things that are conformable to the Word of God who is the King of kings and Lord of lords XXXIII That we must receive the Creed of the Apostles the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandements as Fundamental Parts of our belief and of our Devotions We can likewise make it appear even by evidence drawn out of the Books of the Adversaries of the Vaudois that their Doctrine is the same as it 's represented in this confession and that it has always been so those that have a mind to see those Testimonies may find them in the General History written by Iohn Leger The Vaudois having conserved from Father to Son the purity of the Doctrine of the Apostles from the time they received it down to our days and made a constant profession publickly of this Celestial Doctrine they are by consequence the true Successors of the Apostles CHAP. III. Of the Ecclesiastical Government of the Churches of the Vaudois of Piemont and the Manners of the Vaudois BUT if they have succeeded the Apostles as to their Doctrine they likewise succeeded it as to the Order and Government of the Church In the Primitive Church Acts 20. The Apostles established for the government of it Elders Ephes. 4. 11. and Deacons as we may learn as well from the book of the Acts of the Apostles as from their Epistles Tit. 1. 5 6. the Pastors are likewise called Bishops and Elders 1 Tim. 3. they are called Pastors because they are to feed the Flock of Christ which are his Sheep with the good Word of God they are called Bishops which signifies Inspectors or Watchers because they are to watch and take care of the Flock which is committed to their charge they are called Elders because they ought to be Sage and Prudent and edifie those that are committed to them by their good life and conduct and so there were two sorts of Elders in the Primitive Church the one laboured in the Government of the Church only and the other besides the care they had of the affairs of the Church took also pains in Preaching and Explaining the Word 1 Tim. 5. 17. The Deacons had the care of the Poor and Pastors Elders and Deacons altogether had the government of the Church This is the Discipline that the Churches of Piemont have always kept as one may see in their ancient Manuscripts translated out of their Language into French and treated of succinctly in the Cap. 31. of the First Part of the General History of the Churches of the Vaudois in which writing it 's said the Churches there have always had Pastors Elders and Deacons to govern them as they had till the year 1686. when they were dispersed The Pastors employed themselves to instruct and exhort the people to live well and holily and the Pastors Elders and Deacons altogether watched over their Flock to banish all vice and scandal It was requisite that the Governors of the Church should be of a good Life and holy Conversation for to edifie others by their good Example There were Schools kept to breed up Youth in piety There was likewise a particular School for to instruct those that aspired to the Ministry where was taught Divinity They made the young Scholars learn by heart all the Chapters of the Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Iohn and all the Canonical Epistles and a good part of the Writings of Solomon David and the Prophets There came to this School young men out of Bohemia and other places where the people of God dwelt and retained the profession of the ancient verity to be instructed in the Ministry The Vaudois were not only pure as to their Doctrine but likewise as to their Manners even their Adversaries witness the same Reynerus Sacco who was one of the first Inquisitors imployed by Rome against those of the Valleys speaks thus of them in his Relation which he made of them to the Court of Rome After he had told that Court that the Sect of the Vaudois was the eldest that had ever been it beginning in the time of the Apostles or at least of Sylvester he adds touching their Manners that whereas all other Sects did strike the hearers with horror of their many Blasphemies against God that this of the Valleys made great demonstration of piety for they live justly before the face of the World and in Chap. 7. of his Book he says the Vaudois are chast The President Du Thou commonly called Tuaanus in Chap 27. of his History says that the Vaudois observe the Ten Commandments of the Law which gives the rule of living holily and piously they give no entertainment to any sort of Vices in their Assemblies they have in horror and detest all sorts of unlawful Oaths Perjuries Wicked Imprecations Quarrels Seditions Debauches Drunkenness Whoring Inchantments Sacrileges Thest Usury Witchcraft and the like And Claudis de Seissel Archbishop of Turin in the Book he wrote against the Vaudois in the year 1500. confesses in formal terms that as to their Life and Manners they live in the world without reproach observing with all their power the Commandments of God We could alledge many other authorities of the bitterest Enemies of the Vaudois which they give of their good life and conversation but the curious may find them in the General History of the Vaudois if they think these be not sufficient CHAP. IV. Of the great Calm the Vaudois Churches enjoyed many Ages WE cannot find in the Ecclesiastical Histories the Vaudois or Christians of the Valleys of Piemont were persecuted under the reigns of Nero Domitian or any other of the Pagan Emperors who so cruelly persecuted the Christians it 's therefore probable that during those cruel persecutions many faithful Christians retired unto these Valleys to escape persecution and to save themselves from the bloody hands of those cruel Butchers as we saw in France during the last persecution that many of the Reformed Religion fled into the Woods Mountains and hid themselves in Caverns and Rocks to save themselves from the hands of the cruel and pitiless Dragoons and to avoid by their flight the danger of renouncing their Religion So the Church which is represented by the Woman is at the same time Rev. 12. described flying into the Wilderness from the fury of the Dragon And is there a more dreadful Wilderness than the Mountains of the Alpes which are covered with Snow eight or nine months of the year amongst which are these Valleys It 's said that in the Desart the Woman had a place prepared of God for her where she might be nourished 1260 days The Valleys have they not been the place which God has prepared to keep his Church safe in since the true Church has been always conserved here from the time of the Apostles even to our days without any interruption or want of succession that while the whole world ran after the Beast only the Inhabitants of these Valleys followed Jesus Christ c. walked according to the
of the Prophecy It 's said in the same Prophecy that after these three days and an half the spirit of life coming from God shall enter into them and they shall live again and that great fear shall seize upon them that shall see them and that they shall hear a great voice from Heaven saying to them ascend hither and they shall ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies to their great confusion shall see them this was exactly fulfilled in respect of the Vaudois who after three years and an half were as it were revived again and freed from the miserable estate and condition into which they were reduced by the furious malice of their Enemies for the Prisoners were set at liberty the Banished were recalled home and all by order of their Prince re-established in their Country in a better condition than ever In the year 1686 the Duke of Savoy at the earnest entreaty of the Protestant Cantons freed out of Prison the greatest part of the Vaudois but it was only to send them into banishment in a strange Country but those whom he set at liberty the last Iune were sent home in peace and had greater priviledges and advantages given them than ever He promised to Cloath those that he set at liberty in the year 1686 which notwithstanding he did not but those that he freed after three years and an half he cloathed very well he excused himself to them was sorry for what had passed imputed the cause of all their suffering to the King of France The Duke of Savoy and his Predecessors these two hundred years past have applied themselves with all their power to dispeople these Valleys of Protestants as we have sufficiently related above But after the three years and an half there has been an extraordinary care taken to people them again with Protestants for the Duke has not only re-established the Vaudois as well Prisoners as Exiles but he has given free leave and encouragement to the Protestant Refugees of France to come and inhabit the Valleys The Duke of Savoy and his Councel made use of the wickedest methods imaginable to destroy the Protestant Religion in these Valleys but after the death of the Witnesses viz. after the three years and an half he did not only give free exercise of Religion in the Valleys but even in Turin it self the Capital City of his Dominions And this miraculous change happened almost in an instant to the great confusion of their Enemies who looked upon them as lost men This shews evidently that the re-establishment of the Vaudois was the work of Heaven and not of men for so the Prophecy says that the spirit of life shall enter into them and they shall live again The Author of the Fifth Empire Printed at the Hague by Meyndert Vytwert closes with our Opinion and discourses excellently to our purpose concerning the three years and an half of the death of the two Witnesses I hope it will not be troublesome to give them his own words out of the 13th Chapter of his Book The time says this excellent Author that the two Witnesses should remain in the state we have represent them in the precedent Chapter is limited to three days and an half after which they shall be revived These three days and an half are prophetical days as 1260 days are and every day must be taken for a year it 's not easie to determine whether the three years and an half after the death of the Witnesses should commence after that the Edict of Nants was cancelled and revoked and the Ministers of France condemned to perpetual banishment or when the Faithful of the Valleys of Piemont who from the time of the Apostles have maintained and concerted the truth among them were driven out of their Country after which the Author gives his sentiment in these words It 's probable that these three years and an half should commence when the Churches of Piemont were destroyed which were the visible conservers of the Truth that was always preached and professed among them and after three years and an half were most gloriously re-established for the Vaudois were not totally driven out of the Valleys till about the end of October 1686. Then those that were hid in the Caverns and Rocks and Woods coming out of their safe and hidden retreats after that the Army of France was retreated and that the Troops of Mondovy and other places of Piemont were returned into their own Country seized upon some advantagious Posts in the Valleys of Lucerne and St. Martin and made excursions upon their Enemies and forced them to furnish them with Provisions and all things necessary and their Enemies not being able to chace them out of those advantagious Posts granted them Letters of safe conduct to go into Switzerland Before the banishment of these we cannot say that the Vaudois were killed and dead for that they made their Enemies pay contribution Now they were established by order of their Prince in the beginning of Iune 1690. three years and an half after their total dissipation for this was only one month after the three years and an half that were past so the Prophecy speaks not of their re-establishment till this time be compleated and that which is to be considered more exactly is that in the month of May the Vaudois began to revive the spirit of God then entring into them for having this month received succours from the Allies as well of Men as Mony instead of their Enemies chasing them they chaced their Enemies out of their strong holds and so we see in them the Prophecy fulfilled of the 11th Chapter of the Revelation in the time set down by the Penman of that Holy Mysterious Book The Churches of Piemont being the root of the Protestant Churches they have been the first established the Churches of France Hungary and other places being but the branches shall be established in due time God will not stay to do his own work to the shame and confusion of his Enemies the thing will come to pass in the re-establishment of the Protestant Churches that hath been done in the re-establishment of the Churches of Israel those of Judah returned first out of Captivity though they were the last that were transported but God did not stay long to deliver the rest though at different times and on different occasions The same thing without doubt will come to pass in respect of the Christian Churches that groan under the captivity of Antichrist God will deliver them speedily he has already delivered the Mother and he will not long leave the Daughter behind he will finish what he has gloriously begun and not leave his work imperfect he will gather together the dispersed Churches and bring back to the Fold the Sheep that have gone astray then Israel and Judah shall dwell together in peace none shall be able to give them the least disturbance Since the Vaudois were re-established in the Valleys by order of their Prince they have chaced the French out of them have beaten the Marquess of Feuquiers and slain 1500 men of his Army among whom were two Colonels forty Captains and a great number of subalterne Officers They have sometimes defeated two hundred sometimes one hundred fifty Dragoons of the King of France taken several Conveys that were going to the Army commanded by Monsieur Catinat have made many excursions into the Delphinate and have carried away a good booty and several Prisoners one may say without any hyperbole that the Vaudois in one Campaign have endamaged the French more than all the Allies with their great Armies The great services that they have done the Duke of Savoy without doubt will oblige him to augment their priviledges and all the Allied Princes to make a firm and lasting treaty between the Duke and the Vaudois in case that peace be made between France and the Allies of which the Protestant Princes will be guarantee I have only extended the History of the Vaudois till the beginning of October 1690. If they perform any considerable action hereafter I will continue their History if God give me life and health to whom be all honour and glory world without end Amen FINIS
he marched before them and fought for them without which it had been impossible to have forced so many difficult Passes and gained such signal victories The King of England being informed of their design of returning unto their country blamed their enterprize as rash and ill grounded and looked upon those 900 Vaudois as lost men The States of Holland were of the same opinion and refused to assist them looking upon it as to no purpose but when they saw that contrary to the hopes of all the world that they subsisted in the Country last May 1690. they sent them Money and procured some of the French Protestants that were in Switzerland and the Elector of Brandenburgs Territories to go and assist them If the Vaudois had not been entred into their Country and had not generously defended themselves against their Enemies the D. of Savoy when he broke with France had not thought of setting at liberty those that were unjustly imprisoned nor of recalling those that were dispersed in Foreign Countries and the Allies would have contented themselves with the Dukes declaration for themselves and embracing their party without troubling their heads about establishing the Vaudois though driven out against all right and justice The conduct of God in the Re-establishment of the Vaudois is admirable and makes it evident that his divine providence has Judgment and ways incomprehensible surpassing all human understanding The King of France in the year 1686. pushed on the Duke of Savoy to compel the Vaudois to forsake their Religion and to take the same measures he had taken against the Protestants of France they joined their arms together to force them and to compass their design they violated not only the treaty made with the Predecessors of the Duke but likewise all Treaties Oaths and Promises made by their Generals took them Prisoners killed and massacred them violated their Wives and Daughters killed their little Children and made use of all sorts of Cruelty against these innocent people after they had laid down their arms and in the year 1690 God sent a Spirit of Division between the King of France and the Duke of Savoy insomuch that they strove who should first gain the Vaudois to their party and by this division the Duke of Savoy was forced to re-establish the Vaudois in their Rights and Priviledges and to set all at liberty that had been imprisoned and to recall all those that were dispersed in Foreign Countries And so the King of France who had been the principal cause of their ruine became against his will the cause of their Re-establishment by forcing the D. of Savoy by his Haughtiness to join with the Allies this shews that God mocks and derides the designs and councils of Princes when they are levelled against Jesus Christ and his Church and with the breath of his mouth makes all their enterprizes vanish in Smoak Oftentimes he makes use of the Enemies of his Church to protect and defend it Henry the 2d. King of France while he persecuted the Protestants of his own Kingdom succoured the Protestant Princes of Germany against the Emperor Charles the 5th Lewis the 13th did the same against the Emperor Ferdinand 2d. and Lewis the 14th while he did his best to ruine the Protestants in France succoured the Protestants of Hungary against the Emperor Leopold Henry the 3d. King of France when he was but Duke of Anjou gave advice in an Assembly that was held at St. Clou to commit the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and when he was King of France he emoloyed all his Forces to finish the destruction of those that remained after the Massacre but while he busied himself wholly and took the most probable measures to put in execution his wicked designs God stirred up the Duke of Guise against him who under the specious pretence of destroying the Protestants of France made a League against Henry and drove him out of Paris seized upon his Guards and constrained him to throw himself upon the Protestants and implore their aid and assistance without which he had been lost the Duke would have put him in a Cloister as Charles Martel did Chilperick the 3d. and seized upon his Crown Henry in acknowledgment of the Services that he had received of the Protestants began to be very favorable to them gave them places of security and many other Priviledges and appointed Henry de Borbon who was a Protestant his lawful Successor to the Crown And so God by a secret and unhop'd for way of a cruel and implacable Enemy of the Protestants made him against his will their Defender and Protector King Henry and the Duke of Guise were both in arms against the Protestants they jointly made war upon them and had equally sworn their ruin God permits they should be divided and by their division the one to destroy the other to deliver the Protestants who were sore oppressed and persecuted almost the same thing hapned in the delivery of the Vaudois God sent the Spirit of division between the King of France and the Duke of Savoy to punish them for the cruel persecution they had raised against the Protestants these two Princes were equally their Enemies and had resolved and vowed their destruction and when their malice was at the highest pitch against these poor innocent Creatures and all things seemed desperate God Almighty blasted their design and made them turn their arms the one against the other to destroy the one by the other as he destroyed the Duke of Guise by Henry whom he caused to be assassinated at Blois in the sight of all France assembled in the persons of those that composed the States general and after God had punished the Duke of Guise for the evils he had done to the Protestants he likewise punished Henry who was assassinated in the Castle of St. Cloy by a Fryer in the same Hall where the consult was held and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was resolved on of which Henry and the Duke of Guise were the principal Counsellors and Ring-leaders of that horrible Butchery CHAP. XXVII Of the two Prophesies of the Scripture accomplished in the History of the Vaudois of Piemont the one contained in the 11th Chapter and the other in the 12th of the Revelation THE History of the Vaudois shews us clearly the accomplishment of two Prophesies of Scripture the one contained in the 11th and the other in the 12th Chapter of the Revelation of St. John We have made mention of the last when we shewed that the Churches of Piemont have conserved the Doctrine of the Apostles in its purity from the time of the Apostles even to our days and that the Roman Church was corrupted in adopting and receiving Pagan Doctrine and Ceremonies and communicated her Corruptions to the other Churches of the West only the Churches of Piemont were preserved pure and undefiled from whence it follows by a necessary consequence that these Mountains and Valleys were the places assigned by God Almighty
for his Church when she fled before the Dragon and this corruption began to infect the Church about the beginning of the fifth Age for about the beginning of this Age Popery began to triumph over Truth without staining or defiling the Churches of Piemont who after this corruption were publickly nourished with the bread of the word of God without any mixture of humane Traditions or Pagan Ceremonies Now from the time that this corruption began in the Church till the year 1686. that these poor Churches were dissipated are past 1260 years which are the 1260 prophetical days that the Church was to be nourished in the desart neither the Devil nor his Imps being able in so long a tract of time by all their craft and subtilty to introduce their errors into the Church and that which is the greatest proof of this verity and confirms us the most in this sentiment that this was the place that God prepared to preserve his Church in is that neither the Inquisition that the Popes have established in Italy so many ages ago nor the Croisade that Pope Innocent the 8th made to destroy them nor so many wars that Antichrist and his Emissaries raised against them nor so many bloody Battles they have sustained nor so many Persecutions and Massacres that have been made of them that professed the truth in these Churches could force them to forsake their Faith or dissipate them till the year 1686. For it was then that the time of the Prophecy was accomplished in respect of these Churches If God had not prepared this place to preserve his Church in why would he have done such wonders to make them subsist in spight of the Devil and all his works How should she have been preserved pure and immaculate among these Mountains if God had not declared himself her Protector and Defender and had not fought for her and with her and brought to confusion all the plots and frauds of Antichrist who raged like a roaring Lyon seeking to devour her The two witnesses of the Eleventh Chapter of the Revelation are the faithful who after that the Church was corrupted taught either by word of mouth or by writings the pure doctrine of the Gospel and confuted the errors that the false Doctors introduced into the Church by their fraudulent Dealings and false Interpretations of the Scriptures and it is apparent by the writings of many Protestant Doctors that there has no age passed in which God has not raised up some holy and learned men who writ and preached against these errors from the beginning of the fifth Age till our times These holy persons are represented to us by the two witnesses for they borrowed their Testimony from the old and new Testaments which are the true witnesses and the true treasuries of Coelestial verity and with the doctrine drawn out of the old and new Testament they confuted all errors and confounded the false Doctors It 's said of these two witnesses that they shall prophesy 1260 days which are prophetical days as is apparent by the event for that false doctrines were introduced into the Church in the fifth age it was then that Innocent the 1st Bishop of Rome elevated himself above the other Bishops which they tamely submitted to he performing the Office of universal Bishop in receiving appeals from the sentences of the Bishops of Asia and Africa and in excommunicating Arcadius the Emperor of the East who was not under his jurisdiction but under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople who likewise declared by a Bull that none should presume to judge the Pope It was in the Pontificate of this Pope that the Eucharist or Supper of our Lord began to be called Mass and that Pelagius began in England to sow his Doctrine of Merits from whence sprung the Doctrines of Indulgencies Pilgrimages Celibacy of the Clergy and Abstinence from certain sorts of meat it was about this time that the doctrine as well as manners of the Church began to be corrupted And if we reckon from the Death of Pope Innocent the 1st till the year 1686. we shall find that 1260 years the time that these two witnesses were to prophesy are past Now the Holy Ghost says that when they shall have finished their Prophesy and the time that God has allotted to preach and cry out against the errors of the Church of Rome to leave her inexcusable before he pour out upon her the Vials of his just wrath and indignation it 's said that the Beast that rises out of the deep shall make war against the two Witnesses and shall vanquish them and kill them now this was fulfilled first of all in France and afterwards in Piemont in France the Witnesses were vanquished and killed by the cruel war that was made against them all the Ministers were banished and others that would not abjure their Religion either dyed under the heavy burthen of their sufferings or were imprisoned or condemned to the Gallies or driven into perpetual Banishment those that have abjured are dead to heaven if they do not rise by a serious and true Repentance Perpetual Banishments and Imprisonments according to all the Lawyers are civil deaths those whom God gave the grace to rise after their fall and dyed in France their bodies were dragged through the streets and after they had been publickly exposed thrown upon the Dunghills in Piemont the witnesses were vanquished and killed as well as in France the Ministers some were hanged some imprisoned others massacred and those that remained after in the Country were condemned to the Gallies or else to perpetual Banishment some were killed in cold blood others in endeavouring their escape lest they should fall into the hands of their Enemies and their bodies left without burial to be devoured by wild beasts A great number perished in Prison and the remainder were driven into perpetual exile the True Religion was then totally extinguished in the Valleys and in the sad estate that the Vaudois were then one may say they were killed The Prophecy says in the second place that the dead bodys of the Witnesses shall lie exposed in the most publick place of the City and that those of the Tribes Languages and Nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half and shall not permit them to be buried Those of France as well as the Vaudois of Piemont who escaped the hands of their Persecutors were banished and dispersed in foreign Countries amongst divers Nations People and Languages and those that kindly received them hindred their bodies condemned to death by a perpetual banishment from being buried and put in the Sepulchre which is a state of corruption and total dissolution of the body by the great charity they bestowed upon these distressed people and these Nations have seen them in this sad estate of which we have spoke three days and an half which are prophetical days every day being counted a year according to the twelve hundred and sixty days
truth of his Gospel This was the true land of Goshen which only was enlightned with Celestial Light while the New Aegypt was all covered over with the thick and palpable darkness of Ignorance and Errors so they had for their Arms a Torch lighted surrounded with thick Darkness with this Inscription Lux lucet in Tenebris That which still more perswades us that these Valleys of Piemont was the place which God had prepared to keep his Church in is that first of all these Churches of the Valleys have enjoyed a continual peace and perfect repose after the beginning of the first age that the Papal Empire began to erect its Throne till towards the end of the fifteenth age viz. till the year 1487. that Pope Innocent the eighth made as they called it a Holy War against them to destroy them Secondly It was then when their Enemies would have destroyed them by force of Arms which they endeavoured several times but God gave them so great and signal Victories that it was visible that the God of Battle and the Lord of Hosts covered their Heads and fought with them and for them and in conclusion when under pretence of Treaties of Peace and Solemn Parole that was given them that they should fear nothing they were lulled asleep and surprized where cruel Massacres were made of these poor Innocents deceived by the perfidiousness and treachery of their Enemies notwithstanding all these Massacres Cruelties and Barbarities which were exercised on their Persons and ravaging of the Country burning and spoiling their houses and goods they could never destroy them they have always persisted in their holy Religion and continued firm in the Faith of Jesus Christ from Father to Son from Generation to Generation and as they were faithful to God God has always protected them and assisted them in their greatest miseries God by his infinite power has confounded the designs of their Enemies and rendred their strongest Efforts inefficacious We have told you that the Vaudois of of Piemont having lived in Peace and and Repose in their Valleys till the year 1487. which is very true notwithstanding the Inquisition of the Pope against them for although the Archbishops of Turin and Ambrun to whom the Pope had given commission to inform themselves of their State and Condition and to proceed by any manner of way to their Extirpation and went themselves into the Valleys and cited divers times their Pastors and the principal Inhabitants and took Informations against them proceeding against them even to Excommunication These proceedings notwithstanding did them no great harm nor troubled their repose for they never appeared before the Inquisitors and set light of their Excommunication and rather took it for a mark of Gods blessing upon them who had distinguished them from other people who followed the Beast and adored his Image since they themselves alone when all the world was in a manner lost followed and adored Jesus Christ. And this is very remarkable that they enjoyed a profound peace while their Brethren the Vaudois of France Germany England Spain and Italy were greatly persecuted by the Enemies of the truth of the Gospel and while the other Vaudois were dispersed by Wars and Persecutions which their Enemies raised against them the Vaudois of Piemont by a particular effect of the divine Goodness always were safe in their Valleys notwithstanding all Wars and Persecutions which were raised against them till the year 1686. that the two witnesses of the eleventh Chapter of the Apocalypse were entirely vanquished and slain CHAP. V. Of the first War against the Vaudois of Piemont and of the Croisade which was made against them by Pope Innocent VIII THE first War that was made against the Vaudois of Piemont was in the Year 1487. that Albert de Capitaneis Archdeacon of Cremona and Nuntio of Pope Innocent VIII having received Commission from his Master to make a Croisade or holy war for the utter Extirpation of these poor people This Papal Commissary excited by Vertue of his Bull the Duke of Savoy Prince of Piemont the King of France and all the Neighbouring Princes for to aid him and to lend their Troops for their Extirpation he mustered an army of 18. thousand men besides five or six thousand Voluntiers of Piemont who came in great bodies to joyn this Army for besides that the Pope promised all those that should go to this War a full and entire Indulgence and Remission of their Sins they were likewise made to hope they should have the pillage of these Valleys and the confiscation of all their Goods who should be dispossessed This great Army divided it self into several Bodies to attacque the Vaudois in different places which they did with great Fury But though the Vaudois were but few in number in respect of their Enemies and not so well experienc'd in warlike Affairs having lived many Ages in peace notwithstanding they sustained with an invincible courage the dangerous Efforts of the inraged Enemy and God who sought for them who most ardently invoked him struck their Enemies with a pannick Fear in such a manner that by the aid of Heaven this formidable Army was repulsed dispersed and almost intirely defeated The broken remains of this Army which stayed upon the Frontiers durst attacque them no more among their Rocks they contented themselves almost a whole year to make excursions into the open and plain Countries and to keep them always in an Alarm which was extreamly prejudicial to these poor people because they were obliged to be always ready armed to keep themselves from surprize so that they could not till the Earth from which they drew the subsistence of themselves and their Families Philip VII Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piemont considering that this war was little honourable to him seeing the bad success that did ensue and that it was very prejudicial to his Subjects and particularly those of the Roman Communion of which a great number perished in the war and that others were very much exhausted by the Troops which they had entertained and given Subsistence to was resolved to put an end to it and to this purpose he ordered that twelve of them should come to Pignerol the place where he then kept his abode which they having done he received them kindly and passed an Act of oblivion of all that had passed during the War and avowed to them that he acknowledged he had been ill informed not only of what related to their Persons but also of their Religion and declared publickly that he had none so good or so obedient Subjects as the Vaudois he confirmed all their Priviledges and Immunities and promised them that for the future he would take those measures that they should live in peace The Inquisitors established by the Pope being frustrated of their expectation of prevailing against the Vaudois by an open war take other measures to destroy them If they went out of their Country they made them be seized on and