History of the WaldensesWylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
History
History of the Waldenses
Wylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Waldenses
Arrival of Inquisitors in Calabria--Flight of the Inhabitants
of San Sexto--Pursued and Destroyed--La Guardia--Its
Citizens Seized--Their Tortures--Horrible Butchery--The
Calabrian Colony Exterminated--Louis Paschale--His
Condemnation--The Castle of St. Angelo--The Pope, Cardinals,
and Citizens--The Martyr--His Last Words--His Execution--His
Tomb.
While Paschale was calmly awaiting a martyr’s death in his dungeon at
Rome, how fared it with his flock in Calabria, on whom the gathering
storm had burst in terrific violence?
When it was known that Protestant ministers had been sent from Geneva
to the Waldensian Churches in Calabria, the Inquisitor-General, as
already mentioned, and two Dominican monks, Valerio Malvicino and
Alfonso Urbino, were dispatched by the Sacred College to reduce
these Churches to the obedience of the Papal See, or stamp them out.
They arrived at San Sexto, and assembling the inhabitants, assured
them it was not intended to do them any harm, would they but dismiss
their Lutheran teachers and come to mass. The bell was rung for the
celebration of the Sacrament, but the citizens, instead of attending
the service, left the town in a body, and retired to a neighbouring
wood. Concealing their chagrin, the inquisitors took their departure
from San Sexto, and set out for La Guardia, the gates of which they
locked behind them when they had entered, to prevent a second flight.
Assembling the inhabitants, they told them that their co-religionists
of San Sexto had renounced their errors, and dutifully attended mass,
and they exhorted them to follow their good example, and return to the
fold of the Roman shepherd; warning them at the same time, that should
they refuse they would expose themselves, as heretics, to the loss of
goods and life. The poor people, taken unawares, and believing what
was told them, consented to hear mass; but no sooner was the ceremony
ended, and the gates of the town opened, than they learned the deceit
which had been practised upon them. Indignant, and at the same time
ashamed of their own weakness, they resolved to leave the place in a
body, and join their brethren in the woods, but were withheld from
their purpose by the persuasion and promises of their feudal superior,
Spinello.
The Inquisitor-General, Alexandrini, now made request for two companies
of men-at-arms, to enable him to execute his mission. The required
aid was instantly given, and the soldiers were sent in pursuit of the
inhabitants of San Sexto. Tracking them to their hiding-places, in the
thickets and the caves of the mountains, they slaughtered many of them;
others, who escaped, were pursued with bloodhounds, as if they had been
wild beasts. Some of these fugitives scaled the craggy summits of the
Apennines, and hurling down the stones on the soldiers who attempted to
follow them, compelled them to desist from the pursuit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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