(A.D. 1664 to A.D. 1680.)
The six Protestant cantons of Switzerland having sent MM. Weiss and Hirzel to the Duke of Savoy, to mediate in favour of the Vaudois, and Charles Emmanuel having anthorized[2] conferences between these ambassadors and his own deputies, to examine into the complaints made by the valleys against the governor of La Tour,[3] these conferences took place in the town's-house of Turin.
They were opened on the 17th of December, 1663,[4] in presence of the Swiss ambassadors, eight Vaudois deputies, and the deputies of Charles Emmanuel commissioned to justify the measures adopted by their sovereign. These last commenced by stating, according to their own view of them, the events which led to the war, which, according to them, had no other cause than the repeated rebellions of the Vaudois. The Vaudois deputies replied that the real cause of the conflicts, which they deplored, was to be found in successive aggressions, and in the continual acts of violence of the governor of La Tour. It was necessary, therefore, to enter into the investigation of the complaints brought against the Count De Bagnol.
A great number of documents were produced on both sides. The Vaudois instanced murders,[5] robberies,[6] tortures,[7] and acts of violence of every sort committed by the count.[8] The count replied on these various heads,[9] that the murders of which he was accused had been committed either by accident, or through the private revenge of those under his command; and that if any other persons had been killed, it could only be such as had been outlawed, and whom no one was bound to regard. And in conclusion, he added, that if the murders had not been committed upon the persons of the outlaws themselves, they must have been committed upon some of their friends or near relatives.[10] This singular defence could scarcely have the effect of placing his scrupulosity in such matters above suspicion.
As to the other points, he continued, if there have been houses broken open, and homes violated, as is alleged, these were only domiciliary visits made for the purpose of seeing that none of the outlaws were concealed there.[11] "Moreover," adds his defence, "there arrived other soldiers in the valleys after the 25th of June, so that the accused cannot answer for the outrages which may have been committed there."[12] He positively denied the injurious language and threats[13] which were ascribed to him; but he acknowledged that he had in his service a band of ravagers, intended to oppose those of the valleys.[14] "In short," concluded the memorial which was presented in his name, "the Sieur De Bagnol has laboured with all mildness, and with particular care to keep the valleys in peace, and to preserve them from intercourse with the outlaws who have rushed into such an inexcusable rebellion." These last words were an insinuation intended to make the position of the Vaudois in the conference more unfavourable; but we may judge of the very particular care which he had taken of their repose by the troop of hired ravagers, whom he acknowledged that he had in his pay, for the purpose of plundering and robbing them.
The Vaudois were thereafter formally accused of a multitude of offences; and it is with pain that we see how questions of form and etiquette were put in the balance--in the case of these poor mountaineers, against crimes alleged to have been committed in the most revolting manner--by the very magistrates whose duty it was to have prevented them.
The following is a summary of these accusations:--"You ought to have sought legal redress for the acts of violence of which you complain; not having done so, you have failed in compliance with every rule of law." "We would have sought legal redress," it was replicd,[15] but they refused to attend to our complaints." "You ought to have done so sooner, for then the crimes alleged could not have been longer persevered in." "We informed concerning them previously, but no reply was made to us." "You should have applied to the council of the sovereign." "We did so, begging that it would ascertain for itself, and repress the violence to which we were subjected." "That was not the right way; this does not belong to the council; you have failed to comply with all legal forms and rules of procedure." Such was the substance of the discussion on this point.
As to the celebration of public worship at St. John, contrary to the orders of the sovereign, the Vaudois maintained that these orders themselves were contrary to their privileges. They proved by former edicts that they were authorized to celebrate that worship; and this subject brought on a new discussion on the value of these edicts, the extent of these privileges, and the limits of the places in which religious exercises were authorized, according to the usages (il solito) which regulated that matter; and all these questions were debated at great length.
It is worthwhile, however, to observe to what quirks the adversaries of the Vaudois were reduced, to confound, by chicanery, the simple and honest good sense of these poor persecuted people. Certainly, if it had been possible to have reproached them with a crime, with any serious offence or delinquency, the accusation would not have been awanting. A strong effort was made to do so; but their replies, in this respect, were too peremptory to leave any ground for the accusation.
They were reproached, for example, with having formed a camp at the Pra, and attacked the citadel of La Tour; but, after investigation, it was discovered (1) that this pretended camp was only a sheepfold, and (2) that some children having rolled stones down the hill of La Tour, these stones had struck the ramparts of the citadel, and that the attack of which they were accused consisted of nothing more than this! Is it possible that puerilities like these can have been the subject of such grave conferences, and that they can have served as a pretext for such great cruelties? But the great complaint brought against the Vaudois was that of having given assistance to the outlaws. "Can anyone be astonished," they replied, "that so great a number of persons condemned to death should have combined together to defend their lives? And, if they obtained some assistance from their families, or found shelter in the houses of their relatives or friends, can the responsibility be made to fall upon the whole body of the valleys?"
Such was the real substance of these long and wearisome conferences. The commissioners of the government, however, concluded by saying, that the Vaudois had had no cause of discontentment; and that if they took up arms, it was "to cause themselves to be molested, that they might complain thereof to foreign powers and have abundant collections sent them."[16] But if such an accusation is only ridiculous, it cannot be denied that what it now remains for us to speak of is truly odious.
Whilst the ducal commissioners thus insulted at Turin the good sense and loyalty of the Vaudois during these conferences--which most unquestionably ought to have been accompanied by a complete suspension of hostilities, and whilst our poor mountaineers were hoping for a favourable result--the Propaganda were contriving their destruction, and perfidiously proceeding to a bloody extermination. The second sitting of the Turin conferences had not yet taken place when the plan of this treachery was already entirely arranged.[17]
On the morning of the 21st of December, the Count of St. Damian marched upon Prarusting, by the borders of St. Segont, at the head of 1655 infantry and 50 cavalry. The Marquis of Parelles ascended in the direction of Angrogua, by the Garsinéra, with l576 infantry and 50 cavalry. Count Genèle, skirting the hills of the Portes and St. Germain, advanced upon the same point, by the opposite side, with a battalion of 786 men. Captain Cagnolo occupied the plain of St. John, at the head of 100 cavalry, ready to move in any direction that circumstances might demand; and, moreover, the Count of Bagnol, the governor of La Tour (the same who protested so much solicitude for the repose of the Vaudois, and who perished on the scaffold a few years after), was to make an attack by Les Copiers and St. Margaret, conducting against the Protestants 1118 men.
It was in this quarter that the attack commenced. The Vaudois were successively driven back from St. Margaret to Les Copiers, and from Les Copiers to the heights of Le Taillaret. But there they stood and contrived to keep their ground for some time, intrenched behind the rocks. Supposing that they alone were assailed, they sent to demand assistance from their brethren of Angrogna; they imagined that this attack was only a new villainy of the Count of Bagnol, but they were soon undeceived. They saw, in the hostile army, a troop more numerous than the governor of La Tour ordinarily had under his command. Their fortifications were already outflanked, and they thought of retiring. They seemed about to perish under the assault of forces ten times stronger than their own, when a voice was heard to cry, "Courage! Stand fast! We are here! God for your help!" These last words are a common form of speech in the Vaudois language.[18] Those who now spoke them were the people of Angrogna come to the help of their assailed brethren, whose valour was redoubled by the hope of success.
The enemy, supposing them already vanquished, were astonished at this resistance. The courage of the Vaudois rose on the arrival of these new forces, and their ardour increased as the attack was slackened. The Count of Bagnol, more vigorously pressed, lost courage, and became weaker rather than stronger. Victor but recently, he now only fought, and was soon to yield.
The Vaudois now assumed the offensive in their turn. They rushed out impetuously on the front of the assailing army; and, the detachment from Angrogna arriving, fell upon it in flank. That superstitious terror, which the presence of the Vaudois had so often awakened in the breasts of their adversaries, was now manifested again. The minds of the Catholics were seized with a perturbation which passed along the ranks--they disbanded, the bravery of the mountaineers completed their rout; and, like a torrent breaking its banks, which carries all before it, the triumphant Vaudois pursued their enemies to the very plain of La Tour.
On the side of Angrogna, where Captain Prionel defended at once the Vachère, Rochemanant, and Le Chiabas (three points distant several kilometres[19] from each other), the Marquis of Parelles gained no advantage. On the side of St. Germain, on the contrary, where the Count of Genèle had advanced with only one battalion, the Vaudois were completely beaten. The enemy laid waste their fields, vineyards, and crops, and set fire to the houses which lay along the hills from St. Germain to Rocheplate. In the latter hamlet, a poor impotent woman, almost 100 years of age, was burned alive in her dwelling. At St. Germain, a younger woman had her flesh torn in shreds without being put to death. Many old men were likewise mutilated. Such was the use which Papery made of its victory!
But although defeated, the Vaudois yet caused their enemies, on the field of battle, losses much more numerous than their own, having themselves lost only six men, whilst they killed 100 of the enemy, and amongst that number the Count of La Trinité, a lineal descendant of him who had so cruelly persecuted their fathers a century before; also the young Count of St. Frons, a descendant of the ancient persecutors of the Vaudois church of Praviglelm. This young man was the inheritor of a great fortune, and had been married a few days before to a lady to whom he was very strongly attached. But neither wealth nor love protected him in this combat; and with much confidence we may say, that the iniquities of the fathers were visited upon the children. Amongst the combatants killed by the Vaudois were reckoned, likewise, other great personages, such as Captain Biala and M. De Grand-Maison.
No sooner were the Swiss ambassadors at Turin informed of these disastrous events, than they complained bitterly to the ministers of the ducal court of this incessant and outrageous violation of the armistice agreed upon at the opening of the conferences. The reply made to them was, that the troops of his royal highness wanted provisions, and had merely taken some steps for the purpose of obtaining them in the valleys.[20] How, then, were the burnings and massacres to be accounted for? "The Vaudois having opposed the movement of our troops," it was said, "some collisions took place, and a few houses were burned by inadvertency." Many other outrages were then represented which had been perpetrated against the Vaudois; and the count replied, that the fault lay with the Vaudois themselves, who hath so oppressed, vexed, and molested their Catholic neighbours, that these latter had seized this opportunity to be in a slight, degree revenged. Let us leave the falsehood of this statement unexposed, and attend to the conclusion of the negotiations.
It was agreed that the bases of an arrangement should be presented to the Vaudois under the title of Patents of Grace; for the Duke of Savoy could by no means consent, in his exalted sovereign dignity, to treat on equal terms with these miserable heretics. He was resolved to grant them nothing whatsoever, except as of his grace; and this grace granted to the Vaudois, and accepted by them, must of necessity involve an acknowledgment on their part that they had been guilty of rebellion, which, according to the report of the ambassadors, was very far from being the case.[21] The Vaudois made some difficulty about accepting such propositions; but their protectors themselves entreated them not to insist upon matters of expression which were of no importance except for vanity; and accordingly the following heads of agreement were concluded at the hotel of the embassy:--[22]
"A general amnesty shall be granted to the Vaudois, with the exception of those previously condemned." (The latter were the outlaws mentioned in the edict of the 25th of June, l663. At their head were Léger and Janavel. The former was already in safety in Holland, where he occupied himself in writing the history of the Vaudois; the second retired to Geneva, where he afterwards rendered the greatest services to his countrymen, by tracing out for them, in 1689, the course which they should follow to return to their country, from which they had been totally expelled in 1687.) By the second article of these stipulations Charles Emmanuel ratified the Patents of Grace, granted at Pignerol on the 18th of August, 1655; but he reserved the right of demanding from the Vaudois securities for the future, and suitable amends for the present, referring this point to the arbitration of France.
This arbitration, the judgments of which were pronounced in the name of Louis XIV,[23] became the source of innumerable difficulties. The Most Christian king decided that of unfortunate valleys, already ruined by war, exhausted by the depredations of the Count of Bagnol, devastated by fire, and by robbery and outrage of every sort, to which they had been subjected, should pay to the Duke of Savoy, for the expenses of war, an indemnity of fifty thousand francs, and cede to him their richest lands (the district of the vineyards of Lucerna), in compensation for the losses which had been caused to him by the pretended rebellion of the Vaudois. And the Vaudois could not complain, for they had implicitly acknowledged the reality of this rebellion in accepting the amnesty as of grace. Such was the consequence, in artful and greedy hands, of the disinterested counsel which the Swiss ambassadors in their sincerity had given to the Vaudois, causing them to accept these humiliating terms as a simple sacrifice of conventional dignity designed to satisfy courtly pride.
The third part of the Patents of Grace of 1664 relates to religious exercises at St. John. Public worship there was interdicted. A pastor of the valley might come twice a-year to visit the members of the Protestant Church there, but he was not to reside in that parish, nor even to pass the night there, except in case of absolute necessity. He was to be permitted to visit the sick, but not to hold any religious meeting, nor even to instruct his catechumens within the limits of this communes.--(This article became the source of the most frequent and prolonged disagreements, and of accusations most easily got up, and disproved with the greatest difficulty, even when they were unfounded. The narration of what the Vaudois suffered on this score would occupy a whole volume of itself.)
The last conditions contained in the edict of 14th February, 1664, were--
(Art. VI.) That the pastors of the Vaudois churches should henceforth be natives of the country. (This condition did them no harm; but, on the contrary, confirmed their evangelical individuality, which ran great risk of being lost under the too prolonged guidance of foreign pastors.)
(Art. VII.) The Catholic chapels and churches destroyed in this last war shall he built again at the expense of the Vaudois. (More demands still against the oppressed!)
(Art. VIII.) The prisoners on both sides shall be released.
A convention of disarmament of the respective combatants followed immediately[24] upon the publication of this paper; and the Duke of Savoy wrote to Switzerland by the ambassadors on their return, that he would conform entirely to its provisions.[25]
After so many cruel agitations, the Vaudois valleys began to enjoy a little repose, when, unexpectedly, they received orders to send delegates to Turin, with a mandate authorizing them to treat in name of all the people.[26] Each commune was obliged to send a representative; and all these delegates must be assembled at Turin on the 17th of May, 1664. The object was, to take into consideration the securities and indemnities demanded by Charles Emmanuel in virtue of the second article of the late edict.
The Duke of Savoy wished the Vaudois to pay more than half a million of francs (531,000) for the expenses of the war, and 330,367 francs besides, to indemnify the Catholic villages which had suffered in the recent events. Alas! Which had suffered most? Was it the Catholics who had been obliged to forsake their properties and dwellings, to flee to the mountains, and to sacrifice their flocks, in order to maintain in misery a persecuted life? Was it the Catholics whose crops had been wasted, and their houses burned, and who had not been able to save themselves from sword, and fire, and famine? No; but it was thought proper to take from the persecuted the last relics of their fortune, to pay for the barbarities of their persecutors.[27] As to the securities demanded for the future, Charles Emmanuel required the erection at the entry of each valley, and at the expense of the Vaudois, of a fortified post, of which the garrison should be maintained at their expense. He also required that they should no longer be entitled to hold their synod save in presence of one of his officers, that the communes of the valleys should not be connected together any longer in one body, but that each should henceforth treat separately of its own private affairs without consulting the rest. This was to reserve to himself the right of destroying the Vaudois in detail, by depriving them of all corporate life. Other conditions were also demanded, but they were all rejected.
A minute was drawn up of the refusal of the Vaudois; and this document was sent to Louis XIV, as the judge in the last resort. We have already stated his decision; and it must be acknowledged that, when it is compared with the exorbitant pretensions of the Duke of Savoy, lie showed great moderation in this business. Many foreign powers wrote to him, moreover, in favour of the Vaudois. His arbitration was not terminated till 1667; and, meanwhile, abundant and numerous collections had been made in the Protestant churches of other countries, to give some relief to their oppressed sister of the Alps of Piedmont. The strictest precautions were taken by the distributors of these collections, to preserve themselves from the slightest suspicion of malversation.
From 1667 to 1672 numerous obstacles still retarded the fulfilment of the conditions fixed by Louis XIV; for the decision of that monarch bore, not only that the Vaudois should pay 50,000 francs and surrender the vineyards of Lucerna, to be added to the private domains of Charles Emmanuel II, but also that they should make a declaration to him, binding themselves and their successors beforehand, to submit to the loss of all their property and the abolition of all their privileges, if they ever again took up arms against their sovereign. The people of the valleys very reasonably refused to engage for their successors. They said also that it was impossible for them to know precisely what were the domains designed by that vague expression, the Vineyards of Lucerna; and finally they demanded time to pay. These things were not soon settled.
In 1670,[28] the duke enjoined the intendant of the Court of Justice, Louis Beccaria, to compel the Vaudois to fulfil the conditions which had been imposed upon them. The intendant wrote to the valleys accordingly, but with much moderation;[29] and at last the Vaudois submitted with a good grace.[30] The bearing of the court of Savoy towards them became milder, and new favours were granted them.[31] The soldiers of the valleys distinguished themselves at the siege of Genoa, and their sovereign wrote them a flattering letter in testimony of his satisfaction.[32] These sentiments of goodwill and tardy justice towards the Vaudois cannot lie suspected of insincerity, for at this period the Duke of Savoy wrote to the apostolic nuncio, "If I only consulted the counsels of sound policy, I ought to desire that the Vaudois should multiply rather than diminish in number; for they are loyal, laborious, well-disposed, useful to the country," &c.[33]
Charles Emmanel died in 1675;[34] and although he was not surnamed the Great, like his predecessor of the same name, he had a noble and lofty spirit. He encouraged arts and sciences; and it was he who constructed the palace which the kings now occupy at Turin. The modern part of that capital was also his work. In opening the magnificent road of Les Échelles, which connects France and Savoy, he accomplished an enterprise which the Romans appear to have attempted in vain; and, moreover, important reforms were introduced by him into most of the departments of public administration.
His son, Victor Amadeus II, succeeded him under the regency of his mother; for he was only nine years of age when the ducal crown was placed upon his head, upon which it was to become a royal crown.
The regent wrote, in 1679,[35] to the Swiss cantons, to assure them of the care which she would take to cause all the privileges of the Vaudois to be respected; who, at that period, gave new proof of their valour and generous loyalty, by defending the cause of the crown in a rebellion which took place in Mondovi. The uncle of the young king, Don Gabriel of Savoy, mentioned this fact in a very honourable way, in an order of the day in 1680, and wrote himself to the Vaudois to thank them.[36] They in their turn asked the ratification of their ancient privileges, and obtained it from Victor Amadeus II, the son of Charles Emmanuel II.[37]
It seemed as if this event should have placed upon a solid foundation, for all time coming, the independence and repose of the Vaudois churches; but God's ways are not our ways, and these poor churches, already so much tried, were then nearer than ever to being destroyed by an extraordinary catastrophe, which in its mysterious counsels heaven reserved for them.
Notes: