(A.D. 1637 TO A.D. 1655.)
Victor Amadeus I., who ascended the throne in 1630, died on the 7th of October, 1637. His eldest son, Francis Hyacinth, aged scarcely five years, survived him only one year; and his second son, then aged only four years and some months, became, on the 4th of October, 1638, the successor to the ducal crown. The title of Charles Emmanuel II was given to him; and it was under his reign that one of the most terrible persecutions took place which ever drenched the Vaudois valleys with blood. But it would be wrong to hold him alone accountable, as until his majority it was his mother who held the reins of government in the capacity of regent. She was Christina of France, daughter of Henry IV and Mary De Medicis. She inherited the haughty and stern disposition of her grandmother, so that the spirit of the Medicis, rather than that of the princes of Savoy, presided over the carnage of 1655.
Prom 1637 to 1642, Thomas and Maurice of Savoy, brothers of Charles Emmanuel, disputed with his widow the regency of his dominions. This contest of five years was the cause of most fatal troubles and divisions in Piedmont; then, from 1642 to 1659 (the date when the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded), the war was continued against the Spaniards, who had, in the first place, been brought into the country by the Cardinal Maurice and Prince Thomas, when they were claimants of the regency. These foreigners having seized upon the best places of Piedmont, refused to give them up; so that Christina, in order to reconquer them, was obliged, in her turn, to call into her dominions the troops of France.
In the valleys, where we have seen that the reformed Franciscan monks, or Grey friars, had been introduced by Rorengo, and maintained most pertinaciously by the governors of the country, the regular clergy continued their underground work, destined to burst forth at an after period in prodigious disasters. A powerful coadjutor was at this time also given them by the court of Rome, to wit, the Propaganda. This name was given to a society composed of clergy and laymen, founded at Rome, in 1622, by Gregory XV., under the title of Congregatio de Propagandâ fide.
Its institution had, from the first, no other object than to promote the spread of the Catholic doctrines. It was not long of acquiring a predominant influence over the secular clergy, who had imprudently admitted it as an ally; and afterwards it went the length of savagely pursuing--with an incendiary torch in one hand, a sword in the other, and the feet in blood--the extermination of all doctrines which were not its own. Nothing was forgotten in its work except the gospel. And what did it gain? What persecution always gains--the burden of the crimes committed, the responsibility of the bloodshed, and the execration of humanity.
It was the prior of Lucerna, Mark Aurelio Rorengo, who introduced into the Vaudois valleys the first seed of this powerful tree, whose branches were very soon to extend over all Piedmont, and to cover it with the bloody fruits of the most odious fanaticism. A member of the Roman Propaganda, already celebrated by his talent for discussion, was sent from Rome to the valleys, expressly to labour for the conversion of the Vaudois. He was a preaching monk, named Placido Corso. Rorengo, who had already had many fruitless conferences with the pastors, hastened to go and meet this protector champion, whom fame announced to him as a polemical Boanerges.
It was on the 10th of November, 1637, that Placido Corso arrived at La Tour. His first care was to provoke the pastor of the place, Gilles the historian, to a conference. "I have come a very long way," he wrote to him, "to defend the holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church; and having inquired at several persons of your parish as to the reasons for which the Vaudois had separated from it, they directed me to their pastor, as to one who was better able to instruct me on that point." "What an admirable zeal it is," replied the pastor, "which comes from so great a distance to attack that of which it knows nothing! But, nevertheless, we are very far from recognizing the Church of Rome as being what you designate it; it is for you, therefore, to prove, in the first place, that it is apostolic and holy; and the result of this inquiry will render it much more easy for us to tell you why it is that we have separated from it."
The monk did not shrink from the thesis which he was invited to sustain, and he wrote to the minister all the reasons commonly adduced in favour of the Romish Church. Gilles refuted him. Letters in considerable number were thus exchanged, till in the end Placido Corso left the last unanswered.
Hoping to be more fortunate in a vivâ voce conference, where his adversary would not have time to choose and weigh his arguments, he sought to gain, by such means, the ground which he had lost. Anthony Léger, recently arrived from Constantinople, where he had filled the post of chaplain to an embassy, had resumed the humble duties of a village pastor, in his old parish of St. John. It was to him that the propagandist addressed himself; and after various negotiations, it was arranged that a public conference should take place at La Tour, on the 4th of December, 1637, in the court-yard of an elder of the church, named Thomas Marghet. Rorengo demanded that he should preside in this meeting; and it was thought proper to defer to his wish. The youthful Scipio Bastié, on the side of the Protestants, and a Capuchin named Laurent, on the side of the Catholics, were chosen for secretaries. One of the most difficult questions of canonical theology, that of the Apocryphal books, occupied the whole of that meeting.
The second was fixed for the 1st of January, 1638, and took place at St. John, in the court-yard of Daniel Blanc, for no apartment was capacious enough to receive the crowd of hearers; but the sky of Italy sometimes, even in winter, permits meetings to be held in the open air, on ground scarcely hardened by frost, at the base of snow-covered Alps. The monks were very late in making their appearance at this meeting. They excused themselves on the ground of their having been detained by their private devotions; but some of those present smiled, and said to one another in a low voice, that they showed themselves more eager to put an end to the conference than to prolong it. The discussion, however, was not terminated when night came on; but it was the last, for the propagandist would not again enter the lists "with these wranglers," as he said, "who made a pope of the Bible." Yes! the Bible was to the Vaudois even more than a pope. But the crouching slave of the Holy See could go no farther in his comparison.
The next to follow and emulate him in the arena of discussion was a Grey friar of La Tour, named Brother Hilarion. He undertook a polemical correspondence with the pastor of Bobi, Francis Guérin, whose last letters he also left unanswered.[2] In the valley of St. Martin, the monks of Le Perrier attempted similar contests, and met with similar checks.
The spirit of hatred, or at least of intolerance, so natural to monks, became exasperation in these. It was no longer by the weapons of logic that they sought to combat the Vaudois; assassinations and abductions were employed. A young man, named Morton, the servant of an Englishman, was assassinated at La Tour. A young girl of Bubiano was carried off by the monks who dwelt there, and placed under the care of a popish woman. The brother of this girl came to claim his sister again, and she eagerly followed him. The guard saw them, and raised the alarm; the Catholics ran and overwhelmed the young man with blows. Then came a priest on horseback, who took the girl behind him, and bore her off to Turin. From that time forth, all attempts made to obtain restitution of her remained ineffective.
But these were not the only wicked proceedings by which the clergy laboured to vex the poor Protestants. At their instigation, an attempt was made to compel the Vaudois settled upon the right bank of the Pélis, in the district of Lucerna, to remove and confine themselves to the left bank only; an attempt was also made to restrict all of them from residing for more than three days consecutively in any of the other towns of Piedmont, whither business might call them. But through the interposition of persons in high place, these vexatious measures were unsuccessful. At the same time there occurred also certain movements of troops, which the enemies of the Vaudois always sought to turn to their disadvantage.
On the 22d of March, 1639, there arrived at Lucerna, St. John, and La Tour, a great number of people from Bubiano and its neighbourhood, all in disorder and alarm, bringing carts loaded with their furniture, and horses with their stores of linen and their children, whilst they themselves conducted their flocks, as if going into exile. Then came message upon message, rapidly succeeding each other, all to announce that a regiment of Italian cavalry, in search of quarters, was advancing at a quick rate. The regiment arrived that evening at Lucerna, and from thence was sent to Bubiano; next day it attempted to enter the territory of St. John, but the Vaudois had placed strong guards at all the passes, and drove it back into the plain. Upon that occasion the excesses consequent upon the want of military discipline, the trouble and confusion which arise in the proximity of camps, prevailed for some days in Piedmont, without penetrating into the Vaudois valleys. These disastrous agitations expired at the confines of that home of the gospel, where courage maintained peace. And they were well entitled to defend themselves--,that people, whose number was so small, and whose rulers were then disputing for the throne of a child.
But terrible conflagrations occurring at this period, contributed also to increase the misfortunes of these districts. On the 6th of March, and on the 21st of November, 1634, fire caught hold of the woods of Briquéras, and despoiled the hills around that place of all their lofty trees. These hills are now covered with vineyards. On the 11th of December, 1639, two fires, also at the openings of the valleys, broke out simultaneously--,the one between Briquéras and St. Segont, the other between Lucerna and Lucernette. The north-east wind blew strongly; the first of the fires extended to the heights of Prarusting, devouring everything in its course. That of Lucernette quickly seized upon the woods of Bubiano upon the one side, and upon those of Famolasc and Bagnols upon the other; and its ocean of flame swept over the country as far as the hills of Barges, thus occupying a space of several square leagues. The affrighted inhabitants, not being able to contend against this devouring invasion, took to flight, or endeavoured to isolate their dwellings, by cutting down beforehand the trees by which they were surrounded. Numbers were compelled to defend themselves against the danger, by extinguishing the flames with the wine from their cellars, for want of sufficient water at hand.
This fearful conflagration lasted for several days. The front of the fire might be seen climbing from the plain up the mountains, like a sea of flame, leaving behind its glowing waves the naked and blackened earth, presenting at intervals, over great tracts of country, what looked like immense cauterizations, or frightful blotches of gangrene.
Besides all this, Piedmont was desolated by civil war. Three political parties had formed themselves in the country. Robbery and plunder extended everywhere like another fire. The outlaws, still scattered among the mountains, confidently acted upon their own unhappy pretensions; frequent murders signalized their vengeance. They exhibited, upon a smaller scale, the same conduct which the princes of Savoy then displayed at the head of their armies. One man kills another, and is an assassin; a prince kills a thousand men, and is a hero. When will murderers be weighed in the same balance? When will the nations become weary of shedding their blood like water for dynastic pretensions, which have nothing to do with their welfare? The union of kings is a perpetual conspiracy against liberty; what, then, must their divisions be for the nations of men?
The Marquises of Lucerna and of Angrogna, having embraced the party of the pretenders to the regency, maltreated the Vaudois, who had refused to take part in these intestine divisions, which brought so much suffering upon the kingdom. Another member of the same family, Count Christopher, upon the contrary, espoused the cause of the duchess and her son.
It was dreaded that the usurpers, supported by the Spanish army, might devastate the Vaudois valleys with fire and sword. A general meeting was held at St. John, to consider what was to be done. The count was there. The pastor, Anthony Léger, insisted that the Vaudois should maintain their independence on behalf of the legitimate prince, Charles Emmanuel II., then a minor, and the tutelage of whom his uncles were disputing with his mother. The Vaudois prepared their own militia for service; made provision for the maintenance of the government, already much disorganized; opened the passage of the Alps to the French army, which Turenne and D'Harcourt led to the succour of Christina; and finally restored to that victorious princess one of the best defended provinces of her dominions.
The recollection of all this, which she afterwards showed them that she retained, was far from being that of gratitude; and this princess, when she became powerful, was like the serpent warmed again to life. But at the present time she was in misfortune, and perhaps even afterwards, she was more weak than cruel.
Be this as it may, the enemies of the Vaudois availed themselves of their position around her to irritate her against them; and as Léger had exercised a great influence in the council of his countrymen, they had him condemned to death for contumacy, on the pretext that he had been in the service of foreign powers, without authority from his lawful sovereign. This service had been limited to the discharge of his pastoral functions whilst he was with the ambassador of the United Provinces. But any pretext is good enough for hatred, and hatred was satisfied. Léger was compelled to retire to Geneva, where the academy of that town had long the honour to number him amongst its professors. He was a man of extremely mild character, and of remarkable talent.
Encouraged by this first success, the enemies of the Vaudois went farther in their demands. Agents of the Roman Propaganda had established themselves at Turin, and their influence extended, like an invisible net-work, over the court of Savoy. The father of the duchess, Henry IV., had been a Protestant; fanaticism presented this circumstance to the mistaken eyes, or rather to the servile conscience of Christina, as casting upon her origin a deplorable stain, which the most fervent zeal alone could efface; and we have seen already wherein zeal for Catholicism consists. Everything injurious to the Protestants was fervour in her estimation; the Propaganda encouraged these sentiments, and their triumph was completed through the influence of political views.
This took place in the following manner:--From the vacancy of the ducal throne, and from the moment that Christina's regency was disputed, the clergy gave all their support to her competitor, Maurice, of Savoy, who was a cardinal. Christina, therefore, in order to win back the clergy to her side, thought it necessary to rival her brother-in-law in zeal, that is to say, in concessions, honour, and power, accorded to the clergy; restrictions, rigour, and intolerance, in regard to the Vaudois. One of the first acts of her government was to enjoin the Vaudois settled without their limits to return to them within the space of three days.[3] A month before, she had given instructions to the magistrates in favour of the Capuchin missionaries, ordaining that, upon information lodged, the podestats should act according to their office against those whom they denounced.[4] Next year she renewed her orders against the Vaudois extending themselves beyond their own territory.[5]
At this time an accident happened to the castle of Cavour, which was in part destroyed by lightning, but was restored by the French. A year afterwards, at the synod of St. Germain,[6] the younger Léger was ordained to the holy ministry, who at a later period became, by his courage, as well as by his writings, one of the most powerful defenders of the valleys. The congregation which he was then appointed to supply was that of Pral and Rodoret. Some months after, the duchess, still upon solicitation of the Propagandistâ, gave many injunctions to the prefect of the province, whose name was Rossano, to have the Protestant worship interdicted at St. John, and the church shut up which the Vaudois possessed there.[7] Again she renewed the prohibition against their passing beyond their limits, not only to acquire lands, but even to farm them, and that under pain of death and confiscation of goods.
A special commissioner was sent from Turin to watch over the observance of this edict--a doctor of laws from Montcallier, master of requests to the council of state, and very zealous in the sense in which that term was understood by his sovereign. His name was Gastaldo, and he took up his abode at Lucerna. His first care was to cite all the Vaudois to appear before him who possessed lands or establishments of any kind beyond the limits to which it was thought fit to restrain them--limits which became narrower continually; for, according to a more recent order, even the right bank of the Pélis had been interdicted to them.[8] The persons cited having refused to appear, their properties and establishments were declared to be confiscated and to have fallen to the exchequer.[9]
But it was not enough to oppress the Vaudois; favour must also be shown to their adversaries, and in a very long edict[10] of the Duchess of Savoy, in which she treats at once of duels, of the chase, and of taxes, all the governors of castles in the Vaudois valleys were ordained to accede freely to the requests of the Capuchin missionaries, to attend at the meetings held by the Vaudois, to watch over them and to interdict them if necessary. The Vaudois were at the same time prohibited from assembling without the presence of chaplains, under a penalty of fifty crowns of gold for everyone who should contravene the edict; and this singular edicts which contains so many other things, promises, moreover, an immunity from public burdens for five years together, to all Protestants who should consent to become Catholics.
This promise having seduced no one, it was renewed by a special edict still more urgent than the first,[11] A few abjured; but the public contempt, and the affronts which they received from their fellow-countrymen, very soon compelled them to quit the valleys, and to seek a residence elsewhere.[12]
Shortly after succeeded, one after another, measures still more rigorous against the Vaudois. They were prohibited from passing beyond their limits, even for a few hours, except on market-days.[13] The magistrates of the neighbouring towns were enjoined, in case of their so doing, to arrest them without any legal formality.[14] At the same time proceedings were instituted against their pastors[15]-- the official celebration of the Catholic worship was appointed to take place in all the Protestant parishes[16]--,the Capuchins were encouraged,[17] and new rewards were promised to apostasy.[18]
In 1645, an institution was founded at Lucerna, expressly to receive and provide with marriage portions such young Vaudois girls as might abjure; but this institution could not maintain itself. The same year a Sovereign Council, established in Piedmont by the king of France, adopted still more vexatious measures against the Vaudois of Pérouse and Pragela.[19] The Catholics, and those who had become Catholics, were loaded with the favours of the court.[20] A young minister, named Louis Gaston D'Albret, who was born at Paris, and had studied at Geneva, arrived in the valleys, where he filled the office of pastor for two months, when he was unable to resist the pressing solicitations to apostasy which were addressed to the Vaudois. He abjured on the 26th of July, 1647 --received great honours at Turin--resided with the nuncio, and afterwards disappeared from the country, bearing with him a gratuity of 800 livres which the Duchess of Savoy had sent him, eager perhaps to get him removed from her dominions, as well as withdrawn from Protestantism; for she also was a D'Albret, that name being a patronymic of the progenitors of Henry IV.
The ancient privileges of the Vaudois were, however, ratified at this period more frequently than ever;[21] for the Vaudois thought to make them more secure by confirmations. In this the court granted nothing, and they gained nothing; on the contrary, they robbed themselves; for the fees of sealing, copying and registration required costly sacrifices at their hand on each new confirmation. But Rome grudged them even this important safeguard; and Innocent X. annulled, by a pontifical decree, dated on the 19th of August, 1649, the last favours which these poor people had obtained from their sovereigns. The influence of the Propagandists went on increasing, and ere long all the privileges, guaranteed in such mockery, were arbitrarily suspended by the edict of the 20th of February, 1650.[22] This suspension was to continue until the Vaudois should have demolished the eleven places of worship which they possessed beyond the prescribed limits; dismissed those pastors who were natives of other countries;[23] shut up the numerous schools maintained by them elsewhere than in their own territory; and consented to the universal celebration of the Catholic worship in all the valleys. These severities were all owing to the increasing intrigues of the Capuchins and the Propaganda.
The Vaudois sent up petition after petition, and, by these dilatory means, only succeeded in keeping all their difficulties unresolved. The monks, meanwhile, erected chapels in the valleys, notwithstanding the visible displeasure, and sometimes the formal opposition of the inhabitants: it required an edict of the sovereign to compel the people of Macel to permit the building of the church of La Salsa.[24]
But the claims and representations of the clergy became every day more urgent; and the petitions of the Vaudois having been rejected, instructions were given to Gastaldo, on the 15th of May, 1650, to restrict them within a boundary-line drawn above St. John and La Tour; ordaining all those who were settled in these communes, as well as those of Lucernette, Bubiano, Fenil, and St. Segont, to retire from thence within the space of three days, under pain of deaths with obligation to sell their possessions within the space of fifteen days, under pain of having them confiscated. The entirely Protestant communes of Bobi, Villar, Angrogna, and Rora, were enjoined to maintain, at their own expense, a station of Capuchin missionaries in each; and, at the same time that all possible means were thus employed to augment the number of Catholics, foreign Protestants were absolutely prohibited from settling in the valleys under pain of death, and of a fine of 1000 crowns of gold, to be imposed on the commune which should admit them.
Charged to put in execution enactments so Draconic, or rather, to designate more perfectly their cruel injustice and savage atrocity, enactments so profoundly Catholic--Gastaldo, however little sympathy he had hitherto shown for the Vaudois, acted with great moderation, it must be said, in the application of this ordinance, which, in his hands, became rather comminatory than repressive. The times fixed by the ordinance had long passed over without the parties, who were so unfortunate as to come under its sweep, having yet complied with it, and Gastaldo kept his eyes closed. He himself supported, by his representations to the sovereign, the petitions which were sent up by the persons interested, against whom, in the meantime, he took no steps; and ere long new confirmations of their ancient privileges were granted to them, on the 12th of January and the 4th of June, 1653. Thus the barbarous ordinance of the 15th of May, 1650, was never carried into effect.
But during this interval the Propaganda had attained unexpected greatness in consequence of the jubilee, which, in 1650, brought to Rome the rich tribute of the superstitions of all Europe. A sort of popular enthusiasm was created for that work, in which it was open to all Catholics, of whatever condition, to take a part. To be engaged in it, was all that was necessary to obtain a plenary indulgence; persons of great note enlisted themselves; princes and artisans took their places together in these ranks; there was no one who did not need indulgences, or, at leasts there was no one who had not some need of pardon; this institution of the Propaganda, therefore, rapidly extended, not only in Italy, but also in France. It had special councils in almost all the towns of these countries; and now to its title of "Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith," it added, in Piedmont at least, these supplementary words, "and for the extirpation of heretics."[25] These councils, as we have already said, were indifferently, or rather, with perfidious ingenuity, composed of persons of civil life and persons of religious life, if that name of religious life may be given to the gross fanaticism which labours, hand in hand, with corruption and cruelty. Yet this is what Rome calls zeal! If such be not the language of Antichrist, where shall we expect to find it?
As there was a plenary indulgence for the Propagandists, the women also desired to have their share. They formed a special council; and thenceforth the Propaganda was composed of two councils--one of men and another of women. This institution was founded at Turin, under the high favour of a royal ordinance.[26] The archbishop of that city, and the Marquis of St. Thomas, a minister of the crown, were the presidents of the former of these councils. The Marchioness of Pianesse was president of the latter. She had spent her youth in dissipation, and sought to expiate her past faults by the extremeness of her new zeal. Being a woman of strong passions, and easily led away, but perhaps also of a noble and generous disposition, it was no difficult matter for her spiritual directors to impel her into a wrong course, which they could teach her to regard as that of duty. Mankind, in general, are more easily swayed by a command issued in name of truth than by proof of the truth. Here lies the secret of the power of Popery.
All means were set in operation by the Propagandists to attain the object of their association; and as we now enter on the historic chapter of Léger, we shall borrow from that historian some particulars concerning the proceedings of the council, which owned for its president the Marchioness of Pianesse.[27]
"These ladies," says he, "divide the towns into districts, and each visits her district twice a week, suborning simple girls, female servants, and children, by their cajoleries and fair promises; and causing trouble and annoyance to those who do not choose to listen to them. They have their spies everywhere, who inform them of all Protestant families in which there is any domestic disagreement; and then they profit by the occasion to blow the fire of division as much as possible, to separate the husband from his wife, and the wife from her husband, the child from his father and mother, &c., promising them, and in fact bestowing upon them, great advantages, if they engage to attend mass. Frequently they impel them to institute law-suits against one another, and if once they have a hold of them by this handle, they never let them go until they have either recanted, or are ruined. They know the merchant who is unprosperous in business, the gentleman who has gambled away or squandered all that he had, and in general all families which fall into necessitous circumstances. And to seduce them with their dabo tibi, these ladies never fail to propose apostasy to these persons when they are almost desperate. They make their way into the very prisons, and accomplish the release of criminals who give themselves up to them. And as they employ great sums of money in keeping all this machinery in motion, and paying those who sell their souls to them for bread, they make regular collections, and do not fail to visit all families in good circumstances, shops, taverns, gambling-houses, &c., demanding alms for the extirpation of heresy. And if any person of condition arrives at an inn, they lose no time in paying their respects to him with an empty purse in their hands. To conclude, they meet in most of the towns twice a week, to compare accounts of what they have done, and to concert plans for what they are to do. If it so happens that they have need of the secular arm, or of an order of Parliament, it is rarely that they do not succeed in obtaining it. The councils of the lesser towns give in reports to those of the metropolitan towns, the latter to the council of the capital, and those of the capitals to that of Rome, where is the great spider that holds the threads of all this web."[28]
Such was the secret of the power so rapidly and immensely organized and extended by the activity, everywhere multiplied and propagated, of the innumerable agents who served it, and were its devoted instruments. The Marchioness of Pianesse herself Léger adds, great lady as she was, and unquestionably the first at court, took the pains, as long as she lived, of going in person several times a week, to make the above-mentioned collections through the town, even in the public-houses.[29] Could we desire greater devotedness or self-denial in a work of Christian charity? Let us do justice to our persecutors! they thought to serve the cause of charity: but let us execrate the detestable Popery which so perverted the idea of charity, and which changed into infernal poisons the most celestial perfumes of the noblest souls!
And these were not the only works of this kind to which these generous-hearted persons were guided by their church of perdition, and to which they might sometimes be seen to flock with a disinterestedness well worthy of a better cause. All the Vaudois children that could be withdrawn from under their paternal roof, and carried off from their parents, were considered as innocent victims saved from heresy, that is to say, snatched from the claws of Satan, and rescued from eternal perdition. Zealous Papists did not shrink from making the greatest sacrifices, braving even the terrors of the laws and the vengeance of men, in order to seize upon them. These children were then placed with rich Catholic families, who undertook their maintenance, or in convents, which undertook to make them slowly die to the world, to their native country, to the pure affections of the heart, and to the faith of the Bible. But what anguish and disorder were thus brought into families! And in this way did the abominable power of corruption, deposited in the bosom of Catholicism, transform the natural generosity of the hearts of its adherents into odious deception and barbarous treachery, as it had transformed Christian doctrine into miserable superstitions. The law of Nature was not more respected than the law of Revelation: for indeed both are from the same Divine source, and it is in the nature of Antichrist to oppose everything which comes from God.
It was, however, under the guise, and perhaps in all the sincerity of the greatest benevolence, that the instruments of apostasy were sometimes made to act, whose inflexible and cruel servility was perhaps also nothing else than the Catholic transformation of a genuine devotedness. Thus, by the concurrence of a number of rich persons and diverse legacies, there were opened in all the valleys (at Lucerna, at Pignerol, and at Le Perrier), establishments for lending money upon pledges, which were then called Lombards, and are now known as Monts de Piété.
The valleys were exhausted by the successive cantoning of different bodies of troops since 1653.[30] The famine augmented the price of wares, and poverty made them scarce. The establishments of which we speak had stores of corn, linen, various kinds of stuffs, and cash, all which resources they placed at the disposal of the Vaudois. When one of them had pawned his last articles of furniture, in order to prolong his life, they offered to restore them to him without any repayment on his part, on condition that he should give his soul in pawn to Popery; or they threatened him with the prison, if he did not reimburse them for the advances which he had received, and afterwards offered to release him from it, to annul his debt, and even to furnish him with fresh assistance, if he would abjure. These means were successful in drawing over numbers of persons, but still they did not accomplish so much as was desired.
The death of the Marchioness of Pianesse drew near. Not hoping anything more from this world she bethought herself of her husband, whom she had not seen for a long time: she sent for him and said to him, "'I believe I have much to expiate, and perhaps in my conduct towards you. My soul is in danger, help me and labour for the conversion of the Vaudois.' The husband promised; he was a brave soldier, and he laboured accordingly in soldierly style, putting all to fire and sword."[31] He had still another motive for obeying, namely, that his wife left him considerable sums, of which he was to have the disposal only upon that condition. The Jesuits presided at this compact of agony and extermination suggested by the Propaganda. From this time forth their only business was to find an occasion, or pretext, or reason for violent measures. The monks became more arrogant than ever, and the Jesuits dispersed agents amongst the Vaudois, whose employment was to provoke and excite the people to some sudden out-breaking.
Léger relates that the wife of Pastor Monget, at Le Villar, took an active part in the burning of the abode of the monks in that place, but the fact is not proved. The habitations of the monks were certainly destroyed by fire, or by the hands of the Vaudois, not only at Le Villar, but at Bobi, Angrogna and Rora; but the punishment of these crimes, in the persons of those who were guilty of them, could not be alleged as a motive for the violent measures of 1655, far less in justification of them; for the last of these acts, the burning of the convent of Le Villar, took place in 1653, and next year, as well as in that same year, the Vaudois again obtained the confirmation of their ancient privileges, after having rebuilt for the monks, the house which had been burned down.[32] This fact, to which Léger ascribes too much importance, because of the part which he acted as moderator in connection with it, had nothing whatever to do with the proceedings of 1655. Pretexts more serious, but having as little foundation, were then brought forward. The priest of Fenil had been assassinated. The assassin was seized after another crime. Pardon was promised him upon condition that he should confess plainly that he had killed the priest solely at the instigation of the Vaudois, and in particular of Léger, then pastor at St. John. Berru (such was the assassin's name), not having shrunk from the commission of a crime which entailed upon him capital punishment, could not be expected to shrink from a falsehood which was to save his life.
And it was on the denunciation of this man, guilty of three avowed murders, that the pastor of St. John, unknown to himself, without examination, and without being confronted with his accuser, without any judicial process, and without having even been cited, was condemned to death, as the instigator of one of these assassinations, whilst the assassin was set at liberty. We may easily understand the sentiments of indignation which are expressed in the writings of Léger, and cannot be surprised if the heart of the persecuted man sometimes caused the pen of the historian to tremble.
When hatred was reduced to such accusations as these--when the magistracy could listen to them, there must assuredly have been a world of prejudices on the one side, and a very irreprehensible life upon the other. But the worthlessness of the pretext shows the blindness of the hatred: other machinations show its ingenuity.
Louis XIV had sent troops to the succour of the Duke of Modena in 1654, and it was resolved to take advantage of their return and their passage through Piedmont, towards the end of that year, to canton them in the Vaudois valleys, and to make them serve for the work in hand. A dreadful success crowned the clerical intrigues in this instance, and there would therefore rest an ineffaceable stigma on the front of Catholicism, like the mark on Cain, the first fratricide, even if bloody pages were not so abundant in the history of that religion.
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