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.
Where was the Vaudois who would put his life in his hand, and carry
this remonstrance to the Duke? The dangerous service was undertaken
by M. Gilles, Pastor of Bricherasio, a devoted and courageous man. A
companion was associated with him, but wearied out with the rebuffs and
insults he met with, he abandoned the mission, and left its conduct
to Gilles alone. The duke then lived at Nice, for Turin, his capital,
was still in the hands of the French, and the length of the journey
very considerably increased its risks. Gilles reached Nice in safety,
however, and after many difficulties and delays he had an interview
with Queen Margaret, who undertook to place the representations of
which he was the bearer in the hands of her husband, the duke. The
deputy had an interview also with Philip of Savoy, the duke’s brother,
and one of the commissioners under the Act for the purgation of the
Valleys. The Waldensian pastor was, on the whole, well received by him.
Unequally yoked with the cruel and bigoted Count La Trinita, Philip of
Savoy soon became disgusted, and left the bloody business wholly in the
hands of his fellow-commissioner.[54] As regarded the queen, her heart
was in the Valleys; the cause of the poor Vaudois was her cause also.
But she stood alone as their intercessor with the duke; her voice was
drowned by the solicitations and threats of the prelates, the King of
Spain, and the Pope.[55]
For three months there came neither letter nor edict from the court
at Nice. If the men of the Valleys were impatient to know the fate
that awaited them, their enemies, athirst for plunder and blood, were
still more so. The latter, unable longer to restrain their passions,
began persecution on their own account. They thought they knew their
sovereign’s intentions, and made bold to anticipate them.
The tocsin was rung out from the Monastery of Pinerolo. Perched on the
frontier of the Valleys, the monks of this establishment kept their
eyes fixed upon the heretics of the mountains, as vultures watch their
prey, ever ready to sweep down upon hamlet or valley when they found
it unguarded. They hired a troop of marauders, whom they sent forth to
pillage. The band returned, driving before them a wretched company of
captives, whom they had dragged from their homes and vineyards in the
mountains. The poorer sort they burnt alive, or sent to the galleys;
the rich they imprisoned till they had paid the ransom to which they
were held.[56]
The example of the monks was followed by certain Popish landlords in
the Valley of San Martino. The two seigneurs of Perrier attacked,
before day-break of April 2nd, 1560, the villagers of Rioclareto, with
an armed band. Some they slaughtered, the rest they drove out, without
clothes or food, to perish on the snow-clad hills. The ruffians who
had expelled them took possession of their dwellings, protesting that
no one should enter them unless he were willing to go to mass. They
kept possession only three days, for the Protestants of the Valley of
Clusone, to the number of 400, hearing of the outrage, crossed the
mountains, drove out the invaders, and reinstated their brethren.[57]
Next appeared in the Valleys, Philip of Savoy, Count de Raconis, and
Chief Commissioner. He was an earnest Roman Catholic, but a humane and
upright man. He attended sermon one day in the Protestant church of
Angrogna, and was so much pleased with what he heard, that he obtained
from the pastor an outline of the Vaudois faith, so as to send it to
Rome, in the hope that the Pope would cease to persecute a creed that
seemed so little heretical. A sanguine hope truly! Where the honest
Count had seen very little heresy, the Pope, Pius IV., saw a great
deal; and would not even permit a disputation with the Waldensian
pastors, as the Count had proposed. He would stretch his benignity no
further than to absolve “from their past crimes” all who were willing
to enter the Church of Rome. This was not very encouraging, still the
count did not abandon his idea of conciliation. In June, 1560, he came
a second time to the Valley of Lucerna, accompanied by his colleague,
La Trinita, and assembling the pastors and heads of families, he told
them that the persecution would cease immediately, provided they would
consent to hear the preachers he had brought with him, _Brothers of
the Christian Doctrine_. He further proposed that they should silence
their own ministers while they were making trial of his. The Vaudois
expressed their willingness to consent, provided the count’s ministers
preached the pure Gospel; but if they preached human traditions,
they (the Vaudois) would be under the necessity of withholding their
consent; and, as regarded silencing their own ministers, it was only
reasonable that they should be permitted first to make trial of the
count’s preachers. A few days after, they had a taste of the new
expositors. Selecting the ablest among them, they made him ascend
the pulpit, and hold forth to a Vaudois congregation. He took a very
effectual way to make them listen. “I will demonstrate to you,” said
he, “that the mass is found in Scripture. The word _massah_ signifies
‘sent,’ does it not?” “Not precisely,” replied his hearers, who knew
more about Hebrew than was convenient for the preacher. “The primitive
expression,” continued he, “_Ite missa est_, was employed to dismiss
the auditory, was it not?” “That is quite true,” replied his hearers,
without very clearly seeing how it bore on his argument. “Well, then,
you see, gentlemen, that the mass is found in the Holy Scripture.”[58]
The congregation were unable to determine whether the preacher was
arguing with them, or simply laughing at them.
Finding the Waldenses obdurate, as he deemed them, the Duke of Savoy,
in October, 1560, declared war against them. Early in that month a
dreadful rumour reached the Valleys, namely, that the duke was levying
an army to exterminate them. The news was but too true. The duke
offered a free pardon to all “outlaws, convicts, and vagabonds” who
would enrol as volunteers to serve against the Vaudois. Soon an army
of a truly dreadful character was assembled. The Vaudois seemed doomed
to total and inevitable destruction. The pastors and chief persons
assembled to deliberate on the measures to be taken at this terrible
crisis. Feeling that their refuge was in God alone, they resolved that
they would take no means for deliverance which might be offensive to
him, or dishonourable to themselves. The pastors were to exhort every
one to apply to God, with true faith, sincere repentance, and ardent
prayer; and as to defensive measures, they recommended that each family
should collect their provisions, clothes, utensils, and herds, and be
ready at a moment’s notice to convey them, together with all infirm
persons, to their strongholds in the mountains. Meanwhile, the duke’s
army--if the collected ruffianism of Piedmont could be so called--came
nearer every day.[59]
[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF BALSIGLIA, SAN MARTINO.]
On the 31st of October, a proclamation was posted throughout the
Valley of Angrogna, calling on the inhabitants to return within the
Roman pale, under penalty of extermination by fire and sword. On
the day following, the 1st of November, the Papal army appeared at
Bubiana, on the right bank of the Pelice, at the entrance to the
Waldensian Valleys. The host numbered 4,000 infantry and 200 horse;[60]
comprising, besides the desperadoes that formed its main body, a few
veterans, who had seen a great deal of service in the wars with France.
The Vaudois, the enemy being now in sight, humbled themselves, in a
public fast, before God. Next, they partook together of the Lord’s
Supper. Refreshed in soul by these services, they proceeded to put in
execution the measures previously resolved on. The old men and the
women climbed the mountains, awakening the echoes with the psalms
which they sung on their way to the Pra del Tor, within whose natural
ramparts of rock and snow-clad peaks they sought asylum. The Vaudois
population of the Valleys at that time was not more than 18,000; their
armed men did not exceed 1,200;[61] these were distributed at various
passes and barricades to oppose the enemy, who was now near.
On the 2nd of November the Piedmontese army, putting itself in motion,
crossed the Pelice, and advanced along the narrow defile that leads up
to the Valleys, having the heights of Bricherasio on the right, and
the spurs of Monte Friolante on the left, with the towering masses
of the Vandalin and Castelluzzo in front. The Piedmontese encamped
in the meadows of San Giovanni, within a stone’s-throw of the point
where the Val di Lucerna and the Val di Angrogna divide, the former to
expand into a noble breadth of meadow and vineyard, running on between
magnificent mountains, with their rich clothing of pastures, chestnut
groves, and châlets, till it ends in the savage Pass of Mirabouc; and
the latter to wind and climb in a grand succession of precipice, and
gorge, and grassy dell, till it issues in the funnel-shaped valley
around which the ice-crowned mountains stand the everlasting sentinels.
It was the latter of these two valleys (Angrogna) that La Trinita first
essayed to enter. He marched 1,200 men into it, the wings of his army
deploying over its bordering heights of La Cotière. His soldiers were
opposed by only a small body of Vaudois, some of whom were armed solely
with the sling and the cross-bow. Skirmishing with the foe, the Vaudois
retired, fighting, to the higher grounds. When the evening set in,
neither side could claim a decided advantage. Wearied with skirmishing,
both armies encamped for the night--the Vaudois on the heights of
Roccomaneot, and the Piedmontese, their camp-fires lighted, on the
lower hills of La Cotière.
Suddenly the silence of the evening was startled by a derisive shout
that rose from the Piedmontese host. What had happened to evoke these
sounds of contempt? They had descried, between them and the sky, on
the heights above them, the bending figures of the Vaudois. On their
knees, the Waldensian warriors were supplicating the God of battles.
Hardly had the scoffs with which the Piedmontese hailed the act died
away, when a drum was heard to beat in a side valley. A child had got
hold of the instrument, and was amusing itself with it. The soldiers
of La Trinita saw in imagination a fresh body of Waldensians advancing
from this lateral defile to rush upon them. They seized their arms
in no little disorder. The Vaudois, seeing the movement of the foe,
seized theirs also, and rushed down-hill to anticipate the attack. The
Piedmontese threw away their arms and fled, chased by the Waldenses,
thus losing in half an hour the ground it had cost them a day’s
fighting to gain. The weapons abandoned by the fugitives formed a
much-needed and most opportune supply to the Vaudois. As the result of
the combats of the day, La Trinita had sixty-seven men slain; of the
Vaudois, three only had fallen.[62]
Opening on the left of La Trinita was the corn-clad, vine-clad, and
mountain-ramparted Valley of Lucerna, with its towns, La Torre,
Villaro, Bobbio, and others, forming the noblest of the Waldensian
Valleys. La Trinita now occupied this valley with his soldiers. This
was comparatively an easy achievement, almost all its inhabitants
having fled to the Pra del Tor. Those that remained were mostly
Romanists, who were, at that time, mixed with the Waldensian
population, and even they, committing their wives and daughters to the
keeping of their Vaudois neighbours, had sent them with them to the
Pra del Tor, to escape the brutal outrages of the Papal army. On the
following days La Trinita fought some small affairs with the Vaudois,
in all of which he was repulsed with considerable slaughter. The
arduous nature of the task he had in hand now began to dawn upon him.
The mountaineers, he saw, were courageous, and determined to die rather
than submit their conscience to the Pope, and their families to the
passions of his soldiers. He discovered, moreover, that they were a
simple and confiding people, utterly unversed in the ways of intrigue.
He was delighted to find these qualities in them, because he thought
he saw how he could turn them to account. He had tools with him as
cunning and vile as himself--Jacomel, the inquisitor; and Gastaud, his
secretary; the latter feigned a love for the Gospel. These men he set
to work. When they had prepared matters, he assembled the leading men
of the Waldenses, and recited to them some flattering words, which he
had heard, or professed to have heard, the duke and duchess make use
of towards them; he protested that this was no pleasant business in
which he was engaged, and that he would be glad to have it off his
hands; peace, he thought, could easily be arranged, if they would only
make a few small concessions to show that they were reasonable men; he
would propose that they should deposit their arms in the house of one
of their syndics, and permit him, for form’s sake, to go with a small
train, and celebrate mass in the Church of St. Laurenzo, in Angrogna,
and afterwards pay a visit to the Pra del Tor. La Trinita’s proposal
proved the correctness of the estimate he had formed of Vaudois
confidingness. The people spent a whole night in deliberating over the
count’s proposition, and, contrary to the opinion of their pastors and
some of their laymen, agreed to accept it.[63]
The Papal general said his mass in the Protestant church. After this he
traversed the gloomy defiles that led up to the famous Pra, on whose
green slopes, with their snowy battlements, he was so desirous to feast
his eyes; though, it is said, he showed evident trepidation when he
passed the black pool of Tompie, with its memories of retribution.
Having accomplished these feats in safety, he returned to wear the mask
a little longer.
He resumed the efforts on which he professed to be so earnestly and
laudably bent, of effecting peace. The duke had now come nearer, and
was living at Vercelli, on the plain of Piedmont; La Trinita thought
that the Vaudois ought by all means to send deputies thither. It would
strengthen their supplication--indeed, all but insure its success--if
they would raise a sum of 20,000 crowns. On payment of this sum he
would withdraw his army, and leave them to practice their religion in
peace.[64] The Vaudois, unable to conceive of dissimulation like La
Trinita’s, made concession after concession. They had previously laid
down their arms; they now sent deputies to the duke; next they taxed
themselves to buy off his soldiers; and last, and worst of all, at the
demand of La Trinita, they sent away their pastors. It was dreadful
to think of a journey across the Col Julien at that season; yet it
had to be gone. Over its snowy summits, where the winter drifts were
continually obliterating the track, and piling up fresh wreaths; across
the Valleys of Prali and San Martino, and over the ice-clad mountains
beyond, had this sorrowful band of pastors to pursue their way, to find
refuge among the Protestants in the French Valley of Pragelas. This
difficult and dangerous route was forced upon them, the more direct
road through the Valley of Perosa being closed by the marauders and
assassins that infested it, and especially by those in the pay of the
monks of Pinerolo.
The count believed that the poor people were now entirely in his
power. His soldiers did their pleasure in the Valley of Lucerna. They
pillaged the houses abandoned by the Vaudois. The few inhabitants who
had remained, as well as those who had returned, thinking that during
the negotiations for peace hostilities would be suspended, were fain to
make their escape a second time, and to seek refuge in the woods and
caves of the higher reaches of the Valleys. The outrages committed by
the ruffians to whom the Valley of Lucerna was now given over were of a
kind that cannot be told. The historian Gilles has recorded a touching
instance. A helpless man, who had lived a hundred and three years, was
placed in a cave, and his granddaughter, a girl of seventeen, was left
to take care of him. The soldiers found out his hiding-place; the old
man was murdered, and outrage was offered to his granddaughter. She
fled from the brutal pursuit of the soldiers, leaped over a precipice
and died. In another instance, an old man was pursued to the brink
of a precipice by one of La Trinita’s soldiers. The Vaudois had no
alternative but to throw himself over the brink or die by the sword
of his pursuer. He stopped, turned round, and dropped on his knees,
as if to supplicate for his life. The trooper was raising his sword
to strike him dead, when the Vaudois, clasping him tightly round the
legs, and swaying himself backwards with all his might, rolled over the
precipice, dragging the soldier with him into the abyss.
Part of the sum agreed upon between La Trinita and the Waldenses had
now been paid to him. To raise this money the poor people were under
the necessity of selling their herds. The count now withdrew his army
into winter quarters at Cavour, a point so near the Valleys that a few
hours’ march would enable him to re-enter them at any moment. The corn,
and oil, and wine he had not been able to carry away he destroyed. Even
the mills he broke in pieces. His design appeared to be to leave the
Vaudois only the alternative of submission, or of dying of hunger on
their mountains. To afflict them yet more, he placed garrisons here
and there in the Valleys; and, in the very wantonness of tyranny,
required those who were themselves without bread to provide food for
his soldiers. These soldiers were continually prowling about in search
of victims on whom to gratify their cruelty and their lust. Those who
had the unspeakable misfortune to be dragged into their den, had to
undergo, if men, excruciating torture; if women, revolting outrage.[65]