On the return of Victor Emmanuel I. to the throne of his fathers, with
augmented dominions, the Waldenses had such favourable expectations from
his knowledge of them that out of respect to his feelings they abstained
from certain efforts which they might have used at the congress of Vienna
for the preservation of their rights. Unhappily, these hopes were not
realized. The king passed an edict restricting the Vaudois to the
concessions enjoyed before the French occupation; and in place of the
stipend of one thousand francs for their pastors he assigned them only half
the amount. The Romish priests, not content with the restoration of the
infamous hospital for abducting Protestant children at Pinerolo, and other
grants made by the French, actually set up a claim for income which had
accrued during the period of their dispossession. This, however, Count
Crotti, superintendent of the province, refused, on the ground that the
Vaudois administered not only lawfully, but in such a way as to enhance
rather than diminish the value of the property. The temple of Giovanni was
also closed again, but only for one year, though the use of it was
accompanied by an injunction to place a screen before the entrance, so as
to mollify the opposition of the priest of the Romish chapel exactly
opposite in the same village. The king further allowed the Vaudois to
retain property outside the valleys acquired during the French occupation;
also to follow, besides ordinary trades, the professions of surgeon,
apothecary, and architect.
As the old machinery of fire and sword was no longer available, the enemies
of the Vaudois sought to win them from their principles by the issue of
pastoral letters from the bishops of Pinerolo. Messrs. Bigez, Rey, and
Charvaz engaged in these attempts, but without success, the pastors
refuting their epistles, especially MM. Geymet, Rodolph, Peyran, and
Mondon. Victor Emmanuel having abdicated in 1821, was succeeded by Carlo
Felice, a bigoted Romanist. He published a decree for restricting the
liberties of the Vaudois according to the terms of the edict of 1622. He
also allowed a bull of Pope Gregory, which forbids "to those of the
pretended reformed religion" the right of trading among the Romanists. By
means, however, of protests from the representatives of England and Prussia
this last act of tyranny was not persevered in. Still, when the Waldenses
asked to see their king, he denied them audience in the following terms:
"Tell them they only want one thing; that is, to be Catholics." Their
loyalty, indeed, was conspicuous; for they stood almost alone in 1821, when
the rest of Piedmont was wavering in its fidelity to the house of Savoy. In
1831 Carlo Alberto ascended the throne. Although greatly under the
influence of the Church of Rome, he yet showed a spirit of justice towards
his Vaudois subjects. For instance, he not only removed the disability by
which they were denied an officer's commission in the Sardinian army, but
on the occasion of the death of Major Bonnet, a Vaudois in his service, who
had been buried without the honours due to his rank, he commanded that the
body should be exhumed and removed to La Torre at his expense, and there be
interred with all the respect due to the aged soldier. He further settled
an annuity upon the major's children. Something of this same alternation
between subjection to Rome and the aspirations of justice showed itself in
another transaction of his reign, namely, that of the erection of a church
and priory for the accommodation of eight missionary fathers of the order
of St. Maurice and Lazarus at La Torre. These buildings stand at the very
entrance of the town as you approach from Giovanni. I confess their
presence suggested disagreeable thoughts to my mind. They seemed so out of
harmony with the spirit of the new era of justice and freedom, and to
awaken so many memories of past oppressions. But these thoughts were as
nothing to the gloomy apprehensions which actually filled the minds of the
Vaudois at the date of their erection. They were not a little perplexed,
beside, as to the way in which they should act on the occasion of the visit
of their king to attend the ceremonial of this church consecration.
However, a gracious Providence interposed on their behalf, and showed the
character of their sovereign in an assuring light. First of all he sent
back the troops of the line which were proposed as his escort. Instead of
these he consented to be received by the militia of the valleys, stating,
in reply to those who urged a guard of regular troops, "I require no guard
in the midst of the Vaudois." The king was most cordially welcomed, and,
being deeply touched by his reception, ordered each company of the militia
to pass before him according to their communes, and with their respective
colours. He also gave an audience to the Vaudois Table, left money to be
distributed among the poor, in which the Protestants shared; and to
perpetuate the memory of this visit of September 24th, 1844, caused a
fountain to be erected close by with the inscription, "Il re Carolo
Alberto, al popolo che l'accoglieva con tanto affetto." "The king Charles
Albert to the people who welcomed him with so much affection."
This pleasing episode in the history of the Vaudois forms a fitting prelude
to the advent of a yet more substantial token of good-will on the part of
their sovereign. I mean that edict of emancipation which, while it did
justice to the people of the valleys, also, by the circumstances of their
inclusion, made the kingdom of Sardinia a true pattern of constitutional
monarchy; kept her true amidst the perfidy and violence by which the
sovereigns of other states withdrew on the morrow the boon of the
yesterday, and in consequence reaped a harvest of anarchy and disorder;
while brave Piedmont has not only remained firm as a rock, but has been
gathering to itself, one by one, the minute subdivisions of the Italian
peninsula, until at length we see its true and faithful sovereign, "il Re
galantuomo," the monarch of all that stretches from the Tyrol on the north
to Sicily on the south. "His sceptre rules and banner waves" from the shore
of the Adriatic to the valleys of the Alps. And throughout the length and
breadth of that land, whilst neighbouring countries, notably those most
servile to the papacy, Spain and France, have been convulsed by terrors and
paralysed by intestine and foreign wars, the tricoloured flag of the
Italian kingdom floats triumphantly above the walls of ancient Rome, and
such an era of peaceful contentment and commercial enterprise has begun as
its proud cities and luxuriant plains have long been strangers to. Just as
with regard to God's Israel of the East, so does it seem to have been with
this modern Israel of the West. The nations who persecuted and despoiled
the sons of Abraham have been despoiled themselves. The nations who
befriended the Jews have risen to power and influence. Likewise the
persecutors of God's faithful ones in the valleys of the Po, notably the
priest-king and France, have been scourged; whilst the countries which
befriended them in their long series of trials, the Protestant states of
Germany, Holland, and our own land, have been distinguished by a constantly
augmenting prosperity. Oh, that men were wise! Oh, that politicians would
remember that it is righteousness which exalteth a nation. The thought that
Piedmont became the Zoar of the living Church of God, when its members fled
from the Sodom of pagan and papal persecution and corruption, is not one of
the least of the grounds of hope, that not only shall its political
expansion continue, but that with it shall also be united that nobler gift
of the gospel of Christ, in its purity and power conveying the glorious
liberty of the children of God to the millions who have so long groaned
beneath the bondage of Antichrist.
But these thoughts remind us that the precious boon of emancipation for the
Vaudois did not descend upon them without an intervening period of doubt
and struggle.
The political changes first announced in October, 1847, did not include the
Vaudois within their range. Hence they had to ask for a special act by
which their freedom should be conceded. All the liberals supported this
demand. At a banquet at Pinerolo, Audifredi, an advocate, said, "Twenty
thousand of our brothers stand, so to speak, enclosed and isolated between
two torrents in our delightful valleys. They are honourable, laborious,
strong in mind and body, equal to other Italians. With enlightened
dispositions and by severe sacrifices they have educated their children,
but oppressed by burdens they do not enjoy the rights of other citizens. To
us it belongs, as their nearest brethren, to vote that by an universal
brotherhood there shall no longer be the embankment of these torrents, that
the country should be their mother and not their stepmother, and that as
they are judged suitable to defend their country by the arm, so it should
be allowed that they can enlighten and elevate it by the mind. _Evviva la
emancipazione dei Valdesi._"[F]
An immense petition was drawn up, headed by the names of Marquis Roberto
d'Azeglio, Count Cavour, Cesare Balbo, and, strange to say, the Bishop of
Pinerolo. The attorney-general, Count Sclopis, supported the memorial,
because, said he, by careful examination of the criminal records of the
government, "no other population of the country could be compared with the
Vaudois in morality and virtue." At length the _statuto_ was published in
the _Official Gazette_ on the 25th of February, 1848 (though dated the 17th
of that month). On the evening of that day the residences of the English
and Prussian ambassadors were brilliantly illuminated, as likewise the
houses of nearly all the Protestants in Turin. Moreover, the news of this
happy event soon spread itself over the valleys. At nightfall some
hundreds of bonfires were kindled on the hills, and even upon the tops, yet
crowned with snow, and thus the joyous demonstrations of the Protestants of
the capital were united in by their brethren on the hill sides.
But two days after this there was a yet greater demonstration of gladness.
Deputations from all parts of the kingdom met in Turin to express their
united thanks to their monarch for the constitution bestowed upon his
people. The Vaudois assembled in large numbers, and, with the Protestants
inhabiting the city, formed a column of more than six hundred persons,
headed by ten pastors, and bearing aloft a magnificent banner of the
colours of Savoy, on which was written, embroidered in large silver
letters, these simple but expressive words--
"A RE CARLO ALBERTO I., VALDESI RICONOSCENTI."
(The grateful Waldenses to Charles Albert.)[G] While the large procession
was waiting to start, a deputation was sent to the Vaudois, begging that
they would take the place of honour. "Vaudois," they said, "until now you
have been the last; to-day justice must be done you, and you shall walk at
our head!" And so it was. The Vaudois column, preceded by its banner, and
surrounded by twelve children, dressed in the Italian costume of the
sixteenth century, opened the march; and then a spectacle unknown in the
annals of Piedmont was displayed in the capital, and by it to the kingdom.
In every street wherever the procession traversed, wherever appeared the
flag of the persecuted Church, hands clapped, handkerchiefs waved, hats
(even that of a priest) rose in the air, "Evviva ai Valdesi! Evviva
l'emancipazione!" burst from thousands of mouths, and many of the
spectators, leaving the ranks, came and hung upon the neck of some member
of the column, accompanying the act (sufficiently expressive in itself) by
words of a most affecting and brotherly character. The enthusiasm was
indescribable. What a contrast between the acclamations of that day and the
cries of "Death to the heretic!" which in other times these same streets so
often heard at the passing of some confessor of the gospel to a cruel
death![H]
What these festive proceedings foreshadowed as to the extension and
deepening of the piety and power of the church of the valleys must be
reserved for our next chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] _Gli Evangelici Valdesi_, per PAOLO GEYMONAT, Professore di Teologia in
Firenze.
[G] This banner was afterwards presented to the king, and most graciously
received by him.
[H] _Le General Beckwith, sa vie a ses travaux._ By J. P. MEILLE, Pasteur.