HISTORY
OF THE
WALDENSES.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WALDENSIAN VALLEYS.]
HISTORY
OF THE
WALDENSES.
BY THE
REV. J. A. WYLIE, LL.D.,
AUTHOR OF “THE PAPACY,” “DAYBREAK IN SPAIN,” ETC.
Illustrated.
CASSELL, PETTER, GALPIN & CO.
_LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK_.
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
PREFACE.
This work--which is a reprint of the Sixteenth Book of the HISTORY
OF PROTESTANTISM--is exclusively occupied with the subject of the
Waldenses. It describes succinctly the conflicts they waged and the
martyrdoms they endured in defence of their faith and their liberty,
and is published in the present form to meet the requirements of those
who take a special interest in this remarkable people.
Recent events in Europe have brought the Waldenses into prominence,
and thrown a new light upon the grandeur of their struggle and the
important and enduring issues which have flowed from it. To them, in a
very particular manner, are we to trace the constitutional liberties
which Italy at this hour enjoys. In the eventful year of 1848, when
a new constitution was being framed for Piedmont, the Waldenses made
it plain to the Government that there would not be standing-room for
them within the lines of that constitution, unless it embraced the
great principle of freedom of conscience. For that principle they had
contended during five hundred years, and nothing short of it could
they accept as a basis of national settlement, persuaded that any
other guarantee of their liberties would be illusory. Their demand
was conceded: the principle of freedom of conscience--the root of
all liberty--was embodied in the new constitution, and thus the whole
inhabitants of Piedmont shared equally with the Waldenses in a boon
which the struggles of the latter had been mainly instrumental in
securing.
Not only so: in process of time the constitution of Piedmont was
extended to the rest of Italy, and the whole Italian nation is at
this hour sharing in the fruits which have sprung from the toil and
the blood, the unswerving faith, and the heroic devotion of the
Waldenses. Nor is their work finished even yet. They have understood
the end for which they have been preserved through so many ages of
darkness and conflict, and have energetically thrown themselves into
the evangelisation of modern Italy, and doubtless these ancient
confessors are destined to win, in the land where they endured so many
dark sorrows, not a few brilliant triumphs, and by the labours of the
present to add to the obligations which Christendom owes them for the
services of the past.
J. A. WYLIE.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE WALDENSES--THEIR VALLEYS. PAGE
Submission of the Churches of Lombardy to Rome--The Old
Faith maintained in the Mountains--The Waldensian
Churches--Question of their Antiquity--Approach to
their Mountains--Arrangement of their Valleys--Picture
of blended Beauty and Grandeur 1
CHAPTER II.
THE WALDENSES--THEIR MISSIONS AND MARTYRDOMS.
Their Synod and College--Their Theological Tenets--Romaunt
Version of the New Testament--The Constitution of their
Church--Their Missionary Labours--Wide Diffusion of their
Tenets--The Stone Smiting the Image 10
CHAPTER III.
FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES.
Their Unique Position in Christendom--Their Twofold
Testimony--They Witness against Rome and for Protestantism--
Hated by Rome--The Cottian Alps--Albigenses and Waldenses--
The Waldensian Territory Proper--Papal Testimony to the
Flourishing State of their Church in the Fourteenth
Century--Early Bulls against them--Tragedy of Christmas,
1400--Constancy of the Waldenses--Crusade of Pope
Innocent VIII.--His Bull of 1487--The Army Assembles--Two
Frightful Tempests approach the Valleys 19
CHAPTER IV.
CATANEO’S EXPEDITION (1488) AGAINST THE DAUPHINESE AND
PIEDMONTESE CONFESSORS.
The Confessors of the Dauphinese Alps--Attacked--Flee to Mont
Pelvoux--Retreat into a Cave--Are Suffocated--French
Crusaders Cross the Alps--Enter the Valley of Pragelas--
Piedmontese Army Advances against La Torre--Deputation of
Waldensian Patriarchs--The Valley of Lucerna--Villaro--
Bobbio--Cataneo’s Plan of Campaign--His Soldiers Cross the
Col Julien--Grandeurs of the Pass--Valley of Prali--Defeat
of Cataneo’s Expedition 31
CHAPTER V.
FAILURE OF CATANEO’S EXPEDITION.
The Valley of Angrogna--An Alternative--The Waldenses Prepare
for Battle--Cataneo’s Repulse--His Rage--He Renews the
Attempt--Enters Angrogna with his Army--Advances to the
Barrier--Enters the Chasm--The Waldenses on the point of
being Cut to Pieces--The Mountain Mist--Deliverance--Utter
Rout of the Papal Army--Pool of Saquet--Sufferings of the
Waldenses--Extinction of the Invading Host--Deputation
to their Prince--Vaudois Children--Peace 43
CHAPTER VI.
SYNOD IN THE WALDENSIAN VALLEYS.
The Old Vine seems Dying--New Life--The Reformation--Tidings
Reach the Waldenses--They Send Deputies into Germany and
Switzerland to Inquire--Joy of Œcolampadius--His Admonitory
Letter--Waldensian Deputies at Strasburg--The Two Churches
a Wonder to each other--Martyrdom of One of the Deputies--
Resolution to Call a Synod in the Valleys--Its Catholic
Character--Spot where it Met--Confession of Faith framed--
The Spirit of the Vaudois Revives--They Rebuild their
Churches, &c.--Journey of Farel and Saunier to the Synod 52
CHAPTER VII.
PERSECUTIONS AND MARTYRDOMS.
A Peace of Twenty-eight Years--Flourishing State--Bersour--A
Martyr--Martyrdom of Pastor Gonin--Martyrdoms of a Student
and a Monk--Trial and Burning of a Colporteur--A List of
Horrible Deaths--The Valleys under the Sway of France--
Restored to Savoy--Emmanuel Philibert--Persecution
Renewed--Carignano--Persecution Approaches the
Mountains--Deputation to the Duke--The Old Paths--
Remonstrance to the Duke--To the Duchess--To the Council 63
CHAPTER VIII.
PREPARATIONS FOR A WAR OF EXTERMINATION.
Pastor Gilles Carries the Remonstrance to the Duke--No
Tidings for Three Months--The Monks of Pinerolo begin
the Persecution--Raid in San Martino--Philip of Savoy’s
Attempt at Conciliation--A Monk’s Sermon--The Duke Declares
War against the Vaudois--Dreadful Character of his Army--The
Waldenses hold a Fast, &c.--Skirmishing in Angrogna--Night
Panic--La Trinita Occupies the Val di Lucerna--An
Intrigue--Fruitless Concessions--Affecting Incidents--La
Trinita Demands 20,000 Crowns from the Men of the
Valleys--He Retires into Winter Quarters--Outrages of his
Soldiers 77
CHAPTER IX.
THE GREAT CAMPAIGN OF 1561.
Mass or Extermination--Covenant in the Valleys--Their
Solemn Oath--How the Waldenses Recant--Their Energetic
Preparations--La Trinita Advances his Army--Twice
Attempts to Enter Angrogna, and is Repulsed--A Third
Attempt--Attacks on Three Points--Repulsed on all
Three--Ravages the Valley of Rora--Receives Reinforcements
from France and Spain--Commences a Third Campaign--Six Men
against an Army--Utter Discomfiture--Extinction of La
Trinita’s Host--Peace 88
CHAPTER X.
WALDENSIAN COLONIES IN CALABRIA AND APULIA.
An Inn at Turin--Two Waldensian Youths--A Stranger--Invitation
to Calabria--The Waldenses Search the Land--They Settle
there--Their Colony Flourishes--Build Towns--Cultivate
Science--They Hear of the Reformation--Petition for a Fixed
Pastor--Jean Louis Paschale sent to them--Apprehended--
Brought in Chains to Naples--Conducted to Rome 104
CHAPTER XI.
EXTINCTION OF WALDENSES IN CALABRIA.
Arrival of Inquisitors in Calabria--Flight of the Inhabitants
of San Sexto--Pursued and Destroyed--La Guardia--Its
Citizens Seized--Their Tortures--Horrible Butchery--The
Calabrian Colony Exterminated--Louis Paschale--His
Condemnation--The Castle of St. Angelo--The Pope, Cardinals,
and Citizens--The Martyr--His Last Words--His Execution--
His Tomb 114
CHAPTER XII.
THE YEAR OF THE PLAGUE.
Peace--Re-occupation of their Homes--Partial
Famine--Contributions of Foreign Churches--Castrocaro,
Governor of the Valleys--His Treacheries and Oppressions--
Letter of Elector Palatine to the Duke--A Voice raised for
Toleration--Fate of Castrocaro--The Plague--Awful
Ravages--10,000 Deaths--Only Two Pastors Survive--Ministers
come from Switzerland, &c.--Worship conducted henceforward
in French 123
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GREAT MASSACRE.
Preliminary Attacks--The Propaganda de Fide--Marchioness
de Pianeza--Gastaldo’s Order--Its Barbarous Execution--
Greater Sorrows--Perfidy of Pianeza--The Massacring
Army--Its Attack and Repulse--Treachery--The Massacre
Begins--Its Horrors--Modes of Torture--Individual Martyrs--
Leger collects Evidence on the Spot--He Appeals to the
Protestant States--Interposition of Cromwell--Mission
of Sir Samuel Morland--A Martyr’s Monument 132
CHAPTER XIV.
EXPLOITS OF GIANAVELLO--MASSACRE AND PILLAGE OF RORA.
Ascent of La Combe--Beauty and Grandeur of Valley of Rora--
Gianavello--His Character--Marquis de Pianeza--His First
Assault--Brave Repulse--Treachery of the Marquis--No Faith
with Heretics--Gianavello’s Band--Repulse of Second and
Third Attacks--Death of a Persecutor--An Army raised to
invade Rora--Massacre and Pillage--Letter of Pianeza--
Gianavello’s Heroic Reply--Gianavello renews the War--
500 against 15,000--Success of the Waldenses--Horror at
the Massacre--Interposition of England--Letter of
Cromwell--Treaty of Peace 151
CHAPTER XV.
THE EXILE.
New Troubles--Louis XIV. and his Confessor--Edict against
the Vaudois--Their Defenceless Condition--Their Fight and
Victory--They Surrender--The Whole Nation Thrown into
Prison--Utter Desolation of the Land--Horrors of the
Imprisonment--Their Release--Journey across the Alps--Its
Hardships--Arrival of the Exiles at Geneva--Their
Hospitable Reception 166
CHAPTER XVI.
RETURN TO THE VALLEYS.
Longings after their Valleys--Thoughts of Returning--Their
Re-assembling--Cross Lake Leman--Begin their March--The
“Eight Hundred”--Cross Mont Cénis--Great Victory in the
Valley of the Dora--First View of their Mountains--Worship
on the Mountaintop--Enter their Valleys--Pass their First
Sunday at Prali--Worship 179
CHAPTER XVII.
FINAL RE-ESTABLISHMENT IN THE VALLEYS.
Cross the Col Julien--Seize Bobbio--Oath of Sibaud--March to
Villaro--Guerilla War--Retreat to La Balsiglia--Its
Strength--Beauty and Grandeur of San Martino--Encampment on
the Balsiglia--Surrounded--Repulse of the Enemy--Depart for
the Winter--Return of French and Piedmontese Army in
Spring--The Balsiglia Stormed--Enemy Driven Back--Final
Assault with Cannon--Wonderful Deliverance of the Vaudois--
Overtures of Peace 189
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONDITION OF THE WALDENSES FROM 1690.
Annoyances--Burdens--Foreign Contributions--French Revolution--
Spiritual Revivals--Felix Neff--Dr. Gilly--General
Beckwith--Oppressed Condition previous to 1840--Edict of
Carlo Alberto--Freedom of Conscience--The Vaudois Church,
the Door by which Religious Liberty Entered Italy--Their
Lamp Kindled at Rome 203
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Map of the Waldensian Valleys _Frontispiece_
Monte Castelluzzo and the Waldensian Temple 8
Waldensian Missionaries in Guise of Pedlars 17
View in the Valley of Roumeyer, Dauphiné 25
View of La Torre 39
View in Turin 53
The Village of Balsiglia, San Martino 81
The Vaudois taking their Oath 89
View in the Village of Angrogna 97
Parting of Paschale from his Betrothed 111
Group of Roman Peasants 121
Interior of St. John Lateran, Rome 129
The Entrance to La Torre 145
Cromwell and Milton 161
The Pass of Pra Del Tor 169
View of the Protestant Church of St. Jean, Waldensian Valleys 177
The Vaudois Crossing Lake Leman by Night 184
View in the Village of San Laurenzo, Angrogna 193
Church of Chabas, the oldest in the Valleys 201
Tomb of General Beckwith 209
CHAPTER I.
THE WALDENSES--THEIR VALLEYS.
Submission of the Churches of Lombardy to Rome--The Old
Faith maintained in the Mountains--The Waldensian
Churches--Question of their Antiquity--Approach to
their Mountains--Arrangement of their Valleys--Picture
of blended Beauty and Grandeur.
It was the ninth century, and superstitious beliefs and idolatrous
rites were overspreading the Church, when Claudius, Bishop of Turin,
who was deeply imbued with the spirit of Augustine, set himself to
arrest the growing corruption with all the fervour of a living faith,
and the vigour of a courageous and powerful intellect. To the battle
for the purity of doctrine he joined that for the independence of the
Churches of Lombardy. Even in Claude’s day they remained free, although
many Churches more remote from Rome had already been subjugated by
that all-conquering power. The Ambrosian Liturgy was still used in
the cathedral of Milan, and the Augustinian doctrine continued to
be preached from many of the pulpits of Lombardy and Piedmont. This
independence of Rome, and this greater purity of faith and worship,
these Churches mainly owed to the three Apostolic men whose names adorn
their annals--Ambrose, Vigilantius, and Claude.
When Claude went to his grave, about the year 840, the battle, although
not altogether dropped, was but languidly maintained. Attempts were
renewed to induce the Bishops of Milan to accept the episcopal pall,
the badge of spiritual vassalage, from the Pope; but it was not till
the middle of the eleventh century (1059), under Nicholas II., that
these attempts were successful. Petrus Damianus, Bishop of Ostia, and
Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, were dispatched by the Pontiff to receive
the submission of the Lombard Churches, and the popular tumults amid
which that submission was extorted sufficiently show that the spirit
of Claude still lingered at the foot of the Alps. Nor did the clergy
conceal the regret with which they surrendered their ancient liberties
to a power before which the whole earth was then bowing down; for the
Papal legate, Damianus, informs us that the clergy of Milan maintained
in his presence that “The Ambrosian Church, according to the ancient
institutions of the Fathers, was always free, without being subject to
the laws of Rome, and that the Pope of Rome had no jurisdiction over
their Church as to the government or constitution of it.”[1]
But if the plains were conquered, not so the mountains. A considerable
body of Protesters stood out against this deed of submission. Of these
some crossed the Alps, descended the Rhine, and raised the standard
of opposition in the diocese of Cologne, where they were branded as
Manicheans, and rewarded with the stake. Others retired into the
valleys of the Piedmontese Alps, and there maintained their scriptural
faith and their ancient independence. What has just been related
respecting the dioceses of Milan and Turin settles the question of
the apostolicity of the Churches of the Waldensian valleys. It is not
necessary to show that missionaries were sent from Rome in the first
age to plant Christianity in these valleys, nor is it necessary to show
that these Churches have existed as distinct and separate communities
from early days; enough that they formed a part, as unquestionably
they did, of the great evangelical Church of the North of Italy. This
is the proof at once of their apostolicity and their independence. It
attests their descent from apostolic men, if doctrine be the life of
Churches. When their co-religionists on the plains entered within the
pale of the Roman jurisdiction, they retired within the mountains,
and, spurning alike the tyrannical yoke and the corrupt tenets of the
Church of the Seven Hills, they preserved in its purity and simplicity
the faith their fathers had handed down to them. Rome manifestly was
the schismatic, she it was that had abandoned what was once the common
faith of Christendom, leaving by that step to all who remained on the
old ground the indisputably valid title of the True Church.
Behind this rampart of mountains, which Providence, foreseeing the
approach of evil days, would almost seem to have reared on purpose, did
the remnant of the early apostolic Church of Italy kindle their lamp,
and here did that lamp continue to burn all through the long night
which descended on Christendom. There is a singular concurrence of
evidence in favour of their high antiquity. Their traditions invariably
point to an unbroken descent from the earliest times, as regards
their religious belief. The _Nobla Leyçon_, which dates from the year
1100,[2] goes to prove that the Waldenses of Piedmont did not owe their
rise to Peter Waldo of Lyons, who did not appear till the latter half
of that century (1160). The _Nobla Leyçon_ though a poem, is in reality
a confession of faith, and could have been composed only after some
considerable study of the system of Christianity, in contradistinction
to the errors of Rome. How could a Church have arisen with such a
document in her hands? Or how could these herdsmen and vine-dressers,
shut up in their mountains, have detected the errors against which
they bore testimony, and found their way to the truths of which they
made open profession in times of darkness like these? If we grant
that their religious beliefs were the heritage of former ages, handed
down from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain; but if we maintain
that they were the discovery of the men of those days, we assert what
approaches almost to a miracle. Their greatest enemies, Claude Seyssel
of Turin (1517), and Reynerius the Inquisitor (1250), have admitted
their antiquity, and stigmatised them as “the most dangerous of all
heretics, because the most ancient.”
Rorenco, Prior of St. Roch, Turin (1640), was employed to investigate
the origin and antiquity of the Waldenses, and of course had access to
all the Waldensian documents in the ducal archives, and being their
bitter enemy he may be presumed to have made his report not more
favourable than he could help. Yet he states that “they were not a new
sect in the ninth and tenth centuries, and that Claude of Turin must
have detached them from the Church in the ninth century.”
Within the limits of her own land did God provide a dwelling for this
venerable Church. Let us bestow a glance upon the region. As one comes
from the south, across the level plain of Piedmont, while yet nearly
a hundred miles off, one sees the Alps rise before one, stretching
like a great wall along the horizon. From the gates of the morning to
those of the setting sun, the mountains run on in a line of towering
magnificence. Pasturages and chestnut-forests clothe their base;
eternal snows crown their summits. How varied are their forms! Some
rise like castles of stupendous strength; others shoot up tall and
tapering like needles; while others again run along in serrated lines,
their summits torn and cleft by the storms of many thousand winters. At
the hour of sunrise, what a glory kindles along the crest of that snowy
rampart! At sunset the spectacle is again renewed, and a line of pyres
is seen to burn in the evening sky.
Drawing nearer the hills, on a line about thirty miles west of Turin,
there opens before one what seems a great mountain portal. This is the
entrance to the Waldensian territory. A low hill drawn along in front
serves as a defence against all who may come with hostile intent,
as but too frequently happened in times gone by, while a stupendous
monolith--the Castelluzzo--shoots up to the clouds, and stands sentinel
at the gate of this renowned region. As one approaches La Torre the
Castelluzzo rises higher and higher, and irresistibly fixes the eye by
the perfect beauty of its pillar-like form.[3] But to this mountain a
higher interest belongs than any that mere symmetry can give it. It is
indissolubly linked with martyr-memories, and borrows a halo from the
achievements of the past. How often, in days of old, was the confessor
hurled sheer down its awful steep, and dashed on the rocks at its foot!
And there, commingled in one ghastly heap, growing ever the bigger
and ghastlier as another and yet another victim was added to it, lay
the mangled bodies of pastor and peasant, of mother and child! It was
the tragedies connected with this mountain mainly that called forth
Milton’s noble sonnet:--
“Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.
* * * in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold,
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven.”
The Waldensian valleys are seven in number; they were more in ancient
times, but the limits of the Vaudois territory have undergone repeated
curtailment, and now only seven remain, lying between Pinerolo on the
east and Monte Viso on the west--that pyramidal hill which forms so
prominent an object from every part of the plain of Piedmont, towering
as it does above the surrounding mountains, and, like a horn of silver,
cutting the ebon of the firmament.
The first three valleys run out somewhat like the spokes of a wheel,
the spot on which we stand--the gateway, namely--being the nave. The
first is _Luserna_, or Valley of Light. It runs right out in a grand
gorge of some twelve miles in length by about two in width. It wears a
carpeting of meadows, which the waters of the Pelice keep ever fresh
and bright. A profusion of vines, acacias, and mulberry-trees, fleck
it with their shadows; and a wall of lofty mountains encloses it on
either hand. The second is _Rora_, or Valley of Dews. It is a vast cup,
some fifty miles in circumference, its sides luxuriantly clothed with
meadow and corn-field, with fruit and forest trees, and its rim formed
of craggy and peaked mountains, many of them snow-clad. The third is
_Angrogna_, or Valley of Groans. Of it we shall speak more particularly
afterwards. Beyond the extremity of the first three valleys are the
remaining four, forming, as it were, the rim of the wheel. These last
are enclosed in their turn by a line of lofty mountains, which form a
wall of defence around the entire territory. Each valley is a fortress
having its own gate of ingress and egress, with its caves, and rocks,
and mighty chestnut-trees, forming places of retreat and shelter, so
that the highest engineering skill could not have better adapted each
several valley to this very purpose. It is not less remarkable that,
taking all these valleys together, each is so related to each, the one
opening into the other, that they may be said to form one fortress
of amazing and matchless strength--wholly impregnable, in fact. All
the fortresses of Europe, though combined, would not form a citadel
so enormously strong, and so dazzlingly magnificent, as the mountain
dwelling of the Vaudois. “The Eternal, our God,” says Leger, “having
destined this land to be the theatre of his marvels, and the bulwark of
his ark, has, by natural means, most marvellously fortified it.” The
battle begun in one valley could be continued in another, and carried
round the entire territory, till at last the invading foe, overpowered
by the rocks rolled upon him from the mountains, or assailed by
enemies which would start suddenly out of the mist or issue from some
unsuspected cave, found retreat impossible, and, cut off in detail,
left his bones to whiten the mountains he had come to subdue.
These valleys are lovely and fertile, as well as strong. They are
watered by numerous torrents, which descend from the snows of the
summits. The grassy carpet of their bottom; the mantling vine and
the golden grain of their lower slopes; the châlets that dot their
sides, sweetly embowered amid fruit-trees; and, higher up, the great
chestnut-forests and the pasture-lands, where the herdsmen keep watch
over their flocks all through the summer days and the starlit nights:
the nodding crags, from which the torrent leaps into the light; the
rivulet, singing with quiet gladness in the shady nook; the mists,
moving grandly among the mountains, now veiling, now revealing, their
majesty; and the far-off summits, tipped with silver, to be changed
at eve into gleaming gold--make up a picture of blended beauty and
grandeur, not equalled, perhaps, and certainly not surpassed, in any
other region of the earth.
[Illustration: MONTE CASTELLUZZO AND THE WALDENSIAN TEMPLE.]
In the heart of their mountains is situated the most interesting,
perhaps, of all their valleys. It was in this retreat, walled round by
“hills whose heads touch heaven,” that their _barbes_ or pastors, from
all their several parishes, were wont to meet in annual synod. It was
here that their college stood, and it was here that their missionaries
were trained, and, after ordination, were sent forth to sow the
good seed, as opportunity offered, in other lands. Let us visit this
valley. We ascend to it by the long, narrow, and winding Angrogna.
Bright meadows enliven its entrance. The mountains on either hand are
clothed with the vine, the mulberry, and the chestnut. Anon the valley
contracts. It becomes rough with projecting rocks, and shady with great
trees. A few paces farther, and it expands into a circular basin,
feathery with birches, musical with falling waters, environed atop
by naked crags, fringed with dark pines, while the white peak looks
down out of heaven. A little in advance the valley seems shut in by a
mountainous wall, drawn right across it; and beyond, towering sublimely
upward, is seen an assemblage of snow-clad Alps, amid which is placed
the valley we are in quest of, where burned of old the candle of the
Waldenses. Some terrible convulsion has rent this mountain from top to
bottom, opening a path through it to the valley beyond. We enter the
dark chasm, and proceed along on a narrow ledge in the mountain’s side,
hung half-way between the torrent, which is heard thundering in the
abyss below, and the summits which lean over us above. Journeying thus
for about two miles, we find the pass beginning to widen, the light to
break in, and now we arrive at the gate of the Pra.
There opens before us a noble circular valley, its grassy bottom
watered by torrents, its sides dotted with dwellings and clothed with
corn-fields and pasturages, with a ring of white peaks encircling it
above. This was the inner sanctuary of the Waldensian temple. The rest
of Italy had turned aside to idols, the Waldensian territory alone had
been reserved for the worship of the true God. And was it not meet that
on its native soil a remnant of the Apostolic Church of Italy should
be maintained, that Rome and all Christendom might have before their
eyes a perpetual monument of what they themselves had once been, and a
living witness to testify how far they had departed from their first
faith?[4]