t they should receive no injury or violence, if they would
accept of preachers appointed by the pope; but if they would not, they
should be deprived both of their properties and lives; and that their
intentions might be known, mass should be publicly said that afternoon,
at which they were ordered to attend.
The people of St. Xist, instead of attending mass, fled into the woods,
with their families, and thus disappointed the cardinal and his
coadjutors. The cardinal then proceeded to La Garde, the other town
belonging to the Waldenses, where, not to be served as he had been at
St. Xist, he ordered the gates to be locked, and all avenues guarded.
The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants of La Garde, as had
previously been offered to those of St. Xist, but with this additional
piece of artifice: the cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of St.
Xist had immediately come into his proposals, and agreed that the pope
should appoint them preachers. This falsehood succeeded; for the people
of La Garde, thinking what the cardinal had told them to be the truth,
said they would exactly follow the example of their brethren at St.
The cardinal having gained his point by deluding the people of one town,
sent for troops of soldiers, with a view to murder those of the other.
He, accordingly, despatched the soldiers into the woods, to hunt down
the inhabitants of St. Xist like wild beasts, and gave them strict
orders to spare neither age nor sex, but to kill all they came near. The
troops entered the woods, and many fell a prey to their ferocity, before
the Waldenses were properly apprised of their design. At length,
however, they determined to sell their lives as dear as possible, when
several conflicts happened, in which the half-armed Waldenses performed
prodigies of valour, and many were slain on both sides. The greatest
part of the troops being killed in the different rencontres, the rest
were compelled to retreat, which so enraged the cardinal, that he wrote
to the viceroy of Naples for reinforcements.
The viceroy immediately ordered a proclamation to be made throughout all
the Neapolitan territories, that all outlaws, deserters, and other
proscribed persons should be surely pardoned for their respective
offences, on condition of making a campaign against the inhabitants of
St. Xist, and continuing under arms till those people were exterminated.
Many persons of desperate fortunes, came in upon this proclamation, and
being formed into light companies, were sent to scour the woods, and put
to death all they could meet with of the reformed religion. The viceroy
himself likewise joined the cardinal, at the head of a body of regular
forces; and, in conjunction, they did all they could to harass the poor
people in the woods. Some they caught and hanged up upon trees, cut down
boughs and burnt them, or ripped them open and left their bodies to be
devoured by wild beasts, or birds of prey. Many they shot at a distance,
but the greatest number they hunted down by way of sport. A few hid
themselves in caves, but famine destroyed them in their retreat; and
thus all these poor people perished, by various means, to glut the
bigoted malice of their merciless persecutors.
The inhabitants of St. Xist were no sooner exterminated, than those of
La Garde engaged the attention of the cardinal and viceroy.
It was offered, that if they should embrace the Roman catholic
persuasion, themselves and families should not be injured, but their
houses and properties should be restored, and none would be permitted to
molest them; but, on the contrary, if they refused this mercy, (as it
was termed) the utmost extremities would be used, and the most cruel
deaths the certain consequence of their non-compliance.
Notwithstanding the promises on one side, and menaces on the other,
these worthy people unanimously refused to renounce their religion, or
embrace the errors of popery. This exasperated the cardinal and viceroy
so much, that 30 of them were ordered to be put immediately to the rack,
as a terror to the rest.
Those who were put to the rack wer