some were receptive , but others disagreed with them and got the police to move them on .
Italy at the time had high levels of illiteracy . Before Unification , 75 per cent of the population could not read or write ( 90 per cent in Sicily ), but by 1871 literacy levels had risen to just over 31 per cent and by 1901 this was 50 per cent . The colporteurs played a significant part in helping to raise literacy levels with their emphasis on providing cheap reading materials ‘ ad un soldo ’ [‘ for one penny ’]. An example of this is L ’ Amico di Casa ( a family magazine published a number of times a year ) which cost a mere 20 cents and contained Bible texts and biographies of reformers like Jan Hus and Martin Luther .
From 1840 to 1848 , four new versions of the Diodati New Testament and two Bibles were published by the Bible Society / Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for distribution in Italy , but along with the Scottish Bible Society they could only supply a part of what was needed for distribution . The Claudiana was involved as well , but it was still quite a small enterprise ..
Generally the colporteur was the first to visit an area . They sold books and Bibles and chatted to people . Alongside the colporteur there was often a teacher who would start a small school . On a return visit , the colporteur was often accompanied by an evangelist or preacher who , if successful , was then followed by a pastor to minister to the small group of believers and start a new congregation . This pattern was repeated up and down the country . In Liguria a congregation was started in this way in Bordighera and the ministers were partly financed by an English lady , Mrs Boyce , whose father had served under Wellington , as Beckwith had . The colporteur was often regarded as a missionary – although some had to sell their stock in order to support their family .
For more than 30 years Matteo Prochet was President of the Committee for Evangelisation and one of his roles was to supervise the colporteurs working within the Waldensian Church . It was therefore his responsibility to co-ordinate the network of workers travelling around . One of the things on which he was quite insistent was that the colporteurs sent him reports , updates on the literature they had sold and details of their experiences ; he was also keen on checking up on the moral conduct of the colporteurs , who also had to obey his rules . He saw the role not as just selling the books , but living in a way that was worthy of the ways of God . Prochet was a prolific letter writer who used this , the only method of communication at the time , to express his concerns and give the receiver his advice . These letters are now an amazing source of information , as are the records left by the colporteurs themselves . Piero Scannarotti left meticulous records and in a journey between January 1887 and February 1888 he sold 2,765 portions of the Bible , 782 pamphlets , 778 almanacs , 203 Bibles and 145 New Testaments . He states that the Gospels ( at fivepence ) were the most popular , along with L ’ Amico di Casa . He also once submitted a report in verse .
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