The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys

by J. N. Worsfold

FOOTNOTES:

[E] A modern traveller thus graphically describes the place as he saw it in 1854:—"And now came in view the glorious Balsille, springing from the bed of the Germanasca, and its successive wooded aiguilles rising like pinnacles up the steep roof of a Gothic cathedral.... Around it gape fearful ravines, each with its headlong torrent, separating it from the grand heights of the d'Albergian on the north, and the mount Guignivert on the south; whilst it is attached to the summit of the Col du Pis on the west. The peaks of Balsille are fringed with pines, but the rocks themselves are so pointed and broken that they resemble tops of pines on a Titan scale. There are four principal peaks, and so the mountain has been named Quatre Dents." The term château, or castle, used in this narrative was applied to a kind of grassy platform at the top.

CHAPTER XI.

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.

CHAPTER XII.

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 ái 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.