During the Great Schism they con trived to escape, and after the Council of Constance the Hussites engaged for a time all the energies of the Church. We hear, however, of the persecutions again in 1432 and later years, and by this time, says Mr. Lea, so completely had the Waldenses monopolized the field of misbelief in the public mind of France that sorcery became popularly known as vauderie, and witches as vaudoises. Six tus IV. tried to stir up Louis XI. in vain; but Charles VIII. was more docile, and Pope Innocent VIII. was able in 1488 to organize a crusade against them in both Dauphine and Savoy. The valley of Pragelato, Val Cluson, and Freyssin ieres were ravaged pitilessly with fire and sword and wholesale confiscations, many barbes (pastors) were burned, and in Val Louise the poor fugitives were smoked to death in their caves. Louis XII. stopped the proceedings, with con sent of Pope Alexander VI., whose son Cwsar Borgia had just received the duchy of Valentinois. Their remnants con tinued to cherish their own faith, more or less under disguise of Catholicism, till they finally merged with the Calvinists after the Reformation.
The Cathari never made much way in Germany, but on the other hand the Wal denses became strong. Some were burned at Strassburg in 1212, and especially in the diocese of Passau in the second half of the same century there was much prosecution. Yet by the close of the century they had become very numerous, often succeeding in escaping notice by their quietness and outward conformity.
In 1392 the Archbishop of Mainz per secuted them vigorously, burning 36 at Bingen together. At Steyer in Pomera nia, in 1397, over 100 of either sex were burned. Yet they were not extirpated, and remained strong, especially on the confines between Austria and Moravia. In 1467 they united themselves with the famous Bohemian Brethren. The Wal densians on the French side of the Cottian Alps in 1530 opened negotiations with the Swiss and German reformers, and in 1532 a five days' synod at Chanforans in the valley of Angrogne drew up ar ticles of agreement.
The 18th century was not a favorable age for persecution, yet even at its close the Waldenses could hold no office nor real estate, nor have physicians of their own faith. Napoleon allowed their Church a constitution, but this Victor Emmanuel abolished in 1814, though two years later, urged by England and Prus sia, he issued a milder edict. Meantime they prospered—Col. John C. Beckwith (1789-1862), who had lost a leg at Wa terloo, through reading Dr. Gilly's "Visit to the Valleys of Piedmont" (1832), set tld among the people for the last 35 years of his life, marrying a peasant girl, and succeeded in establishing as many as 120 schools. At last in 1843 Charles Albert gave the Waldenses equal political and religious rights, and since that time their progress has been constant if not rapid.