Waldensian Persecutions. Jones – Vol. II Pgs 168 —202
—Year 1400
About the year 1400, a violent outrage was committed upon the Waldenses who inhabited the valley of Pragela, in Piedmont, by the catholic party resident in that neighborhood. The attack, which seems to have been of the most furious kind, was made towards the end of the month of December, when the mountains were covered with snow, and thereby rendered so difficult of access, that the peaceable inhabitants of the valleys were wholly unapprised that any such attempt was meditated; and the persecutors were in actual possession of their caves, ere the former seem to have been apprised of any hostile designs against them. In this pitiable plight they had recourse to the only alternative which remained for saving their lives—they fled to one of the highest mountains of the Alps, with their wives and children, the unhappy mothers carrying the cradle in one hand, and in the other leading such of their offspring as were able to walk. Their inhuman invaders, whose feet were swift to shed blood, pursued them in their flight, until night came on, and slew great numbers of them, before they could reach the mountains. Those that escaped, were, however, reserved to experience a fate not more enviable. Overtaken by the shades of night, they wandered up and down the mountains, covered with snow, destitute of the means of shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, or of supporting themselves under it by any of the comforts which Providence has destined for that purpose; benumbed with cold, they fell an easy prey to the severity of the climate, and when the night had passed away, there were found in their cradles, or lying upon the snow, fourscore of their infants, deprived of life, many of the mothers also lying dead by their sides, and others just upon the point of expiring. During the night, their enemies were busily employed in plundering the houses of every thing that was valuable, which they conveyed away to Susa. A poor woman, belonging to the Waldenses, named Margaret Athode, was next morning found hanging upon a tree!
This seems to have been the first general attack that was made by the Catholics on the Waldenses of Piedmont; . . . the outrageous attack that was now made upon them was a novelty, and it made a lasting impression on their minds.
—The year about 1487–
Albert [Commissioned by Pope INNOCENT VIII] was no sooner vested with his high commission, than he proceeded to the south of France, where he called to his aid the king’s lieutenant in the province of Dauphiny, who lost no time in levying troops for his service at the head of whom he himself marched, as directed by Albert, into the valley of Loyse. The inhabitants, apprised of their approach, fled into their caves at the tops of the mountains, carrying with them their children, and whatever valuables they had, as well as what was thought necessary for their support and nourishment. The lieutenant finding the inhabitants all fled, and that not an individual appeared with whom he could converse, at length discovered their retreats, and causing quantities of wood to be placed at their entrances, ordered it to be set on fire. The consequence was that four hundred children were suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers, while multitudes to avoid dying by suffocation, or being burnt to death, precipitated themselves headlong from their caverns upon the rocks below, where they were dashed in pieces; or if any escaped death by the fall, they were immediately slaughtered by the brutal soldiery. “It is held as unquestionably true,” says Perrin, “amongst the Waldenses dwelling in the adjacent valleys, that more than three thousand persons, men and women, belonging to the valley of Loyse, perished on this occasion. And, indeed, they were wholly exterminated, for that valley was afterwards peopled with new inhabitants, not one family of the Waldenses having subsequently resided in it; which proves beyond dispute, that all the inhabitants, and of both sexes, died at that time.”
—Year 1489
The persecution which ensued, is said to have been extremely severe. For the Waldenses being condemned as heretics by the inquisitor; Ponce, the counselor, and Oronce, the judge, committed them to the flames, as fast as they were apprehended, without permitting them to make any appeal. The number of sufferers was also considerably augmented on another ground; for, whoever presumed to intercede in their behalf, though it were the child for the parent, or the parent for the child, he was instantly committed to prison, and himself prosecuted as a favorer of heretics.
. . . the Duke of Savoy, his heart was touched with compassion towards his subjects. But having been informed that their young children were born with black throats—that they were hairy, and had four rows of teeth, with only one eye, and that placed in the middle of their forehead, he commanded some of them to be brought before him to Pignerol, where, being satisfied by ocular demonstration, that the Waldenses were not monsters, he blamed himself for being so easily imposed upon by the clergy of the catholic church, as to credit such idle reports; . . .
—Year 1532
The inquisitors, who lay in ambush in a convent near Pignerol, issued their processes daily against the Waldenses, and as often as they could apprehend any of them they were delivered over for punishment to the secular power. In this way they continued to harass them in that quarter until the year 1532.
Of the number of persons who professed the faith of the Waldenses, both within and without the valleys of Piedmont, at the beginning of the sixteenth century—the period when Luther broke off from the church of Rome and began the Reformation in Germany, it would be impossible to attain any certainty. But it is presumed the reader will have seen enough in the preceding pages to satisfy him, that the opinion which has so currently prevailed among us, of the almost total extinction of the Christian profession, in its purity, at the time of, and for ages preceding, the Lutheran reformation, is altogether a popular error.
—It was not without surprise they [the Reformers] learnt, that there were numbers around them, in every country, opposed to the corruptions of the church of Rome, and sighing in secret for a reform. It may also be added, that Protestants in every succeeding age have but too implicitly imbibed their error. The blessed God hath never left himself without witnesses in the world; and even during the reign of Antichrist—a period of the most general and awful defection from the purity of his worship, he had reserved to himself thousands and tens of thousands of such as kept his commandments and the faith of Jesus.
At this time, by the preaching and writings of Luther and his associates, so completely occupied the attention of the catholic party for about a dozen years, namely, from 1517 to 1530. . .
—Year 1545
The following is Sleidan’s account.—
. . . sentence was pronounced against them [Waldenses] in the parliament of Aix, the chief judicature of the province, That they shall all promiscuously be destroyed, that the houses shall be pulled down, the village leveled with the ground, all the trees also cut down, and the place rendered a desert. . . April the thirteenth, Meinier attended by a multitude of gentleman and officers, came to Cadenet. In the meantime some officers made an irruption into one or two villages upon the river of La Druance, and putting all to fire and sword, plundered and carried away a great many cattle. The same also was done in other places, whilst those of Merindole seeing all in a flame about them, left their habitations, flew into the woods, and in great consternation spent the night at the village of Sainfalaise. The inhabitants of that place were themselves preparing to fly; for the pope’s vice-legate had ordered some officers to fall upon them, and put them to the sword. Next day they advanced farther into the woods; for they were beset on all hands with danger, Meinier having made it death for any person to aid or assist them, and commanding them all, without respect, to be killed wherever they were found. The same edict was in force in the neighboring places of the pope’s jurisdiction, and some bishops of that country were reported to have maintained a great part of those forces. They had a tedious and uneasy journey of it then, marching with their children on their backs and in their arms, nay, and some in the cradle; poor women also big with child following them. When they were got to the appointed place, whither many in that forlorn condition had fled, they had intelligence not long after, that Meinier was mustering together all his forces, that he might fall upon them, and this news they learnt towards the evening. Wherefore, consulting together what was best to be done, they resolved upon the spot, because the ways were rough and difficult, to leave their wives, daughters, and little children there, with some few to bear them company, amongst whom was one of their ministers, and the rest betook themselves to the town of Mus: this they did in hope, that the enemy might show some compassion towards a helpless and comfortless multitude. But what wailing and lamentation, what sighing and embracing, there was at parting, any man may easily imagine. Having marched all night long, and passed the mountain De Leberon, they had the sad prospect of many villages and farms all in a flame. Meinier, in the meantime, having divided his forces, set about the work; and, because he had got intelligence of the place to which those of Merindole, had betaken themselves, he himself marched to Merindole and sent the rest of his men in search and pursuit of them. But, before these were come into the wood, one of the soldiers, moved with pity, ran before, and from the top of a rock, in the place where he judged the poor fugitives might have rested, he threw down two stones, calling to them by intervals, though he did not see them, that they should instantly fly for their lives. And at the same instant, two of those who had betaken themselves to Mus came; and having got notice of the enemy’s approach, advised the minister of the church, and the rest of those few guards that were left with the women, to be gone, having showed them a steep way through the wood, by which they might escape all danger in their flight. Hardly were these gone, when the raging soldiers came in shouting and making a frightful noise, and with drawn swords preparing for the butchery. However, at that time, they forbore to kill, but having committed many insolencies, and robbed the poor creatures of all their money and provisions, they carried them away prisoners. They had purposed to have used them more basely, but a captain of horse prevented it, who by chance coming in, threatened them, and commanded them to march straight to Meineir; so that they proceeded no farther, but leaving the women there, who were about five hundred in number, they carried off the cattle and booty.
In the meantime Meinier came to Merindole, and finding it forsaken by the inhabitants, he plundered and set it on fire, which was ushered in by a very cruel action; for having found there one single youth, he commanded him to be tied to an olive tree, and there shot to death. He marched next to Cabriere, and began to batter the town; but, by the mediation of Captain Poulain, he persuaded the town’s people, upon promise of indemnity, to open the gates; which being done, and the soldiers let in, after a little pause, all were put to the sword, without respect to age or sex. Many fled to the church, others to other places, and some into the wine-cellar of the castle; but being dragged out into a meadow, and stripped naked, they were all put to the sword, not only the men, but also the women, and many of these with child too. Meinier also shut up about forty women in a barn full of hay and straw, and then set it on fire; and after that, the poor creatures having attempted, in vain, to smother the fire with their clothes, which for that end they had pulled off, betook themselves to the great window, at which the hay is commonly pitched up into the barn, with an intention to leap down from thence: but they were kept in with pikes and spears, so that all of them perished in the flames; and this happened on the twentieth of April.
Meinier after this sent part of his forces to besiege the town of Coste; but when they were just upon their march, those were found, who, as we said a little before, had fled into the wine-cellar of the castle: a noise being thereupon raised, as if there had been some ambush laid, the soldiers were recalled, who put every man of them to the sword. The number of the slain, as well in the town as abroad in the fields, amounted to eight hundred! The young infants, which survived the fury, were for the most re-baptized by the enemy. Affairs thus dispatched at Cabriere, the forces were sent to Coste: the lord of that town had beforehand agreed with the inhabitants, that they should carry their arms into the castle, and in four places make breaches in the walls; which if they did, he promised them that he would use his interest, which he knew could easily prevail with Meinier, that they should receive no damage. Being over persuaded, they obeyed; and he departed with a purpose seemingly to treat and intercede for them; but he was not gone far before the soldiers met him, who nevertheless proceeded in their march, and attacked the place. At the first onset they did but little, but next day they more briskly renewed the assault: and having burnt all the suburbs about, they easily became masters of the place, and the rather, that the night before, most had deserted the town and fled, having got down over the walls by ropes. After the victorious had put all that stood in their way to fire and sword, they ran into a garden adjoining the castle, and there satiated their lust upon the women and young girls promiscuously, who in great fear and consternation had fled thither, and for a day and night’s time, that they kept them shut up there, so inhumanely and barbarously did they use them, that the pregnant women and younger girls shortly after died of it.
In the meantime the Merindolians, and many others, who wandered with them over the woods and rocks, being taken, were either sent to the galleys, or put to death, and many also were starved. Not far also from the town of Mus, as we mentioned before, some five and-twenty men had got into a cave, and kept lurking there, but being betrayed, all of them were either smothered with smoke, or burnt: so that no kind of cruelty was omitted. Some, however, that had escaped this butchery, got to Geneva, and the places thereabouts. When the news of this was brought into Germany, many were highly offended thereat; and the Swiss, who are not of the popish religion, interceded with the French king, that he would be merciful to those who had fled their country. But the king answered them, that he had just cause for what he had done; and that what he did within his own territories, and how he punished the guilty, concerned them no more to know, than it did him what was done amongst them.”
— An extract from an eminent catholic writer, who was contemporary with the dreadful occurrences which he has so impartially recorded; . . . it touches upon some particulars already adverted to by Sleidan —The king [Francis]; who being informed of the decree by William du Bellay Sieur de Langey, lieutenant general in Piedmont, commanded the latter to inform himself of the case, and to transmit him an account of it. Accordingly, after due inquiry, he made this discovery, that the Vaudois, or Waldenses, were a people, who about three hundred years before had hired, of the owners, a rocky and uncultivated part of the country, which by dint of pains and constant tillage, they had rendered productive of fruits and fit for cattle; that they were extremely patient of labor and want; abhorring all contentions; kind to the poor; that they paid the prince’s taxes, and their lord’s dues with the greatest exactness and fidelity; that they kept up a show of divine worship by daily prayer and innocence of manners; but seldom came to the churches of the saints, unless by chance when they went to the neighboring towns for traffic or other business; and whenever they set their feet in them, they paid no adoration to the statues of God or the saints, nor brought them any tapers or other presents; nor ever entreated the priests to say mass for them, or the souls of their relations; nor crossed their foreheads, as is the manner of others; that when it thundered they never sprinkled themselves with holy water, but, lifting up their eyes to heaven, implored the assistance of God; that they never made religious pilgrimages, nor uncovered their heads in the public ways before the crucifixes: that they performed their worship in a strange manner, and in the vulgar tongue; and lastly, paid no honor to the Pope or the bishops, but esteemed some select persons of their own number as priests and doctors.
In all there are twenty-two villages reckoned, which were punished (murder, rape, torture, etc.) with the last severity by Oppede; by whose authority judges were again selected, to make inquiry after the heretics; and these condemned the rest of those poor wretches either to the galleys, or to the payment of excessive fines. When these things were done, Oppede and the committee of judges, being terrified by their conscience, and justly apprehending that one time or other their heads might be endangered by those practices, deputed the president De la Fons to the king to load the slaughtered and harassed people with the most execrable crimes, and to make it appear that, considering the heinousness of their offense, they had been very gently treated.
Many writers, have reported, that, among the last commands which he gave to his son Henry, he added this expressly, that he should make inquisition into the injuries done in that cause by the parliament of Aix to the Provencals; and, even before he died, he caused John Romano, a monk, to be apprehended, and commanded the parliament of Aix to punish him; for he, in the examination of heretics, invented a new kind of torture, ordering the tortured parties to put on boots full of boiling tallow, and after laughing at them, and clapping on a pair of spurs, he would ask them, whether they were not finely equipt for a journey. But this man, being well informed of the decree of the parliament, fled to Avignon; where, though secured, as he imagined, from men, he did not escape the Divine vengeance, being robbed of all his effects by his servants, and reduced to extreme poverty, whilst his body was so overrun with filthy boils, that he wished for death, which yet he did not obtain until very late, and after the most horrible torments.
Oppede, who with Grignan, escaped by the intercession of the Duke of Guise, was restored to his former post, together with his colleagues: but, in a little time, being grievously afflicted with pains in the bowels, he breathed out his sanguinary soul in the midst of the most cruel torments, and paid the deserved penalty, which his judges had not exacted, late indeed, but therefore so much the heavier, to God.”
Such is the relation of this dreadful scene of cruelty, oppression, and carnage — detailed not by the poor persecuted Waldenses themselves, but by a catholic historian, whose impartiality and rigid adherence to truth has never been questioned except by his own party.
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