Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois, 1877 (oil on canvas)

depicts Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) in conversation with John Milton dictating a letter to Andrew Marvell protesting at the Piedmont Easter massacre (1655), an attack on the Vaudois (Waldenses), a persecuted Protestant sect in Piedmont, northern Italy; The Waldensians (also known variously as Waldenses , Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are a Christian movement and religious cultural group which originated in Lyons in the late 1170s; The Poor Men of Lyons; Peter Waldo preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection; in conflict with the Roman Catholic Church which declared them heretical; in 16th century embraced Protestant Reformation;