[Footnote 1: These were the four districts of Angrogna, Villaro, Bobbio, and Rorata.—Siri, del Mercurio, overo Historia de' Correnti Tempi Firenze, 1682, tom. xv. p. 827.]
[Footnote 2: Gilles, Pastore de la Terre, p. 72, Geneve, 1644; and Rorengo,
Memorie Historiche, p. 8, 1649.]
[Footnote 3: The decree of Gastaldo is in Morland, History of the Evangelical Churches in the valleys of Piedmont, p. 303. The grounds of that decree are at p. 408, the objections to it at p. 423. See also Siri, xv. 827, 830; Chiesa, Corona Reale di Savoia, i. 150; Denina, iii. 324; Guichenon, iii. 139.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655 June 19.]
judgment of Gastaldo, but sent deputies to Turin, to remonstrate; in a few days a solemn fast was proclaimed; the ministers excommunicated every individual who should sell his lands in the disputed territory; the natives of the valleys under the dominion of the king of France met those of the valleys belonging to the duke of Savoy; both bound themselves by oath to stand by each other in their common defence; and messengers were despatched to solicit aid and advice from the church of Geneva and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland. The intelligence alarmed the Marquess of Pianeze, the chief minister of the duke; who, to suppress the nascent confederacy, marched from Turin with an armed force, reduced La Torre, into which the insurgents had thrown a garrison of six hundred men, and, having made an offer of pardon to all who should submit, ordered his troops to fix their quarters in Bobbio, Villaro, and the lower part of Angrogna. It had previously been promised[a] that they should be peaceably received; but the inhabitants had already retired to the mountains with their cattle and provisions; and the soldiers found no other accommodation than the bare walls. Quarrels soon followed between the parties; one act of offence was retaliated with another; and the desire of vengeance provoked a war of extermination. But the military were in general successful; and the natives found themselves compelled to flee to the summits of the loftiest mountains, or to seek refuge in the valleys of Dauphiné, among a people of similar habits and religion.[1]
[Footnote 1: Siri, xv. 827-833. It would be a difficult task to determine by whom, after the reduction of La Torre, the first blood was wantonly drawn, or to which party the blame of superior cruelty really belongs. The authorities on each side are interested, and therefore suspicious; the provocations alleged by the one are as warmly denied by the other; and to the ravages of the military in Angrogna and Lucerna, are opposed the massacres of the Catholics in Perousa and San Martino. In favour of the Vaudois may be consulted Leger, Histoire Générale des Eglises Evangéliques, &c. (he was a principal instigator of these troubles); Stouppe, Collection of the several papers sent to his highness, &c. London, 1655; Sabaudiensis in Reformatam Religionem Persecutionis Brevis Narratio, Londini, 1655; Morland, 326-384, and the papers in Thurloe, iii. 361, 384, 412, 416, 430, 444, 459, 538. Against them—A Short and Faithful Account of the late Commotions &c., with some reflections on Mr. Stouppe's Collected Papers, 1655; Morland, 387-404; Siri, xv. 827-843, and Thurloe, iii. 413, 464, 475, 490, 502, 535, 535, 617, 626, 656.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. April 7.]
Accounts of these transactions, but accounts teeming with exaggeration and improbabilities, were transmitted to the different Protestant states by the ministers at Geneva. They represented the duke of Savoy as a bigoted and intolerant prince; the Vaudois as an innocent race, whose only crime was their attachment to the reformed faith. They implored the Protestant powers to assume the defence of their persecuted brethren, and called for pecuniary contributions to save from destruction by famine the remnant which had escaped the edge of the sword.[1] In England the cause was advocated[a] by the press and from the pulpit; a solemn fast was kept, and the passions of the people were roused to enthusiasm. The ministers in a body waited on Cromwell to recommend the Vaudois to his protection; the armies in Scotland and Ireland presented addresses, expressive of their readiness to shed their blood in so sacred a cause; and all classes of men, from the highest to
[Footnote 1: The infidelity of these reports is acknowledged by Morland, the protector's agent, in a confidential letter to secretary Thurloe. "The greatest difficulty I meet with is in relation to the matter of fact in the beginning of these troubles, and during the time of the war. For I find, upon diligent search, that many papers and books which have been put out in print on this subject, even by some ministers of the valleys, are lame in many particulars, and in many things not conformable to truth."—Thurloe, iv. 417.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. May.]