RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Waldenses
lated was due to their heroic steadfastness as well as to the signal support of the Protestant world. Cromwell rescued them from total destruction in 1655 and instituted a collection which reached the amount of £38,097, he himself contributing £2,000. William of Orange not only assisted their grand return in 1689, but until the French Revolution the crown of Great Britain sustaimed the preachers and teachers of twelve Waldensian churches. Holland in 1731, for example, collected 308,199 florins, not to mention the amounts of money and asylum given by the German princes. Even in the first half of the nineteenth century the Protestant powers entered into an alliance with Alexander I. of Russia in behalf of the Waldenses. From the sixteenth century they were specially cherished and shielded by sympathetic Protestant Europe; because they were commonly looked upon as the only survivals of the Evangelical primitive Christians of apostolic times, and to protect them was deemed a sacred obligation.
At the outbreak of the great persecution of 1654, there were 14 churches and pastors with 16,000 members. This was reduced in 1699 to 13 churches and 5,000 or 6,000 members; but this membership had increased to 19,710 in 1829. Their organization was essentially that of Geneva. The highest governing body was the synod, and in the interim between synods the government was conducted by a committee called ‘“‘ The Table,” consisting of three clericals (with two lay deputies after 1823), led by a moderator. There was no liturgy until 1829, except the various Swiss formularies. The language employed in their services was originally the east Provengal dialect of the Cottian Alps, but after the death of the majority of their pastors from the plague in 1630 and their replacement by French ministers, French was substituted for Waldensian. Schools were to be found in all Waldensian communities as early as 1699, and in the eighteenth century a Latin school was founded at Torre. The period of the Enlightenment was as prejudicial to religious life in the valleys as elsewhere, nor was there a revival of spiritual life among the Waldenses until the third decade of the nineteenth century. With the proclamation of the act of emancipation in 1848 the Waldenses not only received liberty, but aspired to fresh opportunities. At the first synod (Aug. 1-4, 1848), the evangelization of Italy was assumed as an aim, and the resolve was made gradually to replace French by Italian as the language of instruction and worship. In 1855 a Waldensian theological school was founded at Torre Pellice, but was transferred to Florence in 1860. At the synod of 1855 the confession of 1655 was revived and a new constitution was adopted. The Waldensian Church is now an Italian church, and makes a Protestant propaganda not only throughout Italy, but also among Italian emigrants to America. ‘The Waldensian colonies in Germany soon lost all distinctive characteristics. In Wiirttemberg all the Waldensian congregations became incorporated in the national Lutheran Church in 1823, and in only two localities in Wiirttemberg, Pinache-Serres and Neu-Hengstett, does the Wal-
densian dialect partially linger to the present day. (H. Boumer.)
VI. Present Conditions: The conditions of the Waldenses on the eve of their emancipation in 1848 were most precarious. Although not persecuted openly by sword and fire, they were subjected to many wrongs and indignities. They were excluded from practising any liberal professions, such as those of medicine or law, and the humbler trades alone
were open to them. Children under
1. State of ten were frequently abducted; the
Affairs in universities were closed against stu-
1848. dents from the valleys; and Waldensian conscripts were kept in the lowest ranks. It was forbidden to open new places of
worship; most of the cemeteries were unenclosed. The censorship of books circulating among them was very strict, and the Waldenses were prohibited from settling outside of their own narrow valleys. The act of emancipation, promulgated Feb. 17, 1848, by King Charles Albert, brought this intolerable state of affairs to a close and granted the Waldenses all civil and religious liberties, thus marking the dawn of a new epoch in their history.
In their native valleys, the number of the Waldenses has not increased because the poverty of the soil and unbearable economical conditions, as well as new opportunities, have driven thousands to foreign lands, but their social and intellectual conditions are far better than before 1848. They pride themselves on saying that no Waldensian man, woman, or child over six years of age is illiterate, and that no beggar is to be seen in their valleys. Through the interest of General John Charles Beck-
with (q.v., Appendix) a school is in
2. Educa- every hamlet, and for a higher educa-
tion in the tion the Collegio Valdese in Torre Pel-
Piedmont lice, founded by William Stephen Gilly,
Valleys. canon of Durham, who paid a first
visit to the Waldenses in 1823, and whose Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont roused wide-spread interest and gained to the cause Beckwith, who must be regarded as their greatest benefactor. He settled among them in 1848, and, after a most useful career spent in their behalf, died in Torre Pellice July 19, 1862. The Collegio Valdese, where boys and girls are admitted when they are through with the elementary schools, and where they receive instruction for eight years, opens the way to all the university careers. There are now about one hundred students with a staff of eight professors, and the institution is recognized by the Italian government. Torre Pellice is the capital of the Waldensian valleys, not only because the college is there, but also because there is the largest church, and in that city there is held every year, during the first week in September, the General Synod of the Waldensian Church. The house where the synod meets was built in 1889, when the Waldenses celebrated the bicentenary of the “ glorious return” of their forefathers to their native valleys, and to its erection King Humbert I. of Italy contributed personally $1,000. There is the synod hall; the library, which has over 40,000 volumes, many of them rare and valuable; the museum of Waldensian history, with interesting relics; the offices of the ruling body of the Church, called La Vénérable table vaudoise; and the offices of the
Waldenses