The news of the massacre of the Vaudois spread far and wide throughout Europe. The Protestant cantons of Switzerland, the Pro tector Cromwell, and the States of Holland, sent envoys to the duke of Savoy, to remonstrate in favour of the Vaudois. Cromwell sent Sir Samuel Moreland, who collected numerous documents, and published them in his ' ]history of the Evangelical Churches,' fol., 1653. Crom well's Latin !otters to the duke and other princes on the suhjeot were written by Milton, who in one of his sonnets has feelingly lamented the cruelties committed against the Vaudois. Subscriptions were made in England and other countries for the survivors. At last, at Croinwell'm request, Louis XIV. offered his mediation, which the duke accepted, and a convention was concluded in August of the same year, 1656, at Pifierola, which then belonged to France, by which a general amnesty was granted, and the Vaudois were allowed to remain on the left bank of the Pelice within certain fixed boundaries, and to have the exercise of their religion, but at the same time it was agreed that the Roman Catholic worship should be performed in the same villages, and Catholic missionaries be sent to preach there, but no Vaudois should be constrained to become a Roman Catholic, and no girl under ten, and no boy under twelve years of age, should be taken from their parents. This convention was signed by Jean Leger and other Vaudois pastors. But after some years new complaints and disputes broke out, which Count Bagnolo, the governor of the province, wanted to settle iu an arbitrary manner. Fresh resistance and a new persecution took place in 1663 and 1661, followed by a new edict of the duke, by which the Vaudois were forbidden to perform their worship in the village of S. Giovanni. Jean Leger emigrated, and visited various countries, urging the claims of the Vaudois and collecting subscriptions for them. He was at last appointed minister of the Walloon Church at Leyden, where he died. (Botta, b. xxv.) Victor Amadeus IL succeeded Charlea Emmanuel, and took the reins of goverment at the end of 1684, being then eighteen years of age. Piedmont was then the humble ally of the imperious Louis XIV., who about this time resolved to abolish Protestantism in France by the revocation of the Edit de Nantes, and he ordered Victor Amadeus to do the same with regard to the Vaudois. After some demur the duke was induced to submit, and in January, 1686, he issued an edict orderiug the Vaudois either to abjure their tenets within fifteen days, or leave their country. Driven to despair, the Vaudois determined to resist. They were attacked on one aide by the ducal troops, and on
the other by those of Louis XIV., commanded by Catinat. After a gallant struggle the Vaudois were overpowered, and the survivors were obliged to submit unconditionally. Their whole property was con fiscated, and given to Roman Catholic colonists, the old inhabitants with their families taking their departure for Switzerland. Those who had been taken prisoners were distributed in various prisons, in which a number of them died. At the expiration of three years, a band of 800 of these emigrants, under the command of one of their pastors, Henry Arnaud, undertook one of the most daring and romantic expe ditions ever attempted by men. [ARNAUD, HENRI, in Moo. Div.] This was the last persecution against the Vaudois; who however remained subject to various disabilities and exposed to several vexa tions, which are detailed by Gilly in his first excursion, p. 116; and in the second, p. 546, and fol.
In the wars of the French revolution the Vaudois remained loyal to their sovereign, and bravely defended for years the mountain-passes through which the French threatened to invade the valley of the Po, which ultimately they reached, but not on this side. In June, 1794, King Victor Amadeua III. published an ordinance, in which, after acknowledging the constant and distinguished proofs of their attach ment and fidelity, he promised to redress several grievances, among others, that of taking away of children of the Vaudois, with the view of obliging them to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. He forbade the practice, and ordered those who had been so taken away to be restored. "Those who at the prescribed age, girls at ten and boys at twelve, voluntarily enter the hospital of Pilierola, must be under the direction of ecclesiastical judges; but no difficulty will be made in permitting the parents to see their children under proper precautions." When Bonaparte annexed Piedmont to France, ho placed the Vaudois on a footing of equality with their Roman Catholic countrymen, and assigned funds for the support of their clergy. At the restoration in 1814 the Vaudois were again placed under their former disabilities, and those who had purchased land beyond the limits of their valleys were obliged to eell it to Roman Catholics. King Charles Felix, who succeeded to the throne lu 1821, showed some more indulgence towards the Vaudois. Under the present king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, they have been admitted to an equality of rights with their fellow subjects.