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ses being tired out, they flew to arms in their own defence, and formed themselves into regular bodies.

Exasperated at this, the archbishop of Turin procured a number of troops, and sent against them; but in most of the skirmishes and engagements the Waldenses were successful, which partly arose from their being better acquainted with the passes of the valleys of Piedmont than their adversaries, and partly from the desperation with which they fought; for they knew, if they were taken, they should not be considered as prisoners-of-war, but should be tortured to death as heretics.

At length Philip, the seventh duke of Savoy, and supreme lord of Piedmont, determined to interpose his authority, and stop these bloody wars, which so greatly disturbed his dominions. He was not willing to disoblige the pope, or affront the archbishop of Turin; nevertheless, he sent them both messages, importing that he` could not any longer tamely see his dominions overrun with troops, who were directed by priests, instead of officers, and commanded by prelates in the place of generals; nor would he suffer his country to be depopulated, while he himself had not been even consulted upon the occasion.

The priests, finding the resolution of the duke, did all they could to prejudice his mind against the Waldenses; but the duke told them, that though he was unacquainted with the religious tenets of these people, yet he had always found them quiet, faithful, and obedient, and therefore he was determined they should be no longer persecuted.

The Waldenses now enjoyed peace many years, until the death of Philip, the seventh duke of Savoy. The successor of Duke Philip was a very bigoted papist, who sent a body of troops to compel the Waldenses to change their religion, and theatened to flay them alive if they did not. However, meeting with resistance from the Waldenses, and finding it impracticable to execute his threats with his small force, he desisted for a period, and persecution gradually ceased.

After the Waldenses had enjoyed a few years' tranquillity, they were again disturbed by the following means: the pope's nuncio coming to Turin to the duke of Savoy upon business, told that prince, he was astonished he had not yet either rooted out the Waldenses from the valleys of Piedmont entirely, or compelled

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That he

them to enter into the bosom of the church of Rome. could not help looking upon such conduct with a suspicious eye, and that he really thought him a favorer of those heretics, and should report the affair accordingly to his holiness the pope.

Stung by this reflection, and unwilling to be misrepresented to the pope, the duke determined to act with the greatest severity, in order to show his zeal, and to make amends for former neglect by future cruelty. He, accordingly, issued express orders for all the Waldenses to attend mass regularly, on pain of death. This they absolutely refused to do, on which he entered the Piedmontese valleys, with a formidable body of troops, and began a most furious persecution, in which great numbers were hanged, drowned, ripped open, burnt, stabbed, racked to death, tied to trees and pierced with prongs, thrown from precipices, crucified with their heads downward, worried by dogs, &c.

Those who fled had their goods plundered, and their houses burnt to the ground: they were particularly cruel when they caught a minister or a schoolmaster, whom they put to such exquisite tortures as are almost incredible to conceive.

The most cruel persecutors, upon this occasion, that attended the duke, were three in number, viz.: 1. Thomas Incomel, an apostate; for he was brought up in the reformed persuasion, but renounced his faith, embraced the errors of popery, and turned monk. He was a great libertine, given to unnatural crimes, and sordidly solicitous for the plunder of the Waldenses. 2. Corbis, a man of a very ferocious and cruel nature, whose business was to examine the prisoners. 3. The provost of justice, who was very anxious for the execution of the Waldenses, as every execution put money into his pocket.

These three persons were unmerciful to the last degree, and wherever they came, the blood of the innocent was sure to flow. Exclusive of the cruelties exercised by the duke, these three persons, and the army, in their different marches, many local barbarities were committed. At Pignerol, a town in the valleys, was a monastery, the monks of which, finding they might injure the reformed with impunity, began to plunder the houses, and pull down the churches of the Waldenses. Not meeting with any opposition, they next seized upon the persons of those unhappy people, mur

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A SPECIMEN OF MONKERY.

dering the men, confining the women, and putting the children to Roman catholic nurses.

The Roman catholic inhabitants of the valley of St. Martin, likewise, did all they could to vex and torment the neighboring Waldenses they destroyed their churches, burnt their houses, seized their properties, stole their cattle, converted their lands to their own use, committed their ministers to the flames, and drove the Waldenses to the woods, where they had nothing to subsist on but wild fruits, roots, the bark of trees, &c.

A SPECIMEN OF MONKERY.

GOD can never approve of vows, which, either in man or woman, are nothing else than a deliberate determination, sanctioned by an oath, to oppose his all-wise administration.

To regard such infatuated self-devotion as a meritorious claim for the enjoyment of future blessedness, is one of those awful delusions which could only have been devised by him who was a deceiver from the beginning. All the advantages of these institutions might be obtained without the existence of such a bond of servitude; and the temporal good of which nuns and monks can be productive, can never be any reparation, or even an apology, for the permanent mischief with which that ungodly system is connected.

If Adam had been the first monk, and Eve the first nun, as the old friars boast, whence did we obtain a pope?

A lady, whose sister is a nun, informed me, that most persons are grossly deceived respecting the enjoyments and habits of nuns in a social view. All their austerity they wrap up in their cloaks and hoods, and their sanctified visages they metamorphose into smiling, roguish features, when they retire from the profane gaze of the public. Alone, or when a jolly, voluptuous priest is with them, they are creatures of play, as well as work; for cards they know how to shuffle, and they make comical bets upon the games; and they are besides complete adepts at all kinds of fun and dissipation. The name of the lady who informed me of her sister's frolicksome tricks is