The English and the Waldensians : some new evidence
by Alison Bailey Castellina (a presentation with added slides on 20 August 2014, Bobbio Pellice, Sentieri Antichi Valdesi Conference)
“Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” Matthew 13.8
“This is the spot from which it is likely that the great sower will again cast His seed in these Italian States…” These valleys are “the Light of Italy...”
Rev William Stephen Gilly, Waldensian Researches (1831)
I came to Val Pellice for the first time last summer knowing nothing of its history. I confess to amazement at the discovery of the elegant “English Quarter” and sat with real pleasure in “Caffee Londra”, smiling broadly under the mock ‘arms’ of the City of London. For me, it was ‘love at first sight’ - home from home.
I found this feeling hard to admit even to myself, until I found, through research, that many English have fallen in love with these valleys. Some ‘English lovers’ have written historical novels, children’s books, others have drawn the scenery, others have lived and married here, others raised money, others returned again and again, year after year. Their words and responses are emotional, even passionate, unusual in the Anglo Saxons.
I take one example sentence taken from a book published in 1831. After the six hour coach journey from Turin, an English couple spotted the landmark of the rock, Castelluzzo above Torre Pellice. The husband wrote later:
“I cannot adequately describe my feelings as I approached these well-remembered spots, almost as dear to me as my native soil. It was more like the sensation of returning home than renewing a former acquaintance. My emotions were such as anyone on earth might envy: pure happiness”.
(Rev William Gilly: Waldensian Researches 1831)
I became very curious about this ‘English emotion’ and this ‘English Quarter’. Who were the English people behind this? What was their motivation? Why had the connection between these valleys and England clearly been so strong? After hours researching in the British Library in London, reading census records from early 19th century England and online handwritten Wills, I have uncovered some fresh stories about the English-speaking men and women behind “The English Quarter”, which I share today.
The ‘smitten’ English included General John Charles Beckwith, born in Nova Scotia, from English stock, still regarded as a ‘father’ in Val Pellice. However, John Charles Beckwith’s works were secondary to the wider keen interest in others far more influential than he was, in England. In fact, the only project which General Beckwith achieved in his own right was founding the girls’ boarding school in Torre Pellice in 1837 (which closed in 1908). This girls boarding school provided Vaudois/Waldensian girls from wealthier homes with a top class, international education. One of its Waldensian graduates became tutor to Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Beatrice, who was her mother’s secretary at the height of the British Empire. Everything else which created the English Quarter was a huge ‘team effort’ by a number of English in England and General Beckwith, living here.
I discovered that the real founder of this work was clergyman and writer Rev William Stephen Gilly (1789-1855). He published two illustrated books about the Waldensian Valleys, in 1823 and 1833. He lived most of his later life as vicar in a Northumberland village on the English border, with Scotland.
Rev William Gilly was an excellent writer, gifted with the power of inspiration. His descriptions of the valleys both in the 1820s and 1830s are still a precious record of the Vaudois were like. For example, in 1823, there were no shops in Torre Pellice since Waldensian farmers were self-sufficient. There were no coats-of-arms, as the Vaudois had no nobles. Unusually for that time, the people were mostly literate, speaking their own patois but able to read the French liturgies, Psalms and Bible. They were drilled by the thirteen pastors in catechisms, inspite of primary education being scanty. The families slept with their animals, in very basic homes, probably poorer than the people in Suffolk, where William Gilly was brought up.
The English had a theory that Protestantism made you richer, better organised, harder working, and better looking so they were surprised that the Waldensians were not better off or better looking - even if they found them civilised. Villar Pellice was particularly blighted by “goitre”. The curious English soon understood that their land was less productive than the Po Valley and that the poor Waldensians owned no horses. They probably had no livestock guardian dogs, which is not a tradition, in Piedmont. Instead, they used the ox and ass as their working animals.
Nevertheless, the Vaudois character was hugely admired by their English guests. Here were honest, simple living, unmaterialistic, Bible-centred, hardworking people, who acted as one body in relation to adversity, showing a common grief in the face of tragedy. Their pastors could write Latin, even if they were not academic. Crime was unknown among them, as was dancing. On Sundays, most of the people took communion in the reformed tradition.
On his second visit, William Gilly and his wife artistic Jane Colberg stayed with the French-speaking Pastor of Torre Pellice, Pastor Bert, who lived in a ‘Swiss cottage’, a farmhouse on the slopes of the Pellice, in San Margarita. The Vaudois ate little meat, unlike the British, but they made up for it with their many ‘custard puddings’. Some kept mulberry trees for silk and ‘docile’ cattle for milk and cheese. If the weather was good, they reaped a harvest of hay, corn and sweet chestnuts, inspite of snakes which could climb trees. There was no drunkenness, no swearing, no quarrels among them. The Vaudois had very good sense of humour and strong community spirit. Before church on Sunday, the clamour of the congregation greeting each other outside, was deafening. These were closely related relatives as well as neighbours, for the Vaudois were all closely inter-married, since they were forbidden to marry outside their community. Shepherds would take turns to come off the mountains to attend church in summer on a rota basis.
The Vaudois women were simple, kind, orderly, forbearing and mutually supportive. Seeing that the Vaudois were so keen to access more books, the English, working with other nations, did not exclude them from learning.
Vaudois men had a rare military ability, but prefered being farmers in their valleys, to becoming mercenaries, abroad. A key to the motivation for the English was their admiration for the strategic military skills of the Vaudois, most acute in General Beckwith, himself a hero of Waterloo, having lost a leg there. The English realised that one was unlikely ever to read a story equal to that of the defence of their valleys by the Vaudois, who survived against impossible odds, thanks to ancient paths, rugged fortresses, caves and divine protection. As William Gilly himself noted:
“There is nothing like the preservation of the Vaudois in the history of Man”.
I am pleased to add to the list of English-speaking ‘supporters’ of the Vaudois, two artistic women. It now includes monarchs, poets, politicians, bishops, priests, soldiers - and these two women. The list is:
John Milton
Oliver Cromwell
William of Orange ( William III of England)
Queen Mary and Queen Anne (England)
William Wilberforce, the great evangelical campaigner, who ended the slave trade
The Duke of Wellington, who won the Battle of Waterloo
Bishop Barrington, the Bishop of Durham
Rev William Stephen Gilly
Henrietta Hoare, known as “Mrs Fortescue”
Jane Coburg, known as Mrs Gilly
General John Charles Beckwith.
General Beckwith appears last, not because he was not a great ‘man of action’ but because he was the last link in a long chain.
England’s Civil War was won by Independent and reformed MP, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) at the head of the New Model Army. His government executed Charles 1st in public, outside Whitehall Palace and Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, living in the same suite of rooms at Whitehall Palace as Elizabeth 1st and Charles 1st. Cromwell is the father of our Parliament, which is why his statue stands defiantly outside it, today. Cromwell’s own reputation has been much undermined recently, partly because, hypocritically, he wanted to wear the Crown in his later years. He also brutally treated Catholics in Ireland, in response for their persecutions of Protestants, which had been falsely exaggerated.
But Cromwell was a man of great vision and passion - a passion to defend Protestants and the cause of reformed Christianity in Europe. In fact, Cromwell was not a ‘heartless extremist’, like some of his fellow Puritans, who sadly made the English hate Presbyterianism, forever. He hated ‘the Puritan type’ who loved nothing better than to “put their fingers on the consciences of others” and make their victims squirm. The Puritans in power, became extreme, almost like the Taliban. They passed a law for the death penalty for adultery, which, though never enacted, went further than the New Testament in its severity. They made the mistake of thinking that a government can force a people to be morally pure by law. Morality cannot be achieved outside true conversion to Christ - even though a Christian majority can have a strong influence on public morals. There was among them the poet John Milton, Cromwell’s secretary, whose famous poem about the massacre of the innocent Vaudois reflected the better nature of some of the ruling Puritans.
Set against these faults, Cromwell’s compassion in 1655 for the martyred Vaudois shines brightly. He was prepared to land troops and march to their defence. He wrote to The Sun King, Louis XIV, strongly in their defence. He had some English churches painted red to remind the congregations of the blood of Vaudois martyrs. He raised a public subscription worth £38,000 at that time, millions of pounds today, two thirds of which reached the valleys: the rest was stolen by Charles II in 1660. Cromwell initiated the donations of salaries and pensions to Vaudois pastors, re-started under William III - which only ceased in 1797, when Napoleon overran Northern Italy and the Continent closed to the English.
William III of England, known as William of Orange (1650-1701), was the Dutch grandson of Charles 1st. He replaced Catholic James II on the British throne, as a champion of European Protestantism. Few people in England today know anything about William, or they see him as ‘colourless’, but in foreign policy, he wisely handled “The Nine Years War”, as well as Louis XIV, who had been persuaded by the Papacy that he might spend less time in Purgatory if he wiped Protestants out of mainland Europe. As a result, the Edict of Nantes unleashed Huguenot persecutions which spilled over into the Waldensian valleys, resulting in a massacre which cast out the Vaudois from their lands and homes, with thousands starving to death, in the prisons of Turin.
The “Glorious Return” to these valleys in 1688, their intrepid military resistance and escapes, finally led these brave fighters to their last stand, in the ancient Vaudois fortress, Pra del Torno. Providentially, behind the scenes, William III, persuaded the Duke of Savoy to switch sides and join their Grand Alliance against Louis XIV, just in time to save the Vaudois who descended to Pra del Torno expecting their last battle, only to find themselves warmly welcomed by the Duke of Savoy’s troops. William III instituted a secret English treaty (1690) which stated that if ever the Vaudois were attacked again, England would act, militarily, to defend them.
By 1816, the Vaudois were long forgotten by the churches in England. The British Government was still aware of the Vaudois, spying through its ‘eyes and ears’ at the Court of Savoy. The envoy of Charles 1st to the Court of Savoy had lived in Torre Pellice, specifically to witness first-hand how the Vaudois were treated. A few of the English elite knew about them, and after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, William Wilberforce, who famously ended the slave trade, asked The Duke of Wellington, the victor at Waterloo, to ensure, at the peace conference in Vienna that the Duke of Sardinia would leave the Vaudois alone. The Duke of Sardinia did, but henceforth waged war through limiting their civil rights, rather than by the sword. The Vaudois were prevented from entering the professions in Piedmont and faced other extreme marginalisation. Meanwhile, the English began to travel over the Alps, via Mont Cenis, in horse drawn coaches, in awe of ‘sublime’ alpine scenery, partly to paint and draw picturesque scenery. The Grand Culture Tour to Italy restarted with Italy, which was seen as a ‘magical’ land, by the wealthy English.
One day in 1819, a poor Waldensian pastor, Ferdinand Peyrani in Pramollo, despaired of supplying his congregation with hymn books and psalms to worship God. He remembered that “The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge” (SPCK) in London founded under William III, had helped the Vaudois, in the long distant past. He sat down and wrote a letter to the SPCK, asking for money to buy hymn books and psalters for his congregation. Thankfully, the international postal system worked and this letter was received with much astonishment by SPCK - who had never heard of the Vaudois. Attending the meeting at which Peyrani’s letter was read out, a young Cambridge-educated clergyman from a parish in Essex, was rivetted: his name was Rev William Stephen Gilly. He started to research the Vaudois and he soon imagined, probably wrongly, that the Vaudois Church was the remnant of the primitive Apostolic church of Italy.
Two years later, Gilly’s life torn apart when his wife, Eliza, died, probably in childbirth. Gilly may have felt crushed by this bitter blow having also lost a child in infancy. He may even had a kind of breakdown. It is possible that meditating about the endurance of the Vaudois acted as a kind of buttress for his own faith.
Widowed Gilly, in need of recuperation, finally found a way of getting over the Alps to visit the Vaudois. He either offered or was asked to escort two eighteen year old students to Italy, on the Grand Tour, in 1823. Leaving his small children probably in the care of relatives, he set out. On arrival, Gilly immediately located the Peyrani family. Before he saw the Waldensian valleys, he had been passionately interested : now he had a real mission. He immediately wrote his famous book and included the illustrations of Hon Mrs Fortescue, a noble English woman who had visited Angrogna and left behind some drawings, much prized by local residents.
Gilly’s first book about the Waldensians caused a sensation in England. Gilly was soon rubbing shoulders with the great Bishop of Durham, Shute Barrington, a close associate of William Wilberforce, who came from a family descended from Presbyterians. MPs of all political parties formed a cross-party Committee and the fund-raising Vaudois Committee in London was established. A public subscription for the College and Library in Torre Pellice was led by Bishop of Durham and King George IV.
Bishop Barrington, who was also a Baronet, was immensely wealthy, having been married to the great-grand daughter of Charles II, who probably left him a dowry when she died in childbirth. The Bishop ensured that William Gilly effectively became one of his heirs which enabled Gilly to donate significant money to the Waldensian College and Library and visit Torre Pellice no less than six times in this lifetime. The Bishop may have achieved this by introducing him to the niece of one of his heirs - Ann Coburg - a lady to whom he left the equivalent of more than £1m.
Rev William Gilly married Jane Coburg, at All Souls Church in central London, and was installed in various church posts in Durham. When his wife’s aunt died in 1832, William Gilly inherited part of Bishop Barrington’s fortune. The Gilly family was now comfortably off. They had five servants and an elegant vicarage in Norham, Northumberland. From here, William Gilly helped General Beckwith with the building projects in Torre Pellice and through his work with the fund-raising Vaudois Committee in England. Gilly visited and met with General Beckwith in Torre Pellice during his visits.
In 1833, William and Jane Gilly, a young woman in her twenties, now mother to Gilly’s motherless children, while staying with Pastor Bert in his farm, in San Margarita, climbed up along a dangerous ledge to the pinnacle of Castelluzzo to try to find the historic Vaudois refuge, in a cleft of the rock. They could not find it, but Gilly admired Jane’s courage, in her long skirt. They were dazzled by the view from Castelluzzo, across to the mighty pyramidal “Paramount” mountain, Monviso. In the beauty, Jane clearly saw as a landscape reflecting the divine. While Gilly was walking the valleys visiting pastors, Jane did some beautiful sketches which were engraved as illustrations in her husband’s second book. I am separately showing these, Mrs Fortescue’s and Bartlett’s illustrations of the valleys in my second talk.
Jane Colberg, Mrs Gilly’s illustrations speak to us today.They have spiritual power to convey the might and glory of a landscape with special connections to the story of enduring faith. They also show spiritual man and woman in a spiritual landscape - an endeavour usually reserved for Bible illustrations.
General Beckwith lived in a flat next to the girls’ school, when it was located in Palazzo Rorengo, in the middle of Torre Pellice. This enabled him to help the female teachers ensure that these girls received a world-class Christian education. William Gilly and his wife knew Beckwith’s young wife, Caroline Beckwith, who had been one of the pupils at this school.
Rev William Gilly lived long enough to see the Waldensian College, its Library, 120 village schools, the orphanage in Angrogna and Beckwith’s girls boarding school installed in its fine building in the English Quarter. How moving it must have been, on Gilly’s last visit in 1854, for the husband and wife team to wander together, in the cool of the evening, through this elegant English Quarter, knowing that their prayers and life’s work had been honoured. Everything was in place for the Waldensian Church to reach out with the Gospel, to Italy. As Gilly wrote:
“This is the spot from which it is likely that the Great Sower will again cast His seed in these Italian States. These valleys are the Light of Italy.”
William Gilly died, six months later, aged 65. Widowed Jane ensured that he was buried in a fitting tomb in Norham Church, which was clearly inscribed with the words, “Friend of the Vaudois” and “All for Jesus”. Jane Gilly continued to manage his Fund for the College and Library. She died in 1899, in her nineties.
The benefits for the Vaudois interactions with the English are often described as being ‘one way’, namely the Vaudois are the beneficiaries of the English. Certainly, English aid to the Vaudois has been much needed, and appreciated. The English did not ‘fail’ to pay the stipends to pastors, as the Victorian fund-raisers liked to suggest. The English, however, were greatly blessed through the Vaudois. The Vaudois also contributed their materials and their land to build primary schools and churches, changed their language to Italian, ably grasping the education offered and showing support, eventually, for the evangelisation of Piedmont and then Italy.
The benefits were clearly in both directions:
Cromwell’s reputation is salvaged by what he did for the Vaudois.
William of Orange is more than just a Dutch King: he was a hero, through his aid to the Vaudois
Bishop Barrington may have returned some of the public fund stolen by Charles II
The faith of the Vaudois may have given new life to a broken-hearted widower who left a lasting legacy on their account, including a book that inspired a seriously disabled hero of Waterloo (Colonel Beckwith) to move to Piedmont, champion the education of children and women, marry, leave a lasting name - and a child.
The emotive story of the Vaudois produced drawings by two women whose art would otherwise have been lost.
In the end, did some of the later, well-intended English efforts help the true reformed Christian faith to hold on in these valleys? It is not a good thought, but I hazard this:
Would it have been better for the English to have left the Vaudois alone, after giving them their own theological college and hospital, and a few primary schools?
Like Gilly, educationalist General Beckwith put ‘mission to Italy’ very high on his own agenda but he believed that to win converts away from Catholicism, the Vaudois must be highly educated. As a result of his schools, by that late 19th century, Waldensians had become equal ‘citizens of the world’ which had also opened them to the advance of secular ideologies.
This outcome was the exact opposite of what William Gilly had intended for the Vaudois. Gilly’s theological College in Torre Pellice was built expressly to discourage homegrown theological students leaving the valleys and mixing with liberal German and Swiss theologians. Gilly told Beckwith that the College must not become their stepping stone to foreign, liberal universities. Indeed, even in 1831, Gilly prophesied that if the Vaudois pastors were exposed to theological liberalism, the biblical faith would die in these valleys. Save for ‘the remnant’, Gilly’s prophecy has, indeed, come to pass.
My last questions, draw on this story and challenge all of us today:
What are we seeking to achieve through any mission in these valleys, in Italy and through Sentieri Antichi Valdesi?
Are we resting solely on Christ and His Word for our direction?
Is His Word our guide rather than our feelings and instincts?
Is what we are doing for His glory and for His Kingdom, alone?
Is it all undergirded by listening to Him, and by prayer?
Are we being faithful to the true Biblical Gospel or just an incomplete or erroneous version of it?
There is a famous saying: “Only what we do for God, will last”. It is true that only what we do for God alone, ultimately bears fruit, even beyond our lifetime.
Alison Bailey Castellina, August 2014
Select Bibliography
J P Meille: General Beckwith: His Life and Labours among The Waldenses of Piedmont
William Stephen Gilly: Narrative of an excursion to the mountains of Piedmont and researches among the Vaudois, or Waldenses, Protestant inhabitants of the Cottian Alps (1824, Rivingtons, London)
William Stephen Gilly: Waldensian researches during a second visit to the Vaudois of Piedmont: with an introductory inquiry into the antiquity and purity of the Waldensian Church (1831, Rivingtons, London)
Antonia Fraser: Cromwell, Our Chief of Men
See Wikipedia for information on major English monarchs, Duke of Wellington and Bishop Shute Barrington. Bishop Shute Barrington’s Will is available in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” (online)
See Waldensian websites for biographies of William Gilly, Beckwith and Jane Gilly on the website of “Societa de Studi Valdesi” - Biographies of Protestants in Italy. It (wrongly) claim that Jane Colberg (Gilly) was the granddaughter of Bishop Shute Barrington. This cannot be confirmed through my research and by using records on ancestry.co.uk.
William Gilly and Jane Colberg’s family trees with attached census records and the Will of Ann Colberg are available on www.ancestry.co.uk under “Gilly Family Tree”
Jane Colberg and Henrietta Hoare’s illustrations of the Waldensian Valleys are in William Gilly’s two books (1824 and 1831 see above)
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