(A.D. 1550 TO A.D. 1580.)
In the bottom of the basin and on the elevated level grounds of Paësane, and in the deep valleys of Cruzzol and Onzino, where the head-waters of the Po descend from Mount Visol, the Vaudois appear to have had their most ancient settlements in the province of Saluces. It has been alleged that their origin amongst these mountains was contemporaneous with that of the other Vaudois who inhabit the left bank of the Po. But Gilles informs us that the inhabitants of Praviglelm, Biolet, and Biétonnet, came from the valley of Lucerna. This emigration must be referred to a very remote date, since those who descended from it had peopled the marquisate of Saluces, and we find that the Vaudois were already there in the 13th century. We know, indeed, that the Vaudois of Provence issued from it; and in the confession of faith which they presented to Francis I, on the 6th of April, 1541, they refer their settlement in Provence to more than 200 years before that date.
The Vaudois of Saluces themselves, including those of the valleys of the Po, gave out that they and their fathers had existed in that country from time immemorial.[2] Perhaps it was this which gave rise to the opinion, which has recently been expressed, that the Vaudois of all other parts of Piedmont issued from these districts;[3] but Gilles positively affirms that those of Saluces themselves derived their origin from the valley of Lucerna.[4]
The marquisate of Saluces dates its existence from the 12th century. This tract of country was given as a dowry to Beatrix, grand-daughter of Adelaide of Suza, who enlarged the abbey of Pignerol, and in whose behalf the emperor, Henry the Aged, her son-in-law, erected the fiefs of the territory of Saluces into a marquisate. They remained, therefore, dependent, as secondary fiefs, upon the marche of Suza, and when the territory of Seuzie passed into the hands of the Counts of Savoy, these counts found themselves also the suzerains of the Marquises of Saluces.
In 1308 inquisitors were sent into this region to destroy heresy; but after having been repulsed and defeated in discussion, they sustained a new defeat in their attempt to triumph by means of violence. Surrounded in a castle, and retained as prisoners by the inhabitants of the district which they came to convert, and who seemed to be unanimous in repelling them, they were compelled to submit to conditions instead of imposing them, and retired from these countries without having even commenced the work for which they had come thither.[5] Pope John XXII, in his brief to John de Badis, intimated to the Marquises of Saluces, to the Counts of Lucerna, and to the Duke of Savoy, his desire that they would assist the inquisition with all their power against these disorganizers of the Church of Rome. But the power most formidable to that church, and effectual in disorganizing it, is the word of God, and not the rebellion of men. Let the Bible reign in any place, and there Popery must be overcome. This appeal of the pontiff had no other result than the apprehension of a Barba of the valley of Lucerna, named Martin Pastre. He was on his way to the churches of Saluces, and he justified, by a courageous martyrdom, the choice which had been made of him for that evangelical mission.
The edict of the Duchess Iolande, in 1476, enjoining the châtelains of Pignerol, Cavour, and Lucerna, to cause all the Vaudois of the Italian Alps to return within the pale of the Catholic Church, could not but affect in some measure those on the right bank of the Po; but it was in 1499 that they began to be assailed with the most direct violence.
Margaret de Foix, the widow of the Marquis of Saluces, finding herself free from his control, and being a slave to her confessor, became in the hands of fanaticism a ready instrument of persecution. She was connected by family ties with Pope Julius II, and obtained from him the creation of a bishopric in the marquisate. In return for this favour, she erected, at her own expense, the episcopal palace in which Anthony de la Rovera, the first bishop of Saluces, and nephew of Julius II, was received more as a prince than as a pastor. It was she, also, who built the church of St. Clara, in which her tomb may be seen unto this day; but whilst she built churches of stone, she sought to destroy the living church, which preserved within it the gospel of the earliest times; and at the instigation of the clergy by whom she was surrounded, she issued a decree, by which the Vaudois were enjoined, under pain of death, to embrace Catholicism or to quit the country.[6]
The unfortunate people retired to the banks of the Po. The marchioness would have pursued them, but the seigneurs of Paësane, with whom the fugitives had found shelter, represented that to themselves alone, in concert with the bishop and the inquisitors, belonged the right of proceeding in that way against any persons on their lands; their own vassals, moreover, were almost all of the Vaudois faith. The marchioness then purchased from the bishop and inquisitors the right of prosecution which belonged to them; and being thus possessed of two-thirds of that barbarous jurisdiction, she sent out missionaries, whose first act was to ordain all the inhabitants of St. Frons, Praviglelm, Paësane, Biolet, Biétonet, Serre di Momian, and Borga d'Oncino, to come and perform an act of penitence at Paësane, before Brother Angiolo Ricciardino de Saviglian.
No one came, and the prosecutions commenced. Two men were arrested at St. Frons. "To what place do you belong?" "To these mountains." "Are you Vaudois?" "We all are." "Abjure the heresy." "When it has been poured to us." It was not proved, but the two Christians were thrown into prison. Two others were arrested in another place, and likewise declared themselves Vaudois. The one belonged to Praviglelm, and the other to Oncino. "None of our people will abjure," said they to the inquisitors. The Marchioness of Saluces then armed 200 men, and caused them to march towards the mountains. The greater part of the inhabitants fled to Barges with their cattle, but some were taken and cast into prisons. Their trial having been finished, and tortures not spared,[7] five of them were condemned to death on the 24th of March, 1510. Their execution was reserved for Palm Sunday. Human victims! the offerings of the Church of Rome to its false gods!
The Vaudois prisoners were to be burned alive, in a meadow situated opposite to the paternal home of one of them, named Maynard. This name, which occurs also amongst the persecuted in Provence, attests the affiliation of the Vaudois churches of the two sides of the Alps. The pile was prepared, but when the day came, there fell such a quantity of rain and snow, that the wood could not be got to burn. The execution was put off to the next day. During the night, a secret friend managed to convey a file to the unhappy captives, and they freed themselves from their fetters, and glorifying God for this deliverance, took refuge at Barges with their brethren in the faith.
The executioners revenged themselves upon other prisoners for the flight of these victims. Mary and Julia Gienet, with one of their brethren, named Lanfré Balangier, were burned alive on the bank of the Po, on the 2d day of May following. But the prisons were not yet emptied. Many were subjected to the ignoble and cruel punishment of the bastinado, and many died under these atrocious inflictions. Some of their companions in captivity perished by slow degrees in the subterranean dungeons of the castle of Paësane. Some made profession of repentance, a small number were pardoned, and all who could make their escape retired to Barges, and from thence into the valley of Lucerna.
The property of these poor people was confiscated, two-thirds of it going to the Marchioness of Saluces. It was a profitable business, for she made more by it than the right of prosecution had cost her. Accordingly, she gave a share of the spoils of the heretics to the monks of Riffredo. The traffickers in human blood are a step in advance of brutes, which give up no part of their prey. The last third of these confiscations was divided betwixt the seigneurs of Oncino and Paësane, on whose lands they had taken place. They had opposed the murder, but they shared the spoil.
At length, on the 18th of July, 1510, which the reader will observe was before the Reformation, the Inquisition caused the Vaudois place of worship to be demolished; which a contemporary manuscript calls the synagogue of the heretics, saying that it was white and of good appearance on the outside, but full of windings within, and constructed almost like a labyrinth!
Next year, also, five Vaudois were burned alive at St. Frons. Unfortunate race, but worthy of admiration! Confiscation deprived them of their property, their families were decimated by the sword, the piles of their martyrs became more and more numerous, but their faith did not perish.
All those who had escaped the weapons of the soldiers and the flames of the Holy Office, and who were hidden in the mountains, or had fled to Barges and Bagnols, retired to the valley of Lucerna, where seigneurs more powerful and more just protected their vassals against such aggressions. And what shows better than any other consideration the primitive brotherliness which really prevailed amongst the Vaudois, and the profound practical charity which governed their lives, is the fact that all this large number of refugees lived for five whole years with the poor mountaineers of those Vaudois valleys, which had been the cradle of their race.[8] Sharing at once in their bread and their worship, praying and labouring with them, the proscribed refugees continued always expectant of some termination of that precarious state of things. They were mostly divided amongst the communes of Angrogna, Rora, and Bobi, and had named a syndicate, commissioned to watch over their common interests.
Numerous applications were made as soon as possible to the Marchioness of Saluces that they might be permitted to return to their ancient possessions. All these petitions remained unanswered. However, the prolonged sojourn of so many new families with a people themselves so few as the inhabitants of the valley of Lucerna, was a thing that must some time have an end. To recover possession of their native country was a duty recommended to them by a regard for others, enforced by justice, and which it belonged to their courage to perform. An intrepid man stood up in the midst of them. "My friends!" he exclaimed, "let us return to our own inheritances! it will be the best way of gaining possession of them." "But will not those who occupy them prevent us?" "We will take again, in spite of them, what they took in spite of us. Let us put our trust in God! his blessing is upon justice and not upon iniquity. If we have been persecuted for our faith, we shall also be protected by it, for it is of God, and God is mightier than our enemies." They assembled in arms in the valley of Rora, set out by night, traversed the mountains of Crussol, descended into the valley of the Po, reached their ancient abodes, fell like thunder upon their plunderers when unarmed, fought with them, overthrew them, pursued those who made any resistance, cleared the country of them, got the upper hand in it through the terror which audacity and success inspire, re-established themselves in their hereditary possessions, and brought back to their old abodes the faith of their forefathers. Only five Vaudois lost their lives in this expedition. Why did they not more frequently listen to the voice of that courage which restored to them their native land! Valour has a more imposing effect than weakness; and the moderation of the Vaudois has many a time doubled the arrogance of their enemies.
After this the churches of the valley of the Po enjoyed tranquillity for some years. The news of the Reformation began to Agitate men's minds. We have seen what effect was thereby produced in the other Vaudois valleys. New light was diffused everywhere. The evangelical doctrines spread all around these mountains, which, for so long a time before, had been brightened by the dawn of that bright day.
As in France the upper classes of society were the first to produce defenders of the Reformation, so the noblest families of Piedmont soon partook of the honour of being connected with it. In the province of Saluces the seigneurs of Montroux opened their castle for the religious meetings of the new reformed. Several members of the family of Villanova Sollaro embraced their religion. The Duke of Savoy himself wrote to them several times to persuade them to relinquish it. These urgencies, from so high a quarter, added still more importance, in public estimation, to the profession of evangelical religion which they were intended to overthrow. The number of the reformed increased instead of diminishing; they demanded pastors, and, until these should come, betook themselves with eagerness to the regular preaching which went on in the valley of Lucerna.
This influx of hearers from other parts, who thus crowded to the living springs of grace as to another Siloah, very soon became so considerable that the Duke of Savoy prohibited his subjects, who did not belong to the Vaudois valleys, from being present at these preachings.[9] At the same time, he himself sent Catholic missionaries to oppose the progress of these doctrines. But the doctrine was the doctrine of the gospel, and they were to oppose God! therefore they failed. Yet Duke Philibert displayed all possible personal activity to promote the success of his preachers. He wrote no fewer than four letters, in the month of May, 1565, to the Câtelain, to the Podestat, to the Official, and to the inhabitants of Carail, in order to recommend the missionary whom he sent to them.
But as the whole marquisate of Saluces was then under the dominion of France, these endeavours produced little effect there. On the contrary, the number of the reformed increased daily, and in consequence of the Edict of Pacification, newly obtained by the King of Navarre in favour of his co-religionists, the church of Dronèro, one of the most flourishing in the marquisate, obtained from the Royal Council letters-patent,[10] which authorized the opening of a Protestant place of worship without the gates of the town. Louis de Birague, who at this time succeeded the Count de Nevers as the king's lieutenant in the province of Savoy, wrote to the court to have this authorization withdrawn. Charles IX himself[11] replied, in these terms:--"By the advice of our much honoured lady and mother,[12] we declare by these presents, that in the edict of pacification we never intended to comprehend the exercise of religion in the towns of Piedmont,[13] Thus did Catharine de Médicis exercise her fatal power even over these churches of brethren! But their courage was not daunted; and next year they spontaneously organized themselves as reformed churches. They had pastors, deacons, and consistories, and established a regular religious service, which only could not always be conducted in public.
France was then desolated by wars of religion; the Huguenots had been massacred at Vassy and in Champagne; the Guises excited the Catholic party; the Protestant party was supported by the Bourbons. These intestine commotions distracted the attention of the government from the external provinces. The churches of Saluces, protected by their isolation, were permitted peacefully to increase beyond the reach of these distant storms. Accordingly, in a few years they became numerous and flourishing. The times of quiet are those which offer the least materials for history. Happy is the people all whose vicissitudes can be comprehended in a page! Bat spiritual history advances with all the conversions which take place when that of human actions stands still. This epoch was one of the most fruitful for the gospel in the province of Saluces. Ten pastors, serving twenty-one churches, independent of those of Coni, Carail, and Ozasc, already exercised the gospel ministry there in 1567.[14] By this we may see with what life they were filled, and what splendid promise they gave for the future, if liberty of conscience might have been allowed to prevail. But the great conquests of humanity are not attained in a day. In yielding liberty Rome would have fallen into destruction; but it is by her own tyranny that she is doomed to perish.
Let us leave the churches of Saluces to the enjoyment of their short-lived prosperity, and consider what was then taking place around them in other parts of Piedmont.
Notes: