Campbell, for example, was not displeased to find that the result of his learned inquiry into the history of our Holy Religion, afforded a great degree of countenance to a body of Christians, who have less system and fewer pretensions to established form than almost any other; and that the practice of the first worshippers of Christ is decidedly in favour of the scheme adopted by the Independents. Dr. Jamieson, again, in his eagerness to weaken the cause of Episcopacy, has entirely overlooked the interests of Presbyterianism: all his labour, his erudition, his ingenuity, and his historical knowledge, having been sedulously employed, throughout almost every page of a large quarto volume, to establish the singular position, that the purest period of Scottish antiquity is to be identified with a system of ecclesiastical government, exercised by a fraternity of monks under the direction of a tonsured Abbot!"

There is an interesting division of Keith's volume which we have not yet mentioned; namely, an Account of all the Religious Houses which were in Scotland at the time of the Reformation. This is, indeed, a distinct treatise and written by a different author, Mr. Spottiswoode; a relative, we believe, of the celebrated Archbishop and Church historian. It embraces nearly the same objects with the Anglia Sacra and Monasticon Anglicum, works well known to every antiquary; and it is, of consequence, a very useful appendix to the Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops. Take it, all in all, therefore, this publication will be found to contain a great deal of valuable information, which would in vain be sought for in any other book with which we are acquainted.

Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont, and Researches among the Vaudois or Waldenses, Protestant Inhabitants of the Cottian Alps. By the REV. WILLIAM STEPHEN GILLY, M.A. 4to. 504pp. 21. 2s. Rivingtons. 1824.

THE title under which this volume is sent into the literary world, and the character which it bears upon first inspection, would lead the reader to suppose that its principal object is to amuse him with some of those picturesque descriptions, personal adventures, and occasional chit-chat, which are so adapted to the public taste at the present period. The author commences like a sanguine enthusiast, delighted with the scenes he has visited, in raptures with the mountaineers among whom he has been thrown, and in expectation of rendering others as ardent in the cause he espouses as himself.

The opening pages, prepared us for nothing more than an

entertaining narrative, a light and animated outline of Waldensian history, but when we arrived towards the end of the first chapter, we began to discover, that a considerable degree of reading and enquiry had been brought to bear upon the subjects discussed, and that we were entering into the most important details connected with the ecclesiastical records of the Vaudois. In fact Mr. Gilly has been guilty of a ruse, (for which we are willing to grant him the most plenary indulgence,) in stealing a place upon the book-shelves of those who profess to be light readers only, under colours most likely to attract their notice; and then leading them on to take a deep interest in a great historical and theological question, while they suppose they are merely amusing themselves with one of the popular productions of the day. Relief and contrast seem to have been studied throughout the work; and the materials which constitute its most valuable portion, but which would, from their very nature, be too heavy, if they were not dexterously adjusted, are worked up with the ornamental part of the construction, with sufficient nicety not to encumber it. It is thus that the account of the doctrine and discipline of the Waldensian Church does not form a chapter by itself, which may be passed over at pleasure as being dry and prolix, but it is blended with the more attractive features of the narrative, in such a manner that it cannot be omitted but at the expence of some of the most interesting passages in the whole work. For example, a mountain walk leads our traveller to a cottage, where he witnesses a scene which more than realizes the beautiful image of rustic innocence, and religious and contented happiness, which the poet Burns has described so sweetly in his "Cottar's Saturday Night." This scene introduces a statement of the mode of education pursued among the Vaudois, and is not closed without furnishing some interesting information connected with this important subject.

An account of the political grievances under which the Waldenses still labour is appended to one of the most dramatic incidents in the volume, (page 114,) and the digressions relating to the former history of this little community are admitted in the form of dialogues with the people themselves, who take pride in speaking of the constancy and heroic achievements of their ancestors. It is in this way that a complete history of the Vaudois is given, without formally allotting any portion of the volume either to a theological disquisition or a political retrospect; and when the reader has finished the last page he finds that he has imperceptibly become acquainted with every topic that is necessary to a competent knowledge of the present and former condition of these primitive Christians.

Having taken this general survey of the work before us, we will proceed to a more minute investigation of its contents. Mr. Gilly left England in the December of 1822, with the intention of journeying on at once to the mountain retreats of the Waldenses, which are situated to the west of Piemont, on the Italian side of the Alps, and at an equal distance from those two well-known passes that conduct over Mount Cenis and Mount Genevre. They have for their frontiers the Province of Piquerol on the East, and that of Dauphiné on the West, the Marquisate of Susa on the North, and the Marquisate of Saluzzo on the South. It is admitted that it was an improvident arrangement to make this excursion in the winter, and it is recommended to future travellers not to think of visiting the same region in any but the summer season.

The two first chapters of the volume are occupied with a de scription of the route through France, and the grand passage of the Alps over Mount Cenis; but the author never loses sight of his principal object, and throws in some notice of the Waldenses whenever he can. For instance, at Lyons he has an opportunity of attending divine service at the Protestant Chapel, and makes enquiries about the sect of Peter Waldo: this leads to an examination of the question, whether Peter Waldo had any pretensions to be considered the founder of the Waldensian Church. A short biographical account of that Reformer is given, and the most satisfactory historical evidence is adduced, to prove that Peter of Lyons adopted his religious opinions from the Vaudois, and did not make his appearance till many years after the Waldensian Church of the valleys of Piemont had been recognised in history. In support of his position, Mr. Gilly relies much upon the strength of an ancient Waldensian MS. entitled La Nobla Leyçon, a plain analysis of faith, doctrine, and discipline, collected from the Old and New Testament, and written in the year 1100, a copy of which is inserted, with an English translation, in the appendix: but we lament to learn that the original, together with seven volumes of MSS. all relating to the Vaudois, have been stolen within the last fifty years, from the library of the University of Cambridge, where they had been deposited by Sir Samuel Morland in 1658.

Several copies in print of La Nobla Leyçon are preserved in different histories of the Waldenses, but Mr. Gilly has omitted to mention that the duplicate MS. of this precious relic is still extant in the public library of Geneva. It is in a very fair state of preservation, and written on parchment in old Gothic characters.

The author speaks of another very ancient manuscript, called

a Treatise on Antichrist, in proof of the existence of the Waldensian Church anterior to Peter Waldo: but though he afterwards refers for points of doctrine to the famous old MS. Catechism *, which Leger and Morland assign to the beginning of the twelfth century, he is silent upon the subject of its exact date. He has also judiciously abstained from adducing the Waldensian Treatise on the Invocation of Saints, as an additional evidence in the same cause, although it has been made great use of by other advocates. The fact is, the Catechism in quoting Scripture, refers to certain chapters †, whereas the first dividing of Scripture into chapters did not take place till the middle of the thirteenth century. This division was made by Cardinal Hugo to assist his references to the Biblical text in his Concordance of the Vulgate. The Treatise on the Invocation of Saints quotes a work which was written by a monk of Urbino in the fourteenth century. Neither of these therefore could have been composed before the time of Peter Waldo, who flourished about 1170. It weakens a good cause to advance either superfluous or questionable testimony, and we are glad Mr. Gilly has declined adopting several hypotheses which have been great favourites with those who have previously written upon the subject. The probability of St. Paul having preached to the ancient inhabitants of these valleys, and established the Gospel, in his way from Rome to Spain, has been seized upon with avidity by several historians of the Vaudois, upon the strength of the Apostle's observations, Rom. xv. 24. It would have been a pretty episode for the volume before us, but nothing apocryphal has been admitted into it.

In the third chapter we find ourselves with the author at Turin, and are informed that a minister from one of the Vaudois villages officiates on the Sabbath at the chapel of the British ambassador. This privileged chapel is the only place of worship at Turin, where the Protestant subjects of his Sardinian majesty are permitted to celebrate the rites of the reformed faith!!!

From Turin an excursion is made to the celebrated Basilica, called the Superga, erected by Victor Amadeus the Second. The sight of this magnificent building produces some observations upon the reign and character of one of the most cruel per

* "Un Catéchisme en la même langue et de la même epoque," is the language of those who erroneously fancy that La Nobla Leyçon and this Catechism were written at the same period.

A. Quel Cosa e Fé? B. Second l'Apostal. Hebr. c. 11, &c.

As this Catechism quotes Scripture by chapters, but not by verses, which was a new division made in the sixteenth century, its claim to antiquity must be admitted to a certain extent.

secutors of the Waldenses, and seven or eight pages are devoted to an account of their sufferings in the year 1686. In his war with France the Duke of Savoy had need of the assistance of his Protestant subjects, and restored them to favour. When the danger was over they were again oppressed. We are tempted to transcribe the concluding paragraph upon this subject, as characteristic of the author's style, and as illustrative of the treatment which the Vaudois have repeatedly experienced from their sovereigns.

"The sequel of the history is worthy of the beginning. Victor Amadeus had so much reason to be satisfied with the loyalty and extraordinary valour of his Vaudois troops, that he would not suffer them to be intermixed with other regiments. They were brigaded by themselves, commanded by their own officers, and invariably occupied a distinguished post in every action. But their fidelity did not end here. Successive reverses obliged the duke to retreat before the French. He even became a fugitive; and where did he take refuge? In the valleys of the Vaudois! The persecutor fled to the persecuted for safety; and behind the Pelice, in a secluded spot in the village of Rora, Victor Amadeus found a safe asylum among the very people whom he had denounced, proscribed, and hunted down even to torture and death. Such was the fidelity and loyalty of the Vaudois; and how did the sovereign testify his sense of their services? To the family indeed, in whose house he had found shelter, he granted the invaluable privilege of having an enclosed burial-place! But the Vaudois, as a community, were forgotten. At the return of peace, and upon his re-instatement in power, the grateful Victor Amadeus added one more to the edicts in force against his Protestant subjects, and built the Superga!!!" P. 57.

In the fourth chapter we are introduced to the Vaudois in the midst of their own wilds and fastnesses; and the dreary ride, the gloomy defile, the black bare rocks, and the bleak and rugged district, which the author describes in his journey from Pignerolo to the valley of Perosa, prepared us for all the poverty and wretchedness which prevail there.

"There is such a scene of savage disorder," says the description, " in the immediate vicinity of Pomaretto, that one would imagine it had been effected by the most violent convulsions of nature: huge fragments of rock encumber the ground on all sides, and it seems as if the mountains must have been rent asunder to produce so much nakedness and desolation."

We were prepared for all this; but we were not prepared for such elevation of spirit above the ills of life, for such triumph of intellect over body, as the venerable Peyrani is represented as