Before we enter upon the dreadful tragedy which took place in the
valleys during the regency of the Duchess Christina, sister to the
king of France, (which succeeded the reign of Victor Amadeus;) it
is necessary to call the attention of the reader to the state of the
valleys at this period. For years, the continual partial and individual
persecutions had held them in a state of alarm, even in the midst of
peace, and now they had suffered most severely by pestilence, and were
reduced to want or poverty by the great scarcity of provisions which
succeeded it. After a calm of thirteen years, under the regency, what
must have been their dismay to hear that councils, for the propagation
of the faith and extirpation of heresy, had been established in all
Catholic countries, after the model of that at Rome; and that one was
now instituted at Turin, in 1650.
This establishment was divided into two bodies of supporters; the
archbishop being the head of the male, and the Marchioness di Pia-nezza
of the female, devotees.
The eagerness of the ladies engaged in this pious enterprise can hardly
be imagined, they sent forth spies to promote dissensions in private
families, offered money to new converts, and even penetrated into the
prisons to make proselytes. To support their expenses, they went round
even to the shops and inns to collect contributions. The secular arm
also assisted them, if required, in their labours to deserve the plenary
indulgence for all their sins granted them by the court of Rome.
The council of men formed still greater designs, in the execution of
which they were indefatigable, and sent spies and missionaries into the
valleys, who were always at hand to excite quarrels, rebellion against
church discipline, and even to carry off women and children from the
Vaudois, and attack the pastors. They cited the principal people to
appear before the tribunal at Turin, whence they scarcely ever escaped
without having been imprisoned, ill treated, or nearly ruined; nay,
often were they condemned to confiscation and banishment. Such were
the means used by the Propaganda to harass the Vaudois. An unfortunate
accident happened in 1603, which gave them more power of doing mischief.
A convent of monks had been some years established at Villar, when an
infamous traitor, whom they had engaged in their service, undertook to
excite the Vaudois to expel these missionaries; having persuaded the
wife of the pastor Manget to further the plan, she had influence enough
to induce her husband, and two others of the name of Pellene, to call
an assembly, where this subject was discussed, and the project of Manget
highly disapproved of and censured. The wife of Manget made a false
report of the decision to the two young Pellenes, who succeeded that
very evening in driving out the monks and setting fire to the convent.
It may well be supposed that the inquisitors did not lose so favourable
an opportunity; and the fact having been represented in the blackest
colours to the Duchess Regent, they obtained five or six thousand men,
under the command of Count Tedesco, who marched immediately with orders
to surprise and burn down the town of Villar.
In the mean time Leger, then moderator of the valleys, with the
principal members of his own and the neighbouring churches, repaired
to the chief magistrate at Luzerne, and protesting the innocence of the
assembly, and even the parish of Villar, offered to bring the offenders
to justice. The Count Tedesco nevertheless proceeded to Villar, and made
his attack; but a storm of rain prevented the muskets of his soldiers
from going off, and the Vaudois then having given every where the alarm,
the approach of darkness induced him to return to Luzerne without having
accomplished his purpose.
The Propaganda being thus defeated, had recourse, in 1654, to a still
more sanguinary plot for the destruction of the Vaudois, by means of
the French army under Marshal Grance. The court of Savoy had offered to
provide this army with winter quarters in our valleys, at a much
less sum than had been demanded elsewhere, in consequence, the troops
appeared before Pignerol, demanding their quarters; in the mean time,
the monks and other agents of the Propaganda had artfully persuaded
the Vaudois, that it was contrary to the intention of the Duchess, that
these troops had entered her states, and excited them to take up arms.
The main body of these forces was already before the fort of La Tour,
and all the inhabitants of the val de Luzerne were drawn up to oppose
them, when Leger, the moderator, throwing himself at the feet of the
Marshal, explained the trick played upon him, and requested he would
suspend hostilities until a written order could arrive from the Duchess
Regent for the cantonment of the troops. This was assented to, and
on the arrival of the order, on the morrow, the army quietly took
possession of their quarters.
This plot was afterwards more fully proved by two officers in De
Grance's army,* and its details were lodged with the other MSS. by
Leger, in the Cambridge library.
* One named De Petit Bourg.
A year had scarcely elapsed when another motive was added to the zealous
labours of the propaganda, which was the wish of establishing in the
valleys those Irish whom Cromwell had banished in consequence of the
massacres they had committed among their Protestant countrymen.
This eager desire to obtain possession of the valleys, and all that the
Vaudois possessed in them, excited a series of intrigues, which ended
in an order to Gastaldo, auditor of Luzerne, to enjoin and command the
Vaudois inhabitants of Briqueiras, S. Second, Bubiana, Fenil, Campillon,
Luzerne, St. Jean, and La Tour, to abandon those places within three
days, or receive the mass, under pain of death and confiscation of their
property.
What makes this step still more cruel and unjust, if possible, is, that
it took place in the winter of 1654, when Charles Emanuel II.
had, by an edict of 3rd December, just confirmed all their privileges,
&c.* In this, and in the one of the preceding year, they were mentioned
as faithful and obedient subjects; nay more, at the very time the
lawyers were employed in verifying the original charters, the last
decree was about to be enrolled, and the sum of money exacted on these
occasions had long been paid.
It will easily be imagined that no time was lost in sending deputies to
Turin, and trying every means to obtain a mitigation of this dreadful
sentence. These deputies were amused by an affected deliberation on
their petition, and were referred sometimes from the Duke to his mother,
sometimes from the Duchess to the Marquis di Pianezza, and from him
to the Propaganda, till they received information on the 16th of April
(though they were promised a final audience on the 17th) that the
Marquis was already at Luzerne with his forces, and that they had better
provide for their own safety.
Thus, by a series of base treachery, duplicity, and cruelty, was the way
prepared for those dreadful massacres, which have cast so foul a stain
on the reign of Charles Emanuel the Second.**
* This seems to have been necessary every new reign, these
confirmations being personal acts of the sovereign.--T.
** Which excited the compassionate muse of Milton.--T.