The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-02-12
STORY OF THE WALDENsEs.
The, Descendants of People Who Were
Perseeuted for Religion.

Prosecuted for Religion.
The Rev. DR.. Teofilo Gay, minister Of
the Waldensian church, in Rome, is a
small, black bearded man, who in ap-
pearance and speech might be mistaken
for German rather than an Italian.
His English, spoken in full, round voice,
is fluent and clear. An idea of his work,
as given by himself, is as follows:
You have all read of the unhappy Wal
denses. Long ago they fled from their
homes in Switzerland across the lofty
Alps and down into our Italian valleys,
there to find refuge from persecution
and cluster of their own brethren.
For, years previously q branch of the
Waldensian church had been established
on the Italian side of the mountains.
In the dark centuries of the Middle
Ages our forefathers would accept moth
ing but the Bible, which was their
strength and joy, and at the same time
the cause to them of sore trials and trib-
ulatiops. The Waldenses have always
believed "-,l felt that the Bible was
worth far lnore than anything else, and
in that belief they have never faltered.
Even in the earliest times they had
theological school, in which the students
learned by heart whole books of the
Bible. Then, leaving their native val
leys, they journeyed over the mountains
to their colony in Calabria, acting as
colporteurs on theroad. You know how
they entered the castles as merchants of
gems and precious stones, and how, ex-
tolling the Word of God as the most
precious gem of all, they left the good
book with many great lord and lady
who had hardly heard of it before.
The Calabrian colony was destroyed
by the Inquisition, but the Piedmontesa
valleys survived the persecutions-the
thirty-three terrible prosecutions to
which they were subjected-until they
were finally liberated less than half
century ago.
You have heard, too, of the fearful
Waldensian massacre, after which only
4,G00 out of 14,000 prisoners escaped to
the mountains, and of the GLORIOUS re-
turn of our fathers" to their valleys in
1859. That event, the most celebrated
in our history, was commemorated by
our people on the occasion of the 200th
anniversary.
Today, on three valleys nesting to-
gether on the Italian side of the Alps
very near to Turin, the capital of the old
Piedmont, there are 10000 Waldenses,
descendants of the early champions of
the faith.
Napoleon the Great, when he was
crowned king of Italy, earned our last
ing gratitude by granting us land and
privileges beyond any we had before en-
joyed. He then declared that the return
of our fathers was the most wonderful
feat in military history, and Napoleon,
with all his faults, was an expert in mil
itary affairs.
Charles Albert, king of Savoy, when
he gave his people new constitution
now the constitution of Italy-in 1913
was obliged to grant civil and religious
emancipation to the Waldenses, and it
was only at that date that our struggles
ended and our new era of happiness and
prosperity began.
We have now, in our chief settlement,
theological school and high school
for young ladies, and Waldensian schools
we have everywhere. Travelling through
our valleys you will at once guess you
dIc III q SuIiStldu CouHtTy' LOU Will SEQ
children going to Sunday school with
their New Testaments under their arms.
You will see men and women, dressed
in holiday costume, coming down from
the mountains to go to church. You
will find the valleys dotted with the edi-
fees devoted to our pure and simple
worship.
We don't leave our valleys When
1900 or 5000 Waldenses went away
across the seas to found colony in Uru-
quay people predicted the depopulation
of our native land; but there is no dan
ger of that. Our mountains are not
elastic. They will not hold more than
81, 200 people within their high and ever
lasting walls. Some of the Waldenses.
therefore, are compelled from time to
time to emigrate.
But, though separated from us by
thousands of miles of earth and ocean.
the colonists in Uruguay form one of
the seventeen parishes of the church of
the valleys, and send deputy every
September to our synod.
Outside of our own territory we have
planted the seed of our faith, and reaped
abundant fruit in ninety-seven different
places throughout Italy, including all
the large cities and many less important
towns.-Boston Herald.