"Cette terrible histoire des Vaudois, dois-je en parler ou THE PROFITS WILL BE APPROPRIATED TO THE BENEFIT OF THE VAUDOIS. LONDON: SEELEY, BURNSIDE, AND SEELEY, FLEET STREET. MDCCCXLVII. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY RISORGIMENTO COLLECTION COOLIDGE FUND 1472 FROME PRINTED BY T. G. COLES, BATH-STREET. 3 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND CHARLES RICHARD SUMNER, D. D., BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. MY LORD, THE kind permission which you have granted me to dedicate this little volume to yourself, whilst I fear it may raise expectations of merit in the mind of the reader, which its perusal cannot realize, will yet invest the cause itself with an interest and weight which must command attention and respect. To such as are already friendly to those pious descendants of the ancient Waldenses, who still tread the same valleys which their martyred forefathers watered with their blood, no fresh testimony indeed is required of your Lordship's opinion on this subject. They well know the active part which you have taken in promoting the welfare of this little community, and increasing the stability and efficiency of its reli gious and charitable institutions. This fact, together with the zeal which you have always manifested in setting forth and upholding the Protestant principles of our Reformed Church, render it peculiarly appropriate that the following pages should be dedicated to your Lordship, as they endeavour, however imperfectly, to trace through many ages, a germ of that seed, which was afterwards in God's good time to produce such blessed and abundant fruits here and elsewhere. With the fervent hope that this ancient branch of Christ's Church may still increasingly flourish, and that it may long enjoy the benefit of your countenance and aid, I am your Lordship's Very obedient and most humble Servant, |