articles, they subjoin a list of thirteen other particulars, which had been refused to their deputies, on which they humbly pray that due reflection may be made. Among other matters, they plead, that "having been always faithful to the service of his royal highness their sovereign, and yet cruelly massacred, burned, and pillaged, contrary to his intention, he would be pleased to give orders that justice might be done upon those that had been the chief authors and agents against them-that his royal highness would be pleased to repeal the Order of Gastaldo, as being contrary to all their ancient concessions, and likewise all the orders which the Marquis of Pionessa had caused to be published during the late contest, and to command that every one might be restored to his own property and possession-that they might no longer be subject to the quartering of soldiers upon them, a thing with which they had been harassed ever since the year 1624, and which had been made a pretext for the readier method of destroying them, but that in lieu of it, they might be allowed, in common with others, to contribute their proportion in money-that no more (Catholic) missionaries might be sent into the vallies, because partly by their rapes, and partly by seditions and false reports, these missionaries had always been fomenters of all the disorders that came to pass-that, in short, they might not be subject to the council de propaganda fide, nor to any of its members, nor to the inquisition; but that every thing might be re-established in the condition it was before the late troubles, with liberty of conscience, and the free exercise of their religion, with licence to their ministers to go and visit the sick wherever they lived, as well as the liberty of preaching the gospel, &c. &c. and the whole terminates with the following affecting appeal :

"We hope from the equity and clemency of his royal highness, that he will the more readily grant us these privileges, as there is nothing in them but what we have

quietly enjoyed under the happy government of his most serene predecessors of glorious memory, according to their concessions, and nothing but what may tend to satisfy us in the clearing of those points, which, as experience hath shewed us, have been wrested to a wrong sense, and to represent the true meaning and the equity of the particulars therein contained, that so we may, once for all, take away from the disturbers of our peace all occasion of troubling the public tranquillity, and be enabled, in peace and security, to render to God that which belongs to God, and to Cæsar what is Cæsar's; as we do protest before God and his holy angels, that we ever have had, and will ever have the same for our aim. And to the end that those things, before expressed, may stand firm and inviolable, we humbly supplicate his most Christian majesty, that he will be pleased to procure unto us this favour from our prince, that all may be put into the form of a transaction, and confirmed, not only by the chamber of Turin, but also in that of Chambery, and that many original copies may be drawn, and delivered into the hands of those to whom it shall appertain."

This affecting document was delivered into the hands of Monsieur de Bais, the French minister, and by him transmitted to his royal master, who, upon receipt of it, expressed great concern for the deplorable condition of the poor Waldenses, but his kind intentions towards them were entirely frustrated by some malignant spirits near the throne. "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 endeavours to lay heavier loads on their backs, than ever they had hitherto done. For in their orders of April 20, 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, 1637, 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 labour 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 mouths, 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 cruse.' 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.' "'*

SECTION VII.

History of the Waldenses continued; including a narrative of the sanguinary proceedings of the Catholics against them in Poland. A. D. 1658.

THE return of Sir Samuel Morland from his mission to the court of Turin, gave him an opportunity of laying before the English government a minute and circumstantial explanation of the state of the Waldenses in Piedmont, at the time of his departure in 1658. The substance of this account, the reader has already seen, in the close of the last section, and its truth and accuracy are further ascertained by a letter, bearing date 30th of November, 1657, from the four Swiss commissioners who, two years before, had been engaged in negociating the treaty of Pignerol. This letter is addressed to Monsieur de Servient, ambassador of the French king, who was present at the ratification of the treaty, and, as it would seem, had taken a considerable interest therein. The Swiss commissioners complain that the conditions of the treaty were grossly

* Morland's Churches of Piedmont, p. 682–708. VOL. II. 3 C

violatated by the adversaries of the Waldenses; that interpretations were put upon various clauses contained in it, the reverse of what they were intended to bear; and, in short, that the situation in which these poor people were now placed, called loudly for the cognizance and interference of the court of France, which stood pledged to see the conditions of the treaty punctually fulfilled. They, in particular, notice the lawless procedure of the military towards the Waldenses, in plundering them of their fruits, which they carried away without the least ceremony, committing robberies in their houses, and spoiling them of their goods-that "they were laden with reproaches and injuries, beaten and wounded; the virtue of their females attempted, with numerous other outrages, altogether inexcusable." "That several persons who had been sent to settle among them in the capacity of pastors and teachers, from their sister churches in Dauphiny, had been seized and banished out of the country, on the ground that they were not natives, and that therefore the conditions of the treaty did not extend to them-and that, in particular, one of their pastors who had exercised the holy ministry among them for thirty years, together with one Mr. Arnold, a physician, had been turned out and banished, so that by these and similar means many churches and congregations were at once deprived of the food of their souls and comfort of their bodies. After enumerating a long catalogue of similar grievances, they say "Now as these things have happened to our friends and associates in religion, so palpably contrary to our expectation, our hearts are so much the more sensibly affected by it, both because we were present in the name of our lords and superiors at the negociating of the treaty, and because we are personally interested therein." They, therefore, supplicate his excellency to interpose his mediation for the good of their friends, and for his own interest and honour's sake; and to