificed their countiy and their posses- 
 sions. But they acquired a surer inheritance m heaven 
 
 Many Vaudois had already emigrated. A new edict of Victor 
 Amadeus bore that in a Protestant family, of which either the 
 father or the mother became a CathoUc, all the children must be 
 brought up Catholics.' A further demand was very soon made for 
 the simple annulling of all the edicts on which fe privileges of the 
 Vaudo^depended,^ except that of 1694, to which Holland and Eng. 
 land had been parties. But these powers had made no stipulation for 
 the preservation of the Vaudois church in Pragela, and Louis XI V . 
 insisted that it should be destroyed. The powerful influence of the 
 clergy was exerted for the same object. A young woman of whom 
 the aV^ed monarch was enamoured,' united her voice with that of 
 the persecutors. Victor Amadeus suffered himself to be Ifrsuadcd 
 as it were, with regret, to the adoption of one after another of al 
 the intoler^t measures which were brought into operation agamst 
 
 this inoffensive people. • x- 
 
 Each of these measures was followed by some new emigra ions 
 The Vaudois of Pragela were destroyed by degrees; they did not 
 disappear aU at once, but, Uke the snows of their own mountams- 
 
 , „ . In the bailiwick of GaiUard, in S»Toy. 
 
 :S;iS':n8S, im. (Tunn. Civii A^oMves, seric 508.) 
 
 .]^tterof«h JiUy 1727 (Sa-^^^^^^^^^^^ entitled, 7!^^, to il,, 
 
 » Bij,hctto Wto, of 17th July, 17_28,q«^«^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ' rTurin Civil Archives, series 459.) nH..h^o 
 
 mf, circa a capo da aggiun<;ere aUe cM,^,m. a n»u«^^ ^„t^-l,^7:^ 
 di capo ptr Vaggiunta alU coaituz>on^ &o (S^mo «>""«• " 
 
 and 471.) , . . , i 
 
 ' Victor Amadeus was then more than sixty years old. 
 
 which insensibly diminish in depth till they cease to cover the Boil, 
 and melt away without the eye being able to observe the progress 
 of the change — this chm-ch, within whose bounds synods were 
 once held of 150 pastors, which at a later period reckoned eighty 
 places of public worship, which was afterwards reduced to mere 
 private religious meetings, and was at last entirely deprived of the 
 preaching of the gospel, gradually died away, and was extinguished, 
 recovering life at the least breath of liberty, but only to be more 
 and more weakened by oppression, until it disappeared, to be seen 
 no more. 
 
 It now remains only to relate the last attacks to which it was 
 subjected, the sufferings which it endured, and the zeal which the 
 greater number of its children displayed, preferring exile rather 
 than to abandon their faith. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA AND THE 
 
 ADJACENT VALLEYS. 
 
 EIGHTH PERIOD. — EXTINCTION OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH 
 
 IN PRAGELA. 
 
 (A.D. 1729x0 A.D. 1733.) 
 
 Famine of 1729 — Base advantage taken of it for the advancement of the work of 
 proselytism — Conversation between a Vaudois and a Jesuit — Edict of 20th June, 
 1730 — Immorality of the persecuting king — Instances illustrative of the perse- 
 cution — The case of Jacob Perron — Many go into exile — Attempts to prevent 
 emigration — ^Victor Amadeus resists the remonstrances of the Eang of Prussia 
 — Continued annoyances to which the Vaudois are subjected, and especially 
 those who had been baptized in the Church of Rome — Trials and difficulties 
 of the Vaudois pastors — Tracer of lingering Protestantism in Pragela — ^Burning 
 of Bibles there iu 1838. 
 
 In 1729, the Vaudois suffered great distress' — foreign assistance 
 alone preserved them from starvation.^ The popish congregations 
 and ecclesiastics, who pursued in Piedmont the work de eoctir- 
 panclis Iw&i'eticis, eagerly took advantage of these circumstances of 
 
 * See on this subject a memorial by the minister Leger, inserted in the Records 
 of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. X. pp. 173, et seq. 
 
 ' Ten thousand florins from Holland, and 14,000 Piedmontese livres, from what 
 quarter is not stated. (Memorial above quoted.) 
 
252 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tutbi>. 
 
 affliction, iucreasing theii- efforts to persuade the poor people to 
 chancre their religion, offering to relieve their wants, but putting a 
 priceVn their benefactions. Theirs was not the loving-kmclness 
 and disinterested charity of the gospel; it was not even the noble- 
 mindedness of the Pagan, who, feeling that he was a man, would 
 deem nothing that interested humanity foreign to his regard 
 -it was the narrow-minded but active zeal of sectaries, who have 
 never failed to turn a question of fraternity into a question of 
 party, designating by the name of conversions their mere party 
 triumphs. The charity which loves and embraces all-which bears 
 and excuses evei7thing-was utterly unknown to them; as they too 
 abundantly proved, by incessant accusations of the Vaudois who 
 continued faithful to their principles, by odious insinuations against 
 them and perfidious denunciations. , , „ ^ r 
 
 These poor people were accused, without trial, of aU sorts ot 
 faults. InfideUty— corruption— the disrespect shown to pnests-- 
 the ne-lect of public religious services-the indifference manifested 
 in the matters of offerings, ex-votos, and enrolment of neophytes m 
 the various Catholic corporations-all these grievances were attn- 
 buted to the Vaudois. It was therefore demanded that they should 
 be excluded from every office and employment, and trom all inter- 
 course with the Catholics;^ and, as may be supposed, religious 
 meetings were proceeded against more severely than ever. 
 
 « On the second of January, 1729," says Perron in his memoirs, 
 "a Jesuit came up from Fenestrelle and came to me to speak with 
 me about religion." ^s it possible that you are so obstinate m 
 your notions]' said he. 'It is not obstinacy,' I replied; 'but my 
 salvation is dearer to me than life; and the king may cause me to 
 be cut m pieces, but I will not renounce my religion. 'Do you 
 think you have more abilities than the king]' said he-' the king is 
 a decided Catholic' 'I know very well,' replied I, 'that my 
 abilities are not to be compared with those of the king; bi^ Jesus 
 Christ said, 'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth 
 because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 hast revealed them unto babes: for so it seemed good m ^^7^^^^ 
 The Jesuit paused a moment without answering, and then he 
 exclaimed—' Is it possible that the Vaudois can have disseminated 
 such a religion in this country!' 'The Vaudois are not the 
 cause,' said I. 'And who is, then]' he a^ked. 'It is God him- 
 self who, of his great goodness, has been pleased to make the light 
 of his holy word to shine in these parts.' ' Does it not shme in 
 
 > "Homo sum, et nihil humani a me alienum piito." 
 
 « Parert sovra la tderanza degV eretici, in Piemonte. (Civil Archives, ^o. 404. J 
 
 Chap. XVIIL] 
 
 A CRUEL EDICT. 
 
 253 
 
 the Church of Rome]' 'Sir,' said I, 'I will give no ambiguous 
 answer upon that point. Jesus tells us that those who confess him 
 before men shall be confessed of him before his Father who is m 
 heaven, and that he will deny all those who deny him; and I would 
 hold myself to have renounced the gospel if I could not make an 
 unreserved appeal to its authority,for its authority alone is Divme. 
 
 I pass over other details in silence, to come to the most im- 
 portant event of all. As many streams are lost in a great inundation 
 when it breaks out, so all the particular trials which the people of 
 Pra-ela had at that time to suffer, are lost in the general catastrophe 
 in which they were destroyed. The edict of 20th June, 1730, pro- 
 mulgated under the form of Instructions for the Senate of Ptgnerol," 
 renewed aU the cruel and restrictive regulations against the Vau- 
 dois which had ever been imposed from the most ancient times. 
 It is said, in the twentieth chapter of this exceptional code, "that 
 all those who were born in the Church of Rome, or who had ab- 
 jured Protestantism, for any reason whatever, before 1G86, and who 
 had thereafter entered or returned to the Reformed Church, ought 
 to be condemned to death, in virtue of the edicts anterior to 1686 
 which declared this penalty against relapsed persons; and that, 
 moreover, all those who, being born Catholics or without the tern- 
 torial limits of the Vaudois valleys after 1694, had nevertheless 
 followed the Protestant religion, and all those who, having become 
 Catholics since 1686, had in like manner returned to Protestantism, 
 ought to incur the same penalty, to wit, the loss of life: but that, 
 by special grace and extraordinary clemency, worthy to excite the 
 perpetual admiration of grateful people, his majesty would allow 
 them to live, on condition that within six months all persons bemg 
 in the cases aforesaid, should return to CathoHcism or leave the 
 
 coimtry." ^, u ^ 
 
 The same influence which had operated upon the old age ot 
 Louis XIV. now operated upon that of Victor Amadous II.— 
 the influence of the prelates and of the Jesuits-which in both 
 courts also was augmented by the immorality of the monai'chs. 
 The analogy is remarkable even in particulars; Loms XiV. 
 received the bloody crucifix from the adulterous hands of Madame 
 de Maintenon, at whose feet he was soon to lay down the digmty 
 of his crown; and Victor Amadous II. became ciniel and bigoted, 
 under the like influence of an intriguing ambitious woman, for 
 
 1 These last words are not in the manuscript, of which, however, they merely 
 
 ^T^^t^nthas been published by BorelU.-It is in the Archives of Turin, 
 in a foUo MS. volume with this title, Instruzione a riguardo de VaXdm, 
 
25 i 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALP& 
 
 [paet TUIBU. 
 
 whose sake he soon after abdicated his throne ; ^ whom he married, 
 as the King of France had married the widow of a jester ; and 
 who caused him to be cast into prison by her intrigues,^ after 
 having dishonoured him by her prostitution.^ Such were the per- 
 secutors of the Vaudois, the adversaries of the Bible, the mortal 
 antagonists of all liberty. Vice appears prominently in the first 
 rank, rendering its support to Rome, and under the guidance of 
 Home. 
 
 "As to the inhabitants of Pragela, Salabertrans, Bardoneche, 
 and Chateau Dauphin," it was said in the Draconian code of 1730, 
 "you must consider them all publicly as Catholics, without in- 
 quiring what they think, but without suffering any religious ex- 
 ercise, other than that of the Roman religion." Moreover, the 
 French Protestants, who had settled in the Vaudois valleys since 
 1698, were ordered to depart from them within six months, and 
 prohibited from returning, under penalty of whipping for the first 
 ofience, and six years of the galleys for the second. These measures 
 immediately occasioned a great number of emigrations. But they 
 had been preceded by other acts of severity, which made it but 
 too easy to foresee the melancholy conclusion. 
 
 " In 1730," says PeiTon, in his memoirs already quoted, "towards 
 the commencement of February, the Count de la Tuille came with 
 a Jesuit and ten soldiers to the communante of Usseaux, which is 
 a league and a half from our residence. Seeing in what manner 
 our poor people were treated, I went into the valley of Lucerna, 
 where I spent seventeen days. After I had returned to my village, 
 the count, with his troop, arrived there on the 2Gth of February. 
 That evening, about nine o'clock, six soldiers came to my house, 
 and asked, 'Is it not here that Jacob Perron lives 1'— and I 
 answered from ray bed— for I had already gone to bed— 'Yes, here I 
 am, what do you want?' They said, 'Get up, and come and speak 
 to the count.* These soldiers escorted me to the priest's house, 
 where I found fifteen persons assembled, amongst whom were the 
 count, the Jesuit, and seven priests. And the Jesuit said to me, 
 * Here you are then, preacher ! for it is you that preach to the rest 
 in this country r ' Ah, Sir!' said I, 'you make your sport of me. 
 
 » On 2d September, 1730. 
 
 » During the night of 28-29fch September, 1730. 
 
 5 The pamphlets written at that period against the person here referred to, and 
 whose name I do not give, go much too far in the misconduct which they attribute 
 to her. The term which I employ might be unjust in an absolute sense, but it is 
 certain that she was too intimate with Victor Amadeus II. before the morganatic 
 marriage which united them, and must have taken place between the 4th and the 
 10th of September, 1730. 
 
 CrAP. XVlll.] 
 
 JACOB PERRON. 
 
 255 
 
 Am I capable of being a preacher? Sure enough, there is more 
 learning needed for that purpose than I possess.' ' I know what 
 I say,' he replied; 'and I can prove that you have made some of 
 your folks weep, to prevent them from changing their religion. 
 
 You have been seen going into houses,' &c Thereafter 
 
 the Jesuit said to me, 'Arc you not willing to go to mass?' And 
 I answered, 'No, Sir; neither I, nor my children. I was bom in 
 my religion, and by the help of God, I mean to die in it.' At these 
 words, the reverend father gave me a blow with his fist on the 
 stomach, and said to the count, 'You see how this rascal answers 
 me ! ' Then he said to the soldiers, ' Take this man away to prison, 
 and drive him along very hard.' ' Sir,' said I, ' it is better to sufier 
 for well-doing if such is the will of God, than to live' . . . But 
 the soldiers forced me out and conducted me to prison, driving me 
 along very hard, as the Jesuit had said, so that they threw me four 
 times down on the ground, before I arrived there." 
 
 He was imprisoned, near the convent, in an apartment the door 
 of which was barricaded with bars stretched across, bound together 
 by cords ; and a guard of soldiers was placed over him. " On the 
 day following," says he, " the canon Ponsat came and said to me, 
 <Are you always the same obstinate manf 'Truth has not 
 changed since yesterday,' said I. 'Take carel' said he; 'you will 
 be pimished in an exemplary manner. Think of your wife who is 
 near her confinement. Your children are young and not healthy. 
 If you die, what will become of your family 1 ' ' God is the widows' 
 stay and the orphans' father,' I replied. ' Let them make of me 
 what they please! Nothing can happen but according to his will; 
 but it is needless to speak to me of changing my religion, for I will 
 never do it.' ' If such is youi' resolution,' said he, ' I have nothing 
 more to say to you,' and upon this, he withdrew. 
 
 "Next day, being the 1st of March, 1730, about ten* o'clock in 
 the morning, the Count de la Tuille came and caused me to be 
 brought out. 'Are you always to remain obstinate as to your 
 religion?' said he. 'Sir, I assure you that it is not obstinacy,' I 
 replied, ' for as to any other thing' . . 'Enough!' said he; 
 'make your arrangements for leaving the country between this 
 time and to-morrow; and if you are not out of the village with 
 your family to-morrow morning, by ten o'clock, I will have you 
 made fast in a place from which you will not get out.' And I 
 answered, ' Farewell, Sir ! since you order me to go, there is 
 an end of it — I will go.' I went to my house to get some luggage 
 packed up, and next day at ten o'clock, I was ready to start. 
 Two beasts carried our baggage, but neither my wife nor my 
 
256 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Tkibp. 
 
 Chap XVIIl ] 
 
 EXTENSIVE EMIGRATIONS. 
 
 257 
 
 children could go on horseback, because of the bad weather and 
 bad roads, for there was a great deal of snow. And the Jesuit 
 came to my house and said, 'O! it is all a joke! whither would 
 you go, with your ^vife so near her confinement, and your weakly 
 children, at this time of the year and in such weather 1 Stay in 
 your own house, and if you keep within doors, you will be left 
 undisturbed.' And he ordered two men who were with me to 
 unload the beasts. But their object was to detain me till my 
 wife's confinement, that they might have the infant baptized as a 
 Catholic, and force us all to go to mass, thinking that if my wife 
 were confined, I would not in these circumstances be able to go. 
 Therefore I repUed, ' Sir, as you and the count ha^'e ordered me to 
 go, and have already caused me to be maltreated by your soldiers, 
 I am ready and I will go.' And so saying, I set out, holding my 
 chHdren by the hand. A soldier accompanied us out of the village, 
 and that evening I rested ati, Pourrieres, which my wife had very 
 gTcat difficulty in reaching. Next morning, I set out again from 
 Pourrieres in dreadful weather, with eleven men to caiTy, guide, 
 and beat a path for my poor family. , We were the first who were 
 driven from that country by persecution in that terrible year. 
 We went by the Col de la Fenetre, where I thought I would have 
 lost all— wife, child, and life— because of the fearful weather and 
 high wind. But by the help of God I got through it, and rested 
 
 for the night at Suza." 
 
 We shall not follow him through the vicissitudes of his journey; 
 he was compelled almost constantly to have his wife and children 
 carried, because of the difficulty of the roads and the depth of the 
 snows. The dangers of the exiles were particularly great at Mount 
 Cenis, where at that time no practicable road had been formed. 
 Then' their muleteers wished to turn back. At Aiguebelle, they 
 refused to go farther. It was necessary to double their wages to 
 get them to convey the exhausted family to Geneva. Perron 
 arrived in that hospitable city on the 10th of March, 1730, and 
 his wife was delivered of a child there a few days after. " To God. 
 only wise, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be glory, dominion, and 
 power ! Amen." Such are the concluding words of the narrative 
 
 v/hich he has left us. 
 
 Sufierings, pains, and sorrows, like those of this exiled family, 
 must have° been experienced more or less by all those which fol- 
 lowed them. On the 20th of May, 1730, Victor Amadeus ordered 
 the Count de Chiusan to expel from Pmgela tJie most obdurate 
 Vaudois families— that is to say, those most attached to their reli- 
 gion. He ofiered them, however, permission to remain in their 
 
 
 native countiy, if they would promise to abjure. These families 
 were twenty-three in number ; only four availed themselves of the 
 ofiered conditions, and preferred an earthly country to a heavenly. 
 The other nineteen, composed in all of fifty-nine persons, went 
 into exile with much sorrow, but glorifying God. And the Lord 
 was indeed glorified by their sacrifice even more than by their 
 words. These proscribed families arrived at Geneva in the month of 
 June, and there received the succour needful in their circumstances. 
 They were then scattered in difierent places throughout the wide 
 canton of Berne, where some of them thenceforth remained. But 
 the greater part of them removed in course of the following year, 
 attaching themselves to the new bands of their emigrant country- 
 men, who were soon compelled to follow them into Switzerland.^ 
 
 Victor Amadeus wrote on the 6th of June to the Count de 
 Chiusan, to express his satisfaction with the execution of his ordei*s 
 of the 20th of ]May. "The effect has been," said he, " that nobody 
 has left the country, except voluntarily and without violence."^ 
 What an absurdity ! 
 
 After the promulgation of the edict of the 10th of June, 1730, 
 the number of the exiles soon became so considerable, that the 
 government itself became alarmed, and thought it necessary to take 
 measm-es to prevent the depopulation of the country. But when 
 the keeping of the frontiers was intrusted to the Vaudois militia, 
 these troops not only allowed their emigrant compatriots to pass, 
 but sometimes joined them to forsake that land of bondage. At 
 other times, when the troops were Catholics, they abused their 
 opportunity to plunder the emigrants.^ The people were then 
 forbidden to guard their own frontiers. But this order only 
 rendered it the easier for them to leave the country. Even those 
 who had yielded in their weakness to all the outward forms of an 
 abjuration which was forced upon them, beholding the courage and 
 firmness of those who had left their country rather than yield to 
 such a yoke, recovered themselves, and in more than one instance 
 followed their brethren to foreign lands, to resume along with them 
 the religious worship of their childhood, v/hich they had never 
 ceased to love. They seemed desirous to throw ofi" a sense of 
 
 » Du Tillier, Hist, de Berne; MS. vol. 109, p. 90. 
 
 2 These expressions of the letter of the 6th of June, which I have not seen, are 
 quoted and repeated in the letter of 24th June, 1730, also addressed by the king 
 to the Count de Chiusan. (Turin, Archives of the Court. Category dei VcUdesi, 
 No. 499.) 
 
 3 The order of 30th July, which withdrew these troops, had for its avowed object 
 to prevent the tfiefts and robberies which are committed under pretext of religion. — 
 Letter of the minister of the interior to the Bishop of Pignerol, dated from Le 
 Valentin, 5th September, 1730. (Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) 
 
 Vol. II. 93 
 
258 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAEt Tfliin. 
 
 •t| 
 
 degradation, by thus atoning for their apostasy by exile, and for 
 the error of a moment by the faithfulness of the rest of their life. 
 « I learn with regret," said the minister of the interior, writing 
 from Tiu-in, on the 5th of September, 1730,' "that, through a 
 false interpretation of the king's order of date the 3d of July last, 
 which forbids the communities of this province from guarding the 
 places and passes by which numbers of his subjects depart from the 
 kingdom, some new converts have eiToneously supposed that they 
 had liberty to leave the country. ... I have therefore 
 thought it necessary to have the honour to signify to you three or 
 four things which you will say to the priests of your diocese. 
 
 " 1. I have sent some detachments of troops to apprehend the 
 fugitives. The chatelains are charged to discover the guides who 
 make an infamous trade . . . of conducting the king s subjects 
 across the frontiers. When these wretches ai-e caught, I will cause 
 them to be hanged without form of trial. 
 
 " 2. I know that there are many falsehoods propagated in that 
 province . . . tending to make the religionaries believe that 
 they will be happier in foreign countries. And thus not only do 
 they expose themselves to the danger of being killed in passing 
 the frontiers, but afterwards, they cannot again come to dwell in 
 Piedmont, and above all, they render themselves guilty of violating 
 the oaths which they have sworn . . . when they embraced 
 Catholicism." 
 
 It was made a crime for them to lack faith in the Church of 
 Rome, whatever might have been the violence employed to make 
 them become members of it: and when any one would not abjure, 
 his fidelity to the religion of his deliberate choice and of his con- 
 science was also made a crime for which he perhaps lost his pro- 
 perty, his repose, and his life. Such is the equity of oppressors ! 
 All this injustice, accompanied with so much cruelty, was not 
 calculated to make the Vaudois love the persecuting church which 
 opened its arms to receive them. And, in fact, a short time after 
 the promulgation of the edict of the 20th of June, a multitude of 
 Protestant refugees made their preparations for departure from the 
 different Vaudois valleys. Six months had been allowed them to 
 abjure or leave the country, and almost all of them left it. The 
 generous intercession of their foreign protectors, and particularly of 
 the King of Prussia, was in vain employed to prevent this disaster. 
 "We have just learned with much regret," wrote Frederic 
 William I. to Victor Amadeus II.,2 " that your majesty has thought 
 proper to order your Protestant subjects of the valley of Pragela 
 > Letter just quoted. * On 25th AprU, 1730. 
 
 Chxp. XVIII.] Fr^EDERIC WILLIAM'S INTERCESSION. 259 
 
 fx)rthwith to abandon the religion which they profess, or else to 
 leave the country of their forefathers. As these poor people have 
 not committed any crime which ought to bring upon them the dis- 
 pleasui-e of your majesty, we cannot but be very sensibly moved, to 
 see them overwhelmed with so great a calamity, and almost entirely 
 plimged into misery. ... We earnestly beg of you . . . 
 that they may be permitted to remain or to return to their coun- 
 try, there to live as good and faithful subjects of your majesty.' 
 
 Victor Amadeus replied that he held the valley of Pragela in 
 virtue of the treaty of Utrecht, which imposed upon him no 
 obligation in regard to the Vaudois.^ But the King of Prussia was 
 not discouraged. "We cannot refrain from signifying to your 
 majesty," said he, "that in virtue of the edict of 23d May, 1694, 
 the Vaudois ought neither to be inquired after nor molested in any 
 way upon account of their religion. ... The common faith 
 which we profess with these poor people, and which makes us 
 regard them as our brethren in Jesus Christ, is the reason which 
 induces us . . , to entreat your majesty that they may be 
 permitted to enjoy, without interruption, all which the above- 
 mentioned edict provides in their favour. As this is the first mark 
 of friendship which we have asked of your majesty, we hope you 
 will have the goodness not to refuse it."* 
 
 "Instead of contravening the edict of 1694," replied Victor 
 Amadeus, "our edict of 20th June, 1730, considerably moderates, 
 in favour of the Vaudois who have contravened the old edicts, the 
 penalties to which they have rendered themselves liable."* " It 
 would have been exceedingly agreeable to us," said Frederic 
 Wniiam again, "if it had pleased your majesty to gmnt some- 
 thing to our intercessions. We entertained all the more hope of 
 this, because it appeared to us that the above-mentioned Vaudois 
 were included in the general provisions of the edict of 1 694. How- 
 ever, as your majesty assures us of the contrary, and it belongs 
 to yourself alone to explain the meaning of the edicts which relate 
 to the domestic affairs of your dominions, ... we still hope 
 to obtain from vour clemency what we can no longer venture to 
 expect from your justice. May it please your majesty to consider 
 with an eye of compassion and of pity the sad condition to which 
 these poor people are reduced— not for having committed crimes 
 which should have brought upon them the displeasure of your 
 majesty, but solely because they have foUowed the guidance of 
 
 ' DictBT'ic'i T) 393 
 
 2 His letter is dated from Rivoli, 10th June, 1730.-See Dkterici, p. 399. 
 
 » Dated from BerUn, 14th November, 1730.— Dietenci, 400. 
 
 * From Turin, 23d December, 1730.— Dieterici, 401. 
 
260 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tuiko. 
 
 Chap. XVIIlI 
 
 EMIGRATION PROHIBITED. 
 
 261 
 
 their piety, and therefore of the hand of the Almighty, wlio governs 
 the conscience of man, and is its sole and sovereign Lord." ^ " The 
 matter is ended," was the cold response of the King of Piedmont. 
 " I am Sony for it, but I cannot go back upon it, and I beg your 
 majesty to rest assured of my most perfect friendship."^ 
 
 In the list of the expatriated Pragelans, we find the name of 
 the notary Guyot, whose son had hoped one day to exercise the 
 functions of the gospel ministry in his native valleys, and was then 
 a student at Geneva.'^ Amongst the number of the exiles were 
 also Jacob Perron, the author of the memoirs which I have so often 
 quoted, with his young family;* with them was a poor blind man 
 of sixty years of age,'^ and the Konchail family, so cruelly ruined 
 by an iniquitous legal process — also the grave and mild old man 
 who was accustomed to conduct religious exercises at Les Tra- 
 verses, in the absence of the pastor, and whose wife became the 
 mother of a third child, on her way into exile.^ A surgeon named 
 Gonet ; Papon, an engineer ; Bert, a geometrician ; and a great 
 number of persons, torn from the labours of agricultiu'e or the 
 tending of flocks, accompanied them — all displaying the same 
 courage, and all enduring the same distresses. Before the end of the 
 year, more than eight hundred exiles had left the Vaudois valleys 
 and their native land.^ Some of them set out for Holland;^ others 
 remained in Switzerland, or passed into Germany. Those who 
 remained in Piedmont were compelled to make a public profession 
 of Catholicism; and their children, brought up in that communion, 
 became at last its sincere adherents. 
 
 But great dissension and trouble had been occasioned in families.^ 
 
 • Dated from Berlin, 17th March, 17S1. —Dieterici, 402. 
 
 • From Turin, 28th April, 1731. — In extenso, Dieterici, 403. 
 
 • One of his brothers then practised as a surgeon in that city. 
 
 • He was fifty-six years of age, and had five children ; his brother James was 
 forty-seven years of age, and had nine children. John Perron, the physician, had 
 the same number; and Claude Perron had eight. 
 
 • His name was Stephen Cantelme. 
 
 • The name of this worthy elder of Les Traverses was John Pastre; his brother 
 Thomas was accompanied by his wife and six children. 
 
 ' Etat des pauvres persecutes de la vallee de Pragela, cantonn^s au pays de 
 Vaud, sortis en 1730. — A MS. of ten folio pages. — ^Private library of the late 
 M. Appia, pastor at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. — In May, 1730, there were in the 
 canton of Berne, 360 Vaudois of Pragela (Dieterici, pp. 404-407); and towards 
 the end of the year, there were in Switzerland, 840 exiles from the "Vaudois 
 valleys. (Id. p. 414.) 
 
 ' Letter of Cyprian Appia, pastor of St. John, 3d March, 1731. — In my own 
 possession. 
 
 • Situation prisente des Eglises Vaudoises. — Report by pastor Leger (of Geneva), 
 extending from 12th May to Ist November, 1730.— Records of the Venerable 
 Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. X. p. 177. 
 
 Intestine dmsions had arisen, even amongst the pastors of the 
 vaUeys. I shaU siMSik of them in a subsequent place. 
 
 Numerous petitions were addressed to the government, to obtain 
 a ™tion of the cruel measures of the 20th of June. Bu 
 Engind and Holland, which interposed with regard to th., could 
 with difficulty obtain some insignificant concessions.^ I^fe «°"- 
 
 cessions, however, although limited ^^^-^^^^f ^*;?''^. *tm„sl 
 measures petitioned against should not be enforced with the utmost 
 expedition and severity, excited in the poor expatriated people a 
 hore that pci-secution was now at last to cease; and the love of 
 theu- country brought some of them back to their native valley. 
 An outcrrwas immediately raised that they came thither to brmg 
 ba^k heresy, and they were compelled to conform to the outward 
 ceremonies'^f Popery, under penalty of the galleys. Some jn,^"- 
 duals who had returned secretly to conclude family afi'au^s, and who 
 refused to abjure, were thrown into prison.^ 
 
 However, means as violent were used to retam the fugitives as 
 had given occasion to their departure. Contrary to the liberty of 
 retuilin-- to Protestantism, allowed by the eclicts of 1692 and 
 Tm, to those who, having abjured under the influence o coercion 
 desired to revoke their abjuration, orders were issued m 1733 that 
 iT™ who had made profession of the Komish rehgion before 
 1C86 or who, without having made such profession had been bap- 
 2aceordi;g to its rites, should remain faithful *« i , and not 
 leave the dominions of the King of Piedmont, under penalty of con- 
 fiscation of goods and of the galleys.' ., , , j 
 
 Sometimes famUies were met with in which either the husband 
 or wife did not come within the range of these measures, whilst 
 the other was threatened with their application. It wa^ sufficient, 
 for example, that an infant had received baptism m the Cathohc 
 diurch wL; newly born, in order that that event,^forgotten after- 
 wards in the constant profession of Protestantism, should serve Bs a 
 
 " The letter of the States-General of HoUand is of 7th Kovember 1730 and the 
 reni?of Viltor Amadeus II. of 2d December. The letter of the Kmg of EngUnd 
 lotrgf notot^d February, 1731. A special memorandum on fy-^^"- 
 ^arafte "ids presented by his ambassador at the court of T-n, under da^e^27th 
 April 1731 All these documents are at Turin, in the Archives of the Court. 
 
 : ^i°rm;i'T:rn1mIf Grill. A letter of 7th March, 1733. says of him, 
 
 .. He Unr^» prisoner of the Senate of Turin ^is property has b^n con. 
 
 tealed Z ll family, consisting of fifteen persons, is reduced to the mort dr^- 
 ^Itc^" (Corres^ndence of the moderator of the Vaudois church from 18th 
 SC^1733, to 4th March, 1734. A manuscript volume contaming twenty-two 
 
 ''"Sme'rJsp':n1^«"'' Letter of 12th July, addressed to M. TunetiB, rector 
 of the Academy of Geneva. 
 
262 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Thibo. 
 
 Chap. XVIU.] 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE EXILES. 
 
 263 
 
 Ii| 
 
 pretext for incessant vexations. This child might have become a 
 man, might be married, might have a family, and be the stay of a 
 new generation, but all this went for nothing: like the sword of 
 Damocles, the awful recollection of a vain ceremony, of which he 
 had no knowledge, hung suspended over his life; so that, on the 
 ground of this unfortunate baptism, received in his childhood, he 
 was tormented all the rest of liis days, and violence was done to 
 his most sacred affections. 
 
 Two mothers of families were thus situated. At first, they fled 
 from the rigour of the edict; but maternal love brought them back 
 to their families, and "so soon as they came back," says a letter from 
 the valleys,^ " they were obliged to conceal themselves. The first 
 time, their husbands sent them away again immediately.''* At 
 present, the Marquis of Angrogna has in vain exerted himself in 
 their favour. . . . Their father had changed his religion a 
 number of years before 1686; they were therefore born and baptized 
 Catholics." When they grew up, they embraced the Protestant 
 religion, but by the edict of 1730, they were required either to 
 remain in exile or to return to Popery. " Mary Ponsat (by birth 
 Danne), has done veiy wrong in coming back," adds the same 
 letter. " The vicar Danne said to her, in presence of witnesses, 
 that she had better not go to the preaching, or she would bring 
 herself into trouble, and likewise the minister" (who admitted her 
 where he officiated). "Anthony Geymet, who is also returned, is 
 in great perplexity," &c. . . . " We dare no longer assemble 
 for any business," it is said in another letter, "except in synod 
 and by express permission of his majesty, in consequence of the 
 process which has been instituted against five of our number who 
 had jnet to consult about public business."^ The greater part of 
 those who had returned to their native country, were therefore 
 compelled to leave it again. Some of them were doubly dis- 
 appointed, both by failing to find the advantages which they 
 expected in foreign lands, and by the unexpected obstacles which 
 they encountered on their return to their own. 
 
 Numbers of these unhappy emigrants, especially of those who 
 belonged to the valley of Pragela, having been so long deprived of 
 regular religious instruction, did not worthily maintain the ancient 
 reputation of the Vaudois Church which they left, or in which 
 rather they preferred to remain when they forsook their native 
 
 > Letter of 12th June, 1733. (Same correspondence.) 
 
 * It will be seen that these unhappy mothers had now returned for the second 
 time to their homes. 
 
 » Same correspondence. Letter of 24th August, 1733. 
 
 country. " There are some of them," said a letter from Beme,^ 
 " whose ignoi-ance and inconsiderateness are extraordinary. They 
 receive our alms, and then they go away home again. Most of 
 these poor people say, that if they had had this little supply in 
 the valleys, they would have lived upon it for the winter, instead 
 of spending it in travelling. I have observed in them so great an 
 ignorance, that their pastors must certainly be to blame. It would 
 be necessary for them to send us a list of those among them, who 
 stand most in need of relief Their excellencies of Berne are very 
 charitable, . . . but the committee intrusted with the affaii-s 
 of the Vaudois, is now by no means satisfied." ^ " This gentleman 
 is very hard upon us!" wrote Pastor Reynaudin, after these obser- 
 vations; " his idea of drawing up a precise and accurate report of the 
 poor of each chui'ch, could never be carried into effect, because in 
 these circumstances, every one becomes poor, and then all are in 
 want. I will not add that he is wrong in arguing from the igno- 
 rance or folly of a few to that of the general body; , . . but 
 it is easy for persons such as he, whose position is a sort of paradise 
 in comparison with ours, to find something to blame in folks like 
 us, already sufficiently pressed down by misfortune, and the weight 
 of many a heavy cross," ^ &c. . . . 
 
 But the fault found with the pastors of the valleys, related es- 
 pecially to the great number of their flocks whom they had 
 allowed to leave home, and who now were a burden on those that 
 had received them. " When I was at Berne," replied the mode- 
 rator,* "I was entirely ignorant of the departure of so great a 
 number of families. I was exceedingly grieved at meeting so 
 many of them on the road. Although our friends in Geneva had 
 written to us, that they would receive all who were in danger of 
 giving way, ... I always exhorted them to have patience, 
 and not to set out without having some certain assurance that 
 they would be received. They came to my house in a crowd, to 
 obtain attestations, which I absolutely refused, for which I have 
 been in danger of suffering at their hands. All these poor people 
 set out during my absence. A report was spread, that those who 
 had set out for Holland, had received thirty crowns each, which 
 has been an inducement to many; who, not having the means of 
 
 » Letter of M. de Frey, of 15th October, 1733. (Same correspondence.) 
 
 2 All these fragments of this letter are selected in such a manner as of themselves 
 to indicate facts, the knowledge of which is necessary to the history, but which 
 the restricted limits of this work prevent me from fully exhibiting. 
 
 ' These observations occur immediately after the letter above quoted, and are 
 written in Reynaudin's own hand. 
 
 * Same correspondence. Letter of 2d Novemlier, 173-3. 
 
^l 
 
 264j 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thibd. 
 
 subsistence, and neither choosing to beg nor to abjure, have gone 
 away upon that hope." "Others, more unprincipled— there are 
 such persons everywhere— had no other motive than their own 
 private interest, and finding themselves disappointed, they have come 
 back, with threats and outcries, to their four empty walls, which 
 they accuse the members of the consistory and the pastors of having 
 persuaded them to leave . . . This afiair has become very 
 serious ; precognitions are taken, and prosecutions threatened 
 against many innocent persons." The author of the letter begs his 
 correspondent to receive a declaration to the contrary from several 
 people, and to send him that document, legally attested. " Do not 
 lose time in sending it to me," he says; " the case is urgent, and God 
 grant that it may arrive before they take any other steps. See to 
 what we are exposed ! Moses had not more difficulties, in leading 
 the people of Israel, than we have in our parishes," &c. . . . 
 
 These quotations are sufficient to give an idea of the state to 
 which the Vaudois chiu-ch was then reduced. Deciminated by 
 proselytism, ignorance, poverty, and exile — burdened with the 
 maintenance of its own pastors and schoolmasters — full of troubles, 
 caused by the last struggles of its ancient faith, and the first as- 
 saults of that spirit of unbelief, which did it so much injury in the 
 eighteenth century — ^we shall soon see it wearying itself in fruitless 
 agitations, amidst the vicissitudes of a period characterized by the 
 want of glory and of dignity. 
 
 Here terminates the history of the Protestant Church of Pragela. 
 The senate of Turin still issued another decree to prohibit emigra- 
 tions,* wliich shows that they had not ceased at that date; but the 
 greater part of those who were resolute in their Protestantism had 
 already departed. These expatriated Vaudois mingled with those 
 who had founded the now rising colonies in Germany. The villa- 
 ges of Waldorf and Frederichsdorf, in particular, were thus increased. 
 Another portion of these exiles settled in Holland; some went to 
 America; some remained in Switzerland, especially in the Bernese 
 Oberland."^ Those who remained upon the banks of the Cluson 
 and the Doii-e, were thenceforth considered as Catholics, in virtue 
 of the instructions of 20th June, 1730, which gave the final stroke 
 to this long oppressed people. 
 
 There were a few rare exceptions— a small number of families 
 
 ' Under date 9th October, 1733. Prohibition, sotto pena corporate, a noi arU- 
 traiia, da estendei:si sino alle morte, secondo le circomtanze dellepersone e de casi, 
 oltrela conjiscazione de heni, to go out of the kingdom without special permission. 
 (Archives of Le Villar. MS. vol. Religionarii, folio 177.) 
 
 - Du Tillier, Hist dc Berne, 133, 134. Muller, HuJ. de la confederaiion tmme. 
 . contmuee par Monnard et Vuilliemin, xiv., 42. 
 
 CdAP. XVIU ] 
 
 THE BIBLE BURNED. 
 
 265 
 
 still continuing secretly attached to the doctrine of the gospel in 
 Pragela, as if to attest the previous existence of the Vaudois 
 church there. There, where the gospel had reigned, the last 
 triumph of Popery was to commit it to the flames, amidst these 
 same mountains, by the hands of priests, a century after the 
 events which have just been narrated.^ Amidst the enlighten- 
 ment of our age, Rome is still as much estranged from modem 
 civilization, as she is from the primitive church. Like the relics 
 which she adores, she is herself merely the rubbish of past times, 
 surrounded with an unmerited veneration. When we now behold 
 so many nations aspirmg after liberty, and liberty always showing 
 itself favourable to the gospel, it is impossible to believe in the 
 long duration of that degrading tyranny, which deprives man of 
 the liberty of his very conscience, and proscribes the word of God. 
 Happy are those countries in which the despotism of Popery has 
 exercised its fatal influence with no other effect than that of pro- 
 ducing martyrs I 
 
 ' Some copies of the Bible and of the Gospels were recently seized in Pragela, by 
 €atholic missionaries. These ecclesiastics resolved to destroy with their own 
 hands the Bibles which they had seized. For this purpose they prepared a pile, 
 with all the pomp of an auto-da-fS, in the garden of the priest of La Rua, and 
 there solemnly burned the Holy Scriptures. This took place on the 18th of June, 
 1838. The names of these missionaries were Grant, Marjollet, and Villien. (Note 
 communicated.) 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 94 
 
» % C- T - - glJ I -B ^a u 
 
 266 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tbiud. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS FROM THE EXPULSION 
 OF 1C98 TO THAT OF 1730 
 
 THE DUKE OF SAVOY IN THE VALLEY OF LUCERNA — ^THE 
 REPUBLIC IN THAT OF ST. MARTIN.^ 
 
 Resnlts of the edicts of expulsion— Good brouglit out of evil— Pastors obtained 
 from Switzerland— Zeal of the ministers— Loyalty of the people— Political 
 events — Disputes concerning the succession to the throne of Spain— Political 
 perfidy of Victor Amadeus— War between France and Savoy— Victor AmadeU:* 
 seeks again to win the support of the Vaudois— Services rendered to him by 
 their militia— New French refugees arrive in the valleys— Events of the war- 
 Successes of the French— Exploits of the Vaudois— The valley of St. Martin 
 becomes a republic under French protection — Brief and unfortunate existeuco 
 of the republic of St. Martin— Continued triumphs of the French— The Duke 
 of Savoy finds refuge amongst the Vaudois — He makes further efforts to con- 
 ciliate them— Final defeat of the French at Turin— The Duke of Savoy regains 
 possession of his lost territories — Further progress of the war— Treaty of 
 Utrecht — Afflicted condition of the Vaudois, after the terminatiou of the war 
 — The Vaudois subjected to many vexations, through the influence of the Pro- 
 paganda—Expulsion of Protestants of foreign birth, in 1730— Religious and 
 moral condition of the Vaudois at this period. 
 
 In virtue of tLe edict of 1st July, 1698, all the French refugees, 
 exiled by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, who had retired 
 into the Vaudois valleys, on the express invitation of Victor Ama- 
 deus II.,- were obliged to quit that asylum, and proceeded, along 
 with a portion of the native inhabitants of Pragela, and many 
 other Vaudois families who were allied to them, to found those 
 colonies in Germany whose history has been traced in the preced- 
 ing^ chapters. This event, which deprived the Vaudois valleys of 
 a considerable part of thefr population, coiUd not fail to be very 
 grievous in its etiects ujx)n the interests of these valleys — to which, 
 certainly, the measure that brought it about was intended to be 
 in the highest degree unfavoui*able. This unexpected and cruel 
 expulsion of the half of a people, violently broken up and di'iven 
 into exile, like a garment torn to shreds and flung upon the 
 winds, may well be regarded as a new persecution. 
 
 But it must needs have been for good reasons that Providence 
 jx^rmitted this catastrophe; and now, when the dust raised by this 
 
 ' Authorities.— AU of them are unpublished dociunents of no great magnitude, 
 'j hey are indicated at the bottom of each page. 
 ^ Edicts of June, 1692, and May, 1604. 
 
 Chap. XIX.] 
 
 THE SYNOD OF BOBI. 
 
 267 
 
 sudden change no longer blinds the eyes of the historian, we can- 
 not fail to perceive the providential influence which this elimina- 
 tion of all strangers from amongst the Vandois must have had on 
 the integrity, perpetuation, and preservation of this Israel of the 
 Alps, already so much tried by calamities, as distinct and separate 
 from other peoples, in the sphere and situation which had been 
 appointed for them. This measure had been adopted by the King 
 of Piedmont, only upon the reiterated, and perhaps imperious re- 
 presentations of Louis XIV., whose Catholic rage pui-sued his 
 fugitive subjects even into the asylum of foreign hospitality; and 
 Victor Amadeus, whilst he closed that asylum against the exiles 
 of other nations, conveyed to the native inhabitants of the Vau- 
 dois valleys his renewed assurances of their continued and undis- 
 turbed tranquillity.i His views were entirely political; the results 
 were entirely religious, but they were not developed till a later 
 period. 
 
 Being deprived of the seven pastors of foreign bii-th, who were 
 obliged to leave Piedmont before the 1st of Sejitember, 1698, the 
 Vaudois church held an extraordinary synod at Bobi, on the 12th 
 of August of the same year, in order to make immediate provision 
 for the parishes which were about to become, or which already 
 had become destitute of a stated ministry; and the six pastors 
 who were Vaudois by birth, and who alone remained in the 
 valleys, divided amongst themselves the duty ot supplying them.'^ 
 New appointments were also made of members of the Vaudois 
 table.' 
 
 * The letter of Victor Amadeus II., addressed for this purpose to Count Mar- 
 tii:iano, governor of Pignerol, is dated 23d August, 1698; he charges him to say 
 to the Vaudois, che puono con ogni quiette e sicuritta, applicarsi a luor affan 
 domcstici; poiche proveranno sempre gli effetti dclla sua reggia prottdione (sic).— 
 Count Martiniano wrote accordingly, but at more length, to Sieur Pasca, the 
 podestat of the valley of Lucerna, who in his turn made the substance of the 
 king's communication known in all the Vaudois communes.— (Archives of Le 
 Villar; vol. Rdigionarii, fol. 107.) 
 
 a This division was made as follows :— Leger, pastor of Bdbi, united to this 
 parish that of Le Villar; Malanot, pastor of Angrogna, united St. John to it. 
 These two pastors were also jointly to supply the parish of La Tour. Reynaddin, ^ 
 pastor of Pral, was to remove to VUle S^che, and to unite Le Pomaret to his field 
 .of labour. Bertin remained at Macel, but was also to supply the parish of PraZ, 
 James Jahier, pastor of Pramol, was also to supply Rora. Bernard Jahier 
 was to unite to his parish of St. Germain those of Prarusting and Eocheplate,—' 
 The synod adds that " if the Divine Providence should ever recal to these valleys 
 the pastors now compelled to leave them, they should each of them retiyrn to the 
 church which they left." 
 
 3 The Moderator, Henri/ Amaud, was succeeded by David L^ger, Moderator 
 Adjunct. The latter office was confided to Malanot; and the office of SECRETARY, 
 occupied by David Jordan^ was given to Laurence Basiie, 
 
268 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Third. 
 
 Cn\r. XIX] 
 
 FIDELITY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 269 
 
 At the same time, the king was petitioned to allow pastors to 
 be hrouf^ht for a time from Switzerland, to succeed the French 
 ministers;^ and his permission having been obtained, application 
 was made by letter to the Academy of Geneva, which hastened to 
 make provision for the wants represented.^ The synod likewise 
 asked, that the course of study of the Vaudois students, who were 
 preparing for the ministry of the gospel, under the care of the 
 Swiss Faculties of Theology, should be accelerated as much as 
 possible; and, finally, it stated the pressing necessities of the 
 valleys — ^the debts with which their communes were burdened — the 
 destitution of the inhabitants — the distress, the penury, the want 
 of work — ^the bad harvests, and the impossibility of the Vaudois 
 providing for the maintenance of their pastors without foreign 
 aid.^ This aid was not refused — it was manifested that the mem- 
 bers of the same body have a mutual interest in each other; and 
 the inexhaustible charity of Protestants, at that time more happily 
 situated than those of Piedmont, enabled the latter to carry on 
 their public worship and their schools, which they had, indeed, till 
 then, themselves supported with a patient and devoted zeal. 
 
 Besides the general meetings of their synods, which took place 
 only onco or twice in a year, and afterwards so unfrequently as 
 once every five years, the pastors of each Vaudois valley had then 
 
 » Captain Pastre and Joseph Donneaud were deputed to Turin for this purpose 
 by tlie synod of 1G98. 
 
 2 Archives of Berne, compartment E. Letter of the Moderator (23d September, 
 1698), recommending the departing pastors. — Archives of the Venerable Company 
 of Geneva, vol. O, pp. 499, 510, &c., and vol. Q, pp. 20, 82, &c. (concerning the 
 request for Swiss pastors and their being sent).— The Swiss pastors who came to the 
 valleys, and the parishes where they were placed, were as follows: — DUBOIS, at 
 B<^i; DiND, at Le Villar; Sexebier, at La Tow; Decoppet, at St. Jean; and 
 DUTOIT at Prarusting. The Vaudois pastors assigned to themselves the poorest, 
 most mountainous, and most difficult parishes— to wit, Bertin, at Rora; Malanot, 
 sXAngrofjna: J. Jahieb, at Pramol; B. Jahier, at St. Germain; David Legeb, at 
 Le Pomaret (where he was succeeded two years after by James Leger, whilst he 
 himself went to Ville Seche); Lawrence Bertin, at Maneille and at Macel (where 
 he was succeeded next year by Henriod); and Paul Eeynaudin, at Pral and at 
 Podoret.—Theze arrangements were made in the year 1699.— Reynaudin went to 
 Bobi in 1705, to succeed Portaz, who himself had succeeded Decoppet in 1703. 
 — M. Senebieb left the valleys in 170O (the letter recalling him is dated Novem- 
 ber, 1699); but in 1701^ two Vaudois ministers were ordained, John Jahieb and 
 Charles Bastie. 
 
 3 Memoire touchant V Hat politv^ue et ecclSsiastique des Vaudois, par rapport au 
 pressant besoin d'assistance qu'ils redament pour acquitter lews dcties. (Archives 
 of the Venerable Company of Geneva, vol. Q, p. 83.)— This memorial was sent to 
 the Duk» of Zell— to the Archbishop of Canterbury— to the Bishop of Salisbury, 
 for his British Majesty— to M. Spanheim, professor at Leyden, for the States- 
 General of Holland— to the Count of Dhona, for the Elector of Brandenburg— to 
 the first pastor of the Court of Hesse-Cassel— and to M. Herwart, envoy of the 
 King of England in Switzerland. 
 
 their separate Colloques^' which met every month.^ They preached 
 in their parishes twice every Sabbath, and conducted a meeting for 
 prayer, accompanied with religious instruction, every day of the 
 week.^ A minister, who had no parish, did not scruple to under- 
 take personally the charge of the school of La Tour.* The parishes 
 threatened with deprivation of public worship, did not shrink irom 
 the heaviest sacrifices, in order to maintain it.^ The temporary 
 suspension of the subsidies, which Queen Anne had granted to the 
 Vaudois pastors, caused no abatement of their activity in any of 
 the functions of their ministry.^ 
 
 The cruel returns which the Vaudois received at the hands of 
 their sovereign, in acts of arbitrary violence, did not prevent them 
 from giving proof of their fidelity to him upon many occasions. 
 When a revolt broke out at Mondovi, in June, 1700, the Vaudois 
 militia contributed greatly to its suppression. 
 
 Victor Amadeus II. had then a difierence with the court of 
 Rome,^ on the subject of tlie Moimrchy of Sicily;^ and this difie- 
 rence continued throughout twenty years. Nor was it long till he 
 
 * [Or Presbyteries.] 
 
 ' In the Synodal Acts of 10th February, 1699, we read: " The pastors of tJu 
 Colloqm of Vol Lucerna shall supply the church of Rora time about.** (Archives 
 of the Table.) 
 
 ' The pastors who came from Switzerland were authorized to have only one 
 sermon on Sabbath and one catechetical exercise during the week j but only for 
 the first year of their ministry in the valleys. (Same source.) 
 
 ♦ This was Abraham Henriot, who also was from Switzerland. — ^1699-1700. — 
 The school was a Latin and Italian one. — See the Acts of the Synod of 19th July, 
 
 1701. 
 
 s In the Synodal Acts of the 28th of October, 1G99, we read: "The church of 
 Prarusting having been obliged to expend nearly 300 livres in order to maintain 
 the exercise of public worship, its right to which was disputed ... all the 
 other churches of the valleys are strongly recommended to stretch out their hand 
 for its aid . . . to mark their union and Christian charity."— The rescript of 
 Victor Amadeus, authorizing the Vaudois of Prarusting to have a place of 
 worship, is dated 20th October, 1699. (Turin. Archives of the Court of Accounts. 
 Eegio controrollo generate. Year 1699. No. 199. Fol. 112.) A report concern- 
 ing the erection of the place of worship and the old site at Rocheplate, on which 
 it was required that the new one should be built, are to be found in the Archives 
 of State. (Category, Valdesi, No. 488.) 
 
 6 See the Synodal Acts of June, 1700, and July, 1701. 
 
 » ^fercure historique, XVIII. 16, 238; XX. 7, 128, 616; XXI. 235, 355, 480, 
 &c. All these references belong to dates included between July, 1700, and 
 November, 1702. 
 
 « Urban II., by a bull dated 5th July, 1098, had granted to Roger, Count of 
 Sicily, that a tribunal, called Hie Monarchy of Sicily, should have the right of 
 judging supremely and without appeal in all ecclesiastical affairs. Clement XL 
 disputed the privileges of this institution with Victor Amadeus II.; and finally 
 published, on 20th February, 1715, a Constitution in order to its abolition. An 
 appeal was taken from this bull to a Pope better informed; and the dispute was 
 prolonged to the death of the pontiff. 
 
270 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TillRD. 
 
 was again in a state of hostility with France, and had brought 
 upon his dominions the scourge of war, more terrible than all the 
 dissatisfaction of Kome. In 1701, having recognized the Duke 
 of Anjou as King of Spain, he gave him his second daughter 
 in marriage.^ But soon after, being drawn into a contrary course 
 of policy, he turned against his son-in-law, having deceived France 
 and Spain during two years, with that high-born duplicity, which 
 is dignified with the name of diplomacy, but which would deprive 
 the art of government of all dignity, if it were its necessary 
 basis or means. These capricious fluctuations of a policy, which 
 sacrificed everything to interest, and which remained constant 
 only in its inflexible selfishness, breaking with equal indifierence 
 the bonds of honour and of affection to take part always with 
 the strongest, present a melancholy spectacle, repulsive to upright 
 
 miuds. 
 
 All the powers of Europe confirmed the choice of the Duke of 
 Anjou, as King of Spain, with the exception of Austria, which 
 saw with jealousy a prince of the royal family of France ascend 
 the throne of Charles II.'^ But the whole German empire, with 
 England and Holland, soon formed a league,^ for the dethronement 
 of this monarch. The old animosities of these powera against 
 Louis XIV., who supported him, were their true motives for this 
 
 conduct. 
 
 Victor Amadous, having been named Generalissimo of the armies 
 of France and Spain in Italy,* instead of defending his son-in-law 
 with affection, and faithfully maintaining the cause of his ally, 
 entered into secret engagements with their enemies. The house 
 of Austria promised him Montferrat as the price of his defection; 
 and doubly perfidious, he still fought against the imperial forces in 
 several encounters. This coui-se of conduct was pursued for two 
 years. The imperial armies, commanded by Prince Eugene, and 
 the French troops, commanded by Catinat, met in Piedmont 
 about the middle of the year 1701.^ The Marshal de Catinat re- 
 
 1 Louise Gabrielle, of Savoy, who was married by proxy, on 11th September, 
 1701.— The Duke of Anjou, born 19th December, 1683, was called to the crown of 
 Spain, on 2d October, 1700, by the latter will of Charles II., who in that deed 
 referred to the rights of Maria Theresa, the grandmother of the Duke of Anjou. 
 In virtue of this deed, he was declared King of Spain, by the name of Philip V., 
 at Fontainebleau, on IGth November, 1700; and on the 24th of the same month, 
 at Madrid, which he entered on Uth April, 1701.— The treaty of Utrecht alone 
 (Uth April, 1713) gave him peaceable possession of this disputed throne. 
 
 2 The predecessor of Philip V., in Spain. 
 
 » Signed on 7th September, 1701. * In September, 1701. 
 
 * On 9th July, 1701, was fought the battle of Cai-pi on the Adige;— on 1st Sep- 
 tember, the battle of CAiari, near the Oglio. There were numerous skirmishes. 
 
 CnAP. XIX ] LOUIS XIV, AND VICTOK AMADEUS. 
 
 271 
 
 ceived a number of little checks, one after the other, which he 
 could not ascribe entirely to the skill of his adversaiy. He sus- 
 pected the connivance of the Duke of Savoy with the enemy, and 
 imparted his suspicions to the court of Versailles, which repelled 
 them. But eighteen months afterwards, Louis XIV. was no 
 longer able to doubt that they were well-founded; and suddenly . 
 adopting one of those energetic resolutions, which seem natural to 
 men whose haughty disposition and strength of will have been 
 developed by the habitual exercise of an undisputed power, he 
 ordered the Duke de Vendome to disai-m, and retain as prisoners, 
 the troops of the Duke of Savoy in the Milanese.^ These orders 
 were executed. Three hundred and forty Piedmontese officers 
 found themselves suddenly deprived of liberty, and distributed in 
 difierent fortresses. 
 
 This news reached Turin on the 1st of October, 1703. The 
 gates were immediately closed; the greatest agitation prevailed in 
 the court and in the city; the French ambassador was arrested in his 
 house; -^ and the French who were resident in Turin received 
 orders not to go beyond its walls. All the available troops were 
 called to active service; those which were in Ivrce and elsewhere 
 were recalled to the fortifications— the relations with Austria 
 became more intimate.'* The Duke of Savoy sought to i-ally all 
 his forces; and the following are the terms in which he made the 
 Vaudois acquainted with these events: — 
 
 "Dear and well-beloved trusty subjects, — Unparalleled violence 
 having been done by France, contrary to the good faith of treaties 
 and the law of nations, in the disarming of our troops who were in 
 its service in the Milanese — ^the retaining of our officers prisoners — 
 and the marching of a body of troops for the invasion of our domi- 
 nions; ... we acquaint you with it, being persuaded that the 
 same motive which led you on all occasions in former wars to dis- 
 play suchr fidelity and zeal in our seiwice, will induce you to give us 
 no less proof thereof in this war, which is much more important. You 
 will require, for this purpose, without loss of time to form your com- 
 
 » Louis XIV. wrote at the same time to Victor Amadeus: "Sir, since religion, 
 honour, interest, alliances, and your own signature, avail nothing between us, I 
 send my cousin, the Duke de Vend6me, at the head of my armies, to explain to 
 you my intentions." (Lamberty, Part II. p. 564.) 
 
 « The same thing was done with regard to the Spanish ambassador. {Merc. 
 
 hist. XXIV., 508.) 
 
 3 On the 25th of October, 1703, the treaty of alliance, oflFensive and defensive, 
 was signed between Savoy and Austria, by which the latter power guaranteed to 
 Victor" Amadeus the possession of the Mantuan Montferrat, the price agreed upon 
 for the defection of that prince. {AH de verifier lea dates.) 
 
w 
 
 272 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tumn. 
 
 Cha?.XTX.] 
 
 FRENCH SUCCESSES. 
 
 273 
 
 panies, as you did in the last war, and to receive all the French refu- 
 gees who may wish to come to your valleys; you will do well even to 
 invite them to come, that they may act in concert with you. Our 
 commissaries will provide for the subsistence of these troops. . . . 
 The matter concerns the preservation of our dominions, our glorj-, 
 and our safety. . . . And in respect hereof, we pray God to 
 take you xmder his good and holy protection." ^ 
 
 The Vaudois immediately organized thirty-four companies of 
 their valiant militia, and soon attracted attention by some brilliant 
 exploits. " The Duke of Savoy having permitted them to name a 
 commandant for themselves," we read in a statement published at 
 that time, "they, towards the end of the year, made choice of 
 M, De Malanot, who was one of their captains in the preceding 
 wai*.- They have already made several incursions into the fron- 
 tiers of Provence and Dauphiny, and have exacted a contribution 
 of fifty thousand livres from the latter province, besides a great 
 number of cattle. They have offered this money to his royal 
 highness, but he has been pleased to leave it in their hands, in 
 order to give them the means of arming and equipping themselves 
 better." ^ Moreover, so long as the Vaudois were useful to him, 
 Victor Amadeus treated those with severity who brought com- 
 plaints to him against them.* 
 
 This people, always exposed to the severest hardships, either 
 through the tyranny of their kings, when their kings were power- 
 ful, or through their own devotion to their cause, when they were 
 threatened with danger, signalized themselves again by new ex- 
 ploits in the year 1704. But in the meantime, their ranks were 
 augmented by a crowd of French refugees, who came from Switzcr- 
 
 •• This letter is dated from Turin, 5th October, 1703. — It was sent to each of the 
 Vaudois pastors, with another letter addressed to themselves personally, and 
 bearing also the signature of Victor Amadeus — the address being in the following 
 style: — Toour dear, tcdl-beloved, and liege N. minister of , . . . — These documents 
 may be seen in Lamberty, Memoire pour scrvir d Vhistoire du dixhuitieme siecle, 
 t. II.; Mercure historique, XXI. C29. The letter of Victor Amadeus to the 
 Vaudois, is also in Moser, Proof Documents, No. 18; and in JEi'man and Eeclam, 
 vol. VI. — I have quoted only the part essential for the history. 
 
 * This passage is exactly copied from the Mercure historique, vol. XXV., Janu- 
 ary, 1704. — However, I must observe that the particle which may precede any 
 name amongst the Vaudois, has, according to their usage, nothing to do with any 
 indication of noble birth — although the reader might be apt to think so from the 
 name of this commandant as given above. — When a number of persons bear the 
 same name, they are distinguished by that of the place where they dwell, preceded 
 by the (contracted) article. But no distinction of rank is connected amongst them 
 with these designations. 
 
 ^ Mercure historique, XXV. 136. 
 
 * The governor of Fort Mutino, who came to complain against the inhabitants 
 of the valleys, was arrested at Pignerol." Merc. hist. XXIV. 509. 
 
 land* and from the Cevennes. The latter had taken up arms against 
 Louis XIV. in the beginning of 1703. "This is no revolt," said 
 they in their manifesto,^ "nor a rebellion of subjects against their 
 sovereign. We have always been obedient and faithful to him. 
 . . . But a law of nature obliges us to repel force by force; 
 otherwise we would be to blame for our own misfortunes; and 
 would be traitors to our religion, to ourselves, and to our country," 
 &c. But notwithstanding the intrepidity of their leaders, they 
 were crushed;^ and the inhabitants of Orange, who maintained 
 their resistance longest, were banished, and retired into Prussia. 
 The fugitives of the Cevennes, upon whose heads a price was set, 
 or whose properties had been confiscated, retired to the valleys. 
 
 The forces of Victor Amadeus received a valuable accession in 
 these brave partizans, inured to privations and dangers. In his 
 prosperity, however, he had prohibited the Vaudois from giving 
 them an asylum;* and at a subsequent period he was again to 
 banish them.^ But at the time to which our history now relates, 
 they were welcomed, and all the more gladly the more that his 
 dominions were threatened by the enemy. The Duke de la Feuil- 
 lide*" had made himself master of the whole of Savoy,^ and there- 
 after soon crossed the Alps. In June, 1704, he took the town and 
 castle of Suza. A few days after, the Duke de Vendome took Ver- 
 ceil,** where almost 6000 men were made prisoners. Ivr6e soon 
 afterwards suffered the same fate.^ 
 
 Whilst the Duke de Vendome thus pursued his successful career, 
 the Duke de la Feuillade endeavoured to detach the Vaudois val- 
 leys from the cause of their sovereign. After having occupied 
 Suza, he turned towards our valleys. He first offered them exemp- 
 tion from all the calamities of war, if they would preserve neutra- 
 lity between him and the Duke of Savoy. ^^ This fact suffices to 
 
 ' Louis XIV. sent an agent, M. de Puisaeaux, to obtain from the Swiss go- 
 vernment the prevention of the French refugees who were in Switzerland, from 
 goinji to take arms under the banners of the Duke of Savoy.— Long conferences 
 ensued.— See the Mercure historique, XXIV. 512, G34, 041, 648; XXV. No. for 
 
 January, &c. 
 -' Dated 17tli February, 1703.— Separately printed. ^ 
 
 * See the histories of the C&mis&rds.— Lamberty, II. &c. 
 
 * In April, 1703, "the Duke of Savoy sent for some of the principal inhabi- 
 tants of the valleys, and declared to them that he forbade them, under severe 
 penalties, to have any dealings with the insurgents of the Cevennes, or to give 
 shelter to any of them," &c. . . . Mercure historique, XXIII. 355. 
 
 * By the Instructions of 20th Juno, 1730. « Others say the Marshal de Tesse. 
 ' Except the fort of Montmellian, which did not surrender tiU 1705. The 
 
 fortifications were then demolished. 
 8 Suza was taken on the 12th of June, and Verceil on the 21st of July. 
 » On 30th September, 1704. " Mercure historique, XXVI. 140. 
 
 \^0L. K. hij 
 
274j 
 
 THE ISRA.EL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaET TUiBD. 
 
 Chap. XIX ] 
 
 TREATY OP LOUIS XIV. 
 
 2/0 
 
 til 
 
 !||!l 
 
 I'I'i 
 
 demonstrate the importance of their services in war. " The inha- 
 bitants of the valleys of St. Martin and St. Germain, who are the 
 most exposed, were strongly enough inclined to this neutrality; 
 but M. Vandermeer, the minister of the states-general, having 
 repaired thither with M. Arnaud,' completely re-animated the reso- 
 lution of the people, and caused the designs of the French to fail. 
 Thereupon the marshal, perceiving that he could effect nothing 
 by negotiation, attacked the valleys from all sides. He caused 
 M. de Lapara to assail the fort of Mirabouc,^ whilst he himself, 
 with the rest of his troops, entered the valley of St. Mai-tin and 
 took possession of it.^ From thence he passed into that of St. 
 Germain, where he met with much resistance on the part of the 
 Vaudois, who guarded the approaches to the valley, but were at 
 last compelled to yield to the superior forces of the enemy. How- 
 ever, the Marquis de Parelles having arrived with orders for the 
 militia of the neighbouring districts to march to the aid of the 
 Vaudois, and the Duke of Savoy having also sent some regular 
 troops, the people of the valleys of St. Germain sent their wives, 
 their children, and their movable effects into the neighbouring 
 commimes and into the woods, after which they assembled anew 
 imder the command of M. de St. Hippolytc.* They began, that 
 same day, to reconquer the positions which they had lost, and on 
 the 1st of July, they attacked the French at Angrogna, and de- 
 feated them, having on their own side only five men killed and 
 seven wounded. This so disconcerted the enemy, that they began 
 secretly to quit the heights around Angrogna, and gradually aban- 
 doned the whole of the valley of Angrogna, as well as that of 
 Lucerna."'* 
 
 » This was Eem^ Arnaud, who had led the Vaudois in their return to their 
 country in 1GS9, who was banished in 1698, and who returned to the valleys 
 in 1703. He then exercised his naiuistry in the church of St. John, as we 
 learn from a Report, of date 27th December, 170G, in which it is said, TAe 
 church of St. John is naio supplied by M. Hent-y Arnaud, as provisional minister. 
 {State of the Churches of the Valleys. Private library of M. Appia, at Frankfort.) 
 Shortly after this, Arnaud went to London, for he was there iu 1707. — According 
 to tradition, he wished to extend to the valley of Lucerna the republican govern- 
 ment which that of St. Martin had adopted, and a price was set upon his head. 
 (I received this tradition from the last of the Vaudois pastors in Wurtemberg, 
 M. Mondon, successor to Arnaud's son at Gros Villar, who died not long ago, 
 almost 100 years of age. — Another son of Arnaud was appointed pastor of Pomaret 
 in 1713.— The name of the former was Scipio, that of the latter was Vincent.) 
 
 2 On 20th June, 1704. 
 
 » His troops continued to occupy it till 8th August, 1708. (Notarial attestation 
 of this occupation, of date 18th May, 1713.— Archives of Le Perrier.) 
 
 ♦ On 30th June, 1704. 
 
 * The fort of Mirabouc, which had been besieged, was relieved by the Vaudois 
 on 14th July, 1704. — The whole passage within inverted commas is extracted 
 from the Mercure historique, XXVI. 140, et seq. 
 
 The \iilley of St. Martin was not, however, evacuated in the 
 same manner. The Duke de la Feuillade i^ersuaded a few com- 
 munes to erect an independent republic,^ under the protection of 
 Louis XIV. His object was to have a footing for his troops in 
 Piedmont, and to divide the country and weaken the authority of 
 Victor Amadeus. Moreover, the valley of St. Martin is one of 
 the strongest in the Alps. It is not only its extent that renders 
 it important, but also its position. And the Vaudois had acquired 
 a renown, which made them appear to a stranger greater than they 
 really were. This people were regarded as a sort of power — as one 
 of the lowest rank, no doubt, but better known, however, than 
 many others which had a right to that designation. This explains 
 Low Louis XIV. condescended to sign, with all the forms of a 
 serious treaty, that inconceivable piece of mystification or puerile 
 stmtagem of war, which gave a nominal existence for four years 
 to the republic of St. Martin.^ 
 
 The following are the principal provisions of this treaty: — "The 
 leaders, elders, syndics, councillor, captains, and other officers of 
 the valley of St. Martin, Pomaret, Envers-Pinache, and Chene- 
 vieres, both Catholics and those of the pretended Pveformed reli- 
 gion " (1), Shall erect themselves into and shall be recognized as 
 a republic, under the protection of the King of France and his suc- 
 cessors. (2) They shall make their own laws, which shall be ap- 
 proved and maintained by his most Christian majesty. (3) They 
 shall establish amongst themselves liberty of conscience, with excep- 
 tion that the French refugees shall not be permitted to come and 
 enjoy it. (4) For the strengthening and defence of the said re- 
 pMic, his majesty shall maintain tJiere tJie troops necessary.^ 
 
 * He had attempted to persuade the communes of Val Lucerna to the same 
 effect, but without success. —Loc. cit. p. 248. 
 
 2 Its existence not being mentioned by any historian, I have thought it necessary 
 to quote a large niunber of testimonies in support of this fact. — The same remark 
 applies to the sojourn of Victor Amadeus at Rora, which has been disputed. — 
 Hence the great number of notes in the following pages. 
 
 ' The words in italics are the very words of the treaty. — It contained seven 
 articles in aU, which sometimes descend to trifles of no political importance. 
 The fifth article stipulates in name of the Vaudois: "That his majesty and his 
 successors shall always /m/tiisA them \leur fourniral with salt at Le Perrier, at two 
 sols per pound.'* At the bottom of the treaty are these words, "We, being satis- 
 fied with the above treaty, accept it, and promise to observe it invariably in all 
 I)oints, in testimony whereof we have signed these presents with our hand, and 
 have caused our privy seal to be attached to them. — At Versailles, 25th July, 
 1704." Signed Louis, countersigned Colbert. {Treaty agreed upon between the 
 Duke de la Feuillade and the inhabitants of tlie valley of St. Martin, 15th July, 
 1704.. — Turin, Archives of the Court, No. 486.) According to a memorial of that 
 period, the proposals of the French general, on this subject, were in the first 
 instance rejected by the Vaudois of the Val Perouse and of the Val St. Martin, 
 
276 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF TUE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut Third. 
 
 This was all that La Feuillade wanted; aud that I may not have 
 to return to the subject, I may here state that the history of this 
 ephemeral republic was fraught with calamity, both to those who 
 were included in it, and to their neighbours. The French troops 
 bein<? located there, according to the treaty, and continuing to 
 occupy it during the whole time of its existence,^ made hostile 
 incursions into the neighbouring regions.'-^ Vagabonds from all 
 parts congregated in it, coming to seek an asylum.^ The pas- 
 toi-s and schoolmasters ceasing to be supported by a share of the 
 English subsidies,* and perhaps banished by some popular caprice, 
 were compelled to remove from it, and became wanderers, without 
 means of subsistence;^ primary instruction and Divine worship fell 
 rapidly into decay ;^ and when the people desired to have pastors, 
 young men, without any orderly call to the office, were invited to 
 
 but he seized their properties, and it was in onler to regain possession of them 
 that they consented to this treaty. {Memoire pour les E>jlms ivangHiques des 
 vaUees du Pragela, 1704-1707. Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. R.) 
 » Till 8th August, 1708.— Notarial attestation, in the Archives of Lo Perrier. 
 - "The church of St. Germain, in the valley of Perouso, is at present aban- 
 doned by the inhabitants, and without exercise of religion, because of the enemy, 
 who have entirely ruined and burned it. It has no minister nor schoolmaster, 
 because they are obliged to seek refuge in the neighbourhood, a little farther 
 out of the way of the enemy.— The church of Pramol is equally deserted by the 
 parishioners, because of the enemy, who have indeed burned the greater part 
 of it, and they have been obliged to withdraw themselves to other parts of the 
 valleys." {Memoire sur Vetat des vallces, 27th December, 170G.) — [The word 
 church (eglise) here must be taken for the district occupied by the church or con- 
 gregation.] 
 
 3 "This valley having fallen into rebellion is now inhabited by the dregs and 
 scum of diverse peoples . . . who bear arms against his royal highness." — 
 Memoire pour ks tglises evangeliques du Piemont, 1704-1707.— Geneva, Archives 
 of the Venerable Company of Pastors, vol. R.) 
 
 * "These 784 louis which come from England are here worth no more than 
 four ducal livres each. Hence the pastors receive only 200 ducats each and the 
 schoolmasters 100. The Latin regent has about 170. But the sum waa much 
 smaller still, before the calamity of the valley of St. Martin." {Memoire en faveur 
 des vallees, 1708. — Same source.) 
 
 5 "The three churches of the valley of St. Martin . . . having unhappily 
 fallen into disloyalty . . . their pastors have left them." (Zoco ci^)—" The 
 meeting having deliberated on the condition of the wandering pastors, and the 
 means of providing for their subsistence," . . . resolved that something shall 
 for this purpose be kept off the stipends of their colleagues of the valley of Lucema. 
 
 «« John Jahier, formerly pastor at Pral, shall be recognized as pastor of the 
 
 Flying Camp." . . . (Synodal Acts of 7th October, 1704.— Archives of the 
 Vaudois Table.) 
 
 « "The church of Villeseche, which befoi-e their revolt was composed of the 
 communities of Eioclaret, Faiit, Bouvil, Traverses, and St. Martin, has now 
 neither minister, nor schoolmaster, nor any sort of exercise of religion." {Etat 
 des eglises de la vallee de St. Martin, et du Pomaret, presentement dominees par les 
 ennemis. — A rejwrt without date. — Communicated by M. Appia.) It is afterwards 
 said, " All the other churches of these vaUeys are in the same state." 
 
 Chap. XIX] 
 
 THE VALLEY OF ST. MARTIN. 
 
 277 
 
 undertake its solemn duties,^ who committed the greatest irregu- 
 larities.^' The Yaudois considered this valley as lost to their 
 church,^^ and feared lest, the unity of their body being thus broken, 
 the destruction of the whole might ensue.* But at last, when the 
 war was ended, the valley of St. Martin returned imder the govern- 
 ment of Victor Amadeus, who granted a complete amnesty to all 
 its inhabitants,^ in consideration of the fidelity shown to him by 
 the valley of Lucema, where he had found an asylum in the time 
 of his misfortunes. For the French generals had for a time de- 
 prived him of almost all his dominions. 
 
 The Duke de Vendome, who had laid siege to Verriie on the 
 22d of October, 1704, took that place on the 10th of April, 1705, 
 after it had made the best defence which any besieged place ever 
 made.*' The Duke de la Feuillade took Villefranche by assault,^ 
 and also Montalban and Nice, the governor of which retreated into 
 the citadel, but was not able to hold out there for more than three 
 days.s Miradole sun-endered at discretion, on the 11th of May, 
 twenty-two days after the trenches were opened. On the 16th of 
 August, the Imperial and Savoyard troops, commanded by Prince 
 Eu<^ene, were defeated near Cassano; thereafter the fortifications 
 
 » See the Archives of the Company of Pastors of Geneva, register K, pp. 
 
 312 313. 
 
 - Mentioned in a letter by Eeynaudin, of 28th September, 1708. (Same source.) 
 See also the Synodal Acts of Le Villar, 23d October, 1708. (Archives of the 
 Vaudois Table.) 
 
 3 " The valley of St. Martin, ivhich was supposed to have been lost, has returned 
 to its duty." . . . (Synodal summons addressed by the moderator, Eeynaudin, 
 to the pastors, ciders, directors, and other heads of families, <fcc. Dated Bobi, 
 2Gth December, 1708.— Archives of Le Villar. Rel. foL 158.) 
 
 * " This division will inevitably cause the ruin of these valleys." {Memoire sur 
 V&tat des vallees Vaudoises, 27th December, 1706.)— "The preservation of the 
 valley of Lucema depends upon that of the valley of St. Martin . . . without 
 which it cannot be hoped that it should long be able to maintain its existence." 
 {Memidrepour les eglises des vallees du Picmont.) 
 
 5 Under the name of Patents of Gh-ace, dated from the camp of Balhottet, 
 17th A ngust, 1708, granting the amnesty, on condition that the pretended repub- 
 licans should renew their oath of fidelity to the house of Savoy, in presence of 
 the governor, Gasca. This document begins thus: "Dopo Venorme crime di ribd- 
 lionne, comesso da i paiiicolari, e abitanti della valle di San Martino," &c. . . . 
 —Being all guilty of high treason and lese majesty, they have incurred the penalty 
 of death, &c. . . . But his royal highness, moved with compassion, &c., . , . 
 pardons them. (State Archives at Turin. Vald. No. 482.) 
 
 8 This judgment is taken from the Mercure historique, XXVII. 479; the dates are 
 taken from the work of the Benedictines, for the Mercure places the surrender of 
 Verriie on the 7th of April. 
 
 ' On the 2d of April, 1705, according to the Mercure, and on the 7th of March 
 according to the Art de verifier les dates.— Bui, the castle of Villefranche was not 
 taken tiU the 3d of April. 
 » The town was taken on the 6th, and the citadel on the 9th of April, 1705.. 
 
278 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE A LIU 
 
 [part Tuibp. 
 
 of Nice, Ivrce, and Verriie were destroyed by the French. In the 
 following year, the French obtained another great victory at Cal- 
 cinate.^ Turin was invested by them on the 12th and 13th of 
 May, and then- trenches were opened in the night between the 
 3d and 4th of June. The Duke of Savoy retired to Bubiana, 
 where he received a deputation of the officers and pastors of the 
 Vaudois valleys.^ He then went to Lucerna, where, according to 
 the words of an ancient manuscrij^t, the Vaudois iiiade for him a 
 secure retreat.^ There is reason for supposing that this retreat was 
 the deep valley of Rora,'* where Janavel, with eighteen men, had 
 arrested an army, and at which also the enemy were compelled to 
 pause, who had pursued the Duke of Savoy as far as Briqu^iTis.^ 
 Perhaps it may have been nothing else than the arms of the Vau- 
 dois which arrested the progress of the French general upon this 
 occasion.'' 
 
 Victor Amadous, in thus retiring amidst these valiant mo\m- 
 
 > 19th April, 1706. 
 
 3 "During the war lately terminated, his majesty the King of Sardinia seemed 
 disposed to favour the Vaudois, insomuch that in the year 1706, he having gone 
 into the valley of Lucerna, at the time when the French army pursued him so 
 very closely, the Protestant pastors and officers of the valleys, repaired to Bubiana 
 and Lucerna, to protest an inviolable fidelity to him in whatsoever circumstances 
 of trial. He received them very graciously, saying to them that if they were 
 faithful to him as they i^rotested, they would find in him a good friend, as well as 
 an aflFectionate father ; and he would maintain them in all their privileges, without 
 permitting the least infraction of them." (Extract from a MS. note appended to 
 a copy of the Neyoiiations of 1680, belonging to M. Ant. Blanc, of La Tour. — 
 These words, the tear lately terminated, lead to the supposition that the note was 
 written soon after the events of which it makes mention. The last which it 
 relates took place on 9th August, 1718. 
 
 ' **At the peace of Utrecht, the influence of the British court might have 
 obtained for the Vaudois of Pragela the same privileges whicii the three other 
 valleys enjoyed, the more especially as the latter had, at the time of the siege of 
 Turin, provided a secure retreat for their sovereign, . . . and as all this was 
 recent." {Memoire concernant la situation, &c. . . . Report concerning the 
 present condition of the valleys of Piedmont, and of the ministry in their churches, 
 drawn up by the pastors . . . appointed as commissioners in name of the Synod 
 ... to watch over their interests, &c. . . . Presented to the Synod of the 
 Hague, 9th September, 1762. Archives of the Walloon Churches, communicated 
 by M. Appia.) 
 
 * See Monastier, II. 173.— Gilly, Waldensian Researches.— BrokQ^on, Excur- 
 sions; Acland, &c. 
 
 ^ Histoire militaire du Pieinont, by the Count De Saluces, v. 189; quoted by 
 Monastier, II. 172. 
 
 « Upon the arrival of Victor Amadeus in the valley of Lucerna, the Vaudois, 
 ** exposing their own lives in his service, opposed the French at'my with such vigour^ 
 that they compelled the enemy to retire and abandon the valley of Lucerna." 
 (Note above quoted; MS. of M. Ant. Blanc.) — "The Duke of Savoy then came 
 into the valley of Lucerna, where La Feuillade still thought to fight with him, 
 but he was everywhere repulsed, and returned to his own camp. {Histoire de 
 Prince Eugene; Vienna edition; 5 vols. Svo, 1755; III. 77.) 
 
 Chap. XIX ] 
 
 SIEGE OF TURIN RAISED. 
 
 279 
 
 taineers, intended not only to seek a refuge which he might have 
 found elsewhere, but above all to attach them to his service by 
 personal manifestations of good-will, which might make them forget 
 all that they had suffered. He knew that the Duke de la Feuil- 
 lade had offered them the protection of France; it was important 
 to prevent a defection like that of the valley of St. Martin, or at all 
 events to give to the valley of Lucerna such marks of confidence and 
 kindness as its fidelity deserved. Victor Amadeus II. employed 
 himself also in organizing the military forces of these faithful sub- 
 jects, who crowded around him in great numbers,^ and whom per- 
 haps he meant to make a body-guard in place of the Swiss who 
 had abandoned him.2 At all events, he arrived at Carmagnole, 
 escorted by 600 Vaudois and 100 Camisards, who had belonged to 
 the intrepid band of Cavalier.^- Nor did he fail to thank the gene- 
 ral secretary of the valley of Lucerna, as their representative, for 
 all the good services which had been rendered to him on the part 
 of all the inhabitants of the valley;* and he even left at Rora a 
 memorial of himself in the form of a gift at parting to those who 
 had received him as their guest.'* 
 
 At Carmagnole he was rejoined by Prince Eugene, with eight 
 regiments of the line and 4000 dragoons. After this, the duke re- 
 mained for a few days at the castle of Pianesse, and then marched 
 from thence upon Turin, the siege of which he compelled the 
 French to raise,'' after a glorious victory which restored him his 
 
 » Expression of the Count de Saluces, Histoire militaire du Piemont, v. 189. 
 
 2 Mercure historique, xxvii., 1705. " The Vaudois are still proud of having, at 
 the time of the siege of Turin, in 1706, given an asylum to Victor Amadeus, their 
 most cruel persecutor, who came unattended, to take refuge amongst them until 
 the approach of the immortal Eugene. It was in the village of Rora that he found 
 his place of retreat, aud all our men who were capable of bearing arms, followed 
 Lim to tbe siege, or rather to the deliverance of his capital." (Letter of M. Paul 
 Appia, deputy of the valley of Lucerna, to the Count of Nieperg, dated from La 
 Tour, 2d December, 1799. Communicated by M. Appia of Frankfort.) 
 
 » History of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Edition of Vienna, 1755; III. 104. 
 
 * " Invitati dalli buoni serviggi, sin qui resi, con ogni applicatione— fedelta e 
 zelo, del Nodaro Collegiaro, Guiseppe Brezzi, del Villar, in qualita di segretaro 
 delle valli di Luserna, deputato dal corpo, in gencrale delle ufficiali valdesi, &c." . 
 . . . (Rescript of Victor Amadeus II., dated from Bubiana, 31st July, 1706, 
 and printed in 1711, in Torino, per Gio Battista Valetta, stampatore di S. A. B.)— 
 Victor Amadeus arrived at Bubiana on 7th July, 1706; he remained there till tbe 
 14th, in the house of the missionaries. {Storia delta missione, dal P. Bonaventura 
 di vergemoli. Folio MS. in the Archives of the Bishopric of Pignerol.) From 
 Bubiana he went to Lucerna; it can only have been from the 16th to the 28th of 
 July that he was at Rora, as on 31st July he was at Bubiana on his return. 
 
 * A silver goblet. (See all the modern wiiters.) Monastier, II. 173. Gilly, 
 Narrative of an excursion . . .— Beattie, Vallees vaudoises pittoresques, 170, &c. 
 
 6 On 7th Sept., 1706. The Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene arrived, in the 
 night between the 6th and 7th, on the hill of Superga, where Victor Amadeus, in 
 
280 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tiiiair. 
 
 dominions.^ The loss of the vanquished amounted, indeed, to 
 no more than 2000 men; but such was their consternation that, 
 instead of seeking a new position under the walls of Casal in order 
 to cover the Milanese, their army retreated to Pignerol in order to 
 retire into Dauphiny. This was to abandon all that they had won; 
 and they experienced new losses in this retreat. The Vaudois, 
 commanded by Colonel de Saint- Amour, harassed them during 
 the whole time of their retreat, and took a number of their con- 
 voys.'-* They had organized a flying camp which passed mpidly 
 from one mountain to another, and made incursions even into 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 The war was carried on feebly for some years. In 1707, the 
 French and Spanish troops restored to the allies the places which 
 still remained in their hands in Lombardy,^ and evacuated that 
 country. In the following year, Victor Amadous attempted to seize 
 upon Dauphiny; but the Marshal de Villai-s, the able governor of 
 that province, frustrated all his designs. The duke, however, re- 
 gained the cis-alpine districts of which La Feuillade had deprived 
 him, and amongst the rest the valley of St. Martin.* He fixed 
 Lis camp near Mentoules,^ where the deputies of the valley of Lu- 
 cema^ came to solicit his clemency on behalf of their brethren who 
 had been so grievously misled, and whose puerile republic had 
 vanished upon the first appearance of his advanced guard. "His 
 majesty, says one of these deputies, conversed with us for half an 
 hour, with the kindness of a father, and with an afiability which is 
 without example on the part of a sovereign towards his subjects." ^ 
 Nor did he refuse pardon to those for whom it was asked, requiring 
 only that they should renew their oath of allegiance to his dynasty.^ 
 
 accordance with a, vow then made, caused a most beautiful church to be erected, 
 nine years after, from plans bj- Philip Juvara of Messina, in honour of the Virgin, 
 •* who, as the people pretended, had received in her apron the bombs which the 
 French showered upon Turin." (Memoire pour servir H llmtoire dcs Vaudois, folio 
 MS., p. 61, by M. Paul Appia. Referring especially to the era of the Eestora- 
 tion. Communicated by the family of M. Appia.) 
 
 > On occasion of this victory, a medal was struck representing the fall of Phae- 
 ton, with these words, Mergitur Eridano MDCC VII. On the reverse is the Duke 
 of Savoy embracing Prince Eugene, and Fame flies above them, displaying a scroll 
 on which is written Sahaudia libcrata : is triumphe! 
 
 2 L'Esjint des cows . . . , t. XV. Histoire militaire du Piemont, v. 212. 
 
 3 By capitulation of 13tla March. 
 
 * Suza was sunrendered on 30th October, 1707. 
 
 » At Balbottet. 
 
 « Paul Reynaudin, the moderator, with MM. Goante and Lcger. 
 
 ' Letter of Reynaudin, dated from Bobi, 26th September, 1703. (Archives of 
 Lo Villar, vol. Reliyionarii, folio 153.) 
 
 « Patents of Grace, dated from the camp of Balbottet, 17th August, 1 1 08. (Ai- 
 chives of the Court.) 
 
 Chap. XIX ] 
 
 THE MARSHAL DE BERWICK. 
 
 281 
 
 He at the same time authorized the meeting of a synod, in order to 
 provide for the wants of the parishes thus restored.' 
 
 It was in 1708, also, that the Duke of Savoy- entered into pos- 
 session of Montferrat, which had been promised to him by Austriii 
 upon his alliance with the imperial party.' 
 
 The following year passed without any remarkable incident; but 
 in 1710, the Marshal de Berwick was sent into Savoy by Louis 
 XIV., and the Vaudois again took up arms for their sovereign. 
 " A proclamation has been published at Turin," said a letter from 
 that city, " that those who choose to go and serve amongst them 
 shall enjoy the ordinary pay and wages of the militia, till the end 
 of the campaign."* This was a new invitation indirectly addressed 
 to the French refugees. All ! why should kings, after they have 
 become victorious, so often prove unfaithful to the promises which 
 they have made during their reverses? These unhappy exiles, 
 already twice deceived, were again deceived a tliird time ; for 
 numbers of tliem at this time also joined the defenders of the throne 
 of Savoy. 
 
 Victor Amadous II. declared his resolution, on 26th May, 1711, 
 to place himself in person at the head of his troops;^ and shortly 
 afterwards he had recovered possession of Savoy. Next year, the 
 Marshal de Berwick crossed Mount Genevre with a French army, 
 and encamped at Cczane.^ Thence he made himself master of the 
 valleys of Oulx and Pi-agela. The Piedmontese king immediately 
 i-aised his camp from St. Columban, where he then was, and drove 
 the enemy back into Dauphiny. Meanwhile the Baron de St. 
 Rcmy seized the valley of Barcelounette ; and the Vaudois, being 
 in the very centre of all these movements, did not fail to act with 
 their accustomed valour and bravery. They made many victori- 
 ous excursions and skirmishes at this time, which very much con- 
 tributed to repulse the enemy, as well as to give themselves the 
 means of providing ammunition, and of equipping themselves at the 
 enemy's expense. The king, to testify his satisfaction, ordered the 
 Count de Bagnol to send a cashier to Pignerol, to pay the arrears 
 due to these valiant troops, to whom he even offered a continuance 
 
 > Decree dated from the same camp, ISth September, 1708. 
 
 2 The title of His Majesty was already given to Victor Amadeus, but as King of 
 Sicily, and not as King of Piedmont. It was not till the 18th of August, 1718, 
 that he accepted Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, with the title of King of Sardinia, 
 which has been inherited by his successors. 
 
 3 In virtue of the treaty of 25 th October, 1703. 
 
 • Mercure hlstorique et politique; the Hague, 1710. No. for July, p. 524. 
 « Extract from a letter from Turin, dated 17th June, 1711. {Mercure historique 
 et politique. Ko. for July, p. 551.) 
 « On 11th July, 1712. (Id., No. for August, 1712, p. 1647.) 
 Vol. II. 96 
 
282 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Third. 
 
 of pay, on the war footing, if they would continue to defend the 
 passes of the Alps as they had done.* 
 
 The treaty of Utrecht"^ gave Victor Amadeus peaceful possession 
 of his enlarged dominions. The high valleys of the Cluson and the 
 Doire remained in his hands, along with the county of Nice, in 
 exchange for the valley of Barcelonnette, which remained in the 
 possession of France; and we have already seen what the Yaudois 
 of Pragela had afterwards to suffer because their interests were at 
 that time overlooked and neglected by the Protestant j^oweins. 
 The Pragelans, however, took part by their deputies in the general 
 synod of the Vaudois cliurches which was held at this time for the 
 reorganization of the church.^ But they did not long enjoy this 
 privilege. The acts of that assembly received the authorization of 
 government in order to their being carried into effect, with tlie 
 exception of the incorporation of the old Yaudois parishes of Pragela 
 into the same body with those of the valleys.* 
 
 Henry Arnaud, who had ret\irned to the work of the ministry in 
 the valleys in 1703,^ left them again in 1707.'^ The King of Eng- 
 land invited him to his court,' but in vain: the unambitious pastor 
 of the Alps, not finding it possible to reside amongst the inhabitants 
 of those valleys of Piedmont which he had reconquered, preferred 
 to rejoin his exiled companions in their humble colony on the banks 
 of the Eintz, where he occupied himself, like Xenophon, in drawing 
 up the narrative of his patriotic labours.^ 
 
 « Same coUection. No. for May, 1713, p. 372. 2 11th April, 1713. 
 
 'At Bobi, 11th November, 1709. The previous synod had already considered 
 the duty **of proceeding, for the service of his royal highness, to the establisli- 
 ment of some pastors, in the valley of St. Martin, as a thing calculated to confirm 
 the people of that valley in the fidelity which they owed to th'eir lawful sovereign." 
 (Preamble of the Synodal Acts of 23d October, 1708. Archives of the Vaudois 
 Table.) 
 
 * See the declaration of the intendant of Pignerol, appended to the Acts of the 
 Synod of Bobi, 1709. It is in the Synod of Le Villar (23d Oct., 1708), that we 
 find for the first time the intervention of the civil power to sanction the acts of 
 our religious assemblies by declaring them executory: "quelli {articoli) admettiamo 
 e dichiaramo esccutorii . . . Pasca, intendente e direttore." In other matters, the 
 support of the secular power would have been of great value, and would have 
 given great force to the decisions of our synods, if they had been contested. But 
 they never had need of it. 
 
 » See the Mercure historique, XXVI. 140, and the Memoire pour les Eglises da 
 Piemont, dated from St. John, 27th December, 170G. (Archives of the Pastors of 
 Geneva, vol. 11.) 
 
 « See the 15th article of the Synodal Acts of 13th and 14th February, 1708. 
 {Archives of the Vaudois Table.) 
 
 ^ Acland, The Gloinous Recovery, &c Bracebridge ; Plenderleith, and 
 
 Memoires de Paid Appia. (Communicated.) 
 
 8 Published in 1710. Some say at Basle, others at Cassel. Republished at Neu- 
 ehatel in 1845. 
 
 Crap. XIX] 
 
 nARDSIIIPS OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 283 
 
 The subsequent fortunes of the Yaudois people, whom he left, 
 were worse than his own. Impoverished by the recent vicissitudes 
 which they had experienced, and by the war just concluded, they 
 exhausted themselves in providing for the necessities of the nume- 
 rous refugees whom they had welcomed to their territories,^ The 
 military enrolments had at once taken away hands from agriculture, 
 and added to the number of mouths to be filled,^ and without the 
 foreign succours which were bestowed upon the Vaudois,^ the 
 generosity of their prince* would not have saved them from the 
 overwhelming pressure of extreme privations."^ 
 
 This state of distress continued for many years." The Vaudois 
 Church, nevertheless, seemed to acquire strength.^ The inhabitants 
 of these regions regarded them with friendship. Not a few of the 
 
 ' Order of Bercastel, governor of Lucerna, to the French refugees, e altri stran- 
 ieri ^ , . che non sono arrolati, e cite possedono alcun rcgistro, to quit the country 
 within three days. Dated from Lucerna, 27th April, 1706. (Archives of Le 
 Villar, vol. Relif/ionarii, folio 131.) But this order produced merely a temporary 
 efifect : for we find, under date 18th September, 1708, a note of tlie poor and of 
 foreign refugees in the Vaudois valleys; and on 25th May, 1709, a new order of 
 expulsion, for the execution of which the Vaudois communes are made responsible, 
 in which these refugees find harbour. (Archives of Le Villar, vol. above quoted, 
 folio 161) ; and finally, under date 23d March, 1714. a new order for the same pur- 
 pose. (Id., ibid., folio, 171.) 
 
 2 Report on the afjiicted. condition of the churches of Pragela and the old valleys; 
 addressed to Geneva by the Vaudois pastors, dated Ist June, 1714. (Archives of 
 the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. S, p. 258.) The first cause of 
 this was the edicts of 1703 and 1704, by which Victor Amadeus invited foreign 
 exiles to serve under his banners. 
 
 ' Memoire en faveur des Vallees in 1707. (Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, 
 vol. R.) Memoire du ministre Lcger, dtil6(ju4 par la compagnie pour se rendre 
 aux Vallees, &c., . . . extending from 2d August, 1729, to the end of November, 
 and inserted in the same Archives, vol. x. p. 173, et seq. A inemoire justiflcaiif 
 of the proceedings of Leger was published in the following year, under date 20th 
 October, 1730. (Communicated by M. Vaucher Mouchon, of Geneva.) 
 
 * Stato delle compagnie Valdesi, che hanno servito S. M. durante Vhor scorsa 
 guerra . . . quali hanno continuaniente gio'ito del pane e delle contribuzione, stateli 
 graziosamente accordati da delta S. M. kc. Document dated St. John, 22d May, 
 1717. (In the State Archives at Turin, categ. Vald., No. 456.) MS. of 40 pages, 
 folio. The names are written in double columns. There are 73 columns. The 
 paper was drawn by the notary Joseph Brezzi. 
 
 * Letter of the pastors of Bobi and Le Villar to the Venerable Company of 
 Pastors of Geneva, setting forth that so great a famine reigns in the country, that 
 some of the poor sufierers are even compelled to subsist upon wild herbs. "The 
 Catholics," say they, "receive assistance from those of their own religion, and 
 many of our people are in danger of sacrificing their religion in order to preserve 
 their lives." Written by Reynaudin, 15th June, 1714. The council of the city 
 of Geneva adopted a resolution granting 1(X) crowns for relief of the churches of 
 Bobi and Le Villar. (Archives of the Company of Pastors, vol. S, pp. 260, 270.) 
 
 * See Memoire sur la situation presente des Eglises ivang6liqv£S des VallieSf . . , 
 presented to the synod of the Hague, 9th September, 1762. 
 
 ^ See the Synodal Acts of the Vaudois Church, from 1703 to 1730. 
 
284. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Thi»d. 
 
 Chap. XIX ] 
 
 THE VAUDOIS HARASSED. 
 
 285 
 
 m 
 
 magistrates, ai^iooiated to govern tliem, even proved their protectors.^ 
 But the friendly feeling of the sovereign- and the' esteem of the 
 neighbourhood were not sufficient to counterbalance the hostile in- 
 fluence of the Church of Rome, which continually pureued them. 
 To this influence it was conceded that they should be compelled to 
 cease from all manual labour on the Catholic festival days,^ and 
 that they should be prohibited from admitting into their places 
 of worship any person not of their own religion;* whilst, under 
 
 * The Marquis de Bercastel, governor of Lucerna, spirito da un atto di carita, e 
 mosso a compassione verso il detto popolo, sc compiaciuto di farli VoffeHa e di dar e 
 aborsar, la soma di liure trecento ducati d'argento .... for tlio erection of the 
 Protestant place of worship at Le Villar. (From a notarial deed of 11th Fehruary, 
 1706.) The place of worship was completed in 1707 : it was merely a re-building. 
 (This document, and many others relating to this place of worship, are in the Ar- 
 chives of Le Villar, vol. lleliuionarii, folio 121-157.) The bell of this church was 
 recast in 1719, by a person named Nigretti, of Crussol. The stipulations made 
 with him are of date 28th April, and are to be found in folio 174. 
 
 2 In 1G93 and 1004, in 1703 and 170G, 1708 and 1713, Victor Amadeus II. signi- 
 fied to the Vaudois not only his good-will, but even attachment and gratitude. 
 (See at these dates.) We read in a letter of the moderator to the English ambas- 
 sador at Turin : — ""Will jour excellency be so good as to remind our sovereign, 
 that he gave his word to Mr. Molesworth (predecessor of Mr. Edges), never again 
 to trouble the Vaudois." The letter is dated 26th May, 1727. 
 
 » An order of Victor Amadeus II., dated 14th July, 1718, enjoined the Vaudois 
 to abstain from all kinds of work on the festival days of the Romish church. (Ar- 
 chives of Le Villar, vol. RcUgionarii, folio 176.) The Vaudois petitioned against 
 this prohibition; and by a new order, dated 9th August, 1718, they were per- 
 mitted to work in their own houses, %cith closed doors, but only during the hours 
 when the Catholics might be at liberty to employ themselves in similar labours. 
 In order to apply themselves to those for which the Catholics required a permis- 
 sion from their parish priest, it was necessary for the Protestants to obtain one 
 from the judge. (This document is in the form of a biglietto regio in the Archives 
 of Turin, and of ex2>lanatory instructions transmitted by the Count de Mellarede, 
 minister of the interior, in those of Piguerol.) The second'article of the edict of 
 25th June, 1720, confirmed these regulations. But the Vaudois still petitioned 
 against this compulsory resting on the festivals of a church to which they did not 
 belong. {Memoria sopra il raccorso fatto, nel 1718, dalli Protestanti, per la liberta 
 di traiagliare le festi, e sopra diversi abusi. Archives of the Court, Turin, No. 451.) 
 New instructions were addressed, in 1721, to the Senate of Pignerol, to confirm 
 the edict of 14th July, 1718. (Id. No. 452.) But the vexations which arose from 
 the arbitrary execution of this edict became so grievous, that upon a new petition 
 from the Vaudois, the king mitigated it a little ; by rescript of 12th May, 1724, 
 confirming the regidations of 25th June, 1720, and by biglietto regio of 27th June, 
 1724, confirming those of 9th August, 1718. (Same source, Nos. 442, 927, &c.) 
 
 * The superior Council of Pignerol demanded in the first place, on Slst March, 
 1717, that the Protestants of Le Pomaret should be prevented from admitting Ca- 
 tholics to their worship. (This was especially intended to keep away the Reformed 
 of Pragela, who had been compelled to conform to the rites of the Church of 
 Rome.) Victor Amadeus II. , by a rescript of 2d April, 1717, assented to this de- 
 mand. On 28th May a manifesto appeared, which allows some individual excep- 
 tions to this prohibition. (Turin, Archives of the Court ; category Valdesi, Nos. 
 474-478.) But this prohibition was soon extended to all the Vaudois places of 
 worship. (Orders of 2Sth Sept. and 22d Oct., 1720; quoted in a petition of 1721.) 
 
 pretext of public security, their most lawful rights were often dis- 
 regarded.^ It had already been attempted to restrict the number 
 of their places of worship;- and the Propaganda redoubled their 
 activity in instigating new annoyances.^ 
 
 These severe measures were followed by proceedings still more 
 vexatious;* even criminal attempts remained unpunished — cruelties 
 
 ' Order of 20th June, 1714; which, whilst it banished the French Protestants 
 from the country, forbade the Vaudois themselves to leave it. Note of the Pro- 
 curator-General, dated 11th September, 1714, saying that these measures are for 
 the public tranquillity. (Archives of Le Perrier.) 
 
 2 When the territory of Lucerna and that of St. John formed but one commune 
 (in 1638, in consequence of the depopulation of the country by the expulsion of 
 the Vaudois), the Catholics of St. John built a church, which afterwards, on tho 
 return of the exiles, passed into the hands of the Protestants, in virtue of some 
 transactions unknown to me; and the restitution of this edifice to the Catholic re- 
 ligion was ordered by decree of 12th May, 1717. The Protestant church of St. 
 Germain, which had been demolished in 1686, and rebuilt in 1711, was not in the 
 same spot with the old one. Upon this account its destruction was demanded; 
 but as the site of the old church could not be exactly determined, the new one was 
 allowed to remain. (Risoluzioni prese nel congresso tenuto avanti S. E. il signor 
 conte ministro e primo segretario di stato, Mellarede, li 12 maggio, 1717. (Turin, 
 Archives of the Court, Valdesi, No. 473.) A special edict of Victor Amadeus had 
 authorized Protestant worship in the commune of Prarusting : dalle regioni di 
 costa longia e Masscra m su, verso la montagna; e alia Duriva del Colloretto, eve 
 vi an picolo canale, &c. (Edict of 2d October, 1699. In the A rehires of the CouH 
 of Accmints, at Turin, Reg. contr. gen. MDCXC. No. 199, folio 112.) The in- 
 structions of 20th June, 1730, could not suppress this edict, but they laid down 
 the rule that no new Protestant place of worship should be erected in the valleys; 
 and as to that of Prarusting, it is said " voglianio ben permeitere che sussista la 
 campana'' (some authors have read la cabane), "on condition always that it be 
 not extenc'ed, and that the pastor who formerly lived at Rocheplate shall again fix 
 his residence there, and shall not be entitled to reside at St. Barthelemy." {Ts- 
 fruttione a riguardo de Valdesi, 20th June, 1730, art. ix.) Subsequently all 
 places for religious meetings, other than the churches, were closed in the valleys. 
 (Decrees of the Senate of Turin, of 19th Feb., 1756, and 18th January, 1771. Ar- 
 chives of the Senate.) 
 
 3 Particularly in order to obtain conversions to Catholic'sm. The marriage por- 
 tions were fixed {stato delle dotli .... costituite a figlie convertite . . . &c. 
 Archives of the Court, No. 448.) Even gifts abounded. (Testamentary deed of 
 2d July, 1723, by which the testator disposes of his property in favour of such 
 Vaudois' as should become Catholics. Archives of the intendancy of Pignerol, 
 categ. I., class IV., art. viii.. No. 8.) Concerning the annoyances, I possess a 
 memorial entitled Grievances of the Valleys of Piedmont, belonging to the year 1721. 
 It would be too tedious to enter into the details. 
 
 ♦ Criminal prosecutions were instituted against pastors who performed the func- 
 tions of their ecclesiastical office for any one born on the left bank of the Cluson 
 or in Pragela, where the government would acknowledge the existence of none , 
 but Catholics. For having administered baptism to an infant born at Fenestrelle, 
 on 18th April, 1727, the pastor of St. John, Cyprian Appia, was condemned to 
 banishment and confiscation of goods. But the English ambassador, Mr. Edges, 
 obtained his pardon. ** "We can no longer venture to meet for any business," wrote 
 this pastor afterwards, "because of the prosecution which has been commenced 
 against five of our number, who had met for public affairs." .... (Letter of 
 
286 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thibo* 
 
 were from time to time openly perpetrated, or being shrouded in 
 mystery, inspired the greater alarm. ^ The protection of foreign 
 powers did no more than repair these injuries — it did not prevent 
 them.'- Distrust everywhere prevailed;^ the complaints of the 
 
 Appia, dated 24th August, 1733, to Mr. Chetwynd, at London.— FawcZow Corres- 
 pondence.) This prosecution also terminated in a condemnation, but through the 
 indulgence of the sovereign, it was annulled by letters-patent, dated 16th April, 
 1734, and recorded on the 20th. Amongst these persons was one named Daniel 
 Musseton. Cyprian Appia was also implicated in it, as well as other pastors. 
 
 * It seems to have been in 1727 that the monks of Le Villars formed the project 
 of blowing up, by means of a mine, the Protestant church of that place, built in 
 1707. I have given some particulars of this story, in a volume on the Vaudois, 
 published in 1834, p. 53. See also Blair, History of the Waldenses (2 vols. 8vo, 
 Edinburgh, 1833), ii. 533. Of cruelties openly perpetrated the greatest and most 
 frequent was the carrying away of Vaudois children, which took place from 
 time to time either by open violence or secretly. The Vaudois Correspondence 
 from 1725 to 17C5, which I have consulted, contains a great number of instances. 
 ** Xo means are neglected to make children rebel against their father and mother. 
 .... Steplien Odin, of Prarusting, is much annoyed about his daughter, who has 
 
 become a Catholic The tribunal of Pignerol cauaed Odin's property to be 
 
 judicially sold, to endow his daughter's apostasy, to the prejudice of his children 
 who remain faithful. . . . All the petitions which we have presented since 1718, 
 have been disregarded." (Passages extracted from divers letters of the ModeratoVy 
 from 5th January to 12th June, 1727.) 
 
 When the v.alh of the convent of Le Villar were demolished, some human ske- 
 letons were found, iucaseil in the thick partitions of the edifice. 
 
 2 "The evangelical churches of Piedmont, which exist only by a perpetual 
 miracle of Providence .... have always been the object of especial patronage 
 and protection on the pai-t of the sovereigns of Great Britain, since the reign of 
 Queen Mary. The afflictions to which they are continually exposed render this 
 protection now more necessary to them than ever." (Letter of condolence, written 
 on 10th September, 1727, by the moderator of the Vaudois churches, to George II- 
 of England, on the death of his fither, George 1.— Vaudois Correspondence.) — 
 "Amongst foreign powers," says ihe RepoH of 1729 on the. State of the Vaudois 
 churches, "England is now their firmest support, as before the peace of the 
 Pyrenees they were supported by the King of France." (Records of the Venerable 
 Company of Pastors of Geneva, vol. X, p. 174, &c.)— We must add Holland and 
 Prussia, which certainly have, at all times, done much more for the Vaudois than 
 ever was done by France. 
 
 3 Even against the pastors : for the pecuniary supplies which came from abroad 
 had no fixed destination. The synod disposed of them. Part of the support of 
 the pastors and schoolmasters was derived from these sums. Hence arose some 
 irregularities, many rivalries and jealousies, and rumours of malversation inces- 
 santly renewed, although always disproved. The directors of the Vaudois churches 
 complained of the iugratitude and the accusations to which they were subjected. 
 Their letters, again, were often intercepted at Pignerol. No one could venture to 
 express himself freely, nor to confide in anybody at home or abroad, &c. (The 
 Records of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, vols. T, V, X ; the Cor- 
 respondence of the Vaudois Moderator, and a great number of letters and pamphlets 
 of the period, which it would be tedious to particularize, contain proofs of these 
 facts.) In 1727, an impostor presented himself in London, with forged papers and 
 an imitation of the seal of the Vaudois churches, with the vjew of appropriating 
 to himself the supplies designed for them. (Letter of the Moderator to Mr. Chet- 
 vynd, agent for the Vaudois in London, dated 6th May, 1727, &c.) 
 
 Chap. XIX.] 
 
 STATE OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 
 
 287 
 
 Vaudois were no longer listened to.^ Their synods could do no 
 more than to redress particular grievances,^ to maintain union in 
 families,^ to watch over the morals of the people/ and to keep up 
 the exercise of discipline.^ But this discipline itself had partici- 
 pated in the effects of those perturbations by which everything was 
 unsettled:^ and the laxity of opinion which characterized the age 
 increased contiuually without putting an end to religious fanati- 
 cism, now without even the excuse of sincere conviction for its in- 
 tolerance."^ The Vaudois chiffch multiplied its public prayers and 
 
 1 «« XT, 
 
 ' No answer is given to our petitions ; our complaints produce not even an 
 echo ; the very letters which we send to you are retained." Vaudois Correspondence 
 of 1718-1729. (Letters to Mr. Edges at Turin, and to M. Turretin at Geneva.)— 
 "The books which we procure from Geneva for the religious instruction of our 
 children are stopped at the office at Pont d'Arve, and we cannot recover them 
 from it." (Note in the handwriting of Cyprian Appia, dated in 1720.) "Our 
 deputies are not permitted to obtain access to the king, ... our petitions are un- 
 fairly dealt with" . . . (Synod of 2Sth November, 1724, § 5), &c. 
 
 2 See Synodal Acts of 3d June, 1694, art. 1 and 2; of 25th October, 1G95, art. 
 7 and 9; of 25th April, 1007, art. 2 and 5; of 2Sth April, 1705, art. 7 and 10; of 
 23d October, 1708, art. 8 and 9; of 1712, art. 3; of 1724, § 7; of 1727, § 4; of 1729, 
 § 9 and 16, &c.— "The Vaudois are little in favour with the Catholic magistracy; 
 but the disputes which they have amongst themselves are almost always ter- 
 minated by the intervention of their ministers and others, whom they choose for 
 arbiters." {Brieve narration des Vaudois, ou sujefs protestants de S. M. . . . faitc 
 parun r/entilhomme, en ses voyages d'ltalie: without date; but it mentions the 
 differences between the court of Eome and the house of Savoy, fourteen years ago, 
 which would place this note in 1707, if the reference is to the differences of 1694 
 relative to the re-establishment of the Vaudois; or in 1733, if it is to those con- 
 cerning the Monarchy of Sicily, which were prolonged till 1719. State Archives 
 at Turin, category Valdesi, No. 458.) 
 
 3 See the Synodal Acts, at the sections already quoted. (Archives of tJie Vaudois 
 
 Table.) 
 
 * See also the Synods of 1703, § 14; 1707, § 7, 8; 1708. § 11, 12; 1712, § 0, 11; 
 1713, § 4, 15; 1716, § 9; 1718, § 8, 9; 1725, § 3; and 1729, § 8, 9, 16. 
 
 s See the synod of St. Germain, 29th November, 1729, art. viii. (Various re. 
 gulations follow.) The preceding synod, according to a letter of the moderator 
 to M. Iselin, at Basle (dated 12th March, 1727), "resolved henceforth to examine 
 students, before sending them to the places which may be granted them by foreign 
 academies." All the proceedings of these assemblies had, however, no other object 
 than the maintenance of order, morality, evangelical doctrine, and discipline.— 
 For the regulations in detail, see the minutes of their proceedings. 
 
 6 The same sources as are indicated in the preceding notes ; also Synod of 1703, 
 art. 1 and 2; of 1710, § 23 and 24; of 1715, § 4 and 8; of 1716, § 2; of 1727, § 5, 
 &c " Our schools are very irregularly kept." (Letter of the moderator to James 
 Lcger, pastor at Geneva, dated 5th April, 1723.) " Our churches stand in need 
 of considerable reforms." (Letter to M. Burlamaqui, of 23d April of the same 
 
 7 The Vaudois were forbidden (1), to acquire properties beyond their limits, and 
 to exercise certain professions; (2), to settle out of their valleys, even for trade; 
 (3), to make proselytes from the Romish church, and to oppose proseli'tism amongst 
 themselves; (4), to reclaim their children taken: from them under pretext of a,b. 
 juration; (5), to increase the number of their places of worship and of their minis- 
 
28S 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Third. 
 
 fasts, in order to obtain the blessing of God for the time to come. ^ 
 But a transformation was taking place in society— habits and 
 opinions were changing, and meanwhile the spirit of the past 
 struggled with new energy to regain its empire. The promulgation 
 of the old Piedmontese statute,^ which made the situation of the 
 VaudoLS so much worse than before,^ took place about the same 
 time with the opening of the council of Embrun,* which fomented 
 the dissensions occasioned by the bull Unigenitus. 
 
 Remonstrances were vain on the part of the Vaudois; they could 
 obtain no more mild or equitable regulations,^ but on the contrary 
 they had reason to apprehend ncAv severities, and the edict of 
 20th June, 1730, published under the form of Instructions to the 
 senate of Pignerol, did nothing but collect and codify, so to 
 speak, all the oppressive measures which had already been adopted 
 with regard to them. It was then that all Protestants of foreign 
 birth were for the second time expelled from theii- valleys, and, 
 with a few exceptions, all the Protestants, natives of Pragela, were 
 banished, no more to return.^ In vain did the organs of the 
 
 ters, even within their own valleys; (6), to hold religious assemblies, or even 
 simple praver meetings, out of these places of worship, and without the presence 
 of the pastor. (See Gilly, Vigilanlius and Valdo, page 32.)— Each of these pro- 
 hibitions became a ready pretext lor calumnies and prompt proceedings. 
 
 » From 1701 to 1726, seven public and solemn fasts were appointed by the synod 
 in the valleys. That of 1720 was for preservation from the scourge of pestilence; 
 and that of 1723, to thank God for having preserved them from it. 
 
 2 The synod of 28th November, 1724, was principally occupied iu examining, 
 with reference to the interests of the Vaudois, the Eoi/al Constitutions, as they 
 were called, which were published in 1723. (See the minutes of that synod.) 
 
 3 This did not rej^eal the edict of 23d May, 1694, re-eatablishing the Vaudois.— 
 There was no mention made in it of the inhabitants of the valleys, althourjli the 
 Jews were, by the same constitutions, protected from all insult and violence. (Such 
 are the terms of a petition drawn up by the Synod of 1724.) The observance of 
 the Catholic festivals was rendered obligatory. Protestants were prohibited from 
 having notaries of their own religion, although they had had them from time imme- 
 mm-ial. (Terms of the same petition.) Parents were obliged to dispone their pro- 
 perty in favour of their children who had become Catholics, whom they Lad just 
 the least reason for favouring, &c. 
 
 * Opened on 16th August, 1727. It was on 24th October, 1728, that a yjam-fi 
 was adopted, circa il capo da aggiungere alle costUuzioni a riguardo de Voidest, 
 containing a declaration with regard to the edict of 16&4, upon which the Vaudois 
 rested in demanding the maintenance of their privileges, that ' ' when circumstances 
 change, edicts lose their value." (Turin, Archives of the Court, No. 441.) This 
 maxim needs no comment. 
 
 * " Notwithstanding all our petitions we have not been able to obtain the slight- 
 est relief." (Concluding words of a memorial drawn up in 1728, under the title 
 Griefs des Vaudois. In my possession.) 
 
 « A list of the names of the Vaudois of Pragela, exiled in 1730, and who were 
 within the canton of Berne in the month of May of that year, may be seen in 
 Dieterici, p. 404. They amounted to 360 persons. Those of the other valleys who 
 were in Switzerhwid as exiles, in December, 1730, amounted to 480 persons. The 
 
 Chap. XVll] 
 
 RENEWED PETITIONS. 
 
 289 
 
 Vaudois church and its foreign protectors reclaim against these 
 abuses of power: the only replies to their just complaints were 
 deceitful subtleties,^ or promises almost always illusory.*-^ They 
 renewed their petitions.^ But these protestations of their rights 
 
 list is also given by Dieterici, pp. 408-414. (Total of the Vaudois exiled at the 
 closeof 1730, 840.) 
 
 * " All these reclamations of the Vaudois, or of the powers which protected them, 
 are founded upon the edict of 23d May, 1694; but this edict leaves untouched 
 all those which were issued anterior to 1686, and consequently the plenitude of 
 action of the sovereign." (Progetto di capo per agiunta alle costUuzioni. . . . Ar- 
 chives of the Court, No. 471.) Instead of granting more liberty to the Vaudois, 
 they must be restrained as much as possible. {Parere sovra la toleranza degV eri- 
 tici, in Piemonte. Same source. No. 464. "Without date.) '• The King of Eng- 
 land caused representations to be made, on the subject of the Vaudois, by Mr. 
 Molenvorck [?], his envoy extraordinary at Turin ; a promise was given to regulate 
 their situation according to the anterior edicts, and all the articles of the edict of 
 20th June, 1730, were successively communicated to the English ambassador, with 
 the edict upon which they wene based. He acknowledged their exact accordance; 
 it is therefore with a bad grace that complaints are made of them now." (Extracted 
 and abridged from a note sent to the English secretary, Allen, on 27th April, 1731. 
 Same source, No. 465.) It was, however, acknowledged that many of the edicts 
 brought forward, were not applicable to the Vaudois valleys. (Rescript of 12th 
 August, 1730, published by Borelli.) The States-General of Holland wrote to 
 Victor Amadous with the same object, on 7th November, 1730 ; the king's reply 
 polite but evasive, is dated 2d December, 1730, (Archives of the Court, Nos. 407*, 
 468.) The influence of the Catholic clergy was then exercised over the king, 
 through the instrumentality of a female, for whom he thought it little to sacrifice 
 the repose of the Vaudois, and for whom he ere long sacrificed his throne. 
 
 2 The King of Prussia wrote to Victor Amadeus, on 6th January, 1725:— "The 
 tranquillity of the Vaudois cannot be a matter of indifference to me. ... It is 
 attempted to compel them to observe the Catholic festivals, contrary to the edict 
 
 of 23d May, 1694 The ordinance by which they are required to provide 
 
 a pension for their children who have abjured the religion of their fathers, seems 
 to me no less hard And the books necessary for the exercise of the Pro- 
 testant religion are stopped at the custom-house. ... I beg your majesty to be 
 well assured that of all marks of friendship which you can give me, that of attend- 
 ing to my intercession for the Vaudois churches will always be the most agreeable 
 to me." This letter, full of such noble and touching expressions of interest, is 
 given entire by Dieterici, pp. 395-397. Victor Amadeus replied on 3d March, 
 1725: — "Sir, — my brother \inonsieur mon frere], — I have received vdth great 
 pleasure your majesty's letter, which has just reached my hands. I will always 
 be exceedingly desirous to gratify you in everything; but I cannot refuse myself 
 the satisfaction of informing you that the kindness which your letter seeks to do to 
 the Vaudois, my subjects, by a mere act of generous intercession, has been entirely 
 anticipated by the sentiments of good-will and protection with whicli I regard the 
 fidelity and zeal of tJie said Vaudois, and consequently their tranquillity. Their 
 tranquillity is in no danger wJiatever, but my intention is that it shall be as perma- 
 nent as th£ir faithfulness in fufilling their duties shall be; and I beg your majesty 
 to rest assured of the perfect friendship and respect, with which I am. Sir, — my 
 brother, — ^your majesty's attached brother [bon /r^re], Victor Amadeus." Although 
 this letter makes no reply as to any of the facts mentioned by the King of Prussia, 
 ifc is not the less remarkable because of the testimony which Victor Amadeus bears 
 to the fidelity of the Vaudois, and their fulfilment of their duties. 
 
 ' On 20th November, 1730; signed by 165 heads of families of the valleys; pre- 
 sented to the king by Appia and Legcr, deputies. 
 
 Vol. II. 97 
 
290 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paet Thieo/ 
 
 Chap. XX.] 
 
 PERSECUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 291 
 
 served only to excite injustice;^ and the refusals of justice added 
 still more and more to the grievances which they endured.'* 
 
 Was this a chastisement of Providence inflicted upon this people 
 — smidl in number, and already tried more than almost any other 
 by the rods of the jealous love of their God — to punish them for 
 the decrease of zeal which was manifested amongst them, and the 
 relaxation of morals of which their own synods already com- 
 plained?^ " In the end of the eighteenth century," says M. Mon- 
 astier* (and we do not hesitate to apply this judgment to the 
 eighteenth century altogether), "the valleys suflered in some 
 measure from the decline of religious sentiments, which were 
 generally weakened everywhere. Christian zeal, in former periods 
 so lively and fruitful, drew less support from the pure fountain of 
 the gospel. A self-sufficient and feeble reason, and human under- 
 standing, always the more proud the more narrow its bounds, 
 began to assert for themselves a place in theology." We shall see 
 in next chapter how these germs of moral and religious weakness 
 developed themselves, and happily, towards the end of this his- 
 tory, we shall behold their decrease. " The Lord," says David, 
 " will not cast off his people : neither will he forsake his inheri- 
 tance."^ May the Israel of the Alps also never be forgetful of the 
 blessings graciously vouchsafed by their God ! 
 
 > An inquiry after all persons actually Protestants, but who had been bom or 
 baptized in the Romish church, before 1686 and after 1676, to compel them to re- 
 turn to Catholicism, or to leave the country. (From 1730 to 1732.) A rescript 
 of 9th October, 1733, prohibiting the Vaudois who were not so situated, from 
 leaving the country to accompany their friends into exile. (Archives of Le Villar, 
 vol. ReUgionarii, folio 177.) 
 
 - This is but too well proved by all the criminal prosecutions which took place 
 at this period, and the numerous proscriptions which decimated the Vaudois val- 
 leys, as well as by the measures above quoted. 
 
 3 In the preamble of each exhortation to public fasting. {Synodal Acts, &c.) 
 
 «II. 198. 'Ps. xciv. 14. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CEN- 
 TURY ON THE VAUDOIS CHURCH, AND PROGRESS OF EVENTS 
 DOWN TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1730 TO A.D. 1792.) 
 
 Persecution continued in many forms of vexation — Growth and effects of new 
 ideas — Children seized and retained by Papists — Popish missions in the valleys 
 — Insincerity in replies to remonstrances of the British Government — ^Vexatious 
 prohibitions and restrictions — Poverty and distress of the Vaudois — Their ser- 
 vices to the King of Sardinia in his wars — Battle of Assiette — Continued vexa- 
 tions on the part of the Popish clergy— The Eefuge of Virtue— The Vaudois 
 Table instituted— Origin of the Vaudois congregation at Turin— The Vaudois 
 churches of the French Alps begin to display signs of life— Unhappy effects of 
 the infidel philosophy of the period on the spiritual character of the Vaudois 
 pastors and church. 
 
 No period has left a greater number of documents than that of 
 which we are now to treat;- but nothing can be more monotonous 
 than the view of the facts which it exhibits. Never were events 
 more numerous or less remarkable than in this part of our history. 
 
 The spirit of persecution continued to exert itself in a midtitude 
 of ways against the repose of the Vaudois ; but it had lost its 
 audacity, as their faith had lost its heroism. Boldness had passed 
 over to the side of new ideas, equally remote from faith and from 
 intolerance. A long succession of mean and assiduous annoyances, 
 proceeding at once from low cunning and from bitter hatred, and 
 wrought in an underhand manner and upon frivolous pretexts, 
 spread like a stifling network over the Yaudois chiu'ch. 
 
 That church itself already felt in some degree the relaxing 
 influence of the eighteenth century. " The candidates for the holy 
 ministry," says M. Monastier, " no longer acquired, for the most 
 part, in the foreign academies to which they went to pursue their 
 preparatory studies, anything else than a cold oithodoxy or the 
 fatal germs of Socinianism. Virtue was ofteu preached and exalted 
 more than the work of Christ, or faith, or the love of God."^ Yet 
 it was at this very time also that vii*tue became more rare ! This 
 
 • Authorities. — Indicated at the bottom of the pages. 
 
 2 It must not be forgotten that these documents are almost all unpublished. I 
 will point out a suflScient number of them to enable the reader to judge of their 
 abundance, at the same time mentioning the sources from which they are derived. 
 
 ' Monastier, Hist, des Vaudois, II., 198. 
 
292 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Thibu. 
 
 CfiAP. XX ] 
 
 VA.UDOIS CHILDREN SEIZED. 
 
 293 
 
 apparent incongruity is only a consequence perfectly clear in the 
 eyes of the Christian; and even the science of metaphysics itself, 
 from recognizing at present merely a great number of moral pheno- 
 mena which succeed each other within us, without the intervention 
 of our own will, must necessarily advance towards the acknowledg- 
 ment on scientific grounds of that mysterious, free, and powerful 
 influence which the humblest chUd of Christ akeady knows under 
 the name of the grace of God. 
 
 But at the period at which this chapter must resume the history 
 of the Vaudois, questions of form still struggled to maintain an 
 empire which already had in reality ceased to be theirs. The 
 narrow and tyrannic formalism of the Romish church in particular 
 endeavoured to impose its own shackles upon all, and contended by 
 violence against the increasing repulsion which it caused. " We 
 are subjected to very bitter tribulations," says a letter from the 
 valleys at this period, "for the persons bom or baptized Catholics 
 before 1686, and those who became Catholics during the persecution, 
 but who returned to their own church in more quiet times, as the 
 edict of 1694 also authorized them, have received orders, contrary 
 to that edict, to abandon Protestantism, and not to leave the 
 countiy to go and profess it abroad, under pain of confiscation of 
 goods and of the galleys. Many of those who have returned smco 
 1730 have ^ied in the prisons; others are wandering in the 
 mountains or without resources in foreign countries."^ 
 
 "On the 23d of June last," says another Vaudois (in 1735), 
 " one of my daughters, named Catharine, was carried off from us 
 without our knowing at first what had become of her. But a few 
 days after, her little brother, aged seven years, met her; and she, 
 taking him by the hand, conducted him to Le Perier, to the house 
 of the priest Don Quadro. I then went to the house of that 
 ecclesiastic to reclaim my children; but he refused to give them up 
 to me, on the pretext that they had become Catholics. I then 
 said that the little boy, of seven years, was not come to an age 
 when he could have understanding for anything of the kind; but 
 all was to no purpose, and T have not seen them again."=* The 
 Vaudois pastors demanded at Pignerol the restoration of these 
 children to their unhappy fiither; but they obtained only promises 
 from which nothing resulted; and the petition addressed to the 
 
 » Letter of 12th July, 1733, addressed by M. Cyprian Appia, pastor at St. Johu, 
 to M. Turretiu, professor at Geneva. (In my possession.) 
 
 8 Petition of John Richard, native and inhabitant of th£ village of Les Frals, in 
 the ralky of St. MaHin. It is not dated. (Archives of the Court, Turin, No. 
 528.) The petitioner asks to have his ghildron restored to him. I have not found 
 the answer to this petition. 
 
 king with the same object appears not even to have received a 
 reply. However, the edict of 18th August, 1655, did not authorize 
 the abjurations of children, contrary to the will of their parents, 
 before a fixed age.^ But so great was the influence of the pei*sons 
 by whom these things were done, that they ventured frequently to 
 repeat the same kind of enormity. 
 
 In the Synodal Acts of the valleys,* we read that " the assembly, 
 grieved to see that, contrary to the edicts of our sovereigns, and, in 
 particular, contrary to the letters-patent of Pignerol of 1655, some 
 children have been carried off from their parents, has resolved that 
 a most humble petition shall be addressed to his majesty, to order 
 that they may be restored to us, and that, in future, the royal and 
 gracious regulations of his majesty in our favour, and those of his 
 glorious predecessors, may be observed." The representations of 
 the synod remaining without effect, recourse was had to the 
 mediation of England, which, however, was productive of no better 
 results. " Children have not been carried off" from the Vaudois," 
 it was replied to the ambassador of that power; "but those who 
 have voluntarily retired to an hospital of refuge^ have only been 
 received into it."* The note from which these words are extracted 
 even adds that two children who had not attained to the requisite 
 age — ^viz., a boy of eleven years and a girl of seven — had been sent 
 back from the hospital to their parents. But if this ever took 
 place, it can Lave been only a deceitful show, perhaps, got up for 
 this very occasion; for we find, on the contrary, that this hospital, 
 far from voluntarily sending back to their parents any of the 
 children whom it had inclosed within its gates, aimed at nothing 
 less than compelling the parents themselves to restore to it, against 
 their will, those of their children who had escaped from the watch- 
 fiUness of their captors, and had returned to their own families.* 
 
 * Above twelve years in the case of boys, and above ten in the case of girls. 
 « Synod held at Les Clots, 23d October, 1736, § v. 
 
 3 Opera del rifugio, ed ospizio p^ cattolizati e cattolizandi. It was first founded 
 at Turin, in 1679, by the Duchess Mary, then regent of the dominions of Savoy. 
 To this establishment was attached a rent of 3000 francs, taken from the revenues 
 of the order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus ; and of 2500 francs, taken from those 
 of the company of St. Paul. It was not till 1740 that it was transported to Pig- 
 nerol. Long details on this subject may be seen in Duboin, vol. xiii. and vol. xv., 
 pp. 217-251. 
 
 * " Reply to the memorial transmitted by the Duke of Bedford, minister of Eng- 
 land, to the Chevalier Ossorio, and by him sent to Turin, with his letter of 3l8t 
 May, 1738, to the Marquis de Gorzegue, on the subject of the representations of 
 the Vaudois." (Inscription on the envelope containing this note, in the State Ar- 
 chives at Turin.) 
 
 ' This appears from a despatch of the intendant of Pignerol, who asked the ad- 
 vocate-general, se 2>o8sa oUigarsi un religionario, a restituire alV ospizio, unjiglio 
 
294 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PAKT Tiiino. 
 
 Chap. XX ] 
 
 FAMILY WORSHIP PROHIBITED. 
 
 9C 
 
 295 
 
 IS 
 lit 
 
 !! 
 
 The monks and priests who were scattered over the valleys, were 
 the natural purveyors for this hospital of detention. The govern- 
 ment was petitioned to restrict the number of these ecclesiastics, 
 but instead of diminishing it increased it. It was at this period 
 that the bishopric of Piguerol was founded,^ and the reply of the 
 government was that they had not sent into the valleys more 
 priests than were strictly necessary for the spiritual dii-ection of 
 the Catholics.2 These words were intended to mislead foreigners 
 as to the existence of the proselytizing missions which were in the 
 valleys. The denial of their existence was implied, although not 
 made in formal terms, and yet this organized proselytism was in- 
 contestible. We may judge what confidence could be placed m 
 promises from a quarter, in which there was such insincerity in 
 diplomatic relations. In the same note it was said"^ that the Pro- 
 testants were never made to contribute to the expense of Catholic 
 worship; and yet, two years before, the Vaudois of St. John were 
 still called on to contribute for payment of the paschal taper, and 
 for the maintenance of the bells of the Popish church in their 
 locality, as we learn from their own petitions.* 
 
 Meanwhile, with inconceivable injustice, the severest proceedings 
 were adopted against every Protestant who was suspected of 
 making proselytes to the Hfeformed Church.'^ This was upon the 
 
 minore d'anni died f The reply of the advocate-general was in the negative. 
 This reply was date. I from Turin, 21st July, 1778. (Archives of the Court, No. 
 613.) But there appears, under date 15th November, 1747, a petition of Peter 
 Eoehe, having for its object to obtain the restitution of a child which had been 
 taken from him before the age authorized for abjuration. It was in vain that the 
 father produced the certificate of his child's birth ; that document was sent back 
 five times in succession, to be drawn out in different forms. I know not if this 
 restitution was obtained. 
 
 » In 1748. 
 
 2 Reply to the memorial of the Duke of Bedford. (Document already cited.) 
 
 ' In article V. * Dated March, 1746. 
 
 * A prosecution was instituted against the pastor of St. John, Daniel Isaac 
 Appia, on the accusation of a renegade, who pretended that this pastor had spoken 
 to him with the view of preventing him from embracing Catholicism. (Letter of 
 Appia to the commandant of Pignerol, justifying himself from this accusation. 
 The letter is not dated, but it contains the following words, which determine the 
 time when it was written : Sotto li tre di questo medesimo mese d'agosto del cadente 
 anno 1773.) As, between 1708 and 1780, there were in the valleys eight pastors 
 who bore the name of Appia, I think it may be useful to give their genealogy here. 
 Two brothers of this name, Paul and Cyprian, who had both studied in England, 
 were ordained at La Tour, on 13th February, 1708. Paul Appia was pastor at 
 Prarusting, from 1708 to 1724; then at Le Villar, from 1728 \o 1738; and, finally, 
 at Bobi, from 1739 to 1756. His son, Paul Joseph, was pastor at Maneille, from 
 1732 to 1734; then at Rora, from 1735 to 1764. He had one son, named Paul, 
 who was pastor at Prarusting, from 1750 to 1760, and at Bobi from 1760 to 1768. 
 Cyprian Appia was pastor at St. John, from 1708 to 1738. His son, Daniel Isaac, 
 
 part of Popery a self-condemning manifestation of distrust, indicat- 
 ing a suspicion of weakness in regard to doctrine. Such was, in- 
 deed, the dread entertained of Protestantism that opposition was 
 made, even on the part of the authorities, to its adherents obtaining 
 a majority in the municipal councils^; nay the family worship was 
 prohibited in which the Bible supplied the simple souls of our 
 good mountaineers with the spiritual nourishment of which they 
 stood in need.^ This was to deprive them of one of the })lessings 
 which they prized most highly ; and the value which they attached 
 to it is attested by the numerous but fi-uitless petitions which they 
 addressed with regard to it to the government,^ which thus re- 
 served to itself the power of instituting arbitrary prosecutions at 
 pleasure, on the pretext of religious meetings. 
 
 Nor were these the only vexations of this period. For example, 
 if it happened that any old persons were induced, through the 
 failure of their faculties or for any other reason, to embrace Catho- 
 licism, it was demanded that their children who had been brought 
 up in the Protestant faith, should abandon their own convictions, 
 to enter the Church of Rome.* As for illegitimate children, they 
 
 was pastor at Angrogna from 1736 to 1739, and at Le Villar from 1739 to 1761. 
 The son of Daniel Isaac bore the name of Daniel only, and was pastor at St. John 
 from 1745 to 17G2. He had two sons, Cyprian Bartholomew, who was pastor at 
 Maneille from 1760 to 1762, and at Prarusting from 1762 to 1787 ; and Daniel Isaac, 
 who was pastor at St. John from 1762 to 1780. (It is this last who is named in 
 the beginning of this note.) 
 
 * Informations and report of the commandant of Pignerol, concerning the con- 
 stitution of the Council of Prarusting, cK erano tutti rcligionarii. Dated 13ch 
 July, 1747. (Turin, Archives of the Court, No. 577.) 
 
 « Decree of the Senate of Turin, dated 18th January, 1771, and renemng the 
 prohibition of all meetings or religious conferences not in the churches. (Archives 
 of the Senate.) They had been akeady prohibited on 19th February, 1756, and 
 9th August, 1769. 
 
 3 ** After the reading of the report, presented by M. Jahier, concerning the steps 
 which he had taken, along with his colleagues, to obtain the revocation of the pro- 
 hibitions pronounced by the Royal Senate, concerning the exercises of religion else- 
 where than in the places of worship ... the meeting resolves to renew the peti- 
 tions presented on this subject on 12th March, 1771, and 23d September, 1773." 
 Minutes of Synod held at Le Chiabas, 6th May, 1772, article VII.) But it would 
 seem that these petitions were fruitless, for in the Synod of 12th and 13th October, 
 1774, Pastor Jahier read a new report of his further proceedings ; and on 24th 
 October, 1774, an order of the intendant of Pignerol (Sylvester Bertram) renewed 
 the prohibition di far adunanze, sinodi o coKoquii, in luoghi e case particolari, 
 senza licenza di S. M. (In my possession.) 
 
 * Order of the Secretary of State for tfie Department of the Interior, enjoining 
 the Prefect of Pignerol to see to it, that children born of Protestant parents, whose 
 parents should afterwards become Catholics, should be brought up Catholics. This 
 order, founded upon the biglietto regio of 17th July, 1728, is dated 14th April, 
 1744. (Turin, Archives of the Senate: Maierie eccles. et ordinarie, 1738-1745. 
 Kegister V., folio 351.) 
 
296 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'AKT TiilBD. 
 
 were clear gain to Popery;* and the guilty mother often experienced 
 a distress as great as that of her shame, in seeing her infant taken 
 from her arms to be transported to the hospital for proselytes. 
 
 Moreover, the Vaudois valleys were duriDg almost the whole of 
 the eighteenth century in a state of great destitution, partly occa- 
 sioned by public events/'^ partly by bad harvests,^ sometimes aggra- 
 vated })y exchequer prosecutions,* or by unexpected calamities^ 
 
 * Nel 1751, un fanciulo essendo nato da due heretici, sciotti amendue dal Vincolo 
 matrimonalie, fu scritto dal Prefetto da Pinerolo al senato, &c. ... It was de- 
 cided that this child should be taken from its parents, and brought up a Catholic. 
 (Parere, sul ricorso del Vescovo di Pinerolo, toccanto Vallevamente nella cattol. rtL 
 de spurii nati da religionaHi. Dated 2l8t May, 1788. Turin, State Archives, cate- 
 gory Valdesi, No. 518.) By a real hiylietto of 24th June, 1739, Chailes Emmanuel III. 
 ordered, with regard to an infant born in such circumstances, that its paternity 
 should be inquired into, and that if the father was a Protestant, the child should 
 not be brought up a Catholic. According to an order of the Senate of Turin, 
 dated 2d May, 1755, the prefect of Pignerol was to recommend to the judges of 
 St. John and Angrogna to take care that two children, in such circumstances, 
 should be brought up by their mothers, until they could be received into the hos- 
 pital. The mothers were held bound to present these infants, as often as they 
 should be required. (Particulars derived from the same jmrere. ) In 1757, the Vau- 
 dois presented a petition for liberty to bring up such children in their own religion, 
 when the parents or the church would bear their maiuteiiKnce. This petition is 
 not dated, but the Peport of the Se7iate of Pignerol, presented to His Majesty, as to 
 the prayer of it, is dated 20th November, 1757. It mentions that this subject 
 was examined into in 1739, and with an opposite result in 1751. It proposes to 
 adhere to the regulations of 18th August, 1655. 
 
 2 "Tlie calamities with which God has afflicted various nations, the chastise- 
 ments with which he has visited ourselves, in these last years, by the scantiness of 
 the harvests (the sole resource of this country), and other misfortunes which have 
 reduced the greater part of the inhabitants to a state of lamentable poverty . . . 
 
 induce the meeting to resolve that a public fast shall be celebrated, &c " 
 
 (Acts of the Vaudois Synod, held at Le Villar, 19th April, 1768, art. IV. and V.) 
 
 3 •' The severity of the winter has destroyed our crops, and caused great distress.'* 
 (Synod of 19th October, 1716, § IV.) " Our crops have almost totally failed . . ." 
 (Letter of Cyprian Appia, September, 1728.) " I have exercised the ministry in 
 the valleys for twenty-seven years. We are always exposed to the hatred and out- 
 rages of our enemies. We suffer the severest aflflictions. The valleys are poor, 
 and can do very little for their pastors. Without the British assistance we could 
 not subsist." (Letter of the same. Vol. of 1734.) The crops failed again in 1752, 
 in 1768, and in 1779. 
 
 * Sequestration of the goods of those whose taxes were in arrear. (Archives of 
 Le Perrier, year 1716.) — Reports by Leger on the state of the valleys in 1729. 
 (Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. X. p. 174, &c.)— ^ Brief Account of the 
 Vaudois of Piemont. Pami)hlet published in 1753. — "We are crushed down by 
 extraordinary taxes, whilst the Catholics are even exempted from the taille royaleJ* 
 (Vaudois Correspondence. Letters of 1764, &c.) 
 
 * " We stUl suffer much from the effects of a terrible calamity which took place 
 in 1728." (Letter of Cyprian Appia, moderator, dated from St. John, 3d March, 
 1731.) This was an inundation. Another disastrous inundation took place in 
 September, 1738. It was in consequence of this flood that the dike caJled the 
 rampart was constructed at Bobi. Collections were made from 1739 to 1743, in 
 Holland and England, for its erection, and to relievo the wants of the inhabitants. 
 
 Chap. XX] 
 
 POVERTY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 297 
 
 now resulting in the gradual ruin of families, now in their demo- 
 ralization. ^ This excessive poverty arose in part from the want 
 of employment and of commerce — the sad consequences of the 
 manifold prohibitions which pressed upon the Yaudois; it was 
 also in part owing to the superabundance of the population shut 
 up ^vithiu the limits of the thi-ee valleys, to which they were abso- 
 lutely confined.'-^ But it must be recorded, to the praise of the 
 doctrines of the gospel, that the foreign Protestant churches dis- 
 played an assiduity in relieving the Vaudois commensm'ate with 
 the indigence by which they were distressed.^ 
 
 The statement of the distribution of these funds forms a folio MS. of 40 pages. 
 Of the 372 heads of families who appear in it, there are 186 (the exact half) whose 
 signature is represented only by a conventional sign. This circumstance may serve to 
 show us, pretty exactly, what was the state of elementary education in the Vaudois 
 valleys at this period, from the proportion of those who could sign their names and 
 of those who were completely illiterate. 
 
 » Note on the events ivhich took place after 1730.—*' Many of our people, finding 
 nothing but disquietude and disorder at home, wished to leave their native country. 
 Some, knowing that more considerable aid was given to those of whose proselytism 
 most hope was°entertained, in order to secure that object, affected to be ready to 
 abjure, that they might participate in this aid. Others sold their properties at a 
 loss and went abroad. ' Not having found themselves so well off in foreign countries 
 as they expected, they returned more miserable and distressed than before. In 
 many cases, also, persons who had abjured to escape the vexations of the edict, could 
 not get quit of those of their own consciences. Some repaired to Switzerland, to 
 return to the religion which they had abjured. Their properties were then con- 
 fiscated in Piedmont, and they were exposed to great dangers if they attempted to 
 return thither. Prosecutions were even instituted against the pastors, on the 
 charge of having encouraged these persons to relapse after they had become 
 Catholics ; and those of them who remained in the country were forbidden to 
 leave it. Some, after having spent all that they had in foreign countries, returned 
 to augment the misery of their native valleys. The children of some Protestant 
 parents had been baptized Catholics, and numbers of these children having returned 
 to the faith of their fathers, were proceeded against as relapsed. A relaxation of 
 family ties, of discipline, and of morals, was the result of this unquiet and wander- 
 ing life. The country long experienced the effects of it," &c. 
 
 3 " Besides that the limits within which they have from time to time been re- 
 strained are narrow, they are not permitted, although they are Christians, to leave 
 them, and to settle elsewhere with their brethren in the dominions of the same 
 sovereign ; so that these mountains are in some places too densely peopled and in 
 otherplaces not sufficiently. Commerce is there impossible, poverty is general, &c." 
 . . . {PeiiiiouofiheY&vidohytistoTsauxmagniJijuesSeigneursdelaFlorissante 
 Bepiihlique Helvetique d, Zurich; dated 15th March, 1728. It is in the hand- 
 writing of Reynaudin, moderator-adjunct, and is signed by nine other pastors, 
 amongst whom is Vincent Arnaud, son of the colonel. (In my possession.) 
 
 3 A long series of documents and letters, extending from 16th March, 1730, to 
 11th August, 1731, all relative to the management and distribution of the 10,000 
 florins granted by Holland to the Vaudois valleys. (Report by Professor Leger, 
 printed at Geneva in 1731, 30 pages, 4to. See also the manuscript report contained 
 in the Archives of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. X. p. 177.)— Etats de secours accord^a 
 par la HoUande auxEglises Vaudoises, faitetarrSte ct Delft, le 13 Mars, 1738, par 
 MM. les commissaires du Synode vallon, &c. . . . (Report communicated.) This 
 Vol. II. 98 
 
298 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TfllBD, 
 
 The King of Sardinia might perhaps have contributed more to 
 their assistance; for they had recently given him new proofs of 
 their fidelity. " You know, gentlemen," wrote the intendant of 
 Pignerol to the Vaudois ministers, in 1733, "that liis majesty our 
 sovereign has declared war; and you are, no doubt, aware that he 
 goes toV* himself at the head of the army. It is my duty there- 
 fore to signify to you, that you should, if you please, exhort your 
 flocks to make extraordinary prayers ... for the success of his 
 arms."i We shall by and by see that the Vaudois themselves con- 
 tributed by their valour to his military glory. 
 
 The cause of this war was, however, in no way connected with 
 the interests of the people of Piedmont. It concerned the crown 
 oi Poland, which the Emperor of Austria- wished to place upon 
 the head of the Elector of Saxony. This was opposed by France, 
 and the Kini? of Sardinia allied himself with France. He joined 
 his troops to those of the Marshal de Villars, and took from 
 Austria several places in Italy.^ The death of the marshal * put an 
 end to the exploits of Charles Emmanuel III., but did not prevent 
 him from reaping the fruits of them; for the treaty of peace, which 
 he concluded in the following year with the court of Vienna,'^ 
 
 aid was regular, and was granted (1) to the poor of each parish ; (2) to the actual 
 pastors; (3) to pastors emeriti; (4) to the widows of pastors; (5) to school- 
 masters. At the date of the report, there were in the valleys sixty-eight schools 
 participating in this aid, and three widows of pastors, who each received sixty 
 florins. These were Madame Leger, Madame Bastie, and Madame Reynaudin. 
 They all lived together at Villeseche. From 1739 to 1744, the distribution took 
 place of the aid granted in consequence of the inundation of 1738. We find, under 
 the date of 1741, a General SUUement of the Ecclesiastical Subsidies for the Valleys, 
 in which England is set down for £270 sterling.—^ menional on behalf of the 
 Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Lucerna, Perause, and St. Martin, addressed 
 in 1758 to the stadtholder, and followed by a note regarding an extraordinary contri- 
 bution of 300 francs, granted in December, 1758, by the Walloon churches to the 
 poor of the Vaudois churches, and for the building of a schoolliouse at Villar 
 Pinache. Finally, the Memoire concei-nant la situation prtsente des Egliscs e'lan- 
 r/eliqucs des vallees Vaudoises, .... presente au Synode tenu d la Ilaye, le 
 d Septembre 1762, &c., completes the exhibition of these foreign supplies, received 
 at this period by the valleys. 
 
 » Letter dated 17th October, 1733. (Correspondence of the Moderator of the 
 Vaudois churches from 1732 to 1734. In my possession.) ^ Charles VI. 
 
 » Pavia, on 4th November, 1733; Milan, on 30th December of the same year; 
 Novara, on 7th January, 1734 ; Tortona, on 28th January, &c. 
 
 * Which took place at Turin, 17th June, 1734. De ViUars was 84 years of age. 
 
 » Signed at Vienna, 3d October, 1735. By this treaty, the kingdoms of Naples 
 and Skily were given up to Don Carlos, the ally of France and a descendant of the 
 iiouae of Bourbon. He was the son of Philip V. and Elizabeth Farnese, was born 
 L'Oth January, 1716, became Duke of Parma and of Placenza in 1731, and King 
 of the Two Sicilies in 1735 ; he was proclaimed King of Spain, under the name of 
 Charles III., at Madrid, on 11th September, 1735. He then left Ferdinand, his 
 third son, at Naples, as King of the Two Sicilies. It was not till 1716 (15th August) 
 
 Chap. XX ] 
 
 BATTLE OF ASSIETTE. 
 
 299 
 
 added to his dominions the whole of the Novarais and some other 
 districts of Lombardy. 
 
 A few years after, war broke out again between Austria and 
 France ; ^ but this time, the King of Sardinia, true to the habitual 
 policy of his predecessors, declared against France and allied himself 
 with Austria.'^ The French army attempted to invade Piedmont 
 in 1742, by the passes of the Vaudois Alps; but Charles Emmanuel 
 drove them back into Dauphiny. In the following year, the 
 French, having entered into alliance with the Spaniards, penetrated 
 into Piedmont by the Var, and defeated the King of Sardinia, near 
 Ooni, on SOtli September, 1744. They then laid siege to Coni, but 
 could not gain possession of the place, where the Vaudois, as his- 
 torians tell us, displayed great valour.^ Three years after this, the 
 battle of Assiette took place,* the success of which was principally 
 owinir to the Vaudois, and the effect of which was still more to 
 enlarge the dominions of their sovereign.^ 
 
 The Col [or Pass] of L' Assiette is a narrow defile situated be- 
 tween Fenestrelle and Exilles, in the mountain range which 
 separates the valley of the Pragela from that of the Doire. The 
 Piedmontese and Imperial forces^ had made strong intrench ments 
 there. The Marshal De Bellisle attacked them. He liad nine 
 
 that the family compact was concluded at Versailles, amongst the four sovereigns 
 of the house of Bourbon, in consetjuence of which England declared war against 
 
 them. 
 
 > France was then in alliance with and supported by Spain. 
 
 - In 1742. ' See Monastier, II., 182, 
 
 * On IDth July, 1747. * By treaty, signed at Aix-la-Ohapelle in 1748. 
 
 ® There were there eight battalions of Piedmontese troops, and three battalions 
 of Imperial troops. (These and the following paiiiculars are taken from a manu- 
 script entitled : Memorie storiche, estratto dal libro titolato Liber reruiu notabilium 
 et decretorum, pro hoc conventu Sanctae Mariae Gratiarum Carmeli coUecti, daFra 
 Cypriano, scgretario del convento. Archives of the Bishopric of Pigneiol.) For 
 these particulars I have also consulted two ballads or sirventes on that event. One 
 of these pieces is in patois, and commences thus : 
 
 " Se fosse may senti," &c 
 
 The other is written in bad French, and was probably composed by a Vaudois sol- 
 dier ; it is merely a long play of words on the name of the field of battle. Some 
 idea of it may be formed from the following lines : 
 
 ** Dix mille fantassins 
 
 Y ont laisse la vie 
 
 Voulant tremper leurs doigts 
 Dans V Assiette aux Vaudois." 
 
 This complaint contains twenty-two couplets. According to the French bistorians, 
 only 1500 men fell at the battle of Assiette. The narrative from which I quote 
 gives the numbers differently. I have adopted them because of their precision, 
 but I cannot vouch for them. It would have been difficult and superfluous for me 
 to have made researches on this point. 
 
300 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pam Third. 
 
 pieces of artillery — his opponents had not one. He had a reserve 
 of eight battalions, whilst all the Piedmontese forces were engaged 
 at once. The attack commenced about mid-day, and the firing was 
 continued until evening. By the aid of their artillery, the French 
 gained some ground at first, and ascended the mountain to the base 
 of the Piedmontese intrenchments; but by a vigorous sortie, the 
 Piedmontese successfully repulsed them. The Marshal de Bellisle, 
 rallying his troops on the level grounds below, gave them a few 
 moments of rest, and then encouraging them brought them back 
 gallantly to the charge. This time they mounted to the assault 
 with such rapidity, that the Piedmontese musketry could not 
 make them fall back. The combat now became one of swords and 
 pikes along almost the whole line. Tlie place which the Vaudois 
 occupied became so filled up with dead bodies that it has ever since 
 been called the Valley of Deatli} But the enemy kept their ground; 
 when some of our mountaineers, recollecting the success of their 
 guerilla tactics, rolled down enormous stones upon the assailants, 
 and that in such quantity that the French, notwithstanding the 
 vigour with which they had begun, gave way before these thunder- 
 ing avalanches of rocks, and were a second time repulsed. "Then," 
 says our narrative, " Bellisle, who in this affair had, notwithstanding 
 his reverses, conducted himself very well, and whose countenance 
 reddened with shame, resolved to hazard in a further effort both his 
 glory and his life. He made a last effort, brought back his wearied 
 troops a third time — set them an example in his ONvn person, ex- 
 posing himself at their head to the fire of the enemy, like a common 
 soldier, and with all the courage of a hero was the first to plant, 
 with his own hand, a standard upon our intrenchments. It was 
 gloriously done, but it was all. The marshal was killed upon the 
 spot. His army lost 6000 men killed and wounded, including more 
 than 300 officers. Three colours also were taken. On oiu- side," 
 continues the narrator, " we had 200 killed and wounded, including 
 three officers, one of whom recovered. "^ 
 
 The attention of their sovereign having been thus favourably re- 
 called to the loyal and valiant inhabitants of the Vaudois moun- 
 tains, Charles Emmanuel at first granted them some favours. They 
 were allowed to have notaries of their own communion." Civil 
 
 • These particulars are extracted from the Memoires de Paul Appia. (MS. com- 
 municated by the family of the author.) 
 
 ■Narrative above quoted, '*Memorie atoriche, estratfe dal libro titolato Liber 
 rerum notabilium," &c. 
 
 3 Charles Emmanuel II. established six offices of notaries for the Protestants in 
 the Vaudois valleys, under the restriction that these civil officers should do no 
 business except for those of their own religion. — Koyal I^etters Patent of 14th 
 
 Chap. XX.] 
 
 ROMISH INTOLERANCE. 
 
 301 
 
 justice also showed less partiality in regard to Protestants;^ its au- 
 thority was even exerted upon some occasions for their protection. 
 But the Church of Kome onlv became more active in its schemes 
 
 ft/ 
 
 of annoyance and of proselytism. It obtained at once new In- 
 structions, more rigorous than those of 1730,'-^ and permission to 
 open at the very gate of the valleys the office for ensnarement and 
 abduction which had hitherto been located at Turin, under the 
 
 February, 1746. (This was contrary to Section IV. of Chap. II., Title XXII., 
 Book v., of the Constitutions or General Code of the Kingdom.) Before these 
 letters-patent were granted, several Protestant notaries had, however, been au- 
 thorized to execute their professional functions in the valleys. John Peter Brezzi, 
 at St. John, had received this authority on 4th September, 1732 ; James Brezzi, 
 his brother, on 7th August, 1733, to act at La Tour, but he removed to St. Germain. 
 John Francis Combe filled the office of notary at St. John, which he purchased on 
 22d July, 1708, from Manfredo Danna, but for which Combe received no formal 
 authorization before 5th May, 1741. (Extracted from various documents in the 
 Archives of the Court.) 
 
 ' In 1774, the Vaudois petitioned to be freed from the taxes unjustly levied from 
 them. (Their peition, according to the unfortunate custom of the times, is not 
 dated.) An order from the Chamber of Accounts, dated 17th August, 1774, bore 
 that the taxes unjustly levied should be repaid to them. (These two documents 
 are printed on the same sheet.) 
 
 2 Listructions of the Senate of Turin, dated 29th July, 1740, and addressed to the 
 Judges of the Vaudois valleys on the course which they ought to pursue with regard 
 to the religionaries. They contain thirty-two articles, founded upon all the former 
 edicts, like those of 1730, on which they are a seriously aggravated commentary. 
 According to these new instructions, if it so happened that a Protestant fell ill 
 beyond the legal limits of the Vaudois valleys, the pastor could not go to visit him 
 without being accompanied by a layman ; he was forbidden to pass the night with 
 the sick man ; he could not remain in the place for more than one day, and must 
 abstain from conducting any kind of religious service. The Catholic worship, on 
 the contrary, could be celebrated e\'erywhere, even in localities entirely Protes- 
 tant, if the parish priests or the missionaries thought proper. The number of 
 Vaudois pastors and places of worship could not be augmented. All exercise of 
 religion, whether public or private, was interdicted at St. John. Still less were 
 the Protestants permitted to have a school there. The pastor was prohibited from 
 residing there ; and if he were called to a sick person, he could not pass more than 
 one night there. (It was then that the Vaudois of St. John celebrated their wor- 
 ship at Le Chiabas, a church built within the district of Angrogna.) Moreover, 
 by these instructions, the Vaudois were prohibited from admitting any Catholics 
 into their places of worship, from inclosing their burying grounds, from purchas- 
 ing or renting lands beyond the tolerated limits, and from any religious relations 
 with foreigners. Mixed marriages were also forbidden, unless the Protestant 
 l>arty contracting the marriage should first sign a promise to embrace Catholicism. 
 The children of Protestants could be taken from their parents at a fixed age (for 
 boys above twelve years, and for girls above ten), if the children manifested a 
 desire to become Catholics. (And it may be conceived how easy it was to imagine 
 this desire, or to create it by the allurement of some promise, in the unreflecting 
 mind of the child.) Finally, foreign Protestants were not to be entitled to settle 
 in the Vaudois valleys without an express permission from his majesty. " Con 
 qu£stilumi," add the Instructions in conclusion, "restandoroi sufjiciamcnte in- 
 strutto, di cio cJie riguarda li sudetti religionarii, non avete dunque che a vigUare^'* 
 &c 
 
302 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Tuiao. 
 
 title of the Refuge or Alherga of Virtue.^ This establishment was 
 subsequently still more extended,^ and to this period are to be re- 
 ferred some attempts to enforce abjuration by violent means not 
 only in the case of children, but even of men of mature age.^ 
 
 ' The Alherga di Virtu was an establishment anterior to the Refuge, but to which 
 the latter was originally united. (From 1G79 to 1739.) In 1740 the Refuge waa 
 transported to Pignerol, and opened under the title of the Hospital for those who 
 have become, and for those who wish to become Catholics. Those who found refuse 
 there were to have been instructed in some arts or trades, by which they might 
 gain their living after their leaving it. But the religious, or rather the ecclesias- 
 tical interest very soon predominated over those of industry and charity. This 
 establishment was then no longer devoted to any purpose but the propagation 
 among Protestants of the doctrines and forms of the Catholic religion. This pro- 
 pa;;ation had especially the object of attaching to the Church of Eome the children 
 who had been drawn into the hospital. It then took the name of the Hospizio di 
 Catecumeni. (In 1772.) 
 
 2 Tiiere is a Rofjal Order, of date 28th December, 1740, for furnishing 20,000 
 livres towards the building of the Hospital at Pignerol. On 13th May, 1744, a 
 new order to provide for enlargements of the building. On 1st May, 1745, letters- 
 patent were issued to organize the administration of the establishment. On 14th 
 June, 1745, a biglietto regio, ordaining the transference thither of the Vaudois 
 children, supported neW Albcrga di Virtu, in Torino. On 24th June, 1730, a con- 
 cordat with Benedict XIV. applied the fourth part of the income of vacant bene- 
 fices to the Hospital of Pignerol. (Articles VI. and VII.) On 21st March, 1752, 
 letters -patent were issued, by which his majesty declared that he took that 
 establishment under his protection, and approved its rules. According to these 
 (1) the establishment is to be reckoned secular; (2) the direction of it is confided 
 to a conmiission which shall be presided over by the bishop, and in his absence by 
 the governor or conunandant of Pignerol. This commission is to meet once a- 
 month. (Articles II., III., and IV.) The Hospital not being able to maintain 
 more than fifty boarders at one time, they are to be divided into two classes (Ar- 
 ticle XVI.), &c. See Duboin, t. xiii. vol. xv. pp. 220-228. 
 
 3 There is a little poem, very imperfectly versified, but full of simplicity and 
 sometimes of energy, in which a Vaudois, named Michelin, relates that, having set 
 out on a Saturday evening, to go to the valley of St. Martin, he waa arrested at 
 Le Pomaret by the soldiers, conducted to La Perouse, rifled, deprived of his 
 clothes, and thrown into a dungeon. There, says he, 
 
 Je n'etais assiste d'aucune nourriture 
 
 Et mon corps grelottait par la grande froidure. 
 
 [I was supplied with no food, and my body shivered because of the great cold.] 
 Then follow some details concerning his captivity : 
 
 Les enfants, le matin, 
 Venaient devant ma porte 
 Me disant, Michelin .... 
 Ne nous chantez-vous plus la chanson de I'Assiette? 
 
 [The children in the morning came about my door, saying, " Michelin .... 
 will you not sing to us any more the ballad of I'Assiette?"] This refers to the 
 ballad which I have quoted in speaking of the battle of Assiette. Perhaps it was 
 the work of the same mountain-bard, now a prisoner. Like Homer, poor Miche- 
 lin appears to have been blind; for in this narration, he speaks only of what he 
 hears, and never of what he sees ; he mentions that he fell as he walked in his 
 dungeon; and, finally, that the common people said to him, " Sing, with your 
 'V'iolin, and you will win two or three picaillons." (The picaillon is an old Pied- 
 
 Chat, 
 
 '. XX.] 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 803 
 
 Meanwhile, the effect of all this upon the Vaudois church, wag 
 to produce a deeper sense of the necessity of perfecting its discipline 
 and organization.^ It obtained the right to be officially represented 
 
 montese coin, worth two deniers.) " "When the constables came," he proceeds to 
 say, "they had to employ force to drive away the crowd from the gates of my 
 dungeon." And the curious conversed about him in the following tenus : — 
 
 S'il se faisait chretien 
 Se disaient-ils I'un I'aubre, 
 On lui ferait du bieu. 
 Mais il n'est pas des n6tres; 
 Et puisq' il ne veut pas 
 Changer de religion. 
 On va le laisser 1^ 
 Perir dans la prison. 
 
 [" If he would become a Christian," said they, one to another, " he would receive 
 favours. But he is not one of our people ; and since he does not choose to change 
 his religion, he will be left to perish there in the prison."] Four stanzas are here 
 devoted to the narration of the different remarks of the crowd : — 
 
 Croyez-vous que cela le tirera d'affaire ? . . . . 
 Que peut-il avoir fait, ce pauvre miserable? .... 
 
 [Do you think the fellow will get out of this scrape? . . . What can he have 
 done, the poor wretch? . . .] "And I," says he, "who heard all this, as I lay 
 upon the straw, I prayed to God to support me 
 
 En fermete de foi, pendant toute ma vie." 
 [In steadfastness of faith, during the whole of my life.] 
 
 He had also charitable visitors, who brought him something for his comfort. 
 The monks, likewise, came to urge him to abjure. At last he was conducted to 
 Pignerol, where he endured a new imprisonment and new solicitations : — 
 
 Si vous n'abjurez pas votre infdme heresie . . . 
 Votre corps perira 
 Au fond d'une prison 
 Et Ton coufisquera 
 Toute votre maison. 
 
 Ma maison est au ciel ; c'est en lui que j'esp^re ! . . . 
 Quand j'aurais en ce lieu 
 Tout perdu, corps et biens, 
 Mon ame devant Dieu 
 Ne craindra jamais rien. 
 
 [If you do not abjure your infamous heresy . . . your body will perish in the 
 depths of a prison, and your whole house will be confiscated. — My house is in 
 heaven, it is it that I hope for ! . . . When I shall have lost everything in this 
 place, boJy and property, my soul shall be before God, and shall fear nothing.] 
 At last the perseverance of the converters was overcome by the perseverance of the 
 captive in remaining faithful to the gospel, and Michelin was restored to liberty. 
 This piece of verse has thirty-seven couplets, of two quatrains each. I have 
 thought it right to quote it, notwithstanding its little literary merit, because of the 
 sentiments which it expresses, and the particulars to which it introduces us ; for 
 these particulars sometimes do more to enable us to understand the character of 
 the period, than more serious documents. 
 
 * Being obliged to restrict myself in these notes, which have already exceeded 
 due limits, I can do no more than mention here, without almost any quotation, 
 the Synodal Acts relative to this subject, and the things of which they treat. — Of 
 
504. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part TllIBD. 
 
 by elective directors, appointed by its own synods, under the name 
 of tlie Vaudois Table} Regulations were framed concerning the 
 stipends of the pastors'- and salaries of the schoolmasters,^ and 
 arrangements were made for watching over the students of theology 
 at foreign seminaries.* 
 
 Consistories: Synod of 1760, § vii.; Synod of 1768, § xiii. Of the Diaconate: 
 Synod of 1765, § iv. Of the Sanctification of the Sabbath: Synod of 1722, § i. and x.; 
 of 1724, § i.; of 1727, § viii.; of 1745, § iv.; of 1748, § ix.; of 1753, § iii.; of 1760, 
 § ii., &c. Of Worship: 1718, xiv.; 1722, viii., xi.; 1729, viii.; 1745, x.; 1762, u., 
 kc. Of Synods: 1720, viii.; 1744, v.; 1791, iv., &c. " The moderator and adjunct 
 shall make a visit to all the churches, in those years when there is no synod, 
 to inquire into their wants, and to maintain good harmony between the par- 
 ishioners and their pastor." (Acts of the Synod, held at Les Clots, 23d October, 
 1736, § x.) The synod of St. Germain, 29th November, 1729, remarked with grief 
 that discipline icas more and more relaxed (§ viii.); and the synod of La Tour 
 (1748), ordained that every pastor should read from the pulpit, at Easter annually, 
 the articles of discipline extracted from the Synodal Acts, that the members of the 
 church may not be able to allege ignorance with regard to them (§ viii.) This first 
 compend of the acts relative to discipline was made by Pastor Bastie, but it was 
 very incomplete. 
 
 » A letter from the intendant of Pignerol, dated 12th September, 1754, autho- 
 rizes the Vaudois Table to draw up and sign petitions in name of the valleys. In • 
 the synod held in 1754, at St. Germain, it was resolved that an inventory should 
 be made of all the papers relative to tl)e Vaudois churches, and that they should 
 be put into the hands of the moderator, to be preserved by him and his successors, 
 in the archives of the body over which they presided (§ viii.) The introduction 
 of lay members into the Vaudois Table v;as attempted in 1722. (Synod of Le 
 Villar, art. xiii.) It was proposed again at the synod of 1795, but not finally re- 
 solved upon till that of 1823. In the synod of 1765, it was resolved that two 
 persons, closely related to one another, could not belong to the Table at once (§ ix.) 
 
 * The English subsidies were suspended in 1723. The arrears were paid in 1726. 
 On the report of the attorney-general, Edward Wortley (dated at London, 30th 
 May, 1726), George I. made arrangements for their regular payment in future. 
 (Order signed at Whitehall, 9th June, 1726.) By a mandate, dated 20th May, 
 1726, the Vaudois churches authorized the banker Chetwynd, of London, to receive 
 this money, in order to transmit it to Piedmont, where they received it from the 
 hands of a banker of Turin. (In that same year, 1726, some assistance was sent to 
 the valleys by the church of Amsterdam.) George II. renewed the order which 
 secured to the Vaudois the regular payment of these subsidies. The first distribu- 
 tion took place in his reign, on 25th March, 1728. 
 
 ' There were then sixty-eight schoolmasters in the Vaudois communes, and only 
 fourteen who regularly participated in the foreign assistance, viz., the thirteen 
 regents of the communal schools, who each received 160 francs from the British 
 subsidies, and the regent of the Latin school, who received 250 francs from Holland. 
 The other fifty- four teachers received their payment from their pupils, and kept 
 school only for two or three months during winter. 
 
 * There were at Lausanne five places or bursaries for Vaudois students, paid by 
 the Evangelical cantons of Switzerland. In 1726, one of them was transferred to 
 Geneva. In 1727, the synod of the Walloon churches founded one at Marburg. 
 Queen Anne established three in England. There was at that time one, and after- 
 wards a second was created at Basle, in Erasmus' college ; and two others were 
 created at Geneva, after 1730. There were thus three in that city, and thirteen in 
 all. See the Synodal Acts of 16th September, 1693; of 3d June, 1694; of 6th 
 October of the same year; of 17th June, 1695; of 19th July, 1701 ; of 17th Sej.- 
 
 Chap. XX.] 
 
 THE CHURCH AT TURIN. 
 
 S05 
 
 In the year 1727, we find the origin of the little Protestant 
 church at Turin, which did not obtain a regular supply of or- 
 dinances till a century afber;^ and which quite recently, and after a 
 struggle, has obtained a recognized place amongst the Vaudois 
 churches.2 It had many difficulties to contend with,'^ but it had 
 the patience and hope in God, requisite for happily surmounting 
 them. May it now praise and glorify him for all his mercies by a 
 truly living Christianity! 
 
 The long forgotten remains of the ancient Vaudois churches in 
 the French Alps were also gi-adually restored.* New and vigorous 
 shoots sprung up around the stump, which seemed to have dis- 
 appeared. And faithful to their origin, these chui-ches thus beginning 
 to re-appear, took advantage of the first ray of liberty which shone 
 upon them, at the period to which we now approach, immediately 
 to incorporate themselves with their sister churches of the valleys 
 of Piedmont.^ The course of events prevented this outward unity 
 
 tember, 1720; of 13th November, 1725; and successively, in the years 1727, § vi.; 
 1729, § vii.; 1743, § ii., &c. 
 
 ' Cyprian Appia, the pastor of St. John, who had studied in England, oflfered to 
 the ambassador of that power, at the court of Turin, that he would conduct a re- 
 ligious service in his residence as often as he desired it. (Letter of 5th January, 
 1727.) But it was not till 1827 that, by decree of 6th July, a Vaudois pastor was 
 named Chaplain of tJie Protestant Legations at Turin. 
 
 * See the Echo oftJie Vaudois Valleys, of 6th September, 1849, p. 43; and chap. 
 xxiv. in this volume. 
 
 ' A reggio vilietlo, al vicario di Torino, riguardente i rdigionarii stalUiti, in 
 questa citta, dated 23d March, 1753, ordained — 
 
 (1.) That all the Protestants in Turin should have their names inscribed in tho 
 police books. 
 
 (2.) That they should never have any Catholic domestic in their service. 
 
 (3.) That they should not obtain permission to reside there for more than a year, 
 but that after the expiry of this term, the permission should be prolonged if there 
 was occasion for it. 
 
 (4.) That they should not be entitled to become tenants of lands in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Turin, without special permission from the authorities. 
 
 (5.) That none of them should be permitted to devote himself to the employments 
 of spinning or working of silk, which were exclusively reserved for the Catholics. 
 
 (6.) They were forbidden to speak, write, distribute books or plates, or hold con- 
 ferences on religious subjects. 
 
 The British ambassador, Lord Eochefort, on 4th July, 1753, made a protest, in 
 which the following sentence occurs : — * ' I do not suppose, that in interdicting all 
 religious conferences, it was intended to prevent any one from being present at the 
 religious service which takes place in the chapel of the legation." The king's 
 reply to this note is dated 7th July, 1753. It is there said on this subject :— " As 
 for Protestants continuing to frequent the house of tho English minister, as they 
 ]Mve done in time past, we will shut our eyes to it, in the way of toleration." (Ar- 
 chives of Turin, Nos. 529, 530, 631.) 
 
 * See in chapter iv. of the First Part of this Work, under the year 1775, the 
 Report on the progress of heresy in the valley of the Po, and in Queyras. 
 
 ' We read, in the Acts of the Synod of 1801, § iii. :— " The churches of St* 
 Vol. II. 99 
 
I 
 
 4 
 
 806 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Third. 
 
 from being maintained; but there is room to hope that their 
 Bpiritual imion has, ever since that time, increased. God permitted 
 the same men at a subsequent period to contribute to it by then- 
 labours on both sides of the Alps. 
 
 Meanwhile, the spirit of a future era had begun to manifest it- 
 self. The hostility cherished for ages by Popery against the Re- 
 formed Church was somewhat abated, and a more kindly feeling had 
 begun to exist amongst the more enlightened representatives of both 
 communions.2 The Vaudois experienced less opposition in carrying 
 on the exercise of their worship.^^ The interests of their church 
 became connected by new reasons with the maintenance of union 
 amongst its members and with the rectitude of their lives. Thus 
 the old difficulties were gradually forgotten, which had created 
 alarm for the very existence of the Vaudois church,* and the in- 
 testine dissensions which had threatened its welfare.^ The cause 
 which had produced them subsisted, indeed, too long: for, from 
 
 V6ran, Molines, FonsUlarde, La Chalp, Arvieux, and Brunissard, in the department 
 of the High Alps, having deputed to this assembly the citizen, David Monnet, their 
 present pastor, . . urgently request that they may be considered as forming one 
 and the same body with us." The synod granted with delight this request, rejoic- 
 ing in this interchange of testimonies of brotherly kindness between the two sides 
 of°the Alps.— The venerable pastor Monnet is now (1850) the senior pastor of the 
 Vaudois church. 
 
 > The sainted Felix Neff came to the valleys in 1826. His influence, although it 
 manifested itself more slowly, was not less deeply felt there than amongst the 
 French Alps, where his memory is so justly venerated. 
 
 2 In the synod of 1701, it was resolved to address the Bishop of Pignerol, to 
 obtain the removal of the parish priest of Pramol ; " persuaded (it is said in art. 
 V.) that that prelate, who is a model of gentleness, equity, and all Christian virtues, 
 will in his wisdom remove a man who is likely to be the author of discord." 
 
 » Religious services were conducted at St. John, contrary to the edict of 1740; 
 but no severity was employed to cause them to be relinquished. However, the 
 Vaudois having petitioned on 11th February, 1792, to have a bell for their church 
 at Serres, the reply, dated on the 13th, was in the negative. In 1722, the superior 
 council of Pignerol opposed the rebuilding of the place of worship at Fact. (See 
 Acts of Synod of Le Villar, Cth October, 1722, § ii.) 
 
 * In a letter, written from St. John, 3d March, 1736, we read :— " Those of the 
 plain are so extraordinarily indebted to creditors, who for the most part are Catho- 
 lics, that, when the creditors ask for payment, the greater part of their debtors 
 are compelled to leave their places of residence. There are always some who 
 
 change This church is gradually losing ground " (Vaudois Corre- 
 
 Bpondence in my possession.) 
 
 * Without enlarging on this subject, I remit the reader to the report by L6ger in- 
 serted in the Records of the Pastors of Geneva, vol. X., p. 177, and to that which he 
 published in 1731. The following, however, are some passages of a letter addressed 
 by the Walloon synod to the Vaudois church, 17th December, 1730 :—" Can our 
 churches be insensible to the mournful divisions which they see arising amongst 
 you? . . . Inthenameof God, gentlemen and much honoured brethren, take effec- 
 tual precautions to quench, in a Christian manner, so soon as they appear, these 
 first flames of a dissension, whose consequences will be eternally lamentable to you." 
 
 Ch\p. XX.] 
 
 STATE OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. 
 
 807 
 
 the son of Reynaudin to the learned and caustic Peyrani, the 
 valleys scarcely ever ceased to have some pastor whose student life 
 had not only been marked by little seriousness, but, in too many 
 cases, even by things that were reprehensible. Sometimes, the 
 fever of innovation which characterized the time, impatient of all 
 ancient rules and institutions, followed them even into their parishes.^ 
 But these aberrations became gradually more rare; and the fre- 
 quent invocation of the Spirit of the Lord, on the part of the 
 Vaudois church, by fasting and prayer, with exercises of contrition, 
 humiliation, and repentance, was at last answered. It may be 
 said to have issued a second time from the middle ages. 
 
 However, the influences, which had affected it but slightly, fail- 
 ing to subvert its ancient institutions, exhibited a fearful strength 
 all over the world, overthrowing the French monarchy and shaking 
 all the thrones of Europe. And when the revolution of 1790 
 broke out, even our valleys themselves were soon drawn into the 
 terrible vortex of its innovations. "At that time," says M. 
 Monastier;* everything tended to draw away the mind from the 
 inward life, which is hid with Christ in God. The power of the 
 human intelligence, united with material force, had undertaken to 
 
 ' The son of Reynaudin was dismissed from the Academy of Basle for his 
 irregular conduct, after having been previously removed from Utrecht. He quitted 
 the latter city in company with Scipio Rostan, who was successively at Utrecht, 
 Lausanne, Geneva, and Basle, and who gave cause of complaint everywhere. 
 J^otwithstanding this turbulence of his youth, however, he exhibited a generous 
 spirit, and conducted himself in a blameless manner in his maturer years. The 
 same may be said of James Peyrani, whose youth furnished occasion for a very 
 severe report. But we may be permitted to forget these juvenilia, from which the 
 reputation of Theodore Beza himself does not suffer, to recollect that the synod of 
 Bobi (October, 1760) addressed special thanks to Peyrani, for the excellence of his 
 moderatorship, and in the same article (§ i.) cited him as an example to future 
 moderators. 
 
 2 There exists a Latin report, which must be referred to the year 1780, in which 
 the pastors James Peyrani and Paul Appia are accused of wishing to put an end to 
 tlie effusion of water in the rite of baptism. These pastors protested their inno< 
 cence of this charge in the synod of Le Pomaret, 20th July, 1830. 
 
 ' " We cannot disguise from ourselves the deplorable condition into which the 
 Christian world has long been sunk" (said the Synod of 1782, § ii.); *' vice con- 
 tinuing to reign among us, and even to augment its empire" (Synod of 1788, § ii.) 
 " shows the lamentable effects of the lawless passions which from time to time 
 break out" (Synod of 1777, § iii.) ** Our falls are so frequent, our transgressions 
 80 multiplied, our vices so numerous, that our consciences, agreeing with religion, 
 urge us to solicit the Divine compassion." (Synod of 1774, § iii.) And the 
 solemn fasts which took place after that date— viz., in 1775, 1778, 1781, 1783, 1786, 
 1789, and 1799, were all preceded by similar humiliations and fervent exhortations 
 to repentance, full of prayers and supplications, than which, i)erhaps, none more 
 expressive of deep feeling were ever employed by any church. 
 
 * IL, 200. 
 
308 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Tniao. 
 
 regenerate the world. Nothing wa^ thought of but social organ- 
 izTtion, visible conquests and worldly glory; there remained no 
 longer, it might almost be said, any room on earth for the mterests 
 of heaven " But we may also add, that it was a time of storm, and 
 that storms are rapid and purify the air. Thus the dull atmosphere 
 of the previous age was freed, by these agitations, from the anti- 
 quated elements which were incompatible with the life of progress 
 God brings good out of evil, and men foil of their own turbulent 
 passions are unconsciously governed by his hand. 
 
 Chap. XXI.] 
 
 A SANGUINARY CONSPIRACY. 
 
 309 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS DURING THE WARS WHICH THE 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION CAUSED IN ITALY.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1789 to A.D. 1801.) 
 
 Pnident reserve of the Vaudois at the outbreaking of the French revolution- 
 pflTnt aUi^ with Austria, at war with Franco-The Vaudoxs troops on 
 rhffroi^Uer under General Gaudin-Popish conspiracy for a massacre of the 
 de?efcel Vaudois families-It is discovere.1 and defeated by General Gaudm 
 
 Odious conduct of the Piedmontese government upon this occasion-Fidelity 
 7f?h?vIudo^ to their sovereign-Jealous tyranny of the govemmen -General 
 z'mlrTan intercedes for the Vaudois-Pretended favours gy-^^^^^b^^^^^^^ 
 '^^ , friendship of Zimmerman— Accession of Charles hm- 
 
 ^iTlV -Sttrof tr^^^^^^ and reply of the king-Attempts to con- 
 
 iflhp V.udois when their support became very important-Some ameli- 
 :ttrl of Ih^i^ c^^^^^^^^ ?-atment varies with political circumstances 
 
 AlTcationTf Charles Emmanuel IV.-Suwarrow and the Russian army m 
 Pi^monrclt kindness of M. Rostan, pastor of Bobi, to wounded French 
 fol^S^-Vuchet's public acknowledgment of it-Characteristic proclamation 
 of Suwarrow-The valleys threatened with pillage and devastation by Russian 
 troo^-Sr^^^^^ of M. Appiatothe Russian co-mande^mustra- 
 
 Th^Ta^JL^'^^te^ in mXoCSehoods assiduously told to the Russi^ 
 
 geL^^Wn'svictories-ThebattleofMareng^^^^^ 
 
 -^e Vaudois become possessed of equal rights with other citizens. 
 
 The revolutionary scenes of which France was the theatre, were at 
 first regarded in the Vaudois valleys merely mth a prudent reserve. 
 
 « AuTHORmES.-Iu general, the modem authors, mentioned at the end of the 
 
 BmZ7c^7^ In particular, the unpublished ^^-^^ ^-'^^^S^Vom^^^^ 
 ing the nLative of the events which took phvce in t^^T^^-^/,?^^^:^'^^^^^ 
 to 1816. And. besides these, the particular sources indicated at the bottom of ttiQ 
 
 pages. 
 
 A Vaudois pastor having ventured, in a public discourse,^ in 1789, 
 to make allusion to the events which were taking place on the 
 other side of the Alps, was suspended from his functions for six 
 months. " This decision," says M. Monastier, " was equally wise 
 and just; for the preacher had failed in his duty, both as a subject 
 of the King of Sardinia in bringing forward questions inconsistent 
 with obedience to his government, and as a pastor in introducing 
 politics into the Christian pulpit. It was next to impossible for 
 men so little favoured by the existing powers, as the Vaudois had 
 been, to have displayed, in such circumstances, more prudence and 
 moderation."' But it was next to impossible, also, that many hearts 
 should not have throbbed in secret with ardent sympathies for the 
 cause of Uberty, in these poor valleys which had so long been sub- 
 jected to hard bondage. The very fact which has just been 
 mentioned, proves the existence of these secret sympathies, of which 
 only the public expression was blamed. 
 
 And, as if the genius of the past ages had felt a presentiment of 
 defeat, and had sought to have a last struggle with the gemus of 
 modern times, the hateful and fanatical spirit of the old Popery 
 arose again at the very commencement of this new era, to plot the 
 massacre of the Vaudois, and sought to resi^nd by new martyrdoms 
 to the repubUcan acclamation of " Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, ' 
 by which the echoes of our mountains began to be awakened. In 
 1792, war broke out between France and Austria. Piedmont sup- 
 ported the latter power. Towards the end of the year, Savoy con- 
 quered by Montesquieu, and the province of Nice by Anselme, 
 were united to France, which had just constituted itself a republic. 
 The King of Sardinia (Victor Amadeus III.) having caused the 
 Vaudois to take up arms, committed to them the defence of their 
 own frontiera, under the orders of General Gaudin. All the 
 Vaudois militia were encamped upon the ridge of the Alps to 
 . oppose the enemy. There remained in the vaUeys below only the 
 women, the children, the aged, and the infirm—" feeble defenders! " 
 says M. Monastier.^ Catholic fanaticism conceived the idea of a 
 new St. Bartholomew's Day against these Protestant families, thus 
 deprived of their natural protectors, who were occupied in the 
 defence of their country. The execution of this plot was to have 
 taken place in the night between the 1 4th and 15th of May, 1793. 
 The list of the conspirators contained more than 700 names. A 
 
 t At the opening of the synod of 1789, says M. Monastier, II. 183. But no synod 
 was held in the Vaudois valleys, that 1 know of, from 1788 to 1791. 
 « Monastier, II. 183. ' 21st September, 1792 
 
 « A native of Switzerland, bom at Nyoh; his name is by some authors written 
 Giidin, and by others Oodin. ' Monastier, II. 185. 
 
310 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thikd, 
 
 column of assassins, assembled at Lucerna, was, on a signal given, 
 to spread itself over the communes of St. John and La Tour, con- 
 suming all with fire and sword. ^ The house of the priest of La 
 Tour, his church, the convent of the Recollets, and the houses of 
 a few Catholics of the place, were filled with murderous villains 
 ready alike for pillage or for massacre.^ 
 
 But there were also some generous Catholics, who refused to take 
 part in this odious wickedness. These worthy men were better than 
 Catholicism; and for the fourth time in the course of this history, 
 we see issuing from the ranks of the Romish church the saviours 
 of the people whom it sought to destroy. Don Brianza, priest of 
 Lucerna, not only refused to join the conspirators, but he also 
 hastened to make this conspiracy known to those whose existence 
 was menaced. Captain Odetti, of Cavour, likewise ran to warn the 
 Vaudois, and to defend the friends whom he had amongst them. 
 
 An urgent message was immediately sent to General Gaudin,^ 
 asking him to bring down his troops from the mountains, or at 
 least to permit the Vaudois legion to go and preserve their own 
 homes from invading assassins. The brave general, unable to 
 believe in such perfidy and cruelty, attached no importance to the 
 revelation which was made to him. A new messenger was des- 
 patched to him without more efiect. A third arrived and pre- 
 sented the list of the conspirators. The general could not believe 
 in it. Moreover, he had his orders; he could not abandon his post, 
 nor consent to the withdrawal of part of his troops; and this thii'd 
 emissary also returned without any success. Seventeen persons 
 went to him in succession. Time pressed; the alarm was given; 
 the Vaudois troops, boiling with indignation, were all impatience 
 to run to the succour of their families. At last the magistrates 
 of La Tour and Le Villar themselves came to assure General 
 Gaudin of the reality of this atrocious conspiracy, and to entreat 
 for protection. He then adopted his resolution. 
 
 It was the eve of the fatal day; a report was spread of an 
 approaching attack of the French; the troops fell back, and the 
 Vaudois companies took position in their respective communes. 
 But the troops of St. John and La Tour, being at a greater distance 
 from their homes than the rest, and more impatient to return to 
 
 * Monastier, IT. 185. 
 
 2 These, and the foUowing particulars, are derived from a contemporary report 
 which even gives, in part, the names of the conspirators. The author was after- 
 wards a member of the general council of the department of the Po, as representa- 
 tive of the canton of Lucerna. 
 
 » Whose head-quarters were at Malpretus, above Bobi. 
 
 Chap. XXI J 
 
 MESMEB SHOT. 
 
 311 
 
 them, descended the mountains with such rapidity, that many of 
 the soldiers lost on the way some part of their baggage. The delay 
 of a moment to pick up from the ground anything that might have 
 fallen from their hands, would have seemed to them to endanger 
 the existence of that which was dearest to them, and of which the 
 loss would have been irreparable. 
 
 The conspirators, seeing these irritated and warlike troops amve, 
 made their escape by the gate of the convent of the Recollets which 
 looks out upon the torrent of the Angrogna.^ The list of their 
 names, drawn up by themselves, was sent to the Duke of Aosta,^ 
 who had manifested some regard for the Vaudois; but none of these 
 traitors was prosecuted. The king^ even reproached General 
 Gaudin for having permitted his troops to abandon their position. 
 "Sii-e," replied he, "it is the most glorious day of my life, for I have 
 not had to shed blood but have prevented the eftusion of it." He 
 was, nevertheless, dismissed from the service. But if he incurred 
 court disgrace, he became the object of the liveliest gratitude to the 
 Vaudois who owed to him their preservation. 
 
 "The French," says M. Monastier, "who were not ignorant how 
 precarious and exceptional the situation of these poor people had 
 been, thought that they would have little difficulty in persuading 
 them to revolt, to deliver up to them the passages of the Alps, and 
 to make common cause with them. They were mistaken. The 
 Vaudois deemed fidelity to an oath, even in an inferior condition, 
 preferable to the splendid hopes of religious, civil, and political 
 liberty obtained by perjury. This admirable conduct, however, 
 could not silence calumny, nor stifle suspicion.* 
 
 The fort of Mirabouc had surrendered. This place was very 
 feeble: it had only two cannons, one of which burst when it was 
 fired. The garrison consisted of a single company of Vaudois and 
 of some Piedmontese invalids. The commander was a Swiss officer, 
 named Mesmer. The French surprised the fort, from the side of 
 the Col la Croix. The Vaudois were accused of having favoured 
 them ; Mesmer was sick ; he surrendered ; in truth, he could not 
 have resisted; but he was a Protestant, and he was shot in the 
 citadel of Turin. 
 
 The tyrannical Piedmontese government became always the 
 
 > These particulars are derived from the report above quoted. There exists on 
 this subject a MS. poem of 225 lines, commencing thus— 
 
 Dieu tout-puissant, Dieu de nos peres. 
 Ton bras s'est «ncor deploye . . . 
 (Amongst the papers collected by M. Appia.) 
 2 Who ascended the throne in 1796, and took the name of Charles Emmanuel IV. 
 » Victor Amadeus III. * Monastier, II. 184. 
 

 312 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tuieo. 
 
 'ClIAP. XXI.3 
 
 FAITHLESS PROMISES. 
 
 31.*^ 
 
 more suspicious, the more that it found itself in danger. Colonel 
 Fresia succeeded General Gaudin in the valleys. One of his com- 
 missioned officers was a Vaudois, by name Davit; he was accused 
 of treason, and put to death. Colonel Marauda and Major Goamte, 
 the two officers of highest rank in the Vaudois troops, were cast 
 
 into prison.' - . -r? 2 
 
 All the powei-s of Europe entered into a coalition against b ranee, 
 but she increased her territories in combating them. When the storm 
 of the reign of terror had passed over her,^ and Napoleon was making 
 his first campaign,* Piedmont became sensible of approaching dan- 
 ger General Zimmerman, former colonel of the Swiss guards at 
 Paris, having escaped the massacre of the 10th of August,^ entered 
 the ser^^ice of the Kuig of Sardinia. He very soon succeeded m 
 making himself generally beloved. Although a Roman Cathohc, 
 he demanded for the Vaudois those civil and political rights which 
 France had offered them, and which their own sovereigns, faithful 
 to the policy of Rome, persisted in refusing them. The Duke of 
 Aosta, second son of Victor Amadous, undertook to transmit to 
 the king these requests of the noble-hearted general. The king 
 replied to his son—" We have read the memorial which General 
 Zimmerman has sent us through you, concerning the desires which 
 our dear faithful subjects, the Vaudois, have expressed to you re- 
 lative to their present political condition. Considering the con- 
 stant and distinguished proofs of their attachment and fidelity, 
 which they have always given to our royal predecessors, and the 
 devotedness which they have shown in the present war, we are 
 disposed to regard favourably the contents of the said memorial, 
 and to make them at once experience the effects of our special 
 .rood-will; reserving to ourselves, in regard to some of the articles 
 on which fuller inquiry is requisite, to grant them, after the war, 
 such concessions, compatible with the constitution of the state, as 
 may still more assure them of the estimation in which their services 
 
 are held by us." 
 
 After these not very plain nor intelligible sentences, and as a 
 reward for all the fidelity, bravery, and other virtues which he was 
 pleased to acknowledge in the Vaudois, Victor Amadous III. granted 
 them (1) authority to practise medicine, but only amongst those of 
 their own religion; (2) a promise that the abuses of which they 
 were the victims, in matters of taxation, should be put an end to. 
 
 » These details are taken from Monastier, II. 186. 
 
 2 Except Turkey, Switzerland, Denmark, and Russia. (<th March, 17^^.) 
 
 3 From 28th March, 1793, to 27th July, 1794. ^ ^^^^ 
 * At Toulon, in December, 1793. 
 
 But abuses ought not to exist in the case of any person whatever. 
 Under what sort of legislation, then, must the people of the valleys 
 have been placed, when their rulers could venture to speak of the 
 cessation of abuses as a great favour? (3) "We prohibit," he added, 
 " any one from taking away their children from the Vaudois, before 
 t/ie agefixed^ But the law forbade that ah-eady; and was not that 
 fixed age itself the very utmost stretch of arbitrary tyranny? 
 (4) " If any burdens shall ever be imposed upon the Vaudois from 
 which the Catholics are exempt, we will cause tJie matter to be cared 
 for according to the demands 0/ justice" And these were the signal 
 favours so pompously announced ! this was the extent of the special 
 good-unll of the King of Sardinia towards these Vaudois, who had 
 always given constant and distinguished proofs of their fidelity to 
 his royal predecessors ! 
 
 He continues thus: — "You will be so good as to announce to 
 our dear and faithful Vaudois subjects, our resolutions and senti- 
 ments above expressed; making them understand that as we are 
 persuaded they will thereby be the more animated to display upon 
 this occasion, all their zeal, courage, and bravery against our ene- 
 mies, they may also always reckon with increased confidence on 
 our strong desire to give them, at the close of the war} the most 
 particular marks of our special protection; and so we pray God tliat 
 he may keep you under his holy and good protection." - 
 
 Is this the language of a father writing to his child — of a sovereign 
 who acts as a father to his subjects? The promises thus adjourned 
 to the end of the war were never fulfilled; but the expression of 
 good-will towards the Vaudois increased witli the increase of ex- 
 ternal dangers, and when these dangers were past severity was 
 resumed as before. A few insignificant concessions ensued at first 
 upon these pompous promises. The communes of Maueille and 
 Chiabrans obtained the right to have a burying-ground.^ A new 
 ratification of their privileges was granted to the Vaudois* — these 
 privileges having now been i-atified already more than fifty times, 
 without any extension of them in harmony with the wants and 
 enlightenment of the age, beyond what they had been three cen- 
 turies before. And when the mighty voice of the present seemed 
 
 * An armistice was concluded at Cherasco on 28th April, 1796, and a treaty of 
 peace signed soon after. 
 
 - Given at Turin, 4th June, 1794. Signed Your very affectionate Father, Victor 
 Amadeus. Countersigned Gran4ri. 
 
 « By authorization granted 6th December, 1694. (Turin, Archives of the Court, 
 No. 617.) 
 
 * On 1st February, 1795, sanctioning those of 14th September, 1448. (Turin, 
 Archives of the Court of Accounts, a small folio vol. of stamped paper, No. 576.) 
 
 Vol. II. 100 
 
31 4 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tbiru. 
 
 again less distinct and loud, the precarious favour of the govern- 
 ment was transferred from the children of the martyrs to their 
 persecutors.^ 
 
 "Yet there are none whose attachment the court of Savoy- 
 should be more solicitous to secure than the inhabitants of the 
 valleys," said General Zimmerman at another time in one of his 
 memorials,^ " for their mountains ai'e almost everywhere impreg- 
 nable ramparts .... and an army, hoioever numerous, might 
 fail in the attempt to reduce them to subjection; if it were possible 
 that hostile proceedings should ever destroy that love for their 
 sovereigns, of which they have on so many occasions given the 
 most unquestionable proofs." In the letter accompanying this 
 memorial, it is said that many proposals of democratic insurrection 
 had been made to the Yaudois by the inhabitants of the plain, 
 but that these mountaineers had always rejected them; and the 
 memorial itself adds, "all that can happen on the plain will be but 
 a transient blaze, if we can keep the mountains quiet and attached." 
 '*The general has visited all the valleys in person," it is also said 
 in this letter; 3 "he has there conversed with the humblest of the 
 inhabitants, and what has been his regret .... to hear them make 
 bitter complaints .... especially of their children being forcibly 
 taken from them, one of nine years of age having recently been 
 carried ojff for the hospital of Pignerol ! From the nature of these 
 complaints," he adds, "they deserve the most prompt and serioui» 
 consideration." He proposes, in his memorial, "to treat the 
 Yaudois on a footing of equality with the Catholics, and in parti- 
 cular recommends to the attention of the sovereign. Colonel 
 Marauda, Major Musset, the two brothers Arnaud of La Tour, and 
 the moderator, M. Geymet, who, he says, "is a man of talent, well- 
 informed, of a pleasant disposition and generally esteemed, and 
 desirous of nothing but order and peace." It was only under the 
 .French administration, however, that justice was to be done to his 
 merits; for in the first article of the synod of 1801, we read: "The 
 citizen Geymet, moderator of the Yaudois churches, having been 
 appointed subprefect of the arrondissement of Pignerol, the thanks 
 of the synod are returned to him for the manner in which he has 
 
 • By a royal rescript of 3d December, 1796, enregistercd 17th January, 1797, the 
 king granted a stun of 2114 francs to the Catholics of the valleys, and those who 
 had become Catholics. (Turin, State Archives, No. 507. No. 506 is entitled 
 Relazione sopra Vorigine deV annual grazia, sovra i tHbuti, che S. M. fa, alle com- 
 munita delle vaXl, &c. It was in consequence of this report that the rescript was 
 issued.) 
 
 - Accompanying a letter of his, dated 15th June, 1797. (Turin, State Archives.) 
 
 ■• Third page. 
 
 Chap. XXL] 
 
 VAUDOIS REQUESTS. 
 
 315 
 
 discharged his duties, and J. R. Peyrani is appointed to succeed 
 him." 
 
 But before these events took place, a new king had ascended 
 the tottering throne of Yictor Amadeus III.* This new king was 
 the brother of the young Duke of Aosta, to whom Zimmerman, in 
 the first instance, addressed himself on behalf of the Yaudois. The 
 Yaudois themselves sent a petition to him, of which I shall here 
 exhibit in an abridged form the principal points, with the answers 
 given to them respectively by the minister of state. ^ 
 
 Request I. — That Protestants may not be compelled to contri- 
 bute to the expense of Catholic worship. Reply. — The usual prac- 
 tice must be continued." 
 
 Request II. — That the municipal elections may take place with- 
 out regard to religious profession. Reply. — The law is to the con- 
 trary effect, and expressly requires that the number of Catliolic 
 councillors shall be greater than that of the Protestant ones, what- 
 ever may be the portion of the population adhering to the one or 
 to the other religion. 
 
 Request III. — That when the taxes imposed upon Catholics are 
 diminished, those imposed upon Protestants may be diminished 
 likewise. Reply. — This may depend upon the will of his majesty, 
 but can only have the effect of reducing the revenues of the 
 state. 
 
 Request IV. — That, without augmenting the number of their 
 places of worship, the Yaudois may be permitted to repair those 
 which exist. Reply. — This merits some consideration, although 
 the ancient edicts admit neither of repairing nor enlarging the 
 places of worship.* 
 
 Request V. — That the inhabitants of St. John may be permitted 
 to have a school in that commune. — Refused. 
 
 Request VI. — That Protestants may be admitted to employment 
 in civil offices, as well as the Catholics. (This was what Zimmer- 
 man asked, and Avhat the Duke of Aosta had held out hopes o^ 
 when he was only the heir to the throne ; but now when he was 
 
 * He ascended the throne on 10th October, 1796, taking the name of Charles 
 Emmanuel IV. 
 
 2 The petition is signed Oeymet, moderator, and Meille, secretary (of the Vau- 
 dois Table). It bears no date, but the parere of the minister is dated 19th July, 
 1797. 
 
 3 It will be recollected that, in its Reply to the Memorial sent by the Duke of 
 Bedford to the Chevalier Ossorio, and by him transmitted to Turin on 31st May, 
 1748, the Piedmontese government afldrmed (§ v.) that it had never made Protes- 
 tants contribute for Catholic worship. 
 
 * The minister of state ought to have informed us -what edicts prohibit the 
 repairing of religious edifices. 
 
.316 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pAaxTiUKD. 
 
 the occupant of the throne, he had forgotten it all.) There i3 no 
 reply to this last request. 
 
 We see how prompt the re-actionary spirit was in repulsing the 
 Vandois, so soon as the support of their arms was no longer 
 necessary. 
 
 It was at this time that the national spirit of Italy was united 
 with the aristocratic antii^athies of the viirious powers of that 
 country, in a common effort to throw off a foreign yoke. Bona- 
 parte, by his career of victory, had forced the King of Sardinia to 
 conclude an alliance offensive and defensive with the French re- 
 public;^ but the court of Savoy was not more faithful to the 
 republic than it had been to Louis XIV. Charles Emmanuel IV. 
 hoped to be soon freed from his emban'assing allies. The French 
 were massacred at Verona;'^ Venice rose in insurrection against 
 them;'^ the cause of liberty seemed to decline. This was the 
 reason of the bolder tone which tyranny assumed in the Vaudois 
 valleys. But before it was able to restore the former state of 
 things, a revolution broke out in Genoa,* and the Ligurian Republic 
 was proclaimed.^ Milan responded on the east, by proclaiming 
 the Cisalpine Republic.^ These shouts of liberty silenced the voice 
 of despotism. Kings found themselves again in danger, and their 
 tone was immediately changed. By his Instructions of 18th July, 
 1797, addressed to the Senate of Pignerol,'^ Charles Emmanuel IV. 
 unexpectedly announced (1) That the Vaudois would no longer 
 be required to contribute to the expenses of Catholic worship; 
 (2) That there would be no respect of persons in appointments to 
 public offices, which certainly must have referred to municipal 
 elections alone; (3) That when his majesty should grant any ex- 
 emptions to Papists, they should be equally granted to Protestants; 
 (4) That the Vaudois would be permitted not only to rejjair their 
 places of worship, but to enlarge them, and to hold their rehgious 
 meetings wherever they thought proper ; (5) That, after the 
 example of the Divine Being who did good to all, liis majesty 
 wished to make all his subjects happy. ^ 
 
 And, as if these unexpected concessions were not sufficient, 
 Charles Emmanuel likewise wrote to the prefect that he should 
 invite the Vaudois to address themselves in all confidence to their 
 sovereioTi, assuring them of his very i)articular affection, <fec.^ It 
 
 » Treaty signed at Turin, 5th April, 1797. 
 
 * From 4th to 6th April, 17i>7. ' From 17th April to 16th May. 
 
 * 22(1-23(1 May. ' 14th June. « 6th July. 
 ^ l>eposited in the Archives of the Court, No. 594. 
 
 * This letter is dated 25th August, 1797. (Same source, No. 595.) These docu- 
 ments were published under the form of Biglietto regio, on 26th August, but with 
 
 Chap. XXI.] 
 
 THE aiARQUIS OF RORA. 
 
 317 
 
 is easy to see that the times were changed. To a suppressed 
 agitation, tumultuous movements had rapidly succeeded, and that 
 even at Montcalier, at the very gates of Turin. Truth demands 
 the admission that the valleys did not remain free from commotion. 
 A troop of revolutionists, composed of Catholics as well as Vaudois, 
 went to Campillon, the castle of the Marquis of Bora, and demanded 
 his feudal titles in order to destroy them. " My friends," he re- 
 plied with admirable presence of mind and amenity, " if it is only 
 my titles that you want, I will freely give them all up to you, with 
 the exception of one, which you shall not wrest from me, I mean 
 my title of the friend of the Vaudois, due to my old affection for 
 them." This happy saying sufficed to disarm them; and they 
 retired without the slightest act of violence.^ 
 
 The Vaudois, however, in vii'tue of the Instructions of 18th July 
 (1797), which authorized them to hold religious meetings wherever 
 they thought fit, demanded permission to erect a place of worship 
 at St. John. But Napoleon had quitted Italy ;2 the effervescence 
 of the former days had subsided ; the throne seemed again to be 
 firmer, and the good-will which Charles Emmanuel had promised 
 to the Vaudois, was withdrawn from them in the same proportion. 
 They were told that the parish of St. John, having at a former 
 period been deprived of its place of worship, had no right to erect 
 one.^ But new armaments were soon formed in France, the 
 destination of which was kept secret;* there seemed again to be 
 danger for Piedmont, and the interest felt for the valleys suddenly 
 revived. The commune of T^e Pomaret took advantage of it, to 
 
 some modifications. The authority granted to the Vaudois, to practise medicine 
 amongst those of their own religion, is there repealed. The obligation to have a 
 Catholic majority in the communal councils is maintained. As to the places of 
 worship, permission is given to repair and enlarge them, but not to increase their 
 number. Another document also bears the date of 25th August, 1797, which seems 
 to have been a sort of preparatory study for these, entitled, Farere intorno ad una 
 rajypresentanza de religionarii delle valli, in qua espongono varii aggravii. This 
 paper consists of 22 folio pages. (Same source, Nos. 511 and 618.) 
 
 1 Monastier, II. 189, 100. The autbor does not give the date of this occur- 
 rence. In his narrative it seems to be referred to the year 1797; but although 
 I abstain from placing it in a different part of the history, I believe that it would 
 more correctly be referred to the year 1799, when other similar occurrences took 
 place, especially at La Tour, where the Count Eorengo was compelled to throw his 
 parchments, with his own hands, into a bonfire kindled in the centre of the pubhc 
 square, and to join a ring of revolutionary dancers around the tree of liberty. It 
 was at this period that the great garden, situated in front of the count's residence, 
 was destroyed, and that the public squaie, which now occupies that spot, was 
 laid out. 
 
 - To go to Rastadt. He set out on 17th November, 1797. 
 
 ' Extract of one of the letters of M. P. Appia to the Count of Nieperg, dated 
 from La Tour, 2d December, 1799. (Communicated.) 
 
 ♦ For the expedition to Egypt ; from September, 1797, to February, 1798. 
 
318 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Til r«D. 
 
 ask permission to enlarge and inclose its Protestant biuying-place. 
 This was granted.* It seems a small favour enough; but small as 
 it was, it was withtlrawn, as soon as the government believed itself 
 sufficiently strong to venture upon so doing. '-^ This versatility con- 
 tributed to weaken it. Charles Emmanuel made an undignified 
 abdication of the crown of his fathers, and retired to Cagliari.'^ I 
 defer to next chapter an account of the measures taken by the 
 provisional government, which was then established in Piedmont. 
 Its authority was not of long duration.'* A new coalition was 
 formed against France;'^ and six months had scarcely elapsed, when 
 a Russian army invaded Piedmont, under the command of Suwarow.® 
 Napoleon was no longer there; Milan,^ Turin,^ and Alexandria^ 
 fell into the hands of the allies. The republics of Genoa and 
 Naples soon ceased to exist.*® The French army, victorious at the 
 Trebbia* and at Novi,*^ fell back exhausted by its victories before 
 
 > By decree of the senate of Turin, of date ICth February, 1798. 
 
 ' By a new decree of the senate of Turin, dated 11th April, 1798. 
 
 » The abdication is dated 20 Frimaire, an VII. (10th December, 1798). In 
 the first article the King of Sardinia declares that he renounces all power, and 
 orders his subjects to obey the provisional government to be established by the 
 French general (Suchet). The heir-presumptive to the throne adds at the bottom 
 of this abdication, lo garantisco chc non portero iynpedimento alcuno all' esecuzione 
 del presente otto. Vittorio Emanuelc. (He ascended the throne in 1814, under the 
 name of Victor Emmanuel IV.) 
 
 ♦ Before the invasion of which we are now to ipeak, the provisional government 
 retired to Pignerol, then to Fenestrelle, where its retreat was covered by the 
 Vaudois, who repulsed tlie Austrians at the defile of Le Malanage. Fenestrelle 
 remained in the hands of the French during the whole time of the Austro-Eussian 
 occupation. 
 
 * In consequence of the treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between Eng- 
 land and Bussia, signed 5th January, 1799. (A simple treaty of alliance had 
 already been concluded between the two powers on 18th December, 1798.) 
 
 6 Pronounced Surarof. ' On 20th June. 
 
 » On 22d July. ° Surrendered on 24th May. 
 
 >» The Parthenopeian BepuUicwM established after the occupation of Naples by 
 Chanipionnet (23d January, 1799). We read in the life of this general that the 
 population of Naples, and especially the clergy, saw with dissatisfaction the occu- 
 pation of that city by the French army. On the day on which the pretended 
 miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius— the patron saint of the 
 Neapolitans — is annually performed, the usual prodigy did not take place at the 
 usual time. "It is a sign of the Divine wrath against the French occupation," 
 said the monks. The people began to manifest hostile intentions, and things wore 
 a threatening aspect. The general was apprised. " Go and tell the bishop," said 
 he to one of his aides-de-camp, "that I make him responsible for the miracle's tak- 
 ing place. If in ten minutes the miracle is not wrought, his excellency will be 
 immediately shot." It is needless to add that the liquefaction of the pretended 
 blood of St. Januarius took place in a few moments after this message was brought 
 to the prelate. General Cliampionnet was a Protestant. 
 
 " Tlie battle of the Trebbia took place from the 17th to the 19th of June, 1799. 
 The Austrians pretend to have gained it. " On 15th August. 
 
 Chap. XXI] 
 
 EMMANUEL ROSTAN. 
 
 819 
 
 superior forces.^ At Carmagnole, the native population rose against 
 the garrison, and the bravery of the Vaudois contributed much to 
 repress the popular movement."'-^ 
 
 However, the French were compelled to fall back. Tlie Cos- 
 sacks had entered Pignerol. The French sick and wounded, the 
 honourable but wretched remains of the army of Verona, were 
 conveyed away before them. "These poor creatures," says a con- 
 temporary,^ "arrived at La Tour, crowded together in a number 
 of carts. They came from Cavour. They alighted from their 
 carts in the great square. Bread, cheese, and wine were brought to 
 them. Many of them suffered dreadfully. There were some whose 
 wounds had not been dressed for more than fifteen days, because 
 the Cossacks pursued so hard after them. M. Fissour, the surgeon, 
 dressed many of them. But just when they were going to lodgings, 
 a false alarm of the approach of the Cossacks, who were said to be 
 at Les Blonats, threw them into consternation. The carts which 
 had brought them, had gone away back to Cavour, and most of 
 them had difficulty in dragging themselves along. Some of the 
 people accompanied them as far as Bobi, where they arrived with- 
 out money, without medicines, and without linen." 
 
 To the humanity of the pastor of Bobi, the venemble Emmanuel 
 Rostan, and the self-denying kindness of his parishioners, these 
 wounded Frenchmen were indebted for their being enabled to 
 return to their native land. The following is an official declaration 
 of this fact, in the order of the day of the commander-in-chief of 
 the French army :* — 
 
 » At Novi the French lost 10,000 men. The Austro-Russians had 12,000 killed 
 and 7000 wounded. But their army consisted of 70,000 men, and that of the French 
 only of 45,000. General Joubert, who commanded it, fell. 
 
 * See the reflections of Mouastier (II. 191) on this subject. A contemporary 
 thus represents this event : " The general administration of Piedmont had taken 
 
 refuge in Pignerol. 
 
 Four or five hundred Vaudois were despatched to that 
 
 city, who supposed they would not have had to go any farther; but they were 
 caused to march on to Noun, where they found themeelves surrounded by 2000 
 French, who forced them to march upon Carmagnole. . . ."—{Letter to the Count 
 de Nieperg, above quoted.) 
 
 3 Memoires de Paul Appia (on the events which occurred from 1799 to 1816). 
 The author of these Mimoires was appointed a member of the general council and 
 iuge du paix at La Tour. His writings are the principal source from which I have 
 drawn for the year 1799. They were communicated to me by the venerable M. 
 Appia, pastor of the French church at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, to whose memory 
 I cannot suflSciently testify my grateful and respectful attachment. 
 
 * General Suchet. He himself sent this order of the day to the minister, M. 
 Rostan, with a letter which concluded thus : *' Thegeneral-in-chief, citizen pastor, 
 thinks that, in such circimistances, he can give no more sensible testimony of his 
 satisfaction than by commending such conduct to the admiration of his army." 
 Both documents are dated frotn tlie camp of La Pietra, 3 Frimaire, 1799 (24th 
 
S20 
 
 TUE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pahx Third. 
 
 "Three hundred sick and wounded anived at Bobi, in a state of 
 the most absohite destitution, and ready to perish for want of 
 assistance. The worthy old man Eostan and his spouse displayed 
 upon this occasion, that noble simplicity which belongs to repub- 
 licans. They had only a calf and twenty-five loaves, but these 
 were immediately distributed amongst the sick. The generosity 
 of this venerable old man did not stop here; he added the little 
 wme which he had, and a few shirts, which were employed in 
 dressing the wounds of the wounded. Towards the clL of the 
 day (it was rather some days after)," an alarm arose of being sur- 
 prised; for the enemy were no more than four mUes from Bobi 
 On the appearance of danger, the solicitude of citizen Eostan was 
 awakened anew. He called upon his compatriots of the whole 
 valley, to caiy upon their shouldei-s" (beyond the Piedmontese 
 frontiers), "the 300 sick or wounded French. And this they 
 speedily did, traversing the Col la Croix, which is one of the 
 longest and most difficult passes of the Alps, and was still covered 
 with snow After ten hours of most fatiguing march they arrived 
 at the first village of France, where the wounded were set down 
 who forgot their sufferings to bless their libemtors; and the brave 
 inhabi ants of the valley of Lucerna, who had exhibited a courage 
 beyond all praise, returned to their own homes. May such conduct 
 and such devotedness be useful as an example, and find many 
 imitators ! '' 
 
 This conduct, however, wa« alleged against the Vaudois as a 
 crime, by their Piedmontese enemies,» and Suwarow addressed to 
 November, 1800). A letter from ch.f du lataillon Presseeq, local commandant 
 
 pastor, he said, to have received from my general the honourable commis- 
 «on to transmit to you the aecompanyins Packet." He then thanks Urn for 
 having saved the hves of so many of their brethren in arms. "It was ot L 
 my power," he says "to inform the general any sooner of this noble conduct 
 as It was only m the month of Brumaire last that I myself heard of ttS 
 
 viallard] Eostan, Protestant minister, ordains tLuirrartL L nf J'^^'''""' 
 
 Sort ^''""'^'''r""''^ ^ '"^ ^^^^^^«^^^it^:z7' 
 
 Ihen follows the narrative of facts. «*r"iy. 
 
 ontht'LTT""''" 't '°S"'=''«''"<"-''^'-- The Austro-Eussians arrived at La Tour 
 
 ^ This parenthesis is not in the order of the day 
 
 • See Monastier. 11. V^.. This author has thought it his duty to take notice at 
 
 Chap. XXL] 
 
 COSSACKS ENTER LA TOUR. 
 
 '621 
 
 them a threatening proclamation. "People," said he, "to what 
 party do you think to attach yourselves] Deluded men, you pro- 
 tect the French, the disturbers, the enemies of public tranquillity. 
 They have declared themselves the enemies of the God-man ! and 
 the ancient attachment of your forefathers to the doctrines of 
 Christianity .... procured for you the protection of England. 
 The French have declared themselves the enemies of that power; 
 and is not that power, which is your benefactress, now our ally? 
 &C."' .... The Russian troops arrived at Pignerol. "The inhabi- 
 tants of the valley of Lucerna," says Appia in his memoirs, "fore- 
 seeing that they would ere long receive a visit from them, deemed 
 it proper to appoint deputies, who should go to meet them and 
 treat with them.- I was one of this number, and on the 3d of 
 June, 1799, at daybreak, having been apprised that the troops of 
 the allies were making their appearance in great numbers on the 
 side of Lucerna, I rose from my bed; but before I was di-essed, 
 the Cossacks were already scouring the streets of La Tour, uttering 
 frightful hurrahs. They were followed by plunderei-s seeking to 
 spoil us. My colleagues were absent ; Peter Voile was defending 
 his own house from robbery. James Vertu had lost the power of 
 speech by the shock, and could not accompany me. I retraced my 
 steps in much perturbation concerning what I had to do, for I 
 
 the bottom of this page that Marauda, in his work Tahleau da Piimont, claims 
 for himself the honour of this generous action, performed, as he says, by his orders. 
 The following contemporary anecdote will show the value of this assertion. " In 
 1801," says Appia in his memoirs, "happening to be at Turin, I paid a visit to M. 
 Marauda, who was then occupied in writing his Tableau du Piemont. ' You will 
 intend to insert in it,' said I, * the noble action of Rostan?' * What is it ?' said he. 
 I told him. He was at that time ignorant of this fact ; and when his work was 
 published I was extremely surprised to see that he appropriated it, making a 
 letter be addressed to himself, in which it was said that, under his orders, the 
 soldiers of his corps had saved these Frenchmen. But in 1799 that corps did not 
 exist. Marauda was then in the valley of St. Martin, having taken with him the 
 horse of John Bonjour, of La Tour, which he never thought fit to pay, and which 
 the Austro -Russians took from him at Pral when he was endeavouring to make his 
 way through the pass, to retire to Abries," It was because of the uncertainty 
 thrown upon the noble action of the pastor of Bobi, by this claim of Marauda, that 
 the intention of decorating the venerable Rostan was not carried into effect. Ma- 
 rauda himself asked the cross of honour, but his letter remained unanswered. I 
 cannot judge of hun in his military character (although the memoirs of Appia con- 
 tain also this note—" Marauda acted as a double spy in 1792 and 1793"), but as a 
 historian he is of no authority. His name would not even have been found in 
 these pages but for the note of M. Monastier. 
 
 » This proclamation, which is not dated, is printed in two columns, the one in 
 Italian and the other in French. Hahn gives it entire at p. 207 of vol. ii. of his 
 work. History of tlie Sects of tlve Middle Ages. 
 
 ^ These deputies were— John Daniel Peyrot, James Vertu, Peter Voile of St. 
 John, former captain of the Vaudois militia; the advocate Plochtu, although a 
 Catholic ; and Paul Appia, the author of the memoirs. 
 
 Vol. II. 101 
 
if 
 
 322 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Tuikd. 
 
 CUA.P XXI.] 
 
 EXERTIONS OF M. APPIA. 
 
 S23 
 
 hesitated to present myself alone before 400 oi; 500 infuriated men, 
 who might not be able to understand what I said. ' M. Appia, 
 take cai-e!' said a Catholic whom I met, *for you have still your 
 tricolor cockade.' I thanked him for the warning, and immediately 
 substituted for my perilous cockade a little piece of white paper. 
 Then raising my hands towards heaven, I prayed God to help me, 
 and in the hope of being useful to my country, I proceeded towards 
 the Cossacks. They had just slaughtered eight of Zimmerman's 
 hussars. My heart trembled as if it had been suspended by a 
 thread. They commenced plimdering, and I saw them enter the 
 shop of the brothers Long. The danger increased my courage. 
 He is well protected whom God protects, and so committing myself 
 into his hands, I advanced without fear towards the officer who 
 appeared to me to be of highest rank. He asked me in German, 
 *Who are you, and what do you want?' I replied in the same 
 language, that I was a magistrate of the place, and that I desired 
 to know what he demanded of the inhabitants of La Tour. *That 
 they lay down their arms, and that they deliver up all the French 
 to us.' *No one is armed — ^the French are fled or slain.' 'Youi* 
 name?' 'Appia.' *Will you gimrantee with your head the 
 truth of what you sayl' *Yes, sir.' *In that case I will cause 
 a retreat to be sounded.' But before parting from him, I wished 
 to be informed where his general might be found. ' There is no 
 general,' he replied. 'Your commandant, then.' *He is at St. 
 John.' * Give me a safe-conduct to go to him.' He reflected for 
 a moment, and then said, * You have no need of one.' He then 
 caused a retreat to be sounded, and I went to seek my brother 
 deputies. The two first whom I saw durst not come out, because 
 they had heard the first officer, who made his appearance, say that 
 the whole place was to he given up to fire and sword. I encouraged 
 them to better hopes, and we set out on our way to St. John. 
 
 " There was fighting there, for we heard the sound of musketry. 
 Each shot went to my heart. Arriving at Les Blonats, we were 
 surrounded by three patrols of Croats. But we could not make 
 them comprehend us at all. At this moment an officer made his 
 appearance on the bridge ; we waved a white handkerchief in the 
 air; he replied to us in the same manner, and caused us to be 
 brought to him. Having explained to him the object of our mis- 
 sion, he told us to go and meet him again at Lucema, in presence 
 of Colonel Woisach. We went thither accordingly, and were veiy 
 graciously received by that officer. The first thing which I asked 
 of him was that he would restore to liberty Peter Voile's eldest 
 daughter, who had been taken by the soldiers. This he immediately 
 
 granted. Emboldened by my success, I asked the same favour for 
 thirty prisoners whom we had seen in the covered market-place, 
 but he refused. After this he said to us, 'Gentlemen, return to 
 your houses, and tell the people to be quiet, and to resume their 
 labours without fear.' I asked him to give me this order in writing. 
 *Go and write it,' said he, 'and I will sign it.' We went to the 
 priest's house, where we wrote the order; but the colonel had 
 already mounted his horse — we made haste to carry it to him, and 
 he signed it on the pommel of his saddle. I then asked him for 
 authority to establish patrols to secure us from pillage. *Go,' he 
 replied ; ^all that you do will be approved.' And he added this 
 authority on the note which he had signed. He spoke to us partly 
 in Latin and partly in German. We left him very much satisfied 
 with the result of our mission." 
 
 The author then relates that he favoured the escape of a com- 
 pany of French soldiers,^ giving them guides to conduct them to 
 Angrogna, and thence to the French territory, thus enabling them 
 to avoid falliuij into the hands of their enemies. 
 
 He immediately caused a special guard to be established in each 
 Vaudois commune.^ But considering that the favour which he had 
 obtained for the repose of the Vaudois still depended only on an in- 
 ferior officer, he resolved to seek the sanction of it from the com- 
 mr.nder-in-cliief Having re-assembled his fellow-deputies, he set out 
 with them for Pignerol. " On our anival at Briqueras," says he, 
 *•' we fell into the midst of some hundreds of Cossacks, who burned 
 with desire to plunder us. One of them had even stretched out his 
 hand to the bridle of my horge, but an Austrian officer caused them 
 to let us go." At Pignerol Count Zuccato introduced the deputies 
 to Count Denison, who commanded the advanced guard of the 
 Austro-Kussian troops. " Gentlemen," said that officer, " you come 
 from a rebel valley ; you must be placed under arrest." And he 
 caused them to be conducted back to their hotel by a hussar, 
 charged to keep a sharp watch over them. " This hussar," adds 
 our author, " spoke Dutch veiy well. We entered into conversa- 
 tion. He had lived in Amsterdam, and was connected with a 
 number of persons of my acquaintance. In a short time we were 
 quite good friends. The inn was filled with Austrian officers, 
 amongst whom were some wounded. They had been repulsed at 
 
 ' Belonging to the 33d demi-brigade of the line, which General Carpentier had 
 sent to Zimmerman from Brian<;on. 
 
 2 The Catholics, says he, and those who hoped for pillage, could not comprehend 
 how arms were immediately put again into the hands of a population who had just 
 been disarmed. Accordingly they said of the Vaudois, *' If the devil should come, 
 he would presently be their friend." 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 324. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ATJ»S. 
 
 [part TniRO. 
 
 Le Malanage by oiir people of the communities of Pitmisting, An- 
 grogna, and St. Germain, who had been posted there to cover the re- 
 treat of the provisional government. These officers regarded us with 
 a very evil eye. There arrived, in course of the day, 1 0,000 or 1 2,000 
 Austro-Kussians, who bivouacked in the public squares of Pignerol. 
 These troops were destined to march against the valley of Lucerna. 
 Tliis distressful thought prevented me from obtaining any repose 
 during the night. At break of day a burst of music was heard. 
 It Avas a Kussian regiment at prayer. A moment after there was 
 a loud >»eatins: with the butt-end of a musket at the door of the 
 hotel, and then at that of our chamber. It was an aid-de-camp, 
 who came to conduct us to Prince Bagration. >. 
 
 " The Prince was lodged in the house of the Count de Pavia, one 
 of our bitterest enemies. The fiite of our country was perhaps to 
 depend upon the chances of a single interview. But no; it de- 
 pended upon God, and God protected us ; for this Russian prince 
 proved an angel of goodness, whose memory will always be blessed 
 among the Vaudois. He heard with i)atience all that I said to 
 him of the situation of our valleys, and I concluded by saying that 
 I brought to him the submission of the inhabitants. ' That is good !' 
 said he ; ' have you it in writing?' * No, my lord.' ' Well, go and 
 write it and sign it.' When we had brought it to him we peti- 
 tioned for the release of the thirty-three unhappy prisoners whom 
 we had seen at Lucerna. * I grant you this,' he most kindly rejjlied. 
 Having then gone out of doors, we saw in the square a crowd of 500 
 or 600 men, provided with sacks, ropes, and great baskets. ' What 
 do these people want ?' said the prince. ' To ask arms from you,' 
 said I. *For what purpose?' 'To ravage and plunder our val- 
 leys.' 'Let this rabble be driven off!' said he to a colonel; and a 
 regiment of Croats very soon dispei'sed them. 
 
 " An officer of Nice was in the squai-e of St. Donatus, seated at 
 a table, where volunteers were being enrolled, and there he cried 
 to the crowd — ' Ki veul j)^ parti per encler contra i Barbets?^'^ 
 (Who will enlist to march against the Vaudois 1) " But as soon as 
 he heard Bagration's order, he also disappeared." 
 
 The deputies then proceeded to the mayor s house, whither the 
 orders of the prince were to be forwarded to them, along with pass- 
 ports. But before they were put into their hands they were made 
 to sign a declaration, by which they became responsible, icith their 
 heads, for the tranquillity of the valleys. These worthy patriots 
 did not hesitate to sign it. Having returned to the valleys, they 
 learned that a horde of some hundreds of robbers had invaded the 
 hill of Pranisting, in order to plunder it, and were already destroy- 
 
 CnAP. XXI ] 
 
 TXTERVIEW WITH SUWAROW. 
 
 325 
 
 ing by fire the quarter of Les Gay.^ The Vaudois deputies imme- 
 diately sent off a messenger to inform the prince. Bagration lost 
 no time in putting an end to this robber-violence, and a few days 
 afterwards he sent an express to La Tour, to ask the same deputies 
 to retm-n to Pignerol. " Gentlemen," said he, when he saw them, 
 " I have been so satisfied with the candid and faithful manner in 
 which you have acted, that I could not think to quit this city 
 without having tha pleasure of seeing you again. But this is not the 
 only reason which has made me desire your presence; to-morrow 
 you will be called upon to make your submission to the marshal." 
 
 Next day they set out with Count Zuccato to go to Turin, to 
 the presence of Suwarow. "Some officers who recognized the 
 count, said to him, 'Whence come you, Zuccato?' 'From an ex- 
 pedition which has ended in nothing.' 'What expedition?' 'We 
 were to have marched to-day against the valley of Lucerna, but 
 that country has submitted; here are the deputies.' "^ 
 
 After a few hours' rest they were conducted to the palace of the 
 marshal, who lodged in the palace of the Prince de la Cisterne; 
 but not being able to receive them that day, he invited them to 
 dinner next day, at eight o'clock in the morning. " Whilst we 
 were awaiting the hour of dinner, we were introduced into the hall 
 of the staff, where we found Colonel Contsnikow,'^ and the young 
 Prince of Gorciakow.* . . . These gentlemen spoke French with a 
 readiness which astonished me. . . . Having been introduced into 
 the dining-room, we saw a little old man enter in a white Keyser- 
 litz vest, white small clothes, and a little leather cap on his head; 
 
 his stockings and boots loose, and coming down about his heels 
 
 This was the marshal. The count took me by the hand and pre- 
 sented me. I was about to repeat to him orally the formal sub- 
 mission which had already been made in writing; but he said, 
 ' This is not necessary; I know all.' Then he embraced me, pronounc- 
 in*^ these words, 'Face, amicizia, efratellanza! '■'>...! could not 
 
 1 The loss sustained in this quarter was estimated at 25,000 francs. 
 
 2 Before entering Turin, the count recommended the postilion to go round the 
 city, in order to enter it by the gate of the Po, for the French still occupied the 
 citadel, and fired on all carriages or cavalcades which entered by the Porto 
 Nuovo. " Bah !" said the postilion (to avoid half-an-hour's ride), " they will not 
 fire just now." " If you have no fear, then, neither have I," said Zuccato; " it is 
 not my trade." " And the carriage dashed on at the gallop." But a wheel soon 
 came off, and at the same moment a bullet passed over the heads of the traveUers. 
 " I am persuaded," said Appia, "that the artilleryman believed it was he who had 
 overturned us." But this accident was followed by no bad consequences. 
 
 3 Pronounced Co^isnicoff. * Pronounced Gortshakoff. 
 
 ^ Peace, fi-iendship, and fraternity. '* The true salutation of a Jacobin ! " adds 
 the author. (P. 41 of the MS.) 
 
 Ill' u I 
 
326 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 I^Part Thiro. 
 
 
 help remembering that this man who received ua so well, was the 
 same cruel general who had caused the suburb of Praga, at War- 
 saw, to be destroyed by fire and sword; and I trembled when I 
 thought that we might have had the same fate. 
 
 " After tliis a servant came, bringing him a large glass of brandy, 
 which he drunk off at a draught. A moment after the same servant 
 brought him a plate, on which were a dozen large radishes, with 
 salt and oil. Ho craunched them with his fleshless gums as easily 
 as if he had still had young teeth. Then he approached me, put 
 three of them into my left hand, and caused a glass of brandy to be 
 handed to me. When we had finished our radish, he said to us, 
 ' Gentlemen, what religion are you of? Do you say thoii or you to 
 the good God?' When we had told him our religion, he turned to 
 an old Danish general and said to him, ' Pray for these gentlemen.' 
 The general clasped his hands and commenced a prayer with much 
 unction. But it seemed that Suwarow did not aj^prove of it, for, 
 laying his hand upon his arm, he interrupted him, and began him- 
 self to recite one to him, wliich the Danish general repeated, sen- 
 tence by sentence, and without varying a word. The spectators of 
 this singular scene had much difficulty in restraining themselves 
 from laughter. When it was over the marshal said to us, 'Now, 
 let us take our places at table.' " 
 
 After dinner he informed the Vaudois deputies that they were 
 to go to pay their respects to the president of the supreme coun- 
 cil.i Count Zuccato introduced them. " Your excellency!" said he, 
 '■ here are three Vaudois deputies." . . . But the president did 
 not give him time to say any more. Rising in a rage like that of 
 a madman, he said, " These fellows are from a rebel valley ; their 
 hearts are rotten !" « You may judge how we felt," writes Appia. 
 "The president came and planted himself right opposite to us; and, 
 in our perplexity, not knowing what complaints he could have 
 against us, we knew not what to answer to his coarse inculpation- 
 But the good Count Zuccato did not allow himself to be brow- 
 beaten, and firmly answered, * These gentlemen are respectable 
 persons, to whom their country is much indebted. Moreover, they 
 are under the immediate protection of Marshal Suwarow.' At this 
 
 formidable name the president stood for a moment disconcerted 
 
 his lips trembled, and all his features spoke his rage that the ex- 
 pedition against the valleys had come to nought.^ It was said that 
 
 ' This was Count Thaun, de Saint- Andre, Marquis de Kevel. The council met 
 in the palace of the Place de St. Charles. 
 
 2 It wap known at Turin that an expedition had set out against the valleys. 
 The Vaudois who dwelt in that capital were in consternation. I happened to 
 
 Chap. XXl] 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE COSSACKS. 
 
 827 
 
 -^ 
 
 ho had suggested it; he was therefore doubly irritated. However, 
 when he was informed how we had been received by the marshal, 
 he excused himself three times over, and concluded by inviting us 
 to dinner, to make us, as he said,/or^e« Ms stupidity.'^ It may 
 readily be understood that the Vaudois were not anxious to accept 
 such an invitation. They hastened to return to the valleys, to 
 give an account of the result of their mission, by a circular which 
 was sent to all the communes. 
 
 Not very long after this, thirty or forty Cossacks, commanded 
 by a lieutenant, were sent and stationed at La Tour. *' The glut- 
 tony of these troops is unparalleled," says the author of the memoirs 
 just quoted.' " These soldiers often brought in from the country 
 green walnuts, and grapes scarcely formed ; all which they put into 
 their pot, with the provisions which were given them, and added 
 candle-ends for seasoning. I saw them make this admirable por- 
 ridge in their quarters, but they never chose to lodge in a house. 
 Their suspicion was extreme. They lay indiscriminately amongst 
 their horses. In the morning, at break of day, they turned towards 
 the east and performed their devotions with a multitude of signs of 
 the cross. The reverence which they showed to their superiors is 
 incredible.* They would even approach them on their knees to 
 kiss their boots, after having been beaten with the knout. They 
 were enthusiasts in their admiration of Suwarow. One evening, 
 having invited their lieutenant, whose name was Kitow,^ to sup- 
 per, along with the interpreter, who was a Bohemian, I asked him 
 a question about the marshal. Immediately Kitovv rose, di*ew his 
 sabre, took it between his teeth, took a pistol in each hand, and 
 raising them above his head, cried with a tremendous voice, not- 
 withstanding the sabre which he was biting, ' Suvarof! SuvarofP 
 My wife and childi-en were in mortal fear of him.'* 
 
 I omit many details, amongst which are some relative to a rash 
 enterprise of Marauda, which had well-nigh entailed ruin upon his 
 country. Having raised in France an irregular troop of some hun- 
 
 meet Malanot in the Rue dea Ambassadeurs ; "O heavens!" said he, "how are 
 you here?" "I come from La Tour." "Do the Vaudois valleys still subsist?" 
 kc. . . . {Paul Appia's Memoirs.) 
 
 • These details are of no great historic value ; but they are so characteristic of 
 the scene which we have been contemplating, that I could not think of suppress- 
 ing them. 
 
 ^ " When their colonel (Stadion) sent me a letter, the Cossaok to whom it was 
 intrusted brought it to me immediately, and whatever was the hour of the night 
 when it arrived, he caused me to rise that he might put it into my hands, and 
 that I might sign a receipt for it. I wrote my name in the register of the post in 
 
 great Greek capitals, and then they were able to read it, &c " (Same 
 
 memoirs.) ' Pronounced Kitoff. 
 
328 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Third. 
 
 dreds of men, he came by the Col la Croix to attack the Cossacks 
 quai-tered at La Tour. He was repulsed; but he was a Vaudois; 
 it was believed that there was some understanding between his 
 compatriots and him; they were accused of treason; and the deputies, 
 who had guaranteed with their heads the tranquillity of the val- 
 leys, had well-nigh lost their lives. Some of them were aiTested; 
 others fled.^ The Divine protection still furnished them, upon this 
 occasion, with the means of justifying themselves, and their anxieties 
 were allayed. 
 
 The malevolence of their enemies was not so readily appeased. 
 Whilst the Count de Denison still commanded at Piirnerol, ho 
 wrote one day to the representatives of the valleys, and to Appia 
 personally, that revolutionary conferences were held at La Tour. 
 Appia hastened to present himself before the commandant, to per- 
 suade him of the contrary. He found him much irritated. " I am 
 better informed than you think," said Denison to him ; " I know 
 the members of your club"— and he named them.'-* "I can assure 
 you," replied the deputy, "that not only have you been basely 
 deceived concerning the formation of this pretended club, but that 
 amongst the persons who have been named there ai-e not two, per- 
 haps, who have met with one another for a year past." " Whence 
 then come these accusations?" said the count. "It would rather 
 be for me to ask you that question," replied Appia. " Let that 
 pass," said the count; "but what is the reason of this hatred of 
 which you are the objects? for there is not a day but some priest 
 comes to besiege my gate, to stir me up against you." ^ 
 
 "Prince Bagration had already told me the same thing," obsei'ves 
 Appia in his memoirs. " And when General Wukassovich arrived 
 at Pignerol, in 1799, a canon of that city exerted himself to iiTitate 
 him against the Vaudois by the falsest accusations. We made 
 liaste," says Appia, " to draAv up a defence of our conduct since the 
 3d of June, and to cany it to him. He was able to satisfy him- 
 self of the accuracy of the statements. But he then added—' I 
 have here, in the prisons, one of your mountaineers, who attempted 
 to kill one of my sergeants by a pistol shot.' I was acquainted 
 with the case. * General!' said I, Uhe man you speak of is no 
 
 ' In connection with this, Appia relates the particulars of his escape to France; 
 but tliey are so purely personal, that I cannot give them a place here. 
 
 ■- Lauzaroth, reader and precentor at Bobi; Peyrot, pastor at Eora; Frache of 
 La Tour; Brezzi, &c. 
 
 » The deputy having explamed to the commandant that this hatred was occa- 
 a^ned by difference of religion, Denison exclaimed, *' Good God ! is that possible? 
 We hye on the best terms with the Kalmucks, and yet they are idolaters ! " 
 
 Yes, said Appia, " but you are not Catholics !" (Paul Appia's Memoirs.) 
 
 -iiAr 
 
 XXI.] 
 
 A NOBLE INCIDENT. 
 
 329 
 
 Vaudois; he is a Catholic of Lucemette.' Having acknowledged 
 the correctness of our representations, Wid^assovich sent us away, 
 saying, * Go, and keep yourselves quiet. My conduct will be regu- 
 lated according to your moderation.' One winter day," proceeds 
 the narrator — "it was in December, 1799 — Colonel Papius came 
 to my house, accompanied by a number of officers. He said to me, 
 ' We ara informed, sir, that the Vaudois wish to poison us, or to 
 deliver us to the French.' I was struck dumb for a moment. My 
 indignation could not be expressed. But God gave calmness. I 
 caused my three children to be brought, of whom the eldest was 
 only nine years of age, and I said to the colonel, * These, sir, are 
 my children ; they are dearer to me than my life ; take them for 
 hostages ; and if you receive a single scratch from a Vaudois, do 
 with them what you think proper.' " The words of a noble-minded 
 citizen who knew his compatriots well, and showed himself most 
 worthy to represent them ! The officers went away re-assured, and 
 left him his children ; but this incident of modern histoiy is also 
 worthy of the noblest days of ancient Italy. 
 
 I will go no farther : facts accumulate and carry me beyond my 
 limits. Notwithstanding all my efforts to abridge, I feel as if the 
 ])lan of this work were giving way under the pressure of the mul- 
 tiplied events which must be included in it. I hope the dryness 
 of the following pages, in which the necessity of extreme concise- 
 ness permits me to insert nothing but what belongs to the subject 
 of the chapter, may be compensated by the more animated details 
 of these. 
 
 Napoleon returned from Egypt ;^ he dissolved the directory,* 
 organized the senate,^ received the title of First Consul,* re-con- 
 stituted the tribunals,^ the administration,^ and the army.^ It 
 required his powerful hand to reconstruct, in so short a time, the 
 France that was to be, from the ruins of the France that had been. 
 Oil the 6th of May, 1800, he set out from Paris to put himself at 
 the head of the army of the Alps. Ten days afterwards he led 
 them across the snows of the St. Bernard. Scarcely had one week 
 elapsed till Suza, Yvree, and La Bi-unette were already in his 
 hands. On the 2d of June he was at Milan. 
 
 The whole of the allied troops opposed to him were assembled 
 in the plain of Alexandria. He marched thither, and defeated 
 them at Montebello f but it seemed as if victory was to desert 
 
 > From 24th August to IGth October, 1799. 2 On 10th November. 
 
 » On 24th December. * On 13th December. 
 
 fi On 17th March, 1800. « On 17th February, 1800. 
 
 » From 10th November, 1799, to 27th April, ISOO. 
 
 8 On 9th June. He made 6000 Austrians prisoners. 
 
 Vol. II. 102 
 
380 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Past TaiKn. 
 
 his hitherto victorious army,^ at Marengo. " It was three o'clock 
 in the afternoon; all the generals regarded the battle as lost. In 
 the belief that the French army was routed, Zach manoeuvred to 
 cut off its retreat. 'Soldiers!' exclaimed Napoleon, *we must 
 sleep upon the field of battle!' At the same moment, he gave 
 orders to advance. The ai-tillery was unmasked, and kept up a 
 temble fire for ten minutes; the enemy paused in astonishment; 
 the drums beat for a charge at the same moment along the whole 
 line; and that impulse which communicates itself like flame to 
 the hearts of brave men, carried them on at the voice of their 
 general. Desaix arrived with his division, calm and intrepid; and 
 the enemy who thought to cut off our retreat, found his own left 
 turned. At this moment, Bonaparte ordered the cavalry to pass 
 through the intervals at gallop. This bold manoeuvre decided the 
 victory. The Austrians gave way everywhere. The ardour of 
 
 our troops increased; they seized upon Marengo The 
 
 battle was won."^ 
 
 The whole of Piedmont and of Lombardy thus fell again under 
 the influence of France, and the Cisalpine Republic was immedi- 
 ately proclaimed. " This event," says M. Monastier,^ " in which, 
 moreover, the Vaudois had no part, made their position such as it 
 had never been before, and such as they had never ventured to 
 hope that it would become. In one day, and as if by enchantment, 
 they saw all the prohibitive laws abolished, under which they had 
 so long groaned. The barrier which separated them from other citi- 
 zens was broken down. A field was oj)ened up to their unfettered 
 activity, in which their enlightenment and their industry could 
 be rendered available. From having been despised pariahs, they 
 passed to the enjoyment of the same political rank with their haugh- 
 tiest persecutors. And, what was more precious to them than all 
 the rest, they were now to enjoy without impediment, that religi- 
 ous liberty for which they had struggled during three centuries." 
 
 In the following chapter, we shall see them in this new position. 
 
 » The capture of Nice (29fch May), of Novara (30th May), of Turbigo {31st May), 
 of Pavia (3d June), of Lodi (4th June), of Cremona (5th June), and of Placenza 
 (7th June), preceded the battle of Marengo. 
 
 ' An extract from a writing of Marshal Lannes, quoted in the history of Napo- 
 leon, by Hugo, pp. 154-158. The battle of Marengo took place on the 14th of 
 June. An armistice was signed on the 15th ; and the treaty of Alexandria, which 
 gave up Piedmont and Lombardy to France, was concluded on the 16th of June, 
 1800. Next day, the 17th, Napoleon was on his way back to Milan. 
 
 ' IT., ISO. 
 
 Chap. XXIL] 
 
 A RIDICULOUS PROCLAMATION. 
 
 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATE OF THE VAUDOIS UNDER THE DOMINION OF FRANCE.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1799 TO A.D. 1814.) 
 
 The two periods of French dominion in Piedmont— Ridiculous proclamation of ' 
 the provisional government of 1798— The new organization and political ar- 
 rangements—Changes favourable to the Vaudois and to liberty— Addresses of 
 Paul Appia to his Vaudois brethren— The English subsidies withdrawn from 
 the Vaudois— Distress of the pastors— Peyrani chosen moderator— Napoleon at 
 Milan— Interview of Peyrani with the emperor— New ecclesiastical arraugo- 
 ments- Congratulatory address of the Vaudois to Napoleon— Official installa- 
 tion of pastors under the new French law— Earthquake of 1808— Downfall of 
 Napoleon, and of the French empire. 
 
 Piedmont was united to France on the 2d of February, 1799; it es- 
 caped from the dominion of that country in the month of June of 
 the same year, but fell under it again after the victory of Marengo, 
 in June, 1800. This chapter, therefore, includes two periods, in 
 which the authority of France extended over the Vaudois valleys; 
 the first of which contains the first six months of 1799, and the 
 second commences a year afterwards, and continues to the restora- 
 tion of the old powers, in 1814. The intermediate year (from 
 June, 1799, to June, 1800) presents to our view the invasion by 
 the Austro-Russian troops, of which we have spoken separately, 
 in order not to interrupt the exhibition of the events now before 
 us, by an event of a different kind. 
 
 Charles Emmanuel IV. retired to Cagliari on 9th December* 
 1798; on the same day, a provisional government was appointed;'^ 
 and next day there appeared, with the signature of Eymar,^ and 
 under the eyes of Joubert,* a proclamation in which it was said — 
 " People ! . . . the dawn of reason has appeared on your hori- 
 zon, along with the French army. . . . The names of a Jou- 
 bert, an Eymar, a Grouchy, will be the eternal objects of tenderness 
 and admiration to all grateful hearts." The bombastic vanity of 
 
 » AuTHORrriES.— The same as in the preceding chapter. Also, EaccoUa delle 
 leggi, providenze e manifesti, emanati dai governi francese e provisorio, e dalla 
 municipalUa di ToHno, &c. . . . 2 vols. 4to, the first of 320, and the second of 
 240 pages.— Fortunes of the Vaudois during and since the French Revolution . . . 
 by John Valer (in German), Berlin, \^2^.— Synodal Acts of the Vaudois Church, 
 ^ConsistoriaZ Archives, 1800-1814.— Private documents. 
 
 2 Composed of thirteen members. 
 
 » Signing : Vu, au now, de gouve}'nement frangais. 
 
 * Commander-in-chief of the French army then in Italy. 
 
S32 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paht IniBs. 
 
 Chav. XXU 3 
 
 appia's oration. 
 
 333 
 
 
 such a docuiDent, extorts a smile of contempt. But more serious 
 measures succeeded these declamatory sentences. 
 
 All the old administrative authorities were provisionally main- 
 tained. All titles of nobility gave place to the common designa- 
 tion of citizen. 1 Various decrees were soon issued for the organi- 
 zation of the municipalities,'- and of national guards,^ and for the 
 regidation of the public finances.* All temporal power was taken 
 from the church.s The civil law ceased to maintain the irrevoca- 
 bility of ecclesiastical vows;® and finally, the new government, 
 "considering that difierence of religion ought not to introduce^ 
 amongst the citizens of a free people, any difference of rights or of 
 duties," decreed that for the future, Protestants should enjoy the 
 same prerogatives with Catholics^ Torture and the Inquisition 
 were abolished; « the right of asylum in churches was suppressed,^ 
 ajidimUmited freedom of the press estabUshed.'o At the same 
 time, it was resolved that the magnificent chapel of the Superga, 
 built upon a hill at the gates of Turin, should, like the Pantheon 
 at Paris, be " destined to receive, under the name of the Temph of 
 Gratitude, the remains of citizens who had deserved well of their 
 country," without distinction of religion.^! The College of Nobles, 
 the Tribunal of Apanages, and the orders of the Nonciata and St. 
 Maurice disappeared by one stroke.^' Piedmont was united to 
 France,i3 and the national guards of the valley of Lucerna were 
 assembled at La Tour,>* to take the oath of fidelity to the constitu- 
 tion, around the tree of liberty. 
 
 The commandant of Pignerol attended upon this occasion.^* 
 Paul Appia, the author of the memoirs so often quoted in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, having been elected by his fellow-citizens a muni- 
 cipal officer, delivered a fervent oration. " Citizens and brethren," 
 said he, "we are now enrolled under the standard of liberty; arms 
 are not given you to make you quit your homes, but that you may 
 defend them — that you may watch over the public tranquillity 
 
 * On 15th December. 
 
 ^ Decree of 10th December, 1798. 
 « On 18th December. 
 
 * On 21st December. By this decree the intmdancies were abolished, and in 
 their stead a council of the public finances was established in each province. 
 
 » Decree of 19th December, 1793. • Same decree. 
 
 * Decree of 31st December, 1798. 
 
 » Torture, by decree of 17th December, 1798; and the Inquisition, by that of 
 28th January, 1799. 
 
 » By decree of 6th January, 1799. This right of asylum was of use only to 
 criminals, whoso impunity it favoured. »» On 17th January. 
 
 " Decree of 6th January. >-' By decree of 1st and 10th February, 1799.* 
 
 " By decree of 2d February, 1799. " On 20th January, 1799. 
 
 " General Niboyet. 
 
 that you may rid the country of any one who would assail the life 
 or property of citizens. ... I invite you to banish fiom this 
 time forth, as brethren, all hatreds and party spirit. . . . Thus 
 will those infamous informers disappear, who dishonour and trouble 
 society. . . . When he must accuse any one, the true re- 
 publican is not afraid to put his own name, like the Scythian, on 
 the arrow which he shoots. . . . Citizens ! consider seriously 
 the greatness of the promises which you have just made. You 
 have sworn to be obedient to the laws — to respect your superiors, 
 anfl to obey them, and to banish despotism under whatsoever form 
 it may present itself Let this henceforth be the motto for all of 
 you alike, To live freemen, or to die! Hurrah for the Republic ! 
 [ Vive la Eepubliquel] ^ 
 
 "O Yaudois! O my dear countrymen!" exclaimed he at a 
 later period,- " who has more reason than we to cherish this liberty? 
 We shall no more see those unhappy times, when soldiers and exe- 
 cutioners were the logicians whom kings sent against us ; when 
 superstition and fanaticism brooded over schemes of vengeance, 
 and sharpened poignards to stab our brethren. But let us draw a 
 curtain over the past. Instructed in the holy religion which 
 teaches us to pardon, let us invite all our compatriots, of whatso- 
 ever way of thinking, to unite with us, that all may form one and 
 the same family, and all may labour together for the prosperity of 
 the country, so that it may always be said, These mountains are 
 inhabited by a virtuous people, the enemies of luxury and of all the 
 passions which corrupt the hearts of men." ^ 
 
 After having attended to the military and administrative or- 
 ganization of the country, the provisional government appointed 
 a commission, " for the purpose of collecting in the national archives 
 and libraries, all the documents which might be deemed useful for 
 the composition of a national history."* It appointed also a cotiv- 
 
 ^ These extracts are considerably abridged. The address was printed entire at 
 Pignerol, by Scott, under the title, Discours prononce aux quinze compagnies de 
 garde nationale de la vallSe de Lusei-ne . . . celer pluviose, an VII. de la Republique 
 frangaise, et le 1 er de la liheriS piemontaise, par Paul Appia, oficier municipal. 
 (Hahn quotes some larger fragments of it. Geschichte der Waldensei', &c., pp. 
 20i-206.) 
 
 * In 1808, being then Juge depaix at La Tour. 
 
 ^Memoire historico-statistique sur les Vaudois . . » ou riponses aux questions qui 
 ont et4 addressees it Paul Appia, memhre du conseil general et juge de paix d, La 
 Tour, par M. Alexandre Lameth, prefet du P6, par ordre de Son Excellence M. le 
 ministre de Vinterieur, en 1808. MS. of 26 folio pages, communicated by M. Appia 
 of Frankfort. (Quoted by Hahn, p. 206.) 
 
 * By decree of 26th February, 1799. This project has been partly realized in 
 QMS days, by the commission of the Monumenta patriae. 
 
334f 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Past Thikd. 
 
 Chap. XXII ] 
 
 INDIGENCE OF THE PASTORS. 
 
 335 
 
 
 rl 
 
 mission of sciences and artSy of which the moderator of the Vau- 
 dois churches (Peter Gey met) was nominated a member.^ The 
 Archbishop of Turin himself recommended order and forbearance,- 
 notwithstanding the abolition of the ecclesiastical tithes.^ By a 
 decree of the 3d of April, 1799, Piedmont was divided into depart- 
 ments; and the valleys were included in the department of the 
 Po, called at first that of the Eridan. Its administration was con- 
 fided to a central commission, of which likewise Geymet was nomi- 
 nated a member.* 
 
 But the coalition fonned against France had already re-animated 
 the hopes of the partizans of the ancient regime. The Austro- 
 Russian armies approached Piedmont. A decree was published, 
 prohibiting under pain of death, the cry, Vive le roi!'^ The de- 
 fenders of liberty had not learned even to respect the liberty of 
 sympathies. It was to render themselves unworthy of exciting 
 them; it was to compromise the dignity of their fall, now soon to 
 take place. 
 
 The allies speedily entered Turin. ^ The provisional government 
 removed its seat to Pignerol; but the Austrians and Russians 
 followed hard after it, and it took refuge in the fort of Fenestrelle. 
 Perhaps, even this might have fallen into the hands of the enemy, 
 had it not been for the bravery of the Vaudois, who exposed their 
 lives to arrest the Austro-Russian forces, at the defile of Malanage. 
 
 The reactionary Piedmontese, and tlie special enemies of the 
 Vaudois, endeavoured to organize an expedition for the purpose of 
 wasting the Vaudois valleys by fire and sword. Twelve thousand 
 men had already arrived at Pignerol for this object; and we have 
 seen, in the preceding chapter, how Providence permitted this 
 calamity to be warded off by the patriotism and prudence of the 
 men who became answerable with their heads, for the tranquillity 
 of these countries. 
 
 "After the battle of Marengo," says Appia in his memoirs,^ 
 " Piedmont was inundated with French troops, whom it was neces- 
 sary to supply with provisions, notwithstanding their gi-eat price, 
 for the sack of wheat was then sold as high as five louis, and 
 other things in proportion. Our communes were burdened with 
 
 ' This commission was instituted by decree of 27th February, 1799. It was at 
 first composed of fifteen members; and by decree of 29th December, ten more were 
 added to them. It was this last decree which nominated Geymet. 
 
 2 Mandatory of 14th March, 1799. 3 ^y decree of 31 st March. 
 
 * By decree of 3d April, signed Mussetf commissaire da gouvemement. 
 
 ' By decree of 14th May. 
 
 « Towards the end of May. But the citadel did not surrender till the 20th of 
 June. 7 p, 57^ 
 
 an exaction every ten days, which much exceeded their feeble re- 
 sources. It consisted of money, hay, wood, straw, wine, and pro- 
 visions. Not being able to meet this demand, the communes sent 
 a deputation to Turin, to General Ohabrand, in order to obtain ex- 
 emption from it; and in consideration of the services which we had 
 rendered, he discharged the Vaudois from that extraordinary tax." 
 
 Napoleon passed seven days in Milan,^ occupied in re-organizing 
 the Cisalpine Republic,^ and in opening relations with the court of 
 Rome.^ In the midst of these great affairs, however, the Vaudois 
 church was completely forgotten. " The financial position of the 
 pastors," says M. Monastier,* " became in these circumstances ex- 
 tremely critical. The royal subsidy from England, which formed 
 the greater part of their slender stipends, had been withdrawn 
 from them, on their becoming subject to France. The English 
 national subsidy continued to come to them, but irregularly.''' The 
 share of each minister amounted to about 500 francs. This was 
 their whole salary, certainly insufficient for the wants of a family. 
 The devoted attachment of their parishioners caused them to make 
 an effort to supplement it. In more than one locality, the elders 
 of the church went from house to house, begging the bread of 
 which the pastor stood in want. On hearing of such great neces- 
 sities, the executive commission of Piedmont adopted measures, 
 which were well intended, but not very politic." 
 
 It began by reducing the number of Catholic parishes in the 
 Vaudois valleys from twenty-eight to thirteen.^ Then, "con- 
 sidering that notwithstanding the oppression to which the Vaudois 
 have been subjected for so many centuries, . . . they have 
 always shown themselves warmly attached to tlie Piedmontese nation 
 
 » From 17th to 24th June, 1800. 
 
 * Which afterwards took the name of the Italian BepuUic, aud of which he was 
 named president on 26th January, 1802. 
 
 ' Rome then belonged to the King of Naples. Pius VI., carried away from his 
 metropolis and transported to Valence in 1798, had died in that city in course of 
 the same year. A conclave of thirty-five cardinals had been assembled for some 
 months in Venice, to appoint a successor. A skilful policy directed the choice 
 of Cardinal Chiaramonti, Bishop of Imola, who in his diocese (then united to the 
 Cisalpine Republic), had delivered a homily full of moderation and almost of 
 sympathy for liberal ideas. He was elected under the name of Pius VII. It 
 was with hiin that Napoleon concluded the concordat (15th July, 1801) which 
 regulated the re-establishment of the Catholic religion in France.— But Pius VII. 
 likewise wished at a future period to re-establish the Jesuits and to resist 
 Napoleon, whom he excommunicated (1809); he in his turn was carried away 
 from the Vatican (6th July, same year) and did not re-enter his dominions till 
 the Restoration (1814). He died in 1829. * II., 194. 
 
 * Also the subsidy granted by the Walloon churches, for the Latin school. 
 
 « Decree of 27 Brumaire, year IX. (18th November, 1800). 
 
336 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paet Thud. 
 
 — that, in the disastrous campaign of the year VTI. (1799), they 
 covered a part of the French army,^ and that they no longer re- 
 ceive the English subsidy, destined to the support of their pastors" — 
 the executive commission decreed that the whole revenues of the 
 suppressed Catholic parishes should be paid over to them ; that 
 the hospital of Pignerol, destined till then to facilitate the carrying 
 off of their children, and the catholization of the necessitous mem- 
 bers of their church, should also, with all its revenues, be placed 
 under the management of the Vaudois Table ; and, finally, that 
 the Vaudois should be declared worthy of national gratitude'^ 
 Shortly afterwards, the valley of Lucema received the name of 
 Val-Pelis, from the name of the ton^ent which flows through itj 
 and that of St. Martin was called Val-Balsille, in commemomtion 
 of the heroic defence made by Amaud and his valiant troop of 
 mountaineers, at the time of the glorious retiu*n of the Vaudois to 
 their native country, in 1689 and 1690. Each of the thirteen 
 actual Vaudois pastors was, moreover, confirmed in the post which 
 he occupied, and called to take the oath of fidelity to the constitu- 
 tion.^ 
 
 During this interval, however, the moderator of the Vaudois 
 churches had been appointed sub-prefect at Pignerol.* He con- 
 voked the synod of these churches, in order to demit his office of 
 moderator, for his discharge of the duties of which he received the 
 thanks of the meeting of synod. ^ John Rodolph Pey rani was elected 
 in his stead. " The meeting," it is said, " being deeply impressed 
 with a sense of the benefits which have been so lai-gely bestowed 
 upon the Vaudois by the republican government, expresses its 
 gratitude for them, and vows an inviolable attachment to the sacred 
 cause of liberty."*" And afterwards, "considering that irreligion 
 
 • By arresting the Austro-Rusaian forces at Le Malanage, and thus favonring 
 the retreat of the provisional government to Fenestrelle. 
 
 2 Decree of 28 Brumaire, in the year IX. (19th November, 1800). The pro- 
 visions of this decree were renewed by that of 13 Nivose, in the year IX. 
 (3il January, 1801). The btter decree suppressed, moreover, the Catholic parish 
 of Prarusting, with reservation of the revenues to the priest who then served the 
 cure, but appointing that after the death of that ecclesiastic, the revenues of his 
 parish should also pass to the Vaudois churches.— The Catholics of St. John 
 petitioned against the supi-ression of their parish, which had been united to that 
 of Lucema; and the executive commission re-established it, assigning to the priest 
 of it, pro tempore, the church, the parsonage house, and the meadow attached to 
 it, with a yearly allowance of 800 livres, to be taken from the national exchequer. 
 (Decree of 14 Germinal, in the year X.— 4th April, 1801.)— The donation of thia 
 national property to the Vaudois was ratified by the decrees of 11 and 22 Ger- 
 nurial, in the year X. (12th and 23d April, 1801). 
 
 ' Decree of 18 Germinal, in the year X. (8th April, 1802). « In May, 1801. 
 
 * Synod of Isfc, 2d, and 3d June, 1801, § i. « Same Synod, § iL 
 
 Chap. XX u] 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH NAPOLEON. 
 
 S37 
 
 is the product of this age, which calls itself philosophical, and not 
 being able to conceal from themselves that the vices which are the 
 consequences of it, make progress daily, the meeting, strongly per- 
 suaded and convinced that religion is the firmest bond of society, 
 and that it alone can make man happy, enlarge his ideas, perfect 
 his reason, and destroy or w^eaken vice, resolved that a day of ex- 
 traordinary fasting and humiliation shall be kept, according to the 
 ancient custom of the Vaudois church." ^ It was in this synod 
 that the ancient evangelical churches of the French Alps enjoyed 
 the pri\ilege of being admitted to form thenceforth part of the 
 same body with those of the valleys of Piedmont.'"^ 
 
 Meanwhile, Charles Emmanuel IV. had abdicated his eventual 
 rights to the throne of Sardinia, in favour of his brother, Victor 
 Emmanuel.^ Napoleon had been named President of the Italian 
 Republic,^ then Emperor of the French,^ and finally. King of Italy.® 
 When he went to Milan, to place the iron crown upon his head, 
 he received at Turin a deputation of the Vaudois Table. ^ "Are 
 you one of the Protestant clergy of this countiy?" said he to Pey- 
 raui, who was the speaker of the deputation. "Yes, sire; and 
 moderator of the Vaudois church." "Are you schismatics from 
 the Church of Rome?" "Not schismatics, but separate." Then 
 the emperor, suddenly changing the conversation, as if something 
 had just occurred to his recollection, said to him, " You have had 
 
 ' Minute of Synod of 1801, § xiii. 
 
 - Ibid, § iii. — These churcljes were represented by Pastor Monnet. — ^They were 
 those of St. Veran, Fonsillarde, Molines, Arvieux, La Chalp, and Brunissard. 
 
 3 In 1802. — Charles Emmanuel IV. died at Rome in 1819; and his brother, who 
 in 1814 took the title of Victor Emmanuel IV., abdicated in 1821, in favour of a 
 third brother, named Charles Felix. 
 
 * On 26th January, 1802. * He was crowned on 2d December, 1804. 
 
 ^ Crowi:!ed, 2Gth May, 1805. at IMilan. 
 
 ' In June, 1805. — All the historians who have spolcen of this interview place it 
 in the year 1797. It cannot have taken place at that date, for the King of 
 Sardinia did not abdicate till 1798; and the Vaudois never made a spontaneous 
 submission to a foreign power, whilst the sceptre of their legitimate sovereign 
 was still extended over them. Moreover, I find no occasion in 1797, nor in the 
 following years till 1805, upon which Bonaparte could have received a Vaudois 
 deputation at Turin. Again, it appears that Peyrani said to him, "Sire, I am 
 moderator of the Vaudois church." Now, a style proper only to crowned heads 
 could not have been used to Napoleon in 1797, as he was not crowned till 1804. 
 Nor could Peyrani have called himself moderator in 1797, as he was not appointed 
 to that office till 1801. Finally, a letter addressed by Peyrani to M. de Portalis 
 in May, 1805, contains the following: "A Vaudois deputation having had the 
 honour to be presented to his imperial and royal majesty on his passage at Turin, 
 and having informed him of the circumstances of the churches which they repre- 
 sented, received orders from him to apply to your excellency, to ask their organi- 
 zation," c;c This agrees exactly with the particulars of the interview, 
 
 which must have taken place in June, 1805. 
 
 Vol. IL ' 103 
 
338 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Thibd. 
 
 Chap. XXll] 
 
 MEMORIAL SENT TO TARTS. 
 
 839 
 
 brave men among you!" "Yes, sire; Arnaud, the pastor and 
 colonel who conducted our ancestors back to their own country." 
 "Your mountains are the best defenders you can have. Cfesar 
 had difficulty in passing through your defiles. Is Amaud's Return 
 accurate?" "Yes, sire; but we believe that our people were aided 
 by Providence." "How long have you formed an independent 
 church ]" " From the days of Claude, Bishop of Turin, about the 
 year 820." "What stipend have your clergy?" ,"We have no 
 fixed stipend." ^ " Had you not a pension from England ?" " Yes, 
 sire; the kings of Great Britain have always been our protectors 
 and benefactors, till recently." "How is that?" "The royal 
 pension has been suppressed, since we became subjects of your 
 majesty." "Are you organized ?"2 "No, sire." "Present a 
 memorial; send it to Paris, and you will obtain this organization 
 immediately." ^ 
 
 The moderator having returned to the valleys, lost no time in 
 convoking the mayors and pastors of all the Vaudois communes 
 to a public meeting, to be held in the open air, at St. John, in the 
 square of Les Blonats.* Each pastor and each mayor was asked to 
 append his signature to the letter of convocation, to attest his 
 knowledge of it, and to give his consent to the proposed conference.® 
 When the meeting was assembled, Peyrani submitted to it — (1) 
 The draft of a petition to the minister of worship,^ to ask of him 
 an ecclesiastical organization, in accordance with the new law. 
 (2) A plan of organization by which the Vaudois parishes were 
 grouped into five consistorial parishes, to preserve to them the right 
 of having a synod of theii- own.^ In this document are to be found 
 these sentences : — 
 
 "Down to the time when Piedmont was finally united to Fmnce, 
 
 * Even tlie revenues granted to the Vaudois by the executive commission {18th 
 November, 1800, and 3d January, 1801) were suspended by the sequestration of 
 the national domains. — Decree of 4 Germinal, in the year X. (25th March, 1805). 
 
 - To understand this question, and more especially the answer to it, it must be 
 borne in mind that an organic law for the Protestant churches of France, had 
 been passed on the 18 Germinal, in the year X. (24th April, 1802); and that some 
 years elapsed before the new organization was everywhere established. 
 
 ' These particulars are related by Gilly, Waldensian Researches, pp. 80, 82;^ 
 Blair, History of the Waldenses, vol. ii.; — Sims, Ocuvrea de Peyran; Halin, 
 Geschichte der Wald., p. 12;— Acland, Sketch of the History and present Situation 
 of the Waldenses; — Monastier, II., 189, &c. — See the Bibliography. 
 
 * The letter of convocation is dated 26th May (it is signed by all the members 
 of the Table); the day of meeting was fixed for 30th May, 1805. 
 
 * It bears the signatures only of eight pastors and eight mayors. 
 
 * M. Portalis. — This petition was accompanied by a topographical description 
 of the Vaudois churches, according to the terms of the law of organization. 
 
 ^ In accordance with art. XIII. of the law of 18 Germinal, year X. [Titre 
 II. sect. 1). 
 
 we enjoyed the privilege of assembliug in synod, to frame regula- 
 tions for ourselves. Having learned from the concordat the form 
 of organization wliicli the Protestant churches of the empire must 
 assume — which we resemble, although we were never reformed — v^e 
 regret to perceive that the number of our parishes will with diffi- 
 culty admit of the five consistorial churches requisite to form the 
 district of a* synod. However, my lord, upon account of isolation, 
 we venture to solicit a slight exception to the rule," ^ &c. . . . 
 
 The assembly adopted these papers, and also (3) a memorial in- 
 tended to be presented to the minister of the interior, and the 
 finance minister. In this memorial, after having recounted the 
 principal facts of their eventful history, the Vaudois stated, that 
 the resources which they derived from England had been cut off", 
 since the incorporation of Piedmont with France; that the bur- 
 saries established at Geneva, Lausanne, and Basle, in favour of 
 students from the valleys, had been suspended ; that the revenues 
 of the national domains granted to them by the decree of 28 
 Brumaire, in the year IX., had also been taken from them by the 
 sequestration of these domains.'^ In consequence of all this, they 
 asked that the government should provide in a regular manner for 
 the maintenance of their pastors, and that the sequestrated domains 
 should again be placed at their disposal, that their revenues might 
 be entirely devoted to the purposes of public instruction in the 
 valleys.^ 
 
 All these papers having been addressed to M. Mestrezat, president 
 of the consistory of Paris, to be by him presented to the different 
 ministers concerned, it was replied that the number of the Vaudois 
 parishes would not admit of more than three consistorial churches 
 — that it was difficult to allow them to retain the national domains 
 — and that the stipends of the pastors (determined by the amount 
 of the population) could not, in the valleys, be higher than the 
 
 * It was proposed to form five consistorial churches, in the following manner: — 
 I. Bobi, Villar, and Rora. II. La Tour, St. John, and Angrogna. III. St. Ger- 
 main, Pramol, and Pomaret. IV. Ville Seche, ISIaneille, Macel, Pral, and 
 Eodoret. V. Prarusting, Eocheplate, Pignerol, and the localities of the plain in 
 which there were scattered Protestants. 
 
 2 In consequence of a decree which suspended all sale or donation of these 
 domains, until new inquiries were made into the subject. (Decree of 4 Germinal, 
 in the year XIII. — 25th March, 1805.) — "These revenues amounted," says the 
 memorial, "to an annual sum of 10,000 francs, including the interest due by a 
 number of creditors in difierent communes, of which, however, nothing could 
 ever bo obtained." (Words of the memorial.) 
 
 3 This paper is signed by all the pastors of the valleys without exception — by 
 the mayors of all the Vaudois communes, also without exception— and by Paul 
 Appia and John Daniel Peyrot, with this title, deputy of Vai-Pelis. — In all, 
 twenty-eight signatures. 
 
 1 
 
340 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Third. 
 
 cbai-. xxii] pastors' endoavment confirmed. 
 
 341 
 
 I *l 
 
 third class. " However," it was added, " the prefect of the ^o (M. 
 La Villa) is well inclined towards you; and tlio minister will ask 
 from him more exact information concerning the Vaudois valleys.^ 
 It will be seen from this, that this business threatened to become 
 protracted. Napoleon, having been crowned at Milan en 2Gth 
 May, proceeded thereafter to Genoa, in order to effect the annexa- 
 tion of that country to France. He returned to Turin.^ The 
 moderator, having obtained a new audience, presented a congratu- 
 latory address, and reminded him of the necessities of the church. 
 " It is to you, sire," said he — " it is to the prodigies of valour and 
 heroism, to the power of genius which presides over the destinies 
 of the world — that this small body of people which has escaped from 
 the ravages of time and the rage of intolerance, owes the blessing 
 of its political existence, and the assurance that its altars will 
 henceforth be protected.'^ . , . . Therefore, the name of your ma- 
 jesty is often mentioned in our prayers Exposed for cen- 
 turies to all the storms of fanaticism, .... the Protestants of our 
 valleys have, at different periods, been spoiled of their goods, . . . 
 or banished from the land which was red with the blood of their 
 martyrs England came to the help of our wandering fami- 
 lies and desolated churches Our sanctuaries were rebuilt ; 
 
 the caves and rocks again resounded with our hymns, and a royal 
 subsidy conveyed to us annually the fruit of the piety of the British 
 court. ... The new political institutions which have been given 
 us have caused an abatement of this interest taken in us by Great 
 
 Britain, and the royal subsidy has been suppressed Our 
 
 valleys have served as an asylum for the remains of the army of 
 Verona. .... But a painful feeling mingles with the delight 
 which the arrival of your majesty creates in our mountains. A 
 report has been spread that you are about to deprive us of the 
 national domains. , ... Be pleased, sire, to confirm them to us 
 by an imperial decree, .... which will engrave for ever on our 
 hearts an eternal, admiring, and grateful recollection of your august 
 mightiness."* 
 
 ' Lettre of M. Mestrezat, dated from Paris, 1 Messidor, year XIII. (20th June, 
 18C5). — The letter of the minister demanding information is of 29 Prairial (18th 
 JuneJ. - About the end of June, 1805. 
 
 ' I give mere extracts from this address, and these of the best parts; for it 
 abounds in such phrases as this: " with the same hands with which you have flung 
 the thunderbolt .... you have raised up the standards of philosophy and of a 
 religion which commends itself to all ... . which makes men happy without 
 staining the earth with blood." " A philosophical government, the friend of men, 
 rises on the ruins of a superstitious court," &c. . . . 
 
 * This document is not dated.— A letter of 4 Messidor, of the year XII. (24th 
 June, 1804), addressed by the prefect of the Po to the sub-prefect of Piguerol, 
 
 No sooner had Napoleon returned to Paris than he demanded 
 information concerning the nature and value of the national domains 
 which had been assigned to the Vaudois by the executive commis- 
 sion; 1 and without even awaiting the arrival of that information, 
 he continued to the Vaudois pastors the endowment which they 
 had thus received,- without prejudice to the stipend allowed them 
 by the state. '^ At the same time he signed the imperial decre 
 
 3* 
 
 said, "The minister of the interior has just transmitted a duplicate of the decree 
 of 15 Germinal last (5th April, 1804), by which the government has fixed the 
 
 stipend to be allowed to the pastors," &c This relates to the pastors of 
 
 France in general. All that was done at this time was to inquire into the circum- 
 stances of the Vaudois parishes. 
 
 * By decrees of 23 Brumaire, 13 Nivose, 11 and 22 Germinal, of the year IX. 
 (19th November, 1800; 3d January, 12th and 23d April, 1801.)— The minister 
 demanded from the prefect of Turin, a statement of the domains granted to the 
 Vaudois, by letter of 17 Thermidor, of tlie year XIII. (Gth August, 1805).— The 
 prefect wrote to the same purpose to M. Geymet, 29 Thermidor (18th August); 
 the sub-prefect to the pastor.s, 4 Fructidor (22d August). And the information 
 demanded was prepared on 5 Fructidor (23d August) by tlte officers of the Vaudois 
 Table, and sent ofif on the Gth, in a report which showed tlie nature, origin, 
 extent, value, manageaient, and revenue of these domains, as well as the amount 
 of the subsidies, previously received from England and Holland. 
 
 2 By imperial decree of 25 Tliermidor of the year XIII. (13th August, 1805).— 
 It is evident that Napoleon did not await the arrival of the information demanded 
 in Oi'der to make up his mind; as that information was not returned until the 
 24th of August, and it was on the 13th that the motional domains in quostion 
 were confirmed to the Vaudois. — Afterwards, aprefectorial decree of 25th January, 
 1806, appointe.i — (1) That the three presidents of the consistorial churches of the 
 valleys, should provisionally manage these domains on behalf of the Vaudois. 
 (2) That all the pastors of the valleys, assembled under the presidence of the 
 jjub-prefect of Pignerol, should nominate by an absolute majority of votes, an 
 agent and a ti-eusurer, selected from amongst themselves — these should be joined 
 with the three presidents; and tliat their duties should be gratuitously discharged. 
 (Then follow articles of detail.) (6) That each of the three presidents should 
 discharge the duties of principal manager, during four months of the year. 
 (8) That all the Vaudois pastors should assemble once a-j'ear, under the presidence 
 of the sub-prefect, to audit and attest the accounts.— The imperial decree of 
 6th May, 1SU6, considering the places of worship and presbytdrcs or parsonages aa 
 public edifices, laid upon the commiines the burden of building and repairing them 
 as might be required. 
 
 ' As pastors of the third class. Decree of 25th July, 1805. — The rent yielded 
 by the national domains was appropriated entirely to the purposes of primary and 
 academic education. 
 
 * I have not seen this decree, but the following is an extract of a letter of the 
 minister of worship, Portalis, dated from Paris, 19 Thermidor, in the year XIII., by 
 which he announced its promulgation to the prefect of the department of the Po: — 
 
 ** Monsieur le Prefet, — I have the honour to acquaint you that by a decree of the 
 6th current, his majesty has granted three consistorial churches to the Vaudois of 
 your department: the first is established at La Tour, the second at Prarostino, 
 and the third at Ville Seche, without prejudice, however, to the external rites of 
 the Catholic religion. By the same decree, Messrs. Peter Bert, Enimanuel Rostan, 
 Peter Gril, and Paul Solomon Bonjour, are confirmed as pastors of the church of 
 La Tour; Messrs. David Mondon, Paul Goante, and Joshua Meille, are confirmed 
 
 J '\ 
 
342 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Paut Third. 
 
 of 6 Thermidor, in tlie year XIIL (25tli July, 1805), by which 
 their churches were organized in three consistorial churclies — one 
 at La Tour, another at Prarusting, and the third at Ville Sechc.^ 
 All the actual pastor3 were confirmed and officially installed in 
 their respective i)arishes, by the prefect of the Po, as tlie organ of 
 the government.- It must have been very gratifying to them to 
 see associated with him the former moderator of their churches, 
 M. Geymet, who retained the office of sub-prefect of Pignerol, 
 during the whole time that the authority of France subsisted in 
 Piedmont. 
 
 The following is the account given of this ceremony by a con- 
 temporary:" — *-I was lately present at the institution of three 
 consistorial churches accorded to the Vaudois of the valleys of 
 Pignerol. The prefect* had announced that he would be at La 
 
 as pastors of that of Prarostino; and Messrs. Alexander Eostan, John Daniel 
 Olivet, David Monnet, Daniel Combe, Ferdinand Pey ani, and Solomon Peyrani, 
 are confirmei as pastors of the Vaudois church of Ville Seche," kc. 
 
 ' The following table shows the parishes attached to each of these consistorial 
 churches, with their population at that time: — 
 
 Ciiiisistoriiil 
 Churches. 
 
 Parishes. 
 
 Total 
 Population. 
 
 La Tour... 
 
 n. 
 
 Prarustino ■{ 
 
 I 
 
 IIL 
 
 Ville-Seche 
 
 Bobi 
 
 Villar 
 
 La Tour 
 
 Kora 
 
 Angro-na 
 
 Prarusting 
 
 Envers-Portes 
 
 St. John 
 
 Pignerol and Turin 
 
 St. Germain 
 
 Pramol 
 
 Envers-Pinache ... 
 
 Pomaret 
 
 ValBalsille* 
 
 1,594 
 
 2,260 
 
 2,200 
 
 540 
 
 2,100 
 
 1,420 
 
 GOO 
 
 3,700 
 
 140,000 
 
 810 
 
 980 
 
 480 
 
 COO 
 
 4,600 
 
 Protestant 
 Population. 
 
 1,570 
 
 1,930 
 
 1,700 
 
 500 
 
 1,750 
 
 1,400 
 
 400 
 
 1,600 
 
 400 
 
 700 
 
 900 
 
 400 
 
 550 
 
 3,100 
 
 Pre-^ident of the 
 Consistorial Ciiurches 
 
 Peter Pert, pas- 
 ^ tor at La Tour. 
 
 Joshua Meille, 
 Y pastor at St. 
 John. 
 
 Peyrani, pastor 
 at Le Pomaret. 
 
 J 
 
 = The following are the papers relating to this occasion. Decree of 6 Ther- 
 midor, of the year XIII. (25th July, 1805); the Vaudois pastors are to receive their 
 stipend from the imperial treasurer (at Pari8).t An ordinance of the same date, 
 confirming them in the posts whicli they occupy. A letter of the minister of wor- 
 ship to the prefect of the Po, of date 19 Thermidor (5th August), to proceed to 
 their installation. Despatch of the prefect of the Po, to the sub-prefect of Pig- 
 nerol, announcing that these things had all been carried into effect. Letter of the 
 sub-prefect to the pastors, apprising them of these things (16th August, 1805). 
 
 = In the Courrier de Turin, Xo. of 17 Vendemiaire, of the year XIV. (9th Oc- 
 tober, 1805).— This article is signed G. A. ♦ M. Loysel. 
 
 * Including Villk-Seche, Z« Clots. Fuel. Rioclaret, Maneille, Macd, Rodoret, and Prat lU 
 Finer wa* almost entirely Catholic.) 
 
 .00 i^v''''^'"^' *° "^"^ i^'tmclions of the minister of worship, dated 1 Frimaire. of the rear XIV. 
 ;";! .?'*'" "' ^^^^'^"'^ transmitted by the sub-prefect to the Vaudois pastors (Jl'st March 
 1806). their stipend was to be paid, on orders sent from Paris, at the office of the Receiver of 
 * lOances at Pignerol. 
 
 Chap. XXIl] 
 
 INSTALMENT OF THE PASTORS. 
 
 343 
 
 Tour, on Sunday the 15tli current (7th October, 1805), in order to 
 instal the pastors confirmed by his majesty, and to take from them 
 the oath prescribed for ministers of all religious denominations. 
 The inhabitants of the three valleys repaired in great numbers to 
 La Tour. At nine o'clock precisely, the firing of salutes in the 
 commune of St. John announced the approach of the prefect, and 
 in a few moments he arrived, accompanied by the sub-prefect 
 of our arrondissement, and alighted at the beautiful residence of 
 M. Peyrot,^ member of the general council. Before coming to the 
 bridge of Angrogna, the prefect was met by the deputation of 
 pastors and received their expressions of respect; and on arriving 
 at the bridije, he found there the mavors of the valleys, the muni- 
 cipal council of La Tour, and almost all the officials of the neigh- 
 bouring communes. M. Appia,''' another member of the general 
 council of our department, delivered an address in name of his 
 compatriots, in which he expressed theii' affection for his majesty, 
 and their gratitude to the wise magistrate, to whom we owe in 
 great part the boon o£ our organization. A numerous body of the 
 national guard was under arms, and lined both sides of the path 
 alonji which the corteoe defiled. More firing announced the entry 
 of the prefect into the chief place of the commune. At half- past ten 
 o'clock, the cortege arrived at the place of worship, where the prefect, 
 arrayed in his official robes, was received by the pastors of La Tour, 
 who accompanied him to the place prepared for him. The ceremony 
 was immediately commenced by the usual prayers, followed by a 
 sermon, which demonstrated at once the excellency of evangelical 
 doctrine and the eloquence of the pastor.^ The prefect then caused 
 the organic law of the Keformed churches to be read to tliose pre- 
 sent, and likewise the imperial decrees relative to the Vaudois; 
 after which he delivered the following address : — 
 
 " Liberty of conscience is the most sacred of the rights of man, 
 and the violence v/hich has so often been done to it, can only bo 
 regarded as the effect of a barbaric ignorance. Religion will always 
 be respected by enlightened governments. This means of commu- 
 nication between God and men, should unite men in common 
 sentiments of gratitude to their Creator — ^give them new strength 
 for the practice of the social virtues which it demands of them, 
 and procure for them the happiness of a peaceful life. True 
 Christians should never depart from those principles of gentleness 
 which are enjoined in the gospel. Happy inhabitants of the 
 
 • Known by the name of M. Peyrot of Holland. 
 ' The author of the memoirs which I have so often quoted. 
 This sermon was preached by M. Bert, pastor at La Tour. 
 
S44 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thibd. 
 
 CnAP. XXII.] 
 
 SEVERE EARTHQUAKES. 
 
 M5 
 
 valleys! these are the principles which you profess. May your 
 hearts ever remain true to them! Ministers of the gospel! his 
 majesty the emperor and king confides to you the honourable duty 
 of cherishing by your instructions and your example, the purity of 
 morals subsisting amongst this good people ! I shall now receive 
 your oath to this effect, and that of fidelity to his majesty." 
 
 The following were the words of this oath : — " I swear and pro- 
 mise to God, upon the holy gospels, that I will be always obedient 
 to the laws of the empire, and faitliful to the emperor. I j^romise 
 also that I will be a member of no council, and will be a party to 
 no league, either at home or abroad, contrary to the public tran- 
 quillity; and if in my church or elsewhere I become aware of any 
 conspiracy to the prejudice of the state, I will make it known to 
 the government." * 
 
 The ceremony was then concluded like the ordinary woi-ship of 
 Protestants. It awakened in us, adds the writer from whom this 
 account of it is taken, feelings not easily expressed. " Victims of 
 a long persecution, we were accustomed 1» regard governments 
 with respect, because our doctrine lays it upon us as a duty; but 
 we could not have the same sympathy for oppressors, as for magis- 
 trates of known impartiality." The Vaudois had heretofore, iii 
 fact, known little but the severity of the laws of theii* country — 
 they now began to know their justice. 
 
 Before retmniing to the principal town of his department, the 
 prefect spent part of a day in the house where he had alighted on 
 his aiTival, in the company of the pastors whom he had just in- 
 stalled; and amongst the ministers with w*hom he particularly 
 convei-sed, says the writer from whom we have borrowed this 
 naiTative, *' distinguished attention was shown to M. Emmanuel 
 Rostan, pastor of Bobi; for it was to his care and generosity, and 
 the care and generosity of his worthy spouse, that 300 wounded 
 Frenchmen owed their safety in the unfortunate retreat of the 
 year VII. This fact is well known; and is of itself sufficient to 
 justify all that the government has done in favour of the Vaudois." 
 
 Nothing of particular interest in a historic point of view, jjresents 
 itself during the remainder of the time that the Vaudois were 
 under the dominion of France. The regular course of government 
 
 ' Extracted from the minute of this ceremony, drawn up by the prefect and 
 signed by all the pastors.— It commences thus: " This fourteenth day of the month 
 of Vendemiaire, in the year XIV." (6th October, 1805)— a day before the date 
 given in the narration above quoted. — According to the Ai't de verifier le» doUeSy 
 the 6th of October, 1805, or 14 of Vendemiaire, of the year XIV., was in reality 
 a Sabbath. The error is therefore in the Cotirrier de Turin. 
 
 and impartial administration of the laws afford no remarkable 
 incident to the historian. 
 
 The pastors of the valleys were entitled, and even bound, to meet 
 together once every year; ^ and although this meeting did not bear 
 the name of a synod, they were able to discuss to good purpose 
 the affairs of their church; for the management of the national 
 domains vdih which they had been endowed, which was the legal 
 object of their meeting, implied a consideration of these affairs. 
 It was in the first of these meetings that the resolution was adopted 
 of building at St. John the place of worship which is now to be 
 seen there. Its erection took place from 1 80 G to 1808, and the 
 government itself took part in it. Down to the end of the eighteenth 
 century, the Vaudois had been prohibited from the exercise of their 
 religion in this commune, and it was to them a subject of enthusi- 
 astic feeling and a point of general interest to be able to commence 
 it there. They seemed thus to take a protest against the past, 
 and to assure themselves of their own emancipation. 
 
 At the same period, an awful phenomenon, which had already 
 been witnessed in the Vaudois valleys in IGll and in 1755, 
 recurred to fill them with alarm. " I was at my desk," writes a 
 merchant of Pignerol, " when my little boy, who was beside me, 
 suddenly rose, saying that he was afraid; my dog howled with all 
 his might; at the same moment I felt as if there were something 
 cold under my feet, and the whole house began to shake."- This 
 was upon the 2d of April, 1808, at a quarter before six o'clock in 
 the evening. ^ It was the commencement of an earthquake, very 
 remarkable, especially for its duration. This first shock, of which 
 the valley of Lucerna was the centre, was felt at Turin, Genoa, 
 Lyons, Grenol)le, and Geneva. "But as the weather was very 
 serene, although cold, the greater part of the inhabitants and of 
 the cattle were out of doors; and by a special — I might almost say 
 a miraculous — favour of Divine providence, no one lost his life. If 
 this shock had taken place half-an-hour sooner, more than 100 
 persons would have been crushed in the church of Lucerna alone, 
 the arched roof of which fell in. It became necessary to prop all 
 the houses of La Tour, the walls of many of which were rent; and 
 the inhabitants constructed sheds as hastily as possible in the fields 
 
 » Decree of the prefect of the Po, 26fch January, 1806, § viii. 
 
 " Vaudois Correspondence or collection of letters from some of the inhabitants 
 of the valleys of Pignerol, on the earthquake of 1808.— New edition, corrected and 
 enlarged.— 8vo, Paris, 1808; of viii. and 70 pages. 
 
 ' Report of M. Vassali-Eandi to the Academy of Sciences of Turin.— Sitting 
 of 2d May, 1808. Turin, 8vo, 138 pages. 
 
 Vol. II. 2Q^ 
 
346 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [past TaiBir. 
 
 CaAP. XXIl] 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKES. 
 
 S47 
 
 I I 
 
 r 
 
 and gardens, into Avhich tliey retired,^ and in which they were 
 compelled to spend many weeks. The whole people hved m tents; 
 some individuals in old wine casks or under other slight coverings 
 hastily converted into dwellings upon the emergency. These locali- 
 ties, where all was lately so peaceful, presented the resemblance of 
 a cJmp, and confusion everywhere prevailed. There was no agri- 
 cultui-e, no commerce, no industry of any kind. Fear had so seized 
 upon the hearts of all, that they thought only of the means ol 
 saving their lives." ^ 
 
 This shock was the most severe; but it was followed by a multi- 
 tude of others, almost without interruption, to the 15th of April. 
 « For some days at first, the earth was not for a moment still. In 
 the course of one single night we counted thirty-two shocks. 
 That which was experienced on the 2d of April, at nine o'clock in 
 the evening, almost equalled the first. Every body was in the 
 utmost consternation."^ "Other shocks took place on the same 
 day at a quarter past nine o'clock, at ten o'clock, at eleven o'clock, 
 and at midni-ht, and then again at two o'clock and at three o'clock 
 in the morning."* "Within the space of two years, we felt from 
 15,000 to 1G,000 shocks, of greater or less severity. Some of them, 
 it is true, were very slight and might be compared to the rumbling 
 of waggons heavily loaded, or to discharges of large cannons."* 
 
 Three professors were sent by the Academy of Sciences of 
 Turin, « to make observations on this event. " M. Vassali, profes- 
 sor of natural philosophy, fitted up an electrical apparatus in a 
 gallery. A golden thread of fifty feet in length, was fastened to a 
 pole planted in a field, and terminated in a crystal bottle, which 
 contained the electrometer. We saw at the moment of a slight 
 shock that the electrometer was afiected, so that its diverging 
 threads touched both the sides of the bottle. ^ In the interval 
 which elapsed between two shocks, the electricity of the ground 
 was not very observable and always positive. At the moment of 
 the shock, it became so strong, that it could not be measured by 
 the electrometer. Twenty minutes afterwards, the threads of that 
 instrument, placed in contact with the permanent electrical appa- 
 ratus, still remained divergent 30°. The hygrometer always indi- 
 cated 20° to 28° of dryness, on a scale which contained 30°. The 
 barometer vinderwent all sorts of variations between one shock and 
 another. The thermometer often fell after a smart shock, and 
 
 ' Report of M. Appia, who was employed by M. Vassali-Eandi, to take a note 
 of aU the phases of the phenomenon. * Monastier, II., 197. 
 
 » MSmoire by M. Appia, appended to his Report. 
 
 ♦ Vaudois Correspondence, p. 36. " Unpublished letter of M. Appia. 
 
 • Messrs. Vassali-Eandi, Bason, and Carena. ' Letter above quoted. 
 
 afterwards rose again gradually to its former temperature.*** "It 
 was very singular that the most violent shocks were ordinarily 
 announced, a few seconds before, by the disquiet of animals. Dogs 
 barked, horses neighed, and horned cattle exhibited the most 
 unwonted agitation in their stalls. '** "The cocks crowed inces- 
 santly, at all hours, from the time of the first shocks."^ 
 
 Persons in the open air could trace the direction of the shocks, 
 by the movements which they caused in the tops of the trees. In 
 general, the motion was propagated from north-east to south-west.* 
 " The shocks were preceded by a cold wind, which sometimes came 
 from the mountain and sometimes from the plain. A sudden 
 increase of the Pclis, which issues from two lakes lying deep among 
 the mountains, preceded the first shock. Elsewhere, in a dry piece 
 of ground, a spring all at once broke out. The earth was rent in 
 the vicinity of Pompara, and there issued from it a prodigious 
 quantity of gas. The water in the wells was generally muddy and 
 whitish. Even the wines in the cellars underwent alteration; 
 some were spoiled and some became acid. Healthy and robust 
 persons suffered more than children and old men. A paralytic 
 recovered the use of his limbs, and a person afflicted with the gout 
 suffered much less after the earthquake." ^ Some persons remarked 
 that they ate with more appetite. ° Others were attacked by 
 paralysis, of which there was a renewal at each shock. '^ There 
 were also a number of persons who found relief from rheumatic 
 affections; which was probably an effect of the electricity circulat- 
 ing around. ^ 
 
 " Our worthy prefect came up in person from Turin to visit us 
 amidst our calamities. He expressed the liveliest interest in all 
 the sufferers, visited without fear the most shattered houses, and 
 save much in alms. On his return to Turin, he instituted a sub- 
 scription, which brought in 50,000 francs. He then addressed 
 himself to the emperor, who granted half a million for the miti- 
 gation of these great misfortunes."^ 
 
 "One evening," adds the same writer, "we were much terrified, 
 
 « Extracted from the E^rt of M. Vassali-Eandi, and from the Vaudois Cor- 
 respondence. 
 2 Memoir of Appia. ^ Vaudois Correspondence, p. 21. 
 
 * In the valley of Lucema, the order of propagation was— Lucerna, La Tour, 
 St. John, Rora, Lucernette, Briqueras, and St. Segont. The shocks were almost 
 insensible at Villar and Bobi. In the valley of the Cliison, the centre of the 
 disturbance seems to have been St. Germain, from which it spread to Pramol, 
 Pomaret, Perouse, and Pignerol. 
 
 * Extracted from the Vaudois Correspondence, pp. 36, 16, 17, 18, 59, 61. 
 
 • Report of M. Appia. ' Vaudois Correspondence, p. 18. 
 
 • Report above quoted. " Memoir of M. Appia. 
 
348 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [fart Third. 
 
 Chap. XXIll] 
 
 NAPOLEON ABDICATES. 
 
 349 
 
 and thought our last hour was come. The weather was cloudy. 
 Suddenly a great globe of fire rising above the summit of the 
 mountain of Vandalin, made us suppose that some sudden volcanic 
 eruption had taken place. Happily this globe of fire, after having 
 risen to a great height, was dissipated without noise. It is the 
 only meteor which has been remarked for two years." ^ 
 
 It thus appears that Napoleon opened his hand generously to 
 accord to the Vaudois valleys assistance proportioned to their wants 
 and worthy at once of Ms glory and liis power. His empire had 
 indeed acquired gigantic magnitude. A third coalition formed 
 against France had been broken at Austerlitz.^ England, inde- 
 fatigable in a contest iu which others fought for her, prepared new 
 triumphs for this new Cresar, by fomenting new coalitions.^ Vic- 
 torious in all these wars, in which all the kings of Europe were 
 leagued against him, he might at last almost be said to have all 
 sceptres in his hand.* The extreme elevation to which he had 
 attained, removed him above vulgar considerations, which perhaps 
 would have been of more use to him. He thought to confine 
 within the polar circle, that giant of the North, who alone could 
 be a counterpoise to his vast power. But repulsed by the burning 
 of Moscow, and pursued in his turn, as it were, by rebel frosts^ he 
 saw his armies vanquished without having fought.^' 
 
 » The Vaudois Correspondence, on the contrary, says (p. 38), ** A number of 
 meteors have been remarked. On the 4th of April, some travellers coming from 
 Laniure, saw, towards the north, a-mass of fire of a globular form which descended 
 without detonation. On the 12th, the lightning broke at Carmagnole, about 
 eight o'clock in the evening, and having overturned a carriage, joined another 
 mass of fire which issued from the eartli, at the distance of thirty or forty pacM. 
 Then proceeded from it such a flood of light, that for some seconds, its brightness 
 could not be endured by the eye. During the night of the 15th of April, four 
 men who were on patrol near La Tour, suddenly saw a very bright light which 
 issued from the peak of Vandalin; and in the time of the various storms which 
 took place during that same month, sheets of fire often issued from the earth, 
 whilst the lightnings ploughed the heavens." I have not thought it right to sup- 
 press these details, although foreign to the history, (1) because of their precision 
 and rarity — (2) because the event to which they relate was limited to the valleyB^ 
 and (3) because of the very interest which they may excite. 
 
 » 2d December, 1805. 
 
 » This was the period when Napoleon thought of making a descent upon 
 England; in a battle upon laud, the strife could not have been doubtful.— The 
 Academy of Sciences perhaps deprived him of this victory (which would have 
 changed the balance of the world) in rejecting, as impossible, the invention of 
 Fulton, now so triumphantly successful.— Steam was applied to the propelling of 
 vessels in 1807. [The British reader has here before him, unmodified, the expres- 
 sions of opinion and sentiment contained in the original.] 
 
 * The third coalition took place from 1805 to 1806; the fourth from 1806 to 
 1807; the fifth from 1809 to 1810.— Almost all the states of Europe, except Kusaia 
 and England, were then under the power of Napoleon. 
 
 * From September to December, 1812. 
 
 Tn consequence of this disaster, the allies entered Paris on 
 31st March, 1814. On 4th April, Napoleon abdicated in favour 
 of his son; on the 11th, he abdicated unconditionally, and on the 
 20th, he set out for the island of Elba. On the 3d of May, 
 Louis XVIII. arrived in the capital of France; and on the 16th, 
 Victor Emmanuel IV, took possession of Piedmont.^ The Con- 
 gress of Vienna was opened, and the Geuoese dominions were 
 annexed to those of the King of Sardinia. 
 
 We shall see in the following chapter how this monarch treated 
 the Vaudois, but we may here premise, that instead of seeking to 
 restore the cause of legitimacy by benefactions, he only proved his 
 descent from the ancient sovereigns of the country by his adherence 
 to all their prejudices and all their tyrannic practices, whilst he 
 did not exliibit their greatness and courage. But it is God who 
 casts down and who raises up again. In a future which even then 
 was near, he had in store new glory for the throne of Savoy and 
 new blessings for the Vaudois of Piedmont. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 STATE OF THE VAUDOIS SINCE THE RESTOKATION. * 
 
 (A.D. 1814 TO A.D. 1842.) 
 
 The restoration of the house of Savoy in 1814 — Victor Emmanuel IV. lands at 
 Genoa — Deputation of the Vaudois — Their petition — Revival of old edicts un- 
 favourable to the Vaudois — Servile subjection of the king to the priesthood — 
 His benevolent dispositions counteracted by their influence — ^Deputations — 
 Restrictions and mitigations of them — Friendly interposition of the British 
 ambassador — The Congress of Vienna — Enforcement of observance of festivals 
 of the Church of Rome — Napoleon leaves Elba — The loyalty of the Vaudois 
 suspected — Friendship shown by Count Crotti — Conduct of the Piedmontese 
 government, with regard to persons who had held office under the French go- 
 vernment — Case of M. Geymet — The ecclesiastical domains restored to the 
 Church of Rome — Question as to the rents for the time during which the Vau- 
 dois had enjoyed them — Poverty of the Vaudois pastors — Edict of 1816, afford- 
 ing some relief to the Vaudois — Social progress, increasing liberality of tho 
 government, and improvement of the condition of the Vaudois, 
 
 In a strictly historical point of view, the epoch of the restoration 
 should extend, in the case of the Vaudois, from the time when they 
 
 » His brother, Charles Emmanuel IV., had abdicated in his favour in 1802, 
 2 Authorities. — Official documents. Duplicates of Documents. — Memoir on 
 the fortunes of the Vaudois since the French Revolution (in German, by Professor 
 
350 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pam Thikd. 
 
 were again brought under the exceptional legislation of the seven- 
 teenth century, in 1814, to the commencement of the constitutional 
 regime, which proclaimed their civil and political emancipation in 
 1848; nor can this period be confidently regarded as closing even 
 then, if some of the arbitrary laws of the past are still to be enforced 
 for the futnre. There is room to hope that it will not be so when 
 we consider the liberty that is established, the progress of enlight- 
 ment, the charity that is manifested, and the improvements alieady 
 effected by the wise government which directs the affairs of the 
 kingdom of Sardinia. We shall, therefore, confine this chapter to 
 the last repressive measures adopted against the Vaudois by the 
 application of the old laws ; not deeming it right to extend the dis- 
 honoured name of the Restoration to the last years of the reign of 
 Charles Albert, in which the new order of things was introduced, 
 and which are memorable for the most important changes. 
 
 In April, 1814, Victor Emmanuel IV. recovered the sceptre of 
 Piedmont. He had been king since 1802, but had not hitherto 
 reigned. An English fleet went for him to Sardinia, to bring him 
 from exile to the throne of his ancestors. The Vaudois thought it 
 proper to send a deputation to Genoa, to receive him on his land- 
 ing, and to recommend to his favourable regard the interests of 
 their valleys. The pastors and mayors of all the Vaudois com- 
 munes assembled upon this occasion at Rocheplate, on the 4th May, 
 
 Vatet. of Halle; included in a series of matenaU for modern ecclesiastical history ^ 
 published in tlie Neio Theoloaical Annals of Halle— "So. for May, 1821, p. 316. 
 In the same journal. No. for May, 1822, p. 21G : Sketch of the actual state of the 
 Vaudois of Piedmont.) — Die Wai'denser in unseren Tacien, von D. E. T. Mayer- 
 hoff, Berlin, 1834.— SiMS, Memoirs relative to the Vaudois (London, 1814; in Eng- 
 lish). — RepoHs of the Labours of the Vaudois Committee, established in London, in 
 consequence of the great interest which was excited in England by the Narrative 
 of a Journey to the Valleys, by Dr. W. Gilly. — The Valdo and Vigilantius of this 
 author. — Monastier; the last two chapters of his work. — Bridge, A brief Narra- 
 tive of a Visit to the Vaudois, &c. — Circulars and Heports of the Vaudois committee, 
 established at London in 1821. — Other works in English : Acland, Plendeb- 
 LEATH, Jackson, Bracebridge, &c. (See the Bibliography.) — Statement of the 
 Grievances of the Vaudois, 1843. pp. 40, 8vo. Published by the London committee. 
 — The complete emancipation of the Vaudois, by Count Ferdinand de Poczo, 1829. 
 (In Italian.) — Testimonies in favour of the Vaudois (in English; London, 1826).— 
 The Crown and the Tiara ; considerations on the present state of the Vaudois. 
 London, 1842. — State and Grievances of the Vaudois in 1843. — Both in English. 
 — Also numerous articles in journals. Monthly Review, June, 1814; Quarterly 
 Review, 1843; Edinburgh Review, British Magazine, Augsburg Gazette (Decem- 
 ber, 1842); Archives da Christianisme ; Archives Wesleyennes, Le Semeur, &c. 
 (These various sources arc more particularly indicated in the latter part of the 
 catalogue placed at the end of this volume.) — Finally, the Memoirs of P. Appia, 
 1st, Biographical; 2d, On the actual state of the Vaudois, considered in a historical 
 and statistical point of view. (This second memoir is dated 14th February, 1815, 
 and forms a manuscript of 13 folio pages.) 
 
 Chap. XXUI.] 
 
 EMBASSY TO GENOA. 
 
 351 
 
 1814 They appointed M. Peyrani and M. Appia as their deputies. 
 We are indebted to the latter for an account of the embassy :— 
 
 «\Ve set out from Pignerol," says he, " on the 6th of May, and 
 an-ived at Genoa on the 9th. An hour after our arrival the can- 
 nons of all the forts, and those of the English ships of war, an- 
 nounced that the king had just entered the harbour. We concluded 
 that we must, without loss of a moment, obtain an audience ot 
 General Bentinck, the commander of the British forces. Not suc- 
 ceeding in getting ourselves presented to him, we intrusted our 
 petition to his banker, and to the Rev. Mr. Wennock, the chaplain 
 of the British troops, who displayed a warm interest m our bebalt. 
 The petition bore, in effect, that we prayed his majesty to treat us 
 as his other subjects. We were well assured that it had been put 
 into the hands of the general, and by him recommended to the 
 favourable regard of Victor Emmanuel. But the latter paid so 
 little attention to the recommendation of the representative of the 
 great and generous nation which had restored to him his throne, 
 that, even before his arrivid at Turin, he issued an edict which 
 revived the old intolerant and exclusive laws enacted against us.''^ 
 By tHs edict the injunction to cease from all labour on the 
 days of Catholic festivals, the prohibition to acquire lands out of 
 the territory of the valleys, the disqualification for any civil office, 
 the obligation to have a Catholic majority in the councils of the 
 communes, and many other vexatious restrictions were imposed 
 anew upon the Vaudois. The sovereign who was now called to 
 re-organize everything in the administration of his don in:ons, to 
 restore the lustre of his crown, and to cast the glory of the em- 
 peror's usurpation into the shade by the virtues of hereditary 
 legitimacy, instead of acting as became the father of his people, 
 showed himself to be only a menial slave of Popery. A few 
 days after the publication of this edict, which flung the Vaudois 
 back to the system of government practised in the time of PhiU- 
 bert, Victor Emmanuel IV. signed two ordinances, the one against 
 freemasons, and the other against keepers of inns and eating- 
 houses who should serve their customers with flesh on Fridays or 
 
 Saturdays.'-^ 
 
 The'Vaudois, dreading, with good reason, the consequences of so 
 strange a return to severe measures, which appeared as an ana- 
 chronism amidst the enUghtenment of the age, hazarded a new 
 
 1 Mimoires de Paul Appia, sur ce qui s'est passS dans les Valines de 1799 a 1816. 
 The edict in question was dated 2lBt May, 1814. , ^ 
 
 a Making them incur, in that case, a fine of twelve crowns of gold. (Appia a 
 
 Memoirs.) 
 
852 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [FaKT IfllKDs. 
 
 Chap. XXIli ] 
 
 EMBASSY TO TURIN. 
 
 353 
 
 ii 
 
 attempt to obtain some amelioration of their circumstances. TLe 
 laws against them;, which had been restored to force, were so anti- 
 quated that not a few of them had already fallen into desuetude in 
 the end of the previous century. They hoped, moreover, that if 
 the king were reminded of the expressions of good- will in the let- 
 ter once written by his father in favour of the Vaudois,* he would 
 consent to fulfil some of the promises which it contained. A Vau- 
 dois deputation accordingly set out for Turin,- and was admitted 
 to an audience of the king on 28th May, 1814. "I will grant 
 to the Vaudois all that I pan," replied the monarch.^ His in- 
 tentions were certainly good; but the Catholic clergy, mastei-s 
 of the sovereign and enemies of the Vaudois, soon succeeded in 
 rendering the latter as much the objects of suspicion to the restored 
 government as they had proved themselves, to that which had 
 fallen, worthy of protection and regard. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the pleasant reception which we met with,** 
 writes one of the deputies, " our petition was depeUlta (torn in 
 pieces), which, indeed, might have been expected from the way in 
 which things go." Let us gratefully acknowledge Victor Em- 
 manuel's wish to grant to the Vaudois all that he could, but let us 
 remember, for the honour of the throne, that he could do nothing 
 at all. 
 
 Orders were speedily issued, to those who had become tenants of 
 the national domains granted to the Vaudois by the executive 
 committee and by Napoleon, not to remove anything more of the 
 produce of the woods or of the vineyards, and to bear in mind 
 that these domains must presently be restored, undiminished in 
 value, to the government.* The next step wa^j to close the jjlace of 
 
 ' Biijlietto regio of Victor Amadeus III. to the Duke of Aosta, dated 4th June, 
 1791 
 
 * Composed of two pastors, Bert and Peyrani, and two laymen, Brezzi and Vertu. 
 The petition which they presented to the king will be found in Bert, Valdesi^ 
 p. 455. 
 
 ' Victor Emmanuel IV. conversed familiarly with tlie deputies. He showed 
 them an old patched dress which he had brought with him into Sardinia, and said 
 to them, "See, it was my wife who put on this piece." But this simplicity of 
 manners only indicated a corresponding simplicity of mind, which the clergy 
 always knew how to turn to their own account. The king might be seen follow- 
 ing processions barefooted, with a taper in his hand, and descending to the func- 
 tions of an agent of police, by personally pointing out for apprehension the passers- 
 by who did not uncover themselves before the procession. (These particulars are 
 extracted from the Memoirs of Appia, and from divers letters written by the de- 
 puties.) 
 
 * Tliis order is dated SOth September, 1814. The accounts relative to the man- 
 agement of these domains were adjusted by the moderator of the valleys, in pre- 
 sence of the iutendant of Pignerol, in .July, 1815. 
 
 worship which the Vaudois had erected at St. John, and they were 
 obliged to conduct their religious services in the old church of Le 
 Chiabas, built within the confines of Angi-ogna, although it had 
 been long abandoned, and was in a very ruinous condition.^ 
 
 The only benefit which the Vaudois derived from this second 
 deputation, was the issue of royal letters-patent confirming the 
 privileges which they had enjoyed before 1794, and maintaining all 
 the restrictions which existed at that period. ^ But their depriva- 
 tion of the resources on which the stipend of their pastors depended, 
 and the new impediments thrown in the way of the exercise of 
 their religion, reduced them to the absolute necessity of making 
 another appeal to their sovereign. This third deputation had for 
 its object to petition for leave to use the place of worship at St. 
 John — for the right to retain the j)roperties purchased beyond the 
 limits, under the French government — and that a condensation 
 might be given for the national domains, in order to the mainten- 
 ance of the pastors.^ The king refused to give an immediate reply; 
 but whilst postponing it, he manifested a favourable inclination. 
 
 "Our pastoral deputation," wrote M. Bert,* "was presented on 
 Friday last^ at the British embassy.^ Nothing could be more 
 encouraging than the reception there. His excellency seemed to 
 take the most lively interest in our affairs, and promised to use all 
 his influence with the king. He also expressed his surprise at the 
 return to the old edicts. Our deputies put into his hands a draft 
 of a petition to his majesty, in which are contained our requests 
 relative to the j)astors, to the place of worship at St. John, and to the 
 purchasers of lands beyond the limits. The ambassador asked for 
 
 — ,^ who had written to him to ofier his services 
 
 our good M. G— 
 
 ' The letter of the minister of the interior (Count Vedon) to the intendant of 
 Pignerol, on this subject, is dated 3d October, 1814. That of the iutendant 
 (Count Crotti) to the moderator, on the same subject, is dated 25th November. 
 The minister demanded the suppt'ession of all the places of worship erected without 
 the valleys. '* I think," adds Count Crotti, at the bottom of the letter, "that it 
 will be sufficient to close the place of worship at St. John, which is the only one 
 so situated, and that you should meet some where. else." We shall find other sub- 
 sequent examples of the same kindness and moderation, by which woi-thy magis- 
 trates, without being deficient in the discharge of their duties, contrived to miti- 
 gate the severity of their sovereign's procedure. 
 
 " These letters-patent are dated SOth September, 1814. 
 
 * This deputation must have been received at Turin from the 2d to the 4th of 
 Decemberj 1814. 
 
 * In a private letter dated from Sainte-Marguerite, 6th December, 1814. 
 
 5 This must have been 2d December, 1814. " At Turin. 
 
 " The person here meant is M. Geymet, formerly moderator of the Vaudois 
 churches, and afterwards sub-prefect of Pignerol. On the fall of the French em- 
 pire, all the Vaudois who filled any situation under the government, received their 
 dismissal. Before being sub-prefect, M. Geymet was pastor of La Tour; and M. 
 
 Vol. II. 105 
 
oot 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'ART THi»n. 
 
 in the capacity of chaplaiu; we have reason to hope that he will 
 not only be accepted but that there will be a subscription to enable 
 him to reside in the capital. We are assured that the report is 
 true that General the Baron de Neyperg will be the Austrian am- 
 bassador at Turin. Our gloomy sky brightens up a little. You 
 are, of course, aware of the order intimated to us for the closing of 
 the place of worship at St. John. This intimation has been sent to 
 us by the intendant, with mitigations of his own. Service has 
 already been recommenced at Le Chiabas." 
 
 But the enemies of the Vaudois ceased not to pursue them with 
 all sorts of accusations. " We have compeared at the intendance," 
 M. Bert goes on to say,^ " and our adversaries seem manifestly to 
 dread the consequences of their false accusations. The reception 
 which we have met with has contributed, in some measure, to en- 
 
 courage us. 
 
 Meanwhile the congress of Vienna had commenced its sittings. - 
 '■' It is credibly asserted," says M. Monastier,^ " that a friend of the 
 Vaudois had prepared a plan for having their emancijiation imposed 
 upon the King of Sardinia, as a compensation for the territorial 
 advantages which he obtained. An application to the congress, on 
 the part of the valleys, was to have given occasion for introducing 
 it. A memorial was drawn up ; but at the moment when it should 
 have been sent away, the Vaudois table, trusting in the generosity 
 of the monarch, and fearing to give him cause of displeasure, 
 deemed it better that it should be suppressed. Victor Emmanuel, 
 in fact, had dwelt in Pignerol; he had visited all their valleys, he 
 had commanded their troops, and their confidence in him was so 
 great that they declined to employ means which might possibly 
 have displeased him." 
 
 He was less tenderly considerate as to them. A manifesto was 
 published on 4th January, 1815, restoring to force all the ancient 
 laws.* The Vaudois renewed their representations, but in vain.^ 
 The government persisted in the course which it had chosen, and 
 
 Bert, the anthor of this letter, was at first his assistant, and afterwards succeeded 
 him there. He published an interesting little work on the Vaudois, entitled Le 
 livre de famine. Pp. 105, 12mo. Geneva, 1830. 
 
 * It was upon a citation, dated 17th November, 1814. 
 
 * It was opened on 1st November, 1814, and concluded on 10th June, 1815. The 
 acts of the congress consist of 121 articles. It established the different states of 
 Europe as they exist at the present day, 
 
 ' Monastier, II. 203. 
 
 * Manifesto del reggio gova'no, dellaprovincia di Pinerolo. (Printed.) 
 
 * Memoire sur Vetat actuel des Vaudois . . » . (14th February, 1815), par Paul 
 Joseph Appia. (MS. communicated to me.) 
 
 Chap. XXIII ] RESTRICTIONS ON FESTIVAL DAYS. 
 
 355 
 
 caused the principal provisions of the ancient edicts to be posted 
 
 up in the valleys.^ 
 
 I. Every one was enjoined religiously to observe the Catholic 
 
 festivals. 
 
 II. All work, capable of attracting the attention of others, was 
 
 forbidden on these days. 
 
 III. The sale of provisions was to be tolerated on condition that 
 the shop-fronts were kept closed, and that all traffic should be dis- 
 continued during mass, vespers, and the catechetical instructions 
 of the prior. An exception was allowed in favour of medicinal 
 
 substances.* 
 
 IV. Keepers of inns, coffee-houses, eating-houses, &c., were for- 
 bidden to serve any person during these same hours; all under 
 penalty of fine and imprisonment. Every kind of amusement was 
 
 also forbidden.* 
 
 The publication of these various enactments, which had long 
 been forgotten, caused a certain fermentation in the district, and 
 most of all amongst the most worldly class of the population. The 
 ancient edicts, however, which had been in general terms restored to 
 force, contained regulations for more vexatious still, and it was a 
 sort of concession on the part of the government not to go beyond 
 the requirements above-mentioned. This the vice-judge, Cerrutto, 
 represented to those under his administration, by a letter intended 
 to be read in public, in order better to inform the people of the 
 spirit of the preceding proclamation.* " I am accused," says ha, 
 "of an undue severity; however, the edicts to which I have re^ 
 ferred having been restored to force by that of 21st May, 1814, 
 I have thought it my duty to publish their provisions anew-, in 
 order to prevent the numerous contraventions of them, against 
 which I would every day have been called to proceed if I had 
 allowed them to remain forgotten, as they have been. I have 
 
 1 Aviso al ptilUco, dated from Lucerna. 4th March, 1815, and sisned CeniUto, 
 substitute for the vice-judge PcjTof^i. , ^ . ^i i e 
 
 2 There were discussions on the point, whetTier su^ar, bousnt in "^^ shop of an 
 apothecary, during these privileged hours, should be considered as a medicine or 
 
 an article of food. . , ., • -^ ^*4.v.« 
 
 3 This document contains nine articles. The last reiterates the provir.ions of the 
 edicts of 25th June, 1626, and 20th June, 1730, which make the Protestants re- 
 sponsible for the presence of a Catholic in their places of worship, &c. . . . bpen- 
 amo Che dipendentemente a quanto sovra, tutti gh ahitanti sudetti e chiumque altro, 
 si faranno un dovere di mettersi in regola, per cost evitare il dispiacere chepvoverui. 
 simo di procedcre contro i contraventoH. {Dato Torre, Voile di Luscrna, h 4 marzo 
 
 * This letter is dated from Torre, vol Luserna, U 9 marzo 1815, and signed Cer- 
 rutto, vice-giuiiice del mandamento. 
 
S56 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [part Thied. 
 
 therefore republished their teims only out of a regard for the 
 interests of those under my administration, and not from any 
 voluntary severity." He proceeds to say that the observance of 
 them will not only be productive of respect for the Catholic festi- 
 vals, but also of a more becoming sanctification of the Sundays 
 which Protestants themselves profess to respect.^ He then 
 fixes the meaning of the edict of 1026, enjoining the Vaudois to 
 uncover at the passing of the holy sacrament, or to retire out of the 
 way;- and of that of 1730, granting the privilege of working upon 
 festival days to those who should obtain an authorization from the 
 judge. This was to intimate that he would not refuse it, and so 
 much the more plainly, as he concluded his letter by saying, " T 
 can truly say that I am proud of the good treatment which I have 
 upon all occasions received from the Vaudois, and I would be very 
 ungrateful if I did not esteem myself bound to render them re- 
 ciprocal offices of kindness, so far as a regard to justice will permit."^ 
 
 But whilst these inferior affairs were thus going on, great events 
 took place in the world. Napoleon quitted the island of Elba.^ 
 Whilst the legitimate sovereigns were imposed upon their peoples 
 by foreign armies, this glorious captive, coming alone and unarmed, 
 caused royalty, although surrounded with battalions, to flee before 
 him. This wonderful man had re-entered Paris, who had shed, 
 more than any one, the blood of the people, but whom they 
 always welcomed with enthusiasm ; who made himself a king when 
 kings were falling before the revolutionary gale, and who founded, 
 on the ruins of their thrones, the greatest empire which had existed 
 since the fall of Rome ; who forged his sword of the chains broken 
 by the revolution, and who, in opposition to all the potentates 
 assembled in the congress of Vienna, dared to conceive, in his place 
 of captivity, and to carry into execution, the incredible project of 
 re-conquering the French throne by his mere presence. 
 
 Europe was startled by this news. The congress of Vienna was 
 
 » The folIo\ving are the more severe terms of tlie letter: .... per Icvare lo scan- 
 daloso abuso dai protestanti che dai <norni di domemca {festa per loro da tutii i 
 tempi se-.npre stata in uso d^osservarsi con molta vigore), si fanno lecito di travag- 
 liare pvbiicainente . . . &c. 
 
 - These latter words are a mitigation, introduced by the judge himself, in his 
 
 interpretation of the law. 
 
 » loposso con tutla verifa gloi-iami ed attestare publicamente, d^eswe sempre stato 
 dai Protestanti trattato con ogni riguardo, e che dovrei ben essere taciato da ingrato 
 se lion fosse correspondente, &c. 
 
 • He set out from it on 26th February, 1815, landed at the Gulf of Juan on 1st 
 March, and entered the TuUeries on the 20th, Louis XV J II. having abandoned it 
 the evening before. 
 
 Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 THE moderator's ADDRESS. 
 
 85Y 
 
 dissolved ; Napoleon, placed under the ban of the allied states, saw 
 all the kings whom he had vanquished marching against him at 
 the head of their armies. He himself, in two months* time, had 
 raised more than 400,000 men. A final conflict was about to take 
 place. All Eiu-ope was in breathless expectation ; the nations were 
 filled with alarm. 
 
 When we consider the liberties which Napoleon had granted to 
 the Vaudois, and the oppression to which they had again been sub- 
 jected by Victor Emmanuel IV., it may be thought likely that 
 they would show themselves favourable to the return of the em- 
 peror. There was a sufficient number of courtiers eager to make 
 the most of these suspicions. Victor Emmanuel had placed him- 
 self in a state of entire subjection to the clergy; to please the 
 priests was the way of paying court to such kings, and the priests 
 made no secret of the joy with which they heard accusations against 
 the Vaudois. Nothing more was needed to change suspicions into 
 certainty. But Count Crotti, a generous and influential man who 
 had lived amongst thcm,^ and who had recently been promoted to 
 the rank of intendant of the king's armies, became security for them. 
 It was in the following measured and appropriate terms that the 
 moderator of the Vaudois churches gave intimation to the pastors 
 of this fact, and of the course of conduct which they ought to 
 pursue. 
 
 " His majesty, to whom we have been represented as rejoicing in 
 the return of Napoleon, having had a private conversation on that 
 subject with a nobleman, to whom we are already under great 
 obli'^ations, that nobleman disabused the king's mind, and has sent 
 me word that he has himself been so good as to become security to 
 his majesty for our fidelity and attachment to his service. I think 
 it my duty, gentlemen and my much-honoured brethren, to acquaint 
 you with these circumstances, entreating you all in general, and 
 every one in particular, to make it appear by the wisdom of your 
 conduct, in these difficult and dangerous times, that you are the 
 descendants of those ancient Vaudois, who, although sometimes ill- 
 treated, always forgot the wrongs which had been done them by 
 their superiors, to hasten to their aid, and whom nothing could turn 
 aside from their duty. I have a well-founded hope that, before 
 midsummer, all will be arranged as we could wish, and that his 
 majesty, convinced that several attempts have been made to take 
 advantage of his religion in things relative to us, and seeing the 
 
 » As intendant of the province of Pignerol. He visited the Vaudois valleys 
 several times. 
 
S58 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part Tinmo. 
 
 wisdom of our conduct, and our attachment to his august person, 
 . . . will give us no equivocal proofs of his attachment and his 
 paternal regard."^ 
 
 This hope was far from being realized; but the fidelity of the 
 Vaudois was not shaken, and their good conduct was an in- 
 cessant protest against the perfidious insinuations of their adver- 
 saries. Their pastors, deprived of fixed salaries, had now no other 
 resource than the voluntary contributions of their parishioners; for 
 the English subsidy was not restored to them till the end of 1814, 
 and even then not to its former amount."-^ All who had occupied 
 any situation under the French government were deprived of it, 
 however insignificant it might be. They patiently submitted to 
 this proof of dislike, which, from the prejudices of the new regime, 
 they might have anticipated, but which they had done nothing to 
 deserve. "Mr. Peter Geymet," says Monastier, "had won the 
 respect and attachment of all who were under his jurisdiction 
 during the thirteen yeai-s that he filled the office of sub -pre- 
 fect of Pignerol. In that chief place of the prefecture, a city 
 entirely Eoman Catholic, he left an un impeached reputation for 
 probity at a time when the high functionaries in general had so 
 little of it. At the restoration, Geymet retired to La Tour, at 
 once so poor and so humble that, although a few days before he had 
 been the first magistrate of the valleys, he did not disdain to accept 
 the humble place of master of the Latin school, the salary of which 
 did not exceed 700 fi'ancs,and to which he devoted his last remains 
 of strength until the approach of his death, which took place in 
 1.822."^ 
 
 The government had announced its intention* of withdrawing 
 from the Vaudois the lands of which they had been put in posses- 
 sion by the French administration,^ in order to restore them to the 
 Catholic parishes, which had been suppressed at the same period, 
 but which were now re-established. But the priests demanded also 
 that the Vaudois should be made to pay a sum equivalent to the 
 revenues of these lands for all the time that they had enjoyed them. 
 
 ' This letter is signed by John Eodolph Peyrani, and dated from Le Pomaret 
 12th April, 1815. 
 
 ^ This diminution continued till 1S27, when the venerable Dr. Gilly obtained 
 the re-establishment of the subsidies on their old footing, and the payment of the 
 arrears. These arrears were formed into a capital fund, to provide for the main- 
 tenance of two new pastors, those of Macel and Eodoret. 
 
 » Monastier, II. 199. The author of the Israel of the Alps was himself one of 
 the pupils of M. Geymet. * By an order of 30th September, 1814. 
 
 * By the decrees of 28 Brumaire, 13 Nivose, 11 and 22 Germinal, of the year 
 IX., and by the imperial decree of 25 Themiidor, of the year XIII. ' 
 
 Chap. XXIII ] 
 
 AN EQUITABLE PRIEST. 
 
 359 
 
 Count Crotti, the intendant of the province of Pignerol, assembled 
 the parties interested,^ and asked them to discuss the matter before 
 him. Although conducted with outward moderation, the debate 
 exhibited great pertinacity, each party being strong in their own 
 views ; and there appeared no likelihood of any conclusion being 
 reached, when the youngest of the priests, who, therefore, spoke 
 after his brethren, expressed an opinion different from theirs. "The 
 ministers," said he, " have managed these affairs not only lawfully — 
 for they had received these powers from the authority then recog- 
 nized by all Piedmont — but also faithfully, as is proved by the 
 accounts which they have now submitted to us; they have pre- 
 served oiu' properties intact and in perfect condition, and we ought 
 to exact nothing more." "This equitable priest," adds Monas- 
 tier, " supported his opinion with so much freedom and truth that 
 it prevailed, and the difference was thus terminated to the great 
 satisfaction of the worthy intendant, who had undertaken to settle 
 it in the name of the king." ^ 
 
 Shortly afterwards the Vaudois addressed a petition to their 
 sovereign, to declare to him the state of suffering and want to wliiclh 
 their pastors were reduced.^ " Our stipends," say they, " were for- 
 merly derived from two subsidies from England, the one called 
 royal, the other national. They amounted annually to almost 
 400 Piedmontese livres for each pastor. The royal subsidy having 
 been interrupted in 1793 and 1794, the pastors obtained from the 
 synod of 1795 an act, appointing that this deficiency should be 
 made up by the communes, to be repaid to them if the said subsidy 
 should be restored. In this manner our stipends were kept up to 
 their full amount till 1800. At this period the executive com- 
 mission, having taken our case into consideration without our hav- 
 ing requested it, assigned us an annual payment from the rents of 
 the national domains, under the name of compensation for the 
 subsidies which we had lost. Since the return of our legitimate 
 sovereign we have been obliged to give up all this, and the accounts 
 were audited, in presence of the regent of the intendancy at Pig- 
 nerol, in July, 1815." They accordingly requested that the com- 
 munes in which they ministered should be taxed for their support, 
 or that his majesty would provide for it by some other means. 
 
 The report of the minister was not favourable to the request of 
 
 » In July, 1815. ■ Monastier, II. 205. 
 
 ' These are the words of the petition. According to the deplorable custom of 
 the old Vaudois chancery, this petition is not dated, but its date is determined by 
 that of the parere of the minister, which is of 17th February, 1816. This ^arere 
 consists of six folio pages. (Archives of the Court.) 
 

 360 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Fast Tuied. 
 
 the Vandois. The British ambassador made representations on 
 their behalf, which at first seemed not to have been attended to/ 
 but which, at last, brought the government to wiser and more 
 humane views. These views were brought forward in a council of 
 the ministers, held on 23d February, 1816,- when the provisions 
 were agreed upon of the edict which was published four days after. 
 By this edict Victor Emmanuel appointed — 
 
 (1.) That provision should be made for the maintenance of the 
 Vaudois pastors in a manner to be afterwards determined.'^ 
 
 (2.) That the lands which had been purchased by the Vaudois, 
 beyond their ancient limits, should be retained by their proprietors. 
 
 (3.) That the Protestants should be permitted to exercise civil 
 professions, such as those of engineer, architect, surgeon, &c.* 
 
 ' It is said, in a note addressed by the minister of the interior to the minister of 
 foreign affairs (no doubt in order to be communicated to the British ambassador), 
 "that the Vaudois wished to make a merit of the loss of the English subsidies, pei' il 
 loro attacamento alia causa della liberta; il che vuol dire -per la ribellione al loro legi- 
 timo sovrano," 6i.c. . . . (Archivesof the Court, No. 665.) But I have seen nothing 
 resembliug this in the petition of the Vaudois ; and these words must have been 
 ventured upon mere hear-say. Thus, it was attempted not only to do the Vaudois 
 injury in their own country, but even to hurt them in the opinion of strangers. 
 
 - At the end of the decision of the council, which was submitted to the king for 
 Lis approval, we read: S. M. approva le determinazioni del congresso, con chc 
 Vassegno per la sussitenza de pastoH de Valdcsi, non ricada in nessuna paHe a 
 peso de catholici domiciliati in quelle valli. (Archives of the Court, No. 666.) 
 
 3 There was assigned to them a sum of about 500 fi'ancs, which was at first paid 
 by the royal treasurer of Piguerol. A royal ordinance, of 14th December, 1818 
 (Bert, Valdesi, p. 261), decid^tt that this sum should be taken from the produce 
 of the additional centimes, gathered at the rate of a marc per franc on the land- 
 tax of the valleys. Thence resulted fluctuations. In 1839, for example, the 
 diminution was one-tenth ; and it was at this time that the subsidies were fixed at 
 C432 francs for all the valleys; to wit, 248 francs 55 cents, half-yearly to each 
 pastor, except those of Macel and Eodoret, parishes established after 1816. The 
 following table, borrowed from the budget of 1841, will give some idea of the 
 general resources of the Vaudois church at this period : — 
 
 Source of the 
 I'uuds. 
 
 England 
 
 Holland 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Valleys 
 
 Governiiieut 
 
 Destiuatiuii of the Funds. 
 
 Worship. 
 
 Instruction. 
 
 Fran(<«. Cents. Fi-ancs. Cents. Fnncs. Cents. 
 
 14,256 76 6,610 34 
 1,756 80 5,795 00 1,603 00 
 
 (Proceeds of collection placed in Bank) 
 
 5,800 00*1 2,400 OOt 
 
 Relief of the 
 Poor. 
 
 6,432 00 
 
 l22,4i5 56 
 
 Hospital. 
 
 Frsncs. 
 
 3,765 
 3,000 
 
 3,777 
 2,318 
 
 Cents. 
 
 18 
 00 
 
 53 
 
 00+ 
 
 Derived from tlie taxes paid by the Vaudois, 
 
 18,205 34 I 4,008 00 12,860 71 
 
 Total of funds 
 received. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 24,6.32 
 12,159 
 
 3,777 
 16,950 
 
 Cents. 
 
 28 
 80 
 
 53 
 00 
 
 57,519 
 
 61 
 
 * Edict of 27th February, 1816, registered in office of the controller-general of 
 the senate, and at the court of accounts, 1st March, 1816. 
 
 * For the schools. t (Collections made in the places of worship. 
 X Rents belonging to the hospital itself. These tliree sums are mere approximations. 
 
 Cha*. XXlIl] 
 
 PERSECUTION EENEWED. 
 
 361 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Victor Emmanuel, being now completely 
 disabused of the prejudices which their enemies had sought to ex- 
 cite in his mind against the inhabitants of the valleys, consented 
 to their resuming religious services in the place of worship at St. 
 John, constructed in 1807, and closed in 1814.^ At this period 
 also a general census was taken of the Vaudois population.^ Eu- 
 rope was tranquillized; Napoleon, having been vanquished at 
 Waterloo,^ had died in St. Helena,* after having added to the glory 
 of his active life the austere dignity of exile. Social progress, 
 which for a little while had been interrupted by these great com- 
 motions, had resumed its course, slow but steadily onward. Acts 
 of oppression became more rare, the laws more regular : the 
 hitherto unequal reign of a civilization which seemed to tremble 
 for its existence became more tmnquil as it widened its sphere. 
 Perhaps, also, enlightenment as it became more diffused, lost some- 
 thing of its power. At all events, the surfece of society became 
 more level and uniform. 
 
 The Vaudois took no part in the political events of 1821, which 
 led to the abdication of Victor Emmanuel IV. in favour of his bro- 
 ther, Charles Felix ; but they appointed a deputation of courtesy 
 to the new king, which was not received. He thought proper to 
 acquaint them with the cause of this unkindness. " Tell them," he 
 exclaimed, "that they only need to be Catholics."^ It was to 
 acknowledge them as possessing many good qualities. 
 
 But the popular movement of 1821 had placed more power 
 again in the hands of those who were inclined to use it for repres- 
 sion. The Protestants resident in Pignerol, received orders to 
 remove from it within twenty-four hours,^ and it was only as a 
 favour that they were permitted to remain.^ Opposition was 
 made to their having a school in Turin ;^ and if one of them hap- 
 pened to die beyond the limits of the valleys, his heirs had to pay 
 
 » This permission was granted, on condition that a wall should be built before 
 the church, to conceal it from view. Instead of the wall, an inclosure of boards 
 was allowed ; and this having fallen into ruins, a simple porch was accepted as a 
 substitute for it, hiding the entrance door of the building. 
 
 2 On 6th Feb., 1816.— The foUowing are the results :— Catholics, 4075; Protes- 
 tants, 16,975; whole population, 21,050. According to a table published in the 
 £clio ofth£ Valleys, on 3d May, 1849, the Protestant population was at that period 
 20,650. 3 18th June, 1815. * He died on 4th May, 1821. 
 
 ' Monastier, II., 209. These words recall a saying of Louis XIV. to Lesdiguieres : 
 ** If you were not a Huguenot, I would make you a marshal of France." " Sire," 
 was the reply, *' it is enough that you deem me worthy of it." The noble delicacy 
 of this reply needs no commentary, and could nowhere be called to remembrance 
 in fitter connection than here. « Bert, Valdesi, p. 265. 
 
 ' On the representations of the ambassadors of Prussia and England. 
 
 * Bebt, Valdesi, p. 324. 
 
 Vol. II. loe 
 
362 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt TniED. 
 
 500 francs to save his remains from the indignity of being thrown 
 into a waste place for burial, and to obtain the right of removing 
 them to an inclosed cemetery.^ 
 
 In 1828, a confidential circular was addressed to the notaries of 
 the provinces of Saluces and Pignerol, to prevent them from re- 
 ceiving any deed which had for its object to convey into the hands 
 of a Vaudois any lands situated beyond the ancient limits. ^ Mixed 
 marriages were also interdicted with more severity than before, ^ 
 and marriages contracted within too near degrees.* The canons of 
 Popery were again in the ascendant ; reaction had for the moment 
 triumphed over progress, the past over the future. 
 
 In 1833, it was proliibited, under pain of five or six years* im- 
 prisonment, to introduce into Piedmont, books, engravings, or any 
 - thing whatever, contrary to the principles of the Cixtholic religion, 
 to morality, or to monarchy.^ After this, the governor of Pignerol 
 received secret instructions, to keep watch over the too liberal 
 tendencies of certain inhabitants of the valleys. ® But the gover- 
 nor at that time was a distinguished author, " whose generosity of 
 mind sci'ved the cause of the government better than excessive seve- 
 rity would have done. Having called before him the persons who 
 had been particularly pointed out to him, he endeavoured, in the 
 first place, to convince them of his sincere desire for their welfare, 
 and in this character alone he gave them those counsels which 
 had been suggested to him by a less benevolent solicitude. 
 
 » Bert, Valdesi, p. .326. 
 
 ' This circular is dated 26th Nov., 1828. A decision of the Chamber of Accounts, 
 26th July, 1837, repeated this prohibition. The circular of 16th August, 1837, 
 communicated it to the notaries. 
 
 3 Letters of the commandant of Pignerol of 6th February, and of 20th March, 
 1833. Pteport of the governor of Pignerol on this subject in 1843, &c. 
 
 * Circular of the prefect of Pignerol to the moderator and ministers of the Vau- 
 dois church, to prohibit them from celebrating marriages between cousins-german. 
 (The latter term is not precise.) The document is dated loth July, 1&35. 
 
 « This prohibition is of date 20th May, 1833. 
 
 ^ These instructions are of date, 12th November, 1834. In other instructions, 
 dated 17th January, 1835, the following words occur: — " I ought to speak to you 
 on this occasion of a historic work concerning the Vaudois, which has lately been 
 published in Paris. . . . There may be observed in it, amongst other things, 
 a very marked tendency to make Christianity serve as an instrument for promot- 
 ing the chimera of the political perfectibility of men," kc. . . . This work 
 was put into the Index, and its author obliged to leave his native country. By a 
 royal ordinance of 16th August, 1840, he was enabled to return for three months; 
 afterwards the proscription which had been pronounced against him was entirely 
 removed; and at last permission to search the state archives in order to prepare 
 the history which he had undertaken was granted to him, as if to compensate 
 him in some sort for the severity of his previous treatment. 
 . ^ Albert Xotta, a distinguished dramatic author. The King of Prussia bestowed 
 
 on him the order of the Eagle, for the humane and impartial character of his ad- 
 ministration in regard to the Vaudois.— (Bert, Valdesi, p. 269, note 2.) 
 
 ■»^^ 
 
 rr^ 
 
 Chap.XXIII] RESTRICTIONS UPON THE BIBLE. 
 
 obo 
 
 The danger of an extension of the influence of the Vaudois, or 
 even of their possessions, seemed especially to occupy the thoughts 
 of their adversaries.^ Numerous attempts at proselytism Were 
 also made at this period.- In 1841, a special intimation was ad- 
 dressed to the Protestants Avho possessed lands beyond the old 
 limits, that they would have to dispose of them wdthin a fixed 
 time. 3 The persons affected by this intimation addressed a peti- 
 tion to the government : and by a decision of the senate of Turin, 
 they were authorized to retain those properties which had been 
 acquired before the 17th of April, 1831, the period when Charles 
 Albert had ascended the throne. A new petition was presented, 
 in name of the proprietors whom the edict of dispossession still 
 affected. They represented that the ancient limits were become 
 too narrow for the increase of the population, and asked to be 
 permitted to retain the lands which they had purchased beyond 
 them. But no regard was paid to this petition, and the minister 
 of the interior held by the decision of the senate.* 
 
 » It was, above all things, the influence of the Bible, which the Vaudois carried 
 with them, which was feared. In 1826, a quantity of Bibles having been sent 
 from Geneva to the Vaudois valleys, the Piedmontese government did not permit 
 them to reach the hands of the pastors except on condition that these words should 
 be written on each \o\\x\x\q— Forbidden to be given, sold, or lent to Catholics.— {Me- 
 thodist Magazine for the year 1833, p. 23.— See also Bert, Valdesi, p. 280.) 
 
 "" Amongst the persons carried off from their friends, or induced to leave them 
 in order to retire into Catholic establishments, was, in the year 1841, a young 
 blind girl, the last descendant of the great Arnaud. " The greatest advantages 
 are oflered to a Vaudois who changes his religion; and if a Roman Catholic be- 
 comes a Protestant, he is condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Every religious 
 journal, sent from abroad and addressed to a Vaudois, is retained at the post-office. 
 Any Vaudois who may be convicted of lending his Bible to a Roman Catholic, is 
 to be punished with imprisonment."— (J rcAim du Chi-istianisme, second series, 
 t. IX., p. 45.— See also Bert, Valdesi, pp. 235 and 293.) 
 
 At the same period, a pontifical bull, approved by a royal ordinance, authorized 
 the establishment of a pennanent mission in the valleys. "The bull bears that 
 this establishment shall be composed at least of eight monks, having a superior 
 and a steward, with a prebend of 16,000 francs a-year. Their vocation is to be 
 that of missionary preachers, wherever they shaU be required by the bishops, and 
 especially amongst the Protestants of the valleys.''— (Letters from the Vaudois 
 valleys, of 18th November, 1848.) This establishment was placed under the 
 patronage of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus. It took the name of the Priojij of the 
 Sacred Religion, and was erected at the gates of La Tour. " During the building 
 of this convent and of its great church, the people of the valleys, full of uneasiness 
 and anxiety, could not think without emotion of the intentions which it indicated." 
 (Monastier, II., p. 215.) Hitherto, however, the monks resident there have shown 
 much reserve and moderation. The dedication of this building took place on 23d 
 September, 1844. I will speak of it farther on, because of some circumstances 
 which then took place, reassuring for the Vaudois, and of the very different char- 
 acter which this ceremony thence received. 
 » Two years for lands of two journals, and four for larger properties. 
 * The petition is of date, 10th January, 1842, and the reply of 23d February. 
 
364 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [Paet TuiaD. 
 
 The Vaiidois Table presented another petition, and was in con- 
 sequence permitted to draw up a special statistical report on the 
 population of the valleys, to show that it was confined within 
 insufficient limits. On its representations, supported by proofs and 
 reasons, the proprietors of the lands purchased beyond the limits, 
 since 1831, were individually authorized to retain them, but upon 
 a special petition and permission in the case of each. ^ 
 
 Since that time, the wise and liberal courses which the govern- 
 ment of Charles Albert has pursued, always keeping pace with the 
 progress of civilization and of the wants of his people, have caused 
 the quiet disappearance of the vestiges of an antiquated system. 
 To the generous views and perseverance of this illustrious monarch 
 it is to be ascribed, that his reign afterwards became capable of 
 being quoted as an example confirmatory of the great truth that 
 reforms prevent revolutions. 
 
 At this period, proposals of emigration were made to the Vaudois, which they did 
 not accept.— (Bert, Voidest, 296, 207.) And the government itself gave secret 
 instructions to its agents, on the subject of the mixed marriages and purchases of 
 the Vaudois, that they should be left in peace, in spite of the solicitations of the 
 Catholic party to the contrary effect. — {Echo dcs Values, second year, p. 142, 
 quotation of M. Bert's work.) 
 
 ' These various instigations were in great part owing to representations made 
 by the British government to the court of Turin. Lord Aberdeen, amongst others, 
 took a warm interest in the Vaudois. — (See BepoH of the Vaudois Committee, for 
 the year 1843, published by Murray in 1845, p. 16, paragraph 3.) Mr. Allen also 
 exerted himself much in their favour. — (BERT, Valdesi, p. 261.) 
 
 Chap. XXIV.J 
 
 A NEW ERA. 
 
 nii}5 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 RELIGIOUS REVIVAL, AND FOUNDATION OF VARIOUS 
 INSTITUTIONS IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.^ 
 
 (A.D. 1824 TO A.D. 1847.) 
 
 FELIX NEFF — ^THE HOSPITAL — THE COLLEGE — THE DISCIPLINE 
 
 — THE SCHOOLS — BECKWITH. 
 
 Circumstances providentially conspiring to preserve the unity of the Vaudois body 
 — Felix Neff^Temporary separation of some zealous Christians from the general 
 body of the Vaudois church — Revival of religion throughout the whole of that 
 church — New and valuable institutions— Kindness of Christian friends— Vau- 
 dois hospital— Count de Waldburg Truchsess- General Beck with— Schools 
 founded by his exertions — Dr. Gilly — Code of Discipline— Confession of Faith 
 — The Protestant congregation at Turin formally admitted as a Vaudois parish 
 —Establishment of two new parishes, Macel and Rodoret — Other ecclesiastical 
 arrangements — Collections for religious and charitable purposes — Bianqui'a 
 legacy. 
 
 When society, in any country, undergoes a process of regeneration, 
 it rarely happens but that all the elements of social existence are 
 involved in it. Life cannot be transformed without a reaction on 
 the sources of life, whence the religious sentiment proceeds; and 
 
 ^ Authorities. — Acts of Synods of the Vaudois church, and Reports of the 
 Table to these meetings. — Labours of the Vaudois Committee formed in London. 
 — Sketch of the History and Present Situation of tlie Vaudois, by Hugh AclanD; 
 London, 1825 (in English). — Jackson, Remarks on the Vaudois of Piedmont (same 
 language) : London, 1826. — On the Church Government of the Vaudois Churches of 
 Piedmont, in German, by Weiss, Secretary to the Synod of Zurich, 1844 (of viii. 
 and 76 pages). — A Tale of the Vaudois, &c. . . . by S. Webb : London, 1842, 
 251 pages. — Henderson, The Vaudois, comprising Observations . . . , in the 
 Summer of 1844 : London, 1845; viii. and 262 pages. — Baird, Sketch of Protestant' 
 ism in Italy; Boston, 1845. (Treats of the Vaudois in the third part. Chaps. II.- 
 VII.) — Maitland, Facts and Documents, . . . concerning the Waldenses and 
 Albigenses; London, 1832. — William Sime, History of the Waldenses from the 
 Earliest Period . . . till the Present Time; Edinburgh, 1839, 3 vols. See vol. III. 
 — Th. Mayerhofp, Die Waldenser in unseren Tagen . . . with the Statistics of 
 their Churches; Berlin, 1834. — Santa Rosa, Histoire de la Revolution Piemontaise 
 (of 1821) ; Paris, 1822. — Pellegrin, Erposi Histoi'ique de Fetab des Vaudois dans 
 les vallees du Pi6mont; Haarlem, 1824. — Notice sur I'etat actual des Eglises Vaiu 
 doises Protestantes des vallees du PiSmont, suivie des ordonnances intoUrantes ven- 
 dues contre cea ChrUiens reform^s, de leur petition au roi de Sardaigne, et du tableau 
 stcUistique des communes Vaudoises; Paris, 1822. Without author^s name. Attri- 
 buted to Charles Coquerel. — Memoire Histonco-Statistique sur les Vaudois . . . 
 by Paul Appia. A manuscript communicated to me. — A Proposal to Establish 
 Schools for the Education of the Female Children of the Waldenses, &c. A manu- 
 Bcript communicated to me. (It was proposed in this paper to found in the valleys 
 
^W»W^«^*^P' 
 
 mi^'-mtftm^ 
 
 2C)6 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt Th«d. 
 
 tliis again cannot be elevated or lowered withont a modification of 
 everything that belongs to humanity. The corrupting breath of 
 the eighteenth century had withered and dried up, so to speak, 
 all the'' developments and manifestations of religion which it could 
 reach : but religion was therefore only to start forth in new life, 
 more independent, more spontaneous, and more evangelical. 
 
 The unity of the Vaudois church had been providentially main- 
 tained by the very trials to w^hich it had been subjected. Faith 
 had been strengthened by persecutions ; the spirit of a few martyrs 
 had become that of a whole people. The orders issued in 1698 
 and in 1730, that all persons of foreign birth who had settled as 
 inhabitants of the valleys should quit them, whilst they grievously 
 afflicted the hearts of many, preserved more pure the Vaudois 
 nationality: and the prohibition of mixed marriages prevented 
 that small people from being absorbed or invaded by the greater 
 numbers who suiTounded them on all sides. Were not alliances 
 with strangers very nearly the destruction of the peojjle of Israel? 
 
 By the narrow limits within which the Vaudois were confined, 
 they were preserved from the danger of being scattered far from 
 the abodes of their religion, and perhaps of becoming infidel when 
 they had forgotten it. The time approached when these barriers 
 were to be removed. It could no longer be by mere external agen- 
 cies that the unity of the body should be maintained in the Vau- 
 dois church. It was necessary that they should be succeeded by a 
 living internal force : and God provided it. 
 
 A young officer of artillery exclaimed in a moment of distress, 
 " O God ! grant me the knowledge of thy truth, and be pleased to 
 manifest thyself to my heart !" and thereafter, he resumed his studies 
 and devoted himself to the ministry of the gospel. This youth 
 was Felix Neff. Conducted by Providence to the midst of those 
 deep retreats in which the Vaudois church had dwelt in the French 
 Alps, he consecrated all his energies to the evangelization of their 
 rude inhabitants, and gave his very life in this cause. 
 
 118 girls' schools, viz.— 15 large schools, with salary of 250 francs; and 103 small 
 ones, with salary of 75 francs. They were to have been maintained by voluntaiy 
 contributions of five shillings. The project was not carried into efiFect, but the 
 paper is interesting.) — / Valdesi, ossiano i Christian Catholici seconda la chiesa 
 pinmitiva . . . cenni storidt da A. Bert: Torino, 1849. This is one of the most 
 important works which have hitherto been written on the modem history of the 
 Vaudois. — Very interesting details on this subject will also be found in the Echo 
 des Vallces. (This journal, ably conducted by Professor Meille, was established 
 at La Tour in 1848. It is the first periodical publication which has appeared in 
 the Vaudois valleys). — The foreign journals, which have treated of the affairs of 
 the Vaudois at this period, may also be consulted with advantage. Likewise con- 
 temx)orary notes and letters. 
 
 CuAP. XXIV] 
 
 FELIX NEFF. 
 
 SG7 
 
 "The dreadful and sublime aspect of this wilderness," he wrote 
 from Dormilhouse, ^ " which served as a retreat for the truth, when 
 almost all the world lay in darkness — the thought of all the mar- 
 tyi's who watered it with their blood — the deep caverns into which 
 they went to read the holy Scriptures in secret, and to worship 
 God in spii-it and in truth — everything elevates the soul and in- 
 spires sentiments which it is difficult to express. But the inhabi- 
 tants, morally and physically degenerate, remind the Christian that 
 sin and death are the only things truly hereditaiy amongst the 
 children of Adam." — "The work of an evangelist in the Alps," 
 he says at another time,^ "much resembles that of a missionary 
 amongst savages ; for the little civilization wliich he finds, is ra- 
 ther an obstacle to him than an assistance. Of all the valleys 
 which I visit, that of Freyssinieres is, in this respect, in the most 
 backward state. Here everything is to be originated — education, 
 house-building, agriculture." 
 
 But the generous pastor did not allow himself to be discouraged. 
 At Dormilhouse the inhabitants were not accustomed to water 
 their meadows; Neff said to them, "You do with these waters as 
 you do with the waters of salvation : God sends you both the one 
 and the other in abundance, and youi* meadows like your hearts, 
 languish in drought. " He taught them how to make their lands 
 more productive : but his great desire was the quickening of their 
 souls. "During these eight days," he writes, after the Passion 
 week of 1825, "I have not had thirty hours of repose: no distinc- 
 tion has been made of day and night : before, after, and between 
 the public services, there have been nothing but prayers and pious 
 conversations." 
 
 In the following year, he visited the Vaudois valleys of Pied- 
 mont. "I shall not attempt," he says, "to describe the impression 
 made upon me by the magnificent scene which presented itself to 
 my view. The beauty of the vegetation in these valleys, strikingly 
 contrasts with the aridity of the French Alps. The admii-ation 
 excited by the rocks and glaciers which surround you, by these 
 rich valleys which extend beneath your feet, and by the vast plains 
 of Italy in the distance, raises the heart to the Lord. But the 
 Vaudois have greatly degenerated, and many of them, without 
 having made an outward change of religion, have departed farther 
 from the faith of their fathers, than if they had become Catholics." ^ 
 
 This severe judgment did not prevent the most fervent charity. 
 
 V 
 
 * In January, 1824. » March, 1325. 
 
 ' These last words are from a letter written from Geneva, 15th May, 1828, to 
 the brethren of the Vaudois vaUcijs of Piedmont. 
 
368 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [ 
 
 Part Third. 
 
 Meetings for prayer were formed without the oflScial circle of the 
 church. Eeligious life thus began to separate itself from the habitual 
 forms, under which the want of it is too often disgiiised. But the 
 worldly raised an outcry : and these private meetings were denoun- 
 ced to the intendant of Pignerol, who addressed himself on this sub- 
 ject to the moderator. The moderator replied that they were accord- 
 ing to evangelical right, and this reply put an end to the prosecutions 
 which had been commenced : the intendant, however, recommended 
 the members of these meetings to conduct them as quietly as possi- 
 ble, because they were contrary to the law of September, 1821. ^ 
 
 Along with religious life, revived the zeal for good works which 
 it produces. The Vaudois (those chiefly who attended the new 
 meetings) sent the offering of their sympathies and their poverty 
 to the missionaries who hazarded their lives for the propagation 
 of the gospel. But human weakness always shows itself somehow 
 in all things which take place among men. Upright in their hearts 
 and rejoicing in the change of life to which Providence had called 
 them — feeling also very strongly what a void was sometimes covered 
 by the official forms of worship in the case of those who attended 
 with indifference — a number of these Vaudois brethren did not 
 hesitate to say that they had changed their religion. The Catho- 
 lic party were delighted to hear it, supposing that they beheld a 
 symptom of dissolution and of death in a phenomenon which was 
 entirely one of regeneration and of life. The Vaudois, on the 
 contrary, attached to the worship of their fathers, were grieved by 
 these intestine divisions, embittered by ignorance and often fomen- 
 ted by pride. The special pastor of the little flock, which had 
 withdrawn itself from the general fold, wrote a pamphlet entitled 
 The Vaudois convicted ofUeresy. ^ On both sides, charity had much 
 need to vindicate her forgotten rights. But by the very commo- 
 tion which arose from this want of moderation, many hidden chords 
 were moved, a profound impression was produced, and a religious 
 revival more durable and more general was the result. At the 
 present day, the clergy of the Vaudois church are themselves to be 
 found at the head of this movement : and the sectaries, ^ if they 
 still exist, appear as friends and not as dissenters. 
 
 * Methodist Magazine for the year 1833, p. 24. 
 
 » Published at Pignerol in 1836. With permission of the Episcopal grand-vicar. 
 An Svo pamphlet of fifty-eight pages. It was on 22d May, 1831, that the author 
 of this work was elected as pastor of the Free church, and on the 15th May, that 
 that body detached itself from the ancient Vaudois church. 
 
 ' There were, after this date, some who, without ceasing to take part in the 
 religious meetings of their countrymen, and fuUy recognizing the integrity of the 
 morals and doctrine of the pastors, withdrew themselves from the Vaudois com- 
 munion for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, and awaited the uncertain visit 
 
 CnAP. XXIV.] 
 
 COUNT DE TRUCHSESS. 
 
 S69 
 
 The solicitude of Christian souls, having thus been awakened for 
 the spiritual welfare of the Vaudois, was at the same time more 
 strongly drawn to their temporal wants. They were entitled to 
 have physicians of their own religion, but the greater part of their 
 sick had not the means necessary to follow out a course of medical 
 treatment. The idea of erecting an hospital in the valleys, entered 
 the minds of some generous persons.* "When its establishment," 
 says M. Bert,*^ "was proposed to the synod, ^ the execution of 
 the project was regarded as almost impossible. Very soon after, 
 everything concurred in the most wonderful manner to its success, 
 although it required means far above our ability. His majesty, 
 our august sovereign, was pleased to authorize the foundation of 
 the hospital,* and their excellencies, the representatives of the 
 Protestant powers at Turin, opened up to us everywhere, by their 
 recommendations, advantageous methods of attaining this object. 
 We are, in particular, under the greatest obligations to his excel- 
 lency the Count de Waldburg Truchsess. •'' As soon as he knew 
 that we were authorized to purchase the site designed for this in- 
 stitution, he sent us the sum necessary for that purpose ; this being 
 only part of a gift of 12,000 francs, which was made to the Vaudois, 
 and placed at his disposal for our behoof by his majesty Alexander 
 I., Emperor of Russia. This imjierial gift was also an effect of the 
 kind intercession of M. de Truchsess. We afterwards thought it 
 necessary to appoint a deputy, to gather in the collections which 
 were announced to us from abroad.^ . . . He set out in May, 1824; 
 
 of some passing separatist pastor, of whom they often knew neither the morals, 
 nor the living doctrine, to receive the communion from his hand, in a little 
 chamber of their own. I know not how long this continued to be the case. But 
 such details are too minute and inconsiderable to find a place amongst the great 
 facts of history. 
 
 * The first manifest germ of it which I know of, appears in a correspondence, 
 carried on at this period, between Madame Geymet and a Genevese professor (M. 
 Chenevicres). 
 
 2 Report read to the synod held at La Tour, 16-18th September, 1828, by 
 M. Bert, moderator (who was then succeeded by M. Rostaing, after having re- 
 ceived the thanks of the meeting for his singularly able discharge of the duties of 
 his office, as well as for his report). 
 
 3 Held at St. Germain, 26-28th August, 1823. 
 
 * By royal letters-patent of 6th January, 1824. 
 
 * Ambassador of Prussia, and the constant protector of the Vaudois. His re- 
 mains repose amongst them, in the burying ground of La Tour, where they were 
 deposited on 18th August, 1844, according to a wish which he had expressed. M, 
 Amadeus Bert, son of the moderator whose report I have here quoted, delivered 
 a funeral discourse of much talent, over the worthy ambassador. lie has pub' 
 lished the epitaph engraved on the tomb of Count de Truchsess, in / Valdesi, 
 p. 482. 
 
 * This deputy bore with him, besides his commission: — 
 
 I. A copy of the plan of the hospital (adopted by the synod of 1823), authenti- 
 
 VoL. II. 107 
 
370 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALl'S. 
 
 [PAaxTiiiaD. 
 
 and went to Switzerland, Berlin, Paris, and England, from which 
 he retui-ned in 1826.^ The Protestant colonies of Genoa, Turin, 
 and Rome, likewise gave us proofs of their charity and their Chris- 
 tian sympathies.2 g^^t these partial succours would not have suf- 
 ficed without the assistance of the governments to which it became 
 the duty of our collector-deputy to address himself Before his 
 going to Switzerland the evangelical cantons of that country had 
 already transmitted to his excellency the Count de Truchsess a 
 very considerable sum, which was handed over as from them to 
 our banker at Turin,» as well as the amount of a collection made 
 in Geneva ; and after the departure of our deputy, these same 
 governments permitted committees, voluntarily organized in each 
 canton, to gather in the offerings which might be brought to them 
 on our behalf Similar committees were successively formed in a 
 number of other countries.* Our excellent compatriot, M. Paul 
 Appia, pastor of the French church at Frankfort-on-the-Maine,^ tra- 
 velled into the Low Countries, « where his pious discourses inflamed 
 still more a charity already ardent and well kno^vn. He pro- 
 duced the same effect in Paris, where the most eminent pastors of 
 the church interested themselves in the cause which he advocated.^ 
 
 cated by the ministers plenipotentiary of Prussia, England, and the Netherlands, 
 at the court of Turin, on the 16th, 20th, and 22d of May, 1824. 
 
 II. A copy of the decree of the intendant of Pignerol {caccia) dated, 10th Janu- 
 ary, 1824, and authorizing the projected institution, in virtue of the letters-patent 
 of 6th January. This document was also authenticated, 
 
 III. Three letters of recommendation addressed by the ambassadors of Prussia, 
 England, and the Netherlands, to all the legations of these powers in the different 
 capitals of Europe; dated 22d, 24th, and 29th April, 1824. 
 
 IV. Similar letters from various bankers of Turin, Geneva, and Basle, addressed 
 to their correspondents in the principal commercial towns of Europe. 
 
 This deputy everywhere met with a warm and generous reception.— I abstain 
 from entering into further particulars concerning the manner in which he executed 
 
 his commission. .... 
 
 ' Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, contributed also much to this institution. 
 
 * Two collections were set on foot in Pome, in favour of the Vaudois hospital, 
 cue by the Kev. Mr. Hobard, an American bishop of the Anglican communion, 
 and the other by Mr. Plenderleath, of Bristol, who had been present at the synod 
 of 1823, in which the establishment of the hospital was proposed. Mr. Plender- 
 leath published an English translation of the Romance poem La Nobla Leyczon, 
 with a remarkable preface, on the state of the Vaudois (Bristol, 1825). 
 
 » Joseph Malan, the present proprietor of the manufactory of Pra-la-Fera, at the 
 entrance of the valley of La Tour. This is the most considerable manufacturing 
 establishment in the valleys. 
 
 * In Wiirtemberg, Prussia, Holland, England, &c. The lists of their members 
 would have been given here, if space had permitted. 
 
 * It is to him that I am indebted for the various communications, so often 
 quoted with his name, in the pages of the Israel of the Alps. He himself published 
 a Notice sur les Vaudois. ' In t^© autumn of 1825. 
 
 ' M. Ch. Coquerel had already published a Notice sur les Vaudois du Ptemont, 
 
 w ' j^ ' 
 
 Chap. XXtV.] THE VAUDOIS HOSPITAL. 371 
 
 At last, at the end of two years, we had the satisfaction of seeing 
 our hospital founded, thanks to the charity of gi-eat and small, who 
 vied with each other in contributing to this institution according 
 to their ability. The kings of Great Britain, Prussia, and the 
 Netherlands, did not disdain to place their august names on the 
 list of subscribers. So many multiplied favours make us say with 
 admiration and gratitude, 'This is the Lord's doing: it is mar- 
 vellous in our eyes' (Ps. cxviii. 23). How much reason have we 
 to bless the Lord ? How much reason also to redouble our efforts 
 to show ourselves worthy of such kindness 1 O, may we never give 
 cause to think that we are undeserving of it !"* 
 
 The accounts connected with this institution were afterwards 
 submitted to the synod. ^ The regulations of the hospital were 
 also approved. ^ This institution was erected in the valley of Lu- 
 
 an Svo pamphlet of thirty-two pages, Paris, 1822.— Numerous publications in 
 prose and verse appeared from 1824 to 1825, on the subject of the hospital. Some 
 of them ate noticed in the Bibliography. 
 
 ' I ought to mention also a Vaudois, M. Pellegrin, then in Holland, who wrote 
 an Ahriyi de Vhistoire des Vaudois, the sale of which, along with some gifts col- 
 lected by the author, produced the sum of 2750 francs, 70 cents., in favour of the 
 hospital. 
 
 ^ The following is an abstract of them: — 
 
 Sums received : — Francs. Cents. 
 
 From the Emperor of Russia 12,000 00 
 
 From various collections 69,670 92 
 
 Donations by individuals 1,397 10 
 
 Interest of these sums added to the capital (from 1823 to 1827) 21,207 21 
 
 Donations subsequently received 8,245 65 
 
 Collections in Sweden 29,812 00 
 
 142,332 88 
 Otttlay: — Purchase of the site; purchase of the furniture; expenses of the 
 collector; building. (The exact sums are not set down under these heads; but 
 the accounts having been presented .to the synod, were found correct, within a 
 trifle.) 
 
 Sums placed at interest, arising chiefly from collections made in the following 
 countries, and from the gifts of their respective sovereigns : — 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 
 In Prussia; capital 80,660 Interest 4083 
 
 In England 72,620 „ 3731 
 
 In Holland 57,000 „ 2950 
 
 213,280 10,764 
 
 To this revenue of nearly 11,000 francs, destined to the support of the hospital 
 at La Tour and the dispensary of Le Pomaret, must be added the rents of a very 
 considerable estate, purchased in the valleys themselves, with the amount of the 
 first sums indicated in this note, and serving for the endowment of the institution. 
 (The revenues of the hospital in 1845 amounted to 14,070 francs.) 
 3 The following are the principal regulations : — 
 
 1. The institution to be governed by a committee of seven members, all serving 
 gratuitously. 
 
 2. The treasurer to give security. 
 
 5. The committee to meet for business every three months. 
 
^^ 
 
 372 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part TniRO. 
 
 cema,^ and a few years after, means were found for adding a 
 supplementary one in that of St. Mai-tin.*- 
 
 At the same period, the Rev. Dr. Gilly, having di-awn the atten- 
 tion of the English public to the Vaudois valleys, by his narrative 
 of his journey thither in 1823,=* may be said to have become the 
 founder of the college of the Holy Trinity, which was soon after- 
 wards estabUshed at La Tour.* A branch of this institution was 
 
 6. The committee to nominate all the officials of the hospital, and to manage its 
 affairs, under the superintendence of the Table. , . . , «„,. 
 
 8 The Table, as representing the synod, to have the principal management 
 and inspection of the hospital. The examination of the accounts submitted by 
 the Qpmmittee, to take place everj- two years at least. ^ 
 
 9 The hospital to receive patients, in proportion to its means. 
 
 lb. Not to admit those who are declared incurable, or those afflicted with 
 
 shameful diseases. , . , , -, i. 
 
 11 If any patient, whilst in the hospital, shall be declared incurable, he cannot 
 remain more than one year from the date of that declaration. ^ „ , , 
 
 15 The papers demanded in order to the admission of a patient, shall be trans- 
 mitted to the committee by the consistory of the parish in which he resides; th^e 
 beinc- (1) a certificate of poverty, (2) one of good life and behaviour, (3) one by 
 the medical attendant, stating the disease, (4) an extract of baptism. 
 
 16 When one or more vacant places shall be asked for at the same time by a 
 greater number of patients, the most necessitous shall be preferred; and m case 
 of the claims seeming equal, the most aged shall be admittetl first. 
 
 (These regulations consist in all of nineteen articles. Experience has caused 
 some of them to be slightly modified.) „ . , ,x, • 
 
 i Between St. Marguerite and Lea Copiers, above La Tour, in a healthy, airy, 
 
 and quiet situation. ,,- . ij jxi^* 
 
 a At Le Pomaret.-In 1845, the hospital of La Tour had fourteen beds and that 
 
 of Pomaret nine. , , t » 
 
 3 ^-armtive of an excursion to the mmntains of Piedmont, and researches among 
 the Vaudois or Waldenses, Protestant inhabitants of the Cottian Alps London. 
 1894-95 _Dr Gilly is one of the most copious and interesting of all the modem 
 author,' who have taken up the subject of the Vaudois.-He himself owes his 
 reputation and part of his fortune, as well as of his domestic happiness, to the 
 works by which he directed to the Vaudois an attention and sympathies which 
 ere Ion- turned to himself. Having soon afterwards returned to the valleys 
 accompTnied with his family, in 1828 or 1829. he published his new work T^a^. 
 densian Researches, during a second visU to the Waldenses of the Valleys of Pve- 
 
 mont. London, 1830. 
 
 ♦ The immediate possibility of this institution was owing to a single and anony- 
 mous donation of £5000 sterling, intrusted to the care and management of 
 Dr GiUv and no doubt a result of the interest which the works of that eminent 
 writer had excited in favour of the Vaudois.-The college of La Tour has four 
 professors and a rector, who also acts as a professor; a sixth professor conducts 
 the Latin school of Le Pomaret. " The salary of the masters m both institutions 
 is 1500 francs annually. But two only of these salaries are perfectly secured ; 
 three others are only partially so, and one not at all. One gift of 2o00 francs 
 granted by the last minister, is aU the assistance that public instruction amongst 
 the Vaudois has ever received from the government." (Echx> des Vallees, 1. 1., 
 
 No. of 3d May, 1849, p. 175, note.) , .u • * • «« 
 
 The i>ermis8ion to erect the college, granted by the minister of the interior, on 
 
 23th May, 1831, is coupled with this condition that not more than fifteen students 
 
 Chap. XXIV] 
 
 GENERAL BECKWITH. 
 
 373 
 
 ere long founded in the valley of St. Martin,^ and General Beck- 
 with was one of those who took part in its establishment. '-* 
 
 To General Beckwith, in particular, the valleys are indebted for 
 the erection or enlargement of 100 schools, as well as for the means 
 of maintaining in them a system of education in harmony with all 
 
 this advancement.'^ Perse veringly surmounting all local obstacles, 
 
 # 
 
 shall be admitted into it. — (Bert, I Valdesi, p. 277.) But this limit was passed, 
 without any opposition being made to the extension. To the friendship of General 
 Beckwith, the college owes its lecture hall and part of the books of its library. 
 The library has also been enriched by the Vaudois committee of London and by 
 gifts from private individuals. 
 
 • At Le Pomaret, where the branch hospital was already erected. — There is also 
 the tomb of Peyrani, the erection of which has been ascribed to M. Sims, but 
 must be regarded as ultimately owing to Dr. Gilly. 
 
 ^ Major General Beckwith is an Englishman. He was born on 2d October, 1789. 
 He entered the army in June 1804, and obtained the rank of a major, for his 
 services in Spain, in August, 1814. He was appointed a lieutenant-colonel at 
 the battle of "Waterloo, where he lost a limb (I8th June, 1815). He has been pre- 
 sent in twenty battles. He came to the valleys for the first time, in September, 
 1827. Since that period he has returned to them every year, and for the last ten 
 years has scarcely ever left them. 
 
 * The ameliorations which have been introduced into public instruction strike 
 tliose, especially, who have not had opportunity of marking their progress from day 
 to day. "If a Vaudois, long absent," says a recent writer, " were to return now 
 to his native country, he would be filled with admiration at these improvements. 
 * Who,' he would say, * is the magician, who, in so short a time, has contrived to 
 effect so great a change?' And then he would be told of one of the finest instances 
 of self-devotion which our times have seen; of a man who, leaving his country, 
 his family, his friends, and all that is delightful in a life of opulejice and an 
 honourable position in society, came to spend his days in the obscure retirement 
 of our mountains; and there, amidst diflQculties of every kind, created on the one 
 hand by the jealousy of a despotic and susjiicious government, and on the other 
 liand by the apathy of a people who had long been crushed by oppression, and 
 were at first rather hostile than favourable to his views, has succeeded by his 
 prudence, his talents, and his sacrifices, in accomplishing a work which was 
 deemed impossible, and even in interesting in it the Vaudois people them- 
 selves, who now tax themselves to a considerable amount in order to carry it 
 on." [Echo des Vallees, t. I., No. xi. p. 175.) — General Beckwith has caused 
 100 schools to be built or enlarged, almost entirely at his own expense. To this 
 work, his countrymen say he has devoted £10,000 of his own fortune. (Report of 
 the Vaudois Committee of London, in 1845.) — There are now (1848) in the valleys, 
 fifteen parochial schools, to six of which there is attached a salary of GOO francs; 
 one with a salary of 540 francs; four with 500; two with 400; and two with 300. 
 The greater part of these schools are open during ten months of the year. — There 
 are 129 district schools. — One commune alone has fifteen of them (Ville Seche); 
 two have twelve (Pral and Prarusting); one has eleven (Pomaret); and two have 
 ten (Angrogna and Villar). That which has fewest is Eora, which has only four. 
 These schools are only open in winter, and only for three or four months. — Their 
 teachers receive a payment of 35 francs, whicli raises the cost of these two classes 
 of schools to more than 12,000 francs annually. — Of these 12,000 francs, 9500 at 
 least are borne by the Vaudois themselves; the rest comes from the Walloon com- 
 mittee, whose zeal for the good of our church continually increases. The total 
 number of scholars, in the end of 1848, was 4517. 
 
374 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [I'AUT Third. 
 
 II 
 
 this eminent man has succeeded, within the space of a few years, 
 in (avinw an entirely new impulse to the cause of primary educa- 
 tion in this region. His opinion is, that the future effects of a 
 Christian work will be proportionate to the influence which in the 
 present time it exercises over the young. The future, he says with 
 the feeling of a father, is all in the hands of the young. And de- 
 voting himself entirely to the reformation undertaken by his mighty 
 charity, this resolute benefactor of the valleys has, with rare dis- 
 interestedness and tenderness, adopted the Vaudois family. He 
 receives in return a tril)ute of much gratitude.- 
 
 But even the interest which he takes in the Vaudois is to be 
 gratefully referred to the works of Dr. Gilly, which did so much 
 to make them known ; and to him, in like manner, is to be ascribed 
 the origin of the committee formed in London in 1825, on their 
 sole behalf This committee has constantly taken part in all the 
 improvements which, since that time, have been effected in the 
 
 valleys. ^ 
 
 TLere are, moreover, six schools for girls and six infant schools, open during 
 ten months of the year. The salary of the schoolmistresses varies from 300 to 
 400 francs. — Four out of six of these girls' schools are maintained at the expense 
 of the London Committee; the other two by voluntary subscriptions. General 
 Beckwith has also founded at La Tour (by permission of the minister, granted, 
 4th September, 1827) a special establishment for giving a ^higher education to 
 young females. — He has also provided means for the greater part of the Vaudois 
 teachers going to prepare themselves for their office, in the best normal schools of 
 Switzerland. — (Bert, Voidest, p. 308, 309, &c.) In December, 1848, he received 
 from the Sardinian government the decoration of the order of St. Maurice and 
 St. Lazarus (Ibid., p. 313.) 
 
 » The first meeting of this committee took place at London, 26th May, 1825, in 
 the house of Sir Henry Rose. The Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and the Bishop of Winchester were present. — Amongst the authors who 
 were members of it were Messrs. Gilly, Acland, Inglis, Hamilton, Sims, Harrison, 
 Bridge, and Lowther. Most of these authors had devoted their pens to the main- 
 tenance of the interests of the Vaudois. The follomng is a sketch of the labours 
 of the committee : — 
 
 (1.) The restitution of the royal English subsidies, amounting to £277 sterling 
 annually. The origin of this fund is to be traced to a residue of the collections 
 made in 1655. — After the departure of seven pastors from the valleys, who went 
 to serve the Vaudois colonies in Germany, in 1689, and with the addition of a 
 part of the funds of the Savoy Hospital in London, the annual proceeds amounted, 
 in 1703, to 1250 francs. Several vicissitudes took place with regard to the sending 
 of it. From 1804 to 1807 the interest of these funds accumulated in the Ex- 
 chequer. In 1807, the British minister ordered the payment of them to be relin- 
 quished, because the valleys were then in the power of France. In 1814, the 
 money began to be sent again, but much reduced in amount. The Vaudois com- 
 mittee presented a petition to tlje Earl of Liverpool, on 11th March, 1826, having 
 for its object the complete restitution of these funds; and this was obtained, 
 except the interest from 1797 to 1804, which had been otherwise disposed of. 
 
 (2.) It contributed to the establishment of the hospital and its dispensary, to 
 which it annually gives assistance to the amount of £150 sterling. 
 
 (3.) It contributed to the foundation of the college of La Tour, to which it gives 
 
 
 Chap. XXIV.] THE CODE OF DISCIPLINE. 375 
 
 More complete provision being thus gradually made for the pub- 
 lic services of religion and for education, it became the duty of the 
 ecclesiastical body of the valleys to give greater efficacy both to the 
 system of discipline and to the confession of faith. The articles of 
 the Discipline were scattered throughout a great number of synodal 
 acts. One of the members of the Table ^ imdertook to collect and 
 classify them. He devoted two years to this work, the results of 
 which were afterwards reviewed by all the members of the Table, 
 and finally by the whole synod. In the acts of the synod of 1833,2 
 we read that " The meeting, in terms of the eleventh article of 
 the synod of 1828, having discussed seriatim all the articles of the 
 draft of the code of Regulations or Ecclesiastical Discipline for the 
 
 £20 per annum. The library of this college has also been enriched through the 
 care of the committee. Ten bursaries, of 100 francs each, have been founded there 
 for students. The committee also charged itself with the maintenance of three 
 young Vaudois, who studied in England, in order to become professors at La 
 Tour. 
 
 (4.) It allows 1000 francs to the Latin school of Le Pomaret. 
 
 (5.) The committee has contributed to the establishment of five girls' schools in 
 the valleys, to which it allows an annual sum of i;52 sterling. 
 
 (6.) The stipends of the two new parishes established at Macel and Rodoret, on 
 
 the restitution of £15,000 sterling, obtained by the committee. The sum of 
 
 £277 sterling (6983 francs, 17 cents, reduced by discount to 6800 francs), which 
 
 the valleys have regularly received every year since 1827, is thus divided (Report 
 
 ofl845, p. 8):— 
 
 fr«iiiC8 
 For the widows of pastors 400 
 
 For pastors emeriti (retired from active duty) 209 
 
 Expenses of moderatorship 300 
 
 For Macel and Rodoret (pastors' stipends) 2000 
 
 For the other pastors (supplement of stipends) 3900 
 
 being 300 francs to each. 
 
 (7.) The building of a place of worship and pastor's house at Rodoret. The 
 former pastor's house was destroyed (in 1842) by an avalanche, which buried under 
 the ruins the pastor (M. Bufia), with his wife and child. 
 
 (8.) The committee has contributed to the establishment of a place of shelter 
 for the Protestants of Turin. 
 
 (9.) It has also contributed to the publication of the Vaudois Liturgy (a large 
 and beautiful 4to of 211 pages, from the press of Andrew Shortrede, Edinburgh, 
 1837), of the Gospel according to St. John, translated into the vernacular dialect of 
 the valleys (London, 1832) by M. Bert, with the assistance of some of his col- 
 leagues; and of the New Testament in the Piedmontese idiom (London, 1833) 
 The latter work has been placed in the Index. The author of this translation was, 
 I beheve, M. Caesar Geyniet, and General Beckwith bore the principal part of the 
 expense of the impression. The Bible Society of London, likewise, contributed 
 to some of these publications. 
 
 » This was my venerable father, the late Mr. George Muston, then pastor at 
 Bobi, and moderator-adjoint of the Vaudois churches. "More than any one 
 else," says M. Bert, in his report to the synod of 1828, " he has contributed to 
 the accomplishment of this work, by his zeal and activity." It was he also who 
 proposed this draft, as appears from the eleventh article of the synod of 1828. 
 * Held at St. Germain, 3d to 5th December; article XXI. 
 
376 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt TniaD. 
 
 Chap. XXlV.j 
 
 EXTRACTS. 
 
 377 
 
 valleys, adopts that code, and declares it to be in force from this 
 
 day."i 
 
 According to this official document, "the evangelical Vaudois 
 church of the valleys of Piedmont is one; and it receives and pro- 
 fesses for the only rule of its fuith the doctrines contained in the 
 Old and New Testaments. (§ i.) 
 
 " It regards the Confession of Faith published in these valleys 
 in 1655- .... as a true compendium and pure interpretation of 
 the fundamental doctrines of the Bible." (§ ii.) 
 
 ' It is divided into seven chapters, containing in all 2G9 articles, which received 
 some modifications in the synod of 1839. The following is an outline of its con- 
 tents:— Chap. I. Op the Church (28 articles).— II. Op Syxods (containing 
 articles 29-68).— III. Of the Table (articles 6S-89)— IV. Of the Pastors 
 (articles 90-123). This chapter contains also the following sections :—J9. Of 
 Emeritation. ** Emeritation is the power which the pastors have of retiring from 
 the service of the Vaudois church with a retiring pension, which they enjoy during 
 the rest of their life" (art. 124). "This pension is made up of contributions 
 from the commtmes, contributions from the pastors, those of the Walloon com- 
 mittee (Holland), and funds taken before other distribution from the Eoyal 
 English subsidy" (art. 128). C. Widoichood. Of the wives of pastors (article 
 134-138). Z>. Of the chaplain and professors or ecclesiastical rectors (art. 132- 
 144). By the chaplain is meant the pastor supplying the Protestant chapel at 
 Turin, in tlie service and under the protection of the Dutch, Prussian, and Eng- 
 lish legations.— V. Of the Consistories (art, 145-170).— VI. Of the Ceremo- 
 nies of the Church. A. Of the Sacraments {Art. n'S-lS3). B. Coitfiimation of 
 the BajMsmal Voio (art. 186-189). C. Of Marriages (art. 190-200). D. Of Pub- 
 lic Fasts (art. 210-12). E. Sanctification of the Sabbath (art. 213-215). F. Ex- 
 communication (art. 216-220).— VII. Of Public Instruction (art. 221-252). 
 Students (art. 25:5-209). This relates to those wlio propose to devote themselves 
 to the holy ministry. — I regret that want of space prevents me from quoting a 
 greater number of the excellent regulatious of this book of discipline. 
 
 * This article was added by the synod of 1839. But these words are not suffi- 
 cient to determine the text of the Confession of Faith intended ; for in 1655, there 
 was no Confession of Faith published, neither official nor private, in the Vaudois 
 vaUeys. I have reason to believe, however, that the Confession intended was 
 that published by Leger in 1609. (Part I. chap. xvii. pp. 112-114.) It was 
 adoi)ted by the synod of 1839, upon these words of the moderator, "Pastors and 
 deputies, are you resolved to be faithful to the faith of your fathers as expressetl 
 in this Confession?" (Private letter of the editor of the Echo des Vallees, dated 
 from La Tour, 15th March, 1859. ) The affirmative response cannot be doubted. 
 A critical examination of history has since brought out the fact that this Confes- 
 sion of Faith did not emanate from the Vaudois church. (See in the Bibliography 
 of the Israel of the Alps, Part I. § ii. No. 2), and that it did not accord with the 
 ancient doctrine of the Vaudois (same Bibliography, Part III. chap. i. No. 12). 
 
 The synod of 1839 is not responsible for these errors, for the laws then in force 
 prohibited the consideration of questions of doctrine in such meetings, and so the 
 Confession of 1655 was neither made the subject of debate nor of examination. 
 Each pastor might, no doubt, have previously made it known to his congregation, 
 and might have devoted himself to serious study beforehand on a question of such 
 importance, that it might never be suspected that, in the vote approving of this 
 Confession of Faith, the synod was taken by surprise; but aU this the Vaudois 
 pastors were not even put in a condition to do. The committee, which was looked 
 
 i^ 
 
 " The Vaudois church ordains its own ministers." (§ iv.) 
 
 Its parishes are divided into two classes. (§ vii.) 
 
 The translations of pastoi*s take place according to a fixed order. 
 (§§ viii.-xvi.) 
 
 *' Any appointment of a pastor, made" (by a parish) " in accor- 
 dance with the established rules, cannot be annulled either by the 
 Table or by the synod.'" (§ xviii.) 
 
 " Tlie dej^uties to the synod are taken either from the parish 
 which deputes them, or not, but they must be Vaudois." {§ xxiv.) 
 — The election of these deputies is by ballot, and by universal suf- 
 frage. (§ XXV.) — This has always been the mode of election in 
 the Vaudois church. 
 
 " The synods are held alternately in the valley of Lucerna and 
 in that of Saint Martio. The place of meeting is always appointed 
 by the previous synod." (§§ xli., xlii.) 
 
 The sitting is opened with prayer; pro\dsion is made for vacant 
 parishes; the Table reads a report of its proceedings; the meeting 
 names a committee to examine the accounts, after which it pro- 
 
 upon as having performed this examination, had not even the right to take that 
 first step, for it had been appointed to occupy itself with the subject of a system 
 of discipline, and not with that of a Confession of Faith. Finally, its examina- 
 tion was ill performed; for the opinions which it advanced as to the origin and 
 doctrines of this Confession are completely erroneous. The doctrine established 
 by this disputed formulary is that of Predestination. It is followed by a protes- 
 tation against fifteen heads of heterodoxy, which the confessionists are accused of 
 establishing by this doctrine (Leger, Part I. ch. xvii. pp. 115, 116), such, for 
 example, as * ' that in virtue of Predestination it matters little whether a man does 
 good or ill" (art. 6), and that the salvation or damnation of each man being 
 determined before his birth, "he contributes nothing more to it, do what he may, 
 than a piece of wood or a stone (art. 5). "We hold," say they, "all these heads 
 of doctrine to be heretical and damnable, and, icith all our heart, we pronounce an 
 anathema against any who may maintain them" (Leger, Part I. ch. xvii. p. 116). 
 — This J8 the way in which Eome has been accustomed to reply to arguments, 
 but it is not the language of the ancient Vaudois. "To know the Vaudois 
 church aright," said the late venerable pastor Appia, "we must look upon it as 
 it was before the Reformation. Its aspect then was not yet deformed by Cal- 
 vinistic professions of faith. It was not a happy day for it, when the colossal but 
 dialectic genius of Calvin drew it into its vortex, and when he imprinted upon it 
 the marks of his vigorous but harsh chisel. I love rather to think of our Barbas, 
 
 reciting their passages of the Bible in caverns or in the open air O ! why 
 
 could not the evangelical Christians of our valleys be left to remain in their 
 humility the same that they were before the deluge of controversies, men of the 
 Bible, of sacred songs, of prayer, and of self-sacrifice, poor in spirit ! for to such 
 belongs the kingdom of God." (Letter of M. Paul Appia, pastor at Frankfort-on- 
 the-Maiue, dated from that city, 4th March, 1842.)— See, on the same subject, in 
 the Bibliography at the end of this volume. Part III. chap. i. No. 12. 
 
 » The passages in inverted commas, are exactly copied from the Discipline; 
 those which are not in inverted commas have been subjected to changes of 
 expression, so that they only give in an abridged form the meaning of the articles 
 cited, as much as seemed appropriate to the purpose of this Work. 
 
 Vol. II. 108 
 
 :.]u. 
 
378 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PartThtri*. 
 
 ceeds to the appointment of a new Table; and the new moderator 
 takes the chair in the synod.^ (§§ xlm-xlix.) 
 
 « The meetincr cannot reconsider a resolution deliberately adopted 
 in the synod, except upon the demand of two-thirds of the votei-s. ' 
 
 ^^ in authenticated copy of the Acts of the Synod is transmitted 
 to each pastor, and it is his duty to read it in pubUc/and to pre- 
 serve it in the archives of his parish. (§ Ixviii.) 
 
 « The Table, appointed by the synod, is the administrative and 
 permanent authority of the Vaudois church from one synod to ano- 
 ther: it is composed of nve members, of whom three are ecclesras- 
 tics-' and two are laymen." (§ lxix.)-« It keeps a record of all its 
 proceedmgs." (§ Ixxxviii.) , , , 
 
 "The members of the Table meet not at fixed times, but when- 
 ever the general interests of the chuix^h, or the particular in- 
 terests of parishes, require it." (§ Ixxm.) 
 
 It takes part, by one of its membei-s deputed for the purpose, m 
 the annual examinations of the students of the college and pupils 
 of the Latin school; also in the meetings for competition for aca- 
 demic bursaries. (§ Ixxxi., lxxxii.)-It makes pastoi-al visitations. 
 « The object of the pastoral visitation is the examination of the ac. 
 counts, registers, and records of each parish. Cognizance is taken 
 of its religious and moral condition. If any disputes exist, an 
 attempt is made to effect a reconciliation. This visitation is pre- 
 ceded by Divine service. The result of the inspection is engrossed 
 in the records of the parish, and in those of the Table." (§ Ixxxvii.) 
 « When a pastor is sick, his parish is suppUed, once a foiiinight, 
 by the other pastors in turn." (§ ex.) 
 
 The flock in any parish, as well as its pastor, can appeal to the 
 synod from any decision of the Table, which, however, in the mean- 
 time takes effect. (§ cxxii.) 
 
 " Each parish has a consistory, which is composed of the pastor, 
 as many elders as there are districts [quartiers] in the parish, the 
 deacon or treasurer, and the procurator of the poor." ^ (§ cxlv.) 
 
 « No one may fill the office of elder, who has not completed 
 twenty-five years of age,— who is not known as a man of good morals, 
 —who cannot deUver in person the written documents connected 
 with his office,— who partakes in the assistance granted by the con- 
 sistory to the poor of the commune,— who keeps a public-house,— 
 
 » Tlie synods are to b© bed, as of course, once every five years, and more fre- 
 quently if there is need. 
 
 » The moderator, the moderator-adjoint, and the secretary. 
 ' « This latter office has not been established in all the parishes. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 EXTRACTS CONTINUED. 
 
 S70 
 
 ^vho does not reside within his distrIct,-or who stands m the re- 
 lationship of father, son, or brother, to any member of the consis- 
 tory." (§ Cl.) . . r,' A ^f 
 The election of an elder takes place by ballot, by the heads of 
 families in the vacant district. Each voter's paper bears three 
 names. If from all these papers three names are obtained, having 
 the absolute majority of votes, these three names form what is 
 called the rose of the district [la rose du qmirtier]. I^ext 
 Sabbath, the pastor presents to the consistory the minute ot these 
 proceedings, and from amongst the three candidates who forni the 
 rose, the consistory appoint the one whom they deem most fit to 
 fill the office of elder." (§ cli.) _ 
 
 « Each elder is required to watch over his district, to make 
 known to the consistory the necessitous poor,— to visit and console 
 the sick,-to reconcile persons who are at variance,-to repress 
 scandals,-to assist the pastor in the distribution of the Lords 
 Supper,— to take part in the deliberations of the consistory, and to 
 
 vote in it," &c. (§ cliv.) 
 
 « The money allotted for the support of the poor can only be 
 distributed by the deacon, on the written request of the pastor, 
 founded upon a resolution of the consistory." (§ clxi.) ihe 
 consistory shaU annually inform the congregation, by a report with 
 explanations, concerning the receipt and expenditure ot the poors 
 
 money." (§ clxx.) . , 7 
 
 There is a parochial school in each parish, called the great school, 
 
 and there are also district schools. (§ ccxxi.) 
 
 "No one shall be appointed regent or teacher of the great 
 school, who is not furnished with a certificate from the Table of 
 his ability and moral chai-acter, and such certificate shall be avail- 
 able only for one year." (§ ccxxiii.) , . , ^. • 
 
 "The recent of a great school is required, besides his duties in 
 the schooCto perform the church service in the reading of the 
 Holy Scriptures, and in conducting the singing; also in conduct- 
 ing the evening and morning prayers daily throughout the week, 
 and to read the funeml service when the pastor shall be pre- 
 vented from so doing." (§ ccxxxiii.) , . J .. 
 
 " The teacher of a district school is required, besides his duties 
 in the school, to conduct prayer in his district every Sabbath 
 about two o'clock in the afternoon, during the period of his teach- 
 ing." (§ ccxxxii.) 
 
 " Each consistory is required to draw up an annual report ot 
 the state of the schools of the parish, and to transmit it to the 
 Table, in course of the month of March." (§ ccxHii.) 
 
 JSik- 
 
380 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [paut Thikd. 
 
 CUAP.XXIV] 
 
 FRATERNAL CONFERENCES. 
 
 881 
 
 « The choice of the academies in which a Vaudois student pro- 
 poses to study for the holy ministiy, in the service of his native 
 country, must be approved by the Table." (§ ccliv.)i 
 
 The little Protestaut congregation of Turin, which was founded 
 as a ministerial charge in 1827,-' under the name of the Chaiyel of 
 the Protestant Legations, was annexed twenty-two years after, to 
 the ecclesiastical body of the valleys. " The Vaudois residing in 
 Turin, along with the great majority of the Swiss settled there, 
 addressed to^ the administrative authority of the Vaudois church 
 a petition for incorporation,"^ to which that authority most gladly 
 gave a flwourable reply, the rights of the synod being reserved. 
 In consequence of this resolution, a deputation of the Table pro- 
 ceeded to the capital, where, on Sabbath, 29th July (1849), after a 
 fervent sermon by the moderator, from the words, Where tU Spirit 
 of the Lord is, there is liberty,^ the congregation of Turin was de- 
 clared to be a i^o.rish of the Vaudois church, and was asked to con- 
 stitute itself a parish accordingly, in terms of the regulations of 
 that church, which was immediately done."^ 
 
 The number of parishes in the valleys was also augmented. 
 From 1686 to 1829 there had been only thirteen. At that period, 
 the interest of the arrears of the English royal subsidy, the pay- 
 ment of which to the Vaudois church was obtained by the London 
 committee, and in particular by Dr. Gilly, enabled the church to 
 provide stipends for two new pastors. But the rescripts of 1730 
 and 1740,*^ which had been brought into force again by the Restora- 
 tion, prohibited the Vaudois from increasing the number of their 
 places of woi-ship, and implicitly also from increasing that of their 
 pastors. However, advantage was taken of the circumstance that 
 there were no express words limiting the number of the latter ; and 
 as there were two places of worship in many parishes, a colleague, 
 with the title of substitute, was given to the pastor who supplied 
 them. Macel was thus detached from the parish of Maneille, and 
 
 « At the end of this Discipline are the words " Done and concluded at St. John, 
 in the synodal assembly held there on 20th April, 1839." 
 
 - On 27th June, 1827, the Prussian ambassador, the Count De Waldbowg 
 Truchsess, wrote to the Table, to request the services of a Vaudois pastor as chap- 
 lain; and by a resolution of 6th July, 1827, M. Bonjour was appointed to that 
 office, in which he was succeeded by M. A. Bert, in 1834. 
 3 igt July, 1849. * ^ ^^^' "^* ^^' 
 
 * Extracted from the Echo OF THE Valleys, a monthly paper, specially devoted 
 to the interests of the Vaudois family. Second year, No. for 6th Sept., 1849, p. 
 44.— This paper, established and ably conducted by the Rev. M. Meille, is the 
 jB.rst journal ever published in the valleys. 
 
 6 The documents here referred to were mere instructions founded upon anterior 
 edicts, which are quoted in them. 
 
 r 
 
 Rodoret from that of Pral. These two districts, each shut in by 
 hi<^h mountains, were in reaUty too extensive to be adequately 
 served by one pastor. 
 
 The introduction of lay members into the administrative body 
 of the Vaudois church dates only from 1823. " UntU that date," 
 says M. Bert,^ "the laity not being permitted to take any part in 
 the affairs of the valleys, viewed with some measui-e of distrust 
 the way in which they were conducted by a Table entirely ecclesias- 
 tical. On the other hand, the pastors, whom the very suspicions 
 of the laity made to regard them with an unfavourable eye, thought 
 it their duty and their interest to cherish amongst themselves an 
 exclusive feeling, keeping the laity at a distance, in order to be in- 
 dependent of them. Thus, unhappily, from the want of a good 
 understanding between them, they inflicted mutual injury upon one 
 another." Since each valley has had its lay representative admitted 
 to the deliberations of the Table, by the unanimous decision of the 
 synod of 1823, the union has become more intimate between the 
 pastoi-s and their flocks; and the mutual confidence between those 
 in whose hands the administrative power is vested and those amongst 
 v>-hom it is exercised, has become more firm, more thoroughly based 
 upon grounds of knowledge, and therefore more powerful for the 
 promotion of their common interests. The right management of 
 afiliirs, instead of being impeded, has been much promoted; the 
 records of the Table have been much more regularly kept; the 
 wants of the valleys have been better known; benefactions have 
 been more felt, and benefactors more appreciated. 
 
 Traternal conferences of all the Vaudois pastors take place every 
 year; in spring, in one of the two valleys; in autumn, in the other. 
 The pastors of the same valley also hold meetings by themselves 
 [coUoques] in each other's houses. A school has been established 
 for the special purpose of training young teachers for the work of 
 teaching;- and the schoolmasters in actual employment have recently 
 been called upon to attend a course of the Italian language, in pre- 
 paration for which three professors of the college of the Trinity 
 have been sent to Tuscany.^ The library of that college has been 
 rapidly enriched, and the records of the vaUeys are henceforth to 
 
 » Eeport to the pynod of 1828. 
 
 2 Report of M. Bert to the synod of 1828. (Near the end.) 
 
 3 Before 1633, the national language of the Vaudois was the Italian. In this 
 lanrrua-e Gilles commenced the writing of bis history. The plague, which visited 
 the^vaUeys in 1630, having deprived the Vaudois church of fifteen pastors out of 
 seventeen, it was found necessary to bring pastors from Geneva; and these making 
 use of the French language in their preaching, it came gradually to predominate. 
 Since 184S, an endeavour has been made to restore in the valleys the use of Italian. 
 
li 
 
 It ■} 
 
 882 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt THiaD. 
 
 be deposited in it. Thus, everything concurs to give greater com- 
 pleteness to the measures of organization and improvement, which 
 seem to secure the future prosperity of the Vaudois church. 
 
 Constantly receiving the most generous assistance from their bre- 
 thren in religion in foreign countries, the Vaudois have in their 
 turn acknowledged the obligation of contributing their mite out of 
 their poverty, along with the riches of their prayei-s, to their bene- 
 factors in times of necessity. " Gentlemen," said the commissioners 
 of the Walloon churches to those by whom they were appointed,^ 
 " when the news of the inundations which afflicted some of our pro- 
 vinces last winter came to the knowledge of our Vaudois brethren, 
 it caused amongst them a general consternation and affliction, inso- 
 much that the dii-ectors of their churches immediately appointed a 
 day to be observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, which was 
 kept with remarkable devotion on the 27th of March last. Shoi-tly 
 after, on the request of M. Van der Hoeven, the minister of his 
 majesty our king at the court of Turin, a general collection was 
 made in the valleys for the behoof of our countrymen who were 
 ruined by the calamity. This collection, recommended by the thirteen 
 Vaudois pastors, has amounted to the sum of 4301 francs and some 
 sous— a prodigious sum for a people so poor, and this after a season 
 by no means favourable, and an imperfect harvest. And since that 
 time, our Vaudois correspondents, notwithstanding their wants, have 
 had the delicacy of feeling to ask nothing from us. Touched by 
 this considerateness, we recommend their interests all the more 
 earnestly to your regard," &c. Collections and contributions at the 
 slme time multipUed in the valleys in favour of Bible societies, 
 missions, and benevolent institutions of various kinds.^ 
 
 But whilst the Vaudois in their own country remembered the 
 foreigners who manifested so much interest in them, those of them 
 also who were in foreign countries did not forget theii' native land. 
 A Vaudois, named Bianquis, who died in London, where he had 
 filled the situation of a domestic servant, left his little fortime to 
 the parish of La Tour, to be employed in the education of a few 
 poor children.^ He had been poor himself, and he knew the value 
 of education. Now that its blessings are so abundantly offered to 
 
 » In a report presented to the meeting of pastors at Leyden, 13th August, 1825. 
 
 2 The collection in favour of evangelical missions, which is annually made in 
 the Vaudois church, yielded, for employment in 1848-49, a sum of 1203 francs 
 90 cents. (Note extracted from the Echo of the Valleys. T. i., p. 162.) 
 
 » With the produce of what M. Bianquis left, a property at Les Braides was 
 purchased. This small estate yields about 450 francs annually, a sum sufficient 
 for six poor children, who thus receive from 75 to 80 francs annually to facilitate 
 their education. 
 
 Chap. XXV] 
 
 GENEROUS BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 383 
 
 his countrymen, may the Vaudois youth have grace to profit by 
 them, for "he that refuseth instruction," the Bible says, " despiseth 
 his own soul." ^ Many generous strangers have provided, in dif- 
 ferent instances, for the education of young persons in our valleys, 
 whom lively sympathies have led them to take under their charge. 
 The silence in which such noble actions are concealed is the purest 
 halo of glory around them. To betray the modesty in which they 
 are performed would be to take away the bloom and freshness of 
 their beauty. 
 
 It now remains to show, in the following chapter, the wisely 
 progressive course, directed by a constant increase of favourable 
 feeling towards the Vaudois, which the Piedmontese government 
 has pursued in order to their emancipation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 CIVIL AND POLITICAL EMANCIPATION OF THE VAUDOIS 
 DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES ALBERT.' 
 
 (A.D. 1847 TO A.D. 1850.) 
 
 The political changes in the kingdom of Sardinia were begun before the revolu- 
 tionary explosion of 1848— Change of tactics on the part of the Popish clergy, 
 upon the change of policy by the government— Polemical pastorals and other 
 controversial publications— Charles Albert visits the valleys in 1844.— His 
 generous confidence in the Vaudois, and enthusiastic reception by them— 
 Demonstrations of the gratitude of the Vaudois to General Beckwith— AmeU- 
 oration of their political condition— The Marquis d' AzegUo-27ie StaivXe, or 
 Constitutional Charter of the kingdom of Sardinia, 8th February, 1848— 
 Admission of the Vaudois to. all the civil privileges of their countrymen, 
 17th February, 1843— Great rejoicings- French Revolution of 1848— Conse- 
 quent revolutions and wars in Italy— Defeat, abdication, and death of Charles 
 Albert— Charles Emmanuel V. succeeds to the crown— Present state of the 
 Vaudois. 
 After the great political movements of 1848, it is not wonderful 
 that from the shaken thrones there have at length fallen on the 
 people of more than one country a few blessings of liberty; and, in 
 this point of view, the civil and political emancipation of the 
 Vaudois, of which we are now to speak, might have been regarded 
 
 • Prov. XV. 32. 
 
 8 Authorities.-/ Fa^tZm .... cennistorici .... <ia^. 5«>-«, Chapters 
 XIII. and XIV.— Monastier, t. II., chap, xxvii.— Z'^c/to des VaUees Vaudoises.— 
 Private Letters.— Official Documents. 
 
884* 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pabt Third. 
 
 as merely an ordinary event, had it not been for the remarkable 
 circumstance that the King of Sardinia had of his own accord en- 
 gaged in the liberal course, now to be described, long before the 
 revolutionary explosion of 1848. He had even emancipated the 
 Vaudois, and given a constitution to his people, before the republic 
 was proclaimed in France; and consequently without constraint, 
 without external pressure, but under the Influence solely of a gene- 
 rous heart and an exalted mind. 
 
 We have already seen, in the end of the chapter which treats 
 of the State of the Vaudois under tlie Restoration, that the rigour 
 of the ancient edicts was softened by the personal acts of the sove- 
 reign. These edicts, formally maintained, fell into practical disue- 
 tude— an indication of the growing strength of the government 
 and the progress of new institutions. 
 
 " The Romish clergy," says M. Monastier, " also changed their 
 tactics in the jjrosecution of their old contest with the Vaudois 
 church. Violence or oppression being no longer in accordance 
 with the spirit of the age, they had recourse to a kind of means 
 already often employed in previous times — viz., discussion; but 
 giving it a milder form, that of pastoral letters. The Bishop of 
 Pi<ynerol, Monseigneur Bigex, was intrusted with the conduct of it. 
 His mandatories, which were very well written, combined all the 
 qualities requisite for success, if the nimiber and arrangement of 
 the arguments, and skilfulness in the presentation of them, could 
 have compensated for the essential weakness of the cause. The 
 appearance of the first of these pastorals^ caused a general excite- 
 ment among the Vaudois, whether by reason of the novelty of the 
 thing, or tlirough fear of its consequences. However, they were 
 soon satisfied that, where the Spirit of God breathes, the spirit of 
 Rome is not able to lead men's minds astray. A number of pastors 
 thought it their duty to reply to these mandatories. They did so 
 by manuscript refutations of them, which, being often copied, circu- 
 lated from family to family.- The seriousness of some of these, and 
 the excellent selection of their arguments, was a contrast to the 
 rather too flippant tone of some others. This war of the pen, 
 briskly carried on for a time, came to an end without any other 
 residt than the noise which it made. It has been attempted anew, 
 but without success, by the bishops who have succeeded Monseig- 
 neur Bigex — especially by Monseigneur Charvaz, in a considerable 
 number of pastorals and other writings, ably composed, and in 
 which erudition is with much ingenuity devoted to the advocacy 
 
 » In 1818. 
 
 2 Those of MM. Geymet, Peyrani, and Mondon, attracted particular attention. 
 
 Chap. XXV] RECEPTION OF CHARLES ALBERT. 
 
 385 » 
 
 of error. By these publications, printed and circulated in Pied- 
 mont and elsewhere, it was attempted to change the current of 
 
 opinion." ^ 
 
 But public opinion, on the contrary, seemed more and more to 
 incline to the side of the Vaudois. Charles Albert himself felt its 
 influence. " In his capacity of grand-master of the order of Saint 
 Maurice and Saint Lazarus, he consented, in 1844, to attend at the 
 dedication of the place of worship of the new congregation estab- 
 lished in La Tour, under the patronage of the saints above named. 
 Orders had already been given to prepare lodgings at La Tour for 
 the troops of the line, which were to serve as the guard of his 
 majesty. Gloomy apprehensions quickly arose in many hearts ; 
 but all at once it was intimated that the king had caused his 
 troops to return, saying, * I have no need of a guard amongst 
 the Vaudois.' And, in fact, the squadrons of royal carabineers, 
 which had been destined to serve as an escort for the sovereign, 
 turned back again to Pignerol. The Marquises of Lucerna and 
 Angrogna had suggested to Charles Albert that he should be re- 
 ceived by the Vaudois troops themselves, and, although he came 
 for a perfectly Catholic ceremony, this ofier was agreed to. 
 
 « All the able-bodied men of the valley of Lucerna, of Angrogna, 
 
 and of Prarusting, under arms, lined the path for the passage ot 
 
 the king, who, amidst solemn silence, went to the new Romish 
 
 erection to worship. Meamvhile the Vaudois troops proceeded to 
 
 the Lucerna road, and greeted Charles Albert on his return with 
 
 enthusiastic shouts of joy. The king, touched by so cordial a 
 
 reception, stationed himself in the entrance of the gate of the 
 
 palace of Lucerna, and caused the Vaudois companies to defile 
 
 before him in parade, according to their communes, and with 
 
 their banners. He saluted each standard, and all could see the 
 
 pleasant smile which played upon his lips when some ensign, not 
 
 contented with inclining his banner before his sovereign, saluted him 
 
 also afterwards with his hat. The officers of the Vaudois Table 
 
 presented themselves before his majesty in their turn, and were 
 
 highly gratified by the very favourable manner in which they were 
 
 received. Charles Albert, devoting himself for the time entirely 
 
 « Monastier, II., 207, 208. The principal pubUcations of the bishop here re- 
 ferred to &Te—ReckercJies historiques sur Vorigine des Vaudois ... one vol. 8vo; 
 Paris, 1836; and Guide du CaUchumUe Vaudois ... 3 vols. 18mo, 1840-1842. 
 Some pamphlets, of which I refrain from giving the titles, were also published 
 during his prelacy. " I believe they are more injurious," says a letter from the 
 valleys, " to the dignity of the episcopate by which they have been sanctioned, 
 than to the reputation of the Vaudois which they attempt to blacken."— (Letter 
 of 5th September, 1846.) 
 
 Vol. II. 109 
 
-"-^••^ 
 
 ■^P" 
 
 U.JI . ^- .^. BMMl 
 
 JL. 
 
 386 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [pakt Tuiko. 
 
 to the people of the valleys, refused to receive any other deputa- 
 tion. Before quitting the valleys, he sent to the syndic of La 
 Tour very liberal alms for the poor of both communions; and 
 when he set out again on his return to Turin, he could see a circle 
 of bonfires, like a brilliant diadem, kindled on our mountains to 
 express the gladness to which his visit had given birth." ^ "I shall 
 never forget," said Charles Albert, " these testimonies of affection 
 which have exhibited to me, in the heart of the Vaudois, the same 
 devotedness to the throne of Savoy which in former times their 
 ancestors signally displayed."^ He caused a little monumental 
 fountain to be erected at the entry of the town of La Tour, with 
 this inscription : — "II Re Carlo Alberto, al popolo che l'ac- 
 COGLIEVA con tanto affetto. mdcccxlv." ^ Thus the opening of 
 an institution hostile to the Vaudois church, instead of verifying 
 the apprehensions which had ai-isen with regard to it, brought the 
 Vaudois new assurance of prosperity under the high protection of 
 the head of the state. 
 
 " The decoi-ation of the order of Saint Maurice and Saint Lazarus 
 was afterwards bestowed upon Genei*al Beckwith, as the benefac- 
 tor of the Vaudois.* When we consider that it was the same man 
 whom a bishop, in an article in a journal, had not scrupled to call 
 the * adventurer with the wooden leg,' and whom low intrigues had 
 more than once almost succeeded in expelling from the country, 
 upon account of the enlightenment which he was instrumental in 
 producing, we feel that our institutions have indeed undergone a 
 change." ^ But, as he himself once said, addressing the Vaudois, " If 
 there be but one man who knows what is right, it is enough to 
 make it prevail over a whole nation ; and if your humble ancestors, 
 patient and persevering, preserved intact the true rule of faith, and 
 transmitted it from age to age, they present in this an example 
 
 which you have only to follow Unite yourselves again more 
 
 closely together; act, as you have done from the commencement 
 of all that has taken place, with good feeling, with moderation, 
 forgetting past injuries, and be assured that you will be nobly re- 
 compensed Youi' church is well organized; public educa- 
 
 » Monastier, II., 215-217. 
 
 3 La universcUa gioja in piu modi manifestata, i sensi di reverenza e di affetto, 
 tepiranti da quei volti, iutto ci manifestava che non max vennero meno in quei petti, 
 I'amore e la devozione al trono Sabaudi, per cui i loro MaggioH si resero, in difficili 
 tempi, signalati. Extract from the royal brevet of knight of the order of St. Mau- 
 rice and St. Lazarus, accorded to the syndic of La Tour (M. Combe, a member of 
 the Vaudois church), by Charles Albert, 11th October, 1844. 
 
 * The King Charles Albert, to the people who welcomed him with so much affection, 
 1845. 
 
 * In December, 1848. ' L'Echo des Valines* January, 1849, p. 116. 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. XXV ] 
 
 TRIBUTES OF GRATITUDE. 
 
 387 
 
 tion is doing its work amongst you; direct your attention particu- 
 larly to your district schools; the welfare of your children depends 
 in great part on their efficiency. In these nurseries are sown the 
 fii-st seeds of those great truths unknown to Socrates and to Plato, 
 . . . of that theology which is capable of saving a world !"^ 
 
 Colonel Beckwith'-^ enjoyed also, in these his beloved valleys, the 
 " rare privilege of seeing that his works followed him, appreciated by 
 all, and everywhere recompensed by the most delightful tributes 
 which public respect and affection could offer. * Let the name of 
 Colonel Beckwith he blessed by all wJw pass tds way, says an in- 
 scription placed upon one of the numerous schools opened through 
 his efforts and generosity. The whole country silently responds to 
 the sentiment."^ In 1842, the schoolmasters of the two valleys, 
 and the professors of the various important educational institutions 
 patronized by this illustrious philanthropist, assembled to hold a 
 festival together on the summit of La Vachere, a mountain cen- 
 trally situated amongst their various stations. They began by 
 singing hymns, and after fraternizing with one another in the ex- 
 pression of the Christian and patriotic hopes which were excited in 
 their minds both by the love of the gospel and by the love of their 
 country, they returned, each bearing a branch of the laurel of the 
 Alps,^ in remembrance of that occasion. At the gates of La Tour, 
 they took a flower from each branch, of which they formed a 
 bouquet, and came in a body to present it to their venerable 
 j)atron.^ These spontaneous expressions of affection and gratitude 
 to theii- noble benefactor have been often repeated on the part of 
 the Vaudois.^ 
 
 Towards the end of 1847, the social and political reforms long 
 contemplated by the Piedmontese government began to be carried 
 
 * Letter of Major-General Beckwith to the Moderator of the Vaudois church, 
 dated from La Tour, 28th August, 1848. The object of this letter was, on the part 
 of the general, to acknowledge to the representatives of the Vaudois church the 
 public expression of gratitude to him for his numerous benefactions, which had been 
 unanimously adopted by the synod, of l8t-4th August.— (jEc^ des Vallees, I., 60.) 
 
 2 The title which is habitually given to him in the valleys. 
 ' La Mfoi'mation au dix-Tieuvi^me siecle. A journal quoted in the Echa des 
 Values, I., 103. 
 
 * Bhododendron ferrugineum. The Vaudois mountains produce a kind of 
 rhododendron not described by botanists. Instead of having the leaves brown 
 and rusty beneath, it has them smooth and olive-green. Perhaps it is only a 
 variety, or an accidental variation. It is found on the mountain of Brouard; and 
 was discovered by a young botanist of the valleys, M. Edward Rostan. 
 
 * Letters written from the Vaudois valleys. — September, 1842. 
 
 « The Agricultural Society {Congrh Agricole) of Piedmont expressed the pub- 
 lic sentiment in returning thanks to General Beckwith, by a letter dated 25th 
 August, 1847, for the interest taken by him in th« valleys.— (Bebt, p. 312.) 
 
888 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pabt Thied. 
 
 into effect. A reform in the courts of law, by the substitution of 
 oral for wi-itten proceedings, the introduction of tnal by jury, and 
 the suppression of exceptional tribunals, afforded to all concerned 
 new securities for impartiality. On the 22d of November, 1847, 
 the organic law of the councils of communes and provinces was 
 promulgated, containing no restriction on the election of the 
 Vaudois inhabitants. The formation of national guards speedily 
 followed this new step of progress. 
 
 The Marquis D'Azeglio, who was afterwards minister, then 
 placed his name at the head of the signatures to a petition ad- 
 dressed to the sovereign for the civil emancipation of the Vaudois and 
 the Jews.i In order to this, he also addressed a circular to all the 
 bishops of the kingdom, to obtain their opinion on the measure in 
 the first place,- and it is due to them to state that a number of 
 them expressed themselves in favour of it.^ The generous marquis 
 next addressed a petition in his own name to the king,* which was 
 followed in a few days by a petition from the Vaudois to the same 
 effect.^ 
 
 These endeavours were supported by the public feeling. At a 
 patriotic banquet which was given at Pignerol on the 12th of 
 December, the advocate Audifredi uttered the following words : — 
 " At the foot of those mountains which look down upon us are 
 20,000 of our brethren deprived of their rights as citizens j yet are 
 
 * This petition bears more than 600 signatures, amongst which are those of 33 
 professors, 65 ecclesiastics, priests, curSs and theologians, 80 advocates, 50 physicians, 
 14 notaries, besides artists, merchants, and citizens of all ranks, even former and 
 actual ministers of state. (M. Bert has placed the list of these signatures at the 
 commencement of his work, / Valdesi, &c. ) The learned and excellent Barbaroux, 
 the former keeper of the seals, was now no more ; but if his signature was not at 
 this petition, the Vaudois will never forget that his sympathies preceded it ; and that 
 80 early as 1837, at the time of the promvdgation of the Civil Code for the Sardinian 
 Dominions, he had endeavoured to have it so framed as to suppress all exceptional 
 legislation in respect to them. His representations at that time prevailed only to 
 the extent of obtaining the law of 16th December, 1837, by which Vaudois in the 
 army were permitted to be advanced in rank, according to their years of service 
 and the claims which they had established. — {Dizionario di dintto amministrativo, 
 vol. I., p. 56, § 29.— Bert, Valdesi, p. 278.) 
 
 2 It is dated 16th November, 1847.— M. Bert has published it (/ Valdesi, pp. 
 462-464). 
 
 » M. Bert has published the replies of the Bishop of Biella (dated 26th November, 
 1847; / Valdesi, pp. 464r-466)— of the Bishop of Pignerol (same date; same work, 
 pp. 467-472)— of the Bishop of Ivrea (30th November, 1847; pp. 472-476)— and of 
 the Bishop of Albenga (25th November, pp. 477-479). 
 
 * Dated 23d December, 1847. Pitblished by Bert, pp. 459-461. 
 
 * Published by Bert, pp. 480, 481. This petition is not dated, according to the 
 old but indefensible Vaudois practice — a practice which surely ought to be relin- 
 quished, as it is contrary to general usage, inconvenient, the cause of many inac* 
 curacies in future times, and without any present advantage. 
 
 Chap. XXv] 
 
 NEW CONSTITUTION GRANTED. 
 
 389 
 
 
 they educated, industrious, strong of arm and strong of heart, as 
 much as any other Italians. It is for us to raise our voices in 
 their favour ; it is for us, their nearest brethren, to demand that 
 their country shall be a mother to them, and not a stepmother ; it 
 is for us to be the first to shout aloud for the emancipation of the 
 Vaudois ! " ^ And the cry of enfranchisement and brotherhood — • 
 the viva for the emancipation of the Vaudois — ^was repeated with 
 enthusiasm by the whole assembly. Two weeks afterwards a simi- 
 lar banquet took place at Turin. The pastor, chaplain to the 
 Protestant legations, made a speech at this banquet to the same 
 effect.'' All Piedmont, and even Sardinia, was moved as by a com- 
 mon impulse in this direction of progress and patriotism. 
 
 But, above all, this was owing to the prospect of a representative 
 constitution, which Charles Albert promised soon to give ; and 
 that monarch had the courage to carry his generous designs into 
 effect in the same liberal reforms which the new pope^ had just 
 accomplished in his own dominions. The statute, or constitutional 
 charter of the Sardinian dominions, appeared at last on the 8th of 
 February, 1848. This charter granted an elective chamber, with 
 sufficiently liberal conditions of eligibility. The enthusiasm was 
 general, and the Vaudois shared in it, although they were still only 
 tolerated according to the old edicts. But the liberty of the press, 
 which was now proclaimed, allowed public opinion to be heard in 
 favour of their enfranchisement, and its greater unanimity to 
 appear.* 
 
 A report soon spread in the capital that a decree was just about 
 to be signed for this purpose. This was on 16th February, 1848, 
 towards evening. Immediately a crowd of many thousands of 
 persons assembled under the windows of the representative of the 
 Vaudois valleys, M. Amadeus Bert, the pastor of the Vaudois con- 
 gregation of Turin. They sung that patriotic hymn — 
 
 * This speech is given in Italian by Bert, in his Valdesi, p. 330. 
 
 * This speech was printed with the title, Discours lu au banquet donnS par le 
 Commerce de Turin, le 29th Decembre, 1847, par Amedee Bert, pasteur Vaudois, 
 chapelain des Legations Protestantes prh S. M. Sarde. Turin, Pomba et comp. 
 
 M. 1848. 
 
 a Pius IX., elected in 1846. He left Rome in 1848, after the proclamation cf 
 the republic. This republic having been destroyed by the armies of the French 
 republic, which had given it birth, and which thought fit to restore Pius IX., this 
 pope no longer displayed the same sentiments. An amnesty, obtained with great 
 diflaculty from his vindictive holiness, excepted so great a number of classes, 
 that it was said of it, ** The Papal amnesty excepts all the world, and pardons the 
 
 rest." 
 
 * See articles from the Gazetta PiemorUese, the Risorgimento, and the Concordia, 
 
 quoted by M. Bebt, pp. 333, 336, 339, &c. 
 
390 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Pakt TeiED. 
 
 " Fratelli d'ltalis, 
 L'ltalia s' e desta," &c « 
 
 and demonstmtions of the liveliest sympathy were continued 
 till a late hour in the evening. Next day the following edict 
 appeared : — 
 
 " Taking into consideration the fidelity and good sentiments of 
 the Vaudois people, our royal predecessors have, of their own ac- 
 cord, and by successive measures, in part abrogated and mitigated 
 the laws which anciently limited their civil privileges; and we, 
 following in the same course, have also granted them gradual ex- 
 tensions of privilege. The reasons of the ancient restrictions 
 having now ceased, and the completion of the system gradually 
 adopted in their favour having become possible, we have, of our 
 own free will and accord, resolved to make the Vaudois jmrtakers 
 of every advantage compatible with the general principles of our 
 legislation. We, therefore, by these presents, of our certain know- 
 ledge and royal authority, and by the advice of our council, have 
 ordained, and do ordain as follows : — 
 
 " 1. The Vaudois are Admitted to the enjoyment of all the civil 
 and political rights of our other subjects, and freely to attend our 
 schools, both within and without the university, and to obtain 
 academic degrees. 
 
 " 2. No change, however, is made as to the exercise of theii* 
 worship and their own schools. 
 
 " 3. We repeal, by these presents, every law to the contrary, 
 and command the senate and the chamber of accounts to register 
 this decree, enjoining all and sundry to observe it and cause it to 
 be observed, and willing that it be inserted in the collection of acts 
 of the government." ^ 
 
 No sooner was this decree known in the Vaudois valleys than it 
 excited an universal enthusiasm there. "At La Tour," sfiys a 
 letter of that period,'^ " there was a general illumination on the 
 24th and 25th of February. That of the 24th was principally in- 
 tended to be in honour of the constitution. In the morning almost 
 all the inhabitants of the commune were assembled by sound of 
 drum. Each company had its banner. They proceeded to the 
 church of Les Copiers, where Divine service was conducted by the 
 pastor, M. Meille,* who delivered an extremely affecting extem- 
 
 ' "Brothers of Italy, Italy has awaked,'* &c. 
 
 » Given at Turin, 17th February, 1848. Signed, Charles Albert, and counter- 
 signed, AvET, De Revel, De Collegno, Borelli. (This edict is also contained 
 in the Echo des Vallees, 1. 1., No. 8.) 
 
 ' Dated from La Tour, 5th March, 1848. 
 
 * Author of the work mentioned in No. VI. of the first part of the Bibliography, 
 
 ' 
 
 Chap. XXV.] 
 
 UNIVERSAL REJOICINGS. 
 
 391 
 
 poraneous discourse. A number of young people, who had prac- 
 tised the singing of hymns of thanksgiving together, now began to 
 sing; and this music, with the religious service, the banners which 
 filled the church, and the solemnity of all who were present, com- 
 bined to deepen the emotion in every breast. During the whole 
 day, companies of the national guard continued to defile through 
 the town singing patriotic hymns, and especially that which begins: 
 
 * Con I'azzura cocarda sul petto, 
 Con Italici palpiti in cuore,' &c.* .... 
 
 and uttering at intervals repeated cries of ' Viva V Italia ! ' * Viva 
 la Costituzionef ^ Viva Carlo Alberto!'^ These enthusiastic accla- 
 mations announced the commencement of a new and happy period. 
 " Next day, Friday, was also a festival day, specially set apart 
 to celebrate the emancipation of the Vaudois. Persons had been 
 sent to the mountains to inform the inhabitants of the more ele- 
 vated districts of the cause of these rejoicings, and towards even- 
 ing, whilst the illumination was taking place in the town, bonfires 
 were kindled on all the surrounding peal^. More than 100 could 
 be counted from La Tour. At Pignerol, also, so soon as the news 
 came of the emancipation of the Vaudois, those of them who were 
 settled there asked leave from the commandant to illuminate their 
 dwellings, which was granted them. The same permission was 
 offered to the Catholics who might wish to join in those manifes- 
 tations; and in the evening the whole city was illuminated, without 
 exception of any quai-ter. Similar rejoicings took place in the other 
 Vaudois communities. The Catholics almost everywhere took part 
 in them. At St. John, the brilliant illumination of the preshytere 
 was particularly remarked ; and the prior even caused some of his 
 finest haoudettes"^ to be rung. After a fraternal repast, the national 
 guards of the commune proceeded in a body to the house of the 
 venerable Joshua Meille, the eldest of the Vaudois pastors, who 
 lived in a retired spot in the country. His emotion was extreme. 
 
 at the end of this volume, and principal editor of the Edio des Vallees. This 
 journal has lately ceased to appear. 
 
 * " With the azure cockade on our hreasts, 
 With Italian tkrobbings of heart, 
 Charles Albert, we come to thy feet, 
 To deposit the tribute of our love," kc. 
 (The national colours of Piedmont are blue and white.) 
 
 2 Cheers for Italy, for the Constitution, and for Charles Albert. Even young 
 children, partaking in the enthusiasm of these exclamations, and wishing to join 
 in them, cried, in their feeble voices, from the balconies. Viva Caro B&io ( Viva 
 Carlo Alberto), and Viva Tat/a {Viva VltaXia). 
 » Joyful chimes. 
 
392 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [PaM THIK0. 
 
 The white-haired good old man passed from one to another, em- 
 bracing all these youths, and exclaiming ' Viva la fratellanza! ' ^ In 
 each commune the greater part of the citizens, without distinction 
 of religion, assembled at a patriotic banquet, and many speeches 
 suitable to the occasion were delivered. That of Professor Malan 
 was particularly remarked. It was deUvered in the purest Italian. 
 "But all this was nothing in comparison with what took place 
 at Turin. A national festival was announced for the 28th of 
 February, at which all the provinces of Piedmont should have 
 their representatives, to celebrate in the capital the establishment 
 of the constitution. On the 27th the Vaudois deputation set out. 
 On the way they were saluted hj vivas for ' Our Vaudois Brethren!' 
 and for ' LiherUj of Conscience!' At Turin, the members of this 
 deputation, with many other persons who had joined them of their 
 own accord, were lodged, to the number of some hundreds, in private 
 houses. There were instances of merchants clearing out store- 
 rooms to convert them into sleeping apartments. Next morning, 
 this whole troop having assembled on the esplanade of Porte-Neuve, 
 arranged amongst themselves the order of their procession. They 
 were preceded by a group of young giris clothed in white, adorned 
 with blue girdles, and each bearing a little banner in her hand. 
 More than 600 persons then followed, having at their head a ma<^- 
 nificent velvet standard, on which were the royal arms embroi- 
 dered in silver, with this simple inscription :—'A Carlo Alberto i 
 Valdesi riconoscentiy^ 
 
 " Acclamations of the liveliest sympathy gi-eeted the Vaudois in 
 the streets of Turin; handkerchiefs were waved from the windows 
 and flowers were showered down from the balconies upon the young 
 girls who walked past. 'Evviva fratelli Valdesi !' 'Evviva Vemanci- 
 pazione dei Valdesi!'^ was shouted from all sides. The Vaudois 
 were saluted even by persons unacquainted with them, who, shakin<y 
 them by the hand, expressed their delight at the new era of peace 
 and liberty which all then anticipated for Italy. Even priests 
 might be seen to approach the procession, and to embrace the 
 Vaudois in its ranks, excladming—'Viva la fratellanza!' 'Viva la 
 llberta!* 
 
 "■ When the order was to be arranged of all the provincial depu- 
 tations which were to defile before the palace of his majesty, the 
 managers of the festival assigned the first place to the Vaudois. 
 
 ' Fratellanza — Fraternity. 
 
 * To Charles Albert, the Vaudois grateful— Thia banner was presented to his 
 majesty, who thanked the Vaudois for it through the Marquis D'Azeglio. The 
 marquis' letter, dated 28th February, may be seen in Bert, p. 345. ,• 
 
 » Vivas for "Our Vaudois Brethren/'' and " The emancipation of the Vaudois/*' 
 
 CUAF.XXV.J 
 
 THREATENED COMMOTIONS. 
 
 393 
 
 *Tliey have long been the last,* said they, *and it is right that to- 
 day tbey should be the first.' It is impossible to give an idea of 
 the eager affection and enthusiasm with which they were received. 
 I have been tol'd that in the streets it sometimes happened that 
 those who met a new comer laid hold of him by the arm, and asked 
 whence he came, and if he was a Vaudois they hugged him around 
 the neck. 
 
 " Dear brother ! who would have said that we would have seen 
 all this? Who would have said that, on that very castle square 
 where in former times the piles were raised for our martyrs, and 
 the crowd gathered to witness their death, such a multitude would 
 this day have welcomed the Vaudois with such acclamations of 
 love and fraternity? Verily, it is God who has done all these 
 things ! To him be the glory and the thanksgiving ! and may his 
 blessing ever rest upon our pleasant native land ! " 
 
 The great procession defiled before the king. More than 30,CC0 
 banners belonging to different corporations were lowered as they 
 passed before his balcony. 
 
 But days of trouble were soon to succeed these festival rejoicings. 
 An air of vague anxiety had already been remarked in the counte- 
 nances of the king and his ministers. The swelling joy of the 
 people who saluted them with their acclamations could not remove 
 from their faces a certain look of constraint and hesitancy. In 
 fact, they had that morning received news, still unknown to the 
 people, that the King of France had been driven from his throne, 
 and compelled to flee from his kingdom a homeless exile, whilst the 
 republic, surrounded with terrible associations, had again been pro- 
 claimed by the French people. Like a peal of thunder ushering 
 in the long convulsions of an unexpected storm, this event made 
 all the thrones of Europe to tremble, agitated the nations, and led 
 to marvellous things, to admirable deeds of devotedness, but also 
 to revolting cruelties, and to terrible reprisals on the part of the 
 defenders of the system of past times, whose love of power struggled 
 fiercely against the love of liberty cherished by those who fixed 
 their eyes upon a changed and happier future. At first, all was 
 disorder and confusion : the final results of the great contest could 
 not be discerned ; blood and ruins covered the arena. Amidst the 
 dust of combat nothing can be seen of the majesty and splendour 
 
 of victorv. 
 
 Italy partook of these commotions. Whilst a popular re- 
 volution broke out in Vienna, Lombardy rose in insurrection 
 a^'ainst the Austrians. Milan drove them from its walls; Venice 
 broke their yoke ; Sicily declared itself independent of the King of 
 Vol. II. 110 
 
894 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Part TaiBO. 
 
 Naples; Rome adopted for itself a democratic constitution; Ger- 
 many attempted to restore its shattered unity from amidst the 
 multitude of its sceptres and of the shackles by which it was 
 bound. Hungary, later in commencing, exhibited to the world the 
 Fpectacle of the most gigantic contest which was produced by that 
 epoch of universal conflagration. 
 
 But before these things had taken place the Lombardo- Venetian 
 states were, of their own free motion, annexed to Piedmont. Aus- 
 tria sought to reconquer them ; Charles Albert marched to defend 
 them. After some successes, his army was obliged to retreat, and 
 the Austrians re-entered Milan by capitulation. Very soon after 
 this, however, the republic was proclaimed at Rome and in Tus- 
 cany. These were the flashes of liberty in a sky still heavily 
 laden with the emanations, which had gathered for centuries, of a 
 power more easily broken down than rooted up. Urged by the 
 wishes of his people, or at least by the incessant outcry of the de- 
 mocratic party, which was at that time very apt to be taken for 
 public opinion, Charles Albert resTimed hostilities against the 
 Austrians. The generals, it is said, were reluctant; the soldiers 
 were inexperienced. The Piedmontese army was defeated at No- 
 varra, and, to escape the hard necessity of subscribing a humiliating 
 treaty, Charles Albert abdicated the throne of his fathers in favour 
 of his eldest son, who assumed the name of Charles Emmanuel V. 
 He may be ranked as the last of those chivalrous monarchs who 
 took up arms to defend their people, and fell to defend dynasties. 
 Covered with ti-ue glory, although defeated at Novarra, he re- 
 signed his crown, after ten laboiious years of a reign which will be 
 remembered for great things, although it was embittered by many 
 mortifications. He left his country prostrated before the enemy, 
 and retired to Portugal, where he died at Oporto, 28th July, 1849. 
 His remains were brought back to Turin on the 14th October fol- 
 lowing. The honoured hearse was received with universal demon- 
 strations of mourning. Every one called to remembrance the gen- 
 tleness and bravery of the king who was now no more, and spoke with 
 poignant regret of his liberal and generous disposition; and many 
 a trait of his benevolence or noble-mindedness was recounted. 
 Charles Albert, they said, reigned like a sage and fought like a 
 hero. The devoted victim of a ruined cause, he died, like Napoleon, 
 shorn of power, but not of glory. In the Vaudois valleys, espe- 
 cially, which he had so lately emancipated, he was regretted with 
 profound regret. They had highly appreciated the benefits which 
 he conferred, and they felt a proportionate grief at his loss. 
 
 Ought I now to set forth the few particulars of secondary im- 
 
 CriAP. XXV ] 
 
 CONCLUDING REVIEW. 
 
 S9^ 
 
 jwrtance which the modern liistory of the Vaudois valleys might 
 still be found to present 1 No ; their political condition is entirely 
 changed, a new era has commenced, and its events must at some 
 future time be narrated by other historians.^ May theii* future 
 history be as honourable as their past, and less troubled than it has 
 been ! Happy are the coimtries enlightened by the gospel ! It 
 alone can restore the proper dignity of himian natiu-e, at a time 
 when institutions and habits are in process of change, in nations to 
 which Catholicism has forbidden the liberty even of thought. May 
 the ruins which the latter has made, yet flourLsh again through the 
 immortal breath which quickens souls and gives freedom to men ! 
 The truth is the power of God ! The Redeemer has said, " It 
 shall make you free;"^ and hope is one of the duties of the Chris- 
 tian.^ 
 
 Thus, in all the countries which the Vaudois once occupied — in 
 Bohemia, in Provence, in Calabria — they have been destroyed by 
 persecution ; the churches of Saluces, of Pragela, and of Barcelon- 
 nette, which came under the power of France, exist no longer; but 
 only the churches of the valleys of Piedmont, which have remained 
 under the sceptre of the house of Savoy, still subsist in our days. 
 Nor is it to the princes of the house of Savoy that the blame should 
 be ascribed of those cruel measures which so often drenched the 
 Vaudois valleys in blood. Victor Amadeus II. presents the soli- 
 tary exception ; but even he acted under the influence of an im- 
 perious and foreign power; and when that influence had ceased to 
 operate, he contended nobly and energetically against the court of 
 Rome to maintain for the Vaudois the rights which they had re- 
 gained for themselves by their valour and their fidelity. The 
 church of Rome alone was in principle and always persecuting. 
 The principle of mental thraldom could make no terms with that of 
 liberty of thought; and this strife must continue as long as both shall 
 
 » There are, however, a few facts which I cannot pass over in silence. Through 
 the generous kindness of General Beckwith, who began the subscription, a Vaudois 
 church has been built in Turin, and seven professors' houses will be erected oppo- 
 site to Trinity College, at La Tour. Through the generosity of a member of parlia- 
 ment (M. Malan, himself of Vaudois origin, deputed to parliament in 1849 by the 
 college of Briqueras), two new chairs have been founded in that college— one for 
 the natural sciences, and one for the philosophical classes. They were founded 
 without mention of the founder's name. A new Protestant church, nearer to the 
 principal body of the people, is about to be constructed at La Touxv The estab- 
 lishment of public worship for the Vaudois is projected at Pignerol. And, finally. 
 Trinity College is in the way of being transformed into a complete faculty, and 
 the government seems disposed to favour this extension, so favourable to the pro- 
 gress of enlightenment. ., 
 
 3 John viu. 32, 36. '1 Cor. xui. 13. 
 
596 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Past Thirp. 
 
 exist. It is impossible to reconcile that despotism upon which the 
 world of bygone days was founded, with the liberty which has 
 opened up the springs of modern life. 
 
 To this modern libei-ty the throne, better counselled, owes th^ 
 discovery, made at last, that there is more glory in preserving the 
 Vaudois than in destroying them. Like those monuments of ancient 
 times which attract the steps of the traveller from afar, and which 
 the neighbourhood protects with enlightened solicitude, they are 
 venerable even for their antiquity itself. 
 
 Here, however, are not mere ruins, but a people— a church— 
 and industrious and devoted citizens, an honour to their countrv. 
 The Vaudois valleys are, in proportion to their population, more 
 advanced in civilization than any other part of Piedmont. By the 
 iirm and generous hand of Charles Albert, those antiquated restrict 
 tions were abolished which the spirit of the middle ages had im- 
 posed upon the Vaudois. They have their fair share°in the new 
 rights created by the constitutional government. They are no 
 longer restrained within the limits of their valleys. 
 
 May they extend themselves without loss of their distinctive 
 exceUencies! May it not be said of them, " It was when their 
 country was small that the people was greatest! " From the gospel 
 they derived their greatness and their strength : may they never 
 forsake it! And in the words of Janavel, '-'May the fear of the Lord 
 be the guard of their hearts, a better protection than any sword!" 
 
 I 
 
 APPENDIX. No. I. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND DOCUMENTARY 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ISRAEL OF THE ALPS: 
 
 OR, LIST OF WORKS WHICH TREAT OF THE VAUDOIS AND OF 
 
 THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGE, 
 
 WHICH CONTAIN THEIR OWN STATEMENT OF THEIR 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 PART I.— PUBLISHED WORKS. Section I. Original autJiors who have 
 treated specially of the historij of the Vaudois. — § 1. Vauduis authors. — § 2. 
 Anonymous Vaudois Authors. — § 3. Original authors, not natives of the val- 
 leys, who have written in a spirit favourable to the Vaudois. — § 4. Original 
 authors, not natives of the valleys, who have written in a spirit unfavourable to 
 the Vaudois. Section II. Authors who have occupied themselves with inquiries 
 on particular points connected with the history of the Vaudois. — § 1. Latin 
 Treatises (mostly contra Valdenses, and generally relating to the disciples of 
 Valdo, rather than to the Vaudois of Piedmont).— § 2. Academic Theses.— 
 ^ 3. Various authors. Section III. Historic worJcs on the Vaudois, derived 
 from original sources, and contributing to the more complete elucidation of the 
 subject. Section IV. Polemical Works.— ^ 1. Against the Vaudois.— § 2. In 
 defence of the Vaudois. Section V. Periodical, artistic, descriptive, scientific, 
 and lita-ary worTcs, relative to the Vaudois.- § 1. Books of Travels.— § 2. De- 
 scriptive works.— ^ 3. Illustrated works.— ^ 4, Tales and poems.— § 5. Jour- 
 nals. Section VI. Historical works, in which the Vaudois are only inciden- 
 tally treated of, but which embody particular views or documents. Chapter I. 
 Works on special subjects.—^ 1. Local History.— § 2. Memoirs and Biogra- 
 phies. Chapter II. Works of a geno-al character.—^ 1. Ecclesiastical His- 
 tories.— § 2. Profane Histories. Section VII. Detached Documents.—^ 1. 
 Collections of Official Papers.— § 2. Collections of Various Documents. 
 
 PART II.— MANUSCRIPT WORKS. Section I. Ancieiit Vaudois MSS, 
 in the Romance language.—^ 1. Origin of these MSS.— § 2. Biblical MSS.— 
 § 3. MSS. of Geneva. -§ 4. MSS. of Dublin.— § 5. MSS. of Cambridge.— 
 § 6. A note of what has been published of these MSS. Section II. MSS. de- 
 posited in different archives. — § 1. Public. — § 2. Private. 
 
898 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [A.PP£I«DIX. 
 
 PART III.— DETACHED PIECES, PUBLISHED AND MANU- 
 SCRIPT. — Chapter I. Confessions of faith, published by the Vaudois or in 
 their name, in different languages. Chapter II. Historic pieces, anterior to the 
 bull of Innocent VIII. against the Vaudois (1487). Besides all which, there 
 remain unpublished fragments of ancient Vaudois books in the Romance lan- 
 guage, and other proof documents, mostly unpublished, of which the narrow 
 limits of this Bibliography do not permit any particular notice. » 
 
 PART I.— PUBLISHED WORKS. 
 
 Section I. — Original authors who have treated specially of the 
 
 history of the vaudois. 
 
 § 1. — Vaudois authors. 
 MIOL, VIGNAUX, PERRIN. 
 
 Perrin. — ** Histoire des Vaudois et des Albigeois, &c., ^ Gendve, pour Mat- 
 thieu Beijon, CIo.IoI.XVIII. (1618)." Two vols., usually bound in one; of 
 XXX, 248, iv, and 333 pages; the last 157 containing the Vaudois books, in 
 the Romance language, with translations. The epistle dedicatory is addressed 
 to Lesdiguieres, and dated from Lyons, in Dauphiny, Ist January, 1618. 
 
 Perrin was not of Vaudois origin (he was bom at Lyons) ; but as the docu- 
 ments of which he made use all came from the valleys (Gilles, p. 383; Perrin, 
 ch. iii., and pp. 57-60), he must be ranked amongst the Vaudois historians. 
 Amongst these historic documents were the memoirs of Vignaux, entitled, 
 De la source, anciennete, doctrine, religion, moeurs, confessions et progris du 
 pcuple surnomme Vaudois, habitant dans les vallees du Piemont. These me- 
 moirs are now lost. A modem author professes to have consulted them, but 
 must have fallen into some mistake. — (Fabre d'Olivet, Les Montagnards des 
 Alpes, i. 26.) Vignaux's Memoirs were, after all, only a translation of a simi- 
 lar work composed in Italian by Jerome Miol, pastor of Angrogna, in 1580 
 (Gilles, p. 383). 
 
 Perrin had also many other documents at his command (see his chapters ii., 
 iii., and vii.) In the Acts of the Synods of Dauphiny (Synod held at Grenoble 
 in 1602) we read, that the pastors of the Embrunois and of the Val Cluson 
 (which was then included in Dauphiny) were requested to collect "all sorts oi 
 documents bearing on the history of the life, doctrine, and persecutions of the 
 Albigeois and the Vaudois." At the synod of Embrun (in 1603) it was resolved 
 to place these docimients in the hands of M. Chamier, pastor at Mont^limart, 
 who had imdertaken to write this history. (L6ger speaks of M. Chamier, P. ii., 
 pp. 257, 258.) M. Chamier devolved this work upon M. Crisson (Synod of 
 Grenoble, 1605), and he again upon Perrin, pastor at Lyons. (See a note at 
 p. 300, of vol. i. of this work.) In 1604, the Vaudois valleys still sent historic 
 documents, which Vignaux himself conveyed to Perrin (Gilles, p. 333). The 
 
 » By a letter recently received from M. Hahn, I learn that there is already a pretty long 
 liat of works on the Vaudois in the NederlaruUch Archie/ voor Kerkelique Geschiednis. Leide 
 VI. 109-132. A number of these works are indicated in Winer's Manual [Handbuch der 
 theologisdien literaiur . . . Third Edition, Leii>8ic, 183S;, section xxii., under the head 
 of the Precursors of the R(formation, and in some other Bibliographical works. 
 
 No. 1.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 399 
 
 Synod of St. I^Iarcelin, held in 1606, exhorted the latter to hasten forward his 
 work. At the Synod of Orpieres, held in 1608, Perrin demanded a sum of 
 money to pay the expense of his researches. He presented the manuscript of 
 his work in 1609, at the Synod of St. Paul-trois- Chateaux. The style of this 
 work was retouched at Geneva, by M. Tronchin.— {Records of the Venerable 
 Company, vol. E, p, 205). The Synod of Tonneins (1614, art. vi.), resolved 
 that a copy should be sent to each pastor of Dauphiny. But it does not appear 
 that this work was generally found to answer the expectations which had been 
 formed of it; for the Synod of Vitr^ (1617, art. iv.), resolved that the work of 
 Perrin should be submitted to the examination of the pastors and professors of 
 Geneva. The result of this examination was not more favourable to it; for the 
 Synod of Charenton (1623, ch. x., art. i.), resolved that the composition of a new 
 history of the Vaudois and Albigeois should be undertaken. (M. Tilloit, of 
 Sedan, was charged with this undertaking. The provinces of Dauphiny were 
 exhorted to send him all the documents which they could collect; but death pre- 
 vented him from carrying the design into eflfect.) 
 
 Besides the sum which Perrin demanded from the Synod of Orpieres, he re- 
 ceived 300 livres from that of Privas (held in 1612, art. iii.) ; and, moreover, 
 he sold his manuscript to the publisher.— (/Jecorrfs of the Ven. Comp. of Geneva, 
 vol. E, p. 203.) Never, perhaps, was the price of a historic work less merited. 
 If Perrin had simply published the documents which had been sent to him, his 
 work would have been of great value, for these documents came direct from the 
 best sources. (The Synod of Mentoules, 1612, resolved that a folio Bible should 
 be sent to a person in Pragela, in return for many manuscripts which he had 
 fmnished to Perrin.) They amounted to the number of twelve MS. volumes 
 vPerrin, pp. 57-60). Not only did Perrin fail to make proper use of his rich 
 materials, but he has even been accused of having employed them unfaithfully. 
 (See in the British Magazine, No. CXIIL, p. 397, a remarkable article by Dr. 
 Todd, on the Boole of George Morel, Dublin Library, class C, Tab. V. No. 18.) 
 
 As an author, Perrin's abilities are very doubtful; but his work is rendered 
 precious by the original fragments of ancient Vaudois treatises at the end of the 
 volume. Perrin is rarely to be met with in public libraries, but not uncommon 
 in private collections. 
 
 GILLES (in Italian, GiLLio; in Latin, ^GIDIUS). 
 
 '♦Histoire ecclesiastique des Eglises r6forra^e3, recueillies en quelques vaU6es 
 de Piedmont et circonvoisines, autrefois appel6es Vaudoises ; commen^ant dds 
 I'an 1160 de nostre seigneur et finissant en I'an 1643; par Pierre Gilles, pasteur 
 de I'Eglise r^formde de La Tour. ... A Gendve, pour Jean de Tournes. . . • 
 MDCXLIV." 1 vol. 4to, of xx, 569, and xlv pages. Reprinted, according to 
 Winer {Handb. der theolog. lit. sect, xx.), in 1655, in 4to, at Geneva. 
 
 The epistle dedicatory, addressed " to the pastors, elders, and deacons, and to 
 all the faithful of the valleys of Piedmont," is dated from La Tour, 27th June, 
 1643, " and in the 72d year of my age." 
 
 The idea of this new history of the Vaudois was conceived immediately after 
 the appearance of the unsatisfactory work of Perrin. In the Acts of the Vaudois 
 Synods (Synod of Pramol, held 15th September, 1620)-" E ordinate, che si nd- 
 urra in scritto, I'historia delle cose avenute in le chiese di queste tre vaUi, dal 
 1600 in qua; e fe dato camgo a M. Pietro Gillio, con I'aiuto di M. Appia, e 
 participatione di M. Gaio, e altri che potrano portare in cid, aiuto opportune, 
 . . . ." &c. 
 
4,00 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appzkdix. 
 
 This history was first writteu in Italian. In 1G27 it was almost completed 
 in that language, and the only question discussed was how Gilles was to be re- 
 munerated for his labours. The Synod of Le Villar (held from 16th to 18th Sep- 
 tember, 1625) resolved, *'che ogni chiesa dari h VhonoTAndo Pietro Gillio, 11 
 compimenti de scudi tre, con li due gia qui dananzi assignati;" from which 
 it appears that, to bear the expense of this history, a contribution of five crowns 
 was imposed upon each Vaudois parish. And, in the Acts of the Synod of 
 1627 (held at Pramol, 13th to 17th Sept.), we read, that this contribution not 
 having been yet all paid, "e ordinato che infra un mese le chiese le piu potenti, 
 habiano da dargli (al reverendo M. Pietro Gillio, per la fatica dell' Historia), 
 U compimento de scudi cinque, e le altre de scudi quatro, senza includemi fior- 
 ino quatro, datti nel principio da ogni chibsa." These first four florins had 
 been given for the purchase of paper. 
 
 But, in 1630, of sixteen Vaudois pastors then living (fifteen of whom were 
 actual pastors and one emeritus, without reckoning the pastor of Roure in Pra- 
 gela), fourteen died of the plague, which carried off more than one-half of the 
 whole population of the Vaudois valleys. Gilles was one of the two who sur- 
 vived (but he lost the four eldest of his sons); he was then 59 years of age, and 
 still continued to preach two or three times on Sabbath and once on each week- 
 day. (See his work, page 516, and in the Israel of the Alps, vol. i. p. 316.) 
 At this time new pastoi-s were brought from Geneva to supply the Vaudois 
 churches. As they were not able to preach except in French, that language 
 became the more prevalent, and Gilles considering that it was also more exten- 
 sively diffused than the Italian, had the resolution to recommence Ms work, 
 and to complete it in the form in which we now possess it. 
 
 He has excellent qualities as a writer; he is energetic and simple, natural 
 and vigorous ; his style can be found fault with only as antiquated and a little 
 difi'use. As an historian, he must be placed in the very highest rank for cor- 
 rectness, impartiality, and moderation. Yet he is rather a chronicler than an 
 historian— he relates in chronological order the events which took place in all 
 the countries with which he has to do. Within the space assigned to each year 
 are to be found bmught together and in succession events occurring in localities 
 between which there was no connection. Thus Gilles, although interesting in 
 every page, produces but a confused impression on the mind of the reader. 
 Different images which succeed one another so rapidly, efface one another to 
 the mental as well as the bodily eye. 
 
 The history of Gilles may be regarded as an original authority for the events 
 which took place from 1550 to 1640. It was put in the Index by tlie court of 
 Eome, as were afterwards the work of L6ger and the volume which I published 
 in 1834. Gilles must be compared with Eorengo, who relates the same events 
 .IS contemplated from another point of view, and who often attempts to refute 
 him, but without success. Rorengo calls him il 2>rofessore Gillio (Dedication, 
 p. 2), and says, "che si vantava d'havere corsa V Italia, VAlemar/na e diversi 
 pam,percercarnuovedottrineovccchi, . . . " &c.— (Rorengo, chap. xv. p. 73.) 
 This proves the learning of our author, and the value which he set upon truth. 
 In the Acts of the Synod, held at Pinache, 1st May, 1607, we read : " E stato 
 proposto da M. Pietro Gillio, ministro della Torre, se sarebbe bene di metter 
 in scritto tutte le difficolta e questione, onde sara trattato nei sinodi, . . . . " 
 &c. This proposal of regular records, made by the first of our historians, was 
 not earned into effect till two centuries after. Two Vaudois pastors contem- 
 porary with Gilles bore the same name with him, viz., Peter Gilles, pastor at 
 MoUnes, and James Gilles, pastor at Angrogna. The latter was suspended 
 
 Kg. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 401 
 
 from his functions for six mouths. I mention them to prevent errors which 
 the sameness of name might cause in reading contemporary documents. 
 
 Gilles is the author of several polemical works, of which the occasion was as 
 follows :— Rorengo had published in 1632 a work against the Vaudois: Breve 
 narratione delVintroductione degl'heretici nelle valli. The minister of Le Villar, 
 Valerius Gros, refuted this work by order of the Synod (L^er, p. 539). Ro- 
 rengo speaks of his reply in Memorie stoi'ichi . . . . , p. 252. Rorengo 
 then associated with himself the prefect of the monks of Pignerol, by name 
 Antonio Lazzari, but who assumed the fictitious name of Theodore Belvidere. 
 They jointly wiote the Lettres apologttiques, which appeared in 1643. (They re- 
 lated to the tone of the Vittoria trimiphale, published by the Cordelier Cas- 
 sini, in 1610). Gilles replied to the Lettres apologetiques by Considerations, 
 which called forth a new reply from the monks, under the title of Turris 
 contra Damascum (published in 1636); and, in reply to this new work, Gilles 
 composed a Latin treatise in thirty -three chapters; but before this treatise 
 was published a fourth publication of the monks, entitled Lucerna ddla 
 Christiana verita, compelled him to resume the pen in order to refute it like- 
 wise. His reply, entitled •Torre evangelica, contained forty-eight chaptei-s. 
 Theodore Belvidere rejoined by himself in Risposta al libro del Sr Gillio tito- 
 lato Torre evangelica. This book was divided into eighteen sections, and dedi- 
 cated to the Society de propaganda fide et extii-pandis hereticis. Gilles replied 
 yet again and refuted it, in an equal number of chapters, in a work of which 
 I know not the title. All these works have become very rare. 
 
 There exists, in the handwriting of Gilles, a manuscript of an ancient Vau- 
 dois Discipline, drawn from the Acts of Synod previous to 1564, by the minister 
 Humbert Raymond, and completed by our author under this title: **Les or- 
 donnances eccldsiastiques, faictes par nos tre'shonor^s Pferes et Frbres, ministres 
 de la ParoUe de Dieu, aux valle'es de Luzerne, St. Martin, P^rouse, Cluson, 
 et Marquizat . . . transcriptes en co present livre par moy, Pierre Gilles, 
 secre'taire, I'an 1610, par le commandement du Synode." From 1615 to 1630 
 Gilles was almost always moderator of the Vaudois church. The republica- 
 tion of his history was recently undertaken by Mrs. Jenkinson, a benefactress 
 of the Vaudois valleys. The first ten chapters alone have been reprinted. 
 
 L K G E R. 
 
 "Histoire g^n^rale des Eglises EvangC'liques des valines du Pigment, ou 
 Vaudoises . . . par Jean L^ger, pasteur et moderateur des Eglises des valines, 
 et depuis la violence de la persecution, appel6 a I'Eglise Wallonne de Leyde, 
 Chez Jean le Carpentier, 1669." Two volumes fol.; vol. I., of xxxviii and 
 212 pages, and vol. II., of xvi, 385, and vi pages.^ These two volumes are 
 ordinarily bound in one. The work is accompanied with a map of the valleys, 
 pasted on cloth, and sufiiciently exact, with vignettes, representing various 
 tortures inflicted on the Vaudois martyrs ; and a false title-page, a copperplate, 
 representing two old men who each bear a medallion, between which a drapery 
 falls down, inscribed with the title of the work. The medallion on the right 
 exhibits a lily surrounded with thorns, with this motto, Luctor et emergo; that 
 on the left a burning bush, with the words, Quamvis uror non comburor. The 
 figures of the old men trample under foot the emblems of Popery; and in the 
 
 I This history was ti-anslated into German by Hans Fredeiic von Schwenitz, with a pre- 
 face by Sigismund James Baumgart«n. Breslau, 1T60. Two vols. 4to. 
 
 Vol. II. ^^ 
 
402 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [ArrKiroiz. 
 
 space between them, beneath the drapery which they sustain, are to be seen a 
 bishop, a soldier, and a monk, who strike upon an anvil, under which is written, 
 Tritantur mallei, remanet incua. Towards the top of the page, an escutcheon, 
 supported by two genii, exhibits a candlestick surrounded by seven stars, with this 
 inscription, AntiqiM convallium insignia, and this motto, Litx lueet in tenebris. 
 
 The work of L^er is, in fact, only a history of the persecution of 1655, or 
 rather a very confused collection of docvmients relative to that event. In the 
 first part, he has reprinted the Vaudois treatises in the Romance language which 
 had been published by Perrin, adding a fragment of La Nohla Leyczon, and a 
 few other documents. Leger is the most diffuse, and one of the most superficial 
 of all our historians. He owes his importance partly to the epoch in which he 
 wrote, and to the imposing form of his work. He is often incorrect, credulous, 
 and carried away by his feelings; but the latter fault was almost inevitable in 
 a contemporary author, himself the victim of the events which he records. I 
 shall not here give any particulars of his life, for he has himself taken care to 
 include his biography in the last chapter of his work, and so much of it as con- 
 cerns the history has been already given in the first volume of the I^ael of the 
 Alps (part ii., ch. x.) L6ger published separately a Remonstrance pour les 
 Vallees on occasion of divers infractions of the patents of Pignerol, and an 
 Apologie des Eglises du Piemont (anonymous : Haarlem, 1662, 4to, p. 39), which 
 has for its object only his own vindication. I know not the precise date of his 
 death; bub thirteen years after the publication of his hbtory, he no longer 
 survived, for, vmder date 27th August 1684, we meet with a royal decree, in 
 which mention is made of the property of the late Jean L£g£B (Turin, Archives 
 of the Court of Accounts, Regio controrollo, Finanze: 1684, No. 179, fol. 55). 
 
 L6ger's History was reprinted at Lyons, in one vol. folio, in 1799; and 
 
 translated into German, Breslau, 1750, in 4to. Antoine L6ger, the uncle of 
 
 the historian, wrote some sermons, which were published two years after his 
 death, with the title, Sermons sur divers textes de VEcriture Sainte, par A. Leger, 
 pasteur etprofesseur en theologie, Geneva, 1720, three vols. 8vo." 
 
 ARNAUD. 
 
 **Histoirede la glorieuse rentr6e des Vaudois dans leurs vallees . . . le 
 tout recueilli des m6moires qui ont 6t6 fidelement faits, de tout ce qui s'est 
 pass6 dans cette guerre des Vaudois, et mis au jour par Henri Amaud, pasteur 
 et colonel des Vaudois, MDCCX." One vol. large 12mo, of xxxiii, 65, and 407 
 pages. The place of publication not named. The following opinion has been 
 expressed in a journal: — "This volume, according to all the typographical 
 indications, was printed at Basle, by Brandmiiller, or some other master." 
 (Etrennes nation^les, faisant suite au Conservateur Suisse . . . Lausanne 1845, 
 chez Bridel, p. 126.) I was informed by the late pastor Mondon, who suc- 
 ceeded a son of Amaud, in the Vaudois colony of Gros Villar (Wiirtemberg), 
 that this volume was printed at Cassel. 
 
 The memoirs of which mention is made in the title, and of which the author 
 made use, were — (1.) The Journal of the Expedition, written daily by Paul 
 Reynaudin, who suspended his theological studies at Basle, to follow his com- 
 patriots when they went to reconquer their native valleys (Amaud, p. 175). He 
 resumed his studies in 1692, and published his inauguration thesis in 1694, 
 entitled Dissertatio de Valdensibus. He was settled as pastor at Pral in 1695, 
 at Rocheplate in 1702, and at Bobi in 1705. There he ended his days in 1736, 
 having long been moderator of the Vaudois church. (2.) Personal Memoirs, 
 
 No l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 403 
 
 ^tten by F.n,ois Hugues (- «-> ^^^^^^^^^^ tt^ 
 
 A Narrative (Relation) ^'^^'^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Hague (by Olivier le J^^^^^^^j^^^^^^^ "lished at the end of the volume, 
 from p. 281 to p. 297. (4.) Pnvate letters, puDi ^^ 
 
 A number of authors have ^-^^^^"^^^^^^^^^ of that celebrated 
 
 others, Mr. Bracebridge, l^^^^^'^^^^^S^T^^^^^ Recovery by the 
 
 man; and Mr. Acland, who translated hrs work i ^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 ^:^;J:^-:^^^^ - -d volmne ;f the W of the Alps, 
 
 and youth of Amaud, is -^f -te^cL t^^^^^^^ ''''' ^^^^ 
 
 the Vaudois pastors aasembled^a^L^a^^^^^^ ^, ,,^ ,,,,,, ,, 
 
 he was obliged to leave '"^l^^^^ZloUsa birth This document is a. 
 1st July, 1698, banishmg all persons oi loreib 
 
 follows : — 
 
 •^ upon their departure from these countries. 
 
 -TT 1 • \A^r.c nf tViP evan"-elical church of St. John, 
 ..We, pastors of *e Jaudo'S^We" »f t^J^»»;' ^^^ ,^,,, ^r. Be.ry 
 
 .„a directors of the ^"^^f^^f ^dri^a^V . nativ^ in the valley of 
 Arnavd is the son of »•'» ^^^ ""^ J'™"" .„„„t \^i of the late Margaret 
 Ambmn in Dauphiny, and f .^''^'^^^Xl^^f^erly resident at Drmier 
 
 in the .W«ri»«a,e 0/ ^^^-^—^^ fi„t elements of instruction; 
 
 schools of these valleys *;^,*\Tp3ht studies there, taking advantage of 
 
 and he was ^^.f °^*° ^?!'^ *Xu^ .^lers of that canton a« good enough 
 the charitable -d wh.ch «^ J^tno^ ru ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 to give to our «.f "^^ "^J" J^^^^ ,,t, h,, studies there ; after which he was 
 to the university of tfmera, to comp ^^ ^^j_ ^ 
 
 .eceived a« a pasWr conjo. t ly - -.^^^^^''^^ ^^^^^ ^„, ^^ fie 
 
 the year 1670. Ihe service principal communes of our vaUeys, 
 
 '"'T'f "w":^'t:i :f:S het ow Itr^Mch, to our great regret, he . 
 concluding with that oi w nicu uc r hicrhness. It is impos- 
 
 -rr \ t; h^wtrr t Tistu :;a:.ir whrch depnves us of hU 
 Bible for us to say how painim lo r ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 useful and ac^ptable s^^. J"^'^^^;"^;, auties has always, and in all 
 
 we must »l»'"»e«'»« *t r.1,^ oTall other occasions which presented 
 places, been iuaxhausUble and that on all ottc ^^^^^ 
 
 then^elves of advancing the g 0,7 of a^^^^^^ 
 
 sons and two daughters, besides bis -""^^ J . . „„„nti7), have always 
 
 of one of the most ancient and principal ^^^^^J" *'7^^, Z. and respect 
 set an example not common '^""^ !=• ^"1^0 Lord so to order things in 
 which we have for them aU, -^'f^'^y^^te consolation of seeing them 
 his grace, that we may yet »— ^'^ ™ j^at the times may change, 
 
 again return among us '''^ • ^^^' —^Ct! on ih^ coutraiy. we reserve to 
 we have not bade them a final farewell, out, ^ 
 
 ourselves the right ^ -^ j:-^,"^ p^y XCf High that he maybe 
 ^pirrdth^iSiX'goorstgo'with^hL and to preserve them, whereso. 
 
 -!ST:rat™=:r ":1C of S. .olm, m the vaUey of Lucema. 
 
404; 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [Appskdiz. 
 
 the 22d of August of the year 1698.— i). Mger, G. Malanot, L. Bertin, 
 J. Jakier, B. Jahicr, R. Reinoudin, ministers of the Vaudois of the communes 
 of Bobi, Angrogna, Macel, Pramol, St. Germain, and Prals, in the valley of 
 St. Martin; B. Belione Capine, Monsieur Bartie, lieutenant, keeper of accounts, 
 JD. Pai-issa, D. Daenna, elders. 
 
 " We, foreign pastors from Switzerland and Geneva, serving in the com- 
 munes of the valley of Lucerna, confirm with the greatest pleasure the present 
 certificate, and all that it contains, granted in favour of M. Arnaud and his 
 family. We have been extremely edified by the conduct of Madame Arnaud 
 and her children, and have received a thousand evidences of their friendship 
 since our arrival in these valleys. We earnestly pray God in his goodness to 
 be with them during all the journey whic% Madame Arnaud is ready to under- 
 take with her family.— Given at Clos, the 28th of October, in the year 1699. 
 /. Senehier, J. De Cappet, J. Du Bois, P. P. Du Toit, P. Bud, pastors of the 
 churches of La Tour, St. John, Bobi, Rocheplatte, Prarustln, and ViUeseche." 
 
 M. Arnaud very soon afterwards retired to Germany, and became pastor at 
 Durmentz. In 1703, political events permitted hun to resume the exercise 
 of the ministry in the Vaudois valleys. We find him stiU pastor at St. John, 
 in 1706. Next year he went to London, where Van Somer took his portrait! 
 He afterwards returned to the valleys, but was again compelled to leave them 
 in 1709. William III. then invited him to his court, and gave him a colonel's 
 commission ; but Arnaud preferred to return to Germany . Queen Anne granted 
 him a pension of £226 sterling, and he died at Schonbei-g in 1721, aged eighty 
 years. 
 
 There are several portraits of him. The best is that which was drawn and 
 engraved on copper at London by Van Somer, an oval medallion of 116 mUU- 
 metres in height, and 112 in breadth, with only this inscu^iion—Hmry Arnaud , 
 Vaudois pastor. 
 
 The Glorious Return of the Vaudois, by Arnaud, has become very rare. Two 
 copies of this work were sold in London, in 1829 and 1832, the one for 
 £5, ds. IQd. and the other for £8, \Qs. id. It was reprinted in 1845, by Altin- 
 ger, at Neufchatel, with a preface by F. de Rougemont, in large 18m'o, xii and 
 251 pages. The original autograph MS. of this work is deposited in the Royal 
 Library of Berlin. 
 
 RECENT AUTHORS. 
 
 1. "Defense historique des Vaudois, ou lettres h. Mgr I'^vSque Bigex, sur 
 I'origine, la doctrine et les moeura des Vaudois, par Petran, Moddrateur des 
 Eglises Vaudoises." Published at London by Mr. Sims, in 1826.— These 
 letters were written in 1818, in reply to a pastoral of Monseigneur Bigex, 
 Bishop of Pignerol. They display spirit and learning. 
 
 2. " Expose historique de I'etat des Vaudois, dans les valines du Pigment, 
 par M. Peliegrin." 12mo; Haarlem, 1824. The profits of this pamphlet were 
 destined to assist in the foundation of the hospital of La Tour. It produced 
 about £80.— M. Peliegrin is also the author of an arithmetical work for the 
 use of the Vaudois schools (Turin, Pomba and Co., 1836; two small 18mo vols.), 
 and of a collection of Scripture narratives, entitled Bible de la jeunesse, two 
 thick 12mo vols, of 540 and 640 pages. (Amsterdam, published by Delachaux. 
 1830.) 
 
 3. "Considerations sur les Vaudois du Pigment, par TimoMon Peyran." 
 Geneva, 1825; 8vo, pp. 94. It is a theological thesis. 
 
 No. T.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 405 
 
 other theses have been maintained by Vaudois on subjects borrowed from 
 the h"of heir country.-BASTiE, Diss.^tationis hi.t..co.theoloo^c.d^ 
 ValdensiZs pars prima (on their origin and their .^ioctnn^)^^^^^^^^^^ o^^-j 
 agcns de afflictionibu. . . . • &c. Basle, 1700; mamtamed against M 
 Werenfelsius, 13th and 14th March. 1700.-This ^erenfelsms is the au^^^^^^ 
 an elegy in Latin verse, Ad Valles Pedemonta^ remarkable ^-'^^^^l 
 duction Bastie had a stroke of apoplexy in February, 1727, and lived a num 
 ber of years afterwards deprived of his reason. FeUses 
 
 4. '^Le livre de famiUe, ou instructions famUi^res sur l^istoxre des ^g^^^ 
 Vaudoises ... par Pierre Bert, ancien moderateur, . . . &c. 12m^ oi 
 105 pages. Geneva. Barbezat. 1830.-M. Bert was an author and an o ajor 
 
 more"^ distinguished than might be supposed ^-7. ^^^ Pf^^f ^'i.*^^^^^^ 
 author also of the translation of The Gospel accord.^ to St. John^nto the pre 
 sent dialect of the Valleys, printed at London in 1830; 8vo pp. 23 U 
 
 5 -Histoire des Vaudois des valines du Pi^mont, et de leurs co omes 
 dep;is let origine jusqu' a nos jours, par Alexis Muston, docteiir^n th.o^^^ 
 Tom i 8vo of XX and 528 pages, with map and fac-simile.-The publication 
 wIcontlL no farther tlJ this fir.t volume; but the w^ol-ork was U^n 
 UP anew upon another plan, with more abundant materials more cnticaUy 
 ^'ei^hed in 'the Isbak. o'p the Alps. The following parts of t,^ work have 
 appeared separately :-(l.) " Siloe des Alpes ; <>^ ^^^^^ ^^!^^ ^^, ^.^^^^^^t 
 u!Ltes dans I'Eglise vaudoise, depuis les premiers siecles J-^-^/^^^^^^^^ 
 tion " (2 ) " Les parfums de Thysope ; ou la foi dans les solitudes , histoirede 
 ^gllse vaudoise dL les Hautes-Alpes." (Val Lou^e, Freyssxnieres^^^^^^^^^^ 
 &c ) (3 ) •« Les t^moins du Seigneur ; histoire des Vaudois pers6cut6s en Pro 
 vence" (4.) "La couronne d' 6piiies; histoire des Vaudois persecute en 
 Cakbre etmartyre admirable de Jean-Louis Paschal, leur pasteur." (5 ) ' Le 
 mttrs' VaudoiJ; ou les confesseurs de la v6rit6 dans les valines ^u Piemont 
 rf" Les lys d'Israel, abattus par Vorage ; histoire des Eglises vaudoises dans 
 uLv^^c de Saluces et dans la plaine du Pi6mont." (7.) ''La foi dans les 
 ipr'euves; ou la crueUe pei.6cution et la glorieuse defense des Jaudois, en 
 1560 " (8 ) "LesPaquesPi6montaises; oule massacre des Vaudois duPiemont, 
 Pn 1655 " (9 ) "Le bras de Dieu dans la persecution: histoire de 1 heroique 
 r^fense des laLs vaudoises, par ^0-6 Jana..!.'' (100'^ Le^ 'f^^:Z 
 rexpulsion, I'exil, et la rentr^e des Vaudois de ^^^^ ^}^^\J]!'\..^''?^ 
 
 histoire des vicissitudes de I'Eglise vaudoise. de 1560 k 1650. (14. La terre 
 de s^^^^^^^^^ et la ten. promise: ou les vaU.es Vaudoises depuis le sejour de 
 FeUx Neff dans les Alpes, jusqu' ^ I'.mancipation civile et politique des 
 
 ''tZ^'^y^ en Calabre au quatorzieme siMe. A. inter- 
 esting work, inserted in the Mvue sume, t. 11. pp. 64/-6.8 and 687 709 
 T''- Histoire de I'Eglise vaudoise, depuis son origme, et des Vaudois du 
 PiLont jusqu' a nos jours, avec im appendice, &c.; par Antoine Mokastieb, 
 ^c"n pieur du canton de Vaud et originaire des valines Vaudoises du P16- 
 T" Toulouse 1847; 2 vols. 8vo (the first of 362, and the second of 
 ^sT .ac^es^-Th" work published by the Religious Tract Society of Toulouse, 
 hL W translated into'English by the Religious Tract Society of London 
 i^is 1 vol 12mo of 432 pages. The first thirteen chapters conUin general 
 oLeVatLt on t^e origin ll doctrine of the Vaudois. The last 153 pages of 
 
406 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [appkndix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 407 
 
 the second volume contain a reprint of a number of Vaudois works in the 
 Rf-mance tongue already known, including, amongst others, the poetic fragments 
 published by Raynouard (Choix de poesies originales des Troubadours, t. ii.. 
 Monuments primitifs de la langue romane). M. Monastier proposes some well 
 considered modifications of Raynouard's translatiors. The variations which he 
 suggests of the Romance text are less happy. The notes which he has appended 
 to the treatise On Antichrist (pp. 323-363), and, above all, his commentary on 
 the book On Purgatory (pp. 365-375), deserve the careful attention of all who 
 study this subject. The work of M. Monastier is an authority for the facts of 
 modern history recorded in his last two chapters. 
 
 8. Bert, " I Valdesi, ossiano i christian! secondo la chiesa primitiva, abi- 
 tanti le cosi dette valli di Piemonte, cenni storici, da Amedeo Bert, ministro 
 del culto valdese, e capellano dalle Legazioni protestanti a Torino." Turin, 
 1849; 1 vol. 8vo, of xxxv and 498 pages. This work contains a general 
 sketch of the history of the Vaudois, derived from the works of previous his- 
 torians, and with the same gaps which they had left. There would have seemed 
 to be a disproportion between the brief notices of the first chapters and the often 
 minute details of the latter ones, if the author's very object had not been the 
 more particular exhibition of the events of modem times. He is the first writer 
 whose work can be reckoned an authority in matters relative to the civil and 
 political em.-'.ncipation of the Vaudois. This interesting volume is accompanied 
 with a happy selection of proof documents, of which a considerable number had 
 never before been published. In particular, it contains (from page 386 to page 
 390) some very important passages, very skilfully arranged by the learned author, 
 to throw light upon the ancient autonomy of the diocese of Milan, to which 
 the Vaudois valleys at an early period belonged, and which was then so far 
 from submitting to the supremacy of the Holy See, that it was completely 
 independent of the Romish church properly so called. M. Amadeus Bert is the 
 son of the author of the Livre de famille above-mentioned ; but / Valdesi is a 
 much more important work, and has unquestionably exercised a greater influence 
 in Italy than other works of the same kind written in foreign languages. An 
 incidental remark (in p. 310, line 12) leads me to make an observation here on 
 the subject of language— that the patois of the Vaudois valleys has a radical 
 structure far more regular than the Piedmontese idiom. The origin of this 
 patois was anterior to the growth of Italian and of French— antecedent even to 
 the Romance language, whose earliest documents exhibit still more analogy 
 with the present language of the Vaudois mountameers, than with that of the 
 troubadours of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The existence of this 
 patois is of itself a proof of the high antiquity of these mountaineers, and of 
 their constant preservation from foreign intermixtures and changes. Their 
 popular idiom is a precious monument. 
 
 § 2. — Anonymous Vaudois Authors. 
 
 1. "Histoire des persecutions et guerres, faites depuis I'an 1555 jusques en 
 I'an 1561, contre le peuple appel6 Vaudois . . . &c." With this motto, "II 
 n'est point diflBcile au Seigneur de sauver un grand nombre de gens ou un petit." 
 (1 Sam. ii. 6; 2 Chron. xiv. 11.) Printed in MDLXII. (place not given), lai^ 
 8vo, pp. 173. Translated into Latin, by Christopher Richard, Geneva, 1581, 
 Svo. I do not know the name of the author, but the materials of this work 
 had certainly been derived from the valleys. (See the authorities of Chap. i. of 
 Part II. of the Israel of the Alps.) 
 
 2. " Relation veritable de ce qui s'est pas86 dans les persecutions et massacres 
 
 faits, cette ann^, aux Eglises r^form^es de Pi6mont; avec la refutation des 
 calomnies dont les adversaires de la v6rit6 tachent de les noircir.' Without 
 place of pubUcation: MDCLV, 4to of 84 pages, but divided into two parts, of 
 which the first ends in p. 54. The second is entitled, "Suite de la Relation, 
 contenant une succincte refutation de I'invective du Marquis de Pianesse . . . 
 d quoi est ajoutee une brieve confession de foi, des Eglises reform6es des vaU6e8 
 du Pi6mont." This confession, which concludes the work, is the same which 
 is also published by L§ger (Part I. p. 112-116), and which the Synod of 1839 
 declared to be the purest expression of Bible doctrine at all times maintained by 
 the Vaudois church. (See, in regard to this, a note in this work. Part III. 
 Chap, xxiv.) It is not known where, nor how, nor by whom this confession 
 of faith was composed. It is probable that it was composed at Geneva; for, in 
 the year 1655, it is impossible to find any time or circumstances which would 
 admit of its being drawn up in the valleys. Ldger, moreover, does not say that 
 it was composed by the Vaudois, but only that it was pMished by them' (Part 
 I. p. 112). But if we do not know the authors and the origin of this confession, 
 there can be no doubt that it was composed by Calvinists. (See Part III. 
 Chap. i. No. 12, of this BibUography.) I place this work amongst those of 
 anonymous Vaudois authors, because the author makes the Vaudois speak m it 
 in their own name (see pp. 79 and 84); but it does not, therefore, cert,ainly 
 follow that the author was a Vaudois. L6ger calls this work " the manifesto 
 of the Vaudois churches" (Part I. p. 112); and in his Biography, he says, in 
 1655, " I wrote my first and largest manifesto in twice twenty-four hours . . . 
 and sent it to Geneva to be printed ... but this these gentlemen would not 
 permit" . .' . (Part II. p. 365). I do not know if it was printed elsewhere; but 
 L6ger adds that they did not send him back his manuscript (p. 366). He com- 
 posed a second manifesto at Paris, which was printed in all languages (Ibid. p. 
 356. (See the authorities for Chap. vii. of Part II. of the Israel of the Alps.) 
 The Relation now in question cannot be this second manifesto, because it was 
 printed at Geneva, and not at Paris. It appears to me, therefore, impossible, 
 in the present state of Vaudois bibliography, to determine the origin of this 
 work, and of the Confession of Faith with which it concludes. The Confession, 
 however is a mere reproduction, often in exact words, of the Confession of 
 Rochelle. (See Part II. Chap. i. No. 12, of this Bibliography.) 
 
 3 "Apologie des EgUses 6vang6Uque3 des valines de Pi6mont, faite en 
 defense de I'innocence de Sr Jean L^ger, pasteur de I'EgUse reformee de saint 
 Jean contre les impostures de Michel Villeneuve, Jean Vertu et semblables 
 faussaires, apostes et stipendies," . . . &c. Translated from the Italian edition, 
 printed at Haarlem, by Jacob Alberts, in 1662, 4to, pp. 39. . , ^ 
 
 This Apology is from the pen of L6ger himself (p. 371), and was signed by 
 all the members of the Vaudois synod, held at Angrogna, in the quarter of Les 
 Malans, 13th September, 1661. The Italian edition, printed at Haarlem, is a 
 
 4to of 16 leaves, unpaged. 
 
 4 "Apologia deUe chiese Riformate del Piemonte, circa la loro confessione 
 di fede e la continua successione di esse, tanto ne statu del Paese, quanto ne 
 valdesi. contra le gmvillationi e calonni^ del Priore Marco Aurelio R^rengo di 
 Lucema: in Geneva, appresso Fraiicesco Bouvaxd anno 1662 Small ^vo of 
 xxxviii and 156 pages. Rorengo had alleged that the Confession of Faith 
 already mentioned (§ 2, No. ii.) was not agreeable to the ancient Vaudois doc- 
 
 . According to the usual style of L6ger, and Btill more certainly according to the facts of 
 the case, th^ words, publUhed by tlu Vavdois, ought not to mean and could not mean more 
 than published in name of the Vaudois. 
 
408 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [ArmrDiz. 
 
 trines, nor to the Bible, nor to reason, and that it was not the work of the 
 Vaudois. His observations are intermingled with many sarcasms, in bad taste. 
 His work is entitled, " Esame intorno alia nuova breve confessione di fede, dello 
 chiese riformate di Piemonte, in cui si fa conoscer alii professori d'essa distrutta 
 con la novita la pretesa antica confessione. Del Priore Marc' Aurelio Rorengo; 
 de Conti di Lusema; in Torino par Carlo Gianelli, 1658." Small 4to pp. 48. 
 To this work, that now in question is the Vaudois reply, but I know not the 
 name of the author. 
 
 5. "Tres humble remontrance touchant le pitoyable 6tat oil se trouvent 
 d. present i^duites les pauvres Eglises evang^liques des vallees de Pidmont, h 
 cause de I'alt^ration et violation de leurs concessions, et particulierement de la 
 patente de 1655. . . A Haarlem. . . 1662." Unpaged; 4to, 1^ leaves. This 
 Jtemonstrance was composed by order of the Vaudois synod of November, 1661. 
 
 6. "E^cit de ce qu'il y a de plus considerable aux affaires des Eglises r^- 
 form^es des vallees de Piedmont, depuis les massacres de I'annde 1655. . . . 
 A Haarlem, 1663." Small 4to, of iv and 60 pages— The title of this work is 
 much longer than what I have here given. The particulars which the work con- 
 tains, and the guarded language employed with reference to the Piedmontese 
 authorities, are my sole reasons for ascribing this work to a Vaudois author. 
 But it does not seem probable that a stranger could have been acquainted with 
 such details, and still less is it probable that a stranger would have thought it 
 requisite to express himself in such guarded terms. The same observation applies 
 to the work following, 
 
 7. "Histoire de la persecution des v^l6es de Pi^mont, contenant ce qui 
 8'est passe dans la dissipation des Eglises et des habitants de ces vall6es, arriv6 
 en ran 1686." Rotterdam, MDCLXXXIX. ; 4to, pp. 36.-This work was 
 translated into German, and published in that language in 1690, in an 18mo 
 vol. of 155 pages. See the authorities of Chap. xiv. of Part II. of the Isi^ad of 
 the A Ips. 
 
 8. "Cinq lettres, par un Vaudois des Gaules Cisalpines, sur quelques pages 
 d'un Uvre intitule : Histoire geographique, naturelle, &c." ... For 
 (the title of this latter work, see Sect. vi. § 1, No. 14, of this Bibliography). 
 
 An 8vo pamphlet of 74 pages, printed in 1784, but the place not named.— 
 It is an excellent dissertation on the origin, manners, doctrine, and antiquity 
 of the Vaudois. It has been ascribed to Marauda, the author of the Tableau, 
 du Piemont sous k rigime des vols; but it is reaUy from the pen of Paul Appia 
 whose unpublished memoirs have frequently been quoted in the Israel of the Alps, 
 Part III. Chaps, xxi. and xxii. (Marauda is also a Vaudois writer; but as he 
 has produced no work specially devoted to the subject of the Vaudois, his writ- 
 ings do not fall to be included in the present category. See Sect. vi. § 1, No. 15.) 
 
 9. "Histoire des Vaudois ou des habitants des valines occidentales du 
 Pi6mont, qui ont conserve le christianisme dans toute sa purete et h, travers 
 plus de trente persecutions, depuis les premiers siecles de son existence jusqu' h 
 nos jours, sans avoir participe k aucune reforme." Two vols. 8vo; without 
 date or place of publication— the first volume consisting of xxv and 132 pages 
 and the second of 268-commonly bound in one. (The second volume bears on 
 Its title-page seconde partie, and not tome 2.) This work was printed at Lau- 
 sanne. by Luquiens, and was sold at Paris by Marandan, in 1796. In p xxiv 
 line 24, are the words— "The celebrated martyr of the same name with myself 
 GuidoBrez." . . . And it has therefore been supposed that the name of the 
 author was GuidoBrez; but this is a mistake. His name was /awe« ^m. Bar- 
 bier, m his Dicfionnaire des anonpnes, No. 7979, says that he died in 1800. 
 
 No L] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 409 
 
 Gurnard, in La France litteraire, 1 508, says, 1810: The exact date was 1809, and 
 the place Middleburgh, in Holland. His work treats of the history of the Vau- 
 dois only to the year 1655. He had composed the sequel to 1088. This unpub- 
 lished part, which I possess in MS., consists of seven chapters in 104 folio pages. 
 Neither the manuscript nor the printed work contains any new fact. Brez pub- 
 lished also La Flore des insectophiles precMee d'un discours sur Vutilite des in- 
 sectes et de Vetude de I'insectologie, par Jaques Br^z. Utrecht, 1791; 1 voL 
 8vq, pp. 524. His History of the Vaudois was translated into German. 8vo; 
 Leipsic, 1798. 
 
 § Z.— Original authors not natives of the vaUeys, who have written in a spirit 
 
 favourable to the Vaudois. 
 
 1. Camebabius, "De excidio reliquiarum Valdesium . . . lugubris nar- 
 ratio." Heidelberg, 1606. Composed by Joachim; published thirty years after 
 the death of the author by his nephew Louis.— This work relates to the Vaudois 
 of Provence, and is to be found in the Historica narratio . . . Joachimi 
 Camerarii . . . defratrum orthod. Ecclesiis in Bohemia, p. 303. 
 
 2. RiCHABD, " Memorabilis historia persecutionum bellorumque in populum 
 vulgo Valdenses appellatum," &c. Geneva, 1631. One volume, printed in 
 italics; small 8vo, pp. 151. — With a few additional details, this work is merely 
 a translation of the Histoire memorable de la guerre faite par le due de Savoie^ 
 Emmanuel Philibert, centre ses subjects des vallees d'Angrogne, .... &c. 
 MDLXII.; without place of publication; small 8vo, pp. 30.— And this latter 
 work is itself only an amplified translation of the Storia dell' ultima guerra, &c., 
 published in 1561. (See the authorities of Chaps, i. and ii. of the Second Part 
 of the Israel of the Alps, and No. 2 of § 2 of this section.) 
 
 3. MOBLAND, " The History of the Evangelical Churches of the vallej's of 
 Piemont, containing . . . and punctual relation of the late bloody massacres," 
 London, 1658. One vol., small folio, pp. Ix and 709.— This work is analo- 
 gous to that of Leger, but it appeared before his. It relates especially to the 
 persecution of 1655. Morland was a very young man when he composed this 
 work. He had been sent by Cromwell to the court of Turin, as ambassador 
 extraordinary, on the subject of the Vaudois. 
 
 4. " Brief discours des persecutions advenues aux Eglises du Marquisat de 
 Saluces." Geneva (chez Paul Marceau), MDCXX. One vol. 32mo, pp. 132. 
 Followed by an account of the massacres in the Valteline. — A work composed 
 by order of the synod of Dauphiny, held at Brian9on, 30th June, 1620. (See 
 the Archives of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva. Register F, 
 folio 8, left-hand page.) 
 
 6. " History of the Vaudois persecution in Piedmont," in German, published 
 in 1690; 12mo (library of Berne).— With a few additional details, it is a transla- 
 tion of the work noticed in this section, § 2, No. 8. The same may be said 
 of another German work, entitled. The Palm Tree of Christian Truth; or, the 
 Persecutions of the Protestants and the Vaudois; 12mo, Nurnberg, MDCXC. 
 
 6. " Histoire de la negociation des ambassadeurs envoyes au due de Savoie, 
 par les Cantons EvangeUques, I'annee 1686." Basle, MDCXC; 1 vol. 32mo, 
 pp. 172. 
 
 7. " Histoire d'une ambassade des Cantons. Evangeiiques de la Suisse, au 
 due de Savoie, en 1655," inserted in the Revue Suisse, t. iii. p. 260. (Con- 
 cerning the events of the year 1655, see the authorities of Chaps. vi.-ix. of 
 Part II. of this work.) 
 
 Vol. IL 113 
 
■\ 
 
 410 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appkmjix- 
 
 8. " Le banisseinent des gens de la religion pr6tendue re'form^e, hors des estats 
 du due de Savoye, le tout selon I'ordonnance et arrest de I'inquisition et sdnat 
 de Piedmont." Paris, 1619. Small 12mo.— It relates to the Vaudoia of Saluces. 
 
 9. "Lettres des fideles du marquisat de Saluces . . . contenantes I'his- 
 toire de leurs persecutions . . . et des deux martyrs . . ." &c. Geneva, 
 1619. (See the authorities of Chap ix. of Part I.) 
 
 10. " Lettre des fideles des Vallees de Piemout a MM. lea Etats G^ne'raux 
 des Provinces-Unies des Pays-Bas." 1655. (For other original works relating 
 to the same period see the authorities of Chap vi. of Part II.) 
 
 11. "Relation en abr^ge de ce qui s'est passe' de plus rdmarquable dans le 
 retour des Vaudois au Piemont . . ." &c. Tiie Hague, 1690. (See authori- 
 ties of Chap. iii. of Part III.) 
 
 12. " Sommaire de letat de hx religion dans la vallee de PrageLi, ..." &c. 
 Small 4to, without date or place of publication. ^I place this work amongst 
 those favourable to the Vaudois, because it is impartial in its statements of 
 facts, and free from bitterness and passion in its style, although the author 
 was a Catholic and personally hostile to the Vaudois doctrines.) 
 
 13. "Notice sur I'etat actuel des Eglises vaudoises Protestantes des valle'ea 
 du Piemont, suivic des ordonnauces intole'rantes, rendues contre ces chr^tiens," 
 &c. Paris, 1822, 8vo. (SSee mention made of a number of similar works in 
 Chaps, xxiii. and xxiv. of Part III. of the Israel of the Alps.) 
 
 14. MosEB, *' History of the Vaudois and of their admission into the 
 Duchy of Wiirtemberg, derived from the most authentic documents." (In Ger- 
 man.) Zurich, 1798, one vol. small 8vo. pp. 558; containing proof documents 
 to the nimiber of xix. — Moser was far advanced in years when he composed 
 this work ; he promised a continuation of it, but did not publish it. His book 
 is therefore fur from being a complete storehouse of materials relative to the 
 Vaudois colonies in Wiirtemberg. 
 
 15. DiETERici, " History of the Introduction of the Vaudois into Branden- 
 burg." (In German.) Berlin, 1831 ; 1 vol. 8vo, of xx and 414 pages.— Con- 
 tains a general sketch of the history of the Vaudois, and an analysis of a great 
 number of letters relative to their introduction into Brandenburg. 
 
 16. ''Memoires sur I'arrivee des Vaudois k Stendal," contained in the 
 sixth volume of Erman and Heclam. " Memoires pour servir a I'histoire des 
 r^fugies francjais dans les 6tats du roi " (the King of Prussia).— The most in- 
 teresting part of the preceding work is borrowed from this. The memoirs of 
 an exile {Memorie di me Bartolomeo Salvajot), a manuscript which extends from 
 1686 to 1688, complete this narrative. 
 
 N.B.— For completion of this paragi-aph, see part of the authorities of Chaps. 
 V. and vi. of Part I. of the Israel of the Alps, and also those of Chap. viii. of 
 Part III. 
 
 g 4. Original' A uthors, not natives of the Valleys, who have written in a 
 
 spirit unfavourable to the Vaudois. 
 
 1. Albert Cattan£e (called De Capitane'is), " De ortu et deletione Val- 
 densium."— On the events of 1437-1489. Memoirs inserted in the Bist. . . . 
 chap. viii. par Guill. de Saligny. . . . Le tout recueilli par feu M. Godefroy. 
 . . . MDCLXXXIV. Paris, imprimeine royale, folio, of xiv and 759 pages. 
 (See at page 277.)— Cattanee had been specially delegated by Pope Inno- 
 cent VIII. to exterminate the Vaudois. (See the bull in Leger, Part II. 
 pp. 8-20; Hahn, p. 744; and abridged in Bert, p. 438.) This bull is of date 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 411 
 
 27th April, 1488. Cattanee is styled, Alhertm Cattanms PlacentinvLS, prolegatus 
 apostoUcus, archidiaconus Cremonemis, juris doctor. These memoirs them- 
 selves formed part of a History of the Kings of France which he composed, 
 but which has not been preserved. 
 
 2. EoRENGO (called iJorenco), "Memorie historiche dell' introduttione dell 
 heresie nelle valli di Lucema, Marchesato di Saluzzo e altre di Piemonte, editti, 
 provisioni, diligenze delle Altezze di Savoja, per estisparle, col breve compendio 
 d' esse e modo facile di confutarle; del Prior Marc' Aurelio Rorengo, d^ conti di 
 Lucema." (The armorial bearings of the family are inserted in the title-page.) 
 Turin, 1649, 4to of xx and 350 pages. The name of this author is variously 
 wntten Rorengo, Rorenchiis, and Rorenco, and this even in his book itself (fol. 
 iv, fol. vi. and fol. vii.) Tlie last spelling occurs in the title-page of the fol- 
 lowing work : " Breve narration e dell' introduttione de gl' heretici nelle valli de 
 Piemonte, con gl' ordini fatti dalle Altezze di Savoja; di Marc' Aurelio Rorenco, 
 priore e de conti di Lusema e valle." Turin, 1632, small 4to, pp. 114. This 
 work was merely a study and rough draught of that above-named. Rorengo 
 was a contemporary of Gilles. His work is very valuable upon account of the 
 great number of documents which it contains; but his style wants dignity; and 
 the spirit which he exhibits is not that of impartiality. 
 
 3. Theodore Belvedere (his true name was Anthony Lazari) : "Relatione 
 air eminentissima congregatione de propaganda fide dei luoghi di alaure valli di 
 Piemonte all' A. R. di Savoja soggette." . . . Turin (without date, but of the 
 year 1636), small 18mo, pp. 323. "William of Vuitiberg came," says he, "with 
 an army of Lutherans to the assistance of the French king, and confiscated the 
 possessions of the lords of Lucema, who were exiled during three years. Then, 
 the government of the country was given to the Piince de Meffi." Not having 
 been able to satisfy myself regarding these events, I have not mentioned them 
 in the Israel of the Alps, and now point them out for the investigations of his- 
 torians who may come after me. 
 
 4. " Relazione de successi nelle valli di Luserna e Piemonte, V anno 1559- 
 1634." Without date or place of publication. 
 
 5. "Relation des ^v^nements qui se sont passes entre les Vaudois et le due 
 de Savoie, faite par ordre de S. M." . . . Turin, 1655. Published also in 
 Italian: "Somma delle ragione e fondamenti, con quali S. A. R. s'e mossa a 
 prohibiri alii heretici della valle di Lusema 1' habitatione fuori de limiti toldr- 
 ati;" and in Latin — "Summa rationum quibus regia celsitudo adducta est," &c. 
 
 . . Another similar relation was printed at Villefranche, and a number of 
 others without place of publication. (See in the Israel of the A Ips, the authori- 
 ties of Chap. vi. of Part II.) 
 
 6. "Les assemblies sur les affaires des protestants des valines de Piedmont." 
 Without date, paging, or place of publication. This pamphlet relates to the 
 years 1662-1664. 
 
 7. "Relation de la guerre contre les religionnaires nomm^s Barbets." (A 
 work referred to in p. 15 of the work mentioned in this section, § 2, No. 7.) 
 I presume it must be the same with "Relation de la guerre de 1686 contre ceux 
 des valines." . . . 4to, pp. 8. Without date or place of publication. At 
 the end of this pamphlet are the words, " Suite de la relation de la d^faite des 
 sujets rebelles de S. A. R." . . . &c. 
 
 8. "Le feu de la reconnaissance et de la joye pour la glorieuse victoire rem- 
 port^e sur les h^r^tiques Vaudois, dans les valines de Luzema, par S. A. R. Vic- 
 tor Am^ II." . . . Chambery, 1686. Not paged. 
 
 9. "Recherches historiques sur 1' origin des Vaudois, et sur le caractfere de 
 
412 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [AfPXRDlX. 
 
 leiirs doctrines primitives." Paris, 1836 (chez Perisse), 8vo. This work, pub- 
 lished anonymously, is acknowledged by M. Charvaz, Bishop of Pignerol (from 
 1832 to 1847), on the cover of the book entitled, " Guide du Cat^chumfene Vau- 
 dois." . . . (Paris, Chez Perisse, 1840; 3 vols. 18mo.)— The Recherchcs his- 
 toriques are designed to prove that the Vaudois were not anterior to Valdo. 
 This work has been translated into Italian. With it may be named, as havmg 
 been conceived under the same influence, a historic work (very far from be mg 
 accurate), published at Pignerol in 1846, under the title of Soirees Vaudoxses. 
 The talents of M. Charvaz have been rated very high by a number of writers. 
 The motives which induced this prelate to demit his office in 1847, are noticed 
 in a pamphlet entitled, " Un mot au Messagiere Torinese et k la Concordia, sur 
 la demission de Monseigneur Charvaz, ^vbque de Pignerol, par un d^fenseur 
 officeux, qui n'est ni un obscurantiste, ni un retrograde." (Pignerol, printed 
 by Paul Ghighetti, 1848; 8vo, pp. 31.)-The prelate's secretary, the Abb^ Jorioz, 
 D D., wrote upon the same subject, *' K^ponse h. un article du journal la Presse 
 ." (Pignerol, 8th February, 1848; printed by Lobetti-Bodom; 8vo, pp. 8.) 
 See also Sect iv. § 2, No. 19, of this Bibliography. 
 
 Section II.— Authors who have occupied themselves with inquiries on 
 
 PARTICULAR points CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 ! ^ 1, — Latin Treatises. 
 
 (IVIostly contra Valdenses, and generally relating to the disciples of Valdo of 
 Lyons, and to other Protestants of the middle ages, rather than to the Vaudois 
 
 of Piedmont.) , . , , i.- v u* 
 
 1 Keynerus. "Contra Valdenses." Such is the abridged title by which his 
 work written in 1250, is generally known. (Herzog, De origine et pristino 
 statu Waldensium, p. 3.) The exact title is : Summa de Cathans et Leonistis, sen 
 pauperibus de Lugduno:' It is sometimes quoted as follows: 'Tratris Keyneri 
 Sachoni, ordinis Predicatorum, Summa contra hsereticos; or, "Summa de Cath. 
 et Leon." Gretserus, in inserting this treatise into his collection {Opera, t. xii.), 
 has added to this title: "Liber contra Waldenses hsereticos, nunc primum in- 
 te-re ex manuscripto codice editus." This treatise was published by Marti5ne 
 {Thesaurus norus anecdotorum, t. v., p. 1762.) " Ipsius auctoris aetate exara- 
 tusr Is this the original text ? It is derived from a Rouen manuscript. D' Ar- 
 GE^TUt {Collectio judicioruni de novis erroribus. . . . t. i., p. 48) published 
 it from a Caen manuscript; and Echard {Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum, 
 t. i., p. 154) from a Dublin manuscript. It is also to be found in the Biblio- 
 theca medi(E et infimce latinitatis, t. vi., p. 47 (edition of Passau), and in the 
 following works : Biblioth. maxima P. P. t. xxv., p. 264 ; Von-der-Hardt, 
 Rerum concilii Const, t. iii.; UssER, de gravissima questione, &c. Flacius 
 iLLYRicus published the first six chapters of it {Catal. test, veritatis. No. 267). 
 Fvevnerus is sometimes designated by the name of Saccho or Sacchonus. He 
 Bays of himself: "Ego Rinherus olira hseresiarcha, nunc Dei gratia sacerdos 
 . . . annis xvii. cmversatus sum cum eis." (Note of Gieseler, Hist. 
 Eccles., t. iii., p. 598.) He is the most interesting of the authors mentioned 
 in this §. In the third chapter of his work, entitled, »' De causis h(treseorum," 
 he enumerates the churches belonging to the heretics of whom he speaks, and 
 he names forty-one, all bearing German or Wallach names. Farther on, he 
 points out. in a general way, the churches of the Cathari, to the number of 
 sixteen (caput xvi.) He bestows high praise upon the Leonista and Vaudois, 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 413 
 
 even in contcndmg against them, speaking especially of their attachment to the 
 Bible, and the purity of their lives. He says of them: " Nullum sanctum cre- 
 dunt nisi Apostolos; nullum invocant nisi Deum solum . . . Legendas sanc- 
 torum non credunt; miracula eorum subsannant: reliquias contemnunt . . . 
 dicunt quod orane peccatum sit mortale et nullum veniale . . . et ita, Lom- 
 bardiam intrantes, visitant episcopos sues." (cap. v.) Concerning a PsEUDO- 
 Reinerus, an interpolator of this work, see Gieseler, De Rainerii Sacchoni 
 summa de Catharis et Leonistis, commentatio crilica (Goettingae, 1834); and 
 the Hist. Eccles. of the same author, 4th ed., ii., 613. Ldger supposed that 
 there were two authors of the name of Reynerus. {Histoire gen. p. 170, note 
 2.) His error, no doubt, arose from the circumstance that our author has been 
 placed by FRfiHi^RUS amongst the Scriptores rerum BoJumicarum. It appears 
 to me that he ought to be quoted with great caution as an authority in matters 
 of history concerning the Vaudois of Piedmont; and I have abstained from 
 quoting liim in this latter work. The same observation applies with still greater 
 force to most of the following authors. See also, concerning the interpolations 
 to which the work of Reynerus has been subjected, and concerning other par- 
 ticulars, the work of M. Schmidt on the Cathari (vol. ii., note xvi.) 
 
 2. PiLicHDORF. "Contra hseresin Waldensium." (Published by Gretserus, 
 t. xii. second part ; and in the Bibl- Max. Patrum, t. xxv., p. 278.) This 
 treatise contains thirty-six chapters. It acknowledges that the origin of the 
 Vaudois may be traced back to the time of Pope Sylvester (§ i.) In a subse- 
 quent place the author says, " Dixit Christus : Vos estis lux mundi " (§ x.); 
 and he reproaches the Vaudois for concealing themselves (§ xi.) and after- 
 wards he mentions the reply of one of them, " Non possum esse talis Lucerifia 
 publica, propter instantes pei'secutiones, quia vocant me haereticum." (§ xiii.) 
 This author must belong to the end of the fourteenth century. His style is in 
 general bad, and he abounds in injurious epithets. 
 
 3. Eberhard de Bethune. (Eberhardus Bethunniensis.) "Liber anti 
 haeresis;" published under the title of "Contra Valdenses," by Gretserus, tom. 
 xii.; Bibl. Max. Patrum, t. xxiv. "Ermengard, Opusculum contra haereticos 
 qui dicunt et credunt mundum istura et omnia visibilia, non esse a Deo facta 
 sed a Diabolo." (It may be seen in Gretserus, t. xii.) The mention made of 
 the Vaudois is merely incidental. The editor himself says, "Nee scio an itaque 
 contra Valdenses." {Prceloquia.) For further particulars concerning these 
 authors, see Schmidt, Hist, of the Cathari, vol. ii. note xvi. 
 
 4. Gretserus, who published the works of the three preceding authors 
 under the title of Ti'ias contra Valdensium sectam, prefixed to them a treatise 
 of which he was himself the author: "Prolegomena in Scriptores contra Val- 
 denses:" and after the work of PiUchdorf, he gives a " Refutatio errorum qui- 
 bus Waldenses distineutur, incerto auctore. (Gretzeri Opera, edition of Ingol- 
 stadt, t. xii., and Max. Bibl. Patrum, t. xxiv.) 
 
 5. Alain de l'Isle (Alanus de Insulis), or simply ilZain. "Adversus haere- 
 ticos et Waldenses qui postea Albigenses dicti sunt." More frequently cited 
 thus — "Contra hcereticos sui temporis," and by different authors under various 
 other titles. It is to be found in "Alani Theologi insignis opus." . . . Ant- 
 werp, 1654, fol., p. 199. The first two books of this treatise were published 
 separately at Paris in 1612, in 8vo, under this title, "Contra Valdenses, Judeos, 
 et Paganos ; " the last two appear under another title in the Bibl. Script. Cister- 
 censium, Cologne, 1656. For more particulars concerning this author, his 
 homonyme and his works, see Schmidt's History of the Cathari, vol. ii., 
 note xvi. 
 
4U 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [irpiNoiXi 
 
 6. Bernard de Fontcaud (Bernardus de Fonte Calido). "Contra Val- 
 denses et Arianos." The Vaudois are very little spoken of in this work. 
 However, the author says in his preface, " Valdenses dicti sunt niinirum a valle 
 densa." Valdo is not even named in the work. See also Histoire litteraire 
 de France, t, xv., p. 35. The author belongs to the twelfth century. 
 
 7. MoNETA. "AdversusCatharosetValdenses." A thick folio volume, edited 
 by Richinuis, at Rome, in 1743. The editor has prefixed to the work an intro- 
 duction concerning the life and writings of the author, who lived in the beginning 
 of the thirteenth century; and two dissertations— the first, " De Catharis," and 
 the second, ''Be Valdendbus." In § i., he says, "Valdensium nomen non 
 peculiare alicujus sectae, aut haereseos, sed commune omnium a seculo 12mo 
 ... nee desunt qui sic doctos (Valdenses) velint, a voce Italica, ValdesL" 
 
 8. Stephen de Borbonne (Stephanus de Bella Villa). "De septera donis 
 spiritus sancti." Published in D'Argentr£, Collectio judic. de novis erroH- 
 bus, t. i, pp. 85-91. See also Echard, t. i., pp. 184-196. There is a MS. 
 of the Sejitem dona at Paris, in the library of the Sorbonne, No. 938.— Herzog 
 says, "Haec narratio majoris momenti esse videtur, cum quod Stephanus ipse 
 vidit virum cum Waldo societate conjunctum . . . denique quod multorum 
 Waldensium confessiones, ut inquisitor ipse audiit." (Cap. i., p. 3.) 
 
 9. YvoNETUS. "Tractatus de hseresi paupenmi de Lugduno ; " cited thus, 
 "Contra hsereses Valdenses, libri quatuor." It is to be seen in Mabt£ne, Thea. 
 Anecdot., t. v., fol., 1778. ^^ 
 
 10. GuiDO DE Perpiniaco. "Summa de hseresibus et earum confutationibus ; 
 Paris, published by Josse Badius, 1528, fol. The author of this work was 
 Guido of Perpignan, a Carmelite, who was Bishop of Elne about 1342. He 
 speaks of the Vaudois, beginning on the first page of fol. 79, but confines him- 
 self to stating and refuting their doctrines. (For this note I am indebted to 
 
 M. Schmidt.) , . A- 
 
 11. Gualterus Mapes, Archdeacon of Oxford, who saw and heard the dis- 
 ciples of Valdo at the Council of Lateran in 1179, wiote a short dissertation De 
 Scctd Valdesioriim, inserted in Usser, " De Christianae Ecclesiae successione 
 et statu, Historica Explanatio." London, 1687. 
 
 12. Claude Coussord. " Valdensium et quorumdam aliorum errores, pr»- 
 cipuas ac pene omnes, quae nunc vigent, hsereses continentes." Paris, pub- 
 lished by Thomas Richard, 1548, 8vo. This book is directed agamst the 
 Lutherans. The refutation of the Vaudois doctrines commences in fol. 41. 
 These doctrines are taken word for word from the catalogue drawn up by 
 Yvonetus (No. 9 above). This catalogue is inserted in fol. 126, et seq., under 
 the erroneous title of Valdensium errorum catalogus, she summa Fratris Ret- 
 nerii. Coussord says that he derived it from an old manuscript, which probably 
 contained the SvLMina of Reynerus, and after it the catalogue of Yvonetus, and 
 hence the error. (For this note I am indebted to M. Schmidt.) 
 
 13. In this work of Coussord (or Coussart) is to be found also a " Disputatio 
 inter Catholicum et Pata-inum hcereticum," a production of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury It has been inserted by Martbne and Durand, in the Thes. nov. Anec- 
 dot. t. v., fol., 1755, et seq. Concerning it, see Schmidt's History of the Ca- 
 
 than, vol. ii., p. 311. ^^ • 
 
 14. Claude Seyssel. "Adversus Valdenses disputationes," 8vo, 1547— 
 a thick volume in black letter. This work has served as the basis for a great 
 number of dissertations; amongst others, "La doctrine des Vaudois, dress^e 
 par Claude Seyssel et Claude Coussart;, th^ologiens de Paris, avec notes dress^es 
 par Jean Cappel ;" Sedan, 1618, 8vo. Seyssel was Archbishop of Tunn. 
 
 No. L] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 415 
 
 § 2. — Academic Theses. 
 
 1. Danhauerus (John Conrad). " Ecclesia Waldensium, orthodoxiae Lu- 
 theranae testis et socia." Argent. (Strasburg) 4to, 1668. Since published also 
 by Hesterberg, with a preface. 
 
 2. Haver (John Christopher). "Oratio de Waldensium ortu, progressu, et 
 persecutionibus." 4to, Aldtorf, 1G86. 
 
 3. GiLLES Strauch (Algidii Strauchii). "Disquisitio historico-theologica 
 de Valdensibus." Witebergae, 4to. The first part appeared in 1659, the second 
 in 1663. 
 
 4. Werenfelsius (Peter Verenfels). " De Valdensibus." He chiefly treats 
 of their origin and their doctrines. The first part of his thesis was published 
 at Basle in 1G95, the second in 1700, in 4to. 
 
 6. Houert (Van der). " De Valdensium, Bohemorum, et Moravorum, fide 
 et religione ;" 4to. (I do not know the date nor the place of publication.) 
 
 6. KiESLiNG (Kieslingus). " Disseitatio historico-theologica, de variis Wal- 
 dcDsium veritatis testium nominibus et sectis."' 4to, Jena, 1739. 
 
 7. Jas. "Disputatio Academica, de Valdensium secta, ab Albigensibus 
 recte distinguenda." Lyons, 1834, 4to, of about 150 pages. An excellent work. 
 Amongst the modems, I have elsewhere cited Reynaudin, Peyrani, Bastie, 
 Roman, &c. 
 
 8. Mayerhofp, "Kritische Beleuchtung des Urspnmgs xmd der namen der 
 Waldenser;" 8vo, 1834. 
 
 9. Weihnmayer (Elias). "Dissertatio historica, de vicissitudinibus et fatis 
 Waldensium." Witebergce, 1690, 4to. 
 
 10. Martinetus. "Apologia verse doctrinte eorum qui vulgo appellantur 
 Valdenses." Lugduni Batavorum, 1738. 
 
 11. Hesterberg. "De ecclesia Waldensium." Argentorati, 1768. 
 
 12. Plaresius. "Dissertatio deWaldensibus." Groningae, 1660, cited by 
 Martinetus. 
 
 13. A pamphlet, without the name of the author, on the antiquity of the 
 Vaudois Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont; 4to, Utrecht, 1662. 
 
 14. Fbischius. "Disquisitio historico-theologica de Waldensibus." Vietem- 
 bergae, 1650. 
 
 15. Wesembecius (Peter). "Oratio de Waldensibus et Albigensibus Chris- 
 tianis, ab anno 1585." Jena, 1603; reprinted at Leipzic by Menger, in 1610, 
 and inserted by Camerarius at the end of his work. {Historica narratio, &c,; 
 Heidelberg, without date on the title page, but bearing that of 1605 at the end 
 of the preface.) 
 
 16. Herzog. "De origine et pristino statu Waldensium, secundum anti- 
 quissima eorum scripta, cum libris Catholicorum ejusdem aevi collata." Halle, 
 1849; 4to, pp. 44. A work of merit and of erudition, interesting especially on 
 account of the parallel which it exhibits between the doctrines of the Cathari- 
 and those of the Vaudois. (Cap. iii. p. 7.) The fundamental idea of this work 
 is an excellent one — the comparison of Vaudois books with Catholic contem- 
 porary writings ; but it has not been developed as much as it is capable of 
 being, in consequence of the small number of the original works hitherto pub- 
 lished. The work of M. Herzog is divided into eight chapters, treating — I. 
 Of Catholic and Vaudois books in general, pp. 2-5. II. Whether the Vaudois 
 books were known to the Catholic authors, pp. 5-7. III. The Christian Faith 
 of the Vaudois, pp. 7-13. IV. Their Catholic Faith, pp. 13-16. Chapters V. 
 VI. and VII. contain an examination of different points of Vaudois doctrine. 
 
 — — 
 
416 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 r Appendix. 
 
 VIII. Of the period to which the Nohla Ltyczon is to be referred, and of the 
 other Vaudois books and the name of Valdo. The very distinguished author 
 of this thesis, thinks that the Vaudois derive their origin only from Valdo. 
 
 The same author has since published at Halle, a work on the Vaudois, 
 "Die romanischen Waldenser," which I regret that I have not been able to 
 procure. [Some notice of this important work will be given in a subsequent 
 appendix by the translator.] 
 
 § 3. — Various Authors. 
 
 1. Ltdius. ** Waldensia : id est conservatio verae Ecclesise demonstrata ex 
 confessionibug, cum Taboritarum, ante ducentos ferme aniios, tum Bohemorum, 
 &c." Rotterdam, 1616, 2 vols. 8vo. (The second volume is entitled, Walden- 
 slum, Tomus Secundus, &c.) Concerning the relation between the Vaudois 
 church and the church of Bohemia, see also Ehwalt, "Doctrine ancienne et 
 modernedes Freres Bohe'miens et Moraves"— (at p. 660, he inserts the Vau- 
 dois catechism, entitled Interrogations menors); LuziTius, "De disciplina 
 ecclesiastica, moribus et institutionibus Fratrum Bohemicorum," Amst., 1660; 
 CoMMENius, "Hist. Ecclesiae Fratrum Bohem."— (may be seen in Strdvics: 
 Scriptores rerum Gcrmanicarum); Esrom Rudiqer, " Narratiuncula de Ecclesiis 
 Frat. in Bohemia;" Camerarius, "Historica narratio de fratrum orthodox, 
 ecclesiis in Bohemia," Heidelberg, 1606. A rarer work is "Historica perse- 
 cutionum Ecclesiae Bohemicae. . . ab anno 894 ad an. 1632," 12mo, printed in 
 1648. It mentions the Vaudois in Chap. xx. § 5. Besides these may be named 
 JEjseas Sylvius (afterwards Pope, under the name of Pius II., from 1458 to 
 1464), DuBBAViua (Bishop of Olmutz); Stransky, Schulze, Tittle, Hensel, 
 Andrea, &c., who have written works on the church of Bohemia. Amongst 
 modern authors, M. Bosx deserves to be named. " Histoire ancienne et moderne 
 des freres de Boheme et de Moravie." Geneva, 1831; 2 vols. 8vo. He speaks 
 of the Vaudois, t. ii., liv. 3. (He has composed for them the music of a num- 
 ber of national songs, intended to recal the principal events of their history.) 
 
 2. FuESSELiN (John Conrad). "De gemina Albigensium et Valdensium 
 distinctione." Inserted in the Nova Miscellanea of Leipzic, t. x., p. 3. Fues- 
 8ELIN is the author of a Histoiy of the sects and heresies of the middle ages 
 (in German), Frankfort and Leipzic, 1770; 3 vols. 8vo. He speaks at great 
 length of the Vaudois. 
 
 3. For the history of the Albigeois : William de Put Laurens (de Podio Laur- 
 entii). " Historia negotii Francorum ad versus Albigenses, " inserted in Duchesne, 
 Scriptores Historiae Francorum, t. v., p. QQQ, and in several more recent collections! 
 The author was chaplain to the Count of Toulouse, and secretary to the bishop 
 of that city.— Peter de Vaucebnat. "Historia Albigensium." This work has 
 been translated into French.— Extracts in prose, from the Languedoc poem 
 published by M. Fauriel, are to be seen in the Histoire gtnerale d°e Languedoc, 
 t. iii., Preuves No. I., and in the collection of French MSS., t. xix.—C'haufepi,e', 
 in his JJictionnaire historique et critique, quotes a MS., entitled, "Cequifut 
 fait par les Inquisiteurs contre les Albigeois, depuis le 21 Janvier, 1311, jusqu' 
 au 24 October, 1319. (Lettre J, pp. 80, 81)." This MS. has been published by 
 Limborch, at the end of his Historia Inquisitionis.—FinaWy, and principally, 
 Schmidt. History of the A Ibigenses or Cathari (see No. 26 of this §) . The ques- 
 tion of the connection between the Vaudois and Albigeois is far from being cleared 
 up. The connection itself is very hypothetical. (See, on this subject, other 
 works cited in No. 21 of this §, and in Nos. 15 and 16 of Section III. of 
 this Bibliography.) With this branch of study may be united that of the Petro- 
 
 Ko. I ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 417 
 
 hrusians, with whom the Vaudois more probably had some connection, as Peter 
 de Bruys waa a native of the Val Louise. See Father Albert, Histoire eccU- 
 siastique d'Embrun, t. i., p. 56; Heckeb, Disputationes de Petrohrusianis, 
 Leypzig, 1721; Harenberg, Otia sacra. (The tenth thesis is entitled, Val- 
 denses Petro de Valdo antiquiores); Neander, Life of Saint Bernard (in Ger- 
 man), &c. 
 
 4. Allix. " Some remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the ancient 
 churches of Pi^mont." London, 1690; 4to. Winer mentions a second edi- 
 tion, published in 1692. This work has not, properly speaking, any historic 
 value. Its object is to prove the apostolic descent of the Vaudois. It derives 
 a particular value, however, from the publication of three ancient Vaudois 
 MSS. at the end of the volume. These MSS. were once at Cambridge, and 
 have recently been rediscovered in Dublin. (Library of Trinity CoUege, class 
 C, shelf 4, No. XVIII., vols. viii. and ix.) L^ger gives a translation of one of 
 them (t. ii., p. 21); Basnage (t. ii. p. 1440) and Benin (pp. 133 and 135) speak 
 of the other two.— See also The Barque of the Church for the Friends of Religion 
 (a German work). Zurich, 1764 (p. 210). 
 
 5. DuPlessis Mornay, "Mysterium iniquitatis seu historia Papatus," 
 speaks of the Vaudois at pp. 304, 406, 458, &c. Of this book there are many 
 editions ; that which I quote is the edition of Goricheim, 1662. With tliis may 
 be noticed the Historia Papatus, by Heidegger, which speaks of the Vaudois 
 at p. 415. Flacius Illyricus also wrote a Historia de primatu Papce, in 
 which he speaks of the Vaudois, § 267, pp. 630-660. His Catalogus testium 
 veritatis—StTa.shmg, 1562, and Frankfort;, 1666, with notes and supplements, 
 at the end of which the preceding work is printed— also contains many thing^ 
 relative to the Vaudois. 
 
 6. KoECHER. A Catechetical History of the Vaudois, the Bohemian 
 Brethren, &c. (In German), Jena, 1768. All that concerns the Vaudois in 
 this work is their own excellent little catechism in the Romance tongue, entitled 
 Interrogations menors, which is inserted in it, and which had been already pub- 
 lished by Perrin, p. 157, and Ldger, p. 58; and which is also given by Monas- 
 tier, ii. 297, Hahn, pp. 673-679, and was separately published at Edinburgh in 
 1S3G. Tlie original is amongst the Vaudois MSS. in the Library of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, class C, shelf 5, No. XXIL, fol. 284-292.— x\long with this 
 work maybe named the Duplex confcssio Valdensium, folio, 1512 (a work which 
 I have never seen). 
 
 7. Van Breenn. "Apologetic Memoirs concerning the Vaudois, with an 
 appendix, from 1642 to 1655. (In Dutch), Amsterdam, 1663." With this may 
 be compared a modern German work, entitled, " The Ecclesiastical Government 
 of the Vaudois Communities of Piedmont, by Weiss, pastor and clerk of the 
 Synod of Zurich. (Die Kirchenverfassung der Piemontessichen, . . . . &c)." 
 Zurich, 1834 ; 8vo of viii and 76 pages. 
 
 8. Du Clercq (Jacques). " Mdmoires sur la Vaudoiserie d'Arras." 
 Printed in Buchon's Collection des Chroniques. Paris (Verdiere), 1826, 8vo; 
 t. xxxix. The title of these memoirs is much longer than I have given above. 
 The first part commences thus;' — "Of a woman named Demiselle, who was 
 taken as a Vaudois in the town of Douay, and brought a prisoner to the city of 
 Arras . . . ." &c. Du Clercq is the continuator of Monstrelet. There are 
 some cm-ious particulars in his chronicle. The style is characterized by an 
 interesting simplicity; but the subject of which he treats is very remote from the 
 history of the Vaudois of Piedmont. In this respect his work may be ranked 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 ' The epelliiig of tlio French words is :uitiq\iated.— Tn.vxoL. 
 
 113 
 
M 
 
 418 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appkitdix, 
 
 along with the memoir of II. Bourquelot, entitled, Notice sur la sorciers Vau- 
 dots, inserted in vol. viii. of the Billiotheque de I'Ecole de Chartcs. 
 
 9. Pbateolus. "De ritis, sectis, et dogmatibus omnium hsereticorum." 
 Cologne, 1569, fol. Of little value. — Engelhabdt. "Dissertations on various 
 points of Ecclesiastical History" (in German). The subject of the Vaudois 
 is incidentally treated of.— A German work, entitled, Universal Chronicles, 
 contains more details. See the fifth part, p. 179; t. iv., p. 47; t. viii., p. 611; 
 t. xi., pp. 7, 12, 338; t. xix., p. 695. — See also the Magdeburg Centuries (a Latin 
 work), century x. and century xii., ch. 1 8, &c. 
 
 10. De Paramo. "De origine, oflBcio, et progressu sanctse Inquisitionis," 
 fol. Madrid, 1598; Antwerp, 1619.— With which may be classed, Eymebicds, 
 Directorium Inquisitorum, Eome, 1570, (he speaks of the Vaudois at p. 282), 
 and Doctrina de modo procedendi contra hcereticos, inserted in Martene, Thes. 
 Anccdotorum, t. v., p. 1795; also. Forma qualiter hceretici hcereticant hcereticos, 
 inserted in the Thesaurus novorum Aneedotorum, t v., p. 1776, and Liber sen- 
 tentiarum Inquisitionis Tolosance, published by LiMBORCH. See also chap. i. of 
 book ii. of Perrin (p. 106), and chap. iii. (p. 132). 
 
 11. Bexoit (Elie). "Histoire de I'Edit de Nantes;" 5 vols. 4to, Delft, 1693- 
 95. Translated into Dutch ; Amsterdam, 1696, fol.— RumitBES, " Eclaircis- 
 sements historiques sur les causes de Li revocation de I'Edit de Nantes, et sur 
 1 etat du protestantisme en France, depuis Louis XIV. jusqu' h nos jours." 
 Without pLoce of publication; 2 vols. 8vo, 1788.— Bernard, Explication de 
 VEdit de Nantes, and La politique du clergS de France, 1 vol. 32mo; Amster- 
 dam, 1682. He speaks of the Vaudois at p. 152.— Les soupirs de la France 
 esdave (a work which has become rare); also, Les derniers efforts de Vinnocmce 
 ojjllgee; Ville-Franche, 1682, 2 vols. 32mo, of 236 and 212 pages. 
 
 12. "Voix de pleurs et de lamentations." Printed at Ville-Franche, in 
 MDCLX.; small 4to, pp. 402. The first chapter of the second part (p. 178) 
 relates to the Vaudois. See, in the Israel of the Alps, the authorities for 
 Part II., chap. vii. (For this rare little work I am indebted to Dr. Long of 
 Die, the author of a Memoire sur les AUohror/es, which obtained the prize of the 
 Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and I take this opportunity of 
 publicly expressing my obligation to hun.) 
 
 13. Along with this work may be mentioned the Lamentation or Elegy on the 
 Massacres of 1655 (in German, in the library of Berne); and a piece in verse, en- 
 titled, "Le cantique des Valines du Pi^mont, sur les actes funestes de leurs mas- 
 sacres et de leur paix," relating also to the events of 1655, and printed at the end 
 of a "Lettre des protestants du Pi(Smont, a Mylord, Protecteur d'Angleterre," 
 without date or place of publication. Also, "L'huile d^coulant du rocher, ou 
 consolations adressdes ^ nos frbres des Valines, exiles. " Printed in 1688. Also 
 Lamentations de Sion, ou precis et veritable recit de la triste position des eglises 
 de Piemont," . . . &c. Middlesburgh, 1662. 
 
 14. Batnouard. "Choix de poesies originales des Troubadours;" Paris, 
 1816, 6 vols. 8vo. In vol. ii., he places amongst the Primitive Monuments of 
 the Romance language, or rather he names as the sole monuments of the Romance 
 language, the Nobla Leyczon, which he gives entire, and the ancient Vaudois 
 poems, of which he only quotes fragments. Hahn has published them entire 
 in pp. 560-604 of his History of the Vaudois and collateral sects (in German); 
 Stuttgard, 1847, an 8vo vol. of 822 pages, with a map. Millot, in his Hist, 
 iitteraire des Troubadours also speaks of the Vaudois (t. ii., p. 42). See also 
 Parandin, Annates de Bourgogne, book ii., p. 247, &c. 
 
 15. BossuET, in his " Histoire des variations des Eglises Protestantes . . ." 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 419 
 
 (Numerous editions), book xi., § c, et seq., treats of the Vaudois. He expresses 
 doubt of the existence of their ancient manuscripts, which had then disappeared, 
 but which have since been discovered again in Dublin and elsewhere. This 
 work is fuU of erudition, and is, in general, very correct in its details; but this 
 does not prevent its author from giving a very false idea of the Protestant 
 churches, and particularly of the Reformers; for details selected from one quar- 
 ter and from another, displaced and arranged in a new order, can no more 
 represent the whole from which they were taken than a piece of oak furniture 
 can give an idea of the tree. Bossuet sets out from the principle that truth is 
 one, and does not prove it; Celsus started from the same principle to combat 
 Christianity. There are many refutations of this work. One of the most 
 worthy of notice is, "Introductio in memorabilia Ecclesiasticae historise sacra." 
 (Weisman, Halle, 1745.) 
 
 16. Hering. "Contributions to the History of the Reformed." (In Ger- 
 man); pp. 19-26 relate to the Vaudois. "General History of the Jesuits 
 from the origin of that order to the present day" (in the same language), 
 Zurich, 1789. See vol. i., p. 226, et sag-.— Another History of the Jesuits, by 
 Wolf (also in German), speaks of the Vaudois in vol. i., p. 223. See also 
 Menard, Hist, de la ville de Nimes . . ." 4to, 1750; proof documents, 
 vol. i., p. 73. 
 
 17. Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde. "Tableau des diff^rends de la reli- 
 gion;" 2 vols. 8vo, La Rochelle, 1601. This work is frequently quoted by 
 Femn. It is of little importance in a historical point of view, but it is written 
 with much energy, sometimes mingled with a sort of bitter pleasantry, which 
 gives it an originality of character entirely its own. The author was not con- 
 tented with writing, he also went out to battle in the cause of Protestantism. 
 His work has become rare. 
 
 ^ 18. RucHAT. "Histoire de la Reformation en Suisse, oh I'on voit tout ce qui 
 s' est passd de plus remarquable, depuis I'an 1516 jusqu' Ji I'an 1556 . . ." 
 6 vols. 8vo.; Geneva, 1728. The continuation of this work, which exist^ 
 jn manuscript, was published in 1835-1838. Mention is made in it, and par 
 ticulars given of the embassy sent by the Vaudois to the Refoi-mers in 1530. 
 See vol. ii., p. 330, and vol. iii., p. 175. In the new edition, see Appendix, 
 p. 55Q. See also the History of the Swiss Confederation, by John de Mullek,' 
 continued by Hottinger, Vdilliemin, and Monnard. See also Flathe, 
 " Geschichte der Vorlaufer der Reformation " (Leipzig), vol. i. 
 
 19. Calvoer (Gaspard). "Fissura (or Fissurae) Sionis; hoc est, de schis- 
 matibus ac controversiis quse ecclesiam agitarunt;" Leipzig, 1690. A work 
 of learning, but little known. Tlie Vaudois are spoken of, p. 354. 
 ^ 20. The Abbe Martin de Clausonne wrote a book against Vul9on, coun- 
 cillor of the parliament of Grenoble. (I do not know the exact title.)' This 
 Vul9on is tlie same who communicated to Perrin the *' Enquetes juridiques, 
 poursuivies centre les Vaudois par les ^vSques d'Embrun," which had. fallen 
 into the hands of a soldier at the time of the sack of that city by Lesdiguiferea 
 (Perrin, pp. 114, 127, 131, 137, 141, and the preface.) The Abbd de Cbusonne 
 repeats agamst the Vaudois all the accusations of their most unworthy adver- 
 saries. His twentieth chapter is entitled, A Reply on those points which the 
 Minister Perrin stigmatizes as calumnious. See also Florimond de Remond, 
 "De I'antdchrist," ch. vii.. No. 7; and the MS. of Fodrnier, "Histoire des 
 Alpes maritimes ou Cottiennes, particuliferement d'Embrun leur metropolitaine " 
 p. 71. (In folio, in the libraries of Gap and Lyons.) 
 21. De Saint Michel (Jacques). "L'histoire et le coura des heresies des 
 
420 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appendix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 421 
 
 hi 
 
 Vaudois et des Albigeois;" 8vo, Toulouse, 1676. — Pantaloon, "De rebua in 
 ecclesia gestis," lib. v. — Gulielmua Mebpbubcensis, De rebus Anglice, lib. iii., 
 and in the Scriptores Anglici, published at London in 1652, in folio; the Chroni- 
 con ad a/mum MCLXXVIL, folio, 1441.— Likewise the Annales of Malvenda, 
 ch. iv., ad ann. MCCXX., and the Fasciculus of Orthuinus Gratius; fol., 
 Cologne, 1535, pp. 81-95; also the ** Fasciculus rerum expectendarum et fugien- 
 darum," in which the epistle of the Vaudois to King Ladislas is given. — Also, 
 Sebrarius, TriJiceresium, lib. i., ch. v.; and De Vineis, Constitutiones, lib. i., 
 ep. 25-27. 
 
 22. SisMONDi. "Histoire des rdpub. d'ltalie," vol. xvii., &c.— "Histoire 
 des dues de Savoie," by Fraizet and others. — Chi^sa, "Corona vale di Savoia,* 
 &c. — ScLOPiS, ** Storia dell' antiche legge del Piemonte." — (In sect. VI. I will 
 notice the works of MM. Cibraria, De Saluces, and De Beauregard.) — Amongst 
 works restricted to more particular subjects, may be named the Histoire d'Emm. 
 Philibert, due de Savoie. . . . Amsterdam, 1693; and in Latin, **De vita 
 Emmanuelis Philiberti, Allobrogum Ducis, et Subalpinorum principis, libri duo 
 JOHAXNIS Toxsi, patricii Mediolanensis," fol., Aug. Taur., 1596. 
 
 23. Faber (George Stanley), B.D. ** An Inquiry into the history and theology 
 of the ancient Vallenses and Albigenses;" London, 1838; 8vo, of 596 pages. — 
 
 * History of the Christian Church, from the birth of Christ to the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, containing interesting particulars relative to the Waldenses and Albigenses, 
 by William Jones ;" third edition, 8vo; London, 1818. The second volmne and 
 the fourth chapter of the first volume relate to the Vaudois. This author 
 connects them with the Paulicians, as Faber does. A fourth edition of this 
 work appeared at London in 1820. In this edition, the particulars relative to 
 the Vaudois annoimced in the title are to be found in the eighth volume. 
 
 24. GiLLY (William Stephen), D.D. " Waldensian Researches during a second 
 visit to the Waldenses," &c. . . . 8vo; London, 1830. Also, under another 
 title, Researches among the Waldenses. A work of learning. Also, by the 
 same author. The Vaudois, Valdo, and Vigilantius ; London, 1841, an 8vo of 
 69 pages, consisting of three articles, originally published in the seventh edition 
 of the Encyclop(Bdia Britannica. This study led to a new work, Vigilantius 
 and his Times, by W. S. Gilhj, D.D.; London, 1844; 8vo, pp. xvi and 488. 
 Other works by the same author will be mentioned in section V. § 1. 
 
 25. Elliot. "Horae Apocalypticae " (a critical and historical commentary 
 upon the Apocalypse, in English), 3 vols. 8vo; London, 1844. In vol. ii., 
 the Vaudois are spoken of at much length as being the two witnesses (Rev. xi.) 
 who appear as dead for three days and a half (ver. 9, 11), which this author ex- 
 plains by the three years and a half of exile endured by the inhabitants of the 
 valleys, whom he considers as tlie depositaries of the Old and New Testaments, 
 applying to this vers. 5, 6, and 7. 
 
 26. Schmidt. "Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares ou Albi- 
 geois." Paris, 1849, 2 vols. 8vo, the first of xii and 392 pages, the second of 
 320 pages. This work is full of great learning, but acknowledges that for the 
 exposition of the doctrinal system of the Cathari, we are reduced to the sole tes- 
 timony of the adversaries of that sect (vol. i., p. 4). These words awaken a 
 desire for the discovery of some original doctrinal writings, which might enable 
 ns to separate the Albigeois from the Dualists, with whom they are identified in 
 this work. M. Schmidt devotes the tenth note of his second volume to the 
 examination of the origin of the Vaudois (p. 287). He thinks that they were 
 not anterior to Valdo, and that we cannot connect them with Claude of Turin, 
 because the latter was not separated from the Roman church (p. 288). But 
 
 neither did tlie Vaudois ever separate themselves from it, otherwise than as 
 remaining attached to the gospel, they found themselves isolated, when the 
 Church of Rome had separated itself from the sacred code (see chap. i. of the 
 Israel of the Alps). M. Schmidt rests also upon the fact, that no mention is 
 made of the Vaudois from the time of Claude to that of Valdo (p. 288). But 
 are there not peoples of whom history makes no mention for centuries, because 
 nothing remarkable has occurred, or because chroniclers have been wanting, or 
 because the chronicles have been lost? And does this prove that these peoples 
 did not exist? In the third place, he says (p. 290), the Nobla Leyczon makes 
 mention of the Vaudois, and bears date the 1100th year. This date is not dis- 
 puted; but, according to the literal sense of the text, the one thousand and one 
 hundred years completed at the period when this poem was composed (1. 6), 
 ought to be reckoned only from the time when the prophecy was written which 
 is contained in the 24th chapter of Matthew's gospel, or in Rev. xix.-xxi., 
 which will bring the date from the year 1139 to the year 1196 or thereby, i.e., 
 to the very time of Valdo. This is true; but (1), it is difficult to ascribe to the 
 author of a poem an exegesis so minutely accurate, when the theologians of his 
 time committed so many anachronisms, and as even in our own day, the date 
 of the composition of the above-mentioned books of Scripture is not perfectly 
 known. (2.) It seems to rae more difficult, considering the circumstances of 
 the times, to ascribe the Nobla Leyczon to the disciples of Valdo, and to place 
 its composition at the end of the twelfth century, than to maintain the opinion 
 that it emanated from the Vaudois of the eleventh. (See in this Bibliography, 
 part II., sect. L, § 3, MS. 207, article 5.) (3), Finally, there is not more reason 
 for taking as a point of departure the composition of the Apocalypse, than that 
 of the gospel according to Matthew, which was half a century earlier, and which 
 consequently would still place the composition of the Nobla Leyczon a genera- 
 tion before Valdo. M. Schmidt also says that the name Vaudois cannot come 
 from vaud or vay>x, or the Latin vallis, or it would be Vallenses and not Val- 
 denses (p. 289). But we have in reality the name which he thus demands ; De 
 Thou calls the Vaudois Convallenses (Hist., lib. xxvii.); and if he be set aside 
 as a modern author, I will adduce Eberhard or Evrard de Bdthune, who belongs 
 to the thirteenth century, and who says: ** Vallenses se appellant, eo quod in 
 valle lachrymarum maneant " {Liber antihceresis, chap, xxv.) Finally, I will 
 remark, that many words are formed in a manner contrary to the grammatical 
 rules of etymology, and that the irregularity of their formation proves nothing 
 against its reality. M. Schmidt himself quotes (p. 289) a few lines of a Stras- 
 burg MS., which was unknown to me, and which belongs to the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, in which it is said, " Valdenses dicuntur ... a valle . . . quia in 
 valle orti sunt." The opinion, therefore, that the name of the Vaudois is derived 
 from the valleys which they inhabit, is not of recent origin — nay, it was shared 
 by Bernard de Fontcaud, a contemporary of Valdo himself. "Valdenses di- 
 cuntur a valle densa, eo quod profundis et densis errorum tenebris involvantur ** 
 (Gretzeri opera, t. xii., part ii., p. 196). 
 
 "Finally," adds M. Schmidt (pp. 291, 292), "the Nobla Leyczon speaks of 
 the Vaudois as being already persecuted (1. 368, et seq.) But history makes 
 mention of no persecution of the Vaudois before the end of the twelfth century." 
 (There are many things of which history makes no mention. Of how many 
 things concerning the Cathari was history silent, until the publication of the 
 work of M. Schmidt ! Does it follow that there was no reality in these things ?) 
 " The name of the Vaudois heretics, becoming an object of hatred to the Catho- 
 lics, was employed by them to designate detestable crimes; the terms Cathari, 
 
Hi 
 
 ill 
 
 HI 
 
 II 
 
 
 422 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [APPBKDnC. 
 
 . . . &c., have had the same fate. This employment of the word in another 
 than its primary sense, refers us to a period when that primary sense was gene- 
 rally familiar to people's minds, and when the sect which bore this name was 
 generally hated and persecuted. This could not be the period of the origin of 
 the Vaudois church " {Uist. des Cathares, ii,, 292). Thus M. Schmidt writes ; 
 and from this I think it a fair inference that the origin of the Vaudois church 
 was much anterior to the writings which it has left. 
 
 According to M. Schmidt, in fact, the Nohla Leyczon must have been com- 
 posed at a period when the name of the Vaudois was already well known; and 
 this period could not have been that of their origin. According to him, again, 
 iheNobla Leyczon must have been composed, at the latest, in 1196; and in that 
 case, it cannot be attributed to the disciples of Valdo, because this was precisely 
 the period of their origin. But it could not have been composed at a later date, 
 because 1196 is the last limit of which the context will admit. It must, therefore, 
 have been composed before that time, that is to say, before the origin of the Vau- 
 dois of Lyons. There must then have been other Vaudois, because the name of 
 Vaudois occurs in this poem (1. 372). And it is natural to think that these 
 Vaudois were those of the Vaudois valleys, because the idiom in which the poem 
 is written, is not that of the Lyonnais, but rather that of the valleys. (See 
 part II, sect. I., § 1, art. 7, of this Bibliography.) 
 
 Wliy should we not admit that the Nobla Leyczon was composed at the date 
 which itself indicates (1. 6), viz., about the year 1100? I will add, on the autho- 
 rity of M. Schmidt, that at this very period the name of the Vaudois was already 
 familiar to people's minds, which proves that they had already existed for a long 
 time, and establishes the fact of their existence at least from the eleventh cen- 
 tury. It seems to me, therefore, that the learned author to whose arguments 
 I reply, and to whom I am indebted for valuable corrections in this Bibliography^ 
 has no good ground for asserting that the Vaudois of Piedmont owe their origin 
 to Valdo. 
 
 Sectiox III. — Historic works on the vaudois, derived from original 
 
 SOURCES, AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE MORE COMPLETE ELUCIDATION OF THE 
 SUBJECT. 
 
 1. Martinet (J. Florent), " Evenements relatifs aux Eglises des Vaudois des 
 valines du Pigment, jusqu' K ce jour." Amst., 1775; 1 vol. 8vo. (The original 
 of this work is in Dutch: "Kerkelyke Geschiednis der Waldenzen," &c.) 
 
 2. "Hi&toire des chretiens, communeraent nomm^s Vaudois, pendant lea 
 douze premiers si^cles." Haarlem, 1765. The first edition had appeared at 
 Amsterdam in 1732, with the title: "Historie der Christenen, die men gemeen- 
 lyk Waldensen noemt." 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 3. "Chronique des Vaudois, depuis 1160 h 1655," par D. S., professeur a 
 Zurich. Of this work there were several editions. The first was in German, at 
 Zurich, in 1655. It was reprinted that same year at SchaflThausen — ^translated 
 into Dutch, and published at Amsterdam in 1656 — translated into French, and 
 printed at Geneva, also in 1656. 
 
 4. Gkassern (John James). Waldensian Chronicle, 8vo; Basle, 1623. The 
 original title is: "Waldenser Chronik, von den Verfolgungen. . . . Jetzt 
 erst in's Teutsch gebracht durch Johann Jacob Grassem." Quoted by Hahn, 
 p. 13. 
 
 5. Cappel. "Vallium Alpinafum trajecta portenta." . . . Sedan, 1621. 
 James Cappel, seigneur of Le TiUoy, was first a Protestant minister at Rennes, 
 
 Mo. 1.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 423 
 
 afterwards Professor of Hebrew and of Theology. He died in 1624. He wrote 
 also a treatise on the doctrine of the Vaudois, published at Sedan in 1618. 
 
 6. "Histoire veritable de I'^tat des pauvres dglises dvangeliques et vaudoises 
 des valines du Piedmont depuis les horribles massacres et incomparables desola- 
 tions qu'elles ont souflFertes I'an 1655, jusqu'au 17 Fevrier, 1662." 4to; Mid- 
 dleburgh, 1662. 
 
 7. BoYER. ''Abrdgd de I'Bistoire des Vaudois, oti Ton voit," &c. La Haye, 
 MDCXCI.; 1 vol. 32mo, of xxviii and 336 pages. This is a little work of 
 great interest. It was written at the very time of the retvun of the Vaudois to 
 their own country, in 1690; but contains so few particulars relative to that event, 
 as may show us what history would have lost, if Arnaud had not published his 
 narrative. 
 
 8. "Histoire des persecutions des valines du Pi^mont." 12mo, Rotterdam, 
 1688 ; chiefly relating to the expulsion of 1686. 
 
 9. " An account of the late persecution of the Waldenses, by the Duke of 
 Savoy and the French king, in the year 1686." 4to, Oxford, 1688. 
 
 10. "Der bedriickte Palmbaum, oder die veifolgte protestantischen Walden- 
 ser." 4to, Nuremberg, 1690. 
 
 11. ** Histoire des chretiens que Ton norame communement Vaudois." Ams- 
 terdam, 1732. Anonymous ; but the author was Martin Schazen, tutor of the 
 Mennonites at Utrecht. 
 
 12. "Geschichte der unter d. name Waldenser beriihmten u. noch bestehenden 
 rel. secto im ihrer mehr als 30 erdulten verfolgungen." 2 vols. 8vo; Leipzic, 
 1798. Mostly a translation of Brez. 
 
 13. "Abregd de 1' Histoire des Eglises esclavonnes et Vaudoises, depuis les 
 premiers siecles du christian . . . jusqu' k celui de la reformation." Basle, 
 1785; 1 vol. 12rao, of xiv, 596, and 59 pages (usually annexed to the Histoire 
 de la reformation, by Sekendorf; and to that of Roos, which is merely an 
 abridgment of Sekendorf), printed at Basle, MDCCLXXXV. The author 
 of this anonymous work is M. Duvernoy de Montbelliard. 
 
 14. Benoist. "Histoire des Albigeois et des Vaudois, ou Barbets, avec une 
 carte gdographique des valldes." Paris, 1691; 2 vols, 8vo; the first of viii, 327, 
 and xxii pages ; the second, of 332 and xiv pages. Tliis work is sometimes 
 quoted in Latin, "Benedictus, historia Valdensis et Albigensis." It is of little 
 value. 
 
 15. "Recit veritable de ce qui est arrivd depuis peu aux valines de Piemont;" 
 8vo, pp. 48; without date or place of publication. Relates to the events of 
 1655. (See the authorities of the Israel of the Alps, part II., chap, vii., where 
 mention is also made of many other authors, who wrote at the same period.) 
 
 16. "Chiare memorie e memorandi fatti de Valdesi, da compendii historici, 
 del signor conte Alfonso LosCHi, Vicentino" Without date or place of publi- 
 cation. (See the authorities of chapters iv. and v. of part III. of this work.) 
 
 17. AcLAND (Hugh). " A Sketch of the History and Present Condition of the 
 Vaudois." London, 1825; 8vo. The same author translated into English, The 
 Glorious Recovery . . . &c. London, 1827; 8vo, of cxix, xxv, and 239 pages. 
 
 18. *• History of the Waldenses, from the earliest period . . . till the present 
 time," by the author of the History of the Reformation. Edinb., 1828; 12mo, 
 of xvi and 296 pages. (Communicated.) Is not this the same work with the 
 "History of the Waldenses from the earliest period . . . till the present 
 time," by William Sime. Edinb., 1839; 3 vols. 8vo? 
 
 19. Blair. "History of the Waldenses and Albigenses." Edinb., 1833; 
 2 vols. 8vo. — Jones, "History of the Waldenses." London, 1812. 
 
424 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appbndix. 
 
 I 
 
 20. Maitland. "Facts and documents, illustrative of the history, doctrine, 
 and rites of the ancient Albigenses and Waldenses." London, 1832. 
 
 21. "Notes concerning the Vaudois; the result of observations made in the 
 valleys by an English clergyman." London, 1814; 8vo. The author of this 
 work is Mr. SiMS, who published, in 1826, the Historic defence of the Vaudois 
 by Peyrani. Other English writers of the same period will be cited in the first 
 §§ of sect. V. 
 
 22. Baird. " Sketches of Protestantism in Italy, by Ptobert Baird." Boston, 
 1845. He treats of the Vaudois in his third part. See also M'Cbie, "His- 
 tory of the progress and suppression of the Reformation in Italy." Edinburgh, 
 1828. French translation, Paris, 1831; 8vo. 
 
 23. Bender. "Geschichte der Waldenser." Ulm, 1850; Svo. (I know as 
 yet nothing of this work but its title.) 
 
 Section IV.— Polemical Works. 
 § 1. — Against the Vaudois. 
 
 1 . "Contra hsereses Valdenses, libri quatuor. Impress. Patavii, 1579. Auctor 
 Hieronymus Niger, Fussanensis, vicarius generalis congregationis observantiaj 
 Lombardiae." 1 vol, 12mo, See the greater part of the treatises contra Val- 
 denses, in <§ 1 of sect. II. But these latter works, although directed against the 
 Vaudois, are rather works of party spirit than of religious controversy, 
 
 2. RiBOT (Philip), of Pancalier, Capuchin. "Ragionamento a modo di disputa, 
 fatto tra lui e un ministro heretico delle valli." Turin, 1598; 18mo. This 
 minister was David Rostain, pastor of St, Germain and Pramol, At the same 
 period, Henry Rostain was pastor of Pinache, Philip Ribot wrote also, " Dichi- 
 aratione della salutatione evangelica," the date and place of publication of which 
 are unknown to me. 
 
 3. Cassini (Samuel), " Vittoria triumphale." . . . Coni, IGIO, I do not 
 know the complete title of this work. Gilles speaks of it, pp, 11-13. Cassini 
 was a Cordelier, who was sent as a missionary to the Vaudois valleys. See 
 Febrero, Jus regnandi apostolicum, a folio volume which contains the history 
 of the missions in the valleys. 
 
 4. De La Morre (Maurice). "Catdchismo della vera religione." .... 
 Turin, 1509. I do not know the exact title of this book. It is dedicated to 
 the Archbishop of Turin, at whose desire it was composed for refutation of the 
 Vaudois doctrines. Charles Emmanuel I. wrote to the Vaudois to induce them 
 to receive this catechism. His letter is dated from Pignerol, 5th February, 
 1599. He sent the catechism to Rome to submit it to the Pope, who approved 
 of it, after having caused the cardinals D'Arcoli and Bellarmine to examine it. 
 This catechism was made the subject of commentaries by several theologians, 
 amongot others by the inquisitor Fossano. 
 
 5. "Turris contra Damascum, hoc est tutella civitatis sanctae Syon, seu 
 Ecclesiae Romanaj, contra Calvinistorum incursiones, objecta considerationibiLS 
 cujusdam ministro," Pietro Gillio, "subscripti, sedificata cujn propugnaculis, 
 a Fratre Theodoro Belvederensi." Turin, MDCXXXVI.; 8vo of 302 pages, 
 printed in italics. The author had previously written Lettres Apologetiques. 
 Turin, 1634. He afterwards wrote Lricerna della Christiana verita per conoscer 
 la vera chicsa e la falsa, and finally, liisposta at libra del S. Gillio, titolato 
 Torre Evangelica, &c, . . . (See the article on Gilles.) The true name of 
 
 No. 1.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 425 
 
 Theodore Belvedere was Antonio Lazzari. The following work is also by 
 him: — 
 
 6. " Relazione all' eminentissiraa Congrcgazione della Propagandi Fide, dei 
 luoghi di alcune valli Piemont," &c. Turin; a small 24mo volume of 323 pages. 
 The dedication is dated 30th August, 1626, arid signed, Fra Teodoro Belve- 
 dere. 
 
 7. " Deux marques de I'erreur du Calvinisme : la pr^somption et I'infidelit^ 
 d^couvertes juridiqueraent dans I'escrit d'un de ses ministres. Jouxte la copie im- 
 prim^e k Grenoble, chez Antoine Verdier, en I'ann^e MDCLX." The minister 
 here intended was Benjamin de Joux, pastor at Fenestrelle. The author of the 
 book was a Jesuit, named Calemart, who had fixed his abode at the same 
 place, 
 
 8. M. de Joux having refuted the preceding work in the Recit des con- 
 ferences tenues d Fenestrelles (which was republished in the work mentioned in 
 No. 5 of the following §, from p, 179 to p. 248), the Jesuit Calemart replied 
 to this refutation, by "Refutation de la reponse de M. de Joux, ministre de 
 I'Eglise pretendue reformoe, en Pragelas; ou, conviction d'erreur et de mauvaise 
 foi, par sa propre lettre." M. de Joux faithfully inserted this reply in the com- 
 plete edition of the Conferences, from p. Ill to p, 171, and showed its futility. 
 (See the §§ and Nos. above designated.) 
 
 9. Daniel Pastor, another minister of Pragela, in a work entitled, Le 
 Manuel du vray chrestien (see § 2, No. 3, of this section), refuted two works 
 of the priest John Balcet, one entitled Le Diurnal du chrestien, and the other 
 Remontrances chresfiennes (cited in the preface of the Manuel, pp. 2 and 3). 
 Jean Balcet, we are told in that preface, ' * was born in the true church, and had 
 even the honour of exercising the holy ministry in it; but being drawn away by 
 the heterodoxy of the Arminians, he terminated his course of declension by join- 
 ing the Church of Rome. He obtained a degree in medicine, the priesthood, 
 and the honour of Doctor of Theology." 
 
 10. "Reveille-matin, h, double montre, une qui guide an precipice et I'autre k 
 la gloire; par le son duquel ccux qui font profession de la religion pretendue re- 
 formee, doivent s'^veiller du sorameil de la mort, auquel ils sont l^thai^'que- 
 ment endormis . . ., par frfere illumine Faverot, de Turin, RecoUet, &c." 
 Grenoble, 1670; one vol. 8vo, of xxiv, 434, and xii pages. It is dedicated, 
 "To the ministers, elders, deacons, and generally to all the people ... in 
 the valleys of Lucerna, Angrogna, St. Martin, &c." (This work contains the 
 statement of the old Vaudois doctrine made to Oilcolampadius, by George Morel 
 and Peter Masson, extracted from Scultetus, Annales Evangelii renovati, anno 
 1530.) A reply was made to this work in name of the Vaudois by the work 
 mentioned in No. 6 of next §. 
 
 11. Faverot replied again by "La colombe de Noe, portant le symbole de 
 paix, ou replique paraindtique k deux reponses synodales faites b, I'autheur, par 
 ceux de la religion pretendue reform ee des vallees de Luseme, &c. . . . par 
 frfere illumin6 Faverot, de Turin, Recollet, pr6dicateur et lecteur ci-devant 
 missionaire apostolique," Lyons, 1673; 2 vols. 8vo, the first of xxxviii, 394, 
 and xxiv pages; the second of xiv, 582, and xliv pages. The two volmnes are 
 ordinarily bound in one, 
 
 12. A work, which I have not been able to procure, is referred to as fol- 
 lows; — "Conferenze del padre missionario Vanini g6suita, con diversi ministri 
 Valdesi." Gilles speaks of it in his thirty-ninth chapter. "In the beginning 
 of the year 1581," says he, "there preached in the valley of Lucerna, . . . 
 an ostentatious Jesuit, a great roarer, and highly reputed amongst those of his 
 
 Vol. II. 114 
 
 H 
 
426 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [AppeifDix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 427 
 
 ii 
 
 III 
 
 own religion. He styled himself Dom John Baptist Vanin " (p. 217). Vanin 
 is in Italian, Vanini. (See the Israel of the Alps, part II., ch. iv.) 
 
 13. RoRENCO. "Esame in torno alia nuova breve confessione di fede della 
 chiesa riformate di Piemonte, in cui si fa conoscer alii professori d'esse, dis- 
 tnitta con la novita, la pretese antica confessione del priore Marc Aurelio Ro- 
 renco." Turin, 1658; small 4to, or large 24mo, pp. 48. 
 
 14. "Journal des conversions qui ont ete'faites .... durant le cours de 
 I'ann^e 1661." A journal of conversions made during the year 1661, by the 
 congregation de propaganda fide et exttrpandis hoBreticis established at Grenoble. 
 Relates exclusively to the Vaudois of Pragela. A 4to pamphlet of 20 pages. 
 
 15. "La conversione di quaranta eretici, con due loro principali ministri 
 . . . nell 'Augusta citta di Torino, alia 18 di Maggio 1655." These two 
 ministers afterwards returned to Protestantism, which gave occasion to a work 
 entitled, "Saincte Palinodie, ou repentance des prisonniers des Eglises r6fonn6e8 
 de Pi6raont, &c." . . . (See No. 4 of next § ; and for the particulars, Lf GEE, 
 
 part ii., p. 65.) 
 
 16. "La v6rit^ re'connue, ou quinze motifs de la conversion de MM. de 
 Pragellat." The first edition is without date or place of publication; the second 
 was printed at Lyons in 1679. The author of this pamphlet is a Catholic, who 
 pretends to be a converted Protestant. The work is addressed, **to tlie Bre- 
 thren of Geneva, Charenton, and London." 
 
 17. Danne. " Les colonnes de la religion catholique in^branlables aux 
 attaques de leurs adversaires; et propos^es aux habitants de St. Jean en la vallde 
 de Luseme, par C. M. J.-B. Danne, ci-devant leur ministre, et maintenant doc- 
 teur es-lois et conseiller de S. A. R." Tmin, 1679; 18mo, of xii and 280 pages. 
 In the Acts of the Synod held at La Tour, ZOth December, 1693, we read that the 
 Sieur Gautier, pastor and professor of theology in the city of Marburg, in Hesse, 
 having composed a Reply for the Valleys to the book of M. Danne ... he 
 has already received upon this account the sum of fifty crowns." Danne had 
 previously written a statement of the reasons of his conversion (see preface to 
 the Colonnes, p. 3); and the ministers of the valleys had replied to him in a tract 
 of more than 80 pages. But the latter work remained in manuscript. (Same 
 preface, p. 7 and p. 8, paragraph 3.) 
 
 18. "Les Vaudois convaincus d'here'sie, par Francois Gat, ministre du St. 
 Evangile." Pignerol, 1836; 8vo, pp. 60. On the cover of this pamphlet we 
 read, lippel aux Vaudois. (See the Israel of the Alps, part iii., ch. xxiv.) 
 
 19. "Le guide du catechum^ne Vaudois, ou cours d'instructions destinies ik 
 lui faire connaitre la v^rit^ de la religion catholique : Ouvrage utile k tons les 
 dissidents; par M. A. Charvaz, 6vequo de Pignerol." Paris and Lyons (Per- 
 isse frferes); three large Svo volumes, the firat and second published in 1840, 
 and the third in 1842. One of the best written of all the works against the 
 Vaudois, although the title contains an error of syntax, as the reference of the 
 pronoun lui is indeterminate. The other works of the same author are noticed 
 in section I., § 4, No. 9, of this Bibliography. 
 
 § 2. — Polemical worlcs in favour of the Vaudoii. 
 
 1. "Excusatio Valdensiimi, contra binas litteras doctoris Augustini." 1 vol. 
 folio, printed in 1512. 
 
 2. " Apologia eorum qui appellantur Waldenses." 1 vol. 4to, Wittemberg, 
 1538. With these two works I am unacquainted. 
 
 3. "Le manuel du vray chrestien, oppos6 au Diurnal du sieur Jean Balcet, 
 
 enseignant la manibre de la droite invocation du pur service de Dieu : et conte- 
 nant la decision claire et solide des principales controverses de th6ologie agitdes 
 en ce temps ; par Daniel Pastor, ministre de la Parole de Dieu en I'Eglise r6- 
 formde de Pragela." Geneva, 1652; 1 vol. Svo, of xvi and 915 pages, besides 
 twelve pages of contents. The epistle dedicatory, to the members of the re- 
 formed churches of the valley of Pragela, is dated from La Souchifere, 1st June, 
 1651. Pastor had discharged the functions of a tutor in the Palatine house. 
 (Records of the Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva; vol. G, p. 283; and 
 for other particulars, pp. 79, 161, and 337 of the same volume; also vol. H, 
 p. 340) 
 
 4. " Saincte Palinodie, ou repentance des prisonniers des Eglises r^formdes 
 de Pi6mont, lesquels par infiimite avaient fait abjuration de la v^rit«?; avec une 
 brieve reformation des articles de ladite abjuration dress6s par ordonnance de 
 I'archeveque de Turin, et du g^n^ral des inquisiteurs de ladite cit6;" 1656; 8vo^ 
 of 87 pages. (In reply to the work. No. 15 of the preceding §,) 
 
 5. " Le succfes de la mission de Pragela, ou v6ritable recit de la conference 
 tenue h. FenestroUes, le 2 Octobre, 1659, entre le sieur Benjamin De Joux, 
 ministre du saint Evangile en I'Eglise dudit lieu, et le sieur Marc Antoine 
 Calemart, j6suite missionnaire." Geneva, 1659, 8vo, of xiv and 248 pages. 
 (See Israel of the Alps, part III., ch. xv.) 
 
 6. "Reponse pour les Eglises des valines de Pi^mont au sieur illumind Fa- 
 verot, R^coUet et missionaire; oh sont r^futees les erreiu^ de I'Eglise romaine, 
 et les chicanes des missionaires, avec les indices ndcessaires." Geneva, 1679; 
 1 vol. 4to, of XXX, 824, and x pages. (For the titles of Faverot's works, see 
 the preceding §, Nos. 10 and 11.) 
 
 7. There exist, I am informed, two apologetic works intended for the de- 
 fence of the Vaudois against one Peter Dolmans, who had accused them of 
 Manicheism — the name of the author being Heydenryck, and the place of their 
 publication Harderwych. They appeared in 1713. I mention them not with- 
 out doubt and hesitation. 
 
 8. An Apology for the Vaudois, giving a general view of their origin .... 
 and an appeal to all the governments of Europe on their behalf. London, 1827; 
 Svo. Attributed to Mr. Sims. Along with this may be named the Historic 
 Defence of the Vaudois, by Peyrani, of which Mr. Sims was editor. (See sect. 
 I,, § 1, Modern Authors, No. 1), and the Five Letters by a Vaudois of the Cis- 
 alpine Gauls. (See sect. I., § 2, No. 8.) 
 
 Obs. The controversial works specially intended for the defence of the 
 Vaudois, are not so numerous as those which assail them ; but it must not be 
 forgotten that the assailants had every facility, whilst the liberty of the press 
 and right of defence were denied to the Vaudois ; wherefore, all the works 
 mentioned in this §, were either composed by foreigners, or at least published 
 in foreign countries. 
 
 Section V.— Periodical, artistic, descriptive, scientific, and literary 
 
 works, relative to the vaudois. 
 
 § 1. — Boohs of Travels. 
 
 1. Burnet. "Voyage historique et politique, de Suisse, d'ltalie et d'Alle- 
 magne." First ed., Rotterdam, 1690, Svo. 2d ed., Frankfort, 1737; 3 vols. 
 12 mo. In this work are to be found particular details concerning the employ- 
 ment of part of the collections in favour of the Vaudois, made in 1655. 
 
\ 
 
 428 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appendix. 
 
 No. l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 429 
 
 ti 
 
 } 
 
 2 Spon (Jacob). "Travels in Italy, Dalmatia," &c. Tlie author relates in 
 this work that he met in Greece, at the base of Parnassus, a venerable old man, 
 
 named Barba Dimon, &c. 
 
 3. CoYEB. "Voyage d'ltalie et de HoUande." Paris, 17/5; 2 vols. 8vo.— 
 With this may be named Roland, "Lettres Rentes de Suisse, d'ltalie, et de 
 Sicile." Paris, 1780; 6 vols. 8vo; and Volkinann, Travels in lUly (in Ger- 
 man) 1771, 3 vols. 8vo. ^ 
 
 4. "A brief account of the Vaudois of Piemont," without authors name, 
 
 Svo, London, 1753. 
 
 5. Bridge. " A brief narrative of a visit to the Vaudois." London, Svo. 
 A mere pamphlet.— "Courte narration d'une visite aux Vaudois." Cambridge, 
 
 1825. (The same work.) loift /nv. 
 
 6. Jackson. "Observations on the Vaudois of Piemont." Lond., 1826 (Ob- 
 servations made during a tour in the valleys). 
 
 7. "Sketch of the past and present state of the Vaudois or Valdenses in- 
 habiting the valleys of Piedmont." London, 1816. 
 
 8. " History and present situation of the Vaudois." Lond. 1823. 
 
 9. "Die Waldeuser in den piemontesischen Thalem." Berlin, 1824. 
 
 10. Bracebridge. "Authentic particulars concerning the Vaudois." (Notice 
 communicated.) This author likewise had visited the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 11. GiLLY. "Narrative of an excursion to the moimtains of Piemont, and 
 researches among the Vaudois or Waldenses, Protestants, inhabitants of the 
 Cottian Alps." London, 1824 or 1825. Dr. GiUy is one of the most volumi- 
 nous, learned, and interesting of all modem authors who have written on the 
 subject of the Vaudois. Some of the preceding works already named, and some 
 of those still to be noticed, owe their existence to the universal interest which 
 his pen has produced in favour of the Vaudois valleys. (Concerning the in- 
 fluence which he has exercised, and the benefits which he has conferred, see 
 chap. xxiv. of part III. of the Israel of the Alps.) 
 
 12. Henderson. "The Vaudois, comprising observations made during a 
 tour to the valleys of Piemont, in the summer of 1844." London, 1845; 
 1 vol. Svo, of viii and 262 pages. 
 
 13. "Notes of a tour in the valleys of Piedmont in the summer of 1854, by 
 
 the Rev. Baptist W. Noel." 
 
 Obs. Amongst the numerous modern narratives of travels in which the Vau- 
 dois are mentioned, I have thought it necessary to name those only of which 
 the Vaudois valleys are especially the subject. 
 
 § 2. — Descriptive Works. 
 
 1. A Description of Piedmont, and particularly of the Vaudois valleys. (In 
 German) Svo, Ziirich, 1698. 
 
 2. Leandeb. Description of the valley of Lucema. (No fuller notice of 
 this work is given in the communication which has been made to me.) 
 
 3. Letters regarding the Val Louise, by Father Rossignol. Turin, 1804 ; 
 Svo of 24 pages. (Communicated.) 
 
 4. " Description historique des Vaudois ou habitants des valines du Pidmont." 
 Fol., Amst., 1731. 
 
 6. Names, situation, and particular description of the valleys of France, 
 along the great Alps, in Dauphiny and Provence, and of those which descend 
 from the Alps into Italy, from Savoy to that of St. Etienne, near Nice. By 
 the Marquis Dk Pesay. Turin, 1793; ISmo, pp. 172. 
 
 6. Report on the earthquake, which began on 2d April, 1808, in the valleys 
 of the Pelis, the Cluson, the Po, &c. Laid before the class of physical and 
 mathematical sciences in the Imperial Academy of Turin, in the sitting of 
 2d May, 1808; by A. M. Vassali-Eandi. Published by order of the prefect, 
 by Fdlix Galetti. Turin, 1808 ; Svo, pp. 136. 
 
 7. " Correspondance Vaudoise ; ou recueil de lettres de quelques habitants 
 des valines de Pignerol, sur le tremblement de terre de 1808." New edition, 
 Paris, 1808; an Svo, of viii and 70 pages. 
 
 8. With the two preceding works, which are essentially works of descrip- 
 tion and observation, I think it right to name the following, which is entirely 
 theoretic, but which relates to the same phenomenon :—" Nouveau pas sur les 
 sentiers de nature, concernant les causes physiques des secousses r^itdr^es des 
 tremblements de terre. Syst&me sur la materiality de I'axe du globe, &c. . . . 
 par un habitant des Hautes-Alpes." Gap, without date, one vol. 12mo, pp. 
 292. The name of the author was De Rochas. This earthquake is inci- 
 dentally spoken of in many other works. Humboldt, in his Cosmos, ranks it 
 amongst the most remarkable earthquakes recorded in history. 
 
 9. La Doucette (ex-prefect). "Statistique des Hautes-Alpes.' One vol. 
 
 Svo. 
 
 Allioni, in his Flora of Piedmont ; 2 vols, fol.— Villabs, in his Flora of 
 Dauphiny, 4 vols. 4to, and other authors writing on particular subjects, have 
 incidentally described different parts of the Vaudois mouutams. 
 
 § ^.—Illustrated Worlcs, 
 
 1. "Viaggio romantico-pittorico, delle provincie occidentali dell' antica e 
 modema Itllia, dell' avocato Modesto Paeoletti." Turin, 1824, 2 vols. fol. 
 He speaks of the Vaudois valleys, in vol. i., pp. 134-137. 
 
 2. "The exiles of Lucerna, or the sufferings of the Waldenses during tho 
 persecution of 1686." Edinburgh, 1841, Svo, pp. 196, with lithographs of two 
 
 tints. 
 
 3. " A tale of the Vaudois, designed for young persons." By M. R. Webb, 
 &c., London, 1842, ISmo, pp. 251 ; with wood engravings. A sort of historic 
 
 romance. 
 
 4. Les valines Vaudoises pittoresques, ou valines protestantes du Piemont, 
 du Dauphin^, et du Ban de la Roche, par W. Beattie . . . traduit de 1' Anglais, 
 par L. de Bauclas." Paris, 1838; a large quarto vol. of viii and 216 pages, 
 with map, portrait, engraved title-page, and 73 engravings on steel, of great 
 beauty, made from drawings taken on the spot, by Messrs. Baetlett and 
 Brockedon. This work appeared at the same time in Enghsh and in German. 
 It is one of the most beautiful illustrated works which modern times have pro- 
 duced, and unquestionably the most deserving of notice of all those which have 
 for their object the exhibition by engravings of the aspect of the Vaudois valleys. 
 
 5. There are also views of the country in Dr. Gilly's "Narrative of an 
 excursion to the mountains of Pidmont." (See § 1, No. 8, of this section.) 
 Other works also contain views, but, like his, only as accessory to their principal 
 contents. 
 
 § 4. — Tales and Poems. 
 
 1. D'Olivet (Fabre). "Les montagnards des Alpes, en 1488." 2 vols. Svo; 
 first edition, Paris, 1835; second, Paris, 1837. This work relates to the events 
 which took place in the Vaudois valleys, at the time of the crusade proclaimed by 
 
\ 
 
 430 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Apmkdix. 
 
 Innocent VIII. and directed by Albert Cattan^e; but the author neither knew 
 the history nor the country of the Vaudois. He says, however, at the end of 
 vol. ii., "I might easily have loaded these pages with notes and quotations, or 
 have added a volume of documents in justification," &c. . . . In the first 
 edition of this tale, he quoted the work of Valbonays (see § 1 of next section. 
 No. 13.) under the name of the printer, and made the further blunder of ascrib- 
 ing two different editions of that work to two different authors. In his second 
 edition there are still many errors. He even quotes, as if he had read them, 
 works which are not in existence. Such are the Memoires of Vignaux, Rosta- 
 incr and Morel, the Enquctcs juricUqucs, and other MSS. to which Perrin had 
 ac^ss, but which have since been lost. I have compared all the references on 
 particular points which the author of this tale makes with precision, and I have 
 found them all incorrect, except five. 
 
 2. DiNOCOURT. " Le chasseur noir, ou les Vaudois.'* Paris, 6 vols. 12mo. 
 Relates to the events of Merindol and Cabrifcres. It is still less historic than 
 
 3. Malan (Cesar). "Le chr^tien primitif; anecdote proven(?ale." Geneva; 
 a small r2mo volume. The same author has published a " Complainte sur 
 lori-ine et les malheurs des Vaudois de Merindol," with a view of that village, 
 
 O 
 
 and the words set to music. 
 
 4. "La protestante, ou les C^vennes au xviii. si^le . . . ." Pans, 
 
 3 vols. 12mo. This work relates to the Camisards, as does likewise the romance 
 of Eugene Sue, " Cavalier ou les Montagnards des C^vennes." Paris, 1840. 
 Tlie sources of historic information for this subject, were the Jlistoire des Cami- 
 sards, par Court de Gebelin, 3 vols. 12mo.— the Mcmo'res de Jean Cavalier, 
 
 4 vols.— the Theatre sacr€ des Cevennes, by Max. Mibbon, London, 1707, 8vo.— 
 Ze patnote fran^ais et impartial, 4 vols., published in 1703, &c. There exists 
 a historic romance entitled The Alhigenaes, by Ch. Mathurin, 4 vols., a work 
 full of very tedious pas.sage8. 
 
 5. " La vallee le la Clusone, 6pisode de Vhistoire des Vaudois du Pigment 
 au xviie sifecle, par Carlonian d'Andilli, traduit de I'Anglais." Geneva and 
 Paris; 1838, one vol. 12mo.— With this may be named a little work entitled, 
 Pierre et safamille. 
 
 6. " The Waldenses, or the Fall of Rora ; a lyrical sketch, with other poems, 
 by Aubrey De Verb." Oxford, 1842; 8vo, of xii and 311 pages. The 
 poem relative to the Vaudois occupies 94 pages. See also No. 3 of the preced- 
 ing §. 
 
 7. "L'exil des Vaudois;" ''LeRetour des Vaudois ; '* " Le Serment du Si- 
 baud ;" " La Voix des Martyrs," and " Le Culte dans les Alpes," are patriotic 
 songs which have been published in different collections. The music of the first 
 three was composed by M. A. Bost, that of the last, by M. Cuche. 
 
 § 5. — Periodical Works, 
 
 1. " Mercure Historique et Politique, contenant Mat present de I'Europe, 
 ce qui se passe dans toutes les cours, I'iut^ret des princes, leurs brigues, et g6n6- 
 ralement tout ce qu'il y a de mieux, pour le mois de. . . . Le tout accom- 
 pagn6 de reflexions politiques sur chaque Etat. A La Haye, chez Henri Van 
 Bulderen. . . . avec privilege des Etats de HoUande et Westfrise." 
 
 The title of this publication has been taken from the number for January, 
 1690 ; it was somewhat changed in subsequent numbers ; and after the month 
 of January, 1710, the paper bore only the title of Mercure Hist, et Polit. 
 This collection commences, I believe, about 1682, and ends about 1730. I 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 Kg. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 431 
 
 have it not in my power to give these notices with greater accuracy ; and the 
 same remark applies to many others. 
 
 2. ** Lettres Historiques, contenant ce qui se passe de plus important en 
 Europe, et les reflexions n^cessaires sur ce sujet. A La Haye, chez Adrien 
 Moetjens." The first number appeared in January, 1692. With this may be 
 named the "Journal Historique de I'Europe," by Louis Augustin Alemand, 
 from 1690 to 1696; and " L'lntroduction k I'histoire d'aujourdhui, tir6e des 
 Gazettes." (Concerning the Vaudois, see chap, xiii.) 
 
 3. " L'Esprit des cours de I'Europe, ou Ton voit tout ce qui se passe de 
 plus important touchant la politique, et en g6n6ral ce qu'il y a de plus remar- 
 quable dans les nouvelles. A La Haye, chez Fran9ois L'Honor6." This began 
 to appear in 1699. 
 
 4. Gazettes of Leyden, of France, and of England. The last was the ear- 
 liest in date, and began to appear in 1588. The complete collection is very 
 rare. These journals make no mention of the Vaudois, except at the times of 
 those great events which drew public attention to that people, especially in 
 1655, 1686, and 1690. 
 
 5. The National Archives of Baden (in German), Carlsruhe, t. I., No. 5. 
 Letters and Observations on the Vaudois, by Mone. The Universal Gazette of 
 Halle, March, 1821, No. 59, gives an analysis of this publication. The work 
 of Mone appeared in a separate form at Berlin, in 1821. 
 
 6. The Ecclesiastical Gazette of Darmstadt (in German), contains a number 
 of articles on the Vaudois, by Mr. Bracebridge. Another journal, published in 
 the state of Darmstadt — the weekly paper of Budingen — contains, amongst 
 others, an interesting article on the Vaudois Church of Waldensberg, in the 
 number of 19th November, 1825. 
 
 7. The Universal Gazette of Augsburg, for the year 1842, in Nos. 362, 
 363, and 364, of 28th, 29th, and 30th December— articles " From Piedmont," 
 and " On Piedmont." 
 
 8. The New Theological Annals (a German journal). Numbers for Febru- 
 ary and March, 1820, p. 171 ; and for May, 1821, p. 316; and May, 1822, p. 
 216. 
 
 9. The Preachers' Bib/lotheea Critica (a German publication). Vol. viii., 
 part 1., p. 181, ** Theological Notices." Some particulars regarding the 
 Vaudois. 
 
 10. British Review, March, 1828, and other numbers. British Magazine, 
 No. 113, p. 397, and other places. 
 
 11. Edinburgh Review, and Edinburgh Encyclopedia. Articles by Messrs. 
 Plenderleith, Gilly, &c. 
 
 12. Quarterly Review; number for December, 1843, article entitled. The 
 Vaudois Church and the King of Sardinia, of which an account is given in the 
 Record for 22d December, 1843. There are also articles in previous numbers of 
 the Review relating to the Vaudois. 
 
 13. Monthly Review ; number for June, 1814, p. 204, &c. 
 
 14. Evangelische Kirchenzeitung; year 1829. 
 
 15. The Religious Narrator (a journal published in Holland); number for 
 24th August, 1839, and many otheis. 
 
 16. The Philanthropist (a German journal, published at Elberfeld, in Prus- 
 sia); numbers for 13th and 14th June, 1825. 
 
 17. "Ze Federal" of Geneva; numbers of 21st, 22d, and 23d May, 1844. 
 Another journal of Geneva, Le Lecteur, first part, ^^ Notice hist, et statisque 
 sur les vallees Vaudoises." And with this article should be compared for 
 
/ 
 
 / 
 
 432 
 
 THE ISRA.EL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appkndix. 
 
 No L] 
 
 BIBLIOGUAPHT. 
 
 433 
 
 correction of mistakes, "£e disciple de Jesus Christ,'' a religious review, pub- 
 lished at Paris, vol. ix. p. 32 (Number for April, J 847). See also UAmi de la 
 jeunesse, Paris, 1831, vol. vii., p. 373 ; containing a ballad by M. De Felice, 
 entitled, Le Colporteur Vaudois (the subject taken from the eighth chapter of 
 
 Eeynerus). 
 
 18. "Revue Encyclop6dique ; " " Biblioth6que Encyclop6dique," &c. Sec 
 
 the Index. 
 
 19. " Archives fivang61iques de Nimes ; year 1844. 
 
 20. " Les Archives du Christianisme ; " many articles, as also in Le Semeuvi 
 (years, 1834, 1837, 1840, &c.) 
 
 21. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, Wesleyan Record, &c. Many articles, 
 
 from 1833 to 1848. 
 
 22. " Le Chroniqueur; joiu*nal de I'Helvetie Romande, de 1535 H 1536;" 
 published in 1835 and 1836. Lausanne, 4to; by M. Vuillemin, p. 394, &c. 
 
 23. "Revue Th^ologique." Strasburg, December, 1850; voL I., p. 334; 
 article On the Origin and Primitive Doctrines of the Vaudois; and vol. ii. No. 6, 
 in which is a most interesting article on the Vaudois translations of the Bible, 
 by Reuss. Vol. v. also contains two articles on the Vaudois. 
 
 24. Theological Miscellanies, in German, published by the Theological Society 
 of Strasburg, under the direction of Messrs. Reuss and Cunitz, at Jena. The 
 first three volumes contain valuable articles on the Vaudois. 
 
 25. "L'echo des Vall6es: feuille mensuelle, sp^cialement consacr6e aux 
 int^rets de la famille Vaudoise." The first number appeared on 13th July, 
 1848. This journal, the collected numbers of which will yet become extremely 
 valuable for the information which they contain, relative to the modern history 
 of the Vaudois, was established, and has hitherto been conducted with remark- 
 able ability, by M. Meille, author of the work mentioned in this Bibliography, 
 in No. 6 of the Modern Historians, placed at the end of § 1 of the first section. 
 This work has been succeeded by La Biiona Novella, also conducted by M. 
 Meille. 
 
 Section VI. — Historical works, in which the vaudois are only inciden- 
 tally TREATED OF, BUT WHICH EMBODY PARTICULAR ViEWS OR DOCUMENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — ^WORKS ON SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 § 1. — Local History. 
 
 1. The Authorities referred to at the head of each chapter of the Israel of 
 the Alps, and particularly those of chapters iii., iv., vi., and ix. of Part I., and 
 of chapters viii. and ix. of Part III. 
 
 2. "Memoircs historiques sur la maison royale de Savoie," by the Mar- 
 quis Costa De Beauregard. Turin, 1816; 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
 3. Researches concerning the History and ancient constitution of the 
 monarchy of Savoy, composed chiefly from unpublished documents, by M. L. 
 CiBBABio. In Italian; Turin, 1832; and translated in'o French by Boull6e. 
 Paris, 1833; 8vo of ix and 308 pages. See also the admirable work of M. 
 Cibrario, On the History of Law during the Middle Ages. This eminent man, 
 as obliging aa he is learned, has had the goodness to extract from the re- 
 searches which he made as a member of the Commission for the Monumenta 
 Fatnce, interesting notes and unpublished documents for the Isi'ael of the 
 Alps. 
 
 4. Della Chiesa (Agostino). "Coiona reale di Savoja," 4to.— Ludovico 
 Della Chiesa, "Storia di Piemonte," 8vo. 
 
 5. De Saluces. iMilitary History of Piedmont. 
 
 6. Muletti. "Memoires historiques sur le Marquisat de Saluces." See 
 vol. vi, 
 
 7. Massi and other authors, ** Storia di Pinerolo,** 
 
 8. Soleri. " Diario dei falii successi in Torino;" and other authors on the 
 history of Turin or of Piedmont. 
 
 9. Sillery. "Die Waldensische i Protestanten, in den Alpenthalem bei 
 Turin, in Italia . . ." Heidelberg, 1844 ; 32mo. 
 
 10. Lowther. " Brevi osservazioni sui Yaldesi . . . ." Geneva, 1821. 
 Also in Fremh, Geneva, 1821; in English, London, 1821 ; 8vo, i p. 52. 
 
 11. "Notice sur ^6ta^ actuel des Eglises Vaudoises . . ." Paris, 1822. 
 A' other Notice Histnrique on the same subject. Geneva, 1825. 
 
 12. Chorier. "Histoire g6n6rale de Dauphin6, depuis I'an 1000 de notre 
 Seigneur jusqu'^ nos jours . . ." Lyons, 1672 ; 2 vols, folio. (The first 
 v»;lume w. s printed at Grenoble in 1661.) See vol. ii., § xix., p. 69; book 
 XV., § x., p. 500, &c. This author is indiscriminating, and often inaccurate. 
 In consulting his work, reference ought always to be made to the higher author- 
 ity of the following : — 
 
 13. Valbonays (Jean-Pierre Moret de Bourchenu, Marquis de Vulbonaya: 
 born at Grenoble in 1651 ; became blind in 1701. I do not know the date ot 
 his death). He wrote a work — the title of which varies in the different editions 
 — the " Histoire de Dauphind et des princes qui ont porte le nom de Dauphins, 
 particulierement de ceux de la troisieme race, &c. . . ." Geneva, 1712; 1 vol. 
 fol. The first edition was entitled, "Memoires pour servir a I'histoire de 
 Dauphine, sous les Dauphins de la maison de La-Tour-du-Pin, &c. . . ." Paris, 
 1711; 1 vol. fol. of ix, vi, 22, 681, and 20 pages. Concerning the Vaudois, see 
 pp. 326-346. The name of the author is not printed in either of these volumes. 
 
 14. " Histoire gdographique, naturelle, ecclesiastique et civile du diocfese 
 
 d'Embrun, par M , bachelier en droit canonique et civil de la faculte de 
 
 Paris et docteur en th6ologie." Without place of publication, 1783; 2 vols. 
 8vo. This is the work to which the Five Letters, by a Vaudois, &c., are a reply. 
 (See section I., § 2, No. 8 of the present part of this Bibliography.) The 
 author of this history, which is sometimes referred to under the title of Histoire 
 du, diocese d'Embrun, was Father Albert. His work must have been printed 
 at Lyons. 
 
 15. Maranda. "Tableau du Piemont, sous le regime des rois, avec \m 
 precis sur les Vaudois et une notice sur les Barbets." Turin, year XI. (1803); 
 1 vol. 8vo, of vi and 244 pages, dedicated to Bonaparte, First Consul. This 
 work contains 15 chapters, of which only the last two relate to the Vaudois. 
 It is by no means trustworthy. 
 
 16. " Johannis CoLUMBi Manuascensis [de Manosque]. Opuscula varia, &c 
 
 . . . ." Lugduni, 1568. One vol. 32mo. What relates to the Vaudois is 
 contained in the fourth book, entitled, De rebus gestis Epis. Valent. ct Dieusium. 
 Jean Colomb Manosque belonged to the order of the Jesuits. 
 
 17. ** Les transactions d'Imbert, dauphin de Viennois, prince du Brian- 
 fonnais et marquis de Sezane, &c. ..." One vol, fol., MDCXLV. — See also 
 Brunet, seigneur de I'Argenti^re, "Recueil des actes, pieces et procedures, 
 concemant remphith6ose perp6tuelle des dimes du Brian^onnais, &c. . . ." 
 One vol. 32mo, 1754. Also, '* Recueil de pieces concemant la r6gaie, I'affaire 
 TEmbrun," &c. ... 10 vols. 4to. 
 
 Vol. II. 116 
 
43^ 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appendix. 
 
 No. I ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 135 
 
 18 Du TiLLiEB, History of Berne, 5 vols. 8vo. Berne, 1839 (in Ger- 
 man) -Dexina, History of the Italian Revolutions (in Italian). Translated 
 into French by Jardin; Paris, 1770.-LfeTi, Storia Genevrina. . . . Am- 
 sterdam, 1686 ; 5 vols. 8vo. (In a number of houses in Geneva, there are 
 MSS. which pass for family records, and which are nothing else than fragments 
 of this work, translated at the time when it appeared). 
 
 § 2. — Memoirs and Biographies. 
 
 1. «' Memoires de M.D.F.L., touchant ce qui s'est pass6 en Italie, entre Victor 
 Amed^e II., due de Savoie, et le roi trfes-chr6tien avec le detail. . . /' &c. 
 Aix-Ia-Chapelle, 1697. Concerning the Vaudois, see pp. 39, 40, et seq., 1/0, &c. 
 
 2 "Memoires du prince Eugene." Several works are referred to under this 
 title- -Histoire du prince rrau9ois-Eugene de Savoye. gendralissime des armies 
 
 derEmpereuretdel'Empire " Amsterdam, 1740. Reprinted at Vienna 
 
 in 1755, in 5 vols. 8vo, with engravings. See vol. i. book ii. p. 113, of the farst 
 edition ; vol. iii. p. 146 of the second, Ac. 
 
 3 Feuquieres. ''Lettres et negociations." Paris, 1753; 3 vols. 8vo. 
 Memoires dtc Marquis de Feuquieres, published in 7 vols.-To which may be 
 added, D'Estbades, Lettres et Negociations; London, 1743, 9 vols. 8vo ; ex- 
 tendmg from 1637 to 1677; and Vie du Cardinal de Richelieu, the second volume 
 
 of which may be consulted. 
 
 i The Histories of Louis XIV., by Bruyen de la Mari;miere, and many other 
 authors, contain a number of particulars connected with the history of the 
 
 Vaudois. . . , ^ , , „ 
 
 5. "Recueil de lettres de Louis XIV. ^ ses mmistres et i ses g(^n^raux. 
 
 Paris, 1760; 8 vols. 8vo. ,. f v 
 
 6 Histories of the Dukes of S.-iVoy, by various authors; e. g., those of Em- 
 manuel Philibert (Amsterdam, 1693, and in Latin, Turin, 1596;; and of Charles 
 
 Emmanuel (Turin, 1632), &c. . . , x • .-.^a " 
 
 7 "D'Obigny. "La vie du P. Antoine Ponevm et de ses negociations. 
 Paris 1712 See also the Lives of Schomberg, of Catinat, of the Marquis de 
 La Feuillade, of the Marquis De Parelles, and, in general, of all the eminent 
 personages who figured in the campaigns of 1690 and 1703. But the particular 
 memoirs and biographies, which refer more or less to the Vaudois, are so numer- 
 ous, that I have thought it necessary to restrict myself in the enumeration of 
 them. Those which are of any historic imporUnce relate especially to the 
 period from 1664 to 1713. 
 
 Paris, 1691-1720; 20 vols. 4to. Brussels, 1692-1720; 20 vols. 4to, &c. Gene 
 i-al Index of Matters by Rondet. Paris, 1758; 4to. This history has been con- 
 tinued to 1595 by J. CI. Febre, who has added 16 volumes to it (vols, 
 xxi.-xxxvi.); and, finally, it has been brought down to the end of the eighteenth 
 century, under the title, "Histoire du Christianisrae connu, &c., augment^e de 
 4 livres, comprenant I'histoire du quinzieme siecle et continuant jusqu'a la fin 
 du dix-huiti^me sifecle," by a Society of Ecclesiastics, under the superintendence 
 of the Abbe 0. Vidal. Paris, 1837; 8 large 8vo vols.— Fleury's history has 
 given rise to the following works -.—HoNORfi de Sainte Marie, " Observations 
 sur I'histoire ecclesiastique de Fleury," addressed to Our Holy Father Pope Bene- 
 dict XIII. , and to Our Lords and Bishops. Malines, 1727, 8vo; and ibid. 1760. 
 Consists of denunciations of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History to Our Lords and 
 Bishops, — Beaudoin de Hodsta, "La mauvaise foi de M. Fleury, prouv6e par 
 plusieurs passages des Saints P^res, des conciles etd'auteurs eccl^siastiques qu'il 
 a omis, tronques ou infidelement traduits dans son histoire," Malines, 1733; 
 4to. — RossiGNOL, ** Reflexions sur I'histoire ecclesiastique de Fleury;" 1802.— 
 Marchetti, " Critique de I'histoire ecciesia-stique de Fleury," translated from 
 Italian into French; published in Belgium in 1803, and at Besan90u in 1819; 
 in 2 vols. 12mo. — Mazaretti, "Remarques sur I'histoire ecclesiastique et 
 specialement sur la dissertation de Fleury," translated from the fourth Italian 
 edition. 
 
 3. MosHEiM (John Laurence). "Histoire ecclesiastique," translated into 
 French from the English, by Fortunat Felice, Yverdon, 1776 ; 6 vols. 8vo ; and 
 from the original Latin, by Eidous (Marc Antoine), Maestricht, 1776, 6 vols. 
 8vo. This history has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. 
 
 4. B£ZE (Theodore De). "Histoire ecclesiastique de I'Eglise r6formee au 
 royaume de France, en laquelle est d6crite au vray la renaissance et accroisse- 
 ment d'icelles, depuis I'an 1521 kl523; leur r6glement ou discipline, synodes, 
 persecutions tant gen6rale8 que particulih-es." Antwerp, 1580; 3 vols. 8vo. 
 A second edition of this work was published by M. Marzials, at Lille, 1837- 
 1841 ; 3 Vvls. 8vo. In the first edition, which I have used, the Vaudois of 
 Provence are treated of in vol. i,, p, 35, et seq. On the same subject, see (be- 
 sides the authorities named at the head of chap. v. of part I. of the Israel of 
 the Alps), Gaufridi, "Histoire de Provence;" Aix, 1684; folio; book xi., 
 BoucHE, " Histoire de Provence," p. 607. Nostradamus (Cesar, the eldest 
 son of Michel the prophesier), "Histoire et chronique de Provence;" Lyons, 
 1664 ; folio, book vii. De Thou, " flistoriar. sui temporis . . . ;"bookv. 
 La PoPLiNifeRE, "Histoire de France," (from 1550 to 1557), 2 vols, folio. 
 Voltaire, Histoire generale, vol. i., p. 170. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— WORKS OF A GENERAL CHARACTER. 
 
 § 1. — Ecclesiastical Histories. 
 
 A. — In French. 
 
 1 Basnage de Beauval (Jaq.) " Histoire de I'Eglise depuis J. C. jusqu'^ 
 present," divided into four parts. First edition, Rotterdam, 1699; 2 vols, fol. 
 Second edition, the Hague, 1723; 2 vols, fol., &c. This author treats at great 
 length of the Vaudois, and had even conceived the design of writing their his- 
 tor^._Seo also the Biblioth. eccl. of Dupin, and the critical examination of it 
 by Rich. Simon, articles Valdo, Bruys, &c. 
 
 2. Fleury (Claude). " Histoire ecclesiastique." (It comes down to 1414.) 
 
 B. — In Latin. 
 
 5. Gerdes. ** Specimen *Italiaereformatae." Leyden, 1765, 4to; vol. ii., p. 
 400.— ScuLTET (Abraham), " Annalium Evangelii passim per Europam, 15 8alu- 
 tis partae seculo renovati decas 1 et 2, ab a. 1516 ad a, 1536. Heidelberg, 1618. 
 
 6. Baronius (Caesar). " Annales ecc^esiast. a Chr. nato ad a, 1198," Rome, 
 1588-1607; 12 vols, folio. Second edition, Antwerp, 1589-1603; 10 vols, 
 folio, &c. This work has been continued by Bzovius (Abraham), " Annales 
 ecclesiast, post Caes, Baronium ;" vols, xii-.-xx.; " ab a. 1198 usque ad a. 1565, 
 rerum in orbe Christ, gestar. narrationem complectentes." Rome, 1616. g< seq.^ 
 folio; and Cologne, 1621-1630, folio. This author often declares himself op- 
 posed to Baronius. Another continuation is by H. Spondanus, " Annalium 
 
436 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [ITPKHDIX' 
 
 Vo. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 437 
 
 eeelesiast. Caes. B.onU -tinuatio a. an. U97^d fin^^^ ^^^l^^ 
 41], 1647 ; 2 vols, folio. Lyons, 1678 3 vols^ foUo A ^^^^.^^^ 
 
 .y Od. BA.K--%:f-tlstir-rx : Romn64tl677, folio. Cologne, 
 1198, usnoe ad an. 1.-65 ; vols. xm. x.xi. . ,„.„„,o. •■ Annales 
 
 I693I1727; folio. Another ~"'j"f ■"" " ^^.f ^'^ Si" K^me, 1728- 
 eccles. .b a. 1566, ubi desinit Od. R»y"f" '' T;'"f;^; "^^^ „f Baronio.-. 
 
 '"'i- ^i.^ ^ZT^i:^:^^^ ^v. ad B.on.. 
 
 ^1^. ^o.do. 161. .u. .^. ieiM.0. -j^^->: 
 
 1663, 4to. Ant. Pagi, l^ntica mst. ^ „,.,i^„: in veter. Summor. 
 
 opus Posthuou. 4 T. a— .^^A^^^^^^^^^^ TvK. Tew edition or 
 pontificum hacternus inediti. Antwerp, i^v^^, 
 •c, -p.rT Antw 1724; 14 vols, folio. nv „ 
 
 laOO, et in >oca ej.de™in3|n,a .se.t ^■^:^-^^ ,,^ ,,Hes, 
 divisa», ante quidem (1676 ft. 2t> v. oo;, per l accesjione, scho.iis et 
 
 indicib. aucta, illast^ «"^^, J"' <''^3 i (Lo a, 1734, 9 vols., bound in 
 New editions have been publ shed by Eonca K ^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 8. folio), and Mans. (L-a 1H9^ ms ^.^ ^^^ ^^.^_^_ 3^^^„_ i„3, 
 reprinted. Ferrara, l75»-i/o- > ''^^ 
 
 9 vols, and 8 ^j^-^ -PP^XxH^"^^^^^^^ ohrist., qua series omnium arohl- 
 The brothers De Sa.«te Mart ^ ^i,;„,™„q„e ditionum ab or.gme 
 
 epis:opo,um, ep-scop., et abbat. *ranc H ^^^ ^^. .^^_ 
 
 les. ad nost^ tempora ded„e.tu. Par. JO. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^.„, 
 
 ;t- l'7"^8 35 "lio '■ S;=^iptores ordinis Pnedicator. recensiti, not.s,ue h>st 
 Par. 17-o-SD, louo. 1^ t^ „~«nlarpnue ffesta re'^eruntur, &c., &-c. 
 
 et orit. illu,trati; opus, quo s.ngulor. "-f I'^^TVJm^.mi ; 2 vols. fol. 
 Inohoavit JAC. Qbeiip, absolvit Jao. Echabd P»r. ia9 1/^ ^ ^^^ 
 
 -USHEE, "Do christianarum ^-^J^^!" 7, "7;;^ :^v,ud„i» MSS. were 
 library of this celebrated AngUcan b'^T;. *' »' "'^ ^^^^ ^^^ Dublin. 
 derivTd, which are now depos.ted .n the b^a,y "^ W^^^ J^^^.^ ,,,,^^ 
 
 7. H»--„^- r,™-Msl'.''™m introductionibus: PranUfoH 
 
 I«ne qui ad h=ec '^^^^^^^rS^'^^^^^^^^^^^ '^^' -"" =' ^ 
 nomina, -"-'^.f.^Xrdes'" Without pkce or date of publication (Cologne, 
 Luthero non n.hd deprehendes. "''°° J" j publication (Cologne, 
 
 1525). Second editjon, enlarged -'h-' P^-;^„,„^ ,y„^,„., 
 
 (1526), 1527 ; 8vo.— Abr. Schcltet, *i«""' » "^ jj. fi^^^„_ 
 
 I <.uo rnCT63T-tto'°t "r.^^^^^^^^^^ '» N»- 
 
 ri^iiEr-strpro.^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 -f pX^hS' .''l^r\rct:r-et .^r s^.!'ac pr^lp^ chrU. 
 8. F. Spanheih, "■ ii3 castigationibus Cies. Baronu. 
 
 'r; "' llTl^8? n.t 4*:. - Summa "istor. cedes, a Chr. nato ad sec. 16, 
 Sitim S;tit:rloctinatemporum,"etc. (Leyden. 1687-1694. Le.p- 
 .nohoatum. Pn«™>tti ;., .^berhard A. BoBGEE, "De Mysticsmo. 
 
 The Ha'l'e, 820 flvo T^nsh^ted into German by E. SUnge, with a p^f^e, 
 by J Gurlett; Allona, 1826 ; 8vo. Kew ed., with P-faoeby E. G^ ^^^k'' - 
 iUtona, 1827 i 8vo. A work to which a premmm was awarded.-Is. DE BEAU 
 
 80BRE, Hist. crit. de Manich6e et du Manich6isme; Amst. 1734, 1739; 8 vols. 
 4to. In favour of the Vaudois; see the preface, which says — "Amongst the 
 errors of the Vaudois there is nothing which savours of Manicheism." — Bossuet, 
 Hist, de Variat. Book xi., § xcvi., par. 2. — LUDNEB, History of the Middle 
 Ages. — Baumgabten, History of Religious parties. A calm and impartial 
 German historian. 
 
 C. — In German. 
 
 9. ScHRCECKH (John Matthias), "Christl. Kirchengesch." Leipz. 1768-1803 
 88 vols. 8vo. An immense collection ; for what concerns the Vaudois, see vol 
 xxix.— Henke (H. Ph. Kr.), "Allgem. Gesch. der Christl. Kirche nach d. Zeit 
 folge." The first volume appeared in 1788, and has passed through many edi 
 tions, as have also all the following. J. Rev. Vater has continued it from vol 
 vii. The ninth and last volume appeared in 1823, in 8vo. — Arnold (Godefroy) 
 ** Unparth. Kirchen-und-Ketzer-Historie, vom Auf. des N. T. bis auf das Jahr, 
 Chr. 1688." Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 1669-1700; 4 vols. fol. " Supplementa, 
 lUustrationes u. Emendationes zur Verbesser. der Kirchen-Historie." Frank 
 fort-on-the-Maine, 1/03; 4to. New ed. with supplem.; Id. 1729; 2 vols. 4to 
 SchaflFhaus. 1740-42; 3 vols, fol.— A. Neander, "Allgem. Gesch. der Christl. 
 Relig. u. Kirche." The earlier volumes appeared at Hamburgh, from 1825 to 
 1836, each divided into several parts. — Of abridgments of Ecclesiastical History 
 in German, may be mentioned, J. K. L. Gieseler (the first volume appeared 
 at Bonn, in 1824), and H. E. Fred. Guericke, (first ed., Halle, 1833, 2 vols.); 
 Dan. H. Hering, "Beitrage z. Gesch, der Evang. reform. Kirche in die Preuss," 
 &c. Breslau, 1784, 1785; 2 vols. 8vo. Newed., Berl., 1786-87; 2 vols. 8vo. 
 See vol. ii. W. D. Tdrmann, " Handworterb. der Christl. Religions u. Kir- 
 chengesch., &c. Nebst ein. Abhandl. lib. die hohe wichtigk. u. die zweckmaa- 
 Bigste methode eines fortges. Studiums der Relig. -u.-Kirchengesch. fiir prakt. 
 Relig ionslehrer, v. A. H. Niemeyer." Halle, 1826-29; 3 vols. 8vo.— H. 
 ScHMiD, " Der mysticismus des Nittecalters in seiner Entstehungs periode." 
 Jena, 1824; 8vo. 
 
 10. Du VoisiN (Lancelot), History of the French churches. Antwerp, 
 15S0. For what concerns the Vaudois, see book i., p. 35. — Remy (John) pub- 
 lished a work with the same title. — With these may be named, Wihll's Apolo- 
 getic History or Defence of the liberties of the Reformed Churches of France, 
 an Appendix to the History of the French Church ; 1759, 8vo (a German work). 
 
 11. Cave (William). "Tabulae quib. doctores et scriptor, ecclesiast. eor- 
 umque patria, ordo, setas et obitus in synops. ... a epochae christ. 1 ad a. 1519 
 exhibentur." (Lond. 1674, fol.) Hamb, 1676; fol. This work has been several 
 times reprinted under new titles. The last edition is that of Basle, 20 vols., 
 1745. — Water, Materials for Modern Ecclesiastical History. Halle, 1820. 
 A German work which speaks of the Vaudois in vol. i, where a sketch is given 
 of their history since the French Revolution. 
 
 (For .the greater part of the titles contained in this section, I am indebted to 
 Pastor Eugene Arnaud, the author of ^ecAcrc/ic* critiques sur VepUre de Jude^ 
 prescntant une introduction d VepUre, et un commentaire sur chaque verset. 
 Strasburg and Paris, 1851. — These titles are taken from a Repo'toire hihlio- 
 graphique de la Theolofjie frangaisc, depuia la reformation jusques d nos jours, 
 with which this author is engaged.) 
 
 § 2. — Profane History. 
 
 1 Muratort. Scriptores rerum Italicarum, fol.; published from 1723 to 
 
\ 
 
 %v 
 
 it 
 
 III 
 
 438 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appendix. 
 
 1751. Concerning the Vaudois, see vol. v., p. 82; vol. xvi., p. 662, and in 
 vol. xi. the Annales mediolanenses, ad annum 1259, cap. xxxi. Muratori wrote 
 also Antiquitates Italian medii cevi, Milan, 1738-1742 ; 6 vols. fol. ; and Annali 
 d'ltcdia, 12 vols. 4to. Venice, 1744-1749. The State Archives at Turin, it 
 is said, were never opened to this eminent writer, notwithstanding all the en- 
 deavours which he made to obtain access to them. 
 
 2. Histories of Italy.— Guicciardini, extending from 1490 to 1534 (Fran- 
 cesco Guicciardini, Storia d'Jtalia, 1775, 4 vols. 4to). Prolix and superficial. 
 See a critique, by Montaigne, Essays, book ii., chap, x.— Brusoni, Storia 
 d' Italia, extending from 1625 to 1660. Venice, 1661, 4to.— Denina, Delh 
 rivoluzioni d' Italia. Turin, 1770; 3 vols. 4to.— Sidonius, De regno Italico. 
 Still less profound.— GuiCHENON, Ilistoire genealogique de la maison de Savoie, 
 3 vols. fol. A servile wTiter. He labours to justify the persecutions of which 
 the Vaudois were the victims, and often attacks the historian L6ger, with whom, 
 however, he had studied at Geneva, but afterwards abjured his religious opinions 
 and friendships to gratify his ambition.— Par ADIN, Chronique de Savoie. Dif- 
 fuse and unsatisfactory. He speaks of the Vaudois, or rather of Valdo, in chap- 
 xxxi. A Chronique de Savoie, in MS., and very interesting, exists in the library 
 of Carpentras, amongst the ISISS. called MSS. of Peyresk.— Botta {History 
 of Italy) and Sismondi {History of the Italian Republics), have not studied the 
 subject of the Vaudois, although they speak of it in passing. 
 
 3. Histories of France.- Bernard Girard Do Haillan, Hist. gen. des roys 
 de France. Paris, 1616: 2 vols, fol.— Anquetil ; Mezeray; Hainault; and 
 the Histoire de France, called Des trois maHeaux; also, the Histoire des Fran- 
 qais, by Sismonde de Sismondi ; and, finally, Michelet, who, although the 
 last in date, is nevertheless one of the first in erudition, in method, and, above 
 all, in that rare gift of life, which can only be communicated to recitals of the 
 past by a noble heart and a great enlightened mind. 
 
 4. Particular Histories.— Lacretelle. " Histoire des guerres de rel. au xvie 
 sitcle," &c.— Du Moulin (Molinaeus), " De Monarchia Francorum," Paris, 
 1561.— Anonymous : " Memoire pour servir k I'hist. du xviie siecle " (extending 
 from 1643 to 1690). Paris, 1765; 3 vols. 8vo.— Lamberty, Memoires pour 
 8e)vir d Vhist. du xviiie sitcle. Amsterdam, 1757; 4to, 14 vols.; and many 
 other collections noticed in next section. 
 
 6. Universal History, published in 47 vols, 4to, at Amsterdam and Leipzic 
 in 1790. See vol. xxxii. p. 477, &c.— Haller, " Biblioth. d'hist. universelle.'' 
 — D'AUBIGN^, " Hist, universelle depuis I'an 1550 jusqu'a I'an 1601." Amster- 
 dam, 1616 ; 3 vols. fol. A writer full of enei-gy. (See book ii.) 
 
 6.' Historical Dictionaries of Moreri. Bayle, Eichelet; Conversations- 
 Lexicons- Encyclopedias — Modeme— Nouvelle— Progressive— Philosophique 
 — Du xixe siecle- Des Gens du Monde, &c.— And, finally, L'Art de verifier 
 LE3 DATES, on the chronology of the Dukes of Savoy, and in other places. 
 This excellent work may be regarded as indispensable for every writer of history. 
 It was continued with great assiduity by M. Db Courcelles, and completed 
 by M. De Fobbia. 
 
 Section VII. — Detached documents. 
 § \.— Collections of Official Papers. 
 
 1, "Liber statutorum, fi-anchisiarum ac imraunitatum, civitatis Pinarolii, 
 nunc denuo impressus, ejusdem civitatis impensis." Aug. Taur., 1602; of xxxii 
 and 454 pages. Chap. Lxxxiv. treats of the Vaudois. 
 
 No. l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 439 
 
 2. "Eaccolta de gl' editti et altre provisioni, delle altezze Reali delli serenissimi 
 duchi di Savoia, di tempo in tempo promulgate, sopra gl' occorrenti delle valli di 
 Lucema, Perosa e San-Martino, terre anesse di San-Bartolomeo, Prarustino e 
 Roccapiata: e dell' altre terre del Marchesato di Saluzzo e del Piemonte." 
 Turin, 1678 (by Sinibaldo), small fol., pp. 158, containing 104 papers or edicts, 
 printed at full length, from 1476 to 1672. 
 
 3. " Confirmazione de privilegii fatta alii Signori Conti e communita della 
 valle di Luserna." Turin, 1682 (by the same printer), 4to. Containing the 
 letters-patent or privileges of 1582, 1584, 1585, 1635, 1643, 1663, with the 
 enterinations. 
 
 4. BoRELLT. A general collection of the Edicts of the Royal House of 
 Savoy. (In Italian. I cannot at this moment lay my hands on the original 
 title.) In the third patt, book xv., chap, ii., from p. 1259 to p. 1287, it con- 
 tains a number of Edicts relative to the Vaudois, printed at full length. This 
 collection requires to be supplemented by the following : — 
 
 5. DUBOIN. "Raccolta per ordine di materie, delle leggi, providenze, editti, 
 manifesti, etc., publicati dal principio dell' anno 1681, fino agli 8tto Decembre, 
 1780." .... Turin, 1825, fol. For the edicts concerning the Vaudois, see 
 vol. ii, book ii., chap, xiii,, p. 109. The first three volumes of this valuable 
 collection were at first published anonymously. The name of this author, when 
 his work is cited by foreigners, is sometimes written Dubois instead of Duboin. 
 The son of this eminent jurist continues the work of his father, and proposes 
 to publish a supplement to the edicts relative to the Vaudois. 
 
 6. "Raccolta delle leggi, providenze e manifesti, emanati dai governi fian- 
 cese e provisorio, e dalla Municipalita di Torino, unitamente alle lettere pastor- 
 ali, del citt. arcivescovo di Torino." Vol, i. Turin, year vii. of the French 
 Republic, and first year of Liberty in Piedmont, 1 vol. 4to. of 320 pages. 
 Vol. ii., published afterwards, contains 240 pages. This collection contains all 
 the decrees of the Provisional Government, and of the Executive Committee in 
 Piedmont, from 1798 to 1800, relative to the Vaudois. 
 
 7. The following were published separately: — the Patents of Grace, signed 
 at Pignerol, 18 Aug., 1655 ; the Edict for the re- establishment of the Vaudois, 
 23 May, 1694 (reprinted in 1713), and most of the other pieces of the same 
 description at the time of their promulgation, 
 
 8. " Conferences faictes k Turin, dans I'Hostel de ViUe en presence de MM. 
 les Ambassadeurs Suisses, entre les ministres de S. A. R. et les ddput^s des 
 valines de Luzerne ; k la fin de I'ann^e 1663, et au commencement de la cour- 
 ante, 1664," Turin, small folio, pp. 230. 
 
 9. The old Civil Code, published in 172 1, under this title, ** Leggi e costitu- 
 zioni di sua Maesta" (title of the edition of 1770; 2 vols, 4to, of 504 and 574 
 pages). The new Civil Code, promulgated by Charles Albert in 1837, and 
 likewise the Statute of 1848, deserve also to be mentioned, because of the arti- 
 cles which they contain relative to the Vaudois. 
 
 10. Amongst the collections of edicts emanating from foreign powers, the 
 following will be found to contain things relating to the Vaudois of Saluces and 
 Pragelas, at the time when these countries were under the dominion of France. 
 — " Recueil des Edicts et declarations des Roys, Henry IV., Louys XIII. et 
 Louis XIV., sur la pacification des troubles de ce royaume," Paris, 1659- 
 small 4to, each edict paged by itself. •' Recueil des 6dits, declarations et arrets 
 du conseil, rendus au sujet de la religion pretendue r6form6e, depuis 1679 jusqu'k 
 present." Paris, 1701 ; 8vo. of xx and 475 pages. The same papers are to be 
 found also in other collections. 
 
/ 
 
 uo 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 § 2.— Collections of various Documents. 
 
 [ikPPtNOlX. 
 
 No. I ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 441 
 
 lar.'e 4to. " Chartarum TomU3 primus, ^°-.'^'""- •„.,„<,_„ 1209. 
 ^ptoZ, Gio^FBEDO: SioHa ddU Alpi n,ar,Unu, etc., col. 488, year , 
 
 "Tsome of the .a.ne wor.. are aUo to ^/-^jJ^^lX^^^^^^ 
 
 .'Thaanrus anecdotorum, 1717; 5 vols. fol. ! ^^ ™>-^;;Xne and Dukand, 
 also De antiqui) EcclesM rihhu,, Kouen, 1 00) , Mart ^ 
 
 ^;eeernn.s4toru.et.^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 P^^^ nTs^ti; "L-.B, .V.««Lea. 1678-1715; 7 vo.. 8,0. 
 Pans, i/io, o T ,„BEUS B»iio(A;eo »««'"«"''i'">'""™' *°- 
 
 (See vol. «., p. 20S)-I'*''f "!•/"'" „u „f i„„ocent VIII., te.-EiPOLL, 
 4. "Bullariam magnum, -for the Bu lot 52, a letter to the Bishop 
 
 ..BuUarium ordinis P™''-*°™™; J' rh,;^:,;L. N„. xliii., a.1 an. 1233. 
 
 of Mayence, given »'^° >>? ^^ '^^^J"' 'IJ!. conceraing the herm«. of the 
 Another letter to the Arohb'shop ,f «» »n%oon« J^^^^^^^^^ ^„^,^ 
 
 Ume, is to be seen ■" Te>gsagei, Co ._^ _^^^^^^_ ^^^^ ^^^,^^ 
 
 sohismatioos;" IngolsUd , 1612 voh >^._^P.^.^^; „ ^^^ .„ ,„, „., 476, 
 
 :. ;•' ^ ofp^pe Luciut'll., conoa tere,ioo,.-HABDOtlN, C«nc.f.a Gallu,, 
 the decree of P»P« ^-us^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^ j 
 
 vol. .., p. 30.-MEIEE3 I- _^^^ ^j ^^^ ^^jh„„ ^d,ted 
 
 *1."r/Er-.-Serlptores H.o- K»noo.m. -^ ^ --r, 
 
 J • /TI.Q Pari<» edition Of lOOO 18 in O VOia. aua-/ 
 
 V. and VI. (The l-ans eaiuou ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 -:r"' i"^r^..^ti:otre^Mst:tne^^^ ^f . "««. 
 
 frftth -'.for notices :f h..s; --- -"^5!!™" ^ ^7. 
 
 of old USS-BiilMh. sac-a. f^"'',^^ re art a number of works with this 
 
 documents pour l''''^^*' ~- ,„,'^:„:^: Id M.CB.Ct., Bo.QUET, 
 title, by Cimbeb and Danjou, VjUi^ui, o^jiwii 
 
 Leber and Petitot, &c. ^-fu „.ap nf the work^ • ' Histoire des 
 
 <4 Prfspin (his name is not m the title-page ot theworK;. x 
 
 m^H^^r^cL et mis . mo. pour -^^^^ -^^ ^S 
 aes AP»7j-X?:urtV; -.'Leu::: d'; mLt'yrs, depuis Jean Huss 
 "" "™t,:f » Geneva 1554 ; 8vo. Claude Badoel translated thU work 
 '•TL^tin atd publ S'it with the title, "Acta martyrum qui sceculo xv.. .n 
 „to Latm, ''"^ P^^" ^^^, ^^j,„„t „„„en EvangeUo idque sangmne s«o 
 
 K .;u;t " iVTe 8vo. ; and 1560, 4to. A third edition of Crespin,m French 
 obsigna^ut, 1»56 8vo^ , a , ^^.^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^published 
 
 1619, divided into twelve books, is the most complete. This Protestant marty- 
 rology has been placed in the Index by the court of Rome. This work has sup- 
 plied the greater part of the materials for the History of the Martyrs (in Dutch), 
 by Mellinus, Amsterdam, 1620; The Mirror of the Martyrs, by Van Bbacht, 
 fol., Amsterdam, 1685; The Martyrology of Pantaleon, Basle, 1563 (contain- 
 ing the Confession of Faith presented by the Vaudois of Provence to Cardinal 
 Sadolet (part II., book v., p. 130,) &c. Crespin was born at Arras about 1519. 
 He retired to Geneva in 1548, and conceived the design of writing his admirable 
 History of the Martyrs, in consequence of an account which he received of the 
 Bufferings and courage of five young Frenchmen, students at Lausanne, who 
 were arrested at Lyons, when they were retimiing from visiting their parents, 
 and burned alive in that city, as heretics, in 1552. ** I may well say," such are 
 Crespin 's own words, " that they have suggested to me by their writings, the 
 first thought of making these collections." (Edition of Geneva, 1619, fol. 5, at 
 the bottom, in the Argument des douze livres.) The story of these five youths 
 is related in this edition, from folio 201 to folio 931. The facts concerning the 
 Vaudois are to be found in folios 111, 133, 182, 319, 333, 396, 411, 412, 418, 
 506, and 532-547. 
 
 7. In the Journal des Savants, the Bihliotheque Universelle, and other collec- 
 tions, documents have been published, of very various interest, connected with 
 the history of the Vaudois. In particular, I shall mention (as pointed out to 
 me by Professor Dumesnil), an interesting refutation of the charges made against 
 the Vaudois of Cabriferes and Merindol, in vol. iii. of *' L'histoire de France, 
 depuis r^tablissement de la monarchic fran^aise dans les Gaules, d^di^e au Roi, 
 par le P. Gabriel Daniel, de la compagnie de J^sus." (Paris, 1713, 3 vols, fol.) 
 This refutation is to be found in the "BiBLiOTHfeQUE choisie, pour servir de 
 suite a la Bibliothfeque universelle, par Jean Le Clerc;" year 1713. Amster- 
 dam, vol. xxvii., 32mo, pp. 49-76. 
 
 PART IL— MANUSCRIPT WORKS. 
 
 Section L— Ancient vaudois manuscript in the romance language. 
 
 «^ 1. — Origin of these MSS. 
 
 Bossuet, in his "History of the Variations of Protestantism" (book xL, 
 § cxxvii.) exclaims, "Until some known library shall be pointed out to us 
 where we may see the manuscripts, we cannot but be astonished that books are 
 brought forward against us as authentic, which nobody ever saw save Perrin 
 alone ; as neither Aubertin nor La Roque refer to them, otherwise than upon 
 his authority, only not saying that they never had them in their hands. This 
 Perrin, who alone makes great use of them in his argument, takes no notice of 
 any of the marks by which it is possible to establish the date of a volume, or to 
 prove its antiquity ; he merely tells us that they are old Vaudois books, a 
 description suflBciently general to be applicable to the most modem black letter 
 volumes." And before this he says, "Not only the language of ViUe-Hardouin, 
 who wrote 100 years after Peter de Bruys, but even that of authors subsequent 
 to Ville-Hardouin, is more antiquated and obscure than that to which the date 
 of 1120 is assigned ; so that there can be no grosser absurdity than the attempt 
 to palm these treatises upon us as of great antiquity." (Id. § exxvi.) Such are 
 
 Vol. II. llg 
 
44)2 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Apfkndjx. 
 
 Eo«s,,efs words. "There i8 good reason, tlieref. re, for thinking," he after- 
 ^ rX ■■ that these books, which are so vauntingly b«>ugM orw-d, -tU^ 
 out any solid proof of their date, were composed or f '^f 1'^^™™''' 
 Vaudois after the manner of Farel and his associates. (End of § «^™') 
 
 By thse words, Bossuet (1.) expresses a doubt of the existence of the Vaudcs 
 r,a!LcrrtsX) Unifies his opinion that the language in which they are written 
 
 rheletl were composed orfalaified by the VaudoUofthcseventeenth century 
 BSdrwhieh, other authors have alleged (4.) that these manuscripts proceeded 
 "m the Vaudois but from Petrobmsians ; (5.) that they contain internal 
 ev id n™of a more recent origin ; and (6.) that they belong not to the Vaudois 
 but to other Protestant sects of the Middle Ages. These different objections I 
 
 propose to examine very briefly. j -t ^ ;„ 
 
 1 Almost all the Vaudois MSS., referred to by Pernn, are now deposited m 
 public libraries, in which the author of the ^a^'a^io^ might ^-e cons^U^^ 
 them. This is a sufficient reply to his first objection. (See these MfeS. noticed 
 
 in §§ 2, 3, and 4 of this section.) 
 
 2 Whether the language of Ville-Hardouin is more antiquated than that of 
 the Vaudois MSS., the reader may judge. " Un Vdnisien et un ohevalier^o 
 France qui avoit nom Andr^ d'Urboise, entrferent en la tor (tour), et autres 
 genz comencent h entrer apr^s als (eux) ; et cil (ceux) de la tor se desconfisen 
 (d^andent) et s'en vont . . . Ensi fu I'oz hehergi^ com vos avez oi (oui) et 
 Constantinople prise le lundi de Pa^que florie." Such is the language of Ville- 
 Hardoum, who lived from 1167 to 1213. Hist, de la conqictte de Comtanti. 
 nople, towards the end. Compare with this, the first lines of the Vaudois poem 
 La Bavca (Geneva MSS. No. 207; Dublin MSS. Class C, shelf 5, No. 21):- 
 
 •• La sancta Trinita nos don parliir 
 Cosa quo sia donor e de gloria 
 E que al profeit de tuit poysa tomar 
 E a li auvidor done atalentament," kc. 
 
 As I cannot suppose that the language of these lines will be so readily under- 
 stood as that of Ville-Hardouin, I subjoin a reduction of them mto modern 
 
 French : — 
 
 " Que la sainte Triiiitc nous donne do dire 
 Des choees qui soient a eon honneur et a sa gloiro, 
 Et qui an profit de tons puissent toumer ; 
 Et qu'aux auditeurs elle doiuio pareillemeut," • &c. 
 
 Let us compare also with these some lines of the Chatelain De Coucy, who 
 
 1 The word atalentament, here rendered by the adverb pareillement, comes from tal, aital, 
 ^•hich signifies kuch, equal, like [tel, pareil, semblablel with the adverbial termmation in ment, 
 the use of which has passed from the Romance language to the French. Raynouard, who 
 translates this word desire [desir], unconsciously affords a proof of the difference between the 
 idiom of the Troubadours and that of the Vaudois; for he was perfectly acquainted with ttie 
 former, and it may be supix)sed, without disparagement to his reputation, that t^^e Matter 
 was less familiar to him. It would, consequently, be wrong to confound the one with the 
 other The recent labours of the Ecolc des Ckartes have manifested the existence, m the great 
 family of the Romance tongues, of a greater number of branches than had been previously 
 supposed. Tliat which extended into the Vaudois valleys is one of the most distmct. M. 
 Fauriel had already given it a place by itself (Verbal communications, Nov., ISM); and M. 
 Au-ustin ITiierry acknowledges the distinct character of the Vaudois idiom (loth Nov., 1851^. 
 Th^ opinion is shared by M. VUlemain (whom I saw at the same period) ; and it is in accord- 
 ance with the views of M. De Sismondi, whose long-continued researches into the history ot 
 the middle ages made him very competent to judge of such a matter. (Letter on the Anti- 
 quity of the Nobla Leauon. Geneva, 12th June, 1852.) 
 
 No. I ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 443 
 
 died in 1192. Let us see if they do not come much nearer to the French of the 
 present day, than the Vaudois language does to that of the Troubadours of the 
 twelfth century: — 
 
 " Bele dame me prie de chanter 
 6i est bien diois que je face chanfon. . . ." 
 
 (This song is quoted by TissoT in his Legons et modtfes de lifUrature fran- 
 gaise, vol. ii. p. 41.) To find in the earlier states of the French language, some- 
 thing analogous to the Vaudois language, we must go much farther back than 
 the time of the Troubadours. I will now show what resembles it most nearly. 
 " Pro Deo, et pro Christian poblo, et nostro commun salvament, d'ist di (from 
 this day) in avant, in quant Deus savir (savoir) et podir (pouvoir) me dunat 
 (donnera) si salvarai io cist meon fradre Kario (so will I defend my brother 
 Charles)," &c. (TissOT, i. 13.) Such was the language of the eighth and ninth 
 centuries. The sentence just quoted is from the speech of Louis of Germany, 
 to the vassals of Charles the Bald, who died in 876, at the foot of Mount Cenis. 
 These brief specimens will suffice to show the character of the language at these 
 different periods ; and from this it follows that the idiom of the Vaudois books 
 much more nearly resembles the language of the eighth century than that of the 
 twelfth. And Kaynouard, in placing these Vaudois poems amongst the Peimi- 
 TIVE monuments of the Romance tongue, sufficiently recognizes them as pos- 
 sessing an antiquity greater than the days of the Troubadours. 
 
 3. All the MSS. mentioned by Perrin, and to whicli this note relates, are 
 of a date anterior to the Refonnation, and consequently could neither have been 
 composed nor falsified by the Reformed, as Eossuet more maliciously than justly 
 insinuates. All these manuscripts (with the acknowledged exception of one 
 only) are anterior to the invention of printing. However, none of them is as 
 ancient as the works which they contain. In other words, we have not (unless 
 it be in one or two doubtful exceptive instances) the paper written by the 
 authors' own hand, we have only copies. It is easy, therefore, to see how modi- 
 fications might be introduced by copyists, as we shall by and by find that they 
 have been. But the copyists themselves lived before the Reformation, and 
 therefore could not be subject to its influence, which deprives Bossuet's insinua- 
 tions of all power. At the end of the treatise on the reading and efficacy of the 
 Word of God, which occurs in the first volume of the ancient Vaudois MSS. 
 deposited at Cambridge, No. 4, this date appears. Anno Domini 1230. 
 
 4. After having cited the Vaudois treatise Or Antichrist, dated in the year 
 1120 (p. 57), Perrin found a difficulty of reconcihng that date to his system, 
 which made the Vaudois to derive their origin from Valdo of Lyons ^chap. i. 
 and ii.), according to the received opinion of all the writers of his time. Nor 
 could he devise any better means of escape from this embarrassment, than to 
 ascribe to Peter De Bruys the Vaudois works which bore a date anterior to 
 Valdo, and in particular this treatise Of Antichrist. See the marginal note in 
 pp. 253 and 254. It was evidently this note that suggested to Fusselin, Baum- 
 garten, and other authors, their opinion which ascribes the Vaudois books to 
 the Petrobrusians. But the character of the Petrobrusians, as Neander observes 
 in his Life of St. Bernard, is very different in its warlike fire, from the peace- 
 fulness and the calm and serene faith which generally marked the Vaudois. 
 Moreover, Peter De Bruys, as the writers of that country say, was a native of 
 the Vallouise. (See Hist, du diocese d'Emhrun, by Father Albert, i. 56; 
 Memoires de Domenique Rochas, MS. of Carpentras and Grenoble ; Hist, dca 
 Alpes Cottiennes, by Father Marcelin Foubnier, MSS. of Gap and Lyons). 
 
444 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [apfkkdix. 
 
 According to other author., Valdo limself retired to ^^^'"''•'^J^^^:,"^ 
 Ca^entri, No. 60G, vol. i..p. 101). The Abbot of Cluny (Peter the VeneraU^ 
 JL against Peter De Bruy, to the prelates of Embn.n Gap, Die^ and Arks 
 (See thfs letter in Fieubt, mt. Eccle,., vol. U.x. No. 24 ) We know that 
 Bruys was burned alive at St. GiUes. But it was only m these regions, where 
 his doctrine was new, that a violent feeling was excited against hun. His party 
 subsisted but for a short time, and consequently could not produce works winch 
 exhibit proofs of long meditation. Moreover, these MSS have been found 
 nowhere but amongst the Vaudois mountains. If it was there that Peter Be 
 Bruys was bom, it is natural to admit that he was of Vaudois •l^^'^"'- JF" 
 conclude, we can account for the motive which causes these manuscnpte to be 
 ascribed to the Petr«bnisians-this motive is based merely upon a •'yP"'''^^-? 
 this hypothesis is not supported by any proof, and there - "-"^f 
 that ttey ougl>t to be ascribed to the Vaudois. (See Nos 6 and 7 ^J^^^J^ 
 
 5. The different treatises in the Eomance language contained in th| J»^^»« 
 manuscripts, have not been all composed at the same penod. The MSS. jhicb 
 we now possess are mere copies ; and these copies also have been made at vry 
 different dates. Some of them are on paper, and cannot be older than the 
 fo:;^enth century ; others are on parchment, and may be of a much eariier daU^ 
 In these latter, however, the orthogmphy, the writing, the ^b''^™"°°»' '"^^ 
 form of the letters, &c., still vary sufficiently to prove that there are amongst 
 h™ grelt differen;es of age. "I find reason to think that there does not ex«t 
 Iny v^ ancient manuscript of these pieces," said Mr. Eaynouard, ma letter 
 ^ me u^on this subject (6th April, 1833). In some of these manuscnpU, there 
 1 p Jate annotations or new citations,, written sometimes on the margin, and 
 ^m!runes at the bottom of the page, by subsequent hands (for example in the 
 aTsS of Geneva No. 208, pp. i, 6, 6, 7, 12, U, 20, 21, &c. ; and in that of 
 D^uin cTis a Shelf 5, No^ 18). Later copyists often introduced these add.- 
 «„n iito the t^xt at tke place to which they referred, so that the new book 
 Ten rtcame from their hands, was clean on the margins, and seemed really 
 Iw his has been the source of unquestionable interpolations. It is upon 
 12 considerations that the authenticity of the dale 1120, m the book Of 
 aZcZst above quoted, is defended, notwithsUnding the reference whicl^ it 
 tnt^ns to the MWog»i»», and which could not have been made before the 
 fo^enth century. This reason is a good one ; but the numerous passages of 
 "randNe7TesUments which are contained in this treatise (Perrin, pp. 
 97<! 280 and L&er, pp. 77-79), do not correspond to the ancient divisions of 
 ?Lrr'ed books' -'' and if-x^-). but rather to the p^sent division (see 
 P 'rrin pp. 279, 280, &c.)i introduced by Cardinal Hugo of Samt Cher, m the 
 
 '"Co'vefL'Sr places in the same Book of AnHckrUt. and under the date 
 imTconkssi^on of Faith, which contains a canon of the books of Smp'ur^ 
 such as was not determined tUl a much later period' (Uger, p. 92), and this 
 
 . I speak here of the divWon into cMpUr,. for the divWon into ver*. "f ""'J" '■^"^^ 
 
 into'tLC^i till i^»>.''^«°^frp:iHn^"™t::: r^' inisr 1 1^^ 
 
 ♦Jia verses where the text published by Pemn (p. 274) does noi moiu* 
 
 z::t... oia T^ta^ent .ere .^. 'j::^^^:^ tz^: r^o^::^i.) 
 
 2 I think it may even be said that this canon was ^^thaferxjch (from the fifth century 
 Because the books of the Old Testament were never befo^ ^^^^^^^^^ence which be- 
 at least) distinguished into apocri,phal aiid canomcal (2^) ^^^^^J^^ j^ ^le con- 
 gins with the words, Ainsi sen seg<yn li libres Apocnphes, &c »« *° ^^^^. ^ J^ .^ ^.j 
 Sons produced aftertheRefon^tionlGalUcanart^^^^ ^Te^i^ecloilef two looV. Jf 
 (3.) Because it is only since the Reformation that there have oeen leci^uu 
 
 No. I 
 
 ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 445 
 
 Confession of Faith occurs almost word for word in tlie MS. of Dublin, Class C, 
 Shelf 5, No. 18, p. 21, under the date 1530. Perrin also gives it as being ex- 
 tracted not from tlie treatise Of Antichrist, but from another book whose date 
 is not signified. (Marginal note in p. 79.) But after all these difl&culties are 
 removed, by the supposition of the alterations to which this treatise may have 
 been subjected by later copyists ; it remains, however, by no means probable, 
 that it was composed in the year 1120 (L^ger dates it in 1126, chap. xv. p. 83), 
 because at this period the Church of Rome was not regarded as Antichrist ; and 
 because the Vaudois always speak of that Church with respect, in their most 
 ancient writings, even when contending against and exposing its errors. 
 
 It would be interesting to inquire if a niunber of these treatises, in the Ro- 
 mance language, are not translations or imitations of various short Latin 
 treatises published about the same period. Finally, it ought to be observed 
 that the Romance idiom was preserved in the Vaudois valleys much longer 
 than anywhere else, proof of which may be found in the Acts of the Synod of 
 1532. (Dublin MSS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18.) To conclude, the Vaudois 
 works are not all of the same antiquity ; but even when in a work of ancient 
 composition, passages are found of a modern date, it does not follow that the 
 antiquity of the book is to be rejected, for these passages may have been inter- 
 polated by copyists. Also, a work written on paper, may be anterior to the 
 invention of paper, as Homer and Virgil, printed in our days, are nevertheless 
 anterior to the invention of printing. The surest marks of antiquity are pre- 
 sented in the very contents of the works in question. The general character, 
 the roots, and what may be called the very woof of the language in which they 
 are written, afford also a solid basis for determining their date. The more that 
 this language resembles Latin, it is the more ancient. (See the principles of 
 this comparison applied to the Vaudois MSS., in No. 2 of this §). 
 
 6. Do these writings really belong to the Vaudois ? 
 
 (1.) On the first leaf of the Geneva MS., No. 207, are these words, "This 
 Book contains the Exposition of the Song of Songs of Solomon, and the poems 
 entitled La Barca, Novel Confort, Nohla Leyczon, Lo Payre Eternal, Lo Novel 
 Sermon, Lo Despreczi del mont, and the Avangeli de li quatre semencz, also a 
 Treatise on Penitence. It belongs to the Reformed Churches of the valleys of 
 Piedmont, who request that it may he preserved in the Library of Geneva J" 
 
 (2.) The treatise De la penitencia is also in part to be found in the other 
 Geneva MSS., Nos. 208 and 209, and in the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5, 
 No. 22. The poems are to be foimd also in the Dublin MS. of the same series, 
 No. 21. 
 
 (3.) It is in exactly the same idiom that all the other works are written, 
 which bear the general designation of Ancient Vaudois MSS. in the Romance 
 tongue. 
 
 (4.) Perrin, who gives the list of these manuscripts (Part i., pp. 57-60), de- 
 clares that they all come from the Vaudois valleys. (Perrin, part i., pp. 13, 18, 
 20, 24, 29, &c. Part ii., p. 157, et seq.) Those which L^ger sent to the library 
 of Geneva in 1662, came also from these valleys. (L^ger, chap, iii., p. 23.) 
 
 (5.) The acts of several Synods attest the Vaudois origin of these manuscripts. 
 (See sect. I. of this Bibliography, art. Perrin.) 
 
 (6.) In these manuscripts, the Vaudois speak in their own name {Book 
 of George Morel, Dublin MSS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18), and often name 
 
 Samiiel and two of Kings; before that period they were only reckoned as foxjb books of Kings. 
 Other incompatibilities have been pointed out in vol. i. p. 334 of the jScvue Theologiqwe, 
 Strasburg, 1850. 
 
■^ 
 
 446 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appewdix. 
 
 themselves, '' IlJi dion qu'es Vaud^s." (Nobla Leyczon, 1. Z72—" Le petit 
 trapd de li ch-istians, appella par fals nom, VaddSs " [Perrin, p. 224], because 
 this little flock which was called Vaudois, claimed to be designated by the name 
 of Christians alone). 
 
 (7.) All the learned men who have published fragments of these different 
 manuscripts, agree in giving them without hesitation as Vaudois manuscripts. 
 {Raynouard, vol. ii. ; Morland, chap. iii. ; Hahn, pp. 5G0-703, &c.) 
 
 (8.) The enemies of the Vaudois, who have frequented their country, them- 
 selves attest the existence of such manuscripts, which they say that they 
 have seen, held in their hands, and read in the valleys. (Rorengo, Memorie 
 istorichi delV introduttione degV eresie neUe valli. 4to edition, p. 20. ** Se bene 
 il Perrino n'habbia prodotto qualche particella . . ," says he, which implies 
 that the unpublished portion was very considerable. 
 
 (9.) We know that one of the principal occupations of the Vaudois Barbas. 
 was to make copies of pious books, for the instruction of their disciples. (Gil- 
 LES, chap. ii. p. 15. Preface to Olivetan's Bible.) 
 
 (10.) All these books, which are now scattered in different libraries, were 
 once obtained from the Vaudois valleys. (Perrin, p. 67, marginal note, and 
 the articles Perrin and Gilles in this Bibliography.) None of them have ever 
 been met with elsewhere. The Synod of Grenoble (1602) having caused search 
 to be made for all the Vaudois and Albigcois MSS. which still existed, found 
 none but Vaudois MSS. No other people, that I know of, have produced any 
 similar. Everything, therefore, concurs to prove that these MSS. are really 
 the work of the Vaudois, and nothing indicates the contrary. 
 
 7. Were all these pieces composed in the language of the Vaudois valleys? 
 One circumstance which has never been noticed, and concerning which, the 
 Vaudois themselves must be the only witnesses, but which is nevertheless of great 
 importance with regard to this question, is that all who are acquainted with the 
 present patois of the valleys (and especially with that of the mountains • ), very 
 easily, and almost without any preparatory study, comprehend the language 
 of these ancient Vaudois books which Raynouard calls the primitive Romance 
 tongue. On the contrary, it frequently happens that persons versed in the idiom 
 of the Troubadours, are very far from understanding the Vaudois books ; and, 
 for myself, I do not hesitate to avow, that there are in the writings of the 
 Troubadours many passages which I could not understand without a transla- 
 tion, which is not the case with the books now under consideration. The 
 author of the Choix de poisies originates des Troubadours, and of the Grammar 
 of the Romance tongue {Grammaire de la langue romane), may certainly be 
 retarded as well acquainted with the idiom of the primitive monuments of that 
 language ; yet M. Monastier justly takes notice of inaccuracies into which Rat- 
 NOUARD has fallen in the translation of the Nobla Leyczon, in lines 100, 146, 
 147, 151, 190, 191, 196, 208, 223, 276, 281, 299, &c. May I be permitted also 
 to take notice of similar inaccuracies in modem authors. 
 
 M. Herzog says, at the conclusion of his thesis De origine et pi'istino statu 
 
 1 For that part of the valleys which is adjacent to the plain of Piedmont has undergone 
 modifications in its language, caused by the admixture of Piedmontese. It appears that this 
 was already the case even in the days of Rorengo ; for he compares the old Romance tongvt, 
 which he calls the Vaudois tongue, with that which was then spoken in our mountains: — 
 " Sono gyi, libri scritti a mano, uno de quali tengo appresso di me in lingua Valdese, o per dir 
 meglio montagnara." (Memorie Istorichi delV introd. degV eresie nelle valli, p. 20.) At the pre- 
 sent day it is in the communes of Bobi, Pral, and Rodoret that it is spoken in its greatest 
 perfection. 
 
 / 
 
 No. 1.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 4^; 
 
 Vald. &c. (p. 44), "Secutus sum adjutorem Genevensem, Hahn editoris, 
 linguae Valdensiae admodum peritum." And in the first piece published by 
 Hahn, I find the following inaccuracies :--P. 560, note 1, atalentament, trans- 
 lated by desire, signifies in like manner.~P, 561, note 1, Per que ... . non 
 se debia levar, translated how he should not take, signifies that he might not rise. 
 — P. 562, note 7, Paure n'ifitren, translated we entei- there, signifies we enter there 
 jioor.—P. 563, note, Frevols et devols .... This last word, translated devoit«, sig- 
 nifies weak; the first is not translated, it signifies /mi7, languishing, and it is diffi- 
 cult to conceive what meaning could have been attached to it by the translator. 
 In the same page, note 10, Local es verms (the word should have been vernis), 
 e lendenas e peolh ahrivol (which should be abimnol). These corrections are 
 derived from the original manuscript. The first part of this line is translated 
 thus, seed of vermin. It should be translated which is varnished (brilliant ex- 
 ternally) ; the word lendemas, which has been translated by slow, signifies the 
 interior, and the conclusion of the line, which is not translated, signifies abomin- 
 able dust. It may be remarked that the passages which most need explana- 
 tion, are often those which are left untranslated. — Same page, note 13, neyes 
 translated same, signifies there are some of them. At the end of this line is the 
 word abastat; it is not translated, and probably was not understood, it signifies 
 enough; hence the Italian word abbastanza.— In p. 564, note 1, li scurczis, 
 translated tears away, signifies becomes dim.— Same page, note S, . . . li colla 
 elofla . . . , translated adheres, and his side . . . , signi&ea slips away from 
 him, and his breath . . .—P. 565, note 7, chaczin, translated barh, should be 
 chamin and the translation way. (Moreover, chaczin does not signify a barh.) 
 —Same page, note 9, pereisere, translated shall perish (plural), should be parei- 
 sere, and the translation, shall appear (singular), &c. I shall proceed no farther. 
 I have scarcely gone over one-half of the piece {La Barca) published by Hahn. 
 (Pp. 560-570). 
 
 In the few citations of the Vaudois books, for which M. Herzog has not made 
 use of Raynouard's translations, a few inaccuracies might, perhaps, also be 
 noticed. Thus, in p. 8, fourth quotation, the words cum trey de sostenguis, 
 translated sicut tres Deos sustines, signifies cum tribus digitis sustines. This 
 quotation is taken from the sixteenth stanza of the poem Lo Payre Eternal. 
 
 In p. 9, third quotation, the word ordenament is translated commode, but 
 would, perhaps, be more accurately rendered by regulariter. In p. 10, first quo- 
 tation, the words sencza defalhiment, translated sine vitio, ought to be rendered 
 sine intermissione. In the same page, last line, al segle present, translated 
 hominibus hujus mundi, literally signifies ad seculum prcesens. Not being able 
 to comprehend the translation which M. Herzog gives in the next page, p. 11, 
 of the first quotation which appears there, I shall content myself with observing 
 that the first word perque, translated nam, ought to be translated ut, and that 
 the general meaning of the passage has reference to regeneration. In the fol- 
 lowing page, in the last quotations, De renovellar me al present tu Vaffrecza, 
 translated In eo est ut restaures me in presenti, signifies Ad nunc me renovandum 
 te ipsum deprimis. {S'affreczar, a genuine onomatopy to represent the noise 
 made by the wings of a bird when it alights. In the next line, que yo non 
 rimagna enfecza, translated ne remaneam retro, rather means ne morar in coeno. 
 In the next line, de grados istament, approximatively rendered hj full of grace 
 (plena gratice), literally signifies of gracious support, &c. 
 
 It ought also, I think, to be taken into account, in order that a right estimate 
 may be formed of the probability of very ill-founded opinions having been put 
 forth concerning these Vaudois books in the Romance tongue— and I make thia 
 
448 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [App«ndix 
 
 No. I.J 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 remark not with reference to the works of MM. Hahn and Herzog but quite 
 generally-that Raynouard alone, and persons who were inhabitants of the 
 Vaudois valleys, have successfully attempted to transUte any of them ent^. 
 (See the translation of an ancient Vaudois poem, recently discovered m the 
 Echo des vallees, t. i.. No. 10.) 
 
 I think, therefore, it may be said— , . li^i. x ^v. 
 
 (1 ) That the idiom in which the old Vaudois books (from the twelfth to the 
 fourteenth century) were written, was not the vulgar tongue of France at that 
 epoch (Evidence of this will be found in comparing with these books, the 
 ^vritings of the contemporary Troubadours, particularly those of the Lyonnais, 
 Provence, and Dauphiny. I have not room to institute this comparison here ) 
 
 (2 ) That the idiom of the Vaudois books is called by Raynouard (vol. u.) the 
 rlimitive Romance tongue, and by Rorengo (p. 20) lingua Valdese, o per du' 
 
 luejflio montagnera. . 
 
 (3 ) But where was this mountain tongue spoken? No doubt just where we 
 find it still in use after the fomieenth century. But it was this language which 
 the Vaudois employed in 1530, in writing to (Ecolampadius (Pemn, p. 211), 
 and to Bucer {Id. p. 213; the original is amongst the Dublin MSS Class A, 
 Shelf 4, No. 13, p. 5). It was in this language that they stated to the Re- 
 formers their doctrines and usages. (Same MS., of which a passage is quoted 
 in ihe I^ael of the Alps, part 1. chap, i., note.) It was m this idiom also 
 that the Acts of the SjTiod held at Angrogna, in 1532, were written. (Same Mb, 
 from p. 118 to p. 125, although the style of the concluding prayer already exhibits 
 some traces of ItaUan). And this idiom was also employed by the Vaudois of 
 the Alps in writing to one another. (See the letter of the Barba Bartholemew 
 Tertian, in Perrin, pp. 73-78. This Barba lived in 1470, and his language is 
 still the Primitive Romance tongue, almost without alteration ) 
 
 (4 ) In comparing the present dialect of different parts of the vaUey of the 
 Rhone with that of the Vaudois valleys, we find that it is still the latter which 
 exhibits the greatest number of points of analogy to the old Romance to°gue 
 
 (5 ) From these different considerations I thmk I may conclude, [l.J Ihat 
 the Nobla Leyczon, and the other works written in the same language belong to 
 the people who spoke that language. [2.] That this idiom, called by Raynouard 
 the Primitive Romance tongue {Langue romane primitive), and by Rorengo, 
 Lingua valdese, w.-is really the idiom of the Vaudois, and [3.] That consequently 
 the books are to be ascribed to the Vaudois. See the Unguistic considerations 
 in No 7 of next chapter, relative to the difference which existed m the twelfth 
 century, between the idiom of the Alps and that of the Lyonnais. 
 
 § 2.— Biblical MSS. 
 
 Gillessays " This Vaudois people have had pastors of great learning . . . 
 
 versed in the'languages of Holy Scripture .... and veiy laborious . . 
 
 especially in, transcribing to the utmost of their abihty, the books of Holy 
 
 Scripture, for the use of their disciples." (Chap. u. p. 15, paragraph 2.) This 
 
 explains the circumstance that copies of the books of the Bible, translated mto 
 
 the Romance tongue, are of far more frequent occurrence than copies of any 
 
 other work preserved in our Vaudois MSS. xr en v 
 
 1 Vaudois Bible of Lyons. {Library of the palace of the arts, No. t)0.) 
 
 This MS forms a smaU 4to volume, on veUum (parchment), containing the 
 
 four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, the Apocalypse, the Epistle of 
 
 St. James, those of Peter and John, and those of St. Paul. Amongst these 
 
 last, is to be found the Epittle to the Laodiceans, placed after that to the Colos- 
 
 449 
 
 sians, and beginning thus :" Paulu., apostols, no domes ni per Homes, mais pe- 
 Jesu-Xnst als fres que son a laudicia: graczia a vos, et patz de Diu lo paire 
 nostre ed el senhor Jesu-Xrist:» a translation of the text given by FABRiciua 
 (Codices Apocn/phorum Novi Testamenti, vol. i. p. 859).- UadXo; i^icr,X.s, aix 
 
 After the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the last, come the Benedicite and 
 the Pater nosta^, in Latin, and then follow these words: "Adoremus Patrem 
 et Fihum et Spiritum Sanctum tres vegadas, gracia domini nostri lyesu-Xrist 
 sit cum omnibus nobis." The volume is concluded by six leaves, fiUed, in like 
 manner, with sentences of a religious character. 
 
 1 believe this to be one of the most ancient of all the Vaudois MSS • H ^ 
 upon account of the form of the letters, in which no resemblance to the black 
 letter yet appears ; (2.) upon account of the character of the language, which 
 is much nearer to the Latin ; (3.) upon account of the absence of ornaments • 
 (4.) because it contains the Epistle to the Laodiceans. 
 
 2 Another Biblical manuscript, in the Romance language, is also deposited 
 at Lyons, but in the Archives of the Prefecture. According to a letter from 
 the Archivute of this estabUshment, this manuscript was brought from Nimes 
 to Lyons, a few years ago. It is in small 4to, double-columned, and full of 
 abbreviations. It contains the whole of the New Testament, and concludes 
 with a ritual occupying ten leaves. I have not seen this manuscript 
 
 K Jrr/u" ^'^''^ ""^ G«ENOBLE. (Deposited in the public library, being 
 No. 488 of the new catalogue, and No. 8595 of the old ) 
 
 This manuscript is 167 millimetres in length, 123 in breadth, and 51 in thick- 
 ness. The boards are of wood, formerly covered with red skin, and held to- 
 b ack'letLT .^^%^^^^P^' «"^ «f ^^i-^ has disappeared. It is written in 
 ^^ f A^T\ "' 5^\«^^^"^«°*« «^^d« by the pen, and capitals coloured 
 with red and b ue) m double columns, except the first page. aS the leaves of 
 this manuscript are of parchment, except the last thirty, which are of naner 
 
 ILTT.^I'"'^ ''""'"' "' '\''''' ^'''^''''''' "^^« *"«^- ^h-Pters of PrLlbsl 
 the book of Ecclesiastes, ten chapters of Wisdom, fifteen chapters of EcclesiJ 
 
 <^.u., and the Song of Songs. All these books of the Old Testament are placed 
 
 after the Apocalypse. The verses are nowhere marked. The divisions of the 
 
 chapters do not always correspond with those in our Bibles at the present day 
 
 Each of the books of the New Testament is preceded by a little preface' 
 entitled, Prolic. The following is the commencement of the Pbolic sobb« 
 Mathio: "Abm Mathio hagues predica premierament en Judea e vdent 
 trapassar a las gencz, fo lo primer loqual scris levangeli en hebraye " &c 
 
 On the thirty leaves of ;>a;,.r, at the end of this volume, are (1.) a li'st'of pas- 
 sages to be read and meditated upon for every Sabbath and festival in the year • 
 
 (LVt^flT'^'l^f/f /f^f ''' (f-)-li^tl«— ntary on the Beatitudes 
 (Matt V. 2-10) entitled. Be la oyt benayranczas scriptas cum breveta • (4 ) a 
 paraph^se of the Lord's Prayer; (5.) an extract from the twenty-seventh cW 
 ter of Numbers, which terminates the volume. 
 
 4. Vaudois Bible of Dublin. (Library of Trinity College Class A Shplf 
 4, No 13 e. Biblioth. Usseru^ This manuscript is Lntionii by Lzt K 'f 
 his Bibliotheca sacra, vol. i., art. 2, in the chapter on the Italian Bible It n 
 many respects, resembles the Vaudois Bible of Grenoble, of which it is probably 
 
 « "This epistle," says M. E. Reuss, "existsonly in Latin The Dresent c^.^r + , *• 
 made in the sixl^nth centuxy ; however, it is probablethartheTt^ fo^erl^^'r v ""* 
 ginal." (Letter of 9th July, 1850.) '"'^ ^«ere was formerly a Greek ori- 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 U7 
 
450 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 ^Aprp-nnti. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 451 
 
 a copy, for it contains exactly the same book,, with P-f-^ ^ ^^^^'t " e 
 Episte corresponding to the pMic. above.n,enfoned "^^J^^^'^^J '^ 
 commencement of the preface to Saint Matthew m the D*''"J^3^; 
 " PEOiOfiUS Saxcti Jebomi secundum Matthecm. Cum Matth.o ague, pre 
 „ierament predica lavangeli in Judea, volent trapassar a ^ «-*■ -« f^ 
 mierament Langeli en abraie," &c. Yet it does not necessarly foUow tha 
 the one of these two manuscripts has been copied from the other. The dateot 
 tut of Dublin U indicated at the end of the Book of K^velat'on as foUo^. 
 Deo g,-as, 1522. The whole MS. is in the same hand, very easily read, on vcl 
 
 lum, in 4to, and in good preservation. »,« w T Valden- 
 
 5 Vacdo.3 Bible of Zurich. (Public Libra.7. Codex "S- N T Valden^ 
 .is c 169) Lelong mentions this manuscript m the following terms. Novum 
 T^:m!!tum, lingf a pedemonUna Vallensi, v«r Baj-betum a ^"^^ - f;'^ 
 onemdam sen ministnim Valensem translatum. Codex, m-12 , scuptus pMt 
 Tnum MC." ^BibHothecu sacra, vol. i., p. 360.) This manuscript is upon vd- 
 Z I have no particular note of the books which it o<">'^'»'- , I"'°°« ' "°'° 
 Irms to mention only those of the New Testament. None of these books has 
 lyTntXtion or preface, as in the Grenoble and »"f ^ ^^--f'^- J^; 
 folLing is the be,-inning of the Gospel according to John, m ^e Z«™^ •^"; 
 cr^I " Lo filh era al comenczament, e lo filh era enapres Dio » D.o e.^ lo 
 filL Aiczo era al comenczament enapres Dio. Totas cosas son fa ta« p r lu^ 
 e^cuna cosa non es faita sencza luy. Czo que fo fait en lay era vita, e la vita 
 :» irde U r. E ^ mcz mczlc en las tenebras, e Ix, tenebras non curnp^- 
 seron ley." (Gospel according to John, chap. 1., vers. IS.) 
 
 fivInDOis Bible of A.x. (Indicated by Lelong, vol. .., p. 369. Con- 
 tains The fo^ Gospels, the seven Canonical Epistles, the fourteen Ep. les of 
 t Paul also the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the 
 fi tt ten ^haptetof he Book of Wisdom, and the first fifteen of Eooks-Uc^. 
 m Grenoble manuscript also has only ten chapters of the Book of Wisdom, 
 1 ««!! If Ecolesiasticus Lelong adds concerning the Au manuscript :- 
 and fifteen of ^fckm^^^^'- = ;„ membranis a quadringen- 
 
 "Codex SP1SSU3 in-4to, integer, m ^u" »"" » . . , Tlinma. 
 
 There is auo ^ f funitives dlustoin et de IdUrature, Pans, 
 
 rrmt::i;=o::d bX^Xtn-ot the .me a. that described 
 
 u T i^v,., o„ the authority of Thomas de Mazangue. 
 
 \ ™ s BrES of'pabis. The Ubraries of this capital contain several 
 
 Gilly, m the jf™^ , . ^^ ^ L<,„aon in 1S48, has given a particular ac- 
 
 accordmg to John, published by ^"^ »' y examination of them, 
 
 count of these manuscripts. I shall follow hunrapiaiy n u xhis MS U 
 
 A.-MS. No. 8036, of the BiUio,he<i^e NaUonale, in Paris Th- ^Sj 
 mentioned under the head, i^ouv.a. «a»i«, e» ^J^' J^ ^^ * 
 
 rrfi'r::^^rofThetrmet::^eras^^^^^ 
 
 48; St. Luke, fol. 48-72; St. John, 72-86; Acta, extending to the Becond pa^e 
 
 of fol 114; the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, and St. John, which occupy 
 fol. 114-126. Then come the Epistles of St. Paul, to fol. 182. They are followed 
 by the Epistle to Philemon and that to the Hebrews, fol. 186-196; and the volume 
 concludes with the Apocalypse, from the midst of which also some leaves have 
 been removed. Tiie first verses of the Gospel according to John, are in this vol- 
 ume as follows : — 
 
 ** Lo filh era al comensament; el filh era am Dieu, el filh era Dieus. Aquest 
 era al comensament am Dieu. Totas cauzas foron fiichas per el : e nenguua 
 causa non fou fach senz el; so che fou fach, era en lui vida: e la vida era lua 
 dels homes. " 
 
 1'"^°;To^^1t ^^^" ^^ ^^^«"»'"?' by its language, to the class of Vaudois MSS. 
 
 B.-MSS. Nos. C831-6833 of the same library. Tliree folio volumes, double- 
 columned, containing the Old and New Testaments. This MS. is set do^m as a 
 BiUc m Pvovcngal, but it had been formerly regarded as a Catalan Bible. (Seo Le- 
 long, 5^6^. Sacra., vol. i., p. 369.) It belonged to the library of Cardinal Mazarin. 
 llie first volume begins with Genesis, and ends with the Book of Job. The second 
 begms with Proverbs, contains the Psalms and the Prophets, and ends with a 
 short dissertation on St. Mark, as a transition to the third volume, which con- 
 tains the New Testament. 
 
 The sheets of this MS. are of paper, mingled with vellum, and adorned with 
 vignettes. It is said to belong to the fifteenth centurjr. 
 
 A short preface, entitled, prolic, is placed at the head of a few of the books 
 There is none prefaced to the Gospel according to Matthew; but that which is 
 prefixed to the Gospel according to John, has a great resemblance to the prolic 
 which precedes the same book in the Dublin MS. Other parts of these little 
 prologues resemble those contained in the Vaudois Bible of Grenoble 
 MS N^ eS^S ti' *^' ^«™^"«^c««^-ent of the Gospel according to John, in our 
 
 " En lo comensament era paraula, e la paraula era ab Deu ; e Deu era la 
 paraula Acso era en lo comensament ab Deu. Totes coses son fetes per ell 
 e sens ell nenguna cosa non es fata." ' 
 
 The first volume of this work, which bears the number 6831, and which con- 
 tains part of the Old Testament, commences thus:— 
 
 "En lo principio crea Deu lo ciel e la terra; hera vana e vuyda, e lea tene- 
 bres heran sobre la fac del abis, e I'esperit de Deu era portat sobra les aigues •' 
 
 I . , u . . ,f ^''^' '^ ^' ^"^ ^^ remarked that the word Leviathan, is trans- 
 lated by lo dtahla. 
 
 I believe this MS. also, upon account of its language, to belong to the claas 
 of Vaudois MSS. 
 
 C— MS. of the same library, bearing the No. 7268'- '", and known by the 
 name of the Bible of the Poor. One vol. 4to, on vellum, written in double 
 coxumns, with coloured initial letters, which have almost everywhere been taken 
 away. This manuscript formerly belonged to the library of Colbert. It con- 
 tains the following books :-(l.) Genesis ; (2.) Exodus, which begins at fol. 30 • 
 (A ^'''^^^'^' beginning at fol. 52-the first leaf pf this book has been removed • 
 ^4.) Deuteronomy, beginning at fol. 76; (5.) Joshua, fol. 97; (6.) Judges, fol' 
 8; (7.) Ruth, fol. 125; (8.) The First Book of Kings, of which one leaf has 
 been removed, fol. 128; (9.) The Second Book of Kings, fol. 145; (10.) The 
 
 n9"; rp^r. f. ^'''^^' ^^^- ^^^' ^^^-^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ <^f Kings, fol. 179; 
 fl\?^ n'af'J^^' ^^^-^ ^''^'^' ^°^- 201; (14.) Esther, fol. 209; (15.) Job, 
 oi; I A ^ '^ '^'' ^^^- 2^2- ^^^ ^°^^^*1 *^"^^« ^^« preserved in fol. 232, 
 ^^l, 248, and 252. (17.) The Gospel according to St. Matthew, fol. 270 ; (18.) 
 
 I 
 
. ^ 
 
 452 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Afpxndix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 453 
 
 Mark, fol. 290; (19.) Luke, fol. 306; (20.) John, ^^^^ f ^^ j^l ) Acts of the 
 Apostles, fol. 348; (22.) The Epistle of St. James, fol 368; (23.) The tv^o 
 Epistles of St. Peter, fol. 369. The last of these Epistles is incomplete, the 
 end of the MS. has been torn, and is completely awanting. ^ - „ . 
 
 Concerning this MS., M. Paulin-Paris, expresses himself in the following 
 terms — " This precious volume formerly belonged to James Augustus De Thou, 
 
 whose signature may still be seen upon the first leaf -The text is the 
 
 most ancient that I know of the literal translation of the sacred books ; this copy 
 
 being as old as the earlier part of the thirteenth century ^,!.''"^'"^; 
 
 the i'lk, and the dialect of the marginal notes, all combine to P;^- *^- f ^^ 
 it is not so easy to fix the date of the translation itself, my should it not be 
 as old as the twelfth century ? May it not be that famous translation made by 
 the Lyonnese, Stephen De Hansa, or D'Ansa. at the request of Peter Valdo 
 about 1170-a translation which was called the Bible of the Poor, because of 
 the name which the Vaudois heretics affected ? We have no positive proof, but 
 it may be presumed that this French translation of the sacred books, undertaken 
 for the first time under the auspices of Peter VaUo, is the «--7^"!^\"^^7^' 
 Bured by Innocent III., about the year 1200, and the origin ot which wa i^- 
 known to that pontiff. A great number of writers of the thirteenth century 
 point it out as a book dangerous to read, and no other contempomy author of 
 any similar translation is mentioned.- "I doubt not," he adds, in a subse- 
 quent place,^ "that the MS., 7268^' ^^ was executed in the diocese of Remis, 
 or in that of Sens." "Ere we can acknowledge the existence of translations 
 of the Bible anterior to this, in the vulgar tongue," he also says,' -we must 
 have evident proofs of it, which as yet we have not." M. Le Roux De Lincy 
 has made us acquainted with several partial translations, which he regards as 
 belonging to the twelfth century, but he acknowledges that the known manu- 
 scripts are not older than the century following.^-" Such is the translation of 
 the four Books of Kings, preserved in the Mazarine Library and in the Royal 
 Library ; the Psalms of Nos. 1152 bis, 278 Latin, and 7887 French ; the Apoca- 
 
 lypse. No. 7013," &c.« 
 
 Brief specimens of these various manuscripts will give a just idea of the lan- 
 guage spoken in France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.^ ^ 
 
 First specimen, taken from Psalm xiii. [xivJ-Dmf tmvpiens xn corde sua, 
 &c. **The fool hath said in his heart," &c. 
 
 II Bont 
 11 n'est 
 
 II.— From MS. 6818'-, fol. . . . 
 "Cil qui estoit noient sage, dist en son 
 cuer, Dieiix n'est pas. Ilz sont corrompuz e 
 leur feit abhominable; il n'est qui face bien 
 de ei a uu seul." 
 
 IV.— MS. 68162. 
 " Le fol (or he who lacks wisdom) dit en 
 son cuer, Dieu n'est pas: lis sont corrompuB 
 
 I.— From MS. 72G3--=-, fol. 234 
 "Cil qui estoit neant sages {icho has no trit 
 dora) dist en son cuer, Dex n'est pas 
 corrompu, et sont fet abhominable. 
 qxii face bien, de si a un seul. " 
 III.— MS. 6701. 
 "Li nient sage, dist en son quer (caur)] il 
 n'y al Deu. Cil sont comiptz et faitz sont 
 
 . Les manuscripts francai, de la bibUotUqv^ duroi, leur histoid et ceUe des textes alle- 
 mands, anglais, hoUandais, italiens, epagnols de la mCme collection; par A Paulin-Pa^is 
 de I'ai^emie royale des inscriptions et beUes lettres, conservateur adjomt de la bibho- 
 the^uedu^L i:tion des manuscripts. Paris (Techner, Place de Louvre, 12), 1848. VoL 
 
 '''^TiU^VlS' . Id. ibid., p. 190. 
 
 4 IntroduJtUm to his edition of the old translation of the Four Books of Kings, Pans, 1841. 
 
 * Paulin-Paris, vol. vu., p. 192 " ^^' , „ „ v« ^„oT«n.i 
 
 ' These quotations are aU extracted from the work of M. Paulin-Paris, above-named, 
 
 voL vii., pp. 194, 195. 
 
 abhominables. En lour estudies (en leurs 
 itudes), il n'y a nul qui fait bien ; il n'y ad 
 nul, desqes (Jusqiies) k un." 
 
 et sont fais abhominables en leurs estudes; il 
 n'est qui face bien, jusques k ung seul." 
 
 Second specimen, taken from the First Psalm, as preserved in MS. 6818':— 
 
 I.— MS. 68183. 
 " J'ai ma fiance en Nostre S. comant dites- 
 vous a m'ame {a ma ame) trespasse en la 
 montaigne moysnel. (^ji moineau; like a 
 sparrow.) Pour ce vdes ci les pecheurs, qui 
 ont tendu leurs ars [arcK] et ont appareillife 
 leurs saietes, pour courre qu'il saietent caulx 
 qui ont cuer droiturier, en lieu obscur." 
 
 II.— MS. 68182. 
 " J'ay ma fiance en Nostre Seigneur. Com- 
 ment dictez vous a mon ame; trespasse la 
 montaigne comme un moinel. Car vecy les 
 pecheurs, qui ont tendu leur arc, et ont ap- 
 pareUlie leurs saiectes [gazettes; arrows) et 
 leurs tarquois tres forts, ad ce qu'il saietent 
 {piei'ce with arrows) en bien osciir, ceux ont 
 cuer droiturier." 
 
 Tliird specimen, same passage, from the Bib/c of the Poor, No. 7268'^''' 
 
 " Ge ai ma fiance en Nostre Seignor. Coment dites vos a m'ame, tresjiasse en la montaigne 
 comme moinel." 
 
 " Por ce veiz ci, les j^echeors qui ont tendu lor arc, et ont appareillie lor saietes {have pre- 
 pared their arroics) en lor coivre {cuivre; quiver) que ils saietent {sajettent; pierce with arrows) 
 eels qui ont cuer droiturier, en lieu oscur." 
 
 I regret that I have not at hand one of the Vaudois MSS. already mentioned, 
 that I might borrow from their translation a passage to be compared with those 
 just quoted. But so many passages of these Vaudois MSS. have been already 
 quoted in this Bibliography, and in the first chapter of the Israel of the Alps^ 
 that the reader may easily institute a satisfactory comparison between the dia- 
 lects of these two classes of manuscripts. It results, I think, from this com- 
 parison, that the difference which exists between the Vaudois language and the 
 French of the twelfth century, is still greater than that which distinguishes our 
 present French from the French of that period. The Vaudois books, wi-itten 
 in the primitive Romance tongue, do not, therefore, exhibit the Lyonnese idiom, 
 which even then was the French dialect, or the Romance language in a secondary 
 form ; they cannot, therefore, have been written by inhabitants of Lyons ; they 
 are not, therefore, to be ascribed to disciples of Valdo : there were therefore 
 in the Alps, Vaudois anterior to Valdo. 
 
 Dr. Gilly demonstrates, by many arguments, that this Bible of the Poor served 
 as the basis of the translation of the Holy Scriptures, by Guiart Des Moulins 
 the MS. of which is also preserved in the National Library at Paris (No. 6830). 
 I agree with him in thinking that the language of the MS. 7268-' ^* is not the 
 ancient Romance tongue, and, consequently, that it is not to be classed amongst 
 the Vaudois MSS. 
 
 D.— (1.) MS. endorsed No. 6, B, L. F., in the Bibliothe'que de VArsenal, in 
 Paris, and indicated by Dr. Gilly, in the first note of p. xlii. of his Introduc- 
 tion, as being, like the preceding MS., a translation of some books of the Bible, 
 not into the Romance tongue, but into old French. This MS. is unknown to me. 
 
 (2.) MS. bearing the No. 6833^ in the National Library, indicated by the 
 same author (p. Ixxv.) as being an incomplete volume. It contains a portion of 
 the books of the New Testament. At the end of it are the words — " Euthonius 
 Satorra fecit iste liber anno a nativitate Domini MCCCCLXI." But Dr. Gilly 
 believes it to be more ancient. He even seems inclined to believe that Reynerus 
 (an author of the thirteenth century) was acquainted with this MS., or with an 
 earlier MS., of which this is merely a copy. This opinion he rests upon the 
 followmg correspondence : — Reynerus says that the Vaudois * ' corrupte Scrip- 
 turam exponunt, ut est illud Johanuis I, In p^'opria venit et sui non receperuni, 
 
 -a^^AAAA. 
 
454> 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 fAPFltWDIX. 
 
 Ko. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 455 
 
 ibi dicnt ^es id est porci non receperunt" (^^^f^^^^n^U t^^ 
 and in this MS. we read in the passage thus pointed out (John i. U.) 
 
 ,uf5 propres coses vench, e los sues non ^^|f ^"^^jl^^^^^j ^^^ following 
 n ^ Dr Gilly adduces also, on the authority of Raynouara, ine lu 5 
 
 MsV ^ belon Jn. to the class of Vaudois MSS., or at least, of ^-^^c^^^^^^S 
 fnt Ro^tTtong..:^^^ Abridginent of the 0^ and New Te„^^^^ 
 Sctures- National Libr., No. 2317 bis.-Abridged History of the Bible entitled, 
 pictures, i.^ciwuu , - ^. ripnevieve in Paris, endorsed A. 1 . 4, 
 
 Bible en langue gascone. Library of bt. l^enevieve, in x , 
 No 32 -Histonr of the Bible, described as en provengal (Rayn. vol. 1., p. wj>h 
 !-^e book o Tydrac in the Romance tongue, and not in Spanish, as the t^o 
 beai National Libraiy, Fonds de Baluze, No. 590.-Naturas d^alcunMus^ 
 sZjTU Fond I! La Valkere. No. U-^Serrnons er^froven,^^^^^^^^^ 
 3548 -A cSechism in the same language (No. 808) ; and, finally, {^ohb^'^e 
 ticle de vertutz; a treatise which is also to be found m other Vaudois MSS 
 and which bears the No. 7693. It is to be wished that a careful comparison 
 weretade of these various MSS. with reference to the -bjec -w ^^^^^^^ 
 
 8 Perrin mentions (p. 57), "a New Testament on parchment m the Vau 
 dois* ton^e, very well written, although in a very ancient character; and m 
 the ma^l^ie adds, - These hooks, and a number of others, v:ere collected xn the 
 tlUyTLjela} It has been supposed that this might be the copy now 
 dep^sitM in Dublin, or perhaps that of Grenoble. Vol. vi. m the dmsion F 
 oMhTancient Vaudois MSS., deposited at Cambridge, --^-^^^ P^ ^^^^ 
 the books of the New Testament, viz. :^The Gospel acco^^^ig ^oStM2 
 and that according to St. John; the first chapter cf St ^^^^^ { f^ 
 A^stles ■ sijc Epistles of St. Paul; the eleventh chapter of the Fpistle to t/ie 
 JXeZ: Td Z two Catholic Epistles of St. Pet.. This MS. is no longer to 
 be found. 
 
 (j 3. — Geneva, MSS. 
 
 MS. I., No. 43, of the Public Library. 
 
 This MS is noted, by mistake, in several works, as No. 44. It is a large 
 16mo volume, written entirely upon a thick kind of paper, with the exception 
 of the first leaf, which is parchment, and which contains forty-two hues in the 
 Romance tongue, in beautiful black letter. (This leaf certainly belonged to 
 another MS.) The MS., No. 43, is inclosed in a parchment cover, one side of 
 which is extended and folds round, as is common in pocket books. Upon the 
 back is a label afSxed, with these words— Faudow Manusaipt, believed to be of 
 
 the fourteenth century. . . ^ ,. , 
 
 This MS exhibits two very distinct parts: the first is m Latm, and occupies 
 ahnost half the volume ; the second is the Romance tongue, and fills up the rest. 
 The following is a note of the different pieces which it contains :— 
 
 1. The forty-two lines of the first leaf. They are on the Passion of Our 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ. .. xi. n j ;., 
 
 2. The ApostUi Creed, in Latin. Each of the articles of the Creed 13 
 specially attributed to a particular apostle ; and there follows a quotation of the 
 prTphete, to show that all the events of the life of Jesus Chnst had been pre- 
 dicted. ITiis treatise occurs also in the Romance tongue in other MSb. Ihe 
 following is an extract from it, borrowed from Hahn, pp. 608-610 :- 
 
 " San Peyre, apostol, paus^ lo premier article, diczent .... Sanct Ihoma 
 pause lo V, diczent: Descende a li enfem; to tercz jom rexucite de la mort 
 Coma propheticze Ozea, dicjent: O mort, yo serey U toa mort. Per aquest 
 
 deven creire que Yeshu Xrist descende a li enfem en apres la soa mort, per des- 
 liorar e trayre las annas de li sant paires {to unbind and bring out the souls of 
 the holy patriarchs), e du tuit aquilh que morrion del commenczament del mont, 
 en fe e en sperancza qu' ilh fossan salva. Car per lo pecca d' Adam, convenia 
 que tuit, bons e mals, descendessan en lenfem ; mas li bon, eran en bona e ferma 
 sperancza que lo filh de Dio li vengues liberar e salvar, coma era ista promes per 
 li 860 san prophetas." 
 
 3. Glosa super »ymbolum Apostolorum. This gloss was also written in the 
 Romance tongue ; and it is from the Romance text that Ldger gives a partial 
 translation (Part I., ch. viii., and Perrin, p. 197). The Romance text is to be 
 found in the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 4, No. 17. 
 
 4. A treatise on almsgiving, entitled, Elemosina. It occurs in the Romance 
 tongue in the Geneva MS., No. 209, and the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 6, 
 No. 26. 
 
 5. Expositio moralis orationis dominicalis. A number of treatises upon this 
 subject are still in existence in the Romance tongue, L^ger, part I., ch. vii., and 
 in a translated form, Perrin, p. 201, and Ldger, p. 47. 
 
 6. De summo pontifice. This piece, which occupies only one page, differs 
 very much from the usual tone of the Vaudois ; it is full of violent and reproach- 
 ful expressions, attesting the indignation which the conduct of the popes had at 
 that period excited. These expressions, however, are not stronger than those 
 of Dante and Petrarch on the same subject. 
 
 7. Prophetia Hildegardis. 
 
 8. Versus magistrales. 
 
 9. De gaudiis Paradisi. This last piece occupies only one page. 
 
 Such are the titles of the Latin treatises. The latter half of the volume is 
 filled with edifying discourses in the Romance tongue, each entitled Sermo. 
 
 MS. II., No. 206. 
 
 Until 1825, this passed for a MS. in the Catalan language ; and it is so marked 
 in the catalogue. In that year I examined it, and ascertained and proved it to 
 be a Vaudois MS. in the Romance tongue. 
 
 It is a small 12mo volume, containing 121 leaves of parchment, much black- 
 ened on the edges, like those of books which villagers have long kept in their 
 chimney. It wants some leaves at the beginning and end. The first leaf, as 
 well as those from the 16th to the 28th, have the margins deeply notched by 
 oblique cuts, which, however, have not reached the text. Fol. 18 is torn out 
 altogether, as well as three or four others, in different parts of the volume. 
 The first fifteen or sixteen leaves are blotted with ink. This MS. is generally 
 very difl&cult to read, because of the numerous abbreviations, although it is well 
 written in black letter. The initial letters are adorned with red, green, and blue. 
 
 1. The first part of this MS. contains the book of the Virtues, thus headed, 
 Vertucz; but the commencement of the treatise (the first six paragraphs) has 
 disappeared, the fii-st leaves of the volume having been torn out. The end of 
 the sixth paragiaph only occupies the four leaves which are now the first in the 
 work. The Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 22, begins also with a treatise 
 on the Virtues, entitled, Liber vertutum. It Is there complete. See also Ldger, 
 Part I., p. 51. 
 
 ' It would be interesting to compare this treatise with the Sum of the Vices and Virtues, 
 by Brother Laurent, of which there are a number of MS, copies in the National Library at 
 Paris, N08. 7018'*, 70432-, 7044^ 7284, &c. It is a point which I hare not been able to in- 
 
 T«6tigat«. 
 
456 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [A.PPBVI>tX- 
 
 No. l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 457 
 
 } 
 
 2 In fol 29, begins an article on Compunction, of which the first sentences 
 are the foUowIn- • ' * La componsion del cor es hurailiU de la rerfeta naysencza, 
 en lagrimas dela recordanza de li peca e de la temor del medici. Per lo peca 
 es fait ardrament cant quest ardiment es recongta en grant superbia Partner 
 on appears this remarkable maxim, "La ley de liberta es laqual de la vita 
 
 (The law of liberty is that of life.) ^ . x^ w-p- . , 4iA^u\ At the 
 
 3 After this treatise comes the Epistle to the faithful (Fistola fideh). At the 
 top of a single page, it bears this title, Pistola amicus (Epistle of a friend, or to 
 friends) Perrin speaks of an epistle with this title, at the bottom of p. 68. 
 iTour MS. it begins thus, '^Ofrayrescarissimes . . ." And the last word^ 
 arc - Donca o carissimes, sia curios d'eserquiar limal: tota mala parola non 
 t-essadelaveraboca;masialcunabona . . .'* ^^^ -^^^"'"l^^eTe 
 leaves having been torn from the volume or misplaced. Hahn (pp. 623-626) 
 has published an Episiola amicus, which is different from this. 
 
 4 At the top of the first leaf which comes after this, is inscribed the title 
 
 Isaya (Isaiah). 
 
 5. Jcrcmia. 
 
 6. Sa-mo; occupying three leaves. 
 
 7. Job; occupying four leaves. , - . j * 
 
 8 Noczas (UsNoccs; the Marriage). The following are the first words of 
 this* piece :-"Tota3 cosas son aparelhas veni a las noczas, enayma es dit en 
 san Matthio. 21. lo rey local fe noczas al sio filh, es dio payre, delafamilha 
 del qual son tuili fidel. Lo filh es lo nostre senhor Jeshu Xrist . . , &o. 
 
 9 Sermo; occupying seven leaves. ^ 
 
 10. Three other «moH. (on Luke, Matthew, and Mark), occupymg, altogether, 
 
 nine leaves. . ^^„„^ 
 
 11. Del judici (Of the judgments) ; occupying seven leaves. 
 
 12. A sa-mo on Joan, occupying four leaves. 
 
 13. A treatise on jo?/san(2i>ains. 
 
 14 Glosa pater nostcr. A Vaudois commentaiy on the Lords prayer s 
 
 ^vZA hv Ld-er chap vii. Another is to be found m Perrm, p. 201. 
 Se« i a littCe tfho Dublin MS., No. 7 of the V.udoi, MSS That of 
 ourMS. goes no farther than the fourth petition, and concludes tho. La 
 ouarU cosa di qual nos deven maatigar aquest pan con devoc.on: le que nos 
 iTd^v^n «scobe? en la boca del cor." The last leaves of the volume, which a.e 
 awantinc, contained the end of thia Glots. 
 
 Th b;ok is unusually difficult to read, because of the numerous abbre™. 
 tioL which it conUins, and which produce a frequent running of the letters 
 llt^ole another, even between words which oi«ht to be separate and distinct^ 
 
 ■ I ? ir.Im svUables of the same word are often disunited, and one part 
 :^l^^o Z wXleding, another part to the word following. But this 
 MS 206 is indisputably proved to be a VaudoU MS. ; (1.) by the language ; 
 «tf,y the sentiments ; and (3.) by the fact that some of the treatises which it 
 c'ontafns are also to be found in other Vaudois MSS., of which the origin « no 
 
 way doubtful. MS. III., No. 207. 
 
 Of all the Vaudois MSS., this is the best known, and has been most fre- 
 nuentlv auoted It forms a smaU 18mo volume, bound in wood, covered with 
 skT wrS'n upon vellum, in fine black letter, and in the Eomance tongue. 
 It c'onUina 165 leaves, not pa^ed, and has neither gloss, nor preface, nor 
 genXl Utle. I have mentioned in thU section <| 1, No. 6) the inscription 
 
 which it bears upon the first sheet, and which indicates all the books contained 
 in it. 
 
 1. Commentary on the Song of Solomon, with this title, **Incipit prologus 
 in secundo libro exponicionum canticon Salomona." It begins thus : "0 karis- 
 simes, lo nostre cor non se merveillia si una spia (epi, grain, particle,) da questas 
 sentencias engenra moti grande parollas," &c. The following is a fragment, 
 from near the end : — 
 
 "Yo, non penso mi haver compres totas 
 cosas, ni aver script tota aquella sciencia, 
 lacal si rescont encara en aquest libre. E 
 emperczo lajsant calqaecal cosa remen al foe 
 celestial." 
 
 " Donca, o legidor kai'issime, repausate en- 
 tre li baron de mira, cum lical hinta lo rey 
 de gloria. Vejas cantas cosas son recoynta 
 de lor meseymes, e cant bella es la ley del 
 Seguor, e cant deleitivol es studiar en ley," 
 
 I do not imagine that I have understood 
 all the things, nor written out all the wis- 
 dom (knowledge) which is BtUl hidden in this 
 book. And therefore we leave some things 
 to await the celestial fire (gracious illumina- 
 tion). 
 
 Therefore, O dearest reader, repose thou 
 amongst those barons of distinction, with 
 whom the King of glory dwells. Thou seest 
 what things are recounted of them ; and how 
 excellent is the law of the Lord, and how de- 
 lightful is the study of that law. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that the author has thus voluntarily suppressed, the 
 commentary now being noticed is of very considerable length ; it fills 221 pages 
 (more than half of the volume), and concludes thus : ** Enayma dis Ysaya li tio 
 olh vean cum li just to sey en la soa bellecza local vio e regna dio {kquel vit et 
 rigne Dieu, i.e., etant Dieu) cum lo payre e cum lo sant sperit, per tuit li segle 
 de li segle. Amen." 
 
 2. A poem, entitled The Bark, indicated by these words, Ayci commenga la 
 Barca (in p. 222). This poem contains fifty-six stanzas of six lines each. (The 
 fifteenth, however, seems to have only five, because the first and second have 
 been written in one line through evident negligence of the copyist ; the forty- 
 eighth, on the contrary, contains seven lines instead of six; and stanzas eighteen 
 and nineteen, forty and forty-one, fifty-five and fifty-six, are not separated from 
 one another in this MS.) It is not until we reach the thirty-sixth stanza, that 
 the course of n)an upon the earth is likened to the voyage of a baik advancing 
 towards the harbour. The harbour is heaven, the passengers are men. What 
 do they bring with them ? All their works are defiled. Let the sinner acknow- 
 ledge his errors, and let him accept for his pilot Jesus Christ alone, the merits 
 of Christ for his only treasure ; such is the conclusion of the poem. Kaynouard 
 {Choix de poesies orig. des ti-oub., vol. ii.. Monuments primitifs de lu langue 
 romane), quotes four stanzas of this poem. Hahn gives it entire (Geschichte 
 der Waldenzer, pp. 560-570). I have quoted the first lines in this section 
 (§ 1, No. 2). 
 
 3. Lo novel Sermon. A poem of 408 lines, divided into twenty-one paragraphs 
 or sections of unequal length. This poem occupies seventeen pages of the 
 manuscript. It has for its subject, an exposure of the deceitful vices of the age 
 and the necessity of serving God. Raynouard quotes detached portions of it; 
 Hahn publishes it entire, pp. 570-581. This poem commences thus: 
 
 " " O frayres karissimes, entende mon parlar. . . ,'• 
 
 and ends with the following lines ; — 
 
 ** Adonca li felhon seren mot engaua. 
 Ma a tart conoisceren quilh auren mal obra. 
 Adonca sare fait cambi dun chascun istament: 
 Aquilh que ban czay lo deleyt auren lay torment*. 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 118 
 
458 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appekdix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 4o9 
 
 in 
 
 I' 
 
 ' 
 
 Ma li Serf dal Segnor q\ie han czay tribulacion, 
 Auren lay eternal gloria e gi-ant consolacion. 
 Benaura seren aquilh que seren de li perfeit. 
 Cant la sere compli lo noiubre de li eleyt! 
 La poisencza del payre et sapiencia del filh 
 Et la bouta del sant Sperit noe garde tuit 
 Denfem, e nos done Faradis. Amen." 
 
 Of these lines, the following is a translation: "Then the wicked shall be 
 much deceived, but at last shall discover that they have done ill. Then shall 
 there be interchange of every state ; those who have chosen pleasures shall have 
 torment ; but the servants (serfs) of the Lord, who have chosen tribulations, 
 shall have eternal glory aud great consolation. Happy shall those be who shall 
 be amongst the perfect, when the number of the elect shall be filled up ! The 
 power of the Father, and the wisdom of the Son, and the bounty of the Holy 
 Spirit, keep us all from hell and give us Paradise. Amen." 
 
 4. Le novel Confort. A poem of 300 lines ; consisting of seventy -five verses 
 of four lines each. It wants one line in the fortieth stanza. A little red line 
 separates the quatrains from one another in the manuscript, of which this poem 
 occupies thirteen pages. Raynouard quotes eighteen verses of it, selected here 
 and there; Hahn gives it complete (from p. 581 to p. 589). llie poem has for 
 its object to confirm the Christian in his detachment from the world, and to 
 encourage him in seeking salvation by the gospel. The seventy-third verse, and 
 the last verse, are as follows: — 
 
 " O car amic, leva vos del dormirf 
 Car V08 non sabe lora que Xrist deo venir ; 
 Velha tota via de cor en die servir 
 Per istar en la gloria lacal non deo fenir 
 
 " Vene! e non attende a la noyt tenebrosa, 
 Lacal ea mot scuta, orribla e sjiavantosa; 
 Aqasl que ven de noyt, ja lespos ni lesposa, 
 Non hubrire a luy la jiorta preciosa. Amen," 
 
 Translation : "O dear friends ! arise from your slumber, for you know not the 
 hour when Christ is to come. Watch continually to serve God heartily, that 
 you may abide in glory which shall have no end. — Come ! and await not the 
 gloomy night, which is very dark, horrible, and fearful. He who comes in the 
 night, neither the bridegroom nor the bride shall open to him the precious 
 gate." 
 
 Eaynouard thinks that this poem is of more recent origin than the others, 
 because of the greater perfection of the verse. 
 
 5. La nobla Leyczon. A poem of 479 lines, having for its object to exhibit 
 the three successive laws which God has given to the world — the natural law, 
 the law of Moses, and the law of the gospel. This object is intimated in line 
 438. The first part extends from line 57 to line 138 ; the second, from line 138 
 to line 207 ; and the third, from line 207 to line 346. The poem concludes with 
 a general recapitulation and pious exhortations. Mori and, Raynouard, Plen- 
 derleath, Gilly, and Hahn, have published this poem entire. Leger gives only 
 fragments of it. Part I., chap. iv. The date of this poem is fixed by the 
 sixth line — 
 
 " Ben ha mil et cent ancz compli ontierament.'* 
 
 Many writers deserving of consideration think that the date contained in 
 thiu line is not to be taken as exact, but only as approximative ; and that the 
 poem should not be referred to the year 1100, but to about the year 1190, the 
 
 period when Valdo and his disciples are supposed to have come to the Vaudois 
 valleys, either from Piedmont or from Dauphiny, and that, therefore, it is to 
 be ascnbed to the disciples of Valdo. 
 
 We are entitled to demand positive evidence in support of this opinion, which 
 those who maintain it do not produce. I shall attempt to bring forward some 
 evidence to the contrary. Let us suppose the Nobla Leyczon to have been com- 
 posed, not in the year 1100, but in the year 1200 ; and let us see if it could be 
 the work of the disciples of Valdo. Tliis poem is in the Romance language : it 
 was not the language of Lyons. (See the writings of that period in the vulgar 
 tongue.) Tlie disciples of Valdo left that city between 1180 and 1190.* Would 
 they not require some years to acclimatize them in a new country, and is it to 
 be supposed that in so short a time they could have learned a new language, 
 80 as to produce in it most perfect works — (most perfect for that time at least) ; 
 and that amidst the difficulties of their settlement, they could have had leisure 
 for the composition of a poem of such length ? Could they immediately after 
 their arrival in these mountains, exhibit the characters of extension already 
 acquired, of firm establishment, tranquillity, and duration, which this poem 
 ascribes to the Vaudois J It appears to me that an impartial mind will find 
 much more difficulty in admitting all these things, without evidence, as those 
 are obliged to do who maintain that the Vaudois are descended from Valdo — 
 than in admitting that they were anterior to him, on the testimony of this 
 work, dated in the year 1100, and of the authors of the twelfth century, whom 
 we have quoted. (Israel of the Alps, part I., chap, i.) 
 
 The difficulty becomes an impossibility if we hold to the date of the Nohla 
 Leyczon (and there is nothing to set it aside), or if we merely admit that it was 
 composed before 1180; for nothing at that period can explain the production 
 of it among the disciples of Valdo. The latter not only is not named in it, but 
 there is not the least allusion which can be supposed to refer to him. This is 
 not surprising, if the piece is anterior to him ; but it would be very extraordinary 
 if its composition was owing to his direct influence, and if it was produced by 
 his disciples. 
 
 It is natural, indeed, to wish for precise information, that we may give a 
 precise account of the origin of things, especially in history ; and we cannot 
 give a precise account of the origin of the Vaudois in an historic manner, except 
 by connecting them with Valdo ; but this, again, we cannot do except by hypo- 
 theses, that is, by uncertainties. To these laborious uncertainties, is it not 
 rational to prefer the inevitable uncertainty which must reign over the origin 
 of the Vaudois regarded as anterior to Valdo, on this very ground, that if their 
 origin had been recent, it must have left traces ? I repeat, there is a testimony 
 to the existence of the Vaudois in the Alps anterior to Valdo ; but it is disputed. 
 There are only hypotheses to establish their descent from Valdo, and these 
 hypotheses are also disputed. Accurate minds must at least desire that this 
 question should be further studied : it is the part of a superficial or prejudiced 
 erudition, I think, to consider it as decided in favour of the hjpotheses. 
 
 The Vaudois are named in line 372 of the Nobla Leyczon: — 
 
 '< Ilh diou qu' es Vaudes e degue de punir." 
 The poem concludes thus : — 
 
 » The CTironique de Loon, (published by Bouquet, vol. xiii.) places Valdo in 1173. Hia 
 doctrine was condemned in 1177, 1178, and 1179. It was not till 1183 or 1184 that he waa 
 expelled firom Lyons; and his dificiplee did not probably all leave it on the same day. 
 

 I 
 
 1. 
 
 
 460 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [A.rMKDIX. 
 
 " Placta ha aqnel Segnor que forme tot lo mont 
 Que nos siam de li esleit per istar en ea cort. 
 Die gracias. Amen." 
 
 This work is followed in the MS. of which we speak, by two pages of moral 
 sentences.— Not to prolong this article, I shall merely indicate the poems which 
 follow, and which are also to be found in the Dublin MS., Class G, Shelf 6, 
 No. 21. When we come to that MS., I shall accompany the mention of them 
 with some details, as I have done with regard to the preceding poems. 
 
 6. Lo Payre Eternal. This poem is composed of 156 lines, divided into fifty- 
 two verses of three lines each. These triplets are separated from each other in 
 the Geneva MS. by a red line which joins the arabesques on the margin. There 
 is a hiatus here and there. The first line of verse thirty-two contains in reality 
 two lines, of which the first ends with the word cresent, and the second with the 
 word hen. The last line of this verse does not belong to it, and ought to be 
 the fii-st of a subsequent verse, which remains incomplete. This poem, which 
 occupies five pages of MS., is simply a prayer in which are introduced many 
 passages of the psalms of David. Raynouard thinks that it is of more recent 
 date than the other Vaudois poems. (Letter of 6th April, 1833.) He quotes 
 thirteen triplets of it, in the Monuments pi'imit if 8 de la langue romane. (Choix 
 des poesies originales des Troubadours, vol. ii., p. 117.) Hahn gives it entire 
 (pp. 590-594). I quote some passages of it in the next §, vol. iv., No. 4. 
 
 7. Lo despreczi del mont. A poem on detachment from the world; occupying 
 four pages of the manuscript, and consisting of 115 lines. Fragments of it are 
 quoted by Raynouard (vol. ii., p. 121), and it is given entire by Hahn (pp. 594- 
 697). A red line has been drawn after every two lines of the poem, between 
 the distiches, in the Geneva MS., but on the first page only. For other par- 
 ticulars, see next §, concerning Dublin MS., vol. iv.. No. 5. 
 
 8. L'Avangeli de li quatre semencz. (The gospel of the four seeds.) A poem 
 on our Saviour's parable (Matt, xiii.) It occupies eleven pages of the MS., and 
 contains 300 lines, divided into seventy-five quatrains. — Raynouard has pub- 
 lished twenty-five quatrains (vol. ii., p. 126). Hahn gives it entire (pp 598-604). 
 The verses are separated in the MS. 207, by red lines which join the arabesques 
 on the margins. See quotations from it in next §, on vol. iv.. No. 2. 
 
 9. After this poem comes a treatise on Penitence, indicated by the words La 
 sensec de la penitencia. (Here follows concerning penitence.) It occupies the 
 last twenty-four pages of the MS., and is not complete, because some leaves are 
 awanting at the end of the volume. This treatise contains an ihteresting pas- 
 sage on Confession, which occurs also in another Geneva MS. (No. 209, fol. 17) 
 and in those of Dublin, Class C, Shelf 5, No. 22, and same series, No. 25, 
 foL 242. 
 
 MS. IV., No. 208. 
 
 This MS. is in small Svo, written upon paper, and bearing upon the back this 
 modem title, Controverses vaudoises. The leaves of this MS, are in very great 
 disorder. That which occupies the first place, ought to be the seventeenth, and 
 to find what precedes it, it is necessary to begin reading at fol. 14. Many other 
 transpositions are also to be observed ; they must have been the result of the 
 ignorant handling of a modera binder. 
 The following aj-e the pieces which this volume contains : — 
 1. Beginning at p. 29, we find a protest of the ancient Vaudois church against 
 the innovations of the Church of Rome, under this title, Circa Id varieta de las 
 cosas emergent. (Concerning the variety of things which now present them- 
 
 Ko. l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 461 
 
 solves.) The following are the first words of this grave and admirable mani- 
 festo : — 
 
 " A LaTisor e gloria de retemal Dio com- 
 enczament et fin de totas cosas, e refugi de 
 tot esperant en si: emperczo comeuczant de 
 lui, nos preguen humilment la sua magni- 
 ficiencia que el ordone lo comenczament 
 daquesta nostra obra, e endreissa lo mecz, e 
 I)erducza la fin, ha honor e gloria de lui 
 meseynce, e de tota la cort celestial, e ha salu 
 de tot fidel. Amen." 
 
 To the praise and glory of the eternal God, 
 the beginning and end of all things, and re- 
 fuge of all those who hope in him; therefore, 
 commencing in him (or proceeding in him), 
 we humbly entreat his magnificence, that he 
 w^ould order the commencement of this our 
 work, and rectify the middle and perfect the 
 end of it, to his own honour and glory, and 
 of all the celestial court, and to the salvation 
 of all believers. Amen. 
 
 These words are also to be found in the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5. No. 
 22; in the second page of fol, 176, under the title, Ai/czi commencza lo prolic 
 del libre apella Thresor e lume de fe (Treasure and liiiht of faith. Quoted 
 by Perrin, pp. 59, 201 ; L^ger, p. 47, &c.) This preface or jiroUc is continued 
 in the Geneva MS. (No. 208) as far as p. 32. This introduction has for its 
 object to establish the Bible as the sole foundation of all authority in matters 
 of faith. 
 
 2. A statement of the Vaudois faith, indicated by the words, de li article de 
 la fe. To follow the order of the treatise, we must, after having read from 
 p. 28 to p. 32, return to p. 1, and read without interruption twenty-seven con- 
 secutive pages, and then resume reading at fol. 17. These Articles of Faith 
 are published by Ilahn, from p. 605 to p. 608. 
 
 3. Then follows an Exposition of the Apostles" Creed, analogous to that spoken 
 of as in No. 3 of MS. 47 of Geneva, the first in this §. Hahn publishes this 
 piece, pp. 608-011. 
 
 4. Les sept sacrements, beginning at p. 17 and occupying nineteen pages of 
 the manuscript. The articles are these, (1.) Del baptismo. (2.) L'imposicion 
 de li mans. (3.) Lo teixz sagrament es la communion del corps e del sang de 
 Xrist. This article occupies five pages, and ends with an dc (4.) Lo quart 
 sagrament es la penitencia. (MS. 209 bears that, La ley de matiimoni es lo 
 cart sagrament de la gleysa.) A part of the •' Treatise on Penitence," which is 
 found at the end of MS. 207 is the same with this. (5.) Lo quint sagrament, 
 es ordonament de preires e de diaques. (6.) Lo matrimoni. (Placed in the 
 fourth place in MS. 209.) (7.) La honcion de li enferm (the unction of the 
 infirm). "These two sacraments are admitted," says M. Tron in a note, "but 
 only in the simplicity of the evangelical institution ; thus there is nothing of 
 extreme unction, nothing of consecrated oil . . . &c." A part of this treatise 
 of the sacraments is placed much farther on, and on account of the disordered 
 condition of the MS,, is intercalated in the midst of the work following. 
 
 6. Exposition of the Ten Commandments. This treatise seemingly occupies 
 eighty -six pages of the MS,, but twenty-two pages must be' deducted, viz., pp. 
 30-52, which belong to the preceding work. This treatise enters into its subject 
 at much greater length than the quotations given by L^ger (p. 51), and Perrin 
 (p. 182), under a similar title. It is probable that these authors quoted from 
 the "Book of Virtues," and not from the Thresor e lume de la fe. The first 
 two commandments are united together in one in MS. 208 ; but the tenth is 
 divided into two, viz., IX., a prohibition of coveting moveable property, and 
 X., a prnhibition of coveting fixed property. 
 
 6. A Treatise Of Penitence, occuj ying eight pages of the MS. It is in part 
 also to be found in MSS. 207 and 209, as well as at the end of 208. The 
 treatise in MS. 209 is the same as that in 207, with the exception of a few 
 
! 
 
 462 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appxndix. 
 
 No. I ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 463 
 
 slight variations in the first lines. That which is contained in MS. 209, in the 
 second part of this treatise, seems to be an abridgment of that which is found in 
 MS. 207. The latter, however, wants the article entitled penitencia estetnor. 
 The copy of MS. 208 agrees wi;h that of 209, except that all which relates to 
 la falsa penitencia (the first part of the treatise) is awanting in the former, 
 which, however, is much longer than the other two in what relates to oracion, 
 under the head of penitencia esterior. 
 
 7. Of fasting; occupying nine pages of the MS. The object of this treatise 
 is principally to prove that bodily fasting is of no value without spiritual 
 fasting. This treatise, and the preceding, are united in MS. 209, under the 
 title, De la penitencza e del juni. 
 
 8. A Commentary on the Lord's Prayer; ocaipjring eight pages of the MS. 
 It appears also in the Dub in MS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 22, foL 230. The 
 same commentary, with slight variations, is given by L^ger (pp. 40-46), and 
 copied by Hahn, pp. 697-701. A partial translation of another treatise, on the 
 same subject, is given by Perrin, p. 47, and by Ldger, p. 201. 
 
 9. A Treatise Of Purgatory; occupying forty-six pages of the MS., containing 
 the treatise Of the Invocation of Saints, and that De la potesta dona a li vicario 
 de Xrist (of the power given to the vicar of Christ). This last-mentioned work 
 occupies twelve pages of the MS. Hahn has pubhshed a part of it, pp. 611- 
 616. These difierent treatises are also to be found united in the book Of Anti- 
 christ. (Pen in, pp. 253-295 ; L^ger, pp. 71-91.) After this treatise comes in 
 the MS. 208, the sequel of the Exposition of the Ten Commandments, mentioned 
 in No, 5 of this article. 
 
 10. Ara sensec de la penitencza (Now follows Of Penitence), as at the end 
 of MS. 207. (See No. 6 in this article.) This treatise occupies thirty pages of 
 
 the MS., and concludes the volume. The last words of it are ihe following: 
 
 **La defi' icion de la penitencia part en prima desplaisencza e dolor del pecca, 
 en la secunda temor de non recagir. Linconiens prima es abandonar li pecca 
 comes e abandonnans plorar lor e degittar." "The sufficiency of penitence 
 depends, in the first place, on a displeasure and sorrow for sin, and, in the second 
 place, on a fear (attentive observation) not to fall into it again. The conse- 
 quences are, first, an abandoning of sins committed, and in abandoning them — a 
 deploring and rejecting of them." These last words, lor e degittar, are inclosed 
 in a sort of scroll, made by the pen, with slight arabesques on both sides, and 
 terminated by the figure of a hand with the forefinger stretched out. 
 
 MS. v.. No. 209. 
 
 This MS. is in small Svo, written on paper, in the Romance tongue, and in 
 black letter. The binding is modern, and upon the back is the title, Conseils 
 des harhes. 
 
 The leaves of this MS. are also in disorder, like those of Codex 208. — The 
 commencement of the first page is to be found after the sixteenth, and that 
 first page itself contains only the end of an article, of which the first part must 
 be sought in fol. 20. Not having had time to note the proper place of all tho 
 leaves of this MS., I shall now indicate its contents according to the order in 
 which they are at present placed. 
 
 Fol. 1. — The first leaf belongs, as has just been stated, to a work which has 
 been placed farther on in the volume. It treats of heritages and the division 
 of goods. 
 
 Fol. 3. — In fol. 3, b-^gins Pistoletta (a little epistle), containing pious exhor- 
 tations. It would seem that this fol. 3 ought to be the first in the volume. 
 
 Fol. 6. — La ley del matrimoni (of marriage). Marriage is designated the 
 fourth sacrament of the church. The division of this treatise is extremely sim- 
 ple — (1.) Duties of the wife towards her husband (the husband is called lo Baron). 
 — (2.) Duties of the husband towards his wife. — (3.) Of the two together to- 
 wards their children ; above all, say^s the MS., that lifilli, liqual nayson carnaK 
 sian rendu a Dio spirital (that the children who are bom carnal may be made 
 spiritual to God). Is not this the loftiest aim of education ? 
 
 Fol. 7. — Of justice.— -Here we find this recommendation : Non avez recors al 
 judici secular. If you would be just, it is said, see that ye oflfer '* Vos meseymes 
 a Dio, con totas aquellas cosas que son vostras, amor e ajutori al proyme ; a vos 
 meseymes, sanctita; al amis, concordia; per lenemis, oracion devota; al rey 
 . . . tribu," &c. In regard to the love of enemies, it is said, **I well know 
 that you cannot attain to it of yourself, but call God to your aid, and he will 
 put into your heart that love which he has had for us, who have so much 
 ofiended him." 
 
 Fol. 8. — Detached thoughts, entitled, Pensiers. — It is from this piece that 
 the thought is extracted which is quoted in the Israel of the Alps, part I., ch. i., 
 note. It is to be found upon the second page of fol. 8, which corresponds to 
 p. 16. 
 
 Fol. 11. — A treatise Of Penitence, which occurs also elsewhere. See No. 6 
 and No. 10 in the account of the preceding MS. — In fol. 17 is a piece, entitled. 
 La sancta confession. The following is a brief extract : — " Aquilh que se volon 
 confessar -vocalment, ilhi dovon cerca preires sapient e discret e dot : car silhi 
 recoraren a li mal preire, ilh seren plus engana que certifica." Prayers, fasting, 
 and almsgiving are afterwards spoken of. This treatise is very long. 
 
 Fol. 21. — About the middle of p. 41, or of the first page of fol. 21, is this 
 title written by itself in red ink. Que cosa sia pecca (What sin is). This new 
 treatise is also of great length. The characters of pride, envy, anger, luxury, 
 sloth (aczidia), avarice, &c., are successively examined, with the remedies appro- 
 priate to them. The following is a brief specimen of the preliminary part : — 
 "Lo es de saber {il est a savoir) que lo pecca mortal, a receopu lo nom de la 
 mort, emperczo car ei mortifica I'arma {Vdme). Trey pecca son apelha pecca 
 capita, czo es principals de li quals li autre pecca prenen nayssament," &c. A 
 few of these passages will be found extracted in chap. iv. of Perrin, p, 13, et seq. 
 Fol. 53. — The Prayer of Manasseh. 
 
 Fol. 54. — A Commentary on the Lord's Prayer. "Glosa sobre Pater Noster." 
 These last words being Latin, would seem to indicate that the Vaudois said the 
 Lord's Prayer in that language. This commentary is published by L^ger, pp. 
 40-46, and by Hahn, pp. 697-701. But the different petitions, or requerenczas, 
 are given by them in the same idiom as the commentary. 
 
 Fol. 77. — De las quafre cosas que son awenir. [Of the four things which are 
 to come.] These four things are death, judgment, hell, and paradise. After 
 this treatise three leaves of the MS. are left blank, viz., fol. 118, 119, and 120. 
 From this last to the end of the volume (which ends with fol. 156), is occupied 
 with the following treatise : — 
 
 Fol. 121. — Vergier de consollacion. This is one of the Vaudois books, the 
 title of which has been most frequently cited, but it has never been published. 
 It contains — 
 
 (1.) General remarks on the Divine law. 
 (2.) On human corruption. 
 
 (3.) An examination of different vices. (Part of what is said on this subject, 
 has already occurred in the treatise above-mentioned : Que cosa sia pecca.) In 
 
I 
 
 464 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 the article De la Temptacion, heresy and heretics are spoken of. 
 but desire to know what the Vaudois understood by these terms. 
 
 Appea'dix. 
 
 We cannot 
 
 " Li hereges son dit quelll coma errant de 
 la Terita. En ayma las vestimentas cuebron 
 lo cors, en ayma las bonas ob: :is cuebran lar- 
 ma de larege, e tollon las vestiiueutas de li- 
 qual ilh destruon li ben." 
 
 Heretics are so called as wandering from 
 the truth. As garments cover the body, so 
 do good works cover the soul of the heretic," 
 and come in place of (take away) the gar- 
 ments of which they destroy the possession. ' 
 
 (4.) Faith, hope, and charity are spoken of. Charity, we are told, .begins 
 with the love of God ; it rendei-s us invulnerable by injuries of men, &c. 
 
 (5.) An examination and recommendation of different virtues. 
 
 (6.) A long article on Friendship ; in which occurs a quotation from Aristotle. 
 
 (7.) Of prelates. — A very long article, pointing out the resemblance which 
 they ought to bear to Jesus Christ. 
 
 (8.) Of preachers. — They ought to be the light of the world. 
 
 (9.) Of Divine chastisements, containing quotations from St. Isidore. 
 
 (10.) Of the fear and love of God. 
 
 (11.) Of the love of our neighbour, of almsgiving, &c. 
 
 (12.) Of penitence and contemplation. This last term is thus defined: — 
 **Es sostracion de ment a Dio, cum desmentigancza de las cosas temporals." 
 (It is the elevation of the soul to God, with forgetfulness of temporal things.) 
 
 (13.) Of the praises of the Lord. 
 
 (14,) Of perseverance, poverty, obedience, humility, and chastity. May the 
 practice of these virtues, says the author in conclusion, "per tu, Segnor, e lo 
 tio nom, sia a mi rccreacion ! " 
 
 This treatise, deficient in method, has evidently received the name of Vergier 
 de consollacion, from analogy to an orchard (vergei') in which all sorts of trees 
 grow unrestrained, because of its pages filled with matters, various indeed, bub 
 all edifying. It would seem that to have entitled it, Of the virtues and vices, 
 would better have made known its general character. I doubt if this treatise 
 is complete. It contains a number of passages which are also to be found else- 
 where ; and a number which it is very difficult to read. A copy of the Vergier 
 de consollacion occurs in the Dublin MS., vol. 7, No. 3. It would be desir- 
 able to have these two copies compared with one another. 
 
 MSS. which have disappeared. 
 
 Other MSS. besides these were deposited in the library of Geneva, by John 
 L^ger, in 1662. M. Gerard was then librarian. The receipt which he gave 
 for these docvmients is inserted in the work of L^ger, part I., ch. iii., p. 23. 
 According to a letter of M. Raynouard (of 6th April, 1833), the greater part of 
 these documents were sent to England, at the request of Cromwell ; but as 
 Cromwell died in 1658, and his son resigned the Protectorate in 1659, whilst 
 these MSS. were not deposited at Geneva till 1662, it is impossible that this 
 can have been the way in which they disappeared. Be it as it might, they are 
 not now to be foimd in the library of that city. 
 
 Amongst these documents there was only one volume in the Romance tongue. 
 It came from the valley of Pragela (L^ger, p. 23). All the books which it con- 
 tained are to be found in other MSS. still existing. The following is a note of 
 them : — 
 
 1. La nohla Leyczon. — To be found in the Geneva MS., No. 207, and Dublin 
 MS., vol. iv.. No. 6. (Class C, Shelf 5, No. 21.) 
 
 2. Lo purgatoH soima. (Of the invention of purgatory.) Dublin MS., 
 vol. iii., No. 36. Published by L%er, p. 295, and by Perrin, p. 93. 
 
 Ko l.j 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 465 
 
 3. De U tramettament. (Of traditions.) Was to be found in the Cam- 
 bridge MS., No. vi., t. i. (Indicated by Morland, pp. 95-98, and by L^ger. 
 pp. 21-23.) 
 
 4. Be Vinvocassion de li sant. (Of the invocation of the saints.) Dublin 
 MS., vol. iii., No. 57. (Class C, Shelf 5, No. 22.) 
 
 5. Lo novel confort. ^Geneva. MS. 207; and Dublin MS., vol. iv., No. 1. 
 
 6. Lo Dottor. {The Teacher, containing sentences from the fathers of the 
 church, on Repentance.) Cambridge, vol. ii,. No. 3. 
 
 7. Glosa Pater iV^os^er.— Cambridge, vol. ii., No. 1 ; Dublin, vol. vii., No. 
 2 ; Geneva, MS. No. 43, § 3, and No. 209, fol. 54, also No. 206. 
 
 8. Glosa simholum apos'olorum. — Geneva, MS. 43, No. 3. 
 
 9. Explication of the Ten Commandments.— Geneva, MS. 208, No. 5. 
 
 10. Various sermons, or discourses of no great length, on different Scrip- 
 ture subjects. Dublin MSS., vol. iii., fol. 11-17, and fol. 348-368. 
 
 These different treatises, of a MS. incontestably of Vaudois origin, being found 
 scattered throughout all the MSS. which bear the general name of Vaudois 
 manuscripts, although an attempt has been made to dispute the claim of the 
 Vaudois to them, establish that claim so that it can no longer be set aside. 
 
 § i.— Dublin MSS. {Library of Trinity College.) 
 
 These MSS. were derived from the library of Usher (in Latin, Usserius) the 
 celebrated author and Church of England divine, who was born at Dublin in 
 1580, became Bishop of Meath in 1620, and Archbishop of Armagh in 1626, 
 and died in 1655. The Vaudois MSS., deposited in Cambridge by Morland in 
 1658, and which have never since been to be found, were not in England at so 
 early a date as those of Usher which still exist in Dublin. 
 
 Volume I. 
 
 (Class A, Shelf 4, No. 13.) Vaudois Bible.— I have already given an 
 account of this MS. in the present section, in No. 4 of § 2, entitled. Biblical 
 
 MSS. 
 
 Volume II. 
 
 (Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18.) Tliis MS. is known by the name of the Manu- 
 sci-ipt of George Morel. It is a volume of paper, six inches in length, by four 
 inches and a half in breadth. It contains a collection of letters and other docu- 
 ments relative to the mission of George Morel and Peter Masson, to the Refor- 
 mers on behalf of the Vaudois in 1530. 
 
 The following is an account of its contents, seriatim, according to a letter of 
 Dr. Todd, inserted in the British Magazine, No. cxiii., p. 397. 
 
 1. At p. 1 is a letter of the Vaudois to CEcolampadius, commencing thus 
 
 "Salve mi Domine CEcolarapadie. Pero aczo que tu dones conselh a nos, e 
 confermes nos frevols, anne lo present eord« loqual es entre d' nos ministres. 
 Car moti racontant . . . ," &c.— The remainder as in Perrin, p. 211. This 
 letter occupies only one page. 
 
 2. Pp. 2-5.— Reply of CEcolampadius. Perrin, p. 46, and Ldger, p. 105. 
 (A letter of much greater length, but commencing in the same way, is published 
 in the Epistolce virorum doctorum, edited by Bibliandee. Basle, 1548, p. 2.) 
 
 3. P. 5, Epistola ad Bucerum. 
 
 4. Bucer's Reply. Perrin, p. 47. 
 
 6. De ministrorum ritibus. Published by Schultet, an. 1530, Von der 
 
 Hardt, Pars v., p. 161. In the Dublin MS., in pp. 8, 10, 25, 31, &c., there 
 Vol. II. 1J9 
 
 ->-^ -♦ - 
 
466 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appendtx. 
 
 No. 1.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 are words, and even entire sentences, erased by a modem hand. In some places 
 there are words written in, which were not there originally. The words and 
 sentences, erased in the MS., are omitted by Perrin, and the changes made by 
 a modem hand are adopted by him. 
 
 The portion of the MS. which treats de minutrorum ritibu8, extends as far 
 as p. 116. Each particular is made the subject of a question (peticio), after 
 which follows the reply of CEcolampadius or of Bucer. It is in peticio xii. that 
 the Confession of Faith occurs, which so very strikingly resembles that published 
 by L^er, p. 92. Perrin also, who was the first to publish it, says it is ex- 
 tracted from the Memoires de Georges Morel (the very MS. in question), as well 
 as the Almanack spiritual. (P. I., ch. xii., marginal note, p. 79.) 
 
 In p. 56, this question occurs — " Qual cosa se deo entendre par las claos dona 
 a s:\nt Peyre?" The reply of (Ecolampadius is identical with the paragraphs 
 de clavibus ecclesice, which are to be found in the Epistolce doctorum virorum, p. 4. 
 
 Peticio xxiii. is in these terms — *' Item, si tot jurament es defendu," &c. 
 
 6. P. 116. Letter of CEcolampadius, of which a copy appears in the Epistolce 
 doct. vir., p. 8. 
 
 7. Letter of Bucer, dated anno salutis 1530. 
 
 8. P. 118. Report of the proceedings of the Synod held at Angro^^na, 12th 
 Sept., 1532. (See the Israel of the Alps, vol. i., ch. vii.) This piece also ex- 
 hibits erasures. It is supposed that this is the same MS. which Perrin had in 
 his hands, and which he quotes under the title of the JBook, or Memoirs of 
 George Morel and Peter Masson (pp. 46, 106, &c.), because the passages quoted 
 by him exactly correspond with those of the existing MS. 
 
 Volume III. 
 
 (Class C, Shelf 5, No. 22). Not having before me any exact account of this 
 MS., and not having myself seen it, I can do no more than indicate the subjects 
 which are treated in it. 
 
 1. In p. 1, is a little calendar of the church. 
 
 2. P. 2 — ^p. 156. The Book of the Virtues {Libei' Vertuium), occupying 77 
 leaves. 
 
 3. A treatise on education, contained in fol. 78-83, de lensdgnement de liftlh; 
 and from fol. 83-85, de las garda de lasjilhas. 
 
 4. A treatise on marriage, beginning thus — Ayczi vollen parlar del ma'ri- 
 moni, a confort de li bon. This treatise extends from fol. 85 to fol. 91. 
 
 5. On dreams. (De li soyme). Fol. 91-94. 
 
 6. Ayczi vollen parlar de li pecca de la lenga. Tins treats of evil-.'?peaking, 
 calumny, false judgments, &c. Fol. 94-118. It is to be found in part in the 
 Geneva MS. 209, fol. 51-53. 
 
 7. Delasuperbia (Of pride), Fol. 118-139, 
 
 8. Laparolla de Dio. Fol. 139-145. 
 
 9. De Uperilh. Occupying only the first page of fol. 145. 
 
 10. lot don noble (Eight eminent graces), or Tot don noble (All eminent 
 grace). Between these two versions the general scope of the piece and the view 
 of the MS. alone can decide. This treatise occupies only two pages. 
 
 11. Seven sermons, occupying fol. 146-167 of the MS. The following are 
 the first words of each, by which they may be recognized: — (1.) " Aquilh que 
 fixmeian . . . " — Those who are hungry. (2.) *'0 Seignor, tu me pocz mondar 
 si tu voles" — Lord, thou canst make mt clean, if thou wilt. This is to be 
 found also in No. 13 of vol. vi. of this series. (3.) "Sermo d' Erodiana." 
 On Herodias; the death of John the Riptist. (4.) ** De la parollas auciosas" — 
 
 467 
 
 Of idle words. (5.) Li parlar d^ li phiJosofe"— ^e sayings of the philoso- 
 phers. (6.) *' Vevos un filh mort imial de la sua mayra"— T/te death of the 
 only Son. (7.) " Sermo de las noczas"— 5e?v>i07i on the marriage feast (the 
 introduction of the elect into the kingdom of God). A few pages on the same 
 subject are to be found in the Geneva MS., No. 206. 
 
 12. Various fragments, of which some are also to be found in the Liber 
 vertutum. They extend from fol. 167 to 175. They are (1.) "De la ubrieta" 
 -Of drunkenness. (2.) "Luxuria." (3.) ''De la familiarita de las fennas." 
 (4.) "De h, honesta"— Of modesty. (5.) "De la sapiencia de Dio." (6.) 
 
 'Angel . . . "—(The angel . . . ). (7.) "La consideration de la brievita 
 de la vita."— Considerations on the shortness of Hfe. (8.) "De li parlar dalcuns 
 doctors.' (9.)"Alenfem " (10.) De laben delparadis." (These frag- 
 ments, (9.) and (10.), are two parts of the same piece.) (11.) "De la Cristianita " 
 
 13. "Trdsor e lume de fe." This important treatise extends from fol 
 1 / 6 to 271 . It contains (1 .) the remarkable introduction already noticed in the 
 Geneva MS., No. 208, fol. 15. It is indicated in the DubUn MS. by these 
 words— "Ayczi comraencza lo prolic del libre appella Tr^sor e lume de fe " 
 This introduction extends from fol. 176 to 179. (2.) " Lo simbole d'Ana^tais." 
 
 3. De h articles de la fe." (4.) " Li sept sacrament," occupymg 16 pages. 
 (5.) Li commandament de Dio," occupying 33 pages. (6.) "Tracta del 
 ora,cion, 23 pages. (7.) "De la penitencia," 78 pages. (Concerning this 
 last piece, see No. 6 of Geneva MS. 208.) 
 
 14. In fol. 271, we read— "Ayczi coraenczan Las Tribulacions." This 
 treatise occupies 13 pages. Published by Ldger, part i., ch. vi., p. 35, and by 
 Hahn, pp. 692-696. , f , ^ uy 
 
 15. "Las interrogacions MENORS."-This is the little catechism which 
 Pemn (p. 157) and L^ger (p. 58) have published, as of date a.d. 1100 There 
 18 no Vaudois book which has been so often reprinted. Koecher, Monastier 
 i^ieterici, Brez, Hahn, and others, have given it in then- works. It has also 
 been separately printed in Edinbuigh. 
 
 16. Two fragments: "De li bal" (fol. 292-297) and "De la Tavema" (fol 
 297, 298). These passages have been published. Tliey are very severe agaimt 
 balls and public houses. 
 
 17. The Apostles' Creed; occupying the first page of fol. 298. 
 
 18. "Alcuns testimoni del Apocalis," from the second page of fol 298 to 
 the end of fol. 299. 
 
 19. "De H VIII. peiisiers;" occupying page 600, or the first page of fol. 
 oOO. 
 
 20. " De las quatre cosas que son a venir." These four things are death 
 judgment, hell, and paradise. From fol. 301-301, where commences "Del 
 alegrecza de li Salva," which extends to fol. 334. 
 
 21. Fragments, similar to some wliich occur in the Book of Virtues (1 ) 
 "Del pecca de la desubidienza ; fol. 337-341. (2.) "De la veniancza"-.Of 
 vengeance; occupying four pages. (4.) "De la desperacion "— Of despair- 
 occupying five pages. (5.) " Lo fellon abandonne la soa via"— Let the wicked 
 forsake his ways ; occupying two pages. 
 
 J^\^'^^'^"'^^^' These pieces are six in number. (1.) "De lo mesquin." 
 (2.) " En aquella contra de Bethlem eran pastors . . . ." (3.) "Yeshudisa 
 li seo disciples . . . ." (4.) "Johan deczia al poble." (5.) " Jeshu montant 
 enlanauta ..." (into the boat). (6.) " Le fan tin Jeshu ..." (the infant 
 Jesus . . . , &c.) These six sermons extend from fol. 348 to fol. 373. 
 
 23. "Del Purgatori"--A treatise Of Purgatory, extending from fol. 373 to 
 
468 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 rA.PF£HDlX. 
 
 385, and containing "De la convocacion de li'sant," fol, 378-383, and De Vabso- 
 lution," fol. 383-385. 
 
 24. A Sermon, commencing thus— "O Frayres! sabent aquest tempo, car 
 hora es ja a nos levar del sopn ..." (from sleep), concludes the volume in 
 fol. 389. 
 
 Volume IV. 
 
 (Class C, shelf 5, No. 21.) This volume contains the same poems in the 
 Romance tongue which are in the Geneva MS. 207 ; but in a different order. 
 
 1. Lo NOVEL CONFOBT. I have quoted the last two verses of it in the pre- 
 ceding § (MS. iii., No. 4) ; M. Monastier gives a passage of considerable length 
 (vol. ii., pp. 278-282) borrowed from the work of Raynouard. There are 
 some variations which would require to be further examined. The following, 
 for example, presents itself in the second line of the third verse : — 
 
 " Tota la vostra vita es un petit dormir ; 
 Et dorment voa soyma un soyme de placzii* . . ." &c. 
 
 " And in your sleep your dreams are all of pleasure . . . ." The length of this 
 poem and its principal characteristics, have been indicated in the section above 
 
 referred to. 
 
 2. Lavangeli de LI IV SEMENCZ. A poem on the Parable of the Sower. One 
 of the most remarkable of the ancient Vaudois poems, and, perhaps, that which 
 best shows how thoroughly the Vaudois had apprehended the moral import of 
 the Scriptures. (See MS. 207, No. 8, in the preceding §.) It contains also 
 very valuable notices of the different classes of Christians (corresponding to 
 the different classes of the seed) as they appeared at that epoch. There are 
 those who at first receive the Word of God with eagerness— 
 
 " E de present qu'Uh senton la perseguecion, 
 Un poc d'espavament o de tribulacion. 
 Ilh renean e laysan la predicacion 
 Lacal ilh scoutavan con tanta devocion" (verse 15). 
 
 Time has not, in this respect, changed the heart of man ; but the obstacles are 
 no longer the same.— The tares which grow with the good grain, represent the 
 enemies of the kingdom of God — 
 
 " Czo, son li filh fellon, plen de tota malicia ; 
 De persegre li just han mota cubiticia : " 
 
 it is said in verse 65, and in the next verse — 
 
 " Ma li just son ferm ; en Xrist han lor confoi-t . . .•* 
 Accordingly, this strength does not fail them (verse 67)— 
 
 " Emperczo temon Dio, gardant se de mal far. 
 La ley del Segnor s'efforczan de gardar ; 
 E totas adversitas en paciencia portar 
 Entro que sia Tengu lo temp del meisonar." 
 
 It has been previously said (verses 39 and 40) — 
 
 " Mot son pacific, human e ben suflfrent : 
 Non se volon deflfendre, nou son mal respondent, 
 Mas portan en paciencia greo cosas entra la gent ; 
 Emperczo son apella filh de Dio tot poysent. 
 
 *' Tribulacions suflFron e perseguecion grant ; 
 Son tormenta e aucis e en grant career istant ; 
 Per czo son plen de temor e de grant spavant : 
 Sovent d'lm lusc en autre fuon transfugant . . .' 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 469 
 
 Such was the condition of Christians at that time, such was the condition of the 
 Vaudois, in the midst of their adversaries— 
 
 " Que volon devorar lo tropellet petit 
 Del cal es bon pastor lo segnor Jesliu Xrist" (verse 8). 
 
 And it is especially worthy of notice, how it is afterwards said of this little 
 flock, or church of persecuted believers — 
 
 " Aquesta es la mncta GUysa, recebent confidaucza 
 La paroUa de Xrist e la soa amonestancza" (verse 47). 
 
 " Molker eg de Vagnel e dicta la soa sposa 
 Humil e casta, e vio mot vertuosa" (verse 60). 
 
 It could scarcely have been more decidedly intimated that the Vaudois re- 
 garded themselves as the Church. 
 
 3. La Babca. A poem, already mentioned, and an account given of it, in 
 article ii. of the Geneva MS., No. 207. 
 
 4. Lo Patre Eternal. (See No. 6 of the same MS.) This poem is a 
 prayer, addressed successively to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, 
 and then to the fortissima Trenita. I give the following verses as specimens 
 of it :— 
 
 " O primiera cayson sencza defalhiment. 
 Fin sies de totas cosas, sencza comenczament : 
 Mostra me la toa facia alegre e resplandent ! 
 
 *' Consolador dreiturier, sant e prencipal, 
 Purifica la mia arma d'tot pecca mortal, 
 Planta hi las vertucz, e dereycza li venial ! 
 
 " Segnor segnoriczant de las tres girarchias, 
 E de la gleisa triumphant que uferc a tu Messias, 
 Prego te, fay nos esser d'aquellas compagnias ! 
 
 " Conselhador fidel, merevilhos e fort, 
 Conselha lo tio poble, qu'es tormenta a tort, 
 Que habandone aquest mont per venir al tio ort." 
 
 The word ort literally signifies garden, and metaphorically Parat^isc— These 
 ft)ur triplets are the 18th, 19th, 21st, and 37th of the poem. I cannot here 
 give a'complete translation of these passages, because of the little room which 
 now remains to me within the limits assigned to this Bibliography. 
 
 6. A poem which bears no title in the MS. of Dublin, but which is the same 
 with that which, in the Geneva MS., is entitled, "Lo despreczi del mont." 
 (See MS. 207, No. 7.) This poem (judging from the Geneva MS., which alone 
 I have seen) does not appear to me to have been completed, for in the 95th line 
 the subject is stated in these terms : — ' 
 
 " Lonor del mont yo te volh recontar . . ." 
 
 And twenty lines after, the author unexpectedly comes to a close, the sense 
 being interrupted — 
 
 " Aquel non ista segur, ni mot ben alloga 
 Local po esser de la mort subitament arapi)a." 
 
 It is evident that the subject is not exhibited in the manner promised at the 
 beginning ; and the formula, with which most of the other Vaudois poems con- 
 clude, being omitted in this, seems also to indicate that it has been broken off 
 in the middle. I proceed to quote a few lines : — 
 
 "Las cosas terrenals totas venon a nient;" 
 
470 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [atpjudix. 
 
 (Earthly thing, uU come to „„thing.)-VVith what wilt thou redeem thyself, 
 S^em«!? """Ifcc" *"'"' '''**'' "'" *"'"""'1«'8« °» P«"<>° nor 
 
 " De cal te reconprare cant la inort te audio 1 
 Car pat ni oonvenencza la mort non recebr*-; 
 L'or ni I'aiTgent non te secorrare, 
 Ni pre^era d'amic non te desHorare 
 Al dia de la besogna, cant I'arma peril e." 
 
 tV^t ^7 ''?'''^' T^'" *^" '"^ '^*" peri8h.)-There is no trust to be placed 
 says the Vaudois author, in any of this world's possessions. ^ ' 
 
 " Ni en torre, ni en palays, ni en grant maysonament, 
 M en tantas, ni en convilis, ni en li grant manjament 
 Al en ly leyt honorivol, ni en li bel parament, 
 Ni en vestimentas claras e fortment resplande'nt; 
 Ni en grecz de bestias, ni en lavor de moti camp'. . ," ic. 
 
 The enumeration of the things of which the men of that time w«^ proud 
 
 composed ""' '' "' '^ '^'^"""^ *'^ ^^"^ ^' ^^^^^ *^« P-- was 
 
 7. Lo Novel Sebmon. (See the preceding § ; MS. 207, No 3 ) 
 
 8. Sebmon, in prose, entitled, Del Mesquln. ' 
 
 9. The original of a fragment, of which Perrin (p. 178) and L^-er (n 57> 
 have given the translation, under the title of Confession of Sins of le and^t 
 Vaudou. These two authors publish it as being in prose ; this f„tTa"o 
 MTitten as prose m the Dublin MS. The Rev. Dr. Gilly having h^ the kind- 
 
 XlT^^ "' ' 'J'' / T""^' '""^ '' "" '"^ ^^-^' -d '^^' this was t be 
 
 Ptrrfn ^^ ^'^r^^.f ^^^^^ '"'""' ^""'^^^ ^^"^^ ^^^^^ ^^ >> although 
 Perrm and L^ger themselves do not seem to have been aware of it. i proceed 
 the publication of this fragment in the Echo des Vallees, first year, NrTo 
 pp. 154-159, with a veiy exact translation, executed by M. Meille. The foUow! 
 mg jire a few hnes of it :— *uuow 
 
 " S^;nor perdona lue, per la toa bointa ! 
 Temeros soy a far ben, e fortment pereczos 
 E ardi a far lo mal e mot evananczos. 
 Segnor, dona me gracia, que non sia de li fellon 
 Hayas mai-czi da mi e dona me humilita ... 
 Segnor Dio, tu sabes to czo que yo hay conf(^i, 
 Encara hi a moti mal que yo non hay reconta .' . . ," 4c. 
 
 In the inequality of the measure, and the simple assonance of the rhymes 
 these vei^es bear the marks of high antiquity. This must be regarded Ton: 
 of the most ancient Vaudois poems which has come down to us 
 
 10. De las proprietas de las animanczas." A didactic treatise, containing, 
 examples and lessons, derived from the habits of different animals. This Z^ 
 
 z. ri>Tv I, No^r""'" ^^^- ''^"''' '' '^^"'"'^^' ^"^ -- ^-*> - 
 
 11. - Ayczi comencza alcunas sposicions sobre alcuns passages de S. Matth." 
 Such IS the title of the last work in this volume. That it contains a piece in 
 verse written as prose, is sufficient proof that this MS. is merely a copy made 
 at a tune very remote from the time when what Is contained in it was comp's^ 
 
 No. I] 
 
 BIBLIOGEAPHY. 
 
 471 
 
 Volume F. 
 
 (Class C, Shelf 5, No. 25.) This volume begins with a fragment, which in 
 some other volumes forms part of the "Treatise on Antichrist." 
 
 1. " Ayczo es la causa del despartiment de la Gleysa roman." In most of 
 the collations hitherto published, we read del nosteo despartiment . . . , &c. 
 
 2. "Joachim Camerarius," in narratione historica *'de Ecclesus Fratrum in 
 Bohemia et Moravia." Camerarius having lived in the sixteenth century, the 
 MS. which contains his work must necessarily be of a very recent date. But 
 the presence of this work in a Vaudois MS. shows the interest which the 
 Vaudois took in the Bohemian Brethren, and in some measure attests the rela- 
 tion which subsisted between them. 
 
 ^ 3. "La Epistola al serenissimo rey Lancelau." This piece, if it were pub- 
 lished, would perhaps be of a nature to throw more light on the relations of the 
 Vaudois with Bohemia. With it this volume terminates. The work of Came- 
 rarius occupies the greater part of the volume. 
 
 Volume VI. 
 
 I can only mention the first few words of each of the treatises which this 
 volume contains. 
 
 1. "A Isach. se tu despartires la preciosa cosa de la.vil . . . ."—(If thou 
 separate the precious things from the vile . . . .) 
 
 2. " De las vertucz teologicals."— (Of the theological virtues.) 
 
 3. "L'beneuranczas."— (The Beatitudes.) 
 
 ^ 4. "Oyt cosas son que nos deven pensar per chascun dia."— (There are 
 eight things of which we ought to think every day.) 
 
 5. "Cant tu seres envida a las noczas .... 
 the marriage feast . , . .) 
 
 6. "Jo entendo d'direcalcosaraatrimoni . . 
 marriage is.) 
 
 7. "Li filh lical naison a li payrans carnals .... v.x^«x^x 
 
 are born *o their parents carnal . . . .) Compare with' an l^'alogous^pIssiT 
 noticed m this Bibliography, in art. vi. of the Geneva MS., No. 209. 
 
 8. " Del pecca de la desubidiencza."— (Of the sin of disobedience.) These 
 last four fragments are probably parts of the same treatise. 
 
 9. Sermon. « En aquel temp Herode fey pilhar e Ugar e encarcerar Johan 
 Baptista.' —(At this time Herod caused John the Baptist to be seized, bound 
 and cast into prison.) * 
 
 10. " Nos vesen esser na tres greo perilh."— (We see that three great perils 
 are produced.) 
 
 11. "Donca nos mesquins, perque tarden de ben far."— (Why then poor 
 creatures that we are, do we defer to do right ?) ' 
 
 12. " Lo felhon abandone la soa via."— (Let the wicked forsake his way.) 
 
 13. " O segnor tu me pocz mondar si tu voles. "- (O Lord, if thou wUt thou 
 canst make me clean.) 
 
 14. "Tu sies sol pelegrin in Jerusalem."— (Thou arii the only pilgrim towards 
 Jerusalem.) 
 
 15. "Lo fantin Je8hu.»-(The infant Jesus.) "Lo teo payre e io dolent 
 quenan tu.— (Thy father is now afflicted and seeks thee, or rather • It is I thy 
 father who seek thee sorrowful.^) " En aquellas contra te Belem, eran pastors 
 
 » If it were not that Dr. Muston's famiUarity with the Romance tongue is so great, and 
 
 -(When thou art invited to 
 -(I propose to say what 
 ." — (The children who 
 
472 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Apfikdix 
 
 No. l] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 473 
 
 . . . (Ill tiiat- country of Bethlehem, were there shepherds . . .) — "E cum 
 Jeshu fossa na en Bellem . . ." — (And when Jesus was bom at Bethlehem 
 . . .) "En .i(iuel temp zoes li savi atroba e adora lo fantin." — (At this time 
 came the wise men, to find and adore the child.) I have joined these five frag- 
 ments under the same number, because they appear to belong to one piece. 
 They were in part contained also in the ancient Vaudois MSS. deposited at 
 Cambridge, vol. . . . Div. B, No. 21. 
 
 16. *' Li teo olh vean dreytas cosas." — (Thine eyes shall behold right things.) 
 
 17. *'De li bal."— (Of balls.) **De la Taverna."— (Of taverns.) "De la 
 Beniancza." — (Of Benevolence.) "De la Desperacion." — (Of Despair.) "Yo 
 non volh la raort del peccador . . ." — (I desire not the death of the sinner.) 
 It appears to me that these five fragments ought to be connected with a dis- 
 course on Conversion, which follows them. 
 
 18. *•' De las parollas auciosas." — (A sermon on idle words.) This was also 
 contained in the second volume of the Vaudois MSS. of Cambridge, No. 19. 
 
 19. "Yot don noble."— (Eight eminent gifts.) Perhaps this ought to be 
 Tot don nolle : Every elevated quality, &c. ... In the MS. above-mentioned, 
 there is a treatise concerning the Seven Gifts of the Spirit, which recalls the 
 treatise of Stephen De Borbonne, De septem donis Spiritxis sancti, founded upon 
 Isa. ii., and a treatise on the six things honourable in this world, Nos. 15 
 and 19. 
 
 20. Two treatises sohre lusura (on usury). 
 
 21. Paraphrase, "Jeshu fo mena del esprit al desert, qu'ilh fossu tempta 
 del diavol . . . — (Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted 
 of the Devil.) 
 
 22. Three sermons, one of which is entitled, "Lo bon pastor." — (The good 
 Shepherd.) The second begins with these words, ** Petit e non verre mi e 
 dereczo petit e veyre mi." — (A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a 
 little while and ye shall see me.) And the third begins with the words, " La 
 fenna cant ilh aperturis a tristicia, car lora de ley yo soy conpira al fane " (Job 
 XXX.) The last five words of this sentence must have been inaccurately copied. 
 
 23. A treatise de la penitencia, already noticed elsewhere. 
 
 24. Six sermons commencing thus: (1.) " Cant vos devian del judici avena- 
 dor . . ." (2.) "Yofameiey (I have been hungry) a vos non doner a mi a 
 maniar ..." (3.) " E vevos fenna Cananea yssic daquellas encontras . . ." 
 — (And behold a woman of Canaan came out of these countries . . .) (4.) "O 
 segnor, filh de David merceneia de mi." — (Have mercy on me.) (5.) " Vevos 
 aqual que semenava . . ." — (Behold he who sowed . . .) 
 
 25. " A Isach, Crisostomo di, Tota la gloria de Dio e tota la salu de li ome 
 es pausa en la raort d'Xrist." — (All the glory of God, and all the salvation of 
 men, rests upon the death of Christ.) 
 
 Volume VII. 
 
 (Class G, Shelf 4, No. 17.) Entitled: "Waldensium tractatus tres, veteri 
 lingua Britannica conscriptae." I know not on what ground it could be supposed 
 that this volume was written in the ancient Breton language ; the treatises which 
 it contains are in the Romance language, and are elsewhere to be met with 
 amongst other Vaudois MSS. 
 
 that I can scarcely pretend even to a slight acquaintance with it, I would suppose this to be 
 from Luke ii, 48, and the translation to be, "Thy Father and I have sought thee sorrow- 
 ing. "—Tr.vjjslator. 
 
 These three treatises are — 
 
 1. Glosa sobrb lo Pateb Nosteb. Occurs also in the Geneva MSS., Nos. 
 206, 209, and 43. 
 
 2. De la qdatre cosas que son avenib. Occurs also in the Geneva MS., 
 No. 209, fol. 77. The subject of it is indicated in these terms, "Lo es denten- 
 dre dun chascun dias que quatre cosas son avenir ; czo es asaber : la mort, lo 
 jom del iuiament, las penas eternals, li goy de paradis." (It is every day to be 
 recollected that there are four things to come, viz., death, the day of judgment, 
 the eternal pains, and the joys of paradise.) 
 
 3. Vergieb de consolaoion. Frequently referred to by Perrin and L^ger. 
 It is to be found also in the Geneva MS., No. 209, at the end of the volume, 
 of which this treatise occupies the last seventy-two pages. In this treatise it 
 is said of faith, hope, and charity — 
 
 " La/e endreycza al sobeiran ben, en eras- 
 sent e consentent lo ver mediant " 
 
 " L'esperancza endreicza en resemilhant e 
 ecompeitant las plus autas cosas, mediant 
 lasquals larma se espert . . . es fiancza de Ii 
 ben avenadors, per la gracia de dio e per la 
 bona conscientia." 
 
 "Carita . . . ea lamor de dio e del proyme. 
 La carita donna liberta de griefta ; la temor 
 non sent lo lavor, non regarda lo merit." 
 
 Faith guides us (puts ut in the right uwy) 
 to the sovereign good, making us to grow 
 and to consent to the true Mediator. 
 
 Hope elevates us [puts its in the right taay), 
 assimilating us to, and making us to compete 
 for the highest things, by means of which 
 the soiil is encouraged. ... It ia the confi- 
 dence of good things to come (to be obtained) 
 through the grace of God and through a good 
 conscience. 
 
 Charity ... is the love of God and of our 
 neighbour. Charity gives exemption from 
 the injuries (of self-love); fear (or the solici- 
 tude which arises from love) neither feela la- 
 bour nor regards merit. 
 
 See the present section of this Bibliography, § 3, MS. 5. 
 
 Volume VIII. 
 
 (Relating to the inhabitants of Frayssiniferes.) (Class C, Shelf 4, No. 18.) 
 Entitled, Valdenseia documenta, and containing — 
 
 1. " Poursuites dirigees," &c. — Prosecutions instituted in 1497, by the Arch- 
 bishop of Embrun, against some of the inhabitants of Frayssiniferes. 
 
 2. "Sentence centre . . . ," &c. — Sentence against Peter Valois of Frays- 
 sini^res. 
 
 3. "Note sur les ^v^nements," &c.— Note on the historic events of 1488. 
 (Crusade of Innocent VIII.) 
 
 4. "Tractatus, seu epitome, eorumque continentur in accusatione et lite 
 intentata coram reverendissimis dominis, domino inquisitore apostolico, atque 
 venerando officiali hujus curiae, praesentibus ac praesidentibus, contra Stephanum 
 Ruff am (Gaspard le Roux) e loco, vel oppido, quod vulgo apud Gallos, vocatur 
 la Frayssinibre." 
 
 5. "Requete . . .,"&c. — Petition addressed by some inhabitants of Frays- 
 siniferes to the Archbishop of Embrun, and dated in 1483. 
 
 6. Lis intentata contra duos Barbas.— This piece is apparently the same 
 with that which occurs in vol. ix.. No. 7, letter I. 
 
 7. A letter of the Archbishop of Embrun. 
 
 Volume IX. 
 
 (Historic Documents, generally relating to the Vaudois of Dauphiny.) 
 
 1. Origo Valdensium et processus contra eos facti. 
 
 Vol. II. J20 
 
474. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Apperdix. 
 
 2. A French translation of the piece, No. 5 of vol. viii. 
 
 3. Bull of Innocent VIII. against the Vaudois. (Albert Cattande, Legate.) 
 
 4. Copia protestationis factae per Castellanum Vallis Loysiae una cum omni- 
 bus habitatoribus dictae vallis, declarantes se esse bonos et fideles, orthodoxos, 
 praeceptis ecclesiae obedientes, et quod nullam intendunt prosequi causam in 
 curia christianissimi Francorum Regis. 
 
 5. " Processus factus et formatus in facto sanctae fidei, per reverandum in 
 Christo paatorem et dominum Johaunem Episcopum Ebredunensem. 
 
 6. Bull of Alexander VI. to absolve the Vaudois. (See the Israel of the 
 Alps, Part I., chap. iii. and iv.) This is followed by two other bulls of the 
 same pope, for the same purpose. 
 
 7. Judicial Pieces. — A. Examinations of divers Vaudois. — B. Compearance 
 of Auduin Crispin (Crespin) of Val-Loise. — C. Translation of the piece noticed 
 under No. 3 of vol. viii. — D. Copy of No. 4 of same vol. — E. Examinations 
 of divers prisoners. — F. Other informations. — G. Examination of Peter Valois. 
 — H. Sentence against the same. — I. Case against two Barbas, Martin and 
 John, — K. Case against Peyronnette (published by Allix). — L. Other papers 
 relative to the same affair. 
 
 8. Various Pieces. — A. Discourse, by Rostaing, Archbishop of Embrun.— 
 B. Trial and abjuration of Antoine Blaise. — C. Letter of Archbishop Rostaing. 
 — D. Copy of the Letters-Patent of Louis XII., in favour of the inhabitants 
 of Frayssiniferes. — E. Mandate of the king, to restore to the inhabitants of 
 Frayssiniferes and Val-Loise, their properties which had been confiscated. — F. 
 Letter to the Bishop to the same effect. — G. Another letter (of the king), to 
 the same effect. — H. Incomplete papers relating to the affair of Odin Crespin. 
 
 § 5. — Ancient Vaudois MSS. deposited at Cambridge. 
 
 In this library there was for some time the most voluminous collection known 
 of ancient Vaudois MSS., and documents relative to our histoiy. L^ger fur- 
 nished seven volumes of it, and Morland fifteen — in all twenty-two. (For these 
 numbers, compare what L^ger says, part I., chap, iii., p. 21, with Gilly's Wal- 
 densian Research^, chap, i., and Morland, p. 95.) There were other small 
 articles also deposited with them, under the designation of documents. (Leger, 
 p. 23.) The seven volumes which came from L%er, and of which he gives a 
 particular account, pp. 21-23, were sent by him to Morland, Cromwell's am- 
 bassador at the Court of Turin in 1655; Morland himself brought back from 
 this embassy, fourteen or fifteen bundles of documents, which are now bound 
 up in five volumes. (These papers mostly relate to the events which took place 
 in the Vaudois valleys, from 1050-1656.) 
 
 The seven volumes, deposited by L^ger in the Cambridge library, are no 
 longer to be found there. They are not mentioned in a catalogue of that library, 
 printed in 1690. The new catalogue, printed in 1753, mentions only the bun- 
 dles sent to the library by Morland in 1656. Tliese are the pieces which ori- 
 ginally formed fifteen unbound volumes, and which having recently been bound, 
 now form five volumes, still remaining. 
 
 The MSS. which have been taken away, alone contained Vaudois treatises in the 
 Romance tongue. They wei-e the most valuable. "It is probable," says the 
 Rev. Dr. Gilly {Waldensian Researches, chap, i.,) "that they were secretly 
 removed or destroyed during the reign of James II." A letter which I received 
 in 1845, informed me that these MSS. had been discovered at Oxford; but this 
 news has not been confirmed. 
 
 Being under the necessity of restricting this Bibliography within as narrow 
 
 No. t] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 475 
 
 limits as possible, I do not here give a list of these MSS., which may be found 
 in Morland, pp. 95-98 (edition of 1658), L^geb, part I., chap, iii., pp. 21-23, 
 and Monastier, vol. ii., pp. 235-239. 
 
 § 6. — A Note of what has been already imhlished of the ancient Vaudois MSS. 
 
 in the Romance tongue. 
 
 I. 
 
 Brief fragments, quoted by Perrin : — 
 
 1. Letter of the Vaudois to King Lancelau (Wladislas), Perrin, p. 14. 
 
 2. ** Of Luxury" extracted from the Book Del remedi de pecca de luxuria, 
 chap. xxi. (probably forming part of the treatise entitled, Cal cosa sia pecca), 
 Perrin, p. 15. , 
 
 3. " Of Marriage," extracted from the book of Virtues. — Pp. 16, 17. 
 
 4. " Of Baptism," extracted from the Almanach spiritual, foL 45. — P. 18. 
 
 5. "0/ Swearing," from the same book. — P. 20. 
 
 6. " Of the Pope," from the book Ayczi es la causa del nostro despartiment 
 de la gleysa romana, p. 235. — P. 21. 
 
 7. " Of Holy Places," from the same book, p. 125.— P. 23. 
 
 8. " Of Judicial Authority," from the Thresor e lume de fe, fol. 214.— P. 24. 
 
 9. *' Of Civil Authority," from the book named in No. 6, p. 41. — P. 25. 
 
 10. " Of the Trinity," from the Thresor e lume de fe, art. 2.— Pp. 25, 26. 
 
 11. Agamst Revenge, from the book De las tribulacions, p. 224.— P. 27. 
 
 12. Against Astrology, from the book of the Exposition of the Ten Com- 
 mandments (found also in No. 6 of the Booh of Virtues). — P. 29. 
 
 1 3. Against belief in sorcerers and conjurers, from the same book. Pj). 30-32. 
 
 II. 
 
 Fragments of which the original text is published by Perrin and L^ger: 
 
 1. " On the Education of pastors." Taken from the Booh of Oeorge Morel, 
 p. 8. Three pages. Perrin, pp. 70-73; Ldger, p. 190. Hahn gives articles x. 
 and xi. of it, p. 702. 
 
 2. "Letter of the Barba Bartholemew Tertian."— Entire ; Perrin, p. 73- 
 L^ger, p. 200. 
 
 3. "Athanasian Creed," as in use among the Vaudois. — Perrin, p. 91; L^ger 
 p. 116. 
 
 4. "Letter of the Vaudois to CEcolampadius. — A fragment. Perrin, p. 211. 
 (L4geT does not copy this fragment.) 
 
 5. " Interrogations menors." A Vaudois catechism, of date a.d. 1100. En- 
 tire; Perrin, p. 157; L^ger, p. 58; Monastier, vol. ii., pp. 296-315; Hahn p 
 673. 
 
 6. "Discipline of the Vaudois."— Perrin, pp. 225-252; L^ger, p. 190. 
 
 7- "A treatise concerning Antichrist."— I^errm, p. 253; L^ger, p. 71- Mon- 
 astier, p. 323. This treatise sets forth (1.) The marks of Antichrist; Perrin, 
 pp. 253-261; L6ger, pp. 71-73. (2.) His works, distinguished into eight classes; 
 Perrin, p. 262; L^ger, p. 73. (3.) How his adherents seek to justify them. Nine 
 means are pointed out. Perrin, p. 269; L^ger, p. 76. (4.) How he is combated 
 by the Bible; Perrin, p. 273; L6ger, p. 77. 
 
 8. " Chapta-s on Antichrist," Bometimea Bepa.Ta.ie\y referred to. (1.) Causes 
 of our separation from the Church of Rome. — Perrin, p. 281; L^er, p. 79. 
 (2.) The iniquities of Antichrist, essentially contrary to the Apostles' Creed, ex- 
 Jubited under four heads.— Perrin, p. 285; L^er, p. 80, near the bottom. 
 
476 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [iPPIIVDIX. 
 
 9. " Chapteri on Antichrist," separately referred to by Perrin and L^ger. (1.) 
 Of the invention of Purgatory (Del purgatori soima); Perrin, p. 295; Leger, 
 p. 83; Monastier, vol. ii., pp. 305-375. (2.) Of the Invocation of Saints. 
 Perrin, p. 310; L6ger, p. 87. (3.) Of the Sacraments; Perrin, p. 324; L^ger, 
 chap, xii. 
 
 10. This treatise on the Sacraments is also to be met with in a number of other 
 Vaudois works — in the Almanach spiritual, the Thresor e lume de fe, &c. Per- 
 rin (p. 211) gives a translation of a similar treatise, which L^ger copies (p. 65), 
 making its paragraphs alternate with those of another treatise inserted under the 
 same title in the book Of Antichrist. The latter is the treatise now imder notice. 
 The chapter on the Lord's Supper (L^ger, p. QQ) is derived from this book; those 
 on Orders, Chrism, and Extreme Unction (L^ger, p. 67, at the bottom) are derived 
 from the Almanach spiritual. Perrin, without stating where this treatise occurs, 
 places it at the end of the book on Antichrist; but a number of passages of this 
 treatise correspond exactly with the translation which he gives of that which i^ 
 fovmd in the Almanach spiritual, (Compare p. 324 of Perrin, with p. 213.) 
 The following are the chapters of this treatise on the Sacraments : — 
 
 (1.) Of Baptism. Perrin, p. 324; L^ger, p. Q5. 
 
 (2.) Of the Lord's Supper. Perrin, p. 325; L6ger, p. 67. 
 
 (3.) Of Marriage and Orders. Perrin, p. 327; Leger, p. 67 (for what relates 
 to orders solely). 
 
 (4.) Of Chrism or Confirmation. Perrin, p. 328; L^ger, p. 68. 
 
 (5.) Of Extreme Unction. Perrin, p. 330; L^ger, p. QS, 
 
 (6.) Of Fasting. Perrin, p. 331; Leger, p. 69. With this article is imited 
 in Ldger that on the Visitation of the sick, given by Perrin, p. 219. It will be 
 perceived that the number and order of the Sacraments are not entirely the same 
 as the Church of Rome holds at the present day. I believe this treatise may be 
 regarded as containing a summary of what is contained on this subject in the 
 Almanach spintual. Compare, as to the divisions, Perrin, p. 211, and L^ger, 
 p. 65; as to the subject, Perrin, p. 331 and 219, with L^ger, p. 69; and as to the 
 expressions, Perrin, p. 213, with p. 324, and with L^ger, p. 67. 
 
 11. A Confession of Faith, of date (according to L^ger) a.d. 1120. (This 
 author says it is extracted from the Booh on Antichrist, Ldger, p. 92; and Per- 
 rin, that it is extracted from the Almanach spiritual, and from the Book of George 
 Morel; Perrin, p. 79, marginal note). See No. 1 of chap. i. of sect. 3, of this 
 Bibliography. 
 
 in. 
 
 Fragments and Treatises from the ancient Vaudois books, in the Romance 
 tongue, of which Perrin and Lt'ger have published translations only : — 
 
 1. A Confession of Sins, beginning thus: **0 Dio de li rey, et Segnor de li 
 Segnor." L^ger, p. 57; Perrin, p. 178; Hahn, p. 687; Monastier, vol. ii., p. 
 376. All these authors give this piece as being in prose. The original exists 
 in the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 21, art. ix. It is indeed written as 
 if it were prose; but it has been published in the form of verse in the Echo des 
 vaUees, first year. No. 19, pp. 154-159. 
 
 2. "An Exposition of the Ten Commandments." Taken from the Book of 
 Virtues. Perrin, p. 182; Leger, p. 61; Hahn, pp. 679-687. 
 
 3. "An Exposition of the Lord's Prayer." Taken from the Thresor e lume 
 de fe. Perrin, p. 201; L^ger, p. 47- This last-named author gives under the 
 same title the original of a similar piece in the Romance tongue. Pp. 40-46. 
 
 4. A Treatise on the Sacraments; extracted, it is said, from the A Imanuch 
 
 Ko. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 477 
 
 spiritual. Perrin, p. 211; Ldger, p. 65. A portion of the original, relating 
 to the sacrament of Baptism, is given by Perrin, p. 18. 
 
 5. Of Marriage; extracted also from the Almanach spiritual. Perrin, p. 211. 
 This fragment is not copied by L^ger. 
 
 7. Of the Visitation of the Sick; from the same book. L^ger, p. 69; Perrin, 
 p. 219. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fragments and original works in the Romance tongue, published by LfiGES; 
 and by other authors, but not by Perrin. 
 
 1. "La nobla Leyczon." (See sect, ii., § 3, of this Bibliography, MS. 207, 
 No. 5.) Leger gives only a fragment of this poem, part I., chap, iv., p. 25. — 
 Raynouard (vol. ii., pp. 73-102), Monastier (vol. ii., pp. 246-269), and Hahn 
 (pp. 628-647) give it entire. ^ 
 
 2. " De la temor del Segnor" — A Sermon on the fear of God. L§ger, chap, 
 v., p. 30; Hahn, pp. 689-692. 
 
 3. «* De las tribulacions." — A treatise on afflictions. L6ger, chap, vi., p. 35. 
 Hahn, pp. 692-696. 
 
 4. "Glosa pater noster" — An exposition and commentary on the Lord's 
 Prayer. L6ger, chap, vii., p. 40; Hahn, pp. 697-701. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaudois poems in the Romance tongue, published for the first time in a com- 
 plete form by Hahn; and fragments of certain other works of the ancient 
 Vaudois, first published by the same author. {Geschichte der Waldenser und 
 vei'wandter Sekten. Stuttgard, 1847; 8vo, pp. 822.) 
 
 A. — Works in Verse. 
 
 The works mentioned below, are poems extracted from the Geneva MS., No. 
 207:— 
 
 1. "La Barca," 
 
 2. " Lo novel Sermon," 
 
 3. "Lo novel confort," 
 
 4. " Lo pay re eternal," 
 
 5. " Lo despreczi del mont," 
 
 6. "L'Avangelide li quatre semencz," „ „ 598-604. 
 
 The various fragments of these poems, which are published by M. Raynouard, 
 in the second volume of his Choix des poisies origtnales des Troubadours, are 
 copied by M. Monastier, in his Hist, des Vaudois, vol. ii., pp. 272-288. 
 
 B. — Works in Prose. 
 
 1. " De li article de la fe." Hahn, pp. 605-608. 
 
 2. " Le credo." (Each of the diflferent articles of the creed, is ascribed to 
 one of the twelve apostles.) Hahn, pp. 608-611. 
 
 3. "De la potesta dona ^ li vicari de Xristi (Extracted from the Geneva 
 MS., No. 208.) Hahn, pp. 611-616. 
 
 4. " Sermo del judyci" (on the judgment). Hahn, pp. 617-623. 
 
 5. '*Epistok amicus." (A similar epistle is in the MS. 206.) Hahn, pp. 
 
 623-626. 
 
 6. "Epistolafideli." (Extracts only given.) Hahn, pp. 626-628. 
 
 Hahn, pp. 560-570. 
 
 >> 
 
 
 „ 570-581. 
 
 „ 681-589. 
 
 „ 690-594. 
 
 „ 594-597. 
 
478 
 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 [Appendix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 479 
 
 Other recent publications. 
 
 In "L' Echo des Valiees vaudoises," the publication of various hitherto un- 
 published fragments of the ancient Vaudois books was be^n, and was meant to 
 have been continued. (Vol. i., No. 10, p. 154: the poem, No. 9 of vol. iv. 
 of the Dublin MSS.) This journal having been given up, I believe I may ex- 
 press a hope that the Bihliothcque de Vecole des Charles will supply its place 
 in respect of the publication of these works. 
 
 Section II. — MS. deposited in vabious Archives. 
 
 This section ought to be divided into two chapters : (I.) Public Archives; (II.) 
 Private Archives. It would have been much longer than the preceding section. 
 Its magnitude compels me to suppress it. I shall content myself by reminding 
 the reader that the principal archives from whose contents I have derived infor- 
 mation in preparing this work, are. In Turin, the State Archives, the Archives 
 of the Senate, and those of the Court of Accounts ,—In Pignerol, those of the 
 City, of the Intendance, and of the Bishop's Palace ;—In the neighbourhood, 
 those of the Vaudois Table, and of the municipalities of Lucema, La Tour, 
 La Perrier, Fenestrelles and Brian^on ;—Jn Grenoble, those of the department 
 of the Isbre, of the Bishop's Palace, and of the Court of Accounts ',—In Paris, 
 the National Archives of France, the MSS. of the former Royal Library, and 
 the State Diplomatic Archives ;—/ri Geneva, those of the Hotel de Ville, of the 
 Council of State, and of the Venerable Company of Pastors.— In most of the 
 other towns of Switzeriand and Germany, which interested themselves on be- 
 half of the Vaudois, or in which they settled, are also to be found treasures of 
 greater or smaller amount, but it would be useless to enumerate them without 
 giving some further account of them. 
 
 PART III.— DETACHED DOCUMENTS, PRINTED AND IN 
 
 MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 Chapter I.— Confessions of Faith, published by the Vaudois, ob in 
 . their name, in different languages. 
 
 I.— (1120.) 
 
 A Confession of Faith, called George MoreVs Confession.— lugger gratuitously 
 assigns to it the date 1120, saying that it is " extracted from the old manuscript 
 mentioned above" (L6ger, p. 92, line 16); but the last manuscript mentioned 
 above, is that concerning Antichrist, which, indeed, Perrin dates in 1120 (Per- 
 rin, p. 57'); but Perrin himself, in speaking of this Confession (chap, xii.), says 
 
 'Even this date is doubtful, for Perrin indicates it thus :-" Item, nn livre intitul6 1' An- 
 
 technst.lequel commence ainsi : Qual cosa sia VAiUechrist, en datte de Van mil ce,U et vingt " 
 
 I^ese last words^ although in Italics, are not in the Romance language, and are not to be 
 
 ^ 1 ^"^ *^® °"*^^*^- ^®y ^^« therefore been added by Perrin; it may be 
 
 Zr^,!M ^^ "^ ^^ "T^" °^ * ^^*^ ^"^«*1 "P«" *h« ^^^^^^ ^hich he had in his 
 
 ^?n i ! 1 r ^ T.^'^J^.r,^'*^*'' °^ '^^ authenticity of this date. See also Pait II.. 
 section 1., ( 1, No. 6, of this Bibliography. 
 
 It 13 extracted from the Book of George Morel (Perrin, p. 79, marginal note), in 
 which it is to be found to this day. (Dublin MSS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18.) 
 But that MS. is not older than the year 1530. Moreover, this Confession says, 
 nos non aven conegu autre Sacrament que lo Baptisme e la Eucharistia—We have 
 not known any other Sacrament than Baptism and the Eucharist— (Eahn, p. 
 651), which is true of the Vaudois only since the Reformation. The characters 
 of the language, the spelling of the words, and the use of capital letters in the 
 middle of sentences; above all, the composition of the Cation which this piece 
 contams (see Part II., sect, i., § 1, art. v., note 2, of this Bibliography), com- 
 pel us to assign this MS. a date posterior to that of the MSS. of the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth centuries. The Confession contains fifteen ariiicles, and is pub- 
 hshed by L6ger, chap, xvii., p. 92; Monastier, vol. ii., p. 316; Hahn, pp. 647- 
 651; and Bert, p. 416. For a critical examination of it, see the Revue theolo- 
 gique, vol. i., p. 337. 
 
 II.— (1431. 
 Under this date, Leger places a Confession of Faith of the Bohemian Breth- 
 ren, erroneously attributed to the Vaudois of Piedmont. It was directed, as a 
 protest, against Rokenzana or Rockyzane. (Ldger, p. 108.) L6ger gives only 
 a summary of its contents; but it is to be found entire in the'^Waldensia of 
 L. Lydius. (See this Bibliography, Part I., sect, ii., § 3, No. 1.) 
 
 IIL— (1488.) 
 In the MS., entitled, ''Histoire g^nerale des Alpes maritimes ou Cottiennes 
 et pari;icuirerement d'Embrun, leur metropolitaine : chorographique, et melee de 
 I histoire sdculiere avec I'ecclesiastique : divis^e en cinq parties ; compost par le 
 R6v6rend P. Marcellin Foumier, de la compagnie de Jesus ;" in p. 356, mention 
 IS made of a Confession of Faith of the Vaudois, drawn up in opposition to the 
 Bull of 1487, by which Innocent VIII. confided to the legate Cattan6e the 
 charge of persecuting them. This MS. is in the library of the Little Seminanr 
 at Gap. The original is in Latin, and is in the library of the Syon College • 
 there is a copy of it in Paris. The MS. of Gap is a translation made by Ray- 
 mond Juvenis, royal procurator in the bailiwick of Gap in 1680 Foumier's 
 history ceased with the year 1640; Juvenis continued it to his own time and 
 added many notes. He is the author of the unpublished Mtinoires histoHques 
 preserved m the libraries of Grenoble and Carpentras. ' 
 
 IV.— (1532.) 
 The Confession of Angrogna or FareVs Confession, drawn up by a Synod held 
 at Angrogna on the twelfth of September, 1532. Such is the date given bv 
 GiUes and in the Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18, fol. 59 ; but L6ger 
 (p. 95) says the twelfth of December, 1532; and Perrin (p. 157) the twelfth of 
 September, 1535. This Confession was composed under the direct influence of 
 Farel and of Saulnier, who were present at the meeting of Synod in which it 
 was adopted. It contains seventeen articles, very concisely expressed It 
 denies free-will and asserts predestination. I have spoken of it more at 'large 
 m the Israel of the Alps, Part I., chap. vii. It is given entire, in a translation 
 by Pemn, p. 58; L§ger, p. 95; Moser, p. 319; and Hahn, p. 652. GiUes 
 softens down the terms of it in his work (chap, v.,) as if the opinion expressed 
 m It had only obtained a temporary triumph in the valleys. 
 
 v.— (1535.) 
 The Confession of the Magnates of Bohemia, "presented to the King of 
 
480 
 
 THE ISBAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appihoix. 
 
 No. I.] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 481 
 
 Bohemia," says L6ger, **hy his subjects, the Vaudois, in the year 1635, who, 
 after an excellent preface of the Picards or Vaiidois . . . and another . . . 
 of the Barons of the country, set forth the causes for which they had embraced 
 their religion. " But this style is too confused and full of inaccuracies to convey 
 any clear idea. This Confession is not of the year 1535, for Melancthon speaks 
 of it in a letter dated from Wittembei^, in 1533. — (D*Argentr6, vol i.; see also 
 the separate pamphlet which contains this piece.) Nor is it a Confession of the 
 Vaudois of Piedmont. It is preceded by a preface by the Magnates of Bohemia, 
 on the reasons which have induced them to embrace the Reformation, and not 
 the religion of the Vaudois, as L^ger seeks to insinuate by his ambiguous ex- 
 pression. There follows a letter of Luther on the Picards, whom L6ger calls 
 the above-mentioned Vaudois (p. 104), and an eulogy of this letter by Wesem- 
 becius. This Confession of Faith contains twenty long articles. It is in Latin, 
 and is mentioned only by L^ger, pp. 96-104, and Hahn, pp. 654-665 (L6ger, 
 in p. Ill, quotes also, as Confessions of the Vaudois, two Confessions of Faith 
 addressed by the French refugees, in 1532 and in 1538, to the Marquis of Bran- 
 denburg.) 
 
 VI.— (1543.) 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Vaudois of Cabritres to Cardinal Sadolet, then 
 Bishop of Carpentras. It contains a statement of the primitive doctrines, with- 
 out a trace of predestination, and contains twenty-six articles. L6ger gives 
 only an extract of it (p. 107); but it is given entire in Pantaleon's Mariyrologe 
 (Basle, 1563; book v., fol. 130 of the second part). In 1541, the Vaudois of 
 Merindol presented to Francis I., a petition, which abo contained a profession 
 of faith, and which is given in Cbespin (edition of 1619, fol. 138). 
 
 VII.— (1544.) 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Vaudois of Provence to Francis I. — The preced- 
 ing (the first of No. 6), was only made in name of the inhabitants of Cabriferea 
 du Comtat ; this was made in name of those of Cabriferes d'Aignes, of Lour- 
 marin, of Merindol, &c. It is conceived in a very good spirit — evangelical, 
 rational, and practical. It contains twelve articles, and is to be found in Per- 
 rin, p. 87; L^ger, p. 109; Du Moulin, De Monarchia Francorum, p. 60; Hahn, 
 p. 665. It was after reading this dociunent that Francis I. exclaimed, " I 
 would like to know what they can get to reply to that ! " 
 
 VIII.— (1550.) 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Vaudois, according to Vignaux (cited by Perrin, 
 pp. 49, 50). It bears no precise date; that which I give is only an approxima- 
 tion, and determined by the period at which Vignaux was a pastor in the Vau- 
 dois valleys. This Confession of Faith regards certain practices of the Church 
 of Rome merely as superjiuov^ (art. vii.) It admits of no other degrees in the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy than those of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons (art. viii.) 
 It contains, in all, eleven articles; and does not appear to have been drawn up 
 imder the influence of any of those temporary causes, the effect of which may 
 too often be traced in similar productions, whilst the authors who have written 
 under such influences have neglected to refer to them. It must have been drawn 
 up previous to the Reformation. 
 
 IX.— (1556.) 
 
 Confession of Faith, presented to the Parliament of Turin, by the Vaudois 
 church, in reply to the edict of 23d March, 1556. It accepts the Creeds of 
 
 the first four general councils (those of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chal- 
 cedon), and also the Athanasian Creed. It contains five articles of doctrine, 
 very brief; and five paragraphs in reply to the charges brought against the 
 Vaudois in respect of doctrine, in the above-mentioned edict. It is mentioned 
 by Gilles, p. 59; and given by L^ger, p. 106. 
 
 X.— (1572.) 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Vaudois of Bohemia, mentioned by Calvin in one of 
 his letters.— (Letter 204 of the Collection). I have sought for this Confession 
 in various works, but have not been able to assure myself of its identity; and 
 I have not at present any opportunity of repeating this search. 
 
 XI.— (1603.) 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Vaudois of the valley of Suza and the Marquisate 
 of Saluces. This piece is drawn up in the form of articles. It is rather a mani- 
 festo than a confession. It affords evidence of the necessity which the Protes- 
 tants of Piedmont felt, of keeping on such terms with foreign powers as to 
 secure their political support. To be convinced of this, we have only to read 
 the declaration which terminates this piece, and which Ldger has published 
 (p. 115) after the Confession of 1655. For the original words of the manifesto 
 of 1603, see Perrin, p. 185, and L^ger, p. 111. 
 
 XIL— (1655.) 
 
 A Confession which might be named the Anathematizing Confession, as it is 
 the only one of all the published writings of the Vaudois, or of those published 
 in their name, which pronounces an anathema against those who do not agree 
 with their views.— (See L^ger, p. 116, line 8.) L^ger entitles it a " Brief Con- 
 fession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of Piedmont, published with their 
 
 manifesto, upon occasion of the dreadful massacres of the year 1655." (Part I., 
 
 ch. xvii., p. 112). These words do not say where, nor how, nor by whom this 
 Confession of Faith was drawn up. They only tell us that it did not exist 
 before 1655; but, in 1055, no Synod was held in the Vaudois valleys to draw 
 It up; it first appeared in a book published in a foreign country without place 
 of pubUcation.— (See Part I., sect, ii., § 2, No. 2, of this Bibliography). This 
 book could not at that time penetrate into Piedmont; the Confession of Faith 
 which it contains was therefore not published there. Its origin is very doubt- 
 ful.-(See Part I., sect, i., § 2, No. 2, of this Bibliography). It may, however 
 be safely asserted, that the Vaudois church (as represented by a regular Synod) 
 took no part in its preparation; it is probable that the majority of the members 
 of that church did not know of it when it appeared; it is certain that it does 
 not at all agree with the ancient doctrine of the Vaudois. Any other Confes- 
 sion of Faith, emanating from any of the numerous sects of Protestantism ex- 
 isting at that time, might just as well have been ascribed to the Vaudois in 
 virtue even of the declarations which it contains.— (See L%er, p. 115, Ihies 
 
 The Vaudois, in fact, here renounce the title of a special church (see L^ger 
 p. 112, third paragraph); they reject even the name of Vaudois, and take only 
 that of Reformed. It might be said that they renounce at once the name and 
 the doctrine of their fathers, if this Confession were really their work; but on 
 the contrary, everything shows that they had (as a church at least) nothbg what 
 ever to do with it. The most probable opinion is, that one of their political 
 
 VOL. II. ^^ 
 
 s 
 
482 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appkkuix. 
 
 friends, with the consent, no doubt, ot a few Vaudois, pr.iduced it in their name 
 in a foreign country, to rally all the Reformed Churches in their defence. 
 
 This Confession of Faith contains thirty-three articles, modelled after those 
 of La Rochelle. It is published by L6ger, p, 112, and by Hahn, p. 668. 
 
 The doctrine which predominates in it is that of absolute predestination. All 
 men are damned from their mother's womb. — (Art. 9 and 10). God withdraws 
 the predestinated ones from damnation, and leaves the others in it, without any 
 possibility of our prayers, our virtues, or our efforts producing any change in 
 these destinies which are independent of us and fixed beforehand. — (Art. 11, 
 16, and 18.) > 
 
 "This doctrine," says M. Guizot, "is as old as the fifth century. Its origin 
 is obscure and doubtful. Saint Augustine earnestly defended himself from the 
 charge of having taught it. But from the -time when it appeared, it clashed 
 with the good sense and moral equity of the greater part of Christians." — {Cours 
 d'Sistoire moderne, Lect. IV., Brussels edition of 1835, vol. i., pp. 178, 179.) 
 
 We find no trace of it in the ancient books of the Vaudois in the Romance 
 tongue. "We have always believed," say they, on the contrary, "that God 
 has given to man a principle of spontaneity and of virtue (action, force), by 
 means of which he may labour for his salvation, according to the gifts which 
 he has received, as the parable of the talents appears to teach; and with the aid 
 of God, according to what is said, / stand at the door and knock j and that the 
 reprobate were made so by their own fault, agreeably to these words — Every 
 man shall receive according to his works . . . ," &c. — (Extract and abridgment 
 of articles xv. and xvi. of the statement of the Vaudois faith made to the Re- 
 formers; Dublin MS., Class C, Shelf 5, No. 18. — Scultetus, Annales evangelii 
 renovati, anno MDXXX. — Ruchat, Hist, de la reformation en Suisse, vol. iii. 
 — CEcolampadius, Epistolas . . . , &c.) Of all that I have found in the ancient 
 Vaudois books, the strongest opinion of an opposite character, is expressed in 
 
 the following terms : — 
 
 "La potesta natural, laqual es lo libre ar- 
 bitre, se po, alcuna vecz, alargar i)er graczia 
 e alcuna Tecz restregner. . . ." 
 
 " Lo libre arbitri, se po penlre per lo pecca, 
 e accreisser per graczia. ..." 
 
 "E similhant raczon es del retenament e 
 del ligament de 11 pecca." 
 
 The natural jwwer, which is free-will, is ca- 
 pable of being sometimes extended by grace 
 and sometimes restrained. . . . 
 
 Free-will may be lost by sin and increased 
 by grace. . . . 
 
 And a similar account is to be given of the 
 retaining and of the binding of sins (of the 
 remission or responsibility of sin). 
 
 {De la postesta donna a li Vicari de Xrist ; published by Hahn, Geschichte 
 del' Waldenser . . . . , &c., pp. 611-616; end of the first paragraph). But 
 even these words suppose the existence of freewill, which the Confession of 
 1655 denies (art. ix.) 
 
 It cannot be denied that a severe logic conducts us to the doctrine of predes- 
 tination. But it ought not to be forgotten that logic is a form of our under- 
 standing; and that without this form, and not within it, lie the bases of life. 
 Faith in God, in our own existence, in the immortality of the soul, &c., are not 
 the result of a syllogism. It has not pleased God that our life should depend 
 upon our good or bad reasoning. It is in vain that an irreproachable logic leads 
 us to fatalism : a reasoning not less correct tells me also that if God could not 
 be moved, our prayers were useless; that the laws of causality annul moral 
 
 1 I translate these paragraphs as I find them. This is no place to discuss the subject, or 
 to prove that the learned author himself has not been free from the influence of prejudices. 
 But the reatler will easily i^erccive their nature and tendency. — TR.\SbLATOR. 
 
 No I] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 483 
 
 I^^l' T f ,T PY^^^/^'«*^"^« i« '"e^ely an hypothesis, &c.; but I feel that 
 fW I I ^^''W^'^ fr^^' I f««^ that prayer does me good; and I thank God 
 nor destrT' • "" ""^ something which reasoning can neither prevail over 
 
 JL^rcT ''**'"'^/'^ -l ^^"^ *^' conscience of the Christians of our times 
 
 extendi to the Bible, which proposes to limit at once the meaning of the Bible 
 and the conscientious opinions of men, is nothing but a disguised Popery It 
 
 muted to those who adopt it by the mere fact of its adoption. The result is the 
 fomation of two classes of believers : the one class composed of those who be- 
 lieve of themselves; and the other, of those who believe in virtue of the church's 
 code, on the authority of the former. This delegation of faith has no founda- 
 tion m the gospel. It is, moreover, incompatible with the principle of private 
 judgment; for we cannot say to any one-" I grant you the right of private judg- 
 ment, on condition that you arrive at results previously determined by me » 
 Such a pretension would be the seal of bondage placed on human thought. More- 
 over, convictions are necessarily individual; they concern things which the per- 
 son understands; they are, therefore, relative to our means of understanding; Zd 
 as they vay according to the individuals, we can never, in a society composed 
 of people of aU ages and all diversities of character, consider a single foS^ 
 as the sincere expression of the convictions of all. The same conviction would 
 suppose the same moral type, and therefore the same life, which is not the ca^e. 
 Finally, such a formulary would be a Procustes' bed for the minds of men, if 
 they were really to be subjected to it; but they cannot be so; it is, then^for., 
 only a fiction; and those who maintain it, or submit to it, by reason of its offi- 
 cial character, are tacitly involved in falsehood. Again, what is an official faith? 
 Under all religious forms, whether dogmatic or ceremonial, there are hearts with- 
 
 k! a J I *^' '''^ ^ ^^^ °"^y ^o^^^*^«" of salvation; this life is 
 
 obUmed by the grace of God, and not by assent more or less enlightened to 
 matters of doubtful speculation, nor by practices of devotion more or less puer- 
 Je. Indeed, life is not incompatible with these forms; but it does not proceed 
 from them: and if the disciples of Christ were called Christians (Acts xi. 26) 
 It was because they led a Christian life. It was on the same ground that the 
 Vaudois of ancient times might be called the heirs of the primitive church. 
 
 Chapter II.-Historio Documents and Notes anterior to the Bull of 
 
 Innocent VIII. 
 
 (1487.) 
 
 The events anterior to the epoch indicated at the head of this chapter occu- 
 pymg httle space in this history, I think it right to point out here some of the 
 documents of which, in a more extended work, use might be made to throw 
 light upon them. The question how the Vaudois valleys became part of the 
 dominions of the Duke of Savoy, is one of the first which presents itself — 
 The name of Savoy is not met with before the fourth centuiy. Ammianus 
 MarcelUnus is the first author in whose work it occurs. After havin^^ formed 
 part of the kingdom of Burgundy, Savoy was annexed to the Empi^ in the 
 
 ' [The Translator refrains from appending any remarks of his own on this and the follow 
 ing paragraphs, but he feels caUed upon to guard himfielf against being supposed to assent to 
 all the opmions and reasonings of the author.] i'4~»~ «»wii, w 
 
484 
 
 THE ISEAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appkkdix. 
 
 No. ij 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 485 
 
 tenth century. In 1050, Peter Damian complains to the Countess of Suza (in 
 whose county the Vaudois valleys were), that part of her domains did not ob- 
 serve the ordinances of the church; {Damiani opera, p. 566, quoted by Gilly, 
 Waldensian Researches, p. 88, and by Coste De Beauregard, vol. i., p. HI), 
 and a short time afterwards, the Chronicle of Saint Thron (from 1108 to 1136) 
 mentions, without raming the Vaudob, a country in the Italian Alps, celebrated 
 for its heresy.— (DacAm* Spicilegium, vol. viii., p. 493.) The documents which 
 follow would seem to determine this country to be the Vaudois valleys on both 
 sides of the A Ips. 
 
 1056. A Bull of Pope Victor II., addressed to Viminian, Archbishop of Em- 
 brun, in which are the words — "Ecclesiam Ebredunensem , . . minibiliter est 
 corrupta."— (Quoted by Father Albert, vol. i., p. 56. For the exact title of 
 this work, see Part I., sect, vi., chap, i., § 1, No. 14, of this Bibliography.) 
 
 1064. Foundation of the convent of Pignerol, by Adelaide of Suza. — (Chro- 
 nologic de chiesa, chap, xxiv.; Rorengo, p. 41; Monumenta patriae, vol. i.) — 
 In 1076 and 1078, she endowed it with the neighbouring lands. 
 
 1081. Gift of properties situated at Saluces, to the same convent, by the 
 Countess of Suza. — (State Archives at Turin.) If the domain of the Countess 
 of Suza extended from Pignerol to Saluces, the Vaudois valleys must have been 
 comprised in it. 
 
 1096. A Bull of Urban II. , in which he makes mention of the same valleys, 
 but on the French side, as infested with heresy. The Val- Louise is designated 
 in this Bull the Vallis Gyrontana. — ("Recueil des actes, pieces et procedures 
 sur I'emphyth^ose des dymes du Brian9onnais;" note in p. 55; and Father Al- 
 bert, vol. i., p. 56.) 
 
 1100. Supposed date of the Nobla Leyczon, in which the Vaudois are desig- 
 nated by name; and of the catechism, Interrogations menors, which they were 
 accustomed to use. — (L^ger, Part I., pp. 26 and 58; Perrin, Part II., p. 157; 
 Euxhom, Hist. Nderland, pp. 36-48, &c.) 
 
 1119. Council of Toulouse: decrees of the Inquisition, against the heretics 
 who existed partly in Italy and partly in France. — (Gallois, Hist, de VInquis., 
 pp. 81, 83, 84.) 
 
 1130. About this period Peter De Bruys began to propagate his opinions in 
 the south of France. According to the Catholic authors of Dauphiny, he was 
 a native oi the Val-Louise {Hist, du diocese d'Einbi'un, by Father Albert, vol. 
 i., p. 56; Foumier, MS. quoted in No. 3 of the preceding chapter, &c.) Con- 
 cerning the doctrine of Bruys, see the letter of Peter the Venerable, of Cluny. — 
 (Biblioth. Cluniacensi, pp. 1117-1230.; Bibi. Max. P. P. Lugdun., vol. xxii., 
 p. 1033, &c.) 
 
 1144. The heretics of Dauphiny were denounced by Pope Lucius II. (Veter. 
 monumentorum amplissima collectio, vol. i. — Quoted by Gilly, Waldensian 
 Researches, chap, ii.) — "The passage to which he alludes, occurs in a letter 
 written by the Chapter of Li^e to Pope Sixtus II. — Martdne and Diu-and, vol. 
 i., p. 776.) In this letter mention is made of the heretics established at Mons- 
 Guimari; Martfene makes a conjecture, forte Mons-Limarii (Mont^limart), in 
 Delphinatu. But the place intended is the castle of Monte Vimers, near Ch&- 
 lons-sur-Marne." Note by M. Schmidt. 
 
 1165. "A numerous detachment of Albigeois, leaving the south of France, 
 took refuge in the valleys of Piedmont, where they united themselves with the 
 Vaudois, both in doctrine and worship."— (Morison, Hist, of the Ref. ; trans- 
 lated by Bumier, p. 35.) The author gives no proof of this fact; but this is 
 the date at which Gilles places the arrival of the disciples of Valdo, in the 
 
 Vaudois valleys.— (Chap, iii., p. 17.)— He had previously said 1160. (Chap, i., 
 p. 2.) 
 
 1188. Tliomas, Count of Savoy, seizes the Vaudois valleys.— (Old Chronicle, 
 deposited in the Library of Carpentras. MS. of Peyresk, Register LIX., vol. 
 i., p. 27.) 
 
 1190. The period about which Valdo of Lyons may have retired into the 
 Vaudois valleys. The History of the town of Femes, by Giberti, vol. i., p. 
 101, says, that Valdo retired to Freyssini^res (MS. of Carpentras, No. 606).— 
 Raumer (Hist, des Hohenstaufen, vol. iii., p. 273) places the conversion of Valdo 
 in the year 1173. This is also the date assigned to it in the Chronique de Laon, 
 publi-hed by Bouquet, (Recueil des Histoires de Gaule et de France, vol. xiii.)— 
 Valdo was condemned in 1179, by the Council of Lateran; his disciples were 
 condemned in 1186, by Lucius III., in the Council of Verona. 
 
 1192. " Statuta synodalia Odonis Episcopi Tullensis, de hjereticis .... qui 
 vocantur Vadoys."— (Martene, Thes. anecdotorum, vol. iv., p. 1182.) 
 
 1194. Edict of Alphonso II., King of Aragon (and Marquis of Provence), 
 against the Vaudois and other heretics.— (Nicol. Eymeric, Birectorium Inqui- 
 sitorum, p. 282.) Mansius atti ibutes this decree to Peter II. (vol. xxii., fol. 673), 
 —other authors to Alphonso, or Hildefonso, of Aragon. but under the date 
 
 1192. — (D'Argentrd, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, vol. i., fol. 33. 
 
 BibUoth. Max. P. P. vol. xxv., fol. 190.— Bert, Valdesi, p. 424, &c.) liis 
 latter date also appears to me the more probable. 
 
 1200. Origin of the Inquisition. (Perrin places it in 1206. P. 104.) It 
 was not established in an active form till 1208 in France, 1224 in Italy, aud 
 1231 in Spain. ^ 
 
 1209. Decree of Otho IV. (passing through Piedmont, on his way to be 
 crowned at Rome), by which he authorizes the Bishop of Turin to employ tem- 
 poral arms against the Y^yxdiom. —{Monumenta patrice, vol. iii., col. 488.) 
 
 1211. Refusal of the Count of Toulouse, to whom the Council of Narbonne 
 offered the restoration of his dominions, upon condition that he would expel the 
 heretics from his territories.— (History of the Albigenses.; 
 
 1213. Letter of the Emperor Frederic II. to Pope Innocent III., in whTch 
 he promises to the Pontiff that he will exert himself for the extermmation of 
 heretics.— (Raumer, vol. iii., p. 304. Bert, p. 427.) 
 
 1215. The Council of Lateran (the fourth of that name; the twelfth general 
 council), assembled by Innocent III., condemns the Vaudois. The Council 
 of Cremona, held in 1226, treats also of the extirpation of heretics in Italy. 
 (Art de verifier les dates.) 
 
 1220. Decree of the municipality of Pignerol, forbidding any one to show 
 hospitality to a Vaudois man or Vaudois woman, under pain of a fine of twelve 
 sous. " Liber statutorum civitatis Pinarolii." Turin, 1602. Cap. 84. "Mo- 
 numenta Patriae," vol. ii. 
 
 1224. Edicts of the Inquisition agamst heretics in Italy. (Gallois, " Hiat 
 de I'Inquisition," p. 81.) 
 
 1228. Conferences of monks m Dauphiny against the Vaudois. (Perrin. dd 
 104, 105.) ^ ' ^^ 
 
 1231. Bull of Gregory IX. against the Vaudois. (M'Crie, "Hist, of the 
 Reformation in Italy, chap, i.— Gallois, Hist, de I'lnquis., p. 84.) 
 
 1233. Thomas, Count of Savoy, makes himself of Pignerol, under pretext 
 that the race of the Counts of Piedmont is extinct. (Historians differ from one 
 another as to this fact.) Amadeus III., or IV., according to other chronologists, 
 succeeded Count Thomas, his father. He was appointed Vicar of the Empire 
 
486 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appebdix. 
 
 in Lombardy and Piedmont, in 1241, by the Emperor Frederic II. (Art de 
 verifier les dates.) 
 
 1235. A Synod held at Avignon, concerning the Vaudois and Albigeois. 
 
 1238. Quotation of a MS. concerning the Vaudois, according to Usher and 
 Cappel. (L^ger, pp. 328-331.) 
 
 1240. Concilium Rituricense, in which a new crusade against the Albigeois 
 was proposed. 
 
 1242. Acts of the Synod of Tarascon, held against the Vaudois. (Mansi, 
 vol. xxiii., p. 553.) 
 
 1265. Brief of Alexander IV., to the Prior of Paris, against the heretics. 
 (Martfene and Dm-and; Thes. nov. anecdotorum, vol. v., p. 1814. — Hahn, 
 p. 735.) 
 
 1273. Instructions of Gr^ory X., regarding the Inquisition. — (Same works; 
 Martbne, vol. v., p. 1817 ; Hahn, p. 739.) 
 
 1300, or thereby.— Wars of Amadeus V., Count of Maurienne and of Savoy, 
 with Humbert, first Dauphin of Le Viennois. Settlement of the Vaudois, who 
 came from the valleys of the Po, on the banks of the Durance. Foundation 
 of M^rindol, Cabri^res, &c. — (Numerous authors.) 
 
 1315. Accounts of the Delphinal chatelain of the valley of Pragela, contain- 
 ing a statement of the sums which he had furnished to the inquisitors for the 
 destruction of heresy in the Vaudois valleys. (Archives of Fdnestrelle.) 
 
 1332. Brief of John XXII. (dated from Avignon, 8th July), in which he 
 says: " Multiplicati sunt haeretici . . . praecipue, de secta Valdensiiun . . . 
 frequentes congregationes, per modum capituli, habent ... in quibus ali- 
 quando quingenti simul fuerant congregati." (Rorengo, Memorie historichi, 
 4to edition, Turin, 1619, p. 16.— L^ger, part, ii., p. 20.) According to Platina, 
 the pope who issued this brief, must have bom the title of John XXIII. {De 
 vitis Pontificum Rom., 4to edition; Cologne MDC, p. 255.) 
 
 1335. Bull of Benedict XII. to Humbert II., Dauphin, against the heretics 
 of Dauphiny. (Valbonays, Hist, du Dauphin^, p. 326. — Raynaldi, Annates, 
 No. 63.)— At the same date there occurs an extract of the accounts of Borelli, 
 BailUf of Embnin, ** pro persequendis Valdensibus et aliis expenfiis." (Val- 
 bonays, p. 326. — Raynaldi, Annates, No. 68.) 
 
 1344. Pastor began to act against the Vaudois of Dauphiny. (Foumier, 
 MS. already mentioned, translation of Juvenis, p. 361.— 1712.) 
 
 1345. Accounts of the Delphinal chatelain of the valley of Pragela, for the 
 purchase of various instnunents of torture, for the use of the inquisitors. (Ar- 
 chives of F^uestrelles.) 
 
 1348. Letter of the Dauphin, Humbert II., to the Baillif of Embrun and 
 other civil officers, "quibus injungit ut quoties faerit requisitus ab Archiepis- 
 copo Ebredunesii, ei auxiliura praestet contra Valdenses." (Records of the 
 Court of Accoimts at Grenoble, vol. K, p. 301.) 
 
 1349. Dauphiny ceded to France. — In 1347, the Republic of Quiers in Pied- 
 mont, voluntarily submitted to Amadeus VI., Count of Savoy, and to the 
 Princes of Achaia. (Hist, de Quiers, vol. i., p. 891. Cibrario, p. 143.) 
 
 1353. War between Maurienne and Dauphiny, about the boundaries of these 
 provinces. Guillaume de Bordes, Archbishop of Embrun, and Guillaume Du- 
 puy. Inquisitor sent by Innocent VI. against the Vaudois, destroy their place 
 of meeting in Vallouise, and put numbers of them to death. (Foumier's MS., 
 already quoted. The author adds after this, " I can learn nothing of what was 
 done against the Vaudois in the end of this century, because the papers are 
 awanting.) 
 
 No. I] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 487 
 
 1364. Order of the Prince of Achaia to the Governors of La Tour in Val 
 Lucema, against the Vaudois. (Rorengo, Mim. Hist., p. 16, first paragraph.) 
 
 1360. Maxims of the Inquisition reduced to practice with regard to the Vau- 
 dois. (Perrin, pp. 102 and 127 ; L^ger, p. 337.) 
 
 1369. Commission given to Borelli and to Bertrand de St. Guillaume to per- 
 secute the Vaudois, in virtue of a bull of Urban V. (Chorier, Hist. gen. du 
 Dauphini. Book xii,, chap, v., p. 392.) 
 
 1373. Bull of Gregory XI., addressed to the inquisitors Borelli and Bertrand 
 de St. Guillaume, calling upon them to destroy the Vaudois. (D'Argentrd, 
 Collect, jvdic. de novis erronbus, vol. i., p. 392.) — Some authors, and amongst 
 others, Raymond Juvenis, in his Memoires Historiques (MS. preserved at Car- 
 pentras), ascribe this bull to Gregory IX. Father Albert places it in 1365. 
 {Hist, ecclis. du diocese d' Embrun, &c., vol. i., p. 69.) Gregory XI. addressed 
 private letters, with the same view, to the Emperor Charles V., to the Bishop 
 of Paris, to the Archbishops of Vienne, Embrun, &c., to the Governor of 
 Dauphiny, and in particular to the Count of Savoy (Amadeus VI.) — The ponti- 
 fical letters, addressed to the latter, are of date 20th March, and of 7th May, 
 and 17th June, 1373. (Extracted from various archives.) 
 
 1375. Repetition of this Bull. {Mem. Hist, of Juvenis, unpublished.) — Prose- 
 cutions in virtue of it. (Same MSS. , also Memoires Hist, of Dominique Rochas, 
 quoted by M. Gautier, author of the Letters Hist, sur le Gepengois.) 
 
 1380. New orders to destroy the Vaudois given to Borelli by Clement VII. 
 (Perrin p. 113. This author says that this is the first persecution which had 
 come under his notice.) New pontifical letters were then written, with the same 
 view, in Dauphiny and Piedmont. It must be remarked, that at this period, 
 Clement VII. was pope in Avignon, and Urban VI. in Rome. 
 
 1386. The towns of Nice and Barcelonnette withdrew themselves from the 
 dominion of the Count of Provence, to put themselves under the protection ol 
 the Count of Savoy. {Art de verifier les dates.) 
 
 1390, &c, — Judicial investigations directed against the Vaudois of Dauphiny 
 by the inquisitors. (Bossuet, Hist, des Variat., liv. xi., § ciii.) These inves- 
 tigations must not all be referred to one year. They took place in 1344 (Four- 
 nier, MS. of Gap, Hist, des Alpes, &c., p. 361); in 1353 (id. p. 355); in 1393 
 (Perrin, p. 114, lines 1, 29, and 30, compared with the first lines of p. 115). 
 They were especially numerous from 1487 to 1497. (For the intermediate dates, 
 see Perrin, pp. 127, 131, 132, 134, and 137-) — In 1485, the papers connected 
 with them were so voluminous, that by themselves alone they formed the burden 
 of a mule (Perrin, p. 141, marginal note). They were then transported to Paris 
 by order of the Grand Chancellor (Adam Fum^e, whose father was physician to 
 Charles VII., Louis XI., and Charles VIII.) New ones succeeded, which 
 were also transported to Paris, in 1501. {Memoires of Rostaing, Archbishop ol 
 Embrun, quoted by Perrin, pp. 140-143.) Similar investigations taking place 
 again, it came to pass that in 1585, when Embrun was taken by Lesdiguiferes, 
 the papers fell into the hands of the Reformed. (Perrin, Dedication, p. 2, 1. 22 ; 
 marginal notes, pp. 47, 68; p. 128, &c.) Part of these papers seem to have 
 been preserved for some time at Grenoble, in the Archives of the Parliament 
 (Rorengo, Memorie Hist., p. 12) ; but they can no longer be found. Perrin had 
 access to them (Dedication to Lesdigui^res). Those which belonged to the 
 libraries of Colbert and the Marquis de Seignelay (Bossuet, Histoire des Var., 
 liv. xi., § ci.) have also been lost. Part of these processes were in the hands 
 of L^ger, for the years 1475, 1478, 1483, and 1497 (Part I., p. 23, No. 7 ); 
 these were depo.^ited at Cambridge, whence they have also disappeared. AUix 
 
488 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appehdiju 
 
 No. 1} 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 489 
 
 (Some Remarl-3, &c., end of the 4to vol. ; Lond. 1590) has published some con- 
 siderable fragments of them. Basnage (vol. ii., p. 1440) and Perrin (p. 133, 
 &c.) speak of them ; and L^ger gives a translation of one of them (Part II., 
 p. 21). Various fragments of these processes are now amongst the Vaudois 
 MSS. of Dublin ^Class C, Shelf IV, No. 18). Father Bonnet and Lelong speak 
 of them in tbeir dictionaries. In 1838, the Minister of Public Instruction 
 caused researches to be made in Paris for the recovery of these documents, but 
 they were unsuccessful. 
 
 1393. Sentence of the inquisitor Borelli, who delivered to the fire 150 Vau- 
 dois of Dauphiny (Perrin, p. 114). Chorier makes the number 230 (Hist. gen. 
 du Dauphiney liv. xii., § v.) Joseph Dominique Rochas, in his Memoires Hist., 
 follows Chorier's version (MS. above quoted, second series, p. 71). Brunet 
 places at this date, and ascribes to Borelli, the events which took place in 1487, 
 at the instigation of Veyletti, according to Perrin and Chorier. (See Brunet, 
 Seigneur de I'Argentifere, Recueil des Acted, , . . &c., p. 55; Perrin, p. 127; 
 Chorier, under date above mentioned). 
 
 1400, or thereby. A part of the Vaudois, settled in Provence, being persecuted, 
 says Gilles, at the instance of the pope, whose seat was in Avignon (Gregory IX.), 
 retired to the valleya, and thence proceeded to Calabria (Gilles, p. 19). At the 
 same period, the valley of Pragela was invaded (Perrin, p. 116). 
 
 1413. The Coimt of Saluces is compelled by force of arms to render homage 
 to the Count of Savoy (Amadeus VIII.) 
 
 1416. The county of Savoy is erected into a duchy by the Emperor Sigis- 
 mond, passing through Piedmont, on his way to seek the antipope, Benedict 
 XIII., at Perpignan. 
 
 1419. lolande of Arragon relinquishes to the Duke of Savoy (Amadeus VIII., 
 who was only count in 1413) the country from Nice to Ville-Franche. (By 
 treaty signed at Chamb^ry, on the 5th of October.) 
 
 1434. Amadeus VIII. retires to the priory of Ripailles, where (on 7th No- 
 vember, 1434) he instituted the order of secular knighthood, de V Annonciade 
 (which was only a transformation of that of the Lacs d'A mor, established in 
 1355). The Council of Basle (in its session of 5th November, 1439), having 
 previously deposed Eugenius IV. (session of 25th June), elevated Amadeus of 
 Savoy to the popedom, whose coronation took place at Basle (24th July, 1440). 
 He assumed the pontifical name of Felix V. The Council of Florence, under 
 the presidency of Eugenius IV,, declared Felix V. an antipope, heretic, &c. 
 (Session of 23d March, 1440, the fourth of the Council.) He retained the tiara, 
 however, till 9th April, 1449, when he laid it down to prevent a schism. Ama- 
 deus then returned to Ripailles, and died at Geneva, on 7th January, 1451. 
 {Art de verifier les dates.) 
 
 1448. " Privileggii, immunitk e franchigie, concesse alle communita e nomini 
 della valle di Lusema." Dated 14th September. (Deposited in the Archives 
 of the Comt of Accounts at Turin, under No. 576.) Numerous ratifications 
 of these Patents are to be found at Pignerol, under the title of "Libertates et 
 franchisiae, Dominis vallis Lucernae et hominibus suis . . . concessae." (Civil 
 Archives, Categ. Lucerna, Mazzo di Bohio.) 
 
 1453 (16th July). Brief of Nicholas V., addressed to the Bishops of Turin and 
 Nice, authorizing them to relieve those of the inhabitants of Lucema who should 
 renoxmce their heresy from the interdict under which the valley had been laid. 
 (Rorengo, p. 19.) 
 
 1475 (29th November). Orders hj John de Compesio, Archbishop of Turin, to 
 the inquisitor Andrew d'A quapendente, to punish in various ways the Vaudois 
 
 who had relapsed-/.^., who having become Catholics, had afterwards returned 
 to their former doctrines. (Rorengo, pp. 22-24 ; Gilles, p. 24.) 
 
 1476 (23d January). Edict of the Duchess Yolande, to cause the Vaudois 
 to observe the orders of the Inquisition and the ceremonies of the Church of 
 Rome {Raccoltadagl cditti . . . &c., p. 1; Rorengo, p. 24; Borelli, under 
 the date mentioned ; Hahn, p. 705.) 
 
 1477 (27th April). Brief against the Vaudois, mentioned by Sclopis in his 
 iitona della legge di Piemonte. p. 487. 
 
 ^•Tl^^ir ^^^^^' ^'"''' ""^ ^°"'^ ^^- *« P"^ ^" «°d to the persecutions to 
 which the Vaudois, and in particular those of Freyssini^res, were subjected in 
 Dauphiny^ (Perrm, pp. 118-124; Hahn, p. 725.) Ten years after, their bre- 
 thren of VaUouise were completely destroyed. These letters are dated from 
 Arras. 
 
 1483. Petition of some of the inhabitants of Freyssiniferes to the Archbishop 
 ofEmbrun. (Vaudois MSS. of Trinity College Library, Dublin, Class C, SheS 
 IV No. 18, piece 5. Other historic documents are also to be found in this 
 volume and the next.) 
 
 1484 Edict of investigation into the conduct of the Vaudois, issued by the 
 Duke Charles, and "registrato nel protocoUo del Bessone, nel Archivio di Cham- 
 ben. (Rorengo, p. 25.) 
 
 1484 (29th August). Election of Innocent VIII. to the popedom. It wa^ he 
 who published the celebrated tariff of the indulgences, the traffic in which awak- 
 ened the indignation of Luther. The following is the title of this rare book 
 preserving the orthography of the time : -Rubrica, regule, ordinationes et consti- 
 tutiones cancellarie, sanctissimi domini, domini Innocentii, divina providentia 
 1 ape viij, scripte et correcte in cancellaria apostolica. Roma MCDLXXXVII " 
 According to this tariff; all possible vices might be redeemed for so much money 
 ^or parricide, eight gros; for fratricide, the same price; for a husband killing 
 his wife, SIX gros; for incest, seven gros, &c. (The gros was wori;h about six- 
 teen sous, and corresponded in value to eighteen or twenty francs [fifteen or 
 seventeen shillings], at the present time.) During the time of this tariff ap- 
 peared the following bull : — 
 
 1487 (27th April). Bull of extermination fulminated by Innocent VIII. (octo 
 nocens, according to a saying of the time) against the Vaudois. The legkte to 
 whom the execution of these sanguinary orders was confided was Albertus Cat- 
 taneus Cremonensis (Albert Cattan^e of Cremona), often called De Capitaneis 
 The bull is dated by Innocent VIII., "On the 5th of the Calends of May, in 
 the third year of our pontificate." It is to be found amongst the Vaudois MSS 
 of Dublin, Class C, Shelf IV., No. 18, vol. II. (vol. IX. of the MSS.), articles' 
 It IS published entire by L^ger, Part II., pp. 8-20; and by Hahn, p. 744. 
 M. Bert, in his work I Valdesi, p. 438, gives an abridgment of it. Other 
 documents which I have not had opportunity of consulting, but some of which 
 most probably relate to the events of the same period, are also to be found in 
 vol. IX. of the Dublin MSS. already mentioned. 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 128 
 
ril 
 
 490 
 
 1^ 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 APPENDIX. No. II. 
 
 [AsnttDix. 
 
 Note on these passages op Pat^t I., Chap. IV. (Vol. i. p. 50), *'The victth 
 rious Protestants incuired the fjuilt of bloody reprisals," and (Vol. i. p. 51) 
 "Cruelties and spoliations, unworthy of their name, wei-e perpetrated by the 
 Protestants." 
 
 The Catholic historians pretend that at Molines they buried the parish priest 
 of that vlace alive, leaving only his head above ground, which they used as a 
 mark for bowls, and that the priest of Reortier was rolled from the summit of 
 the mountain in a cask filled with nails, &c. These atrocities, although very 
 improLable, cannot be disprovei. The first printed work in which they are 
 mentioned is a publication of the year 1783, an anonymous History of the Dio- 
 cese of Embrun. The author of this history was an abb6, named Albert. Tlie 
 occurrences which he relates took place two centuries before (from 1583 to 1586); 
 he cannot, therefore, have received his information from an eye-witness, and 
 where did he find any account of them? In an unpublished work of a Jesuit, 
 entitled, A History of the Maritime or Cottian Alps, by Father M. Fournier, a 
 voluminous manuscript, preserved in the library of Gap. To this manuscript 
 Father Albert has been indebted for almost all that his book contains, ai> any 
 one may easily be satisfied who will undertake a comparison of the two works ; 
 but the history of Father Fournier has been written without judgment, and is 
 replete throughout with errors, now well known as such, so that I could not use 
 it as an authority. Every one knows how readily false reports arise and spread 
 in troublous times, how everything is exaggerated and perverted ; the Jesuit 
 may have admitted, without due examination, statements which perhaps were 
 false ; he lived, moreover, at a great distance from the valley of Molines. I could 
 not reckon his testimony sufficient ; but I had no other of earlier or of the same 
 date by which it could be set anide, and impartiality required that I should make 
 mention at least, in a general way, of the atrocities which he alleges to have 
 been perpetrated. 
 
 Since the IsraA of the Alps was published, I have, however, become acquainted 
 with a testimony anterior to his, and that, too, of a Catholic, and of one living 
 in the village of Molines itself, at the very time when these things are said to 
 have taken place, which I think I may adduce as proving the falsehood of all 
 the stories which he tells. A nusiiber of families in the high Alps were in the 
 habit of keeping, under the title of Tranyetons, which signifies a relation of 
 strange or extraordinary events, a simple chronicle of the history of their loca« 
 lity. A chrt)nicle of this kind kept at Molines, from the year 1469 onwards, 
 contains only the following particulars concerning the period to which our pre- 
 sent inquiry relates : — " On the 8th of January, 1551, died M. Chafire Gourdes, 
 parish priest of Molines, who had held that office for thirty-two years. During 
 this time, he caused the church to be lebuilt," &c. "In the year 1584, the 
 Sieurs Constant Bonnet and Augustin Chabrans were consuls." After this there 
 is no entry till 1590. But if the atrocities mentioned by the authors above 
 cited, had taken place in 1586, the village chronicler could not have failed to 
 have noticed them, as under date 1591 he notices the expedition of the Vaudois 
 into Queyras, in these terms: — "On the 30th of March of this year, the Vau- 
 
 No. IIL] JOURNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 491 
 
 dois came to La Monta and La Chalp, and after havin.^ pHh^ed all, they came 
 to Eistolas. where they burned nine houses, and killed nine persons." And in 
 the year 15..5, he hal already said that 400 Vaudois women from the vaUey of 
 l^ucerna, '• sought refuge in this commune of Molines " &c 
 
 The n^anuscript from which these extracts are made', is a folio, entitled, Livre 
 de Me.no,res par moy Ckafrey Roulph de Fougillarde, hanuau de la commune 
 Z n\' ;;. ^"''f'^'^''^''^'*''^^''P^^^^ciensqu3faiputrouver. . . , 
 th« J ,1:7'""' ^^ ""''' ^^'^''^ ^°"^P^ «f Fougillarde, a hamlet in 
 
 the commune of Mohnes . . . derived from the most ancient trangetons which 
 I have been able to find . . , &c.] It is i„ the library of M. Aristide Albert, 
 advocate m Grenoble,^he author of a learned monograph on the Oisaimais, &c! 
 
 APPENDIX, No. m. 
 
 Journal op a Vaudois Officer, concerning the Military Operations 
 
 WHICH FOLLOWED THE RETURN OF TH. VaUDOIS TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY 
 IN 16o9, AND PARTICULARLY THE SIEGE OP THE BaLSILLE IN 1690. 
 
 The work from which these extracts are made, is a quarto manuscript of 
 seventy-two pages, written in a neat hand. On the margin of the first page is 
 the followmg note:-" Mr. G. Robert, the author of this narrative, was after, 
 wards a lieutenant in the service of the Republic [of Hcllandl. In the year 
 1716. he sent to me at Voorburg this narrative, written with his own hand " 
 
 Amaud, m the enumeration which he gives of the Vaudois troops and their 
 officers, says, that the troops from Pramol and St. Germain were placed under 
 the comm ind of Captain Robert. {Glorious Return, First Day p 46 ) It U 
 probable that Captain Robert was compelled to leave the Vaudois valleys in 
 consequence of the new vexations to which their inhabitants were subjected in 
 1698. and that he repaired to Holland, and there followed the profession of arms 
 M. Chgtiet, postmaster at Leyden, of whom Amaud speaks in his pi-eface ^d' 
 54) resigned his office in 1734, in favour of a person named Robert, of Neuville' 
 who was his relative. Perhaps this relationship may have helped to attract the 
 author of the following memoir to the United Provinces. 
 
 Our extracts begin at the moment when the expedition reaches the Vaudois 
 country. 
 
 When we reached Pragela. M. Amaud offered up a prayer full of thanks, 
 givmg. for the goodness of God to us in having enabled us to surmount all the 
 difficulties which we had experienced on our way. We saw some cavalry on 
 the heights above Fenestrelle, which had been detached in order to cut us off • 
 but as soon as they perceived us in the valley, they withdrew. Fifteen or 
 twenty young men of that valley joined us. 
 
 Having passed the night here, we set out next morning to enter the valley of 
 St. Martin. Our route lay by the Col du Lis. This mountain makes the en. 
 trance to that valley very difficuU. The first opposition which we met with 
 
'V\ 
 
 492 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appendix. 
 
 No III] 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 
 
 493 
 
 '^ 
 
 there, was from a company of soldiers of the army of His Royal Highness ; but 
 after having rolled down some stones upon us as we approached, they fled. We 
 pursued our way to the highest part of the mountain, where, unknown to us, 
 the Marquis of Parele awaited our coming, at the head of 800 men. Besides 
 that tliis number was superior to ours, they were so advantageously posted, that 
 it would have been impossible for us to have forced the pass, if the heavens had 
 not favoured us in the way which I am now to relate. The air was as calm and 
 serene as possible, when suddenly there came on a mist, so thick that a man 
 could scarcely be seen at the distance of a few paces. Thus it happened that 
 one of our people, who was a short distance from the rest, came unexpectedly 
 upon a sentinel. He became aware of this fact by hearing before he saw any 
 one ; but marching right up to the sentinel, until he almost touched him, he was 
 addressed in the words, *' Say who you are, or I will shoot you;" upon which, 
 without any answer, he shot the sentinel dead. A tumultuous noise arising 
 from the ranks of the soldiers when this first shot was heard, we fired in the 
 direction of the sound, and without giving the enemy time to make any obser- 
 vation as to the amount of our force, we rushed forward, and they, who had not 
 imagined that we were so near, fell into confusion, and fled. Ten or twelve of 
 them, wandering in the mist, fell into our hands. These we put to death. 
 
 The mist not permitting us to puraue the enemy, our further gains consequent 
 upon this exploit, were limited to the capture of a flock of sheep, which we 
 found upon this mountain. We proposed to kill them at the village of Barsile, 
 the first to which we came, and the prospect of such food was most acceptable 
 to us, exhausted as we were in consequence of the gieat scarcity of provisions 
 which we had experienced from the commencement of our expedition. But we 
 had scarcely begun, when our sentinels descried the company of soldiers which 
 has been already mentioned. They also perceived us ; but supposing that it was 
 the Marquis of Parele, they imprudently advanced with their handkerchiefs on 
 the ends of their muskets, to signify that they were fiiends. We surrounded 
 them on all sides, and they discovered their mistake, but rather too late, for it 
 cost them their lives. It may seem that we dealt too severely with our enemies ; 
 but it ought to be borne in mind that we had no place in which to keep our 
 prisoners, and that to have allowed them to escape, would have been in two 
 ways destructive to us, by their again fighting against us, and still more by the 
 information which they would have given as to our numbers, which were not 
 known, and were supposed to be greater than they were. Above all, it should 
 be considered that any of our people who were taken by the French, were either 
 hanged or sent to the galleys, and we were firmly persuaded that the Savoyards 
 would not treat us with greater favour. 
 
 After this success, all the Vaudois who were amongst us, wished to proceed 
 at once to their own respective villages. But M. Amaud represented to them 
 so well the certain destruction which they would thus bring upon themselves, 
 that they remained together. 
 
 We next went to Pras, where we foimd some Savoyards, who had come into 
 the place of the Vaudois when they were expelled. The avidity with which they 
 had come to seize on possessions which did not belong to them, cost them their 
 lives. None of them were spared whom it was in our power to kill. We found 
 there also a little Protestant place of worship, which the Savoyards had used 
 for saying their mass. We threw down the altar and cast out the images. Here 
 M. Amaud preached his first sermon to us. His text was, "Our help is in the 
 name of the Lord." ' 
 
 1 Paal. cxxiv. 8. 
 
 After we had remained in this place for some time, it was resolved to go into 
 the valley of Lucerna, as being more habitable than that of St. Martin. However, 
 a troop of our people remained there until we should return. As we were on the 
 way, two battalions of a regiment of guards of His Royal Highness awaited us 
 on the Col Julian, and seemed determined to dispute our passage. But having 
 put our forces in order, we attacked them with such success, that we compelled 
 them to take to flight, and pursued them for a good hour to a position still 
 more advantageous, called the Sere-de- Cruel. But in this new position they 
 made even less resistance than in the former. They abandoned it to us at the 
 first discharge, and passing through the village of Beubisout in haste, they beat 
 a retreat, and at the same time abandoned to us a part of the valley of Lucerna. 
 We then made our cantonment in the hamlet above Beubi, whence we after- 
 wards sent out difierent detachments. 
 
 One of these having made an incursion into the valley of Cayras, we brought 
 back from it a considerable booty of cattle. This enabled us to change our diet, 
 for we had lived for many days upon nothing but chesnuts. The animal food 
 coming after this, we had it for ten days without mixture of any other thing 
 whatever. At the end of that time, there came to us some peasants of that 
 valley, asking us to restore them a part of their cattle, and promising to pay us 
 a certain sum agreed upon, and to furnish us with some salt and other things 
 of which we had need. We were very glad of this interview, and hoped that 
 we might in future have some intercourse with them ; and it was very much on 
 this account that we granted them their request, although, indeed, some such 
 arrangement was very necessarj- lor us. They demanded an escort to conduct 
 tliem over the mountain, and to which they should give the things that had 
 been agreed upon. We gave them a lew men for this pur^.ose ; but instead of 
 keeping their word with us, they brought the men into an ambuscade of a c(.m- 
 pany of French soldiers. Our people discovered this just in time to throw 
 themselves into a building of four stone walls which had served as a sheepfold, 
 and which became a sort of rampart for them, in which they defended them'- 
 selves like lions, till the captain who attacked them, enraged that four men 
 should resist him so long, resolved to storm their fortress, and rushed on, sword 
 in hand. But his boldness cost him his life, and the lives of some of the bravest 
 of the soldiers who followed him. The rest, finding that only death-strokes 
 were to be got by fighting with men thoroughly desperate, thought proper to 
 retire. Our men then left the scene of combat unharmed. It may easily be 
 conceived, that although those who had deceived us in this case had failed in 
 their design, we did not like them the letter upon that account, and did not 
 omit the firet proper occasion which presented itself of punishing them. 
 
 We sent another detachment to make an incursion into the valley of An- 
 grogna. But the Marquis of Parelle had occupied a position which commands 
 the entrance of the valley, and after a whole day spent in a combat of mus- 
 ketry, without our being able to force it, we were obliged to return without 
 having gained anything by our enterprize. 
 
 On our way back, however, we attacked the garrison of Le Villars, and 
 carried the outwork which defends the entrance of the place, whereupon the 
 garrison threw themselves into the church, making use of it as their last 
 entrenchment. To carry this stronghold, we rolled great casks before us, 
 always advancing nearer; but wiien we were just near enough the gate and 
 ready to enter, there came a detachment sent by the enemy from the town of 
 Lucerna. As we were not strong enough to make head in two directions at once, 
 we left the church to oppose the relieving party ; and whilst we were engaged 
 
494 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPSw 
 
 [Apyksuix. 
 
 No. Ill] 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 
 
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 i 
 
 i 
 
 with them, the garrison in the church issued from it and fled. Upon this the 
 detachment which came to Dieir assistance also retired. Not being able to 
 pursue tl;em, and bein^ unwilliug that all our efforts should end in accomplish- 
 ing nothing, we denuilishcd the church. The enemy, however, being reinforced 
 by a new detachment, returned to attack us. Being thus opposed by a force 
 ttjater tlian our own, and feeling ourselves to be the weaker party, we retired 
 with the loss of a few men killed and taken prisoners. M. Montoux, minister, 
 was amongst the latter. The enemy, having set fire to the village, retired 
 also. 
 
 Upon this, it was thought proper to form a little flying camp of ninety men 
 to scour the valley and observe the enemy. Being near the fort of La Tour, we 
 came upon two women who were gathering chesnuts, and to whom we did 
 nothing except questioning them. On finding themselves at liberty, they went 
 and gave information to the Marquis of Pareile of the place where we were and 
 our supposed numbers. The marquis did not allow the opportunity to pass 
 unimpioved, but despatched a party during the night to form an ambuscade 
 and surprise us. AVhen the day broke, unarmed men were sent out, who made 
 a pretence of gathering chesnuts. We, having perceived them without suspect- 
 ing the artifice, ran after them to the place where the party in ambush arrested 
 us by a discharge of musketry. We replied in a similar style. At the sound 
 of the firing, one of our captains, who had come to the vicinity with the view 
 of seizing some grain, attacked the enemy on another side, and we had begun 
 to pui*sue them, when a double detachment of horse and foot came to reinforce 
 them. The foot soldiers advanced to take possession of a height to which we 
 mi^^ht have retired, and the cavalry followed the course of a river, thinking to 
 pliice us between the foot soldiers and themselves. But perceiving their design, 
 we saved ourselves by running with all speed till we gained Le Villard. Deem- 
 ing this position strong enough to arrest them, we barricaded a bridge which 
 was there, and entrenched ourselves behind the walls of a garden which fronted 
 the bridge. A portion of the enemy having pursued us, delayed to attack us, 
 that they might give time to the other detachments to come up and take us in 
 the rear. But discovering their schemej we abandoned this post. We were 
 pui-sued beyond Beubi, which is more than a league and a half from the place 
 we were first attacked. They left a garrison at Beubi. and we rested at ISerre- 
 de-Crust, rather less than a quarter of an hour's march from that place. 
 
 All this trouble having been caused to us by those two women, and we con- 
 sidering that all with whom we had any intercourse must be proper objects of 
 suspicion to us, as all conspiied to seek our destruction, and moreover, that 
 ihese people followed us in order to gather our chesnuts and grapes, which was 
 to deprive us of the means of subsisting for any considerable time, it was 
 resolved that, in future, no quarter should be given to any one. 
 
 The new garrison ot Beubi was a great annoyance to us, as we could no 
 longer move about with the same freedom as before. But we kept the gamson 
 also very closely shut up, and no convoy could reach it without a strong escort. 
 We occupied the heights in the neighbourhood, and as soon as we discovered 
 a convoy, we were ready to fall upon it. We had always the heights to retreat 
 to. The enemy placed a watch at the distance of a musket-shot from the gate 
 ot their garrison, and wc surprised it during the night and put all who com- 
 posed it to the 8 word except two, who eiscapeJ and cairied the tidings to the 
 garrison. 
 
 About this time a Vaudois named Gros, who had hitherto preferred his patri- 
 mony to his religion, came and joined us. But being unable to submit to the 
 
 fatigue and hunger which we were obliged to endure, be took the first favour- 
 able opportunity of deserting us again ; and having asked a cousin whom he had 
 m our troop to accompany him a little way, he conducted him to the enemv. 
 lie played us another trick, which we discovered a few days after, on the death 
 of a captain whose detachment we defeated. Those who killed him found in 
 his pocket a memorandum of the places of concealment in which we had stored 
 up the little provisions which we had. It was in the handwriting of Gros him- 
 self. Hereupon, having made a Serjeant of the guards prisoner, we pretended 
 to consider that Gros was a prisoner also, and proposed an exchange. He fell 
 mto the snare, thinking that he would find opportunities enough of escaping 
 agam. But being convicted by the memorandum in his own handwriting^, and 
 having no answer to make when he was asked for news of his cousin, he 
 was immediately incapacitated for any further treachery. 
 
 There was yet another Vaudois who, being won over by the two capuchins 
 and the Chevalier De Molte, whom we still kept prisoners, fled along with 
 them. 
 
 The Savoyards at Roura thought themselves pretty secure, because of their 
 greater distance from us, and of the garrisons which were between, hvf we came 
 upon them by surprise. We killed all whom we could find of both sexes 
 earned oflT much cattle, and set fire to the village. We burned also every house 
 m the neighbourhood where the enemy could find shelter; and they doing the 
 same thing on their part, it was in a short time so completely done, that it 
 would have been difficult to have found in the whole valley a roof mider which 
 to be protected from the rain. 
 
 His Royal Highness having sent three regiments to join the garrison of 
 Beubi, they proceeded to attack us. It became necessary for us to beat a retreat, 
 having first sent away forty cows and 800 sheep which we had on the moun- 
 tain. But whilst we were retreating, a lamb fell behind on the way and its 
 mother left the flock to seek it, whereupon she was followed by a second and 
 that by a third ; and so one after another all the sheep went over to the side of 
 the enemy, who raised shouts of joy as if they had gained a battle. Having 
 taken up a position at a place called Le Quiile, we were there attacked by the 
 enemy on more sides than one, but we repulsed them at all points; and they, 
 having continued these assaults against us all day, retired in the evening. We,' 
 seeing no good prospect of being able to maintain our ground much longer in 
 that valley, adopted the resolution of returning to the valley of St. Martin. 
 Fifteen of our friends, however, spent the winter there, moving rapidly about 
 amongst the rocks from one hole to another, and living on whatever they could 
 contrive to get hold of. We passed the Col de Julian again, and went to Pras, 
 where we found the troop still remaining which we had left there. They had 
 found means to make some bread, and upon our arrival they shared it with us, 
 of which we had much need. 
 
 Afier having reposed there for two days, we proceeded to seize the villages of 
 Peiier and Villesfeche, which are situated at the entrance of that valley and at 
 no great distance from Peyrouse and Pignerol. A small garrison which was in 
 P^rier retired at our approach. There we burned a monastery, and demolished 
 it to the foundations. It was within that monastery, according to the Vaudois 
 that most of the woes inflicted upon them were devised. The vintage not 
 having yet taken place, we replenished our cellars. We collected a!so a large 
 quantity of chesnuts, with the design of drying them for winter use. Being 
 near La Peyrouse, we attacked a post which was about a cannon-shot from it, 
 and having driven out the French who occupied it, and killed some of them and 
 
 I 
 
496 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Aprcnoix. 
 
 No. luj 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDUIS OFFICER. 
 
 497 
 
 ♦ 
 
 i 
 
 taken others prisoners, we caused one of them to be hanged by his comrade in 
 the sight of oiir enemies. 
 
 We had here too good a position for the French, with whom we had to do, 
 to permit us long to occupy it. A great detachment was sent out from Pignerol 
 and passed the Col du Pis, the highest mountain which bounds that valley. We 
 encountered them, dividing our forces so as to meet them in each of the defiles 
 by which they had to come. But being inferior to them in numbers, and being 
 attacked in dififerent parts at once, we were compelled to give way, but not un- 
 til we had disputed, as well as we could, all the passes in which we could act 
 against them with advantage. They set fire to every habitation which they 
 found in their way, from the highest to the lowest part of the vaUey. They 
 burned the chestnuts which we had laboriously collected, poured out our wine, 
 and retired by Peyrouse. We returned to re-occupy our position, wasted by fire 
 as the place was, and thence we continued to make our excursions. Being gen- 
 erally upon the heights, to see what could be seen, we one day descried three 
 mules approaching, two of them laden with bread, and one with wine for a post 
 in the neighbourhood, and conducted by two companies of Piedmontese. Upon 
 this, a Vaudois captain, named Tron, exclaiming, "He that loves me, foUow 
 me,'' eighteen of us went with him in pursuit of the mules. We could not come 
 up with them until they reached the post whither they were going, but the two 
 companies abandoned it to us. Thus, we had bread and wine, which we carried 
 off, after having killed the mules, for we could not bring them by the paths which 
 we' were accustomed to use. The chestnuts now began to fail, and we were at 
 a loss to find anything on wliich to live. This was the reason that thirty French 
 refugees, losing courage, resolved to return to Switzerland by the mountains of 
 Dauphiny. But they had the misfortune to be taken by the French, who con- 
 ducted them to Grenoble, where sentence was passed upon them, and some were 
 hanged and others sent to the galleys. One of them was put to a cruel death 
 for having assumed the title of Commandant, which, however, the Vaudois had 
 not accorded to him. He was broken on the wheel. A dozen Vaudois, who 
 also thought fit to leave us, were arrested as they were passing by the . . . 
 They had chosen this route in the hope that, on account of the language, they 
 might have less diflaculty. His royal highness merely kept them prisoners. 
 
 The French being informed of our condition by those of our people whom 
 they had taken prisoners, again sent out a great detachment to seize upon the 
 villages of P^rier and Villesfeche. They came again by the Col du Pis. Al- 
 though we were only about 480 men, we did not hesitate to go to meet them. 
 But not being sufficiently strong to occupy all the defiles, as would have been 
 requisite, and fearing that we niight be cut off, we retired after a few discharges. 
 They thought to fortify themselves at Macel. But as this would entirely have 
 cut off our communication with Pras and the valley of Lucerna, we took post 
 on a height above the village, from which we fired upon them, so that they were 
 
 obliged to retire. 
 
 They placed garrisons at Le P^rier, Villes^che, and Le Becet, by which we 
 were so closely hemmed in, that we could no longer find anything on which to 
 subsist. We spent some days to no purpose in moving about around their gar- 
 risons, thinking that some convoys would make their appearance. Three days 
 having passed, during which we did not succeed in seizing anything, we were 
 reduced to the necessity of feeding on the coarsest wild fruits which we found 
 in the woods. One of our parties having gone in the direction of Angrogna, 
 surprised a small body of the troops of his royal highness, who fled and aban- 
 doned their very camp, and thirteen mules which had brought them munitions 
 
 of war. Our people killed the mules, set fire to the tents, and carried away 
 some provisions which they found there. 
 
 We then resolved to seek a proper place to winter in. That which seemed 
 to us the best, wa^ a little hiU at the base of the mountain of Le Clapi^. It is 
 caUed the Four Teeth [Les Quatre Dents.-] I suppose it has received this name 
 from Its form; for this Uttle hiU has four points in the form of teeth, which served 
 us for bastions and half-moons; the second commanding the first, and the last 
 commanding all the rest. It is situated above the village of La Balsille. We 
 there made some entrenchments and barracks, which we dug in the earth, in 
 order to render them less subject to cold, covering them with hay, straw, or 
 boards, as we could find materials for our purpose. Thirteen days were employed 
 in this work, during which we had no food, except some coleworts and radishes, 
 which we boiled without salt, fat, or butter. Often, indeed, we ate them with- 
 out taking time to cook them. 
 
 We afterwards discovered a few houses on the mounUin, which had escaped 
 burning, with corn unthrashed, of which several bams were full. We carried 
 It to our post. There were two mills in the neiglibourhood, one at the distance 
 of a musket-shot, and the other of half-an-hour's walking. But the millstones 
 only were there without any machinery. We fitted them up again at the ex- 
 pense of two other mills which we plundered in Dauphiny, and we laboured so 
 assiduously, that in a few days our mills began to yield us flour. 
 
 The enemy, contrary to their usual conduct, had given us time to accomplish 
 all this, without incommoding us, till one morning they surprised those of our 
 men who were at the mill farthest away, of whom they killed two and carried 
 other two to Pignerol. When we heard the firing, we ran to the spot, but were 
 not able to reach it soon enough; so that the enemy broke the mUlstones, and 
 set fire to the building, after having thrown the com and flour into the river 
 But we gave them something to do at the two most difficult parts of the way 
 which lay between them and our stronghold, keeping them in check so loner, that 
 our people who were at the other mill had time to retire. This they did after 
 taking away all the machinery and some boards which covered it. The whole 
 place seemed nothing but a paltry min; for our people had also taken the pre- 
 caution to cover the millstones with water. The French, arriving and seeing 
 nothing but a ruin, planted themselves behind it to fire at us. There they re- 
 mained till evening. And when they retired we convoyed their rear-guard with 
 discharges of musketry, which were not all thrown away. They retumed after- 
 wards several times to attack us, but managing always in the same way, we pre- 
 served our mill daring the whole winter. As we continued to make incursions 
 into Dauphiny, the enemy being apprised that one of our detachments had gone 
 towards Bouriet, sent a parity from Villes^che to cut it off. But we seeing them, 
 advanced to meet them. We found them just arrived at the base of the moun- 
 tain. But as it was of importance to gain the height, by which our people must 
 retum to their own place, we climbed within pistol-shot of eacli other, without a 
 musket being fired. We very soon, however, got before them, being better used 
 to that sort of cHmbing than they were, and seized the pass. There they attacked 
 us several times, but they were repulsed. In the evening, our people arrived, 
 and we retumed to our fort, and the French to their garrison. 
 
 There now took place so great a fall of snow, that it was ahnost impossible for 
 us any longer to make incursions into Dauphiny. Moreover, there was no vil- 
 lage on the frontier, when there were not now troops, and when we approached 
 any of them, the enemy entrenched themselves in the churches, in which also 
 they slept, so as to prevent us from taking them by surprise. Sometimes we 
 Vol. IL ^28 
 
498 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appr^id 
 
 IX 
 
 Ko. 111.] 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDOLS OFFICER. 
 
 499 
 
 made an attempt upon one village, sometimes upon another. When we amved 
 we divided our fol into two parts, the one half confrontmg the enemy, whd.t 
 the other entered the houses and loaded themselves with bread or flour. Those 
 who had confronted the enemy, then became the rear-guard, and then we divided 
 what we had got, which often was very little, among the whole detachment^ 
 
 Towards the peasants of that region, we conducted ourselves in a very ditier- 
 ent way from that which we adopted towards the Savoyards. For we tre- 
 quently paid for the victuals which we took, when no resistance was ^^^e to us^ 
 AMiereupon, some of the people of the village of Bourcet came and offered the 
 to us for payment. They added, that we must go to their village --^'-^l^^' 
 We sent eight of our men along with them, who, on arriving at the village, 
 found themselves surrounded by soldiers; and the soldiers hastily finng on them, 
 kiUed one of our captains. The rest found means of escapmg. We soon pun- 
 ished this treachery, one of our detachments burning the village 
 
 We afterwards made an expedition to , passing ^X .^^^^^'f ^^ *^^; 
 
 This mountain being very high, there was so much snow upon it, that for two 
 leagues we fomid it in many places more than four feet deep. And as no previous 
 parties of any kind had passed that way, we found it necessary to make a path 
 for ourselves, which was not done without much labour. Arriving in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the village during the night, we sent scouts to reconnoitre, who 
 brought us word that the garrison was stronger than we, and entrenched m the 
 church We did not think our force sufficient to attack them; we therefore 
 found ourselves obliged to return without doing anything, and without gaming 
 anything by our toil but a great appetite. Many had brought no bread with 
 them, some, because they had it not, and others, because they counted upon 
 getting it; so that those who had a little were under the necessity of sharing it 
 
 with their companions. « 
 
 On our way back to our fort, we did not know what was to become of us. 
 We were surrounded by mountains covered with snow, with enemies at the 
 mouths of all the passes which led from them, and without any provisions In 
 this hard extremity, having no longer any help to expect from men we lifted 
 UP our hearts and our hands to God, whose Providence and infinite goodness had 
 already supplied our wants before we had even asked it. He had preserved a 
 kmd of manna in our frightful wilderness, by which we saw that he never uUerly 
 abandons those who have really put their trust in him. Thus it was When 
 we arrived in the valleys, there were some fields in elevated situations which had 
 not yet been reaped, and the com having been laid flat upon the ground by the 
 raini had been afterwards entirely covered with snow. All who are acquainte<l 
 with that country, are aware that these heights are covered with snow during 
 six months of the year. But by a special interposition of Providence, at the 
 very time when we were at the point of perishing for hunger, there came a south 
 wind and melted the snow which covered the com, and had preserved it for us 
 Hereby we saw that God was always for us. This wind began in the month of 
 January and continued till the end of April. In this wonderful and pecuhar man- 
 ner we were supplied with bread all the time that we were shut in upon every side. 
 The enemy also ceased to harass us, because the snow made the roads impractica- 
 ble And as they were not aware of the source from which our means of sub- 
 sistence were derived, and had been informed that we were destitute of provi- 
 sions they thought themselves sure of having us without any risk. 
 
 Here I must not omit to state what our conduct was amongst ourselves. In 
 general it was founded upon perfect mutual confidence, therefore, whatever 
 was done, and whatever happened, every one was contented. When the whole 
 
 body went on any expedition, and left only a detachment to guard the strong- 
 hold, everything that we had was equally divided on their return. When a small 
 party went out, the members of it were allowed to keep to themselves for their 
 reward, whatever they might get. Our barracks contained each a company, 
 which was as a family residing under the same roof. However, as there is a 
 great depth of corruption in most men, there were some individuals of our body 
 who did not do exactly as they ought. They had in some excursion made prize 
 of a little money. But instead of making this known, they even denied it. 
 Against this conduct our minister spoke very strongly in some sermons which 
 he made upon the subject. He declared that those who kept the forbidden 
 thing, put themselves in danger of the chastisements of God. Time shewed 
 us how foolish it is to despise such warnings; for the most of these per- 
 sons, and particularly those of them who were Vaudois, being tempted by their 
 money to return to Switzerland, were taken on the way, as has been already 
 related. 
 
 M. Amaud preached three sermons to us every week, and conducted prayer 
 twice every day, when the enemy left us at peace to meet for it. He Jed forth 
 no detachment without having first implored the Divine aid, and when they had 
 reached any place where they were to spend the night, they did not lie down 
 nor rise up without engaging again in prayer. In our barracks, some of us 
 read aloud one or more chapters at daybreak, a psalm or two were then sung, 
 and this was followed by a prayer. This exercise was repeated three times a-day. 
 Thus it was that our time was spent on that mountain. In spite of us, indeed, 
 it was a Lent, kept with very meagie fare. We ate nothing for some months 
 except bread made of the grain which Providence had led us to discover, as I 
 have already mentioned. This bread was very brown, and had little substance 
 in it. We had nothing to drink but water. 
 
 The month of April being come, we began to be released from winter bond- 
 age so as to be able to renew our excursions. Every one, as it may well be 
 imagined, was anxious to see an end of our Lent. We sent out a detachment 
 to try if anything could be got with which to keep Easter. It was necessary 
 to march by night, to avoid being discovered by the French, for we passed very 
 close by them. We passed over a mountain w^here there was still much snow, 
 and were exposed all night to snow then falling. But notwithstanding all this, 
 we arrived an hour before daybreak at a place half a quarter of a league from 
 Pramort. There part of us awaited the dawn, and the rest went on to St. Ger- 
 main. These two places, both in the valleys, were inhabited by Savoyards, who 
 dwelt in great security, trusting to their garrison, and imagining, as others did, 
 that we must all have died of famine in course of the winter. This being the 
 case, they were, in no small degree, astonished when we burst into their villages, 
 which was at daybreak, and just about the same time the gairison beat the 
 alarm. We did not succeed in surprising the garrison, which fled by the one 
 end of the village as we entered by the other. Not many, even of the peasants, 
 lost their lives. After having collected together all the cattle, we set fire to the 
 village. Whilst we were thus occupied at Pramort, our comrades were doing 
 the like at St. Germain, and from these two places we carried off a considerable 
 booty. Towards evening, the party from St. Germain rejoined us, and we re- 
 passed the mountain. We thought to have kept the same road, under cover of 
 the night, by which we had come. But the French having been apprised, posted 
 themselves at a pass which we could not avoid, without retracing our steps. 
 This, therefore, we were compelled to do; and, after having passed over the 
 mountain, we were imder the necessity of ascending it again on the other side. 
 
o 
 
 00 
 
 THE ISUAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appfltnix. 
 
 li 
 
 We were so fatigued, and so overcome by sleep, that we flung ourselves down 
 upon the snow to sleep. But the cold soon compelled us to rise, and when the 
 one left us, the other laid hold of us. In this condition it was that we moved 
 along the mountain side, not far from its summit, till we had reached the vicinity 
 of our fort. In this counter-march we lost some of our cows, which, sliding 
 and falling upon the frozen snow, were seized by the enemy, who followed closely 
 on our tra^k. It was the only advantage that they gained. We arrived hap- 
 pily at our fort, without any other loss. 
 
 In the beginning of May, the French came, in order, as they said, to exter- 
 mmate us. °They were 11,000 men, as we afterwards learned; and having made 
 themselves masters of all the positions around our entrenchments, they remained 
 there within pistol-shot. The sentries were obliged to keep themselves concealed, 
 because there was a continual firing on the one side or the other. As their in- 
 tention wius to cut off all possibility of our escape, by occupying all the passes; 
 they were obliged, for this purpose, to place some of their troops on the highest 
 parts of the mountain, where there was a considerable quantity of snow, and 
 where they had not even wood to make a fire. Besides which, all the time that 
 they remained in our vicinity, snow, hail, or rain never ceased to fall; and, what 
 was most remarkable, was, that every time they attacked us, the weather was 
 almost the same, which made them say, that we had the command of tl;e winds 
 
 and of the rain. 
 
 All their precautions did not hinder one of our detachments from making a 
 sortie by night, in order to annoy a regiment of dragoons, encamped on a wooded 
 slope, above which was a great rock. There our people, having gathered a great 
 quantity of large stones, and arranged them as well as they could on the edge 
 of the rock, launched them all at once. As they fell, they set loose other stones, 
 and all together c?me down with a terrible din upon the poor dragoons. The 
 dragoons having been obliged to kindle fires upon account of the cold, the light 
 of their fires enabled us, amidst the darkness of the night, to see burning billets 
 thrown up as high as the tree-tops when the stones came in contact with them. 
 We learned afterwards that many of the dragoons suffered upon this occasion. 
 Those who were struck by the stones, escaped death only by the loss of a limb. 
 Some were cut through the middle. When it was day, they placed a guard at 
 the spot from which the evil had come upon them; our people, in the meantime, 
 having left it as they went to it. 
 
 This regiment of dragoons was encamped by itself, apart from the rest of the 
 enemy's troops, so that their provisions must of necessity be carried past our 
 fort. They were carried past it only during the night. A corporal of our com- 
 pany, and three men with him, meeting this convoy upon one occasion as it 
 passed, without regard to the number of the enemy, fired upon them, and each 
 of our men killing his man, they seized what these men had carried, and each 
 brought back to us a bag of bread, which served as a supply for us all. The 
 corporal who pei formed this exploit, found himself seized by the collar when he 
 had fired, but as he was stronger or more adroit than his adversary, he threw 
 him down and killed him with his bayonet. The French being apprised of what 
 was taking place by the noise that arose, and more perfectly by the fugitives, 
 marched their piquet towards the scene of action. We descried them by the 
 light of the moon, and saluted them with great discharges of musketry, upon 
 which they made haste to get out of the way again. 
 
 We were at this time 370 men in all, divided into fourteen companies. Each 
 company had its assigned post, more or less dangerous according to the strength 
 of the company. There were two stationed at one point, which was the most 
 
 No. 111.] 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 
 
 501 
 
 exposed of all, but they did not amount together to more than ninety men. 
 M. De La Parat, lieutenant- colonel of the r^ment of Artois, having been 
 commanded to carry this position by force, advanced at the head of 700 grena- 
 diers, and taking advantage of a thick fog, he was not discovered till he was 
 close to the sentry, who had scarcely time to cry "To arms." Our men, prom])tly 
 seizing their arms, and rushing from their barracks, were the first to fire, and 
 having discharged their pieces, they dashed forward sword in hand. This move- 
 ment was executed so rapidly, and was attended with such success, that the 
 enemy were seized with a panic and took to flight, and not knowing how to 
 find the gorge by which they had come, many of them flung themselves head- 
 long over the rocks. Besides these, however, seventy were left upon the ground 
 where the action took place. M. De Parat being w^ounded in the thigh, we 
 made him prisoner, along with two Serjeants who were attempting to bear him 
 off; There was also a captain of grenadiers found amongst the slain. Our 
 people were in too great haste to take the spoils of the slain; had this not been 
 the case, only a very small number of the enemy would have escaped, imequal 
 as was the force opposed to them. We saw their extreme disorder without 
 being able to aid our comrades, because the French were within a short distance 
 of all our posts, and would not have failed to embrace the opportunity of enter- 
 ing if we had left any of them unguarded. The most remarkable thing in this 
 action was that none of our people received any injury, except one man whose 
 musket burst and slightly wounded him in the hand. Tliis was all that we 
 suffered from an army which ought to have exterminated us at once. And, 
 indeed, it was not their fault that they did not. They had the best possible 
 intention of doing so, but God being for us, all their efforts were necessarily 
 fruitless, and turned to their own disadvantage. Behold another manifest proof 
 of this. 
 
 We had neglected a place where the hill sloped suddenly away from the very 
 centre of our fort, because of the extreme difficulty of ascending there. The 
 French, perceiving this, caused a detachment to advance upon this point, whilst 
 M. Parat made his assault. This design succeeded so well, that they had 
 reached the base of a poor entrenchment of diy stones which we had made there. 
 There was no guard there, for the reason which I have already stated; and they 
 were on the point of entering, when a woman prevented them. She had gone 
 for water and was returning by this place, and perceiving the enemy, she began 
 to roll down the stones of the fortification upon them. They had no oppor- 
 tunity of firing at her; and she ceased not from her efforts till they were con- 
 strained to retire, which was very soon the case, as they were upon a very steep 
 slope, where the stones that were thrown down produced an extraordinary effect. 
 But for this opposition which Providence seemed to have prepared against 
 the enemy, there can be no doubt that we were in great danger of utter destruc- 
 tion. The good woman to whom, under God, our preservation was to be as- 
 cribed, was a Savoj'ard, whom we had found in the country, and who had 
 always followed us, taking great care of our wounded. We became the objects 
 of this affection to her, because she embraced om* religion. 
 
 About an hour before the enemy attacked us, we had sung, at the post where 
 my company was stationed, the sixty-eighth psahn, which the enemy might well 
 enough hear. When we brought in the lieutenant-colonel, he told us that when 
 he was ordered upon that duty, and had made himself acquainted with the place^ 
 he had sworn an oath that he would sleep that night in oui- barracks. But he 
 did not think that it was to be as a prisoner. Next day, oiu- people cut off the 
 heads of all the dead, and fixed them upon the points of the palisades whe^v 
 
502 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appirdw. 
 
 No. 111.] 
 
 JOURNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 
 
 503 
 
 
 !M 
 
 they had entered. Tliis was done in sight of the enemy. Tliey sent us a sur- 
 geon to heal M. De La Parat, with a ridiculous stipulation, that we were to get 
 no benefit of his medicines. However, we paid no attention to this, but kept 
 them carefully because we had none ourselves. And here I ought to mention 
 that after we lost our own, we had nothing to apply to our wounds, but a com- 
 position which the Vaudois make, and of which human fat is an ingredient. 
 Every kind of sore was bathed, not with spirits, but with cold water. Notwith- 
 standing all this, almost none died. So true it is that he whom God keeps is 
 
 well kept. 
 
 The enemy having intimated to us that they would give us what ransom we 
 wished for the lieutenant-colonel, we replied that we could not think of selling 
 the blood of our brethren, and that if they would give us prisoners in exchange, 
 we would be very happy to give him into their hands. But they would do no- 
 thing. We said to them that they could not wonder if we made reprisals. 
 Our mode of proceeding seemed very strange to them, and great exaggerations 
 were published by them on this subject, as that when we took prisoners we put 
 them to cruel deaths, flaying them alive, or subjecting them to other torments 
 equally terrible. I was present when the greatest numbers of prisoners were 
 taken, and can protest that I never saw anything of the kind ; and that when 
 the prisoners were put to death, it was from mere necessity, because of the in- 
 jury which we might have sustained from letting them escape, or to try if there 
 was no way of putting a stop to that barbarity which the enemy had always 
 shown, both in this war and the preceding ones, sparing neither men, women, 
 nor children. The story current amongst the enemy that we flayed the pri- 
 soners alive, may have arisen from the circumstance abeady mentioned, that 
 the Vaudois made use of human fat in preparing a salve for wounds. When, 
 therefore, they found a fat corpse, they opened it to take out the fat, and the 
 enemy, finding the bodies in this condition, were apt to imagine what I have 
 above stated, their own treatment of us tending to confirm them in such an 
 opinion. But this error was advantageous to us : for they conceived at last a 
 notion of this thing so terrible, that they no sooner saw us appear than they 
 became completely panic-stricken. The following circumstance I saw with my 
 own eyes, and could not have well believed it otherwise. Two of our people, 
 creeping along to surprise an advanced sentry of that regiment of dragoons 
 which I have already had occasion to mention, and being discovered, the regi- 
 ment quitted its post and ascended a height, from which they began to roll 
 down stones upon the two men. 
 
 The enemy, seeing how little success had attended all their enterprises, and 
 distressed by the continual snow and hail, were compelled to decamp. As this 
 movement took place entirely under our eyes, we waited imtil they had all de- 
 filed, to make an attack upon them, which we did at the descent of a hill. 
 They did not perceive us till we were upon them. They fell into confusion and 
 fled, without having time even to form a rear-guard. We pursued them for a 
 league and a half, firing upon them continually, whilst they never fired a single 
 shot. The most remarkable thing was, that the weather became fine as soon as 
 they were gone. 
 
 It was not long, however, till they came back, with a reinforcement of 3000 
 men of the troops of his royal highness, making, with the French troops, a 
 total of 13,000 men. They brought with them two cannons, and with great 
 difificulty dragged them to a height from which they might act against our forti- 
 fications. As we had always a detachment out somewhere, and it so happened 
 that we had then one of forty men in Pragela, we numbered in fact only 330 
 
 men. They invested us again on all sides. They then sent several communi- 
 cations to us, promising to give us good terms if we would surrender, but de- 
 claring that if we waited till the first cannon was fired we should have no quar- 
 ter. We having rejected this proposal, they afterwards added, that if we would 
 retire into Switzerland they would send hostages whom the Swiss should keep 
 till we were all arrived there, and that the king would give each of us 900 louis 
 d'or. As these were mere Machiavellian proposals, the whole object of which 
 was that they might have us without peril to themselves, we replied that they 
 must fire their cannon and we would find means to answer them. They again 
 demanded the lieutenant-colonel, offering us whatever money we might wish 
 for his ransom. We made them the same answer as before, that we wished 
 only to get other prisoners in exchange ; and at the same time we gave orders 
 to the man who kept ward over him, to kill him in the event of our fort being 
 stormed, which he did. We also intimated to the enemy that we wished to 
 have no more conferences with them. They continued, however, whilst they 
 laboured at their battery, to call to us very often through a speaking trumpet, 
 to surrender before the cannon began to fire, if we would save our lives, to 
 which we replied only by discharging our muskets. 
 
 The battery having begun to fire, made terrible havoc of our entrenchments, 
 which consisted only of dry stones, and it became impossible to remain behind 
 them. A sufficient breach having been made, the enemy divided themselves 
 into several bodies, in order to attack us on all sides We were thus obliged to 
 retire to our innermost stronghold ; and to do this we were under the necessity 
 of exposing ourselves to the fire of more than 3000 men, who kept up an inces- 
 sant fire on the points against which they had been led, whilst the rest pursued 
 us. Yet we had none killed, although many were wounded. Being no longer 
 .able either to advance or retreat, we arrested the enemy by musket shots, and 
 by rolling down stones upon them. However, we could not have continued 
 our resistance much longer, if the night had not come on, when the enemy re- 
 laxed their eSbrts ; but keeping us shut in upon all sides, and doubling their 
 guard, which was now limited to a much narrower space than before, they 
 had no thought that we could escape from them. Thus were we reduced to a 
 most deplorable condition, and to all appearance it was a tliousand to one that 
 we should all perish. But God yet once more displayed liis power in our be- 
 half, employing as his instrument for our deliverance an old Vaudois captain 
 called A'Polet. This good man, who had been a great hunter of roebucks, and 
 knew all the paths, encouraged us, and promised that with the help of God he 
 would extricate us from the midst of our enemies. As the first step towards 
 the execution of his plan, we kindled a number of fires, as if we had intended 
 to pass the night where we were. Then we moved oflF in single file, each man 
 holding by the coat of the man before him, for the night was so dark that if 
 any one let go the coat of his comrade, it was necessary to cause the head of 
 the file to halt. We were often compelled to hold by the brambles and bushes 
 to keep ourselves from falling down the steep. Besides all the other risks which 
 we ran, we passed close by several of the enemies* posts, so near, that to avoid 
 being heard, we all put off our shoes. At last, after having marched all night, 
 with extreme toil and incredible danger, we found ourselves at daybreak out of 
 danger. Of course the enemy did not fail to attack our fortress, as they were 
 commanded, and it is easy to imagine how great must have been their surprise. 
 The greater part of them believed that our minister was a magician, and that 
 he had transported us from thence in the clouds. We continued to march all 
 day without finding anything to eat. Next day we arrived at Rodorc^, where 
 
504. 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appekoix. 
 
 No. IIL] 
 
 JOUKNAL OF A VAUDOIS OFFICER. 
 
 605 
 
 we found herbs beginning to grow in some of the meadows, and halted to gather 
 them; but as we were going to cook them, the enemy, who had come by a 
 shorter road in order to cut us off, appearing at hand, we were compelled to de- 
 camp in haste. We did not fail, however, to carry with us our pots, and some 
 as they ran ate the half-cooked vegetables without any seasoning. We suc- 
 ceeded in increasing our distance from the French on paths which we knew 
 much better than they. And having passed over the mountain, we arrived at 
 Pramort, where there were four companies of Piedmontese. On our arrival, 
 two of them threw themselves into a church, and the other two into a house. 
 Tliere we besieged them, and some of our people having found means of mount- 
 ing on the roof of the house, made an opening in it by which we entered and 
 were hand to hand with these two companies. We gave quarter for the first 
 time to a captain, two lieutenants, and a surgeon. We would have dealt as 
 tenderly with the other captain, but he was too aged to be able to follow us, 
 which cost him his life. As for the soldiers who were in the church, we had 
 already applied fire to the door, which was burning satisfactorily, when the 
 French made their appearance, and we were obliged to relinquish this enter- 
 prise. Having sent our prisoners on before us, and also some cows which we 
 had found at this place, under the care of our wounded men, we amused the 
 enemy for some time until they should reach a sufl&cient distance ; after which 
 we retired to a place called Les Clots, a narrow pass at the base of a moantain 
 bordering on the valley of Lucema. 
 
 When we were established in this stronghold, his royal highness sent us 
 word by a special messenger, that he had entered into the grand alliance with 
 England and Holland, and that he would soon give us proof of it. But seeing 
 his troops acting against us in conjunction with those of the French, we sup- 
 posed that this was merely a snare to entrap us, and accordingly this message 
 produced no further effect. But whilst we were still in the same place, another 
 message came to us to the same purpose, with the addition, that to prove the 
 truth of it, we had only to fix a place where as much bread would be brought 
 to us as we had need of. We fixed a place, and took all possible precautions 
 against being surprised, if there should be any design of the kind. Finding 
 that the promise which had been made to us was kept, we took as much bread 
 as we could carry, and returned to the place from which we had come. On 
 this and the cows which we had brought from Pramort, we were able to subsist 
 lor some days. 
 
 The French did not now know where we were, till they wei-e conducted to 
 the spot by one of our detachments, which having attacked them, and having 
 been repulsed, was pursued by the enemy to our very hold. This led us to send 
 away our wounded men and our prisoners, with the surgeon, who had been sent 
 for M. de Parat, into a hole of the rock upon the mountain. 
 
 llie enemy having sent out a number of detachments with a view to cut us 
 off, we did as much in the same way on our part against them as the dispropor- 
 tion of our forces would permit. We anticipated the design of a party of forty 
 grenadiers, which was marching to intercept our passage by the summit of the 
 mountain, and intercepted theirs. After we had thrown them into disorder, 
 eighteen of our number pursued them, sword in hand, for half a league, till 
 they reached their reserve, with which they took shelter. M. De Clerembeau 
 was not more fortunate. For, having ascended in another place with a large 
 detachment, he was attacked by our people, and so roughly handled, that such 
 of his men as escaped slid down the mountain in a sitting posture to the base. 
 The snow boin- frozen, was in excellent condition for such an amusement. But, 
 
 unfortunately, these fugitives came upon the place where our womided men 
 
 7n^^' ' ^.^^ ^"'"^ '" ^'"^"^^ '^ ^^""^'^^y wounded that they could do nothing 
 to preserve themselves from capture, all contrived to make their escape except 
 
 pTrimo^r' r ^'"^ '^^*"''^' ^^^ ^^^ «^^^^^« ^^« recaptured, and the two 
 hyt^TX" r' ""\ "' ^^^'^'y- ^"^ '^' ^«""^«d ^^- ^-« t-d together 
 nes to hat VU ZT^'^'"'^^' '"^^^'^^ '^^ ^^ -ould have been an act of^ind- 
 tZltZ, !v '"^ '^' 'P^*' ^^^ '^'^ "^^« ^«^« Prol-^S-d only that 
 
 ZZrZl f' ^^''^ ""' '" *^"^ P"*^» *^^y *^«"S^* i* d«--We to have 
 some refreshment. There was there a Vaudois captain, with a detachment, 
 who, having allured his religion, had entered into the service of his roya 
 highness M. De Clerembeau, not knowing that his royal highness had en 
 tJlTl" r\ ""'"' ""^'^ '^' ""P^^^" if ^« ^°^ld have the goodness 
 W th!T rirl'' *^' """°^ ^' ^^^ detachment, which had escaped 
 
 tZl r '1" ^.r'^"'' '"^'"^ *^^* *^^y ^^^ ^^d -1^--* -thing to Zt 
 for some days. The Vaudois captain affected to sympathize very deeply in 
 his misfortunes, and said that nothing could be more reasonable than his re- 
 quest; that he would go to give orders about everything, and that in the mean- 
 time he must cause his men to lay down their arms and go into a house where 
 he would see that everything that was necessary should be brought to them. 
 All this being done as the captain desired, he caused his own detachment, whom 
 he had close at hand, to seize the arms of the enemy, after which he told M. De 
 Clerembeau that he arrested him and all his men, in the name of his royal 
 highness. This was cause of no little surprise, but at the same time of very 
 grea^ joy to our two wounded men, whom the captain ordered to be set at 
 liberty. Those of our people who had so severely handled this detachment, re- 
 turned to us laden with their spoils. 
 
 All this did not prevent the French from finding means of hemming us in 
 We were compelled to fight every day, and often in such close combat, thai 
 not having time to chai^ge our muskets without giving our enemies opportunity 
 of rushing upon us, we made good use of part of the weapons with which David 
 slew Goliath, and drove them back with stones. At this crisis, his royal 
 highness again sent a messenger to tell us to take courage, and that if we could 
 contrive to get out of the dangerous place in which we were, and would come 
 into the valley of Lucema, we would find plenty of provisions for our use He 
 knew our malady; for hunger was the worst enemy with which we had to con- 
 tend. He added also, that he had a regiment of French refugees on the march 
 to join us It was the regiment of Loche. All this gave us so much the more 
 pleasure, because till this time we had still feared that his royal highness was 
 against us. This good news being soon diffused, the courage of our men at 
 all our posts was redoubled, and that very evening we found means of making 
 our escape. ^ 
 
 We reached Beubi, where the garrison had orders from his royal highness 
 
 u°7^^^ti^** ^""^^ ^ '^' ^""^ ^"^ ^^^""^ "® ^'*°'® ^''^^ *°^ ^^nie ^ine which they 
 had. This order was executed even before our arrival, for they got out of 
 our way with as much haste, as if we had still been enemies. We, for our pari; 
 earned what we found there to a height at a small distance, where we resolved 
 to remain until we should have a perfect certainty of the alliance of which we 
 were stiU m doubt. But to put an end to all our suspicions, his royal high- 
 ness sent us some convoys of ammunition and provisions, and caused those of 
 our people that had been taJcen prisoners to be restored to us. The detachment 
 which had gone to Pragela, before we were besieged in om- fort, r^oined u. 
 ^'''" ^^' 124 
 
506 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appendix. 
 
 now, and we received confirmation on all hands of the news that his royal 
 highness was really our ally. Our wounded men, who had been dispersedj.y 
 the fu-itives of M. De Clerembeau's detachment, also returned. There was 
 one of°thera who having wandered among the mountains and having nothmg 
 to eat, killed a young wolf which he came upon, and subsisted for some days 
 upon its raw flesh. He rejoined us about the end of this tmie, his wound 
 being healed, for which he had never done anything except to wash it witn 
 fresh water, which served him instead of spirits, and balsam. ., , ^ , 
 
 Shortly after this, his royal highness sent the Chevalier Verceil to tafce 
 command of us . • • > &c. 
 
 The remainder of the memoir is chiefly fiUed with particulars aheady known, 
 and which are related in the Israel of the Alps, 
 
 APPENDIX No. IV. 
 
 NOTE, BY THE TBANSLATOB, ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTEOVEBST 
 I40TE, BT u ^^^^^^^^ ^^g ^^j^jijj OF THE VaUDOIS. 
 
 It is my wish merely to present, in the following pages such * view as the 
 necessary limits will admit, of the opinions and arguments which have been 
 IdvS by two or three of the authors who have taJ.en the most prominent 
 ;' tTthis'controversy, and whose works appear most deserving of attention 
 Tiie temptation to enter into the discussion of the subject, will, as far as possi- 
 bl^ be'esisted ; but I do not hold myself bound to abstain from the expression 
 of opinion or the indication of an objection to an argument 
 
 Were I to enter into the discussion of the unportant subject to which this 
 Appendix relates, I would arrange my observations according to the parte of 
 tha^ subject. But my present intention will perhaps be better accomplished 
 consistently with the narrow limits to which I must confine myself, by a diflfer- 
 ent mode of procedure. I propose, therefore, to exhibit a concise analysis of 
 a few of the most important recent works upon this subject m the order of 
 their publication. The first of these, and the only one which I shall notice of 
 which' the author belongs to the Church of Rome, is the work anonymou^y 
 published in 1836, but afterwards acknowledged by M. Chakvaz, then Bishop 
 of Pi^nerol "Recherches Hibtoriques sur la veritable Origins des Vad- 
 DOiSET SUB LA cabact£be de leubs doctbines pbimitives," an octavo volume 
 
 of considerable thickness.^ „ , .. ^ , 
 
 M. Charvaz begins by assuming that Bossuet did not feel it to be necessary 
 to discuss the question of the origin of the Vaudois in his History of the Var- 
 iationa of Protestantism, because most of the writers of his own and of preced- 
 
 I Seo tho " BibUography," pp. 411 and 412 of the present volume. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 507 
 
 ing times held the same opinion upon that subject with himself.* Yet afterwards, 
 apparently unconscious of the inconsistency, he refers the opposite opinion to 
 the period of the Reformation, and to the dishonesty both of the Vaudois and 
 the Reformers, whom he represents as more anxious to establish an apparent 
 apostolic descent, than scrupulous about the means of accomplishing it.^ In 
 addressing himself to his task of proving that the Vaudois had no existence 
 prior to the latter part of the twelfth century, M. Charvaz singles out two advo- 
 cates of the opposite opinion, against whom more especially to contend with the 
 weapons of argument, sarcasm, and ridicule. Tliese are two Vaudois ministers, 
 M. Brez, the author of a History of the Vaudois, published in Paris in 1796;' 
 and M. Muston, now the author of the Israel of the Alps, but who had then 
 only given to the world the first volume of a History of the Vaudois on a dif- 
 ferent plan,* upon account of which he was banished from the land of his 
 fathers, and separated from his friends and from his flock. 
 
 It may be noticed in passing, that M. Charvaz descants not a little upon the 
 uncharitable spirit displayed, as he thinks, by these writers, and by the whole 
 class to which they belong, in the use of such expressions as atj'ocities, fero- 
 cious fanaticism, and the monstrous tyranny of Home. He wonders at their 
 want of gentleness, but ascribes it to their religion ! * His own gentleness and 
 charity prevent him from giving utterance to any severe censure of the deeds 
 which have formed, as he says, "the text for the outrageous declamations of the 
 Vaudois historians." He describes only the declamations as outrageous [bloody] f 
 he applies no such epithet to the deeds. Thus he aflbrds an illustration of a kind 
 of charity very peculiar, but sufficiently familiar to those who have read much in 
 the writings of the controversialists of Rome. That the treatment to which the 
 Vaudois were subjected, can be appropriately characterized in language less 
 severe than that which Protestant historians have employed, M. Charvaz does 
 not think it necessary even to attempt to show. But he would fain relieve his 
 church from the blame, if the deeds are blameworthy ; and whereas the want 
 of gentleness and charity seems at first to be in the mere use of the severe con- 
 demnatory language, it by-and-by seems rather to be in the application of that 
 langujige to the Church of Rome, to which the events which are the text of the 
 outrageous declamations ought by no means to be ascribed. No, the Vaudois 
 were never persecuted on account of their religion ; they suffered only as rebels 
 against the state ! ' The effrontery with which such an assertion is hazarded, 
 can only be excelled by the parade of charity with which it is accompanied. 
 And when we find M, Charvaz charging Vaudois authors with dishonesty in the 
 use of documents, or seeming to establish a point by quotations from authors 
 not easily accessible for verification, it is right to bear in mind not only the 
 common tricks of the apologists of Rome, with whom dishonest quotation is 
 habitual, but also how, in this instance, he shows himself capable of misrepre- 
 senting the surest and plainest facts of history. 
 
 For sources of true information respecting the Vaudois, M. Charvaz refuses 
 the Vaudois historians, because (he says it with pain !) they are not to be trusted ; 
 they abound in falsehoods and contradictions.* And in support of his strong 
 statements upon this point, he quotes a letter of Morland, which is nothing to 
 the purpose. Morland complains of the difficulty which he finds in obtaining 
 exact information concerning the events of a period of war and trouble, and that 
 
 1 Avant-propos, p. ii 
 
 ' Seo " Bibliography," in the present volume, pp. 40S, 409. 
 
 * Avant-propos, p. x. • Sanglantes. ^ Avant-propos, p. xi. 
 
 2 P. 96, et aeq. 
 * Ibid. p. 405. 
 8 P. 19. 
 
508 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [IPPKHDIX. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 609 
 
 the published narratives are inaccurate in many things. And this M. Charvaz 
 is pleased to accept as a proof not only of the unfaithfuhiess of the Vaudois 
 pastors, by whom some of these narratives were written, but of Vaudois authors 
 in general. Had not this conclusion been one which it suited his purpose to 
 draw, M. Charvaz would have easily found many reasons for inaccuracy of de- 
 tails in the contemporary narratives of a time of trouble, quite consistent with 
 truthfulness, and would have seen the foUy of extending an inference from a 
 few such narratives to all the writings of Vaudois pastors. 
 
 He has yet another reason for refusing to admit the Vaudois historiano as 
 authorities in the earlier periods of Vaudois history: they do not write the 
 history of the sect of Valdo, but that of an imaginary sect which nobody ever 
 knew anything about till they proclaimed it. But this is so manifestly the very 
 question at issue, that it is hard to imagine how even a Popish controversialist 
 could venture to introduce it, at the outset, as a reason for his choice of authori- 
 ties, -rr J • 
 
 Prevented, by these strong reasons, from giving any heed to Vaudois evidence, 
 M. Charvaz has recourse to the evidence of old authors who have written con- 
 cerning the Vaudois sect. That the evidence thus obtained may be a little one- 
 sided, does not appear to occur to him as any objection to its absolute suffici- 
 ency. His mode of procedure, in these historic researches, is to fling aside at 
 once all that comes from a Vaudois source, and to receive with full confidence 
 all that is said of the Vaudois by their adversaries. 
 
 No fact, he says, is more clearly established by contemporary evidence, or 
 unites more perfectly all the characteristics of historic certainty, than that the 
 Vaudois were regarded as a sect of quite recent origin at the beginning of the 
 thirteenth century, and that they first made their appearance in the latter half 
 of the twelfth .» The first witness whom he adduces is Bernard, abbot of Fon- 
 cald, who, in the end of the twelfth century, wi-ote a Treatise against the Vau- 
 dois.^ He rests much upon the fact, that this author designates the Vaudois 
 as new heretics, who suddenly made their appearance in the time of Pope Lu- 
 cius (Lucius III., 1181-85), and were condemned by that pope, and by the 
 Bishop of Narbonne ; and he argues that even if some years elapsed between the 
 first promulgation of their errors and the condemnation of them, these heretics 
 must be held not to have appeared till towards the end or within the second half 
 of the twelfth century.' But he forgets that if the existence of the Vaudois in 
 the earlier part of the second half of the twelfth century can be proved, it is 
 as fatal to the supposition that they derived their doctrines and their name from 
 Valdo, as if they were proved to have maintained the same doctrines and borne 
 the same name in the previous century: for it was not tiU 1173 that, according 
 to the Chronicle of Laon, Valdo began to devote himself to a life of piety and 
 evangelistic zeal; it was not till 1178 that he went to Rome to lay before Pope 
 Alexander III. his scheme of a religious fraternity, and it was shortly after 
 this year that he became the object of dislike on the part of the bishops and 
 clergy and that he and his disciples incurred ecclesiastical censures, and finaUy 
 excommunication, which was confirmed by Pope Lucius in 1184.* Moreover, 
 the words of Bernard of Foncald, " Suhitu extulerunt caput novi heretici," do 
 not very clearly declare that the heresy originated at the time of which he 
 speaks, but may signify no more than that these heretics then, for the first time^ 
 
 » See the Imul of the Alps, vol. i. p. 18. note, and the " Bibliography/' m^the present 
 '"♦'see'cSuy, article " Valdo," in the seventh edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
 attracted attention by new eflTorts for the promulgation of their opinions. And 
 if the words were more precise, yet they could not well be admitted as proving 
 "more than that Bernard, his perfect truthfulness being taken for granted, was 
 not aware of the previous existence of the sect. His evidence on this point 
 cannot well be regarded as more than merely negative, seeing that he does not 
 declare the connection between the Vaudois and Valdo, but gives another deriva- 
 tion of the name of the Vaudois, ** Nimirum a voile densd."^ However, this 
 derivation may be regarded as merely a jest upon the part of the old abbot;* 
 yet his omission of all mention of Valdo is not only important, as rendering his 
 evidence concerning the novelty of the sect merely negative, but also as show- 
 ing either that he was very imperfectly informed concerning the subject of 
 which he wrote, or that the connection between Valdo and the Vaudois was 
 much less intimate than even Vaudois and Protestant historians are accustomed 
 to represent it. The testimony of this witness, viewed as a whole, is certainly 
 not favourable to the case, in support of which M. Charvaz has called him. 
 
 The second witness whom he adduces is Alain de I'lsle {Alanus Mar/mis de 
 Insulis),^ a celebrated professor of theology in the university of Paris, towards 
 the end of the twelfth century. This author certainly says that the Vaudois 
 derive their name from their heresiarch Valdo,* but his distant residence renders 
 his testimony on such a point of little value,* whilst his spirit is displayed in 
 bitter and ridiculous declamations against Valdo and his disciples. Moreover, 
 he speaks of the new heretics of his time as the promulgators both of new and 
 old heresies, "Imd veteribus et novissimis hceresihus debacchantes" But that the 
 ** heresies" of the Vaudois were more ancient than the days of Valdo, is the 
 very point with reference to which the question of the origin of the name is of 
 importance. 
 
 M. Charvaz next quotes from Eberard of Bdthune,' but to what purpose does 
 not appear, as Eberard never mentions Valdo, and, like Bernard of Foncald, 
 gives a derivation of the name Vallenses from vallis,'' making the supposition 
 not improbable * that he wrote before Valdo had done anything to attract notice. 
 Peter of Vaucernay, whom M. Charvaz next adduces,® and whose history of 
 the Albigenses was probably written in 1212, certainly derives the name of the 
 Vaudois from Valdo, but his whole account of them is such as may be supposed 
 to have been written by a credulous and bigoted monk, but could never have 
 proceeded from the pen of a well-informed and trustworthy historian. As to 
 the inhabitants of the Alpine valleys, Peter of Vaucernay might very probably 
 know little about them ; and even as to the Albigenses, the main subject of his 
 history, he relates things utterly absurd and incredible.'* 
 
 After these witnesses, M. Charvaz brings forward, with no little parade, 
 
 » See Israel of the Alps, vol. i. pp. 13, 14, and notes there. 
 
 2 His woi-ds are, " Qui quodam praesagio futurorum sortiti vocabulum, dicti sunt Val- 
 denses ; nimirum a valle densS, ; eo quod profiuidis et densis errorum tenebris involvantur." 
 The passage is given by Charvaz in his Appendix. 
 
 ' See " Bibliography," in this volume, p. 413. 
 
 * " Hi Valdenses dicuntur a suo hseresiarcha qui vocabatur Valdus." 
 
 * It is perhaps worthy of notice, as bearing on the value of the testimony of Alanus Mag- 
 nus, " the universal doctor," that he records the familiar appearance of Satan to the Albi- 
 genses in the form of a great cat. (See Faber, Valleiises a7id Albigenses, pp. 253 and 255.) 
 
 « P. 40, &c. See Israel of the Alps, vol. i. p. 18, note, and p. 413 of the present volume. 
 
 ? "Quidam autem qui Vallenses se appellant, eo quod in valle lacrymarum maneant, 
 Apostolos habentes in derisum," &o. 
 
 8 See Israel of the Alps, vol. i. p. 18, note. ' P. 42, &c. 
 
 JO See Faber, Inquiry into the History and Theology of the Ancient VaUenses and AWigenses, 
 p. 255, note. 
 
510 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [A.PP1MD1I. 
 
 ** one who, of all that were contemporary, or nearly contemporaiy, with Valdo, 
 has recorded, with the greatest minuteness and precision, everything relative to 
 the time, the place, and other circumstances, of the appearance of this sect."* 
 This important witness is Stephen of Belleville, or of Borbone,2 who certainly 
 gives a sufl&ciently minute and circumstantial account of the commencement of 
 Valdo's evangelistic laboiu^, and declares him to have been the first author of 
 the heresy of°the Vaudois (*' Valdenses autem dicti sunt k piimo hujus haeresis 
 auctore, qui nominatus fuit Waldensis"). The passage quoted from this author, 
 M. Charvaz thinks, leaves nothing to be desired, the evidence which it contains 
 is so conclusive as to the origin of the Vaudois heresy. Father Stephen, how- 
 ever, was not quite a contemporary of Valdo ; the date assigned by M. Charvaz, 
 for his having already acquired a great reputation by the exercise of his ministry 
 at Lyons, is 1223, fully thirty years after the events which he relates ; and whilst 
 allowance ought certainly to be made for the influence on his mind and narra- 
 tive of the prejudices of his class, it seems worthy of notice, that he calls the 
 Lyonese reformer not Valdo, but Waldensis, or Valdensis, which seems an ap- 
 pellative, and as such needs to be accounted for; and also that he speaks of 
 Valdo's followers, the Pow Men of Lyons, as having joined with other heretics 
 of Provence and Lombardy, whose errors they adopted and propagated. (*' Postea 
 in Provinciae terra et Lombardiae cum aliis haereticis se admiscentes, et errorem 
 eorum bibentes et serentes.") M. Charvaz thinks himself entitled to ridicule 
 M. Muston for assuming, as he says (in his first work), that these pre-existing 
 heretics, of Provence and Lombardy, were the Vaudois of Piedmont. But the 
 proof that the Vaudois doctrines existed in Lombardy and Piedmont before 
 Valdo's time, is as complete aa M. Charvaz's own witness can make it. 
 
 His next witness, whom he thinks as good as those already adduced, is Father 
 Moneta, "a celebrated professor of philosophy, in the university of Bologna,"' 
 to whose work he assigns the date 1244, and who speaks of the Vaudois heresy 
 having originated with Valdo about eighty years before — (' * Non sunt plures quam 
 octoginta anni, vel si plures aut pauciores, parum plures velpauciores existunt"). 
 This statement Moneta makes for the purpose of arguing that the Vaudois can- 
 not be the church of God— ("Ergo non sunt successores Ecclesiae primitivae; ergo 
 non sunt Ecclesia Dei"). "But if the Vaudois assert that their way existed 
 before Valdo, let them prove it by some evidence," says Father Moneta, 
 "which," he adds, "they can by no means do."* Father Monete may not be 
 a very good witness to prove that the Vaudois originated from Vuldo, although, 
 certainly, a very willing one ; but he is not a bad witness to prove that in his 
 day already the Vaudois represented themselves as having existed before Valdo, 
 so that this is not, as is sometimes alleged by Popish writers, a novel claim of 
 comparatively recent times. 
 
 M. Charvaz's next witness is Reynerus Saccho,* who, having been for some 
 time a Vaudois minister, became a Popish priest and inquisitor of the province of 
 Lombardy. These circumstances, M. Charvaz thinks, entitle him to the highest 
 possible credit ; and a passage in which he declares the Leonists, or Poor Men 
 of Lyons, to have originated from Valdo, is vauutingly adduced as decisive ; 
 and because it is so decisive concerning the origin of the Vaudois, the Vaudois 
 a^ithors, M. Charvaz says, have not ventured to quote it ! It is not necessary 
 to follow him into any question concerning the identity of the Vaudois and the 
 Poor Men of Lyons. Admitting all that he asserts on this point, the testi- 
 
 » P. 43. 2 See p. 414 of this volume. 
 
 * See Chareaz, pp. 49-52, and Appendix, p. 457. 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 5 See p. 412 of this volume. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 511 
 
 mony of his witness, Reynerus, on the question of the relation of the Vaudois 
 to Valdo, is manifestly worthless. 
 
 Not much more to the purpose is that of Peter de Polichdorf,' whom he next 
 quotes, and who, he says, " lived, according to Basnage, towards the middle of 
 the thirteenth century, and must have been perfectly acquainted with the Vau- 
 dois."^ Incidentally, however, it appears from the passage which M. Charvaz 
 quotes from Polichdorf, that the Vaudois of his day by no means recognized 
 Valdo as the founder of their sect, and on this point his testimony is liable to 
 no suspicion. He is very angry with these "sons of iniquity," for referring 
 their separate ecclesiastical existence to the time of Pope Sylvester, when they 
 represented the Roman church as having become corrupt by the acquirement 
 of temporal possessions— (" Ortus et origo Waldensium haereticorum talis est: 
 licet iniquitatis filii coram simplicibus mentiantur, dicentes sectam eorum durasse 
 a temporibus Sylvestri papae").' That Polichdorf makes such mistakes in mat- 
 ters of fact, as to make the author of the Vaudois heresy a rich citizen of Wal- 
 den* instead of Lyons, and to give the time of Pope Innocent II., who died in 
 1143, as that in which his heresy originated, does not seem to M. Charvaz a reason 
 for doubting his evidence concerning the connection of the Vaudois with Valdo. 
 These are mere errors in matters of detail,^ he says, and easily accounted for, 
 by considering that Polichdorf was a German, and somewhat more remote than 
 the previous witnesses from the scene of the events. With still greater absurdity, 
 if possible, M. Charvaz goes on to quote a fragment of uncertain authorship, 
 sometimes ascribed to PoUchdorf, from which he tries to make it appear that 
 the Vaudois of Polichdorf's time were accustomed to mention more than one 
 date of their origin, and more than one founder of their sect ; that if their fiction 
 {mensonge) regarding the times of Pope Sylvester were not credited, they might, 
 at least, get credit for having existed from the time of Valdo. The probability 
 that his author may have blundered in some of these matters of detail, does not 
 occur to M. Charvaz. 
 
 And now he proceeds to adduce his last witness, an anonymous author, by 
 some supposed to have been Ivonetus,^ but of whom he does not himself pre- 
 tend to fix the precise date, and who, after all, only says that the Poor Men of 
 Lyons derived their origin from Valdo ( Valdensis). He thinks it unnecessary 
 to go farther in the way of quotation, because "the depositions of witnesses, 
 posterior to those who have been cited, could add nothing to their authority." 
 He might have made the same reflection rather sooner ; but with prodigious 
 complacency, he tells us that these "contemporary, or almost contemporary" 
 authors whom he has quoted, must be the source and authority of all history 
 upon this subject. » Let the reader look again to the dates of the contemporary, 
 or almost contemporary authors, and compare them with the date of Valdo's 
 labours. And let the character and prejudices of the witnesses be duly taken 
 into account, that it may be seen whether M. Charvaz has established the point 
 with regard to which they were adduced. A very Httle inquiry inio the stories 
 told concerning the heretics of these ages, by contemporary or almost contem- 
 porary monks and priests, is enough to deprive their testimonies of much value, 
 even as to those things which they might have known with greatest certainty." 
 M. Charvaz now takes up a new branch of his argument. He undertakes to 
 
 I See p. 413 of this volume. ' Charvaz, p. 62. » Charvaz, Appendix, p. 4C0. 
 
 4 "Quae in finibus FxaucLs sita est," says he; but the site of WaLden has never been dis- 
 
 covered. 
 « Charvaz, p. 65. « See p. 414 of this volume. ' Charvaz, pp. 75, <6, 
 
 ' 8 aoe Faber, Ancient Valknses and Albigciises. 
 
512 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [apfbndix. 
 
 account for the alliance of the Vaudois and the Reformers, and after a descrip- 
 tion of Protestantism, to which it is hard to say whether ignorance or wilful 
 falsehood has most largely contributed, he sets forth, with all the confidence of 
 a historian stating the most notorious facts, the motives by which both Vaudois 
 and Protestants were basely animated, the hatred of the Roman Catholic church 
 which impelled the Vaudois to embrace the new tenets of the Reformers, and 
 the anxiety for some show of antiquity which made the Protestants value such 
 feeble auxiliaries. After this characteristic display of generous and charitable 
 feeling, he goes on to state that a descent from Valdo not appearing sufficient, 
 a claim to higher antiquity was invented, and Valdo was represented not as the 
 founder of a sect, but as a disciple of a sect long previously existing.* It can 
 hardly escape observation, that this account of the origin of the Vaudois claim 
 to an antiquity reaching back beyond the time of Valdo, is directly contrary 
 to the admissions of the old Catholic authors, just before adduced as witnesses 
 by M. Charvaz, who, in the very passages quoted by him, plainly speak of such 
 a claim as already put forth by the Vaudois in their time. It seems, however, 
 to have escaped the observation of the Bishop of Pignerol. He had not a 
 sufficiently good memory ! 
 
 Proceeding to another part of his subject, he discusses the origin of the name 
 Waldenses or Vaudois, a point, however, upon which he does not throw much 
 light. He, indeed, aflfects to despise the derivation of Valdo or Valdensis 
 from vallis (a valley) ; but seems to admit, that the latter form of Valdo's name 
 has been used upon the supposition of its being a name derived from the name 
 of a place.2 As to the old Catholic authors who derive the name from vallis, 
 playfully adding pleasant fancies of their own as to the kind of valley, M. Char- 
 vaz does not hesitate to set aside all that they have said of this sort, keeping 
 firm hold, however, of their statement, that Valdo founded the Vaudois sect. 
 Polichdorf was "certainly mistaken" when he made the heresiarch a citizen of 
 Valden; but Polichdorf does say that Valdo founded the Vaudois sect {Petria 
 
 Valdensis ex quo secta Valdensis est orta), **and this is enough for 
 
 us (et cela nous suffit)," adds M. Charvaz, with no apparent consciousness of 
 absurdity.' 
 
 M. Charvaz devotes a number of pages to the other names borne by the Vau- 
 dois, in what he calls the first ages of their existence, and to their union with 
 other sects, in which will be found little that is relevant to the question of their 
 origin : but an argument which he founds upon a passage of William of Puy 
 Laurens, perhaps deserves to be noticed. That author mentions amongst here- 
 tical sects, the Vaudois or Lyonese (Valdenses sive Lugdimenses). It is im- 
 possible, says M. Charvaz in a note, to imagine how this historian could call 
 them indifferently Vaudois or Lyonese, unless they really derived their origin 
 from Lyons and from Peter Valdo ! * It is impossible for him to imagine that 
 the new impulse given to their cause may have given rise, and particulaily 
 amongst those who knew nothing of them before, to a new name. 
 
 It may not be improper to mention also, an attempt which M. Charvaz makes 
 to show that the advocates of the antiquity of the Vaudois are at variance 
 amongst themselves as to the date to which they make it remount, some going 
 back only to Claude of Turin, some to Pope Sylvester, and some to the apos- 
 tles. This is only worthy of notice, however, as showing the unfairness which 
 characterizes M. Charvaz as a controversialist. He is one of those who mis- 
 represent their opponents, and to whom no sort of argument comes amiss. 
 
 » Charvaz, pp. 86-108. » Ibid. p. 117. • Ibid. p. 133. « Ibid. p. 153. 
 
 No. IV] 
 
 OKIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 513 
 
 A large part of his work is devoted to an examination of the proofs which 
 have been adduced to show that the Vaudois existed before the days of Valdo. 
 He expresses himself in very strong terms against the Vaudois historians for 
 resting too much upon certain passages which they quote from Reynerus Saccho 
 and from Polichdorf, and dishonestly keeping out of view the great number of 
 other writers, some of whom are more ancient than these, who testify expressly 
 against this pretended antiquity. We have seen already who these other writers 
 are, and what their testimony is. We may take for granted that M. Charvaz 
 has not failed to supply this defect of the Vaudois historians. The passage of 
 Reynerus, quoted by L^ger and other authors as supporting the Vaudois claim 
 of antiquity, causes him no little trouble. No sect is more pernicious, Reynerus 
 says, than that of the Leonists, and this for three reasons, first, because it is of 
 longer endurance, some saying that it has endured from the time of Sylvester, 
 and some, that it has endured from the time of the apostles ; secondly, because 
 it is more general, there being almost no country in which it does not exist. 
 ("Inter omnes has sectas, qua3 nunc sunt, vel fuerunt, non est perniciosior 
 Ecclesiae quam Leonistarum. Et hoc tribus de causis. Prima est quia est 
 diuturnior. Aliqui enim dicunt quod duraverit a tempore Sylvestri : aliqui a 
 tempore Apostolorum. Secunda quia est generalior. Fere enim nulla est terra 
 in qua haec secta non sit. Tertia," &c.') In his next chapter, Reynerus gives au 
 account of the origin of the Leonists, deriving them from Valdo of Lyons, and 
 which we have already seen that M. Charvaz adduces in support of his view 
 of the origin of the Vaudois. But it is in vain that he alleges that chapter to 
 have been intended by Reynerus as a refutation of the higher antiquity ascribed 
 by some to the Leonists, or claimed by themselves. The passage bears no such 
 shape ; and Reynerus remains a witness that in his day the claim was well 
 known, which Popish writers would now fain represent as a novelty of modem 
 times. And, moreover, it may fairly be taken for granted, that if Reynerus, 
 who wrote little more than half a century after the days of Valdo, had regarded 
 the claim to antiquity as utterly unfounded, he would not have failed to have 
 exclaimed against those who had the audacity to advance it. The writers of his 
 class and time do not generally err on the side of excessive gentleness. Nor 
 does M. Charvaz himself, notwithstanding his pretensions in that way, when 
 he calls L^ger a liar, for asserting, as on the authority of Polichdorf, the preva- 
 lence of an opinion amongst the Vaudois of his time, that they had existed, at 
 least, from the beginning of the sixth century. The words of Polichdorf have 
 been already quoted, and the reader may judge for himself as to their import. 
 It may be here mentioned, once for all, that M. Charvaz perpetually reiterates 
 charges of dishonesty against the Vaudois authors, and makes it an argument 
 against their religion, that it was found to have need of such support ! 
 
 It is not necessary, for our present puqiose, to follow this author very closely 
 in the part of his work to which we have now come, nor even to inquire whether 
 he is or is not successful in setting aside some of the arguments adduced by 
 Vaudois authors. Let us pass on to his examination of the Vaudois docu- 
 ments. He begins by saying that Ldger published many in his History, but 
 that the Vaudois writers of the present day have prudently reduced the num- 
 ber to two — the Boole of Antichrist and the Nolle Lesson. The truth of this 
 statement may be, in some measure, tested by reference to Part II. of the Bihlio- 
 fjvaphy in the present volume. As to the Book op Antichrist,* M. Charvaz 
 refubes to admit that it can be a production of the twelfth century, because of 
 
 • Quoted by M. Charvaz, iu Appendix, p. 474. 
 Vol. II. 
 
 2 Bee pp. 443, 444, of tliis volume. 
 
 125 
 
i 
 
 514 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appf. 
 
 KI)IX. 
 
 the quotation which it contains from the Milleloquium, a work of which the 
 author was born in 1243.* He also denies that it is a Vaudois work at all, and 
 his reasons are curious. He not only argues from the absence of anything dis- 
 tinctively Vaudois, or which did not equally belong to the Cathari, and from 
 the want of any mention of the Vaudois by name (he does not say that the 
 Cathari, or any of the other sects whom he would represent as so distinct from 
 the Vaudois, are mentioned by name), but he actually finds an argument in the 
 absence of any mention of the founder of the Vaudois, and of the time and 
 circumstances in which they originated,* 
 
 Having thus satisfactorily disposed of the treatise Of Antichrist, he proceeds 
 to consider the Noble LesiOn.^ On this he ventures an opinion similar to that 
 which he has expressed concerning the treatise Of Antichrist, that it may not 
 be a Vaudois work at all, but that the author may have belonged to the Cathari, 
 or the Petrobnisians.* It is curious, then, not only that the work, along with 
 others, should have been preserved by the Vaudois only, but that the author 
 should have mentioned the Vaudois only, and in the manner he does,* and not 
 his own sect. M. Charvaz feels this difficulty, and tries to get quit of it by 
 saying, that such compliments are common amongst friends associated in the 
 same cause ! ^ 
 
 But, according to M. Charvaz, the most eminent philologists and paleograph- 
 ists assign to the Noble Lesson the date of the thirteenth century, or not earlier 
 than the twelfth, so as to place it after the appearance of Valdo.^ Philology 
 and paleography must be nicely accurate, to determine, in such a case, as to 
 a few decades, less or more. But for the greater assurance of his readers, 
 M. Charvaz favours them with a facsimile of a few lines of the Noble Lesson, 
 from the Geneva MS. — As to the important line which fixes, or seems to fix, 
 the date, he accounts for it by reference to the prevalence of the notion that the 
 world was to be destroyed about the year 1000, and by the supposition, which 
 many others have made, and the probability of which every one may estimate 
 for himself, that such a date might be used at any time till the end (and his theory, 
 of course, brings it very nearly to the end) of the century. 
 
 These are the parts of M. Chai'vaz's work which chiefly demand attention in 
 connection with the present question. It is not necessary to examine, in the 
 same manner, the chapters which he devotes to the pretensions of antiquity 
 made by the Vaudois in their petitions to the Dukes of Savoy, the testimonies 
 in favour of their antiquity which have been derived from the writings of Pro- 
 testants, their alleged separation from the Church of Eome in the days of Claude 
 of Turin, &c. Were there space for it, a few extracts might be given of his 
 vilifications of Claude of Turin, on whom he heaps abuse, partly original, and 
 partly collected from the writings of Theodemir, Dungal, Jonas of Orleans, 
 and other eminent contemporaries of the iconoclast bishop. Towards the con- 
 clusion of his work, he turns to account the outward confonnity of the Vaudois 
 before the Reformation to the Church of Rome ; contrasts the doctrines of Valdo 
 
 ' On this point see Dr. Muston's remarks, in p. 4i4 of this volume. * Charvaz, p. 242. 
 
 » See the Itrael qftlu Alps, vol. i. p. 15 and p. 28; and the present volume, pp. 420-422 
 and 458-460. 
 
 « Ckarvaz, p. 259. * See Ismd of the Alps, vol. i. p. 28. 
 
 « It appears to me that the argument of Dr. Muston, in pp. 420-422 and 458-400 of this 
 volume, derives additional force from a consideration of the form of the name Vaudois in the 
 Noble Lesson, " Ilh dion qu'es Vaudes e degne de punir." Without pretending to know much 
 of the Romance tongue, I think I may venture to express the opinion that this is not an ad- 
 jective formed from the name Valdo, or from the nam© of any man whatever. 
 
 ^ Charvaz, p. 253. 
 
 Ko IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 515 
 
 and his followers, in the thirteenth century, with those of the present Vaudois ; 
 exclaims against Valdo's vain imagination that he could understand and explain 
 the Scriptures, and his error of thinking that laics can preach, and finds occa- 
 sion to bestow a few passing words upon Bible Societies. There is nothing m 
 this latter part of the work of any real importance, except what relates to the 
 doctrines of the Vaudois; and in the works which stiU remain to be noticed, 
 this subject is both more fully and more fairly treated. 
 
 I proceed now to give some account of an academic thesis (ad sacra Christi 
 natalitia anni 1848 pie ritdque celebranda) by Dr. Herzog, ordinary professor 
 of theology in HaUe, " De oniGiNE et pristino statu Waldensium secundum 
 
 ANTIQUISSIMA EORUM SCRIPTA CUM LIBRIS CaTHOLTCORUM EJUSDEM ^VI COL- 
 
 LATA." The plan of this thesis has been stated by Dr. Muston in the " Biblio- 
 giaphy" of the Israel of the Alj^s.^ 
 
 Dr. Herzog begins by expressing his opinion that the disputed question of 
 the origin and pristine state of the Vaudois, admits of being much elucidated by 
 a comp°arison of the most ancient Vaudois documents with the writings of the 
 Roman Catholic authors who have mentioned them since the end of the twelfth 
 century, and his surprise that this comparison has not already been made. He 
 blames those who have written on this subject, for confining themselves too 
 much to one class of authorities, and applies this censure to Muston on the one 
 side,2 and to Bishop Charvaz on the other. Even the writers who attribute the 
 greatest authority to the Waldensian documents, have not, he says, closely 
 enough examined them. 
 
 The whole controversy, he says, may be reduced to this, Did the Vaudois 
 exist under that name before the year 1170, when Valdo made his appearance 
 as a reformer, or is Valdo himself to be regarded as the founder of the sect? 
 With which question another is connected, Did the Vaudois, before the time of 
 Valdo, occupy the same regions which they now occupy ? This is certainly the 
 question to be tried, but it is not so easy to agree with Dr. Herzog, when he 
 goes on to state the test by which he thinks it may be determined, namely, to 
 examine carefully if those things which the "Catholics" report concerning the 
 Vaudois doctrines and institutions agree with the things which are to be found 
 in the books of the Vaudois themselves ; for if so, he thinks it plain that the 
 account given by the Roman Catholic authors must be received, and the Vau- 
 dois accordingly held to have originated from Valdo ; but if the Vaudois docu- 
 ments do not correspond with the Roman Catholic report of the doctrines and 
 institutions of Valdo's followers, then he thinks it may be concluded that there 
 was another and more ancient sect separated from the Church of Rome, and 
 occupying those same regions in which the documents were found. " Nam si 
 demonstrari potest, libros Catholicos eandem hominum societatem spectare 
 quam Waldensium libri produnt, liquido patet, Catholicis fidem adhibendam 
 esse, nee dubitandam, quin Waldenses omnino a Waldo illo oriundi sint. Quod 
 
 Bi contra," &c.' 
 
 Now, that which Dr. Herzog thinks so plain ("liquido patet"), I think by 
 no means plain at all ; and as this is of so great importance, it may not be im- 
 proper to pause here for a little and consider it. The fruits of his learned re- 
 searches still remain in this and his other work, hereafter to be noticed, undi- 
 minished in value by any fallacy which may be found in his argument; but if 
 that argument shall be found based upon an entirely fallacious principle, the 
 conclusion at which he arrives may be regarded as probably erroneous, and the 
 
 • See p. 415 of this volume. * With reference, of course, to his first work only. 
 
 ' Herzog, De Orig., &c., p. 2. 
 
; 
 
 516 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appendix. 
 
 materials which he has provided ought to be gratefully accepted and used anew. 
 Now, surely it is not enough to warrant a conclusion in favour of the accuracy 
 of the account given by Roman Catholic writers of the origin of the Vaudois, 
 that it shall be found from comparison of their writings and the Vaudois docu- 
 ments, that they relate to the same sect. Dr. Herzog himself afterwards ad- 
 mits that the Roman Catholic writers are by no means accurate in all their 
 statements regarding the Vaudois. That the authors of the Vaudois poems, 
 and other works, were of the number of those whom the Catholics called Wal- 
 denses ("ex numero eorum fuisse, quos Catholici Waldenses vocarunt"), is a 
 conclusion which he reaches, notwithstanding discrepancies of some things con- 
 tained in these books from the things reported by the Catholics ; for who does 
 not at once perceive, he asks, that these and such like things were unjustly im- 
 puted to the Vaudois by those who hated them, or were true only of some small 
 part of them ? (" Attamen quis non statim intelliget, hrec et alia ejusdem gen- 
 eris exosis hominibus ab adversariis injuste imputata esse, vel nonnisi paucos 
 spectare?"') Is it difficult to suppose, then, that the same imtruthfulness ex- 
 tended to the other and very important point of the origin of the Vaudois? 
 The supposition does no injustice to these Roman Catholic authors, nor to the 
 class to which they belong ; and if known prejudice and a motive to deceive 
 make probable the falsification of history, the probability is not in this case 
 awanting. There is no point on which authors, zealots for the Church of Rome, 
 and full of passionate hatred against the Vaudois, ought to be read with more 
 suspicion than that of the antiquity or recent origin of the detested sect. And 
 Dr. Herzog ought surely to have considered, and given some weight to the con- 
 sideration, that those who hold the opinion of the existence of the Vaudois 
 anterior to the time of Valdo, do not regard his followers as forming an en- 
 tirely distinct and separate sect; for this renders it of still less consequence 
 as to the question now at issue, to prove that the accounts given by the Roman 
 Catholic authors relate to those whose religious views agreed with the poems 
 and treatises preserved in the valleys of Piedmont. And I will add only one 
 other observation, that the whole amount of Roman Catholic testimony to the 
 descent of the Vaudois from Valdo is by no means great. Even were inten- 
 tional misstatement and the influence of prejudice entirely out of the question, 
 very little evidence is offered which, when the circumstances of time and place 
 are considered, deserves much attention. We have already seen what are the 
 quality and the quantity of this evidence, as adduced by Bishop Charvaz. 
 
 We may now return to the examination of Dr. Herzog's thesis. It appears 
 that the Roman Catholic authors upon whose testimony he depends are in gen- 
 eral the same with those quoted by Bishop Charvaz. Of the Vaudois docu- 
 ments, in so far as they have been published, he says it is evident that they 
 have been written by men living at very diflerent times and in very different 
 circumstances. But he ascribes the highest authority to the poems called La 
 Nohla Leyczon, La Barca, Lo Novel Sermon, Lo Novel Comfort, Lo Payre Eter- 
 nal, Lo Despreczi del mont, and VAvangeli de li quatre semencz, and to the 
 prose compositions called La Potesta dona a li Vicaris de Xrist, Sermon del 
 Jadyci, Epistola amicus, Epistola fideli, De la temor del Segnor, De las Tribu- 
 lacions, and Glosa Paternoster.' Concerning the language in which they are 
 written, he quotes Raynouard as to its general identity with the language of 
 the Troubadours, and thence infers that the language affords no proof that they 
 were written in the regions now inhabited by the Vaudois. 
 
 > Herzog, De Orig., &c., pp. 36, 37. ^ Herzog, De Orig., &c., pp. 4, 5. 
 
 5 See Imiel of the Alps, vol. i. p. 15, and particularly pp. 446-448 of this volume. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 517 
 
 Dr. Herzog bestows a chapter on the question, Whether or not the Vaudois 
 books were known to the Catholic authors whom he has enumerated? and this 
 he decides in the affirmative, but only on such grounds as these, that they tell 
 lis of books which the Vaudois of their age used ; that they mention a transla- 
 tion of the Bible, or of part of it, into the vulgar tongue, as having been made 
 and used by the Vaudois, and that such a translation exists, and is claimed by 
 the Vaudois of Piedmont as the work of their ancestors ; and that the Council 
 of Tarragon, in 1242, decreed that those should be treated as persons suspected 
 of heresy who heard the preaching or reading {lectio) of the Inzabbati (another 
 name of the Vaudois); the word lesson {leyczon, lectio) being one of very com- 
 mon occurrence in the Vaudois documents. It will not seem very presumptu- 
 ous to assert that this chapter is of little value in reference to the question of 
 the origin of the Vaudois, and cannot even be regarded as containing any proof 
 that Stephen De Borbone, Yvonetus, and the other Roman Catholic authors 
 quoted by Dr. Herzog, were very intimately acquainted with the people or sect 
 from whom the existing Vaudois poems and treatises have been inherited. Of 
 evidence that they knew anything of the works now existing, there is not a 
 shadow. Nor if there were, would it greatly affect the main question. 
 
 Dr. Herzog next enters into learned and interesting inquiries concerning the 
 religious opinions of the Vaudois, and spends a number of pages in proving 
 that the authors of the Vaudois poems and treatises, and the sect whose reli- 
 gious opinions they represented, were perfectly free from the Manicheism, and 
 other gross errors usually ascribed to the Cathari ; and after many quotations 
 from Bonacursus, Moneta, Reinerius, Ennengardus, and other Catholic au- 
 thors, concerning these errors of the Cathari, and from the Vaudois documents, 
 but particularly the Noble Lesson, asserting the most opposite doctrines, he 
 condemns in the strongest terms the opinion of Bishop Charvaz, who, without 
 assigning any reason, supposes the Noble Lesson to have been the work of some 
 one belonging to the sect of the Cathari. (" Profecto igitur ridicula sententia 
 episcopi Pinerolse esse videtur ter dicentis, nuUo argumento allato, auctorem 
 carminis Nobla Leyczon e Catharorum numero fuisse. Tantum enim abest, ut 
 ejus auctorem potius contra hos aliquoties tacite pugnare credideris, veritatem 
 asserendo errori oppositam." ') 
 
 That the ancient Vaudois did not agree in all doctrines and practices with 
 the Protestants of the present day, but retained many things which are now 
 retained only in the Church of Rome, Dr. Herzog has no difficulty in proving, 
 and with this a considerable part of his thesis is occupied ; but how this bears 
 upon the question of their descent from Valdo, or origin anterior to him, I con- 
 fess myself unable to perceive. For if a theory can be easily framed to account 
 for this fact, upon the supposition that Valdo was the founder of the sect, it 
 seems not very difficult to frame a theory by which it may be as completely ac- 
 counted for upon the opposite supposition. The historic inquiry concerning the 
 doctrines and practices of the Vaudois, anterior and long anterior to the Refor- 
 mation, is indeed extremely interesting. But Dr. Herzog's thesis has a special 
 reference to the question of the origin of the Vaudois, and the chapters which 
 he bestows upon the subject of their religious opinions and practices have no 
 other bearing upon that question, than as showing that the Vaudois poems and 
 treatises have really been produced by authors belonging to the same sect of 
 which we obtain information from Stephen De Borbone, Reinerius, Yvonetus, 
 and other Popish authors. I refrain from attempting to follow him in his ex- 
 
 * Herzog, De Orig., &c., p. 12. 
 
f^ 
 
 518 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appbwdix. 
 
 hibition of tlie tenets of the earlier Vaudois, for which, it may be observed, 
 that notwithstanding his anxiety to establish the authority of the Popish au- 
 thors as to the point of descent from Valdo, he depends rather upon the Vau- 
 dois documents than upon their testimony. 
 
 We have seen ab-eady by what a fallacious argument it is that Dr. Herzog per- 
 suades himself to receive the testimony of the Popish authors, who assert Valdo 
 to have been the founder of the Vaudois. But he finds a difficulty which must 
 be removed if this opinion is to be adopted-the alleged date of the Noble Les- 
 son-^^ date not affixed to any MS., but embodied in the poem itself But 
 why Dr. Herzoc' asks, if the author meant to reckon eleven hundred years 
 from' the birth of Christ, did he not plainly say so ? He thinks, therefore, that 
 -the reference must be to the time when the New Testament was written— 
 
 " Ben ha mil e cent ancz compli entierament 
 Que fo Bcripta I'ora, car sen al dernier temp;" 
 
 and that the time which, in unusual phraseology, is said to have been written 
 ("fo scripta I'ora"), must be the i^;^«r« ^^x spoken of by the Apostle John in 
 his first epistle, chap. ii. 18. And he adduces evidence to show the expec- 
 tation which prevailed of the destruction of the world in the year 1000, the 
 similar expectation still prevailing after that dreaded date was past, and the 
 kindred aprvehensions of the coming of Antichrist, in connection with which 
 he quotes the warning in the Noble Lesson against participation with Anti- 
 christ. And after this, and from these premises, he, without hesitation, con- 
 cludes that the Noble Lesson was written about the end of the twelfth century, 
 after Valdo had taught for a considerable time; a conclusion confirmed, he says, 
 by the perfect agreement of all which it contains with what we learn from Ca- 
 tholic authors of the doctrines, actings, and sufferings of the Vaudois. ("Ita- 
 que constat, illud carmen sub finem seculi duodecimi, postquam Waldus jam 
 diu docendi initium fecit, scriptum esse. Id quod eo maxime comprobatur," 
 &c.) It seems almost incredible, that with no other show of arguments than 
 this. Dr. Herzog should think it proved that the Noble Lesson belongs to the 
 end of the twelfth century. His dismissal of this important document is some- 
 what too summary. . 
 
 He proceeds to examine into the antiquity of some of the other Vaudois do- 
 cuments. He easily disposes of the exact dates assigned to some of them by 
 L^ger,' arguing from the want of dates in most of the MSS. used by the earlier 
 historian Perrin, and holding these dates, even when affixed to the manuscript 
 volumes, to be no trustworthy evidence. And this must certainly be admitted : 
 a date may have been inscribed upon a MS. by another hand than that which 
 WTote it, and does not necessarily prove anything either as to the time of com- 
 position or of transcription. And L^ger shows no reason for thinking that the 
 dates which he quotes, as if they were indisputably accurate, are anything else 
 than dates thus affixed. 
 
 Dr. Herzog adopts the argument of Bishop Charvaz, concerning the Treatise 
 on Purgatory, that it cannot belong to the beginning of the twelfth century, 
 because it contains a quotation from the Milleloquium, the author of which is 
 known to have died in 1328. And to Monastier, who,— in his History of the 
 Vaudois, has sought to repel this objection by saying that he has had in his 
 hands a MS. of the Treatise on Purgatory, in which the quotation from the 
 Milleloquium does not occur, so that it appears to have been inserted by some 
 later copyist,— Dr. Herzog replies that he has omitted to advert to a very im- 
 
 * See pp. 458, 459, of this volume. 
 
 3 See pp. 444, 445, of thii volome. 
 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 519 
 
 portant circumstance, namely, that in the very copy upon which he depends as 
 authentic, mention is made of Hugh of Saint Victor, who died in 1141. Dr. 
 Herzog derives his knowledge of this circumstance from Monastier himself. 
 The quotation from Hugh of Saint Victor, is from his book De Sacramentis. 
 And Dr. Herzog refers to authorities in proof that he is known to have written 
 this book towards the end of his life. The reply to Monastier is in fact a new 
 argument, and which, besides turning upon a question of a few years only, not 
 of a century or half a century, is manifestly liable to be set aside, unless sup- 
 ported in some other way, upon the general ground stated by Dr. Muston,* of 
 probable or possible interpolation by transcribers. For it is most improbable 
 that either one or other of the copies now existing is the original copy of the 
 Treatise on Purgatory. 
 
 Against the antiquity assigned to the Booh of Antichrist, Dr. Herzog urges 
 reasons substantially the same with those upon which Dr. Muston comes to 
 the same conclusion,- and at the same time he uses an argument founded upon 
 his own peculiar interpretation of the passage in the NobU Lesson, which is so 
 generally regarded as containing the date 1100, and in which mention is made 
 of the last time. Insisting strongly upon the incomplete separation of the Vau- 
 dois from the Church of Rome, until the period of the Reformation, as a reason 
 for holding that the BooTc of Antichrist does not express such sentiments as 
 they entertained, Dr. Herzog thinks himself warranted in not only concluding 
 it to have been produced after the Synod which met in 1532, at Angrogna, but 
 in supposing that the author has imitated the language of the ancient Vaudois 
 (''sermonem veterum Waldensium plus minusve bene imitatus est"), and that 
 both he and the person who affixed the date have been guilty of a pious fraud, 
 which however is not to be imputed to the whole congregation.' I will ven- 
 ture to express my opinion, that even if the Book of Antichrist were proved to 
 be a work of the Reformation period, there is not the shadow of a reason for 
 suspecting a pious fraud on the part of its author, and that even the date may 
 have been affixed afterwards in perfect good faith, although erroneously. This 
 suspicion of pious fraud against men whose principles give no ground for it, is 
 one which ought not to be lightly admitted. 
 
 The Confession of Faith, to which L^ger assigns the date 1120, Dr. Herzog 
 unhesitatingly sets down as a production of the Reformation period, as Dr. 
 Muston also does, and on much the same gi'ounds.* He quotes passages to 
 show its even verbal correspondence with the letter of the Vaudois delegates to 
 CEcolampadius.* He regards the Booh of Antichrist, the Treatises on Purga- 
 tory and on the Invocation of Saints, the Catechism, and the Confession of Faith, 
 as all indicating a knowledge of evangelical truth more perfect than was pos- 
 sessed by the earlier WaJdenses, or than the Noble Lesson indicates." 
 
 Finally, he examines the names Valdo and Vaudois, in order to determine 
 their relation to one another. Against the derivation of Valdo's name, from 
 his connection with a people previously bearing the name of Vaudois, he uses 
 arguments which probably may not appear to many quite so powerful as he 
 expresses his confidence that they are. (*'Quam sententiam prorsus falsam et 
 erroneam esse, firmissimis argumentis probatur.") First op all, he says, ac- 
 cording to the testimony both of the Catholic writers and of the Vaudois them- 
 selves, this was not a name which they themselves assumed. Ebrard, he ad- 
 mits, does say that they called themselves Vallenses, but he easily sets aside 
 
 ' See pp. 444, 445, of this volume. 
 ' Herzog, De Orig., &c,, p. 40. 
 * Herzog, De Orig., Ac, pp. 40, 11. 
 
 ' See p. 445 of this volume. 
 
 ♦ See pp. 478, 479, of this volume. 
 
 • Ibid., pp. 41, 42. 
 
520 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [\ppekdK. 
 
 Ebrard's teBtimony, "Qui in banc rem non accuraW mqumvit. (^^^.^ 
 would seem a testimony U to be received or not, for no other reason than it^ 
 agreement or disagreement witb a foregone conclusion. Th., .s not a^nt on 
 which the testimony of Ebrard is liable to the same suspicion wteh affects the 
 evidence of Popish authors on some other points concerning the Vaudo.s.)lhe 
 use of the name Vaudes in the Nolle Lmon. in the line already well known to 
 the reader, be contends, is such that it appears to have been a name repro^h- 
 fully given to the Vaudois bv their adversaries. And .n accordance w th this 
 LeprLeds to show that they rejected the name, for in the letter wl^ch tbey 
 adWd to LadUlaus, king of Bohemia, they call themsdves "^o^*' '^ 
 
 Cassini, a Franciscan, who wrote a book against the Vaudoia ^^J^^^f, 
 these words, "Diois, te non esse Waldensem sed ™f >^'™,«=''^^^^S''™''\ 
 It seems scarcely necessary to state the ready explanation of "'' f »" '^^"^s 
 mits, and which renders it of no moment whatever m reference to the point as 
 to which it is adduced by Dr. Herzog. In the second place, he says that 
 the name Vaudois is certainly not derived from vallis. But as ^ ai^ument 
 under this head is not long, and as it appears to me, in so far as it haa any 
 bearing upon the subject, altogether to tend to a conclusion «°°t'=''y *» *^^' 
 which Dr. Herzog dr^ws from it, I think it best to give it entire, and in to 
 own words. "Porro certissimum est, nomen '''«'*'"«'7"'''^'' '""^^' 
 ratdcs, Wa-lo,js omnino non ai;aHe trahendum esse, nee vertendum ThaUeMe 
 Quce s ntentia ex mera inscitia linguee Eomame et Fr»nco.galh«« orta es^» 
 Yox enbn val, t«« in iUis linguU significat ^aUk, vailed. Unde dictum po- 
 11^ Zr »<,«(. ct par vau.-c («6^ Bey und Thai). Ita quoque in J/.r.o« • 
 TZnk p. 177. Xb hoc verbo differt vox Vaud, Vauda, ^Wo-- ^o^^^' 
 Wald-nm &c. Cujus diiferentiae insigne testimonium m pago WaUenu Mel- 
 vT«co tav nitur. liLdolphus rex Burgundorum anno 1011 dono ledit Henrico 
 Iirannensi episcopo comitatum yValdcn.e,nj v HeMoiraet ^— J^^f - 
 par la >odele d'kMr. de la Su.me romande (t. v«. p. 2). Idem nomen sx 
 Ls usurpatur in aliis diplomatibus. Eginolfus episcopus vocatur in pago ITa^- 
 SflT^i P 4). Ludovicus Sabaudice dux Dominus Vaud^ vocatur in d pb- 
 tZ tn 1300 t. vn. p. 78), Scioneur de Vaut in diplomate anni 1331 t 
 ^ p 102). In hoc eodem vero comitatu vel pago Waldcns, regio sita e»t, 
 r.^ ab Jtiquissimis temporibus ad hunc u.,que diem Va.^, la Yaur vocatur, 
 Einue nomen singulce ejus partes accepenint. Ludov.cus Sabaudi. dux Ulo 
 Smate anno 1300 jam citato in episcopum Lausannensem omnia ju» trans- 
 ctq^ in totalis de lu^riaco (.««' de Lu^rj) habet. E=«lem vox -^^ 
 p^;r in diplomate anni 1343 (t. vii. p. 142)."' There may be something he™ 
 Ihich I have faUed to apprehend, yet all seems plain enough ; and I can only 
 r^L my surprise that anything here adduced should ^ -gar^''^ ^<'^^^f 
 an argument against the derivation of the name Vaudois from I al. Yet it 
 ™.^o be remembered that this is, after all, a point of mere secondary conse- 
 I^n e For the name Vaudois may have some totally different ongin. and 
 yet i^y be much older than the age of Valdo, and he may have derived from it 
 
 5^t S;^!;;^ -^r^M^-t ^ i .^.U ■. ^^o^ W tUo .action .^ the rdi- 
 
 gioua opinions of the earlier \ audois. 
 3 There id certaiiily a slight inaccvu-acy iu this trauslatiou. 
 < Herzog, De Orirj., &c., pp. 42, 43. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 621 
 
 his name. But, in the third place, Dr. Herzog asserts that Valdo was the 
 only name of the rich citizen of Lyons who became an evangelist and reformer > 
 and that the name Peter was first given to him by mistake by Polichdorf writ- 
 mg m Germany in the fifteenth century.^ And this he regards as of much con- 
 sequence m proving that the name Valdo was not in any way indicative of his 
 countiy or race. This by no means appears to follow ; and Dr. Herzorr omits 
 to account for the occurrence, in the very earliest works in which Valdo Ts men- 
 1^;^^' r ?™ ""^ ^'^^ "^™^ ^ raZrfen^*, Waldensis, Valdesius, Valdius 
 Waldzus, &c.; although it must be granted to be very micertain that he bore 
 the name of Peter, and the name Valdes or Waldo was certainly, as Dr Her- 
 zog asserts, common enough in the middle a^es. It is -of very common oc- 
 cumnce. Dr. GiUy says, -in Gallic and Germanic documents, from the ninth 
 to the twelfth century, and w is the Germano-Bui^undian speUing;" and Val- 
 do s pnenomen Pe^...," he adds, -occurs, we believe, for the fi^t time in a 
 Latin book of Peter de Polichdorf, written during the la.t half of the four- 
 
 thel^rvT; w T;^^' ^' '"'"■^^'^"^ *° ^"^'^^^^^^^^ '^^ <^rigin and use of 
 the name Vuldo or Waldo, but it seems hasty to conclude, from Its occurrence 
 
 case of the Lyonnese reformer of the twelfth century, or that even as used in 
 previous centunes, it had no reference to country or rice 
 
 MiTTELALTER; ZwEIHISTOEISCHEUntERSUCHUNGENVONA WlLH DiECKHOFF 
 
 fnn'.TJ ^1 .f ' ""^'^ """^ published almost immediately after Dr Hus- 
 ton s Israel of the Alps, which the author had not seen when he wrote 
 
 into\hr h^'! A.^ir' '^' i'^^^^^iency of the researches hitherto made 
 nto the history of the Vaudois. He regards his own work as merely aTon 
 
 "nirto L done '''ft r ''''' ^"'^'^^^' ^"^ '^'^'^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ 
 remains to be done, particularly in inquiries concerning the Taborites Bo 
 
 tions to the Vaudois, which he holds to have been intimate. He expresses hi. 
 regret that the documents connected with the history of the Bohem ^n LL 
 have as ye been so Uttle studied, and that so many of them have hTtherto - 
 
 Viudoi, !.7 f 1- *"'^""=° °f "■« previous tenets and circumstances of the 
 rifeed ' Bu h " "TT" '.' "'^ '"'y ^""'^ *» -Wch it has berusul 
 
 the Chnrol. nf ^ ^ *''''' ""'^"^^ °^ t^« relations of the Vaudois to 
 
 tt S™:uo!"r'rb°e::i p/rr ;"' "'''''°'' °^ ''^'" --> ^^ '» 
 
 .or ve. accuratet ;r ^^n-r -In— f S • t^^^^^^^ 
 
 ' Compare Israel of the Alps, vol. i. p 14 , c . 
 
 ^ Gil]y, article ' ' Valdo " in L«v«..n. t^ * . r. ^^ P- "^^^ °^ *^"s volume. 
 
 Vol. II "'^'^^^^^'<'^ of EncifdojxjediaJirUamuca. 
 
 126 
 
522 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Apprwhix. 
 
 be made in that controversy of a reference to them, and to the oth«>- «PPf ^«"J« 
 of Popish error in the middle ages. Even if we were to adopt all ^^^<^)^f' 
 conclusions from his researches into Waldensian literature, there would stiU re 
 main sufficient evidence of a long-continued and widely extended opposition, 
 durin- the middle ages, to the corruptions and spiritual despotism of Kome. 
 And this cannot be regarded as unimportant even by those who reject, as con- 
 temptuously as Dieckhoff himself, the notion of a sort of episcopal succession, 
 purer than that of Rome, transmitted through the Vaudois ; who refuse, like 
 him, to link one ancient sect arbitrarUy to another for the sake of a mere ex- 
 ternal continuity, and agree with him in regarding such a demand for external 
 continuity as more in harmony with the principles of Popery itself than with 
 those of Protestantism ; who, like him, believe that neither was any of the 
 sects opposed to Rome a witness for the whole of Christian truth, nor the 
 dominant church itself, with all its corruptions, entirely destitute of it ; and who 
 look upon the Reformation not as the more extensive adoption of a testimony 
 transmitted without modification through a long succession of ages, but rather 
 as a triumph of the truth within the church, casting away the falsehood by 
 which it had been oppressed (" Wie die Kirche trotz der Irrthiimer, denen sie 
 verfallen war, doch nicht aufgehort hatte, die Wahrheit des Christenthums in 
 sich zu haben, so werden wir auch die Reformation als eine Krise betrachten 
 mussen, in welcher die Wahrheit in der Kirche das Falsche von sich stoszt.")* 
 
 Dieckhoff complains, in the commencement of his work, of the injury done 
 to the interests of historic truth, by the polemical aspect in which every ques- 
 tion regarding the Waldenses has been viewed; shows how naturally it resulted 
 from the circumstances in which Vigneaux, Perrin, Gilles, Morland, L^er, and 
 other Vaudois and friends of the Vaudois wrote, that they should anxiously seek 
 out whatever was favourable to the character and antiquity of the sect ; and 
 points to Fiacius, the author of the Catalogus icstium veritatis, and "father of 
 Protestant historic investigation," as having led the way in researches too ex- 
 clusively limited to what was good in the early Vaudois and agreeable to the 
 Scriptures, and contrary to the errors of Rome. All this may be just, and it 
 may be quite true, that Protestants have in general followed too closely in the 
 track in which Fiacius, almost of necessity, prosecuted his investigations; but 
 when we find the author, who finds fault with this, describing the views which 
 Vaudois and Protestant authors have generally adopted concerning the origin 
 and history of the Vaudois as a "post- Reformation tradition,"* we must caU to 
 remembrance, what has been, I trust, sufficiently made manifest in previous 
 pages of this appendix, that we have the evidence of Popish authors, writing 
 in a spirit of the greatest hostility to the Waldenses, for the existence of such 
 a tradition at least as early as the thirteenth century. And this undeniable 
 fact takes away, I think, all value from the consideration, to which Dieckhoff 
 and others attach great importance, of the opposition of this Waldensian "tra- 
 dition" to the statements of these Popish authors. 
 
 But looking to this conflicting evidence, on the side of the Vaudois and on 
 that of the Church of Rome, Dieckhoff proposes to himself the task of a criti- 
 cal examination to determine what deserves to be believed. He thinks the tes- 
 timony of the "Catholic" authors has been too hastily rejected, not on the 
 ground of any incredibility proved to exist in the matter of their testimony, but 
 on the ground that they are unworthy of trust ; a ground, nevertheless, which, 
 if we bear in mind the spirit which they display, and the testimonies which men 
 
 » Pp. 4-7, 
 
 ' Pp. 10, n, etc 
 
 No. IV ] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 523 
 
 of the same spint and the same religion have more recently borne concerning 
 the lives of Luther, Calvin, Knox, and other Reformers, and concerning the 
 whole history of the Reformation, we may claim the right still to maintain as 
 good ground for the rejection of their testimony unless corroborated by other 
 evidence. He does not think himself entitled, however, as the value of their 
 evidence is disputed, to make use of it for a test of the authenticity and genu- 
 ineness of the Vaudois documents. But neither will he receive as accurate 
 and satisfactory the accounts given of the Vaudois by the Protestant historians 
 of the seventeenth century, of whom he asserts that writing with too much 
 regard to apologetic interests, they have kept as much as possible out of view 
 the errors which prevailed amongst the Vaudois before the Reformation. He 
 thinks that with regard to the Vaudois manuscript documents, attention has 
 hitherto been too exclusively devoted to the inquiiy what is the eariiest date 
 at which they may possibly have been composed, and this with a view to sup- 
 port the opinion that the Vaudois existed before Valdo, but he deems it impor- 
 tant to inquire what is the latest date at which they may possibly have been 
 composed, and upon this evidently important question it is of course obvious 
 enough that the question what changes were introduced amongst the Vaudois 
 by the Reformation has an important bearing. That these changes were great, 
 he finds evidence in Protestant and Vaudois authors, from whom he makes a 
 number of quotations, beginning with one, which may here suffice as indicating 
 the general character of the whole, from Crispin's A eta MaHyrum : " Valdenses 
 autem, etsi boni erant homines, cumprimis Deum metuentes, summoque verbi 
 Dei studio affecti, tamen luce Evangelii jam exortA, cognoverunt multa deside- 
 ran in suis ecclesiis, quae ad veram religionem ac pietatem pertinerent: plera- 
 que etiam ignoratione ac teniporum culpa jamdiu recepta retineri, qu« a 
 pura Evangelu doctrina Ecclesiaeque disciplina abhorrerent."' But that upon 
 which he chiefly depends is the evidence as to the doctrines and practices of the 
 Vaudois before the Reformation afforded by their first communications with 
 the Reformers, particularly George Morel's letter to (Ecolampadius, -' from which 
 he concludes that, contrary to the view generally adopted by Protestant and 
 modern Vaudois authors, all the Acts of the Synod of Angrogna were reform- 
 ing, a conclusion to which he attaches the greatest importance for the further 
 prosecution of historic inquiries ("Erst dann liesze sich ein sicherer Gebrauca 
 von jenem Beschliissen machen, wenn es feststande, dasz sie alle reformatorische 
 gewesen sind: erst dann wiirde es gestattet sein, sichere RuckschlUsse aul 
 den fruheren Zustand der Sekte zu machen.")* He thinks it certain enough 
 that the author of that letter did not represent things as worse than they actu- 
 ally were, and even hints a suspicion that he may have concealed many thin<^ 
 which would have appeared to the disadvantage of his brethren s— a most un- 
 worthy suspicion, for no document of that or of any age bears stronger internal 
 evidence of candour than that letter of the Vaudois Barba to the Swiss Reformer 
 It is too easy to see, from the very expression given to this suspicion, with what 
 circumspection it is necessary to follow the steps of Dieckhoff's critical exam- 
 ination of the evidence concerning the Vaudois and their early history. And 
 immediately we find him laying it down as a safe principle on which to proceed, 
 
 ' P. 20; quoting CrUpin, vol. i. p. 225.-AU the quotations made by Dieckhoff on this 
 liornt are very interesting, and would have been copied here, but for want of space although 
 I regard him as exaggerating their importance in the use which he makes of them 
 
 » See Israel of the Alps, part i. chap, 7. 
 
 » Compare Isrcwl of the Alps, part i. chap. 7, and " Bibliography," in this vol., pp. 478, 479 
 
 * ^- ^^' » P. 22. " 
 
524 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appenddc 
 
 that whenever anything appears in a Vaudois document contrary to any of the 
 errors evinced by Morel's letter to have prevailed at the commencement of the 
 intercourse between the Vaudois and the Reformers, we must conclude that 
 document to be either of later date than the Reformation, or to have been sub- 
 jected to alteration and interpolation— a principle, the adoption and unhesitat- 
 ing application of which, can only be warranted however by assumptions, which 
 he^does not pause to show that we are entitled to make, particularly that there 
 had been no declension in the Vaudois church, nor any Barbas at any time more 
 enlightened than those whose grievous deficiency in education Morel's letter 
 exhibits,' and that all his statements were equally applicable to all the Vaudois, 
 those on the Italian as well as those on the French side of the Alps. And it 
 is very obvious that even if we were to adopt the conclusions which DieckhoflP 
 reaches by the application of his rule, in all that relates to the doctrines or 
 practices of the Vaudois before the Reformation, it could lead to no warrant- 
 able conclusion as to the important question of their origin. And here it may 
 be incidentally noticed as somewhat strange, that with Morel's letter before 
 him, Dieckhoff should have represented the opinion of the existence of the 
 Vaudois anterior to Valdo as a post- Reformat ion tradition; for in that letter 
 their high antiquity is twice asserted.' Proceeding, however, to test the Acts 
 of the Angrogna Synod by the account of the Vaudois in Morel's letter, Dieck- 
 hoff has no difficulty in concluding them to be entirely of a reforming charac- 
 ter. To what extent they are so, is doubtless an important inquiry ; but its 
 bearing on the question of the origin of the Vaudois is not such as to make it 
 requisite for us to follow him very closely in his prosecution of it. The princi- 
 ple upon which he proceeds it is necessary for us to have in view, as he seems 
 more anxious to apply it to the Vaudois Manuscript Literature, than to the 
 Acts of the Angrogna Synod ; but it is satisfactory to find that when he comes 
 to point out instances of Reformation doctrine in the Vaudois books, he insists 
 chiefly upon such things as are in perfect accordance with the account of the 
 Vaudois in the middle ages, given in the first chapter of the Isi-ael of the A Ips, 
 and that the Vaudois works, to which he particularly signalizes as not of the 
 early date ascribed to them, are not those upon which Dr. Muston's arguments 
 rest, one of them being the Confession of Faith, to which L^ger, without the 
 support of any evidence, assigns the date 1120, and another, the Treatise on 
 Antichrist, concerning both of which Dr. Muston's opinion agrees with that of 
 Dieckhoff, and is based upon the same grounds.' In connection with the Trea- 
 tise on Antichrist, Dieckhoff proposes and briefly considers the question of a 
 possible declension through the effect of persecution from a better state of things 
 to that described by Morel at the period of the Reformation, but it is only in 
 reference to the single point of a complete formal or outward separation from 
 the Church of Rome ; and although he adduces no better evidence than that of 
 Stephen De Borbone and Yvonetus, it may freely be admitted that he is proba- 
 bly correct in supposing the separation never to have been so complete before 
 the Reformation as it afLervvards became. 
 
 1 It is given by Sciiltetus in his Annais, and Dieckhoff copies it entire, with the answer of 
 Qi)colampadius, in his Appendix, 
 
 2 Near the beginning of the latter, in the words, " Quandoquidem, ut rem semel capias 
 siimus qnalescunque doctores cujusdam plebis indig* et pusUl*, qu« jam plusqiiam quad- 
 nngentis annis imo ut frequenter nostrates narrant a tempore Apostolorum, non tamen ut 
 facile judicaruut quique pii, citra Christi ingentem favorem, inter spinas saevissimas c^m- 
 morata est ;" and near the end of it, in the words, "A tempore Apostolorum semper do fide. 
 Bicut vos, sentieutes concordavimus." 
 
 a See in this volume, pp. 444, 445, and 478, 479. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 525 
 
 But taught by the instances which he has found of the evident influence of 
 the Reformation in *'some of the most important of the known pieces of Vau- 
 dois manuscript literature," to suspect that much more of it may be of the same 
 nature and origin, Dieckhoff proceeds to examine, as is unquestionably very 
 proper, into the history of the manuscripts by which these Vaudois works have 
 become known to us.' He admits that there is abundant evidence of the exist- 
 ence of Vaudois books at an early date ; but he adduces evidence also to show 
 that the ancient MSS. had become very rare by the end of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, which, if anything to the purpose, can be so only by leading to the suppo- 
 sition that they may completely have perished, and that entirely new works, 
 or copies, thoroughly modified into accordance with Reformation doctrine, may 
 have been substituted in their stead ; a supposition to which his remarks on the 
 language of the existing books appear to tend, concerning which he concludes 
 that the dialect in use amongst the Vaudois after 1530 was so similar to the 
 Romance tongue, that a forger or interpolater would find no difliculty, and that 
 therefore the language can afford us no evidence of the antiquity of the books.* 
 He labours more than perhaps was necessary to set aside the authority of Per- 
 rin as to the antiquity of manuscripts, ^ calling attention to the circumstance 
 that Perrin includes the book of George Morel* amongst the old books which 
 he enumerates, and that he describes as a very old book, " livre fort vieux," a 
 manuscript with the title " Aigo es la causa del nostre despartiment de la Gleisa 
 Romana," the original authorship of which, according to Dieckhoff, is to be 
 referred to the Bohemian brethren and to the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury,* from all which he concludes it to be very probable that many of the 
 manuscripts which Perrin collected were composed after the Reformation. He 
 doubts very much if any of the manuscripts now existing in Geneva and else- 
 where were really those collected by L%er, and animadveri;s upon the circum- 
 stance that Ldger, although later than Perrin, appears to have had ancient 
 MSS. in greater number, and is more confident in the statement of their dates. 
 The authority of the dates assigned to the Vaudois documents by L^ger, he has 
 of course little difficulty in overthrowing; and when he censures Lager's use of 
 manuscript documents as "uncritical," his judgment may be admitted as in all 
 probability quite just; but when he imputes to the persecuted Vaudois minister 
 the tricks of a literary impostor, it is not easy to repress a feeling of indigna- 
 tion that such a charge should be advanced and sustained as it is by proofs 
 ridiculously slender." Of the wretched hypercriticism with which he afterwards 
 endeavours to point out dishonesty in Perrin 's quotations from Morel's letter, 
 I regret that I cannot exhibit a few specimens. So anxious is he to make out 
 a dishonest intention, that he forgets the possibility of honest quotation in refer- 
 ence to a particular point, whilst what has no immediate bearing on that point 
 is omitted, which consideration is almost of itself sufficient to justify Perrin 
 in all that is alleged against him as to this document. The object of all this 
 labour to make out charges of dishonesty is to throw discredit upon every quota- 
 tion made by Vaudois historians from old Vaudois documents, and to create a 
 suspicion of forgery concerning the existing documents themselves. Nor does 
 It suffice this author to cast doubt upon the genuineness of what have been 
 usually deemed existing relics of the Vaudois of early times, but he finds it 
 necessary to adopt the theory of an intentional fabrication and corruption of 
 documents, with the intention of deception concerning important historical 
 
 ?*• ^*- ' P- 37.— On this point see Dr. Muston, in " Bibliography." 
 
 See the article on Perrin, in the " Bibliography," pp. 398, 399, of tliis volume. 
 
 * P. 41. « Pp. 45-69. 
 
 * See "Bibliography," p. 465. 
 
526 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [appimoix. 
 
 points,' making very little allowance, as it seems, for the easy possibility of mis- 
 takes as to the date of documents upon the part of uncritical historians, far from 
 all seats of learning, and in the midst of wars and persecutions, or for the proba- 
 bility of the frequent recension of the works circulated in manuscript among 
 the Vaudoi? and their accommodation, with no fraudulent purpose whatever, to 
 the reformation which had actually been accomplished. 
 
 From the position which he has thus gained, however, DieckhofF proceeds 
 with the most perfect confidence in his further critical examination of the Vau- 
 dois documents. It would certainly have been necessary for him to have estab- 
 lished a charge of fraudulent dealing with documents against more than Perrin 
 (and in all that he says concerning L^ger, there is rather a repeated utterance 
 of unworthy suspicions than any attempt to make out a specific chai-ge by 
 proof), it would have been necessary for him also to have adduced some surer 
 proof of fraudulent purpose than his comparison of Morel's letter and Perrin's 
 quotations from it can reasonably be held to afford, ere he proceeded to deal 
 with the Vaudois manuscript literature in general, on the assumption that the 
 same fraud has been practised wherever we find anything favoui-able to the false 
 notion of doctrines and practices before the Eeformation harmonious with those 
 of subsequent times. For this is frhe weapon of criticism which he now takes 
 into his hand, and shows himself resolved to use unsparingly — ("Was ware 
 durch die Falschung dieses einzelnen Stiickes fiir den Zweck des Falschers 
 gewonnen geweseu, wenn er andere 'Zeugnisse iiber den wahren friiheren Zu- 
 stand der Sekte unverandert hatte? Gewisz, wenn einmal eine solche Falschung 
 untemommen wurde, wie sie sich an der waldensischen Umarbeitung des Morel's- 
 chen Berichtes herausgestellt hat, so muszte sie auch mit Nothwendigkeit iiber 
 einen grciszeren Kreis von Zeugnissen und Schriften ausgedehnt werden, und 
 die historische Kritik ist vollkommen berechtigt, alles das, was in der walden- 
 sischen Manuscripten-Literatur wegen seines, dem falschen Scheine der Ueber- 
 einstimmung zwischen Alt- und Neu-Waldenaischem dienenden Inhalts verdach- 
 tig erscheint, als Produkt derselben absichtsvollen Falschung zu verwerfen, dei*en 
 Absicht, wie wir gesehen haben, eben auf die Hervorbringung dieses falschen 
 Scheines gerichtet war.") If Perrin were really proved guilty of fraudulently 
 deahng with Morel's letter, the suspicion thence arising could only aflfect the 
 other Vaudois works and fragments given in his history, unless we might sup- 
 pose that there was a conspiracy amongst the Vaudois to deceive the world 
 concerning their whole earlier history, and that all who wrote the now existing 
 Vaudois manuscripts were concerned in it. 
 
 But however we may reject Dieckhoff's theory of wilful falsification, the 
 part of his work to which we now come is interesting, from the connection 
 which he certainly exhibits between the Vaudois literature and that of the Bo- 
 hemmn churches. That a connection subsisted, in times previous to the Refor- 
 mation, between the Vaudois or Waldenses of the Alps and the Bohemian 
 Christians (who were often also called Waldenses) has indeed been long known. 
 But this is a subject well deserving of more investigation than it has yet received. 
 Dieckhoff holds, that in a Confession of the Waldenses in Bohemia in 1431,2 he 
 has found the original of a very considerable part of the Vaudois manuscript 
 literatxu-e published by Perrin and Ldger.' A document, called by Balthasar 
 Lydius, "Confcssio Taboritarum" which however is not properly a confession 
 of faith, but a vindication of themselves by the Taborites against the accusa- 
 tions of John Rokenzana and the Prague "masters," professes to be founded 
 
 ' Pp 68, 69. 
 
 ' See " Bibliography," in thia volume, p. 479. 
 
 » P. 73. 
 
 No. IV. ] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 627 
 
 upon an older confession, agreed upon in the year 1431, and it appears itselt 
 to have been prepared not long after.' Between this Taborite production and 
 some of the Vaudois documents, Dieckhoff points out correspondences which 
 unquestionably are not accidental. He devotes many pages to this subject, and 
 fortunately gives the corresponding passages at great length in parallel columns 
 in an appendix, so that we are enabled the more easily to follow his argument, 
 and to judge of the soundness of his conclusions. Viewed as illustrating the 
 connection between the churches of the Cottian Alps and the churches of Bo- 
 hemia, the correspondence exhibited is full of interest. Several Vaudois works 
 are found to agree very closely in matter, often even in words, with the parts 
 of this Taborite Confession; in particular the *' Almanach Spirituel," the trea- 
 tise "Del Purgatori Soima,'* and that " De V Envocatlon de li Sand." But 
 when this exact correspondence is exhibited, what proof is there of a recension 
 executed after the Eeformation, and with purpose to deceive ? That the Vau- 
 dois works, as we now have them, are in some points nearer to our Protestant 
 doctrine than the Taborite Confession is, Dieckhoff thinks, proof enough that 
 they have been subjected to recension since the Reformation, although the in- 
 stances which he adduces do not seem capable, either singly or collectively, of 
 supporting a very weighty conclusion. But why may not such a recension 
 have been honestly made? Except a reference to Perrin's mode of dealing 
 with Morel's letter, I can find nothing alleged by Dieckhoff as a reason for 
 supposing that these works have been altered in order to support the "modern 
 Vaudois tradition" of antiquity. Yet he seems only to doubt if the transla- 
 tion was altogether executed for the sake of the falsification, or if the falsifier 
 found an earlier and more honest Vaudois translation already in existence ! 
 
 But what evidence have we that the Taborite Confession is the original, and 
 that the Vaudois works are mere translations and recensions of parts of it ? 
 Tliat the title *^ Del Purgatori Soima" corresponds with that of a section of 
 the Confession "De Somniato Purgatorio post banc vitam et mendaciis Sacer- 
 dotum super illo seminatis," and that we have other such but less notable cor- 
 respondences in titles, will not of itself prove much. For the supposition of a 
 common and more ancient original might not unreasonably be entertained. 
 And that some of the fragments occur in several of the Vaudois works, and in 
 somewhat modified forms, does not diminish the probability of this supposition. 
 That the Vaudois Treatise on Purgatory contains quotations from the sermons 
 of John Huss,* certainly makes it probable that the original was Bohemian ; 
 but the manner in which reference is made to Huss, rather seems to favom* the 
 supposition that the Vaudois translation was made before the Reformation. It 
 is not upon any of these documents that the question depends as to the anti- 
 quity of the Vaudois church : but all Dieckhoff's labours appear to me to con- 
 firm our right to use them, their Bohemian and Vaudois forms being compared, 
 as evidence of what the Vaudois were before the Reformation. 
 
 It is interesting to observe, what Dieckhoff is careful to point out to us, the 
 want in the Taborite Confession of any clear statement of the fundamental Re- 
 formation doctrine of justification; and that the whole argument against purga- 
 tory is framed in a manner difi'erent from what it certainly would have been if 
 that doctrine and its relation to the doctrine of sanctification had been well 
 understood. It is interesting also to observe, how in the Vaudois Treatise on 
 Purgatory, whilst the general structure of the argmnent accords with that in 
 
 ' Pp. 74, 75. 
 
 2 Dieckhoff shows (pp. 88, 89, and 388-391) that the Master John quoted in this treatise is 
 not John Chrreostom, fw Monastier had imagined, but John Huss. 
 
528 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPa 
 
 [Appchdix. 
 
 the Taborite Confession, the great truths of the gospel are also more fully intro- 
 duced. Thus where the Taborite Confeission sets forth that men are to be puri- 
 fied from their sins in this life, and speaks of faith and charity, and works of 
 faith and piety, and patience in adversities, and the forgiveness of injuries and 
 the like, as the means of this purification, the whole passage is much modified 
 in the Vaudois treatise, and the most prominent place is given to faith, by 
 which, it is said, "Saint Peter shows, in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, that 
 hearts are purified, and which he shows to be suflBcient for purifying men's 
 hearts without any other external aid." To find, in this and similar improve- 
 ments of the Vaudois recension, proof of a later date, may be reasonable and 
 just ; but to regard them as the manifest work of a literary impostor, evinces 
 only the power of a foregone conclusion. The fact that different copies of the 
 Vaudois Treatise on Purgatory differ much from each other, is surely of itself 
 favourable to the supposition of honest rather than of fraudvdent recension. 
 But Dieckhoff, comparing them together, and finding in them such an agree- 
 ment as to incline him to the opinion that there must have been a Vaudois 
 translation earlier than any of them upon which they were more immediately 
 founded, only wonders if this older version was also made with the same pur- 
 pose of deceit ! His incessant repetition of the words FdUchung and FdUcher, 
 in such total absence of proof to support the charge, becomes positively pain- 
 ful. He has by no means even proved, in regard to the Treatise on Purgatory, 
 and other Vaudois treatises of the same series, that there was not a Vaudois 
 original older than any Taborite Confession whatever, and of which the Tabor- 
 ites made use in preparing their Confession of 1431 and the subsequent de- 
 fence, by which the substance of that Confession is now known to us, against 
 the accusations of Eokenzana and the other Prague "masters." 
 
 Yet from assuming it as a thing absolutely certain, that this Confession was 
 strictly of Bohemian origin, Dieckhoff derives great advantage for his outset 
 in his next argument, which is directed to the object of showing the Bohemian 
 origin of the Catechism,^ generally regarded, upon Lager's authority, as a Vau- 
 dois Catechism of the year 1100. Of course, the date given by L^ger has no 
 real authority whatever ; but it may be proper to add that to reject his authority 
 on this point is no impeachment of his good faith as an historian. Nor does the 
 rejection of this date involve the rejection of the Catechism as a document afford- 
 ing evidence of the doctrines of the Vaudois before the Reformation, in order 
 to which the circumstance that it was known and used amongst them is of 
 more importance than the answer to the question. Whether it was composed 
 in the valleys of the Alps or in Bohemia ? Dieckhoff's anxiety, however, is 
 great to proceed from probability to certainty, assuming, on the ground of his 
 previous discoveries just noticed, an antecedent probability that it also is of 
 Bohemian origin. And this attempt he prosecutes throughout many pages, 
 comparing the Bohemian form of the Catechism, as it exists in a German trans- 
 lation pubUshed in Luther's time, with the Vaudois form. The correspondence 
 between this "Catechism of the Bohemian Brethren" and the Vaudois Cate- 
 chism has been long known ; but it has been generally taken for granted, per- 
 haps too hastily, and only on Lager's authority, that the Catechism was originally 
 Vaudois. The question is not of the highest importance either with reference 
 to the origin of the Vaudois, or to their state during the middle ages. The 
 clear and precise statement in the Vaudois Catechism, as it now exists, of some 
 doctrines which are not so well stated in the Bohemian Catechism, Dieckhoff 
 
 » beo "Bibliography," in this volume, p. 467, 473. 
 
 t s 
 
 No. IV ] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 629 
 
 of course refers, and not without some appearance of probability, to the influ- 
 ence of the Reformation. But his argument, foimded chiefly upon a comparison 
 of the arrangement in the two forms of the Catechism, from which he concludes 
 that the Bohemian form is the original, and that the Vaudois Catechism has 
 been derived from it, is of such a nature that no abridgement can do justice 
 to it. Ten pages of his work would require to be copied in order fairly to ex- 
 hibit it. Perhaps I may be allowed to describe it as wire-drawn. But what- 
 ever may be its value as an argument, no great historic question can be much 
 affected by it. 
 
 Taking a retrospective glance, however, Dieckhoff now expresses himself 
 much satisfied with the results of his labours. For he supposes himself to have 
 succeeded in proving the worthlessness of the documents upon which the delu- 
 sion in reg.ard to the early history of the Vaudois has been based.* Let the 
 reader consider what the documents are, of which the value has been discussed, 
 and let him also consider how far the question of the origin of the Vaudois de- 
 pends upon them, and he will perhaps be surprised at the expression of such an 
 opinion. The Noble Lesson and the other Vaudois poems have not yet been 
 noticed ! 
 
 I pass somewhat hastily over a portion of Dieckhoff's work, in which he ex- 
 amines into the probable time of that forgery or falsification of documents which 
 he holds to be so certain. It is proper, however, to mention that after all 
 which he has said before, he excuses Perrin, as a man who seems rather to have 
 been himself deceived than to have been a wilful deceiver. His suspicions fas- 
 ten upon Vigneaux, whose own knowledge of the state of things before the 
 Reformation must have prevented him from being altogether deceived in such a 
 matter. It will be remarked how confidently in all this our German contem- 
 porary assumes a very complete knowledge, on his own part, of the state of 
 things amongst the Vaudois before the Reformation, and the amount of change 
 then introduced. His suspicion of Vigneaux it is scarcely impossible to avoid 
 characterizing as equally preposterous and ungenerous. Without having a page 
 of that author's writings in his hands, knowing only the date at which he lived, 
 and the fact that Perrin derived great part of his materials from compilations 
 made by him, this investigator of historic truth points him out as the probable 
 perpetrator of a gioss imposture, and, at least, as a principal participator in 
 systematic literary forgeries 1^ Dieckhoff's theory is indeed a very complete 
 one. The writings which had been used by the Barbas might at first have been 
 changed with no intention of deception as to the former state of things, but 
 merely to accommodate them to continued use : this he at last admits. But 
 this favoured the notion of the unchanged continuity of the sect, and a wide 
 field was opened for pious fraud ; and political reasons operated to make it very 
 desirable that the sect should not be identified with the churches of the Refor- 
 mation, for its members might thus hope to enjoy ancient privileges and to 
 escape persecution, and the fabrication and falsification of documents were em- 
 ployed as means to promote this deception. But who were to be deceived? 
 and how was this deception to serve the political purpose? Did Vigneaux and 
 Perrin suppose that their works would influence Popish bishops or Popish 
 princes? Or were the great ones of the earth very likely to ponder the pages 
 of the Vaudois Catechism and the Treatise on Purgatory ? However, it is not 
 necessary to muster many objections against Dieckhoff's theory. It is enough 
 to observe that it is entirely a product of the imagination. 
 
 > P. 116. 
 
 « Pp. 124, 125. 
 
 Vol II. 
 
 127 
 
&30 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [ApPMurx. 
 
 Yet this theory, luore than any evidence of falsification in any particular 
 instance, seems to have emboldened its author to adopt a new method of solving 
 the difficulty which, if the Vaudois are not believed to have existed before 
 Valdo arises out of the Hne of the Nohh Lesson so often quoted as indicating 
 its probable date. May not that line be an interpolation?' That the Noble 
 lesson is really the production of a period long anterior to the Reformation, he 
 admits to be certain enough; but seeing that we have such abundant proof of 
 wilful falsification {absichtsvoUe Fdlschung), why should we hesitate to set down 
 this as another instance of it? Dieckhoff has no hesitation; but besides the 
 reason just indicated, his only other reason is the impossibility of ascribing to 
 this poem so early a date as the beginning, or even the end of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, which Gieseler, Neander, and Herzog assign to it. He applies to it the 
 innere Kritik—a, powerful weapon certainly, but one which requires cautious 
 handling— and finds that it cannot be older than the year 1230, because it de- 
 scribes a state of things which did not exist till about that date. With like 
 confidence, and on similar grounds, his countrymen fix dates for diflFerent por- 
 tions of Isaiah's prophecies, assigning some of them, therefore, to one author, 
 and some of them to another ; although, indeed, they digger a Uttle in the opinions 
 which they so confidently advance. Until some other evidence be adduced to 
 bring down the date of the Noble Lesson to the thirteenth century, we may be 
 contented to learn a little from it as to the state of things before that period. 
 In refusing to accept the date 1100, which so many have imagined that they 
 four.d in the text of the ancient poem itself, Dieckhoff also proceeds upon what 
 he deems the ascertained historic fact of the descent of the Vaudois from Valdo, 
 concerning which he thinks himself bound to accept the testimony of the 
 " Catholic •' witnesses. But he refuses to adopt the metliod adopted by Gieseler, 
 Neander, and Herzog, of dealing with the date in the poem itself. He cannot 
 beUeve that the eleven hundred years are to be reckoned from any other period 
 than the beginning of the Christian era ; he rejects this as an unnatural interpre- 
 tation of the line. " Eimnal namlich wird die Rechnung auf diese weise viel 
 zu kiinstUch." Moreover, he adopts, as of great weight upon this point, the 
 argument of Muston.2 from the description of the Vaudois given in the poem, 
 that it cannot have been composed within a few years of the origin of the 
 sect, and agrees with him that if it could be proved to have been composed, as 
 Gieseler, Meander, and Herzog suppose, in the end of the twelfth century, it 
 would evince the existence of the Vaudois long before the time of Valdo.' 
 
 For historical research concerning the Vaudois, he thinks the true point of 
 departure is to be found in the testimonies of the " Catholic" writers. He ad- 
 mits that these are liable to much suspicion, but seems to think that they have 
 been in general too hastily rejected, upon the mere ground of confidence in the 
 Vaudois manuscript literature. In a long and elaborate note he examines the 
 "Catholic" testimonies, upon which he thinks we must depend in this matter 
 — ('• die zu Grunde gelegten katholischen Zeugnisse.") He begins with that of 
 the English clergyman, Walter Mapes,* which, relating as it seems to do to the 
 third Lateran Council, a.d. 1179, he finds not to consist well with his opinion 
 that the Vaudois derived their origin from Valdo, for Valdo had at that time 
 made little progress in his career ; and Dieckhoff can by no means assent to the 
 notion, which Hahn and others have entertained, that the heretics described by 
 Mapcs were not Vaudois; wherefore, founding upon a general similarity of the 
 
 ' P. 121, note, and pp. 141-144. 
 
 » In hia first work. But ae« the " Bibliography" in this volume, pp. 420, 421, and 459. 
 
 » Pp. 142-144. « See Israel i^fthe Alpt, t©1. i. p. 15, note. 
 
 Kg IV] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 531 
 
 Btory of Mapes to a record in the Ursbci'g Chronicle, of occurrences at a council in 
 Rome in 1210, he concludes that there must be an error in the date ! Mapes, in- 
 deed, says very expressly, "Vidimus in concilio Romano sub Alexandro Papa III. 
 celebrato," which fixes the date unquestionably as 1179, but Dieckhoff thinks 
 it quite likely that the words "su6 Alexandro Papa III. celebrato" were inter- 
 polated by some copyist in subsequent times, who was not himself well-informed 
 as to dates, and that the name of Innocent III. should have appeared instead 
 of Alexander III.* But we may reject both this arbitrary conjecture and Hahn's 
 notion, that the "heretics" of 1179 were not Vaudois, and easily suppose pro- 
 ceedino-s of the same kind to have taken place at the Roman councils in 1179 
 and 1210, unless we are constrained by the necessity of deriving the Vaudois 
 from Valdo. The next " Catholic" author whose testimony Dieckhoff adduces 
 as important is Alanus de Insulis, and he spends some closely-printed pages in 
 distinguishing him from other persons of the same name, and determining the 
 date of his testimony, which he thinks cannot be after 1215, whilst he thinks 
 it cannot be long before 1200. But he finds it necessary again to have recourse 
 to the convenient theory of interpolations ; for in the work of Alanus against 
 heretics mention is made of an excommunication of Waldenses by the Lateran 
 council, which Lateran council cannot have been before 1215,' yet there is 
 reason to think (according to Dieckhoff) that the genuine Alanus de Insulis 
 died in 1202, so that there is really no help for it but to apply the sharp critical 
 knife and cut out all that relates to the Lateran council as an interpolation 
 ("ein spaterer, unechter Zusatz"), for which excision, however, many additional 
 good reasons are immediately presented.' The other *' Catholic" testimonies 
 upon which the greatest dependence is placed, are those, already familiar to us, of 
 Bernard of Fontcaude, Eberard of Bethune, Peter of Vaux-Cernay, and Stephen 
 
 of Borbone. 
 
 In what remains of Dieckhoff's volume, are many things both interesting 
 and important, of which it is impossible here to present a complete view, and 
 which have reference more to the state of the Vaudois and their history during 
 the period between Valdo and Luther, than to the question of their origin or 
 of their existence anterior to Valdo. Yet I venture to express the opinion, 
 that even in respect to this question, it is not unimportant to notice the exist- 
 ence, in the eariier part of the twelfth century, of the Poor Men of Lombardy, 
 as a religious denomination, distinguished from the Poor Men of Lyons, although 
 neariy allied, the latter being described by Stephen de Borbone as the true 
 Waldenses—" qui dicuntur Waldenses, a suo heresiarcho." The Poor Men of 
 Lombardy are regarded by Dieckhoff as followers of Valdo, who, having crossed 
 the Alps amidst the distresses arising from the Albigensian war, had mingled 
 more or less with other sects in Italy.* His general view of the state of mat- 
 ters before and after that period, is, that there were many similar religious 
 movements, of which that of Valdo and his followers was only one — a view, the 
 perfect correctness of which is by no means inconsistent with the existence of 
 the Vaudois in the valleys of the Alps for centuries before the birth of Valdo.' 
 
 ' P. 344. * Th® tMrd was in 1179, the /ourfA in 1215. 
 
 » p* 353". * Pp. 159-164. 
 
 * "Die waldenaische Sekte geh5rt als einzelnes Glied einer weit iiber sie hinausgreif en- 
 den Reihe von Entwickelungen an, die alle durch ein Gemeinsames des Strebens imd der 
 Aufifassung der zur Geltung zu bringenden christlichen Frommigkeit beherrscht erscheinen. 
 Hierin ist es begriindet, wenn die Waldenser schon in den friiheren Bestrebungen eines Pe- 
 trus von Bruis und eines Heinrich in der ersten Hiilfte des 12. Jahrhunderts die ihrigen 
 wiederflnden wollen." — P. 166. 
 
532 
 
 THE ISKAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [A.fP£I«0]X. 
 
 Even the authors who most eamp«?t^y contend for the historic apostolicity of 
 the Vaudois, have generally regarded them as connected with other sects on 
 both sides of the Alps, who maintained like themselves, more or less perfectly, 
 a testimony against the corruptions of Rome, and amongst whom was preserved, 
 as amongst the Vaudois, the religion which in earlier and better times had been 
 that of the whole church of these regions. 
 
 1 deem it not unimportant also, in respect to the question now under con- 
 sideration, and particularly with reference to the value of the whole of Dieck- 
 hoflTs previous argument founded upon Morel's letter, that in the latter part of 
 his work may be found proofs of a state of things in earlier times very con- 
 siderably different from that which Morel's letter depicts. For, in the first 
 place, he admits that before the terrible period of the Albigensian war, the fol- 
 lowers of Valdo opposed themselves more openly to the Church of Rome than 
 they did after they had been broken down by persecution.* He proves, by no 
 less authoritative testimony than that of Alanus de Insulis, that these "here- 
 tics," in the beginning of the thirteenth century, not only maintained their right 
 to preach without permission from the Romish hierarchy, but to perform all 
 spiritual functions, professing themselves bound to obey good prelates only.- 
 He acknowledges that the opposition to Rome was openly maintained in Upper 
 Italy after it had been in a great measure suppressed in France, and that in the 
 ** Catholic" accounts of the middle of the thirteenth century, it is no longer the 
 south of France but Upper Italy that is represented as the principal seat of the 
 Waldensian heresy. He quotes Moneta as stating the chief distinction between 
 the Poor Men of Lombardy and the Transalpine (ultramontane) Poor Men to 
 consist in this, that the former stood out in more decided opposition against the 
 Church of Rome, and particularly against its priests and their exercise of their 
 functions, so that, whilst the Transalpine Poor Men submitted to receive the 
 sacraments from the Romish priests, those of Lombardy administered the sacra- 
 ments amongst themselves.^ Can it be doubted after this that the state of things 
 described in Morel's letter was a declension from better times — a consequence of 
 those persecutions by which the Papal church sought to wear out the saints of 
 the Most High? Does it not even become probable that Morel's letter more 
 accurately describes the state of the Vaudois on the west side of the Alps, than 
 of those in the valleys of Piedmont? It is strange, however, that Dieokhoff 
 seems not in the least degree conscious of anything in all this to weaken the 
 force of the leading argument in the first part of his work, founded upon Morel's 
 letter. Nay, although Dr. Muston, as well as Dieckhoff", deems it a probable 
 argument against the high antiquity of the Treatise on Antichrist, that the 
 Church of Rome is therein very disrespectfully spoken of,* yet we may hesitate 
 
 » P. 155. 
 
 2 Pp. 214, 215. — It is rather curious, however, to find Dieckhoff theorizing as to the dis- 
 tinctive peculiarity of the Vaudois sect, and making it to consist in their preacliing without 
 authority of the Romish hierarchy, and this upon the ground that the great complaint made 
 against them by their Popish adversaries is for their so doing. P. 167, &c. — How any sect 
 could be supposed to exist without preachers and preaching, he does not condescend to ex- 
 plain. The theory is maintained by a reference to Valdo's preaching, and by proofs that the 
 Vaudois did assert a right to preach without consent of the prelates, one of which, however 
 (from an edict of King Alphonso of Arragon, in the year 1194), is strangely contrary to the 
 theorist's purpose, for it actually represents other heretics equally with the Vaudois, as ad- 
 dicting themselves to fanesta prcedicatio. (" Si quis igitur ab hac die et deinceps pnedictos 
 Waldenses et Zappatatos aliosque hsereticos, cujuscunque f\ierint professionis, in domibus 
 Buis recipere, vel horum funestam praidicationem aUquo loco audire, vel his cibum vel aliud 
 aliquod beneficium largiri prsesiunpserit," iic. 
 
 5 Pp. 219-221. * See p. 445 of this volume. 
 
 li 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 533 
 
 about concurring with him when we find Rainerius charging the Poor Men of 
 Lombardy with asserting of that church "quod Ecclesia est Ecclesia malig- 
 nantium et Bestia et Meretrix, quae leguntur in Apocalypsi."' And whatever 
 modifications and recensions may have taken place at subsequent times, nay, 
 although the Treatise in its present form may even be satisfactorily traced to a 
 Taborite Confession, the jjrobability of an old Vaudois original will not seem 
 inconsiderable, if Dieckhoff" is right in maintaining that the Tdborites derived 
 their views in a great measure from the Vaudois.^ 
 
 Following the chronological order, I intended now, in the next place, to have 
 noticed an article from the pen of M. E. Cunitz, in the (Strasburg) lievue de 
 Theologie ct de Philosophie Chretienne, for August, 1852, in which the works of 
 Muston and Dieckhoff are reviewed. And if there had been room for it, I 
 would gladly have quoted from that article an extremely clear and succinct view 
 of the early Vaudois as they are represented in the writings of their adversarieSj 
 which, however, it is hard to understand how any one can think it right to 
 accept as a fair historic representation of them. But as M. Cunitz does little 
 else than adopt the opinions and arguments of Dieckhoff, following him even 
 to the length of his rejection of the date in the Noble Lesson as an interpolation, 
 W'C may pass on to the only other work which now remains to be noticed, after 
 mentioning an argument of his own, directed against Dr. Muston, in regard to 
 the language of the Vaudois works, which he denies to afford any proof of their 
 having been produced by the Vaudois of Piedmont ; for the same language, 
 he maintains, with slight modifications, prevailed over the whole south of France. 
 " M. Muston denies that the Vaudois of Provence and of Dauphiny could or 
 would have written in this idiom, and yet the Barba Morel .... belonged to 
 these provinces and used this dialect. Moreover, M. Muston, fomiding upon 
 the language alone, concludes that he has discovered one of the oldest Vaudois 
 MSS. in a New Testament preserved at Lyons, and yet this MS. could not 
 have belonged to the inhabitants of the valleys, because it is a relic of the sect 
 of the Cathari, and contains their liturgy. Thus the whole argument falls to 
 the ground by which he seeks to prove that all this literature originated in the 
 churches of Piedmont. Every probability is in favour of its rather belonging 
 to the sectaries who were spread over the south of France ; who, from the state 
 of civilization around them, were more likely to possess the learning of which 
 some of these works afford evidence, than the poor inhabitants of the remote 
 and lonely valleys which descend from Mount Genevre and Mount Viso." I 
 give his argument in his own words. But the question as to the existence of 
 the Vaudois before Valdo does not depend very much on this question of lan- 
 guage ; nor would their high antiquity be rendered less probable should it be 
 ascertained that a considerable portion of their MS. literature originated in the 
 south of France, and after the time of Valdo.' 
 
 It now only remains, for completion of the design of this Appendix, to give 
 some account of a recent work by Dr. Herzog, whose academic thesis has been 
 already noticed. It is entitled ** Die komanischen Waldensee, ihre vorre- 
 
 FORMATOBISCHEN ZUSTANDE UND LeHREN, IHRE REFORMATION IM 16. ,TaHR- 
 HUNDERT UND DIE RiJCKWIRKUNGEN DERSELBEN, HAUPSACHLICH NACH IHREN 
 
 ' Quoted by Dieckhoff, p. 222. ^ Pp- 272, 273, note. 
 
 3 The Revue de Theologie et de PhUosophie Chrdtienne contains, also, in the numbers for 
 June, 1851, December, 1852, and February, 1853, articles by Professor Reusz, of Strasburg, on 
 the Vaudois translations of the Bible, which I i-egret that I can do nothing more than merely 
 point out as containing much that is of importance to the study of the ecclesiastical history of 
 the middle ages. 
 
534 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Affindix. 
 
 EIGENEN ScHRiFTEN dargestellt" (Halle, 1853), and is a work containing 
 much new and valuable information, the fruit of patient research, and displays 
 not only the learning and talents for which the author enjoys a high reputation, 
 but a candour in judgment which, even when venturing to dissent from his 
 conclusions, it is impossible not to mark with respect. It is a work which, 
 upon many accounts, deserves to be noticed much more fully than is possible 
 at present, all that I can attempt being merely to indicate the nature of its con- 
 tents, and to make somewhat particular mention of those things which most 
 closely bear upon the question of the origin of the Vaudois, the proper subject 
 of these pages. 
 
 Dr. Herzog has undertaken and executed a more thorough examination of 
 the Vaudois manuscript literature than was ever previously made. This state- 
 ment of what may be called the origin of his work, is of itself sufficient to 
 show that it must be entitled to great attention. He visited Geneva, Grenoble, 
 Dublin, and other places where Vaudois MSS. were to be found, carefully per- 
 used these MSS., collating them with the printed text in those cases in which 
 the works had already been printed, and making transcripts of the most im- 
 portant with his own hand, or causing them to be made under his eye, and sub- 
 jecting them to a careful revision. The result of all this is, that we have now 
 through his labours the Vaudois literature more completely before us than ever 
 hitherto, and the several parts of it in a more correct form. The difficulty of 
 reading and transcribing these MSS. being, in some cases, very great, and some 
 of those who previously undertook it being by no means very well qualified for 
 the task, it is not to be wondered at, that in the printed text of Vaudois works 
 there have hitherto been numerous inaccuracies. 
 
 Dr. Herzog's work is divided into four books; the first, "Introductory," is 
 occupied chiefly with an historical account of the Vaudois literature and a de« 
 scription of the existing MSS., in connection with which the question is con- 
 sidered of the language in which the Vaudois works are written; the second 
 book is devoted to an examination of the condition and doctrine of the Romanic 
 Vaudois, according to those documents in which a Hussite influence is not mani- 
 fested ; the third book treats of their relation to the Hussite sects, and the in- 
 fluence of these upon their literature ; the fourth, of the Reformation and its 
 influences, and particularly with regard to their views and representations of 
 their previous history. 
 
 Throu'j^hout the whole work, it appears to me, that Dr. Herzog regards the 
 two questions as more intimately connected than they really are, of the origin 
 of the Vaudois, and of the form and measure of their opposition to the Church 
 of Rome. However fully it may be proved that the Vaudois after the Refor- 
 mation erred (and it was an error into which it may well be conceived that they 
 were very apt to fall without any "pious fraud" whatever), in exaggerating the 
 opposition of their fathers to Rome, and representing their church as having 
 possessed, during the dark ages, a greater measure of scriptural light than it 
 did in reality possess, I confess myself unable to see how from this a conclusiou 
 should be drawn unfavourable to its existence before the days of Valdo. It 
 might be natural for the Vaudois to adopt readily, too favourable a view of their 
 past history on both points, but error on the one point does not necessarily 
 iuvolve error on the other. 
 
 As to the condition and doctrines of the Vaudois before the Reformation, 
 and before the Hussite influence began to prevail amongst them. Dr. Herzog 
 modestly confesses his inability, from the sources of information which have yet 
 been opened up, to give a full and accurate representation of them.* He blamea 
 
 » P. «4. 
 
 Ko. IV] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 635 
 
 Dieckhoflf, however, for acceptmg, so completely and unhesitatingly, the ac- 
 counts given of them by their "Catholic" adversaries. For although, as to 
 the relation of the Vaudois to Valdo, Dr. Herzog still proceeds upon the testi- 
 mony of these authors, as when he wrote his academic Programma, he does 
 not think it right to receive as perfectly accurate all their statements concerning 
 the doctrines and character of the heretics whom they so cordially hated ; and 
 he asserts, concerning the Vaudois of the middle ages, that whilst there prevailed 
 amongst them much Romish error, both of doctrine and practice, they yet main- 
 tained the formal principle of Protestantism ; and on this ground he accounts 
 for their immediate concurrence in the Reformation when it took place, and 
 contradicts the assertion of Bossuet, so often repeated by Popish writers, that 
 they had more in common with CathoUcism than with Protestantism. * They 
 were not, he says, as some have represented them, free from error, resisting 
 completely all the influences with which they were surrounded; they appear, from 
 their own literature, more such as we might expect from their whole circum- 
 stances ; they appear as opponents both of the Romish church and of the here- 
 tics who sapped the very foundation of Christianity ; they appear as aiming, not 
 without weakness, but really and perseveringly, at the great object of a moral 
 and religious reformation.-' 
 
 Dr. Herzog thinks it probable that most of the old Vaudois MSS. were 
 destroyed in the persecutions previous to the Reformation, and that after that 
 great event a new period of literary activity began. He thinks also that the 
 productions of this later period were, in some instances, given out as ancient 
 works, in order to sustain the pretensions of high antiquity and hereditary 
 purity. For, to a certain extent, he still maintains the theory of a " pious 
 fraud;" but "this conjecture," he says, "can only be entertained with refer- 
 ence to some of the documents published by Perrin and L^ger. The other 
 writings, certainly, do not belong to a time subsequent to the Reformation; for 
 they contain many Catholic elements. Nay, even of those writings which Pemn 
 and Ld'^er have published, some are to be found in Geneva and Dublin, m a form 
 which is ceri^ainly older than the Reformation."' However, he thinks that per- 
 sons not having opportunity of examining the Geneva and Dublin MSS. were 
 very excusable in extending the conjecture farther. 
 
 He thinks it also not wonderful that the evidence of Hussite influence m 
 some of the Vaudois documents, and even of the derivation of some of them 
 from Bohemian originals, should have led to the supposition that all of them 
 ai-e in this respect, alike, concerning which a date anterior to the Reformation 
 must be admitted. But he unhesitatingly rejects this view, and assures us that 
 the Vaudois writings, in which the Hussite influence has been so clearly traced, 
 form a class by themselves, distinguished by a peculiar character, being more 
 didactic than the rest, and having more of a learned air, more abundant cita- 
 tions and more of a Latin tint in the language, besides a keener tone of oppo- 
 Bition to the Romish church, and the scholastic style of the latter part of the 
 
 middle ages.* ^ -,,- • i. . i. 
 
 Concerning the language of the Vaudois documents. Dr. Herzog pointsout 
 that although, as Raynouard says, it substantially agrees with that of the Trou- 
 badours, yet there are dialectic differences. But it being now known that there 
 were a number of slightly different dialects of the Romance tongue, he thinks 
 we ought to regard that of the Vaudois documents as having belonged to some 
 particular district, and to inquire what that district was. He does not regard 
 
 « Pp. 19-23. 
 
 « Preface, pp. riil., ix 
 
 » P. 29. 
 
 « P. 30. 
 
 V 
 
636 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 L^ 
 
 Fpsnoix. 
 
 the progress hitherto made in the study of these dialects to be such as would 
 warrant' us in saying that tlie dialect in which the Vaudois writings are com- 
 posed was peculiar to the Vaudois. But he notes it as a highly significant fact, 
 that hitherto no documents have been found in this dialect except Vaudois docu- 
 ments. ^ As to the district in which this dialect was spoken, he does not express 
 himself with confidence. He refuses to accept the judgment of Vaudois authors 
 as conclusive, whom he thinks biassed by party feeling, and states reasons for 
 dissenting from their identification of the language of the old documents with 
 the present patois of the valleys. And on this point it at least deserves to be 
 considered that the dialects of difierent districts may have well marked pecul- 
 iarities ; whilst that of one district may yet be readily intelligible to the inhabi- 
 tants of another. Herzog appears to think it probable that the Waldensian 
 literature originated in the valleys not of the eastern but of the western side of 
 the Alps, although he seems afterwards to admit that the same dialect may have 
 prevailed upon both sides ; and of what consequence it is to assign the litera- 
 ture to one side rather than to the other does not clearly appear, nor can the 
 probability in favour of the western side be deemed very great when it is found 
 merely to rest upon the identity of the language of the old Vaudois documents 
 with that of Morel's letter to CEcolampadius, whilst even of this letter it is 
 afterwards showTi that it contains more words derived from the French than 
 they do.» 
 
 Comparing the language of the older documents, however, with this letter, 
 and with the works borrowed from the Taborites, Dr. Herzog thinks there -is 
 no such difference as would lead to the supposition of a number of centuries of 
 higher antiquity. He thinks we might, from considerations of language alone, 
 regard them as probably belonging to the fifteenth century. But he shows that 
 the contents of them do not accord with the state of things in that century, as 
 we learn it from Morel's letter and other sources, whilst the works themselves 
 bear every mark of proceeding from a people persecuted upon account of their 
 religion, but not long secluded in Alpine valleys from the scenes of busy com- 
 merce, wealth, luxury, and gaiety, of all wliich a knowledge is exhibited such 
 as it is not easy to suppose the inhabitants of Merindol, of Cabriferes, or of 
 Lucerna to have possessed. All this points to a higher antiquity, and Dr. Her- 
 zog thinks it not improbable that the language of the oldest documents may 
 have been modified by transcribers, so as in the existing copies more nearly to 
 resemble the language of the sixteenth century than it did in the originals.' 
 
 Proceeding to the examination of the existing MSS,, Dr. Herzog adduces 
 reasons for concluding with certainty that none of the volumes deposited by 
 John Leger, and by his uncle, Anthony L^ger, in the Public Library of Geneva, 
 are amongst the five volumes now existing there.* — The MS. No. 20C* he re- 
 gards as unquestionably the oldest of the Vaudois MSS. now existing in Ge- 
 neva, and as belonging to the fifteenth century, probably to the beginning of 
 the century. But the treatises which it contains are evidently transcribed from 
 earlier oinginals, because some of them are given in an incomplete form. — The 
 MS. No. 207* he regards as belonging to the latter half of the fifteenth century, 
 and quotes the opinion of Dr. Todd, of Dublin, to the same effect. This ma- 
 nuscript has been very generally regarded as belonging to the twelfth century, 
 in consequence of an opinion to that effect expressed by Senebier,^ and adopted 
 
 » P. 32. 2 Pp. 33-42. » Pp. 43-46. * Pp. 47, 48. 
 
 » See " Bibliography," in this volume, pp. 455, 456. " See pp. 456-460 of this vol. 
 
 ' Author of Catalogue raisomie d€» Manuso-ita conserve* dan» la B'MioUaique de la VilU de 
 Geneve, 1779. 
 
 No. IV.] 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 537 
 
 from him by Kaynouard.' But Senebier's incompetency to judge in such a 
 matter is illustrated by his error in supposing the previous MS. No, 206, to 
 be in the Catalan tongue, and by his making twenty-two blunders in copying 
 eighteen lines from the poem La Barca. This volume, also, Dr. Herzog re- 
 gards as evidently containing copies from older originals; and assigns for this 
 opinion the following very conclusive reasons: — That the Com,mentary on the 
 Song of Solomon is incomplete, wanting the first book; and that the text of the 
 Noble Lesson is marred by omissions which destroy the sense, and exhibits proofs 
 throughout of carelessness on the part of the transcriber.— The MS. No. 208 ^ 
 he assigns to the latter half of the sixteenth centmy ; but in this case, also, he 
 holds that the contents of the volume have been copied from older manuscripts, 
 because, along with a number of treatises, all of which are of Taborite origin, or 
 exhibit the Taborite influence, it contains one piece, the first in the volume, 
 Articles de la fe, which is indisputably of older date.^ — He regards the MS. 
 No. 209* as belonging to the latter half of the sixteenth century. The title on 
 the back, Conseils des Barbets dU 15»i« siecle, is, he observes, in a more mo- 
 dern hand than the MS. itself.— The MS. formerly No. 43* has now, it would 
 appear, been ranked along with the other Vaudois volumes, as MS. 409a. Dr. 
 Herzog refers it to the latter part of the sixteenth, or the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century.* 
 
 Of the MSS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (derived from that of 
 Archbishop Usher), the first which Dr. Herzog mentions, is that (Class A, 
 shelf 4, No. 13) containing the Vaudois translation of the New Testament and 
 of part of the Old Testament.' He mentions the date (mentioned also by Dr. 
 Muston, in his ** Bibliography," p. 450), and adds, particulariy, that it is in 
 the same hand in which the whole is Mrritten. From tliis MS. it was that the 
 gospel of John was edited by Dr. Gilly in 1851. Dr. Herzog caused a copy of 
 all the rest to be made, which he himself revised, and which is now in the Royal 
 Library of Berlin, he having received a commission for that purpose from the 
 Royal Academy of Sciences in that city. He describes the other Dublin MSS., 
 and concerning them all he expresses himself as certain that they are the very 
 MSS. which were used by Perrin, although it appears that Perrin possessed 
 also other MSS. besides those which now remain. In the " Book of George 
 Morel," in particular, Perrin's citations correspond with the very pages of the 
 MS. — Dr. Herzog gives a particular account of the MS. No. 3,* and mentions 
 that it bears the date 1524 near the beginning of the volume, the rest being in 
 a somewhat more modern hand. In his description of the Jifth volume,^ he 
 mentions that the fragment with which it begins, *' Ayczo es la causa del de- 
 piirtiment de la gleysa romana," is terminated by a note of the transcriber, 
 "Ayci finis I'obra non complia d'aquest libre per mancament d'exemplar," a 
 clear enough indication of the comparative antiquity, and also of the rarity of 
 
 • Senebier and Raynouard are not likely to be suspected of piotis fraud upon this accoujit. 
 And yet this instance of an error springing up and getting firm root, without any dishonest 
 intention on the part of any one, might show the propriety of a charitable judgment regard- 
 ing Vigneaux, Perrin, and L6ger, of whom much suspicion has been very rashly and confi- 
 dently expressed. 
 
 * See pp. 460-462 of this volume. 
 
 • He mentions that Monastier is mistaken in saying that the MS. of the Treatise on Pur- 
 gatory, contained in this volume, wants the quotation from the MiUeloguium Augustini, and 
 accoimts for this mistake by the extreme disarrangement of the leaves. 
 
 * See pp. 462-464 of this volume. » See pp. 454, 455, of this volume. 
 
 • Pp. 48-52. 7 See " Bibliography," in this volume, pp. 449, 460, and 465. 
 
 * Ibid. pp. 466-468. 9 Hji^. p. 471. 
 
 Vol. II. 128 
 
538 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Appendix. 
 
 the originals, from which the copies now existing of these Vaudois books were 
 made. * 
 
 Of the existing Biblical MSS., Dr. Hei-zog describes the Zurich and the Gre- 
 noble MSS. of the New Testament, and of certain pariis of the Old Testament 
 and Apocryphal books/ as written in the same language with the Dublin MS., 
 and that the language which prevails in the Vaudois writings.' These two 
 MSS., he tells us, contain different recensions of the same translation which 
 the Dublin MS. contains ; and he mentions instances in which the Grenoble 
 MS. agrees more nearly with the Vulgate than the Dublin MS. does ; and, 
 what is much more interesting, he informs us, on the authority of Professor 
 Kenaz, that the Zurich MS. is a translation improved from the Greek text.* 
 He says that Muston is mistaken in enumerating two Lyons MSS.; and that 
 which does exist, is not, according to him, a Vaudois MS., but belonged to the 
 Cathari, whose ritual {Consolamentum) is annexed to it, and has been edited by 
 Cunitz (Jena, 1852).* The Paris MS., A of Muston's " Bibliography, "« No. 
 8086 of the Bibliotheque Nationale (or Du. Roi), Dr. Herzog regards as in the 
 language of the Troubadours. 
 
 That so many of the existing Vaudois MSS. belong to the sixteenth century, 
 Dr. Herzog in conclusion remarks, is no proof of the recent origin of the works. 
 On the contrary, these MSS. are evidently mere copies ; and it is not difl&cult 
 to account for an increased activity in transcribing at that time. Moreover, 
 the dates which we find in two of them are of that part of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury which was previous to the introduction of the Reformation among the 
 Vaudois. 
 
 He then proceeds to give a more particular account of some of the works 
 which bear the surest marks of antiquity. Assuming the antiquity of the 
 Geneva MS. No. 206 itself, he begins with the works contained in it, compar- 
 ing the different existing copies of the same work as he goes on. I regret that 
 it is impossible to do more than merely to indicate the nature of this part of his 
 labours, by which great light is thrown upon the interesting subject of the con- 
 dition and doctrines of the Vaudois before the reaction upon them of a religious 
 influence from Bohemia. He notes very carefully the points of agreement and 
 disagreement with the Church of Rome, and calls attention to the evidence 
 afforded by the nature of some of the works of an externally flourishing state 
 of society. He does not undertake to determine the dates of most of the works ; 
 although showing from the nature of their contents, as well as from the exter- 
 nal evidence of the Geneva MS., that they must be older than the time of Hus- 
 ^te influences. Some of them, indeed, appear to have been composed when 
 the circumstances of the Vaudois were comparatively prosperous, and others in 
 times of persecution. The Exposition of the Song of Solomon, in the Geneva 
 MS. No. 207, is referred to a time not earlier than the latter part of the thir- 
 teenth centmry, because it contains the expression fe forma (fides formata), the 
 first use of which is ascribed to Thomas Aquinas,' whilst, if it were not for this 
 
 > Pp. 54-60. 2 See «♦ Bibliography," in this volume, pp. 449, 450. 
 
 » Pp. 61, 62.— In a subsequent place, pp. 99-108, he gives a more particiUar account of the 
 Dublin MS. ; compares the quotations iix the old Vaudois books with the text as found in it; 
 shows how it generally agrees with, and how in mauy cases it departs from the Vulgate; and 
 adduces arguments to show that it is of date much anterior to the Hussite influences. 
 
 * P. 108. 
 
 » I mention this merely as the opinion of Dr. Herzog and of Cunitz, without venturing to 
 express either concurrence or dissent, which, without more particular information as to the 
 MS. and an examination of the Consolartuntum, could have no reasonable foundation. 
 
 • Pp. 450, 451, of this volume. ' But is it certain that he was the first to ase it? 
 
 No. IV ] 
 
 OKIGIN OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 539 
 
 circumstance, Dr. Herzog evidently inclines to think that there are othei indi- 
 cations of an earlier origin-pari;icularly in the polemical character of the work, 
 which is very much directed against heresies more prevalent at an eariier period. 
 The Ari,icles of Faith, in the Geneva MS. No. 208, and in the third Dublin 
 volume, although they are found amongst works which are of Hussite origin, 
 are unhesitatingly referred to an earlier date, because of their agreement with the 
 Articles of the Confession of Faith, which a Strasburg MS.,' of the year 1404, 
 represents the Waldenses as demanding from their ministers at their ordination. 
 The Treatise on Tribulations, in one of the Dublin volumes, mentions a perse- 
 cution under a Pope of the name of Ynnocent, and describes the faithful as 
 compelled to flee to the mountains, and to abide in solitudes, where they suffer 
 from hunger, cold, robbers, and wild beasts. Dr. Herzog thinks there are in- 
 dications of an earlier date than that of the persecution under Innocent VIII., 
 in the latter pari; of the fifteenth century, and concludes with the remark, that 
 if we could with certainty refer this treatise to the time of the persecutions 
 under Innocent IV., the eariy date of at least a great part of the Vaudois 
 literature would receive the strongest confirmation. 
 
 But more particular attention must be given to what Dr. Herzog says, in this 
 part of his work, regarding the Noble Lesson; as its evident antiquity, and the 
 date which it contains, supply the strongest arguments employed to prove the 
 existence of the Vaudois before Valdo, whilst all who reject that view find it 
 necessary to dispose, in some way or other, of the apparent evidence of the 
 date. Dr. Herzog, in his anxiety to maintain the descent of the Vaudois from 
 Valdo, would evidently be glad to accept Dieckhoff's theory of an interpolation 
 of the two troublesome lines. But this he does not find himself warranted in 
 doing, as the lines are certainly present in all existing copies of the poem, in 
 print and MS., and thus certainly appear not to have been interpolated since 
 the Reformation. However, he stiU accepts what help the possibility of an 
 interpolation may give to his main argument; and even contributes his best 
 endeavours to make the possibility appear more probable by pointing out the 
 further possibility that another passage may be also an interpolation, as the 
 removal of it would not destroy the sense, a principle of criticism that would 
 make strange havoc if applied to many a work, both ancient and modern. He 
 maintains, indeed, that the Noble Lesson is certainly of Vaudois origin, in 
 opposition to Dieckhoff, who, in a long note,^ sets fori^h reasons for thinking 
 that it may have been originally a production of the Bohemian Brethren. But 
 as I did not think it necessary to state Dieckhoff's arguments, so neither do I 
 think it necessary now to exhibit those by which Herzog refutes them. Dieck- 
 hoffs observations on his mode of explaining away the apparent date. Dr. Her- 
 zog does not meet. In favour of that mode c£' ex^lanajioni akejuly; p,U«ed; 
 before the reader in the notice of his Program Aia^ hg yo^ adf arlcefe "hi* ti^tterj 
 argument than that the date of the poem must be later* than' tlie'time of Valdo,' 
 because it is certain that the Vaudois derived tbfi'J origlxi fwm. hUu. V^ov\ , 
 this he founds as an ascertained truth, to tho cfrlaiaty of wliich <^iery thing : 
 must be made to bow.* And thus when he prOdfeeds Ui exhibit in his sfecond 
 book, the doctrines and condition of the Vaudois, before the Hussite influence 
 was felt, he begins as from this starting point, and traces; t|ie whole charast/ir 
 of the Vaudois movement to the original impulse vWch jt x:e,c^ivpu fn/m Va^dtv 
 In particular, the much use made of the Scriptures, and high reverence paid to 
 the Scriptures, which distinguished the Vaudois above all other Christians of 
 
 I Published in Niedner's Zeitschriftfiir die historiscJu Theologie, 1852. ' Pp. 66-09. 
 
 » Die WoM. im Mittelalter, pp. 337-340. * ^P- 76-91. 
 
540 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. 
 
 [Vr 
 
 PODIX. 
 
 the middle ages, he regards as originating in that love of the Scriptures which 
 Valdo manifested. But how his mind was so strongly directed to the Scrip- 
 tures, Dr. Herzog regrets that there is nothing to show. Now, it may be per- 
 mitted to ask, if another explanation would not accord with the facts at least 
 as well as that which Dr. Herzog has chosen ; and what then is there in all these 
 facts inconsistent with the supposition of the existence of the Vaudois before 
 VaJdo. 
 
 I think it ought to be here mentioned that Dr. Herzog* points out a flagrant 
 error of Yvonetus, who does not hesitate to say that the Vaudois reject the Old 
 Testament — a statement plainly contrary to the whole character of the old Vau- 
 dois literature. But this Yvonetus is one of the " Catholic " witnesses, upon 
 whose testimony the chief reliance is given as to the origin of the Vaudois. 
 
 I have endeavoured to present a brief analysis of that part of Dr. Herzog's 
 work which more immediately bears upon this great question in ecclesiastical 
 history. Of the remainder of the work I cannot attempt any such analysis. 
 But its contents are highly important with respect to the period between Valdo 
 and the Keformation, and the condition and doctrines of the Vaudois during 
 that period. That Dr. Herzog is sometimes biassed in his judgment by his 
 determination to derive the Vaudois from Valdo, in deference to the " Catholic" 
 witnesses ; and that he sometunes shows that disposition so general in the pre- 
 sent day amongst his learned countrymen to build too confidently on the narrow 
 basis of a single critical observation, are circumstances which may render it 
 requisite to follow him with caution, and carefully to test the soundness of all 
 his conclusions, but which do not detract from the merit of his laborious re- 
 searches in the difficult field of Vaudois literature. He has not only removed 
 the doubt which had been thrown upon the genuineness of many most important 
 documents, but he has discriminated more clearly than was ever done before the 
 products of the difierent periods of Vaudois history. 
 
 It is no inconsiderable advantage to the cause of truth when bad arguments 
 are cleared away which have been used in its support. It is well to know that 
 the dates which have so often been rehed on as proof of the antiquity of certain 
 Vaudois documents are of no value whatever, and that some of the works to 
 which they have been assigned are of a comparatively recent origin ; and that, 
 therefore, it is not by these works that the historic apostolicity of the Vaudois 
 themselves can be proved. But a conclusion, favourable to the claims which 
 we have seen that the Vaudois have put forth, not mej'ely since the Reformation, 
 but since the thirteenth century, at all events, if it is to be reached with greater 
 difficulty now than when these dates were supposed to warrant it of themselves, 
 is reached by such means that it may be maintained with greater confidence ; 
 anfi the t^u-te in the Nolle Ltsson, not affixed, but embodied in the poem, seems 
 so to re3ist aSl attempts made against it, that of itself it may be held sufficient 
 proof of the existence of the Vaudois under their present name in the beginning 
 of tljj twelfth cai»tur/. ^ • ; 
 
 » Pp. 129, 130. 
 
 * • • fc .» * 
 
 THE END. 
 
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