Some were weak enough to go to mass, in order to avoid banishment, and preserve their property; others removed, with all their effects, to different countries; and many neglected the time so long, that they were obliged to abandon all they were worth, and leave the marquisate in haste. Those, who unhappily staid behind, were seized, plundered, and put to death.
_An Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont, in the Seventeenth Century._
Pope Clement the eighth, sent missionaries into the valleys of Piedmont, to induce the protestants to renounce their religion; and these missionaries having erected monasteries in several parts of the valleys, became exceedingly troublesome to those of the reformed, where the monasteries appeared, not only as fortresses to curb, but as sanctuaries for all such to fly to, as had any ways injured them.
The protestants petitioned the duke of Savoy against these missionaries, whose insolence and ill-usage were become intolerable; but instead of getting any redress, the interest of the missionaries so far prevailed, that the duke published a decree, in which he declared, that one witness should be sufficient in a court of law against a protestant, and that any witness, who convicted a protestant of any crime whatever, should be entitled to one hundred crowns.
It may be easily imagined, upon the publication of a decree of this nature, that many protestants fell martyrs to perjury and avarice; for several villanous papists would swear any thing against the protestants for the sake of the reward, and then fly to their own priests for absolution from their false oaths. If any Roman catholic, of more conscience than the rest, blamed these fellows for their atrocious crimes, they themselves were in danger of being informed against and punished as favourers of heretics.
The missionaries did all they could to get the books of the protestants into their hands, in order to burn them; when the protestants doing their utmost endeavours to conceal their books, the missionaries wrote to the duke of Savoy, who, for the heinous crime of not surrendering their bibles, prayer-books, and religious treatises, sent a number of troops to be quartered on them. These military gentry did great mischief in the houses of the protestants, and destroyed such quantities of provisions, that many families were thereby ruined.
To encourage, as much as possible, the apostacy of the protestants, the duke of Savoy published a proclamation wherein he said, "To encourage the heretics to turn catholics, it is our will and pleasure, and we do hereby expressly command, that all such as shall embrace the holy Roman catholic faith, shall enjoy an exemption, from all and every tax for the space of five years, commencing from the day of their conversion." The duke of Savoy likewise established a court, called the council for extirpating the heretics. This court was to enter into inquiries concerning the ancient privileges of the protestant churches, and the decrees which had been, from time to time, made in favour of the protestants. But the investigation of these things was carried on with the most manifest partiality; old charters were wrested to a wrong sense, and sophistry was used to pervert the meaning of every thing, which tended to favour the reformed.
As if these severities were not sufficient, the duke, soon after, published another edict, in which he strictly commanded, that no protestant should act as a schoolmaster, or tutor, either in public or private, or dare to teach any art, science, or language, directly or indirectly, to persons of any persuasion whatever.
This edict was immediately followed by another, which decreed, that no protestant should hold any place of profit, trust, or honour; and to wind up the whole, the certain token of an approaching persecution came forth in a final edict, by which it was positively ordered, that all protestants should diligently attend mass.