THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS: A History of the PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES ALDENSES. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE REV. DR. ALEXIS MUSTON, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
LA PEROSA
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS: A HISTORY OF THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES ALDENSES. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE REV.. DR. ALEXIS MUSTON. With numerous Engravings. Stoke-on-Trent 2003
Tentmaker Publications 121 Hartshill Road Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire ST4 7LU U.K. www.tentmaker.org.uk Originally published by Ingram, Cooke, & Co., 227, Strand, London, 1852 Retypeset and published 2003
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold: E en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worship d stocks and stones, Forget not; in thy book record their groans, Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll d Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyr d blood and ashes sow O er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple tyrant; that from these may grow An hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way, Early may fly the Babylonian woe! MILTON.
INTRODUCTION. AMONG the wildest and most secluded of those Alpine fastnesses which lie between the Clusone and the Pelice, two mountain torrents that fall into the river Po, there is a small community of hardy and resolute men, who have continued to maintain their religious independence against the supremacy of the Romish church for more than a thousand years. Subjects of the present king of Sardinia, and of the ancient dukes of Piedmont and Savoy, and inhabitants of that part of Pinerolo (Pignerol) which is nearest to the frontiers of France, they do not entirely assimilate either with the Italians or the French, in manners, customs, religion, or language. Their situation in the heart of the valleys which extend along the eastern foot of the Cottian Alps, between Monte Viso and the Col de Sestrières, first gave them the name of Vallenses, Waldenses, or Vaudois; a name which has since been employed to distinguish them as a primitive and episcopal church. It is to the history of this, in every respect so interesting people, whose doctrines assimilate so nearly with those of the church of England, and of whom it may be justly affirmed that they led the way in our emancipation from papal thraldom, that this volume is dedicated. The materials, as the title-page indicates, are derived almost entirely from the history compiled by Dr. Alexis Muston; but many important particulars have been introduced from that Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont, by which Dr. Gilly, more than a quarter of a century since, aroused the sympathy, first of the English, and then of the European protestant peoples, in behalf of the then deeply distressed Vaudois. I have also, by the kindness of Dr. Gilly, been permitted to adopt the illustrations which add so much interest to the present volume. London, August, 1852. vi WILLIAM HAZLITT.
CONTENTS. PART THE FIRST. CHAPTER PAGE I. ORIGIN, MANNERS, DOCTRINE, AND ORGANIZATION OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH IN ANCIENT TIMES... 11 II. FIRST PERSECUTION YOLANDE AND CATANEO... 20 III. HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF THE VAL-LOUISE, FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THEIR EXTINCTION... 26 IV. HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF BARCELONNETTE, QUEYRAS, AND FRAYSSINIERES... 34 V. H ISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PROVENCE, MERINDOL, AND CABRIERE... 41 VI. THE VAUDOIS IN CALABRIA... 53 VII. INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS THE SYNOD AND THE BIBLE... 60 VIII. HISTORY OF VARIOUS MARTYRS... 63 IX. HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF PAESANO, PRAVIGLELMO, AND SALUZZO... 67 X. HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS AND EXTINCTION OF THE REFORMATION AT CONIO AND IN THE PLAIN OF PIEDMONT... 70 XI. HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES OF CARAGLI, CHIERI, AND DRONIER... 73 XII. THE CHRISTIANS OF BUBIANA, LUZERNA, CAMPIGLONE, AND FENILE... 77 XIII. REVIVAL OF THE CHURCHES OF SALUZZO, AND THEIR FRESH VICISSITUDES... 81 XIV. & XV. THE SECOND GENERAL PERSECUTION OF THE VAUDOIS OF THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT... 88 XVI. CASTROCARO, GOVERNOR OF THE VALLEYS... 119 vii
8 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVII. CONDITION OF THE VAUDOIS DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES-EMANUEL-THE BANDITI... 127 XVIII. THE PLAGUE AND THE MONKS... 141 XIX. MORE MARTYRS... 146 XX. THE PROPAGANDA... 157 XXI. THE MASSACRES OF 1655... 165 XVII. GIANAVELLO AND GIAHERI... 180 XXIII. END OF THE STRUGGLE, NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCESSIONS... 201 XXIV. INFRACTIONS OF THE TREATY OF PINEROLO... 209 XXV. THE WAR OF THE EXILES... 219 XXVI. MEDIATION OF SWITZERLAND. TREACHERY OF SAN DAMIANO. CONFERENCES IN THE HOTEL-DE-VILLE, AT TURIN. ARBITRATION OF LOUIS XIV.... 226 XXVII. EXILE OF GIANAVELLO. REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. COMMENCEMENT OF THE FOURTH PERSECUTION... 233 XXVIII.MASSACRES IN THE VALLEYS... 243 XXIX. THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF THE VAUDOIS UNDER ARNAUD... 254 XXX. PROTEST OF THE COURT OF ROME AGAINST THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VAUDOIS. RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. FRESH EDICT OF EXPULSION... 267 XXXI. THE VAUDOIS IN WURTEMBERG... 272 XXXII. THE VAUDOIS COLONIES IN HESSE D ARMSTADT, AND OTHER PARTS OF GERMANY... 281 PART THE SECOND. XXXIII.HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS OF PRAGELA, AND OF THE ADJACENT VALLEYS.... 285 XXXIV. HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS FROM THE EXPULSION OF 1698 TO THAT OF 1730... 314
CONTENTS 9 CHAPTER XXXV. INFLUENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE EIGHTEENTH PAGE CENTURY ON THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. COURSE OF EVENTS UNTIL THE FRENCH REVOLUTION... 327 XXXVI. THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS DURING THE WARS IN ITALY, AFTER THE FRENCH REVOLUTION... 332 XXXVII.STATE OF THE VAUDOIS UNDER THE FRENCH DOMINATION... 343 XXXVIII.STATE OF THE VAUDOIS UNDER THE RESTORATION... 346 XXXIX. RELIGIOUS REVIVAL, AND FOUNDATION OF VARIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS... 350 XL. CIVIL AND POLITICAL EMANCIPATION OF THE VAUDOIS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES-ALBERT... 354 APPENDIX... 359 ILLUSTRATIONS. LA PEROSA... FRONTISPIECE THE WALDENSES IN ARMS... VIGNETTE IN TITLE. MAP OF THE COUNTRY OF THE WALDENSES...10 ASSEMBLY OF ARMED WALDENSES...39 PASS OF THE PRA DEL TOR...97 ENTRANCE INTO LA TORRE... 107 CHURCH AT BOBBIO... 119 PRALI VALLEY OF ST. MARTIN... 147 SCENE IN THE VALLEY OF LUZERNA... 174 BRIDGE OF VILLAR... 179 CAVERN OF CASTELLUZZO... 249 PIGNEROL MONTE VISO... 355
MAP OF THE COUNTRY OF THE WALDENSES.
THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS. PART THE FIRST. HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES, FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE EPOCH WHEN THEY WERE CIRCUMSCRIBED WITHIN THE VALLEY OF PIEDMONT. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN, MANNERS, DOCTRINE, AND ORGANIZATION OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH IN ANCIENT TIMES. 290 A.D. 1209 A.D. HE VAUDOIS (Waldenses) 1 of the Alps, are, in our view, primitive christians, or inheritors of the primitive church, who have been preserved in these valleys from the alterations successively introduced by the church of Rome into the evangelical worship. It is not they who separated from catholicism, but catholicism which separated from them, in modifying the primitive worship. Hence the impossibility of assigning a precise date to their origin. The church of Rome, which, in its commencement, also formed part of the primitive church, did not modify itself all at once; but, as it became powerful, it assumed, together with the sceptre of rule, the display, the pride, and the spirit of domination which ordinarily accompany power; whilst, 1 Vaudois, in its original signification, merely implied christians of the valleys, and no particular sect. By the papists it was converted into a term of general reproach, synonymous with all that is bad misbeliever, sorcerer. Joan of Arc was condemned as a Vaudoise. 11