1831.]

Waldensian Researches during a second Visit to the Valleys of Piemont: with an introductory inquiry into the antiquity and purity of the Waldensian Church, &c. By Willian Stephen Gilly, M.A. Preb. of Durham. 8vo. pp. 560.

THE Waldenses are associated with the earliest history of the Christian faith, before it was polluted by the meretricious superventions of the Church of Rome. In the wilds and mountain fastnesses by which their native valleys were surrounded, they bade defiance for ages to the exterminating mandates of the papal see; and while all the neighbouring countries were immersed in the vortex of Romish abominations, these representatives of primitive Christianity transmitted its doctrines in comparative purity to their latest posterity. Although the Waldenses may be said to profess the Protestant faith, still, as existing inany centuries anterior to the Reformation, in the valleys of Piemont, they might, with more strict propriety, be styled Proto-Protestants, for they were Protestants against the Roman Catholic formularies long before the term Protestant, in its present sense, existed. From the old records that are still preserved by the Vaudois Churches, their antiquity may with certainty be traced to the eighth century; but, according to one of their best historians, who wrote in 1669, even to the period of the Apostles.

The Waldenses have generally been considered as a small independent race, though politically subject to the Piemontese princes. They have been so named from the mountain valleys which they inhabit, on the eastern side of the Cottian chain of Alps,-the letter V having been corrupted into W. The terms Vaudois in French, Vallenses in Latin, Valdesi in Italian, and Waldenses in English ecclesiastical his tory, signifying nothing more nor less than "men of the valley." Thus (to adopt the language of the author) the valleys of Piemont have had the honour of producing a race of people who have been true to the faith introduced by the first Missionaries who preached Christianity in those regions, the synonyms Vaudois, Valdesi, and Waldenses, have been adopted as the GENT. MAG. June, 1831.

as

distinguishing names of a religious community, faithful to the primitive creed, and free from the corruptions of the Church of Rome."

As the Courts of Rome and Turin at different periods of Waldensian history, have made the most determined efforts to extinguish the light of truth in these isolated districts, it is a matter of astonishment that resistance could successfully avail, when opposed to the vast military array which Catholic princes could at all times bring against incipient heresy; particularly in that quarter of the world, where the thunders of the Vatican were considered as irresistible.

According to Leger, the historian of the Vaudois, the first attempts to force them, as a community, into the arms of the Roman Church, were made by the house of Savoy. The princes of this line did not come into possession of Piemont till the 11th or 12th century. At that period a reigning chief taking advantage of the divisions that prevailed in Piemont, and of the weakness of the little sovereignties under the Counts of Lucerne and other feudal lords, made himself master of the valleys and adjoining provinces. Previously to this dynasty, the inhabitants of the valleys had experienced every kind of indulgence from their sovereigns, who had been unwilling to molest them for religion's sake. But between the years 1561 and 1686 no less than sixty-eight papal enactments were put in force for the extermination of the Waldenses; and the question naturally arises how could half-arined peasants, without leaders, surrounded on every side by hosts of fighting men, renowned throughout Europe as the infantry of Piemont, maintain their ground against such formidable odds? and how is it, that the Vaudois, without fortresses or the munitions of war, should not have been long ago blotted from the face of the earth? It was the unconquerable spirit of free-born minds, imbued with religious zeal, and aided by the mountainous localities of the surrounding country, that preserved their existence-so true is the position of Lord Kaimes, that mountainous districts are the abode of freedom, though slavery may reign in the neighbouring

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plains. Thus, on the fulmination of the papal decrees, the Waldensian inhabitants of the vale took refuge in their mountain asylums. Ready to sacrifice all but their religious integrity, they fled from their houses rather than compulsorily attend mass, and left their social homes in possession of a ruthless soldiery. The advantages of mountain warfare are thus detailed by the author:

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mountain, carried terror to the hearts of the bravest. In vain they raised their voices to encourage one another, and shouted for the battle. If a momentary triumph appeared to exhilarate them, and the mountaineers fled before them, it was but to draw them into some ambuscade; to lead them breathless, and in broken order, to some narrow and precarious defile, on the edge of a precipice, when the fugitives would turn round upon their pursuers, and man grappling man, would make the welkin ring with the yells below, or flying in confusion from the fate of terrified wretches, tumbling into the gulfs of their companions. It was then that the work of death began. None could rally the troops when once they turned their backs in flight. The agile mountaineers had nothing to do but to pursue and to slay; and who can wonder if a frightful vengeance was wreaked upon the aggressors? Thus even the flower of veteran armies, which boasted of having been led to victory against the chivalry of France and Germany in the plains of Lombardy, were discomfited by hunters of the Alps, and by shepherds and goatherds, who

believed that God was with them, and who left their sheepfolds and the bleatings of their flocks, to encounter the perils of battle, rather than surrender their personal and religious rights."

"When once the enemy diverged from the roads in the lower part of the valley, and mounted the acclivities, nothing like regularity could be preserved in their line of march. They had to make their way over broken ground as well as they could: each man, at places, depending upon his own agility and presence of mind, for the means of extricating himself from the perils of torrents and precipices. Every facility was afforded for interruption, and none for progress. Many of the assailants were unused to mountain combats, and all of them impeded rather than assisted by the rules of regular warfare. They were embarrassed by the impossibility of keeping in their ranks, of supporting or being supported by their comrades. An ambuscade was ready to receive them in every thicket, by peasants who understood every kind of furtive annoyance. If they crossed a ravine, they were assailed from above by all sorts of missiles. If they arrived at a defile, or narrow pass, the hardy few who defended it, prompt at shifting their ground, had nothing to do but to dispute their advance, as long as their strength was equal to the struggle, and then to retreat and rally at the next spot which they considered more defencible. When the troops attempted to push boldly up a slippery steep, they were attacked with stones set in motion by the slightest touch, and rolling every thing before them. After they had scaled one height, they found, to their dismay, that a succession of such impediments had to be surmounted: no level gained, no position occupied, put an end to their toils. The peasantry, if forced to yield one point, instantly made for another, and the weary pursuer discovered that his strength and his spirits were exhausted, without having any thing more to boast of, as the price of his toils, than a few hovels, which had already been abandoned by their inhabitants, and ransacked of their miserable contents. In fact, the mountaineer, in his wild mode of warfare, relinquishes his post the moment he finds it untenable, and then leads his foe a wearisome chase from ridge to ridge, till whole battalions are disorganised, and reduced to the necessity of retreating, or of continuing the contest with the certainty of defeat."

"The dropping fire, first from one quarter, then from another, and every shot telling, and multiplied by the echoes of the

We feel great pleasure in stating that the new King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, has manifested the most liberal spirit towards the hitherto persecuted Waldenses. On the 1st of March last, a college, supported by funds from England, was opened at La Torre, the principal seat of the Waldensian church, for the instruction of the Vaudois in the Primitive faith of their ancestors, and in the higher branches of education. But scarcely had the infant institution displayed itself, before an order was issued by the Minister of the Interior for its immediate suppression. It was, however, the last blow which the late King, Charles Felix, was permitted to strike at the Venerable Church of the Valleys. His successor, Charles Albert, has so far reversed the arbitrary edict, as to grant a Royal License, signed May 27th, which will legitimate the erection and endowment of a place of learning for the Vaudois, among their native mountains in the States of PieThis may be considered as the laying of the first stone of a Protestant University in Italy.

mont.

After an elaborate treatise on the early history of the Waldensian Church, Mr. Gilly proceeds to state the objects of his late journey to the

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The

"Presently the four mountaineers disappeared. How they sustained their footing, and to what projecting points they clung, I could not imagine. I looked down, but the cliff projected so much, that I could not distinguish the means of their descent. Presently we heard shouts from below, and a voice directed us to lower the rope ladder, which we had previously attached to a fragment of rock, large enough to sustain any weight. The ladder was let down, and made fast at the other end by the men below. My brother was the first of our party to descend by it. I went next. Our precautions were so well taken, that I found the descent more difficult than dangerous: but I confess that when I found myself suspended between heaven and earth, by a swinging staircase of rope, which the sharp points of the rock might cut in twain, the sensation was any thing but enviable. The ladder did not hang straight, but followed the irregular lines of the face of the cliff, which had given hand and foot-hold to the peasants who led the way. At the depth of about twenty feet I found the ladder resting upon a sort of shelf. From this shelf the ladder hung in an angular direction, and next lay along a rough sloping ridge like a camel's back and then depended perpendicularly, rocking with great violence. At about fifty feet from the top, there was a second shelf, and this attained, I perceived a sort of tunnel or chimney, in the cliff; but the ladder was not long enough to reach to the bottom of it, and with the assistance of Ricca, who was planted there to help me, 1 let myself down, much after the fashion

of a climbing boy descending a chimney.

This achieved, the grotto was attained without much further difficulty.

"The risk which the men encountered, who descended without the rope ladder, consisted in passing from ledge to ledge, where the hold was very slight and insecure.

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What then must have been the horrible nature of the persecution, which compelled women and children to trust themselves to the perils of such an enterprise! It is probable, however, that ropes had been before used to facilitate the descent, for I observed several places, which looked as if they had been indented by the friction of cordage.

"My servant came down after me, then M. Bonjour, and after him M. Revel; and never did I see people more delighted than they seemed to be.

We found the cavern, so called, to be an irregular, rugged, stoping gallery, in the face of the rock, of which the jutting crags above formed the roof. At one end also there was a projection of cliff, which sheltered it on that side from the weather. The gallery is wide enough to be secure. Ia some parts the edge overhangs the depth below perpendicularly at others it shelves gently downwards, but in all directions it is quite inaccessible, except from above, and by the tunnel, down which we descended; and which will only admit one person at a time."

"I could not satisfy myself that the gal lery would afford an asylum for so many as 300 or 400 fugitives; nor did we find any relics of other days, though we searched diligently, and used the implements we brought with us in turning up and sounding the surface. We saw no marks of smoke or fire, nor any thing like the ovens of which the historian speaks."

"After remaining about an hour in the gallery, and inscribing our names or initials in the rock, we ascended by the same means by which we came down : and though we could not feel confident that this was the

Merveilleuse Caverne,' of which we had come in search,-yet we were pleased with our performance, and felt proud of having accomplished a feat of some difficulty."

Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, King of England. Vol. the Fifth. By I. D'Israeli. 8vo, pp. 472. THE history of the times of Charles the First required a Tacitus; and, in our opinion, this work of Mr. D'Israeli ought to have that standard character. It is not that there are wanting other able writers, no more than there are wanting fine trees in a forest, but they have not written from pure rea they do not grow straight;- -out of figure,

son.

Had they done so, they must of Charles the First, because he was of have seen that a man in the situation excellent private character, whose object was to preserve, could only have owed his misfortunes to aggression. Had his errors been as gross as those of former Kings, his deposition would