Back to History ReportsBack to the Way of Life Home PageWay of Life Literature Online
Catalog
Back to History Reports
Back to the Way of Life Home Page
Way of Life Literature Online
Catalog
THE
HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, from the birth of Christ to the
18th Century: including the very interesting account of the
Waldenses and Albigenses
By William Jones
First Edition 1812
Fourth Edition 1819
Fifth Edition 1826
London: Printed for the Author by W. Myers, 7, Took’s Court,
Castle Street, Holborn
[Note from the publisher. This valuable out-of-print book was carefully formatted for electronic publication by Way of Life Literature. For a catalog of other books, both current and old, in print and electronic format, contact us at P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail), http://www.wayoflife.org (web site).]
[Table of Contents for "A History of the Christian Church" by William Jones]
CHAPTER SIX -- SECTION 2
HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES FROM THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; AND MORE ESPECIALLY OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THEM IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. A.D. 1500-1550
The history of Modern Europe does not present us with a more interesting period than the commencement of the sixteenth century, the era at which we are now arrived. The sanguinary proceedings that had been carried on against the Waldenses in the southern provinces of France, towards the close of the former century, had apparently exhausted the malice of the court of Rome; the heretics, for the moment at least, were driven from public view; and the state of the catholic church was more than usually tranquil. The empire and the priesthood, which for several centuries had been constantly in arms against each other, had depopulated Italy, Germany, and almost every other country in Europe, but the contest ended in the triumph of the church. The Roman pontiffs, says a late writer, have always possessed an advantage over the other sovereigns of Europe, from the singular union of ecclesiastical and temporal power in the same person; two engines which long experience had taught them to use with a dexterity equal to that with which the heroes of antiquity availed themselves by turns of the shield and the spear. When schemes of ambition and aggrandizement were to be pursued; the pope, as a temporal prince, could enter into alliances, raise supplies, and furnish his contingent of troops, so as effectually to carry on an offensive war; but no sooner was he endangered by defeat, and alarmed for the safety of his own government, than he resorted for shelter to his pontifical robes, and loudly called upon all Christendom to defend from violation the head of the holy church. These characters were successively assumed with great address and advantage; and although some difficulties might occasionally arise in the exercise of them, yet the world has been sufficiently indulgent to their situation; nor has even the shedding of Christian blood been thought an invincible objection to the conferring on a deceased pontiff the honor of adoration, and placing him in the highest order of sainthood conferred by the church. [Roscoe’s Life and Pontificate of Leo X, volume 1, chapter 1; the reference is to the case of Saint Leo IX.]
At the opening of the sixteenth century the pontifical chair was filled by Alexander VI who died in 1508, after a reign of eleven years, leaving behind him a memory, says Voltaire, more odious than the Nero’s or Caligula’s, because a greater degree of guilt arose from the sanctity of his character. He was succeeded by Julius II who, after a military but successful reign of a few years, gave place to the celebrated Leo X in whose pontificate Luther commenced hostilities with the papacy, threw off his allegiance to the See of Rome, and entered upon his career of reform. A.D. 1517.
To enter upon any thing like a circumstantial detail of the History of the Reformation, would not only demand much more space than can be allotted to it in the present undertaking, but would also, in a great measure, be to depart from my leading object. Nor, indeed, is such a narrative called for by the public exigence. Any deficiency of that kind which may be experienced by the readers of the present work, may be readily supplied by consulting the authors mentioned below, whose writings are in the hands of every scholar. [Milner’s History of the Christian Church, volume 4; and Sleidan’s History of the Reformation; Robertson’s History of Charles V, etc., etc.] Instead, therefore, of treading this beaten track over again, I shall only remark upon it, that the flame which was kindled throughout Europe, 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, that the Waldenses, both in France and Piedmont, were happily, in a great measure, overlooked. But as the conflagration excited by Luther’s hostility gradually subsided, they began again to attract the notice of their adversaries and to come in for an equal share of their malice and malignity; of the truth of which the reader will soon have before him abundant proof.
In the year 1530, the Waldenses seem to have been entirely employed in paving the way for a more unreserved intercourse between them and the German Reformers. Such of them as resided in the south of France, had, at this time, been sustaining the fire of papal persecution, and it would seem that they had not encountered it with their usual fortitude. Many amongst them had been induced to shrink from the cross; and to avoid its inconvenience, were fallen into the practice of feigning a complaisant kind of acquiescence with the national forms of worship. Some of the Waldensian churches of Provence appear to have been deeply affected at seeing this Laodicean conduct prevail; and to bring the matter to its proper bearing, they commissioned two of their pastors, viz. George Morel and Peter Burgoine, to confer with the other churches and with some of the Reformers upon that subject. They first visited their sister churches in the neighboring provinces of Dauphiny, and from thence proceeded on their journey towards Germany, to have a personal interview with John Ecolampadius, minister of Basle, in Switzerland; with Martin Bucer, at Strasburgh; and Richard Haller, at Berne. The churches sent letters by them explaining their situation, and asking their advice. The following is an extract of their letter to Ecolampadius.
Health be to you, Mr. Ecolampadius,
"Whereas several persons have given us to understand that He who is able to do all things hath replenished you with the blessings of his Holy Spirit, as conspicuously appear by its fruits, we have recourse to you from a far country under the firm hope and confidence, that by your means the Holy Spirit will enlighten our minds into the knowledge of several things, concerning which we, at present, stand in doubt." They then proceed to explain the immediate occasion of their writing--"We, poor instructors of this small people," say they, "have sustained, for above these four hundred years, most severe and cruel persecutions, not without signal marks of Christ’s favor, as all the faithful can testify; for he has often interposed for the deliverance of his people, when under the harrow of these cruel and severe persecutions; and we now come unto you for advice and consolation in this our state of distress," etc., etc.
The particular subjects of difficulty and distress may be easily gathered from the letter which Ecolampadius wrote them in reply, and which is so excellent that I shall here insert it entire.
Ecolampadius wishes the grace of God, through Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit, to his well-beloved brethren in Christ, called WALDENSES.
"We understand that the fear of persecution hath caused you to conceal and dissemble your faith. Now, with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But those who are afraid to confess Christ before the world, shall find no acceptance with God the Father; for our God is truth without any dissimulation; and as he is a jealous God, he cannot endure that any of his servants should take upon them the yoke of antichrist. For there is no fellowship or communion between Christ and Belial; and if you communicate with infidels, by going to their abominable masses, you will there hear blasphemies against the death and sufferings of Christ. For when they boast, that by means of such sacrifices they make satisfaction to God for the sins of both the living and the dead, what naturally follows from thence, but that Christ by his death hath not made sufficient expiation and satisfaction, and consequently that Christ is not Jesus--that is, not a Savior, and that he died for us in vain? That if we participate of that impure table, we thereby declare ourselves to be of one and the same body with the wicked, however contrary we may pretend it to be to our wills and inclinations. And when we say Amen to their prayers, do we not deny Christ?
"What death ought we not rather to undergo; what torture and torment ought we not rather to endure--nay, into what abyss of woe and misery ought we not rather to plunge ourselves, than by our presence to testify our consent to, and approbation of, the blasphemies of the wicked? I know that your infirmity is great; but those who have been taught that they were redeemed by the blood of Christ, ought to be more courageous, and always to stand in awe of Him who can cast both body and soul into hell. And what! is it enough for us to have preserved this life alone? Shall this be more precious to us than that of Christ? And are we satisfied with having enjoyed the delights and pleasures of this world? Are there not crowns laid before us, and shall we flinch back and recoil? Who will believe that our faith was true and sincere, if it want zeal and ardor in the time of persecution? We beseech the Lord to increase your faith. But surely it is better for us to lose our lives than to be overcome by temptations. And, therefore, brethren, I beseech you thoroughly to consider this matter; for if it be lawful for us to conceal our faith under the tyranny of antichrist, it must be lawful so to do under that of the Turk, and, with Dioclesian, to worship a Jupiter or a Venus. It would then have been lawful for Tobit to worship the calf in Bethel--and what then will become of our faith towards God? If we do not pay to God that honor which is due to him, and if our lives be nothing else than hypocrisy and dissimulation, he will spue us out of his mouth, like base and lukewarm wretches. And how shall we glorify the Lord in the midst of sufferings and tribulations, if we deny him! We must not, brethren, look back, when once we have put our hand to the plough; nor must we yield to the dictates and instigations of our flesh, which by prompting us to sin, though it may endure many things that are distressing in this world--may, after all, suffer shipwreck in the haven."
This excellent letter came very opportunely to the aid of the poor persecuted Waldenses, who were immediately called to carry its principles into effect. Peter Masson, one of their pastors, and messengers of the churches on this occasion, returning home, was seized at Dijon, and condemned to death as a Lutheran. George Morel narrowly escaped with his letters and papers, but arrived safe in Provence, where he labored assiduously and with much success in re-establishing the Waldensian churches. But the reader will best learn the state of affairs among the Waldensian brethren in the south of France, from the year 1540 to 1550, by my laying before him the following extracts from two eminent writers, who lived shortly after the events which they have recorded, and whose works are of unquestionable veracity; and I the rather do this, that I may not be suspected of any wish to exaggerate the sanguinary proceedings of the catholic party against the Waldenses. The following is Sleidan’s account.
"In Provence, in France, there are a people called Waldenses, who, by an ancient custom, acknowledge not the pope of Rome, having always professed a greater purity of doctrine; and, since Luther appeared, eagerly thirsted after knowledge. Many times had they been complained of to the king, as despisers of magistrates and fomenters of rebellion, which envious, rather than true accusation, is by most made use of at this day. They live together in some towns and villages, amongst which is Merindole. About five years since, sentence was pronounced against them 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. Now though this sentence was pronounced, yet it was not then put in execution, William de Bellay, of Langey, the king’s lieutenant in Piedmont, with some others, having represented the matter to the king, as a case that ought to be reviewed by himself. But, at length, this year, 1545, John Meinier, president of the parliament of Aix, having, April the 12th, called the parliament, read to them the king’s letters, which warranted him to put the sentence into execution. Now Meinier is said to have procured these letters by means of the Cardinal of Tournon, and the solicitation of Philip Cortine, a proper agent in the case. However, having received them in the month of January, he did not immediately produce them, but kept them till a season more proper for the exploit. The letters being read, some of the parliament were selected to see the matter put in execution, to whom Meinier offered himself as assistant, because that in the absence of Grignian, the governor of the province, he had the chief command. Before that time, he had by the king’s orders raised forces for the English war, and these he made use of for his purpose: besides these, he commanded all that were able to carry arms in Marseilles, Aix, Aries, and other populous places, to repair to him, under severe penalties, if they disobeyed, having assistance likewise sent him from the country of Avignon, under the dominion of the pope. The first attempt then was not made upon those of Merindole, but upon the country adjoining the town of Pertuse. 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" [Sleidan’s History of the Reformation, book 16.]
I cannot better close this section than by an extract from an eminent catholic writer, who was contemporary with the dreadful occurrences which he has so impartially recorded; and notwithstanding its length, and also that it touches upon some particulars already adverted to by Sleidan, I persuade myself that its importance and interesting nature will more than compensate for its prolixity.
"When the inhabitants of Merindole and Cabriere, at the report of those things which were done in Germany, lifted up their crests, and hiring teachers out of Germany, discovered themselves more manifestly than they had done before, they were brought to judgment by the parliament of Aix, at the instance of the king’s procurator; but being admonished by their friends and deterred by the danger that undoubtedly attended their trial, they failed to appear. And having been summoned for three market-days together, they were condemned as contumacious, by a most horrible and immeasurably cruel sentence, on the eighteenth day of November, about the year 1540, Bartholomew la Chassagne, a lawyer of great reputation, being at that time president of the parliament. By that decree the fathers of families were condemned to the flames, and the estates, wives, children, and servants of the condemned parties confiscated to the use of the treasury. And because Merindole had hitherto been the usual den and receptacle of such sort of infected persons, it was ordered, that all the houses should be laid level with the ground, that the subterraneous caves and vaults, where they might be concealed, should be demolished and filled up; that the wood round about it should be cut down, and even the very trees of the gardens; that the possessions of those who dwelt at Merindole should not be so much as let for the future to any of the same family, or even of the same name with the former owners. The execution of this cruel decree was committed to the ordinary judges of Aix, Tournes, St. Maximim, and Apt; but it was thought by most people very proper to be suspended, until in process of time the sentence issued against the absent and contumacious, should pass by the laws and customs of the realm into a definite sentence. Others, on the contrary, judged it more fit to be precipitated, out of hatred to the crime, and regard to the danger which that contagion certainly threatened, if any delay were interposed. In the first place the bishops of Aix and Arles pressed Chassagne to proceed against the rebels with an armed force, promising, in their own and the name of the other ecclesiastics, a great sum of money towards the expenses of that war. Whilst they disputed on each side with great warmth, the matter was put off, by a method ridiculous enough in itself, but well accommodated to the person with whom it was used. There was at Aix, Nicolas Allens, a gentleman of Arles, of great respectability, and not unskilled in letters, an intimate friend of Chassagne’s, who shocked at the injustice of the decree, and greatly desiring to have it respited, at a private conference, addressed himself to the wavering president in the following speech.
"You are not ignorant of the discourses which everywhere pass in relation to the sentence lately issued against the inhabitants of Merindole; nor is it my business or inclination to give my opinion of them, well knowing how important it is to a well ordered commonwealth, that judgments should be solemnly regarded and not rashly called in question. But if we consider the magnitude of the affair, it seems worthy of inquiry, whether the execution ought not to be deferred, and the bitterness of the sentence mitigated by the advantage of a delay. As various and very considerable reasons may be alleged for that delay, I have determined to treat familiarly with you, by the help of your own arguments, agreeably to that intimacy which subsists between us. Do you not remember, whilst you were yet sitting only on the lower bench of justice at Autun, what you formerly thought in THE CASE OF THE MICE? For you have even published a narrative of it; and such is your modesty and candor, that I have observed you to call to mind the transactions of those times with pleasure. This is the account you give. When, in the bailliage of Autun, a great multitude of mice had done much damage by eating the corn, the country people could think of no more immediate remedy for this new disaster, than that the bishop or his vicar should excommunicate the mice. The affair then being laid before the bishop’s vicar, he was of opinion, that the crier of the court should give them three citations; which done, he was still unwilling to pronounce sentence, till the mice had an advocate assigned them, who should plead for them in their absence. You, therefore, undertook the patronage of the mice, and in that ease, in pursuance of the character which you sustained, you by many arguments persuaded the judges, that the mice had not been regularly summoned; you obtained for them that a fresh day should be set them by the curates of the respective parishes, forasmuch as the lives of all the mice were concerned in the issue of that trial. And when you had gained that point, you again showed, that too short a time had been given them, considering that the mice who were to appear were waylaid in every village by the cats. You then brought many things out of the Holy Scriptures in defense of your clients, and prevailed at length to have a longer time assigned them, in which proceeding you acquired great reputation for equity and knowledge of the law. I now call you to your own book, and your own arguments. For what can sound harsher in the ears of mankind, than that you, who in the case of mice thought the due course of judgment proper to be observed, should think it fit to be perverted in a cause wherein the life, safety, and fortunes of men are concerned. Beware, therefore, lest you incur the fault of those fencing masters, who, when they fight at blunts, observe the rules of the science, and often come off conquerors; but when they are to draw their sword against an enemy, are either so enraged or confounded, that they forget their art, and generally suffer themselves to be stabbed. What you observed in that ludicrous process, when you were yet but a youth, and little better than a private person, will you neglect in so serious an affair, at that age and in that station, wherein you have raised such an universal opinion of yourself? Are the lives of so many wretched men so cheap a thing, that they shall find a harder fate at your hands, now you are judge, than the mice formerly experienced under your patronage? I do not speak of their innocence. But you yourself know how many things they are maliciously and wrongfully charged with, and that in other respects they are diligent worshippers of God, and never refuse to pay their landlords their dues, nor to yield tribute or obedience to the prince or the magistrate. Therefore, by the friendship which is betwixt us, I conjure you again and again maturely to weigh these reasons, and to persuade yourself, that in a cause which respects the life and death and fortunes of men, no delay can be too long.
[That this whimsical circumstance, namely, the excommunication of the mice by the spiritual court, actually took place, as related by our author, can admit of no reasonable doubt. Nor, indeed, ought it that the cause of the poor mice was successfully pleaded by this eminent counsellor. The question, however, will naturally strike a reflecting mind, "Were the inhabitants of the country, who indicted the mice for misdemeanor, really in earnest in this ludicrous affair; or was it only what, in modern style, is called a hoax upon the clergy?" For myself, I have little doubt that the latter was the case; and that both the indictment and the pleadings of the counsel were designed to burlesque the proceedings of the catholic clergy, in their treatment of the heretics. The main difficulty is to believe that the clergy themselves could be so stupid as not to see it in this light. And I am perfectly aware that, in the present enlightened era, an historian is in danger of shocking the credibility of his readers even while he impartially relates the mummery that was prevalent among the Catholics of those days: Witness the feast of the ass, mentioned in my first volume. AUTHOR.]
"By this speech Aliens prevailed with Chassagne to respite the business, and to dismiss the troops which had already rendezvoused in great numbers, until he could know the mind of the king; 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. When this report was made to Francis, on the eighth day of February, he dispatched an arret to the parliament of Aix, wherein, having pardoned all past crimes, he allowed the Waldenses the space of three months, within which time they were required publicly to revoke their opinions: and that it might be known who they were that were willing to reap the benefit of the amnesty, it was ordered that chosen persons out of the towns and villages should appear at Aix, in the name of the rest of the multitude, and publicly abjure their error: if they persisted in it, the parliament were empowered and commanded to punish them after the example of former ages, and if need were, to call in the military officers to their aid. The arret being read in the senate, Francis Chais and William Armand came to Aix, in the name of the people of Merindole, and presented a petition to the parliament, that the cause might be reheard and examined by a disputation of divines; contending that it was unjust, that, before they were convicted, they should confess themselves heretics, or be condemned unheard. La Chassagne, in whose breast his friend’s advice had made a deep impression, calling aside the deputies in the presence of the king’s advocates, admonished them to acknowledge their error, and not by their excessive obstinacy lay the judges under the necessity of dealing with them more harshly than agreed with their inclinations: But as they still continued to press La Chassagne to take cognizance of their opinions, he at length obtained of those stubborn people, that they should present the heads of their doctrine to the parliament, who would transmit them to his majesty. The townsmen of Cabrieres, in the county of Venaisoin, were attacked at the same time by those of Avignon; and, as they were all concerned in the common danger, they drew up a common profession of their religion, resembling Luther’s in the most points, and sent one copy to Francis, who put it into the hands of Castellain to be examined by him, and another to Cardinal James Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras; who, being of a pious and mild disposition, received the suppliants with great humanity, and ingenuously declared, that whatever else they were charged with, beyond what was contained in that book, were mere slanders invented to create them ill-will; for that after a thorough inquiry he had gained a perfect knowledge of that matter; but that in the book which was offered, there seemed to be many things which might be mended by a small alteration, and others reflecting upon the Pope and the prelates, which might be corrected by a more temperate style: that however he wished them well; and that it would never be with his good liking, if they were treated in an hostile manner; and that he would repair, by the first opportunity, to his seat at Cabrieres, and examine the whole affair upon the spot. Besides these expressions he showed them real marks of a favorable and sincere regard, by repressing the deputy of Avignon, who was advancing with an armed force, and admonishing him to retire. The confession of the people of Merindole being exhibited, by a decree of parliament, John Durandi and the bishop of Cavaillon with some other divines, went to Merindole, to convince the poor villagers of their error, and to grant a pardon to such as should, upon oath, renounce it: but although they continued in their obstinate spirit of opposition, yet, as long as Chassagne lived, no violence was employed against them, because the king had taken to himself the cognizance of the whole matter: but when he was carried off by a sudden death, and succeeded by John Meinier, baron Oppede, (a vehement man, and one, who for certain affronts received from the people of Cabrieres, to whom some of his farms were adjoining, was their bitter enemy) the hatred against the Waldenses was renewed. This nobleman, in the absence of Lewis des Emars, count of Grignan, who had been sent by the king to the diet of Worms, took upon himself the chief command in Provence, and assured Francis, by letters, that the Waldenses were met together to the number of sixteen thousand men, with a design to seize Marseilles, and to raise commotions in Provence. He also sent Philip Courtin, apparitor of the court, to demand, in the name of the king’s advocate, that the judgment given against the rebels might be put in execution. The king, exasperated by this information, and being further instigated by the Cardinal De Tournon, a kinsman to Grignan, and a bitter enemy to this sort of men, sent letters to the parliament, in the month of January, in the year 1545, whereby he permitted them to proceed against the Merindolians and the rest of the Waldenses, according to law: and when the states of the empire, by their letters from Ratisbon, and the protestant Swiss Cantons were urgent, that not only the penalty, but the condition of acknowledging their error might be remitted, because thereby force was offered to resolution and conscience, he constantly denied their request; and when afterwards he was pressed by them to be merciful to the dispersed remains of those people, he bluntly answered, that they ought not to trouble themselves with what he did in his own country, or how he punished delinquents, any more than he concerned himself with their affairs. Meinier, therefore, having received those orders, kept them by him for some time, in expectation of a fairer opportunity: for in the meanwhile levies were made everywhere under the pretense of the English war, and he would not suffer the secret to be divulged, that so he might fall upon them unawares. But when things were in readiness, and he had under severe penalties summoned all those who were capable of bearing arms at Aix, Aries, Marseilles, and other populous towns, to come into the field; and when six companies of foot, with a squadron of horse, commanded by Poulain, and other auxiliary troops from Piedmont and Avignon were already assembled, the royal letters which had been hitherto suppressed, were read in parliament: whereupon the senators, upon the 12th of April, decreed the execution of the sentence passed upon the people of Merindole; and the business was committed to the president, Francis de la Fons, with the counselors Honore de Tributiis, and Bernard de Badet, to whom was joined Nicholas Guerin the king’s advocate, and principal incendiary of the war. Oppede, the day following, accompanied with a great body of nobles, repaired to the army at Cadenet, bringing with him four hundred pioneers. The first attack was made upon the country adjoined to the town of Pertuys; the villages of Pupin, La Mote, and St. Martin, near the Durance; these were taken, pillaged, and set on fire. On the following day the little towns of Ville-Laure, Lourmarin, Gensson, Trezemines, and La Roque, from whence the multitude had fled, were cruelly burnt, and all the cattle driven away. Then Oppede consulted about attacking Merindole; but when the inhabitants saw the country round about in flames, they fled into the neighboring woods with their wives and children; which exhibited a most lamentable spectacle, for in those byways were to be seen marching, old men mixed with boys, and women carrying their crying infants in cradles, or in their arms or laps. They rested the first night at Sanfalaise, where also the inhabitants were preparing all things for a flight, because they knew that the Bishop of Cavaillon, the pope’s legate, had ordered his men to massacre them. The next day they advanced further under the security of the thick woods, full of fears from every other quarter: for Oppede had outlawed the Waldenses, and had ordered, under pain of death, that none should give them any relief, but that wherever they were found, they should (without respect to age or sex) be all murdered. And now after an excessively long journey, they had reached their appointed station, the women being hardly able to stand under the burden of their big bellies, or children; and many others, who had left their habitations, had flocked together at the same place, when towards night they were informed Meinier was at hand with all his forces. Hereupon they were obliged to take counsel on a sudden; and leaving there all the women and feeble part of their company, whom they imagined the enemy would spare, put themselves again on the way, whilst nothing could be heard but the most dismal groans, with the lamentations and screamings of the women, which were re-echoed by the mountains and woods, and all things were in the utmost hurry and confusion. When they had spent the whole night in traveling, at last climbing over Mount Lubieres, and seeing the villages every where in flames and the farms deserted, they proceeded to the town of Mus: here Oppede divided his troops into two parts, one of which he sent to pursue the fugitives, for he had been informed of their flight by certain spies, and the other he took with him to Merindole. At that juncture one of Oppede’s men, touched with compassion, ran before, and from the top of the rock, where he guessed the Merindolians were settled, flung down two stones, and in the interval called out with a miserable voice to them to save themselves by flight: immediately some persons went out of Mus, to order the pastor and the guides, who were left with the unarmed multitude, to escape, showing them a byway through the brambles; and not long after Oppede’s men appeared, and full of rage, with drawn swords, demanded the slaughter of the whole company; they were preparing to use the women in a still viler manner, but were hindered by a captain, who threatened them with death, if they did not forbear: so after they had stripped them and drove away their cattle, they departed. Oppede entered the town of Merindole, now destitute of inhabitants, and finding there only one youth, Maurice Blanc by name, wreaked upon him that fury which he could not vent upon the whole body of the people; and, tying him to an olive-tree, ordered him to be cruelly shot to death: then, burning and demolishing the town, he marched straightway to Cabrieres. When the townsmen, of whom no more than sixty, with about thirty women, were left in the place, had at first shut their gates against him, some great guns were brought down, upon which they surrendered on a promise, confirmed by Poulain and the lord of the place, of having their lives saved: but when the garrison was admitted they were all seized, even they who lay hid in the dungeon of the castle, or thought themselves secured by the sacredness of the church; and being dragged out from thence into a hollow meadow were put to death, without regard to age or the assurances given: the number of the slain, within and without the town, amounted to eight hundred: the women, by the command of Oppede, were thrust into a barn filled with straw, and fire being set to it, when they endeavored to leap out of the window, they were pushed back by poles and pikes, and miserably suffocated and consumed in the flames. Thence they proceeded to LaCoste, the lord of which place having passed his word to the townsmen for their safety, provided they carried their arms into the castle, and broke down their walls in four places, the credulous people did as they were commanded; notwithstanding which, on the arrival of Oppede, the suburbs being burnt and the town taken, all that were found left in the place were murdered to a man. The women who, to avoid the first fury of the soldiers, had retired into a garden near the castle, were deflowered, and, after the rage of lust was extinguished, handled in so cruel a manner, that most of those who were with child, and even the virgins, died either of grief, or by hunger and torments. The men, who sheltered themselves at Mus, being at length discovered, underwent the same fate with the others: the remainder of them, wandering here and there among the woods and solitary mountains, led a wretched life, deprived both of wives and children; some few escaped, partly to Geneva, and partly to the Swiss Cantons. In all there are twenty-two villages reckoned, which were punished 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. Some, indeed, were absolved; and among these the tenants of Cental, who solemnly abjured their error. 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. He accordingly, on the 18th day of August, By the suggestions (as it is thought) of the Cardinal De Tournon, obtained an instrument from the king, wherein he seemed to approve the punishment which was taken of those guilty persons; of which however he afterwards repented. 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.
"Upon the death, therefore, of Francis, when the Cardinal De Tournon and the Count De Grignan, who had long flourished in the king’s favor, were violently hated by those who were placed about the new king; the Merindolians and Waldenses, who knew of their disgrace, gathering together their remains into a body, formed a complaint of the injustice and cruelty of the parliament of Aix, and, out of spite to them, easily obtained to have their cause heard over again. The Duke of Guise was their principal encourager, who procured for himself the county of Grignan under the title of a gift or sale from Lewis des Emars, to exempt him from danger. For though all things had been acted in the count’s absence, as we mentioned, yet because they were said to be done by Oppede his lieutenant, and by his order, he also himself was brought into a share of peril. The matter was first debated in the great council, as it is called: afterwards when Oppede, De la Fons, De Tributiis, Badet, and Guerin, being called upon to answer, they defended themselves by the plea of a sentence past, against the execution whereof the royal advocate had not appealed; at length, by a new arret of the 17th day of March, the king took the cause into his own cognizance. And because the question concerned the force and authority of the supreme court of Aix, he committed the hearing both of the matter itself, and of the appeals, to the grand chamber of the parliament of Paris; where the cause was publicly managed, with great contention, and before a large concourse of people, for fifty days, by James Aubury on the part of the Merindolians, Peter Robert for the parliament of Aix, and Denys de Ryants for the king’s advocate. When upon the mention of so many horrid facts of which the defendants were accused, the minds of all men were, in the utmost attention and expectation of the issue, they were entirely disappointed of their hopes, Guerin alone, who happened to be destitute of friends at court, suffering the punishment of death. 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" [Thuani Historia sui temporis, lib. vi].
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.