In the beginning of the 14th century (somewhere about the year 1308), the inquisitors having entered the valley of Angrogna, where already synods of 500 delegates were sometimes held,[2] the Vaudois repelled them by force of arms.[3] It is even alleged that the Catholic prior of the place lost his life in this collision.[4] Few details of these events have been preserved, and they do not seem to have been productive of any very important consequences.
It was a foreigner, a female, the sister of Louis XI, who first signalized herself by exciting bloody persecutions against the Vaudois; from which glory and martyrdom equally resulted to them. Her name was Yolande, and she had become the wife of Amadeus IX, one of the mildest and most charitable of those dukes of Savoy whose names are an honour to their dynasty. She was left a widow in 1472, and named regent of his dominions. After this we find her called Violante, perhaps in consequence of an alteration of orthography occurring in the public documents of the time, or perhaps in allusion to her cruel and vindictive character.
On the 23d of January, 1476, without having previously found any fault with the Vaudois, without having expressed any displeasure against any of their proceedings, without alleging for her severities any reason but their religious belief she commanded the Seigneurs of Pignerol and Cavour to bring them back, by whatever means, to the pale of the Romish Church. The Vaudois demanded that that church itself should be brought back to the gospel the duchess convoked her great vassals to consult with them as to the means of reducing to silence these hardy Protestants, if we may employ the term a century before the Reformation. But she had not time to give effect to her designs, for very soon after she was forcibly carried off, by order of the Duke of Burgundy, who was at war with Louis XI, and who feared that she would give some assistance to the French king.
The Vaudois, however, had refused to abjure their evangelical heresy, and Charles I, the second son of Yolande, having mounted the throne, gave orders that an investigation should be made concerning this resistance (A.D. 1485). The result of this investigation was laid before the Holy See in 1486, and exposed, for the first time, in an official manner, the wide difference which the lapse of ages had produced betwixt the Vaudois, always faithful to the primitive religion, and the Romish Church, which had gradually become more and more degenerate.
In the following year Innocent VIII fulminated against them a bull of extermination, by which he enjoined all temporal powers to take arms for their destruction. He summoned all Catholics to a crusade against them, "absolving beforehand all who should take part in this crusade from all ecclesiastical penalties, general or special, setting them free from the obligation of vows which they might have made, legitimating their possession of goods which they might have wrongfully acquired, and concluding with a promise of the remission of all sins to everyone who should slay a heretic. Moreover, he annulled all contracts subscribed in favour of the Vaudois, commanded their domestics to abandon them, forbade any one to give them any assistance, and authorized all and sundry to seize upon their goods."[5]
Forthwith some thousands of volunteers, persons ambitious of distinction, vagabonds, fanatics, men without lawful employment, needy adventurers, plunderers of every description, and pitiless robbers and assassins, assembled from all parts of Italy to execute the behests of the pretended successor of St. Peter. This horde of depredators and brigands, an army worthy of a pontiff whose own life was scandalous,[6] marched upon the valleys, in company with 18,000 regular troops, jointly furnished by the king of France and the sovereign of Piedmont.
And of what extraordinary crimes, then, could this pontiff have regarded the unhappy Vaudois as guilty? He lays no crime to their charge; he acknowledges, on the contrary, in his bull of extermination, that their principal means of seduction was their great appearance of sanctity. To massacre Christians because their good conduct attracted the esteem and sympathy of their neighbours! it could only have been thought of by that haughty and merciless power which they themselves already ventured to call Antichrist. But how could a people so few and so feeble resist such formidable forces as now came to assail them? At the very commencement of their history, the Vaudois seem on the point of being crushed and annihilated for ever. And so they would have been, if the hand of God had not undertaken their defence. It was He whose breath filled the ranks of their enemies with infatuation, and the hearts of his children with courage.
The papal legate commissioned to watch over the execution of these sanguinary orders, was an archdeacon of Cremona, named Albert Cattanée, generally called De Capitaneis. He fixed his head-quarters at Pignerol, in the convent of Saint Lawrence, and sent preaching monks to attempt the conversion of the Vaudois before attacking them with arms. These missionaries were utterly unsuccessful. He then proceeded in person to the valleys. The inhabitants sent two deputies[7] to him, who addressed him in these terms: "Do not condemn us unheard, for we are Christians and loyal subjects; and our Barbas are ready to prove, either in public or in private, that our doctrines are agreeable to the word of God, for which reason they ought rather to be held worthy of praise than of blame. It is true that we have not thought fit to follow the transgressors of the evangelical law, who have long ago departed from the tradition of the apostles; we have not thought fit to conform ourselves to their corrupt precepts, nor to recognize any other authority than that of the Bible; but we find our happiness in a life of simplicity and purity, by which alone the Christian faith strikes its roots deep, and spreads out its branches. We condemn the love of wealth and the thirst of power with which we see our persecutors consumed; and our hope in God is stronger than our desire to please men. Take heed that you draw not his wrath upon yourselves by persecuting us, and be assured that, if God wills it. All the forces which you have assembled against us will avail you nothing." This holy confidence did not deceive them. God willed it, and that army of invaders vanished from around the Vaudois mountains like the rain that has fallen on the sands of the desert.
The inhabitants concentrated themselves on the most inaccessible points; the enemy, on the contrary, were spread out over the plain, and whether from incapacity for strategy, or from his pride moving him to make a grand display of his military force, Cattanée thought proper to commence an attack upon all points at once; so that from the village of Biolets, situated in the marquisate of Saluces, to that of Sezanne, which belonged to Dauphiny, his lines, without any depth, occupied all the country. He proposed to destroy by a single effort the hydra of heresy. By a single effort his own forces were shattered; for his lines, weakened by the way in which they were extended, were everywhere broken, his battalions driven back in precipitate flight, and assailed in rear by those whom they had come to assail.
The weapons employed in this combat were only pikes, swords, and bows. The Vaudois had hastily made for themselves great bucklers, and even cuirasses, of the skins of beasts, covered again with the thick bark of chestnut-trees, in which the arrows of the enemy stuck without doing them any harm. These arrows, coming with reduced force by reason of the distance, and because they were shot from a lower towards a higher ground, penetrated into the bark without having power to pass through it; the Vaudois, on the contrary, skilful energetic, and, above all, full of confidence in God, and better posted for defence, shot down from above with an advantage which gave them the victory.
There was, however, one post where, notwithstanding the vigour of their defences, the enemy seemed on the point of forcing a passage. It was the central point of this great line of operations on the heights of St. John, where they abut upon the mountains of Angrogna, at a place called Rochemanant. The crusaders had invaded this quarter from beneath, mounting step by step, and closing their ranks around that natural bulwark behind which the Vaudois had sheltered their families. Seeing their defenders yield, these families threw themselves upon their knees with many tears; women, and children, and old men united together in fervently crying, "O Dio aijutaci! O Lord, help us! O my God, save us!" This cry of prayer was the only cry which broke from their hearts m their distress, and arose to heaven. But their enemies laughed at it, and seeing this company upon their knees, hastened their advance. "My fellows are coming--they are coming to give you your answer," exclaimed one of their chiefs, surnamed the Black of Mondovi, because of his swarthy complexion; and immediately, joining bravado to insult, he raised the visor of his helmet, to show that he was not afraid to encounter the poor people whom he insulted. But at that moment a steel-pointed arrow, let fly by a young man of Angrogna, named Peter Revel, struck this new Goliath with such violence, that it penetrated into his skull, between his eyes, and laid him dead. His troop, struck with terror, fell back in disorder; a panic seized them; the Vaudois took advantage of the moment, and impetuously rushed forward, hurling their adversaries before them, and, eagerly continuing the pursuit, swept them into the very plain, where they left them vanquished and dispersed. Then, re-ascending to their families so miraculously delivered, they likewise flung themselves upon their knees, and all together gave thanks to the God of armies for the victory which they had just gained.
"O Dieu de mon salut, Dieu de ma délivrance!"
[O God of my salvation, God of my deliverance] might they have sung, if that beautiful hymn had then been composed. But they had all its sentiments in their hearts. It is trust in God which is the real strength of man; the humble Israel of the Alps was then invincible, like the people of Moses under the command of Joshua.
A new attempt was made next day to seize on that formidable post, where the strength of victory from on high seemed seated with these heroic mountaineers. The enemy took a different route; ascending by the bottom of the valley of Angrogna, in order to penetrate to the Pra du Tour, whence, mounting by La Vachera, they would have been masters of the whole region. But a dense and dangerous mist, such as sometimes unexpectedly appears in the Alps, settled down upon them just at the very moment when they were entangled in the paths most full of difficulty and of peril. Ignorant of the locality, marching apprehensively, uncertain of the route which they ought to take, and notable to advance except singly, over rocks, upon the brink of precipices, they gave way before the first assault of the Vaudois, and not being able to range themselves in order of battle, they were easily defeated. The first who were repulsed fell back precipitately, overthrowing those who were next to them; the confusion spread further and further; disorder reigned everywhere; the retreat became a flight, the flight a catastrophe, for those who attempted to retrace their course slid over the humid rocks, of which the edge was concealed by the mists. Others, again, thinking to find in these sinuosities a way of escape, precipitated themselves into the chasms in which the former had already perished. Very few succeeded in making their escape; the greater part losing their way in the depths of the ravines, or on the crests of the rocks.
This decisive defeat, which is to be ascribed to the will of God rather than to the arms of the Vaudois accomplished the deliverance of that valley, in which the troops of Cattanée never appeared again. The detachment which was destroyed in so complete and unexpected a manner, was the last which showed itself upon the banks of the Angrogna before the period of the Reformation. The captain who commanded it was called Saguet de Planghère, and the chasm into which he fell is called to this day, after the lapse of four centuries, the Toumpi de Saguet--Saguet's hole.
On the mountain of Roderi, in the valley of Pragela, the Vaudois, says Cattanée, favoured by the nature of the grounds, put the crusaders to flight, by rolling down upon them avalanches of rock; after which they descended, attacked them in close combat, and prolonged the battle until evening. A few, however, were made prisoners, and conducted to Mentoules, to be subjected to the ceremonies of a vain abjuration.
The legate charged with the commission of extermination next proceeded to Dauphiny, to the valley called the Val Louise, of which we shall presently speak; but, before concluding this chapter, it remains to be told that one battalion of the enemy, seven hundred strong, having come from that valley to the valley of St. Martin, by the Col d'Abriès was observed above Pral, directing its course towards the village of Pommiers. Thither the Vaudois repaired to wait for it. The soldiers, inflamed with pride by the massacre which they had just perpetrated in Dauphiny, entered the hamlet in disorder, dreaming only of pillage, and supposing themselves already victors. But, being suddenly attacked on all sides, they were unable to make any defence, and were all slain or put to flight. Those who escaped in the first instance, perished, ere long, amongst these unknown mountains, everywhere occupied by courageous defenders. The bearer of the colours concealed himself alone in a ravine, where he remained two days; after which, cold and hunger compelled him to come out, and to seek an asylum from the Vaudois, who supplied him with all that he required, showing that generous forgetfulness of offences, with which Christ inspires his faithful servants. Having recovered strength, he rejoined the army to which he belonged, and was able to inform them of the total defeat of his companions. Thus was this army dissipated, which, to a people so few in number, was really formidable. But it was to them that it was said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," (Luke 12:32) and, as they themselves said, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
After these expeditions, productive neither of advantage nor of glory, the Duke of Savoy withdrew his troops--dismissed, the legate, upon the pretext that his mission was terminated--and sent a bishop amongst the Vaudois in order to bring them to take the first steps with the view of obtaining a peace, of which the assurance was held out to them. The interview of this envoy with the evangelical Christians of the Alps, took place at the hamlet of Prasuyt, situated on the confines of the communes of Angrogna and St. John. It was resolved that the Vaudois should send a representative of each of their churches to their prince, who was to come to Pignerol to receive them. It was during the conferences there held, that this prince asked to see some of their children, that he might satisfy himself by personal observation, whether they were really born with black throats, rough teeth, and goats feet, as the Catholics pretended. "Is it possible," said he, when he; saw a number of them with his own eyes, "that these are the children of heretics? What charming creatures they are! they are by far the prettiest children I ever saw." Thus was overthrown a ridiculous prejudice, but which could not fail to be powerful in an age so little enlightened as to admit of its finding its way even to the mind of a prince.
Superstition, obscuring the moral and religious perceptions, casts its shadows equally over all the regions of human intelligence; as, on the other hand, also, the light of the gospel enlightening the soul which is opened to receive it, elevates, augments, and purifies all the powers of the mind. Of this, the Vaudois themselves are a proof, for they had taken their place, three centuries before these events, at the head of modern literature, having been the first to write in the vulgar tongue. That which they then used was the Romance language, for all the early remains of which we are indebted to the Vaudois. It was from this language that the French and Italian were formed. The religious poems of the Vaudois still continue to be the most perfect compositions belonging to that period; and they are also those in which the rays of the gospel shine with the greatest brightness.
Thus--whilst the colossal shadow of the Roman empire, when its sun was sinking, and the no less dreadful shadow of the pontificate, whose ambition succeeded to that of the empire, still covered Italy-- the summits of the Alps were already brightened with a new dawn, which the Reformation was afterwards to extend over the whole world. It is not because the Vaudois were the precursors of the Reformation that we connect them with the primitive church, but because they were primitive Christians, and pioneered the way for the Reformation. Their past history illustrates what the gospel teaches all to expect; but none will have sorer trials to endure than those of the martyr people, whose glory, like that of Christ, is derived from sufferings, wrongs, and abasement.
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