The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their ValleysWorsfold, J. N. (John Napper)
History
The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys
Worsfold, J. N. (John Napper)
Waldenses
Also on the evening of the day on which was laid the foundation of the new
temple, Mazzarella, a Neapolitan advocate, deputy of parliament, and judge
of the court of appeal at Genoa, was one of ten catechumens received into
the membership of the Vaudois Church.
At the same time the gospel was finding its way into Genoa, a city devoted
to Mariolatry. On the very day on which the Table decided to send M.
Geymonat from Turin to work in Genoa, they received an application by
letter from Genoa to admit to their communion and ministry a very
distinguished ex-priest of Rome. This was no other than Dr. De Sanctis,
rector of the Magdalen and professor of theology, &c., at Rome. Excepting
during a short period, to which I need not refer, the connection thus begun
between Dr. De Sanctis and the Vaudois continued until his lamented death
on the last day of December, 1869. But there are two points I will allude
to. First, the incidental means of his conversion. This was by a little
treatise put into his hands at a time when he was preparing a series of
lectures in defence of the decrees of the Council of Trent as compared with
the word of God.
Secondly, the ground on which he sought admission into the Vaudois Church.
In the letter addressed to the Table, dated August 17th, 1852, he states
that he had abandoned the Church of Rome for nearly five years, and from
the moment of his separation until then his thoughts "always turned to the
Church of the Valleys, _because he recognized it as the true, primitive,
apostolic Italian Church_." "During these five years," he adds, "I have
lived among Christians who have proposed to me many times, with a view to
my temporal advantage, that I should join some church; but I have always
refused, thinking that _an Italian, sincerely seeking the good of his
compatriots, should not belong to any other church than the ancient
Italian Church_." I have transcribed these words, because I feel strongly
their importance as coming from one so well able to estimate the value of
the Vaudois in its past history and its adaptation to the necessities and
opportunities of evangelizing that country so much needing the gospel of
Christ--the Italy of to-day. It seems to me that it is for this very
purpose that the little community confined within so narrow a space, apart
from the more populous and frequented parts of Europe, has been preserved,
in spite of so many attempts at extermination. What the seven thousand who
did not bow the knee to Baal were to the rest of Israel, so it would seem
that the faithful few in the valleys of Piedmont are intended to be in
reference to that new kingdom of Italy, of which they form one of the most
ancient provinces. And the whole attitude and character of the Church of
the Valleys confirms this feeling. They can appeal to their brother
Italians as no foreigners can. Their very sufferings give them a right
which cannot be ignored. Mazzarella eloquently acknowledged this when he
visited La Torre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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