VALDENSES, Waldenses, Vallenses, Valdesii, Vaudes, or Vaudois, a community of Christians in the Cottian Alps, well known under these names, whether used as a territorial or ecclesiastical distinction. They formerly peopled a continuous and extensive mountain tract of country both in France and Italy, in the provinces of Dau phiné and Provence, and in Piedmont, when these provinces were under one sovereignty; but, reduced by a long series of persecutions, they are now confined to the three valleys of Perosa, San Martino, and Lucerna, on the Italian side of the mountains, in the dominions of the king of Sardinia.

In these beautiful valleys, extending up the slopes of mount Vise and mount Genevre, and lying between the rivers Pelice and Clusone, which come to a point of junction a little before they fall into the Po, the remnant of the Valdenses still have their existence as an established church of regular organization. They have endowments of land, churches, schools, and institutions peculiar to themselves; they have a liturgy of their own; they are recognised by the laws of the country to which they belong, and protected by treaties and compacts with the Protestant powers of Europe. It has not been accurately determined at what time, or how, they obtained the appellation of Valdenses, under which they have been known since the 12th century, and which, from the resemblance in sound and orthography, has been erroneously thought to identify their derivation with that of the disciples of Valdo, the Lyonese reformer. From the circumstances of the times, and, from the fact, that the fugitives from Lyon took refuge^[1. Errorem eorum bibentes et serentes—Stephen de Borbone, apud Eckhart. Scrip. Ord. Praed. vol. i. p. 192. ] with them as with a people of similar religious tenets, they come into historical notoriety under the name of Vaudois and Waldenses contemporaneously with Valdo; but traces of them, as a body of subalpine Christians, protesting against the errors of Rome, are found in ecclesiastical records of a much earlier date.

That the Cottian Alps have been inhabited by a relatively pure association of Christians from time immemorial, who have testified for the truth, upon the same articles of faith, as the Protestant churches of modern times, is a tradition not unsupported by documentary evidence, but still open to discussion. The Valdenses of these regions maintain that they are descended from a race, who peopled the same villages, and professed the same gospel, in the first centuries of the Christian era. “We have inherited our religion,” say they, “with our lands, from the primitive Christians.” This is no modern pretension, put forth since the Reformation; for the same language, as to their antiquity, was held by their ancestors, not only after the time of Valdo, but in the age before that reformer, to whom their origin is sometimes imputed.

The author of the “Nobla Leyczon,"^[2. See MS. volume in the library of Geneva, and Choix des Poesies des Troubadours, par Raynouard, vol. ii. pp. 73 102. ] a.D. 1100; Moneta,^[3. Moneta contra Catharos et Valdenses, lib. v. p. 405. edit. Ricehini. Romae, 1743. ] who wrote against the alleged heresies of his day, and died in 1240; and Reinerus,^[4. ‘ Reinerus de Sectis Antiquorum Haereticoum, c. 4. Bib. Patr. vol. iv. ] the inquisitor, whose treatise was completed in 1250; all bear witness that the religionists mentioned by them, under the appellations of Vaudès and Lombardi Pauperes, and whom we are led to identify with the Valdenses, professed, in those times, to trace their religious genealogy and characteristics to the primitive ages.

The inquirer, who would make himself master of the religious character of the Valdensian church, must take care not to be led out of his way in search of it. He must confine his attention to one particular locality, that is, the subalpine territory lying between Mount Genevre and Mount Viso. It has been the mistake of many writers and readers to ask among the heretics of all times and places for the creed of the Valdenses. But, if we would do them justice, and ascertain the articles of faith really maintained by them, we should look to three periods of time for this information.

The first is the present period.

The second is a point of time immediately before the Reformation.
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The third is the age immediatialy before that of Valdo. The authorities to be consulted for the religious opinions of the Valdenses at these periods, are, 1. the public acts of synod, and the liturgy of the Valdensian church, as it now exists; 2. the account given of the Valdenses by Claude Seyssel, archbishop of Turin, after his visitation of the diocese in 1517; and, 3. that admirable monument of faith, hope, and charity, called the Nobla Leyczon, alleged to have been written in the year 1100. These represent the Valdenses as rejecting image worship, the invocation of saints, the necessity of auricular confession, the obligations to celibacy, papal supremacy and infallibility, and the doctrine of purgatory; as professing to take scripture for the only rule of faith; and believing in the holy Trinity, in original sin, in the atonement and mediation of Christ alone, in justification by faith, in the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and in the apostolical ordinance of holy orders.

The misrepresentations of friends and enemies, and the destruction of their documents in the course of numberless persecutions, render it a hard task to disentangle Valdensian history from the confusion under which it lies. Notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, we still want evidence of a more convincing and irresistible nature, as to their origin,^[5. On the origin of the Valdenses, some curious materials for conjecture will be found in the history of the Gothic Christians of the fifth century, and their relics in France and Italy. Salvianus de Gub. Dei, 1. 7, Alcuin in his Epistles, and Theodolphus, three hundred years later, speak of the purity of their lives, while they allude to the imperfections of their notions in relation to church observances. ] succession, and progress. There are provoking uncertainties attending the inquiry; but amidst all the clouds in which it is involved, one bright truth gleams strongly out of the darkness, even from the time when the Valdenses came first into notoriety and conflict. The little Christian flock has been indestructible, in defiance of those who strove to be its destroyers, and, like the flaming bush. It has burned, but has not been consumed. Neither executions nor arguments, neither violence nor calumnies, have prevailed for its extinction. To what can this be attributed? Not to the protection of situation only, not to accidental causes, but, under the divine blessing, to the stronghold which the sanctity of truth has upon the sympathies of men, in spite of their angry passions. The Valdenses found favour with their sovereigns, and obtained immunities, privileges, and pledges of security from time to time, which could not have been forced from the strong by the weak, and never would have been conceded to fanatical or rebellious subjects. The very fact of their existence is an attestation to the purity of their faith and conduct, and a refutation of those who reproached them with gross errors. He who has made darkness his secret place, has mysteriously preserved them; and astonished the pride of Christian orthodoxy, by making a fold, for these few sheep in the wilderness, from whence they might rebuke error, and bear witness to the truth.

The history of Piedmont, and of all the states subject to the house of Savoy, whether in the Cottian Alps, or elsewhere, has hitherto been a sealed book, in consequence of the reluctance of the dukes of Savoy and kings of Sardinia, to permit the family and state documents to be brought to light. Muratori confessed that he despaired of illustrating the history of Piedmont^[6. Muratori Rer. Ital. Scrip, vol. xi. preefat-ad Chron. Aβt. ] Giannone relinquished in disgust his intended history of the country, because the archives of Turin were not more freely opened to him. Hallam^[7. Hallam’s Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 376. ] says that the history of Piedmont is far less elucidated by ancient and modem writers than that of any other part of Italy; and Dal Pozzo, a native writer, has declared,^[8. Essai sur les Anciennes Assemblées Nationales de la Savoye et du Piemont, pp. xx. xxi. ] in a very learned work, that in no region of Europe has the truth of history been so concealed.

Another circumstance which has contributed to darken Valdensian history, is the doubtful line of separation between kingdom and kingdom, diocese and diocese, during the middle ages, and the frequent transfers from one authority to another. The bishops of Turin and Embrun sometimes exercised jurisdiction almost indiscriminately on each side of the Cottian Alps; and in many of the old documents, when we read of the valleys of Fraissiniere, Pragela, Clusone, and others. It is difficult to understand to what localities or people they refer. Need it therefore occasion surprise, if many links are found to be wanting, in the chain of documentary evidence necessary to unite the present with the past, in the annals of an obscure district, belonging to a realm whose entire history is wrapt in mystery?

In a few years, perhaps. It will be more easy to give a satisfactory account of the Valdenses, because the present king of Sardinia is permitting the ancient records of his states to be examined and published; and an historical commission at Turin, has already sent many important documents to press, which throw light on subalpine affairs.^[9. These publications appear in folio volumes, under the title “Historiae Patrite Monumenta." The first was printed at Turin in 1836. ] ®

It is in vain to pretend to reduce the annals of the Valdensian church to any thing like connected history, till we descend to the period when persecution brought it into notice. We may. It is true, pick up a few materials relating to the country, and to the general aspect of religion, from the early documents which have come down to us, but these are scanty and unsatisfactory. For example, we learn that the Cottian Alps received the gospel in the second century, and that Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, made himself master of the Celtic language, that he might minister among the mountaineers; that facilities of intercourse between the subalpines and the inhabitants of the plain, were secured by good roads leading through the centre of the valleys now called Protestant, in the direction of Mount Genevre, Oulx and Fenestrelle; that the village of St Secondo, in the valley of the Clusone, is so called from a martyr of that name in the year 120; that Crisolo, near Rora in Val Lucerna, was the place of St Geoffrey’s concealment, before his martyrdom in 297; and that, during the persecution of Diocletian, many Christians of the Theban legion found refuge in these regions.^[10. See “Storia, delle Alpi Marittime." published in Hist. Patr. Mon. ] ® We know that a hundred years afterwards, Ambrose of Milan, whose diocese extended to the Alps, complained of his mountain clergy refusing to become celibates, on the plea of ancient custom;^[11. De Officiis, lib. i. cap. 50. ] and that Vigilantius made the Cottian Alps the place of his sojournment,^[12. " Hieron. Opera, vol. iv. p. 279. Epist. 37, aliter 53. ] when he opposed himself to the errors of the church; because there he was received with kindness by professors of Christianity, who refused to adopt the observances of Monachism, prayers for the dead, saint and relic worship, and other superstitions, which were creeping into practice.^[13. Mr Faber (see his very learned Inquiry into the History of the Vallenses, p. 227) thinks the Valdenses may have been called Leon-ists from this Vigilantius, the Ironist or native of Lugdunum Convenarum. ] Again, after an interval of more than 400 years, we find, that doctrines, called by Jonas of Orleans and Dungalus,^[14. See Dungali Episr. adv. Claud, and Jonae Aur. Episc. Epist. adv. Claud, in Bib. Pat. vol. iv. p. 536. and vol. v. pp. 153-163. ] the heresy of Vigilantius, were still cherished here, and that Claude, bishop of Turin, “that bright and golden ring in the chain of Cisalpine Protestantism,” gave the sanction of his episcopal authority to opinions, which the Gallic reformer of the fourth century had been reviled by Jerom [7:21:541]for propounding. Claude found two parties in his diocese, one of which favoured his schemes of church reform; and after his death (according to the authority of Dungalus) it was called the sect of Claude. Thus it is certain that Vigilantius, and after him Claude, left disciples in these parts,^[15. It is curious to observe, how, from Philastrius, who died in 387, down to Ratherius, who died in 974, and again, from Peter of Clugny, who wrote in 1127, to the Reformation, mountain districts are stated to have been the latibula, or placés of security, where nonconformity with the dominant church lurked. ] just where we are looking for them; but we have no ground for maintaining that the Valdenses were in a state of secession from the provincial bishops of France or Italy, within whose dioceses they were situated, at either of the periods to which we have just referred, the fourth and the ninth centuries. In those days, and for two or three hundred years after Claude, the truth might be held, and public testimonies for the truth might be given, and protests against the errors of Rome might be made, without the necessity of separation from the church called catholic: witness the great Iconoclastic question which agitated Christendom in the ninth and tenth centuries. There is reason therefore to believe that, until a much later period, congregations of the Cottian Alps may have continued to maintain a purer faith than that of Rome, without leading to any proceedings in those parts, which could be called acts of schism on the one side, or of persecution on the other.

The accusing and remonstrating voice within the church, and not open secession from her, may have distinguished the Valdensian from the Romanist, for a series of ages; and the political condition, as well as the natural position of the territory, to which he belonged, may have proved his security. There was no occasion for him to separate, so long as he was not compelled to do violence to his conscience; so long as the civil rights enjoyed in Ostro-gothic and feudal Italy protected him.^[16. These immunities were of a very ancient date. See the privileges granted to Gothic and other unorthodox soldiers by Justinian, 523, xii. Cod. de Haer. ] In some parts of the south of France, as well as in the Cottian Alps, opinions were held at variance with those of the great body of the church, without bringing the dissidents into violent collision with it. There the Gothic Christians, to whom Alcuin addressed an epistle of expostulation,^[17. Alcuini Epistola 26, aliter 71, ad Gothos. ] professed their disbelief in the virtue of auricular confession and sacramental absolution, and remained unmolested; and there the Christians of Narbonne, in 820, (if we interpret rightly the metrical^[18. See Theodulphi Paraenesis ad Judices. ] description of Theodulphus, bishop of Orleans,) had an ecclesiastical system of their own, which savoured of religious principles very different from those held at Rome, without being denounced as schismatics. Until the bishop of Turin, acting upon the system introduced by Innocent the Third, obtained the authority of the Emperor Otho in 1210, to persecute the Valdenses, we have no instance of any public act of oppression committed in the Piedmontese valleys of the Alps against religious freedom. Up to that time the strongholds of nature, and the protection of the Lombard law,^[19. See Guizot’s Lectures on European Civilization, lecture 3. In Germany as well as in Lombardy there was a succession of Christian congregations, with more or less of othodoxy, who must have been connected with the sectarians of whom Evervinus complained to St Bernard in 1140. “We and our fathers,” said they, “are apostolical in our doctrine and life.” ] which, in its code of personal legislation, permitted every man to choose the national law under which he would be governed, gave the people in these Alpine fastnesses, privileges of which even pontifical tyranny could not deprive them, and offered a permanent settlement to the assertors of primitive Christianity, who, while they protested against superstitious novelties, communicated with the established clergy, as Wesleyan Methodists now profess to do, and vindicated their claim to be considered members of the church of Christ. The mass of historical documents which the commission at Turin has published since 1836,^[20. Historiae Patriae Monumenta. ] ® exhibits too many marks of suppression not to excite our fears that much information relating to the “Evangelical Valleys of Piemont” has been withheld. Enough has however been brought to light, to satisfy us, that the political condition of the Cottian Alps, and of the people whom some ecclesiastical writers are fond of deriding under the term “brutae gentes Alpium,” (between the age of Claude and the first public persecution of the Valdenses) was exactly such as to secure religious objectors from molestation, and to justify the language, which the Valdenses have invariably held in all their petitions to their sovereigns, when their religious liberties have been threatened—“We have asserted our right to enjoy liberty of conscience,” "da ogni tempo,” “da tempo immemoriale,” from time immemorial. “Is it not extraordinary,” says the historian Leger, “that it has never once happened that any one of our princes or their ministers should have offered the least contradiction to their Valdensian subjects, who have again and again asserted in their presence, 'We are descended from those who, from father to son, have preserved entire the apostolical faith, in the valleys which we now occupy. Permit us therefore to have that free exercise of our religion, which we have enjoyed from time out of mind, before the dukes of Savoy became princes of Piemont ?’”

The supreme authority of the princes of the house of Savoy was not fully established in Piedmont until the middle of the thirteenth century, (before that time the emperors of Germany exercised all the rights of suzerainté) and it is a curious fact, that the house of Savoy arrived at absolute power by means of the public confidence which it enjoyed, in consequence of its equitable government, and faithful adherence, for many ages, to compacts made with its subjects. These compacts were the origin and the preservatives of the religious liberties of the Valdenses. “We, are obliged to tolerate heresy in the valleys of our realm,” was the confession of a duke of Savoy in 1602.^[21. Raccolta degi’ Editti delli Duchi di Savoya, p. 24. ] It was a matter of solemn stipulation, recorded in the ancient charters and documents now under publication at Turin, that the inhabitants of certain townships, communes, and villages, should remain in the undisturbed possession of their accustomed rights and franchises; and some of the very communes and hamlets which are now the dwelling places of the Valdenses, are named among those entitled to such privileges.

In allusion to these immunities of the Valdenses, based on charter, ^[22. Especially those of 1448, 1466, 1473, 1499, and 1509; cited in Raccolta, p. 5. ] Archbishop Seyssel made the following bittet complaint: “It has contributed not a little to the toleration of their heresy, that it has never wanted persons to protect and favour it, and among those especially who ought to be the guardians of the Christian religion, inasmuch as they rule and reign over provinces and kingdoms.”^[23. Cl. Seyssel adv. Val. fol. 8. ] ®

We have no well-authenticated record which will enable us to say, when the feeble tie was broken, which still kept the Valdenses in communion with the provincial bishops of Turin and Embrun, while they protested against Romish corruptions. Sclopis, a Piedmon tese writer on jurisprudence, of great celebrity, who has made it his business to search into the' history of the laws and customs of his country, declares that he cannot assign any period to the first appearance of schism in the subalpine valleys, nor can he discover the origin of the name Valdenses ^[24. See Sclopis, Storia del. Antic. Legis, del Piedmonte, p. 487. ] . 1

It is probable, however, that being excommunicated at [7:21:542]the beginning of the thirteenth century, after their reception of the followers of Valdo, they were then obliged for the first time to constitute ministers of their own, out of the clergy, whose orders were derived from the national churches of France and Italy, and who espoused their cause. That they had originally the form of an episcopal church, with clergy of different orders, (although their discipline is now Presbyterian, very much resembling that of the Church of Scotland,)^[25. In the middle of the sixteenth century several changes were effected in the government of the Valdensian church. The principal authority rests with ecclesiastical officers called the Table, consisting of the moderator, the moderator-adjoint, and the secretary, assisted by two la, members. These are elected by the Synod, which is held every five years, in the presence of a royal commissioner. The moderator presides at ordinations. Pastors are nominated by parishes, subject to the approbation of the Table, and confirmation of Synod. ] appears both in an ancient MS. which speaks of regidars, ^[26. “Eslagistan Regidors del Poble, et Preires en lors Officie.” See Morland’s Churches of Piedmont, p. 74. ] ’ or leaders of the flock, as well as of priests; and in the direct and plain evidence of Claude Seyssel in 1520, who speaks tauntingly of persons whom they called their bishops and priests, and challenges them to show from what lawful source of authority, from what church, and from what province, they, who boasted of their apostolical descent, derived their orders and succession.^[27. The episcopal form of church government was retained by many other separatists from Rome, in Italy and Germany. See Reiner and Stephen de Borbone. ]

The fiercest deciaimers against Valdensian schismatics might find some extenuation for a people who were forced into secession; first, by the corruptions and spiritual neglect of the clergy of the dominant church; and, secondly, by excommunication. Every ecclesiastical history makes mention of the utter depravity of most of the Romish clergy of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; and we gather from the first volume of the Piedmontese Historical Documents, published in 1836, that at one time nearly all the ecclesiastics of the Cottian Alps fled from before the Saracen invaders, and never returned to their parishes; and at another time that there was a wreck of churches (naufragatis ecclesiis,) and destitution of pastors throughout the whole diocese of Turin. Endowments for parochial service were transferred to monasteries at a distance, and villages were left without regular pastoral superintendence. One charter states that a third of the whole mountain territory between Mount Cenis and Mount Genèvre was made over to a distant convent. Another consigns no less than half of all the lands lying between Pignerol and Col Sestrières to an abbey at Pignerol. A third despoils the whole of Val Guichard of its rents, for the enrichment of a fraternity of monks in another part of the country, in the plains on the banks of the Po. All this must have contributed to produce that state of spiritual destitution which ultimately led to, and warranted separation; and when the severance was once completed, the hierarchy of Rome could never re-establish its authority over those valleys of Piedmont which are now called Protestant. They were so free from Romish intrusiveness at one period, that Vin-centius Ferrerins, the Dominican, who preached to the Val-denses in the year 1405,^[28. See Praef. Ricchini ad Monetam, p. xvi. ] reported to the principal of his order, that they had not heard the voice of a minister of the church for thirty years before; and Claude Seyssel declared a century afterwards, that so entirely had they been abandoned by priests and bishops, no prelate but himself had dared to approach them within the memory of man.

The transfer of property in the valleys, to monasteries and convents, was the first step that led to persecution. The possession of lands in signoralty carried with it certain rights of jurisdiction, which enabled the monastic bodies to exercise temporal as well as spiritual tyranny. They acquired the power of holding local courts for the adjudication of all criminal causes, co-extensive with that which had been originally conferred on the feudal proprietors for the protection of the people of their domains; so that the very privileges which were favourable to religious liberty, while they were exercised by lay superiors, became dangerous to the vassals of estates, in process of time, when they were made over to ecclesiastics. The commencement of the thirteenth century is the era from which we date those horrible atrocities with which religion has been insulted, and humanity outraged, to appease the offended majesty of Rome. Innocent the Third, and Dominic, the father of the Inquisition, (the seraphic spirit of Dante’s commendation) divide the honour of having let loose fire and sword against those who presumed to question the dogmas of the Vatican, in two new forms, impiously called “missions of peace and good will.” The one was the crusade against the Albigenses, which swept multitudes from the face of the earth in open warfare; and the other was the institution of a secret tribunal, which had its informers and its executioners every where, and, as an “act of faith,” condemned thousands, after the mockery of a trial, to expire in the flames, or to linger out life in a dungeon. But though some martyrs were dragged to the stake from the vicinities of the Cottian Alps, nearest to the plains of Piedmont on the one side, and to the cities of Dauphiné on the other, yet the more secluded of these regions continued to be secure asylums until the end of the fourteenth century. The communes of Fressinière and Argentière, in the diocese of Embrun, on the French side of the mountains, were then ransacked for victims, in obedience to a papal bulh^[29. This and the document next quoted are published in the works of Morland and Leger. ] β Whole families were sacrificed, and others were obliged to fly to the very edge of the glaciers for safety. But it is remarkable, that although a similar bull was issued against the nonconformists of the valleys of Lucerna and San Martino on the Italian border, no means were there found of putting the exterminating commission in execution. Again and again the temporal sovereigns of the Piedmontese Valdenses received mandates from Rome to draw the sword against them, and to “crush the serpent,” but they would not. Even when the persecuting storm of 1400 extended from Dauphiné to the Italian valley of Pragela, which was then under the dominion of France, the adjoining valleys of Lucerna and San Martino heard the pontifical thunder, but were unscorched by its lightning.

At length the memorable bull^[30. Printed in the works of Morland and Leger. ] · of Innocent the Eighth, which gave unlimited powers to Albert de Capitancis to carry confiscation and death throughout the whole of those parts of the sees of Embrun and Turin which were infected with heresy, precipitated a host of armed enemies upon the mountain retreats of the Valdenses. The edict of Iolanta, the regent-mother, during the minority of the duke of Savoy, in the year 1476,^[31. Raccolta degh' Editti del Piemonte, p. 1. ] in which she called on the authorities of the province of Pignerol to assist the inquisitors in compelling heretics, and especially those of Val Lucerna, to come into the bosom of the church, is one of the first state papers which indicate a departure from the mild and tolerant principles on which the house of Savoy had hitherto acted. But the sanguinary torrent rolled through these valleys, without forcing any of the inhabitants into the arms of Rome. Some subsequent edicts^[32. Those of 1499 and 1509. ] of the dukes of Savoy, speak of their Valdensian subjects, not under the obnoxious appellation of heretics, but under the gentle and more courteous term of Religionists, and call them “men of the valleys,” “beloved and faithful vassals,” whom [7:21:543]they recognised as privileged persons, entitled to immunities and franchises, by virtue of ancient stipulations.^[33. Raccolta degh' Editti di Savoia e del Piedmonte. ]

State policy, disputes with France, and the necessity of conciliating the borderers, when a band of gallant soldiers was required for the defence of the frontier, often operated in their favour, in the moment of danger; and even at times when the sovereigns of the principality consented to their destruction, the lords of the soil became their advocates. Thus, in the year 1553, when the havoc which was made among the nonconformists of Provence and Dauphiné, reached the valleys of Piedmont. It would have been more fatal, had not Blanche, countess of Lucerna,^[34. Gilles, p. 39. ] interposed in behalf of her dependents.

In 1560, the dark cloud which had long been gathering over the mountain church, burst upon it with all its fury; and never did the majesty of truth and innocence stand out more brightly to view, than during the tempests of persecution, which raged at intervals for the next hundred years and more.

The subalpine communities, which had been placed under papal interdicts, saw themselves exposed to the hostile power of the French king on one side, and to that of the duke of Savoy on the other. They were commanded by edicts to banish their ministers and schoolmasters, to abstain from the exercise of their own forms of worship, and to attend the services of the Romish church. They refused, and orders for confiscation, imprisonment, and death, were launched against them. Hundreds perished on the scaffold, or at the stake; and the villages swarmed with brigands, who, under the name of officers of justice, plundered the wretched inhabitants, and haled them to prison, until the dungeons were choked with victims.

The population of the valleys still remaining faithful to the religion of their forefathers, the sword was openly unsheathed, and the scabbard thrown away. An armed force, commanded by a chief whose name was in terrible contrast with his character, the Count de la Trinité, poured into the proscribed territory. But a spirit stronger than the sword upheld the Valdenses, and an arm more powerful than that which assailed them, fought on their side. The villages near the plains were deserted, the women, the children, the feeble, and the aged, were sent for refuge to the heights of the mountains, to the rocks and to the forests. Every man and boy who could handle a weapon, planted himself against the invaders, and a successful guerilla warfare was carried on by small brigades of peasants, against the veteran troops who were let loose upon them. Greater exploits, and instances of more enduring fortitude, were never recounted, than those which have immortalized the resistance offered by the Valdenses to their oppressors. It must however suffice to say, that the history of the Valdenses, from the year 1560 to the close of the eighteenth century, is a narrative of sanguinary struggles for existence, with very few intervals of repose.

If the churches of the valleys had an intermission of suffering under one reign, they were driven to desperation in another. The years 1565, 1573, 1581, 1583, and the period between 1591 and 1594, are memorable as dates of religious and civil conflict.

In 1595, the duke of Savoy smiled upon his Protestant subjects; in 1596 and 1597 he persecuted them. From 1602 to 1620, a series of edicts,^[35. See Raccolta degh' Editti. ] some threatening, and others indulgent, kept the Valdenses in a state of perpetual suspense and agitation; but the tenor of the most alarming of these, which confined them within certain limits, proves that they had rights and privileges, within those limits at least, which nothing but the importunity and the misrepresentations of the Romish hierarchy, could induce their sovereigns reluctantly to violate.

Of the twenty years that followed, almost all were distinguished by some act of cruelty or oppression. In 1640,^[36. Gilles, Hist. Eccles, des Vaud. p. 567. ] the appointment of an English envoy at the court of Turin, and his occasional residence at La Tour, the principal village of the Valdenses, shed a ray of transient sunshine over this afflicted people; but this was shortly followed by a hurricane of persecution similar to that of 1560, and unutterable atrocities were committed by the soldiery employed to enforce the destroying edict of 1655. That year would have seen the last of the Valdenses, had not all the Protestant powers of Europe interposed, especially England, whose supreme ruler, Oliver Cromwell, under the influence of Milton, became their protector.

In 1686, Victor Amadeus, the young duke of Savoy, instigated by the courts of France and Rome, and ambitious of succeeding where his ancestors had failed, sent an overwhelming body of troops into the valleys of Lucerna, Perosa, and San Martino, to compel the inhabitants to go to mass. During three years and a half, the exercise of the ancient religion of the Valdenses had to all appearance ceased in Piedmont. Those who would not conform were obliged to flee for their lives. But the return of eight hundred Valdensian exiles in 1689,^[37. ‘ See Rentrée glorieuse dee Vaudois, par H. Amand, and Translation by H. D. Acland. ] β who marched from the borders of the lake of Geneva to their native mountains, for the recovery of their rights, was signalised by incidents un surpassed in the history of providential and romantic events, and was crowned with success. At this critical juncture, a quarrel arose between the king of France and Victor Amadeus, which induced the latter to take this heroic band and the scattered remnant of his Protestant subjects into favour. “Hitherto,” said he, “we have been enemies, but from henceforth we must be friends; others are to blame more than myself for the evils you have suffered.” This happy turn in their affairs was followed by treaties between the English and Piedmontese governments, in the reigns of William the Third and Queen Anne, articles of which were meant to secure to the Valdenses the undisturbed exercise of their religion within certain territorial limits.^[38. See Gilly’s Waldensian Researches, p. 555. ] From that period to the present, Great Britain has been empowered, by virtue of solemn compacts, to interpose for their protection, and their churches ought to have had rest.

But the wrongs of the Valdenses were not yet at an end, and their sovereigns, under their new title of kings of Sardinia, forgot to be generous and just. Again and again these sufferers have had to contend not only against petty injuries and harassing grievances, but also against absolute oppression. By an act of open violence, the valley of Pra-gela was dragooned into conformity with Rome, in the year 1727, on the diplomatic pretence, that this region was not included in the articles of treaty which secured toleration within defined boundaries. The English ambassador at Turin remonstrated, and urged the sacred engagements which guaranteed toleration and safety to the Protestants of Piedmont, but he was not properly supported by his government at home, and the objects of his sympathy cried for redress in vain.^[39. See the Correspondence of Mr Hedges with the duke of Newcastle, published in Dr Gilly’s Waldensian Researches, pp. 539, 540. ]

During the French empire of Napoleon, when the iron crown of Italy was placed on the head of the Corsican, the Valdenses enjoyed equal rights and privileges in common with the rest of their countrymen. But, at the restoration of the house of Savoy to the kingdom of Sardinia, four days after the king had taken possession of his palace at Turin, they were replaced under their former disabilities, and bare [7:21:544]toleration only was conceded to them.^[40. A very able pamphlet was published in 1829, by Count Ferdinand dal Pozzo, late Maitre des Requetes, and First President of the imperial Court of Genoa, entitled “The complete Emancipation of the Vaudois advocated.” In this the author maintains, that by the treaty of Paris, May 31, 1814. the Valdenses were put in possession of all the rights acquired by the inhabitants of Piedmont under the French dominion, and that, in violation of these rights, there are no Protestants now in Europe, in so low and degraded a position as they. ] The restored prince acknowledged, on more occasions than one, “the constant and distinguished proof which the Valdenses had ever given to his predecessors of attachment and fidelity and bore this testimony to their merit: “I know I have faithful subjects in the Vaudois; they will never dishonour their character.” But still he listened to evil counsel, and the yoke was again placed upon their necks. And evil counsellors still prevail. In 1832, the measures adopted against the Valdenses were so threatening, that the British parliament took up their cause; and extracts of the treaties between Great Britain and the dukes of Savoy and kings of Sardinia, were ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, on the motion of Sir R. Inglis, with the correspondence of the British minister at Turin, relative to the treatment of the Protestants in Piedmont in 1727.^[41. See Orders of the House of Commons, 15th May 1832, and Returns to an Address to his Majesty, dated 24th January 1882. ]

The reigning king of Sardinia, Charles Albert, is disposed to shew them kindness, and to place them on a level with his other subjects. He has proved this by numberless acts of favour; but the tiara and the mitre are too strong for the crown in Piedmont; and the baneful influence of the papal authority, so late as September 1837, wrung from the reluctant king two articles in the new code of Sardinia, by which the intolerant edicts of the 16th and 17th centuries^[42. These, 1st, prohibit the Valdenses from acquiring landed property beyond certain limits, and from exercising certain professions,; 2d, forbid them to make proselytes themselves, or to offer any opposition to the conversion of Protestants by Roman Catholics; 3d, prevent their reclaiming their own children, when they have been taken into Roman catholic hospices or convents; 4th, prohibit the augmentation of churches or ministers of religion, even within their own valleys. ] are renewed, and may be put in force as soon as the Roman hierarchy shall feel itself strong enough to do so. In the meantime, another engine is employed against the hapless Valdenses. The rich order of St Maurice and St Lazarus has contributed 238,617 francs, (L.9544) and an income of 17,000 francs (L.680) a-year, towards the establishment of a fraternity of missionary priests at La Tour, whose business it will be to make proselytes from among the descendants of a race which has never yet swerved from its faith, but which will now be exposed more than ever, to the threats and artifices of an adversary who knows well how to turn opportunities to advantage.

The Protestants of England have not been inattentive to the condition of their brethren in the valleys of Piedmont. Public collections have on several occasions been made throughout the kingdom; and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts is the trustee of considerable funds raised in their behalf. A committee in London, consisting of the archbishop of Canterbury, several bishops, and other persons of distinction, has also been employing contributions in aid of the clergy, hospitals, and schools of the Valdenses, and watching over their interests since the year 1825.

The difficulties with which the Valdenses have now to contend are, poverty, and reduced numbers, being confined to limits which do not produce subsistence for more than a very limited population. They also labour under the disadvantage of having to learn three languages before they can receive competent instruction. Their national language is Italian; their vernacular tongue is a provincial dialect, peculiar to their district; and the language of instruction is French, because in that only they can obtain books of devotion used by Protestants.

If the government of Great Britain should cease to exercise its good offices at the court of Turin, in behalf of the Protestants of Piedmont; or, if the people of Great Britain should become indifferent to the moral and spiritual wants of this impoverished community, the religious liberties of the Valdenses will be no more, and the lamp of this little mountain-church will be extinguished for ever.

Since this article went to press, some additional information on the sacred literature and religious prospects of this interesting community has transpired. Their liberties have been further threatened by three intimations, which strike at the very root of their Christian privileges. The first is an article of the code promulgated at Turin, which forbids the printing of manuscripts, for their use, in other countries, unless they shall have previously passed the censorship at Turin. This will have the effect of cutting off the future supply of religious books and tracts, because the board of censors is composed entirely of Roman Catholics. The second is an order published in the Turin Gazette of 27th December 1840, to this effect :—“By decree of the holy congregation of Rome, the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, translated into the Piedmontese language, is condemned and prohibited.” This prohibition, made at the instigation of Rome, appears seven years after the book had passed the censorship, and had been introduced by legal permission into the Protestant valleys of Piedmont. The third is a message sent to the Valdensian moderator, by the president of revision at Turin, demanding by what authority the College of the Holy Trinity at La Tour has a library of books !!

The other intelligence is of a more pleasing nature, viz. the existence of three copies of the ancient Valdensian version of the New Testament. It was feared that all the manuscripts of this valuable and vernacular translation had perished, but some recent inquiries made by the Rev. Dr. Gilly have led to the announcement that three at least remain. In the public library of Grenoble, the Codex No. 488, is a relic of the thirteenth century. It is a manuscript on vellum, a small 4to, containing, in the following order, the four Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul, St. James, St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude, the Acts of the Apostles, the Apocalypse, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and the Song of Solomon; all in the Piedmontano-Provenyal dialect of the Valdenses.

In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, a transcript of the same version, on parchment, is preserved, which is said to have been written in 1522. In the public library of Zürich, there is also to be seen a copy of an ancient Valdensian translation of the New Testament, which differs in some degree from the two above-mentioned, but is believed to have been written between the years 1350 and 1400. This manuscript is thus described:—“Codex MS. Novi Testamenti Valdensis, C. 169 / 706 chartaeus, saxuli xiv. formae 12. nunc constans foliis DIII.” (d.p. )