(A.D. 1560 to A.D. 1605.)
The church of Carail was destined to endure nearly the same vicissitudes as that of Coni. In the first place, a list of the reformed was demanded from the magistrates.[2] In this list were immediately included nearly 900 persons, although many were absent, and their names did not appear there.[3] An ancient house at Carail, that of Villanova-Sollaro, was distinguished by attachment to the doctrines of the gospel; and it was under its protection that the church against which proceedings were now commenced had risen and been sheltered. The Duke of Savoy caused letters to be written about the commencement of the year[4] to the heads of this noble family, that if they wished to retain the favour of their prince, they must cease to extend their support to a heresy already too widely spread. But the seigneurs of Sollaro, whilst they protested their devotedness to their sovereign, demanded the privilege of proving also their devotedness to their religion.
After the list was prepared, Emmanuel Philibert himself wrote to them,[5] and summoned the Count of Sollaro to his presence. He urged him, in the strongest manner, to return within the pale of the Church of Rome, sternly declaring his resolution not to suffer two religions in his dominions. But the count respectfully replied, that he would render to Cesar the things which were Caesar's, but to God the things which were God's.
A few days after the duke sent a missionary to Carail,[6] commanding all the inhabitants of the town to attend his preaching. The greater part of the reformed refused to go. Thereupon an officer of the Council of State apprised the syndics that they must get ready a special list of these latter within the space of four days;[7] and at the same time there arrived a proclamation by the duke, in which he exhorted all the reformed of the town to change their doctrines, threatening them with his wrath if they persisted in their heresy. The greater part of these Christians now took to flight, which left a great blank, and spread desolation over the country. The duke perceived that he had gone too far, or rather too fast, and he sought to bring them back, by causing a letter to be written to them on the 20th of May, in which he urged them to return to their homes, promising that no new step should be taken without new notice. But this new notice was not long of making its appearance. On the 10th of June an edict was published, by which all the Protestants of Carail who would not abjure were ordered to leave the country within the space of six months. A year was allowed them to effect the sale of their properties, by agents appointed for that purpose.
A number of efforts were made to obtain the revocation of this edict, at once so unjust, so impolitic, and so barbarous. The Duchess of Savoy besought her husband to recall it. The seigneurs of Sollaro, who enjoyed a credit merited alike by their enlightenment, their illustrious rank, and their virtues, repaired to the presence of their sovereign, who seemed at first to yield to their remonstrances; but scarcely were they gone when the influence of the Catholic clergy enveloped him again; and on the 30th of November, 1565, the Podestat of Carail received orders to have the edict of the 10th of June put in execution. In this state of things the reformed had only to choose between the two alternatives, abjuration or exile. They did not hesitate, but made their preparations for departure. Popish charity however, thought fit not even to leave them the solace which remains for the proscribed; the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts were prohibited from receiving the fugitives.
We may form some notion of the character and the activity which Rome most have displayed in these proceedings against so great a number of people, by her bloodthirsty eagerness, in the case of a single person, neither of title nor rank. In that same year the Cardinal Bobba wrote from Rome to the Duke of Savoy, by order of his Holiness (what a title of mockery!), to inform him that he would recall the nuncio accredited to his court, if he refused to put to death a relapsed heretic of Vercelli. The letter is dated from Rome, 22d of October, 1566. The name of the prisoner was George Olivet. He was a proselyte whom Catholicism had not been able to retain. His Holiness, the Holy Church, the Holy Office demanded that he should die; it was made an occasion of diplomatic rupture; and these pretensions to holiness which Popery is continually putting forth in the midst of the most odious iniquities, involuntarily recall what has been said of bravery--those who boast of it most have least of it in reality. From this document we learn that the Duke of Savoy, notwithstanding his severities, was still accused of resistance to the plans of Rome. No master can be more difficult to serve than tyranny, and none is more ungrateful.
Orders were therefore transmitted to the governors of the surrounding towns, that the fugitive reformed should not be received in them. Emmanuel Philibert even wrote to this effect to the governors of Saluces, Nice, and Provence, as well as to Charles IX, to whom by this means he hoped to make himself agreeable. The instructions did not bear that shelter must be absolutely refused to the reformed, but that they must not be received without their promising to abjure. This measure, however, was equivalent to an absolute proscription, for if they had chosen to have abjured, they would have had no need to have sought shelter so far from home.
The good Duchess of Savoy, fully perceiving how inhuman and senseless these arbitrary orders were, besought her husband at least to postpone the execution of them till he had gone in person to Carail, to judge with his own eyes of their propriety. Emmanuel Philibert arrived at Carail about the end of the month of August, 1566. Two days before his arrival he had commanded all Protestants not belonging to it to leave it. On his approach, the reformed of the place fell into the error of betaking themselves also to flight. That flight was regarded as a mark of alienation from their sovereign, and of sympathy for the strangers whom he had just expelled. It may be imagined that good reasons might perhaps be assigned for these movements, but in reality the people only yielded to a feeling of alarm and apprehension, which did not stay to reason.
The duke was irritated, and immediately caused a proclamation to be issued in Carail, expressly forbidding any kind of provisions being carried out of the town, in order to punish in this way the reformed who had unfortunately left it upon his arrival.
Such a reception was certainly little calculated to induce a long stay, and he very soon departed again, leaving a garrison in the town, the soldiers of which were to be maintained and lodged in the very houses of the Protestants, whether fugitive or remaining at home, until the latter should return to Catholicism. But as those who had fled did not come back to the town, they were summoned to appear before the Podestat of Coni, who was then advocate-fiscal, and a noted opponent of biblical doctrines. These wandering and dispossessed families not daring to appear before him, he pronounced against them sentence of confiscation of property, and of banishment.
The Archbishop of Turin then repaired to Carail,[8] in the hope of bringing back the people the more readily to the Church of Rome. He made his appearance there escorted by a numerous suite, and manifested at first only paternal and benevolent feelings, calling the fugitive Christians poor wandering sheep. He sent them safe-conducts, and invited them to conference with himself. Some came, but the greater part stayed away, and of those who came a small number were drawn back to Popery. The sentence of banishment and confiscation was confirmed against those who did not appear, or who resisted the solicitations of the prelate.
However, indications of war having appeared between Savoy and France, Emmanuel Philibert gave orders to the Podestat of Coni to restore the dispersed Protestants to their residences, on condition that they should abstain from all exercise of their religion, under pain of death. The rich returned; the poor preferred exile. But those who returned were not long till they found reason to repent of it. They were arrested one after another, under pretext of religion, as had already been done in the town of Coni. Once arrested, if they refused to abjure, they were allowed to perish in the prisons, unless, indeed, they were sent to the galleys.
The family of Villanova-Sollaro displayed the greatness of true nobility amidst these adversities. They had supported the Protestant Church in the days of its growth, and they did not abandon it in its downfall. Conviction imposes a necessity as well as nobility,[9] said these ancient seigneurs of a region once so flourishing and now rendered so desolate. There were six brothers of this family. The chancellor, Count of Stropiano, their relative, assembled them in name of his royal highness, to entreat them to abjure, but they were immovable. "Let our sovereign," said they, "demand any other sacrifice, and we shall have pleasure in making it." "He repeats to you, by my mouth," said the chancellor, "that it is his resolution not to suffer two religions in the country." These noble Protestants understood the threat conveyed in these words, returned to Carail, sold a part of their lands, and retired to the marquisate of Saluces, then in the possession of France. During five years of trouble and domestic agitation, they were sometimes in France, sometimes in Piedmont, wanderers and always kept in alarm. The narrative of these events has been preserved in the chronicle which still exists of that illustrious and ill-fated house.
In 1570, the seigneurs of Sollaro were summoned to appear before the Senate of Turin, with other persons of rank, guilty, like them, of having returned to the gospel, an offence which the Church of Rome could by no means pardon. Through the influential intercessions made for them, amongst which the first place must be assigned to those of the Duchess of Savoy and of the Elector Palatine,[10] the prosecutions against them were suspended for a short time. But they were subsequently renewed; and the Sollaros were condemned and banished, their property confiscated, and the members of their family dispersed and forgotten.
The third of these six brothers retired to the valley of Lucerna, where his descendants continued to exist for more than a century. Of this branch of the family was that pious and beautiful Octavia Sollaro, whose sad story Gilles has preserved in one of the pages of hid simple and unadorned chronicles.
One of the descendants of this third brother, called Vallerio Sollaro, appeared before the Synod of Villar, held in 1607, in order that he might obtain the hand of a young girl of the valley of St. Martin, who refused to marry him because he was of noble birth, and she was a simple peasant. The representations which the Synod itself addressed to the young noble on the unsuitableness of so unequal an alliance, did not shake his resolution, and the marriage took place. The ancient escutcheon was not, however, dishonoured by this alliance; for the antiquity of the Vaudois family was higher still, and its patents of nobility, inscribed in the word of God, are more imperishable than the heraldic distinctions of men.
Whilst in the territories of the Duke of Savoy the Church of Carail thus disappeared before tyrannic persecution, the churches of Saluces enjoyed, under the dominion of France, a toleration equal to the other Protestants of that country; but their pastors were mostly foreigners, some natives of Switzerland, some of the Vaudois valleys, and some of other parts of Piedmont.
In these latter regions all foreigners had already been commanded to leave the country within the space of twenty-four hours.[11] Next year, the Vicar of Chiéri, a town not far from Saluces, received orders to cause all Protestants to depart from that territory, who had fixed their residence in it without his authorization, or whose permitted time of sojourn had expired.[12] The Duke of Savoy at the same time demanded of the lieutenant of the king of France in the province of Saluces,[13] that he should cause all who were not born within the kingdom to remove out of his government, and that he should not receive any fugitive natives of Piedmont who might retire to it. The governor of Saluces gave orders accordingly. Persons not natives of the province were commanded to quit it with their families within the space of three days, and prohibited from returning to it without special permission, under penalty of death and confiscation of goods.[14]
This blow was principally directed against the pastors who were not natives of the marquisate; but not being able to determine upon forsaking their flocks, they remained in the country. Truchi, a native of Cental in Provence, and Soulf, a native of Coni in Piedmont, were imprisoned at Saluces. Their colleague, Galatée, although a very aged man, repaired to La Rochelle to address the King of Navarre in their favour, and was happily successful. The Duke of Nevers, governor of Saluces, even received orders to set all the prisoners at liberty.[15] These poor churches, after a brief alarm, raised their heads again with more than their former courage, like a vigorous plants which the storm, that does not altogether break it down, causes to strike root more deeply in the soil.
Upon hearing of the marriage of the King of Navarre (Henry IV) with Margaret of France, the sister of Charles IX, they thought themselves secure of a long period of peace. But they left Catharine de Médicis out of their calculations. All at once burst the sanguinary thunders of St. Bartholomew; sixty thousand victims butchered in a few days. The news of this event were welcomed in Catholic countries with transports of inexpressible joy. Pius V had just died, after having launched a bull of excommunication against all princes who tolerated heretics in their dominions. He did not live to enjoy the slowly ripened fruit of his labours; but his successor, Gregory XIII, although less cruel than he, did not repudiate the heritage. He caused a medal to be struck, public rejoicings to be made, and Te Deum to be sung in honour of this prodigious extermination.
An order to cause all the Protestants of the province of Saluces to be massacred in one night, had been sent to Birague, who was then governor. Ignorant that this measure related to the whole of France, be was troubled at the order, and submitted it to the Chapter of the place. Some gave their opinion in favour of a complete and immediate execution of it; but sentiments more humane were also expressed, and here I cannot but proclaim the Christian joy which I feel in being able to ascribe them to a Catholic priest, the Archdeacon of Saluces, Samuel Vacca by name, who strenuously opposed the massacre of the Protestants. "It is only a few months," said he, "since we received letters-patent from the king, that the pastors who were in confinement should be set at large, and their flocks left at liberty. But nothing has since happened which can be regarded as a reason for such a change; it must be supposed that this cruel order has been occasioned by false reports. Let us inform his majesty that these are honest and peaceable people, and that nobody has anything to lay to their charge, except in regard to their religious opinions, and if the king persists in his design, it will always be but too soon to carry it into execution."
Thus the Protestants of Saluces were saved, for the reprobation which immediately arose against these base butcheries prevented the renewal of them. Rorengo censures this moderation, saying that it served only to strengthen the cause of heresy; let us hope, on the contrary, that it will serve to cover many inquisitorial sins and cruelties, veiling them with the grateful and blessed recollections which are connected with the name of one worthy old man. Why are there not more to emulate his fame! "The time is coming," says a writer on political economy, "when Rome would give all the St. Bartholomews, all the proscriptions, all the autos-da-fe in the world for a single act of faith, of hope, and of charity."
Amidst the anxiety which the news of these massacres occasioned almost everywhere, the Duke of Savoy hastened to re-assure the Vaudois valleys, by strongly declaring that he reprobated such crimes; and at Saluces also, a number of Protestant families, dreading the execution of the orders which had been received, took refuge with Catholic families, on whose kindness they could reckon, and who sheltered them as brethren till the storm was past. Thus did humanity triumph on the Italian side of the Alps, and it is a pleasant page of our history, in which we can twice pay so just a tribute to our adversaries and our sovereigns.
In 1574, the Marshal de Bellegarde was appointed governor of the province of Saluces. He was a man superior to the prejudices of his time. This appointment followed upon the return of Henry III, who quitted the throne of Poland, from which he fled as from a prison, to mount the throne of France, left vacant by the untimely, mysterious, and terrible death of Charles IX.
The new governor, by his impartiality to all under his jurisdiction, was not long of exciting the complaints of the Catholic party, then all powerful at the court. But the king himself became a partisan; he consented to be chief of the League, setting an example of coalition to those of the opposite side. Lesdiguières stood forward as leader of the reformed in the rich valleys of the Isère and the Durance. When things were in this state the Marshal was requested to resign his government. The reformed entreated him not to leave them, and De Bellegarde remained at Saluces. The governor of Provence was ordered to march against him; but Lesdiguières, at the head of the Protestants of Dauphiny, hastened to his support. The Vaudois of Lucerna and of Pragela joined him, and the governor of Saluces was maintained in his position. Complaints were made to the Duke of Savoy, relative to the aid which his subjects had lent to a stranger; remonstrances were addressed by the duke to the magistrates of the valleys, and prosecutions commenced against the Vaudois who had taken arms; but the almost simultaneous death of the Marshal and the prince put an end to this affair.[16]
During this time, however, the churches of Saluces increased in strength. The pastor of St Germain,[17] who had already brought the Catholics of Pramol to embrace Protestantism, had, with ardour and activity worthy of a soldier of the cross, followed the Vaudois troops as they passed into the marquisate, and remained in that territory in order to give greater consistency and strength to the Protestant communities which were already there, by organizing them in a manner similar to that of the churches of the valleys. A general synod was held for that purpose at Château Dauphin, in which all these churches were represented.
In the valley of Maira, the Catholic and Protestant chiefs even formed a common alliance, promising one another, says Gilles, "good friendship and union, without injury or reproach on account of religion; but, on the contrary, mutual aid in case of necessity, against any assailant whomsoever." The people have always understood more of brotherhood than kings and pontiffs. A religious system pervaded by the spirit of formalism and the feelings of a body corporate, unites men not in a brotherhood, but in an association.
At this time, therefore, the churches of Saluces had peace, and flourished. The numerous conversions which we have related, sufficiently prove that this fine country was not hostile to the Reformation, and that it would nowhere have spread more rapidly, if human thought had been respected in that liberty which inalienably belongs to it. But the sword, chains, and fire, were employed to combat thought,--the arms of the Romish Church, but not of the gospel. Neither kings nor pontiffs have ever respected liberty any more than brotherhood.
It is probable that the reformed churches of Saluces would have subsisted unto this day, like those of Dauphiny and the Cevennes, if that province had remained under the dominion of France. Henry IV soon ascended the throne, and during a number of years these churches continued to increase and to gain strength. The Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598, appeared to give them a lasting stability. But war was then raging between France and Piedmont, and the marquisate of Saluces was successively taken and retaken by the two powers, until it remained at last in the possession of the Duke of Savoy, in terms of the treaty of 17th January, 1601, concluded at Lyons, betwixt Henry IV and Charles Emmanuel. By this treaty, the King of France ceded to the duke his possessions in Piedmont, to wit, the provinces of Saluces and Pignerol, in exchange for La Bresse and Le Bugey. It was said in reference to this exchange, that the King of France had made a ducal peace, and the duke a royal one.
But it must be observed that, twelve years before this event, in 1588, Charles Emmanuel had already seized upon the marquisate, taking advantage of the civil wars by which France was then paralyzed. Scarcely had he made himself master of this province, than, faithful to the engagements into which he had entered with his allies, he began to require the reformed churches of Saluces to conform to the Catholic worship. The letter which he wrote them to this purpose is dated 27th March, 1597. The evangelical party respectfully replied that they were grateful for the interest which his royal highness testified in their spiritual welfare, but that they entreated him to do them the favour to respect their conscientious convictions, and to maintain things as they were when they became his subjects:--"Our religion is founded on the Holy Scriptures," said they in conclusion, "as are also our loyalty and our behaviour, and we hope that your royal highness will always find in us faithful subjects, upright citizens, and serious Christians." The duke pushed his efforts no farther at that time, the province of Saluces being then a very insecure possession. But after the treaty of Lyons, when he found himself its undisputed master, he issued a decree by which all Protestants were required to quit his dominions within two months, unless they abjured within fifteen days.[18] Disregard of this decree was to be punished with loss of life and confiscation of goods.
The most considerable of the Protestant churches which had arisen was at that time the church of Dronier (Dronèro), situated at the entry of the valley of Mayra (Valle di Magra), in one of the richest basins of that fertile country. "Scarcely," says Rorengo, "were there any traces of Catholicism there to be seen."[19] In the first instance, missionaries were sent thither, who made few proselytes; and thereupon Charles Emmanuel was solicited to employ means more expeditious. The Church of Rome has never triumphed except by aids which have nothing to do with conviction and the power of truth. In this we have one evidence that it cannot defend itself nor triumph by the word and faith; it needs the help of violence and servility. Why, then, should it be called a church?
When the edict of proscription, apostasy, or death, was issued by the Duke of Savoy, the Church of Dronier showed its respect for the covenant of its God. An earnest and respectful supplication, enforced by strong arguments, was addressed to the sovereign on the part of the Vaudois and the reformed. Meanwhile they were fervent in prayer, and as they were encouraged to hope for the revocation, or at least the mitigation of that barbarous edicts, they soothed themselves with the idea that it might be only a passing gust, after which they would again enjoy the calm. The threatening aspect of the clouds which began to arise in the horizon of their happiness, betokening calamity, they regarded as a warning to serve God better, and not to forsake him.
With such thoughts they allowed the time pointed out in the edict to slip over, without having sold their properties or made their preparations for departing,--I do not say without abjuring, for of that none of them thought. At the end of two months they received inexorable orders to conform without delay to the clericoducal edict. Then, full of affright and anxiety, taken by surprise, losing their self-possession, beset upon all hands by the most pressing solicitations from monks and magistrates, trembling for their families, and scarce knowing what they did, a great number of that disorganized church were hurriedly gained over to the ranks of the Church of Rome. It was against their consciences; but that was of no consequence to Popery. It gloried in these external conversions, as it still glories in its mere external and material unity, which hypocrisy always suffices.
Those who had strength enough of faith to forsake their country and all that they possessed, withdrew to France, or to Geneva, or to the Vaudois valleys, where they found an asylum, notwithstanding the edict which banished them from the ducal dominions.
They had nothing left! the world would say. But are the treasures of a good conscience and the peace of God nothing?
It seems surprising, however, that all the reformed and Vaudois of the province did not act with more energy and concert, opposing a courageous resistance to these iniquities. Their adversaries themselves were afraid of it; and therefore they had spread the report on all hands, and did not cease to repeat that, although the edict was so general, it was not meant against any but the Protestants of the plain, and that those of the mountains would not be disturbed, provided always they kept themselves quiet during the proceedings against the former. "Bear ye one another's burden," says the Bible, "and so fulfil ye the law of Christ." The inhabitants of the mountains left their Christian brethren of the plain to bear their trials alone, and in their turn they had none to help them in those which awaited themselves. Scarcely had the Protestants been got out of the way who occupied the districts nearest to the great towns, when the injunction to conform to the edict was formally addressed also to those of the most retired villages. The influence under which this edict was concocted, was effectual to extend still further its range of depopulation and death.
Hitherto, however, no threat had been addressed to the Vaudois of Praviglelm and of the whole upper valley of the Po, where they had exercised their evangelical worship from time immemorial. They regarded the maintenance of it as a right acquired by antiquity, and did not think it possible that it could be disputed. But the crying injustice of which their brethren were the victims ought to have opened their eyes; for if justice and humanity were not respected in the plain, what reason was there they should be respected amongst their rocks? And if they could bear to see the acts of injustice which touched not themselves, why should they not be exposed to similar sufferings?
But they did not reason so far, and as they were told that the edict did not concern them, they lived as tranquil as if it had never existed. At last, when all their brethren were banished or dispersed, they were given to understand in their turn that they must submit to the edict as well as the others.
Then these apathetic mountaineers, seeing the question assume the form of one of life and death for themselves, transported with an indignation which perhaps they had long restrained, flew to arms without premeditation or concert, made vows of courage and mutual aid, and by their union, their energy, and their valour, saved, for some time, at least, their imperilled cause. Abandoning their flocks, their houses, and their families, they assembled in arms, and threatened the Catholics amongst whom they dwelt that they would destroy all with fire and sword, if any ill befell their wives or their children. They then descended to the plain, marched against their oppressors, seized upon the fortress of Château Dauphin, and threatened to lay everything waste if the measures which had already caused so much distress were not revoked in so far as they were concerned.
The Catholics, who had never suffered from the neighbourhood of the Protestants, and who must have well understood the reason of their irritation, were the first to intercede for them, less from desire of justice than from fear of their resentment. Numerous petitions were addressed to Charles Emmanuel; the magistrates of the country themselves gave advice that a troop so determined should not be driven to despair; a former pastor of Praviglelm, Domenic Vignaux, who was then pastor at Villar in the valley of Lucerna, and who had preserved friendly relations with the governor of Saluces, joined his entreaties to those of the inhabitants of the country in favour of his former parishioners; and at last the inhabitants of those deep valleys where the Po takes its rise, were permitted to return to their abodes, and to preserve their religion.
This success was obtained without effusion of blood, so true it is that energy spares it more than feebleness. How many martyrs have perished, one after another, by the most cruel sufferings, who, if they had acted in concert, would have been saved by the mere display of courageous resistance! But notwithstanding their present triumph, the Vaudois of Praviglelm, in consequence of having held their peace when their brethren were proscribed, fell afterwards into that state of isolation which is fatal; and their churches, like the other churches of Saluces, are now destroyed. In the following chapters we shall see some of the events which led to their extinction.
Notes: