. A short history of the Italian Waldenses who have inhabited the valleys of the Cottian Alps from ancient times to the present. hem to guard the Alps against theinroads of that same Louis XIV. who hadpersuaded him to drive them away, — theygave him true and loyal service. Until theyear 1848 they were shut up in their moun-tains without civil rights, — the very pariahsand outcasts of Italy. A Waldensian couldnot exercise a learned profession, or take aregular course of study in the universities ofItaly, or worship according to his faith out-side of the valleys. Yet they were ever readyto greet
. A short history of the Italian Waldenses who have inhabited the valleys of the Cottian Alps from ancient times to the present. hem to guard the Alps against theinroads of that same Louis XIV. who hadpersuaded him to drive them away, — theygave him true and loyal service. Until theyear 1848 they were shut up in their moun-tains without civil rights, — the very pariahsand outcasts of Italy. A Waldensian couldnot exercise a learned profession, or take aregular course of study in the universities ofItaly, or worship according to his faith out-side of the valleys. Yet they were ever readyto greet their princes with respect and fealtyon the rare visits made them, and no Italianshave been more faithful to the establishedgovernment since their admission by thestatnto to equal civil and religious rightswith other citizens. Fervent prayers are sentup every Sunday to the throne of grace fromevery Waldensian pulpit in Italy for the wel-fare of King Humbert, Queen Margaret,Victor Emanuel Ferdinand, Prince of Naples;for the Senate, the Parliament, and all othersin authority. No trace of bitterness or revenge is evident. The Israel of the Alps 5 against those who once persecuted their raceto the death. But yet they are faithful to theoath taken two hundred years ago at Sibaud,in the valleys, when, on their return fromthree years and a half of exile, they swore todrag their fellow-countrymen away by everymeans in their power from the Babylonianwoe. This missionary spirit has possessedthem always. Their pastors or barbes went, two by two,dressed in long brown woollen gowns, overall Italy to evangelize in the thirteenth, four-teenth, and fifteenth centuries. They hadchurches and adherents in every town andcity, and were always the guests of their ownpeople. With the dawn of liberty in 1848, theyawoke to new missionary life and and stations were established, anda committee of five pastors was appointed tocollect money from Protestant Christians inother countries.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidshor, booksubjectwaldenses
