St. Bartholomew's Day August 28

August 28, 1572 found the killing spread to Caen.  Very little could be found about the slaughter here other than the date it began, and one account claiming Monsieur de Matignon had kept it from being too general a massacre.  Although this also would have about the time Montsoreau would have arrived in Angers from Saumur.  Here Montsoreau began with De La Riviera, a former Huguenot pastor in Paris now residing in Angers.  Montsoreau kissed De La Riviera’s wife, who led him into the garden to see her husband.  Montsoreau informed De La Riviera that he had been sent by the king to kill him, pulled out a pistol, and shot the pastor dead.  Although some accounts of the killing in Angers include the idea that many Huguenots escaped death here because of a man named Puigaillard.  Puigaillard was a man who loved money and took large bribes to not kill the Huguenots, and was bought off by those who could afford it.  Those who could not died. 

One of the interesting things about the Massacre is how many pastors actually got away.  De La Riviera is more of an exception than the rule.  Only two of the five pastors in Paris were killed, and Coligny's chaplain got away.  La Rochelle after the massacre had 50 pastors within its gates.  All but two or three had sought refuge as they fled the general massacre as it spread from city to town to village all through France.  

St. Bartholomew's Massacre August 27th

This day August 27, 1572 saw the massacre spreads to Orleans and Borges.  It began with Chapeaux, a royal councilor and Protestant in Orleans, receiving La Court, a Romanist and soon to be leader of the massacre, in his home and feeding him a meal.  After the meal La Court informed Chapeaux of the massacre in Paris, took his money purse and killed him.  It then began in earnest the next morning and went for four days.  The murders here went about their killing singing the psalms to mock the Huguenots as they used the psalms in their worship.  One Huguenot fencing teacher managed to kill a few attackers, but the massacre was mostly by surprise and found little resistance.  The killing in Orleans was particularly brutal and had a rather high death toll.  It was afterward boasted that 1200 men, 150 women, and many children were slain by the Orleans mob in the four days and then dumped into the river.

In Paris the murders and hysteria began to abate.  It is this day that people begin to try and flee.  Peter Merlin, the chaplain of Admiral Coligny, got up from his hiding place and began to flee.  He had been sustained for three day by a chicken laying an egg in front of him in the barn he hid every morning.  The future Duke of Sully, who was only 12, was removed from the closet where he had been hidden by a priest for three days.  He was smuggled out of town and eventually grew to be an adviser to King Henry IV.  Still, it was not over in Paris, and as we have seen only just beginning in many other cities. Some say the Royal Family finally left the Louvre, but others say they had not yet felt safe enough to venture outside and would not until the 31st.

It is actually these events that bring forth massacre into the English language.  Before it was simply a French word for butcher block, but because of what happens here it becomes known for mass killing, and is used from this time on in English in that way.

You might want to listen to quick discussion about the massacre with some noted historians.  Thanks to Dr. Clark for posting it. 

St. Bartholomew August 26

On the 26th of August, 1572 the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre spread to Troyes and La Charite.  I could not find a description of the massacre in La Charite, but in Troyes the news arrived and the killing did not start immediately.  The gates were closed, however, so that no one could get away.  By the 30th the Huguenots were all arrested and put into jail, but few were slain.  Then Pierre Belin arrived in Troyes.  Berlin had participated in the slaughter in Paris and was now sent to Troyes.  When he discovered the people had not slaughtered the Huguenots, he demanded the killing begin in the name of the King.  The local bishop confirmed Belin’s statements.  The local hangman did refuse to start the killing claiming he only killed those who had been found guilty after trial, but others were less concerned with such things and the prisons were emptied by death.  The bodies then plundered and laid out on the streets.  A parade was held the next day so that all could march past and examine the dead Huguenots and learn the price of “heresy”. 

The story also includes a letter to Montsoreau, an agent of the government, from Henry the Duke of Anjou, the King’s brother.  Montsoreau was tasked with killing all the Huguenots in Saumur and then after he finished there to go to Angers both of which fell under the rule of Anjou.  This man began his work giving the orders in Saumur on the 26th.  We can assume he was in Angers within a day or two to carry the massacre to that city as well. 

In Paris the killing continued as more people died.  One old man who had been thrown into the river to drown was able to swim to the far side.  He made his way to a cousin’s house where his wife was hiding. She refused to let him in, and eventually the man was found and killed this time.  Such was the fear during this time.  This is also the day Peter Ramus, the philosopher and Huguenot.  Accounts of his death differ.  Some say they found him in his study of the college because he had come out of hiding on the third day.  Then many still refused to kill him, but finally the third party did.  Others say he was was found in a cellar at the college hiding by his philosophical rival Jacques Chaarpentier, an Aristotelian Catholic.  He took a large sum of money from Ramus and then killed him anyway and threw him from an upper window at the college and the students then ripped his body apart.  It was the third day of rampaging killing in Paris. 

St. Bartholomew's Massacre the next day

Today on August 25, 1572 the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre spread to Meaux.  It arrived in Meaux  with a mid afternoon note from Catherine, who was Countess of Meaux.  The gates were seized in the evening and the Huguenots arrested while at supper with many being killed.  Those that lives in the Grand Marche section of Meaux were able to escape since it was across the river.  The men found only women left in the Grand Marche, but managed to kill 25 of them immediately and many others later died from the beatings they received.  The next morning they plundered the houses, killed all the people in the prisons.  There were so many they had to take a break for supper before finishing up.  They then chased those from the Grand Marche area who escaped to surrounding villages down and tried their best to exterminate all the Huguenots in the area. 

Of course in Paris the slaughter continued.  People were carried to bridges to be dropped off and drowned.  More men died such as Pierre de la Place.  He was a well known jurist and author.  He had survived the first day because he paid off the men who broke down his door with 1000 crowns.  However, La Place and his wife could not find anyone willing to take them in.  They were turned away by at least three different houses.  The next day, the 25th, he and his eldest son were killed.  Men came with orders to take them to the palace.  The wife wept, but to no avail.  His eldest son tried to put on the white cross to show loyalty to Rome, but La Place rebuked his son saying they were being called to carry the true cross now.  His son removed the cross, the two went out to go to the place where they were executed immediately.  Just one story out of thousands in the killing that took place in Paris. 

The killing was not just an accidental overflow of excitement.  it was not a Paris mob getting out of hand while the Duke of Guise simply tried to get even on Admiral Coligny.  This was a premeditated campaign of extinction of those who believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And so today it spread from one city to the next by order of the Queen Mother. 

A day to remember freedom of worship

The 24^th of August is St. Bartholomew’s Day and in 1572 it was the day of a massacre known as St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.  But in reality it was the start of a season of massacres.  The Massacre begin in Paris when Duke Henry of Guise took his men to kill French Protestant Admiral Gaspard Coligny.  They got most of his men and family as well.  His son-in-law was shot off the roof trying to get away for example. 

The killing lasted 4 days and actually a while week as one Huguenot was killed seven days after it began when he snuck into a parade the king was taking to try and show calm had returned to the city.  The man was recognized and killed right there by the crowd.  The King was less than pleased, but such was the atmosphere. 

What we don’t realize is that the killing often went on longer.  It spread to places like Orleans, Caen, Toulouse, and throughout the rest of France.  Rouen for example actually had their massacre on over a month later, and some killing was still going on in the first week of October.  In many places Huguenots had sought safety in the jails as the authorities had refused to allow the killing, but he eventually they just gave way and allowed it.  The jails were emptied and the Protestants slaughtered. 

All of this happened because the Huguenots were Protestant.  They would not bow the knee to the Pope, nor would they bow the knee to the Mass.  They worshipped differently and demanded the right to do so.  In return, the King tried to wipe them all out.

So today thank God for the freedom of worship (assuming you are reading this from a place that has such freedom) and say a prayer for those places and believers who do not have that freedom.  There are many who still worship in fear that such a massacre will happen to them.