St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Background

In the late sixteenth century, France was torn by repeated civil wars between Roman Catholic forces and the Huguenots. The Huguenots were French Protestants who followed the teachings of John Calvin. Their military and political leader was Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. According to the traditional account, as Coligny gained influence by drawing King Charles IX toward war with Spain, the king's mother, Catherine de' Medici, grew wary of him.

In August 1572, the king's sister, Margaret of Valois, married the Protestant Henry of Navarre in Paris. Huguenot nobles gathered in Paris in great numbers to attend the wedding.

Course of Events

• Late August 1572: Two days before the massacre, an attempt was made on Coligny's life, but he was only wounded. The incident provoked great anger among the Huguenots.
• Evening of August 23: Catherine conferred with Catholic leaders, including the king's brother, the Duke of Anjou, and Henry, Duke of Guise. She is then said to have obtained the king's approval.
• August 24: At dawn on the feast day of the apostle Bartholomew, the killing of Coligny and other Huguenot leaders began on the king's orders. The violence soon spread among the Catholic populace of Paris and spiraled out of control.
• September–October: The massacre continued for several weeks, spreading to provincial towns and the countryside. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica states that the killing continued in Paris until September 17 and in the provinces until October 3.

Estimates of the number of victims vary widely, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands. The Musée protestant (Museum of French Protestantism) gives a figure of 7,000 to 21,000.

Consequences and Impact

The Huguenot cause was weakened by the loss of its principal leaders. The survivors, however, became more militant, and the Fourth War of Religion (1572–1573) soon broke out. The French court sent envoys to the courts of Europe in an effort to justify the event.

Reactions varied from country to country.

• Pope Gregory XIII had a Mass of thanksgiving celebrated and ordered the hymn Te Deum to be sung. He also commissioned a commemorative medal bearing the inscription "Destruction of the Huguenots" (UGONOTTORUM STRAGES).
• King Philip II of Spain likewise ordered a Te Deum to be sung.
• Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II condemned the killing of Coligny as tyranny.
• In England, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, the event aroused outrage.

Assessment

Who bears the greatest responsibility remains a matter of debate. For a long time Catherine was regarded as the chief instigator. Others, such as the French historian Thierry Wanegffelen, place greater responsibility on the Duke of Anjou.

Interpretations of the pope's celebration of the massacre also differ.

• Protestants and many historians have criticized it as evidence that the papacy supported persecution.
• Defenders on the Catholic side argue that the pope had no prior knowledge of the plan for the massacre, that the news reaching Rome reported that the Huguenots had plotted against the king, and that what the pope rejoiced over was not the bloodshed but the suppression of a rebellion.
• On August 23, 1997, Pope John Paul II referred to the event during the vigil of World Youth Day in Paris. He called it a dark episode in French history and said that Christians had committed acts that Scripture condemns.

The historian H. G. Koenigsberger observed that the event was especially shocking because those killed were not foreign enemies but fellow Christians, neighbors who had long lived together under the same sovereign. Protestant historiography remembers the massacre as a representative example of religious persecution in the age of the Reformation. It is also discussed in Korean Protestant church history books in connection with the persecution of the Huguenots.