The death of Mary Queen of England put out the fires of persecution in our
own beloved land; but, alas! served to rekindle them in the devoted valleys
of the Alps. By the treaty of Cambresis, 1559, the kings of France and
Spain bound themselves anew to the extirpation of heresy. Moreover, they
agreed that the conquests made by each country during the preceding eight
years should be restored. Thus all the gains of Francis I. and Henry II. of
France were given up, and Philibert Emmanuel of Savoy was transposed by a
scratch of the pen from the condition of a landless mercenary into that of
a sovereign prince. Would that he had been free to rule as his own
disposition and that of his evangelical consort, Margaret of Navarre, would
have prompted! But the provisions of the treaty bound him to persecute
rather than protect his loyal subjects in the valleys. Too soon the
evidences of this appeared. First came edicts forbidding any one to attend
non-Catholic preaching. Then commands to hear mass. After that were kindled
the fires in which many bravely endured the worst rather than abjure the
faith. These proceedings were, however, preliminary to an attack on the
valleys. So the Vaudois betake themselves to united prayer for guidance.
After deliberation it was resolved to address the duke, the duchess, and
the council of the state. In these addresses they set forth the antiquity
of their religion, the conformity of their belief with the creeds and four
first councils of the church, and the writings of the early fathers, and
vindicate themselves from the calumnies of their enemies, also protesting
their loyalty to their prince. After much difficulty these documents
reached the parties addressed, but owing to the interference of the pope
nothing satisfactory was gained. The monks of Pinerolo signalized
themselves by the ardour with which they harassed the Vaudois. They
employed large numbers of vile characters as mercenaries to make incursions
into the valleys. On one occasion they secured possession of a pastor by
treachery. Having alarmed his parishioners, they attempted his rescue. Some
of these were slain at once by the ruffians from the abbey, others were
captured, and by a refinement of cruelty (such as the Church of Rome
surpasses all her competitors in) were made, especially the women, to carry
the faggots for the fire which was to burn their beloved minister.
Occasionally these frocked and sandalled ruffians met with deserved
retribution at the hands of those whose homes they desolated. But these
things were but the distant rumbling of the tempest, which ere long would
burst upon the faithful Christians of the Alps. Their leaders foresaw what
was coming, and before the army of persecution actually invaded their soil,
they strengthened themselves by praise and prayer, by the word of God, and
the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
Thus "strengthening each other's hand in God," they waited the progress of
the soldiers. These numbered over four thousand, commanded by the Count de
la Trinite. Twelve hundred of them first attacked the heights of Angrogna,
and although the defenders numbered but one in six of their assailants, yet
they are repulsed with a loss of sixty dead, while the Vaudois only lost
three. Other attacks were equally unsuccessful, and so La Trinite persuades
the Angrognians to a truce by which they are powerless to resist, although
he still continues his own plans of devastation, plunder, and confiscation.
Those cruelties drive the people of La Torre to caves and rocks, although
it is winter. An instance of cruelty may be narrated in the case of a man
aged a hundred and three, who was found by the soldiers hidden in a cave
under the guardianship of his granddaughter, a maiden of seventeen. After
taking the life of the venerable man, they seek to dishonour the girl, who,
preferring death, leaped over the precipice into the stream below. As she
did so, tradition says she sang one of their hymns, and that its melody
even now floats in the air of those mountain regions, and is heard by the
shepherd as he pastures his flock on the slopes of the Vandalin by "the
Maiden's Rock." La Trinite continued his persecutions during a period of
fifteen months. The Vaudois organized themselves successfully, and were
favoured with remarkable deliverances, which we shall refer to more
appropriately in a later chapter, as they were chiefly connected with the
Pra del Tor. We may, however, state here that some of the most decisive
triumphs against the enemy were obtained by means of a troop of one hundred
picked marksmen, called "the flying company," because their services were
available in all places according to the varying emergencies of their
situation. A treaty of peace so nearly approximating to justice as to be
denounced by the pope as "a pernicious example," and by a "liberal" Roman
Catholic historian[D] as "a blameable weakness," was concluded at Cavour on
the 5th of June, 1561, and honourably fulfilled by Philibert Emmanuel to
the end of his days, although the Vaudois were still to bear the cross of
their Master. The first hardship coming upon them was that of hunger,
thirst, and homelessness. Their joy at the departure of the men of war was
sadly diminished by the sight of their ruined homes and devastated
vineyards and fields. Alas! for them no fig tree could bloom, no vine yield
its fruit. The flock had been cut off from the fold, and the herd driven
from the stall. The fields could yield no meat, and the time for sowing was
past. To add to those disasters, their poor brethren, flying from Calabria
naked and destitute, were seeking shelter and nourishment at their hands.
Mercifully, however, sympathizing hearts in Germany and Switzerland, nobly
led by the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Marquis of Baden,
the energy of Calvin, and seconded by the churches of Strasbourg and
Provence, supplied their great distress.
Persecution was renewed by indirect means. Castrocaro, forgetful of the
kindness showed him during the late war, when he was taken prisoner by the
Vaudois while fighting against them, undertook the task of harassing the
valleys. He occupied the castle at La Torre. He ill-treated many of the
pastors, especially Gilles. He built the fort at Miraboc, tried to prevent
the meetings of the synods, &c. Large numbers had again to choose between
the idolatrous mass or the dungeon unless they betook themselves to
flight.
It was at this time that the Elector Palatine wrote a remonstrance which
deserves to be perpetuated out of regard both to its own merits and those
of the noble writer. Addressing the Duke of Savoy, he said, "Let your
highness know that there is a God in heaven ... from whom nothing is hid.
Let your highness take care not voluntarily to make war upon God, and not
to persecute Christ in the person of His members; for if He permit this for
a time in order to exercise the patience of His people, He will
nevertheless at last chastise the persecutors by horrible punishments. Let
not your highness be misled by the seducing discourses of the papists, who,
perhaps, will promise you the kingdom of heaven and eternal life, provided
... you exterminate these Huguenots, as they now call good Christians; for
assuredly no one can enter the kingdom of heaven by cruelty, inhumanity,
and calumny." He also points to the folly of persecution by reminding him
that "the ashes of the martyrs are the seed of the Church;" and further,
"that the Christian religion was established by persuasion and not by
violence, ... that it is nothing else than a firm and enlightened
persuasion of God, and of His will, as revealed in His Word and engraven in
the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit; it cannot when once rooted be
torn away by tortures," &c.
It is probable that the effect of so plain and forcible a remonstrance
helped to protect the Vaudois of Piedmont from the horrible cruelties which
befell their brethren in France during the infamous massacre of St.
Bartholomew. On the 19th of October, 1574, died the good Duchess of Savoy,
Margaret of France, who had been the courageous and faithful friend of her
husband's Protestant subjects. Shortly after her death Castrocaro, like
another zealous persecutor of the Waldenses under La Trinite, Charles
Truchet, perished ignominiously; the former by his own sword, taken from
him by his adversaries; the latter in prison, deserted by those whose
willing tool he had been in deeds of blood! Philibert Emmanuel was
succeeded by his son Charles Emmanuel in 1580. An invasion of the French in
1592 was attempted as the means of prejudicing the new king against his
faithful subjects in the valleys, but happily in vain, and he assured them
of his gracious disposition in an interview at Villaro. However, the
Waldenses were annoyed by the visits of popish missionaries, headed by the
Archbishop of Turin. Unable to succeed in open discussions, the monks had
recourse to bribing persons of bad character. They also laid claim to
tithes, closed the schools, and pursued other forms of oppression. In 1624
they were commanded to destroy the temples in their six communes. And
during these years the inquisition ever and anon laid hold of some fresh
victim for the dungeon and the stake. A merchant of La Torre, named Coupin,
Sebastian Basan, and Louis Malherbe, were added to the noble army of
Vaudois martyrs, besides scores who languished and died by secret violence
between the years 1601-1626.
The monks renewed their old game of kidnapping the children of the Vaudois.
An effort was made to establish convents all through the valleys by
Rorenco, prior of Lucerna. The only place they could succeed in was that of
La Torre, where evangelical worship was forbidden. After the invasion of
the French came the terrible plague in 1630. A brief interval of peace and
hope beamed upon the valleys with its smile; but, alas! it was but brief.
The restlessness of papal hostility soon awoke to new deeds of cruelty.
Two monks, in the month of May, 1636, appeared in the market-place at La
Torre with crucifix in hand, and by their abusive language tried to
exasperate the people. And even the noble fidelity of the Vaudois to their
young prince, Amadeus II. (only five years of age), at the death of his
father, against the attempt of his two uncles, supported by Spain, nor the
sufferings they endured at this time from the armies of the uncles, nor the
patriotic successes they achieved, seem to have obtained for them anything
beyond the most temporary respite. Their temples were again closed. Antonie
Leger, pastor of San Giovanni, was obliged to flee for his life. He settled
in Geneva as professor of theology and Oriental languages, having lived in
the service of the Dutch ambassador at Constantinople many years. And,
indeed, things were being put in train for that most furious, perhaps, of
all the tempests which the irrepressible pride and cruelty of Rome made to
lash its strong rage upon the heads and homes of those whose only fault
was--
"They would not leave that precious faith
For Rome's religion, false, impure;
No! no! they rather would endure
To lose their all, yea, even death."
FOOTNOTES:
[D] BOTTA, vol. ii. _Storia d'Italia_.