On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 21:01:05 -0000, Lawrence Upton
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered Saints, whose bones
>Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
>Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
>When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,
>Forget not: in thy book record their groans
>Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
>Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled
>Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
>The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
>To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
>O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
>The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow
>A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
>Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
>
>John Milton
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This sonnet written in 1655 and published in 1673 was inspired by an
episode during the bloody religious wars in seventeenth century Europe. On
April 24th, 1655, the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanule II, sent an
expedition against the Waldensians, a Protestant faith that had spread in
many villages on the Alps (and countries in Europe). Over 1,7000 people
were massacred. Not even prisoners were spared. Milton, as Foreign
Secretary, wrote an official protest on behalf of Cromwell's Government and
sent letters to the other Protestant countries so that the protest should
be as widely known as possible.
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