. 63.]

[Footnote 447: "Reclame son privilege de fille de France ecrit dans un
livre qui est a Saint Denis, de faire ouvrir les prisons," etc. Ibid.,
_ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 448: The text of this singular document, dated Rheims, Sept.
8, 1543, is in Gerdes., Hist. Reform., iv. (Monumenta) 107-109. When the
"Instructions" fell into the hands of Charles V., he naturally tried to
make capital of a paper so little calculated to please Roman Catholics,
emanating from a son of the "Most Christian king." And Francis thought
himself compelled to clear himself from the charge of lukewarmness in
the faith, if not of actual heretical bias, by exercising fresh
severities upon the devoted Protestants of his own dominions.]

CHAPTER VII.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE VAUDOIS OF MERINDOL AND CABRIERES, AND LAST DAYS OF
FRANCIS THE FIRST.

[Sidenote: The Vaudois of Provence.]

[Sidenote: Their industry and thrift.]

[Sidenote: Vaudois settlements even in the Comtat Venaissin.]

That part of Provence, the ancient Roman Provincia, which skirts the
northern bank of the Durance, formerly contained, at a distance of
between twenty and fifty miles above the confluence of the river with
the Rhone near Avignon, more than a score of small towns and villages
inhabited by peasants of Waldensian origin. The entire district had been
desolated by war about a couple of centuries before the time of which we
are now treating. Extensive tracts of land were nearly depopulated, and
the few remaining tillers of the soil obtained a precarious subsistence,
at the mercy of banditti that infested the mountains and forests, and
plundered unfortunate travellers. Under these circumstances, the landed
gentry, impoverished through the loss of the greater part of their
revenues, gladly welcomed the advent of new-comers, who were induced to
cross the Alps from the valleys of Piedmont and occupy the abandoned
farms.[449] By the industrious culture of the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the
face of the country was soon transformed. Villages sprang up where there
had scarcely been a single house. Brigandage disappeared. Grain, wine,
olives, and almonds were obtained in abundance from what had been a
barren waste. On lands less favorable for cultivation numerous flocks
and herds pastured.[450] A tract formerly returning the scanty income of
four crowns a year now contained a thriving village of eighty
substantial houses, and brought its owners nearly a hundredfold the