rent of Angrogna, gives its name to a cluster of valleys which branch out like the boughs of a tree, and runs into the Pelice, just below La Torre. It is supplied by innumerable springs of water, which gush from the rocks, and by following its course from the vale, the tourist will be conducted to the village itself, and higher up, to such a succession of picturesque spots, and secluded glens, as no description can do justice to. The natural beauties of the scenery of Angrogna, and the sublime objects of crag rising above crag, of enormous masses of rock debouching into the glens beneath, and of abysses, the depths of which the eye cannot penetrate, are rendered still more interesting by their being consecrated to the memory of heroes and martyrs, whose histories are in the mouth of every peasant....... Before we left the scenery of Angrogna, and took a last view of its matchless beauties, we looked down upon a vale, the sweetest I ever saw, and which to this moment, after having seen the most lovely spots in Switzerland and Italy, I remember rather as a delightful vision, than a real prospect. It lay in the midst of a circular chain of mountains, so sheltered and protected, that it looked as if no

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rough winds could ever visit it. The declivities which sloped down to it were clothed with trees of every description, among which were abundance of walnuts, mulberries, chesnuts, cherry, and other fruit trees. If ever there was a place calculated to realize the dreams of happiness in solitude, it is this, where nature appears under the most favourable circumstances."

Though none of the other valleys are equally delightful, yet they are generally far from being unfruitful. But while the traveller may admire the beauty or the fertility of many of the valleys of Piedmont, the Christian will contemplate their far higher glory, in their having had early planted among them what may justly be denominated "the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts," and the "trees of righteousness of his own hand planting." For "from the borders of Spain, throughout the greatest part of the south of France, among and below the Alps, along the Rhine, and even to Bohemia, thousands of the disciples of Christ, as will be hereafter shown, were found, even in the very worst of times, preserving the faith in its purity, adhering to the simplicity of Christian worship, patiently bearing the cross after Christ; men distinguished by their fear of

God, and obedience to his will, and persecuted only for righteousness' sake."

Although we have stated in the former chapter, that Claudius of Turin has been styled the founder of the Waldensian Churches, yet not a few historians have traced their origin to a period still more remote. Leger begins his history of the Churches of the Vaudois, by a declaration that " they never required any reformation." Henry Arnaud, too, makes the following statement:" Neither has their church been ever reformed, whence arises its title evangelic. The Vaudois are in fact descended from those refugees from Italy, who, after St Paul had there preached the Gospel, abandoned their beautiful country, and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, to those wild mountains, where they have, to this day, handed down the Gospel from father to son, in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St Paul." For the first four or five centuries, the whole of what is termed the diocese of the north of Italy, of which the Waldenses formed a part, remained comparatively pure. Though not altogether free from error in succeeding ages, yet being a pastoral, simple, and unambitious people, whose situation

kept them at a distance from the controversies and customs of these degenerate ages, they remained comparatively little infected by the abounding evils in the Church. The most ancient historian of the persecutions to which they were subjected, affirms, that "Toulouse had been scarcely ever exempt, even from its first foundation, from that pest of heresy which the fathers transmitted to their children;" and that "their opinions had been transmitted in Gaul, from generation to generation, almost from the origin of Christianity." A noble testimony to the antiquity of these evangelical Churches, which, from the first planting of religion in Gaul, had, as far as their opportunities would allow, resisted the usurpations and corruptions of the Church of Rome. Pope Alexander III. in a synod held at Tours, in 1167, declared, "That the doctrine of the Vaudois was a damnable heresy of long continuance." And their adversary Reinier, an Italian inquisitor of the middle of the thirteenth century, whose business it was to report the opinions of the heretics of Lyons, gives the following singular testimony:-" The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is of great antiquity. Among all the sects that

either are or have been, there is none more dangerous to the Church, and that for three reasons. 1. Because it is the sect of the longest standing of any; for some say that it hath been continued down ever since the time of Pope Sylvester, (in the fourth century); and others, ever since that of the Apostles. 2. Because it is the most general of all sects; for scarcely is there a country to be found where this sect hath not spread itself. And, 3. Because it has the greatest appearance of piety; for, in the sight of all, these men are just and honest in their transactions,believe of God what ought to be believed,receive all the articles of the Apostles' creed, and only profess to hate the Church of Rome."

In the ninth century, as we have already seen, a powerful attack was made on the Romish corruptions by Claudius, whom the theologian Dungalus charges with having occasioned the separation and apostacy of his flock from the Popish Church. Persevering from that early date in their separation from the Romish See, the attention of the neighbouring ecclesiastical states was at length excited; and, finding that those Alpine valleys were filled with a people