* Annales de Bourgogne, par Guillaume Paradin, Lyons, 1566.
But we may well despise this slander, and consider what has been the cause of their real purity of manners. The ecclesiastical discipline, which has always been in great vigour, may be assigned as the cause, as it has induced the continual study of, and meditation upon the sacred writings. And here I must be pardoned another extract from an ancient author. "All the people," says he, "of either sex, and of whatever age, cease not to learn and teach; the labourer at his daily task either teaches his comrade or learns of him, and the evening is spent in the same instructions, even without books. He that has learnt for one week teaches others for the next, and if any one excuses himself from want of memory, he is told that even one word every day will amount to many sentences at the end of a year, which in many years will form a fund of knowledge." "I have heard with my own ears," says this author, "one of these poor peasants repeat the whole book of Job by heart, without missing one word; and there are others who have the whole of the New Testament at their fingers' ends. Do any of them lead an evil life? they are sharply rebuked, according to their discipline, and told the Apostles lived not thus, nor must we who imitate them." Reynerus Sacco again confirms this by saying, "The Vaudois know the whole of the New Testament by heart, and much of the Old, (in their own language,) nor will they hear any thing else," saying, "that all sermons which are not proved by the Scriptures are unworthy of belief."
This then has been the foundation of Vaudois morality, they knew no other rule of faith than the Gospel, and, as far as possible, adapted their sentiments and conduct to it. The sacred duty of an historian compels me to allow, that the effects of human frailty have sometimes shown themselves among them. Leger, who wrote more than a century ago, thus allows also, that "the Vaudois, his cotemporaries, no longer possessed that great sanctity and detachment from the world which distinguished their ancestors. But I must add," he continues, "that, compared with other reformed nations, there is none which surpass them in zeal for the word of God and constancy to their faith, at the peril of their lives and fortunes; as well as in simplicity, innocence, sobriety, and industry. For they abstain from cards, dice, gambling, and swearing, and have a horror of drunkenness, and even of dancing. So that if any one falls into a vicious life, he is esteemed infamous. Law-suits have been from time immemorial unknown among them; but, according to Thuanus, the first took place in the 16th century, owing to the litigious disposition of a young man, who had gained a smattering of law at the college of Turin, and sued his neighbour for having suffered some goats to browse among his cabbages."
However much it may cost me to avow it, I must in my turn allow that the Vaudois have degenerated since the days of Leger; law-suits are beginning to become common among them, and luxury and card playing are insensibly introduced; nay, there are even some families who live without labour, a thing formerly unknown.* The zeal for religion has also cooled in those parishes adjoining Piémont. But these blots in the morals of my compatriots are perhaps inevitable to human weakness, which cannot approach perfection: perhaps, too, we are carried away by the common mania of believing our ancestors ever better than ourselves. I remark this both for Leger and myself.
* Qui vivent dans l'oisiveté, et donnent parla un exemple
pernicieux.—Perhaps this is translated in too favourable a
sense.
What we can loudly proclaim is, that still in all Europe there does not exist a people of such good faith, simplicity, frankness, and kind-heartedness, as the Vaudois of the present day. They preserve a respect for religion, a love for their duties, and a purity of opinions and morals which may in vain be sought for among other nations called Christian; and these virtues are joined to so much modesty, that they appear perfectly natural, and never ostentatious. What a touching and sublime spectacle do these people present to every kind heart and good understanding which contemplates them! They are good husbands, good fathers, kind friends, and good citizens, and have always, even in the midst of their persecutions, shown the greatest fidelity to their princes. Nay, even have, after an interval of a few days only, turned in their defence those arms which they had used against them, in the preservation of their lives and religion.
During the long course of persecutions they have sustained, notwithstanding the perfidy with which they were treated, and the horrible tortures which they underwent, they have never given way to vengeance, and have contented themselves with repelling force by force. So that no instance is to be found, in their history, of a defenceless enemy having been ill used, or of their having violated their promises, even while treated with systematic perfidy. Nor have they ever shed blood, except when their absolute safety obliged them. If so many virtues, so many good qualities, are sometimes mingled with weaknesses, we must attribute it to the imperfection of human nature; observing that it is only some individuals who are worthy of reproach, and that the mass of society is (humanly speaking) irreproachable. It would, perhaps, be possible to clear off these faint stains, if the ancient ecclesiastical discipline was again enforced; and it is in aid of this object that we have consecrated the next chapter to its description. Happy, thrice happy should I be, if this, or any part of my work, should tend to draw any of my countrymen (still more than at present) into the path of life. If this whole people, by drawing daily nearer to the Eternal One, should ever render themselves worthy to have it said of them—"This is the patience of the faithful, behold them who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."
Note.—Having had the opinion of my friends, the commissioners of the Walloon Synod, upon my MS. and this having been thought too bright a picture of the Vaudois morals by one of those gentlemen who had never visited the valleys, I thus replied to one of them:—"I am not surprised that my picture of the manners of my countrymen should appear to you too highly coloured. But if you had lived some years among these excellent people, as I have done, and then in a country where the corruption of manners is as great as it is here, and in the towns in Switzerland, you would not think so. For, although we may be degenerated from the purity of our ancestors, I protest to you, that it is only those parishes immediately adjoining to Piémont which have incurred this reproach. In all the rest, their kindness of heart, frankness, benevolence, and zeal for religion, would enchant you. I have more than once visited all the parishes, and have resided in most of them, being acquainted with a great many of their inhabitants; and, by all this experience, I am confirmed in the belief that there does not exist, in our days, a people in morals so pure, life so irreproachable, and piety so exemplary, as the Vaudois."*
* The author's sister is still living in the valleys, and is
the wife of one of the most exemplary pastors.—T.