The inhabitants of certain Piedmontese valleys had
held from time immemorial, and long before Luther, tenets and forms of
worship very like those to which the German reformers had sought to
bring back the church. The Vaudois were wretchedly poor, and had been
incessantly the objects of aggression and persecution. In January
1655, a sudden determination was taken by the Turin government to
make them conform to the catholic religion by force. The whole of the
inhabitants of three valleys were ordered to quit the country within
three days, under pain of death and confiscation of goods, unless they
would become, or undertake to become, catholic. They sent their
humble remonstrances to the court of Turin against this edict. The
remonstrances were disregarded, and military execution was ordered. On
April 17, 1655, the soldiers, recruits from all countries--the Irish
are specially mentioned--were let loose upon the unarmed population.
Murder and rape and burning are the ordinary incidents of military
execution. These were not enough to satisfy the ferocity of the
catholic soldiery, who revelled for many days in the infliction of all
that brutal lust or savage cruelty can suggest to men.
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