Jones pgs. 271-317
ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT
- Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter’d saints, whose bones
- Lie scatter’d on the Alpine mountains cold;
- Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
- When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones
- Forget not: in thy book record their groans
- Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
- Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that roll’d
- Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moan
- The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
- To heaven. Their martyr’d blood and ashes sow
- O’er all th’ Italian fields, where still doth sway
- The tripled tyrant; that from these may grow
- A hundred fold, who having learn’d thy way
- Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
–The English poet, Milton
Having delivered the protector’s letter to the king of France, and received the preceding reply to it, Sir Samuel Morland proceeded on his journey towards Savoy, and upon the 21st of June arrived at Rivoli, a city about two miles from Turin, where the duke, who seems to have been a minor, then was with his royal mother and the court. Two days afterwards he obtained an audience, and introduced himself in an elaborate latin oration, which he delivered in the presence of the duke, Madame Royal, and all the court, and in which he painted in strong colors the accounts that had been received in England concerning the dreadful atrocities that had been recently perpetrated upon the Waldenses by means of the soldiery — describing “the houses on fire, which,” says he, “are yet smoking — the mangled carcasses, and ground defiled with blood — virgins violated, and, after being treated with brutal outrage, too indecent to be mentioned, left to breathe out their last — men an hundred years old, helpless through age and bed-ridden, burnt in their beds — infants dashed against the rocks,” etc., etc. “Were all the tyrants,” says he, “of all times and ages alive again, they might blush to find that, in comparison of these things, they had contrived nothing that deserved to be called barbarous and inhuman! The very angels are seized with horror at them! Men are amazed! Heaven itself seems to be astonished with the cries of dying men, and the very earth to blush, being discolored with the gore of so many innocent persons,” etc. Having finished his harangue, Sir Samuel presented to the duke the following letter with which he had been charged by his master, the lord protector.
As soon as the duke and his mother had made themselves acquainted with the contents of this letter, Madame Royal addressed herself to the English minister, and told him that “as, on the one hand, she could not but extremely applaud the singular charity and goodness of his highness, the lord protector, towards their subjects, whose situation had been represented to him so exceedingly lamentable, as she perceived by his discourse had been done, so, on the other, she could not but extremely wonder that the malice of men should ever proceed so far as to clothe such paternal and tender chastisements of their most rebellious and insolent subjects, in characters so black and deformed, thereby to render them odious to all the neighboring princes and states, with whom they were so anxious to keep up a good understanding and friendship — especially with so great and powerful a prince as the lord protector.” She at the same time gave him to understand, that “she was persuaded, when he came to be more particularly informed of the truth of all that had passed, he would be so perfectly satisfied with the duke’s proceedings, that he would not give the least countenance to his disobedient subjects. However, for his highness’s sake, they would not only freely pardon their rebellious subjects for the very heinous crimes which they had committed, but would also grant them such privileges and favors as could not fail to give the protector full proof of the great respect which they entertained for his person and mediation.”
These plausible professions, while they no doubt display the usual finesse of politicians, yet certainly evince no ordinary measure of respect for the head of the English government, and are much more complaisant than was the style in which the same lady had previously addressed Major Weis, the deputy from the Swiss Cantons. For when this latter gentleman delivered to the duke a letter from the six protestant Cantons of Switzerland under the same melancholy occasion, Madame Royal promptly replied, that they were not obliged to give an account of their actions to any prince in the world; nevertheless, out of the respect which they bore to his masters of the Cantons, they had given orders to the Marquis of Pionessa to acquaint him with the truth of all these affairs.
The Marquis in consequence, waited upon Major Weis, and endeavored to justify all his proceedings, by casting the whole blame upon the Waldenses, repeatedly protesting that he never had the least design to force their consciences, and that all the reports which had been circulated respecting the massacre, and other cruelties were mere forgeries. To all which the major replied, that “with regard to the massacre, it was a thing so demonstrably evident, that it was impossible either to conceal or deny it. And as to the people’s right of habitation in the places from whence they were ordered to depart, it was founded upon justice and equity, inasmuch as it had not only been conceded to them by Charles Emanuel, duke of Savoy, but also purchased of his royal highness for six thousand ducatoons, which were actually paid by them on that very account.” The Marquis told him, that he did not at all deny the authenticity of the charters which the Waldenses held, but they were all conditional, and that the catholic religion ought to have been freely exercised in all those places, which they would never allow. In short, that their continual residence in all those places for the last ninety years, could be called no better than a ninety years’ rebellion and disobedience. Such were the miserable pleas of this intolerant and bloody-thirsty man.
It is obvious from all that can be collected of the temper and influence of the Marquis of Pionessa, the bigoted attachment of the duke and his mother to the court of Rome, and the firm hold which the catholic clergy had then got of their minds, that there was not the smallest disposition in the court of Savoy, to mitigate their sufferings, or abate the rigorous proceedings which had hitherto been going on against the Waldenses; “But, so it happened,” says Sir Samuel Morland, “that from this time forward, the leading men in the court of Savoy, have used their best endeavors to lay heavier loads on their backs, than ever they had hitherto done. For in their orders of April 20th, and October 6, 1656, and August 24, 1657, they summoned the poor people to pay their taxes for the year 1655, contrary to the treaty, while they exempted the Catholics from the said taxes; and when they appealed to the Duke, October 6, 1657, on the hardship of their case, they were, among other things, absolutely prohibited the exercise of their public worship in San Giovanni.” It would be endless to repeat all the edicts, orders, and injunctions that were issued against them after the cruel patent in 1655, with all their consequent grievances: and it is painful to dwell upon so melancholy a subject. Our countryman, Sir Samuel Morland, remained among them until the summer of 1658, at which time he thus affectingly closes his narrative. “It is my misfortune that I am compelled to leave these people where I found them, among the potsherds, with sackcloth and ashes spread under them, and lifting up their voice with weeping, in the words of Job — ‘Have pity on us, have pity on us, O ye our friends, for the hand of God hath touched us.’ — To this very day they labor under most heavy burdens, which are laid upon them by their rigid task-masters of the church of Rome — forbidding them all kind of traffic for their subsistence — robbing them of their goods and estates — banishing the pastors of their flocks, that the wolves may the more readily devour the sheep — violating the young women and maidens — murdering the most innocent as they peaceably pass along the highways — by cruel mockings and revilings — by continual threats of another massacre, sevenfold more bloody, if possible, than the former. To all which, I must add that, notwithstanding the liberal supplies that have been sent them from England and other places, yet so great is the number of these hungry creatures, and so grievous are the oppressions of their popish enemies, who lie in wait to bereave them of whatever is given them, snatching at almost every morsel that goes into their months, that even to this day, some of them are almost ready to eat their own flesh for want of bread. Their miseries are more grievous than words can express — they have no ‘grapes in their vineyards — no cattle in their fields — no herds in their stalls — no corn in their granaries — no meal in their barrel — no oil in their cruise.’ The stock that was gathered for them by the people of this and other countries is fast consuming, and when that is spent, they must inevitably perish, unless God, ‘who turns the hearts of princes as the rivers of water,’ incline the heart of their prince to take pity on his poor, harmless, and faithful subjects.”
Next: Waldensian Persecutions Part V
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