them within more narrow limits, and greatly to reduce their numbers. This oppression became more and more severe, until the non-interference of the English government under James II., and the revocation of the edict of Nantes in France, gave the Duke of Savoy an opportunity of making a new attempt to exterminate the Vaudois. The greater part of their population was massacred; and of the remainder, some were obliged to conform to Romanism, and the rest were driven from their habitations. This took place in 1686.

"Within a few years afterwards, the courage and conduct of the Vaudois refugees, who were aided by William III., enabled them to repossess themselves of some part of their ancient settlements, and in 1690, the Waldenses were once more indebted to the English government, and recovered their political exist

ence.

"Your lordship will take some interest in reading the account, which an historian of that day gives of the decisive conduct of the English envoy, who managed the affair. 'The Duke of Savoy granted a very full edict in favour of the Vaudois, restoring their former liberties and privileges to them, which the lord Galway took care to have put in the most emphatical words, and passed with all the formalities of law, to make it as effectual as laws and promises can be; yet every step, that was made in that affair, went against the grain, and was extorted from him by the intercession of the king, and the states, and by the lord Galway's zeal.'

"The same zealous attention to the grievances of the Vaudois was again shown in the secret treaty of Turin, in 1704, between Queen Anne and the Duke of Savoy; and it also appeared in the face of the correspondence between those powers in 1709. In the course of that correspondence, and in a conversation with the ambassador Chetwynd, the duke admitted that he was bound, both by treaties and promises, to give satisfaction to England on this subject.

"Unfortunately for the Waldenses, the administrations, which immediately succeeded, did not watch the execution of these treaties and engagements with sufficient vigilance, or they did not press thé question with vigour. It is certain that

that the inhabitants should be maintained inviolably in all their privileges and immunities. I told him I could not possibly imagine it was capable of receiving any such construction. I then told him that I could not but be extremely surprised at the little attention that was shown to His Majesty's intercession, FOUNDED ON SOLEMN TREATIES, which could not possibly be misunderstood.'" August 30, 1727.

LECTURE IV.

ON THE PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH.

BY THE REV. ROBERT W. STEWART, A.M.,

LATE OF ERSKINE.

THE armorial legend of the Protestant valleys of Piémont, from time immemorial, has been "Lux lucet in tenebris ;"* and it contains, remarkably enough, a truthful epitome of their history. Somewhat similar in signification is the motto of Geneva, the model church of the Reformation, 66 Post tenebras lux,"+ and yet in the use of the same words, there is sufficient diversity to establish a striking contrast between a primitive and reformed church. Though poor and despised by the world, the Vaudois community lays claim to the high prerogative of being called a primitive church. From father to son an unbroken tradition has been handed down among them, which the writings of their enemies have unwittingly confirmed, that the doctrines they maintain were received directly from the apostles; and Henri Arnaud, their renowned pastor-chief, has left

"The light shineth in darkness." +"After the darkness light."

on record this testimony concerning them, which has never been denied, "neither has their church been ever reformed, whence arises its title of evangelic."*

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Their eventful history during past ages—their earnest contendings for the faith once delivered to the saints"the cruel massacres, by which they were repeatedly in danger of being entirely exterminated-and the atrocities, too shocking for detail, perpetrated upon them by a dissolute soldiery, goaded on by the blood-hounds of the Inquisition, have all combined to associate with their name, a vague traditionary interest, more sacred in character, though similar in kind, to that which is awakened by the names of Bruce and Wallace in reading the annals of our own country. Unfortunately for them, as well as for us, this interest on our part, up to the present period, has partaken more of the passive admiration, mingled with regret, which one is apt to indulge over the memory of departed excellence, than of that active sympathy, which calls into exercise immediate and sustained exertion on behalf of brethren still enduring persecution and distress. We have been wont to talk of the Vaudois as a valiant and religious race, who, after holding up the lamp of truth, amid the thick darkness of the middle ages, and "resisting unto blood, striving against sin," merged both their testimony and their existence in the churches of the Reformation, rather than as a living church, still bearing witness to the truth, and suffering in our own times a constant and painful oppression at the hands of " the man of sin, the

"The Glorious Recovery," by Henri Arnaud, pref. p. 14, edit. Lon., 1827. The original work, in French, dedicated to Queen Anne, is exceedingly rare; not more than eight copies are known to be in existence, and one of these is now deposited in the library of the Free Church College, in Edinburgh.

son of perdition." To this mistaken view of their history, I apprehend, is to be attributed the unenviable position Scotland has, up to a very recent period, occupied, as the only Protestant nation in Europe which has never, in its national capacity, contributed towards the alleviation of their poverty and distress. If this be the true cause of the vague sentimentalism so long entertained towards the Vaudois, it has only to be proclaimed upon the house-top, that they are living, witnessing, suffering still, to awaken on their behalf an active and universal sympathy. Amid the deep recesses of the mountain valleys, surrounded by the stupendous precipices, the dark-blue glaciers, and untrodden snow of the everlasting Alps, there exists at this moment a Church, venerable for its antiquity, which reaches back to apostolic times, and lovely for its simplicity and comparative purity,-a Church which, though it waxed small under the iron rod of persecution, has yet outlived the most unheard-of and revolting cruelties, and which during the dark ages, when "all the earth wondered after the beast," was the sole depository of gospel light throughout Europe a witness prophesying in sackcloth for the truth of God. Such is the evangelic Church of the valleys of Piémont !-nurtured in a sterile soil-compressed within narrow boundaries-composed for the most part of poor unlettered peasants,-yet in it has been treasured up the "salt of the earth," wherewith in days past the kingdoms of the Reformation have been salted; and with which also, so far as man can judge, it seems the purpose of Him "who is wonderful in counsel," that the benighted kingdoms of France and of Italy shall in due time be purified.

Some modern writers have drawn a distinction be