The Waldenses in Southern Italy.
By S. N. Haskell
THESE valleys had their numbers largely increased by the Albigensian refugees, who escaped from the massacre of Innocent III. in the south of France. This caused them to feel that their valleys were somewhat overcrowded; and the young among the Waldenses, feeling a spirit of enterprise, sought some other point where they could settle in seclusion. They did not desire to go into any other parts of Europe unless they could find some place where they could colonize by themselves, and worship God as they had in the mountains. One day, about the year 1340, two youths were at Turin, and became quite earnest in conversation upon this point. A stranger stepped up to them, and said, "Come with me, and I will give you fertile fields for your barren rocks." He described Calabria, which was the southern extremity of the Italian peninsula. He set forth this country in a manner that created a great interest in the Waldensian youths. They reported back to the elders of the Vaudois people, and they listened with interest. Finally a committee was appointed to visit this country. The explorers returned with a flattering account of the country they had been invited to occupy. There was a great contrast in the country of southern Italy and the country that the Waldenses inhabited. There the summit of the mountains were covered all the year with snow. In the gorges furious gusts swept down, which at times would strip their sides of corn and vines; but Calabria to them was a land of promise. Gilles, in describing the country, says: "There are beautiful hills clothed with all kinds of fruit-trees, spontaneously springing up according to their situation; in the plains, vines and chestnuts; on the rising ground, walnuts and every fruit-tree. Everywhere were seen rich arable land, and few laborers." Quite a colony emigrated to this new country. The young men took partners with them, and they carried with them their Bibles, "that holy ark of the new covenant, and of everlasting peace." Their prospect was an undisturbed exercise of their worship. Muston says: "By a convention with the local seigneurs, ratified later by the king of Naples, Ferdinand of Aragon, they were permitted to govern their own affairs, civil and spiritual, by their own magistrates, and their own pastors." They settled near the town of Montalto. About fifty years later there arose the city of San Sexto, which afterwards became the capital of the colony. They were greatly prospered. Towns and villages sprung up in the country which before was thinly inhabited and but poorly cultivated. The land became a smiling garden. Swelling hills were clothed with fruit-trees, and the plains waved with luxuriant crops. Lands were offered them, that they might build cities and plant vineyards. Not only were they privileged to surround their cities with walls, but they were especially authorized to do so. Toward the close of this century another body migrated to the south of Italy. These new comers settled in Apulia, not far from their brethren. They, too, were prosperous. In a short time villages and towns arose, and a new face was placed on the country by the improved arts and husbandry of the colonists. Nothing seemed more enjoyable. Their lands were covered with the olive and the vine; and their prosperity was a marvel, and became the envy of their neighbors. About the year 1500 another emigration from the valleys went to what seemed to them like a land of promise. The third body of colonists established themselves on the Volturata, a river which flows from the Apennines into the Bay of Tarento. With their increase of numbers came an increase of prosperity. Their neighbors knew not the secret of it, and were lost in wonder and admiration. It seemed that the very touching of the soil by the plow of the Vaudois created a charm that made it open its bosom and yield a ten-fold increase. The vines which came under the hands of the Vaudois bore richer clusters; and the fig and the olive seemed to try to outdo all cultivation by other individuals, in their richness and production. Says Wylie: "How delightful the quiet and order of their towns, and the air of happiness on the faces of the people! And how sweet to listen to the bleating of the flocks on the hills, the lowing of the herds in the meadows, the song of the reaper and grape-gatherer, and the merry voices of children at play around the hamlets and villages. For about 200 years these colonies continued to flourish." Historians say that it was a curious circumstance, but one to be looked upon as especially providential, that they found this southern home, and that they flourished as they did unmolested for two centuries. But the secret of their being left to themselves no doubt was partly owing to the fact that they strictly paid their tithes to the priests; and, as they prospered, the tithes so much increased above others that the priests could rest with satisfaction by receiving the wealth from the colonies. It is stated that Petrarch first acquired a knowledge of the Greek tongue from Barlaam, a monk of Calabra. Learning revived in their midst. Their souls thirsted for knowledge. They established schools, and the Bible still was to them the source of knowledge, and sciences were brought in, the study of which was carried to a greater extent than it was in the valleys. There were but a few towns in southern Italy where the Vaudois were not found, and there were not less than 6,000 of that nation in some of their cities. The Waldenses ceased their missionary spirit in thrusting their opinions upon the notice of their neighbors. In process of time they were watched more narrowly. They noticed that it was foreign teachers who taught their children; that they had neither images nor lighted tapers in their churches; that they never went on pilgrimages; and they buried their dead without the aid of the priests. They also noticed that they never brought a candle to the Virgin's shrine, or purchased mass for their dead relatives; and the reason that they were so quietly let alone was the punctuality and fidelity with which they paid their tithes. They were visited by ministers from the valleys; but the time finally came that they called for ministers to labor with them, which would revive that missionary spirit which existed in the valleys. For, since locating in southern Italy, the salubrious climate, the temporal prosperity that attended them, had proved ruinous to the missionary spirit. The spirit of giving the word of God to others, that had ever been a characteristic of that people, was left, in a great measure, to those who inhabited the valleys. The missionary spirit was revived, and with it came persecution. While Satan could lull them to sleep in temporal prosperity, he let them remain quiet. As soon as they began to stir themselves to give the light to others, one would think that all hell had broken loose upon them. To repeat the sufferings which came upon them would only be to present the most terrible persecutions that ever fell upon any martyrs during the papal persecution. A large army was raised, and they fell upon them while unprepared, and they were driven from their lands and tracked to their hiding-places in thickets and caves, and slaughtered as sheep. Powerful blood-hounds were set upon their track. Some of the fugitives climbed the craggy summits of the Apeninnes and hurled stones back upon the soldiers who attempted to follow them. This resistance was only for a short period. The Waldenses offered to migrate and leave the country, but nothing would answer but return to the pale of the church. While they were tortured in every possible way, there could not be extorted any confession that would lead them to renounce their faith. In order that the zeal of those who were endeavoring to torment them might be quickened, it is said that Marquis di Buccianici had the promise of a cardinal's hat if he would clear Calabria of heresy. We will not recite the persecutions that came upon this people, but we will give a copy of a letter written by a Roman Catholic, as recorded by McCrie about one circumstance, where eighty were butchered:— "Most illustrious sir: I have now to inform you of the dreadful justice which began to be executed on these Lutherans early this morning, beginning the 11th of June. And to tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up in one house as in a sheep-fold. The executioner went, and bringing out one of them, covered his face with a napkin, or beuda, as we call it, led him out to a field near the house, and causing him to kneel down, cut his throat with a knife. Then taking off the bloody napkin, he went and brought out another, whom he put to death after the same manner. In this way the whole number, amounting to eighty-eight men, were butchered. I leave you to figure to yourself the lamentable spectacle, for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I write; nor was there any person, after witnessing the execution of one, could stand to look on a second. The meekness and patience with which they went to martyrdom and death are incredible. Some of them at their death professed themselves of the same faith with us, but the greater part died in their cursed obstinancy. All the old met their death with cheerfulness, but the young exhibited symptoms of fear. I still shudder while I think of the executioner with the bloody knife in his teeth, the dripping napkin in his hand, and his arms besmeared with gore, going to the house, and taking out one victim after another, just as a butcher does the sheep which he means to kill." This persecution continued until the few surviving Vaudois returned to their native land to find their brethren in a distressed condition from persecutions by the same power. But their brethren received them with open arms. They were welcomed to all the blessings which they enjoyed, however meager they were. Thus did that prosperous colony become extinct.