Piedmont, to inhabite in Prouince, in certaine Villages destroyed by warres and other desert places: Wherin they vsed such labour and diligence, that they had abundance of corne, wyne, oyles, hony, almons, wyth other fruites & commodities of the earth, & much cattell. Before they came thether, Merindol was a barrē desert and not inhabited. But these good people (in whõ God alwayes had reserued some litle seede of pietie)MarginaliaFor the originall of this people, see before in pag. [illegible text]. beyng dispersed, and separated from the societie of mē, were compelled to dwell with beastes, in that wast and wild desert, which notwithstandyng, through the blessyng of God, and their great labour and traueil, became excedyng frutefull. Notwithstandyng þ^e world in the meane tyme, so detested & abhorred thē, and with all shamefull rebukes & contumelies, rayled against them in such despitefull maner, that it seemed they were not worthy that the earth should beare thē. For they of a long continuance & custome, had refused the Byshop of Romes authoritie, and obserued euer a more perfect kynde of doctrine, then others, deliuered to them from the father to the sonne, euer since the yeare of our Lord. 1200.

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For this cause they were oftē accused & complayned of to the kyng, as contēners and despisers of the Magistrates & rebels. Wherfore they were called by diuers names accordyng to the countreys and places where they dwelt. For in the countrey about Lyõs, they were called the poore people of Lyons:MarginaliaPauperes de Lugduno, Waldenses, Turrelupini, Chagnardi.
Of Waldo, read before pag. 234. In the borders of Sarmatia  

& Liuonia, & other countreys towardes the North, they were called Lolardes: In Flaūders and Artoys, Turrelupins, of a desert where wolues did haunt: In Dolphine, with great despite, they were named Chagnardes, because they lyued in places opē to the sunne, and without house or harborough. But most commonly they were called Waldoys, of Waldo, who first instructed thē in the word of God: which name continued vntill the name of Lutherans came vp, which aboue all other, was most hated, and abhorred.

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Notwithstandyng, in all these  

most spitefull contumelies and sclaunders, the people dwellyng at the foote of the Alpes, and also in Merindoll & Cabriers, and the quarters thereabout, alwayes liued so godly, so vprightly & iustely that in all their lyfe & conuersation, there appeared to be in them a great feare of God. That litle light of true knowledge which God had giuen them, they laboured by all meanes, to kyndle and encrease dayly more & more, sparyng no charges, whether it were to procure bookes of the holy Scripture, or to instruct such as were of the best and most towardly wittes, in learnyng & godlynes: or ells to send thē into other coūtreys, yea euē to the farthest partes of the earth, where they had heard that any light of the Gospell began to shyne.

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For in the yeare. 1530.  

vnderstandyng that the Gospell was preached in certaine townes of Germany & Switzerland, they sent thether two learned men, that is, Georgius Maurellus borne in Dolphine, a godly preacher of their owne, and whom they had of their own charges brought vp in learnyng & Petrus Latomus a Burgundian, to conferre with the wise and learned ministers of the Churches there, in the doctrine of the Gospell, and to know the whole forme and maner which those Churches vsed in the seruice and worshyppyng of God: & particularly to haue their aduise also, vpon certaine pointes, which they were not resolued in. These ij. after great conference had with the chiefest in the Church of God, namely wyth Oecolãpadius at Basill: at Strausbrough, with Bucer & Capito: & at Berne, with Bartholdus Hallerus: as they were returnyng thorough Burgundy, homeward, Petrus Latomus was taken at Dyion, & cast into prison. Maurellus escaped and returned alone to Merindol, with the bookes & letters which he brought with him, from the Churches of Germany, and declared to his brethren all the pointes of his commission, & opened vnto them, how many and great errours they were in: into the which their old Ministers, whom they calledMarginalia* These were their ministers, for lacke of better, vntill they came to more sincere knowledge: which enstructed them most commonly by night abroade in caues & quarryes, for feare of persecution. * Barbes, that is to say, Vncles, had brought them, leadyng them from the right way of true Religion.

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When the people heard this,  

they were moued with such a zeale to haue their Churches reformed, that they sent forMarginaliaOf these Calabrians see before page. 9[illegible text]5. the most aūcient brethren, & the chiefest in knowledge and experience, of all Calabria & Apulia, to consult with them, touchyng the reformatiõ of the Church. This matter was so hãdled, that it styrred vp the Byshops, Priests, & monkes in all Prouince, with great rage, agaynst them.Marginalia[illegible text] de Roma, a wretched persecutor. Amongest other,   there was one cruell wretch called Iohn de Roma a Monke, who obtainyng a commission to examine those that were suspected to be of the Waldois or Lutherane professiõ, forthwith ceased not to afflict the faythfull with all kynd of cruelty, that he could deuise or imagine. Amõgest other most horrible tormentes, this was one, which he most delighted in and most commonly practised:MarginaliaThe crueltie of a Papist. He filled bootes with boylyng grece, & put them vpon their legges, tying them backward to a forme, with their legges hanging down ouer a small fire, and so he examined them. Thus he tormented very many, and in the end, most cruelly put thē to death.MarginaliaMichelottus Serra, W. Melius, Martyrs. The first whom he thus tormented were Michelottus Serra, and W. Melius, with a number moe.

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Wherfore Fraūces the French kyng beyng informed of the straunge & outragious cruelty of this hellishe Monke: sent letters to the high Court or Parlament of Prouince, that forthwith he should be apprehended, & by forme of proces and order of law, he should be condemned, and aduertisemēt sent vnto him with all spede, of his cõdemnation. The Monke beyng aduertised hereof by his frendes, conueyed himselfe to Auinion, where he thought to enioy the spoylynges, which he, like a notorious theefe, had gottē by fraude & extortion, from the poore Christians. But shortly after, he which had so shamefully spoyled other, was spoyled of altogether, by his owne houshold seruaunts:MarginaliaThe iust iudgment of God agaynst a cruell persecutor. Wherupon, shortly after, he fell sicke of a most horrible disease, straunge and vnknowen to any Phisition. So extreme were the paynes & tormentes, wherewith he was cõtinually vexed in all his body, that no oyntment, no fomentation, nor any thyng els, could ease hym one minute of an houre. Neither was there any man that could tary neare about him: ne yet would any of hys owne frendes come neare hym: so great was the stinch that came frõ hym. For the which cause he was caryed from the Iacobines, to an hospitall, there to be kept: But the stinch & infection, so encreased, that no man durst there come neare him: no nor he himselfe was able to abyde the horrible stinch that ishued from his body, full of vlcers & sores and swarmyng with vermine, and so rotten, that the flesh fell away from the bones, by peecemeale.

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Whiles he was in these tormentes and anguish, he cryed out oftētymes in great rage: Oh who wil deliuer me? Who will kill & rydde me out of these vntolerable paynes, which I know, I suffer for the euils and oppressions, that I haue done to the poore men? And he hymselfe went about diuers times, to destroy himselfe, but he had not þ^e power.MarginaliaA spectacle to all persecutors. In these horrible tormentes and anguish, and fearefull dispayre, this blasphemer and most cruell homicide, most miserably ended his vnhappy dayes & cursed life, as a spectacle to all persecutours, receauyng a iust reward of his cruelty by the iust Iudgement of God. When he was dead, there was no man that would come neare him to bury him: but a yoūg Nouice newly come to his order, in stede of a more honorable sepulture, caught hold with a hooke vpon his stinkyng carian, and drew him into a hole hard by, which was made for him.

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MarginaliaThe Byshop of Aix, Perionet, hys Officiall, Meiranus, cruell persecutors. After the death of this cruell monster,  

the byshop of Aix, by his Official Perionet, continued the persecution, & put a great multitude of them in prison: of whom some by force of tormentes, reuolted from the truth: the others which cõtinued constant, after he had condemned thē of heresie, were put into the hands of þ^e ordinary iudge, which at that tyme, was one Meiranus, a notable cruell persecutor: who, with out any forme of proces or order of law, such as the Officiall had pronounced to be heretickes, he put to death, with most cruell tormētes: But shortly after, he receiued a iust reward of hys cruelty, in like maner.

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MarginaliaAn other example of Gods terrible iudgemēt vpon a persecutor. After the death  

of the good President Cuisinetus, the Lord of Reuest beyng chief President of the Parlament of Aix, put many of the faythfull to death. Who afterward beyng put out of his office, returned to his house of Reuest, where he was stroken with such an horrible sicknes, that for the fury and madnes which he was in, his wife or any that were about hym, durst not come neare him, and so he dying in this fury and rage, was iustly plagued for his vnmercifull and cruell dealyng.

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MarginaliaAn other example of Gods iudgement vpon Cassaneus, a bloudy persecutor. After him succeded Bartholomeus Chassaneus, likewise a pestilent persecutour, whom God at length strocke with a fearefull and sodein death. In the tyme of this tyrã, those of Merindol, in the person of ten, were cited personally to appeare before the kings Atturney. But they hearyng that the Court had determined to burne them without any further processe or order of law, durst not appeare at the day appoynted.MarginaliaA bloudy decree agaynst the Merindolians. For which cause  

the Court awarded a cruell sentence agaynst Merindol, and condemned all the inhabitantes, to be burned both men and women, sparyng none, no not the litle children and infantes: the town to be rased, & their houses beaten downe to the ground: also the trees to be cut downe, as well oliue trees, as all other, and nothyng to be left, to the entent it should neuer be inhabited agayne, but remayne as a desert or wildernes.

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This bloudy Arrest or Decree seemed so straunge and wonderfull, that in euery place thoroughout all Prouince, there was great reasonyng and disputation concernyng the same, especially among the Aduocates, and men of learnyng and vnderstandyng: in so much that many durst boldly & openly say, that they greatly marueiled, how that Court of Parlamēt could be so mad, or so bewitched, to giue out such an Arrest, so manifestly iniurious & vniust, and contrary to

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