(A.D. 1629 TO A.D. 1643.)
Ought science to reject all notion of a connection subsisting betwixt the extraordinary phenomena of nature and the great events which take place in the world? Such is the opinion prevalent in our day; but the people of other times thought otherwise, and their imagination, attentive to external signs, delighted to bring the testimony of these remarkable facts to the confirmation of their fears or their hopes.
In 1628 there was a famine in Piedmont. Next year the poor inhabitants of the Vaudois valleys--who, having no harvests of their own, were accustomed to go to the rich domains of Piedmont, to offer their services at the rate of so many emines of corn for so much work--were deprived of this resource by an express prohibition under which the priests laid their flocks, not to receive a single Protestant labourer. The Vaudois complained, and the duke set aside the prohibition; but in some places, says Gilles, "there were found ecclesiastics who, being as it were infuriated, loudly declared that they would kill with their own hands those of the religion who should venture to come to the harvests." Odium theologicum! It is a term of the middle ages, when nothing was yet known but Popery.
In 1629, on the 23d of August, about eight o'clock in the morning, a dreadful storm, or rather one of those extraordinary water-spouts, which are like a cataclysm, a local deluge suspended in the atmosphere, broke suddenly upon the peaks of the Col Julian, and produced, in a few hours, a fearful inundation on both sides of the mountain. The village of Pral, in the valley of St. Martin, and that of Bobi, in the valley of Lucerna, were invaded by the waters at the same moment, and with such force, that the inhabitants had scarcely time to abandon the houses which were most exposed to the danger. The flood filled these two villages with masses of rook which it carried along with it; many houses were swept away; some persons lost their lives; but the scourge disappeared as rapidly as it had come.
This was not to be the case with the pestilence which, in 1630, broke out in all the valleys. It was preceded, in September, 1629, by an extraordinarily cold wind, which, as Gilles says, "marched in company with a very dry haze," and destroyed the last hope of a crop from the magnificent chestnut trees with which our hills are covered; and afterwards unusual rains caused the crop of grapes to perish. There was no expectation but of a famine more severe than the preceding. The Vaudois ministers assembled in synod on the 12th of September, and in that assembly, says the same historian, they had extraordinary religious services in testimony of their fraternal union, not knowing that they were never to meet together again in this world, and that of these fifteen pastors, only two would survive their brethren at the end of a few months.
Towards the close of the year, the convent and church of the Grey friars at La Tour were built, on the site on which the paternal abode of Rorengo had stood. Almost on the same spot, at the present day, stands a house for the education of Protestant girls, and further off is Trinity College, erected in 1830, precisely two centuries after the erection of this convent, which has long since disappeared.
In 1630 a French army which the Cardinal De Richelieu had placed under the command of three marshals of France, the Marshals De Schomberg, De La Force, and De Créqui, was sent to oppose the Duke of Savoy's projects on the Montferrat. It descended into Piedmont by the valley of Suza, and then drew back towards the Vaudois valleys.
The valley of Pérouse surrendered on being summoned, on the 21st of March, Pignerol on the 23d, and its citadel on the 29th. But the valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin had not yet surrendered. They pressed the duke to send them assistance, and demanded from the generals of the enemy that they should have time to capitulate.
The monk Bonaventure, already mentioned, went to the two parties alternately, saying to the Duke of Savoy, "The Vaudois occupy strong positions in the mountains, and cannot surrender without disloyalty, but the Catholics, dwelling in an open country, cannot resist an armed enemy, and must be excused in the event of their capitulating." To the French, again, he said, "The Catholics will make haste to surrender, but the Vaudois are a rebellious race, who will resist you, and merit all severity."
Meanwhile, the army was allowed to plunder; and conflicts arose between the soldiers and the inhabitants, the former endeavouring to carry off property, and the latter to defend it. The Vaudois hereupon sent deputies to the Marshal De La Force, who commanded a detachment encamped at Briquéras. "Submit to the king," replied he, "and we will protect you; otherwise, we will have you ravaged, killed, burned, and exterminated." The Sardinian troops had already retired beyond the Po; no succour could be expected from them, and the valleys submitted on the 5th of April, upon assurance given them that their privileges would be respected, and that they would never be required to carry arms against their sovereign. "But they were subjected to continual hardships," says Gilles, "by the passage of great bands of armed men going and coming between France and Piedmont; and the roads were covered with a swarm of people, who transported great stores of wheat, which the king (Louis XIII) had caused to be collected in France for the army of Piedmont."
In the latter part of April, the King of France being at Lyons with all his courts set out for Savoy. The Cardinal De Richelieu went to meet him; and the Vaudois sent to him a deputation, consisting of Joseph Chanforan, John Berton, Joseph Gros, and James Ardoin, who presented to him, at the little village of Montiers, a petition asking the confirmation of their privileges, which was granted to them.
On the 10th of June the troops of the Marshal De La Force took the town of Cavour by assault, and burned it. On the 22d of July the whole army proceeded against Saluces, of which it took possession in the beginning of August. After having remained there for some time, these troops were again put in motion, and on the 26th of October appeared before Casal. This town was at that time defended by the Austrians, and besieged by the Spaniards--allies of the Duke of Savoy. At last, on the 13th of November, the treaty of Ratisbon was signed, which put an end to that war; the valleys of Lucerna and St. Martin were restored to Piedmont, but those of Pérouse and Pragela, as well as Pignerol, remained to France. It was not until September, 1631, that the fortifications of Briquéras were demolished.
But a scourge more terrible than war took away from the Vaudois almost two-thirds of their population in that deplorable year, 1630. The weather was excessively hot; a contagious malady, the plague, which prevailed in France, had augmented the army of Richelieu by a great number of volunteer recruits, who fled from the danger. They brought it with them. With the first days of the month of May, this terrible malady began to appear in the village of Les Portes, situated near Pérouse. It next broke out in St. Germain, whither it was carried, as was said, by a grave-digger; and then also at Pral, to which it was brought with goods that came from Pignerol. And it had very soon spread over all the valleys.
As soon as the pastors were aware of its appearance, they met, according to the usage of their church, to inquire concerning the mind of the Lord, and to seek, by prayer, meditation, and conference, a correct view of the duties which these difficult circumstances required at their hands. They were unanimous in proposing the celebration of an extraordinary fast. "But not seeing," says Gilles, "how it was possible to observe that solemnity in a suitable manner, in the midst of such a bustle of armed men and of people conveying provisions, they agreed that each minister should do all that he could in his own congregation, to produce in the members of the congregation a serious repentance and an effectual conversion. They took counsel, also, to provide themselves with the antidotes proper for the calamity, and to aid the poor by public alms."
This meeting of pastors was held at Pramol. A few days after, the plague made its appearance there, commencing in the quarter of Les Pellencs. Public worship began then to be held in the open fields at Pramol and at St. Germain. This was towards the end of May. A month after, the commune of Angrogna was invaded by the scourge; and on the 10th of July there died, at one time, the pastor of St. John, in the valley of Lucerna, and the pastor of Meane, near Pérouse.
However, the plague had not yet appeared at La Tour. A celebrated physician dwelt there;[2] and there were also there two surgeons[3] and three apothecaries.[4] The presence of these men of skill attracted many persons thither; but they were the first victims of the scourge which then ravaged Pignerol. The persons who were spared made haste to flee from that city. A great number of them retired to La Tour, as well as some of the French generals.[5] Provisions, the rents of apartments, and mercenary services rose to an excessive price. A mule's load of wine was sold for fourteen or fifteen crowns.
The surgeon Gilles being dead, and his colleague ill, a French surgeon demanded fifty pistoles of gold ere he would let blood for him. Next day he exacted a golden crown, for telling him from the street and in at the window, without entering the house, how he was to place the cupping-glasses. Some persons promised before-hand one of their properties in absolute right, to obtain the assurance that they would be buried; for the dead encumbered the houses, and some were burned with the corpses which they contained.
On the 12th of July the pastor of Pral died,[6] and on the 24th the pastor of Angrogna.[7] Seven other Vaudois pastors died during the following month.[8] Those who survived them, assembled on a mountain which rises by itself in the centre of the three valleys, on the Saumette, near the Vachère, within an easy distance at once of Angrogna, Pramol, and Prarusting. This meeting took place on the 2d of August.[9] After tears and prayers, the six ministers who were still spared divided amongst themselves the necessary care of the churches which had become vacant. Daniel Rozel, the pastor of Bobi, was appointed to conduct the Second son of Gilles to Geneva, that he might complete his studies; but they died within a short time of each other, both being cut down before they could accomplish this design.[10]
There now remained in the Vaudois valleys only three pastors engaged in actual duty, and an aged emeritus pastor. The latter died soon after. The last three witnesses of the priesthood of the Vaudois Church held a new synodal meeting on the heights of Angrogna, with the deputies of all the parishes of the valleys, to consider the means of providing for the exercise of their religion. They wrote to Constantinople to recall Anthony Léger, also to Geneva requesting the aid of some new ministers, and to Grenoble, entreating those of Dauphiny likewise to come over to console and confirm again this Vaudois Church, thus so severely tried. There remained only one pastor in each of the three valleys; to wit, Peter Gilles in that of Lucerna, Valerius Gros in that of St. Martin, and John Barthelemy in that of Pérouse. But the latter having been called to the parish of St. John in 1631, and having gone from thence to La Tour on the 22d of April, to confer with the pastor of that place on the affairs of the church, prolonged that conversation till pretty late in the evening, and then retired to his own home, for he was a native of La Tour, and his father's house was still his home. But he could not say to his soul, "Abide for many years!" for that very night it was required of him. The pestilence seized him at the close of that conference, and he died three days after.
This mysterious and terrible scourge, whose severity had been abated during the winter, became again more violent in the spring of 1631. It then passed through the more elevated districts of Angrogna and Bobi, which it had spared hitherto. More than 12,000 persons died in the valleys;[11] at La Tour alone fifty families were swept entirely away. The harvests rotted on the fields unreaped, the fruits fell ungathered from the trees.
During the great heats of summer, horsemen might be seen to drop from their horses on the middle of the road, and remain dead on the spot. "The great roads," says Gilles, "were strewed with so many bodies of men and beasts, that it was impossible to pass along them without danger. A number of properties were abandoned from want of owners or cultivators. The towns and villages, which recently had abounded with persons of the learned professions, merchants, artisans of every description, and workers of every kind of work, were now without life--the solitude of the desert had come upon them; the grapes hung from the vines, and the corn covered the fields, because labourers were everywhere awanting. The wages of servants increased to four times their ordinary amount. Nurses in particular had become so scarce, that no one could tell where to look in order to find one for the poor babes that were born during these calamities. Their ordinary wages, which had not exceeded twelve or fourteen Piedmontese florins before the plague, soon rose to sixty or eighty, without its being even certain that one could be procured at that rate. Every family lost some of its members, and many families entirely disappeared."
The minister Gilles, whose words we have just quoted, lost the four eldest of his sons; and the aged father himself alone left of all the pastors of the valley, found his duties increase along with his sorrows; but God gave him strength to sustain the heavy weight of so many accumulated distresses, and of the service of so many churches. He went into all the parishes, preaching twice every Sabbath, and once at least on every day of the week; visiting the sick and consoling the afflicted, without fear of that death which all his colleagues[12] had met in the fulfilment of the same distressing and dangerous duty. He resolutely prosecuted his ministerial labours; calm and serene in the midst of the dyings, he imparted to them his unshaken confidence in him who casts down and who raises up, who wounds and who heals. "I passed," says he, "amidst persons infected with the plague, and through terror-stricken villages, which everywhere presented only spectacles of death and of family affliction;" and, according to the only Latin quotation in which he indulges in his whole work, at a period when it was common to use them very abundantly--'"Ubique luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago." His indefatigable devotedness seems really more extraordinary than even the danger: and he was preserved to the Vaudois Church throughout all the ravages of that epidemic; and with him the completest monument of the ancient history of the Vaudois, which he has transmitted to us in his chronicles, rich in the details of a period of history, but little known.
The pastor Brunet was the first who hastened from Geneva to the help of the valleys: he came in December, 1630, six months before the pestilence ceased. Other ministers of the gospel followed him at later dates; and although the Italian language had until then been used amongst the Vaudois in sermons and teaching; it became necessary at that time to substitute for it the use of the French language, into which Gilles subsequently translated his work, which he had commenced in Italian. From this time, also, date the systematic relations since continued between the Vaudois Church and the Church of Geneva.
The most pressing duties which these new pastors had at first to perform in the valleys, related to the reorganization of their terribly decimated congregations. "It was a marvellous thing," says Gilles; "and such as had never before been seen or heard of in these parts, what a great multitude of marriages took place at that time. ... In most places the plague had bereaved families of their children, deprived children of their parents, husbands of their wives; and wives of their husbands; so that desolation extending everywhere, each one sought to be united with a sister or a brother to build up again their failing or ruined houses." But these marriages were merely the conclusions of funeral solemnities; and were characterized by the invocation of the Divine blessing, instead of the noise of sport and worldly pleasures.
Thus had three disastrous scourges been endured almost simultaneously--famine, pestilence, and war; but the two former having passed away, the latter also was removed at last, during the reign of Victor Amadeus I, who had retired to Queyras in order to avoid the contagion. He signed at that town, on the 6th of April, 1631, a treaty of peace, by which he was restored to possession of all his dominions, and acquired some towns in the Montferrat, in compensation for Pignerol and the valley of Pérouse, which remained to France. Scarcely was he in peaceable possession of his throne, when he set to work to render his reign illustrious by things of lasting benefit to the country, more than by victories. He restored the University of Turin, for which he erected the splendid building which it now occupies, and attracted thither learned strangers, to promote literature and science.
But before going to Turin he made his abode for some time at Montcallier, where the Catholic clergy sought to inspire him with sentiments hostile to the Vaudois. The latter, being apprised of this, sent a deputation[13] to convey to him the dutiful expression of their loyally, and their prayers for his welfare. The Count of Verrue undertook to communicate their message to the sovereign; but the Vaudois deputies having afterwards obtained an opportunity of an interview with the Duke of Savoy, in the town of Carignan, and having laid before him the object of their mission, he received them graciously, and said to them, as he dismissed them, "Be faithful subjects to me, and I will be to you a good prince."
But the prior of Lucerna (Rorengo), and the superior of the convent of La Tour (Fra Paolo), having been informed of this favourable reception, sought to nip in the bud the hopes which might thence be derived of repose for the valleys, and accused their inhabitants of a multitude of crimes and acts of disobedience. The prefect of the province, named Rezan, proceeded to La Tour to make investigation. A meeting was held for this purpose on the 4th of August, 1630, and the falsehood of the accusations was acknowledged.
What did the worthy prior then do? He sought an interview with the pastor of La Tour, Gilles, whose interesting chronicles have preserved us an account of their conference:--"An excellent thought has occurred to me," he said. The pastor must have thought that it was a thing as fortunate as it was rare. "Why should the Protestants and Catholics persist so obstinately in their respective pretensions?" added the Jesuit. "If we were to yield something on each side all would go on better, and I could reckon confidently on the approbation of the Church of Rome." "I am far from disputing the authority with which you may have been intrusted to that effect," replied the pastor, "but I have much less authority on the part of our churches; and I declare to you before-hand, that I cannot make in their name any engagement which concerns them, without their having been previously consulted. However, let me know what you have to propose." "It is this," replied Rorengo; "If the Vaudois will consent that the monks shall freely dwell among them, I guarantee that we will leave you in peace." "That is to say," answered Gilles, "that in order to your consenting not to do us any harm, you demand that we put you in a condition to do it." It need hardly be said that the prior met with a refusal.
The Vaudois, however, had applied to Victor Amadeus I. for a ratification of their privileges, and at this period they sent deputies to Turin to hasten forward that matter. These deputies were received by the prince on the 8th of September, 1632, and learned from his own mouth that a minister of state would be sent to the valleys, to satisfy himself by exact information as to the acts of disobedience which were laid to their charge, as well as to take cognizance of the grievances which they themselves complained of. Accordingly, a short time after, the collateral Sillan arrived, who, accompanied by Rorengo, went over all the valleys, collecting the remarks of the Vaudois, and the informations which were lodged against them. It is not known what report he made to the sovereign; but next year a new commissioner was sent by him to the same places--a master of request", named Christopher Fauzon. He arrived at La Tour on the 5th of May, 1633, and convoked a meeting of the Vaudois delegates for the 9th of the same month. When they were assembled, he told them that they were accused of having recently established themselves at Lucerna and Bubiano. The Vaudois proved that they had existed there from time immemorial. Then he pretended that a number of them had promised to abjure, and had not kept their word. "Because the promise had been wrung from, them by violence," replied they. "What proof have you of that?" he demanded. "If it had been voluntary," said they, "what hindered them to fulfil it?"
"But you have schoolmasters who teach heresy," said he. "Prove to us," said the Vaudois, "that our religion is a heresy, and we renounce it; but if they only teach our religion, then do you respect the liberty of conscience, which was guaranteed to us by the edict of 1561." "Do not insist upon that," said the commissioner, "for his highness is going to send you better teachers." "And who are they." "Learned and respectable fathers." "What!" exclaimed the deputy of Bobi,[14] "would they make us send our children to school to the monks? I would rather that mine perished on one pile, than give up their souls to perdition."
The referendary Fauzon afterwards disputed the right of the Vaudois of St. John to make use of a bell for assembling the congregation to worship. "The practice is of immemorial antiquity," replied the delegate of St. John, "and the successive confirmations of our liberties have, by implication, sanctioned it."
After this Fauzon set aside the other accusations, of which nothing was found to remain but an echo, which could be traced to no origin and no authority. Then it was that, with one consent, the people broke out in complaints too long suppressed. "What! you leave undisturbed the impostors who work upon the credulity of the public! You leave undisturbed the Jews, who blaspheme the name of the Redeemer, and the vagabonds who infest the highways; but you cease not to prosecute and vex us, peaceful and laborious evangelical Christians, whose only endeavour is to live in the fear of God and in brotherly kindness with all men; you cease not to set at our heels packs of monks bent upon mischief; for these fanatics think nothing more delightful and praiseworthy than to make us the victims of treachery, deceit, imprisonment, and robbery." In support of these complaints, unfortunately too well founded, a multitude of particulars were cited, of which no one could deny the correctness. Hereupon the commissioner assumed a milder tone, and promised to put an end to such abuses; after which he hastily closed the meeting, and left the valleys without coming to any conclusion. But the hidden influences under which he had, in the first instance, acted, were set in operation again to impose upon him.
Accordingly Fauzon returned to La Tour a few days after, in order to oblige the Vaudois to furnish written proofs establishing their legal right to celebrate Protestant worship in each of the parishes in particular. They dreaded some trap set for them amongst these perpetual delays. However, on the 29th of June, 1633, they furnished the document required. This paper remained unanswered, and the state of things continued unchanged. But the monks only became the more active in their attacks upon Protestantism, and it was at this time that the polemical writings of Rorengo and of Belvedère appeared, in order to refute which Gilles suspended for a time his historic labours. He replied to these writings in a work entitled, Considerations on the Apostolic Letters of the Sieurs, Marcus Aurelius Rorengo, Prior of Lucerna, and Theodore Belvedère, Prefect of the Monks,[15] published in 1635. This work, of which a refutation was attempted at Turin, was followed by another, still larger, which the indefatigable pastor of La Tour published in the year following, under the title of Torre Evangelica,
These two volumes owed their origin to polemical publications, and called forth others which this is not the place to enumerate. These were succeeded by conferences between the monks and the pastors, in which Anthony Léger, the pastor of St. John, who had returned in 1637 from Constantinople, displayed so much talent, that one of his adversaries, finding himself unable to vanquish him by discussion, resolved to seize him by main force. For this purpose he put himself at the head of a troop of armed men, to whom he said, "I must have the minister dead or alive!" The Vaudois came promptly to the defence of their pastor. They prevented the monk Simond from executing his design; but, in consequence of the continual conflicts and vexations which arose on his account, Anthony Léger quitted the valleys in 1643, and went to Geneva, where he spent the remainder of his days.
At this period, also, close the interesting chronicles of Gilles, which we have so often quoted in this and preceding chapters. As a historian he has the merit of abounding and being exact in facts, and of being calm and grave in his judgments, fluent and simple in his style. His only fault is that of being sometimes diffuse and careless. The fullness and circumstantiality with which he relates events, derive an additional value from the caution and exactness which characterize his narratives. As a controversial writer he has the defects of his time, but he exhibits also its good qualities, and unites with a solid erudition the advantages of a very sound judgment, and of a raillery that is sometimes sufficiently sharp. His mode of conducting an argument appears at first sight lax, in consequence of the length to which he carries out the statement of his views, but his reasoning is close enough in respect of the connection of his views and deductions themselves. Gilles was, moreover, during more than ten years, secretary of the Table; or moderator of the Vaudois churches, and he completed, in 1601, the scheme of ecclesiastical discipline which had been prepared in 1564. These numerous labours, carried on amidst the multiplied duties of his ministry, attest at once his zeal and activity. It is not without regret that we here quit this valued guide, whose memory becomes dear to all students of the history of the Vaudois.
Notes: