August 22, 1572: St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

John 16.2-3: They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.

Lest we forget!

 18 August 1572. The wedding was on and happened. There had been long hopes for peace between "Papal Roman Catholics" and the "Non-Papal, Reformed Catholics," known as "Protestants" or "French Huguenots."

The wedding occurred between the Protestant King Henry of Navarre (a French region) and the Papal Romanist Princess, Margaret of Valois.

The bride was the sister of the French King, Charles IX, and was the daughter of Catherine de Medici, the powerful Queen Mother.

It was a gala affair with 1000s of French Huguenots assembling for the event.

As a meanwhile, the following predated the wedding.

Calvinism had come to France in 1555. Half the population of France, it is said, had become Genevan Calvinists. There were 2000 Calvinistic churches.  Those hardy and heady Churchmen.  The Huguenots were also the "cream of the crop" in French society...thinkers and doers.

Also, predating the Massacre, between 1562 and 1572, there had been three “Wars of Religion.” There had been 18 massacres of Huguenots, 5 massacres of Papal Romanists, and 30 assassinations. Make no mistake: Ms. (Elizabeth 1) Tudor in England, as also other Kings, were advised of these developments.

While the wedding was being planned, on the Q. T., the Queen Mother was plotting the assassination of the leading and popular Huguenot, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. The plot failed on 22 Aug 1572.

Being so close to the wedding of 18 Aug, the attempt brought opprobrium to the Royal family.

The young 22-year King, Charles IX, exclaimed to his murderous mother, Catherine de Medici: “If you are going to kill Coligny, why don’t you kill all the Huguenots in France, so that there will be no one left to hate me.”

Catherine took up the idea. She issued the order to courtiers. Game on, Lads. The massacre began on 24 August 1572. Lest we forget!
 
The gates to the city were closed so that no Huguenots could escape. Coligny was murdered as he knelt in prayer.

The royal guests to the wedding were lodged at Louvre. They were called out one-by-one and murdered. King Charles IX looked on with approval.

Homes of Huguenot families in Paris were broken into and whole families perished. 

 At daybreak, the king’s messengers went throughout the city crying, “Kill them! Kill them! The king commands it!” Never under-estimate the stupidity of crowds under delusions. The massacre spread beyond Paris to other cities.

When the Pope got word of the massacres, he ordered celebrations in the city of Rome. Torches were to be lit! The Te Deum was to be sung.

The young king, Charles IX, began having nightmares. We would probably diagnose him with PTSD, those nasty, repetitive, terrifying and inextinguishable dreams that dominate and control many combat veterans. The king would cry out to his nurse, “What bloodshed! What murders! What evil counsel I have followed? Oh my God, O forgive me…I am lost!”

Rusten, E. Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003, 474-475.