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- Bicentenary of the English Committee in Aid of Waldensian Missions
2025 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the creation of the first society outside of Italy intended to offer help and foster friendship with the Waldensians.
The following article was written by Erica Scroppo Newbury, the executive secretary of the English Committee in Aid of Waldensian Missions.
By 1825, a combination of religious awakening in England and interest in the emancipation of minorities had already drawn attention to the Waldensian Valleys in the Piedmont region of Italy. As a result, young men from aristocratic families added the Waldensian Valleys to their “Grand Tour” of Italy and a few stops between England and Italy that were then deemed essential to complete a well-rounded education.
During the same era, many leaders in English public life also visited the Valleys. Among those prominent visitors were the renown abolitionist William Wilberforce as well as the famous general Arthur Wellesley, who had been given the title Duke of Wellington after leading British forces to victory at the Battle of Waterloo.
Many of these visitors tried to pressure the Kingdom of Sardinia, whose capital was Turin – Italy as a country didn’t yet exist – to emancipate the Waldensians but without result. The Waldensians were “tolerated” in their mountains but, after the defeat of Napoleon who had given them their freedom, those Waldensians who had moved to the nearby cities of Pinerolo and Turin found their freedoms again restricted.
It was in this context that Charlotte Geymet, the wife of Pietro Geymet, the Waldensian Moderator and sub-prefect of Pinerolo under Napoleon, helped found a Waldensian hospital, since to be accepted as a patient in a government-supported hospital, Waldensians had to renounce their faith. This was the first of many more projects to which the Rev. Stephen Gilly (1789-1855), contributed, after his first visit to the Valleys in 1823. His account of his trip, titled “Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont,” quickly became a bestseller in England.
In May 1825, the London Vaudois Committee was formed. Its founders included two peers, two bishops, four members of Parliament, and many Anglican clergy and lay people. The Chair of the Vaudois Committee was the Bishop of London, Dr. William Howley, who continued to serve as the committee’s leader even after he became Archbishop of Canterbury three years later.
By 1826, the Committee had raised £4,741. One of the donors to the committee was King George IV. The committee, which was later renamed the English Committee in Aid of Waldensian Missions, is still active. Gilly was its very engaged Secretary whose first task was to get the English grants for the Waldensians restored that had been stopped during the Napoleonic period. Soon Gilly and the Committee began raising funds for the Waldensian Hospital in Torre Pellice, which was built in 1826 partly with help from a donation by the Russian Tsar Alexander I. Another of the Committee´s early tasks was funding a college intended mainly for the training of future ministers. Still operating today as a Waldensian high school, the college started its activities in 1831. This was followed by a school for the secondary education of girls. By then Colonel Charles Beckwith (1789-1862) was already one of Gilly´s very active collaborators, often working side by side with him in the Waldensian Valleys. Colonel Beckwith designed the Collegio Valdese, as it is known today, as well as many other buildings and churches that are located mostly in the Waldensian Valleys.
In 1827, Beckwith discovered the Waldensians when, while waiting to be received by the Duke of Wellington, he found Gilly’s book on a table. Beckwith was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and had survived the Battle of Waterloo but at the cost of the loss of one leg, a loss which obviously cut short his military career. Soon after meeting the Duke of Wellington and reading Gilly·s book, he went to the Valleys and found his new mission there, mainly in supporting Waldensian education and worship. Beckwith also worked diplomatically with Gilly towards the Emancipation of the Waldensians (and Jews). Reaching this goal took much longer than they had hoped for, but eventually it arrived in 1848. It was only civil emancipation though, while religious freedom (even if it is still incomplete) had to wait until…1984!
Beckwith also designed and built the Waldensian church in Turin, which was consecrated in 1853. He also built the Waldensian church in Torre Pellice as well as a parsonage for its pastor and houses for the teachers at the Collegio. Beckwith also built the church in Rora´ and many more. Beckwith´s greatest legacy is the 132 scuolette – little schools – that he built for primary and middle school children. Gilly and Beckwith were surprised to find that there was nearly no illiterate Waldensians even though the places where they learned to read, write and do arithmetic were dreadful: mainly stables with no light and heating. The new schools built by local people with Beckwith’s support were basic but had what was necessary, starting with heating. Children would attend bringing the animals they were grazing, hence nickname of the little schools: the “Goat University.”
After the Emancipation in 1848, Beckwith encouraged the Waldensians to expand their evangelistic witness in the rest of Italy. As Beckwith put it so eloquently, “From now on, either you will be missionaries, or you will be nothing.” With his own money, he sent various pastors to Florence to learn Italian (French was the language of the Valleys) and a new chapter started.
In January of this year, the English Committee in Aid of Waldensian Missions celebrated its bicentenary in Cambridge, with Professor Rev. Euan Cameron as our speaker. On September 3, the Committee had an additional commemoration in Torre Pellice.
The author of this report, Erica Scroppo Newbury, has been the executive secretary of the English Committee in Aid of Waldensian Missions since 1988.