ho hold the pope to be God upon earth and vicar of
Jesus Christ," he said, "they are strangely mistaken, seeing that in
everything he shows himself to be a mortal enemy of Christ's doctrine and
service." He was then put to death, but not before he had "made the pope
and his cardinals gnash their teeth." In this way the Waldenses were driven
out of Calabria, at a time, let it be remembered, when in the gracious
providence of God the Reformation was being firmly established in England.

We pass on then to consider what was the condition of the Vaudois in their
own valleys after the termination of their sufferings narrated in the fifth
chapter. We have glanced at the revival of true religion in the valleys and
Vaudois colonies. Suffice it, then, to add that the sympathy shown by Farel
(present at the Synod of Angrogna, 1532), Ecomlapadius, Bucer, and others,
all served to encourage the reviving zeal of that church which had so long
held aloft the standard of God's truth, though at times it may be somewhat
weary with the strife and burden involved in that high distinction of
witnessing for Christ in a world that either forgot or denied Him. One of
the signs of the earnestness which characterized the Vaudois Church at this
time was the translation of the Holy Scriptures into French (for the
benefit of the reformed churches) out of the Romaunce dialect, in which the
Vaudois had possessed the word of God from time immemorial. A further proof
of piety was shown in the erection of buildings for public worship, A.D.
1535. The first temple was at St. Lorenzo, near Chamforans, the site of
the Angrogna Synod; and a second was built at Serre, in the same valley.
This latter temple was standing at the time of our visit, though needing
repair. It would seem that the evangelical spirit was so decided at this
period that the few priests who continued hovering about the valleys in the
hope of effecting perversions retired in despair. The process of church
building went on, so that in 1556 several temples existed in the Val
Lucerna and San Martino. But such a state of things was not permitted to
continue without fresh opposition. In the year 1556 the Pope and Henry II.
of France give orders to the parliament of Turin to repress these heretical
movements. They send out two of their body, who visit the valley of San
Martino, and publish an edict threatening all who refuse obedience to its
commands. They summoned before them a labourer, and aske