Notwithstanding that the Vaudois have been established in some of the places I have stated above, from time immemorial, and have had great possessions in others: they are now entirely confined within the three valleys mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, and there exists an edict rendering them incapable of purchasing beyond these limits. It is to be hoped that their fidelity and attachment to their sovereign, will be rewarded by a restoration to the rights which his other subjects enjoy, and that the goodness of the reigning prince, will lead him to consider it a duty, to reinstate them as soon as circumstances permit, in the full possession of those privileges which the claims of nature and society so loudly demand.
The population of the three valleys may amount to 16,000 or 17,000 souls,* which would give about 3000 for the number capable of bearing arms; it does not appear, however, that in the various persecutions our ancestors had ever more than 1500 men in the field, the rest being necessary for the defence of their own territory. By these feeble means has the God of armies effected the wonderful events which I am about to relate; and so extraordinary are they, that they might well appear incredible, did not the most authentic proofs exist of them.
* Vide population in 1820, about 22,000.
CHAPTER II. NAME OF THE VAUDOIS
As to the name of the Vaudois, it might be sufficient to answer from the authority of that judicious critic, Theodore* Bèze,** and Coug-nard,*** advocate of the parliament of Normandy. That the Vaudois have received their name from the valleys they inhabit. The names of Waldense or Valdense in Italian, and Valdensis in Latin, are thus derived from the same root, vale, valle, and vallis, a valley, as Vaudois is derived from vaux, the word for valley, in their ancient patois.****
* Beza, the editor of the famous bible of Geneva, and friend
of Milton.
** Portraites des hommes illustres, p. 985.
*** Traite touchant la Papesse Jeanne, p. 8.
**** The Vaudois language seems as ancient at least as the
Provençal, and very similar: it would be interesting to
trace their origins and distinctions. Vide French work on
the Provençal poets and troubadours, and Sismondis languages
du midi de l'Europe.
In the same way the inhabitants of the plain of the Po are called Piemontese or Piedmontese, Pedemontani, and those of the mountains, generally Montagnards. This word Vaudois, which they first acquired from their geographical situation, they have preserved as a token of their religion in all countries, as the Vaudois of Provence, and of Bohemia, and the Walloons of the Low Countries. Since the Reformation the names of Lutheran, Calvinist, and Reformed, have served to distinguish all those who rejected the papal doctrines, and the inhabitants of our valleys, the only people who have never been affected by these opinions, have alone retained their original name of Vaudois. I must, however, observe, that it is against their own wish that they have ever received it; the name of Christian was too precious in their eyes to have been willingly, on their part, exchanged for any other. As we find in the letter which they addressed to OEladislaus, king of Bohemia, they style themselves "the little flock of Christians, falsely called Vaudois." It has been pretended and even by those who have written our history, such as Perrin, and Gilles, that the name is derived from Peter Valdo, which can by no means be the case, as it is allowed on all hands, that this famous reformer of Lyons was not known before 1175, while we have ancient MSS. in the Vaudois language, dated 1120, and 1100, in the former of which are stated the differences between their church and that of Rome, and in the latter the word Vaudois is used as synonymous with virtuous Christian.
In the MS. dated 1100, and entitled La Noble Leiçon, (of which there exist two original copies, in ancient Gothic letters, one at Cambridge, and the other at Geneva,) is this passage.
Que sel se troba alcun bon que vollia amar
Dio et temar Jesu Krist
Que non vollia maudire, ni jura, ni mentir,
Ni avoutrar, ni ancire, ni peure de l'autry
Ni venjarse de li sio ennemie *
Illi dison quel es Vaudes e degne de morir.
* Ennemio murir, another reading.