[438] _Chroniqueur_, p. 112. [439] 'Duræchet, gebalgets, verschmæht.... Gott gelæstert.'—Berne to the bailli of Grandson, June 7. [440] _Sommaire_, etc. p. 181. [441] The Choupard MS. gives the sentence of Berne under the date of 17th June 1531. [442] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 167. [443] Choupard MSS. Stettler MSS. _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur._ [444] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 74. Ruchat, iii. p. 45. [445] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 82-85. Choupard MSS. Ruchat, iii. p. 47. CHAPTER V. THE WALDENSES APPEAR. (1526 TO OCTOBER 1532.) On Friday, 12th July, Farel came from Morat to Grandson, where a quiet conference was to be held. Four disciples of the Gospel begged to receive the imposition of hands. Farel and his colleagues examined them, and, finding them fitted for the evangelical work, sent them to announce the Gospel in the neighbouring villages of Gy, Fy, Montagny, Noville, Bonvillars, St. Maurice, Champagne, and Concise. But the conference was to be occupied with more important business. [Sidenote: THE WALDENSES.] For two or three years past a strange report had circulated among the infant churches that were forming between the Alps and the Jura. They heard talk of christians who belonged to the Reformation without having ever been reformed. It was said that in some of the remote valleys of the Alps of Piedmont and Dauphiny, and in certain parts of Calabria, Apulia, Provence, Lorraine, and other countries,[446] there were believers who for many centuries had resisted the pope and recognised no other authority than Holy Scripture. Some called them 'Waldenses,' others 'poor men of Lyons,' and others 'Lutherans.' The report of the victories of the Reformation having penetrated their valleys, these pious men had listened to them attentively; one of them in particular, Martin Gonin, pastor of Angrogne, was seriously moved by them. Being a man of decided and enterprising character, and ready to give his life for the Gospel, the pious _barbe_ (the name given by the Waldenses to their pastors) had felt a lively desire to go and see closely what the Reformation was. This thought haunted him everywhere: whether he traversed the little glens which divided his valley, like a tree with its branches,[447] or whether he followed the course of the torrent, or sat at the foot of the Alps of Cella, Vachera, and Infernet, Gonin sighed after Wittemberg and Luther. At last he made up his mind; he departed in 1526, found his way to the reformers, and brought back into his valleys much good news and many pious books. From that time the Reformation was the chief topic of conversation among the barbes and shepherds of those mountains. * * * * *