Although the Vaudois were not wholly despoiled of the fruit of their heroic
efforts in fighting their way back to their native valleys, yet the cruel
banishment of the French Protestants, and the removal of so many of their
gifted and devoted leaders, was a very heavy calamity. It placed almost
insuperable difficulties in the way of their reorganization. Furthermore,
they were greatly harassed by the imposition of taxes far beyond their
means, and most unjustly levied _only_ on the Protestants. Very
dishonourable attempts were also made to seduce their children from the
profession of evangelical principles. They were not allowed to repair their
shattered temples, and were deprived of a proper number of pastors; so that
altogether they were in an evil case. Their proverbial and long-tried
loyalty to their prince, however, flourished in spite of these
discouragements. Victor Amadeus, having joined England and Holland against
France, was besieged in Turin by the latter power in 1706. He was so hardly
pressed by the French troops as to be obliged to take refuge among his
faithful subjects of the valleys. A family named Durand had the honour of
giving shelter to their fugitive prince; and when by the forced marches of
Prince Eugene deliverance was at hand, King Amadeus conferred the right of
burying in their own garden on the family which sheltered him, as well as
bequeathed his own silver spoons and drinking-cup to the family. I had the
pleasure of seeing one of these spoons, preserved in the museum at La
Torre, on the occasion of my visit in 1871. Eugene and the Duke of Savoy
ascended the heights of the Superga (a hill about six miles from Turin)
together. The prince, detecting some mistakes in the movements of the
French troops, exclaimed, "It seems to me that these people are already
half beaten;" whereupon the duke vowed, if Turin were delivered from the
French, that he would erect a monument on that spot to the Virgin. He kept
his vow, and the present imposing structure, used as a mausoleum for the
House of Savoy, was begun in 1717, and finished fourteen years after. But
he was not equally mindful of his obligations to his devoted Vaudois, who,
in addition to protecting their prince at the risk of their own safety,
also inflicted great injury upon the French troops when obliged to raise
the siege of Turin. Indeed the vexations to which the Vaudois were
subjected by the interference of the French court as the ready instrument
of papal cruelty and intolerance provoked the kindly interposition of
Frederick I. of Prussia on their behalf. However, Amadeus would not protect
the converts from Catholicism, although he was firm in maintaining the
rights of the Vaudois within the narrow limits which had been conceded.
Still these faithful subjects of the House of Savoy had to bear many
grievous acts of injustice, from which they were exempted by the express
words of the royal edicts. However, they endured all these irritations from
papal lawlessness without being led away by the seductive promises and the
illusory hopes of freedom and happiness which so largely unsettled the
continent of Europe by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.
Indeed so sensitive were they of anything which might bring their loyalty
into question that they actually suspended one of their pastors from his
functions for six months because he had inadvertently alluded to
revolutionary principles from his pulpit! I may add that the same principle
of wise abstention from all political discussions still characterize the
Vaudois pastors, both in the valleys and the mission-field of the Italian
peninsula.
In the wars between France and Savoy at this time the Vaudois had the
guardianship of the frontiers entrusted to them. In 1793 the French tried
hard to move the Vaudois from their fidelity by the most attractive
promises of civil and religious liberty. Although they refused to listen to
these promises, yet the ready tongue of calumny took advantage of
circumstances connected with the surrender of the fort of Mirabocco to
asperse their integrity. Investigation showed that if Musset (the only
Vaudois officer present at the time) had been in command, the place would
have been defended to the last. Still such was the spirit engendered by
popish fanaticism, that a most frightful conspiracy to murder the
defenceless Vaudois women and children of San Giovanni and La Torre, while
their fathers and brothers were all away guarding the frontiers, was
concocted. Happily for the credit of Christianity and humanity it was
discovered and revealed in time by two members of the Romish faith, who
were too honourable to sanction such a scheme. These gentlemen, Brianza,
priest of Lucerna, and Captain Odetti, gave notice to the Vaudois.
Messengers were at once despatched to the mountains. General Gaudin at
first refused to let them go to the defence of their homes, disbelieving
the existence of the conspiracy until he was shown the names of seven
hundred of those engaged in it. Then he hesitated to weaken his forces
against the French; but a stratagem happily relieved him of his
embarrassment, though eventually he lost his command for his humanity,
_while none of the conspirators were punished_! Instead of this a Vaudois
captain, Davit, was executed, and others placed under arrest upon unjust
suspicions. By these proceedings a feeling of disquietude was provoked,
which only the appointment of General Zimmerman, a native of Lucerna, was
able to calm.
An armistice taking place in the spring of 1796, and Charles Emmanuel IV.
coming to the Sardinian crown, the British ambassador sought more
considerate treatment of the Vaudois. In reply to this appeal they were
allowed to repair and enlarge their temples, and even to remove them to
more commodious sites. In 1798 Charles Emmanuel IV. was only allowed the
island of Sardinia by the all-conquering French, who took possession of
Piedmont, and annexed it as a province to France. This event gave to the
Vaudois in a moment every social right, every political privilege, and,
above all, the religious freedom they had for centuries fought, and bled,
and suffered in vain to procure, at least in its entirety!
However, the position of the Vaudois was one of difficulty. Under the rule
of their _de facto_ government they took part in repressing the uprising of
the Piedmontese against the French at Carmagnola. And when three hundred
wounded soldiers, fleeing from the Austrian army, who pursued them to the
Vaudois frontiers, reached Bobbio in a state of appalling destitution, M.
Rostaing, the pastor, and his people, fed them out of their scanty stores,
dressed their wounds, and carried them on their shoulders over frightful
precipices, and along snow-covered defiles impassable to ordinary traffic.
This act of humanity (gratefully acknowledged by the French commander,
Suchet) would have drawn upon them a fresh outpouring of oppression, had
not the Russian general taken a truer estimate of their position. He
allowed them to retain their arms on the condition that they used them only
in self-defence. Napoleon's victory at Marengo, on the 14th June, 1800,
consolidated the French rule over Piedmont. But the Vaudois experienced
dreadful privations at this time, owing to the ravages of the soldiers of
the two armies, French and Austrian, and a period of scarcity. The stipends
of the pastors were also in great part wanting. The French government made
a provision out of appropriations formerly given to the Romish priests and
monks. Indeed, after a conversation which Napoleon held in a most agreeable
manner with M. Peyrani, moderator of the Vaudois Church, he assigned
stipends of one thousand francs yearly to the pastors of parishes, together
with an extra allowance of two hundred francs for work as secretaries of
the communes. On this occasion Napoleon referred in a spirit of admiration
to the exploits of Arnaud and other brave leaders of the Vaudois, and also
drew from M. Peyrani the statement that his church had an independent
existence from about the year 820. At this time the Vaudois rebuilt their
temple at Giovanni, closed since the year 1658. However, it was barely
finished when it suffered much damage from an earthquake, the shocks of
which were felt for a period of four months in the neighbourhood of
Pinerolo, and in other parts, both of Italy and France. Although the
prevalence of this earthquake inflicted great suffering on the Vaudois by
the cessation of all industrial pursuits, the necessity of living in tents,
and the general terror and alarm which it inspired, yet the actual loss of
life did not extend to more than three cases. There were many remarkable
deliverances. Notwithstanding this visitation of Providence, it does not
appear that religious life existed to the degree of former times. The
spirit of atheism stirred up in France; the prevalence of a cold
materialistic philosophy in those seminaries where the students for the
Waldensian ministry had to seek instruction; the absorption of the thoughts
by the reports of military expeditions; the bewitchery attached to the name
and achievements of Bonaparte, not only made the young men of the valleys
willing to enrol beneath his standard, but also had a tendency to restrict
the simplicity and the piety so characteristic of their forefathers to
those who from sex or age were left outside of that turbid wave which swept
others into the current of its power. In 1815 came the downfall of the
proud empire erected by the military prowess and boundless ambition of the
first Napoleon. How this affected the Vaudois we will consider in our next
chapter.