Although the story of the long-continued and heroically endured sufferings
of the Vaudois may have been the most prominent thought in the minds of
those who recall their history, yet it is at least to the Christian as
important to remember their works of faith and labours of love in the cause
of Christ. Indeed were it not for the latter we should never have known the
former. It would seem as if the missionary zeal of the Waldenses was one of
the chief causes (or at least occasions) of the persecutions which they
endured. Hence Bernard de Foucald (_Monastier History_), a writer of the
twelfth century, says, "These Waldenses, although condemned by Pope Lucius
II., continued to pour forth, with daring effrontery, far and wide all over
the world, the poison of their perfidy."
Indeed a church whose motto was a burning torch, and whose directory that
sacred word which counsels the followers of Christ to "let their light
shine before men," was not likely to be content with possessing the truth
merely for itself. So we learn that in the distribution of the funds
contributed by the church a portion was assigned to the purpose of
maintaining a body of pastors for the foreign work. These pastors being
trained and set apart by the barbes for the work of the ministry were named
by the synod for their special sphere of labour. The work of preparation
for the ministry involved the learning by heart of the first and fourth
gospels, the whole of the canonical epistles, and a large portion of the
Old Testament. The missionaries to foreign churches generally remained
abroad for two years. Although this work was one of danger, no reluctance
to undertake it was evinced. This shows the power of the gospel in their
hearts, as well as the deference shown by the younger pastors to their
seniors in the ministry of the Word and sacraments. As a rule it would seem
that the synod despatched their missionaries two and two. Thus, following
the example of the great Head of the Church, and providing for the
necessities of the times, one of the two was selected as more or less
acquainted with the character of the places and persons they were about to
visit.
The mode in which the Waldensian missionaries laboured illustrated at times
the wisdom of the serpent as well as the harmlessness of the dove; _e.g._,
they obtained access to the higher classes in the character of pedlars.
Having displayed their goods, chiefly of an ornamental kind, and a purchase
had been concluded, if the pedlar were asked, "Have you anything else for
sale?" he would reply, "I have jewels far more precious than these, and if
you will not betray me to the clergy I will make you a present of them."
Being answered satisfactorily on this point, he would proceed to say, "I
have a pearl so brilliant that by means of it one may learn to know God; I
have another so splendid that it kindles the love of God in the heart of
him who possesses it." And then he would proceed to quote various portions
of Scripture.
The following verses from a modern poet happily describes one of these
incidents--
"'O, lady fair! I have yet a gem,
Which a purer lustre flings
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown
On the lofty brow of kings;
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,
Whose virtue shall not decay;
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee,
And a blessing on thy way.'
"The lady glanced at the mirroring steel,
Where her youthful form was seen,
Where her eyes shone clear, and her dark locks waved
Their clasping pearls between;
'Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth,
Thou traveller grey and old;
And name the price of thy precious gem,
And my pages shall count thy gold.'
"The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow,
As a small and meagre book,
Unchased with gold or diamond gem,
From his folding robe he took:
'Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price;
May it prove as such to thee!
Nay, keep thy gold--I ask it not--
FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS FREE.'
"The hoary traveller went his way,
But the gift he left behind
Hath had its pure and perfect work
On that high-born maiden's mind;
And she hath turned from her pride of sin
To the lowliness of truth,
And given her human heart to God
In its beautiful hour of youth.
"And she hath left the old grey walls,
Where an evil faith hath power,
The courtly knights of her father's train,
And the maidens of her bower;
And she hath gone to the Vaudois Vale,
By lordly feet untrod,
Where the poor and needy of earth are rich
In the perfect love of God!"
But another mode of spreading the gospel in distant parts was by
colonizing. This measure was forced upon the Waldenses by the cruelties to
which they were exposed in the South of France. Their earliest colonies
(A.D. 1340) were at Apulia and Calabria, and in Liguria. The lords of the
soil in Southern Italy permitted them to settle on favourable terms. They
built several towns, such as Oltromontani, grew in temporal prosperity, and
lived in peace for many years. As regards ecclesiastical matters, they
maintained direct communion with their brethren in the valleys, who
supplied them with pastors. These pastors, in their journeys backwards and
forwards, visited their faithful brethren scattered throughout Italy. The
barbes, indeed, possessed a house in each of the cities of Florence, Genoa,
and Venice. As regards numbers, it is not unlikely that the Waldenses in
Italy, France, and Germany at this time (the close of the fourteenth
century) were about eight hundred thousand. Venice alone contained six
thousand Vaudois, it is said, at this time. But this state of external
peacefulness continued only for a time. The very superiority of the Vaudois
to their neighbours attracted attention to their religious peculiarities.
The Romish clergy complained "that they did not live like other people in
matters of religion; that they made none of their children priests or nuns;
that they did not concern themselves about chants, wax tapers, lights,
bells, or even masses for the dead; that they had no images in their
temples," &c. All this criticism was intensified by the news of that great
reformation of the sixteenth century, which awakened alike the fears and
the rage of Rome, and sent forth her legionaries everywhere like
blood-hounds keenly on the scent for the tracks of heresy.
They were not long before they met with the evidences of a purer faith than
that of the pope's in the sunny regions south of the Tiber. The Waldenses
in Calabria had heard of the revived faith and growing zeal of their
brethren in Piedmont. They determined, like them, to lay aside all
concealment of their religious profession, and openly to proclaim their
heart-deep convictions as to the vital principles of the gospel of Christ.
As a means of a higher and truer confession of Christ, they sought a
colleague for their pastor, Etienne Negrin (who was from the valleys), from
Geneva. A young Piedmontese, Jean Louis Pascal, was just then finishing his
studies at Lausanne. Brought up as a papist and a soldier, he renounced his
former creed and profession for that of the gospel of Christ. Nor was it
without cost of another kind he undertook the perilous work of the ministry
in Calabria. He was engaged in marriage to Camilla Guerina, and in setting
out for Italy (though unconsciously to themselves, perhaps) they parted for
ever as regards this world.
His ministry was greatly blessed in Calabria. The light so often placed
under a bushel was elevated conspicuously by the candlestick of his
labours. But while believers rejoiced, superstitious bigots raved. The
Marquis Spinello, chief proprietor in the Vaudois colony, alarmed for his
credit with the clergy, and contrary to his former kindness, sends for the
principal offenders, including the pastor and his friend, Marco Uscegli.
The two latter were cast into prison, and the former dismissed with
threatenings. This happened about 1558 or 1559, and was followed by more
determined measures of the bishop of the diocese and the pope. The latter
deputed Cardinal Alexandrin, inquisitor general, to extirpate heresy in the
kingdom of Naples. All attempts failing to induce attendance at mass, they
were pursued by soldiers, and obliged to make an armed resistance, which
led to the flight of their assailants. After a few days the Vaudois, who
had fled to the woods, were hunted by dogs. Nearly all were captured or
killed on the spot. Those captured were tortured in the most horrible way
to extort confessions of misdeeds which their enemies had fabricated. One
Bernard Conte, who had thrown away a crucifix forced into his hands, was
daubed with pitch, and then set on fire. Their sufferings are too many and
revolting to recount. Let it suffice to add that the bodies of the victims
were so numerous as to line the roads for a distance of thirty-six miles,
being placed on stakes for that purpose from Montalto to Chateau-Vilar. The
pastor, Etienne Negrin, was either tortured or starved to death. But Pascal
was reserved for a more public immolation. On the 9th of September, 1560,
an immense crowd assembled in the courtyard of the castle of St. Angelo. A
scaffold had been erected close by with a pile of faggots. A stage with
seats furnished suitably for the use of the pope, Pius IV., his cardinals,
and ecclesiastics of all ranks, was placed near. When the martyr reached
the scaffold he declared to the people that he was put to death for no
crime but that of confessing with boldness his Master and Saviour Jesus
Christ. "As to those who hold the pope to be God upon earth and vicar of
Jesus Christ," he said, "they are strangely mistaken, seeing that in
everything he shows himself to be a mortal enemy of Christ's doctrine and
service." He was then put to death, but not before he had "made the pope
and his cardinals gnash their teeth." In this way the Waldenses were driven
out of Calabria, at a time, let it be remembered, when in the gracious
providence of God the Reformation was being firmly established in England.
We pass on then to consider what was the condition of the Vaudois in their
own valleys after the termination of their sufferings narrated in the fifth
chapter. We have glanced at the revival of true religion in the valleys and
Vaudois colonies. Suffice it, then, to add that the sympathy shown by Farel
(present at the Synod of Angrogna, 1532), Ecomlapadius, Bucer, and others,
all served to encourage the reviving zeal of that church which had so long
held aloft the standard of God's truth, though at times it may be somewhat
weary with the strife and burden involved in that high distinction of
witnessing for Christ in a world that either forgot or denied Him. One of
the signs of the earnestness which characterized the Vaudois Church at this
time was the translation of the Holy Scriptures into French (for the
benefit of the reformed churches) out of the Romaunce dialect, in which the
Vaudois had possessed the word of God from time immemorial. A further proof
of piety was shown in the erection of buildings for public worship, A.D.
1535. The first temple was at St. Lorenzo, near Chamforans, the site of
the Angrogna Synod; and a second was built at Serre, in the same valley.
This latter temple was standing at the time of our visit, though needing
repair. It would seem that the evangelical spirit was so decided at this
period that the few priests who continued hovering about the valleys in the
hope of effecting perversions retired in despair. The process of church
building went on, so that in 1556 several temples existed in the Val
Lucerna and San Martino. But such a state of things was not permitted to
continue without fresh opposition. In the year 1556 the Pope and Henry II.
of France give orders to the parliament of Turin to repress these heretical
movements. They send out two of their body, who visit the valley of San
Martino, and publish an edict threatening all who refuse obedience to its
commands. They summoned before them a labourer, and asked him why he had
taken his child for baptism to the temple at Angrogna? He replied, "Because
baptism was there administered according to the institution of Jesus
Christ." The same man, on being commanded to have his child re-baptized,
asked for permission to pray before he gave his answer. Having done this,
he asked the magistrate to give him a paper assuming the responsibility and
the sin of the transaction. This demand so embarrassed his persecutor that
he was discharged without further molestation. A noble representative,
however, of the class of pedlars of which we have spoken before did not so
easily escape his persecutors. This devoted Christian, Barthelemi Hector,
of Poictiers, visited from place to place with copies of the word of God,
which he read to the people at their work, and sold to those who could
buy. On this errand of mercy he betook himself to the slopes of that
mountain (La Vachere) which overlook the Pra del Tor. The eagle of the
Romish inquisitors tracked him on his rounds, and carried him to Turin that
he might answer for so foul a crime! His judges addressed him in the
following strain: "You have been surprised in the act of selling heretical
books." He responded with the courage of one who knew in whom he believed.
"If the Bible contains heresies for you, it is _truth for me_!" But,
replied the judges, "You use the Bible to keep men from going to mass." "If
the Bible keeps men from the mass it proves that God condemns it as
idolatry," he replied; and when further called upon to retract, he asked,
with holy dignity, "Can I change truth as if it were a garment?" Such
courage and skill in defending his position impressed his judges, and they
hoped, by long delay and promises of pardon, to shake his firmness. But he
was upheld by the grace so richly vouchsafed, and he died exclaiming,
"Glory to God that He judges me worthy of death for Him." This martyrdom
was followed, about two years later, by two other remarkable cases. The
first was a young student educated by the republic of Berne, named Nicolas
Sartoire. He was returning for a few weeks' holiday to his native land, and
had scarcely crossed the frontier of Piedmont when, resisting all
temptations to deny his faith, he was burnt at Aosta, on the 4th of May,
1557.
The second, Geoffrey Varaille, was a man of fifty, _the son of one of those
who had taken part in the persecution of 1488_.
While following his duties as a monk, he was convinced of the errors of
popery, and after a period of study received ordination, and became pastor
of San Giovanni in 1557. He was waylaid while on a visit to Busca, his
native place, and carried to Turin, where he made a noble confession of his
faith amidst the flames on the 29th of March, 1558. Other victims would
have been sacrificed had not the Protestant princes of Germany and the
evangelical cantons of Switzerland intervened, and so for a little longer
the church in the valleys had a measure of rest prior to the outburst of
another fierce attack.