§ 39. THE VALTELLINA MASSACRE. 159
church, they exclaimed : "• This is the revenge for our murdered arch-priest Rusca ! " He was henceforth revered as a holy martyr. At Morbegno the Catholics behaved well, and aided the Protestants in making their escape. The fugitives were kindly received in the Grisons and other parts of Switzerland. From the Valtellina Robustelli proceeded to Poschiavo, burnt the town of Brusio, and continued there the butchery of Protestants till he was checked.^
The Valtellina declared itself independent and elected the knight Robustelli military chief. The canons of the Council of Trent were proclaimed, papal indulgences introduced, the evangelical churches and cemeteries reconsecrated for Catholic use, the corpses of Protestants dug up, burnt, and cast into the river. Addresses were sent to the Pope and the kings of Spain and France, explaining and excusing the foul deeds by which the rebels claimed to have saved the Roman religion and achieved political freedom from intolerable tyranny.
Now began the long and bloody conflicts for the recovery of the lost province, in which several foreign powers took part. The question of the Yaltellina (like the Eastern question in modern times) became a European question, and was involved in the Thirty Years' War. Spain, in possession of Milan, wished to join hands with Austria across the Alpine passes of the Grisons ; while France and Venice had a political motive to keep them closed. Austrian and Spanish troops conquered and occupied the Valtellina and the three leagues, expelled the Protestant preachers, and inflicted un-
1 Moderate Catholic historians dare not defend this massacre, any more than that of St. Bartholomew, but explain it as a terrible Nemesis and desperate self-vindication against the oppressions of the commissioners of the Grisons. So Fetz, who says (I.e. p. 113): "Die besonnenen Katholiken luiben diese schauerliche Selbsthillfe, wodurch viele Unschuldige als Opfer der Hache gefallen, niemals gebilligt ; andererseits konnten und konnen billig denkende Protestanten das arge Treiben der Prddicanten und reformirten Machthaber im Veltlin und Umgebung ebensowenig gntheissen, denn dieses arge Treiben war die erste und letzte Ursache der verzweifelten Selbsthiilfe." But Italian Catholic writers (as Cantii) call it sucro macello, a sacred slaughter!
160 THE SWISS KEFORMATION.
speakable misery upon the people. France, no less Catholic under the lead of Cardinal Richelieu, but jealous of the house of Habsburg, came to the support of the Protestants in the Grisons, as well as the Swedes in the north, and sent an army under the command of the noble Huguenot Duke Henri de Rohan, who defeated the Austrians and Spaniards, and conquered the Valtellina (1635).
The Grisons with French aid recovered the Valtellina by the stipulation of Chiavenna, 1636, which guaranteed to the three leagues all the rights of sovereignty, but on condition of tolerating no other religion in that province but the Roman Catholic. Rohan, who had the best intentions for the Grisons, desired to save Protestant interests, but Catholic France would not agree. He died in 1638, and was buried at Geneva.
The Valtellina continued to be governed by bailiffs till 1797. It is now a part of the kingdom of Italy, and enjoys the religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution of 1848.^
In this wild episode of the Thirty Years' War, a Protestant preacher, Colonel Georg Jenatsch, plays a prominent figure as a romantic hero. He was born at Samaden in the Upper Engadin, 1590, studied for the Protestant ministry at Ziirich, successively served the congregations at Scharans and at Berbenno in the Valtellina, and narrowly escaped the massacre at Sondrio by making his flight through dangerous mountain passes. He was an eloquent speaker, an ardent patriot, a shrewd politician, and a brave soldier, but ambitious, violent, unscrupulous, extravagant, and unprincipled. He took part in the cruel decision of the court of Thusis (1618), and killed Pompeius Planta with an axe (1621). He served as guide and counsellor of the Duke de Rohan, and by his knowledge, pluck, and energy, materially aided him in the
1 The statuto fondamentale of Sardinia, wliich in 1870 was extended over all Italy, declares the Roman Catholic Church to be the state religion, but grants toleration to all other forms of worship. The Waldenses have recently established preaching stations at Chiavenna and other places of Upper Italy.