FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[F]Gli Evangelici Valdesi, perPaolo Geymonat, Professore di Teologia in Firenze.[G]This banner was afterwards presented to the king, and most graciously received by him.[H]Le General Beckwith, sa vie a ses travaux.ByJ. P. Meille, Pasteur.

[F]Gli Evangelici Valdesi, perPaolo Geymonat, Professore di Teologia in Firenze.

[G]This banner was afterwards presented to the king, and most graciously received by him.

[H]Le General Beckwith, sa vie a ses travaux.ByJ. P. Meille, Pasteur.

We concluded our last amidst the gladness of heart which filled the souls of myriads to whom social progress, political freedom, and evangelical truth were precious. Our object now is to recount the fruits of that enlargement accorded to the Vaudois; and in order to do this we must take a retrospect of their religious condition for some few years before the arrival of that grand epoch. At that period the state of things in the valleys was far from satisfactory. Not to recount, as among the causes, those political disabilities to which reference has been previously made, I will refer to some additional circumstances of a vexatious and depressing character. One was the hindrances to the obtaining the most indispensable religious books, such as Bibles, catechisms, hymn-books. With each parcel of Bibles and New Testaments, the moderator was obliged to sign a formal undertaking that not a single copy should be sold, nor even lent to a Roman Catholic. Again, in all the communes of the valleys, where nearly all the proprietors were Protestants, and scarcely a Roman Catholic could be found who was not either living on alms or employed as a daily labourer, the law required that themajorityof the members of the communal council should be always and necessarily composed of Romanists.

As regards primary education, the valleys were more favourably circumstanced than other parts of the kingdom. Out of a population of some twenty thousand, nearly four thousand attended school, at least during the winter months. However, it will be seen that the real work of education was not in so satisfactory a condition as the above statement, in a superficial point of view, might imply. To show this we will descend to details as to the schools, their kind, structure, fittings, and teachers.

First, then, we take thehamlet schools, about one hundred and twenty in number. They were carried on generally in astable, and the place was neither remarkable for space nor cleanliness; so that on one side, in a narrow division, would be thirty or forty children, separated from the sheep or the goats by so slender a space that not infrequently the heads of the children and the animals would combine in a way more grotesque than effective for educational purposes.

The amount of didactic efficiency to be expected in the teacher may be surmised from the circumstance of his salary being sometimes less than the munificent sum of threepence-halfpenny per day! With such machinery we may feel it was an achievement to be grateful for, if by the end of the winter's session the children had learnt to read, write, and cipher moderately, and could repeat by heart a prayer for morning and evening, the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, and the Apostles' Creed.

Second. There were also theparish schools, open ten months in the year, and attended during the winter by a large number of children, the majority of whom had to leave on the advent of spring to work in the fields.Those not so required remained in the district or hamlet schools. The buildings in which the parish schools were conducted were not exactly stables, but yet entirely destitute of the light, air, fittings, and furniture requisite for school-work. The only reading-books were a French Bible and Italian acts of parliament. So much, then, for the primary schools. The condition of thesecondary or grammar schoolswas not much more encouraging. The institution was migratory, and aimed to teach fifteen or twenty pupils, divided into five classes, under one teacher, not always very competent, and badly paid, as much Latin and Greek as would secure their admission as students in the academies of Strasbourg, Lausanne, or Geneva. But we pass from schools to things religious and ecclesiastical. Morals were comparatively pure; there was a respect for religion; a frequent attendance on public worship; a deep attachment to their ancestral faith; a disposition to endure everything rather than deny it; and affection and esteem for their pastors. As regards the pastors, they were, almost without exception, faithful to the ancient evangelical orthodoxy.

But there was that which both pastors and flocks were very imperfectly acquainted with, viz., on one side the aim and mission of the church, and on the other the true nature of the fruits intended to be produced by the preaching of the gospel. In a word, there was a lack of true spiritual energy, a realization of the need and preciousness of salvation. There was the outward shell of orthodoxy, but the living soul of godliness was wanting. Jesus Christ was present in name, but absent in reality.

In the administration of the church there were manyserious defects. The meeting of the synods was very difficult, partly because of the suspicions of the government, and partly from the unwillingness of the communes to bear the expense connected therewith. Again, the synods themselves answered but imperfectly to the design of their institution, and their influence on the spiritual state of the church very small. The Table, in its turn, forgetting that its duties were essentially religious, sunk insensibly into a kind of higher tribunal for secular affairs. The same tendency showed itself in the bosom of the consistories.

However, amidst these deep shades some gleams of light, the heralds of better things, began to show themselves. The first of these hopeful signs was due to the liberality, as regards its beginning, of Madame Geymet, who in the year 1826 laid the foundation of a hospital for the poor Waldensians at La Torre. Madame Geymet was encouraged warmly by Pastor La Bert, the then moderator of the Waldensian Church, and Pastor Cellerier, of Geneva, who made a collection in aid of the object. The Count Waldburg Truchsesse, Prussian ambassador at Turin, obtained help from Prussia; Dr. Gilly, by means of the committee in London, sent large help from this country. Holland, France, and Russia also joined in the effort; so that at length the brave projector had the satisfaction of seeingtwohospitals grow out of her once ridiculed scheme. The second hospital was erected at Pomaret, for the especial benefit of the valleys of San Martino and Pragela.

Another means of awakening at this time arose from the arrival of some young ministers, who had just left theforeign academies, especially that of Lausanne, where the influence of a spiritual revival had been particularly felt. A visit paid to the different parishes of the valleys in 1826 by Felix Neff and Pastor Blanc, of Mens, resulted in much spiritual fruit.

These were but streaks of morning light, however. Long years had to pass, and many painful struggles to be engaged in, before the Sun of Righteousness shone clearly with His beneficent rays on the thick woods and the shady corners of these lovely valleys. Among those who have been the means of promoting the revival of true religion in the Waldensian Church stand out conspicuously the names of Dr. Gilly and General Beckwith. The former paid his first visit to the valleys in 1823. As that visit became the germ of so much blessing to the Vaudois, it is not unimportant to recall the providential circumstance which led to that visit. Referring to the doctor's own narrative,[I]he says, "I happened to attend a meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on a day when a very affecting letter was read to the board, signed Ferdinand Peyrani, minister of Pramol, 'and requested that some aid might be sent, in books or money, to the ancient Protestant congregation in the mountains of Piedmont, who were struggling hard against poverty and oppression.'" The society voted forty pounds' worth of books, including those mentioned as specially needed for use in their churches. But from the date of this incident Dr. Gilly sought after fuller information respecting the Vaudois, and determined on visiting their valleys. This purpose he carried into effect early in the year 1823, and on his return home the next year he published an account of his journey, his object being to excite animmediateinterest on behalf of these people. How largely he succeeded, so as to entitle him to be reckoned among their chiefest benefactors, we shall have occasion to remark later on. But, apart from the formation of a large and influential committee in London, by which considerable sums of money were raised "to assist the Vaudois in maintaining their ministers, churches, schools, and poor," he was the means of invoking the sympathy and aid of one who consecrated his life, strength, and means in one almost unbroken series of efforts for their amelioration—I mean General Beckwith. This distinguished philanthropist was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 2nd, 1789. He was baptized by the names of John Charles, and entered the 95th Regiment in the year 1803. His first years as a soldier were spent in Hanover, Denmark, and Sweden. In 1809 he was engaged in the Peninsular War, being present at the disastrous retreat from Corunna and the sieges of Salamanca and Toulouse. For his services at the last place he received a gold medal and the rank of major, March 3rd, 1814. During these campaigns he was never wounded, although exposed to great danger. One morning, among others, his old servant had scarcely reached the skirts of a forest in which the enemy had an ambuscade than his master's horse was killed by a ball, and the rider overthrown. The servant thought it was all over with his master, but the sad thought had hardly entered his mind when Beckwith sprang up and cried out,"All right, John," and by a quick movement escaped beyond reach of the enemy's fire.

On the return of Napoleon from Elba, Beckwith rejoined the standard of Wellington, and took a prominent part in the battle of Waterloo. On this day he had four horses killed under him, but received no personal injury until he was struck by a cannon ball in the left leg from the retreating fire of the French. After three months' unsuccessful treatment amputation was declared necessary. This random shot, like the bow drawn at a venture in an ancient battle, was pregnant with mighty consequences, not only to Beckwith personally, but to that interesting people to whom as yet he had never given a thought.

Beckwith, though only twenty-six years of age, was made a lieutenant-colonel on the field of battle, and received the silver medal struck to commemorate the victory. Had he not lost his leg he would probably have risen to the highest distinction as a soldier. But if so he might never have become the instrument of such extensive blessings to the Vaudois as was destined in the providence of God.

The first foundation stone, so to speak, on which was to be erected the spacious superstructure of his after benevolence began at the time of his retirement to the château of Mont St. Jean, during the period of weakness resulting from his wound at Waterloo. The owner of the mansion had a little girl, six years of age, who was a most attentive nurse to him. She hardly ever left his bedside, and by her childish prattling, innocent pleasantries, and tender sympathy, won his regard, and spread a charmover a time of pain and depression; so much so, indeed, that when the time of separation came it greatly distressed him, and in after life he never spoke of her without evident emotion.

But it was in this way God led him first to that benevolent interest in the young which afterwards became so marked a feature of his character.

But up to this time, whilst Beckwith was not a sceptic, yet his faith was not of an operative kind, he was taken up with those pursuits which belonged solely to time. The means employed by God to awaken him to a knowledge of the real aim of life was a copy of His own Word. This treasure had lain unused at the bottom of his portmanteau until he lay wounded at a little village near Courtray, in Belgium. Then he began to read with an interest not previously felt, and it became to him the word of life. When he was questioned about the circumstances of his conversion, he used to reply, in his graphic way: "The good God said, 'Stop here, you rascal!' and He has cut off my leg, and I think I shall be the more happy without it."

Of Beckwith's character as a soldier one of his former companions writes thus: "I always regarded Beckwith as an officer of very brilliant promise, for he embodied all the requisites of a great commander: remarkable quickness in conception, imperturbable coolness in the time of action, admirable power of organization, with indomitable courage. When he was major he always left a position of safety to mix in the thick of the fight, and I remember meeting him in the breach of Ciudad Rodrigo at the head of an attacking column when he might have been in therear." The same person also testifies to Beckwith's care of his men, extending even to minute particulars about clothing. Also, that he was a great favourite with his brother officers on account of his intelligence and amiability. After recovering somewhat from his wound he returned to England, and visited America during this time. Shortly after his arrival in England from the latter place he sought out his old companions in the army, and among others he called on the Duke of Wellington.

It was while calling at Apsley House on one of these occasions he was shown into the library, and whilst waiting a short time for the duke his eye fell upon a number of new books, includingDr. Gilly's Visit to the Vaudois. On leaving he obtained a copy of the book. The result was that he determined to visit the valleys himself, which event happened in the autumn of 1827.

Owing to the weather he stayed only a few days, but returned the following year, and continued his visits to the valleys year after year, until, in 1833, a severe illness obliged him to remain in England. In the autumn of 1835 he returned, and lived in the valleys with Pastor Bonjour, at St. John's, for the next five years. Again, after an interval of two years, he returned to the valleys, living at the ancient castle of La Torre. In 1836 the Vaudois Table had his portrait painted, and engravings distributed through the valleys. In 1844 the synod presented him with a cup of honour, also Dr. Gilly and the Count Waldburg Truchsesse. In 1846 he was promoted to the rank of major-general in the English army, and also received the dignity of a Knight of St. Maurice and Lazarus from the king of Sardinia. In 1850 he marrieda Vaudoise. In 1862 he dies among the people he had so long loved and served, and is buried at La Torre, amid the profoundest grief and deepest veneration of the whole population.

FOOTNOTES:[I]Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont in the year 1823.ByWilliam Stephen Gilly. 2nd Ed. C. and J. Rivington.

[I]Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont in the year 1823.ByWilliam Stephen Gilly. 2nd Ed. C. and J. Rivington.

Our last chapter closed with a brief sketch of the life of Beckwith, so that in the present I might be free to speak of the work done, without interpolations as to the personal movements of him who was in several respects the chief worker. To those who desire to read the full particulars of General Beckwith's life, I very earnestly commend the deeply interesting work of Pastor J. P. Meille, to whose pages I am greatly indebted.

Beckwith was early impressed with the conviction that God had providentially preserved the Vaudois, that they might be the agents of evangelizing Italy, through the political changes which were being wrought in that country by means of the kingdom of Sardinia. He was the first to recognize this important truth, and he never lost sight of it, either in the motive which it supplied for his own efforts, or in the influence he sought to bring to bear upon others. This belief in the mission of the Vaudois quickened all his sympathies and guided all his plans. To turn to these plans, one of the earliest was the improvement and extension of primary education. Beckwith saw at once the value of the Quartier schools, and he began to erect a better class of buildings for this purpose. First of all he bore the whole expense, excepting the site; afterwards he paid the cost of labour in erecting the buildings, but required the inhabitants to supplymaterial as well as site. He also oftentimes contributed largely to augment the salary of the underpaid teachers. Some one hundred and twenty buildings, commodious and well-situated, were the result of these efforts.

But the improvement in the hamlet schools brought out more distinctly the sad condition of the parish schools. To overcome difficulties, Beckwith would say to the parish authorities, You need a better school and residence for your teacher; if you will raise a thousand francs (about a fourth or fifth, according to circumstances), I will supply the rest.

If this offer was accepted, the colonel generally made the contract, and overlooked the erection of the building.

In this way, a little by little, some this year and others the next, in nearly every commune of the valleys there rose up commodious edifices, duly furnished with all the requisites of teaching. The change was immense from the narrow, confined, ill-ventilated, badly lighted, and unfurnished buildings which had previously existed.

The reformation, however, in the buildings and their fittings was not the only thing requisite for a good school. Good teachers were also needed, and to procure these it was necessary to augment the scale of stipend. At the time under review the highest salary was from three to four hundred francs (£12 or £16) per annum. Beckwith set about this task, and being ably supported by the moderator of the church, M. Bonjour, he had the satisfaction of seeing an arrangement made by which the salaries of the teachers were raised one-third. This augmentation began on the 1st of January, 1837. But the good effected by this movement was not simply the increased pay ofthe teacher; it raised the work in public estimation, and gave to the teacher's position a degree of security which enabled him to devote himself more entirely to teaching as a distinct profession.

Another means for advancing education was that of increasing the personal efficiency of the teachers themselves. To accomplish this, the teachers of all the parish schools in the valleys were sent for a course of instruction at the normal college at Lausanne. The expense of this important measure was borne entirely by Beckwith. And, moreover, to secure permanently the above results, a rule was adopted by the synod in 1839, that henceforth every teacher in the Vaudois parish schools must produce a certificate of didactic power, as well as moral fitness for the office.

Beckwith's next movement was the establishment of a boarding-school for girls. I had the pleasure of visiting this very interesting and important institution in 1871, and was struck by the efficiency and excellence of its character. But it is time to refer to his exertions in connection withsecondaryinstruction. Although Dr. Gilly very deservedly has the chief credit in reference to the erection of that noble college of the Holy Trinity at La Torre, which forms so imposing and interesting an object to the Christian tourist, and which constituted so marked an epoch in the restoration of piety and sound learning among the pastors and general population of the valleys, yet it must be acknowledged that the many difficulties associated with this grand enterprise would hardly have been surmounted, had it not have been for the presence on the spot of so true a friend to theVaudois, and so able an ally of the noble projector of the college, as his military colleague.

Not only did he provide a building for the grammar school whose location had been one of the difficulties connected with the establishment of the college, but he also superintended the erection of the buildings, and gave a sum of ten thousand francs towards the cost. Dr. Gilly acknowledges these things in a letter to the moderator under date of April 28th, 1835. He also was instrumental, with Dr. Gilly, in founding a grammar school at Pomaret. This school was subsequently enlarged by the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Stewart, of Leghorn, another warm-hearted friend of the Waldensian Church.

In 1847 Beckwith erected a group of houses, just above the college, for the residence of the professors. But important as were the reformations sought and obtained in the educational machinery of the valleys, yet it was almost as needful to improve the character of the ecclesiastical edifices used by the Vaudois. Few were such as fitted the purposes to which they were set apart. There is nothing surprising in this when we consider the circumstances of the Vaudois through so many centuries. But, easy as it is to account for the lack of edifices appropriate to the decent and reverent worship of Almighty God at the period referred to, the thing itself was nevertheless a misfortune. Hence in 1843 Beckwith offered to restore the temple at Rodoret, which was in a most deplorable state. The temple was not alone in its need; the parsonage-house, a very crazy building, was destroyed by an avalanche on the 16th of January, 1845, burying beneath its ruins the pastor, his wife, their little child, aged fivemonths, and servant, the only living creature escaping being the pastor's dog! The new temple being finished in March, Beckwith commenced operations for the erection of a suitable presbytery. The total cost of the new building was thirteen thousand francs, contributed chiefly by Beckwith, but with the help of the commune, Dr. Stewart, of Leghorn, and friends in Dublin and America.

His next work was the restoration of the church at Rora. This matter was accompanied by a pleasing incident. He was speaking of the affair at the house of a friend in England. A little girl of the family overheard the conversation, and, approaching the general, offered him a penny, saying she would like to assist in building the church. He was much touched by this action of the child, and taking her on his knees, said, "Yes, my friend; with that which you have given me I will build the church; and your penny, placed in the corner stone, will tell all the world that you have been the founder." The new building was consecrated in January, 1846. Other temples and presbyteries were restored, including that of Prali. The churches of Coppier and Angrogna were restored in 1847 by Mrs. General Molyneux Williams. But a greater work was accomplished in 1852, when Beckwith erected a church for the parish of La Torre, which, under the influence of oppressive edicts, had been deprived of its temple for hundreds of years. This edifice is, both as regards dimensions and architecture, suited to the position it holds as the parish church of the capital of the valleys; those valleys no longer dreading the approach of sanguinary bands to pillage and destroy, its people no longer crushed beneath a bondage which refused them theopportunities of worship in their own parochial boundaries according to the creed and ritual of their sainted and heroic forefathers. This grand work was the last preliminary to that church extension and missionary revival which the era of emancipation made possible to the Vaudois Church, and which Beckwith had so long eagerly and clearly anticipated.

The first exercise of evangelical liberty accorded to the Vaudois Church was shown in the attempt to preach the gospel and establish a place of Protestant worship, at what, in point of geographical nearness, was the neighbouring city, but not in the past theneighbourlycity of Pinerolo. The work was, however, accomplished chiefly by the munificence of American Protestants. Then came the opening of the edifice, which so worthily represents the Vaudois cause in Turin. Beckwith took a very energetic part in this important work. But the actual modern mission work of the Vaudois Church may be said to have begun in May, 1849, when Professor Malan preached in the temple at St. Giovanni (for the first time for centuries past) the gospel in the Italian language.

The Count Guiccardini and some other persons of social position at Florence and its neighbourhood joined the Vaudois Church in 1850. The same year a Vaudois missionary was appointed to Turin, chiefly by the liberality of two English gentlemen, Messrs. Brewin and Milsom. In 1851 a great many refugees, for conscience' sake, from Florence (the result of evangelistic labours there), fled to Turin and swelled the numbers of the Vaudois congregation.

Also on the evening of the day on which was laid the foundation of the new temple, Mazzarella, a Neapolitan advocate, deputy of parliament, and judge of the court ofappeal at Genoa, was one of ten catechumens received into the membership of the Vaudois Church.

At the same time the gospel was finding its way into Genoa, a city devoted to Mariolatry. On the very day on which the Table decided to send M. Geymonat from Turin to work in Genoa, they received an application by letter from Genoa to admit to their communion and ministry a very distinguished ex-priest of Rome. This was no other than Dr. De Sanctis, rector of the Magdalen and professor of theology, &c., at Rome. Excepting during a short period, to which I need not refer, the connection thus begun between Dr. De Sanctis and the Vaudois continued until his lamented death on the last day of December, 1869. But there are two points I will allude to. First, the incidental means of his conversion. This was by a little treatise put into his hands at a time when he was preparing a series of lectures in defence of the decrees of the Council of Trent as compared with the word of God.

Secondly, the ground on which he sought admission into the Vaudois Church. In the letter addressed to the Table, dated August 17th, 1852, he states that he had abandoned the Church of Rome for nearly five years, and from the moment of his separation until then his thoughts "always turned to the Church of the Valleys,because he recognized it as the true, primitive, apostolic Italian Church." "During these five years," he adds, "I have lived among Christians who have proposed to me many times, with a view to my temporal advantage, that I should join some church; but I have always refused, thinking thatan Italian, sincerely seeking the good of his compatriots, should not belong to any other church thanthe ancient Italian Church." I have transcribed these words, because I feel strongly their importance as coming from one so well able to estimate the value of the Vaudois in its past history and its adaptation to the necessities and opportunities of evangelizing that country so much needing the gospel of Christ—the Italy of to-day. It seems to me that it is for this very purpose that the little community confined within so narrow a space, apart from the more populous and frequented parts of Europe, has been preserved, in spite of so many attempts at extermination. What the seven thousand who did not bow the knee to Baal were to the rest of Israel, so it would seem that the faithful few in the valleys of Piedmont are intended to be in reference to that new kingdom of Italy, of which they form one of the most ancient provinces. And the whole attitude and character of the Church of the Valleys confirms this feeling. They can appeal to their brother Italians as no foreigners can. Their very sufferings give them a right which cannot be ignored. Mazzarella eloquently acknowledged this when he visited La Torre. Again, by the removal of their college to Florence; their literary enterprise in such publications as theAmico di Casa,Amico Dei Fanculli,La Rivista Christiana; the talent, zeal, and organizing power of their missionary agency, they show themselves fully alive to the privileged responsibilities of their position in Italy, and fully entitled to the hearty confidence and liberal support of all who desire the supremacy of evangelic truth in that land which has been so long the head quarters of the papacy!

The following statement of agencies will confirm my assertion:—

From this it will be seen that the Waldensian Church has at this moment forty stations and forty missionaries labouring in Italy and Sicily, of whom twenty-four are ordained ministers who have attended the college curriculum of nine years required by the Waldensian Church, four are probationers who have also attended their whole college course, and only wait till their year of probation as missionaries has expired to be also ordained, and the other twelve are lay evangelists, or schoolmaster evangelists, who have given satisfactory proof of their piety and ability to teach. The number of day schools instituted in connection with these mission stations is fifty-eight, taught by fifty-nine teachers, and attended by 1,568 pupils, according to the return made to the Synod in August, though I am inclined to think that there has been an increase in the number since then. There are thirty-eight Sabbath schools, at which there has been an attendance of 1,086 scholars, the greater number of whom are children of parents still professing Catholicism. The congregations begin to recognise the obligation of doing something to support divine ordinances among themselves, and this year they have contributed to the funds of the Evangelization Commission the sum of 21,217,84 lires, about £848 sterling, being upwards of £400 sterling more than last year. The number of communicants up to the middle of August was 1,952, and that of catechumens 214, while the number of hearers was then stated at Sabbath worship at a maximum of 3,220. This is a brief account of the mission-work of the Waldensian Church in Italy, apart altogether from the pastoral and educational work carried on in the fifteen parishes of thevalleys, and in the college of La Tour, which I have not time to enlarge on at present.

But whilst I desire to evoke the sympathy of English-speaking Christians everywhere on behalf of the Italian mission-work of the Waldensian Church, my chief object in sending out this little volume has been to call attention to some wants of the Vaudois in their own home-field. It is delightful to an English visitor to those valleys to recount the long lines of deserved connection between his own country and this Goshen of the Alps—a line reaching from the days of our first Charles, strengthening visibly during the time of Cromwell, revived under William and Mary, and Ann, continuing still through the time of the Georges; though suspended for awhile by the interference of European warfare, yet again rekindled by the energy and eloquence of Gilly, expanded and deepened by the devotedness of Beckwith, and other benefactors following in his train too numerous for us to register, but not one of them ignored or forgotten by the grateful valley-men benefitted by their Christian kindness. Apart from the institutions to which I have already adverted, there is another which meets the eye of the visitor at La Torre, as he turns up the Val Angrogna. This is the Vaudois Orphan Asylum and Industrial School, established by the British Ladies' Association, the secretary of which is Miss Hathaway, Cheltenham. As the title indicates, the orphans are taught useful industries, such as straw-hat plaiting, lace and needle-work. Articles thus made are disposed of for the benefit of the institution, which provides a home for sixty children. Very great was the need of such a place in the valleys, and deeplyencouraging have been the fruits of this work of faith and labour of love. Not to extend my little book too far beyond its original design, viz., that of a "handy-book on the valleys brought down to date," I can only add that it seems to me that the chief wants of the church in her own valleys are—first, a better sustenance for her pastors; the very circumstance that those pastors are now expected to take their places side by side with the foremost men of other churches in the Continent of Europe for the defence and spread of God's truth justifies this plea, if it were otherwise weak, which it is not.

Secondly, help in the restoration of her ancient sanctuaries, and one or two additional ones. One thing that struck me as a painful void was, the absence of any public monument of the past events of the wonderful history of the Vaudois. It is true, in one sense, that the whole place is a museum of relics; that every rock has some thrilling tale, every mountain slope and hill-side graven upon it the memory of saints and martyrs. Yet I confess that those who do remember what has passed, and that those who wish that generations yet to come may know the history of these valleys, may well desire that some external tokens stood out to impress the passer-by with suitable emotion. I had this feeling most strongly as I reached the Shiloh of the valleys—the Pra del Tor.

Our route lay through the luxuriant and lovely Val Angrogna, which now rejoiced in the fascinating charms of springtide. Everywhere the eye rested on scenes of softness and beauty, the turf not unlike that which gives such a charm to an English landscape, while the undulating slopes were covered with an unutterable profusionof flowers. As we advanced higher up the valley we were strongly reminded of the words of a French writer: "Sometimes in leaving a gorge our attention was absorbed by a beautiful meadow. A strange intermixture of wild and cultivated nature met our eye everywhere, betraying the hand of man where one would have thought it impossible for him to penetrate. By the side of a cavern we find houses; branches of the vine where we only looked for brambles; vineyards in desert places, and fields amidst the overhanging rocks." All this is true beyond exaggeration, especially after you leave the village of Angrogna, with its parsonage-house in the most picturesque situation of any we encountered. About half an hour from this spot the scenery becomes wildly grand, especially as you draw nigh to the torrent. On one side is the lofty Vandalin, and on the other precipitous rocks; while in the narrow valley the stream rushes down with its roar and foam, forming beautiful cascades, and reminding you of some of the grandest scenery in Switzerland. But, greatly as I was delighted with the topographical interest of my journey, yet I would not forget that it was the people and their fathers' deeds and sufferings that had led me to undertake this rather fatiguing enterprise; and long before I reached the Barricata, or Pra del Torno, I had a great enjoyment in being taken by a Vaudois mechanic, who left his work at Angrogna, and would have no acknowledgment but my thanks, in order to show me one of those wonderful hiding-places in the very heart of the mountains, where the God of the hill and of the Vaudois so effectively succoured his people. The particular cavern I was shown was most difficult of access,not only by its seclusion, but also on other grounds; the entrance would only admit one or two persons at a time; but once within there seemed space enough for about a hundred persons. Here I understood large numbers of the persecuted Vaudois had found a refuge and a sanctuary in its holiest and happiest sense. The words, "He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks," came to my thoughts with a freshness and fulness of meaning not previously realized. But the testimony of this valley is everywhere, "The Lord fought for Israel." The next point of remarkable interest shows this, viz., the Barricata, which is a kind of entrance to the enclosure known as Pra del Torno. At this spot the rocks on either side come down close to the mountain, so that only a mere ledge of rock remains as a path. Consequently, a small number of men could at this point drive back a host; and here, during the persecutions of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the contemptuous foes of the Vaudois met with humiliating and disastrous repulses, while the Vaudois themselves escaped comparatively unhurt. This circumstance led the enemy, during the persecution of 1560, under the Count de la Trinita, to place his men on the heights above Roccamanente; but his one thousand two hundred men were successfully driven back by less than one-twentieth of that number of the Vaudois; and when he renewed the attack with scornful assurance of victory, a few days later, the Vaudois, who were engaged in prayer at the time, having despatched six of their number, who were slingers, to a commanding point above the assailants, obtained a still more triumphant victory, without loss ontheir own side, but with terrible slaughter to the enemy, including eight of his chief officers.

Time fails to recount all that might be said of these celebrated regions. I must, however, make passing mention of the beautiful mountain peak a little higher up on the right hand as you approach Pra del Torno,i.e., La Vachera. On the 11th of June, 1655, after the Piedmontese troops were unable to force the Barricata, though they tried from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., they advanced towards La Vachera. The Vaudois went up higher. Thinking this to be a retreat, the Piedmontese soldiers exclaimed, "Advance, wreck of Janavello!" The Vaudois responded, "Advance, wreck of San Segonzo!" accompanied by such a shower of stones that the soldiers fled in greatest confusion, leaving behind them two hundred dead, and carrying away more than twice that number of wounded. Indeed, this defeat was so decisive that the persecutors were constrained to acknowledge "God was with the Barbets," and that whereas "formerly the wolves eat the dogs (i.e., barbetti), now the dogs (barbetti) eat the wolves."

But we now come to the goal of our journey to-day, Pra del Torno, a very sanctuary, embosomed amidst the everlasting hills, the site of the ancient college of the Vaudois clergy, from whence they went forth to preach the doctrines of a pure faith even before Wickliffe rose as the morning star of the Reformation in our own land. Nature is still there in all its grandeur; but I must confess to a feeling of sadness as I beheld a church under the patronage of the Virgin Mary in these valleys, where so much noble blood had been shed for the maintenance of the truth as it is in Jesus, but no place of worship for thedescendants of the men who were ready to die, but not ready to dishonour God by participating in a worship contrary to His blessed Word. And my regret was not lessened when I learnt that the evangelical Vaudois has to make an eight hours' journey to his nearest temple, and that his pastor would have a journey of similar character to make to the sick and aged members of his flock in this secluded spot. I found a schoolroom, erected by General Beckwith, in a dilapidated state, and the poor old schoolmaster very infirm from sickness and age. My desire, therefore, is to raise funds either to greatly improve the schoolroom, or, better still, to erect a neat temple in this consecrated spot, so as at once to commemorate the piety and heroism of the dead, and to provide for the wants of the living. The pastor of the parish, the Rev. J. Durand Canton, has informed me how great a boon such a place would be. The Table have also assured me of their hearty co-operation. Several subscriptions have been kindly promised. F. A. Bevan, Esq., of the firm of Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard Street, has kindly consented to receive donations for the object: they may also be sent to me. Let each reader of this volume join in the work, and so, by the divine blessing, it shall be accomplished; and another object also, viz., that which makes the church of the valleys a holy bond of union between Christian brethren in both hemispheres; and between those whose church polity may differ, but whose creed is one in all essential points, and who proclaim as the one thing needful a living faith in a living Saviour, the one Mediator between God and men, the manChrist Jesus.

Amadeus II.,44,84-91.

Angrogna, Vale of,125.

Arnaud, Henri—

His birth and early life,63.

Exploits at Germano, Salabertrand, Villaro,69,73.

Privation of himself and troops,75,76.

Banishment,87.

Latter days and death,88,89.

Azeglio, Marquis,101.

Balsille—

Description of,70,78.

Siege of,80,81.

Escape from,82,83.

Beckwith, General,109-112.

Barthélemi, martyr,35.

Brandenburg, Elector of,85.

Bricherasio,4.

Bucer,34.

Calabria, Persecutions in,33.

Castelluzzo, Crag of,45.

Castrocaro, Signal death of,43.

Catinat, Marshal,80,81.

Cavour, Count,101.

Charles Felix, Bigotry of,97.

Charles Albert, Justice of,98,99.

Children kidnapped,43,90.

Claude, Bishop of Turin,17.

Colonies of the Vaudois,31.

Cromwell espouses the cause of the Vaudois,50.

Cutti, Count of, as a ruler,96.

De la Trinité, Count,39.

Ecomlapadius,34.

Edicts of 1686,58.

Elector Palatine, Noble letter of,42.

Emancipation,101.

Emmanuel, Philibert,10,38,43.

Exile of the Vaudois,61.

Earthquake, Severe,95.

Farel,34.

Fequières, Marquis of, plants a cannon on Mont Guignivert,82.

Fog, Providential,27,82,83.

Gastaldo, Edict of,45.

Geneva—

City of, kindness of to the exiles,61.

Lake of,65.

Gilly, Rev. Dr.,107,108.

Jahier,54.

Janavello,54.

Bravery of,56.

Banished,57,64.

Jerome,15,16.

Juliano, Colonel of, rout of soldiers,25,72.

La Torre, Pelice,44,52.

Leger,44,46.

Leidet, Pastor of Guigot, martyred,60.

Louis XIV. of France, an inveterate persecutor of the Vaudois,86.

Maggiore, Lago,1.

Maiden's Rock, The,40.

Margaret of Navarre,42.

Milton's Sonnet,50.

Monks of Pinerolo,39.

Marengo, Battle of,94.

Mont Blanc,67.

Mont Cenis,68.

Nantes, Edict of, revoked,58.

Noir of Mondovi, Remarkable death of,26.

Otho, Emperor of Germany,23.

Outburst of Romish intolerance at the opening of Vaudois Temple in Turin,3.

Pascal, Jean Louis,33,34.

Persecution of 1686,46,60.

Poulat, Captain,83.

Pra del Torre,26,127.

Prali,71.

Popes—

Silvester,11.

Zachary,16.

Innocent VIII.24.

Innocent XII.86.

Lucius,28.

Pius IV., presiding at a martyrdom,34.

Gregory,16,97.

Re-baptism of a child prevented,35.

Rodoret Temple,118.

Avalanche at,117.

Return glorious, first Sunday at home,70.

Refugees met at Milan,85.

Remarkable supply of food,79.

Salabertrand, Capture of bridge,69.

San Secondo,4.

Sartoire, Nicolas, martyred,36.

Seyssel, Claude,11.

Sibaud, Oath of,73.

Solaro, Count of,3.

St. Germano, Cruelties at,56,57.

Synods—

Remarkable,19.

Back to Index Next