Europe's inner demons

In France and Italy the Waldensians were originally a more considerable force than in Germany; but there too they were persecuted so fiercely that their heyday was already over by the fourteenth century. By that time, most of the survivors had withdrawn into the Cottian Alps, which straddle the French-Italian border, roughly between Gap and Turin. There they formed a solid colony, under Italian leadership. Inquisitors penetrated into those remote valleys at their peril; two are known to have been killed by the embattled Waldensians. Nevertheless from time to time a few Waldensians were caught, and at some of the resulting trials mention was made of the same fantastic beliefs and deeds as had been ascribed to the German Waldensians generations earlier.

Early in 1387 a Dominican inquisitor called Antonio di Setto, of Savigliano, began investigations in the area around Pinerolo, in the Italian foothills of the Cottian Alps. The results were meagre until, some time in the same year, he laid hands on a religious layman, a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis, called Antonio Galosna of Monte San Raflaello. He kept the man in prison for many months, until May 1388, when he produced him before the tribunal which he had set up in Turin. It now appeared that this Tertiary was really a Waldensian. He had often attended nocturnal meetings of the sect, and was able to give most detailed accounts of what went on.⁽¹⁵⁾

The meetings were commonly held at the home of a Waldensian, or else at an inn, at an hour when the neighbours were safely asleep. The company consisted of artisans and small tradesmen — innkeepers, bakers, cobblers, tailors, haberdashers, fruiterers. It could vary in size from a mere dozen to forty or so; but it always included both sexes. The proceedings opened with a sort of Eucharist. The preacher would distribute bread, explaining that it was worth more than the Catholic faith, and indeed more than God’s grace. An old woman would pour out drink from a special flask in her keeping. This drink was a foul beverage which, if taken in any large quantity, made the body swell up and could even lead to death; but even a sip of it would bind a person to the sect for ever. It was said to contain the excrement of a huge toad which the woman kept for that purpose under her bed; and it was always brewed on the eve of Epiphany. Unappetizing though the fare might be, those present banqueted “with great joy”. So fortified, they promised to obey the preacher in all things, and never to reveal what happened at the meetings. They also promised to worship the dragon which wages war on God and his angels (meaning the dragon in the Book of Revelation, which is Lucifer or Satan). Thereupon the lights were extinguished and the cry went up: “Let him who has, keep hold.” The orgy began, and continued until dawn; and here too it is particularly mentioned that the closest relatives had intercourse. But sometimes things were arranged in more orderly fashion: the men drew lots for the women.

Antonio Galosna named more than a dozen villages around Turin where these performances were supposed to take place — and not just occasionally but once or twice in each month (except, he added, when the weather was wet). He also named dozens of men and women who were supposed to participate in them. But, circumstantial though his confession was, in the end it helped him not at all. At one point the secular authorities intervened to remove him from the inquisitor’s power — whereupon he promptly denied everything, as having been extracted by fear of torture. But the inquisitor reasserted his claims; and though Antonio reverted to his original confession, he was burned nevertheless. And in 1451 another Dominican inquisitor, also at Pinerolo, induced another Waldensian to confirm that the sect did indeed indulge in promiscuous and incestuous orgies. In these Italian trials there are hints that the original Waldensian doctrine may have absorbed some elements of Catharist origin; but that does not make the accusations any more plausible.⁽¹⁶⁾