REDUCED STATE OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. 93 what brother, and the answer was a momentary shock. It was Ferdinand Peyrani, the pastor of Pramol. It was like hearing the knell of a dear friend. Ferdinand Peyrani was the first person who interested me in the history of the Vaudois. It was his letter, addressed to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, which directed my attention to them, and occasioned this excursion to their Alpine retreats. He was one of the pastors to whom I felt so anxious to be introduced, and this was the first news of his being no more. His death was hastened by the scurvy, a disorder increased by poverty and want. At the door of his humble presbytery the aged moderator wrung our hands, and said farewell, with every symptom of regret at parting. He stood at the threshold, watching our departing steps, and the last sight that I had of his long grey locks, floating in the wind, left an impression that will not soon be removed. I am sure nobody could take leave, as we did, of M. Peyrani, with the certainty of seeing him no more, without being sensibly affected. His son accompanied us to the edge of the torrent, and there we said adieu to him. Such was our visit to the successor of the bishops of the purest church in Italy, whose necessities were such, that we felt bound, by a sacred sense of duty, to run the hazard of wounding those feelings of pride, which every man of sensibility must retain, even amid the most urgent poverty, by pressing upon his acceptance a heart offering for the purchase of a few of those comforts, which his age and infirmities required. I have had many struggles, before I could make up my mind as to the propriety of stating this circumstance, and nothing could have induced me to do it, but the persuasion that it will put the case in the strongest light, and shew at once the deplorable situation to which many of these excellent pastors are reduced. We could not have presumed to proffer, nor would the venerable moderator have condescended to accept the assistance of pri vate individuals like ourselves, if it had not been a very timely succour : and certainly the circumstance never could have appeared in print, but with the object of drawing attention to the wants of a people, who have been too much overlooked by those who have the means of aiding them. Who knows but, as the flood of time rolls on, some successor of the primate of England may be reduced to the same condition; that the archiepiscopal chair of Canterbury may no longer be filled by a mitred prelate, that the functions and arduous duties may outlive the well appointed dignity of the sacred office, and that some humble pastor, like Rodolphe Peyrani, with the empty title of Bishop, may be obliged to the compassion of strangers for temporary relief. I am only imagining a fatal recurrence of what may happen again. The visible and Episcopal Church of England was once dwindled down to a few faithful adherents of Charles the Second, who formed his little court, and more than shared his need. May heaven avert a second such blow, and may the honoured members of the English hierarchy continue to exert themselves, as some of them have hitherto done, to preserve the remnant of a Church, from which their own pure Establishment derives most of its doctrines! Reader, the sufferings of Rodolphe Peyrani are at an end. He died about three months after our interview with him. His spirit could no longer bear up against a complication of maladies and sorrows, and now, all that I remember of him is literally like a dream that is past, or a tale that is told. His death was communicated to me in a letter from one of my Vaudois friends, M. Bert, the pastor of La Torre. Its simple eulogy does honour both to the writer, and to him of whom it was written. "Dans la supposition que vous n'avez pas entretenir de relation avec d'autres personnes de ce pays, c'est à moi un triste devoir de vous annoncer que nous avons perdu M. Peyrani, Modérateur, depuis le fin d'Avril. C'est dans son genre une perte irréparable." The father is happily gone to his rest, but it is painful to speak of his son, of that excellent young man whom we were all so disposed to esteem. He is now studying, preparatory to taking orders, at Lausanne, and existing upon a pittance which is not enough for the necessaries of life. I heard of him lately. He was invited to the house of an English family, but his garb was so indifferent that he could not accept the invitation, until a fellow-student had the kindness to lend him his clothes for the day. The author is most happy in having the opportunity of reporting, that several unsolicited donations have been remitted to him, to enable this good young man to pursue his studies more comfortably at Lausanne. He has written his acknowledgements of this succour, which, however, is only temporary, in a strain of piety worthy of his venerable father. "Je me bornerai donc à vous assurer, que je regard mes nouveaux Bienfaiteurs, comme des moyens dont la bonne Providence se sert pour me tirer de la situation pénible où je me trouve. Cette grande considération sera pour moi un nouveau motif de la bénir sans cesse, et de m'attacher de plus en plus au service de notre bon Sauveur." Until he received this assistance, the poor youth was indebted to the charity of the benevolent M. Monastier, a professor of the University, for his daily dinner. M. Monastier himself has but a very contracted income, and a large family. Note to Second Edition. The following ample and correct detail, testified by several respectable Vaudois Ministers and elders, of the embarrassed state in which the late moderator Peyrani, Jeft his children, was transmitted to the author at the close of the year 1825. "Monsieur Jean Louis Samuel Rodolphe Peyrani, après avoir tenu l'Ecole Latine deux ans et desservi seize les Eglises montueuses et penibles de Maneille, de Praly, et de Ville-Seche, fut transferé dans celle de Pomaret (et constitué Moderateur des Vallées Evangeliques du Piemont) en 1791, qu'il a occupé trentdeux ans jusqu'au 26 Avril, 1823, époque de son decés. Il herita de son père un patrimoine de 160 à 200 Louis au plus: il l'augmenta pendant les premières années de son ministère de quelques acquisitions de peu de consequence; mais le rang de Moderateur adjoint, celui de Moderateur en chef, et les circonstances critiques dans lesquelles et luimême, et sa Paroisse, et sa Patrie se trouvèrent plongés lors de l'entrée des François en Piemont, et surtout à l'approche des armées AustroRusses, l'ont forcé de contracter des dettes auxquelles il faut attribuer la perte de son heritage pour ses enfans, au nombre de trois, savoir, une fille qui s'est mariée et qui a cinq enfans;-et deux fils dont un est Etudiant en Theologie à Lausanne, et l'autre sans vocation decidée. "D'abord l'un de ses debiteurs, saisissant l'epoque où les billets monnoyés, qui An anecdote, in illustration of the talents of the late Moderator Peyrani, of his useful application of them, and the obscurity in which they were buried, must conclude my melancholy narrative. avaient cours ici, allaient tomber, lui fit un payement de 96 Louis. La loi l'obligeoit de les recevoir, et la conscience l'empecha de les donner à ses creanciers. "Le passage des troupes de France en Piemont, lui occasionna des frais de logement considerables et pendant un grand nombre d'années. Lorsque les Allemands prirent possession de nos vallées, il essuya un pillage de linge, meubles, betail, montre en or, et avec peril imminent de la vie. Les voisins avaient fui; -seul, il demeure pour s'opposer à un pillage et incendie générale dont sa paroisse etait menacée. "Aussi long temps qu'il géra le Moderateur, et même, lorsq'il fut depouillé, son savoir et son credit le mirent en etat de rendre des services de divers genres à ses compatriotes; sa table était ouverte à tout le monde, suivant ses foibles moyens ; -et la modicité de ses ressources pecuniaires ne fut jamais pour lui un motif legitime de refus, quand il s'agissoit de secourir un malheureux. Celui qui se rendait auprès de lui pour implorer ses bons offices, était assuré qu'il tendroit la main à l'indigence, et qu'il n'épargneroit rien pour lui obtenir une faveur, un emploi, ou pour le tirer d'embarras et de prison. "Telles sont les principales occasions dans lesquelles cet indefatigable Bienfaiteur de sa Patrie contracta des dettes;-tel est l'usage qu'il fit des sommes empruntées :-nous passons sous silence ses demarches auprès du Gouvernement pour les interêts de la Patrie. "Les deux fils, pour faire honneur à la memoire de leur respectable père, ont abandonné complètement les biens meubles et immeubles qu'ils tenaient de lui, à ses creanciers, avec reserve de les racheter s'ils se trouvoient un jour en etat de le faire: ils ont été evalués à près 300 Louis. Avec ce sacrifice qu'il nous est penible de l'avouer, il reste encore des dettes legitimes pour près 150 Louis. Les deux fils ont fait esperer aux creanciers qu'il consacreraient leur premiers épargnes à s'acquitter envers eux. "Telle est la declaration que nous avons cru devoir leur accorder, parceque nous avons une parfaite connoissance de son contenu : puisse-t-elle être de quelque utilité à eux. "Pomaret, 19 Août, 1825. "JUILLET JEAN, Ancien Syndic. et Diacre. JACQUES JAYER, Ancien. JEAN BERTALOT, Ancien. JEAN BAR, Ancien. RIBET DAVID, Vice Syndic à Pomaret. JEAN JAQUES DE JALLA, Pasteur. ALEX. ROSTAING, Pasteur à Ville-Scche et Moderateur Adjoint. "Vu pour legalisation des signatures de Messrs. Rostaing et Jalla. "La Tour, le 25 Août 1825." "P. BERT, Moderateur. Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat A few years ago a Roman Catholic Curè of Geneva, wrote a pamphlet in defence of the adoration of saints, and image worship. It was much admired, had a great sale, and was thought by the friends of the Cure to be unanswerable. The Protestants of Geneva were burning to see a reply to this able tract, but none appeared, to the disappointment and mortification of every good Lutheran and Calvinist. Just at the crisis of its popularity, Mr. Lowther, the author of "Brief Observations on the present State of the Waldenses," happened to be on his visit to the Valleys, and in an interview with M. Peyrani, expressed his regret that no answer had been made to this redoubtable pamphlet. The moderator drew some papers from his desk, and shewed Mr. Lowther that he himself had drawn up a reply. a The Rev. Thomas Sims has lately circulated the following Prospectus, relative to the MSS. of M. Peyrani, which have been entrusted to his charge, and the admirers of the late venerated Minister will, it is hoped, soon have an opportunity of judging of his merits as a scholar and a divine. "The MSS. left by M. Peyrani consist of Dissertations and Letters on a variety of Theological, Philological, Philosophical, and Historical Subjects; many of which, it is probable, will be found worthy of being made public at a future time. For the present, it is deemed expedient to publish a single Volume in the original, containing pieces of an argumentative nature against the errors of the Church of Rome. "The first part of the Volume will consist of Four Letters addressed to Cardinal Pacca, a Prelate who, during the time of Napoleon's usurpation, was a state-prisoner in the fortress of Fenestrelles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Waldenses. These Letters furnish a very able historical defence of the antiquity and purity of the Waldensian Church. The importance of the Author's arguments to all the Protestant Churches, will be at once seen, when it is remarked that the Author undertakes to prove the following points, from the testimony of even Roman Catholic Writers : "I. That, although stigmatized as Arians and Manichees, the Waldenses opposed the errors of those heretics more successfully than the Church of Rome did. II. That, to ascertain the origin of the Waldenses, we must recur not only to an age prior to that of Peter Waldo, but to the first ages of the Christian Church. "III. That the Waldenses have both steadfastly adhered to true doctrines H |