The Waldensian valleys are very beautiful, are drained by splendid trout-streams, and possess a rich variety of rare plants.
The chief town, Torre-Pèllice (formerly called Torre-Luserna) is 34¼ miles S.W. from Turin by rail, passing by Pinerolo, 23½ m. S.W. from Turin, and 10¾ m. N.E. from Torre-Pèllice. From Pinerolo a steam tram runs 12 m. N.W. up the valley of the Chisone to Perosa, the second Waldensian town in importance. Time, 1 hr. 30 min. The tram station is near the railway station.
Pinerolo is connected with Saluzzo by steam tram, 2 hrs. 20 min. S., 2 frs. 15 c. and 1 fr. 55 c., passing Osasco and Cavour. This tram station is at some distance from the Pinerolo railway station.
The [Italian steam trams] run on single lines laid on one side only of the highroads. Some towns they traverse, while others they merely skirt. They afford excellent opportunities for seeing the country, but run neither so quickly nor so smoothly as the railway trains.
Rail between Cuneo and Mondoví, 11½ m. E. and 58 m. S. by rail from Turin. Mondoví, pop. 17,000, on the Ellero; Inn: Tré Limoni d’Oro. On one side of the Ellero is the railway station, and on the other are the inn and town, built on the lower slopes of a wooded hill rising from the river. The Via San Agostino contains the best shops. On the top of the hill is another town nearly as large as [Mondoví] (see p. 184).
The country of the Italian Waldenses consists of parts of the valleys of Pèllice, San Martino, and Perosa or Chisone, is about 20 m. long from W. to E. by 13 broad, is divided into 15 parishes, exclusive of the isolated parish of Turin, and contains a population of about 25,000. They have besides a thriving colony in Uruguay. Till Cavour in 1848 procured for Italy civil and religious liberty, the Waldenses were confined by law to their valleys; now, however, they have spread themselves over the best parts of Italy, while many emigrate every year to the United States and to Uruguay. Of late mills and manufactories have been established on their rivers, which has caused a large influx of Piedmontese workmen, so that many Waldensian towns and villages which up to 1848 were inhabited almost exclusively by Protestants have now a larger population of Romanists.
These valleys are very fertile, bearing luxuriant crops of maize, wheat, barley, potatoes, French beans, etc., intersected by long rows
of vines on high trelliswork, and studded with mulberry, apricot, peach, apple, pear, and cherry trees, while at the base of the densely-wooded mountains which enclose them are walnut and chestnut trees. The only high mountain in the territory is Monte Meidassa, 10,185 ft., between the valleys of the Pèllice and the Po, which river has its source 6625 ft. above the sea among the snowy summits of Monte Viso, 12,607 ft., a short way south from Monte Meidassa by either the Col dell’ Agnello or the Col Traversette, 9680 ft.
[ Waldensian Doctrines and Persecutions.]
The Vaudois inhabited originally not only the valleys on the E. side of the Alps but also those of Louise, Embrun, and Barcelonnette on the French side ([pp. 344, 345]), and, as there was constant communication between them, French became the common language, as it is still in a great measure. They consider themselves a part of the Apostolic Church, which by its isolated position in the then almost inaccessible ravines had escaped the early innovations introduced by the church of Rome; albeit not altogether, for they admitted confession by contrite prayer to God and the mention aloud of their sins to a priest, the power of priests to bind and to loose, that sins were of two classes, mortal and venial, and the efficacy of fasts and penance. At the Reformation all these were swept away, and the doctrines and church polity of Calvin adopted. The independent church of the Waldenses, or valley-people, existed about a century before the arrival of Pierre Valdo from Lyons in 1180. Their name is supposed to be derived from “valle densa,” contracted into Vallenses, Valdenses, and finally Vaudois. The first serious persecution of the Italian Vaudois was begun at the instigation of Yolande, sister of Louis XI and wife of Amadée IX., Duke of Savoy. By her representation Innocent VIII. in 1487 fulminated against the Waldenses a bull of extermination. Whoever killed any of these heretics were to be absolved from promises they had made, property wrongly obtained by them was to be rendered legal, and they were to have a complete remission of all their sins. Persecution among the French Vaudois commenced in the 13th cent.