A LEAF FROM THE HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES. 119 every feeling that could elevate the conqueror above the beast of prey, answered every supplication for mercy with the sabre, till the devoted hamlet presented the spectacle of a vast scaffold strewed with victims and streaming with blood. When the morning sun arose on the hapless village, not a voice was heard breaking the deadly stillness that reigned around; not a dwelling was left standing; and only a heap of smouldering ashes, through which appeared at intervals the ghastly features of the slain, remained to tell of the happy homes and sacred altars which had adorned the smiling valley only the day before. But the smoking ruins and blood-stained hearths of Rora carried their loud appeal to the gates of heaven! At this disastrous epoch, Janavel, having witnessed the violation of his home, the destruction of his kindred, and the enemy in full possession of every approach, and there being nothing now to defend in the solitudes of Rora, transferred his unbroken energies to another field of action, and being reinforced by a few undaunted spirits, maintained a kind of guerilla warfare, amidst the natural fastnesses of Angrogne. Here he kept the enemy in constant check, and by driving in their outposts, seizing their convoys, and cutting off their detachments, became in every sense the avenger of his murdered kindred. Pianessa, who succeeded Count Christovel in the command of the army appointed to exterminate the Waldenses, proved himself a worthy agent of the cruel and tyrannical author of this persecu tion. On one occasion he offered to Janavel the alternative of apostasy or the Inquisition. Such an offer, to one possessed of that Christian fortitude which can blunt the fiercest pangs of corporeal sufferings, and transform even the terrors of the scaffold into a triumph, was likely to be repulsed with the scorn it deserved; and Janavel returned an answer worthy of himself:-" What was once said to Pilate I now say to Pianessa-Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.' Shall I abjure those principles I have so long defended with my blood?-principles as unchangeable as the word of God! Shall I desert his cause for the hopes of a renegade, who, abjuring obedience to his lawful master, looks for protection and friendship from those he had formerly opposed, and who would be the first to taunt him with his infidelity? No! in that cause, which I have thus freely espoused, I am ready to perish. The terrors of the Inquisition, fearful though in themselves they be, are mild compared with the upbraidings of conscience. I will never incur the one by shrinking from the other." He kept his word, and died in the defence of the cause to which he had consecrated his heart's blood. To the last, amid peril and danger, despite alike of promises and threats, unrestrained by fear, undazzled by offers of reward, he maintained firmly his consistent character, as the uncompromising champion of religious freedom. 120 PROTESTANTS WHO PAY TRIBUTE TO ROME. PROTESTANTS WHO PAY TRIBUTE TO ROME. Probably there are very few Roman Catholic edifices in the United States which Protestants have not aided to build. It is said that the Jesuits generally open their subscriptions on the eve of an election, in order to secure the largest possible premium from partisans and candidates for Roman votes. Whether this is true or not, no one will question that they derive a large part of their revenues from Protestants, nor that the Romanists themselves never aid in the slightest degree in any enterprises but their own. The guilt of such action by Protestants, is exhibited in the following extract from "A Short Dissuasive from Popery, and from countenancing and encouraging of Papists," by the Rev. Samuel Johnson, chaplain to Lord William Russell, in the reign of Charles II. "When God shall make inquisition for that blood which Popery has shed, it is much to be feared, that a great part of the vengeance which is due for it, will fall upon the heads of those men who countenance, encourage, and strengthen the hands of the papists, though they be not papists themselves. For they are accessories after the fact, and involve themselves in the guilt of that blood, by comforting and resetting those that shed it, and whose religion it is to shed as much more, as soon as possibly they can. If he that only bids a seducer Godspeed, is partaker of his evil deeds, as the apostle John expressly affirms, 2 Epist. 11, by the same reason, if we not only bid the papists God-speed, but speed them ourselves, and slavishly hold the stirrup for them, we shall be much more partakers of their evil deeds: such evil deeds as the Smithfield fires which they kindled here, the havoc, destruction and desolation which they have made in other parts of the world, and the rivers of blood which they shed in Ireland. I know that this last has been excused, as if it were not an evil deed, and it has been said that the papists did it in their own defence. But did they butcher helpless women and sucking children in their own defence? Was it in their own defence they slit the mouth of clergymen from ear to ear, and then put leaves of the Bible into their mouth, and bid them preach? Was it in their own defence that they killed men by piecemeal, with lingering tortures, and made them feel a thousand deaths in one; and after that, made candles of their fat to be offered to the Virgin Mary? How can it be said, that the papists did all this to save their own lives, when they were in no danger, and when they knew that they might have laid down their heads, and have slept as securely upon the laps of those very Protestants whom they thus murdered, as upon their own pillows? Read, see, turn over the histories of those times, and you will find, that the papists had no apprehensions of mischief from the Protestants, nor indeed the Protestants from them, or else they had never suffered as they did by that surprise. To conclude, if the papists acted all those cruelties in their own defence then, why may they not act them over again upon the same plea now? Neither can I see whither such sayings tend, unless it be to prompt and encourage them to it."-Evangelical Repository. THE TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF A NEW SAINT. 121 THE TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF A NEW SAINT. [We were handed the following account of this superstitious and degrading ceremony, by a friend who was present.] (Translated from the Montreal Melanges Religieux, 24th June, 1845 ) The solemnity of St. Jean Baptiste was celebrated, on Sunday last, at the Cathedral (R. C.), with much pomp and edification. Mgr. the Bishop of Montreal performed the morning and evening service. Mgr. Gaulin only arrived in time for the translation of the relics. At the mass the leaders of the Temperance Society (les chefs de la tempérance) presented a magnificent pain-benit, representing three columns supporting a crown. The number of communicants was considerable. Not less than a thousand members of the Temperance Society approached the Holy Table, in the morning. The translation of the relics of St. Zotique took place, as we announced, after dinner, when vespers were over. The crowd was immense. Besides N. N. S. S. the Bishops of Montreal and of Kingston, many Priests of the Seminary, of the College, and of the neighboring parishes, assisted at the ceremony. The procession was conducted with all possible pomp and solemnity. It is also consoling to have it in our power to say that all passed off with much order and edification. Notwithstanding the immense crowd congregated, we did not observe the slightest disturbance. Although it is not our intention to enter into the details of this imposing ceremony, however, as the reliquary, which encloses the precious remains of St. Zotique, is of a nature altogether new in this country, we ought not to omit saying a few words regarding it. The reliquary, then, of which we speak, is nothing else than the effigy of a martyr who had suffered death by the sword of the executioner. For the purpose of affecting the feelings, in the old Catholic countries, and above all in Rome, they have adopted the ingenious device of imitating in wax, the body of the martyr to whom the relics belong, and of enclosing them in it. It is one of these effigies that M. Hudson, V. G., has brought from Rome with the relics of St. Zotique, and in which they made the solemn translation, on Sunday last, at the Cathedral. The precious remains of this martyr are enclosed in crystal phials, and placed within the waxen members, which represent the saint. This effigy, of a perfection astonishing, is richly clothed, and reclines upon a cushion of crimson velvet, the head resting upon a pillow of the same. One appears to see one of those generous Christians of the primitive church, who comes to seal his faith with his blood, and to bear the crown of martyrdom. The illusion is so perfect, that it is impossible to view it without feeling one's self affected with the deepest emotion. 122 ROMANISM IN ROME. From the New Orleans Protestant. ROMANISM IN ROME. WILLIS, in his "Pencillings by the Way," in speaking of his visit to the Sistine Chapel, on the day when mass was performed by the Pope, says: "The Pope entered by a door at the side of the altar. With him came a host of dignitaries and church servants, and as he tottered round in front of the altar, to kneel, his cap was taken off and put on, his flowing robes lifted and spread, and he was treated in all respects as if he were the Deity himself. In fact, the whole service was the worship, not of God, but of the Pope. The Cardinals came up one by one, with their heads bowed, and knelt reverently to kiss his hand and the hem of his white satin dress: his throne was higher than the altar and ten times as gorgeous; the incense was flung towards him, and his motions from one side of the chapel to the other were attended with more ceremony and devotion than all the rest of the service together." On the succeeding page, we find in his account of his visit to the Church of San Carlos, the following description of the same important personage: "His holiness came in the state coach with six long-tailed black horses, and all his Cardinals in their red and gold carriages in his train. The gaudy procession swept up to the steps, and the father of the church was taken upon the shoulders of his bearers in a chair of gold and crimson, and solemnly borne up the aisle and deposited within the railings of the altar, where homage was done to him by the Cardinals, as before, and the half supernatural music of his choir awaited his motions. The church was half filled with soldiers armed to the teeth, and drawn up on either side, and his body-guard of Roman nobles stood even within the railing of the altar, capped and motionless, conveying, as every thing else does, the irresistible impression that it was the worship of the Pope and not of God." Such are the accounts given, not by bigoted Protestants, but by all enlightened travellers, of the fearful and daring height to which this man-worship is carried in Rome; and it is a matter of surprise how accurately this picture corresponds to one given in prophecy by Divine inspiration more than eighteen hundred years ago: 2 Thessalonians, ii, 3, 4-" Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Was ever a truer or more life-like portrait drawn? SUTTEES IN PUNJAB.It is stated in the Asiatic Journal, for April, that twenty-four females-widows and slaves-were burnt in honor of the chiefs who fell in connection with the late revolution in Punjab. THE WALDENSES AND THE BIBLE. [The following beautiful poem was repeated in a recent address before the American Bible Society, by Rev. Mr. Todd, of Pittsfield. Referring to the Waldenses, he said, 'Long, long before a Bible Society was formed or thought of, these poor, pious men went up and down the mountains and valleys in the character of peddlers, in order to distribute the word of God! And I am sure this audience will be willing to hear the simple story of one of these glorious though persecuted saints.'] 'O, lady fair, these silks of mine Are beautiful and rare; The richest web of the Indian loom, And these pearls are pure and mild to behold, I have brought them with me a weary way,- And the lady smiled on the worn old man, And she placed their price in the old man's hand, And lightly she turned away; But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call 'O, lady fair, I have yet a gem, Which a purer lustre flings Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown, On the lofty brow of kings; A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, And a blessing on thy way!' The lady glanced at the mirroring steel, 1 Where her youthful form was seen, Where her eyes shone clear, and her dark locks waved, Her clasping pearls between; Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, Thou traveller gray and old; And name the price of thy precious gem, And my pages shall count thy gold.' The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, Unchased by gold or diamond gem, 'Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price May it prove as such to thee! Nay, keep thy gold,-I ask it not, For the word of God is free!" |