770 



WALDENSIANS, (TUB). 



w 



WALDEN T SIANS (Tire). An account of the 

 present position and statistics of the Walden- 

 sian Church has been published at Florence, 

 Italy, in the Annuaire de Feglite Etangelique 

 ! '>i*. Sixteen of the ancient churches re- 

 in iin five in the valley of San Martino, four 

 in the valley of Perosa, six in the valley of 

 Lucerne, and one at Turin. There is also a 

 Waldensian colony at Rosario, in South Amer- 

 ica. There are, in connection with the Church, 

 the two hospitals of La Tour and I'omarot, the 

 orphanage, a large number of primary schools, 

 a superior school for young men, a normal 

 school, a grammar-school at Pomaret, a col- 

 lege, and a theological school at Florence. The 

 number of theological students in tlie last year 

 had been nineteen. The journals of this Church 

 are, the Recutii Crutiana, which is conducted 

 by the professors of the theological school, the 

 Eco de la Verity the Eeo det Vallet, and the 

 Amieo dei Ftinciulli. Thousands of Bibles, 

 tracts, and other religions works, have been 

 issued from the Clandian Press, at Florence, 

 and distributed throughout Italy. 



The Waldonsian work has heretofore been 

 divided into two branches, that of the old 

 churches, and that of the new missions, which 

 have been opened in Italy in later years. A 

 revision of the constitution of the Church was 

 made in 1855, when an article was introdu' < 1 

 to the effect that ''the Waldensian Church, in 

 sending her evangelists forth into Italy, has no 

 other object than simply to preach Christ and 

 win sonli to Him, and that she leaves the con- 

 gregation thus formed to choose their own 

 form of government." At a conference hold 

 in Florence for five days, beginning April 

 15th, at which sixty-six representatives of Ital- 

 ian churches wore present, the confession of 

 faith and form of government of the Walden- 

 Hian Church were unanimously adopted, and 

 it was voted that "the churches represented 

 in thii conference desire to be considered as 

 one with the. Evangelic al Waldensian Church." 

 It was also decided that the churches should 

 be grouped into presbyteries. Throe presby- 

 teries will probably be formed; one for the 

 north. another for the Centre, and a third tor 

 the south of Italy. The Waldensian Synod, 

 which met on the 3d of S -pi ember, 1878, looked 

 with great favor upon the wish expressed l>y 

 the Florem < \ :iMy, and "opened the way 

 widely for thi. 1 e.nniiig union of the ancient 

 and modern <!, > one body." At the 



time of the meeting of the synod, there were 

 in the 6gli Vml ,iir seven superannuated 

 ministers, of whom one lived at the colony of 

 Kosario, in South America: liftc-n ministers 

 in active work, one of whom wns laboring at 

 Rosario; twenty-one missionaries, of whom 

 fire were in the islands of Elba and Sicily ; 



three professors of theology at Florence, and 

 four college professors nt La Tour anil Poma- 

 ret, making in all fifty ordained ministers. 

 The number of members in the vidley church- 

 es varied from 1!<U to l.:;;>4 tor eaeh church; 

 the number of communicants varied from 150 

 to 800 for each celebration. Each church had 

 one, two, three, or five Sunday-schools. 'I 

 were, in all the parishes, day-schools lor ten 

 months in the year, and the various schools 

 had boon attended in winter by one-tifth of 

 the entire population. There two 



ficolet de Method*, one at La Tour and the 

 other at Pomaret, which gave the ward i. 

 ers opportunities for coming together 

 year to perfect their theoretical and practi- 

 cal knowledge. At the college in the <n 

 there wore professors for the Italian, Latin, 

 (ireek, and French languages and liter. 

 for philosophy, mathematics, and natural sci- 

 ences. Eighty-eight students had at; ended 

 in the last year. Connected with the church 

 at Turin wore a hospital, which had, in the 

 *i irse of the year, oared for 87 sick people, 

 and a diaoonate, which had distributed 1,184 

 francs. The annual collection lor //v/. r/Y/.i 

 had iriven V.Si's francs, ami that lor schools, 

 2,250 francs. This church had carried on, in- 

 dependently of its consistory, other works of 

 benevolence, in which were expended, in 1871 

 and 1ST:.', about IT.Oof) francs. At least three- 

 fourths of this sum was collected from among 

 the members of the Church. The ordinary 

 contributions of this Church for church pur- 

 poses during the past year had been '^0,000 

 francs. There had been progress in the ex- 

 tensive missions. The day-school* conn 

 with the missions were fiS in number, and had 

 been attended by 1,700 children, and there 

 wore 38 Sunday-schools, with 1,142 scholars. 

 The number of churches was 38 ; of communi- 

 cants, 1,864; of hearers, 3,158. These mis- 

 sions had subscribed L'r,.0l>0 francs for various 

 purposes. The missions were cstahli-hed at 

 86 centres, with fi new posts, and were served 

 by 21 ministers, Scripture-readers. (', other 

 workers, and 51 school-i 1 school- 



mistresses. At the suggestion of the \\alden- 

 siatis, an inter-missionary committee \\.-is in 

 process of formation, to which it was intend- 

 ed to refer the settlement of disputed or irri- 

 tatlng matters, arista > any two of the 



different Protestant bodies. Two delegates 

 iii'pointed by the Waldensians, two by tho 

 Byans, two by the r/ii/w f.Hirrf, and one 

 by the Methodist Episcopal mis-ion, suitably 

 empowered, had met. at Florence to arrange 

 for Hiicb a committee, find prepare the rules 

 by which its operations should be L'OV.T 



According to the report of the Committee 

 of Evangelization, tho income of the Church 



