The event to which allusion is made in the close of the foregoing chapter
recalls my thoughts and observation, as I stood in the streets of La Torre
on what was, as regards the ecclesiastical season, the very anniversary
period of that frightful tragedy perpetrated some 214 years before, and
remembered still as the "Bloody Pascha." The coincidence seemed to bring
home the remembrance of the awful event with a more realizing emphasis. And
it was in this train of thought that I cast my eyes upward to the
overhanging crag of Castelluzzo. The murderous designs of the edict
proclaimed by Gastaldo on the 25th January, 1655; viz., "That all and every
one of the heads of families of the pretended reformed religion, of
whatever rank or condition, without any exception, both proprietors and
inhabitants of the territories of Lucerna, Lucernetta, San Giovanni, La
Torre, Bibbiana, Fenile, Campiglione, Bricheariso, and San Secondo, should
remove from the aforesaid places within three days to the places allowed by
his highness, the names of which places are Bobbio, Villaro, Angrogna, and
Rora. Persons contravening the above will incur the penalty of death and
confiscation of all their goods, unless within twenty days they declare
themselves before us (Gastaldo) to have become Catholics," received its
fulfilment by a signal given from this spot on the 24th of April, 1655.
The Vaudois had made every submission short of going to mass; but all was
in vain, as their extirpation had been determined on by a branch of the
inquisition established at Turin in the year 1650. This council was
presided over by the Archbishop of Turin, as regards one committee. The
Marchioness Pianezza filled the same office over another whose members were
ladies! She seems to have breathed the same spirit of ferocity and cunning
as that which characterized the conduct of her husband, who commanded the
fifteen thousand troops whose gentle entreaties were to win the Vaudois to
the orthodoxy of Rome! This army fitly included three regiments of French
soldiers, red-handed from the slaughter of the Huguenots; twelve hundred
Irish, exiled for their crimes in Ulster; and a number of Piedmontese
bandits, attracted by the love of plunder and the promised benedictions of
the Church in return for their meritorious labours in extirpating heretics.
Two monks led this band of miscreants. One of them, seated on a waggon,
brandishing a flaming torch in his left hand and a sword in his right,
exhorted the troops to burn and slay. His companion, an aged friar, carried
a crucifix before him, exclaiming, "Whoever is a son of the holy church
does not pardon heretics; they are the murderers of Christ!" The soldiers,
inflamed by these appeals to their fanaticism, went forward with the cry,
"Viva la S. Chiesa." They found La Torre deserted; for the people had
betaken themselves to the mountains, from whence they could descry the
soldiers pillaging their homes. However, they knew that their enemies would
not be satisfied with anything less than their lives, and these they
resolved to sell as dearly as possible. Pianezza's troops attacked them on
the 19th and 20th of April; but the Vaudois on each occasion drove back
their assailants with great loss. It was the bravery of the Vaudois at this
time that led the Duke of Savoy to say that the skin of a Vaudois cost
fifteen or twenty of his best Catholics. Indeed, during this siege fifty of
the Piedmontese soldiers were slain by the Vaudois, with only a loss of two
by the defenders. The perfidious marquis then resolved to seek by fraud
what he was unable to obtain by force.
He invited the deputies--among whom were Leger, the historian and pastor;
also the brave Joshua Janavello--to meet him at the convent of La Torre
early on Wednesday morning. He represented that he was only in pursuit of
those obstinate persons who had resisted the orders of Gastaldo; that the
others had nothing to fear, provided they would consent to receive a
regiment of infantry and two companies of horse soldiers, _as a mark of
obedience and fidelity to their prince_, for two or three days. He then
entertained them sumptuously, and sent them back to their communes to
persuade their brethren of his sincerity and kindness. Leger and Janavello
saw through the trick, but, alas! the others fell into the snare.
Accordingly the Vaudois consented to receive the soldiers into their houses
and to entertain them as friends. They allowed them to occupy their
hiding-places and strongholds, from whence no fair fight had ever driven
them. The very eagerness of the soldiers to penetrate into these recesses,
and their brutality on their way to the Pra del Tor, opened the eyes of the
Vaudois to their miserable condition. It is remarkable that the deputies
from Angrogna were the readiest to believe in Pianezza's promises, and
also the first to fall victims to his murderous soldiery. On Thursday and
Friday Pianezza was occupied with three things--first, in keeping those of
the Vaudois on the French frontier from escaping to that country; secondly,
in persuading the inhabitants of the valleys of his "good intentions;" and
thirdly, resting his soldiers in readiness for the day of slaughter. On
Good Friday the Vaudois observed the day according to the usage of their
church, by fasting and humiliation. They could not meet in their churches;
but in their caverns and mountain dells they cried to the Lord for
deliverance from their great distress, and for strength to remain faithful
under persecution. The Lord heard their cry; but the church of the valleys
was destined to pass through such a sea of suffering, inflicted in the name
of the holy Catholic church, as would have made many a pagan persecutor
blush with shame. At four o'clock in the morning of Easter-eve, on a signal
given from the top of Castelluzzo, Pianezza's troops rose to slaughter the
persons under whose roofs they had slept, and of whose food they had
partaken the night before. Surely a religion which thus degrades men into
monsters should have few apologists in our day. The mind recoils from the
enumeration of the horrors of that "bloody Easter." Human depravity, goaded
on by every motive which spiritual wickedness could suggest, celebrated
such a carnival as must have staggered even a Nero. Men, women, and
children were torn limb from limb, after suffering every possible outrage
and indecency. Some were rolled from their native rocks to afford merriment
to their butchers. Others were impaled on the trees by the wayside.
Neither age nor sex hindered this work of brutality; and it is even said
that not only did the wretches burn the living bodies of their victims, but
also regaled themselves with their flesh, yea, in the presence of their
suffering fellows! When these pious soldiers of holy church could no longer
slay the Vaudois they burnt their houses and farm buildings, and destroyed
their vineyards, with the fruit-trees and other products of the soil.
Nor was Pianezza content with these horrible proceedings at La Torre and
its immediate vicinity. On the evening of the same day, Saturday, April
24th, Rora was attacked by five hundred men, the day after by a larger
body, the next day by more soldiers still--all in vain. A fourth attack,
like the others, was successfully repelled by their noble captain,
Janavello, who, with a very small body of helpers, inflicted terrible loss
upon the troops, even causing the death of their leader, Mario. These
continuous defeats so enraged Pianezza, that he sent them a message to
attend mass within twenty-four hours on pain of death. They replied, "We
prefer death to the mass a hundred thousand times." On this he assembled a
force of ten thousand to attack their village. Janavello fought like a
lion, but was overpowered by numbers. His wife and three daughters, with
some others, were taken captive. One hundred and twenty-six persons were
put to death, and the scenes of the former week were renewed in all their
horrible atrocity. The news of this frightful massacre sent a thrill of
horror through all that portion of Europe whose sensibilities had not been
drugged by the poisonous teaching of the Church of Rome, viz., that
heretics are malefactors, and as such may be lawfully exterminated like
wild beasts. The representatives of England, Holland, and Switzerland
protested against these doings. Cromwell set an example to all rulers,
whether kings or presidents. His envoy, Sir Samuel Morland, read a despatch
in the presence of Carlo, Emmanuel II., Duke of Savoy, and of his mother,
who, under the instigation of the Romish priests, had caused the massacre,
which contained the following passage:--"If all the tyrants of all times
and ages were alive again, certainly they would be ashamed when they should
find that they had contrived nothing in comparison with these things that
might be reputed barbarous and inhuman." The poetical fervour of Milton
gave forth the following noble invocation:--
"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold!
* * * * *
Forget not; 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 result of these circumstances was the delusive treaty of Pinerolo,
agreed to in the month of August, 1655. This treaty was hurried on in spite
of the request of the plenipotentiaries from England and Holland for a
delay, in order that they might secure better terms for the inhabitants of
the valleys. While freedom of worship was promised, it was restricted by
many irksome conditions; _e.g._, preaching was forbidden in the commune of
S. Giovanni and the town of La Torre, and, moreover, the castle of the
latter place was rebuilt and garrisoned, a grievance which the Vaudois had
especially protested against. The grievances which grew out of the treaty
of Pinerolo, and the events which preceded that ill-conditioned arrangement
in the interval between the week of massacre and the date of its signature,
are so closely connected with the exploits and history of Janavello, that I
feel it better to let my account of La Torre rest here, and proceed to
narrate my visit to Rora, the residence of that patriotic soldier and pious
chieftain.